Chương 74: Chapter 62 – Telling of the Trials

Vorduun's face filled Cade's vision. The Duke of Desolation had closed the distance between them in an instant and now the massive tortoise's ember-lit eyes were only inches from his own. Cade instinctively leaned back a fraction, feet squelching in the wet ground beneath him.

"I—" Cade cleared his throat.

"In the vision, I was in the body of a black frog." Vorduun didn't move. Cade swallowed and continued.

"She was traveling through a field of desolate ash. It looked like nothing had grown there for a long time." Vorduun's eyes sharpened.

"Continue." Cade nodded, uneasily aware of how interested the Duke suddenly was.

"Time felt… wrong inside the vision. At some points it was like days passed in seconds. Then other moments stretched on for far longer than they should have." Cade rubbed at the back of his neck.

"I didn't realize it at the time," he said, thinking aloud as much as speaking to them, "but the frog in the vision was showing me all three of the frog paths." Brahm's head tilted slightly. Cade went on.

"She brought mist and rain over the ash. Then she called down lightning to strike the ground. And after that… she grew things. A whole swampy forest out of nothing but dead ash and her breath. Trees and vines sprouted like the land had been waiting for her to tell it to wake up." His voice slowed.

"And then she grew something even bigger." Vorduun made a low sound in his throat, urging him onward.

"A giant tree," Cade said.

"Bigger than anything I'd ever seen. At the time I didn't really think about it, but…" He trailed off, glancing around the jungle canopy.

"It looked a lot like the Great Tree." He fell silent for a moment, hearing the conclusion form in his own head as he said it aloud. Vorduun was the one who finally spoke.

"It is likely," the Duke said, "that you witnessed a vision of Sil." Cade blinked.

"Sil?"

"The ancestor of the frogs of this realm. The one who cut this realm off from the multiverse many Cycles ago."

"If that's true," Cade said slowly, "then the giant tree I saw…" He looked at Vorduun.

"That was the Great Tree, wasn't it?" Vorduun gave a small, considering nod.

"It is likely the same tree, yes. But the tree itself is a trivial matter compared to the vision." Cade frowned.

"How is a giant tree trivial?"

"What matters," Vorduun said, "is that you were able to witness Sil at all. That you could walk along her in her skin." Cade stared at the Duke.

"How is that even possible? I mean—Varosk fed me his mucus so I could understand the frogs. How does that turn into some kind of ancestral memory?"

"I am not certain," Vorduun admitted.

"But Varosk's mucus is not meant to grant revelation. It is meant to aid communication—to translate emotion, intent, and meaning into something the one who consumes it can understand." Cade opened his mouth to press further, but Vorduun moved on first.

"Continue your story," the Duke said.

"How did you come from that vision to standing here?" Cade let out a slow breath and kept walking.

"After the vision ended, I came back to reality and the frogs offered to teach me their ways." He stepped over a fallen trunk slick with moss and rot.

"I accepted because I figured they knew more about this dungeon than I did, which wasn't exactly saying much." Brahm let out a short snort. Cade half-smiled despite himself.

"But…" He hesitated, then shrugged.

"Esmerelda wasn't exactly the best teacher." Vorduun chuckled, a low, rumbling sound.

"Despite appearances," he said, "the frogs are creatures of instinct. They do not truly teach their young. It is more accurate to say they lead them down the Paths of their ancestor rather than instruct them directly." That was an incredibly accurate description of the frog's method of "teaching", Cade thought. They continued deeper through the swampy jungle. Thick roots twisted across the ground like coiled serpents while enormous leaves brushed Cade's shoulders as they passed.

But the strangest part was the silence. Cade had grown used to the swamp being alive with noise—buzzing insects, distant splashes, rustling brush. Now there was almost nothing. Just the slow squelch of their steps. He noticed something darting through the undergrowth ahead. A small scaled creature froze the moment it spotted them. Then it bolted in the opposite direction.

"Has anything attacked you guys on the way back before?" he asked. Vorduun's gaze shifted slightly toward him.

"Occasionally yes, but it is quite rare."

"I mean…" Cade gestured vaguely around them.

"We're walking through the middle of the swamp and nothing's even trying to get close. No leeches. No beasts. Nothing." Vorduun gave a low hum of understanding.

