Chapter 62 – "Blades and Burdens"
> "When there's a blade, there's always a burden."
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Scene 1 – Morning Steel
Ash-choked light over the scarred training field. Trees half-burned. The clang of wood.
Maiku: "Again."
Dion (sweat down his jaw): "I've done it 200 times."
Jakku (arms crossed): "Then it should be easier the 201st."
A spin. A cross-step. Two wooden blades hum through the air—one in each hand.
Reen (quietly, to herself): "He's ambidextrous…"
Maiku (low, unreadable): "And faster than I was at his age."
No one claps. No one smiles. The fire hasn't burned out of him yet.
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Scene 2 – The Weight of Blades
Dust settles on Ether. Dion kneels before two twin swords.
Maiku: "A sword doesn't make you strong. It reminds you of what you've lost."
Flash images: The Ashroot campfire. Laughter. Screams. Fire. Falling. Silence. His family. Dead.
Dion (fingers on hilts): "Then I'll carry them all. I'll carry you."
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Scene 3 – The Gauntlet
Canyon maw. Echoing howls. Twenty mutated bears. Stone fangs. Eyes like blood moons.
Maiku: "This is your test."
Dion (inhales): "Am I ready?"
Jakku (smirking): "Only one way to find out."
Gift: "Don't die. I mean it."
Dion enters. No roar. No fear.
Flash—Ether blade arcs. Twenty strikes. A second per kill.
Jakku (barely audible): "Ten seconds..."
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Scene 4 – The Stare
Blood pools. Dion still standing. Breathing steady.
A mirage: Mai Heiko in the mist. Smiling.
Dion (to himself): "I'll make it worth it. All of it."
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Scene 5 – Broken Soil
Ruined village. Bones in rows. The Root Avatar walks barefoot.
Root Avatar: "Soil is patient. Blood makes it bloom."
He lifts his arms.
Forty Root-Fleshed rise. Twisted. Smiling. Hungry.
Narrator: "He doesn't build legions. He grows them."
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Scene 6 – The Mission
Ruins. Blood-soaked air. Dion walks between Maiku and Jakku.
Reen: "This was a safehold once. Root feared it."
Gift: "Before the sky screamed. Before everything burned."
They reach the gate. Blood still warm.
Reen: "We're not alone."
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Scene 7 – Blade vs Rot
From above—a Root-Fleshed drops. Screeching.
Dion meets it. Blades flash. Seven strikes in a second.
It shrieks—still standing.
Maiku: "The heart! Aim for the heart!"
Dion slashes—misses.
It lunges—
Jakku (diving in, blade first): "Try someone else, root freak."
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Scene 8 – The Lesson
Dion kneels. Shoulder bleeding.
Dion: "I thought I had it…"
Maiku: "You didn't. Now you almost do."
Jakku: "Talent dies fast without grit."
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Scene 9 – Beneath the Planet
Deep below the ruined village.
The True Root Body curls into itself. Bark shedding. New flesh pulsing.
Narrator: "The Root doesn't hide. It gestates."
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Scene 10 – The Map
Campfire light. Reen draws in ash.
Red zones spread like veins.
Reen: "He's not moving."
Gift: "He's spawning."
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Scene 11 – The Fire Inside
Midnight. Wind howls. Dion trains under starlight.
Blade sparks. Bleeding palms. Steady breath.
Maiku (watching from the shadows): "He doesn't quit. He doesn't break."
A beat.
Maiku (lower): "He's not like us. He might be better."
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Scene 12 – What's Coming
The Root Avatar kneels in a grove.
Root Avatar: "Sleep, True Root. Your army waits."
The forest behind him quakes—trees twist into fanged rot.
Final Line:
> "One trains beneath the stars. One festers beneath Planet Julio. One with twin blades. One with endless roots. And soon... they will meet."
To Be Continued....
Narrator :
> "When there's a blade, there's always a burden."
In Chapter 62, the battlefield quiets—but only on the surface. Beneath every silent step, a storm is swelling.
This is not a chapter of grand battles or cities falling. It's a chapter of weight—of what it means to carry. The burden of the dead. The expectations of the living. The fire inside a boy named Dion, and the scars of a man named Maiku.
We watched a sword rise, not from a forge—but from fire, sweat, and ghosts. Dion isn't a chosen one. He's a forged one. Forged in loss, hardened by repetition, tested against death in the canyon gauntlet. Twenty strikes. Ten seconds. Not perfect. But proof.
While Dion trains, the world bleeds. The Root Avatar does not rest. It grows. Underground, the True Root Body doesn't sleep—it prepares. Every death is a seed. Every ruin, a nursery.
There are no cheers in this chapter. Only grit. Only warnings.
Because when one boy sharpens his blade under stars, another god sharpens his army in rot.
And so the quiet before the next storm ends not with triumph—but with two truths: One has chosen to fight. The other has chosen to devour.
Soon, they will meet.
> This chapter wasn't about who wins.
It was about who lasts.
And Dion is still standing.
To Be Continued…