Pedro was static, unable to comprehend what he saw in front of him. He had killed Leo, taking every precaution to finish him off with a single, precise blow, so why? Why were there two Leos in front of him? Why was he still alive? But the worst part was that now the wolf was furious, growling like never before:

"You won't take away the freedom I fought so hard to get. Not a chance." Both animals advanced at the same time, and both were faster than before. Pedro could still keep up with them, but due to the surprise of their increased speed, he ended up reacting with a delay. He tried to protect himself by controlling the araucaria he had just created, making its roots form a wall between him and his opponent. "NO! No wall will hold me back."

The wolves then separated, each running in a different direction, fleeing into the darkness. And that was bad; Pedro knew very well that wolves are creatures that hunt in packs, especially in the dark. They observe their prey, waiting for an opening, circling and wearing it down until there's no strength left for resistance, occasionally launching bold attacks.

As he had predicted, one of the wolves emerged from the shadows and advanced toward him from behind. The young man reacted quickly and sent the tree roots against the creature. They moved like wooden serpents, ready to strike, but the wolf's agility and dexterity allowed it to easily dodge the attack and return to the darkness. Too concerned with the wolf in front of him, Pedro didn't notice the second animal sneaking up behind him with great care.

But the tree saw it, and by shaking its leaves, it warned the young man of the ambush. The priest dodged the attack just in time. The second wolf evaded the attacks with caution and retreated into the shadows.

"They're really slippery and silent... damn, how is this guy still alive? Either way, I have to try to cover as much area as I can." He took out more of what he had in his pocket—they were seeds. The young man had been collecting tree seeds for a long time as a way to learn about his plant friends. His collection was vast, containing seeds from trees that didn't even exist in the country where he lived.

This was an idea the young man had a while ago; not only did he talk to plants, but he could also control them and even accelerate their growth. This was a technique he had developed after many attempts, but one that would use a lot of his energy if he wasn't careful. In the place where he was, there was no sunlight, no oxygen, let alone nutrients to sustain the plants. The tree could only stay alive thanks to Pedro's power. If he took too long, he would start to weaken physically and become mentally exhausted. But against this opponent, he had no choice; he was cunning and sharp. Until Pedro could understand more about the enemy, he couldn't let his guard down in any way. He then threw more seeds on the ground, creating a cherry tree, bamboo, and various others.

"Alright, girls..." Pedro said in a rush. Before he started feeling any kind of limit approaching, he should try to end this fight quickly. "...Be on the lookout for any attacks from those wolves. Catch them as fast as possible."

The young man climbed onto one of the araucaria roots and tried to elevate himself to the top of the tallest tree he had produced. However, its top was already out of reach of the crystals, becoming pitch black. Pedro saw no advantage in staying up there, so he opted to position himself on the highest and best-lit branch he could find.

Meanwhile, Leo watched from the shadows. That guy was rebuilding the forest again... The young deceived was already starting to feel uneasy, thinking about the sensation of branches scratching his body, the pain of the cuts, the cold, and the fear. There were now a good number of plants around, and they would start chasing him as soon as he moved. The wolf watched calmly, each of them on the opposite edge of the forest, circling and looking for an opening among the plants, a way to advance and defeat the priest.

The two wolves then advanced simultaneously from different sides. The trees didn't hesitate in their reactions and attacked the animals. Leo dodged from every angle the roots came, whether from above, below, or any other direction. The general skillfully avoided the attacks and continued advancing towards the tree where Pedro was standing.

The thicker trees began to converge, forming a wall that isolated one of the Leos. The trunks were too thick and hard to penetrate, and even if he tried to climb, the wood was already forming a dome over him, isolating him from the rest of the world. The bamboo began to grow inside the wooden cage and then bent with such force towards the wolf that it started to create a whip-like effect. One of the bamboos ricocheted off the wolf's head, disorienting him. Another struck one of his hind legs, while another hit his stomach. The wolf that had been trapped began to receive successive attacks, so strong, fast, and effective that he was already beginning to lose consciousness. The bamboo relentlessly continued attacking until the wolf's heart stopped, until there was no more strength, energy, or life in the animal.

The other Leo, however, had already become aware of this wooden cage that could be made. Fear took hold of him again. Once more, the plants wanted to trap him, the trees wanted to dominate and subjugate him. He just wanted to rest, he just wanted... not even he knew what he wanted, not even he knew what his soul longed for. Then, in the midst of his extravagant movements to dodge the attacks, Leo's speed increased. Pedro, who was observing everything from above, didn't know what to think. In an instant, the deceived had become more agile and fast to the point where the priest was having difficulty keeping up.

