Story Quote: "Some kings rule from thrones. Others rule from graves—and sometimes, they are one and the same."
-The Palace of Vines-
The palace loomed above Petalhaven like a living cathedral. Its walls weren't carved stone but interwoven roots, polished amber sap dripping down their surfaces like tears. The air buzzed faintly—a hum that resonated with every heartbeat, as if the building itself breathed.
Kairo and Aria stood before the throne room doors, both cloaked in sweat and dirt from their ascent. The closer they got, the heavier the air became. It wasn't Haki—it was something else.
"You feel that?" Aria asked quietly, hand resting near her rifle."Yeah," Kairo murmured. "Like the air's thicker. Alive."
He pushed the door open.
The throne room glowed faintly green. Vines coiled along the ceiling, dripping sap that hissed where it touched the marble floor. And seated at the far end, slouched yet regal, was King Lysander.
He was thinner than before, his skin stretched taut and his eyes glowing faint amber. The veins along his arms pulsed like roots filled with sap instead of blood.
"Welcome, pirate," he said, his voice trembling with euphoria. "You've come to witness my rebirth."
Kairo stepped forward, sword drawn, his expression unreadable.
"Rebirth?" he repeated. "You're standing in a tomb of your own making."
Lysander laughed—an airy, high-pitched laugh that cracked midway through.
"You call this death? This is life eternal! My kingdom will never wither, never fade. The Verdant Mother protects her chosen!"
Aria circled to the right, rifle raised, eyes scanning the roots. "He's bleeding energy," she murmured. "Something's feeding him."
Kairo's Observation Haki expanded like a ripple through the room. He sensed movement, a constant pulse of life energy—but it wasn't coming from the king. It was coming through him.
"You're a conduit," Kairo realized aloud. "You're not ruling the island—the island's using you."
Lysander's grin widened, teeth slick with sap.
"And I welcome it!"
Then the vines moved.
Lysander rose from his throne, his fingers elongating into whiplike tendrils. He moved with inhuman speed, lunging forward as the floor erupted in roots.
Kairo's blade flashed, cutting through three at once, but more took their place. Aria fired, her bullets ricocheting off hardened bark that pulsed with life.
"He's armored!" she shouted."Not armored—fed," Kairo growled.
He coated his blade in Armament Haki and clashed directly with the king. Each strike sent sparks of black and green light scattering through the air. The sound was like clashing steel and snapping wood, resonating through the chamber.
Lysander's vines coiled around Kairo's sword, trying to pull it from his grasp. Kairo spun, slicing through them with raw strength. He struck again—this time deep into the king's shoulder.
But instead of bleeding, sap gushed from the wound. The king's laughter echoed through the room.
"You cannot kill me, pirate! I am the roots! The forest! The breath of Veridia itself!"
He swung his arm, sending a wave of sharpened vines toward Kairo. Aria fired in tandem, each bullet exploding on impact and clearing the path for Kairo's advance.
The captain dashed forward, cutting low—then high—then twisting with a burst of gas-propelled speed, his sword glowing with compressed plasma heat. The cuts scorched the vines black.
Still, the king didn't fall.
Minutes turned to what felt like hours. Each strike drew more sap, but Lysander didn't weaken. If anything, he grew stronger. The palace walls pulsed with his movements, every heartbeat mirrored by the rumble beneath their feet.
Kairo ducked another lash of vines and landed a blow across Lysander's ribs. His Haki flared, sparks rippling down the blade. The king staggered—only to straighten, the wound knitting shut before Kairo's eyes.
"Impossible…" Kairo hissed."The Verdant Mother loves me," Lysander crooned. "She shares her strength with her faithful."
Aria fired a bullet infused with Haki into the king's leg—it punched clean through, but even as he stumbled, roots slithered from the floor to patch the hole.
"He's draining the palace!" Aria realized. "The damn thing's feeding him energy!"
Kairo clenched his jaw. "Then I'll cut the source."
He poured every ounce of Armament Haki into Kusanagi, the black sheen shimmering with a faint violet glow. The air grew heavy with heat as Kairo's body dissolved into a thin mist—his gaseous form amplifying the speed of his next attack.
He reappeared behind the king, blade humming with energy.
"Gas Blade—Flash Ignition!"
The slash ripped through Lysander's torso, detonating on impact with a burst of plasma light that shattered the throne. The explosion rocked the entire palace, sending vines flailing in every direction.
Aria shielded her face from the blast, coughing through smoke. "Kairo!"
The captain stood amidst the wreckage, breathing hard. Sap splattered across his coat like blood.
The king was still standing.
Half his body was gone—burned to twisted root and ash—but the vines from the floor surged up, rebuilding him, refilling the gaps. His laughter came as a gurgle, wet and ecstatic.
"She loves me! She loves me, pirate!"
Kairo's Observation Haki flared again—and now he could see it. The palace itself was moving, veins of glowing sap flowing through the walls like rivers of life.
The Verdant Mother wasn't beneath the palace. She was the palace.
The hum of the chamber deepened to a roar. Roots erupted from every surface, spiraling toward the king. They wrapped around him lovingly, pulling him back toward the heart of the room. His face twisted from joy to sudden fear.
"No! Wait—please—Mother, I—"
The roots plunged into his flesh. The sound was sickening—a thousand wet cracks as they burrowed through muscle and bone. Lysander's body convulsed, his screams echoing until his voice dissolved into gurgles.
In moments, all that remained was a husk—dried, hollow, smiling even in death.
The vines released him, his body crumbling into dust. Then, from deep within the walls, came a sound—a heartbeat far stronger than before.
THUM-THUM. THUM-THUM.
The Verdant Mother had fed. And now she was awake.
Kairo stood amid the carnage, his coat torn, his sword dimmed, chest heaving. Aria stepped beside him, pale but steady.
"It's alive," she whispered. "The whole island.""Then we kill it," Kairo said. "Root and stem."
As the floor began to split and the chamber filled with the sound of snapping wood and distant, inhuman wails, Kairo lifted Kusanagi again, its edge gleaming faintly in the flickering light.
The final battle for Veridia had begun.