The Ark moved silently through the sky, carried by engines older than history. Onboard, the four boys were silent.
Below them sprawled a sea of green—Cael'Drassil, once known as the Sky Forest, now choked with darkness. It was said that the trees once sang to the stars, their roots suspended in the air by ancient tech. But that was before the corruption. Before the demons came.
Now, it wept black sap, and the winds were filled with screams.
"Cael'Drassil was a sanctuary," said Eva, briefing them in the war room. "But three weeks ago, the forest went dark. Surveillance drones show growth patterns impossible even for cursed flora. Something is growing in the heart. And it's breathing."
Daiki glanced at the map projection. His foresight buzzed like a broken antenna.
"Something's disrupting the flow of time there. I can't see beyond a few minutes ahead."
"Even better," Haru muttered. "Let's go get eaten by haunted trees."
"Focus," Ren said, eyes locked on the forest. "This is the second gate."
Icarus looked up from his gear, quiet. But in his eyes burned a memory—a moment frozen in foresight. A name spoken in a dream:
"Vicar Malachi."
Descent into Cael'Drassil
The boys dropped into the forest with a low hum of mana pulses.
The second their boots hit the moss-covered platforms, the world shifted.
The air was too still. The trees were wrong—twisted, tall as mountains, their leaves sharp as blades. Bioluminescent insects blinked in and out of existence. Some had human faces.
"This forest doesn't just grow," Daiki said. "It… watches."
They moved cautiously, weapons drawn.
Hours passed. The deeper they went, the more the world warped. Paths looped. Sounds echoed back with delay. Whispering winds mimicked their voices. Ren had to slash through a vine that spoke his childhood memories.
Suddenly—a shadow lunged.
A creature—tall, bark-skinned, with a hollow chest and glowing green veins—attacked. Ren countered in a flash, slicing it clean.
"That was no demon," Icarus said, scanning its remains. "That was… a Dryad. Twisted."
"They're being converted," Daiki said grimly. "Something's repurposing nature into soldiers."
The Core Rot
At the forest's center stood the Heartroot Tree, once a marvel of ancient tech and nature. Now, its trunk was rotten, and a massive cocoon of flesh and vines pulsed at its base.
Standing before it was a man in Vatican robes.
Tall. Regal. Eyes like stained glass.
"Vicar Malachi," Icarus whispered.
The man turned slowly, voice calm, too calm.
"Children of the Ministry. How kind of you to visit."
Ren stepped forward, blade drawn. "You're corrupting this land."
"I'm evolving it. Purifying the divine plan. This world has bled long enough under false balances."
Malachi spread his arms. The cocoon behind him began to split, revealing what lay within.
A demon—but not entirely.
It had wings of wood, a halo of thorns, and a body of both flesh and iron. An Archdruid corrupted by both demonic essence and Vatican experiments.
Malachi smiled.
"Behold… the future of faith."
The Battle Begins
The cocoon exploded.
Roots surged from the ground, snatching Haru mid-dodge. Icarus shielded him with a gravity burst, but the demon turned—breathed spores—and vines began growing from Haru's arms.
"I'm poisoned!" Haru shouted, trying to burn the infection off with his flames.
"Hold on—" Icarus focused, shifting space around the vines to delay their growth.
Meanwhile, Ren and Daiki launched at the demon. Wind tore through branches. Daiki predicted its next ten movements and sent Ren into perfect counters.
But it was not enough.
Malachi chanted from the background. His words summoned screaming faces from the forest canopy, which dropped like bombs, turning into rot-beasts on contact.
The battlefield spiraled into chaos.
Ren slashed one clean through.
"He's puppeting the whole forest!"
"Then we cut the strings!" Daiki shouted.
Icarus snapped—time-space twisted, crushing half the battlefield. He threw Haru through a gravity tunnel toward the Vicar.
Flames erupted.
Haru's pistols became cannons.
Malachi's robe caught fire.
"Blasphemers," he hissed. "You were never meant to lead. You are errors."
"Guess we're a glitch in your prophecy," Haru grinned.
The Turning Point
Ren charged Malachi directly.
Daiki gave him a three-second opening—a sliver of time where Malachi would hesitate.
Ren used it.
With a cyclone strike, he pierced through the Vicar's arm and sent him crashing into the cocoon.
The demon shrieked, out of control now.
Spikes burst from the ground. The forest began to fall apart.
Icarus opened a dimensional escape field.
"We need to get out. Now!"
But Ren turned back—Malachi was still breathing, muttering something…
"Seven gates. Seven kings. Seven sins."
"You've only met one."
Then he vanished—swallowed by his own spell.
Aftermath
The forest stopped screaming.
The boys landed back on the Ark, coughing, bleeding, but alive.
Eva approached, pale-faced.
"We analyzed the remains. That demon... wasn't born. It was engineered. Vatican tech. Demon blood. Nature magic. All spliced."
"They're trying to create the apocalypse," Daiki said softly.
"No," Icarus corrected him. "They're trying to win it."