"Most creatures born from the frogs' creation recognize a Destroyer," the Duke said.

"Their instincts guide them away."

"Because…?" Cade prompted.

"Because their lives would end," Vorduun replied simply.

"And their essence would be consumed." Cade grimaced slightly.

"That seems a bit harsh."

"It is truth. While there are some creatures that will challenge us, they are rarely seen before they attack." They stepped over a stretch of shallow water where thick reeds grew in dense clusters. The plants leaned away from the tortoises as if recoiling from some invisible heat.

"Unless a creature is particularly foolish," Vorduun continued, "I doubt we will encounter any living animals on our way back to the Ashen Front." He paused briefly before adding,"Excluding plant life, of course." Brahm huffed quietly behind them. Vorduun glanced back at Cade.

"Now continue your story. What happened next?" Cade sighed.

"Well… after a few attempts it became pretty obvious that I wasn't exactly cut out for their way of doing things." He rubbed the back of his neck again.

"Esmerelda let me use a few relics tied to their ancestor to try and help me learn." Brahm tilted his head slightly. Cade continued, "One of them had something to do with lightning. I thought the whole point was to resonate with the lightning but I ended up taking it into myself instead." He winced slightly at the memory. Vorduun's eyes flickered with amusement.

"And you nearly destroyed the relic," the Duke guessed.

"Yeah," Cade admitted.

"Pretty much." Brahm let out a short bark of laughter.

"The frogs must have been furious."

"They weren't thrilled," Cade said.

"From that, Varosk decided they couldn't teach me their ways." Vorduun gave a small nod.

"A reasonable conclusion." Cade continued walking, stepping around a patch of glowing blue mushrooms that pulsed faintly beneath a fallen log.

"After that, Varosk told me to go with Pearl to the Great Tree. Said I should take the Great Tree Trials with her."

"The old toad showed wisdom," Vorduun said.

"For a toad." Cade smirked faintly.

"He figured the Great Tree might have some kind of answer for me."

"So you went."

"Yeah." Cade pushed aside a hanging vine as they passed beneath a massive swamp fig tree.

"We didn't exactly have a smooth trip getting there. Pearl and I got chased by a giant leech. We ran to the maze around the Great Tree and got separated." Brahm suddenly interrupted Cade.

"Why did you run?" The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. Cade blinked and looked back at him.

"What?"

"Why did you flee from the leech?" Brahm repeated.

"You should have been more than capable of killing it." Cade snorted.

"I am now," he said.

"Back then? Not even close." Brahm frowned. Cade shrugged.

"The Ashen Baptism stripped a lot out of me. It left me weak as hell for a while. I couldn't even think straight most of the time." The large tortoise studied him.

"Then how did you become strong enough to defeat me in single combat?" Cade raised a finger.

"I'm getting there." He stepped over a shallow pool where strange floating flowers glowed faintly beneath the water's surface.

"After Pearl and I got separated, I kept moving through the maze and eventually made it inside the Great Tree itself." Vorduun's eyes narrowed slightly with interest.

"And there," Cade continued, "I found something called the Stormsap Crucible." Brahm leaned forward slightly as he walked.

"And what is that?" Cade scratched the side of his jaw.

"Basically a wooden lightning bolt that transformed the tree's sap into lightning." That earned a rare pause from both tortoises.

"I used it to… well… reforge my body." Silence followed them for several steps. Finally, Vorduun spoke.

"Hmm." The Duke's tone carried genuine curiosity.

"You began tempering your body through the method of the Ash Tortoises," he said slowly.

"But you completed the process using the essence of the Great Tree." He shook his head slightly.

"How interesting. I have never heard of a creature doing such a thing." Cade gave an awkward shrug.

"I didn't really know what I was doing," he admitted.

"I was mostly just following my instincts. Listening to what my body needed." He glanced toward the distant canopy.

"I guess the frogs rubbed off on me a bit." Cade fell quiet after that. The three of them continued forward through the swampy jungle in steady silence. The ground was uneven, thick roots rising like knotted veins through the mud. Massive trees towered overhead, their trunks wrapped in curtains of moss and hanging vines. Pools of stagnant water reflected pale light through the canopy. Despite the life everywhere around them, nothing moved near their path.

