The atmosphere of the Artisanship Commission had turned into a literal nightmare of runaway biology. The air was thick with the scent of crushed herbs and ozone, a sickly sweet aroma that clung to the lungs like syrup. High above, the Ambrosial Arbor—the ancient, withered stump that had once been the Xianzhou's curse and pride—was pulsing with a rhythmic, golden light. It wasn't just growing; it was screaming in the frequency of the Abundance.
"Kafka said Blade is waiting at the tree," Stelle said, her voice tight as she gripped her bat. We were standing on a floating jade platform, watching the massive roots of the Arbor crush the surrounding buildings as if they were made of paper. "If the Stellaron Hunters are here, that means the 'Script' is moving into its climax."
"The Script is a roadmap, Stelle," I replied, my violet robes fluttering in the turbulent winds. "But maps don't account for the traveler who walks off the edge of the world. Blade seeks a death that the Abundance won't grant him. I seek a power that the Abundance can't comprehend."
We summoned a starskiff, the small vessel groaning under the gravitational fluctuations caused by the Arbor's resurrection. As we flew toward the central trunk, we saw the Cloud Knights in a desperate retreat. Their spears, once symbols of the Hunt's precision, were being choked by metallic vines that sprouted from the very air.
[Synchronization: 3.40%]
[Authority: Chaos Perception - Scanning 'Ambrosial Arbor']
[Status: Hyper-Regeneration Active]
[Anomaly: Stellaron Core merged with the Root System]
The closer we got, the more I could feel the "Seed of Chaos" I had planted back on Jarilo-VI pulsing in resonance. It was a distant anchor, but it gave me a reference point for what a 'pure' Stellaron felt like. This one, however, was tainted. It had been fed the essence of the Abundance for eons. It was no longer just a weapon of destruction; it was a weapon of forced life.
We landed at the base of the Arbor. The ground was no longer stone or metal; it was a carpet of pulsating, translucent roots that felt like living flesh. Standing in the center of the clearing, surrounded by a pile of discarded Cloud Knight armor, was a man with long, raven hair and eyes that looked like smoldering embers.
Blade.
He didn't look at us. He was staring at his sword—a jagged, broken blade that seemed to drink the blood of the vines it cut.
"The script says you arrive now," Blade whispered, his voice like the grinding of stones. "It also says you will try to stop the bloom. But I... I only want to see if this tree can finally kill me."
"It can't, Blade," I said, stepping off the starskiff. "The Abundance is a closed loop. To die, you must step outside the loop. And you don't know the way out."
Blade turned his gaze to me. A flicker of recognition crossed his face—not of me, but of the void I carried. "You. The one Kafka warned about. You smell like the end of everything. If the Tree won't take my life, perhaps you will?"
He lunged.
It wasn't a fight; it was a collision of concepts. Blade moved with a suicidal grace, his sword cutting through the air with a speed that defied human biology. Stelle jumped to intercept him, her bat clashing against his blade in a shower of gold and crimson sparks.
"Don't do this, Blade!" Stelle shouted. "We have to stop the Stellaron!"
"The Stellaron is just a means to an end!" Blade roared. He ignored the impact of Stelle's bat, his wounds closing almost as fast as they were opened. The Mara within him was fueled by the Arbor's proximity, making him nearly invincible.
I didn't draw a weapon. I raised my hand and activated Biological Manipulation.
[Authority: Biological Manipulation - Level 2]
I didn't target Blade's body. I targeted the link between his Mara and the Arbor. I saw the invisible, glowing green threads connecting his heart to the roots beneath his feet.
"Displacement," I commanded.
I didn't cut the connection. I inverted it. Instead of the Arbor feeding Blade's regeneration, I forced Blade's life force to flow into the Arbor.
Blade froze. His eyes widened as the color drained from his face. The wounds on his chest stopped closing. For the first time in centuries, he felt the cold touch of true mortality.
"What... what have you...?" Blade gasped, falling to one knee.
"I am showing you the exit, Blade," I said. "But you aren't ready to walk through it yet. There is still a part for you to play in the 'Script,' isn't there?"
I released the inversion, letting him collapse. He wasn't dead, but he was neutralized, his body temporarily drained of the regenerative 'static' that kept him in agony.
Stelle looked at me, then at the fallen Hunter. "You could have killed him."
"Death is a gift I don't give away for free," I replied.
I turned toward the Arbor. The golden branches were beginning to unfurl, revealing a massive, pulsating flower at the very top. Inside that flower was the Stellaron.
Suddenly, a massive bolt of lightning struck the clearing. A figure descended from the sky, wreathed in gold and blue electricity. Jing Yuan. The Divine Foresight had arrived.
"Impressive," Jing Yuan said, his heavy sword, Star-Shatter, resting on his shoulder. He looked at Blade, then at me. "Neutralizing a Stellaron Hunter without a drop of blood. You continue to exceed my calculations, Mukhrezz."
"General," I acknowledged. "The Arbor is about to bloom. If that happens, the Luofu will be anchored to this spot forever, becoming a garden of madness."
"I know," Jing Yuan said, his expression turning grim. "The Cloud Knights are holding the line, but the 'Will of the Abundance' is too strong. We need to strike the core. But the core is protected by the 'Phantylia'—an Emanator of Destruction who has hijacked the Arbor's power."
