The rumbling sound of chains breaking echoed from the depths underground, shaking the entire fortress.
Rein carried the unconscious baby, each step feeling like walking on ice about to crack beneath him. His left shoulder still bore the wound from the shadow speaker's tendril piercing through it, blood soaking the lining of his elven light armor. But what unsettled him even more was—the baby's body temperature was dropping.
"Hold on a little longer," he whispered, pressing his palm against the baby's chest, life energy flowing in like a gentle stream. But this time, his healing power seemed to hit some kind of barrier; as soon as the energy touched the baby's skin, it was repelled, as if the body rejected the treatment.
—Something's wrong.
"Hey, old relic!" Ravenna's voice came from ahead. She stood at the corner of the spiral staircase, her runed arm emitting unstable emerald light, illuminating half of her blood-stained face. "What are you dawdling for? At this rate, the dwarf fortress will turn into an Abyss lair!"
Rein looked up. His elven night vision let him clearly see the golden rim still lingering around Ravenna's pupils—that mark left after the power burst at the altar, resembling the vertical pupils of dragons.
"His vital signs are weakening," Rein hurried to catch up, voice hushed, "But my abilities don't work on him."
Ravenna frowned and reached out to touch the baby's forehead. The moment her fingertips touched the skin, she jerked back sharply, "Damn! Why's he so cold?"
"It's not low body temperature," Rein's pointed ears twitched slightly, "His body is... rejecting external energy."
The baby suddenly twitched in Raen's arms; his small fingers clenched unconsciously, knuckles turning white. His lips parted slightly, uttering a few blurred syllables that sounded like—
"Ed...rian..."
Raen and Ravenna froze simultaneously.
"Did he just say..." Ravenna's green eyes widened.
"The paladin's name," Raen's throat tightened. In the corrupted bone marsh dungeon, Paladin Edrian fought and died protecting them, but afterwards, a segment of their memories strangely vanished.
The baby's eyelids fluttered, his golden pupils briefly focusing on Raen. In that moment, Raen seemed to glimpse another soul looking at him through those eyes—mature, weary, with a certain resolute gentleness.
Then, the baby slipped back into unconsciousness.
"Damn..." Ravenna rubbed the goosebumps on her arm, "How many secrets does this little bastard have?"
Boom—!
Another violent tremor shook the place; cracks appeared on the rocky ceiling, stones cascading down. From afar came the sound of dwarven battle horns mixed with sharp clashes of metal.
"The Ironbeards are fighting something," Raen's pointed ears turned toward the source. "Judging by the noise, it's not going well."
Ravenna's runed arm suddenly heated intensely, the emerald patterns lighting up like a circuit board, pointing deep into the stairs' darkness. "The ancient tree is calling us—it's barely holding on."
Raen took a deep breath, wrapped the baby tightly in his cloak, and strapped him to his chest.
"Let's go."
At the end of the stairs was a bronze door violently broken open, its surface marred by scorch marks and pits of acidic corrosion. From inside came a chorus of dwarven battle cries and... the squelching sounds of liquid movement.
Raen pressed his ear to the door crack and peeked inside—
In the vast furnace hall, Ironbeard Deeprock led over twenty dwarven warriors forming a defensive ring. They wielded rune-etched warhammers and shields; their heavy armor shimmered with anti-magic runes. Their foes were not flesh and blood, but black, liquid creatures crawling out of the furnace—shaped roughly like dwarves but featureless, only flowing viscous bodies. Each strike left corrosive dents on the dwarves' armor.
"Furnace Golems!" Ironbeard's roar echoed through the hall. His metal eyepatch over one eye was shattered, revealing a mechanical prosthetic beneath. "Don't let them touch the furnace core!"
Suddenly, a golem leapt from the ground, its liquid arm stretching into a sharp spike aimed at Ironbeard's throat! The old dwarf swung his warhammer horizontally, runes flaring with glaring red light, vaporizing half the golem's body into black smoke. But the remaining liquid hit the ground and immediately reformed, splitting into two smaller golems.
"Physical attacks don't work!" a dwarf warrior stepped back, his shield riddled with corrosion pits. "We need holy silver or—"
His warning cut off abruptly.
