Gardener of Eden

Chapter 147: Chapter 147: The Elemental Paragon

The moment Rowan reached out and selected [YES] on the floating blue prompt, the ancient stone altar at the center of the nexus let out a deep, earth-shaking thrum.

The four elemental cores—Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind—locked flush into their respective pedestals. Vibrant, blinding streams of crimson, azure, terracotta, and emerald mana erupted from the slots, shooting straight into the stone archway of the central portal. Instead of opening a standard gateway to Floor 9, the converging light expanded into a swirling vortex of raw elemental force that swept across the entire nexus platform.

A new system message materialized in brilliant golden script across everyone’s field of vision:

[Hidden Trial Initiated: The Four-Fold Synthesis]

[Difficulty: Tier 2]

[Condition: Defeat the Amalgamated Elemental Paragon within 15 Minutes.]

[Completion Reward: A-Grade Item & Title ]

”A-grade items!!” Mirei grinned, her eyes gleaming as she instantly pulled a fresh frost-tipped shaft from her quiver. ”I knew accepting this was the right call!”

”A hidden trial...” Princess Lyra murmured, her eyes wide as she drew her blade, her golden royal aura flaring around her plate mail. ”Imperial records never mentioned this because it has never happened before!”

Caelen rested the massive blade of the Edge of the First Warden over his shoulder, a competitive smirk breaking across his face. ”Uncharted or not, we just hit Level 20. It’d be a waste if we didn’t test our stats on something big.”

The nexus around them dissolved, pulling Squad 07 into an isolated pocket-dimension arena. The floor beneath their boots turned into a dynamic mosaic of shifting petrified stone hovering over an ethereal sea, while roaring columns of fire and violent gales formed a ring of death around the perimeter.

At the center of the domain, the four elemental streams coalesced into a towering, four-armed titan forged of molten earth, rushing torrents, dense obsidian armor, and crackling atmospheric lightning.

Rowan adjusted the brim of his Enchanted Straw Hat and planted the Hoe of the World-Tiller firmly into the mosaic floor. His Gardener of Eden domain authority surged outward, binding the shifting terrain into an immovable foothold for his team.

”Look alive, everyone,” Rowan said coolly, a subtle grin touching his lips. ”Let’s show this trial why Squad 07 earned that A-Tier loot.”

***

The previous two hidden trials Squad 07 had braved on lower floors had been brutal, lonely affairs—isolating each member in private phantasmal dimensions to test their individual limits, resolve, and personal power.

But as the Amalgamated Elemental Paragon raised its four massive arms, an intricate weave of luminous magic circles flared beneath all six party members simultaneously. A collective system aura swept over them, linking their health pools, mana channels, and status resistance into a single shared network.

This was a true team trial. There were no separate pocket domains or solo duels here. The trial demanded absolute squad synchronization, where a mistake from one member would echo through the entire group, but perfect coordination would multiply their collective strength fourfold.

”Four arms, four distinct elemental affinities,” Princess Lyra noted, her golden royal aura resonating with the group bond as her longsword gleamed. ”It’s targeting our entire formation at once!” 𝑓𝑟ℯℴ𝓂

The Paragon struck with terrifying harmony. Its lower left arm—forged of petrified basalt—slammed into the shifting stone arena to unleash a cascading earth fissure straight toward Seraphina and Mirei. At the exact same time, its upper right arm whipped a scorching jet of liquid magma at the vanguard, while its upper left unleashed howling vacuum blades to split their defensive line.

Squad 07 moved not as six individuals, but as a single, flawless organism.

Rowan didn’t wait for the earth fissure to reach the backline. Raising the Hoe of the World-Tiller, he drove its shaft deep into the ground, channeling his Gardener of Eden domain power across the shared squad link. A dense, petrified root lattice erupted beneath the party’s boots, absorbing the ground shockwave and locking everyone securely into the shifting arena floor.

”Barney, take the magma thrust! Caelen, Lyra, cross-blade the wind strike!” Rowan commanded, his calm authority anchoring the squad’s tempo.

