The world disappeared.
For one impossible instant, there was nothing but white.
No floor.
No walls.
No World Tree.
No Guardian.
Just light.
Then sound returned.
The explosion hit like thunder trapped inside a cathedral.
Zee screamed something Jax couldn't hear as Sanctaris blazed in front of her. Layer after layer of translucent energy formed around the group, each one shattering almost as quickly as she created it.
Dante spread his enormous wings.
Not to fly.
To shield them.
The Flame Dragon planted himself between the Vixens and the blast, wings folded forward as white-gold energy crashed against him.
Warden was already moving.
His sword cut through the air.
The Shadow Army obeyed.
Barkguard Knights locked shields around the Vixens. Root Colossi dropped behind them. Thunder Hawks folded their wings and descended. Loki planted his club into the floor and braced his massive body against the formation.
Jax crossed his arms in front of his face.
The blast reached them.
Heat.
Pressure.
Power.
His boots slid backward.
The floor cracked beneath them.
Then—
Darkness.
Not true darkness.
Just the absence of something impossibly bright.
Jax slowly lowered his arms.
Smoke rolled across the chamber.
Zee was on one knee, both hands wrapped around Sanctaris.
"Everyone?"
"I'm good," Bunny answered.
"Alive," Nyxian coughed.
Llandra stood beside her, Starpiercer already raised.
Pixelle slowly lifted her head from behind Bunny.
"I'm reconsidering my opinion of this floor."
Jax looked toward Dante.
Smoke rolled from the Flame Dragon's wings.
Several sections of his Shadow body had been torn away.
But Dante stood.
The dragon slowly unfolded his wings.
His purple eyes burned.
Across the chamber, two enormous golden eyes burned back.
The Guardian of the Seed hadn't moved.
Its body still glowed, although the brilliant white had faded back to molten gold.
Dante stared at it.
The Guardian stared at Dante.
Dante roared.
The Guardian answered.
Nyxian wiped soot from her cheek.
"I think they're still mad at each other."
The Guardian moved first.
Dante launched upward.
The massive root dragon's claws passed beneath him, tearing chunks from the floor.
Dante twisted through the chamber and unleashed hellfire.
The Guardian raised one enormous arm.
Flames rolled across roots and bark.
Its other hand shot upward.
Dante barely twisted away.
The claws scraped across his side.
A chunk of Shadow tore free.
Dante answered with another blast directly into the Guardian's face.
"Still Dante's rank," Bunny said.
"Yeah."
Jax wasn't watching Dante.
Not anymore.
He was watching the Guardian.
Something bothered him.
The Guardian swung.
Dante moved.
Roots erupted from the floor.
The Thunder Hawks scattered.
The Guardian opened its enormous jaws and released a cloud of golden spores.
"Barrier!" Zee shouted.
Sanctaris flashed.
The spores rolled around them.
Jax's eyes narrowed.
The Guardian's body shifted.
Branches along its shoulders opened.
Thousands of razor-edged leaves exploded across the chamber.
Warden's sword moved.
Shields came up.
Thunder Hawks climbed.
Jax watched.
The Guardian lunged at Dante with its claws.
Dante rolled away.
The Guardian spun.
Its enormous tail swept across the chamber.
"Down!"
Everyone dropped.
The tail passed overhead.
A Root Colossus wasn't fast enough.
It shattered.
Jax reached for the Shadow.
Nothing.
The runes across the chamber flashed.
Still no respawns.
Warden looked toward the destroyed soldier for less than a second.
Then back to the battle.
No hesitation.
No wasted movement.
The General adjusted.
Jax watched the Guardian.
Golden spores began gathering around its mouth again.
He frowned.
"No way."
The spores erupted.
"Zee!"
"I see them!"
Barrier.
The Guardian's shoulders opened.
Leaves.
Then claws.
Then—
"Tail!"
Warden turned toward Jax.
The tail came exactly where Jax was looking.
Everyone moved.
It missed.
Jax smiled.
"Son of a bitch."
"What?" Bunny asked.
Jax pointed.
"Spores! Leaves! Claws! Tail!"
Bunny stared at him.
"What?"
"That's the pattern!"
Nyxian ducked as the Guardian turned.
"Could you explain the pattern with more words?!"
Llandra's eyes narrowed.
She watched the Guardian.
Then her expression changed.
"He's right."
Warden's helmet turned toward Jax.
Jax held up four fingers.
"Spores. Leaves. Claws. Tail."
Warden stared at him.
Then slowly nodded.
Bunny looked between them.
"Why do the smart people always do that?"
Pixelle popped up beside her.
"I'm smart."
"Then explain it."
Pixelle watched Warden reposition the Shadow Army.
"...I don't know what they're talking about either."
"Thank you."
The Guardian's mouth opened.
Jax pointed.
