"Then what about me? What do I mean to you? Don't try to fob me off with some nonsense about being your partner."
(As expected, nothing can be hidden from you. Then I'll say it plainly. Regrettably—or perhaps fortunately—the Apothecary bestowed possibility upon you. You are my everything. I exist because of you, just like a special organ within your body. If I leave you, I cannot survive. And without you, my survival would have no meaning anyway.)
"A tool… a weapon, or maybe an item, that comes with a price."
(That description is a little sad, but… yes. That is basically correct.)
It did not dislike Xien. But for its own sake, it wanted change. It hoped the two consciousnesses could reach some kind of understanding.
(So now that you know everything, what will you choose, Xien? Can you overcome your fear of me? Or rather… do you have the magnanimity to wield me?)
It had chosen to lay everything bare because it knew exactly what kind of person Xien was. If it tried to play clever little tricks in front of him, it had to be prepared to be sealed away and forgotten for the rest of its life.
Because Xien was different.
He possessed that thing that connected countless worlds. To him, the Seed was not an indispensable part of his growth. Maybe he could do nothing about it now, but once he truly became strong, dealing with it would not be difficult at all.
But as long as it was sincere and told him everything honestly, then he would weigh the pros and cons.
At worst, the outcome would simply be that it got to "eat" a little less.
Unlike other people, Xien was a pragmatist. To him, power was divided only into what was useful and what was not. Moral "nature" meant very little.
As a healer, even if a power represented death itself, he would not hesitate to use it so long as it was useful.
So all it had to do now was wait for his answer.
And Xien's reply, just as it had expected, came at once—
"Then let's do it. You never know whether you have the capacity for something until you've actually tried, right?"
It had to be said: Xien was moved by its honesty.
If it was something he could communicate with, then it was no longer something that ought to be "sealed away."
And at this point, there was nothing left to fear anyway.
It was merely a form of power.
He refused to believe that, with the system helping him, he could not find a way forward. As long as there was a direction to work toward, then the only price left to pay was sweat.
And that, recently, had become his greatest strength.
(Then, my master—as you wish. My power shall be yours to command.)
Inside Xien's body, the hard shell of that miraculous seed began to crack.
Gareth's blurred vision was dyed red with blood, and the agony was nearly consuming his mind.
Within that crimson haze, he thought he saw a scene from decades ago—
Back then, during an exceptionally dangerous expedition into the Dungeon, he had been gravely wounded and dragged out by his companions from a mountain of monster corpses and a sea of blood.
How had that old bastard cursed him back then?
"Idiot! The shield and axe of the Landrock family aren't raised so you can die a glorious death! They're raised so the comrades behind you can survive! As long as you've still got one breath left in you, then get the hell back on your feet!"
"Heh…"
Gareth let out a faint laugh, blood continuously spilling from the corners of his mouth.
That was right.
This was not the time for him to think about resting.
There were still companions behind him who needed protecting.
"I… am… the Mighty…"
With sheer force of will, his body's hidden reserves were dragged out. Some incomprehensible strength surged up from within his nearly exhausted frame.
He let out a beastlike roar. The muscles around the lightning chains piercing him contracted violently, and he actually managed to clamp down on the energy-forged restraints by force.
One hand seized the edge of the giant axe embedded in the ground. The other braced against his knee. Bones ground together with a sickening sound, as if they might shatter completely the next moment.
And yet that enormous, heavy body rose again—
inch by inch.
Covered in blood, he looked like a war god climbing back from hell itself, and never had the fire in his eyes burned more fiercely.
"This body… this shield… has not fallen yet!"
Once more, he raised his weapon as the vanguard.
He was prepared to use every last ounce of strength he had, hoping his weapon could at least pose some shred of threat to that thing.
Not far away, Riveria lay sprawled among the freezing rubble.
When had the proud princess of the elves ever been in such a sorry state?
When had she ever been so powerless?
"Riveria, remember this: the dignity of royalty does not lie in always remaining flawless and immaculate. True dignity lies in this—even if your body and mind are shattered into ten thousand pieces, every fragment can still gather itself together when it matters most, and shine with the most brilliant light."
