The adrenaline of the rescue was fading, replaced by the throbbing reality of pain.
In the dim light of the farmhouse living room, Kael sat on a wooden stool, stripped to the waist. His left arm was a ruin. The impact of the Earth Giant hadn't just snapped the bone. It had pulverized it. Valeria had applied a temporary splint in the yard to keep the limb stable during transport, but the flesh was swollen and purple, radiating a dangerous heat.
Ignis hovered nearby, wringing his hands. "I cannot use a restoration spell," the Dragon hissed, glancing at the window where the grey Necrotic Dome pressed against the glass. "Even a minor weaving could spike the local ambient mana. The Phages would sense it through the shield."
"So we rely on biology," Lysandra said from the corner, looking bored but pale. "He is a Tiger. He will heal... eventually. If the shock doesn't kill him first."
Kael gritted his teeth, sweat dripping from his nose onto his bare chest. "Just bind it tighter. I can take it."
"No," Valeria said.
She stood by the hearth. She looked at Kael's arm, then out the window toward the barn. Through the gloom, she could see the faint glow of lanterns where Thorne had quarantined the refugees. They were safe, far away from the house, but Kael was right here, and he was breaking.
"We don't have time for 'eventually'," Valeria said. "We need to counter-attack in forty-eight hours. I need you whole."
"Valeria," Ignis warned, stepping in front of her. "No magic. The dome is fragile."
"It's not magic, Ignis," Valeria said calmly. "It's chemistry. High-grade hydration."
She turned and walked into the kitchen pantry, closing the door behind her.
[System Library: Open.]
The smell of old paper and ozone filled her senses. She stood in the Atrium. The Spirit Spring bubbled cheerfully in the center, unaware of the apocalypse outside.
Valeria approached the fountain. She picked up the small crystal phial sitting on the rim. It was tiny, holding barely a cup of liquid, but it was full of the Concentrated Spirit Essence—the pure, glowing blue liquid that generated only once a day.
She paused, gripping the delicate glass. This was risky.
"System," she whispered. "Query. Will removing this Essence trigger the Phages? Does it emit a mana signature compatible with this world?"
[System Query: Cross-Dimensional Resonance.]
[Analysis: Spirit Essence originates from the Library Dimension (Void-Null).]
[Result: The Essence acts as a chemical catalyst, not active mana. It has zero local signature until metabolized by a host. It is invisible to Phages while in the container.]
[Conclusion: Safe to extract.]
Valeria let out a breath. "Thank god for loopholes."
She also filled a bucket from the overflow pool, the diluted water.
[Exit.]
She kicked the pantry door open. She walked back into the living room carrying the small crystal phial. The blue glow was dim, swirling with an internal light that looked more like starlight than magic.
Lysandra sat up straighter. "What is that? It smells... ancient."
"Drink," Valeria ordered, holding the phial to Kael's lips. "All of it."
Kael didn't hesitate. He knew this taste. It was the taste that had saved him from the shattered core months ago. He drank the small amount greedily.
The effect was instantaneous.
Kael's back arched. A low growl tore from his throat. The bruising on his arm didn't just fade. It evaporated. The sickening crunch of bone knitting together echoed in the silent room. Steam rose from his skin as the Essence accelerated his cellular regeneration a thousand times over.
In ten seconds, the arm was whole.
Kael flexed his hand. He looked at Valeria, his golden eyes wide. "The pain is gone. My core... it feels full. Silent, but full."
"Good," Valeria said. She set the empty phial down.
She turned to see the other husbands staring at her. Silas was licking his lips. Caspian looked thirsty.
"You've been holding out on us," Lysandra murmured, eyeing the tiny empty vessel with a hungry look. "That is high-grade Elixir. One drop of that is worth a castle. And you just fed him the whole draught."
Valeria looked at her family.
"I haven't been holding out," Valeria said. "You've been drinking it every day."
Silence.
"Excuse me?" Ignis asked, adjusting his goggles.