"An Emanator?" Stelle asked, her grip on her bat tightening.
"A Lord Ravager," Jing Yuan explained. "She seeks to use the Abundance to create a body of 'Absolute Destruction'. A life that cannot die, dedicated only to ending others."
As if on cue, the Arbor's trunk split open. A colossal figure emerged—a woman made of golden wood and violet fire, her eyes three-lobed and glowing with a hateful intelligence. Phantylia the Undying.
"General Jing Yuan," Phantylia's voice boomed, sounding like a thousand dying stars. "The Luofu has lived too long. It is a stagnant fruit. I will pick it, crush it, and plant the seeds of a new, beautiful Ruin."
The battle that followed was beyond anything the crew had faced on Jarilo-VI. Jing Yuan summoned the Lightning-Lord, a colossal golden avatar that struck Phantylia with bolts of divine judgment. Stelle unleashed the full power of her Stellaron, her attacks leaving trails of golden fire in the air.
But Phantylia laughed. Every time the Lightning-Lord cleaved her form, the Arbor simply regrew her. She was drawing from the infinite well of the Abundance. She was a god in a garden of her own making.
I stayed in the shadows of a giant root, watching the flow of energy.
[Synchronization: 3.55%]
[Authority: Path Severance - Level 2]
I could see the 'plumbing' of the universe here. Phantylia was a parasite. She was a Destruction Emanator using an Abundance source. It was a brilliant, but unstable, combination.
"She has a fracture point," I murmured.
I reached out with my Chaos Web. I didn't target Phantylia. I targeted the Stellaron inside her. It was the bridge between her Destruction nature and the Arbor's Abundance.
"Stelle! General!" I shouted. "Hit her heart! I will hold the roots!"
"Do it now!" Jing Yuan roared.
The Lightning-Lord raised its massive glaive for a final strike. Stelle charged, her bat glowing with a light that rivaled the sun.
I slammed my palms onto the pulsating roots beneath me.
"Chaos Domain... Absolute Zero," I whispered.
I didn't bring cold. I brought Stillness. I injected a massive dose of Chaos Essence into the Arbor's circulatory system. If the Abundance is 'Infinite Motion', Chaos is the 'End of Motion'.
The roots beneath Phantylia turned black. The golden sap froze in its veins. For a heartbeat, the infinite regeneration stopped.
Phantylia's eyes widened. "What? This... this energy... it's not from this Tree!"
"It's from the Ocean that drowned your Tree before it was even a seed," I said, my violet eyes burning with the light of the Chaos Sovereign.
The Lightning-Lord's glaive descended. Stelle's bat followed.
CRACK.
The explosion was so powerful it blew the starskiffs out of the sky for miles. Phantylia screamed as her golden-wood body shattered. The Stellaron inside her, suddenly deprived of its 'bridge,' erupted in a violent backfire.
In that moment of absolute chaos, I moved.
I didn't want the Stellaron to be destroyed. I wanted it to be mine. I used Void Step to appear inside the epicenter of the explosion. I reached into the collapsing form of Phantylia and grabbed the Stellaron core.
[Harvest Protocol: Level 2 Initiated]
This core was different from the one on Jarilo-VI. It was 'Ripe'. I didn't just plant a seed; I devoured the majority of its conceptual intelligence.
[Synchronization: 3.75%]
[Authority Unlocked: Lifecycle Corruption - Level 1] Description: You can now accelerate or decelerate the age of any biological or mechanical entity within your domain.
The light faded.
Phantylia was gone, forced back into the Void of Destruction. The Ambrosial Arbor stood silent, its golden leaves turning grey and falling like ash. The 'Stellaron Crisis' of the Luofu was over.
Jing Yuan stood in the crater, leaning on his sword, his armor smoking. He looked around, his eyes landing on me. I was standing a few feet away, appearing exhausted, my hand tucked into my sleeve where the stolen energy was being processed.
"You... you held the Arbor," Jing Yuan said, his voice filled with a new level of respect—and fear. "Even I could not have suppressed the Abundance so completely."
"I am a scholar of history, General," I said, my voice barely a whisper. "And all history eventually leads to the grave. I just reminded the Tree of its destination."
Stelle walked over, her face smudged with soot but her golden eyes bright. "We did it. Again."
"Yes," I said, looking at her. "You did it, Trailblazer."
But as we were being evacuated by the Cloud Knights, I felt a familiar gaze. I looked up. Standing on a distant jade roof was Kafka and a young man with a holographic screen—Silver Wolf.
Kafka blew me a kiss. Silver Wolf just gave me a thumbs up.
They saw it, I realized. They saw me take the core.
But it didn't matter. The Luofu was saved, the Alliance was in my debt, and my power was nearly at the 4.00% mark.
As we returned to the Central Starskiff Haven for the victory banquet, I felt the 'Seed' in my soul blooming. I wasn't just a guest of the Astral Express anymore. I was becoming the very thing the Aeons feared.
[Season 1, Volume 1, Chapter 9: Complete]
[Synchronization: 3.85%]
[Secret Objective: Jarilo-VI and Luofu Cores Integrated]
The first volume was nearing its end. One more stop before the Astral Ascent reached its first true peak. I looked out at the stars, my mind already calculating the path to the next 'leaf' on the Tree.
"One more," I whispered. "And then, the Sea of Tree will start to tremble."