Chapter 22

1

John sat on a plush cushion in the opulent palace of Thunder Fox Sanctuary. He had requested a meeting with Suné, and the sleek fox had agreed. Now that he was there, he was finding it difficult to find the words.

“I’ve been working on this thing. It’s kind of hard to describe. Do you have Cultivation of the Mind?” He asked.

“I do. I practice Tranquil Equilibrium.” Suné replied.

“That sounds very balance oriented.”

“It is well rounded. Is Mind Cultivation what you wish to speak of?” Suné asked.

“Yes. The one I’m practicing is really complicated. It has a lot of moving parts. It’s been really difficult to decipher how it all works together.”

“What is the purpose of the Cultivation?” Suné asked.

“It’s very confusing, but I think it’s about understanding.”

“Understanding what?”

“As best I can tell, everything.”

“That sounds very powerful. It also sounds impossible.”

“In my limited experience, it is. But I want to try fitting just the first two pieces of the puzzle together. I think I know how I’m supposed to do it. But I need your help.”

“My help? What is it that you wish me to do?”

“I’ve been working to master the first branch of the Cultivation. It’s described as ‘Analyzation’. I think I have at least partial understanding of it. It’s been great use in combat. But it’s only scratching the surface of what the Cultivation can do.”

“I have witnessed your improvement. But what is it that you hope to accomplish with my help?”

“Well, the next aspect is called ‘Simulation’. The way it’s described, the mind first dissects all the relevant information, then it recreates it for my own use.”

“What information?”

“Again, as far as I can tell, anything I’m able to understand. But more specifically, I think it can be used to replicate the essence of something.”

“Again, you speak of things that should not be possible. The essence of an individual is unique to the experiences and choices they make. Our Cultivations are a manifestation of each aspect of our essence, mind, body, or spirit. Take the spirit for example. Yours has to do with light and conversion. Mine is based on friction and destruction, and gentle rehabilitation. Those are entirely different concepts, not to mention only a fraction of our essence.”

“So, you’re saying I shouldn’t be able to replicate your essence?”

“That is correct,” Suné said.

“What about just the spirit?”

“I do not know. It still seems like you would have to change the nature of your spirit in order to accomplish it.”

“Would you mind if I still tried?”

John stood on the sidelines of a training room that was apparently built into the palace. Suné was sitting patiently on the field, facing a series of opponents that had been miraculously conjured from thin air. She had explained that owning the base came with certain resources that she rarely had need of.

“I wonder if my own base has anything like this?” He thought.

Suné looked at him with a tilt of her head. John took a final moment to focus every sense he had on the fox. He gave her a thumbs up, then belatedly realized that human gesticulations probably had very little meaning to an alien being such as her.

“I’m ready,” he told her.

With his attention laser focused on the fox, John felt confident in picking up at least part of the crucial information necessary for Simulation. In the blink of an eye, a bolt of lightning struck one of the immobile opponents. John gasped in surprise at the instantaneous exertion of her spirit.

He had been watching, studying, analyzing in an attempt to understand the energy sequence. Surprisingly, he did catch a lot of important insight through his observations. Unfortunately, it happened so fast, his mind wasn’t able to dissect it before it was over, leaving him with only the memory of the experience.

“So fast!” He exclaimed.

Suné was not content to simply strike from a distance. As John continued to analyze the fox, she once again began gathering electricity to her. This time however, she did not expend the charge into her foes.

Taking a mere second longer, a second in which John was able to just barely glimpse the pattern that the energy moved through, Suné drew the electricity through herself. It moved so quickly that by the time John realized what Suné was doing, she had already blinked away in a flash of light.

Quicker than a speeding bullet, Suné landed amidst her foes. John gasped in surprise once more, though this time it was at himself. His eyes ached, like he had spent far too long watching a bright television screen.

“What was that?” He asked himself.

Blinking hard to try to ease the discomfort, John centered his focus on Suné once more. The ache increased as he watched the fox flash from one foe to the next, sometimes tearing at them with teeth, other times simply blasting them away with an electrically charged tackle. Each attack was perfectly executed and left no opening for the would-be foes to take advantage of.

