Everything was silent after Meadow said her piece. No one dared to talk in front of Meadow, as she was simply too overpowering.
"I'm sorry," the Lightning Ultimate whimpered. "I was arrogant and wasn't able to see the power before me. Please forgive me," he said quietly and quickly.
Saying sorry as a beast was very humiliating, which was why Azure and Styr, the Grand Elder, always looked at Gravis weirdly. To them, it was like Gravis was flopping over and showing his belly, even though he obviously didn't mean it like that.
"When I only had the appearance of a flower, your arrogance knew no bounds," Meadow said, her voice echoing throughout the horizons. "Yet, now, in front of someone that is an actual threat to you, you keel over and pronounce your weakness."
Meadow retrieved the spear she had pointed at the Lightning Ultimate. "That is the reason why you are an Ultimate and not an Ascender."
The Lightning Ultimate didn't feel humiliated at all. To beasts, it was normal that more powerful beasts established their dominance in front of them. It was only natural. The Lightning Ultimate even went as far as falling on his knees in front of her. He didn't want to die.
"Hmph," Meadow said as her body shrunk. "I haven't shown my power in the last millennia because now, nobody will attack my Empire anymore. Us plants also need tempering. Yet, now that you all know, it's impossible to return to the past."
"So," Meadow said as she was already smaller than a Strider. While her body was shrinking, she also sunk into the earth. "We will now only have four land beast Ultimates. I will take the mantle of the ruler, but most of the time, I will keep myself out of any affairs."
Her head glanced at the other Ultimates, who were watching from a distance. "If anyone has a problem with that, you can tell me honestly."
"But," her voice grew colder. "The next time I reveal my true self, an Ultimate will die," she announced.
Everyone remained silent as Meadow shrunk. Her gigantic feet had flattened an entire Empire. If the fleeing Emperors hadn't informed the beasts in the Empire, they would have all died.
Yet, surprisingly, not a single plant was injured. Even though the earth had been sundered, no plant died. This showed Meadow's incredible control regarding plants.
Her shrinking got faster as the seconds ticked by, and in less than ten seconds, she was a single flower again, but instead of growing on land, she grew inside a crater.
CRRRRR!
Something beneath the earth moved as waves of earth were created. It was like someone was flattening a sand-garden with their hand. After a minute, the craters were gone, and the crevices had vanished.
Meadow's gigantic body had transformed into a gigantic root network again, which had repaired the ground. Yet, in comparison to Heaven, her work was more rudimentary. She couldn't restore things by infusing them with Energy but had to manually move earth around with her roots.
Normally, such a thing required the earth element, but with enough power, one could manually move the earth. It was just way harder to do it this way.
The forests had returned since no plant died. The earth had flattened. Meadow even tried to repair the mountains, but she couldn't remember how everything looked exactly. So, she simply eyeballed it. The terrain had somewhat returned to normal, but it had still been changed forever.
Now, Meadow no longer grew in a crater, but in the middle of a grass field, inside a forest.
As everything calmed down, the Lightning Ultimate released a sigh of fear. He had never felt so afraid or weak in his life. The Striders, the beasts that he couldn't kill, couldn't even resist Meadow. The gulf between their powers was simply too vast.
"Everyone, return," Meadows usual, harmonious voice echoed throughout the world.
"Yes, ruler," the beasts echoed as they flew back to the meeting place for the competition.
'It's really ironic,' Gravis thought. 'I hadn't met many plants worth my attention in this world. Everywhere I looked, I only saw powerful beasts. I thought that this was only natural since this was, well, a natural world. Yet, in a world filled with beasts, a plant has become the undisputed hegemon.'
All the Emperors and Kings returned to the meeting place as they respectfully looked at the flower, their heads lowered. They didn't dare to make any mistakes. After all, they were in front of their ruler.
"Whatchu lookin at!?" Meadow said, making the beasts shiver.
No beast dared to say something.
"I think they're waiting for your command, Meadow," an unknown voice said, shocking the beasts. Someone dared to call their ruler by her name!?
The beasts looked over, and they saw a ten-meter-long, emerald snake. Her scales shone with a calm green light, and nearly all Emperors recognized this beast. This was the Life Ultimate, Sary, one of Meadow's close friends.
"Fuck that," Meadow said. "I ain't interested in this administrative stuff. See? That's why I didn't want to do this shit."
Sary chuckled a bit. "That's what you get for boasting so much," she said with a smile.
Meadow groaned. "What was I supposed to do? That dickhead was basically pissing on my head and telling me it's raining. You ever seen this shit?"
Sary laughed. "Yes, once before."
Meadow groaned again. "Right, that guy. At least that guy had the balls to actually fight me in comparison to this weak dickhead."
The Lightning Ultimate didn't dare to get angry.
Gravis saw this and also chuckled. For a while there, he had felt distant to Meadow. It was like she had been an entirely different being than before. Yet, when Gravis saw the old Meadow return, all his worries disappeared.
"How did you get so good with those weapons?" Gravis asked as he flew closer. "We practiced some of them, but not to this extent."
The surrounding beasts were shocked when Gravis approached Meadow this casually. It was one thing when an Ultimate talked to Meadow like this, but Gravis was only a King.
"Oh, wow," Meadow said sarcastically. "You think I can only train with other beings? Ya think when you're not around, I just put my head in the earth and wait for dust to gather on my ass?"
Gravis chuckled. "I mean, your head currently is in the earth," he said.
Meadow remained silent for two seconds. "Fuck you," she said. "Anyway, I can just make two bodies and make them fight. I'm already perfect with a shield and spear, so I simply made one copy with a spear and one copy with a different weapon. Then, I make them fight each other until the fight becomes even."
Gravis blinked a couple of times. "You can do that?"
"It requires a Law, but yeah, I can do that. Combat experience isn't hard for me to gain. Of course, I can't temper myself like this since I won't be in danger," Meadow answered.
"Meadow," Sary said from the side. "Why don't you introduce him to me? Is he your boyfriend?" she asked with a grin.
"Shut the fuck up, Sary!" Meadow shouted. "Have you seen the guy? He doesn't even have bark nor flowers! What the fuck am I supposed to do with that!?"
"Come on," Sary said with a laugh as she poked the flower with her tail. "Introduce us."
"Ugh," Meadow groaned again. "This is Gravis, the guy that I told you about. You know, the guy that told me about these weird connections between the Laws? That's him. Gravis, this is Sary, the Life Ultimate. She is also super intrusive and doesn't know the concept of boundaries."
Gravis laughed when he heard Meadow's introduction. "Hello, Sary. Nice to meet a friend of Meadow," Gravis said with a light, polite bow.
"Hmmm," Sary hummed with interest as she looked Gravis up and down. Then, she slithered closer until she was around him.
Gravis felt a bit weirded out by Sary's conduct. What's up with her?
"Your scales are beautiful," Sary said in a husky voice. "I've also never seen such a perfectly suited body for battle."
Gravis' felt a cold shiver run down his spine.
"So, are you single?" Sary whispered into Gravis' ear.
"See? No concept of boundaries!" Meadow shouted from in front of Gravis.
Meanwhile, Gravis was wholly weirded out. Right now, the oldest beast in the world, a snake on top of that, was hitting on him.
"Come on, don't be shy," Sary whispered into Gravis' ear.
Gravis' body shook with discomfort.