"Spores!"
Zee didn't wait.
Sanctaris struck the floor.
The barrier was already formed when the golden cloud hit.
"Leaves!"
Barkguard Knights raised their shields before the Guardian's shoulders opened.
The razor storm crashed uselessly against the formation.
"Claws!"
Warden moved.
Loki moved with him.
The Frost Giant slammed his club against the ground.
Taunt rolled across the chamber.
The Guardian stopped.
Its head snapped toward Loki.
Loki straightened.
The Guardian took one step toward him.
Then stopped.
Its eyes shifted.
Past Loki.
Toward Zee.
The Guardian turned.
Bunny's ears rose.
"It can do that?"
"Apparently," Jax said.
Loki apparently didn't appreciate being ignored.
He charged.
His club slammed into the Guardian's ankle.
Frost exploded across the roots.
The Guardian staggered.
"Tail!" Jax shouted.
Warden was already moving.
The army split.
The enormous tail swept through empty space.
Jax grinned.
Warden had it now.
The next cycle was different.
Not because the Guardian changed.
Because they did.
Spores.
Zee.
Leaves.
Barkguards.
Claws.
Loki and Bunny.
Tail.
Thunder Hawks and Storm Serpents attacked from above while the Guardian's momentum carried it in the opposite direction.
The creature roared.
Dante crashed into it from behind.
This time Dante didn't grapple.
He hit and moved.
Claws raked across the Guardian's back.
Hellfire followed.
When the Guardian turned, Dante was already airborne.
Jax smiled.
Dante had learned too.
The Guardian was stronger.
Jax had no doubt about that anymore.
If Dante planted his feet and tried to wrestle this thing, the Guardian would tear him apart.
But Dante had wings.
Speed.
Fire.
And apparently enough pride to learn from getting punched through a pillar.
The Guardian swung.
Dante wasn't there.
Hellfire struck the side of its head.
The Guardian roared and grabbed for him.
Dante climbed.
"That's more like it," Jax said.
"Jax!"
Pixelle's voice.
He turned.
She wasn't looking at the fight.
She was looking at the floor.
The roots beneath them glowed.
Not the runes.
The roots themselves.
Golden light flowed through them.
Toward the Guardian.
Pixelle dropped to her knees and pressed both hands against the floor.
Her pink eyes widened.
"Oh."
"What?"
"It's not doing that."
Jax looked at her.
"Doing what?"
"All of it!"
That cleared up absolutely nothing.
Pixelle pointed toward the Guardian.
"Every time we hurt it, it's pulling power through the roots. The regeneration. The magic. Everything."
Zee looked down.
Now that Pixelle had pointed it out, Jax could see it too.
Streams of golden mana moved beneath the floor.
Thousands of them.
All converging on the Guardian.
"The World Tree," Llandra said.
Pixelle nodded.
"It's drawing power directly from the World Tree."
Nyxian struck one of the Guardian's ankles with Lilith's Kiss.
"Wonderful! Any more good news?!"
"Not really!"
"Then stop finding things!"
The Guardian's claws ripped across Dante's chest.
Dante twisted away, but this time the Guardian caught his leg.
Dante's entire body stopped.
"Oh, shit."
The Guardian pulled.
Dante crashed into its chest.
One enormous arm wrapped around him.
For the first time, the difference in raw strength became obvious.
Dante clawed.
Bit.
Twisted.
The Guardian held him.
Golden roots crawled across Dante's body.
"Get him out!" Jax shouted.
Warden's sword came down.
Everything moved.
Bunny hit the Guardian's knee with World Breaker.
The impact sounded like a cannon.
Grim and Steed slammed into the opposite leg.
Thunder Hawks descended.
Storm Serpents wrapped around the Guardian's arm.
Llandra fired.
One arrow became three.
Three became nine.
They struck the same joint.
Nyxian pointed.
"Flower! There!"
Flower raised both hands.
A cloud of violet pollen poured into the wounds Dante had torn through the Guardian's chest.
The golden regeneration slowed.
Not stopped.
Slowed.
Jax saw it.
So did Warden.
Dante's jaws opened.
Hellfire erupted point-blank into the Guardian's face.
The creature recoiled.
Its grip loosened.
Dante tore himself free.
He immediately launched into the air.
"Good boy," Jax muttered.
Dante roared.
"Don't get cocky."
Another roar.
"Yeah, yeah."
The battle continued.
But now Jax wasn't watching attacks.
He was watching transitions.
Spores.
Leaves.
Claws.
Tail.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Each attack created the next.
Each movement placed the Guardian's body somewhere specific.
Warden began exploiting it without Jax saying a word.
Llandra did too.
When the claws came, she was already aiming where the shoulder would open.
When the tail swept, Warden had Thunder Hawks waiting on the opposite side.
Bunny caught on next.