As she worked, John got more and more glimpses of her energy flow. It remained extremely difficult to dissect them, as no execution of her spirit took longer than two seconds, and John was forced to admit that Suné was among the most powerful forces in all of The Garden. When she finished her exhibition, she appeared in front of John with a final flash.

“Holy shit,” John told her.

“Were you able to see everything?”

“Not everything. You’re so powerful. You can call on your spirit so quickly, it’s hard to see what is actually happening. My eyes hurt from the strain of attention.”

“Do you need me to slow it down for you?” Suné asked.

“You can do that?” John asked.

The fox just gave him an unamused look.

“Right. Stupid question. How slowly can you circulate your spirit?”

“Probably not as slowly as you, but I’ll try.” Suné teased.

John looked grumpily at the snide fox as her eyes gleamed with glee. Then he nodded at the fox to begin once more. He focused his already pained eyes on her and she dipped her head in agreement.

This time when Suné began gathering the energy to her spirit, it happened much more gradually. John watched excitedly as small needle-like streams of static were pulled toward Suné. The sheer amount of them was unbelievable.

Suné pulled them all into herself much slower this time, but still admittedly much faster than anything John could muster in his own cultivation. He watched as each miniscule spec of energy meshed into a quickly compressing pool of light at the center of Suné’s being.

Then she let it loose once more. It blasted from her in the form of a deadly lightning bolt, exploding against the solitary foe that had been summoned to receive it. John smiled in amazement at the display.

More than that though, he smiled in excitement. He could feel that his observations were making great strides toward understanding how he might simulate the energy himself. With great eagerness, he asked Suné to repeat the process.

2

John spent a few hours watching the way Suné manipulated the flow of electricity using her spirit. She was a lot more diverse with the use of it than John had expected.

Sometimes she would launch lightning from her body. Other times he was the lightning, blasting through defenses like they didn’t exist. She could also use the lightning as a sort of armor, repelling and stunning any who attacked her at close range.

John closely watched every exertion of the fox’s spirit. And each observation gave him another small piece of the puzzle. After hours of close inspection, John’s brain as well as his eyes ached.

“That’s enough, I have to rest,” he told Suné.

The fox looked over at him curiously before nodding. The practice enemies around her rushed forward in her lapse in aggression, seemingly determined to overwhelm her. Suné remained unconcerned as they all closed in.

With a blast of energy so powerful that John’s hair stood wild even from his distance, every remaining foe was not only knocked back but nearly incinerated instantaneously. It was like a rapidly expanding sphere of heat and light that left nothing unscathed. Even the floor of the training room was scored from the caustic energy.

John leaned against the wall and closed his eyes in discomfort. He had been pushing so hard to understand what he was seeing that his mind was sore. Somewhere along the way, he realized the discomfort was coming from his acute use of Analyzation.

“Are you having fun?” Suné asked as she approached.

“How do you keep it up like that? I’ve just been watching, and I feel like my head is going to explode.”

“You are still too weak. Your mental fitness is too low. I suspect that whichever Cultivation you practice is meant for one closer to the peak of Stage One.”

“Stage One? I’ve heard that term before. What does it mean?” John asked.

“The Garden is broken into many stages. This world is the first.”

“You mean that there are other worlds just like this one? Where everything is even more powerful than you are now?”

“That is precisely right. And the closer you get to the pinnacle of Stage One, the better control you will have over your abilities.”

“I am fairly close to totaling my Advanced genes. And I’m halfway there for Wizened genes as well. How much closer to the peak do I need to reach?”

“It is true, your culmination heretofore is exemplary. But even reaching peak Wizened tier will not be close to enough to harness the true capabilities of your mind.”

“Not even then? So then, are you saying that I need…”

“Yes. Until you begin to culminate Divine tier energy, you will never reach your full potential.”

“Are Divine genes really so powerful?”

“I do not know how it works for outside races such as humans. But I have heard from other races such as yours that a single divine gene provides more advancement than the total of all tiers before it.”

