The Emerald Bloom seemed to be overwhelmed at first. The gargantuan flower was fending off attacks from all manner of beasts and spirits including the greater beast of moss and branch that was putting up the most fight. Whatever frenzy Willow’s fiery form had instilled in them seemed to have redoubled upon seeing a demonic being of Rot in front of them.

  The boy had to wonder if the beast king had been doing something to prevent detection by the other inhabitants of the Vale, or perhaps it was just a matter of scale and numbers. Most of the beings that had chased him were individualistic in nature, they wouldn’t have ever thought of working together to take on the Bloom. However, since they were all gathered here due to the same primal urge to put out a fire they were more than willing to work together to solve a different problem that had presented itself to them.

  Willow shook his head, now wasn’t the time to be thinking of such things.

  He still needed to get his aunt out of here.

  Willow tugged on his aunt’s sleeve in an urgent manner. “C’mon we gotta go!”

  The older woman looked away from the battle raging on nearby. “Go where, child? If we go back to the clearing the Bloom will just come and take me again, and next time they won’t spare the rest of you.”

  Willow felt how hopeless his aunt was feeling. Her confidence destroyed by the same moment that had killed her spirits. Her anger still remained deep within her, but it was being suffocated by the fear she felt for the great and terrible flower demon.

  The boy could understand some of his aunt’s helplessness, looking over at the battling beasts, his plan wasn’t quite unfolding in the way he had hoped. The Bloom was too strong, flinging beasts and dispersing spirits with misting spores of rot. They likely wouldn’t do the damage that was needed for the next part of his plan. Which was basically just hiding in their clearing as the Bloom took time to recover from the damage the horde inflicted.

  He was tired, sore from his run, and he wanted to cry because things weren’t going right.

  Yet he had gotten this far, and he wouldn’t stop trying until he had gotten his aunt out of here.

  “I’ve got a plan, trust me.” Willow lied to his aunt with a forced smile. The pulling of his aunt’s sleeve renewed in urgency.

  Jieun saw the tells her nephew displayed whenever he lied.

  She chose to ignore them.

  If the boy did have some sort of plan to get her out of here, then she would not be the weak link that made it fail. She got up and followed her nephew through the field of wilting flowers toward the edge of the clearing.

  Harmony was quiet throughout all of this. She glanced around at the carnage being caused by the battle with the demon with obvious distaste and concern, but was content to let her friend lead the small group for now.

  It was as the three of them got to the edge of the clearing that the situation began to shift quite rapidly. Some for the strange, but mostly for the worse.

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  For one thing, Willow sensed a large and powerful presence heading towards them. One that the boy was completely unfamiliar with.

  For another, a large crunch was heard throughout the flowery field as the greater beast of moss and branch was crushed by the rotten roots of the Emerald Bloom, it let out a final groan of pain before fully succumbing to the wounds inflicted on it and passing away.

  Finally, the fiendish flower had dealt with the last of the invaders to its home. All of the lesser beasts and spirits killed or banished, and the greater one lay dead at their proverbial feet. Which meant the bloom could now turn to the instigator of this whole mess.

  The Emerald Bloom wasn’t nearly as damaged as the boy hoped it would be by the end of the conflict. There were a few lacerations weeping a putrescent sap, some petals on its flower were torn or missing, but overall the demon was unharmed in the scale of such things.

  And Willow could feel how eager the old flower was to exact its vengeance on him.

  It initially had some difficulty finding the two individuals harmonized with their environment. However this was the Bloom’s direct domain. It had a connection to every flower in the field and it immediately noticed the two humans moving through them.

  Rotten roots shot from the ground, grabbing both of them and disrupting the technique they were using to hide. Willow forcibly pulled Harmony back into the space in the crown of his head, not wanting his friend to be harmed by the demon in an act of spite.

  Both aunt and nephew were terrified of what would happen next. As the roots began to drag them to the gargantuan flower tears leaked from the boy’s eyes, though he hated himself for it. Heroes were supposed to be brave in the face of danger, not cry when they were caught.

  As they neared their doom, Jieun called out in desperate anger. “Fine, you horrid thing, I’ll bind with you if you let the boy go!”

  Willow felt the monster's malignant glee as it refused his aunt's offer. The child had caused too many problems for it to just let him go.

  “No need for pointless heroics, lady, I’ll take care of this here rotten beasty!” A voice called out with an unfamiliar lilt.

  It was a woman in a wide brimmed hat, standing casually atop the head of the largest snake Willow had ever seen. A long handled pipe rested in her hand and she used it to lazily direct her spirit beast to charge into the clearing.

  The Bloom tightened its grip on the two hostages it held causing the both of them to cry out in pain. Willow felt some of the beast’s rotten concept beginning to creep into both of their pathways which terrified him greatly.

  “None of that now.” The stranger said as she launched herself from her perch and took a deep drag on her pipe. As she neared the two of them she exhaled a cloud of sweet smelling smoke filled with her qi and a concept anathema to rot. Causing the bit of corruption done to the two of them to recede, and the roots holding them to recoil as they tried to flee from the harmful energy.

  The concept held within the smoke reminded Willow of the end of winter, when the snow had melted and the first of their crops had been planted, their shoots first peeking out from the ground. The feeling of life, potential and growth.

  The feeling of Spring.

  The woman casually knocked aside a few skeletal roots grasping for her as her snake friend crashed into the main body of the Bloom.

  The serpent quickly coiled its body around the gargantuan flower, seemingly quite eager for what was about to come next. Any rot the Bloom brought to bear seemed to do absolutely nothing to the beast king snake, as the concept held within its being was eerily similar.

  But quite a bit stronger.

  “Rotter, stop playing with your food and finish them.”

  The great serpent unhinged its jaw and devoured the Emerald Bloom whole, using its mastery of the concept of rot to forcibly draw the demon into its maw, making sure not even a single root remained.

  The demon that had terrorized the Vale was now defeated.

  And yet Willow had failed completely.