Their mission was simple, make Ledmer Island inhabitable once more. Since the radiation had been all but dispersed, the island could be visited again by humans, but it was still far from being a place anyone would want to visit.
The ruins of the old Ledmer still plagued the landscape. All the decrepit buildings needed to be removed, down to the piping that ran under the ground—not to mention the secret underground bunkers that were hidden among them.
This would be Kada’s job. She’d melt all the buildings and then merge all the materials into one big pile out of the way that could be picked up and disposed of at a later date. There was a lot to work through, so she’d be busy, but she was really the only one suited for the job.
Monster slaying duty went to Phon and Xard. They’d be working together, but Xard would mostly be handling those already on land while Phon would be focusing on the sea. She’d be teleporting them onto land and disposing of them while they were caught off guard. Phon would also be teleporting the other members to various locales as needed as well.
Xard would also be carving a few trenches in the ground at key points around the island. This would serve as the foundation for the future sewer system but would also make Kada’s job easier in the meantime. It would let her move her building material sludge with less hassle and make it easier to get the stuff out from below ground to begin with.
Drim, who would normally be assigned to monster slaying, also had a task only he could handle. Everything was covered in overgrown foliage. So much lush and mutated plant life sprawled all over the island. Unfortunately, it remained mostly out of reach in his childhood, or he could have used it to escape that much quicker once he learned to use his powers.
What would really slow down the process, though, was how much he could absorb at once before he hit his limit. It wasn’t a capacity limit, since the amount Drim could hold at any one time seemed to be infinite. But the more he had already, the more nauseous he would feel when more was absorbed—not to mention just too much in a row also made him feel sick.
Normally, Drim would spawn random foliage or grass if he needed to remove a lot of plants. But in this case, he needed to hold onto every last drop for his and Kada’s plans.
◆◆◆
“Woo, first day done!” Kada stiffly collapsed backwards into the dirt.
“This brings me back to when we first moved to Bisomote,” Xard got the campfire lit. “Just roughing it outside while Phon cooks us dinner.”
“Yeah, well, I wouldn’t get too excited about dinner,” Phon stared dismally at the everlasting fruit she’d cut into cubes. Part of the reason they were camping out in Drim’s old refuge instead of back on the beach was so that she could try cooking with it to see if any improvement could be made. What she’d tested with it so far, however, wasn’t exactly promising. She was beginning to lose hope that it could be saved as an ingredient.
The Tourist had been brought over and gently tucked into the protection circle as well so that they could spend the night there. While Kada had proven its effectiveness against monsters plenty of times before, they’d all sleep a bit easier knowing that a monster wouldn’t try to ambush them while they had their guards down.
Drim had already finished the first part of his job, and the island was now completely devoid of plant life. He was planning to skip dinner due to all the nausea and was instead studying Kada’s plans for the resort. In a way, he’d be laying the foundation. If he did it well, it’d make the zoning and construction go that much easier. If he messed up, well it wouldn’t slow progress that much, but it’d be a wasted opportunity.
“So how many monsters did you kill today, Phon?” Xard asked while he enjoyed his soup with fruit cubes in it. Sadly, the chunks didn’t do well in absorbing the soup as Phon had hoped, but if accompanied by a full spoon of liquid, it added a nice texture.
“Didn’t keep count really,” she said as she stuffed the fruit into a portable blender to puree it into a smoothie. “But the beach is littered with scales and bones now.”
“Yeah, I was using the skulls to keep track for a while,” Xard added. “But I lost where I was when the pile grew too big. We’re coming for Drim’s title after all this. Oh, and what should we do with all the leftover body parts anyways, add them to the material pile to be disposed of?”
“No,” Drim said his first words in a while. “We’ll have them dropped off at a monster parts appraiser.”
“That’s a thing that exists?” Kada was baffled. “This world continues to surprise me every day.”
“Yes, they’re more common on this side of the world since monster hunting is a bigger profession around here. They’ll examine the quality of materials and then resell them. Some villages will buy the higher quality ones for building materials and corporations will buy the lower quality ones for manufacturing.”
“Oh, any I should save for the construction of the resort then in that case?!” Kada was now way too interested in dead monster parts.
“Uhh, if there’s an abundance of water-monster scales, you could use them to line the pool walls in your water park,” Drim struggled to think of something. “They’re naturally water resistant, so it’d keep the infrastructure from degrading faster, and they’d be softer than concrete for someone to bump into. Plus, it’d look rather pretty and go with your mermaid theme.”
“Great idea! Anything else?!”
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“Not really,” Drim was quickly out of ideas. “If we had saved some of the organs from rotting, those could have been used in water purification, but otherwise, none of it would help you—unless you wanted to use actual bones to make a skeleton or pirate themed island or something.”
“Hmm, could work, but I’ll need to take a look at them.”
The rest of the evening was calm and quiet, the first in a while—a relaxing night under the stars before another hard day’s work.
Late in the morning, Phon couldn’t detect any other monster’s around, so she and Xard went to assist Kada. Removing the ruins still remained the bulk of the work, and while they weren’t as suited as her, they still did what they could. Phon would teleport any loose chunks of building over to the pile while Xard would work on ripping up the roads. He’d also blast holes in the ground above some of the bunkers to make it easier for Kada to access and differentiate the liquid she needed to move.
