This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange-Chapter 643: Success?

Kain watched the soil like it might move if he stared hard enough.

It didn't.

No pulse of light. No rumble of judgment. No voice declaring success or failure. Just warm sun and shadow over dirt.

Bai Lian stood quietly to the side now, hands still trembling faintly at her sides, as if afraid she'd done something irreversible.

Well…maybe she had.

For all they both knew, they'd die in a bloody explosion if their choice was considered to be incorrect.

Kain's gaze drifted from the patch of soil to the pedestals once again. Four seeds remained.

Weaponry. Faith. Unity. Science.

He rubbed the back of his neck and exhaled slowly. He'd have to make his selection from amongst them.

Assuming that Bai Lian hadn't already passed and just hadn't been declared the winner already. The lack of response from the relic was confusing for both of them as to whether or not she'd made the correct choice…

That possibility of already having failed and just not knowing hovered at the edge of his thoughts, but he pushed it away. It didn't matter yet.

Instead, he walked slowly past the pedestals, letting his eyes rest on each in turn.

Weaponry.

It felt like the simplest answer. The cleanest. Fight fire with fire. Use brute force to match brute force.

But Kain shook his head before he even finished that line of thinking.

More weapons wouldn't have changed much.

The military had weapons. The police had weapons. Hell, in some countries, even some of the civilians had enough to start wars of their own. But weapons needed training. Ammo. Coordination. They weren't a solution. Not by themselves.

The problem wasn't a lack of tools.

It was that people didn't know how—or couldn't—use them effectively when everything started crumbling.

"Not that one," he muttered under his breath.

He moved on.

Scientific Innovation.

That one made more sense to him, if only because it was the answer he wanted to believe in. Cold logic. Breakthroughs. Discoveries. He liked systems that could be refined. Structures that built on what came before.

And yeah, maybe it would've worked—if Earth had been given a few more years.

But that wasn't the case.

Scientific discovery wasn't instant. It took time. Testing. Resources. And sometimes, a fair bit of luck. The right person in the right place with the right idea.

Even then, there was no guarantee the research would lead anywhere. There were too many moving parts. Too many ways for it to fall apart.

Kain exhaled again.

Maybe the governments had poured everything they had into labs in those final months. Maybe the best minds worked together around the clock. And maybe… nothing came of it.

He looked at the seed again, brow furrowing.

Not yet.

He kept walking.

Faith.

Kain didn't have much experience with faith.

He'd grown up in a world where people believed in what they could prove, or what they could buy, or what they could kill. But… he'd also seen what happened when people gave up.

Once faith was gone—faith in each other, in the future, in anything—people started dying on the inside long before their bodies caught up.

Maybe that counted for something.

He turned to the final pedestal. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com

Unity.

Kain stared at it for a long time. The word Unity felt incredibly familiar yet unfamiliar.

He doubted it ever truly existed, at least not on a global scale. Not in Earth's history, and it seems like not in its final moments either… Nations bickered while cities fell. Politicians pointed fingers while neighbours looted each other's homes. The people who could have made a difference were too busy preserving their own lives for one day longer in offshore doomsday bunkers.

But maybe…

If they'd worked together sooner—if the scientists, militaries, leaders, and ordinary people had rallied fast enough—it could've delayed the end.

Bought time for the others.

Not victory. Not a cure.

Just time.

Kain stepped back, letting the sunlight warm his shoulders. He looked again to the question carved into the wall.

"What did Earth need most to resist the Abyss?"

Not to win.

Not to destroy it.

Not to emerge victorious.

Just… resist.

Perhaps the answer is just what could have caused the greatest delay?

Kain let out a quiet breath.

"…Then the right answer isn't what I want it to be."

He looked at the scientific seed one last time before moving toward the pedestal holding the seed he would be selecting.

He lifted the golden seed, whatever restrictions in place that prevented the selection of more than one seemed to be gone after the other one was planted.

He then scooped out a handful of dirt not far from where the Magic seed was and shoved the seed in.

Immediately, it was like a flip was switched.

The ground beneath both seeds began to tremble, a low hum building in the soil as golden filaments—root-like strands of light—unfurled beneath the surface. The earth pulsed twice, then again, and then two small saplings burst upward side by side.

One sprouted from the Magic seed—its leaves shimmering faintly with hues of amethyst and sky-blue, its thin trunk curling gracefully as if responding to music only it could hear. The other, from the Unity seed, was thicker, straighter, and more grounded. Its leaves were vibrant and broad, golden-green, and its roots dug deep, fast.

At first, they grew in tandem. Leaves unfurled, roots expanded. But soon… they collided.

The roots, intertwined beneath the dirt, began to twist and push against each other. Kain could see the way the soil bulged and shifted, the way one root system tried to strangle and constrict the other. Above, their branches met in the air, entangling like locked antlers. The Magic sapling shimmered with internal light, trying to stretch skyward… but the Unity tree grew faster. Broader. Stronger.

Its branches reached wider. Its trunk thickened. Within moments, the taller sapling had begun to eclipse its rival.

Soon, the smaller tree was covered in shadow. Without any sunlight, its colour began to fade. Its trunk bent slightly toward the light, then cracked, leaning pitifully to one side.

And then, its light winked out. The Magic tree stopped growing. Its trunk withered. The roots began to retreat.

A winner was declared.