The crystal clusters in the Mother Tree's cavern gradually dimmed, as if their energy had been exhausted.
Rain lay on the moss-covered makeshift bed, his chest rising and falling slowly. The emerald branches had retracted into his body, leaving only faint patterns visible on the surface of his skin. His consciousness still drifted within the ley-line network, glimpsing countless glowing tributaries—some returning to vibrant green, others still tinged with dark crimson, and a few in the far distance entirely transformed into metallic texture.
"His eyes are moving rapidly," γ knelt beside him, her alchemical prosthetic eye recording his vital signs. "His consciousness is still wandering through the ley lines."
Ravenna's condition was worse. She lay on her side on an adjacent bed; her once-mechanical right half was completely carbonized, like a tree trunk struck by lightning. Purple-gold energy seeped from the cracks, forming tiny arcs in the air. Every time an arc flickered, her facial muscles twitched involuntarily.
Elondil dripped life essence onto her cracked lips. "The fusion of flesh and machinery was forcibly interrupted. If she wakes up, she might…"
"What might happen?" γ asked anxiously.
The old elf did not answer, merely gesturing for the healers to continue dressing Rain's wounds. The cavern was filled with the bitter scent of herbal medicine, while elven warriors took turns standing guard around the Mother Tree, alert to any abnormalities.
Suddenly, the Mother Tree's branches moved without wind. Emerald particles drifted down from the canopy like a gentle rain. When the particles touched Ravenna's carbonized body, the purple-gold energy suddenly became active, slowly beginning to repair the damage.
"The Mother Tree is responding to her," Elondil said, looking up in surprise. "Look there!"
On a high branch, two fruits were ripening at a visibly accelerated pace. The emerald one displayed silver-blue patterns flowing across its surface, while the purple-gold one was speckled with emerald spots. Most astonishingly, a glowing thread connected the two fruits, pulsing like an umbilical cord.
γ's alchemical prosthetic automatically zoomed in. "The energy readings perfectly match Rain and Ravenna! This is…"
"The manifestation of life resonance," Elondil said, his white beard trembling with excitement. "Ancient texts record that only when two souls are completely synchronized deep within the ley lines will the Mother Tree bear twin fruits."
The healers scrambled to adjust their concoctions, attempting to use the falling light particles to enhance their treatments. At that moment, Rain's fingers twitched suddenly.
Within the Emerald Vision, Rain stood at the central node of the ley-line network. All around him stretched an endless ocean of energy, twelve main conduits radiating outward like the spokes of a colossal wheel. Three of them had already been fully purified, four were in the process of recovery, and the remaining five were still dominated by dark crimson energy—the thickest one pointed directly to the northeast, and at its end was…
"The Holy Alliance headquarters?" Rain tried to reach out along that main conduit, but a powerful repelling force threw him back. Some ancient seal blocked his probing, yet he could still sense the familiar undulations of energy beyond it—the binding power of the Holy Alliance.
Turning southwest, another polluted tributary connected to the Dwarven underground city. The energy there was even more violent, the elements of metal and flame nearly taking solid form. The strangest, however, was the western conduit—it should have led to the Orcish plains, but some kind of silver-white energy had severed it. At the break, runes flickered—symbols Rain had never seen before.
"This is…"
A soft female voice suddenly sounded from behind: "The true visage of the ley lines."
Rain spun around and saw a ghostly figure of an elven woman, composed entirely of emerald light particles. Her long hair flowed like weeping willows, and her eyes were pure life-emerald, mirroring the Mother Tree itself.
"Nytheria?" Rain thought of the twelfth Watcher.
The apparition shook her head. "I am the consciousness of the Mother Tree—or rather, the lingering memory of the Life Ancient God." She gestured toward the polluted tributaries. "Each main conduit connects to a sacred site of an ancient race. The reason the Council attacked the Elf Forest first is because its ley lines are closest to the world's origin."
"Other sacred sites have fallen as well?"
"Not entirely." The apparition waved, unfolding a three-dimensional projection. "The Dwarves' Furnace Heart still resists, and the Orcs' ancestral totems are protected by some external force." Her finger paused at the northeast. "As for the Holy Alliance…"
The projection suddenly blurred, as if affected by a powerful interference. Rain noticed the apparition's expression harden. "What's there?"
"A darkness older than the Corruption Seed." The apparition's voice began to distort. "Listen, when the Twin Fruits mature, you must—"
A screeching metallic grinding abruptly cut her off. The ley-line network shook violently, and dark crimson energy surged in like a tidal wave from all directions! The apparition quickly pushed Rain out of the core node. "Return! They're retaliating!"
In reality, Rain shot up, coughing blood. γ fell back in shock, and Elondir's staff immediately emitted a diagnostic halo.
"Ley lines… backlash…" Rain grabbed the old elf's arm. "Prepare defenses… the Council wants—"
Before he could finish, the entire cavern shook violently! Crystal clusters from the dome crashed to the ground. Elf warriors hurriedly raised protective shields. The Mother Tree's roots emitted a nauseatingly twisted groan, as if countless metal teeth were gnawing through them.
