The diving pod floated slowly in the murky seawater like a rust-stained metallic heart. Raine gazed through the scratched observation window, watching streaks of purple-gold light crossing the surface—Gamma and the children shot forward like meteors, resolutely charging toward the mechanical giant tree. Each flicker of light was accompanied by violent ripples on the water's surface—that was the death pulse released by the Abyssal Executioners striking the river below.
"Wait…" Raine gripped the control panel tightly, his knuckles white. The four crystal spikes on his chest trembled with his heartbeat. His left emerald eye pierced through the murky river water, looking toward the riverbed scattered with countless elven carved relics—once a pilgrimage path of the followers of the Ancient Life God.
Suddenly, the pod lurched violently, and a rusted metal pipe stabbed in from the side, the murky seawater licking the hull like a greedy tongue. Raine drew Frostwhisper, the silver-blue runes on its blade igniting automatically, forming a thin frost barrier inside the pod. However, the deadlier threat came from below—the three-headed abyssal predators were awakening from the riverbed silt, composed of decayed ancient elven statues and mechanical parts, their exposed spines screeching harshly.
"Life signs… detected…" the lead predator opened its jaws, six rotating neural probe launchers humming in its throat. "The Council… demands recovery…"
Raine's draconic blood patterns burned under his skin, but the four crystal spikes immediately released suppressive energy, forcing the boiling dragonblood back into his body. He bit his tongue, mixing saliva with dragonblood, inscribing ancient runes onto his blade—an elven secret blood-rune technique, using his own life essence to awaken the weapon's potential.
"Silver Moon: Streambreak Slash!"
Frostwhisper cut through the leaking hull, the silver-blue sword aura carving a vacuum channel through the water. The lead predator was cleanly sliced vertically in two, but its severed body was immediately devoured by the other two. After consuming its kin, the predators grew abnormally large, their bodies spewing dragonblood-like patterns similar to Raine's—they were evolving!
The submarine pod finally bent and deformed under immense pressure, its metal framework collapsing with twisting groans. Water surged in. Raine kicked sharply away from the hull, using the recoil to propel himself toward the surface. Just as he was about to break through, an icy mechanical tentacle suddenly wrapped around his ankle—the third predator had already circled below. Its head split open like petals, revealing layers upon layers of sharp gears inside.
"Life seeds… must be retrieved…"
At the critical moment, a soft jade light blossomed from the riverbed. The elven ruins, long buried under silt, awakened one by one. Ancient elven runes etched on stone pillars floated free, forming chains that ensnared the predators. Through his jade left eye, Raen witnessed a more astonishing sight — a rift opened in the riverbed, and a massive root-like structure writhed within.
The lingering roots of the Life Ancient God!
The predators emitted terrified mechanical shrieks, but it was too late. The jade roots coiled around their bodies like giant serpents. Amidst the sickening sound of metal bending and twisting, the mechanical creatures were forcibly dragged back into the depths of the riverbed. Seizing the opportunity, Raen broke free from the tentacle's grip and burst through the surface, leaping onto the riverbank.
His soaked cloak hung heavy like lead as Raen dropped to one knee on the pebbled shore, gasping fiercely. In his jade left eye's vision, the eastern sky had turned a dark crimson. The thinnest of the five beams of light — the seal toward the Elven Forest — was violently fluctuating. More unsettling still, the Life Seed embedded in his chest throbbed at an unprecedented frequency, as if answering a distant summons.
"Must accelerate the pace..." Raen wrung out the hem of his cloak, using the Frostwhisper Sword planted beside him for support. When he looked up to survey the surroundings, his breath suddenly froze—
This was no ordinary riverbank.
Broken elven statues knelt in a circle around an altar. At the center stood a half-crystal pillar, its surface etched with runes identical to the long nails embedded in Raen's body. At the base of the crystal pillar lay a skeleton draped in a Silvermoon robe, its hand tightly clutching a moonstone pendant containing a jade-green leaf.
"The relic of the Watcher..." Raen cautiously approached. His jade left eye detected a crack on the skeleton's sternum — a wound perfectly matching the marks made by the crystal nails. The moment his fingers touched the moonstone pendant, the entire skeleton suddenly transformed into silver-blue light particles, coalescing into a blurry image of an elven woman.
"O later Watcher..." The ghost's voice was like wind passing through crystal chimes, "When four of the five seals are broken, the last defense will unfold beneath the Elven Mother Tree... With this leaf of life, it will guide you to find..."