Cade walked between the two tortoises, bare feet sinking slightly into the damp earth with each step. His mind churned. There was still one part of the story he hadn't told. The corruption and the quest to cleanse this dungeon. But he had already promised them the truth. And so far he had given it. They walked in silence for several more minutes before Vorduun's voice broke the stillness.

"Is that the entirety of your story?" Cade shook his head and sighed quietly. Might as well go all the way.

"No," he said.

"There's a bit more." His tone grew more serious.

"When I woke up in this realm, I received a quest from the System." That got both tortoises' attention immediately.

"A quest?" Brahm rumbled. Cade nodded.

"It's called Cleanse Cynthia's Legacy. It didn't actually update until after I killed some leeches in the swamp," he explained.

"When I killed them, the quest updated and told me I had made progress toward cleansing the corruption." Vorduun opened his mouth to speak. Cade lifted a hand.

"Let me finish," he said. The Duke closed his mouth again and inclined his head.

"When I was reforging my body in the Stormsap Crucible, I discovered something strange at the base of it." His brow furrowed slightly at the memory.

"The lightning in the crucible was… normal. At least normal for this realm. It felt balanced with everything around it. But there was something else. Something wrong that didn't harmonize with the multicolored lightning the Stormsap Crucible had produced." Brahm's eyes narrowed.

"What form did it take?"

"Violet lightning," Cade said.

"It didn't feel like the rest of the crucible's energy. It felt… twisted. Like it didn't belong there." He looked toward Vorduun.

"It was corrupting the base of the Stormsap Crucible. I don't know how long it had been there, but it definitely wasn't supposed to be."

"And what did you do?" Vorduun asked.

"I burned the corruption out." Cade flexed his fingers unconsciously, remembering the clash within himself—the violet dragon thrashing against his will as it tried to take him over.

"I drew it into myself and used my own body to refine its energy before forcing it back into the crucible, with the intent that it would destroy the corruption. It was difficult, but eventually it worked. After that, the corruption was cleansed but the crucible no longer worked." Cade hesitated for a moment, then added,"When the corruption burned out," Cade continued, "the System notified me that I'd formed something called a Law Seed." Brahm stopped in his tracks.

"You have not even formed your core, yet you already formed a Law Seed?" the tortoise rumbled. Cade glanced back at him, faintly confused by the reaction.

"I guess?" he said.

"The System message didn't really explain much. I've got some ideas based on stories from my world, but I'm not exactly sure what it means." Brahm stared at him but Vorduun raised a claw, silencing the tortoise. The Duke of Desolation regarded Cade with a far more measured look than before, ember eyes studying him with renewed interest.

"Laws are not a subject for casual discussion while wandering through the frog's jungle," Vorduun said calmly. His gaze lingered for another moment before he turned forward again.

"We will speak of this another time." The swamp seemed to grow quieter for a moment before Cade continued.

"After the crucible stopped working," he said, "Pearl still had to finish the Great Tree Trials. The lightning in the Stormsap Crucible was part of the trial, so without it she couldn't continue. So I powered it myself." Brahm frowned.

"How?"

"With my blood," Cade said simply. That earned him a sharp look from both tortoises.

"The crucible reacted to it," Cade continued.

"I think it had something to do with the reforging. My body had already been tempered by the lightning inside the tree. Maybe the crucible recognized that." He shrugged slightly.

"Either way, the lightning started flowing again and Pearl was able to finish the trial." His expression tightened a little.

"But while I was feeding it, the tree implanted something inside me. The System called it a Primordial Heartwood Rhizome. I don't really understand what it is yet," he admitted.

"But it's alive." Cade's mouth twisted slightly.

"And if I'm being honest, I'm not convinced it's a good thing." Brahm's gaze flicked briefly toward Cade's palm before returning to the path ahead.

"I can feel it inside me," Cade continued quietly.

"Like roots spreading under my skin. For all I know it's a parasite waiting for the right moment to finish taking me over." Both tortoises remained silent. Then Cade asked the question that had been nagging at him.

"Have you ever seen anything like that before?" Vorduun walked in silence for several steps before answering.

"No." Cade frowned.

"Nothing?"

