By the time they reached the stairway to Floor Forty-Nine, the group had finally started to look normal again.
Or at least, more normal.
Nyxian still stepped off the final plank of the bridge like it had personally offended her bloodline.
Bunny had stopped muttering about wind and nausea every few seconds.
Even Pixelle, who had spent most of lunch reminding everyone that she had handled the previous floor perfectly well, had recovered enough to hover in steady circles above the group again.
Only Llandra looked completely composed.
She always did.
Jax glanced over the Vixens as the lunch tent folded back into his dimensional storage.
"How are we feeling?"
Nyxian pointed accusingly at him.
"If there are more bridges, I'm divorcing all of you."
"You're not married to all of us yet," Bunny reminded her.
Nyxian narrowed her eyes.
"Technicality. But Jax said in his homeland they had something called common law marriages."
Llandra rolled her shoulders and adjusted Starpiercer on her back, ignoring Nyxian's talks.
"My footing's back."
Bunny gripped World Breaker and gave it a testing spin.
"I'm good."
Zee tapped Sanctaris lightly against the floor and nodded.
"Mana recovered. Stamina acceptable."
Pixelle floated proudly at shoulder height.
"I am also fully restored."
Nyxian looked at her.
"You took a nap in my cleavage."
Pixelle crossed her arms.
"A tactical recovery."
Jax smirked.
"That still counts."
Something shifted around Nyxian's neck.
Echo's small head appeared beneath her crimson hair.
The Shadow Ferret looked toward the staircase.
Nyxian scratched beneath his chin.
"Don't worry. I'm sure there's something horrible up there for you to attack."
Echo's purple eyes brightened.
Jax looked at him.
"He's C-Rank."
Nyxian shrugged.
"Nobody told him."
Echo settled back around her neck.
Jax stepped toward the end of the stairwell..
"Alright then. Floor Forty-Nine."
The smile left his face.
"Stay sharp."
They moved through together.
And the moment Jax crossed into the next floor, he stopped.
The mana was different.
He could feel it before he saw anything.
It pressed against him.
Not physically.
Something deeper.
A weight in the air.
Zee stopped beside him.
Her expression changed.
"That's…"
"A lot?" Jax asked.
She slowly nodded.
"A lot."
Pixelle flew past them.
Then stopped.
Her wings slowed.
"Jax."
There was no humor in her voice.
He looked at her.
Pixelle was staring into the chamber.
"This place is old."
Nyxian stepped beside her.
"We're inside a giant magical tree. I assumed most of it was old."
Pixelle shook her head.
"Not like that."
She descended slowly.
"The mana here feels different."
Jax looked ahead.
This wasn't another chamber.
Not another forest.
Not another bridge or labyrinth.
They stood in what looked like the heart of an ancient world.
A vast circular clearing opened around them, enclosed by impossible walls of bark so tall they vanished into darkness. The air was thick with drifting pollen that glowed faintly green.
Massive roots, each wider than buildings, wrapped around the chamber in sweeping arcs, disappearing into the floor and re-emerging like the ribs of some sleeping god.
At the exact center of the arena rose a pedestal of intertwined wood and crystal.
Nothing moved.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Warden drew his sword.
Jax looked at him.
The General was staring at the center of the chamber.
Jax followed his gaze.
At first he saw nothing.
Then one of the roots moved.
Not much.
Just enough.
Bunny tightened her grip on World Breaker.
"Was that supposed to do that?"
"No," Pixelle whispered.
Another root moved.
Then another.
The ground trembled.
A crack split through the floor.
Something enormous shifted beneath them.
Jax's eyes narrowed.
The roots surrounding the pedestal weren't surrounding it at all.
They were part of something.
The entire center of the chamber moved.
Roots tore free from the ground.
One enormous mass rose.
Then another.
A leg.
Jax looked higher.
A second leg pulled itself from the floor.
Each was thicker than some of the trees they'd passed on previous floors.
The chamber shook as enormous hind feet planted themselves against the ground.
Then came the tail.
It ripped free from beneath the roots and swept across the arena, easily sixty feet long on its own.
Bunny stared.
"That's a big tail."
Nyxian looked at her.
"Please don't."
"I wasn't going to say anything."
"Your face was."
The creature continued rising.
A massive torso unfolded from the center of the chamber.
Thousands of roots twisted together, wrapping around one another like muscles beneath an armored hide. Branches had grown across the outside, overlapping into enormous wooden plates.
Two forelimbs pulled free.
Not the tiny, almost useless arms Jax associated with the dinosaurs of his old world.
These were massive.
Long.
Powerful.
Each ended in claws formed from sharpened roots.
Then the head rose.
Higher.
Higher.
Until the creature stood nearly one hundred feet tall.
No wings.
No elegant dragon's neck.
No traditional scales.
It looked more like some impossible ancient predator that had been grown instead of born.
