The First Beacon

“Scatter!” Keito’s voice rang out.

They moved on instinct. Elysia dove to the right, Baro barreled left, Heidi ducked into a crouch, and Corin fell backwards. The Guardian’s fist came down like the wrath of the heavens. The impact was intense. The ground buckled. Shockwaves rippled outward, tossing them into the air. Dirt and stone erupted in jagged waves, fissures racing outward in a spiderweb. From the cracks, black sludge spewed upward, splattering across boots, skin, and steel. The stench was unbearable.

Elysia landed hard, her lungs crushed beneath her own weight. Her ears rang. She forced herself up onto trembling elbows, hair plastered across her face, just in time to see.

The Guardian rose.

The creature’s torso was a trunk of petrified wood split with veins of orange light, its limbs stone and bark twisted simulating muscles. From its back, a cage of roots bristled like a crown of thorns, writhing with parasites. Its roar was agony.

Then it moved.

The Guardian stomped. The ground lifted in a wave beneath them, throwing them sideways again. Thorned vines ripped free from the ground and lashed through the air. The battlefield was alive, hostile, as if the very forest wanted them gone. Baro, first to his feet, answered the craziness with his own. A roar tore from his chest. His greataxe grew in his hands as he charged straight at the colossus.

“Let’s do this!” he bellowed.

He was a force of nature in his own right, towering, broad, every movement powered by his great strength. His axe arced in a wide swing, every muscle in his body straining to put everything he had into that blow.

The enchanted steel met the Guardian’s stony calf with a deafening CLANG.

Instead of cutting deep, the axe rebounded. A few splinters of bark flew, dust kicking up, but it was little more than scratching a mountain. The jarring impact numbed Baro’s arms; his hands vibrated around the shaft. His expression faltered, disbelief and frustration flashing across his face.

The Guardian didn’t even notice.

It tore a chunk of earth from the ground, hefting it as if it were nothing, then hurled it.

“Corin, look out!” Heidi shouted, desperation in her voice.

Corin was already moving. His form blurred, rolling first then sprinting sideways, feet barely skimming the earth. The boulder slammed into the place he’d been a heartbeat before, the impact detonating into a thousand shards that rained shrapnel across the clearing.

He skidded to a halt, breath steady, movements precise. His bow rose, string drawn back on nothing. And then there was something…an arrow, born from lightning, crackling with energy. Corin exhaled. His aim locked onto the Guardian’s knee joint, the one place he thought might give.

He released.

The arrow cut through the battlefield burning itself into the wooden flesh, sinking halfway. The Guardian stuttered for half a breath. A tremor shivered up its leg. But that was all. The arrow glowed faintly, a splinter in its flesh, and was ignored. With one massive gesture, it ripped more vines from the ground, lashing them at Corin.

He moved like water, sliding, dodging, firing arrow after arrow. One burst in a plume of frost, another sliced with wind that tore leaves into ribbons. Each arrow hit but never broke through, their impact swallowed by the sheer immenseness of the creature.

“It’s too thick!” Corin shouted, frustration in his usually calm tone. “I’m not breaking through!”

Keito’s mind raced. You didn’t topple mountains with steel. You broke them with leverage. His hands flew in intricate motions, fingers painting symbols of silver light into the air.

“Tempus Minor!”

He thrust his palms forward. Moonlight surged, wrapping around the Guardian’s wrist mid swing. For a moment, the titan’s arm slowed, caught in moon light.

Heidi saw her opening. Her muscles surging with Juggernaut strength. She dove beneath the arm, thorns slicing at the space she had just passed. But it didn’t last. The arm’s mass and momentum tore through Keito’s magic like breaking glass. The spell shattered, and the arm crashed into a grove of dead trees, exploding them into splinters.

“I can’t hold it! It’s too much mass!” he yelled.

Elysia called water, dragging it from the air. Tentacles lashed at the Guardian’s legs, coiling, constricting. But the corruption was strong. Her water sizzled, boiling into steam the instant it touched. Her magic wasn’t binding, it was fuel for the rot.

Then came a voice.

“Stop trying to kill it, you fools!”

Kivarus.

He stood at the clearing’s edge, arms crossed, a sneer curling his lips. He hadn’t lifted a finger since the fight began, his eyes watching annoyed. Umbra, the tiny shadow dragon, hovered near his shoulder, hissing in agitation.

“What the hell do you suggest then?!” Baro roared, deflecting a vine with the flat of his axe.

Kivarus’s eyes rolled. “Use your senses, not just your damn muscles. Feel it. Can’t you taste the despair? The pain? That thing isn’t your enemy. It’s a prisoner in its own flesh.” He pointed toward the pulsing orange fissures in its chest. “There. The corruption. That’s the disease. Kill that, not the host.”

The Guardian wasn’t their foe. It was the battlefield itself enslaved, consumed by sickness. They weren’t executioners. They were supposed to be healers.

And everything shifted.

Baro looked over and saw a log stick in the mud, he looked at Heidi and began to run.

“Heidi! With me!” He slammed both palms against the log, channeling his energy through his veins.