The apparition suddenly distorted. The ghost clutched her chest in pain, her figure corrupted by a certain dark red energy, and her final words became a piercing mechanical sound: "Warning! Corruption protocol activated! All lifeforms must undergo purification!"
Raen retreated swiftly, but it was too late. The crystal pillar on the altar suddenly shattered, sending countless dark red shards raining down like a storm! The Frostwhisper Sword automatically blocked most shards, and the barrier of the Fourfold Bulwark barely repelled the rest — yet three shards pierced Raen's body: right shoulder, left abdomen, and thigh. The wounds immediately oozed a black, rotting substance.
"Ugh—!"
In agonizing pain, Raen dropped to one knee. Jade energy instinctively surged toward the wounds but violently reacted with the dark red corruption. Worse still, the four long nails embedded in his chest began to resonate, the sealing power twisting his insides like glowing hot iron rods. Just as he was about to lose consciousness, the Life Leaf in his hand suddenly emitted a gentle green light, driving back the invading dark red energy as if it were a natural enemy.
Gasping, Raen looked toward the now-calm altar. The ghost had long since vanished, leaving only a line of ancient elven script glowing at the base of the crystal pillar:
"At the end of the journey home, the first fire shall reignite."
The distant hum of machinery approached—at least ten Abyssal Pilgrims closing in. Raen tucked the Life Leaf safely against his chest, dragging his injured leg as he slipped into the dense forest beside the riverbank. His jade left eye's long-range vision already spotted the horizon—the border of the Elven Forest was warping, and amid towering ancient trees, a massive metallic structure was faintly growing.
...
As dusk fell, Raen reached the outer barrier of the Elven Forest.
Once among the continent's strongest magical shields, the barrier was now riddled with spiderweb-like cracks. The flowing light on its surface had long dimmed, with occasional sparks of magic flickering like the last breath of a dying man. More unsettling was the sky above the forest—the Gear Moon had only a sliver of arc left uncorrupted, and that arc's focal point was the Mother Tree's ruins at the forest's heart.
"The barrier won't hold through tonight..." Raen's fingers lightly touched the surface. His jade left eye revealed a deeper truth—within the shield flowed dark red energy, slowly spreading like toxins through veins. This was the highest form of corruption magic: Abyssal Symbiosis, capable of gradually transforming any protection into a weapon against its caster.
As Raen searched for the barrier's weak points, a rustle came from the bushes behind him. Frostwhisper Sword instantly leapt from its sheath, its tip aiming at the source—
"Don't be tense, old friend." A figure cloaked in tattered robes emerged slowly. Pulling back his hood, he revealed a face etched with mechanical lines. "Looks like we're both here for the same appointment."
"'Ironmustache'?" Raen's sword tip dipped slightly but didn't fully lower. Before him stood the dwarf forging master, his left half of the face mechanized, and his right eye embedded with a purplish-golden crystal—identical to the fragments from Ravenna's heart.
"Don't look at me like that," Ironmustache said with a wry smile, touching his mechanical cheek. "I did this modification myself—it's better than becoming a puppet of the Council." He raised his right hand, and a miniature alchemical matrix shimmered in his palm. "Remember this? When I gave you the Frostwhisper Sword, we used this to analyze its material."
Raen finally sheathed his weapon. This was Ironmustache's exclusive "Heartfire Authentication," impossible to replicate by any magic. The dwarf breathed easier and pulled out a metal tube, activating it to project a holographic map.
"Gamma's last transmission after returning showed the Council has already built a summoning altar at the Mother Tree ruins." The map zoomed in, displaying a 3D image of the Elven Forest's center—twelve crystal pillars encircled the withered Mother Tree, each pillar binding a child whose chests extended energy conduits connected to a floating female silhouette on the central platform.
Raen's pupils contracted sharply. Though the image was blurred, the familiar red hair and Ravenna's unique battle stance left no doubt—it was her, being reconstructed.
"They turned her into a summoning vessel," Ironmustache's mechanical eye flickered with fiery anger. "But the Council made a mistake—they don't know that gamma and the other 'failures' carry Ravenna's alchemical sigils within them."
The hologram switched to a hidden chamber inside the mechanical giant tree. Over twenty incubation pods were neatly arranged, each glowing with purplish-golden patterns that gradually connected into a massive alchemical array.
"When the moon is fully devoured..." Ironmustache's voice deepened, "those children will detonate the alchemical cores within themselves, giving Ravenna a chance to break free. And we—"
A deafening explosion suddenly echoed from deep within the forest, shaking the barrier violently. Cracks spread across its surface like lightning. Ironmustache's holographic map instantly switched to a red alert, signaling that the barrier would collapse within fifteen minutes.
