DAY 1.
PITTSBURGH INDUSTRIAL DISTRICT.
Ethan crouched on a rooftop, watching the warehouse below.
Thermal vision showed eight signatures inside.
All Thornbound.
[LE Signatures Detected: 8]
[Threat Level: MODERATE]
[Harvesting Operation in Progress]
[Primordial Quest Progress: 29/50]
"You don't have to do this," Mira said quietly.
She was beside him, nearly invisible in the shadows.
Ethan didn't look at her.
"Yeah, I do."
"There are other ways to fight Thorne. Sabotage. Intelligence gathering. We could—"
"I have fourteen days," Ethan said flatly. "Twenty-one kills. That's three kills every two days. I don't have time for 'other ways.'"
Mira was silent.
Ethan stood.
"Stay here. I'll handle it."
"Ethan—"
He dropped off the roof.
Landed silently in the alley below.
ROOT SENSE spread outward.
He could feel the trees nearby—small, stunted things struggling in the polluted urban soil. But they were alive. Connected to him.
Waiting.
[Trees in range: 34]
[Root Network: ACTIVE]
[Command?]
Ethan walked toward the warehouse entrance.
"Grow."
INSIDE THE WAREHOUSE.
The Thornbound team was harvesting a Heartwood Sapling—a young Primordial tree, barely ten feet tall, growing through the concrete foundation.
They'd already cut away most of its branches.
Now they were drilling into the trunk.
Extracting sap.
The sapling screamed.
Not audibly.
But Ethan felt it.
Through the Root Network.
Through the Primordial.
A wordless cry of pain.
His vision flickered.
Green.
Then red.
[Primordial Integration: 81% → 83%]
THEY HURT THE CHILD-TREE.
UNACCEPTABLE.
Ethan's hands clenched.
He walked through the front door.
No stealth.
No plan.
Just rage.
THE SLAUGHTER.
The first Harvester saw him.
Raised his rifle.
"Contact! Condu—"
THORN BURST.
Ethan's arm erupted.
Thorns launched across the warehouse.
Three Harvesters went down immediately.
Throats torn out.
Chests punctured.
[+287 LE absorbed]
The others scattered.
One fired a flamethrower.
Ethan raised his hand.
VERDANT SHIELD.
Vines erupted from the floor, forming a dense barrier.
The flames washed over it—
But didn't penetrate.
Ethan stepped through the fire.
Unharmed.
His skin was bark now.
Thick. Protective.
Fireproof.
The Harvester's eyes went wide.
"What the fuck—"
Ethan grabbed him by the face.
LIFE DRAIN – MAXIMIZED.
The man's scream lasted three seconds.
Then he was a husk.
[+156 LE absorbed]
Two more tried to flank him.
Ethan didn't turn.
Just extended his hands.
ROOT SURGE.
The warehouse floor exploded.
Massive roots erupted from beneath the concrete, wrapping around the Harvesters, crushing them.
Their armor crumpled like paper.
[+203 LE absorbed]
The last two ran for the exit.
Ethan let them get halfway.
Then raised his hand.
THORN RAIN.
Thorns fell from the ceiling like a storm.
Hundreds of them.
The Harvesters were shredded.
Torn apart.
Blood pooling on the concrete.
[+178 LE absorbed]
Silence.
Ethan stood in the center of the carnage.
Breathing hard.
Not from exertion.
From satisfaction.
[KILL COUNT: +8]
[Primordial Quest Progress: 37/50]
[Integration Level: 83%]
[You're not hunting anymore. You're CULLING.]
He walked over to the Heartwood Sapling.
It was dying.
Sap leaking from the drill wounds.
Leaves wilting.
Ethan placed his hand on the trunk.
[LIFE TRANSFER available. Cost: 50 LE]
[Heal this tree?]
"Yes."
Green light pulsed from his palm.
The sapling's wounds closed.
New leaves sprouted.
The roots thickened.
It wasn't just healed.
It was stronger.
THANK YOU, CARRIER.
The voice wasn't the sapling's.
It was the Primordial.
Speaking through it.
Ethan pulled his hand away.
"Don't thank me," he muttered. "Just stay alive."
He turned and walked out.
Behind him—
The warehouse was already being reclaimed.
Roots growing through the bodies.
Vines covering the bloodstains.