Barney bellowed a challenge, raising his vanguard shield to intercept the molten stream, the kinetic damage absorbed and distributed smoothly across their linked defenses. Caelen’s heavy blade and Lyra’s radiant sun-mana intersected in mid-air, shattering the incoming vacuum blades into harmless gusts. Behind them, Mirei and Seraphina fired in perfect unison—a volatile alchemical flask followed immediately by a piercing frost arrow that shattered the Paragon’s defensive shell.

Unlike their past solitary struggles, Squad 07 was fighting as one unified force, turning the 15-minute trial timer into a ticking countdown for the titan’s downfall.

Rowan dropped into a low, channeled stance, wrapping both hands firmly around the wooden shaft of the Hoe of the World-Tiller. Mana surged down his arms in bright emerald ribbons, humming with raw energy as he held his position for a heavy 1.5-second cast.

The Amalgamated Elemental Paragon roared, raising its massive basalt and magma arms to crush the party under a combined elemental wave. But before the titan could release its strike, Rowan drove his tool deep into the stone floor with absolute, unyielding force.

[Earthbreaker Plough: Celestial Furrow] erupted across the trial arena.

A massive 30-meter forward cone violently detonated, upheaving stone, soil, and deep bedrock into a roaring, churning sea of jagged earth and crushing boulders. The unstable, floating mosaic platforms were forcibly smashed together and bound in a terrifying surge of domain power.

The monstrous Paragon staggered as the upheaval swallowed its lower limbs. Dense, petrified slabs of bedrock clamped shut around its elemental joints, grinding into its armor and locking the titan firmly in place. Its immense momentum was completely shattered, restricting its movements and trapping its four massive arms in an awkward, overextended balance.

”It’s completely immobilized!” Caelen shouted, his eyes blazing. ”Don’t let up!”

With Rowan holding the titan firmly in check, Squad 07 unleashed their full Level 20 offense. Barney surged forward first, slamming his vanguard shield against the trapped titan’s knee to shatter its outer basalt casing. Capitalizing on the breach, Caelen and Princess Lyra leaped into the air side-by-side. The Edge of the First Warden swept in a devastating arc alongside Lyra’s sun-blazoned longsword, their combined blades slicing deep into the titan’s exposed chest plates.

From the backline, Seraphina shattered an alchemical flask of hyper-corrosive acid directly across the Paragon’s upper joints, stripping away its remaining elemental armor. Behind her, Mirei drew her bow to its absolute limit, her Level 20 heightened perception locking onto the newly exposed core plexus beneath the crumbling stone.

Three frost-coated shafts whistled through the quieted air, punching straight into the titan’s immobilized form as the 15-minute trial timer rapidly ticked down in Squad 07’s favor.

Trapped within the crushing vice of Rowan’s Earthbreaker Plough: Celestial Furrow, the titan thrashing in fury shifted its weight. Its upper left arm—a churning vortex of high-pressure abyssal water—began to swell with blinding aqua mana, preparing to unleash a catastrophic hydro-cannon strike across the entire platform.

”Seraphina, freeze that arm!” Rowan shouted above the grinding stone, his gaze locked on the surging elemental aura.

Seraphina moved instantly. Reaching to her bandolier in a single fluid motion, she pulled out a specialized, pale-blue Cryo-Freeze Flask and hurled it straight at the gathering vortex.

The vial shattered against the elbow joint of the aquatic limb. In less than a second, a flash-freeze reaction swept through the swirling torrent. The surging water crystallized instantly into a brittle, solid pillar of jagged glacial ice, locking the titan’s high-tier attack mid-channel.

Before the elemental could attempt to break free, Caelen launched himself off Rowan’s petrified root lattice.

Soaring high into the air, Caelen gripped the Edge of the First Warden with both hands, his Level 20 physical stats flaring across his muscles. With a guttural battle cry, he brought the massive greatsword down in a devastating overhead cleave.

CRACK!

The heavy blade slammed directly into the center of the flash-frozen limb. The sheer kinetic shockwave shattered the massive arm into millions of glittering ice shards and pulverized stone, exploding across the arena like a blast of frozen hail.

The Amalgamated Elemental Paragon shrieked in resonant elemental agony as the sudden destruction of its primary casting arm sent violent shockwaves through its remaining structure, exposing its core and leaving it completely defenceless against Squad 07’s final assault.