A woman with a slit throat is bathing in her blood inside a wide living room. Acacia walks out of the house while carrying unconscious children wrapped in vines. He places them in front of the house, and from his wooden arm, he creates a massive wooden box. One by one, he puts the kids inside and carries them as he flies in the sky.
The sky is dark as Acacia flies with a calm gaze. "I will rescue that weakling next, no matter what comes my way."
At the site where a gigantic green dome of energy secures a stone temple, multiple white giants who are carrying large clubs are surrounding the dome. The creator of the giants, a young man named Nash is sitting on a stone while gazing upon the stars, twinkling in the sky.
"Beautiful." he smiled.
He hears a couple of footsteps approaching him, therefore, he turns his attention to where they're coming from. Ivan, a young man with red eyes is standing behind him with a look of much determination.
"I don't want to address you as a captain to avoid awkwardness."
"Oh, what perfect timing to say that... really."
"Shut up!" Ivan ran out of patience.
The two pals are now sitting on a large round stone with a wooden lunchbox on their lap. Ivan gazes upon the night sky, clearly seeing the constellations.
"I love the alignment of those stars." Ivan scooped some of his rice using his spoon.
"And so do I," Nash carefully struck his fork on the pork in Ivan's lunchbox.
Ivan blinks at Nash's hand, and Ivan yells, "HEY! STOP STEALING MY FOOD!"
Ivan opens his mouth wide and bites Nash's finger. Nash yells in agony while wagging his hand away from Ivan's mouth. A portal opens inside a dark room, and Nicholas steps out first. He looks around, and Elesia comes out from the portal along with Juan but he stumbles with his face hitting the floor.
"Ouch!" Juan stood back on his feet.
Suddenly, Nicholas feels a sensation of something calling him. He looks around him but a voice from a tree calls to him, and upon blinking, Nicholas sees himself standing face to face with a wooden spirit.
The wooden spirit has a round body, and he's a man wearing a group of leaves covering his lower half. The spirit stands taller at Nicholas, and it speaks with its masculine old voice. "I am a spirit of one of the Balete Trees. I come here to ask for your help."
"My help?" Nicholas pointed his finger at his chest.
"Yes. The threat that will end your kind has appeared, and he will do his mission that will ensure the end of future generations."
"By?" Nicholas narrowed his eyes.
"He will kidnap the young generation, manipulate their minds into a violent rebellion against your kind. You must find him, and stop him, Nature."
"Who's Nature? My name is Nicholas!"
"Oh, is that your name? You reminded me of a friend." The spirit smiled at Nicholas.
Nicholas shakes his head. "Wait, how can I find this man?"
The spirit makes his right hand levitate, and a green mark of a seed with a small plant appears as a tattoo. The bare eyes of Nicholas widen at the sight of the tattoo as the spirit continues his talk with him. "That tattoo will glow once you are near that man."
"Hey! The Philippines is vast! How can I know where he goes?!" Nicholas gritted his teeth.
The spirit laughs, and his body begins fading into the thin air. "Go, and realise it with your own for you have the answer all along."
Nicholas stomps his feet while holding his head. "STOP WITH THE FRICKIN' RHYMING!"
In a blink, Nicholas finds himself lying on a bed. He stands up and sees the sun shining through the gap in the curtain.
"Was my conversation with that spirit this long?!" Nicholas whispered.
After his blanket is folded and placed on a pillow, Nicholas goes downstairs. The aroma of bacon and eggs fills the entire living room, and he pinches his nose suddenly due to the smell of dried fish.
"What was that?!" Nicholas complained, "Ang bantot."
("Ang bantot" is the Tagalog word for "It stinks".)
"Good morning," Elesia sat on a chair while reading a newspaper, "I didn't know that people in this city still read such an ancient form of paper."
"Newspaper," Juan said in an irritated tone.
Nicholas sits on the chair beside Elesia's chair. With a clear of his throat, he says, "I need to trace this man called Acacia."
