Chương 109: Chapter 95 – Growth After Desolation

Far beneath the ground where the Great Tree once stood, a root tightened around a small orb. The rhizome's roots had carved through compacted earth, buried stone, and the brittle remains of something long and segmented with ease, yet they had failed to penetrate this strange object entirely. Curiosity stirred in Cade's mind. What could possibly be buried deep beneath the Great Tree? Once he felt the rhizome had secured a firm grasp around the object, Cade willed it to pull. At first the sphere refused to budge.

Then the root twisted until the object finally tore loose from whatever held it tight. Slowly, this one root began retracting back toward the surface while dragging the dense orb along with it. Cade could already tell it was going to take a while. So rather than wait idly, he returned his focus toward expanding the new Great Tree's root system. The rest of the rhizome spread farther outward beneath his feet while Cade continued feeding it the pure essence he inhaled from the swirling vortex.

Vast underground roots thickened and branched continuously beneath the ruined landscape where the Great Tree once stood. He could still hear thunder rumbling high overhead, but the screaming winds of the Ashen Vortex had dissipated. The raging maelstrom finally died out after consuming nearly everything around. Cade focused entirely on the growth below until eventually he realized something had changed. The overwhelming ocean of pure essence surrounding him had thinned dramatically.

There was still enough essence lingering in the air to work with, but the absurd concentration from earlier was rapidly fading as he fed it into the rhizome. He inhaled deeply as he focused on clarifying the image in his mind. Three pillars. One pillar for the frogs. For growth, transformation, and creation. One pillar for the tortoises. For desolation, destruction, and purification. And one— One for everything in between.

For those who wished to walk their own Path instead of being forced into someone else's design. He inhaled deeply again, drawing in another breath of pure essence. As it circulated through his channels, Cade imparted his intent and mental image onto the flow before transferring it into the roots woven throughout his body. The rhizome pulsed and a powerful wave surged downward from Cade's channels into the massive root system spreading below. Far beneath him, the expanding root network responded.

Cade felt distant roots deep underground begin drawing in surrounding essence from the ash and soil around them. Residual power hidden beneath the ground flowed inward through the roots. He felt vibrations spread outward beneath his bare feet. In his mind, Cade pictured three pillars erupting from the earth around him in a massive triangular formation. Three pillars to support the new Great Tree.

Each positioned far enough apart that they wouldn't compete against one another for space or resources as they continued growing over time. He pictured them rising upward and then bending in, carefully guiding their trajectories so they would eventually converge directly above where he stood, where the trunk of the new Great Tree would reside. The pillars in his mind were not nearly as massive as the original Great Tree's root-pillars had been. But that was fine. These roots would have room to grow.

Room to deepen and evolve into something greater rather than being shackled into stagnant structures like what Sildraxa had left behind. Cade inhaled another deep breath of pure essence and cycled it through his channels again, refining the image within his mind each time the essence flowed through him. With every cycle, Cade pushed more intent into the essence before feeding it into the rhizome. Growth. Desolation. Choice. The three concepts gradually sharpened until the image no longer felt abstract.

He could picture every detail. The three supporting pillars. The roots spread beneath the realm. The trunk that would rise between them. A new Great Tree born from balance between opposing Paths and the freedom to choose. The rhizome pulsed eagerly within him as more intent-filled essence flooded into it. Cade exhaled slowly. The foundation was ready. The roots were strong. Stable enough to support what he intended to grow.

A flawed foundation would always fail eventually, but the vast root system spreading beneath him would endure long after he left Cynthia's Legacy. Now it was time for the second phase of his plan. It was time to guide the new Great Tree's growth above ground.

The destroyers surrounding Pearl were nothing like the monster that had killed Pascal. She still remembered the massive white behemoth covered in ash and flame that had rampaged through the wetlands while burning everything around it. She remembered the terror. The helplessness. The awful white fire that consumed entire sections of the swamp while Pascal desperately tried to buy time for her to escape.

