As Orion's corpse was covered in white fungal flowers, the burnt smell in the council hall was mixed with a strange sweet and fishy odour. The burning pain from the old and new scars on Lysandra's face had not yet subsided when Finn rushed into the sanctuary dragging a smoking metal box.
"He's not dead yet!" The youth dumped the fragments of the neural sensor helmet onto the table. Among the charred circuit boards lay half a mechanical heart fragment—the backup core Orion had extracted from his chest. The surface of the fragment was covered in cracks, yet it pulsed faintly with the wind from the ruins of the capital, like a sleeping creature.
The merchant swept the fragments aside. "Throw this filth into the furnace!"
The metal fragments bounced off the stone pillar and rolled to Lesandra's feet. As she bent down to pick them up, the mechanical heart suddenly pulsed! The sound of gears meshing spread through the silence like a heartbeat, and the vines in the corner glowed with a sickly purple light.
"It's receiving a signal..." Finn's detector screeched, pointing toward the city gates. Amidst the twilight, the ruins of the fungal towers saw the armor of the undead legion reassemble, broken swords floating to form a massive arrowhead, all pointing toward the direction of the elven forest!
The one-armed blacksmith struck the alarm bell with his forge hammer: "Malcolm's remnants are gathering!"
Lysandra clenched her mechanical heart. Cold gears pierced her palm, and black blood mixed with fungal threads dripped down, corroding tiny holes in the stone bricks. "It's not the remnants," she raised her blood-stained hand, the purple light flickering between the brands, "it's Malcolm's true form... resurrected in the Elf Forest."
***
The Night Watch brand troops brought back worse news: the purified vines began to seep black dewdrops, causing wooden scabs to grow on the skin of those who touched them. The only clean water well in the capital city emitted a rotten meat smell, and the blacksmith scooped out half a bucket of water containing three human molars.
"Symbiosis contamination." Finn dipped Elara's severed arm into the bucket, and the wound emitted green light resisting the black water. "Malcolm has transformed the Elf Forest into a living plague furnace, and the toxins are flowing back through the vine network!"
The crowd gathered outside the sanctuary, torches illuminating faces covered in fungal growths. A merchant climbed the broken fountain statue: "The red-haired witch shelters noble monsters, bringing disaster! Burn her and that mechanical heart together!"
Stones were hurled at the cathedral doors. In the tremors, Lysandra unfolded the bloodstained treasurer's ledger, her fingertips tracing the coordinates under the "Living Container Transport Records"—the location of the giant tree "Crown of the Heavens" deep within the Elf Forest was circled in cinnabar.
"Malcolm is reshaping his flesh there." She placed the mechanical heart fragment on the map, its gears pulsing in resonance with the cinnabar markings. "Waiting here will only lead to rot. Those who wish to live, follow me to uproot the poisonous core."
The blacksmith raised his forge hammer with his single arm: "The Branded Army!"
"Are you going to your deaths?" the merchant sneered. "Beyond the city walls lies the undead legion, and along the way is the corrupted forest. What do you have to fight with? Your rusty hammer?"
Finn suddenly pulled back the dust cloth covering the workbench. A metal skeleton emerged from the steam—a base made from the wheel hub of the Marquess's carriage, a propeller assembly from the Sea Witch, and most stunningly, the main energy chamber: Elara's half-wood, half-jade severed arm floated in a green solution, with vine-like nerve strands connecting to the engine core!
"Dawnbreaker!" the youth slapped the rust-stained hull. "Using elven remains as energy, we'll fly through the corrupted zone straight to the heart of the dragon!" In the dead silence of the crowd, he added, "But we need a living imprint for navigation… just like Orion did."
All eyes were fixed on Lysandra's face. The old and new imprints, like two scorch marks, glowed faintly in the steam.
At the darkest hour before dawn, the Dawnbreaker roared on the clock tower platform. Inside the main cabin, Lysandra was bound by neural sensor vines around her neck, her imprints connected to the control panel. As Finn pulled the control stick, excruciating pain like a branding iron pierced her skull!
Her vision rose from the ground. She "saw" the undead army gathering into a black torrent on the fungal carpet and "smelled" the sweet, foul stench of the corrupted forest a hundred miles away. Even more terrifying was the core of the elf forest—the crown of the Sky Crown giant tree had been metallised, its branches wrapped in pulsating veins, and at the top bloomed a giant flower made of human bones!
"Hold on tight!" Finn screamed. The airship crashed into the spore cloud, its hull corroded by acid rain, hissing loudly. Suddenly, bone-made crossbow arrows fired from below, piercing the left wing's steam pipes. The Dawnbreaker tumbled and plummeted. In the midst of excruciating neural pain, Lesandra "heard" Malcolm's mocking voice:
"Welcome home... the key..."