"From underground!" Elondir slammed his staff into the ground. Emerald vines from the Root Bind spell erupted through the soil, writhing to engage some unseen enemy.
γ switched her alchemical prosthetic eye to X-ray mode, her face draining of color. "It's the Abyssal Diggers! At least twenty of them! They've followed our purified ley lines!"
Rain forced himself to stand. Frostwhisper sensed its master awakening and flew back into his hand. But when he tried to channel his emerald energy, a tearing pain shot through his chest—the backlash damage from the ley lines hadn't fully healed.
The first digger broke through the surface, and everyone gasped. The creature was a nightmarish hybrid of centipede and drill, ten meters long, its body composed of living metal. Its head was a constantly rotating saw-disc. Even more terrifying was the cannon-like organ on its back—it wasn't a normal weapon but a biological organ, secreting dark green corrosive fluid.
"Acid Spore Cannon! Scatter!"
Elondir's warning came too late. The digger's back swelled and released a cloud of green mist. Two elf warriors were struck directly, instantly reduced to a pool of blood and water. The others scrambled backward, while the healers dragged the unconscious Ravenna behind the Mother Tree.
"We can't let it near the Mother Tree!" Rain gritted his teeth and swung his sword. The Spirit Phoenix Slash shrank the emerald phoenix to half its usual size, yet it still struck the digger's joints with precision. The creature shrieked piercingly, and its severed halves continued moving independently!
γ drew an alchemical bomb left by Old Nick from her waist. "Try this!" The bomb arced through the air and landed perfectly in the digger's gaping maw. The violent purple-gold explosion obliterated the upper half, but the lower half stubbornly wriggled forward.
More diggers were emerging from the soil. The elf warriors formed defensive lines, interweaving Emerald Arrow Rain and Root Bind into a network of firepower. But this only slowed the enemy—they had to kill multiple diggers, yet the corpses fused and reformed into stronger variants.
"They're evolving!" Elondir's staff emitted a Life Pulse, temporarily pushing back the nearest foes. "Normal attacks only make them stronger!"
Rain's emerald vision suddenly detected something alarming—every time a digger was struck, one of the Mother Tree's roots flashed dark crimson. Following the trail, he realized the horrifying truth: all the diggers were connected to the Mother Tree through fine ley-line filaments, siphoning life energy in reverse!
"We have to sever the connection!" he shouted, charging to the base of the Mother Tree. "γ! Cover me!"
The girl understood instantly, tossing the remaining bombs. Purple-gold explosions created a temporary barrier while Rain pressed his palm against the trunk. Emerald energy surged into the ley lines again, this time precisely targeting the intruding filaments.
"Emerald Purification!"
Green ripples radiated from the Mother Tree, severing the dark-red threads wherever they passed. The diggers wailed in unison, their movements stiffening considerably. The elf warriors seized the opportunity to strike fiercely, finally suppressing this wave of assault—temporarily.
But the cost was severe. Injured lay sprawled across the cavern floor, and the healers' potion reserves were nearly depleted. γ's right arm was scorched by the acid, and her alchemical eye flickered from overload. Worst of all, the Mother Tree—though its core remained intact—had a third of its roots carbonized, and the glow of the Twin Fruits noticeably dimmed.
"They're… draining the Mother Tree's energy…" Elondir leaned on his staff, gasping. "We won't survive the next wave…"
Rain glanced at the still-unconscious Ravenna. A reckless idea began to form. He pointed at the Twin Fruits on the branch. "If we pick them now…"
"Immature fruits will vanish immediately!" the old elf barked, cutting him off. "And harvesting requires a specific ritual, otherwise—"
The ground shook again, even more violently than before. The western cavern wall collapsed with a thunderous crash, revealing a massive vertical tunnel behind it—the diggers' work! Even more terrifying, a deep rumble came from the tunnel's depths, signaling something far larger than the diggers was approaching…
"Abyss Devourer…" γ's voice trembled. "Glass City… was swallowed by this thing…"
Rain clenched Frostwhisper, struggling to circulate four types of energy through his drained meridians. At that moment, a faint but distinct female voice rang out:
"Idiot… just standing there to die…"
Ravenna had awakened! She barely propped up half her body, carbonized fragments of her right arm crumbling to the ground. Yet her left eye burned with familiar purple-gold flames, a mischievous smirk tugging at her lips.
"Ravenna!" γ cried, tears of joy streaming.
"Save your strength." Ravenna struggled to point at the Mother Tree. "The fruits… are crystallizations of our energy… theoretically…"
Elondir suddenly understood her meaning. "You want to absorb the immature fruits directly? That's far too dangerous!"
"Better… than dying…" Ravenna coughed, spitting a spray of electrically-charged blood.
The rumble from the tunnel grew louder; stones continuously tumbled from the cavern walls. Rain and Ravenna exchanged a glance and nodded in silent agreement.
"γ, help us grab them." Rain planted Frostwhisper into the ground, forming the last defensive barrier.
