Island of Peony, the Heart of the Crimson Grove...
The grove breathed with a sinister rhythm.
Crimson pollen floated like mist above a field of peony petals. And in the center of this carnivorous garden, upon a throne made of bones and blooming peonies, sat the creature once known as a guardian of the forest.
The Crimson Verdarite.
Seven meters behind him, his main body, an enormous tree of twisted roots and limbs glowing with infected Nature Energy, stood like a twisted World Tree imitation. Its trunk was broad enough to house a village. From its branches hung the remains of broken weapons, mummified limbs and skulls strung on tendrils of bark.
The Crimson Verdarite himself, now standing at two meters tall in humanoid form, bore the arrogance of a twisted deity. His skin was wooden and bark like. Black armor embraced his form like a cocoon. His crimson eyes burned like dying stars. In his hand was a broken spear, once belonging to the chief of the Raukerai.
He was humming as he placed another skull delicately onto the pyramid of remains beside him.
The ground quaked.
It wasn't a tremor. It was an explosion of essence so violent it split the grove's atmosphere apart, ripping the pollen from the air.
The Crimson Verdarite turned, snarling. His roots slithered in reaction, preparing to strike and then, he saw her.
A lone elf.
Her footsteps echoed across the blood-petaled ground but it was the staff in her hand that made the Verdarite halt. It was a long, elegant weapon of white spiraled wood and glowing veins of green.
The Verdarite's crimson glare sharpened.
"…That staff… it's made from World Tree Wood."
He stepped forward slowly, his talons out.
"Are you… chosen by a World Tree?"
Elyonari's voice was calm. She answered, planting the staff onto the ground, causing the earth beneath to bloom with emerald vines.
"Yes. I carry the will of Mintherenia. I am here to kill the Verdarite who broke its law. The one who turned from Verdance. Who became… a parasite."
The Crimson Verdarite laughed so hard it cracked nearby trees.
"You? A Third Phase Ascender? You truly came here to challenge me? I am of Scavenger Rank, girl. Not only that, I am Infected. My essence is a corruption of nature. I've evolved past your roots and vines. You think that makes you worthy—"
But he never finished the sentence.
The air warped. Behind her, he appeared.
The Crimson Verdarite's body tensed so hard that the roots of the grove twitched. For the first time in centuries, he felt fear.
Vastarael Richinaria had returned.
And he was nothing like the wounded teenager who had once swam away from the grove bleeding and broken. He walked not on the ground, but above it, just a few centimeters, enough to part the wind and air beneath him like a second gravity. Each step he took sent a small droplet-sound,
His body, 195 centimeters of sculpted might, was draped in black-sapphire armor formed by Divine Energy itself, crawling over his bronze skin. His long white hair trailed behind him. His eyes glowed with the intensity of gold and sapphire.
And in his hand was a glaive humming with divine resonance, hungry for penance.
Vastarael didn't slow down as he approached. He just… smiled.
"You remember me?"
He asked, his voice echoing with layered resonance, his base tone and a divine one behind it, like thunder speaking alongside a man. The Crimson Verdarite's crimson eyes narrowed with fury.
"You escaped. That day… you—"
"I survived."
Vastarael cut him off. His smile vanished.
"But not today. Today, I don't survive. I fight. And this time, as a Divine… I'm not here to run. I'm here to kill you."
The wind howled. Elyonari stepped to the side, gripping her staff. Vastarael lifted Calimostria and pointed it toward the massive tree behind the Verdarite.
"This forest drank the blood of those who gave me shelter. You fed on the bones of innocent nomads… children who gave me names, and songs. You'll cough up every soul you stole. I don't care what you've become."
The Verdarite roared in response, roots ripping from the ground, petals bursting like firecrackers around him.
"You dare threaten me in my grove? I'll rip you apart!"
But Vastarael was already stepping forward, Calimostria glowing, Elyonari already playing her role.
"Today, I cleanse you in destruction."
And the battle began.
Every nerve in his body spasmed and twisted, his skin crackled with streams of glowing energy and his bones shimmered faintly beneath his flesh as if his skeleton itself was being reforged. Divine Rank was not a gateway. It was a rebirth.
And rebirths… hurt.
His eyes blinked through the pain. His Divine Core was crystallizing. His Sixth Star of Magecraft had already shattered the ceilings of mortal rank, and his body was forcing its way into the Seventh.
Every breath felt like swallowing liquid flame but the Crimson Verdarite wasn't waiting.
