Kora had turned their plot into a beast of a garden with alleyways, rudimental irrigation system and, most importantly, order. As Keynes walked the alleyways with closed eyes, he felt the garden as if it was one organism with a thousand little faces.
It was the little “faces” that Keynes focused on. Each plant had its own preferences and requirements, and while Kora had a strong understanding of general gardening, Keynes’s perception went much further.
One thing was certain though, the garden required balance to move from simply thriving to a robust growth. Keynes assessed these preferences and requirements as best as he could. He opened his eyes, took out a pair of sharp scissors and began the slow process of trimming leaves and stalks.
It reminded him of the insight he had learned about plant’s individuality. None of these plants were there yet and giving them names could crash the delicate balance in their temporary garden. Not every plant reacted the same to being given an individual name. Some relished in it while others were hesitant about individuality. The difference in responses was too dangerous to try in their situation.
Keynes filtered out things that were happening around their garden, keeping his focus purely on the flowers in front of him. Bell-shaped, green-hued and an apple-sized flower seemed to be content but Keynes sensed a twinge of something amiss. His spiritual aura gently poked the flower, leaning strongly on his trait to get better read on it.
At first, he couldn’t make sense of the flower’s needs but they certainly weren’t fulfilled. Then it slowly trickled onto him. These flowers lived in a symbiotic relationship with certain insects which used their flower buds to hide, in exchange offering them something. Whatever it was, Keynes couldn’t provide the insects themselves or the thing they gave to these flowers. It only highlighted how complex ecosystems existed even in such small space. He let it be.
Some time later, Keynes withdrew his attention from the garden and checked their war effort. With a mix of relief and surprise, Keynes learned that Kore had already defeated Evren.
Unfortunately, also Theadore had fallen to Zephyr, which left only three of them (counting Keynes and Kora as one contender). The real battle was about to start. Edward had bunkered down, while Zephyr, even though weakened, remained a dangerous threat to them all.
When Kora noticed Keynes, she came over.
“You did an amazing job. The garden feels changed.”
“Thanks,” he replied. “But I wouldn’t do anything without you. You outdid yourself. Look at this, it is incredible.”
She smiled, taking the compliment without fake politeness.
“We aren’t done yet though.”
“Edward or Zephyr?”
“Neither. We must secure every environmental advantage we can. Notice how Zephyr’s plants don’t have any impact on the plant life around vents? I guess the key to defeat him lies there.”
***
The Grand Druid watched content as Kora and Keynes finally figured out Zephyr’s weakness and more than that, the current setting favoured them. Edward acted as a natural barrier and judging by the plants he was cultivating, Zephyr would have a hard time dealing with Edward’s garden quickly enough. That time would allow Keynes and Kora to gain strategic resources required to cultivate plants that could counter Zephyr.
It all came down to timing. Could they capture the vent before Zephyr defeated Edward? If they wished to win the whole competition they had no other choice.
Luckily, for them, not only Edward acted as a robust protection but the man seemed to adapt and learn, which potentially would slow down Zephyr even further. Unfortunately, without specific plants, Edward couldn’t survive Zephyr’s assault.
Good. Zephyr deserves to lose. He deserves to die. The Grand Druid as a part of the System couldn’t break the rules of the competition but in his mind, he could do as he pleased and so he wished this particular contender to die. If the Grand Druid wasn’t fated to perish together with the Father at the end of the event, he would gladly deliver death to Zephyr himself.
“THERE IS NO NEED,” the Father’s voice spoke in the Grand Druid’s mind. “HIS FATE IS SEALED. WHEN THE EVENT ENDS, OUR MINDS WILL DIE BUT OUR BODIES WILL CARRY ON. BODIES HAVE MEMORIES.”
The Father’s presence vanished from the Grand Druid’s mind, which felt like lifting a great weight. It was testament to the System as it granted the Father temporary power.
The last competition turned out to be almost anti-climatic if one expected action. However, it wasn’t about that, in fact, the Grand Druid wasn’t entirely sure why the Father had come up with this particular idea. He understood the motivation to please the System but not why a competition. There must have been other ways to strike a deal with the System.
Understandably, the System sought to empower the ascenders who were new to their powers, and given The Grand Druid’s knowledge of the wider universe, they were not alone, and sooner or later, they would find themselves at odds with other races. Still, something was amiss, but the Grand Druid remained indifferent to the System’s scheming. These things existed outside of his pureview.
Edward, as predicted, succumbed to the liquid death grass after four hours. His understanding of nature and gardening was substantial but he lacked the correct resources to fight against Zephyr. This was a crucial lesson. Even the most knowledgeable ascender couldn’t work with empty hands. Otherwise, Zephyr would have never defeated Edward. Edward’s garden was vibrant, lush and more balanced than it had any right to be without having an extensive knowledge of the spiritual realm.
It pained the Grand Druid and the guardians to watch it slowly die to an abominable creation. Even though liquid death grass and blood stalks were plants, they existed outside of the natural order. Their presence seriously disrupted balance in the ecosystem, which had spiritual consequences on the scale these contenders couldn’t imagine. Out of all contenders only Keynes touched on the spiritual realm’s true nature, and only then, briefly.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
This relationship between the spiritual and physical realms was the key to the true understanding of nature. Those who would master it would become the rulers of nature.