A dragon shaped like a dinosaur.
Deep inside the woven roots of its body, amber light pulsed.
Sap.
Glowing rivers of it moved beneath the bark.
The creature opened its eyes.
Golden light filled them.
Jax's Inspect activated.
GUARDIAN OF THE SEED
ANCIENT ROOT DRAGON
SSS-RANK
Nobody spoke.
Jax read it again.
SSS.
Bunny was the first to break the silence.
"That's Dante."
Jax glanced at her.
"What?"
"That's Dante's rank."
"Yeah."
Bunny looked back up.
"Just checking."
Pixelle hovered a little closer to Jax.
"That's a dragon?"
Jax looked up at the enormous creature.
"Apparently."
"Where are its wings?"
Jax shrugged.
"Maybe it's more of a dinosaur."
Nyxian looked at him.
"What's a dinosaur?"
The Guardian opened its mouth.
Rows of wooden teeth unfolded inside.
Then it roared.
The sound hit them like a physical force.
The chamber shook.
Pollen exploded from the surrounding roots.
Nyxian's hair blew backward.
Echo's head immediately emerged from around her neck.
The tiny Shadow Ferret stared up at the hundred-foot monster.
His fur rose.
A tiny growl came from his throat.
Nyxian looked down at him.
"Don't."
Echo growled again.
"You are C-Rank."
Echo's eyes remained locked on the Guardian.
Nyxian sighed.
"His level up from E has emboldened him."
Jax looked toward Warden.
"Dante?"
Warden nodded immediately.
"Thought so."
Jax raised his hand.
"Come Forth."
Darkness erupted across the chamber.
Dante emerged.
The Flame Dragon's massive body rose from the Shadows, wings spreading as black fire rolled across his scales.
The Guardian's head turned.
Dante saw it.
The Guardian saw Dante.
For several seconds, the two dragons simply stared at one another.
Then Dante roared.
Flames exploded from his mouth.
The Guardian answered.
Its roar shook the chamber again.
Jax smiled.
"Well, they seem to like each other."
Warden was already moving.
His sword lifted.
Jax understood.
"Come Forth."
More darkness spread across the arena.
Gryph emerged first.
Fang followed.
Then Loki.
Charlotte unfolded from the Shadows, enormous legs spreading around her as purple eyes opened.
Shadow Thunder Hawks rose into the air.
Storm Serpents coiled across the ground.
The new A-Rank soldiers from the previous floors formed ranks.
Barkguard Knights.
Thornbow Sentinels.
Amberheart Channelers.
Sap Behemoths.
Root Colossi.
Cavern Trolls.
Warden moved among them.
A gesture.
A sword point.
A shift of his body.
The army reorganized.
Heavy infantry forward.
Ranged units behind.
Thunder Hawks above.
Storm Serpents along the flanks.
Charlotte farther back.
Gryph took the air.
Nyxian smiled.
"My turn."
Darkness spread around her boots.
Grim and Steed emerged first.
The two Shadow Bulls lowered their heads.
Flower rose behind them, dark vines twisting around her body as the faint violet flowers in her hair opened.
Echo remained wrapped around Nyxian's neck.
She looked down at him.
"You stay."
Echo stared at the Guardian.
"Don't argue."
The ferret's tail twitched.
Bunny rested World Breaker against her shoulder.
"That's a lot of Shadows."
Jax looked across the army.
"He's a lot of dragon."
Llandra drew Starpiercer.
Zee raised Sanctaris.
Nyxian unfurled Lilith's Kiss.
Pixelle hovered behind them, eyes fixed on the enormous creature.
Warden raised his sword.
The Guardian moved.
Fast.
Far too fast.
One moment it stood at the center of the chamber.
The next its tail was already coming.
Warden's sword dropped.
The front line scattered.
The tail swept through the space where they had been.
Three Sap Behemoths weren't fast enough.
The impact launched them across the chamber.
One struck the wall hard enough to explode into darkness.
Jax raised his hand instinctively.
The Shadow reformed.
Warden looked toward him.
Jax nodded.
"Still good."
Then Dante attacked.
The Flame Dragon launched himself upward.
His wings hammered the air.
Hellfire gathered in his throat.
He dove.
Fire erupted.
The blast struck the Guardian across the chest.
Bark blackened instantly.
Branches ignited.
Amber sap boiled beneath the armor.
The Guardian staggered backward.
Dante landed against its torso.
Claws ripped into the bark.
His jaws closed around the Guardian's shoulder.
The Root Dragon roared.
One massive arm swung.
It hit Dante.
The sound was enormous.
Dante was torn away from the Guardian and thrown across the chamber.
He hit the ground.
Hard.
His body carved a trench through roots and bark before finally stopping.
Everyone stared.
Even Jax.
Dante lifted his head.
He looked at the Guardian.