Roots the size of boulders hurled themselves toward him. A thick vine shot toward him from the side, glowing with infected crimson Nature Energy.
'Calculate. React. Don't use mage skills. Don't fracture your body during evolution...'
Vastarael turned his body just enough to let the vine graze past his back. Sparks of blood flicked across his shoulder but it didn't matter. He dropped low, let his left palm strike the ground and used the momentum to launch himself forward, slicing upward with Calimostria.
A violent cut ripped through one of the Verdarite's arms.
The Crimson Verdarite howled and sent dozens of sharpened roots flying toward him from below. Vastarael landed just in time.
"Duck!"
A feminine voice echoed and a blast of frost spiraled through the air.
A ring of ice exploded from above, freezing the roots mid-lunge. Elyonari soared just above, her World Tree staff enabling her to fly. She was too weak to fight against the Verdarite so she kept her distance.
She had her eyes locked onto the battlefield. Wind wrapped around her feet, keeping her weightless.
"Don't get hit!" She shouted.
"Brilliant advice!"
Another set of roots barreled toward him from the right, burning crimson as it split the ground. Vastarael sidestepped, ducked under a mid-sized lash and with a twist of his core muscles and a firm grip on Calimostria, he spun on one foot and delivered a horizontal slash straight across the thick vine.
Sapphire sparks lit the air as the glaive clashed with corrupted wood.
His arm trembled from the feedback. Even though he was evolving, he could feel it. His body wasn't ready. If he used Viridescence or any high-tier power now, it would cause catastrophic damage to himself.
He grunted.
"Keep the distractions coming!" He shouted toward Elyonari.
Her eyes flicked to his.
"Watch me!"
She whipped her staff downward and summoned something. From the ground beneath the Verdarite's throne, pure vines erupted. They didn't aim to pierce or kill. They aimed to distract.
The Verdarite's infected roots exploded in response, tearing through the green but not before Vastarael made his move.
He dashed. One step and the air cracked. Two steps and the soil trembled. The third step, he leapt. The glaive rotated once behind his back before his body twisted midair and brought it crashing down toward the Verdarite's shoulder.
The Verdarite brought up his infected arm just in time to block but the power of the strike sent him skidding backwards, his feet carving trenches into the petal-stained earth. Crimson mist sprayed from his wounded limb. The Verdarite bellowed, his voice vibrating the grove.
"You… DARE…you DARE challenge the will of a corrupted god!?"
"You're no god," Vastarael spat, lifting his glaive once more. "You're a disease choking the land."
A vine as thick as a tower burst from the earth beneath him but this time, it wasn't infected. It was pure. Elyonari had her hand stretched forward, her eyes gleaming.
"Catch it!"
Vastarael stepped on the vine midair as it hurled itself across the field. With his knees bent and glaive humming at his side, he used it as a launch rail and catapulted himself at the Verdarite.
Their clash was apocalyptic.
Fists of bark met armored glaive. Vines met wind blades from Elyonari's spells. Bark splintered. Stones shattered. The petals on the ground caught fire from the sheer heat of their blows.
The entire grove shook.
The Crimson Verdarite was relentless, manifesting massive tendrils from his main tree-body, using them as arms to slam the landscape. With each hit, the ground cracked like eggshells. Some vines coiled with molten corruption, others with ice-caked talons. He was using every elemental corruption he had absorbed over centuries.
"Face it! You can't win! I am nature evolved!"
But Elyonari's eyes blazed. She spun midair and scoffed. Dozens of emerald orbs erupted from her staff, bursting into dazzling light that blinded the Verdarite and shredded the bloodroots.
It was enough.
Vastarael closed the distance and slammed his shoulder into the Verdarite's chest, knocking him backward, then sliced across the abdomen with Calimostria, sending chunks of corrupted bark flying.
His breath was ragged.
His heart... well, his reconstructed pseudo-cores, were spinning fast. His Divine Core was nearly complete. The heat inside him was unbearable but his grip on Calimostria never faltered.
He couldn't stop now. The Verdarite stumbled, snarling, his form flickering.
"You… you're not even fully Divine yet… and you're doing this much damage—"
Vastarael's voice was hoarse, breathless, but filled with unwavering certainty.
"Imagine what I'll do when I am Divine."
A ripple passed through the air. His bones were glowing now.
Cracks were forming across his chest, light pouring through. His hair fluttered in all directions as divine pressure began to seep from his skin like steam. His soul was breaking and reshaping.
Elyonari flew beside him, landing lightly and keeping her eyes on the Verdarite.