"The stew," Valeria explained. "The tea. The morning porridge. Ever since I took over the kitchen, I've been using diluted water from this source for cooking. Why do you think you recovered from years of torture in a few months? Why do you think Caspian can breathe on land longer than any Shark should? Why do you think Silas regained his sanity?"
Silas looked at his hands. "I thought it was just... good soup."
"It was super-charged soup," Valeria corrected. "I've been micro-dosing you with Spirit Essence to rebuild your foundations."
She picked up the bucket of diluted water she had also brought out.
"And now that we are going into the Deep Roads, we need to top off the tanks. Everyone drinks. A full cup. Even you, Lysandra. You look like a corpse, and not in the fashionable way."
Lysandra scoffed, but she accepted the cup. She took a sip. Her eyes widened. The grey pallor of her skin flushed with a faint, healthy pink.
"Incredible," the Necromancer whispered. "It tastes like... before."
The Root of the Problem
While the others drank and rested, Valeria slipped out the back door.
It was freezing in the courtyard. The grey Necrotic Dome overhead blocked the stars, making the world feel claustrophobic.
Valeria walked to the center of the yard. The World Tree sapling stood there, its silver bark dull, its leaves drooping. It was asleep, forced into dormancy to hide its light.
"I'm sorry," Valeria whispered, kneeling in the snow.
She touched the trunk. It felt brittle.
Since returning from the Capital, she had been pouring the daily phial of Concentrated Essence onto the tree's roots every evening. It was a desperate measure. When she had saved the Duke of Ironclad from the Guild's poison to secure their alliance months ago, she had been forced to sever a secondary root from the sapling to brew the antidote.
It hadn't killed the tree, but it had stunted it. The sacrifice had won them the Duchy, but it had left the sapling fragile. Now, under the suppression of the Death Mana, it was suffocating.
"I can't give you the full dose today," Valeria murmured, holding the empty crystal phial upside down. "Kael needed it. He took a punch for us."
She waited until a single, viscous blue drop fell from the rim onto the frozen earth.
"Drink that. Hold on. Just for a few more days."
The tree seemed to shudder. A faint, silver pulse traveled up the trunk. Weak, but there. It was alive.
"System," Valeria thought. "Can I bring out anything else? Fertilizer? Sun-lamps?"
[System Warning: Extraction Limit Reached.]
[Risk Assessment: Large magical items may disrupt the Necrotic Shield equilibrium. Only inert fluids and simple compounds are currently safe.]
"Fluids it is," Valeria sighed. She patted the bark. "Sleep well. When you wake up, I promise the sky will be blue."
The War Room
When Valeria returned to the house, the mood had shifted. The fear from the Phage attack was replaced by a vibrating intensity. The Spirit Water was doing its work.
Ignis had turned the dining table into a War Room. The map of the North was spread out, marked with black ink where the Dead Zones were spreading.
"They are moving south," Ignis said. "They will hit the Capital in a week. The Guild wards won't stop them."
"The Emperor has the Lion Guard," Kael said, testing the rotation of his healed arm. "And Titus. They will fight."
"You cannot fight entropy with swords," Lysandra said, swirling her cup of Spirit Water. "The Phages are not an army. They are a natural disaster. Like a blizzard that eats souls."
"Is there a weakness?" Valeria asked.
"They hunger," Lysandra said. "That is their weakness. They are mindless consumers. If we can lure them... trap them..."
"A lure," Valeria mused. "Like the World Tree."
She looked at the system window floating in her vision.
[Current Mission: The Winter of Dead Gods.]
[Objective: Survive until the Swarm dissipates OR Destroy the Hive Queen.]
"Hive Queen?" Valeria whispered.
"What?" Ignis asked.
"The System," Valeria said. "It mentions a Hive Queen. Lysandra, you said they were a hive mind. Is there a central intelligence?"
