Ethan woke to screaming.
Not human screaming.
Plant screaming.
The sanctuary's root-walls were shrieking—a sound like wood splintering and nails on chalkboard, vibrating through the earth itself.
He rolled out of the hammock, hit the ground hard.
[LE: 389/500]
[Sanctuary Breach Detected]
[Defensive Grid: FAILING]
[Herbicide saturation: 67% and rising]
[Translation: You're about to have a very bad day. 🔥]
The bioluminescent vines overhead flickered.
Dimmed.
Died.
Darkness swallowed the sanctuary.
Then—emergency lights. Red. Pulsing from nodes in the root-walls.
The garden was chaos.
Users scrambling. Some grabbing weapons—makeshift spears, vine whips, clubs wrapped in thorns. Others trying to grow defensive barriers, vines erupting from the soil only to wither mid-growth, turning black and brittle.
Ethan smelled it.
Chemical burn. Bitter. Like bleach and gasoline.
Herbicide.
"NORTH WALL COMPROMISED!" someone shouted.
Ethan turned.
The root-wall at the sanctuary's northern edge was dissolving.
Not crumbling.
Melting.
Bark turning grey, then black, then sloughing off in wet chunks. Beneath, the living wood hissed and bubbled, eaten away by something invisible.
And through the widening gap—
Light.
Harsh. White. Blinding.
Flashlights.
Tactical gear.
Soldiers.
No.
Not soldiers.
Thornbound.
A dozen of them poured through the breach.
Helmets. Body armor. Respirators. Each one carrying compact rifles with under-barrel canisters marked with a green biohazard symbol.
They moved like professionals.
Efficient. Cold.
Trained.
The first one raised his rifle.
Fired.
Not bullets.
Spray.
A fine mist erupted from the canister, spreading across the garden.
Where it touched plants, they screamed.
Leaves curling. Stems blackening. Flowers bursting into ash.
Where it touched Users—
A woman to Ethan's left gasped.
Her skin turned grey.
She fell.
Convulsing.
Vines erupted from her mouth, thrashing wildly, then withering, turning to dust.
She stopped moving.
[Threat Detected: Thornbound Suppression Squad]
[Equipment: LE-Suppression Spray (herbicide-based)]
[Survival Recommendation: RUN.]
Ethan ran.
Not away.
Toward the training area.
Where Mira kept the weapons.
Behind him, gunfire erupted.
Not the spray—actual bullets.
Users screaming. Falling. Some tried to fight back—vines lashing out, roots erupting from the ground—but the herbicide had saturated the air. Their powers sputtered. Failed.
One man managed to summon a thick wall of brambles.
A Thornbound soldier tossed a grenade.
The brambles exploded.
Burning. The man behind it too.
Ethan reached the training area.
Grabbed a thorn-wrapped club from the rack.
It felt pathetic in his hands.
What am I doing what am I doing what am I—
"ETHAN!"
He spun.
Mira sprinted toward him, blood streaming from a gash on her temple. Her vines were out—dozens of them, whipping around her like living armor—but they were wilting. Turning brown at the tips.
"They're flooding the sanctuary!" she shouted. "Pumping herbicide through the ventilation roots! We have maybe three minutes before the whole place is toxic!"
"Where's Sylvia? Kaito?"
"Evacuating civilians through the southern tunnel!" Mira grabbed his arm. "You need to—"
An explosion.
Behind them.
The eastern wall detonated.
Not melted.
Blown apart.
Chunks of root and earth spraying across the garden.
Through the smoking gap stepped—
Ethan's breath caught.
A woman.
Tall. Six feet easily. She wore black tactical armor, but wrong—fused with organic material. Vines grew through the plating, wrapping around her limbs like living gauntlets. Her helmet was cracked open on one side, revealing half her face.
She was beautiful.
And wrong.
Her visible eye was solid green. No pupil. No iris. Just chlorophyll.
Her skin was bark-textured. Dark. Rough.
And when she breathed, flowers bloomed from her shoulders.
Red. Dripping.
[BOSS DETECTED: Thornbound Harvester Unit – "Briar"]
[Level: ???]
[LE Signature: 2,847]
[Recommendation: Soil yourself now to save time. đź’€]
Briar smiled.
Her teeth were thorns.