Then another shock came: from inside that cage of thick trees, a hole opened, and two more wolves came out furious. The Leo who had been killed by the bamboo had divided again, and now Pedro found himself facing three wolves. They were learning from the fight and already spreading out. Seeing how Pedro was up high, the three wolves, at different points of the terrain, began to climb the trees. They now had enough speed to generate the force and friction needed for the climb, jumping from one root to another. The more the trees grew and advanced, the more platforms the animals had to use.

Pedro was already beginning to feel his strength waning, sweating, and starting to get a bit feverish. Giving life force to an entire forest wasn't easy, sustaining them and keeping them strong while directing how they should move was starting to prove extremely tiring and stressful. The three wolves were coming, jumping from side to side with pure adrenaline. Seeing that they were gaining ground, Pedro decided to start forming a wooden dome around himself until the unexpected happened...

The three wolves were coming from different directions, closing in on the enemy, and during the time the wood was molding around the man to protect him, the trio pierced their own hearts with their claws. For a second, the three had killed themselves, but then they regained consciousness and each one divided again, making it so that now there were six wolves. For a moment, they disappeared from Pedro's sight. In the next instant, the wood surrounding the priest was shattered, and several cuts began to appear on his body. One of the wolves grabbed him by the foot and threw him to the ground.

A tree branch caught Pedro in mid-fall, but because the branch was very narrow, the young man still slipped off it and fell to the ground. With his fall, the sound of his right shoulder dislocating was heard, and the priest screamed in pain. This didn't stop Leo at all; once again, more cuts started appearing on Pedro's body, deep cuts. A wolf appeared beside him and bit into his dislocated arm, pulling and cutting even more, and while the man struggled not to lose his limb, another wolf went for his leg, another bit his shoulder. The six of them were biting into some part of him, moving to tear the man's body apart. Pedro fought back, thrashing around, the roots came to his rescue, scaring off the animals and shielding the man.

He was beginning to understand Leo's ability. Every time the animal died, it divided, and every time it divided, its speed increased. One thing he still didn't understand was that the faster Leo got, the stronger his attacks became. Force is the result of the acceleration of a mass—a mere ant could explode a planet depending on how fast it was moving. Every time Pedro killed one of the wolves, he only made Leo more powerful.

At that moment, the general was so fast he could disappear while running. The cuts appeared before the person even realized they were being cut. The trees once again began to wrap around Pedro as quickly as they could, attacking all sides, trying to fend off the opponent.

The young man was bleeding, the wounds were now deep, and his shoulder hurt, burned. He couldn't think with all that pain until one of the trees grabbed his shoulder and brutally put it back in place. Pedro screamed from the depths of his soul, with all the strength he had, feeling like he was losing his arm. The plant apologized, stating how necessary it was to act quickly in that moment.

"I don't care..." said the man through tears. Why was he fighting? Trapped there in the darkness of a wooden sphere protecting him, he began to think about how useless it all was. He was useless; he had no strength, he was getting tired. He felt that if he continued like this, soon his powers would fail, or he would pass out. He couldn't see himself winning, but did he want to win? In the dark, he perceived his emptiness... why did he keep trying? Why did he always keep trying? Why did he always continue believing that things would be different for him? It was always like this: at one moment, everyone leaves, at another, everyone dies, and when he looks around, everything is empty, and he, who lives to find someone, feels empty as well. He had said so much to Helena, that he would buy time, that he would defeat Leo... But he had no strength, he had killed that guy twice, but he keeps coming back, he doesn't fall. If all the generals are like him, what chance do they have? How could he be one of the chosen ones? He was no one, just an empty shell... a nobody that no one cares about.

But the plants would not remain silent, and their voices began to sound inside the sphere, "Awaken, Pedro." The voices echoed. "If you keep this up, you will lose for sure. You are strong, you are someone. You feel empty, but the good thing about emptiness is that it can be filled."

"Filled? With what? I have nothing, I am nothing, that's what others always tell me."

"PEDRO..." For the first time, the trees scolded him. "... do you live your life for yourself or for others? They do not dictate your worth; you do. Even if you found people who value you, your own paranoia would blind you. You need to find your SELF. You are one of the four chosen ones, the green priest of goodness, your emotion is your strength, but if you want to have that strength, you need to start feeling and filling yourself with something, not for others, but for yourself. If your heart is empty, this fight will end here."