Back then, destroyers had seemed like unstoppable horrors that existed only to burn, consume, and erase everything the frogs created. But the creatures surrounding her now shattered that image completely. Not one of them had tried to consume her or Aquelion. Instead they had acted as their protectors. They had all barely escaped the catastrophe together while the enormous storm of ash consumed the Great Tree.

Several tortoises had even positioned themselves around Pearl and Aquelion, using their shells to shield them from the screaming winds and burning ash until they escaped the storm's periphery. Pearl did not fully understand it. The destroyers around her radiated desolation so intensely it prickled painfully against her skin. Their very presence felt fundamentally wrong to her instincts. Yet none of them had harmed her. They listened to the largest tortoise whenever he spoke in those deep garbling growls of his.

Pearl did not understand the language, but she felt his authority well enough. The others respected him and acted immediately whenever he issued commands. And as she stared at the largest tortoise she felt something strangely familiar about him. Something buried deep beneath the overwhelming aura of desolation surrounding his body. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

Pearl tightened her grip against Aquelion's scales as she looked back toward the dying storm in the distance. The colossal vortex Cade had created would be forever burned into her memory. It was something born from a nightmare. A towering inferno of white flames erupting through the center of the Great Tree while spiraling ash consumed everything around. The storm had grown so large that every part of the Great Tree eventually disappeared completely behind screaming winds and swirling desolation.

Even without seeing it directly, Pearl knew the Great Tree had succumbed to desolation. But despite her grief, Pearl understood why Cade had to do it. The corruption had been too dangerous to leave. If even a fragment remained hidden somewhere within the Great Tree, it could eventually spread again. It could infect more frogs. Twist more creatures into monsters. If First Elder Rowana had bowed before the corruption, what chance would anything else have? Cade had ended it permanently.

Pearl knew that but it did not make the loss hurt any less. Eventually, the horror and exhaustion numbed her insides until the only thing she felt were Aquelion's obsidian scales as she sat atop his massive back. The Viscount himself remained calm despite the cataclysm raging nearby. Occasionally his massive tail shifted but his aquamarine eyes were constantly flicking between the tortoises and the storm. Pearl found small comfort in the multicolored lightning still flickering through the clouds above the vortex.

Thunder eased her nerves. The ash storm felt terrifying, yet the lightning hidden within the clouds reminded her that desolation could still be transformed into new growth. Gradually the storm of ash began to weaken. The outer layers of the vortex slowly collapsed inward as streams of ash began falling down to the ground below. As the storm shrank, more and more of the destruction hidden within became visible. Pearl's breath caught in her chest as she saw the land where the Great Tree once stood.

As the outer layers of ash settled, a massive crater was revealed. So enormous that it stretched far beyond where the Great Tree's trunk once stood. The destruction spread outward in all directions, even the ground below had been ripped apart by the storm. The crater was so wide that even the Mistweaver's Trial surrounding the Great Tree would have been devoured had the tortoises not already burned through it beforehand. Maybe it was finally over.

Maybe once the storm fully settled, she could return and inspect the damage herself. She would need to find Second Elder Varosk back at the walker-lily village. He would know what to do after something this catastrophic. Maybe they could even— The ground suddenly trembled. Pearl stiffened as she felt an enormous pulse of life essence explode outward from the center of the swirling ash. It spread downward and outward so quickly that she physically recoiled from the sheer intensity of the surge.

The tortoises around her reacted as well. Several lifted their heads while others dug their claws into the ash-covered ground as vibrations spread beneath the plains around them. Something massive was moving underground. Pearl's heart hammered. What is happening? Had Cade not eliminated all of the corruption? The vortex changed as the bands of ash no longer settled to the ground. Instead, the ash seemed to be pulling inward toward the center. As if the remaining storm was collapsing into itself.

Pearl's eyes narrowed as she focused on the remnants of the storm. Then she spotted Cade between shifting gusts of ash. He stood perfectly still in the center of the enormous crater where the Great Tree once took root. That strange pearlescent thing wrapped tightly around his muscular frame while streams of ash spiraled inward toward him from every direction. Even through the swirling haze, Pearl could feel immense life essence radiating out of his body and pouring deep into the ground below.

