Mist rose from the lake, wrapping around Raine's ankles like living ribbons guiding him toward the island at its center. With each step he took, the water solidified into crystalline stepping stones, which shattered into countless glowing specks once he passed. Ravenna followed close behind. Her mechanical heart had completely transformed—its metal casing shed, revealing a web-like structure woven from golden branches. The triple-ring sigil at its core grew brighter as they neared the Mother Tree.
"Wait..." Ravenna suddenly gripped Raine's shoulder, her arm creaking under the strain. She looked down at her left arm—tiny golden veins, identical to those on Raine, had silently appeared beneath her skin.
"My body... is being reshaped."
Raine turned sharply, his pupils contracting. A vivid green halo had formed around Ravenna's irises, and more terrifyingly, slender crystalline clusters had sprouted from the nape of her neck—not the dark purple like his own, but translucent pale gold.
"The Primordial Life God is reconstructing your body," Raine's voice echoed strangely, as if multiple voices spoke in unison. He reached out to touch the clusters on Ravenna's neck; sparks burst the moment his fingertips made contact.
"It's adapting to the symbiosis of human and deity..."
Suddenly, the withered Mother Tree at the island's heart shook violently. Its bark peeled away, revealing a flowing green light inside. All the glowing filaments from the floating buildings stiffened simultaneously, and the air filled with a humming like plucked strings. Raine felt the four forces inside him begin to rotate—not tearing apart, but meshing together like finely tuned gears.
His vision split into four distinct perspectives:
The left eye saw the magical spectrum—each golden branch of Ravenna's mechanical heart extending countless light threads, connecting with the Mother Tree;
The right eye saw the flow of energy, the four colors of power forming a closed loop between them;
A third perspective hovered above, revealing the entire lake as a massive triple-ring magic array;
And the final perspective twisted inward, peering inside his own chest to find not a heart beating, but a swirling nebula.
"Raine!" Ravenna's scream pulled him back to reality. She stared at her left hand in horror—her fingertips were crystallizing, but unlike Raine's, her crystals were clear as crystal glass, with tiny golden leaf veins growing inside.
The withered Mother Tree suddenly let out a long, drawn-out sigh. A crack split open along its thickest branch, revealing flowing silver liquid inside. A figure made entirely of light stepped out, its silhouette bearing a striking resemblance—about seventy percent—to Raine's memory of his mother.
"Little one," the voice of the Light Spirit caused ripples to spread across the lake's surface, "you have come too late."
Ravenna suddenly clutched her chest and collapsed to her knees. The triple-ring sigil over her heart floated into the air, spinning and breaking apart into three separate rings. The dragon bloodline within Raine reacted immediately—his wings unfolded once more, but this time only the left wing was a golden dragon wing, while the right was a malformed wing made of dark purple crystals.
The Light Spirit's figure flickered, seemingly confused by the anomaly. She reached out and lightly touched the floating rings, which instantly recombined into a brand-new symbol—this time with an added lightning streak in the center, representing the dragon lineage.
"Ah…" The spirit's sigh now carried a faint, human-like sorrow, "So Yana made such an arrangement."
The surface of the lake suddenly boiled, countless silver droplets suspended in the air. Each droplet reflected a different fragment of memory. Raine saw himself as a child being carried away by a cloaked woman, saw Ravenna lying on a magical altar, and even saw Vanessa—then still flesh and blood—implanting a glowing seed into the heart of an infant.
"This is…" Raine's voice caught in his throat. The fragments of memory began to spin around him and Ravenna, gradually forming a complete scene:
Twenty years ago, on a full moon night, the central square of Silverdew Village was inscribed with a massive triple-ring magic circle. Raine's parents stood at the center of the circle, holding a baby. Nearby, in a secondary magic circle, lay a small girl covered in blood—Raine was shocked to recognize her as Ravenna, about three or four years old, her chest already opened, as a faintly glowing mechanical heart was being implanted.
The figure of the Light Spirit dimmed: "Yana foresaw all possibilities. When you become corrupted, Ravenna will replace you."
Ravenna's mechanical heart suddenly emitted a blinding light. She curled up in pain, her clothes tearing from something pushing outward—two slender golden wings burst through her skin, growing visibly fast. Even more astonishing, the crystalline clusters on her neck began to spread, forming patterns on her back that echoed those on Raine's right arm—but her crystals were transparent, with golden energy flowing inside.