For the entire day though, Drim did nothing. Well, not quite nothing; he was meditating. Similarly to over a decade ago, he was sitting under the mysterious fruit, absorbing it constantly as it spawned. But that was it—just sitting there, focused, and gathering every ounce of nature energy he could.
For the rest of the day, he didn’t move. He didn’t eat any meals, didn’t sleep, and didn’t even get up to go to the bathroom. This went well into the third day when Phon approached him in the early afternoon. “Alright Drim, it’s all clear. There’s nothing left. Give me a minute to teleport back across and then do your thing.”
He wouldn’t open his eyes to check, since it would disturb the mental map he’d made in his mind. The island, though, was now nothing but a big plate of dirt—roughly circular in shape. All that remained was the vine and fruit in the middle with Drim underneath. There were no more plants, no more buildings, no sign that any civilization had ever existed in the past.
It was a blank slate, but now he’d give it new life.
Drim lurched forward and placed both hands on the ground. The glow that emitted from them was small at first, but it started to swirl. Inch by inch, the green glow swallowed the ground, swirling faster and faster as every speck of dirt vanished from sight. Soon, the entire island was covered in Drim’s Curse—a blinding green that could be seen for lages.
Then came the plants. First was the grass, countless blades sprouting up all over the island. Next was the rest: trees, flowers, exotic blooms of all kinds rolled out from Drim’s location. Tidal waves of foliage washed over the island, like a tsunami of creation. Those with religious inclinations would liken it to the birth of a new world.
When it was all done, with every ounce of energy spent, Drim collapsed on the ground. He was still conscious, but couldn't exactly see his handiwork with his face buried into the new, fresh grass. After flopping onto his back, he admired all the sprouted trees looming above.
A moment later, he saw Kada near him. “So beautiful. So amazing. I love it!” She couldn’t contain her excitement as she literally skipped around to get a better look. Drim then saw Xard flying above to check it out from the air.
Phon helped him to his feet after a few minutes, and Xard swooped down to join them.
“Well, I’d say we did a pretty damn good job,” Xard was impressed with what he saw. “Matches the specifications you had pretty perfectly, Kada.”
“Yesssss!” she was overwhelmed with glee. “We just need to get Niloy over here some time to help purify the water, and it’ll be perfect.”
“I have to admit, it’s more beautiful than I imagined,” even Phon couldn’t hold in her impressions. “It’s like Cosmos himself made it from scratch.”
“Good work everyone,” Drim had finally gained enough energy to speak and stand on his own. “This was something I’ve wanted to do for over a decade. Thank you all for helping me accomplish that dream, and now I can happily pass the dream over to Kada. For now, we should head back and—”
Drim stopped talking, but that wasn’t all. The atmosphere had changed. Wind had stopped blowing, leaves had stopped rustling. While the sun remained in the sky, it felt like it had stopped shining entirely. The world had stopped—come to a complete standstill.
It was unsettling, and the four standing there couldn’t help but be bogged down with an unspeakable, unbearable sense of confusion and panic.
“What’s happening?!” Kada collapsed to her knees, her breath rapidly accelerating until she was hyper-ventalating.
Xard started swaying a bit, clutching his head in grief, “There’s like a noise in my head. It doesn’t hurt but…” he couldn’t find the words.
“It’s like—” Phon had come to a realization.
“When our mother uses her power,” Drim finished it for her.
“I guess that’s why we’re not affected,” Phon studied the other two as they continued to grow weaker. The two siblings were perfectly fine, but could still feel the weirdness around them.
“Oh zjik, oh zjik, oh zjik, oh zjik!” Eleen had suddenly roused to attention. “This is bad. I can feel her.”
“Wait, I just said ‘her’. Holy zjik I can finally say her pronoun properly. What else can I say?! Her name is ______! ….Nope, seems the information express stops here.”
“That doesn’t matter,” Drim was getting flustered. “What is—”
Drim never got to finish the question, since now there was something that even he and Phon couldn’t avoid. A voice rang in their ears, but it didn’t quite seem to come from inside their heads. No, it seemed like it rumbled from the ground beneath their feet and rained from the sky above.
It was a voice unlike any other, with such power and authority that it even made Eleen’s ability look cute and trivial by comparison. While it didn’t seem quite human, the voice was that of a woman—no doubt the ‘her’ that their mother was so afraid of.
❝Four have blessed this world with a transcendent gift.❞
❝Xard Randex, Kada Susten, Phon Drazah, Drim Drazah.❞
❝Four will be rewarded.❞
❝Four will now ascend.❞
Before any of them could say anything or try to figure out what the zjik just happened, Drim grabbed at his chest in pain. Was he having a heart attack? No. It was his flesh that burned in agony. He grabbed at it, but there was no relief to be found.
A quick glance around: Phon was reaching between her shoulder blades, Xard was fidgeting with his hands, and Kada was clutching her face. Just like Drim, the pain was coming from their Curse Marks.
Soon, it became too much and they started to faint. One by one, they collapsed to the ground. First it was Kada, then Phon, and then Xard. Drim held out longer than the others, managing enough strength to pull them all into the safety ring of the vine at the center of Ledmer. Only when they were all inside the circle did he let himself fall.