"What should I do? I don't know what to do."

"For now, you need to let yourself be dominated by a stronger emotion. If you want to find yourself, you need to first get out of here alive, and that will only happen if you put everything you have into attacking."

"But he won't die even if I..."

"Pedro, don't think, don't pay attention to any omens, forget about where you are, and just feel something, a feeling of your own, and no one else's."

How should he express an emotion? If he took a deep breath, he would calm down... that would make him think, not feel. To feel the emotion of the heart, you must not take a deep breath because then you are controlling and relaxing what you feel. If you remain calm, you don't cry and process sadness, you don't shout and process anger, you don't laugh or get excited and process your joy. Calmness is a servant of reason, not emotion. Nor should he confuse intuition with emotion, for intuition, though it does not follow logic, is also calm, is silent, and emotion is not like that; there must be an explosion for power to bloom.

Thinking, feeling, sensation, and intuition. The four psychic functions according to Jung. Interesting, how among the four, only one is better expressed when the body is agitated.

Feel, Pedro, not a weak emotion, but a strong one, be like Helena for a moment, your anger, your love, your excitement, search deep within your feelings for the strongest one, the one that stands out the most, and let it bloom, and release it.

Then, Pedro remembered Clark, and how that guy had used everyone to humiliate him. At the time, Pedro blamed himself as usual, even after Helena told him it was the redhead's fault, the priest still hadn't felt anything towards him, towards any of them, redirecting all negative feelings towards himself. He never wanted to hurt anyone, so he never considered that the fault could be in the other person, this had hurt him once before, and again, even being innocent, he destroyed himself.

Pedro's heart beat harder for a moment, and he felt a brief magical pulse, but he couldn't say what it was, he just knew that anger was growing inside him, a feeling the man had long since allowed himself to feel. Again, a bad person had humiliated him for a ridiculous reason; the more Pedro thought about it, the humiliation he felt, the pain he went through, the more his anger grew. He was good to people, he just wanted to help them, and he was always humiliated for it...

His heart beat, again, again, and again. With each beat, a new wave emerged, and then, Pedro exploded. The force of his heart pumped power into all the plants around him, they produced more seeds and more trees of all kinds, and the forest turned into a thicket, hunting the six wolves that ran at unreachable speed. The trees now matched the speed and killed the wolves, causing them to split even more. Their speed increased, as did that of the trees. Pedro's nose began to bleed from the stress of using his power so intensely.

There were a few more seconds of storm, until calm arrived. Pedro was exhausted, and apparently, Leo was too. Weak, the priest had no choice but to undo his wooden sphere and see what had happened. Looking outside, he saw dozens of wolves, all staring and growling at him. The man was sweating cold, thinking he had done all that in vain, but to his surprise, one by one, the wolves began to fall to the ground, this time, however, they did not split. The animals kept falling until only three remained standing.

"What... What's happening?" Pedro asked, confused. The remaining Leos looked at him with a mix of admiration and frustration.

"You didn't do that on purpose? Then you're really lucky." The priest continued to look lost, not knowing why nothing was happening now. "I don't create clones out of nowhere, when I die, I literally multiply..." Leo began pointing, one by one, at the trees around him. "... Oleander, Milky Mangrove, Manchineel... without you realizing, you started using more poisonous trees than normal ones. Even if I split, the poison will remain in my system, and I won't be able to go much further after that. But you surprised me; suddenly, the trees simply became relentless, they kept up with my speed, no matter how many times I doubled it. Impressive, Pedro, I underestimated you."

"Does that mean you're giving up?" Pedro said, panting. In truth, he could feel his power fading, the trees were slowly dying, the leaves were starting to fall, the wood was rotting, the priest knew he had to kill Leo to return nature's virtue to the world, so he had to do it quickly before his power ran out. "I'm sorry, man, but I need to finish this now."

The roots advanced, with the last strength Pedro felt he had, all imbued with poison, exhaling their sap, their thorns, and their spores to end that fight once and for all. The three Leos raised, each one, a hand toward the attack.