"Mother…"
She murmured the word under her breath.
Her gaze lifted to the attack gradually taking shape in the sky, then shifted to the dwarf not far away, who was already preparing a throwing motion. A trace of resolve flashed through her eyes.
She bit down hard on her thumb. Elven blood infused with immense magical power welled out.
It looked as though she was about to use something—
some spell that required an enormous price to cast.
But just as she was about to begin, someone tapped her shoulder.
"Don't be in such a hurry. This isn't the moment to throw everything away yet."
Xien walked calmly past her.
Riveria froze.
Not only because the aura around the boy felt somehow different now.
Just that single touch had not only healed her injuries—it had also calmed the chaotic magic she had been forcing into motion.
Then, looking toward the other two, Xien casually waved a hand.
The power of life crossed space itself, landing upon them, healing their wounds while at the same time stopping them from making their own suicidal last stands.
Before any of them could show their confusion, the enemy's attack was already imminent.
Livioso Falco's Divine Judgment Thunder had finally completed its last stage of charging.
That blazing white sphere of lightning, large enough to cover half the cavern, began to slowly rotate, and the aura of destruction around it reached its peak.
The divine punishment was about to descend and wipe out the insects beneath it.
And yet, in the face of such absolute destruction, Xien remained strangely calm.
(Come on, then. Let this little darling see what true Abundance really looks like.)
The Seed of Abundance was cheering wildly. It was already salivating over the nourishment before it.
The power of a spirit-born fairy came from the divine. Though it was nowhere near actual divinity, it was still a form of natural force. And for the Seed, which had just begun to crack and sprout, it was a supreme tonic.
Xien said nothing.
He simply raised both hands.
And as if the world itself had answered his summons, vitality began spreading outward from beneath his feet—across the eternal ice where life should have been absolutely impossible.
This was no longer the illusory plant-domain trick he had used before.
This time, it was real.
A true world of vegetation began expanding outward from Xien as its center, like a miracle displayed by a god of life.
The pulse of life had received an answer from this world.
Deep beneath the Adventurers' Guild, in the underground sanctuary, the great god Ouranos suddenly opened his eyes.
"What is it?"
Sensing the shift in him, Fels immediately spoke up. Such a reaction was rare, and never a good sign. Had something unforeseen happened?
"The Dungeon… is rejoicing. Or perhaps… praising."
"What…!?"
"Could it be… Xien?"
Thinking of that possibility, even Fels was momentarily at a loss.
Flowers of life were blooming in the hidden depths of the Dungeon, unseen by the world above.
Riveria's mind swam in a daze.
For a moment, she felt as though she had been transported back beside the sacred tree of her homeland—
No.
This was even more intoxicating than that.
This power felt different from what she had sensed in Xien before.
Purer.
And far more savage.
If Xien's previous power had felt like some domesticated husky, then the power he held now was a lone wolf king of the polar wastes—still the same in nature, yet infinitely more dangerous and far stronger.
Feeling that wild, violent strength surging continuously through his body, Xien only became more certain of his own conclusion.
The essence of this power was unchecked, rampant growth.
Even this tiny amount was already difficult for him to control. Truly mastering it would not happen overnight.
But that was fine.
As long as it had not escaped his control, then all he needed to do was become a qualified gardener—or rather, a skilled pruner—and shape it into the ideal form in reality.
So first—
he would deal with that eyesore in the sky.
With a casual wave of his hand, the power turned into a tangible command.
Countless plants obeyed their king and surged upward from all directions toward the blazing light.
Seeing this, the floor boss showed a trace of amusement in its eyes.
It was not stupid.
The reason it had hovered here so brazenly while preparing this attack was simple: it did not believe they could interrupt it.
Never mind its altitude—
within a fifty-meter radius around it now, the air itself had become an absolute forbidden zone of lightning. Anything that dared enter would be reduced to ash.
How could mere insects ever shake a sovereign seated upon the sky?