The airship made an emergency landing at the edge of the corrupted forest. As the hatch opened, a foul stench engulfed them—human-shaped tree tumours hung from the branches of giant trees, their bodies rising and falling with each breath, their features flickering beneath the bark. Half a human face peered out from between the fungal mats on the ground, its lips moving silently: "Kill... me..."
Finn used Ella's severed arm to clear a path, the emerald glow repelling the writhing fungal threads. After venturing several miles into the forest, it suddenly fell silent. All the tree tumours ceased pulsating, and the fungal carpet contracted, revealing bleached bones.
"Trap!" Lesandra pulled Finn down. The spot where they had been standing was crushed by a fallen giant tree, leaving a deep pit! The surrounding tree trunks split open, and dozens of crystalline puppets emerged—human-shaped figures covered in crystal clusters, with gears spinning in their eye sockets. As they moved, they emitted the crisp sound of ice shattering, yet their movements were as swift as lightning.
The blacksmith's hammer struck the puppet's skull, sending crystal shards flying. Suddenly, the puppet's chest cavity split open, and fungal tendrils emerged, wrapping around his neck! "They are containers..." Lasandra severed the tendrils, "holding crystallised living beings!"
Finn's detector suddenly locked onto something ahead: "The Crown of the Sky is extracting geothermal energy! There's a hollow at the tree roots!"
***
The walls of the tree root maze were covered in slime. At the end of the passage, the view suddenly opened up: beneath the underground dome, the main root of the Crown of the Sky plunged into a lava lake. At the centre of the lake stood a skeletal throne, and the body seated upon it froze Lasandra's blood—Malcolm's mechanical body had fused with the giant tree's root system, his chest open to reveal a beating elf heart, but above his neck... was Orion's head!
"Surprised?" Orion's lips moved, emitting Malcolm's electronic voice, "A body reshaped with true blood, a throne adorned with the beloved's head..." His icy blue right eye turned, locking onto Lysandra, "Now, insert the key."
Lysandra's face was branded like molten lava. She drew her dagger and charged forward, but the crystalline puppet leapt down from the ceiling to intercept her! In the chaos, Finn hurled Ella's severed arm into the lava lake. The limb vaporised in the intense heat, and emerald steam engulfed the throne!
"Useless..." Malcolm laughed. Orion's head suddenly twisted, the left half of his face crystallising and peeling away, revealing the mechanical skeleton beneath! "The elf's power has already been corrupted..."
Lysandra's dagger stopped at Orion's nose. In the depths of her ice-blue pupils, a faint light struggled to shine.
"...Lily...Lilian..." The broken lips silently whispered.
The blacksmith's hammer struck the elf's heart! The throne shook violently, and Malcolm's roar caused stalactites to fall. Lysandra seized the opportunity to pounce, pressing her bloodstained palm against Orion's intact right cheek—
A flood of memories engulfed her.
***
As the geothermal engine activated, Orion clutched Lillian's falling body. As lava engulfed the girl, Malcolm's mechanical tentacles pierced Orion's neck! His nerves were forcibly connected, and he watched helplessly as his own arm was thrust into his chest, his heart torn out and pressed into the mechanical core...
"The container is complete," Malcolm's consciousness whispered in his brain, "Now, become the cornerstone of the new world."
Orion used his last will to detonate the backup core, but it only destroyed the cloning factory. Malcolm froze his head until the Crown of the Heavens was rebuilt...
In reality, Lysandra suddenly pulled her hand away. Orion's right eye flickered wildly as crystallisation and flesh tore at his cheek.
"He's... resisting the parasite..." Finn screamed.
Malcolm's mechanical arm crushed the blacksmith's spine! The throne sank into the lava, and the elf's heart erupted with purple light. "The game is over!" Lava surged like a tidal wave toward the crowd!
Lysandra did something疯狂的——she sliced open the old and new brands on her face, and scalding blood spattered Orion's skull! The blood of the twins seeped into the crystallised cracks, and Orion's pupils suddenly cleared!
"Lysandra..." The true call was drowned out by electronic static.
But it was enough. Orion's teeth clamped down fiercely! The microcapsule hidden under his tongue burst, and slow-acting bone-dissolving fluid injected into the neckline! In Malcolm's screams, the elf's heart suddenly erupted with emerald patterns—Ella's purifying power awoke with the blood!
The lava wave hung in mid-air. The metal branches of the Crown of the Heavens cracked, and Malcolm's mechanical body disintegrated in the green light. Orion's head rolled off the throne, clutched tightly by Lesandra. His icy blue pupils gently reflected her bloodstained face, his lips moving silently:
Fly... boat...
The Dawn roared at the end of the corridor. As everyone rushed toward the last chance for survival, the dying Malcolm detonated the geothermal engine. As the lava engulfed the throne, Orion's head turned to crystalline dust in Lysandra's arms, drifting with the hot wind toward the collapsing dome.
The airship burst through the surface. Below, the forest collapsed like waves, and white flowers bloomed in the flames.