"I agree. It's time to finish this." Then, the three wolves transformed into three lions, and from the palm of their hands came an attack similar to a cannon of fire, decimating the wood. The fire came at Pedro with full force, who remained speechless. Wasn't it over yet? It was fire; even if he made a shield, the wood wouldn't withstand the attack. One of the plants then grabbed Pedro with its root and threw him out of the attack's path. "You know, wolves move in packs, so in my wolf form, my power multiplies the more divided I am. However... lions usually move alone among lionesses, so in this form..." The lion in the center then released two more fire cannons towards the two copies, disintegrating them completely. "... the less divided I am, the stronger I become."

"You... you've got to be kidding me..."

"Who do you think wins? The sun? Or 1 trillion lions? Now imagine all that power in a single entity." His mane turned into fire, his orange fur gleamed with the dancing flames, Leo was a lion that shone like the sun. "So, Pedro... Do you really think nature can protect you from fire? I think it's time me set you free."

With a snap of the lion's fingers, a wave of flames began to form and grow. No, no, no, it couldn't end like this... in flames? After allowing himself to feel something of his own, after gathering the courage to fight... after finding someone who came back for him. Pedro finally had hope again, before he was searching for one, but now he had realized a chance to find himself. He still felt afraid of being abandoned, still felt that he would be alone again, that everything would go wrong again. But... maybe it was time to have a little faith in himself.

He couldn't fall there, not now, he had no more strength, it wouldn't be possible to fight anymore, and Leo's power was at an advantage. Pedro was afraid of losing what he was starting to have, he was terrified... yes, terror is a strong emotion just like anger, just like love, use it, feel this feeling, Pedro, feel your fear and terror, let it take over you and channel all that emotion into an attack, one last attack, to circumvent the fire, to clear the way, to restore nature, to save the people, and most importantly... to save yourself as well.

Then, channeling everything, Pedro created a plant in the air, generating it with all the strength he had, the largest and most resistant mint branch he could. He channeled the refreshing properties of the plant into a barrier as it advanced. The mint ignited while the fire receded; the two attacks intermingled, affecting each other. However, it was Pedro's tree that pierced Leo's heart, dragging the lion further back. The tree produced a poisonous sap unique to Pedro, a combination of the poison from all the other trees, preventing the general's multiplication.

The fire extinguished, and all the plants fell dead. The battle was concluding, with both combatants on the ground, one exhausted and covered in deep wounds, while the other bore a single, extremely fatal one.

"Argh..." The lion coughed blood, his body having been carbonized by his own fire. He didn't want to die; he was slipping into despair. In fact, he had never escaped despair. "But... damn... I didn't even serve for this." Pedro listened to Leo's words; how could he ignore them? The human was crying as he spoke. "In the end, I was a nobody. There wasn't a person on Earth other than my father who knew about me. I didn't exist even when I was alive... and after I died, I thought I had made a difference in something and saved everyone... but I'm going to die being a nobody... without a single friend."

"Hey... I don't know who you are, Leo... but if there's one thing I learned fighting against you, it's that the emptiness within us, we create and can fill... Who decides if we are someone or not, if we exist or not, is not others; it is us who decide that. You're crying at this moment, which means you're not empty; you're feeling something, therefore you exist." The lion's consciousness slowly began to fade, and he pondered Pedro's words.

Did he exist? But then why did he feel as if he hadn't existed? The realization hit him that there were people who had tried to get close to him, but he had said nothing. He had made himself invisible even when he had the chance.

"Guys... Fernanda..." the lion murmured to the air. "... please, be free."

In an instant, the lion's body became a completely green light, and this light shone, shone, and shone, as strong as a beacon, and it began to spread. On the ground, it made grass grow, in parts of the world, rivers and seas began to flow, the sky turned blue again, the green light reconstructed the Earth itself, space and constellations, restored oxygen, natural gravity, and relocated humans, still destroyed on the ground. The virtue also reconstructed the buildings and structures that once were in their respective places; nature returned with Leo's fall, just as the monk had said would happen. Pedro was carried away by the green light, and not just him, all the other 7 humans and 19 deceived ones were absorbed by the light and taken to different areas.

When the green light ceased to shine over the universe and dissipated, everyone was confused.

"No..." Fernanda cried seeing the blue sky. She wouldn't lie that she was happy to see nature again, she had nothing against it, but... seeing it again meant that... "Leo, NO!"

Her bad premonition was correct; a general fell, a friend fell, a victim fell, a deceived one fell. And she too, fell to her knees in tears.

Lalá, in another area, felt something different:

"Leo fell? They really underestimated these humans..." said the small child with a fallen but puzzled expression. "... Yeah, it looks like we'll have to share the pedestal again. Don't you think, Lily?"