John’s eyes opened wide at the revelation. He thought back to his first Advanced gene allocation. He remembered the feeling seeming to burst through his entire body like a flood. Then he recalled how much more potent his first Wizened gene felt to consume. The thought of a single Divine gene surpassing not only both of those feelings, but allegedly the total sum of every gene he could consume was absolutely mind boggling.

“That can’t be possible,” John refuted.

“Possible wasn’t about to stop you from trying a few moments ago,” Suné said.

The statement was so very similar to the outlook of his father that John was forced to acknowledge the point. Still, if what Suné said was true, John needed to break through the impenetrable barrier that was Divine tier as soon as possible. He thought back to the eggs he had stolen from the queen of the ants.

“Are those really Divine eggs?” He wondered.

The queen of the colony had been much smaller than the rest. Smaller even than some of the Primitive ants. Yet the terror she had inspired in John had been no less than the sense of danger he felt when Suné let loose. He pondered the little bug for several moments.

“Come, John. It’s time to see if your Cultivation can truly recreate my spirit.”

John stood wearily, his head still throbbing from the exertion he had forced on it. He moved to the center of the floor and waiting for the single faceless foe to be summoned into existence. When it appeared, John began focusing on all of the information he had gathered while watching Suné fight.

He ran through the mental pathways needed to utilize Analyzation, making a divergence down another mental avenue where Analyzation met Simulation. As his mind remained fixed on all of the relevant information he could manage as he attempted to draw all the static around into his body.

He started to feel uneasy after a few seconds. Needle thin pinpricks could be felt all over his body, like he was getting acupuncture at high speed. Moreover, each miniscule puncture he felt moved beyond his skin to roam through his body at random, despite his efforts to concentrate them all.

After only a few moments of this, John lost concentration. He couldn’t keep his attention on all of the moving parts required to simulate Suné’s spirit. With an impotent expulsion, all of his gathered energy was expelled from all over his body in a feebly crackling burst of static.

John fell to the ground, utterly spent. Every hair on his body stood out, a clear indication of the trace electricity that had passed through it. He sighed in frustration at his own failure. Suné, however, had an entirely different reaction.

“You did it. How did you do it? I have seen your spiritual essence. It is far too different for you to have adapted it to my own methods. So, how is this possible?”

For the first time since John had met her, Suné seemed truly bewildered. She stared at John with wild fox eyes, as if he was something completely alien to her. He looked back at her in exasperation.

“You call that a success? I barely made a few sparks.”

“That is not the point, John. How long did it take you to learn the methods of your own spiritual essence?”

At that, John paused. He thought back to all of his failures and just how long it took him to understand the essence of moonlight. When put that way, Suné was right. He had at least grasped the basics of a Spirit Cultivation that he had never studied.

“It is a very powerful skill. What is the name of your Mind Cultivation?” Suné asked.

“Third Eye of Callysta,” John said.

At that, Suné took a step back, even though they were already a considerable distance from one another. Her eyes grew wide, and she looked almost afraid for some reason. John noticed her odd behavior and inquired about it.

“What’s wrong? Have you heard of it?”

“Not the Cultivation. But I do know the name Callysta.”

John’s curiosity was aroused. He had been wondering what manner of creature could have come up with such a cultivation method. Hearing Suné speak the name with such nervousness gave John pause.

“What do you know about it?”

“Not it. She. Callysta is the name of one of the four Transcendent Beasts. She is said to have been ancient when The Garden was first formed.”

“When The Garden was formed? Formed by who?”

“That is unknown. What is known or at least accepted is that it serves as a sort of training ground for all the species of the universe. Callysta, along with her three companions are said to have given pieces of themselves to help its conception.”

“How do you know this?”

“We who are native to The Garden are born with certain instincts. One of those instincts is to strive for the pinnacle of Cultivation. And it is upon those four Transcendent Beasts that the pinnacle is based.”

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“So, you know the name Callysta out of sheer instinct?” John asked.

“Callysta. Aggrievel. Indarous. Zetharian. These are the four Transcendent Beasts. And while I could not tell you what any of them are or the extent of their abilities, their names are engraved upon my very soul. As they are with all natives of The Garden. More than this, I cannot tell you.”