"The symbiosis has begun and cannot be undone," the Light Spirit raised her hand, summoning a water mirror. Within its depths, the energy fields of the two were visibly merging. "When the process completes, you will either become perfect twins, or..."
Suddenly, the water mirror shattered. A deep rumble echoed from beneath the lake, and the glowing threads of the floating buildings snapped one by one. Raine felt the Abyssal Curse within him violently flare up; the crystalline clusters on his right side exploded in growth, rapidly engulfing his entire right arm and half his chest.
"Or become new abominations of the Abyss," the Light Spirit's figure began to fade. "The Old God will grant you one final trial..."
Her voice was drowned out by the deafening sound of cracking stone. The ground of the lake's heart island split open with countless fissures. The trunk of the withered mother tree was cleaved in two—revealing a vast hollow inside, and at its center floated a dragon-shaped creature made purely of energy.
It was no ordinary dragon, but something far older. Its form roughly resembled a dragon, but its body flowed with shifting runes. Its eyes were like two swirling starfields. When it "looked" at Raine, he felt as though his blood had frozen solid.
"The Gatekeeper's Trial…" Raine managed to gasp the words. His dragonblood surged with both fear and yearning for this existence, the conflicting emotions tearing at his mind.
Ravenna suddenly stood up, stepping firmly between Raine and the mysterious entity. Her light wings had fully unfurled—though only about a third the size of Raine's, they radiated pure life energy. The golden branches sprouting from her mechanical heart had wildly grown, forming a shining armor across her chest.
"No matter what you want," her voice trembled from pain but was resolute, "you'll have to get past me first."
The enigmatic figure paused for a moment, seemingly surprised by this development. Then, unexpectedly, it lowered its head and detached a scale-like rune from its forehead, gently pushing it toward Ravenna.
The rune touched her golden chest armor, and Raine felt a sharp pain shoot through his heart. His vision split again, this time revealing the astonishing transformation inside Ravenna: her mechanical heart had fully bioengineered into a hybrid of machine and organ; golden branches grew along her blood vessels, forming miniature triple-ring runes at key nodes; most astonishingly, her spine—once metallic—was now coated in a translucent substance with golden liquid flowing inside.
"You… are modifying her?" Raine struggled to ask.
The mysterious entity gave no answer. Suddenly, its "mouth"—composed of glowing runes—opened wide, spewing a torrent of silver-blue flames. The instant the flames touched Ravenna, networks of golden lines lit up beneath her skin, perfectly complementing the patterns etched across Raine's body.
Outside the trial chamber, Vanessa's situation was equally dire. The alarms from her mechanical spine sounded relentlessly as abyssal monsters crawled over the tunnel walls before her. Worse still, the magical runes she relied on began to overload—signaling her mechanical body was on the verge of collapse.
"Damn it..." Vanessa's mechanical fingers plunged into her own spine, pressing an emergency rune she had never dared touch for thousands of years. Instantly, all mechanical restraints disengaged, and her body began to glow; her metal shell cracked and peeled away like fragile eggshells.
As the green mist cleared, the scent of a forest filled the tunnel. Standing there was no longer a mechanical form, but a tall purple-haired elf. Her skin shimmered with glowing markings, her eyes pure gold. Yet her lower half retained some mechanical parts, creating an eerie hybrid form.
"In the name of the Mother Tree," Vanessa raised her arm entwined with vines and circuits, "this path is barred."
From her palm, a beam of light fused from elven magic and alchemy shot forth, vaporizing the first wave of abyssal monsters. But more shadows surged from every corner, while several minor lords in the rear began chanting spells.
On the island at the heart of the lake, Raine's trial reached a critical moment. The mysterious entity's body suddenly dispersed, transforming into countless runes that enveloped Raine and Ravenna within a luminous cocoon. In the final instant before absolute darkness descended, Raine caught Ravenna turning her head — her left eye now the same emerald green as the inside of the Mother Tree, while her right eye remained its original crimson hue.
"Remember," her voice took on an ancient cadence, "do not resist the power of the gods… but also do not trust the power of the gods."
The darkness lasted perhaps a second, perhaps an eternity. When Raine's vision returned, he found himself standing beneath a sea of stars—not an ordinary night sky, but a vast cosmic ocean composed of billions of flowing runes. Ravenna floated opposite him, connected by three shimmering bands of light — gold, silver, and emerald.
"This is…" Raine's voice caused ripples across the starry sea.
"The Source of Power," Ravenna replied in an ancient tongue, yet Raine understood her perfectly. "Look."