When Edward’s garden finally lost, Keynes and Kora were already on the move. Spending all their lifeforce, they attacked with fire flowers and magmarian roots, which heavily countered both plants Zephyr had employed against them.
In nature, if a species existed without a natural enemy, it made them an apex predator and let them thrive uncontrollable as long as there was suitable prey. It was never a desirable state of things as some species were highly invasive driving the entire ecosystem into destruction. Sometimes an apex predator species remained unknown until it was too late.
There was a lesson in this, for Zephyr, but a lesson he would never heed. To create a true apex predator, one must know the ecosystem. The ultimate apex predator didn’t exist in nature and was only limited to a specific ecosystem. Zephyr had failed to properly account for the multi-faceted ecosystem designed with this thought in mind—no apex predator plant species was possible in this competition. The Grand Druid knew that Zephyr was aware of it but still the contender had ignored the risk.
It was time to pay for this as his nearly desolate garden (blood stalk and liquid death grass didn’t discriminate between friends and foe) was mercilessly overtaken by fire flowers, while magmarian roots transformed soil—by raising its temperature—which made fire flowers self-sustained and outright killed blood stalks. It was a better approach, albeit a little more time-consuming but both Keynes and Kora came prepared.
***
Zephyr raged inside as his perfect plan was torn apart. He wanted to get physical but it’d disqualify him and so he restrained himself, he didn’t want to lose the competition in such a stupid way. Keynes and Kora had waited until he defeated Edward and attacked when Zephyr was at his weakest. He would never forgive them this…
You have been defeated.
The competition is over.
Zephyr blinked and found himself in front of the gigantic tree—the Father.
An enemy. His enemy.
“CONGRATULATIONS, CONTENDER. YOU HAVE PLACED SECOND…”
Zephyr no longer heard him, he attacked.
***
Keynes and Kora blinked as they suddenly came to stand before the Father. The System had already informed them that the competition ended but it hadn’t told them who won.
The Father’s presence enveloped them with unsual’s softness. They froze like prey that noticed a stalking predator.
“You’re safe here,” the Father’s calm voice spoke in their heads. “I wanted to congratulate you personally.”
A haze that surrounded them cleared and with it the Father’s massive visage. In its place stood a small, twisted and clearly dying tree.
“Is that your real body?” Keynes asked.
“It is but a remnant of my body,” the Father replied. “My lifeforce is almost entirely spent.”
They felt an impulse of power and the tree groaned as if something invisible tried to twist its trunk.
“What was that?”
“Not now,” the Father replied. “We have important things to discuss. I brought you here, to my real body, to personally congratulate you. You have won, Keynes and Kora. But your fight isn’t over yet. There are forces converging on this location…”
“Shouldn’t there be training with you?”
“There is. But it lasts only a day of real time. Once the time is up. The Inner Sanctuary will lose my protection and anyone would be able to enter it.”
“Who is out there?” Keynes asked.
“Enemies,” the Father said, quietly. “Enemies you aren’t ready for.”
“What do you mean?” Keynes asked, wondering if Hunter decided to finally make his move against him. He wouldn’t put it past the Solar Council to change their mind. “Who exactly is out there?”
“An ascender Vivena Sael.”
“Her?” Keynes asked, shocked. Vivena was the last person he expected here. “What is she doing here?”
“Who’s Vivena Sael? Is she the Sael?”
“I have watched her carefully since the moment she arrived and her goal is very clear. She has come to kill you, Keynes.”
Keynes nodded to Kora then said to the Father, “I’ll deal with her. I have a contingency plan.”
“You won’t survive the encounter with her. I took a very good measure of her abilities and I’m sure she’ll deliver a death blow before you can even react. You will stand no chance against her.”
“What about both of us?”
“Even if all ten contenders fought against her at the same time, she would still come out victorious.”
“That’s impossible…” Kora mumbled but Keynes knew Vivena and her ridiculous Talent. Still things didn’t add up here and he had suspicion why that was.
“Why are you telling this to us? This wasn’t part of a reward.”
“My guardian wasn’t entirely honest with you, when he told you about the deadline of my request.”
Kora and Keynes narrowed their eyes. Keynes should have expected this.
“So there was no deadline?”
“It never was,” the Father replied. “Once the process started there was no way of stopping it.”
“What process?” Kora asked.
“Transformation of the Inner Sanctuary into a pocket realm.”
Keynes snorted, amused by the turn of events. He understood what happened. The Father played him.
“So you still intend for me to take the Children, but this time in exchange you’ll help me fight Vivena?”
“Yes I do but I won’t be able to lend you a hand in the fight…” the Father’s voice trailed off and with great effort he picked up a few seconds later. “I’m currently engaged in a battle against Zephyr. His Talent exploits my weakness.”
“What about the System? Should it kick him out of the Inner Sanctuary?”
“The System does as it pleases,” the Father replied distantly. “It will not aid me.”
“So what if I refuse your offer?”
“Then the Inner Sanctuary and the Children will die.”
Keynes’s anger rose to his throat and he wanted to slam [Chaos Aura] against the fucking tree but Kora spoke first.
“We will help but you have to aid us in the fight against this Vivena.”
“As I said, I cannot, but I’ll aid your escape from her.”