Lysandra frowned. "The scouts... before they died... they mentioned a 'Heart'. A massive concentration of void energy at the center of the swarm. But getting close enough to kill it would be suicide. It would be protected by thousands of hosts."
Valeria tapped the map. Right in the center of the Frost-Fang peaks.
"If there is a Queen," Valeria said, "then there is a way to kill the swarm. We don't have to kill every Phage. We just have to kill the brain."
"And how do you propose we get there?" Lysandra asked. "We are trapped in a bubble. If we step outside, we are eaten."
Valeria looked at her husbands.
"We don't step out," Valeria said slowly. "We dig."
She pointed to the old mining schematics they had stolen from the Guild months ago.
"The Ironclad Mines connect to the deep tunnels. The Dwarven Deep Roads. They run under the mountains. The Phages are surface predators. They hunt mana in the air and forests. But the Deep Roads... they are dead stone."
"You want to go under them," Ignis realized. "Tunnel beneath the swarm and pop up right under the Queen."
"It's a dungeon crawl," Valeria said. "A level 99 dungeon crawl."
She looked at Lysandra. "Your skeletons. Can they dig?"
Lysandra stared at her. Then, slowly, a wicked smile spread across her pale face. "My dear Duchess. My boys are excellent at digging graves."
"Then we have a plan," Valeria said.
She activated the Merchant's Monocle. She looked at her family, allowing the System to aggregate the data from months of training, combat, and the secret Spirit Water diet.
"Line up," Valeria ordered. "If we are going underground, I need to know exactly what we are bringing."
She looked at Kael first.
[Name: Kael]
[Species: Sun-Tiger (Therianthrope High-Blood)]
[Status: Evolving (Stage 2).]
[Class: Warlord / Tank.]
[Special Trait: Solar Flare.]
Note: The latent "Sun-King" bloodline is rapidly awakening. His mana core has reconstructed into a Solar-Fusion type. He generates heat and light. In the Deep Roads, he will be a living torch.
"Kael," Valeria said. "You are officially Evolving. Your core is stable, but potent. You are the vanguard."
She turned to Ignis.
[Name: Ignis]
[Species: Crimson Dragon (Flightless)]
[Status: Recovering.]
[Class: Strategist / Alchemist.]
[Special Trait: The Scholar's Eye.]
Note: The poison filtration is 90% effective. While he cannot breathe fire yet without damaging his throat, his magical sensory abilities have spiked. He can detect mana traps through stone.
"Ignis, you are the radar. You find the traps before we step on them."
She looked at Silas.
[Name: Silas]
[Species: Shadow-Wolf]
[Status: Lucid.]
[Class: Assassin / Scout.]
[Special Trait: Phase-Shift.]
Note: The Spirit Water has cured the Mana Rabies and mutated his shadow-step. He can now phase through solid matter for up to 3 seconds.
"Silas, you can walk through walls?" Valeria asked.
Silas grinned, passing his hand through the table. "Useful for locked doors."
"Very," Valeria nodded. She turned to Caspian.
[Name: Caspian]
[Species: Abyssal Shark]
[Status: Hydrated.]
[Class: Brawler / Marine Specialist.]
[Special Trait: Hydro-Skin.]
Note: His skin has hardened into a natural armor equivalent to plate mail. He can condense moisture from the air to create water blades.
"Caspian, you are the heavy infantry. Nothing gets past you."
Finally, Lucian.
[Name: Lucian]
[Species: Phoenix]
[Status: Molting.]
[Class: Archer / Recon.]
[Special Trait: Ember-Sight.]
Note: His feathers are regrowing. He is currently in a pre-ascension state. If he dies, he will resurrect, but the explosion will likely kill everyone nearby.
"Lucian," Valeria said seriously. "Do not die. We are in a tunnel. If you blow up, you bury us all."
Lucian saluted nervously. "I will try my best to stay alive, Mistress!"
Valeria placed her hand on the map.
"Get your gear. Lysandra, start the digging. We leave in one hour."