"Leaves!"
"I know!"
She charged before Jax finished saying it.
World Breaker crashed into the Guardian's ankle as its shoulders opened.
Nyxian looked at Jax.
"Is there a part where you explain this to the rest of us?"
"Later!"
"I hate smart people!"
"You sleep with several of them!"
"That's different!"
The Guardian roared.
Jax stopped smiling.
Its movements changed.
Both legs planted.
Arms pulled inward.
The golden channels throughout its body brightened.
Jax had seen that before.
"Everybody back!"
Warden immediately raised his sword.
The army withdrew.
Dante climbed.
The Guardian lifted its head.
Its mouth opened.
White light formed deep inside its throat.
"There."
Jax stared.
That was the real pattern.
The other attacks weren't the solution.
They were the clock.
The Guardian fought in cycles.
And when enough damage accumulated—
It reset the battlefield.
Jax looked at Warden.
Warden looked back.
Jax pointed toward the Guardian's mouth.
"I need it to do that again."
Warden's helmet tilted.
"Keep it in the pattern. Keep hurting it. When it starts charging again, I need a clear path."
Warden looked toward the hundred-foot monster.
Then back to Jax.
He nodded.
The Guardian fired.
"DOWN!"
Dante dropped.
Zee's barrier appeared.
The second blast ripped through the chamber.
This time they were ready.
Mostly.
The barrier shattered.
Barkguards were destroyed.
A Thunder Hawk disappeared.
One of the Storm Serpents lost half its body but remained.
Loki slid nearly twenty feet backward.
Dante was thrown from the air.
But they survived.
The runes flashed.
None of the destroyed Shadows returned.
Warden stood.
His army was smaller.
His sword rose.
The Guardian's mouth opened.
Spores.
The battle resumed.
Jax stopped calling every attack.
He didn't need to.
Warden knew.
Llandra knew.
And slowly, everyone else learned.
Bunny began moving before the claws.
Zee's barriers appeared before the leaves.
Nyxian sent Grim and Steed against the legs during the tail sweep.
Flower waited for openings.
Every wound became an opportunity.
"Flower!"
Nyxian pointed.
"Make it sick!"
Violet pollen flooded into a massive gash Bunny had opened with World Breaker.
Golden sap tried to seal it.
The regeneration stuttered.
Dante hit the same wound with hellfire.
The Guardian screamed.
Jax raised Infernal Requiem.
Both pistols fired.
Rounds disappeared into the opening.
The Guardian staggered.
"Again!" Jax shouted.
Warden's sword came down.
All hell broke loose.
Thunder Hawks descended.
Storm Serpents struck.
Charlotte's spiders swarmed the legs.
Grim and Steed hammered the ankles.
Bunny hit the knee.
Llandra's arrows converged.
Zee fired a concentrated beam of magic into its chest.
Dante swept across its back in a wave of hellfire.
The Guardian's body began glowing.
Pixelle saw it.
"It's drawing more!"
Jax smiled.
"Good."
Nyxian stared at him.
"Good?!"
"Back!"
Warden understood.
His sword swept downward.
The Shadows disengaged.
The Vixens retreated.
Dante climbed.
The Guardian planted both feet.
Arms inward.
Mana surged through the floor.
The World Tree answered.
Golden light raced through thousands of roots.
The Guardian pulled all of it into itself.
Amber became gold.
Gold became white.
Its head rose.
Its jaws began to open.
Jax handed Infernal Requiem to Llandra.
She caught the pistols.
"What are you—"
"Take it down."
Warden looked at him.
Jax smiled.
"Everything you've got."
Warden's sword came down.
The chamber erupted.
Dante attacked first.
Hellfire engulfed the Guardian's chest.
Llandra fired Starpiercer, then Infernal Requiem.
Bunny screamed as World Breaker crashed into its leg.
Zee poured magic into the opening.
Nyxian's whip tore through exposed roots.
Grim and Steed attacked from opposite sides.
Flower filled every wound she could reach with toxic pollen.
Thunder Hawks descended.
Storm Serpents struck.
Charlotte's brood climbed across its body.
The Guardian screamed.
Its jaws opened wider.
White light formed.
Jax disappeared.
Bunny blinked.
"Where's Jax?"
BOOM.
The sound hit them.
Llandra looked up.
"...There."
Warden saw him.
For an instant.
Jax was at the Guardian's knee.
Then he wasn't.
BOOM.
Hip.
Gone.
The Guardian tried to turn.
Too slow.
Jax's boots struck its torso.
The air exploded behind him.
Shoulder.
Neck.
The Guardian's jaws opened fully.
Power gathered inside its throat.
Enough to erase everything in front of it.
Jax reached the head.
Peacemaker flashed.
The Godslayer blade punched through the Guardian's upper jaw.
Jax drove it down.
