The violet heart-fire roared, swallowing the dais. Kaelum's form blurred within it, a shadow puppet dancing in a storm of corrupted energy.
The heat was no longer just physical. It was a spiritual rot, a pressure that made the air taste like ash and despair.
Lin Tian pulled Yan Jiao to her feet, his body already cycling the new, stable energy of the Pentagon link. He could feel Xueya's glacial focus and Su Lan's fiery readiness through the bond, a steadying presence at his back. Yue Chan's silks were a whisper of cool assurance.
"The mountain's heart is infected," Yan Jiao spat, wiping sweat from her brow. Her voice was stronger now, clear of the parasitic chill. "He's not just drawing on it. He's become its valve."
We need to shut that valve, Lin Tian thought, but a direct assault felt suicidal. The energy was too vast, too tangled with the mountain's own lifeforce.