Then looked at it again.
Jax blinked.
"Did Dante just do a double take?"
Bunny slowly nodded.
"I think he did."
Dante rose.
His wings spread.
Fire rolled between his teeth.
The second roar was louder.
Jax smiled.
"Apparently he took that personally."
Dante charged again.
This time Warden moved the army with him.
Thunder Hawks swept overhead.
Llandra fired.
Starpiercer flashed.
Arrows struck the Guardian's face.
Its head turned.
Gryph attacked from the opposite side.
Fang shot between the creature's legs.
His fangs buried themselves into a gap between two enormous roots.
The Guardian jerked.
Fang released.
Jax watched.
Nothing.
The poison had done absolutely nothing.
"Poison resistant," he called.
Nyxian snapped Lilith's Kiss around one of the Guardian's forearms.
She pulled.
Flower's vines erupted from the floor and wrapped around the same limb.
For a moment, they held it.
Then the Guardian's body glowed.
Amber light traveled down its arm.
Flower froze.
Her vines began changing.
The dark Shadow growth turned brown.
Then gray.
Then crumbled.
Flower recoiled.
Pixelle's eyes widened.
"It's draining the magic out of them!"
Nyxian released her whip.
"That's cheating."
Bunny was already moving.
World Breaker came around in both hands.
She Air Walked once.
Twice.
Then dropped.
The hammer struck the Guardian's knee.
The impact sounded like a tree exploding.
Bark armor shattered.
The enormous leg buckled.
Bunny grinned.
"Got you."
Golden sap erupted from the wound.
It covered World Breaker.
Bunny pulled.
The hammer didn't move.
She blinked.
Pulled again.
Nothing.
"Uh."
Nyxian looked over.
"Did the giant tree steal your hammer?"
"Shut up."
Bunny planted both feet and pulled.
World Breaker remained embedded in the Guardian's knee.
Nyxian smiled.
"It looks like the giant tree stole your hammer."
"I SAID SHUT UP!"
The Guardian's hand came down.
"Bunny!" Llandra shouted.
Bunny released World Breaker and jumped.
The enormous hand slammed into the floor.
The shockwave threw her through the air.
Jax caught her.
Bunny immediately pointed.
"My hammer!"
World Breaker remained stuck in the Guardian's leg.
Jax set Bunny down.
"I see it."
"I need that."
"I figured."
The Guardian's damaged knee began repairing itself.
Roots twisted across the wound.
Bark grew.
But the golden sap remained wrapped around World Breaker.
Bunny stared.
"Oh, come on."
Jax drew Peacemaker.
"My turn."
He disappeared.
The Guardian turned.
Too slowly.
Jax Air Walked up the side of its body.
Peacemaker moved.
The blade passed through the Guardian's forearm without resistance.
Wood.
Roots.
Magic.
None of it mattered.
The lower half of the massive limb separated.
It fell.
Jax smiled.
Then the stump exploded.
Golden sap sprayed outward.
"Oh."
Jax twisted.
Most missed.
Most.
A thick stream struck his leg.
He landed.
And immediately discovered his boot was attached to the floor.
Nyxian laughed.
Jax looked at her.
"Not helpful."
"I'm sorry."
She wasn't.
Jax pulled.
The floor came with him.
A chunk of bark ripped free beneath his boot.
Bunny pointed at him.
"See!"
"I didn't say anything."
"You were thinking it."
Jax cut the sap away with Peacemaker.
Across the chamber, the Guardian's severed arm twitched.
Roots extended from the stump.
The fallen limb began dragging itself back toward the body.
Jax stared.
"You have got to be kidding me."
The arm reconnected.
Roots twisted.
Sap flowed.
Within seconds, the limb was whole again.
Zee's expression hardened.
"Regeneration."
"Fast regeneration," Llandra added.
Dante hit it again.
This time the Guardian was ready.
Dante's fire swept across its upper body.
The Guardian pushed through it.
Its claws closed around Dante's neck.
Dante roared.
The Guardian slammed him into the ground.
Once.
Twice.
The third impact cracked the floor.
Dante's tail wrapped around the Guardian's leg.
He pulled.
The Root Dragon lost balance.
Dante twisted free.
His jaws opened.
Hellfire erupted directly into the Guardian's face.
The explosion lit the entire chamber.
The Guardian stumbled backward.
Dante spread his wings.
For a moment, he looked almost pleased with himself.
Then the Guardian punched him.
Dante disappeared through a root pillar.
Jax stared.
"Okay."
Bunny looked at him.
"Still Dante's rank."
"Yeah."
"I think it's important we remember that."
Warden's sword moved.
The army attacked again.
The battle became chaos.
Thunder Hawks struck from above.
Storm Serpents wrapped around the Guardian's legs.
Charlotte's Shadow spiders flooded across the ground.
Barkguard Knights attacked damaged sections of armor.