“Callysta is some type of cat, I think.”

“You would know better than I. I do not know how you came to be her disciple, John. But you should be very careful treading on the path laid out by one so ancient and powerful.”

“Fantastic,” John thought.

3

John was far too mentally drained to attempt another Simulation. Instead, he bid Suné farewell after thanking her for her help. John returned to his room in Thunder Fox Sanctuary and laid down on the bed.

He could have just as easily returned home for a rest, but he was supposed to meet Liz in Emerald Base the next morning, so he decided to save himself the trouble. Lying there half exhausted from the mental strain he had been through, John found it very difficult to keep his eyes open. Before he knew it, morning had come.

John opened his eyes like a man who forgot where he was. Several seconds of confused worrying later, his mind caught up with his situation. With a calming breath, he settled himself onto the mattress once more.

He sat staring up at the ceiling for several long moments, contemplating. His previous day’s progress gave him hope that he could unravel the secrets of his cultivation path if only given time. Then his mind shifted once more to the thought of Divine genes.

With great intrigue, John moved to a storage bin where he had recently moved the four eggs he had pilfered from the ant colony. He had spent no small amount of time attempting to gain any kind of insight about them. All to no avail.

Grabbing one of the eggs, John brought it back to his bed where he could inspect it in leisure. He ran his fingers over the smooth embryo, marveling at the intricate network of veins running through it. Without realizing it was happening; John ran through the mental process of Analyzation.

As he did, he thought of Simulation. Suné’s assertion that he could not copy the entire essence of something was making more sense as his mind turned over the implications. He could hardly turn his body into a fox to simulate her physical cultivation. And unless he had access to every aspect of her mental cultivation, that was off limits too.

But the spirit was something that all living things exuded. He could see its influence exerted on the world as Suné gathered lightning to herself. Perhaps Simulation was specifically designed to harness the spirit of whatever he analyzed. The thought gave him an idea.

As he sat turning the egg over in his hands, John felt his vision shift. Suddenly, instead of seeing the spiderweb veins and feeling the smooth shell of the egg against his skin, John saw the flow of energy. It was faint, as might have been expected of something so small, yet the pattern and circulation were both so confidently persistent that John became impressed with its ability.

Unconsciously, John began to follow the guidelines for Simulation. Slowly at first, but with growing confidence, he started mimicking the faint spirit of the egg. After a few moments, his spirit began to circulate in the same pattern the egg in his hand did.

There was a moment where nothing abnormal occurred. John simply sat motionless, playing copycat to the egg he held. Then, like a key turning in a lock, John felt himself connect to the egg.

In the space between heartbeats, John’s circulation of spirit completely synced with that of the egg. Before he knew what was happening, a cold chill more intense than anything he had ever felt coursed into his hand, numbing it. The sensation traveled quickly to the rest of his body, and John shuddered at the influx of power.

Never in his life had he felt anything so invigorating. The memory of Advanced genes, Wizened genes even, felt like a trickle by comparison. John found himself unable to drop the egg around which his hand was wrapped.

As the freezing cold flow of energy reached his chest, it began circulating in the same pattern that John had been Simulating. He gasped in overwhelmed exhilaration as the massive sea of energy slowly spread to his every cell. John was still entirely too overstimulated to comprehend the message that played in his head.

“Divine ant larvae gene absorbed. You have gained two Divine genes.”

John fell back onto his bed as his cells swelled with more life than he thought possible. He sat gasping great lungfuls of air, feeling with each inhalation the expansion of his entire being. As if suddenly something tangible, John’s essence burst within him.

With inexorable determination, the pool of energy he felt at his core seemed to grow more than three times over. As if someone poured a lake on top of a pond, John felt quite justifiably drowned in excess energy. For long moments, he simply lied back, breathing as raggedly as a man who had run a marathon.

When he finally caught his breath, John sat up in shock. He had not believed Suné about the gap between Wizened and Divine, but having experienced it himself, he had no further doubts. The thought of how much more powerful she must have been than him filled him with awe.

John looked down at his hand where the egg had been. Only a cold echo of its existence remained. The egg seemed to have dissolved into his skin entirely.

