The forest that was once green and beautiful was now completely flattened and silent like a barren mountain range.
No sound of animals could be heard, no natural breeze, not even the sound of insects. The entire area after Walterk's battle had become like a part of a dead world; a land that nature itself did not dare approach.
The ground was split for kilometers, mountains had collapsed, trees had turned to ash.
And deep within that massive ruin, the black and golden roots of the cursed tree had spread across the land like ancient serpents.
Some of them extended for kilometers, others had sunk into the earth's cracks, and some moved slowly on the surface… as if a living creature was breathing.
But at the center of all that silence, Daniel sat under the tree, his eyes closed, and the massive light of the fruit shone on his body. The fruit was no longer like before.
Before, it was just a small, translucent object, but now, it had grown to almost the size of a human head.
