Chapter 10: East of the Broken Pines
They left at dawn.
No fanfare. No breakfast. Just packed gear, sword, staff, snacks, and a lot of very nervous silence.
The eastern forest wasn't part of the village lands. Old folks said the pines there never broke the same way twice. Even the wind changed directions every hour.
Alex looked back once at the hilltop—Still Wind Farm resting under soft light, the memory tree barely swayin.
"Don't burn down while I'm gone," he whispered.
One chicken saluted from the fence.
Jun led the way at first.
"Left foot. Left foot. Don't step on moss. Never the moss," he chanted.
"Why not?" Yun'er asked.
"The moss watches," he replied, dead serious.
Alex whispered to the system, "He makin that up?"
"Yes. But the local moss is carnivorous. So unintentionally correct."
"...Awesome."
Three hours in, the trees thickened.
Their trunks twisted up like old fists, bark black and grey and sometimes streaked with dark red. Pines whispered even without wind.
Then they saw the bones.
Whole trees stripped clean, not chopped—sucked. Wood turned to dust.
One had a robe hangin from a branch.
Not old either.
"System?" Alex said, hand on his staff.
"Spiritual residue detected. Essence drained via soul-level extraction. Method matches: Starborn Maw."
Meilin knelt and touched the soil. "It didn't just kill them. It fed."
Jun gulped. "We're gonna get eaten by a star ghost."
"No," Yun'er said. "We're gonna stop it."
Her eyes burned with a light that was almost silver.
Near the heart of the forest, the air turned syrupy. Not hot—just heavy.
They broke into a clearing.
In the center stood a fallen star.
Not shiny. Not bright.
But broken.
A jagged shard of white stone stabbed halfway into the ground, cracked open like an egg. Black vines coiled from it like veins.
Alex's heart dropped.
Something was inside.
It looked human.
Tall. Pale. Eyes like shattered mirrors.
But its body was half-soul, half-smoke. And its mouth—wide, too wide—opened and closed like it was tryin to remember how to speak.
Yun'er's breath hitched.
"That's not the Maw," she whispered. "That's... what's left of the vessel."
The creature looked up.
"You... are warm..." it said in a voice that didn't use sound.
Jun flinched. "I hate this. I hate every part of this."
Alex stepped forward, staff glowin faint.
"You fallen from sky," he said quietly. "You remember bein human?"
The creature tilted its head.
"I remember... light. And hunger. And endin... everyone."
Then it smiled.
Alex didn't.
"System?"
"Recommendation: Destroy host. Containment no longer viable. Warning: combat will trigger spiritual feedback."
Alex nodded once.
Then muttered, "Let's pluck this star."
The battle started with a flash.
Yun'er vanished—her sword singin through the mist, arcs of lightning trailin behind her.
Meilin circled, drawin seals in the dirt with her blade, ancient characters burnin blue.
Jun threw a turnip bomb.
Yes, really.
Alex charged last, staff hummin like a live wire, roots burstin from the soil to tangle the Maw's legs.
The creature screamed—but it sounded like a choir fallin off a cliff.
It lashed out, black light shreddin trees, turnin leaves to ash midair.
Alex yelled, "System! Assist!"
"Activating Passive Blessing: Farmer's Will."
Suddenly, the land itself fought back.
The trees healed behind them. The soil hardened under their feet. Spirit crops nearby blossomed in rage.
One cabbage launched itself like a cannonball.
Jun shouted, "YES! CABBAGE STRIKE!"
The creature stumbled.
Yun'er dove straight into its core, sword piercin deep.
The Maw screamed.
Then the light inside it broke.
It collapsed, body fallin like smoke in reverse, foldin in on itself.
Silence.
Then a breeze.
A normal one.
They stood in the wreckage, breathin hard.
Yun'er dropped to one knee, shakin.
Alex placed a hand on her shoulder. "It's over."
"...Not really," she said. "That was just one shard."
Meilin added, "The star didn't fall once. It shattered."
Alex sighed.
"Course it did."
Jun sat on a log. "We all gonna die."
Alex grinned.
"Not today, buddy."
Back at the farm, the memory tree stood taller.
And far, far away...
A second shard opened its eyes.