He quickly retrieved another ant larvae and returned to his place on the bed. With his heart pumping in excitement, John studied the egg as he had its predecessor. He was intrigued to find that while similar, the pattern of the egg’s spirit was slightly different from the last.

Once again, as he studied it, his mind seemed to subconsciously mimic the pattern of the immature creature. And to his delight, he started to feel himself sync with the flow of energy almost immediately. Before he knew it, the vast ocean of energy was coursing through him.

“Divine ant larvae gene absorbed. You have gained two Divine genes.”

John felt his chest swell with power as his essence expanded yet again. He wasn’t overcome as he had been the first time, but doubling his total number of divine genes still had an extraordinary effect. He took a deep breath, and with the intake of air, he felt himself return to balance.

John got to his feet again and was just about to retrieve his third egg when a demanding knock hammered against his door. He turned toward the disturbance, staring at the door with curiosity. He suspected that only Liz could or would have found him here, but he had been supposed to meet her in Emerald Base.

As he looked at the door, John’s eyes seemed to shift focus. As if viewed through frosted glass, the outline of a person became visible through his door. It was definitely female, and almost certainly confirmed his guess about the identity of the knocker.

John was startled by the sudden change to his vision. He didn’t understand how he could see someone’s profile through a solid door. Before he could consider the implications of this new development, Liz knocked again, this time, if possible, harder.

Like a veil being dropped over the world, John’s vision became obscured, and he was again looking at a solid door. Blinking away the disorientation, he went to open it.

“Took ya long enough,” Liz said sweetly without greeting him.

She walked past him and through the much larger dwelling than its Emerald Base counterpart. She made her way to the bed in the back of the building and sat. Noticing that it was unmade, she turned a questioning gaze on him.

“You stayed here last night?”

“Too tired to go all the way home. I was doing some… training with Suné.”

“Trying to learn how to shoot lightning out your eyes?” She asked teasingly.

“Kind of, yeah.”

“Well, that explains the bed. But why didn’t you come to Emerald Base this morning?”

“I was getting there. I’ve just been busy. Why the impatience?” John asked.

“Because there’s something I want to kill, and I need your help. I’ve been waiting for weeks to have a go at this thing. If it wasn’t so damn big, I would go by myself.”

“What is it that you want to hunt? You said something about cactuses before. We never actually got around to checking them out. Is that where we’re going?”

“Actually, yes. I’ve been doing some reconnaissance in the area, and I’ve found the leader.”

“The leader?” John asked.

“It’s hard to explain. Think of it as a herd of cacti being controlled by a shepherd.”

“Herds of cacti? You mean like cattle?”

“Basically, yes. I don’t understand how it works myself. But I found the boss.”

“How did you do that?”

“Well, it turns out that if you don’t attack one of them, they don’t seem to care if you’re there. I just walked right through the whole area. When I found the big one, I figured I could take a shot at it, but when I say, ‘the big one’ I mean it.”

“How big are we talking?” John asked.

“Like, California Redwoods look small type of big.”

John’s eyebrows raised in shock. He had a hunch based on the description, but he couldn’t be certain unless he saw it with his own eyes. He gestured for Liz to continue.

“I found out that the unspoken nonaggression between myself and the lesser cacti quickly became nullified when the big one spotted me.”

“It spotted you?”

“I can’t explain it. But I could feel its attention on me. Then it started launching needles the size of spears at me. I managed to avoid them all but, on my way out, every cactus in the area was spitting needles at me. Almost took me out from all the poison.”

“And you think this big cactus controls all the little ones?”

“Yes.”

“And what’s your plan for taking it out?”

“I don’t have anything that can damage a cactus that big. I was hoping you might have some ideas.”

“Hmm. I might have something that could work, but it’s no sure thing. When did you want to go?”

“Right now. It’s already almost midday. If we don’t go soon it’ll be dark before we can get there.”

“That’s fine. I work better at night anyway. Let me make some quick arrangements. I’ll meet you in Emerald Base in an hour.” John said.

Then he made his way to the transition pad and set his destination to earth. Without saying goodbye, John left Liz alone in his house within Thunder Fox Sanctuary.

