The darkness before dawn was the thickest.
Raine stood in the center of a pure white space, the roots of a emerald-green sapling curling around his ankles. Each tendril's tip flickered with silver-blue light. He looked down at his chest—where there had once been a mangled wound, now flourished verdant leaves. Four streams of energy pulsed harmoniously through the veins of the foliage, forming a balance never before witnessed.
"This is…"
"The final gift of the Ancient God of Life," the sapling whispered, a murmur like a million falling leaves. "It is also the nexus of the four great powers within you."
Raine reached out to touch the leaves on his chest. Warmth surged through his fingertips. Through his emerald left eye, he glimpsed a deeper truth—the leaves were not mere healing. They intertwined with his draconic blood lines, elven energy, and the marks of the Holy Alliance, forging an entirely new circulation of power.
"Time flows differently here," a branch of the sapling pointed toward the void. "Outside, only three seconds have passed."
As if to prove it, the pure white space shuddered violently. Crimson cracks spread along its edges. Raine's emerald gaze pierced the barrier to witness a terrifying sight: above the Mother Tree ruins in the Elven Forest, the severed crimson eye was knitting itself back together, countless vein-like tendrils stretching from the wound, greedily absorbing the corrupt energy released by the Gear Moon.
"It is trying to descend forcibly," the sapling's leaves quivered without wind. "Even in its incomplete state."
Raine clenched his fists. Platinum light flowed through his fingers, and he realized with shock that Frostwhisper had fused with his right arm. The blade's runes extended along his veins, becoming part of his very body.
"You are no longer a vessel… you are the gardener," the sapling began to wither suddenly, its energy rushing along the roots into Raine. "Now—awaken."
The pure white space shattered like glass.
Raine's eyes snapped open. He was still kneeling before the emerald crystal of the Mother Tree ruins. Yet the world before him had transformed: magical elements hung in the air like multicolored ribbons, ley-line energies surged beneath his feet like shimmering rivers. In the distance, the reassembling crimson eye was forcibly stitched together by countless twisted blood-red runes.
"Emerald Phantasm…" Raine whispered, a phrase he had only encountered in ancient tomes. The legendary God of Life could perceive the truths of all things—and now, that power was flowing into him, transmitted through the foliage sprouting from his chest.
The dark red eye suddenly turned toward him, hundreds of gear-shaped pupils contracting simultaneously. Though severed by the Path of Return Flame, its size remained enormous, hovering in the air like a rotting blood moon. When it locked onto Raen, the air instantly thickened, and a pressure beyond words pressed directly on his soul.
"Life... thief..."
Not a voice, but a roaring echo inside his mind. Raen's eardrums bled, but the emerald branches on his chest immediately emitted a soft glow, forming a protective barrier. He tried to stand and found his body unbelievably light—he leapt effortlessly to the five-meter-high top of the crystal.
The dark red eye's tendrils shot out like a storm, each carrying the Abyssal Resonance's corruptive energy. Instinctively, Raen raised his right arm; the fused Frost Tongue sword automatically unfolded the Four-Phase Barrier, but this time the shield was purely platinum, and the tendrils vaporized on contact.
"This power..."
Before Raen could adapt, the center of the eye suddenly cracked open, and twelve white-robed figures descended slowly—none other than the Abyssal Bishops who had conducted the ritual on the mechanical giant tree. Mechanical tendrils extended from beneath their robes, forming a complex magic array in the air.
"Abyssal Hymn: The End of All Things!"
A twelve-part mechanical chorus rose, dark red beams shot from the magic array, and the space where they passed peeled away like rotten fruit skin. Raen leapt up; the beams grazed his feet, and the spot where he had stood instantly became a void black hole.
"I have to get close…" Raen adjusted his posture mid-air, the platinum blade on his right arm extending three meters of blazing light. But the bishops' coordination was flawless; whenever he tried to approach a target, barriers like \[Spatial Distortion] or \[Temporal Stasis] blocked his way.
Worse still was the dark red eye itself—it was emitting waves at a certain frequency, resonating with the emerald branches on Raen's chest. Each wave caused the branches to briefly dim, shaking the balance of the four energies.
"It's interfering with the fusion of the Life Seed…" Raen landed halfway on a crystal pillar, cold sweat dripping from his forehead. The Emerald Vision revealed a skull mark inside the eye, identical to the one on Erika's chest but magnified a thousandfold.
The bishops launched a second wave of attacks. This time it was the \[Corruption Nova]—twelve dark red energy spheres flanked him from different angles. Just as Raen was about to dodge, the crystal pillar beneath his feet suddenly activated, sending chains out to bind his legs!
"What—"
At the critical moment, a streak of purple-gold light sliced in from the side, precisely shattering all the energy spheres. Raen turned his head and saw an unbelievable sight—
Gamma stood at the edge of the ruins; her mechanical right arm was broken, but in her left hand she held Ravenna's familiar alchemical dagger. Even more astonishing, behind her, over twenty children linked hands, each with a faint purple-gold glow shining from their chests.