"Ethan Cole," she said. Voice smooth. Musical. Poisonous. "You're smaller than I expected."
Mira stepped in front of Ethan.
Vines coiling.
"You're not taking him."
Briar tilted her head.
"I'm not here to take him, Verdant." She raised her hand. "I'm here to harvest him."
Her fingers extended.
Not fingers.
Roots.
Ten feet long. Barbed. Dripping something dark and wet.
They launched.
Mira countered.
Her vines shot forward, intercepting Briar's roots mid-air, wrapping around them, pulling—
Briar yanked.
Mira flew forward.
Slammed into the ground.
Briar's roots wrapped around her throat.
Squeezed.
"Wait—" Ethan started.
Briar glanced at him.
"You want to save her?" She smiled wider. "Then come here. Surrender. I'll make it quick."
Mira was choking.
Her vines thrashing weakly.
Face turning purple.
Ethan's LE surged.
[LE: 389 → 402]
[Primordial Response: ACTIVE]
[The roots inside you are ANGRY.]
He didn't think.
Just moved.
Ethan raised his hand—LIFE DRAIN—and pointed at Briar.
The LE erupted.
Not a beam.
A wave.
Green light exploded from Ethan's palm, washing over Briar like a tidal surge.
She gasped.
Her roots recoiled.
Mira fell, coughing.
Briar staggered back.
For three seconds, she looked shocked.
Then she started laughing.
"Oh," she breathed. "Oh, you're delicious."
She lunged.
Faster than Ethan could process.
Her hand closed around his throat.
Lifted him off the ground.
"I can taste it," Briar whispered. "The Primordial. It's nested in you. Growing. Spreading." She leaned closer. Her breath smelled like rotting flowers. "You're not a User, little seed. You're a garden."
Ethan couldn't breathe.
His vision blurred.
[LE: 371/500]
[Oxygen deprivation: CRITICAL]
[DO SOMETHING.]
He grabbed her wrist.
LIFE DRAIN.
Full power.
Briar's eyes went wide.
Her LE flooded into him.
[+127 LE ABSORBED]
[Current: 498/500]
[WARNING: LE OVERLOAD IMMINENT]
Ethan's body screamed.
Too much.
Too fast.
His veins glowed beneath his skin, green light pulsing, spreading, burning—
And then—
Something else.
Inside him.
The roots around his heart moved.
Woke up.
They didn't ask permission.
They grew.
Through his chest. Up his throat. Into his arms.
Ethan felt them erupt from his forearms—living roots, thick as cables, hungry—
They wrapped around Briar's arm.
Squeezed.
Her bark-skin cracked.
She dropped him.
Staggered back.
Stared at her arm.
The roots were inside her now. Burrowing. Spreading beneath her skin like parasites.
Draining her.
Briar screamed.
Not in pain.
In rage.
"You dare—"
She ripped the roots out.
Chunks of her own flesh came with them.
Black sap sprayed.
She hurled the severed roots aside.
Glared at Ethan.
"I'm going to mulch you," she hissed.
Then—
"BRIAR! FALL BACK!"
A voice from outside.
Male. Authoritative.
Briar's expression twisted.
Fury. Frustration.
She looked at Ethan one last time.
"This isn't over, Seedbed."
And she ran.
Not retreated.
Ran.
Through the eastern gap, disappearing into smoke and darkness.
The other Thornbound soldiers followed.
Gunfire ceased.
Silence.
Broken only by distant sobbing and the hiss of dying plants.
Ethan collapsed.
[LE: 512/500]
[CRITICAL OVERLOAD]
[Your body is REJECTING excess LE. Initiating emergency purge.]
He vomited.
Not food.
Sap.
Thick. Green. Glowing.
It poured out of him in a steady stream, pooling on the ground, soaking into the dirt.
Where it touched, plants erupted.
Grass. Flowers. Vines. Growing at impossible speed, spreading across the sanctuary floor.
[LE: 487... 456... 421...]
Mira crawled over.
Grabbed his shoulder.
"Ethan—stop—you're going to kill yourself—"
"I can't—I can't stop it—"
[LE: 389... 352...]
The plants kept growing.
A tree sprouted.
Six feet tall in seconds.
Then ten.
Then—
Kaito appeared.
The Elder pressed his hand against Ethan's chest.
"Sleep," he commanded.
The world went black.