Chapter 15: The Heart's Whisper
Chapter 15: The Heart's Whisper
Consciousness returned in slow, viscous waves.
I floated in a womb of golden sap, my lungs filled with something thicker than air. My left eye—no, the *thing* that had replaced it—pulsed in time with distant tremors. The roots encasing me were transparent now, veins pumping liquid light.
(System Reboot: Complete)
(Worldroot Symbiosis: 34%)
(Decay Veyra Level 9 → Stabilized)
Through the amber walls, blurred figures moved. Joren's flame burned sapphire. Lina's wind carried voices.
"—three days like this—"
"—sap is healing him—"
"—mountain's crying—"
I pressed a hand against my prison. The roots peeled back like petals.
Air hit my face, cold and sharp as a knife. I gasped—and the sound came out wrong. Echoed. As if the mountain itself had exhaled through my lips.
(New Ability Unlocked: Geological Echo- Voice carries through earth)
Joren stumbled back, his fire guttering. "Gods below. Your eyes."
Lina handed me a shard of reflective crystal.
Where my left eye should have been, a cluster of quartz now sat, its facets refracting light into spectral colors. The right remained human—but the pupil had split vertically, like a cat's.
(Rot Vision: Permanently Active)
I flexed my fingers. Black veins still traced my skin, but they pulsed with gold at the edges. The Grand Elder's corruption was gone. Purged.
"How long?" My voice still echoed.
"Three days," Lina said. "The mountain… fed you. While you slept."
She pointed behind me.
The chrysalis that had held the Grand Elder now encased only petrified wood—but the cultivators' cocoons hung intact, their chest wounds sealed over with smooth stone. Alive, but changed.
Like me.
The cavern had transformed. Where roots once choked the walls, crystalline flowers now bloomed, their petals humming with energy. The central dais cradled a new orb—smaller, clearer, with a single emerald spark at its core.
The mountain's true heart.
(Earth Sense: Detecting consciousness within orb. Approaching—)
The spark flared.
A child's voice filled the cavern: "You fixed me."
Joren's flames died. "What the hells?"
A figure coalesced above the orb—a girl of maybe eight, woven from moss and starlight. Her feet never touched the ground.
(Soul Rot Analysis: Mountain spirit. Age: Approximately 4,302 years.)
She tilted her head. "But you're broken too. Like the bad man broke me."
I knelt, wincing as my joints creaked like old wood. "Can you fix us?"
The spirit giggled, a sound like falling pebbles. "No. You have to grow into it." She floated closer, her hand brushing my quartz eye. "But I can show you the before-time."
Her fingers pushed through my skull—
I stand in a valley untouched by rot. The Verdant Dawn are not yet conquerors here—they are pilgrims, kneeling before the living mountain. Their elder places a gift in the soil: a seed from the world's first tree.
The mountain shudders with joy. Its roots drink deep. The pact is made.
Centuries pass. The pilgrims become priests, then kings. The seed grows into a tree that shades the valley. Its fruit grants longevity. Its bark heals any wound.
Then—the betrayal.
A young acolyte (the future Grand Elder) plunges a dagger into the tree's heart. Not to kill it. To tap it. The first Harvest Ritual begins.
The mountain screams. The scream becomes a parasite. The parasite becomes Eclipse.
The cycle starts.
I wrenched free of the vision, bile rising in my throat. The spirit watched me, her glow dimmed.
"He tricked us,"she whispered. "Made us think the tree was dying. Made us drink its poison to 'save' it."
Lina gripped my shoulder. "Lishen? What did you see?"
I stared at my black-veined hands. "The origin of the rot."
(Quest Updated: Heal the Worldroot - 0/1)
The spirit led us to a hidden chamber where the last fragment of the first tree grew—a single sapling no taller than my knee, its leaves edged in decay.
"It remembers you," the spirit said. "You taste like the before-time."
(Decay Veyra Resonance: 91% Compatibility)
Joren frowned. "So we… water it?"
"No." The spirit pointed at me. "He has to merge with it."
Silence.
Lina stepped between us. "Absolutely not."
(System Analysis: Integration would accelerate Worldroot Symbiosis to 80%. Risk of loss of humanity: High.)
The spirit blinked. "Why fear becoming more? You are already ours."
I reached for the sapling—
A crack echoed through the cavern. The petrified Grand Elder's hand twitched.
(Alert: Eclipse Reawakening - 12% Progress)
Joren's fire reignited. "We're out of time."
The sapling's branches trembled toward me, hungry.
I didn't hesitate.
My palm met the sapling's trunk—and fused. Bark crawled up my arm, sealing over black veins. The pain was beyond anything the Grand Elder had inflicted. This wasn't breaking. This was unmaking.
(Worldroot Symbiosis: 34% → 62%)
(System Override: Terraform Protocols Engaged)
Memories flooded me:
The first sunrise over the valley.
The laughter of children climbing my branches.
The knife in my heart.
The sapling pulled, trying to drag me into the earth. To make me root.
I resisted.
"No," I gasped. "Not a tree. A guardian."
The mountain shuddered. The sapling bent, reshaping itself to my will.
(New Form Unlocked: Worldroot Husk - Retain human mobility with plant traits)
When the pain cleared, I stood changed:
- Left arm: Bark-covered, fingers ending in root tendrils
- Right eye: Still split-pupiled, but now flecked with gold
- Chest: A hollow where the sapling now grew inside me
The spirit clapped. "Better!"
Joren looked ready to vomit. "Lishen. Your skin."
I glanced down. Where the black veins had been, leaves now pushed through—tiny and green, their edges shimmering with decay.
(Ability Evolved: Photosynthetic Decay - Sunlight accelerates healing)
A groan echoed from the cavern. The Grand Elder's statue moved.
Lina drew her dagger. "We fight?"
I flexed my root-hand. "No."
The spirit giggled. "Now you see."*
(Rot Vision Upgrade: Detects emotional resonance in stone)
The Grand Elder wasn't reviving.
The mountain was expelling him.
To Be Continued…