A golem ambushed him from behind, its liquid arm piercing through his chest like a spear.
The dwarf coughed up frothy blood and, before collapsing, detonated the powder pouch at his waist!
Boom!
The explosion's shockwave knocked down three nearby golems, but soon the splattered black liquid writhed and gathered again.
Raen's fingertips crystallized a shard of ice and flicked it toward the nearest pool of liquid.
The moment the ice crystal touched the black liquid, corrosive black smoke rose, but the liquid's movement noticeably slowed.
"Low temperature can temporarily suppress them," he analyzed quickly.
"Ravenna, can you use your runic energy to disrupt the furnace?"
"Disrupt?" Ravenna flexed her burning runed arm and grinned, "I can just blow the damn thing up."
"No! The furnace is the ancient tree's energy converter!" Ironbeard suddenly turned toward them, his mechanical eyepatch rapidly adjusting focus.
"How do you plan to—Watch out behind you!"
Raen instinctively dodged aside as a shadow grazed his cheek, corroding a deep pit in the stone wall.
From the corridor's shadows, three humanoid black silhouettes slowly emerged—Shadowspawn hunters, more solid than those at the altar, their torsos marked with twisted facial features.
"Looks like we've been marked," Ravenna twirled her dagger in her palm, holy silver potion dripping along the blade.
"The usual routine: you freeze them, I cut them down."
Raen formed a hand sign with one hand, his Frosttongue sword floated up, ice crystal patterns lighting up one by one.
Ancient Elven incantations flowed from his lips as moisture in the air instantly froze into countless ice shards.
"Winter's Embrace."
A rain of ice shards shot toward the Shadowspawn.
The foremost one was impaled through its "heart," emitting a high-pitched shriek.
Ravenna seized the moment and charged, her runed arm erupting in glaring emerald light as she punched the Shadowspawn's face!
Sssht!
Dark red patterns spread from her fist over the creature's body, infecting the dark energy like a virus.
The monster convulsed violently, finally exploding into a stinking puddle of black liquid.
"Ha!" Ravenna shook the slime off her hand, "Looks like my 'new accessory' is pretty handy—"
Her words abruptly cut off. The other two Shadowspawn suddenly merged, their bodies swelling to twice their size. Six whip-like tentacles burst from their backs, crawling up the ceiling like spiders, then—
They disappeared.
"Invisibility?!" Ravenna quickly pressed against the wall, dagger held horizontally before her chest.
Raen's pointed ears twitched sharply, and he shouted, "Above!"
Six tentacles simultaneously stabbed down from the void! Raen's Frosttongue sword split into six icy blades to block them, but two slipped through, lunging toward his throat—
A flash of golden light streaked by.
The infant had somehow opened his eyes, tiny hands reaching forward, slender strands of light shooting from his palms to precisely coil around the tentacles.
The Shadowspawn emitted a pained shriek, forced back into visibility.
"Nice work, little bastard!" Ravenna leapt up, stabbing her dagger into the Shadowspawn's "spine."
Holy silver potion poured along the blade's groove.
The creature ballooned like a balloon and finally exploded into a shower of black rain.
The Dwarven hammer slammed heavily onto the last Shadowspawn's head, the rune shockwave shattering its core.
The old dwarf, breathing heavily, strode toward them. His mechanical eye whirred and adjusted focus, scanning the glowing palms of the infant.
"So this is the 'vessel' from the Watchers' prophecy?" his hoarse voice asked.
Raen stepped aside cautiously, shielding the infant. "What do you know?"
The dwarf's mechanical eye emitted a soft clicking of gears.
"No time to explain. The furnace core is being corrupted. If the ancient tree's energy converter fully succumbs to darkness, the entire fortress will become an Abyssal nest." He pointed toward a passage on the other side of the hall.
"Goldlock took the council envoys to the 'Root Zone.' They intend to directly corrupt the tree's main trunk!"
Ravenna's rune arm trembled violently, green patterns bleeding faint streaks of dark red.
"The ancient tree is crying out… it's in agony."
Raen looked down at the infant in his arms. The little one's golden pupils reflected the depths of the furnace — where the hearth, once burning with golden flames, was now covered in a purple-black slime.