"Sounds woody," Elesia blinked before looking at Nicholas with wide eyes, "that's right! I hate to admit it but that Woody monster–"
"Radish," Nicholas said.
"Yeah, right! He spoke about the same name. This Acacia is finding small beings in your world to engrave the reality in their heads."
Nicholas stands up with narrowing eyes. "We need to stop him before he manipulates the minds of those kids!"
Juan flips an egg and slides it from his pan into a round flat plate. "Wait! You're not going anywhere, Nicholas! You need to go to your school to explain your situation!"
He turns his eyes toward Nicholas but sees him fixing his things inside his bag with furrowing eyebrows. "I know! But I can't stand here knowing about the plan of that Acacia!"
"Wait! Do you have a lead about that Acacia?" Elesia placed the newspaper on the surface of the table below her.
The sunlight welcomes Nicholas after he slams himself against the door, leading to his exit. He pulls out a badge from his bag, and it attaches itself to the left side of his chest. Dark metal wraps around the hands, and shoes of Nicholas.
With one jump, Nicholas releases a huge wind pressure that shakes the ground below him. He lands on top of a building, to another until he lands in front of an orphanage as Elesia lands beside him with her shoes imbued with green energy.
He knocks on the gate. "Hello?!"
The door of the gate opens, and a tall woman wearing dark shades looks up at Nicholas.
"Hello! Is Sister Madelaine here?"
The woman speaks, and upon hearing her words, the color on Nicholas' eyes turns dull.
Meanwhile, inside a hospital, Nicholas is walking along the white hallway filled with people sitting on chairs.
He stops walking, and says, "Sister Madelaine!"
The woman across from him, a middle-aged woman wearing a yellow shirt with dark pants look at him with her eyes puffed. A smile appears on her face. "Nicholas, my son!"
She spreads her arms, and Nicholas hugs her. Madelaine closes her eyes as she rubs her palm on the back of Nicholas. After that tight warm embrace, Nicholas is standing beside Madelaine while they're facing the wall while they're sitting on grey chairs.
"I know what happened, Sister Laine was killed inside the orphanage."
"She was so young! I treated and loved her like both you and Juan."
"Sister Laine was one of the kids that I grew up with." Nicholas' voice trembled, and his fists clenched.
"H-How can I forget her?" A small amount of tears falls from his eyes, and his teeth are gritted.
Madelaine glances at the face of Nicholas, and she sniffs. She caresses the back of Nicholas before shaking her head. "We can't do anything when our time runs out. When Laine was still alive, I saw how happy she was when she played with the kids."
"Sister," Nicholas closed his hands, "how is the investigation?"
Madelaine inhales deeply with a sad gaze. "The authorities are still investigating."
Nicholas stands up. "Sister, I will find that murderer and make him pay."
He chooses to walk away but he stops after feeling a hand holding his wrist. He didn't make any move while Madelaine says, "You opened the box, didn't you? You've unlocked something powerful."
Nicholas nods and looks over his shoulder. "Tell me, Sister, the locations of all the orphanages around Metro Manila."
Henceforth, a strong wind pressure hits the crowd, throwing all the flyers away. The cause of the wind pressure is Nicholas who is flying in the air with a serious gaze as he flies along the skyscrapers of Manila.
"You took an important person in my life," Nicholas envisioned the wooden monster that he fought the one named "Acacia", "I will kill you! I PROMISE!"
Meanwhile, Nash is resting his back against a pillar beneath a roof on the sidewalk. He looks at the sky and sees a small figure flying.
"Found you but you're lucky I'm on a mission, part-time guardian," he said.
A cabin can be seen inside a forest, and inside, a normal room can be seen but below that very room, a massive cave exists, and Acacia is hanging the kids wrapped in vines on the ceiling. He makes a low continuous sound from his throat, "I need to find a Tree of Balaak to return to my homeland with this little future army of our kind."
From the sky, Nicholas lands on the ground, crushing the soil beneath him into a small crater. He looks around him and looks at the blinking mark on his arm.