This was something truly incredible to witness—something that even Tela deemed too dangerous for the city and everyone sheltering within it. The thought of losing so many people couldn't be ignored, and for that reason, she stopped engaging the lesser threats and charged directly at the corrupted elephant.

  Her—a distance fighter by nature—engaging in close combat against a beast that could cause her serious harm.

  I could feel a shift in her power through our connection to the wall, but I couldn't see what was happening. Once I confirmed no additional damage was threatening the barrier, I gathered my strength and jumped as high as I could, barely managing to grab the top of the wall and pull myself up.

  From that vantage point, I saw everything.

  Hundreds of beasts lay dead across the battlefield. Erratic animals and monsters slain by Miss Tela and the other Awakeners, who had been using their powers relentlessly. Bodies littered the ground in every direction—testimony to their skill and coordination.

  Yet my eyes found no chance of victory in that carnage.

  The slain enemies were rising again. One by one, corpses jerked back to animation as that strange glowing violet mud seeped into their remains. The corrupted elephant released the substance continuously, an endless font of contamination that turned death itself into another weapon.

  "MISS TELA!" I shouted, feeling something fundamentally wrong about that mud—something that went beyond mere danger into territory my instincts screamed to avoid.

  "DO NOT TOUCH THAT ENTITY! GET AWAY FROM IT!"

  She turned her head toward me. A single liana erupted from the ground beneath her feet, and she used it to launch herself back toward the wall with explosive speed, landing beside me in a crouch.

  "Lemi..." Her breathing was controlled but heavy. "Shout to the people inside and evacuate with them. Go as far away as you possibly can. I'll try to contain that thing—use the entire city as a barrier to block its path if necessary."

  "Wait—you're not going to defeat it?"

  "I can't." The admission came with visible frustration. "Our powers are being nullified. Whatever that thing is, it causes our abilities to wither on contact. Every attack we land dissolves before it can cause meaningful damage." She glanced back at the approaching monstrosity. "Everyone will die if it reaches these walls. So please... I'll guide you all to safety. Just follow the path my lianas create—they'll provide both guidance and protection."

  Her power erupted outward again, stronger than before. Throughout the city, people began flowing from their homes in organized streams. They'd clearly been drilled for scenarios like this, moving with practiced efficiency despite their fear.

  "Lemi... please go." Her expression softened momentarily, vulnerability showing through her authoritative mask.

  Am I really that powerless?

  The thought burned like acid. I looked at her eyes as they alternated between me and the fleeing civilians, trying to coordinate defense and evacuation simultaneously.

  Time seemed to slow.

  I watched Miss Tela use her lianas to leap back toward the battlefield, maintaining distance while attempting to deal damage through indirect methods. She closed her fist and smashed the ground with devastating force, trying to make the elephant collapse into a crater. For a moment, it worked—the corrupted mass began sinking into broken earth.

  But it was futile.

  Slowly, inexorably, the thing clawed its way back out. More roots extended from its body, anchoring into the ground to support its phantom weight. It screeched in agony—perhaps some fragment of the elephant's original consciousness remained, trapped in that horrific form—but kept regenerating. The violet mud acted immediately to repair any damage to its bone-root structure, cementing the corruption in place.

  Time slowed further. Everything grew calmer, quieter, brighter.

  The three moons aligned perfectly overhead, their combined light bathing my surroundings in ethereal radiance. I couldn't move my body—paralyzed not by fear but by something else, something that felt almost like anticipation.

  Then I noticed the ground beneath my right arm beginning to crack.

  A single plant emerged from the fractured earth, growing with impossible speed. It wrapped around my palm like it had been searching for my hand specifically, coiling with gentle but insistent pressure. Instinctively, my fingers closed around it, gripping it as though it were a weapon. My arm raised higher, pulled upward by forces I didn't understand, until the plant revealed its true form.

  A scythe.

