“Can babies fly?”

Similarly odd statements came from many of the Flares. The glowing light died down and there was an infant floating in the air. Just like a newborn baby, with pure and pristine skin, unopened eyes, and curled up into a little fetal ball. Descending from the sky it moved towards the giant cobra that was lying motionless on the ground. The sudden burst of bright light had forced everyone to look away, and now that they looked back they saw that the strange dark energy in the sky was gone. The whirling vortex and the funnel had completely disappeared.

Some of the Flares still had enough of their humanity remaining that they grew worried when the infant approached the giant snake that they were battling with, though most of them only seemed confused. The glowing newborn came to a stop a dozen feet in the air, hovering over the fallen snake. Was it going to help the beast?

Then, they felt like the atmosphere started to crackle and they heard the air around them rumble. The tiny infant stretched out its small nude body, revealing that it was a boy, and with a soft yawn it finally opened its eyes and looked out at the world.

Of course, that infant was not a glowing baby, nor could it fly. It was Sage’s Nascent Soul, newly born to the world. The new level of power had altered the way he saw the world, resonating with the Laws had infused a greater degree of the power of the Heavens and Earth into him. With the change, a Nascent Soul could innately see some of the currents of the normally invisible energy of the Heavens and Earth. The Nascent Soul was the fusion of his Mind, Soul, and Golden Core. Or, in Sage’s case, the Green Core. Normally, the three components were shattered into pieces and used to create an embryo that was then born into the world as a Nascent Soul.

The crowd watched on in amazement while the glowing baby merely smiled and then closed its eyes once again. It curled back up into a fetal position and started to change colors. It pulsed with light and in the infant’s place there was only a huge seed. A few moments later, the seed sprouted and a tiny shoot extended upwards. Then, three leaves budded off of that shoot. It continued to grow larger and larger, the three leaves increased in size and the stems they were on turned into branches. In just a few minutes the infant had turned into a small sapling, just like the one that had been present in Sage’s Green Core.

Not only had Sage’s Mind, Soul, and Qi been fused together, but so had the Seed of Life. It had become an intrinsic part of him, turning his Nascent Soul into the form of a tree. A tree that continued to grow larger. Before, it had only three leaves. The three mystical leaves of Heaven, Earth, and Man. Now, as it spread wide and climbed taller, those three leaves became branches. They were still Heaven, Earth, and Man, but the tiny golden veins were now lines upon the bark, tessellating that Ancient Array Symbol into the wood. A multitude of leaves sprouted from the branches and the seed had already grown into a huge root system. The roots fell over the cobra beneath it, but they also expanded out into the world beyond. Soon the tree had grown thirty feet tall and the roots had expanded to cover a hundred.

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“What is that thing? How did a baby turn into a tree?”

At this point, the spectating crowd had finally fallen out of their stupor and were busy trying to figure out what was going on with their enemy. The giant snake looked like little more than a corpse, but now there was a glowing tree that had sprouted from a baby and the tree was growing over the snake’s carcass. After looking at each other for a while, they all remembered their boss and their eyes all swung over to the giant. The huge figure was sitting on a huge stone, using a tree as a backrest. Despite his previously imposing appearance, he was now wearing only a tattered skirt and small bits and remnants of his armor. One of his fists was bare while the digger bucket knuckle on the other was dented and dinged up. He looked quite beat up from the confrontation with the giant snake, but given the dead body, he still looked to be the winner in the end. The giant wasn’t springing into action, so the Flares just stayed where they were, watching the show just like their boss was.

“What the hell are you all doing!? Kill that monster before it recovers!”

Just as they were all deciding to stay passive, that foreboding and violent voice echoed out from all directions. It was the voice of their boss! They all looked at the giant again and he was looking around as well. What? Why would the boss be looking around when he was the one giving the orders?

“Fools, hurry up!”

The voice kept yelling and giving orders. Their giant boss started to stand, but then his legs gave out and he fell to his knees.

“Nobody is as ferocious as our boss! Look how injured he is and he’s still so eager to cause destruction!”

“Yeah, we can’t let that monster bully our Boss!”

Just when the Flares were building up their courage to start another assault, there was a shimmer of light and two people appeared a dozen yards from the giant. There was a matronly woman with her grey hair styled into a bun, wearing a dress with a thick apron, completely unlike the garb of the Flares. She was pushing a wheelchair with a thin and sickly looking young man upon it. His skin was leathery, tight to the bone like he had nary a shred of muscle. His body seemed only a few meals away from complete starvation, like a skeleton with skin. The one exception being his head. The man’s head was a few sizes too large, inflated like a balloon. He had vibrantly healthy skin, and dark eyes that had a piercing stare. Eyes rich with life and intelligence, they were now completely furious. His mouth opened and just as before that booming voice came from every direction at the same time.

“You were supposed to be this colossus. You were this great, legendary thing. And yet, here you are, unable to take your feet! I’m going to have to find myself a new giant.”

The man in the wheelchair leaned slightly forward, and his withered hands squeezed the armrests of the wheelchair. His dark eyes flared with color, a bright flame reflected in them as a giant ball of fire formed in front of him. The same giant flame that had given Sage so much trouble before. It fell upon the kneeling giant and the giant’s baritone voice cried out in agony. A mournful howl soon lost in hopeless pain. The giant fell, dropping from its knees to smash face first against the ground. The flames rose higher and the giant no longer made a sound. In just a few seconds the giant’s body started to disintegrate, transforming into ash and floating away with the breeze.

The flames continued to rage and that booming voice washed over the Flares again, “Unless you wish to become like Fluke Brigan, the useless giant, heed my orders! Attack! Destroy that abomination before it finishes recovering!”