Valkorath Realm, Garland City.

Two weeks had flashed by in the blink of an eye. Compared to the living hell of the Abyss, this place was paradise—idyllic, serene, and teeming with life.

Sunlight pierced the cloud cover, filtering into the garden of mana-infused flora. The light refracted through the dew clinging to the leaves, casting shimmering prisms into the humid air. The breeze carried a whisper, a rhythmic swaying of the atmosphere that felt almost sentient.

Orion, deep in meditation, felt a tug at his consciousness. It was a greeting.

He opened his eyes, his gaze locking onto the Miracle Divine Tree.

It hadn't grown much taller in height, but the canopy had thickened, the foliage dense and lush. More importantly, the aura radiating from it had shifted. It felt ancient now, heavy with the gravity of passing eons, like a biological archive of time itself.

"Not a bad setup you've got here. The air smells like fresh rain and blooming magic."

"Valkorath Realm hasn't seen peace like this in ages."

The voice broke Orion's focus. He turned to see two figures materializing beside him: Edward and little Elara. Their tutoring session was evidently over.

"Daddy, something's different!" Elara chirped, scrambling up to ride on Orion's shoulders. "The air... it has this super happy smell. It's sweet, like flowers, but I don't know which ones."

Orion reached up, ruffling his daughter's hair with a smile. He took a deep breath, filling his lungs. He didn't smell flowers.

He'd been sitting here so long he might have gone nose-blind to the garden.

Weird. I'm not picking up any florals, Orion mused.

He didn't smell the garden, but he did catch a scent that made his heart skip a beat. It was a fragrance etched into his soul.

It was Violet.

A profound intuition washed over him. His wife—that stunning woman with the saint-like heart—was coming back. She was respawning.

"It's your Miracle Divine Tree," Edward noted, his tone shifting from casual to reverent. "It's about to bloom."

Sometimes it takes an outsider to see the obvious. Edward's comment snapped the puzzle pieces together for Orion.

Orion stared at his second-in-command, eyes wide with questions.

"Don't look at me, look at the tree!" Edward gestured.

Orion shifted his focus back to the Miracle Divine Tree. At a glance, it looked static, but when he tuned his senses to the flow of mana, he saw it. The entire structure was vibrating at a low frequency. The outer branches were stretching outward, peeling back like curtains to reveal the heart of the crown.

There, nestled in the center, was a tiny flower bud. It was expanding, pixel by pixel.

"The Divine Tree blooming... that's a top-tier omen," Edward muttered, sounding almost superstitious. To him, the tree wasn't just flora; it was a legendary artifact, rare and mysterious.

"Mentor Edward, is my little brother coming out?" Elara asked, her eyes wide as saucers. In her mind, this meant a new Player 2 was entering the game.

"Hmm... not quite yet," Edward said, watching the tree with the intensity of a raid leader waiting for a boss timer. He sniffed the air again, a realization hitting him. "When that scent floods the entire city, that's when the event triggers."

Elara pouted. "But how long is that gonna take?"

Edward didn't answer. Orion stayed silent too. They just watched the Miracle Divine Tree, afraid to miss a single frame of the transformation.

Inside the Miracle Divine Tree – Unknown Chaos Dimension.

Here, there was only the Void. It was the zero-point of existence, a silent sanctuary for the Seed.

Yet, within this nothingness, infinite potential swirled. It was like a cosmic cocoon, housing a consciousness waiting to break free. Time dilated and compressed as the chaotic space expanded, generating life force from absolute zero.

It resembled the birth of a universe—nebulae condensing, gravity pulling dust together until—ignite—a star was born.

Stars connected to stars, forming a neural network of constellations that illuminated the void.

"Mother, we are reviving!"

"Mother, we are reviving!"

The voice was a harmonic duality—two souls speaking in perfect unison.

"Not reviving, my loves. Birthing."

A gentle, feminine voice responded to the dual-tone resonance. She was comforting the life she carried, the child who had kept her sane in this sunless world.

"I can feel him," the dual voice resonated. "Daddy is watching us."

"Yes," she whispered, her presence warm and encompassing. "He is."

Silverwood Realm, Fury Plains.

ROAR!

The sound tore through the sky—the distinct, guttural bellow of a dragon locked in aerial combat.

"Drop dead!"

Fergus stood balanced on the spine of his dragon, muscles coiling as he hurled a spear with lethal precision. The weapon became a blur, slamming through the chest of his target.

It was a Nightwing Alpha, likely a patrol leader for this sector of the sky.

The dragon beneath Fergus's boots had been wrangled by Dusty—formerly known as Dirtclaw. It wasn't a Legendary-tier beast, but Fergus couldn't find a single flaw in its performance. It handled beautifully.

Fighting from the back of an Alpha-level dragon made the combat feel visceral, the adrenaline spiking with every dive and bank.

With the enemy mob deleted, Fergus guided his mount to a landing on a nearby plateau. The rest of the squad was already there: Dace, Earthshaker, Gronthar, Onyx, Thundar, and Ursa.

Except for Onyx and Gronthar, everyone had a dragon crouched behind them, engines idling.

"Fergus, you gotta start prepping like the Boss," Thundar shouted over the wind, grinning. "You need to carry bundles of those spears in your inventory!"

Thundar wasn't just roasting Fergus; he was critiquing the whole team. Now that they were all spec'd into Dragon Riding, mastering projectile combat—whether spears or archery—was the new meta.

"I remember the early grind," Dace chimed in, leaning against his mount. "Before a raid, Lord Orion would strap a massive quiver of spears to his back."

"Yeah," Dace continued, "during the Dark Beast Tides. Lady Clymene had me running logistics, hauling bundle after bundle to the Lord's position. Every time he threw one—boom. Instant kill. Like divine judgment."

Dace had been a glorified inventory mule back then, guarding Orion's flank. Watching Fergus dominate the sky now, he could see the similarities. The kid was inheriting Orion's swagger.

"Standard issue spears won't cut it anymore, though," Thundar added, inspecting his own gear. "We need to hit the Armory and exchange some points for Transformative Weapons."

"And don't forget the bone armor from the Undead Lord's vault," Thundar continued, his eyes gleaming. "That stuff scales with the dragons. It's best-in-slot for survivability."

When it came to min-maxing their combat rating, Thundar and Onyx were the theory-crafters. Thundar, in particular, was speaking from painful experience. He'd been hard-stuck at late-stage Alpha level for ages, unable to break through to the Peak. He had become obsessed with upgrading every other variable: mount, weapon, skill rotation.

"There's too much shiny loot to buy," Ursa's voice rumbled from beside Thundar. "Our Battle Achievements aren't gonna cover a shopping spree like that. Dragons are resource hogs."

Ursa wasn't poor—she had inherited a decent stockpile from Rendall. But raising a dragon was a pay-to-win game, and he was bleeding resources. Between the bone armor and the bulk orders of high-tier Growth Serums from the Horde's vault, his savings were looking critically low.

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