Price for a miracle

The StagStag returned to the cave on the sunset of the fifth day. His entrance was announced from a thick white fog rising from the ground. Where the last sun rays met the fog, the StagStag rose like an incorporeal ghost.

Surrounded by fog and rainbow, the skeletal animal looked as divine as the sun and moon. However, as its eyes observed the cave, its bony jaw almost fell.

Replacing the barren cave, a tropical jungle had appeared. Starting from the roof, where globular glowing fruits hung from flowery vines. Then moving down to the walls, entirely swallowed by a rainbow cornucopia of mosses and other vegetative life. And finally, the floor, a continuous carpet of long grass with the intermittent bush waved gently with the breeze.

On the opposite extremity of the cave, surrounded by moon moss, Azorius, focused as he was on its task, didn't turn around and carefully guided the mana into a new plant of his design.

He had noticed how some of the plants needed more water than the moss, so he had engineered a long-rooted plant that would follow the water veins in the rock and reach their source. Once there, it would transport the water to the cave.

Azorious called this plant the Acquaroot.

He carefully guided the roots to grow in a specific direction upwards. As the humidity grew, he knew he was close to his goal. Water had already begun flowing when a rude intruder broke his concentration by stomping on the rocks by the entrance.

Annoyed, he turned around, but his mood did a 180 when he saw the phantom Stag.

"I see you made yourself quite cozy." The StagStag opened. His purposeless nostrils breathed in the moist air and gave an appreciative nod.

"Yeah. Well, I figured I might as well explore all I could do before you came back." Azorious replied. He felt elated at finally speaking to an intelligent being that could answer back.

*worm noises* Sir Wormy, napping on his right shoulder, rebutted his false claim.

"Sorry, little buddy, I meant to answer back with words." Azorious apologized to Sir Wormy. Appeased, the worm went back to sleep.

"You have clearly passed the test, and with flying colors, and guess who came with me?" The StagStag nodded, and Elaria's coffin appeared right above the grass. Its transparent glass showing a peaceful woman still waiting for her azure prince to wake her up.

Azorious eyes went as wide as his mouth, and he took an instinctive step forward.

"Is she?" He asked with an anxious and hopeful expression, his eyes moving up and down her body, looking for a sign of life.

"No, not yet." The StagStag shook its head. Azorious's expression turned downcast almost as quick. "But soon, if you can pass the next test." It then added with an almost mischievous grin.

Azorious almost jumped up. "Soon?" He asked with glittering eyes. "Finally!" He thought.

"Yes, it's finally time for you to earn the power I gave you." The StagStag explained and then sent an image to Azorious's mind.

A bustling city appeared from a bird's eye. "This Is Renna, the capital of the republic your little cave is currently in."

The image moved to a montage of how the people lived and worked, farmhands, blacksmiths, and mages. The usual society he had come to know.

Then something he had never seen appeared. Boomsticks that could launch projectiles with no need for magic, just a dark powder. Carriages that could move from a lit fire in their belly. Buildings where enormous mechanisms moved autonomously and churned coal and metal.

"They are entering the industrial age, a scourge that the sapient races always carry with them, like a disease. Soon their hunger for resources will grow boundless. They will drag the oceans and cut the forests, dig the mountains and choke the sky with smoke. Nature will quickly die, and soon after, they will too. Too busy with their fancy toys to realize their cost."

The StagStag spoke slowly, and images of other worlds and civilizations passed quickly, each growing at the expense of their worlds and then facing cataclysm after cataclysm.

"From now on, you will be the Guardian of Nature of this world. Protect its natural resources from over-exploitation, and curb humanity's numbers so that they won't starve the world to feed themselves."

The StagStag spoke solemnly. But Azorious felt a foreboding sensation.

"What do you mean curb humanity's numbers?" He asked doubtfully.

"They are too many and will head to extinction. The only way to save them and this world is by reducing their numbers. Three quarters should be enough." The Stag replied in a manner of fact to a horrified Azorious.

"You mean I should kill them?" He asked, feeling sick to his stomach.

"Yes. A great cleansing is inevitable, just like a wildfire. Sometimes the only option to go forward is to rebuild from the ashes. The survivors will recover in time, and with lesser numbers, their advancement won't deplete the world around them. By the time their technology is sufficiently advanced, they will be free to repopulate as they see fit."

Its cold, calculative logic deepened the fear Azorious felt when looking in the ghostly green flames it had for eyes.

A big decision awaited him.

Option A: He accepts. From what he understood of his powers, a genocide wouldn't take him a long time. Localized crop failures and pestilence would get rid of most, and then engineered beasts would mop up the survivors. But could he live with the guilt and the blood of so many innocents on his conscience?

Option B: He refuses. He would have made a powerful enemy in the form of the Stag. Besides, he might never learn how to wake up Elaria. The whole reason he had to still draw breath.

Option after option flashed through his mind. Then, finally, after almost an hour of silence where the Stag looked at him, annoyed at his uncertainty Azorious opened his eyes.

He finally decided.

"When we met, I said I would do anything to wake up Elaria."