Chương 59: Episode 4: Eddy

Rain hammered through the forest. Dironyx sat atop a rock with sludge creeping over his ankles and feet. Both brows knit together while staring with hollow eyes at his obsession.

"It just keeps pushing itself away from me. Even after 153 years, it still doesn't want me to touch it…" His head leaned forward with a slothful back while he gaped at the tree from a mile away. The mystical tree was an immense vessel for the Lost Gem that was embedded in its chest. Its body and branches were thick, with a vast amount of dark leaves hanging from its monstrous arms. The eyes were attached to the Lost Gem, faintly glowing while wisps of fog deliberately flew by.

"It's still there… and it'll still be in my possession," his voice was shaking in near silence.

"I just need another way…" Elbows pressed against his knees, arms hanging from them as he slanted his neck, facing the moonlight.

"What does it take to capture something that isn't mine? It's as if the artifact itself is sentient…" He covered his face with both claws, dragging them down with a strong groan. One eye peeked through the fingers, and the tree was gone. It vanished from his sight. He lowered his arms, placing his claws against the rock near his waist, staring into the hazy chasm in the rainforest.

"This'll take another hundred years…" His face froze, mouth steadily beginning to curve upwards, eyes starting to arch into a crescent moon on its side.

"Unless…."

Alright, yeah, I've officially got problems. Multiple. Problem one: there's a pint-sized humanoid triceratops standing right in front of me, staring at me like I'm the weird one. Problem two: my axe is literally lodged between my legs. Problem three was me being unbelievably lost in a jungle. I just sat there, blinking at reality. I ripped my axe out of the dirt and snapped it up, pointing it straight at the tiny dinosaur.

"You'd better start explaining who you are, 'Eddy,'" I demanded, "or this axe is gonna slice you to death!"

"Two moons CHILL OUT!" Eddy squeaked, throwing his little arms up.

"I've already said this like a thousand times, I'm not trying to die here!"

"THEN START TALKING!" I roared, slamming the axe into the ground right next to him. He jumped, like, actually jumped, and scrambled back.

"WE'RE NOT DOING THIS AGAIN!" he yelled.

"Just, just let me explain why I'm here to help!" I exhaled sharply, dragging a hand down my face before yanking the axe back out and lowering it.

"…Fine," I muttered, dropping against a nearby rock.

"Talk. And make it make sense." Eddy straightened up, brushing himself off like he hadn't just almost become prehistoric soup. Then his expression shifted, less panic, more serious.

"I'm here to help you with your visions," he said. That made me pause.

"If you've seen anything," he continued, locking eyes with me, "like a Zenith-looking figure… Zeriath burning… Nomanites screaming… and especially a green crystal, then yeah. You're not crazy. That's real." My stomach dropped.

"So YOU'RE TELLING ME""Don't interrupt," Eddy snapped. …Okay, rude. He paced in a small circle, clearly building up to something big.

"Dironyx," he said, "isn't a Zenith. He's something worse. A Xenith." I frowned.

"A what now?"

"A Xenith. Opposite race of the Zeniths. Same origin, completely different outcome. Some look like monsters, some look almost normal."

"Created by the Dark God, Kakiamis," he continued, "after Kai Xii made the world, Planet Omens." I blinked, "…Who the hell is Kai Xii? What Dark God? What is a 'Kakiamis'? And why do you keep dropping names like I'm supposed to know them?!"

"Because you need to know them," Eddy shot back.

"Kai Xii created existence. Kakiamis was made to balance it, but instead, he made the Xeniths to wipe out the Zeniths." I leaned back harder against the rock, trying to process. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. Eddy didn't stop, "Long before all this, thousands of years ago, Planet Omens was split between Zeniths and Xeniths."

"And then there's Dironyx himself," he added.

"Tall and black. Glowing with this eerie white energy. Like a walking bad decision." I swallowed, "The Zeniths eventually won the war, year 4875 B. K.," he said.

"And their king, Power, banished the Xeniths across the galaxy." I froze, "…Power was a king?"

"Yeah," Eddy said.

"Crazy, right?" Yeah. That one hit different.

"Dironyx ended up ith Sacred Dimension," he continued.

"He decided to set a course to Earth the moment he thought about the Lost Gem."

"The green rock…" I murmured. Eddy nodded.

"It was embedded in a massive ancient tree, the Tree of Zeriath. It fuels life here, can revive others from the dead, can even warp reality if used right."

"And if used wrong?" I asked. Eddy didn't hesitate, "It kills everything." His expression darkened slightly, "The place is dying, and it'll only take a few weeks to start noticing some changes. Dry lands are one of them…" I frowned, "What?"

"The Lost Gem as it is…," he said, "it is absolutely getting fucked."

"…That's your scientific explanation?"

"It's the honest one." The jungle suddenly felt heavier.

"Dironyx wanted to use it to destroy Zeriath and rebuild it as his empire," Eddy said.

"But when he tried? The exact opposite happened." I blinked, "What?"

"Life exploded. Forests grew. Dinosaurs showed up. The land thrived."

"…So bro failed successfully."

"Exactly. But then the gem disappeared," Eddy said.

"Every time Dironyx got close, the tree would vanish. Reappear somewhere else. Like it was alive."

"That's insane."