4

When John returned home, his parents both greeted him at the door. Emma was nowhere in sight, and John had his suspicions about her current occupation. He was starting to seriously consider taking all of her notes on there scroll to The Garden to detox it from her mind.

“Hey guys,” John said as he hugged his parents.

“You didn’t come back last night. Everything okay?” Jack asked.

“Totally fine. I was just doing some training with a magic lightning fox,” John said as he moved to the living room to sit.

“A what?” His mother asked incredulously.

“Her name is Suné. Or at least, that’s what she told me to call her. She was very cryptic.”

“You’ve been training with a magic fox? And it told you to call it Suné? It’s a talking fox?” Emily asked, bewildered.

“Well yeah, mom. I would hardly be able to train with it if we couldn’t talk to each other.”

“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to this,” she said with a resigned shake of her head.

“Well, that sounds awesome. I wanna hear all about it,” Jack said excitedly.

“Uh, yeah. No problem. But can it wait until later? I actually came because I need something from you. Liz and I are going to fight a giant cactus and she might need the ability to fly.”

“A giant cactus?” Emily rejoined with yet more incredulity.

“Yeah. There’s apparently a whole flock of cactuses that it controls. I don’t know if it’s some kind of hive mind, or more of a Jumbo Cactuar situation, but either way it should be fun.”

“Aw man! That would be awesome! Make sure you have sleep junctioned to Status Attack!” Jack said nostalgically.

“I know right? If only I knew someone who could cast water!” John responded, just as nerdy.

Emily just looked on in bemused exasperation as her husband and son continued their back and forth about the superiority of 90’s video games. She was well accustomed to the habit, and knew that there was no sense trying to rein them in. All she could do was wait for them to tire.

In due time, John and his father ran out of steam. Jack wished his son luck and transferred the pair of Advanced wings back to him. John promised to return them soon, but his father shook his head.

“I don’t need them. When I have to go back, It’ll probably be on your heels anyway. Liz can get better use from them than me. Besides,” he added with a smile, “it’s not good form to take a gift back from a pretty girl.”

“No it is not,” Emily agreed with a significant look at her husband.

“Uh… yeah. Let Liz keep the wings. Trust me,” Jack said with an apologetic glance at his wife.

“Alright, well I’m gonna go before this gets more awkward. Is Emma upstairs?” John asked.

“Where else would she be? Never gives it a rest,” his mother said in exasperation.

“Cool,” John said, fleeing the room.

John found his sister in her room as promised. She was unsurprisingly studying all of her notes on Third Eye of Callysta. She looked up at him as he entered.

“Can you tell me which branch would make it possible to see through a door?” He asked without preamble.

“Through a door?” She asked in confusion.

“Yeah. It wasn’t perfect, but I could tell what was on the other side. Like an outline.”

“An outline of a person? Did you know they were there before you saw them through the door?”

“Yeah. They knocked.”

Emma nodded before flipping through her notes. She read passages on several pages before moving on, apparently unsatisfied with their content. Eventually she tapped her finger on a passage in triumph.

“It sounds like what you did falls into the Isolation branch. It fits with Analyzation to… well, isolate things.”

“Isolate things? Like separate one thing from everything else?”

“Yes. Wether that be physically separating something or simply excluding the Analyzation of all else in order to focus on one thing more closely. It’s all very complex when you start getting into the later branches.”

“I can tell. I don’t even know how I did it. I’ve never been able to understand more than the first two aspects. And only barely those.”

“Maybe your understanding is growing with your power. “

John thought of his recent step into Divine genes. If his ability to Cultivate really was directly related to his gene progression, it would make sense that his understanding had expanded.

“Maybe. I need to spend some time studying this whole thing a bit more. Thank you,” he said before turning to leave.

“Is that it? You just question me and leave after you learn what you want?”

Uhhh… yep,” John said before walking from the room.

Mock outrage followed him from the room as his sister shouted fake invectives at him for his betrayal. John just chuckled as he made his way back down the stairs. His father met him at the bottom.