  The blade was composed of plant matter—leathery yet impossibly sharp, with wicked spines along its margins. I didn't know what species it was or how it had grown directly beneath me at this exact moment. But deep in my core, beneath conscious thought, I knew what I had to do.

  My leaf energy began flowing into the scythe automatically.

  Strange ethereal flames erupted along the blade—light green fire that didn't burn my hands but made the weapon feel alive, aware, hungry. The flames collided with my channeled energy, and intricate green patterns appeared across the scythe's surface, pulsing in rhythm with my wooden heartbeat. I felt strangely secure, confident in a way I'd never experienced before. As though victory wasn't just possible but inevitable.

  My body moved without conscious command.

  Time resumed its normal flow, and I was already running—vaulting off the wall, hitting the ground outside the barrier, charging toward the corrupted monsters with the scythe blazing in my grip.

  Everyone who'd been fighting with desperate intensity turned their heads toward me.

  "TELA! LOOK AT THE MONSTERS!" An Awakener woman named Seri shouted, pointing not at me but at the creatures in my wake.

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  More than twenty corrupted monsters burned with green flames where I'd passed. Not the violet contamination that animated them, but clean fire that consumed corruption itself. Those monsters didn't rise again. Instead, their bodies dissolved into ash that sank into the earth, becoming fertilizer rather than fuel for resurrection.

  "What the hell is happening?" Miss Tela couldn't believe what she was witnessing.

  Then, amidst all her knowledge and experience, something struck her mind.

  The Flower of Death.

  That's what some called the Agave—a plant that bloomed only after many years of growth, creating a spectacular display that killed its parent plant in the process. A truly special event, rare and significant in the plant world. The ultimate sacrifice of the mother to ensure the survival of offspring.

  She couldn't remove her eyes from me as I moved through the battlefield. My technique was sloppy, unrefined, more instinct than skill. I swung the scythe with desperate force rather than practiced precision, missing more often than connecting. But when the blade did strike home, corrupted flesh burned away completely. No resurrection. No contamination spreading. Just clean death and dissolution.

  It was enough to kindle hope.

  "LEMI! I'LL MAKE YOU A PATH!" Tela's voice carried across the battlefield with renewed determination. "KILL AS MANY AS YOU CAN!"

  Her lianas erupted in coordinated patterns, not attacking the monsters directly but imprisoning them—holding them in place so they couldn't swarm me while I worked. She'd shifted her role completely, becoming a supporter who controlled the battlefield while I served as the weapon.

  "WE'LL HELP TOO!" The other Awakeners joined immediately, their powers surging with newfound purpose.

  Kevin charged forward with his lily-of-the-valley gloves, not trying to kill the corrupted creatures but stunning them with mental confusion so they stumbled into my range. Seri created walls of thorned vines that funneled enemies toward me in manageable numbers. Another Awakener whose name I didn't know manipulated the ground itself, creating trenches and barriers that prevented the corrupted from flanking me.

  They'd all understood the critical truth at once: I could permanently kill what they could only temporarily destroy.

  The scythe sang through the air as I swung again and again. Green flames spread from each impact, consuming corruption wherever they touched. My movements grew slightly less chaotic as muscle memory began forming—not skill, not yet, but the earliest foundation of competence built through desperate repetition.

  The corrupted elephant noticed.

  Its eyeless head turned toward me, and for just a moment, I swore I saw recognition in that horrible form. As though some fragment of intelligence remained trapped within the corruption—and that intelligence understood it had found its end.

  It released a screech unlike any before—not rage or hunger, but something that almost sounded like mourning.

  The screech shocked me as it reverberated through the air and even into the earth beneath my feet. But that was it—that was the moment I finally understood I could help. I could put an end to this nightmare.

  I advanced with every ounce of strength left in my body.

  Without realizing it initially, I was walking on a path constructed entirely of lianas—Miss Tela's creation, lifting me higher with each step. The elevated walkway gave me the perfect angle to strike without risking a counterattack from the corrupted entity looming before me. For a brief moment, I glanced back at the others.

