The forest stretched forever, roots coiling like veins through living soil. Light filtered through the canopy in green and gold, dust drifting between rays like falling stars.
Rei walked in front, quiet as always, his sword slung across his back. Hajime followed, adjusting the weight of their supplies, while Izumi moved between them, fingers trailing lightly across ferns as if greeting old friends.
"Peaceful, isn't it?" Hajime asked.
Rei didn't look back. "It never lasts for too long."
Hajime groaned. "Would it kill you to be positive?"
They moved on beneath towering trees whose roots arched like bridges. The air grew heavier, rich with the scent of moss and dew.
Then a sharp whistle cut through the calm. An arrow struck the ground near Hajime's boot, humming as it quivered in the dirt.
From the shadows ahead stepped twelve raiders clad in red-plated armor. Their chest pieces were marked with faint runes that glowed an ugly yellow, Bloodforge sigils, the signature of Crimson Legion deserters who had sold their souls for power. Veins of crimson light crawled beneath their skin like living magma.
Their leader, a mountain of a man with a jaw split by old scars, raised a jagged spear wreathed in volatile runes. "Travelers from the capital. Drop your bags. Or we drop you."
Hajime's gold-silver Seiki sparked. "Friendly bunch."
Rei unsheathed his sword with a lazy smile, blue-white embers licking the edge. "Rin. I'm bored. You're up."
Izumi exhaled, slow and deep. "Finally. Let's go, Eve."
She stepped forward. The forest answered before she spoke. Leaves stilled. Birds vanished. The air itself held its breath.
A soft voice, warm and ancient, murmured inside her mind. "They reek of iron and rot. Shall we prune them, little one?"
Izumi's lips curved. "Prune them clean."
Her palms rose. Fingers traced a single circle in the air. The canopy above exploded into motion, sunlight fracturing into a thousand emerald shards that orbited her like a storm of glass.
"Forbidden Fruit Art: Thorn Garden (禁断果術・茨園 / Kindan Kajutsu: Ibarasono)!"
The ground detonated.
Black-green vines the width of tree trunks erupted in a perfect ring, thorns longer than swords. They didn't lash. They danced. Followed by a living cyclone of razor petals and venomous blooms that shredded the front line in a heartbeat. Armor split like paper. Blood painted the leaves red.
The leader roared, runes blazing. "Bloodforge Overdrive: Titan Spirit (血鍛過負荷・巨神 / Chikatan Kafuka: Kyojin)!"
His body tripled in size. Muscles burst through armor. The spear became a battering ram of molten iron. He charged, the ground cratering beneath each step.
Izumi didn't blink.
"He's loud," Eve noted, amused. "Let's quiet him."
"Forbidden Fruit Art: Verdant Tempest (禁断果術・翠嵐 / Kindan Kajutsu: Suiran)!"
The canopy tore open. A hurricane of razor leaves and razor wind screamed down, each blade infused with Seiki sharp enough to carve stone. The tempest met the titan mid-charge. Leaves became shuriken. Wind became blades. The leader's spear shattered. His enhanced flesh peeled away in ribbons.
Two raiders flanked her, axes glowing with Bloodforge runes. "Stoneheart Barrage (石心弾幕 / Sekishin Danmaku)!"
Explosive stone shards homed in from every angle.
Izumi spun, robes flaring. "Forbidden Fruit Art: Bloom Sanctuary (禁断果術・花守 / Kindan Kajutsu: Hanamori)!"
A dome of living petals erupted around her, each layer a different flower, each flower a different poison. The shards struck and detonated, but the petals drank the explosions, blooming brighter with every blast. Pollen clouds billowed out, sweet and lethal. The flankers inhaled. Their lungs filled with nectar. Their bodies locked mid-swing, petrified into statues of blooming ivy.
Hajime's jaw dropped. "Holy shit."
Rei leaned against a tree, grinning. "Told you."
The remaining raiders formed a wedge, regenerative frenzy kicking in. Limbs regrew. Wounds sealed. They charged as one, a wall of crimson fury.
Izumi's eyes glowed emerald. Eve's voice layered over hers, ancient and serene. "How dare you defile the earth."
"Adam…" Eve's tone shifted, suddenly distracted.
Izumi faltered for half a heartbeat. "Eve?"
A flicker. Gold-silver light pulsed from Hajime's chest, unbidden. Adam's Will stirred, ancient eyes opening in the dark behind Hajime's own.
For one impossible second, the forest went still.
Eve's presence manifested as a shimmer of green light beside Izumi, translucent, barefoot, hair like living vines. Adam appeared opposite her, barefoot too, simple leaf at his waist, eyes kind and endless.
They looked at each other across the battlefield.
"…You," Eve whispered, voice soft with wonder.
Adam smiled, small and sad. "Still beautiful."
The moment was shattered. Both Wills vanished. Izumi's cheeks flushed crimson. Hajime blinked, confused, a faint warmth lingering in his chest.
Rei raised an eyebrow. "What the hell was that?"
Izumi shook it off, face burning. "Nothing. Focus."
She slammed both palms to the ground.
"Forbidden Fruit Art: Nature-Drowned Avatar (禁断果術・自然溺没化身 / Kindan Kajutsu: Shizen Dekibotsu Keshin)!"
The forest screamed.
Roots the size of siege towers burst from the soil, coiling into a colossal humanoid form around her. Bark armor. Thorn crown. Eyes of pure starlight. The avatar towered thirty feet high, every movement shaking the earth. It raised one hand. The sky answered.
A meteor shower of seed pods rained down. Each pod exploded on impact into carnivorous flowers that devoured flesh and rune alike. Raiders vanished in the jaws of petals. One tried to flee. A root speared through his spine, dragging him back into the maw of a blooming orchid.
The leader, half his face gone, crawled toward her. "Monster…"
Izumi's avatar knelt. A single finger, thick as a tree trunk, pressed against his forehead.
"Forbidden Fruit Art: Eden's Final Bloom (禁断果術・エデンの終花 / Kindan Kajutsu: Eden no Shūka)."
Green light poured into him. His Bloodforge runes shattered. His body aged a thousand years in seconds. Skin withered. Bones crumbled. He became dust in the wind.
The avatar dissolved. Izumi stood in the center of a crater of flowers, robes untouched, hair barely ruffled. The forest was silent. Not a leaf out of place.
She turned back to the others, brushing a petal from her shoulder. "Eve says warm-up's over."
Hajime stared at the devastation, then at her. "You just… ended them. With flowers."
Rei sheathed his sword, flames dying. "Remind me to stop pissing you off so much."
Izumi smiled, small and cute. "Aww, you guys are so sweet!"
The path ahead opened, sunlight spilling through the canopy like liquid gold. Solarii waited. But the forest now walked behind them, and it was hungry.