"We… have returned…" Gamma's voice crackled with electronic distortion but was full of determination, "Sister Ravenna's… gift…"
The children suddenly raised their empty hands simultaneously, the purple-gold spots connecting into a line, forming a massive alchemical array in the air. At the center of the array, a blurry female silhouette slowly emerged, fleeting but unmistakably—
\[Alchemical Resonance: Heartfire Legacy]!
Amid Gamma's shout, the alchemical array exploded with dazzling purple light, instantly igniting the bishops' white robes. This was no ordinary flame; it was the \[Heartfire], specifically designed to target mechanical life, able to strike core systems along energy circuits. Two bishops exploded on the spot; the remaining were forced to interrupt their spells and shift into defensive postures.
Raen seized the opportunity, the platinum blade slicing through the chains binding his legs. When he looked back at Gamma, he saw most of the children had collapsed—the combined attack had drained their remaining alchemical energy. Gamma knelt on one knee, supporting herself with her broken arm, but still gave him a thumbs-up.
"Go…" she murmured, blood foaming at the corner of her mouth, "we're here…"
The dark red eye seemed enraged. Its surface bulged with countless sharp spikes, each tipped with a tiny eye. As the miniature eyes blinked in eerie synchronization, the curse wave of the \[Thousand-Eyed Gaze] swept across the field!
"No!" Raen dashed toward the children, but he was too far. Just as the wave was about to engulf Gamma, a small figure suddenly leapt in from the side, blocking it with their body—
It was the half-mechanical infant!
His right side was completely transformed into precise armor, while the left side had regained some flesh. When the \[Thousand-Eyed Gaze] hit, the skull mark on the infant's chest suddenly opened, transforming into a miniature black hole that absorbed most of the curse. But the price was his mechanical right eye shattering, the armor surface cracking in countless fissures.
"You…" Raen finally reached him and scooped the infant into his arms. The little one's left eye bled tears but showed a strange smile, the mechanical voice mixed with electronic distortion:
"Mother… was wrong… emotions are not… flaws…"
The dark red eye unleashed a deafening shriek. It seemed to recognize the infant's identity, all its pupils contracting to pinpoints. An even more terrifying change happened inside the eye—the skull mark began spinning backward, awakening an ancient being beyond comprehension.
"It's forcing a physical manifestation…" Raen hugged the infant tightly. The Emerald Vision revealed the space deep within the eye collapsing. He had to end this quickly!
Gamma struggled to rise, using her last strength to point at the center of the ruins: "The emerald crystal… is the key…"
Raen nodded and handed the infant to Gamma for protection. Turning to face the dark red eye, the emerald branches on his chest suddenly grew violently, rapidly covering half his torso. The four energies surged through the newly formed circuits, and the platinum flame of Frosttongue sword flared to a length of ten meters.
"\[Termination·Fourfold Unity]!"
The moment Raen leapt, time seemed to freeze. Through his Emerald Vision, he clearly saw the core weakness of the dark red eye—the backward-spinning skull mark. The platinum blade pierced the eye's surface without resistance, and the four fused energies poured in like a flood.
The world disintegrated before Raen's eyes into its fundamental energy forms. He saw how his attack severed the corrupted runes' connections, cut off the Abyssal energy's transmission channels, and even affected the gear moon's phases—this was true \[Emerald Vision], the way the Life Ancient God observes the world.
The dark red eye's shriek turned into a mournful wail. It struggled desperately to close the spatial rift, but it was too late—the platinum energy had already polluted its core, and the skull mark began to crumble. The dark red runes forming the eye extinguished one by one, like ashes scattered by the wind.
"No… impossible…"
As the final wave of thought echoed, Raen's blade reached the core. With a sharp shatter like breaking glass, the entire eye exploded into countless dark red shards, each reflecting scenes of destruction from different worlds.
The cost of victory was heavy. Raen fell from the sky, the emerald branches on his chest rapidly withering—his attack had exhausted the Life Seed's energy reserves. He barely adjusted his posture and crashed heavily beside the emerald crystal. Frosttongue automatically detached from his right arm, returning to its normal weapon form.
"Raen!" Gamma crawled over, dragging her broken arm, holding the infant safely in the curve of her intact left arm. "You did it…"
But Raen's Emerald Vision revealed a farther view—the gear moon had stopped corrupting but had not returned to normal; the dark red energy was still slowly spreading through the ley lines of the Elven Forest; most terrifyingly, the scattered dark red shards were moving on their own, seemingly summoned by some unknown force…
"It's not over…" he struggled to sit up, his voice hoarse. "The Corruption Seed has only been repelled, not destroyed."