The girl bit her lip, then climbed the Mother Tree with the agility of a cat, quickly reaching the height of the fruits. When her hands closed around the Twin Fruits, γ suddenly froze—her alchemical eye revealed the fruits' internal energy structure was extremely unstable, ready to explode at any moment!
"Drop them!" Ravenna shouted. "Quick!"
γ released her grip. The Twin Fruits plummeted in a straight line. Rain and Ravenna reached out simultaneously to catch them—and the moment they touched—
Emerald and purple-gold pillars of light shot skyward!
Rain felt the fruits melting in his palms, searing energy surging up his arms into his heart. This power was wilder than the leyline energy, as if the growth of millions of ancient trees had been compressed into a single second. His bones cracked under the strain, and bark-like patterns appeared across his skin.
Ravenna's situation was even worse. The purple-gold fruit resonated with her remaining alchemical core, sending her mechanical components into a violent overload. Her carbonized right half began to crumble, but at the same time, new flesh and tissue grew in synchrony—like being flayed alive and regenerated at once, the pain unimaginable.
"Hold on…" Elondir and the elves maintained the largest protective barrier they could muster, keeping the advancing threat at bay. "Just a little longer…"
At the end of the tunnel, the Abyss Devourer finally revealed itself. A spherical monstrosity over thirty meters in diameter, its surface covered with countless mouths, each lined with three rings of spinning metal teeth. It had no eyes, but its entire body functioned as a massive sensor, locking precisely onto the Mother Tree.
"For the Emerald Dream!" the elf warriors launched a suicidal charge. Arrows and spells rained down like hail, yet they couldn't even scratch the outermost mouths.
The Devourer slowly opened its central maw—a ten-meter-wide blood-red aperture, which wasn't a throat but a swirling spatial vortex! Terrifying suction instantly formed, and the elves were swept up like autumn leaves, pulled toward certain death.
At this critical moment, two figures descended from above.
Rain's body was sheathed in living emerald armor, each leaf-like plate breathing and flexing. His pupils had become intricate leaf-vein patterns, and Frostwhisper extended into a blade of pure emerald light.
Ravenna's transformation was even more shocking—her right half had become a flowing purple-gold energy form, while her left remained humanoid, encased in bark-like armor. Her eyes were one purple-gold, one emerald, and her hands held energy weapons shifting through countless forms.
"Twin Resonance: Terminal Bloom!"
They struck simultaneously. Rain's emerald blade pierced the Devourer's gaping maw, while Ravenna's weapon transformed into hundreds of purple-gold chains, wrapping the creature from head to toe. When the two energies met inside the Devourer, an unprecedented purification reaction erupted!
Emerald and purple-gold spirals tore through the Devourer from within. Its greedy mouths crystallized one by one, the spatial vortex twisted and collapsed. The creature shrieked in a deafening wail, its massive body cracking like fragile glass.
"Goodbye, trash," Ravenna snapped her fingers.
The purple-gold chains detonated, shattering the Devourer into countless fragments. The shockwave traveled down the tunnel, triggering a chain collapse—the entire underground network was sealed forever.
Silence fell over the cavern, the only remnants being faint sparks of lingering energy. The elf warriors stared in stunned awe, even Elondir forgot to close his mouth.
Rain's emerald armor slowly faded, revealing regenerated skin underneath—all battle scars vanished. Ravenna's purple-gold energy body solidified back into flesh, her right half perfectly restored, though faint glowing patterns now adorned her skin.
γ rushed forward first, hesitant to touch them: "Are you… still human?"
"Who knows," Ravenna said, flexing her newly restored right hand as tiny purple-gold sparks danced from her fingertips. "Feels… good."
Rain turned to the Mother Tree. Though some roots had been lost, the trunk remained standing tall. More remarkably, new buds had sprouted at the fruit-bearing branches—three tiny glimmers of light, colored silver-blue, emerald, and purple-gold.
"γ…" he said, astonished, looking at the girl. "That's…"
γ's alchemical prosthetic eye automatically scanned the lights. Data showed the energy signatures perfectly matched hers. Understanding dawned, and tears welled up in her eyes. "Old Nick said… the most perfect alchemical reaction… would leave behind…"
"A Mark of Creation," Ravenna said, ruffling her hair. "Congratulations. The Mother Tree remembers you."
Elondir solemnly performed the ancient elven salute. "The courage and sacrifice of you three will be recorded in the Emerald Chronicles. But now…" He turned toward the northeast. "The crisis in the Holy Alliance has not yet ended."
Rain's emerald vision expanded once more. The purified leyline network appeared clearly before him. Among the five main corrupted veins, the one leading toward the Holy Alliance was the most active—something was stirring there, an ancient darkness even older than the Devourer…
"We'll need a swift ship," Ravenna said, already inspecting the elves' equipment. "Preferably one that can fly."
γ suddenly remembered something. From her pocket, she pulled out Old Nick's notes. "Wait… there's a record of a secret beneath the Holy Alliance headquarters…"
As the three huddled together over the notes, the Mother Tree's new sprouts swayed gently, as if heralding an even greater storm to come. Outside the cavern, in the Sky of the Elven Forest, the fracture in the Gear Moon began to slowly mend…