"I accept my role as a savior."
As soon as Ash accepted, the scenery around him changed once more.
From the palace of his memories, the scenes began melting into the background.
Leaving a white, empty space where only Ash and Earth's will stood.
The verdant seed on his chest glowed, releasing the silvery green aura into the vast white space.
Starting from his own body, the pristine white scene began to have a tinge of the silvery green aura.
Eventually, the shade became bolder.
Now, the silvery green aura that belonged to Earth's will was present everywhere around him.
It melded into him. Combining. Becoming a part of him.
At last, the seed floated from his chest. Detaching itself from him.
It stayed floating silently in front of him as if waiting for something.
Then, a moment later, the familiar plague codex, the gift from the plague god, manifested in front of him.
As if being its cue, the seed flew and embedded itself into the book.
Making the front cover of the book its resting place. Nested right in the middle of the cover.
All the silvery green aura, both the ones released by the seed and the ones floating around in the white space, all rushed towards the book.
Filling every inch of the codex with it.
The more silvery green aura entered, the more changes happened to the book.
The codex used to look like it was made out of rotting leather. A few parts had even been peeled off as if it were its intended design.
The pages were yellowish with small holes here and there.
It screamed terror to everyone who looked at it. Threatening to release extinct diseases that were lost to the history of the universe.
Anyone with a sane mind would be afraid of touching even the corner of the book.
But as the seed laid its root there, the book changed.
Instead of rotting leather, layers of fresh green leaves covered the whole book.
Flowers, both colorful and beautiful, adorned the whole cover.
Exoskeleton of insects plastered on its spine. Curved white bones protected the edges of the book.
The yellow-tinted pages turned brownish, seemingly made out of freshly processed leathers.
But not all traces of rot had disappeared.
From the book that seemed to be birthed from nature itself, several spots began to wither.
Several of the bones and exoskeleton were cracked.
A few of the flowers dried and decayed.
Even tiny spots of necrosis appeared on the leather pages of the book.
The rot seemed not to belong in the presence of the seed that represented nature and Earth itself.
However, the seed also didn't stay the same.
The top half of the seed began to wrinkle, showing it on the edge of withering.
But the bottom half stayed strong and full of life. The roots were unchanged even by the rot spreading all over the book.
In the end, the silvery green aura was the last to change.
The dark greenish tint that represented nature was now gone.
Instead, a bright, sickly green came out of the seed along with the silver glow.
Now, instead of a silvery green aura that seemed to mesh with each other, it looked like two distinct auras were constantly existing, contrasting against each other.
The battle seemed to be stuck in a status quo, and there was no plan for each of them to destroy each other.
What ended the sight was the codex melting back into Ash's body, returning to where the plague codex used to sit inside his soul.
The seed also returned to the verdant flower on Ash's chest with its new half-withered, half-lush appearance.
Earth's will then spoke for one last time,
"I wish for your victory, child. Our victory."
When the words disappeared, so did the white room Ash was in.
He blinked and found himself back on the Verdant Necropolis.
Time had returned flowing once more as the doppelganger brothers made their way to Ash and Keen perched on his shoulder.
And of course, the Verdant Stag was still stuck on its titanroot cage.
The first thing Ash did after returning was to call upon his plague codex.
He opened up his arms, and the codex manifested from particles of silvery bright green light.
Just a split second look at the manifested book made him realize.
"So it was all real…"
The plague codex appeared with its new look. The one where nature seemed to blend with the rot of the plague deity.
It's not only the codex of the plague deity anymore.
"I guess I can't simply call it plague codex anymore now…"
Earth's will didn't give him the name of the new book or a manual on it, so Ash just decided to call it,
"The Codex of Bloom and Bile."
Not the most creative name in existence, but it was better than the old name.
When Ash opened the codex, all the old information was still there.
His treasured diseases. Their description, their symptoms, and the ability they gave, they were all there.
However, there's a new section that wasn't there before.
To his pleasure, it was a list of all the DNA modifications that he had done to his body.
============
Chameleon Color-Changing Scales
Vampire Bat's Echolocation + Blood Sucking & Digestion
Verdant Wolf's Flowery Vines
Miregorge Slug's Regeneration + Bio-matter decomposition
Titanbark's Root & Vine System
Verdant Stag's Flora Manipulation & Vine Armor
Verdant Stag's Disintegrating Light
============
Along with the new sections, more knowledge flooded into his mind.
It was an explanation of the thing that Earth's will had told him before.
The one key part that made him different from the other saviors of Earth.
Ash processed the knowledge, smiling and tapping his toes as he could barely contain his excitement.
He didn't feel anything before when Earth's will talked to him about it, but now that the actual application was explained to him, Ash realized that it was much more amazing than it seemed at first.
He turned to the Verdant Stag, then the curves on his mouth bent upward even more.
Ash realized he had the best opportunity to get his first hands-on experience with this new knowledge.