Gamma followed his gaze and suddenly froze. On the eastern horizon, among the five dark red pillars of light, the thinnest one—the seal protecting the Elven Forest—was shifting from red to black. When she looked down at the infant in her arms, an even more terrifying event unfolded—the skull mark on the child's chest opened once again, but this time it emitted tiny particles of emerald light.
"This is…"
"A fragment of the Life Seed." Raen reached out and caught the particles, which immediately fused into the branches on his chest. "So the Council has been using the children all along to filter and purify…"
The infant's expression suddenly grew unusually calm. Despite his damaged mechanical right eye, a faint look of relief appeared. "Thank you… for freedom…"
Before the words could finish, his body began to disintegrate—his mechanical parts transforming into violet-gold light particles, his flesh turning into emerald energy. The two spiraled upward, eventually dissipating into the morning light without a trace.
Gamma's mechanical eye sockets leaked oily tears. "They… have all been freed…"
Raen nodded silently and looked toward the emerald crystal. After the recent battle, much of the dark red corruption on its surface had faded, revealing the crystal's clear, translucent interior. But the most astonishing change was at the crystal's core—there floated a small emerald seed, the very Life Seed Raen had merged with earlier.
"I see now…" he suddenly understood. "The Life Ancient God transformed its final power into a seed—not to preserve it, but for… rebirth."
As if confirming his words, the emerald crystal emitted a clear, pleasant resonance. Morning light pierced through the clouds and refracted into a thousand rainbows on the crystal. Within this glow, Raen saw countless indistinct figures—elves, dwarves, humans, orcs—all the races that once served the Life Ancient God. Their soul-like shadows bowed respectfully toward the crystal.
Gamma gasped in surprise, "This is…"
"An ancient covenant," Raen whispered. "When the Gardener returns the seed, the First Flame will be rekindled."
The emerald crystal began to dissolve—not into liquid, but breaking apart into countless particles of light. These particles danced in the air, gradually coalescing into a vague human silhouette. As the first full ray of sunlight poured down, the outline suddenly solidified—
Ravenna hovered in midair, her red hair flowing like flames.
But she was not entirely the Ravenna they once knew. The left half of her body retained human features, while the right half was a violet-golden mechanical structure. Her chest bore no skull mark; instead, it was adorned with emerald branches similar to Raen's. Most striking were her eyes—her left eye was the alchemist's signature violet-gold, and her right eye was pure life emerald.
"Is this… an upgrade?" she murmured, looking down at her new form, her voice carrying a familiar teasing tone yet tinged with an ethereal echo.
Gamma wept tears of joy, wanting to approach but hesitating. Ravenna—or this reborn being—gently touched her head, and the intertwined violet-golden and emerald energy immediately healed her severed arm.
"Thank you, little warrior."
When Ravenna's gaze shifted to Raen, the emerald branches on their chests glowed simultaneously. Without words, a profound understanding was forged in the resonance of their energies—Ravenna was now both an alchemist and the guardian of the Life Seed, two starkly different powers perfectly balanced within her.
"The Council isn't finished yet," she said, looking eastward. Her mechanical right eye flickered with streams of data. "The Gear Moon is just a vessel; the true 'Mother' still waits beyond the Abyss."
Raen stood, leaning on Frosttongue Sword, the four energies flowing steadily through the renewed circuits of power. "Then let's end this."
Ravenna placed her hand on the branches at Raen's chest, infusing him with violet-golden and emerald energy. "But before that…"
Where the emerald crystal had fully vanished, a tender green sapling sprouted from the earth. It grew visibly fast, quickly reaching the height of a person. Between its branches hung two fruits—one emerald, the other violet-gold.
"The fusion product of the Life Ancient God and the Heart of Alchemy," Ravenna said as she plucked the fruit, handing the violet-golden one to Raen. "Eat this, and your four powers will truly unify."
The moment the fruit slid down his throat, Raen felt an unprecedented clarity. The Emerald Vision automatically unfolded, but this time, he saw not just the flow of energies but the "essential forms" of all things—the lingering alchemical marks within Gamma, the struggling elven flora beneath the ruins, and even the Sacred Alliance knights far away rebuilding their defenses...
"Welcome to the Gardener's world," Ravenna said as she ate the other fruit. Now both her eyes could perceive the Emerald Vision. "It's time for us to end this war."
She waved and opened a portal woven from violet-golden and emerald energies. On the other side, the ruins of Glass City were faintly visible. Raen was surprised to find he could clearly sense the energy flows beyond the gate—how many survivors, how many mechanical constructs, even the extent of the leyline damage.
"A new ability," Ravenna blinked her right eye. "But we have to use it sparingly; our energies are still unstable."
Gamma suddenly tugged on Ravenna's sleeve: "Take me with you…"
The two exchanged a glance and nodded simultaneously. The three of them stepped through the portal, as the rising sun fully illuminated the Elven Forest. The newly sprouted saplings swayed gently in the morning breeze, the dewdrops on their leaves refracting a dazzling array of colors, as if bearing witness to the dawn of a new era.