"We split up." Raen decided quickly.
"Ravenna and Ironroot cleanse the furnace core. I'll stop Goldlock."
"Alone?" Ravenna raised an eyebrow. "With that little tagalong?"
Suddenly, the infant grabbed a silver strand of Raen's hair and tugged hard.
"Ugh — he's protesting," Raen said helplessly.
Ironroot pulled a rune-etched short-handled axe from his waist and tossed it to Raen.
"'The Cursebreaker.' It severs dark pacts. Watch out for Goldlock's 'Forgefire Touch' — his family secret heats metal to white-hot."
Raen caught the axe; runes along the blade glowed blue the moment they touched his skin.
"Let's move." Ravenna flexed her wrist, the runes pulsing like breath.
"Let's finish quickly. I want to try some dwarf cellar whiskey."
Ironroot grinned, flashing a few gold teeth.
"If we survive, I'll share my treasured three-century-old 'Molten Core' with you."
The three split up, rushing down the dark corridors.
The passage known as the "Root Zone" was wetter and more… alive than Raen had imagined.
Thick metallic roots crawled along the walls, their surfaces covered in moss-like glowing fungi. Each step caused the ground beneath to undulate slightly, as if they were treading inside a gigantic living creature's cavity. The air was thick with the scent of rust mixed with decaying plants, and the faint sound of flowing liquid trickled nearby.
The infant's condition grew stranger. His skin began to glow faintly golden, his temperature fluctuating wildly. Occasionally, he muttered words unconsciously—besides "Adrian," Raen caught
"Holy Covenant," "Corrupted Bones," and "Vessel."
—These words had to be tied to the lost memories.
At the end of the passage stood an archway naturally woven from tree roots, a purple-black light seeping from its seams. Raen pressed close to peer inside—
In the circular cavern's center, a gigantic metallic ancient tree rooted in a pool of lava. Its branches were a sickly gray-black, pierced by seven chains whose ends were nailed to seven dwarven priests' corpses—dried, contorted faces frozen in immense agony.
Beneath the tree stood Goldlock Forgefire. The golden beard of the dwarf lieutenant had turned into a murky purple-black, and his eyes were completely filled with darkness. Both hands were plunged into the tree roots, veins on his arms bulging, flowing with molten lava-orange liquid—his Forgefire Touch was heating the ancient tree's metal branches to the breaking point.
"Hold on a little longer, old friend," Goldlock's voice echoed strangely, like multiple tones overlapping, "Soon, you will become the Abyss's new vessel…"
Raen's pupils narrowed. Vessel? He looked down at the infant in his arms, a terrifying suspicion forming in his mind.
But there was no time to think further. Goldlock suddenly turned his head, his black-hole-like eyes locking onto the archway.
"Ah… 'Withered Healer.' The Council said you would come."
Raen stopped hiding. The Frosttongue sword hovered by his side as he stepped steadily into the cavern. The heat waves from the lava pool hit him full on, sweat instantly soaking his back.
"Release the ancient tree," his voice calm, yet carrying the unique cadence of the Elvish tongue—each syllable sharp as an ice spike.
Goldlock grinned widely, the corners of his mouth splitting nearly to his ears, revealing swirling black mist inside.
"And why should I? Because of that failed 'vessel' in your arms?"
The infant suddenly struggled violently, his small hand clutching Raen's collar, golden pupils fixed intently on Goldlock.
"He understands…" Raen's alarm bells rang loudly in his mind. "You know who he is?"
"Of course," Goldlock drew one hand and pointed at the baby. "The Holy Son of the Covenant, heir to Adrian, the Watcher's spare vessel—" His finger then shifted toward the ancient tree. "But soon, this Ironroot ancient tree will become the Council's more perfect host!"
The chains piercing the ancient tree suddenly tightened; the trunk groaned under the unbearable strain. Beneath the bark appeared countless anguished faces, their screams converging into a tangible sound wave that pounded Raen's eardrums painfully.
"Now." Goldlock's hands plunged fully into the tree roots. "Witness rebirth!"
The lava pool began to boil furiously.