“Enlarge!”

The log swelled, wood fibers popping as it doubled in size. What had been a heavy trunk became a colossal pillar. Baro dug his boots into the sludge, veins bulging, sweat pouring as he lifted the huge weight onto his shoulder.

“NOW!” Baro yelled, and with a roar, he drove the pillar into the earth at an angle.

The leg of the guardian slammed into the pillar, the impact echoing like the sound of thunder. The column bent, wood straining, but it held. The Guardian stumbled, massive weight thrown off balance for the first time.

Heidi’s turn.

She didn’t hesitate. Blood still streaked her arms from earlier cuts, but her body was an engine of power. She charged, leaping onto a flailing arm. Thorns shredded her flesh, ripping bloody lines across her skin, but she held fast, locking both arms around the thickest vine and pulling. Her boots carved trenches in the mud, her teeth grit in defiance. Pain roared up her arms, but she anchored herself like a boulder.

“MOVE, DAMN YOU!” she screamed through clenched teeth, dragging the arm down by sheer stubbornness.

The Guardian thrashed, but its momentum was checked. Between the pillar locking its leg and Heidi’s anchor, its motions grew slower. It was manageable. Keito saw the opening. His silver lit hands flickered, moonlight magic spewing into large rods.

“Corin! Left flank, ribs exposed!”

Corin moved with perfect timing. His bow sang, string thrumming as arrows of lightning manifested and vanished in a blur. Each shot aimed with precision into the glowing cracks spreading like veins of fire through the Guardian’s torso. The first lightning arrow struck true. The crack lit up, the Guardian convulsing in agony. Its roar was filled with pain, a cry that rattled their bones.

“It’s working!” Elysia shouted.

“Again!” Keito barked.

Baro strained, bracing the pillar against each strike. Heidi clung stubbornly to her vine, every muscle screaming but refusing to let go. The Guardian faltered. Its body shuddered under the restraint, its chest exposed. The largest fissure, pulsing brighter than the rest.

“Elysia!” Keito shouted. “Now!”

Her heartbeat thundered in her ears. She had been waiting for this, gathering power, every breath focused on holding back her fear. With Umbra circling anxiously above, she sprinted. The ground shook, vines cracked around her, but Keito warped moonlight to deflect, Corin’s arrows bursting in blinding flashes to cover her run.

She reached the feet of the guardian but didn’t stop. Her hands dug into bark, boots slipping, but she climbed. She hauled herself upward until she stood on a ledge directly before the glowing wound. Elysia pressed her palms against the fissure. Her breath stopped. Then she closed her eyes.

Not water this time….

Life….

Blue light, soft and steady, poured from her hands, seeping into the rot. The Guardian’s agony flooded into her, a prison of its own flesh. Her body convulsed under the psychic weight, tears streaming as her mind almost shattered. But she held strong.

Outside, the effect was breathtaking.

The fissure boiled, the black ooze sizzling into steam. The orange light faded as the blue light expanded. Umbra dove, releasing streams of his shadowfire. His flame didn’t burn anything, it devoured the corruption itself. The Guardian’s roar shook the heavens, but this time it wasn’t rage. It was release.

The orange light flared, desperate, trying to fight against Elysia then winked out like a dying star.

The guardian's knees buckled. It collapsed backwards, the impact sending a tidal wave of mud crashing outward. Elysia slid down its chest, landing hard as Umbra caught her shoulder with a protective swoop.

And then…. silence…..

Then….movment…..

The Guardian stirred. Its massive body shifted, and two green lights glowed deep within the cage of roots that was its head…gentle.

Its voice resonated in their minds.

«You… have freed me.»

They stared, stunned, as the guardian sat upright, no longer thrashing but calm, and weary.

«I am Sylva-Prime. Memory of this forest. The demon drove a splinter into my heart, poisoned me, turned my duty into violence. You pulled me from that prison.»

Elysia’s voice whispered, “We only wanted to help.”

The green lights softened.

«Help? You have restored purpose.»

The Guardian’s hand pressed into the ground. Green light pulsed outward, a tide of life itself. Wherever it touched, the rot vanished. Black sludge receded into rich soil. Dead trees sprouted leaves, the air filling with the rustle of rebirth. Birds returned in a rush of song, insects buzzed, sunlight pierced the canopy in golden spears.

The forest lived again.

The wave rolled over the party, knitting cuts, easing bruises, filling them with renewed strength. Heidi looked at her bloodied arms in awe as fresh skin replaced torn flesh. Baro straightened, exhaustion evaporating, replaced by peace.

The Sunken Heart breathed again.

Sylva-Prime’s voice echoed once more, softer now.

«The rot is purged here, but its source festers still. This was the first step. The Beacons must be guarded. Find the Celestial Key. Do not let the Abyss devour the light.»

As the words faded, the colossal Guardian lowered itself, vines and moss creeping across its body. It settled into stillness, no longer a weapon of destruction but a warden at peace.

The party stood together, staring at the reborn forest. They had saved one Beacon, but their journey had only just begun….