"No time for details," the dwarf hurriedly packed away the metal tube and tossed a leather pouch to Raen. "Old Nick's final masterpiece—crafted from fifty years' worth of volcanic essence and…" He hesitated. "A few drops of Ravenna's blood."
Raen opened the pouch to find twelve purplish-golden crystal arrowheads, each brimming with terrifying alchemical energy. As his fingers brushed against the arrowheads, the Life Seed embedded in his chest suddenly calmed, resonating strangely with them.
"We split up," Ironmustache said, checking the massive wrench on his back—now modified into some kind of energy weapon. "I'll head east to sabotage their energy conduits. You go straight to the Mother Tree ruins. Remember, the Corruption Seed is most vulnerable when—"
A bolt of dark-red lightning suddenly struck down! Ironmustache shoved Raen aside just in time but was hit by the backlash. His mechanical left side hissed smoke. From the shadows at the forest edge, three robed figures silently appeared. Beneath their hoods were no faces—only spinning gears, each etched with anguished human faces.
"The Abyssal Bishops…" Ironmustache spat out oil-tainted blood. "The Council actually sent their direct enforcers."
The leader raised his "hand," a mass of tiny gears weaving dark-red runes in the air:
"Life Seed carriers… identification confirmed… commence immediate purification…"
[Abyssal Chant: Resonance of Agony]!
Raen's four long spikes embedded in his chest suddenly trembled violently, resonating with the Bishops' incantations. An indescribable agony surged through his entire body, as if molten metal were injected into every nerve. He collapsed to his knees, Frostspeak sword slipping from his grasp. Through his emerald left eye, he witnessed an even grimmer truth—the spikes were transforming his four energies into corruption!
"Raen! Catch this!"
With a roar, Ironmustache hurled a blazing object in a parabolic arc. Instinctively, Raen reached out and caught the dwarf's purplish-golden crystal—the mechanical right eye of Ironmustache! The moment the crystal touched his hand, fierce alchemical energy flooded his arm, counterbalancing the spikes' corrupting power, if only briefly.
"In the name of the Alchemist…" Ironmustache laughed wildly, charging the Bishops as his energy wrench began to overload and glow. "Taste this! \[Heartfire Self-Destruct]!"
A blinding purplish-golden light engulfed the three Bishops. The explosive shockwave tore a massive hole in the barrier. Raen was blasted into the depths of the forest, crashing through branches before collapsing hard on the leaf-strewn ground.
Struggling to rise, he saw the gap in the barrier—Ironmustache's mechanical remains twitched faintly nearby. Beyond that, at least thirty Abyssal Executioners surged across his fallen comrade's body, flooding toward the breach.
There was no time to mourn. Raen embedded the purplish-golden crystal into the hilt of Frostspeak, and the blade immediately ignited with platinum flames. His emerald left eye's vision revealed intensifying energy fluctuations deep within the forest. The Gear Moon had only ten minutes left before complete consumption.
Ignoring the stabbing pain with every step, Raen sprinted toward the Mother Tree ruins. More torturous than his bodily wounds was the transformation in his chest—the four long spikes slowly rotated, burrowing deeper like some malevolent entity. The Life Leaf in his grasp burned fiercely, barely maintaining the fragile balance of energies.
Breaking through the last twisted thicket of ancient trees, Raen finally beheld the nightmare before him:
On the withered ruins of the Elven Mother Tree, twelve crystal pillars formed a circular array. Each pillar imprisoned a child, their chests bound by energy conduits weaving like spiderwebs, all connecting to the central platform. Suspended above it hovered Ravenna's body—her once-red hair now a dark golden hue, mechanical patterns flowing beneath her skin, and embedded in her chest was a skull mark identical to those on the infants—only larger, more complete.
More terrifying was the space above the platform—shattered like a broken mirror, a colossal dark red eyeball floated in the rift. Its pupil was a continuously rotating array of gears, greedily watching Ravenna below.
"Just in time, Keymaster."
An elegant female voice came from the side. Raen turned to see Erika—or rather, the original vessel sharing Erika's visage—leaning against one of the crystal pillars. Her mechanical eye was now pure gold, and the mark on her chest mirrored Ravenna's perfectly.
