The Corrupted Gift

Weeks passed. The Warding Greenhouse initiative was a resounding success. Three more greenhouses were constructed at key locations across the kingdom, each one planted with Ren's 'Void-Bane Thorns' and connected to his farm's conceptual network. Aethelgard was fortifying its reality, creating a "garden wall" against the void.

The reports from the Dragon's Peak, however, grew strange. The Dragon Elder, who was supposed to be their primary lookout, became uncommunicative. His reports on cosmic phenomena were vague and sporadic. The Archmage attributed it to the creature's ancient, mercurial nature. Ren, busy with his work, didn't give it much thought.

One day, a magnificent sight appeared in the skies above Oakhaven. It was the Dragon Elder himself, the first time he had left his mountain peak in over a century. He was a colossal being, his scales the color of molten gold, his wingspan blotting out the sun. He circled the farm once before landing with a ground-shaking thud at the edge of Ren's domain, careful not to crush any crops.

The villagers stared in terrified awe. Ser Kaelen, who happened to be present, drew his sword instinctively. Lyra stood poised, her eyes narrowed with suspicion. Dragons were beings of immense pride and power; a social call was unheard of.

Ren, however, simply wiped his hands on his trousers and walked out to greet his guest. "Hello! It's an honor to have you visit. You're even bigger up close."

The Dragon Elder lowered his massive head, his golden eyes fixing on Ren. The faint, violet light within them was carefully concealed.  his voice was a deep rumble, not spoken, but felt in the chest. * *

"Thanks," Ren said cheerfully. "I try my best."

 the Dragon continued. * *

He gestured with his great snout to a large, pulsating geode clutched in his claws. It was a beautiful thing, its crystalline structure glowing with a soft, internal emerald light. * *

It was an incredible gift, an artifact of immense power.

Ren's eyes lit up. "Wow! That's amazing! Thank you so much!" His pure, unadulterated enthusiasm was disarming.

"Be careful, Ren," Lyra whispered, stepping up beside him. "There is something about him... His aura feels... dissonant." Her senses were screaming that something was wrong, but she couldn't pinpoint it.

Ren, ever-trusting, saw only a powerful ally offering a generous gift. "It's alright, Lyra. He's on our side."

He accepted the Heartstone, which the Dragon gently placed on the ground. The moment Ren touched it, he felt the immense, raw life energy within. It was potent, chaotic, and powerful. But deep within its core, so faint he almost missed it, was a tiny, discordant note. A whisper of wrongness. He dismissed it as a natural impurity.

 the Dragon advised. * * He then gave a curt nod, spread his magnificent wings, and launched himself into the sky, disappearing towards his mountain peak.

"What a nice guy," Ren said, admiring the glowing geode. "Okay, my most powerful life-giving seed..."

He thought for a moment. His 'King's Melon' was potent, but its primary function was bliss. His tomatoes were restorative. He needed something that purely represented Life itself. An idea struck him. He went to his seed stash and retrieved a very special seed he had created but had not yet planted. It was a seed born from the 'Sunstone' wheat, the 'Blue-Leaf' carrot, and a single petal from a 'Moonpetal' flower, fused together by his own divine energy. It was a seed that represented the synthesis of all his best work. He called it the "Seed of Harmony."

He planted the seed in the ground right next to the Dragon's Heartstone. He watered it.

The reaction was explosive. Fed by the raw, amplified power of the Heartstone, the Seed of Harmony erupted from the ground. It grew not into a vine or a stalk, but into a small, elegant tree. Its bark was smooth and silvery, its leaves were a vibrant green that glittered with golden flecks, and its branches were laden with small, glowing, silver-white blossoms that chimed softly in the breeze. The Tree of Harmony became the new centerpiece of his farm, radiating an aura of profound peace and vitality that dwarfed even his tomato patch.

[Divine Plant Created: 'The Harmony Tree' (Mythical)]

[Effect: Radiates a powerful aura of pure, ordered life energy. Promotes rapid growth, soothes aggression, and purifies its surroundings. Acts as a massive amplifier for the farmer's domain.]

Ren was overjoyed. "It worked! It's beautiful!"

For three days, everything was perfect. The Harmony Tree's aura made the entire farm feel more vibrant than ever. The villagers felt a sense of peace and well-being just by being near it.

But the Dragon's gift was a Trojan horse. The 'wrongness' Ren had felt was a sliver of the Overmind's psychic poison, a corruption code hidden within the Heartstone's raw power. And for three days, it had been secretly, subtly twisting the pure life energy that the Harmony Tree was absorbing and radiating.

On the fourth day, the corruption took root.

It started at the base of the beautiful tree. A single, ugly, blackish-purple vein appeared on the silvery bark. The clear, chiming sound of its blossoms became discordant and jarring. The aura of peace it radiated became tinged with something else—an undercurrent of frantic, uncontrolled growth, like a cancer.

Ren felt it instantly, a sickening lurch in his connection to his own farm. He rushed to the tree. The single dark vein was spreading, branching out, pulsing with a malevolent violet light. The leaves began to curl and blacken at the edges.

[WARNING! WARNING! Divine Plant 'The Harmony Tree' has been infected by a 'Conceptual Cancer'!]

[Source: Tainted amplification from the 'Heartstone of the Primal Earth.']

[Current Status: The tree's life energy is being warped, its output shifting from 'Ordered Life' to 'Chaotic, Tumorous Growth.']

[Projected Outcome: The tree will become a 'Blight-Heart,' a self-sustaining font of corrupted life that will twist and deform everything in your domain, turning your farm into a monstrous garden of horrors.]

"No," Ren whispered, his face pale.

The corruption was spreading. One of the nearby 'Sun's Fury' tomato plants began to tremble, its fruit swelling and turning a sickly purple, covered in pulsing pustules. A 'Blue-Leaf' carrot shot out of the ground, transformed into a writhing, tentacle-like root.

His own power, amplified by the tree and twisted by the Heartstone, was being turned against him. His beautiful, peaceful farm was starting to devour itself from the inside out.

The Dragon's betrayal was complete. He hadn't attacked the farm with death or void. He had attacked it with its own life. And Ren was now faced with a terrible choice: find a way to cure the incurable, or destroy his own greatest creation before it destroyed everything he held dear.