Through the lower.
The massive jaws slammed shut.
The Guardian froze.
Its eyes widened.
White light leaked between its teeth.
Jax released Peacemaker.
And vanished.
BOOM.
Warden watched him reappear on the ground.
The Guardian clawed desperately at its own mouth.
It couldn't open it.
Peacemaker held.
The light inside its throat grew brighter.
Cracks appeared along its neck.
White became visible beneath the bark.
The Guardian had possessed overwhelming strength.
Enough to overpower Dante.
Enough to resist Taunt.
Enough to draw directly upon the World Tree itself.
Warden had served overwhelming power before.
When his former master had fallen, Warden had been given another choice.
Another master.
He had chosen the strongest one he could find.
The Guardian's skull began to swell.
Warden lowered his sword.
He had chosen well.
The Guardian exploded.
Zee's barrier slammed into existence.
The blast tore the head apart.
Chunks of burning wood and glowing sap flew across the chamber.
The explosion traveled downward.
Through its throat.
Into its chest.
Every wound they had opened flashed white.
Flower's pollen-filled channels ruptured.
Golden sap exploded outward.
The Guardian convulsed.
Then the enormous body collapsed.
The impact shook the chamber.
Silence.
Smoke drifted through the air.
Jax stood beside the Vixens.
Bunny stared at him.
Then at the Guardian.
Then back at him.
"How fast did you just move?"
Jax looked at the corpse.
"Kinda fast."
"That isn't a number."
"Nope."
Nyxian stared at him.
"Remind me never to race you. Unless we're racing to get our clothes off. Then I'm in."
Zee looked puzzled. "But you just established that you would lose."
"I know."
Zee shook her head.
Pixelle slowly flew upward.
Her eyes widened as she looked over the enormous body.
"It's dead."
Jax walked toward it.
The Guardian lay sprawled across the chamber.
Eighty—maybe a hundred feet of ancient roots, bark, hardened sap and SSS-Rank monster material.
Jax looked at the body.
Then at the debris scattered across the chamber where its head used to be.
His expression fell.
"Damn."
Nyxian blinked.
"You just killed a hundred-foot SSS-Rank monster."
"I know."
Jax looked toward the scattered pieces of its skull.
"But do you have any idea what Grathok would've paid for an intact SSS-Rank dragon head?"
Bunny pointed at the enormous headless body.
"You still have the rest of it."
"Sure, but an intact head would've fetched an enormous price."
Bunny stared at him.
"Jax, you might be the wealthiest merchant on the continent."
"Yeah, but apparently I have a lot of shoes to support."
Bunny's ears shot straight up.
"My shoes have nothing to do with this."
Jax looked at her.
Bunny opened her mouth.
Stopped.
Her eyes slowly drifted toward the shattered remains of the Guardian's head.
She thought about it.
"...That would've been worth a lot of shoes."
Jax nodded solemnly.
"A lot of shoes."
Bunny's ears lowered.
"Oh, man."
Nyxian looked between them.
"What?"
Bunny stared mournfully at the debris.
"We missed another cash cow."
Jax put a hand on her shoulder.
"I know."
Bunny sighed.
"At least we still have the body."
Jax looked at the enormous carcass.
His mood immediately improved.
"That's a lot of body."
Llandra lowered Starpiercer.
"And they're both merchants again."
A blue window appeared in front of Jax.
His smile disappeared.
FLOOR 49 CLEARED
Another notification appeared beneath it.
GUARDIAN OF THE SEED DEFEATED
Jax glanced toward the corpse.
A third window appeared.
ANCIENT ROOT DRAGON
SSS-RANK
ELIGIBLE FOR SHADOW CONVERSION
Jax's smile returned.
"Oh, hell yes."
Nyxian stepped beside him.
"What?"
"Apparently Grathok isn't the only one getting something out of this."
Jax walked toward the enormous body.
Darkness gathered beneath his feet.
It spread.
Across the floor.
Beneath the Guardian.
The runes that had suppressed his Shadow abilities flickered.
Then died.
Jax raised his hand.
"Come Forth."
The chamber shook.
Darkness swallowed the corpse.
Something moved inside it.
A massive hand struck the floor.
Then another.
Roots twisted upward from the darkness.
A gigantic head emerged.
Shoulders.
Torso.
Powerful legs.
A tremendous tail swept behind it.
Higher.
And higher.
Until an eighty-foot Shadow dragon stood over them.
Purple light burned where golden eyes had once been.
Dante landed behind Jax.
For several seconds, the two SSS-Rank dragons simply stared at one another.
The new Shadow lowered its head.
Not to Dante.
To Jax.
Warden stood silently nearby.
A notification appeared.
SHADOW CONVERSION SUCCESSFUL
Then another.
Jax read it.
And smiled.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO NAME YOUR SUMMON?