Chapter 256 Termination Of Contract
The fruit of the Snake Tree grew every few weeks, each time the time was different as it depended on a variety of factors. Also, it had nothing to do with whether or not the Snake Tree would release poison through the roots.
Sometimes the two events coincided, but more often than not, the appearance of the fruit did not mean that Snake Tree would release the poison now. It was because of this that Clort's Lady had made the mistake of eating the fruit because of which they now had no antidote.
Clort carefully looked at the sphere, watching the fruit slowly grow. The sphere showed the entire ripening process, and only two fruits seemed to be ready to become a true treasure.
The rest of the fruit could not bloom as they were immediately spoiled, which was exactly what Ethan saw when one such fruit fell from the tree.
"Wait... This can't be true!" Clort exclaimed with a wave of his hand, in disbelief.
By the end of the sphere, no new fruit had appeared, only two. One of which their Lady had eaten, and the other was now in Lizard Village.
"Clort. I kid you not. We are constantly watching Snake Tree to study this amazing tree. I realize this hasn't happened before, but whether you like it or not, there were only two fruits this time. You just have to accept that as a fact, that's all." Gron said calmly, returning the crystal sphere to the ring.
Gron looked intently at Clort, "I'm sorry if anyone in your fortress has been poisoned, but there is nothing we can do to help. Our people need an antidote and it will be ready soon."
Clort said nothing, he just clenched his fists tightly and bit his lip almost to the point of bleeding. His face showed anger at his helplessness in this situation.
He thought that the Lizards had decided to trick them, but what had actually happened was something that had never happened before.
'Shit! Shit! Shit! How is this possible?! Only two fruits?! This has never happened before! The worst-case scenario was always at least four! More often than not, there were more!' Clort inwardly exclaimed, with a great grimace.
Gron understood what Clort was going through and what he was thinking, so he did not interrupt him. The best option for him would be for Clort to calm down and walk away.
"Khm." Zayne coughed, snapping to attention, "Sorry to intrude on the conversation, at a time like this, but can't you save everyone at once?"
Gron cast a puzzled look at Zayne.
'Hm... Who is this guy? He's definitely not one of the knights, but he's also not a mage... Is he a simple traveler or hunter? In that case, what's he doing here?" Gron hesitated, then shook his head and said, "What do you mean?"
"I mean... You're preparing an antidote right now, aren't you? At Mr. Clort, there's only one person poisoned, so you just need to make one extra batch and that's it." Zayne offered with a calm look.
Gron took a deep breath, "Young man, I don't know who you are, but you're wrong. We Lizards have a powerful resistance to poison, any poison, it's something we got from nature. So, we can make many potions from one fruit, but with weakened effects. That will be enough for us."
Gron glanced at Clort, "However, for a human, you need the whole fruit or the core, which contains the main amount of energy as well as the antidote."
Zayne nodded silently, realizing the complexity of the situation that had just become more complex.
'Well... It's both simple and complex...' Zayne said to himself, staring at the fruit in the distance, 'They didn't expect there to be only two fruits and you can't blame them for that. However, there's no way Clort can get the antidote now and his Lady will die... Although, he has another option.
Zayne took a few steps as if preparing for what was about to happen.
"Elder!" Towards Gron, a single Lizard ran up, ''We're ready to prepare the potions! All that's left is to add the fruit core!"
Gron nodded, "Sure, do it immediately. The sooner we save our people the better. After all, it's our responsibility."
The Lizard nodded and waved his hand to give a command to the others. The two Lizards carefully pulled the core out of the fruit and headed towards the cauldron. In a few seconds, they would drop the core into the cauldron and then the potion would be almost ready.
"NO!" Clort exclaimed, swinging his staff furiously.
Purple threads flew out of his staff, they quickly wrapped around the core and ripped it out of the Lizard's hands. The Lizards tried to grab it, but the threads quickly moved towards Clort along with the core.
Crackle.
Gron reacted instantly, grabbing the core with one hand and cutting the threads with a swish of his tail.
"Clort, what the hell are you doing?" Gron asked with a dark look.
"Gron, everything of course. Our pact is over." Clort uttered in a cold voice, while purple streams of energy covered his body, "I just can't let my Lady die!"
Whooooooooooooosh.
Clort struck the ground with his staff, creating a shockwave that threw Gron aside. Due to the surprise, Gron dropped the core from his hands, falling backwards onto the ground.
Clort immediately rushed forward, about to pick up the sphere, but at the very last moment, the shadow of two broad wings fell on him.
"Agh...?" Clort raised his head as his eyes went wide.
Zayne swooped above him, grabbing the core of the fruit. He landed and took a few steps back, watching the situation closely.
Crackle.
The core in his hand cracked, as everyone's eyes filled with anxiety. If the core was lost now, there would be no way to heal anyone.
Zayne realized this, so immediately after that, his ring shone brightly and the fruit moved to a safe space.
"Bastard! What are you doing!" Clort exclaimed, pointing his staff at Zayne.
"Maybe it's better to ask you that question?" Zayne asked, staring at Clort as his eyes narrowed, "It's not the Lizards' fault that Snake Tree only had two fruits this time. They took exactly half of it, as your contract said they would."
Zayne put his hand on the hilt of his sword, "I realize you didn't expect this and your lady's actions can't be called a mistake since she didn't know that the water was poisoned and you would only have one fruit.
"You were simply unlucky and you must accept that. I cannot allow more than ten to die for the life of one person. It's not fair."
Zayne put more meaning into his last words than anything else, because that was the crux of their problem. And that was what he'd been going through his whole life, the injustice. Now he had a chance to fix it and help others who were in the same situation.
Whooooooooooooooooooooooooosh.
At the same moment, something happened that no one expected, especially Zayne himself. On his neck, the sign of the moon flashed brightly, illuminating everything around him with a blue light.
Then, for Zayne, the world stopped as his consciousness was transported to the space where his Arcs as well as two spheres with Chaos and Fate energy were located.
The two spheres began to rotate, merging together to form a red-blue disk floating in the void.
The Arcs, which were the only indication of its power other than system messages, shattered into small shards. It turned into a white liquid, but it needed to find something that could be filled.
'What the hell...?' Zayne inwardly muttered looking at what was happening.
Gradually some sort of altar-like structure appeared, but, it was completely hidden in darkness. So was the round object hovering above it. There was a special aura emanating from it as if it were a part of Zayne himself.
'Almost... Just a little more... You're on the right path... Fight, fight, and fight...' A mysterious voice sounded in Zayne's head, then he left this space.
He found himself in the real world where all eyes were turned towards him. Some were surprised, some were scared, some were happy or even proud.
It wasn't just the Knights and Lizards, it was everyone, the hundreds of monsters that were now watching Zayne go through the Chaos Trial.
Edvin for the first time in a long time showed emotion as on his calm face, a mad grin appeared, and his crimson hair surged upwards due to the powerful currents of his aura.
"Good. He hasn't become Awakened One yet, but his seal has already awakened. So Gael was not mistaken. Hehehehe, what an amazing day today!" Edvin exclaimed, shaking the space with his echo.
Karin and Fride were pleased as well. This simple action meant that now, almost one hundred percent, there was now a new member among them, a full member.
"Wait... That sign... It's only possessed by members of the Shattered Moon Order...!" Fosca muttered with a trembling look.
Sara didn't know what to say, shivers and goosebumps went down her body.
"Agh... Now I see why there are three Moons gathered here at once and why he has such strength at such an age..." Marcus muttered as his face darkened, "Damn, and his mark only appeared now. No wonder Erel didn't notice, and we were sent to rescue him."
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