And just as it expected, the plants rushing toward it were immediately struck by indiscriminate lightning the moment they came close—
But—
something was wrong.
Those plants were completely unharmed.
The creature froze.
No, more accurately—
they were absorbing the power released by its "sun."
Like greedy gluttons, the lightning that struck them caused not the slightest damage. Instead, it was as if that energy had returned to its mother's embrace—tamed, soothed, obedient.
Those bizarre plants devoured all energy they touched and converted it into nourishment for their own growth. They grew larger, harder, stronger—
Growing. Multiplying. Expanding.
In mere moments, they became a vast green tide that wrapped around the unreachable "sun" in the sky—
and devoured it.
There was no explosion.
No roar.
Only the eerie, silent phenomenon of absorption, growth, and consumption.
After that absolute silence—
everything became still.
The plants, obeying their creator's will, slowly withdrew.
And in the place where the "sun" had once hung—
there was now nothing at all.
Everyone stared at the scene in utter shock.
No one could comprehend what they had just witnessed.
That much energy—
where had it gone?
But it was not over.
(Now there's only one thing left to deal with—that annoying bastard. I'll kill it with my own hands.)
Ignoring the others' stunned expressions, Xien kept his eyes locked on the massive figure in the distance.
At a single thought, flames ignited across his body—
but these flames had changed as well.
Gone were the orange-red flames he usually wielded. The fire surrounding him now was a crimson tinged with green. It pulsed and twitched, and rather than looking like ordinary flame, it seemed almost like a living thing.
"Come on. Take me up there."
As if in response to his murmured command, the flames around him seemed to understand.
They swiftly gathered behind him, and under Riveria's disbelieving gaze, took the shape of a pair of resplendent wings of fire.
Xien stretched out his right hand to the side.
Somewhere far away, the Candlelight—lost who knew where—answered its master's call and flew into his grasp from over a hundred meters away.
The fiery wings behind him beat once.
His body shot skyward.
Only a few trailing sparks remained behind—
and one unmoving gaze that followed him upward without blinking.
Like a rocket fitted with flaming boosters, he crossed nearly a thousand meters in about a single second and arrived directly in front of the creature.
In its eyes, disbelief had not even faded before the weapon in Xien's hand, now transformed into its sword-spear form, came crashing down.
Bzzzt—BOOM!!!!!
It was as if an immeasurable force had ravaged it from within—
Livioso Falco's head exploded like a crystal smashed by a colossal hammer, bursting from the inside with endless light and heat before breaking apart into countless transparent shards of drained crystal.
With its control lost, the enormous energy inside its body immediately erupted into a storm meant to swallow the entire cavern whole.
But Xien had evidently expected this.
He reached out one hand and pressed it against the headless corpse before him.
The next moment, as if it had finally found an outlet, the vast energy torrent poured through Xien's arm into his body.
One second later—
the corpse dissolved into light and vanished.
"It's over…"
Seeing the others below still alive and unharmed, Xien finally felt his heart settle.
An instant kill.
Everything had happened too suddenly for anyone to fully understand, but they were slowly beginning to grasp one simple fact:
the enemy was dead.
They were safe.
The first to recover was Finn.
He wanted to smile, but the motion tugged at his wounds and sent him into a violent coughing fit, each cough splattering tiny flecks of blood.
Raising his still-functional left hand with difficulty, he yanked the spear impaling the two of them free, pulling out a spray of blood. Then, without the slightest hesitation, he tore off his own already tattered cloak and began swiftly and precisely bandaging Gareth's horrifying puncture wounds—even though the flesh on his own arm was charred badly enough that bone could be seen.
His condition had already improved considerably, and Xien's power was still continuously healing him. The worst thing left to bear was pain.
Compared to that, his companion's wounds mattered far more.
"Cough… when we get back… we're making that damned Loki… open up the cask of hundred-year vintage she's been hoarding…"
Gareth's voice was as weak as a dying candle, yet he still tried to force out his signature hearty grin, even though the movement split open the wounds on his face again.
But he could not help it.
He was happy.
That boy—
had created another miracle.
....
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