Nature erasing the violence.
DAY 4.
KILL COUNT: 42/50.
Ethan was efficient now.
No hesitation.
No mercy.
Just execution.
Cleveland. Detroit. Indianapolis.
Harvesting sites. Thornbound patrols. Research facilities.
He hit them all.
Alone.
Mira had stopped following after Day 2.
"I can't watch this anymore," she'd said.
Ethan hadn't argued.
He didn't need her.
He had the Primordial.
And it was singing.
DAY 7.
COLUMBUS, OHIO. THORNE RESEARCH LAB.
This one was different.
Heavier security.
Sixteen Thornbound.
Including a Thornbound Captain—a rare LE-enhanced operative.
[LE Signature Detected: CAPTAIN MARCUS VERN]
[Threat Level: HIGH]
[Abilities: FLAME AUGMENTATION, REINFORCED ARMOR, TACTICAL COMMAND]
Ethan didn't care.
He walked through the front entrance.
Alarms blared.
Soldiers poured into the lobby.
"Stand down, Conduit!"
Ethan raised both hands.
MASS ROOT SURGE.
The entire building shook.
Roots erupted from every surface—floor, walls, ceiling.
The soldiers were caught mid-charge.
Wrapped. Lifted. Crushed.
Screams echoed.
Then stopped.
[+9 kills]
[Primordial Quest Progress: 46/50]
Captain Vern emerged from the stairwell.
Wreathed in flames.
His armor glowing red-hot.
"You're done, Cole," he snarled.
Ethan tilted his head.
"Am I?"
Vern lunged.
Fire trailing behind him.
Ethan didn't dodge.
He caught Vern's fist.
Mid-swing.
With his bare hand.
Vern's eyes went wide.
"What—"
Ethan's skin was stone.
No—not stone.
Petrified wood.
Harder than steel.
Fireproof.
He squeezed.
Vern's gauntlet crumpled.
The Captain screamed.
Ethan drove his other hand into Vern's chest.
Through the armor.
LIFE DRAIN – CRITICAL.
Vern convulsed.
His flames sputtered.
Died.
His body withered.
Ethan held him until there was nothing left.
Then dropped the husk.
[KILL CONFIRMED: CAPTAIN MARCUS VERN]
[+1,203 LE absorbed]
[+189 EP gained]
[Primordial Quest Progress: 47/50]
Ethan looked at his hands.
They were covered in soot.
And ash.
And blood.
He felt nothing.
Not guilt.
Not horror.
Just... empty.
"Three more," he whispered.
DAY 10.
SANCTUARY FORTY-SEVEN.
Ethan returned to the safe house.
His mother was waiting.
She took one look at him—
And went pale.
"Ethan?"
He tried to smile.
But couldn't.
His face didn't move right anymore.
Too much bark.
Too much wood.
"I'm close," he said. His voice was hollow. "Three more kills."
Diane walked over slowly.
Like approaching a wild animal.
She reached up.
Touched his face.
Her fingers traced the bark spreading across his cheek.
"You're not my son anymore," she whispered.
Ethan flinched.
"Mom—"
"You look like him. You sound like him. But..." Her voice broke. "Your eyes are green, Ethan. You don't blink. You don't breathe."
Ethan looked away.
"I'm still me."
"Are you?" Diane pulled her hand back. "Because the person I raised wouldn't have killed forty-seven people in ten days."
"They were Thornbound—"
"They were human!" Diane's voice cracked. "And you drained them. Absorbed them. Turned them into nothing."
Ethan's hands clenched.
"What was I supposed to do? Let them keep harvesting? Let them kill more Conduits? More trees?"
"I don't know!" Diane shouted. "But this—this—isn't the answer!"
Silence.
Ethan stared at her.
And for the first time in days—
He felt something.
Pain.
"I'm trying to save the world, Mom," he said quietly.
Diane's eyes filled with tears.
"You're trying to save the forest," she whispered. "But you're losing yourself."
She turned.
Walked into her room.
Closed the door.
Ethan stood alone in the living room.
[Primordial Integration: 87%]
[HOST EMOTIONAL RESPONSE: Degrading]
[You're almost there. Just three more kills.]
[Then you'll be FREE.]
Ethan closed his eyes.
"Free," he repeated.
But it sounded like a lie.