"Neither parasites nor corruption spreads among our kind," Vorduun said calmly. Cade glanced at him.

"Why?"

"Because of our method of cultivation." Cade's brow furrowed.

"What do you mean by that?" Instead of answering immediately, Vorduun slowed his pace.

"Observe," the Duke said before he turned slightly toward Brahm.

"It would benefit you to watch as well." Brahm straightened at once. Ahead of them, a strange plant grew beside a shallow pool. It rose nearly six feet tall from the mud, its thick stalk twisting like braided rope. Wide translucent leaves spread outward like glass panes, glowing faintly with a pale green light. At the center of the plant, a bulbous flower pulsed slowly, releasing drifting motes of golden pollen into the humid air. It was beautiful. Vorduun stepped toward it.

Cade watched as faint white light began to flicker between the tortoise's jaws. Then— WHOOSH. A stream of brilliant white flame erupted from Vorduun's mouth. The fire engulfed the plant instantly. The leaves shriveled as the white flames devoured them and the stalk collapsed into ash. The glowing flower at its center burst like a dying star. Within moments, the entire plant was gone. All that remained was a drifting cloud of soft white ash hanging in the air where the plant had once stood.

For a moment the ash simply hovered there, swirling lazily above the scorched patch of earth. Then Vorduun inhaled. The movement was subtle but powerful. Air rushed toward him. The floating ash spiraled inward, gathering into a tightening vortex before streaming directly into the Duke's open jaws. Within seconds the ash cloud was gone. The patch of ground where the plant had grown looked completely untouched, as if nothing had ever existed there. Cade blinked.

"Well… that was—" Brahm suddenly brought his fists together and bowed his head deeply toward Vorduun.

"Thank you for the lesson, Duke," he said with clear respect in his voice. Vorduun acknowledged the gesture with a small nod before turning his attention back to Cade.

"What did you see?" the Duke asked. Cade shrugged slightly.

"You burned the plant down to ash… then inhaled it." Vorduun huffed.

"You may have reforged your body," he said, "but you still do not possess the sight." Cade frowned.

"The sight?" Vorduun continued walking and Cade hurried slightly to keep pace beside him.

"The white flames of my kind ignite whatever they touch," Vorduun explained.

"But what they burn is not merely flesh or matter." The Duke's voice remained calm and measured.

"Our flames break living things down to their base components—the essence that forms the foundation of their being." Cade glanced back at the spot where the plant had stood.

"So the ash…"

"…isn't just ash," Vorduun finished.

"If the process is done properly and completely, the residue becomes condensed essence." He tapped one claw lightly against his chest.

"And that essence can be absorbed." Cade blinked.

"And that's what you just did?"

"Yes." The jungle shifted around them as they continued walking. Thick vines parted as the tortoises pushed through them. A colony of small pale swamp crabs scattered into the mud ahead of their path, vanishing into holes. Cade rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"You called it cultivation earlier," he said.

"You've mentioned that word a few times. What exactly does that mean? I just want to be sure we're on the same page." Vorduun answered without hesitation.

"As I said before. My kind devours life and reduces it to ash. Within that ash lies concentrated essence." The Duke's ember-bright eyes flicked toward Cade.

"We absorb that essence to strengthen our bodies and to build and refine our cores." Cade nodded slowly.

"That's how Brahm healed himself earlier." Brahm grunted in confirmation.

"Yes. Essence can also be used to mend damage." Cade's thoughts immediately started spinning.

"So the stronger the thing you burn…"

"The greater the essence contained within it." Cade glanced between the two tortoises.

"And you think I could do that too?" Vorduun studied him for a long moment.

"I believe it is possible." Cade raised an eyebrow.

"It will not come easily," the Duke said.

"Your nature is not that of an Ash Tortoise and your body was forged through multiple paths." His gaze flicked briefly to Cade's palm where the Heartwood Rhizome lay hidden beneath the skin.

"But given enough time… I believe you could learn our methods." Cade felt a slow grin forming. That sounded very good. The System already rewarded him with experience when he killed things. But if he could also absorb their essence afterward to improve his body? His mind raced with the possibilities. If both the System and the Ash Tortoise's methods worked together… who knew how strong he could eventually become.