"The Mother needs two keys to fully manifest," she caressed the nearest pillar, causing the child inside to writhe in agony. "The Life Seed opens the gate to the material realm; the Machine Seed builds the vessel of arrival. Guess why the Council let you live this long?"
Raen's Frostspeak sword burst into a fiercer platinum flame, but Erika only snapped her fingers. All twelve pillars flared simultaneously, the children screaming in unbearable torment as their energy poured through the conduits into Ravenna's form. The red-haired woman on the platform convulsed violently, mechanical patterns writhing like living creatures beneath her skin.
"Stop!" Raen charged forward but was violently repelled by a sudden dark red barrier. His emerald left eye revealed the brutal truth—the entire ritual site was enveloped in Abyssal Shackles; any attack would convert into pain inflicted upon the children.
Erika's laughter scraped like grinding metal: "Such a touching knightly spirit. But do you know? These children all carry Ravenna's alchemical marks within them, and when their pain reaches its peak…"
She deliberately left the sentence hanging, looking up at the sky. The Gear Moon was down to its last silver rim, and the dark red eyeball had now squeezed out most of its massive form, its hanging tendrils beginning to coil around Ravenna's limbs.
Raen's hand gripping the sword trembled. A brute force attack would kill the children, but doing nothing would mean… He glanced down at the Life Leaf in his hands; its emerald glow was faint but unwavering. Suddenly, a wild thought crossed his mind.
"You say… two keys are needed?" He slowly straightened, and the platinum flame on Frostspeak dimmed inward. "Then so be it."
To Erika's astonishment, Raen plunged the sword into his own chest! The blade pierced precisely through the seals of the four long spikes embedded there, and emerald, silver-blue, dark red, and platinum energies burst forth like a dam breaking. But most crucially, the Life Leaf slid along the blade into the wound, fusing directly with the Life Seed within!
"You're mad?!" Erika finally lost her composure, "This will—"
Her scream was drowned out by a cataclysmic explosion. From the direction of the mechanical giant tree, twenty pillars of purple-gold light shot upward, followed by a chain reaction of blasts. All the crystal pillars trembled violently as the children's conduits snapped one after another—the γ and her comrades had detonated themselves, destroying the remote energy supply!
The tendrils of the dark red eyeball writhed in frenzy. Erika spun around to try to stabilize the ritual, but it was too late. Ravenna on the platform suddenly opened her eyes—her pupils half purple-gold, half dark red, the skull mark on her chest flashing intensely:
"Now… Raen!"
Frostspeak sword erupted with unprecedented radiance. The four energies harmonized by the Life Leaf perfectly fused into a platinum light blade that slashed toward the dark red eyeball! [The End · Flame of the Return Path]! Where the blade passed, space tore like thin paper. The dark red eyeball emitted a deafening shriek and was severed in two!
But the price of victory was grim—Raen's chest was blown open by the recoil, a terrible wound exposing the Life Seed within, dim and shattered like broken jade. He knelt on the platform, his vision blurred as he saw Erika being sucked into the rift in space, while Ravenna...
Her body was disintegrating, mechanical patterns separating from flesh, but her purple-gold left eye still shone brightly. When her hand touched Raen's cheek, a warm energy flowed into him, temporarily sustaining the flickering flame of life.
"It's not over yet..." her voice grew faint, "The Seed must... return to the source..."
At that moment, the Gear Moon completely turned dark red. The entire elven forest trembled violently, and the withered remains of the Mother Tree suddenly split open, revealing beneath it a massive emerald-green crystal—that was the last power core of the Ancient God of Life, now almost completely corroded by the seeds of corruption.
Raine summoned the last of his strength, dragging his broken body, and flew toward the crystal. Behind him, Ravenna's figure finally dissipated, turning into specks of purple-gold light, drifting upward into the sky. When his hand touched the emerald-green crystal, a miracle occurred—the exposed Seed of Life slipped from his chest, slowly sinking into the crystal core.
"No!!!" Ericka's scream came from the closing rift, "Mom is—"
Her voice was abruptly cut off. The emerald-green crystal burst forth with dazzling light. Raine felt himself melting, reshaping, ascending… After the light faded, he stood in a pure white space, before him a small yet vibrant emerald sapling.
"At the end of the path of return, the newborn flame shall rise again." The sapling spoke in a gentle female voice. "Welcome home, last of the Watchers."
Raine lowered his gaze. The hollow in his chest was filled with the emerald-green branches, and four types of energy flowed harmoniously within him. At the same time, in the real world, above the elven forest, the first ray of dawn pierced through the dark red sky…