Thornbow Sentinels fired continuously.
Amberheart Channelers hurled magic into every exposed wound.
Every time the Guardian destroyed a Shadow, Jax brought it back.
Every time it knocked down the army, Warden reorganized it.
Every time Dante was thrown away, he came back angrier.
The Guardian roared.
Then stopped.
Its eyes moved.
Not toward Dante.
Not toward Bunny.
Not toward Jax.
Toward the Shadows.
The amber light inside its body brightened.
Pixelle noticed first.
"Something's happening."
Warden raised his sword.
The Shadows pulled back.
Ancient symbols appeared across the Guardian's body.
One.
Then another.
Then dozens.
Glowing runes spread along its chest.
Across its arms.
Down its legs.
The same symbols appeared across the chamber walls.
Then the roots.
Then the floor.
Jax looked around.
"Zee?"
"I don't know."
That answer bothered him more than anything else she'd said.
The runes flashed.
Nothing happened.
For half a second.
Then one of the Shadow Thunder Hawks was struck by the Guardian's tail.
It vanished.
Jax raised his hand.
The Shadow didn't return.
He frowned.
"Come Forth."
Darkness gathered.
Then collapsed.
Warden turned.
Jax tried again.
"Come Forth."
Nothing.
Zee looked at the glowing runes.
"Jax…"
"I know."
He reached for another Shadow.
One that wasn't currently summoned.
Nothing answered.
Jax looked across the battlefield.
"No more summons."
Bunny's expression changed.
"What about the ones already here?"
Warden looked around.
Dante remained.
Gryph remained.
Charlotte remained.
The army remained.
Grim and Steed.
Flower.
Echo.
All still there.
Another Barkguard Knight charged.
The Guardian's claw came down.
The Shadow vanished.
Jax reached for it.
Nothing.
Llandra understood.
"And no replacements."
Jax's expression hardened.
"No."
Warden went completely still.
The Guardian roared.
Warden's sword moved.
Immediately, the battle changed.
The remaining Shadows withdrew.
Not all of them.
The wounded.
The weaker units.
Anything unnecessarily exposed.
Barkguard Knights tightened around the ranged units.
Thunder Hawks stopped making reckless dives.
The Storm Serpents pulled away from the Guardian's claws.
Charlotte's spiders spread rather than swarmed.
Dante climbed higher.
Warden wasn't commanding an immortal army anymore.
For the remainder of this floor, every soldier mattered.
Nyxian looked toward Grim and Steed.
Then Flower.
Her hand rose to Echo.
The little ferret was still staring at the Guardian.
"You are definitely staying here."
Echo growled.
Nyxian scratched behind his ear.
"Bravery is adorable. Suicide is not."
The Guardian's body began glowing again.
Jax looked up.
"Here we go."
Dante descended.
The two dragons collided.
Fire exploded across the Guardian's chest.
The Root Dragon answered with a blast of raw magic.
Dante twisted.
Most of it missed.
The edge caught his wing.
Dante dropped several feet before recovering.
Warden shifted the Thunder Hawks around him.
Protecting him.
Jax noticed.
Before, Warden would have traded three Hawks for an opening.
Now he was preserving them.
The Guardian charged.
Bunny finally ripped World Breaker free from its leg with a roar.
Golden sap stretched between the hammer and the wound before snapping.
She nearly fell backward.
"Got it!"
Nyxian looked at the glowing weapon.
"Congratulations."
"Thank you."
"It's covered in tree goo."
Bunny's smile disappeared.
"I hate this floor too."
The Guardian slammed one foot down.
The chamber shook.
Then the amber glow changed.
Pixelle stopped.
Her wings froze.
"Jax."
Something in her voice made him turn.
She wasn't looking at him.
She was staring at the Guardian.
The light beneath its bark was moving.
Not toward its wounds.
Not through its limbs.
Inward.
Every glowing channel.
Every river of sap.
Every pulse of magic.
All of it was flowing toward the center of the creature's body.
Zee felt it.
Her eyes widened.
"That's not regeneration."
Warden's sword snapped upward.
The Shadow Army scattered.
Dante looked down.
The Guardian's body grew brighter.
Amber became gold.
Gold became white.
Jax felt the mana building.
The pressure he'd noticed when they first entered the floor suddenly made sense.
It wasn't the chamber.
It wasn't the World Tree.
It was this thing.
And it had been holding back.
"Everyone move!"
Warden was already directing the Shadows away.
Llandra grabbed Pixelle.
Bunny moved toward Zee.
Nyxian ran with them, one hand wrapped protectively around Echo.
Dante spread his wings.
The Guardian raised its head.
Its entire hundred-foot body burned with white light.
Jax stared at it.
For one brief instant, the absurd thought crossed his mind that it looked almost beautiful.
Then the light became unbearable.
And the world disappeared.