CHAPTER 50: ASHES OF THE BLOOM
"To grow something new, the forest must burn."
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Scene 1: Before the Final Bloom
Jiro floats—a scar between worlds. Wind peels back reality like bark. The Bloomstorm coils around him—an unnatural womb of thunder and spores.
The crew stares, hands shaking. But Florin steps forward.
Her lips tremble. Her eyes don't blink.
Florin (low, cracking): "You're still in there."
Tears fall like glass.
Jiro tilts his head. A flicker in his eye—human? No, hollow.
Florin rushes forward. Ether gleams.
Two strikes. Two screams—one hers, one silent.
BOTH HANDS SEVERED.
He doesn't scream. He just shatters—like trust.
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Scene 2: The Bloom Falters
Something cracks—louder than bone. With his hands gone and heart betrayed, the Bloomstorm trembles. Spores rot midair.
Jiro, blood spiraling, speaks like a ruin:
Jiro (hoarse): "I let you in... and you cut me out."
His body decays as he floats—what a site the Withered King decaying. Pieces falling like ash. Like petals.
The Bloom spirals out of sync. Dying and birthing chaos.
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Scene 3: The Last Assault
Jakku : "Attack!!"
Jakku moves first—silent, eyes burning like dead suns.
Focus Vision activated—although tired and worn out he pushes on. He cuts Jiro piece by piece.
And then
FLASH!
Jakku slices all the skin off of Jiro's body. All that's left—muscles, bones, tendons and internal organs.
Maiku Sky-Fire Ascendancy Mode activated. Punches relentlessly tearing Jiro's body apart.
Bones crushed. Muscles torn. Barely anything left.
Gift, fights like he's praying—each motion a psalm, each strike a goodbye.
He slices at internal organs relentlessly. No mercy.
Matthew finishes it off using his Gold fire—burning Jiro leaving some organs black.
Finally, he uses his diamond cutting claws and rips everything off of him until air and light go into a crushing silence.
Jiro crumbles. He's gone. No pulse. No heartbeat. No cells still living.
DEAD...
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Scene 4: Jiro's End
He kneels in midair. Skin cracked like an old statue. Eyes dimmer than void-glass.
Jiro (fading): "I… wasn't meant to live like this…"
Gift (quietly): "And you weren't meant to die like this either."
He exhales one final Bloom. Then collapses.
The Bloom dies.
So does the sky.
Someone unknown becomes human again.
LORIAN.
Maiku felt it but he plays it off as nothing.
And then silence
The world falls quiet.
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Scene 5: The Body and the Code
They gather the broken thing that once was Jiro.
Still warm. Still… humming?
The codeword is whispered—an apology encrypted in memory.
They begin the Codeweave—Jiro's corrupted essence and Reen's Pulse.
A blend of betrayal and resurrection.
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Scene 6: The Soul Erased
Matthew holds something no one can see. A soul. Small. Still. Silent.
We never find out whose.
He crushes it in one hand.
Matthew (whispers): "Forgive me."
The ritual begins.
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Scene 7: Resurrection
Light bends wrong. Sound cries out. The body spasms—rebirth, not healing.
And then… stillness.
Reen's eyes open. Not glowing. Just tired.
Reen (soft): "You brought me back… but who paid?"
No one answers.
Except Matthew.
He breaks.
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Scene 8: Grief in the Silence
Jiro is buried in the crater his death carved.
No prayers. No music. Just dirt.
Florin places a single petal on his chest.
Gift whispers a name only Reen hears.
The planet breathes again.
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Scene 9: The Aftermath
Julio survives—but it's broken.
Sky: shredded. Soil: infected with Bloomroot veins.
Reen (gazing out): "This was never the end. The Bloom wanted this. It wrote this."
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Scene 10: Suicide for a Friend
Florin falls. Crying, shattering. The betrayal claws her throat long before the blade does.
Then—
She raises the sword.
And dies with a whisper.
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Scene 11: The Afterlife
Florin awakens to peace.
Grass. Real grass. Flowers—untainted.
No metal. No AI. No voices in her head. Just wind.
Calm.
She calls for Irogi.
Silence.
A robed figure tells her:
Robed Figure : "He's in Damena. A place of silence. Darkness. A cell for souls that can't stop screaming."
She falls apart—until a soldier lifts her up.
Soldier : "You reached Shlum Veharmonia," he says.
"You saved the world."
She tries to argue. But the arms around her hold her still.
They don't care how.
She saved it.
And now… she can rest.
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Scene 12: Reen's Warning
Reen decrypts the last of Jiro's Bloomcode.
Reen (cold): "We didn't kill the threat.
We lit its fuse—The Root is coming. And he's coming to haunt us. "
Suddenly—something stirs. A remnant. A shape. The True Root Body. It tears itself from Jiro's corpse.
And runs.
Far.
Unknown.
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Scene 13: Departure
They leave. Fewer than they arrived.
Changed.
Fractured.
Behind them: a broken world, a buried person—a former person, and a question unanswered.
Final Line:
> "They burned the forest to save a spark.
But in fire's echo… something deeper stirred.
The roots go deeper than they ever imagined."
Narrator (Voice Over):
> "Chapter 50… 'Ashes of the Bloom.' A chapter not of triumph—but of consequence. A forest burned, not in rage, but in mourning."
> "Jiro, once the axis of hope, becomes the fracture line between salvation and damnation. His unraveling is not just death—it's the combustion of trust, the withering of all things that once bloomed bright."
> "Florin… oh, Florin. Her hands sever more than flesh—they sever history. And the crew, each driven by love, fury, and exhaustion, dismantles not just a monster—but a memory. They do not kill Jiro. They undo him."
> "Matthew holds a soul in his hand—perhaps Jiro's, perhaps another's. It doesn't matter. He crushes it. And in doing so, breaks something inside himself."
> "Reen returns… but not whole. Resurrection always demands payment. And the chapter doesn't hide the price. Florin pays it with her life. With her scream. With her silence."
> "Yet in the afterlife, peace dares to exist. Not justice. Not reunion. Just… peace. A meadow untouched by war. A soldier's arms. A rest earned, but never sought."
> "And still, the Bloom was never the true threat. It was only the flower. The Root—deep, hidden, ancient—was always waiting. Watching. Preparing."
> "This chapter closes with a whisper. A warning. A remnant running far. A forest gone, and yet—roots moving in the ashes."
> "They thought they saved the world. But some things… were meant to stay buried."
> "And now… the roots stir."