  Their expressions had transformed completely. Where there had been desperation and fear, now there was hope. Faith.

  Everyone believes in me.

  The thought gave me strength I didn't know I possessed. I raised the scythe high and swung with everything I had, bringing the blade down on the elephant's massive head.

  Green fire exploded on impact.

  The flames engulfed the creature's entire body, burning with that strange ethereal light that produced no heat but consumed corruption absolutely. The violet mud tried to regenerate damaged tissue, tried to rebuild what the fire destroyed, but it couldn't. The green flames nullified the contamination itself, unmaking the very foundation that held this abomination together.

  "GGRRRRAAAAAAA!"

  The corrupted entity's scream carried more than pain—it carried the agony of a creature whose very existence was being unraveled. Without the ability to regenerate, without the mud to sustain its impossible form, all that remained was suffering. Its will fractured under the weight of that realization, and the screaming gradually weakened into something closer to sobbing.

  We all stood there watching as the beast burned alive, yet the flames produced none of the typical warmth of fire. It was cold burning—purifying rather than destroying, erasing corruption rather than consuming flesh.

  As I watched, the scythe in my hands began to change.

  Hairline fractures appeared along the blade, spreading like a spider web across its surface. The weapon had fulfilled its purpose, and now it was time for it to return. This didn't escape the notice of the others, who watched with equal astonishment as the scythe crumbled in my grip.

  It dissolved slowly, deliberately, until nothing remained except a single small flower that bloomed between my palms—delicate, pale, impossibly beautiful.

  "Thank you..." I whispered, cradling the flower gently. "Thank you for helping me when I needed it most."

  I still didn't understand why it had happened or how. I'd simply trusted the weapon when it appeared, and it had trusted me in return. Now all I held was this final gift—a flower marking the end of something extraordinary.

  "That was an Agave." Miss Tela's voice came from beside me, quiet with reverence. "Also called the Flower of Death because when it blooms, it kills the mother plant. It carries a beautiful meaning—this kind of blooming happens rarely, only when the sacrifice serves a greater purpose. Perhaps it blessed you because you needed its strength." She paused, studying both me and the flower with thoughtful eyes. "I don't fully understand why, but..."

  The other Awakeners moved to stand alongside her, forming a line before me. As one, they bowed their heads.

  "Thank you for saving us and the city," they said in unison.

  "I don't know myself what happened," I admitted, still cradling the Agave flower. "But I'm glad everything worked out fine."

  Miss Tela raised her head and looked at the others with sudden seriousness. "Everyone here—nobody speaks about this. Not until I've understood what Lemi is truly capable of and what the circumstances surrounding that corrupted mud are. Do I make myself clear?"

  "YES!" They all responded with immediate agreement, grateful to be alive and willing to honor her request.

  "Now please, go help the people return safely to their homes."

  She clapped her hands once—a signal that dismissed them to their duties. The Awakeners dispersed quickly, moving to assist with the evacuation's reversal and to begin the grim work of ensuring no corrupted remnants remained.

  Tela turned back to me, her expression softer now that we were alone.

  "Lemi... should we go talk about what happened? I promised to explain certain things after the battle, and perhaps together we can understand what really occurred tonight."

  "Gladly." I carefully tucked the Agave flower into my shirt, keeping it close to my heart. "I didn't understand any of it myself, so I'd be grateful if you could enlighten me."

  We began walking back toward the city together, leaving behind the ash-covered battlefield where corruption had been purified and death had been transformed into fertile soil.

  The three moons continued their journey across the sky, bearing silent witness to the night a powerless man had discovered he possessed the one power that mattered most: the ability to end what shouldn't exist, and to return corruption back to the clean earth from which all life springs.

  Behind us, the first green shoots were already beginning to emerge from the ashes.