“When do you want to go back to Obsidian Base? The trial prizes should be ready in a day or so. I thought we could go together.”

“Uhh, yeah. Sure. I’m not sure when we will be done with the cactus thing, but when I come back, we can go check it out.”

“Cool,” Jack said.

“Yeah. And if things go well with this hunt, I might have a lot more genes to support my guild.”

“Your guild?” His father asked.

“Yeah, I started a guild. It’s really just a front to have people find more Advanced and Wizened things for me to hunt. But it’s growing into something I don’t really have the time to manage. I have a friend working on it but I think even he might be overtaxed.”

“Interesting. Do you need an extra pair of hands to help take care of things while you do the dirty work?” Jack asked his son.

“Dad, are you asking me for a job?” John laughed.

“I’m simply offering to assist.”

“Well, like I said, I don’t know when I’ll be back, but if you’re eager to do something, find my friend Jules at Emerald Base and tell him you’re my dad. He can figure out the best way for you to help. This is his room number,” John said, moving to a notepad to write it out.

“You know it really is amazing everything you’ve done in such a short time,” Jack said as he took the note.

“I never set out to do any of it. It all just happened. I’m lucky to still be here to reap the benefits.”

“Luck isn’t a currency we trade in, son. You’re here because when things get bad, you have the determination to make it through.”

“That’s the type of truth that only exists until it doesn’t.”

“Maybe. But you never stop advancing. You face every challenge without hesitation. And every time you come out on top; your strength grows. Don’t sell yourself short, son. I believe in you,” his father said.

“Thank you,” John finally said before bidding both of his parents farewell.

With reassured purpose, John left his home and returned to The Garden. He shifted into Emerald Base with confidence, ready to take on the next challenge. As he stepped from the transition pad, he heard for the second time that day, the impatient banging of Liz upon his door.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.”

5

“What took you so long?” Liz demanded as John opened the door.

“I’m not that late! And besides, I was getting you a gift. Now that I hear your tone, I don’t think you deserve it,” John said, turning up his nose in mock offense.

“A gift? For little ole me?” Liz asked, all trace of impatience gone.

“No, just forget it. You don’t want to fly anyway. It would ruin your dignified image,” John said.

“Screw dignity, I want to fly!” Liz said, almost begging with her eyes.

“Why should I?” John asked.

“Because you like me?” Liz asked.

John shook his head sadly. He made a show of regretting his decision. Then he grudgingly handed over his spare wings.

“You better start being nice to me,” he grumbled.

“No one likes a complainer, John,” she replied.

With minimal reciprocated shit talking, the two of them quickly made their way out of Emerald Base in the direction Liz had chosen. After just a few minutes with the wings, Liz was soaring around like a natural avian. John trailed behind her, happy to watch her leave her dignified persona behind.

“This is awesome!” She shouted back at him.

John just let her have her fun, easily keeping pace behind her. They flew in a more or less straight line toward the area Liz had found the cactuses. As she had previously described, the terrain was a constantly changing plethora of diverse ecosystems.

It made no sense to John. Grassy fields bumped up against sandy desert, only to shift into luscious forest land a couple of miles later. It was like something had mixed all the land together, impossible as it seemed.

Liz led him through area after area, pointing out different types of beasts that populated each one. John saw more than one Advanced specimen as they passed overhead. He made note of each one, hoping to return for some of them.

The day turned to evening as they flew on. John was impressed by how far Liz had explored even without the wings. He guessed she had spent many days exploring the area. As far as she was taking him, it had probably taken her forever to find the place.

When she finally came to a stop, they were looking down on a dry and dusty area. John could already see the cactuses liberally covering the quadrant. He inspected the nearest one and found it to be Enhanced rank, as Liz had advertised.

The number of those alone would make quite the lucrative haul for the guild if nothing else, but John was hoping for a cache even more valuable. They flew over the area for several minutes, inspecting each cactus they came across. As they ventured farther into the domain, they started seeing larger cactuses dotted here and there.

John inspected a few, and could reliably identify them as the Advanced variety. They seemed to be positioned among clusters of their smaller relatives, almost like guardians. John wondered at the arrangement.