The sight left her stunned. The Great Tree was gone. All of its root pillars dug up and burned away. Erased from this realm as if it had never existed. Yet despite the destruction surrounding him, Cade stood motionless in the center of the crater. His hands were pressed together in front of his chest while overwhelming growth spread outward beneath him. Pearl frowned in confusion as the life essence burrowed deep below the ruined landscape. What is he doing? Then suddenly Cade thrust his arms upward toward the sky.

The ground at the edge of the crater exploded. A massive black root erupted from below. Loose ash and shattered ground blasted outward while the enormous structure surged higher and higher. Moments later six smaller roots spiraled upward around the black pillar, twisting together in perfect harmony as they climbed. Pearl's eyes widened as she immediately recognized the songs carried within. Red radiated stability so deep it felt unshakable. Orange carried immense strength and resilience.

Yellow pulsed with speed and motion faster than she could comprehend. Green overflowed with nourishment and vitality. Blue carried a calm understanding. Then there was violet and Pearl stiffened instinctively as the sixth smaller root coiled with the others. But this violet felt completely different than the corruption. Instead, she felt warmth. Guidance. An overwhelming will for life to grow and flourish freely.

The black root wrapped in each of the six colors sang a song so beautiful and harmonious that Pearl felt tears rising up in her eyes. The Great Tree was gone. Burned away alongside the corruption plaguing her realm. Yet somehow, amidst all the destruction and desolation Cade had unleashed, he had returned something precious to it. The melody flowing from the massive pillar carried warmth, guidance, life, and possibility in a way the Great Tree once had. Pearl felt her chest tighten as the song washed over her.

And for the first time since the Great Tree trials, she felt hope. Another deep rumble rolled through the earth and Pearl turned just in time to see a second pillar erupt from a different edge of the crater. This one was pure white. The sight of it immediately sent unease crawling across her skin. Unlike the first root, this root carried no warmth or nourishing harmony. It radiated desolation so intensely that even the surrounding ash seemed to drift away.

The enormous white root surged skyward while smaller roots erupted around it in tightly interlocking patterns. Layer after layer wrapped around the pillar in precise hexagonal formations before locking together into smooth pearlescent plates reminiscent of a Destroyer's shell. Pearl could feel a song within this pillar as well, but it was vastly different from the harmonious warmth of the first. It sang of endings. Of purification through destruction.

The understanding that all things eventually needed to die and their essence consumed. Her gaze shifted back toward the human standing motionless at the center of the crater. Where had he learned to do something like this? A third rumble joined the others and two more massive roots erupted upward from a third point along the crater's perimeter, perfectly equidistant from the other two. One root was black, the other white.

They spiraled around one another as they surged skyward, twisting together in an endless dance of opposing forces while smaller colored roots wrapped themselves around both structures. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet flowed throughout the intertwined pillars in brilliant streaks of color. Everywhere the black and white touched, the colors mingled together. Neither side fully overtook the other.

Instead the boundaries between them blurred into a flowing gray band that spread throughout the twisting structure like a river winding through the swamp. The gray accepted both life and desolation while remaining something entirely separate from either. Fine pearlescent ash drifted continuously from the spiraling roots in soft shimmering flakes, cascading gently through the air around the pillar. Pearl stared, mouth agape.

This pillar carried a song just like the others, yet no matter how hard she listened, she could not understand it. This was not Lifebreathing. Yet somehow Cade had still managed to birth life from the devastation he wrought upon the Great Tree. The three massive growths continued rising before slowly bending inward toward one another high above the crater. Their immense forms arced through the ash-filled sky while the last remnants of the storm faded away.

As the pillars neared the center point overhead, their growth slowed until they hovered just short of touching. Multicolored lightning flashed through the clouds above. Her gaze snapped back down to Cade just in time to see more growth suddenly erupt from his hands. Thin wooden tendrils shot from his palms toward the center point where the three massive pillars almost met. The instant the connection formed, a blinding explosion of multicolored lightning erupted across the ruined plains.