"He chased it for years and never gave up." Eddy slowed down, his voice dropping.

"Then something changed." I leaned forward slightly, "The Gem started losing power," he said.

"Zeriath started… dying." The jungle suddenly felt quieter, "Rain happen, but not often, rivers dried up, species disappeared, the balance started collapsing."

"…No way."

"He calculated everything," Eddy said.

"Energy decay. Environmental collapse. Timeline." I stared at him, "When?" I asked quietly. Eddy met my eyes, "2013."

"So Dironyx isn't chasing the gem anymore," I said, a chill running down my spine.

"He's waiting for it to come back." Eddy nodded.

"And when it does, he'll corrupt it to destroy Zeriath." I leaned back, staring up at the sky through the thick canopy.

"A disappearing tree, a dying crystal, and a shadow warlord. Great odds."

"If we reach it first, it could save everything," Eddy added quietly, sitting back against the rock as his shoulders slumped.

"Maybe even restore Zeriath completely."

"A miracle," I muttered. Something in his posture shifted, the energy draining out of him. I frowned.

"You good?" He hesitated, staring at his hands.

"My family isn't okay. My brother couldn't take it anymore, and the rest are enslaved by Ironz. Forced to work until they die." He swallowed hard, his voice cracking.

"I'm out here, and I couldn't save them." The silence between us turned heavy. I rested my arms over my knees, staring into the dark tree line as my grip tightened.

"You know why I want to be a Hero?" I asked softly.

"Back home, Earthnites don't hesitate. They're disciplined warriors who are always ready when things fall apart. I haven't been like them—but I'm done being the one nobody takes seriously." I glanced at my axe lodged in the dirt, then looked back to Eddy. He was already fast asleep, worn out from the confession. I let out a quiet breath, half a laugh. They'd manage back home; they always found a way. But if I was going to survive this trial, going home would have to wait.

Shifting into my Rockslide Ankylosaurus form, I settled into the dirt beside him. The crescent moon glowed faintly through the jungle canopy above. Tomorrow, I wouldn't fight like a kid. I'd fight like an Earthnite.

The room was completely dark. The walls were damp, their paint peeling in long strips as if the building had been rotting for decades. Dust clung to every corner, and the air smelled stale. In the center of the room, a man sat on a single chair. The only light flickered from an old, boxy television straight out of the '90s. Its red emergency glow pulsed against the walls, stuttering in the dark. FLASH. FLASH. FLASH. The light struck the man's face over and over.

He leaned forward, one elbow resting on his knee and his hand propping up his chin as he stared at the screen. A cold, yellow-eyed grin stretched across his face. With every flash of red, his pupils reflected the light like burning embers. Rack sat shirtless, his pale skin scarred in places. His messy, deliberate mohawk spiked upward, and his posture made it clear he wasn't someone to approach lightly. The television flickered again. On the screen, a single word appeared in violent red letters: EXTERMINATED.

Rack's eyes widened slightly as the word reflected in his eyes. Then the screen shifted, scrolling through images of heroes. Faces. Names. Symbols. Every single one was stamped with the same brutal mark: EXTERMINATED. Rack let out a slow, satisfied breath.

"They had it coming…" he whispered. The list kept scrolling. More heroes, more red stamps, more deaths. Rack chuckled quietly, shaking his head.

"We killed almost all of them…" His grin widened.

"But not all of them yet." A few names remained unstamped. Still alive. Still breathing. Rack leaned back, the wood of the chair creaking softly beneath his weight.

"There are still a few who need to leave this planet for good," he muttered.

"And capturing them won't be easy… but it'll be worth it if I play this smart." He snapped his fingers, the sharp click echoing through the room as the television painted his body red in violent bursts.

"It's about time I came to my senses," Rack said slowly.

"These extra heroes need a lesson." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, folded sheet of paper smeared with dried blood. Some names were scratched out, some were circled, and others were still untouched.

"We need to get back to work, Admirals…" His voice trailed off, turning hollow. Memories flashed through his mind—blurry, broken, and in black and white. The paper wasn't the only list of the dead. There were names missing here, people who were never counted. His kid. Deceased. His wife. Deceased. His dignity. Deceased. Rack stood up slowly, the chair scraping against the concrete floor. He walked to the small table where the television sat humming and picked up a joint and a lighter. Click.

A tiny flame sparked to life. He lit it and inhaled deeply. Smoke curled upward, twisting through the air like a ghost.

"You can hide your identity…" Rack muttered through the smoke, his voice hardening.

"But you couldn't even save two kids and a mother? Instead, you left them burning in that building. You left them to suffer." He took another slow drag, letting the smoke drift from his mouth.

"You never came to save the day. You never came to help. You call yourselves heroes, but you destroy the city instead of saving it." Rack looked back at the screen, his golden eyes burning.

"What more could I expect from you heroes?" He stared at the list again, running his tongue across the dried blood on the paper. A long leopard tail swayed behind him as he turned away. He pressed the power button on the television. The screen died, swallowing the room in darkness. Rack walked to the door and paused, his hand resting on the handle. He looked back into the empty, black room one last time.

"Extermination Day had to be on my calendar," he said, his voice cold and low.

"And I made sure to write it in blood. To remind you of what you did." He opened the door and stepped out into the hall.

"You leave blood behind… and pretend it isn't there." Click.