She pointed downward, and the star sea parted, revealing a scene that made Raine's heart stop — a young Yana was dripping a drop of blood into baby Ravenna's mechanical heart. More shockingly, Yana's other hand rested on her swollen belly — she was already pregnant then.
"Are… we siblings?" Raine's mind was in turmoil.
Ravenna shook her head, the bands of light rippling with her motion. "Not by blood… but by magic, we are twins. While creating me, she wove a part of your soul's imprint into my core."
The star sea suddenly trembled violently—some colossal presence was approaching this realm of consciousness. Raine felt all four forces simultaneously sounding an alarm—the danger was coming from the real world.
"Go back!" Ravenna grabbed his hand, and at the moment of contact, the three bands of light between them suddenly fused into a single radiant rainbow bridge.
Reality shattered and reassembled like broken glass. Raine found himself back on the lake's heart island, but the Mother Tree was completely withered, instantly dissolving into countless flickering green lights. Ravenna lay beside him; her mechanical heart was now a flawless golden sphere, its surface inscribed with three magical runes intertwined with green light.
Before them stood Vanessa, restored to her elven form but still partly mechanical. She looked terrible—her left arm twisted unnaturally, and a penetrating wound on her right abdomen leaked golden liquid.
"Get up, little ones," her voice was tired but carried a long-missed warmth. "The Seventh Seat has come in person."
Only then did Raine notice the anomaly above the lake—the clouds swirling into a massive vortex, within which a vague humanoid figure was descending slowly. More terrifyingly, he felt the Abyssal Curse within him cheering wildly, as if it had seen its master.
Ravenna suddenly sat up, her eyes now completely silver-blue, her pupils patterned with tiny three-ring magical runes. "No," she corrected, "that's just a projection of the Seventh Seat. The real one is still in the Abyss."
Vanessa stared at her in surprise. "You can sense that much now?"
"We both can," Raine answered. He was surprised to find his voice had returned to normal, the crystal cluster on his right hand retreating below the wrist. The powers within him no longer tore at each other, but formed a dynamic balance—like four wild horses tamed to obey a single rider for the moment.
The figure in the swirling clouds became clearer—a middle-aged man in classical robes, his kindly face unnervingly sinister. When he smiled, Raine saw no tongue in his mouth, only a mass of constantly shifting darkness.
"Little one," the Seventh Seat's voice echoed directly in Raine's mind, gentle like an elder's greeting, "you carry that which does not belong to you."
The floating buildings flickered with faint golden light once more. The Seventh Seat's projection wavered, his expression cracking for the first time.
"Yana's magic circle… still active…" his voice distorted, "No matter, we will soon…"
Suddenly, the projection was torn apart by an invisible force. The dark clouds dispersed, revealing the true sky—three moons hanging high, aligned perfectly in a straight line. This celestial event was known in elven legend as the "Kiss of the Three Gods," appearing once every millennium.
Vanessa suddenly dropped to her knees. "So that's it… Yana accounted for this…"
As Raine helped her up, he noticed her wounds healing at an astonishing speed. Stranger still, the mechanical parts she retained were "growing" too, their metallic surfaces taking on bark-like textures.
"During the Kiss of the Three Gods, all magical effects double," Vanessa explained. "But more importantly…" She glanced at Ravenna, "the symbiosis can only fully activate now."
The golden sphere on Ravenna's chest suddenly cracked open, revealing a pulsating crystal heart inside. With each beat, it emitted three different frequencies of waves, causing the forces within Raine to resonate, briefly forming luminous patterns on his skin.
"What's next?" Raine asked, noticing the lake surface beginning to glow and the floating structures slowly descending.
Vanessa's expression grew complicated. "Next, you must decide who leads and who follows. Symbiosis requires a clear dominant partner, otherwise..."
Her words were cut off by a loud rumble from the center of the lake island. Where the Mother Tree once stood, a huge chasm opened, and a substance darker than night surged at its edge, exuding a nauseatingly sweet scent.
"The Abyssal Passage," Vanessa's voice tightened. "The Seventh Seat was just bait... what they truly want is..."
Ravenna suddenly stepped toward the chasm, leaving glowing footprints on the ground. The luminous patterns extended into protective runes beneath her feet.
"It's us," she said, looking back at Raine. Her silver-blue eyes flowed with resolve. "It always has been us."
Raine felt the four forces within him unify like never before, forming a clear command: jump in.