He took the lead from Liz, asking her to let him inspect the area more closely. She agreed, and they moved on through the apparent families of cacti. After passing over a dozen Advanced cactuses guarding their inferior counterparts, John found what he was looking for.

“There,” he said, pointing.

Where he indicated was an even more impressive cactus, towering over the others like an adult among toddlers. John had a good look at it, but he was already sure of its rank before his inspection was concluded. The cactus was Wizened.

“Is that the big one you saw?” He asked Liz.

“No. It was way bigger. I mean massive.”

“I thought as much,” John nodded.

“What did you figure out?” She asked.

“That guy down there is Wizened. I worried that this might be the case. It’s just like the ants.”

“Like the ants? You mean that-”

“Yeah. I don’t have proof. But if what you say about the size of the cactus you seen is true, we’re dealing with something a lot more dangerous.”

“What do you mean?”

“Hold on. Let me look at something,” John said.

He flew lower to get a closer look at the plants below. He quickly began analyzing every cactus in sight. As he observed their essences, something seemed wrong to him. It wasn’t until the eighth cactus that he realized what the issue was.

“They’re all the same,” he said to himself.

John hadn’t been using his inspection abilities to read essences for long, but he had learned one crucial fact in his limited experience. Every living thing had its own unique way of circulating their energy. Even two unborn ants had their own unique yet similar essences.

The cactuses beneath John were different. Or, more accurately, they weren’t. Every cactus he inspected gave off an identical energy flow. The essence patterns were indistinguishable from one another.

His first thought was that it was impossible and that he was mistaken. There was no possible way that each cactus could have the same exact signature. It was almost as if…

“It’s all one plant,” John realized with widening eyes.

He didn’t know how it was possible, but it was the only explanation for the essence anomaly. He didn’t know if plants worked differently from animals in The Garden, but evidence was certainly starting to point that way. While he was still trying to wrap his mind around everything, Liz flew down to him.

“What’s wrong?” She asked, seeing his confusion.

“I think it’s some kind of plant-based hive mind.”

“A hive mind?”

“Yeah. You said they all attacked you after the big one, right?”

“Yeah. Every cactus I came anywhere near shot needles at me. It was like they were all taking turns, waiting for me to get in range.”

“Interesting. And you said you killed one?”

“Yeah. I killed a couple. Why?”

“That’s the only part that doesn’t make sense. When I look closely, they all seem to share a single aura. But they still have individual bodies and genes. Was there anything strange about the kill notifications?”

“Uhh… yeah, actually. It called the cactus something weird. I forget the whole thing but it was something about a stray root I think,” Liz said ponderously.

“I thought so,” John said, nodding.

“What does that mean?”

“It means they’re like fruit.”

“Fruit?”Liz asked.

“Yes. Think of them like apples on a tree. And the big cactus is the tree,” John said.

“If they’re all roots, wouldn’t it be a better analogy to call them vegetables?” Liz asked.

John looked at her with a bemused expression. Her confident smirk was as frustrating as it was predictable. He flew closer to emphasize his retort.

“You know, I flew all the way out here to look at cactuses with you, and you-”

John trailed off as he noticed Liz’s gaze, which was no longer smug and relaxed. She looked serious, and he knew that something had changed. Following her eyes. John saw the worst possible thing he could have hoped for.

“It’s back,” Liz said.

Below, moving through the barren cactus infested land was a massive snake. It had dark coloration, which seemed to change in pattern slightly with each new surface its impossibly long body passed over. It was big enough around to swallow a human whole, as Liz had promised. John watched it move confidently through the area without seeming to care about the innumerable cactus threats it passed.

“That’s the one. It killed the goat I told you about, remember?”

“I remember,” John said with a shudder.

“See the baby that rides it’s head? That’s how you know it’s powerful. Why else would it bring a baby along with it?”

John looked where she had indicated and saw that she was correct. Nestled in what seemed to be a divot upon the snake’s head was a small green snake. It couldn’t have been more than two feet long. It had similarities to its larger kin, but as John studied it, his eyes went wide in fear and alarm.

“That’s not a baby,” he said.