Chapter 16: Petals and Promises
Chapter 16: Petals and Promises
Stone cracked like eggshells as the Grand Elder's statue shuddered. His petrified form split down the middle, not to release him—but to eject something.
A single, withered hand tumbled onto the dais, fingers still clutching a dagger made of living wood.
(Rot Vision Analysis: Weaponized Worldroot - Corruption Saturation 99%)
The mountain spirit hissed, her glow dimming. "He stole a piece of me."
I scooped up the dagger—and the moment my root-fingers touched it, the vision struck:
The Grand Elder, centuries younger, plunging the dagger into the first tree's heart. Not to tap it. To infect it. "Grow well, little poison," he whispers—
The memory shattered as the cavern convulsed. Dust rained from the ceiling as a sound like a thousand screaming trees echoed through the stone.
(Earth Sense Overload: Foreign seismic activity detected - Verdant Dawn forces approaching surface entrance!)
Lina grabbed my bark-covered arm. "They're here for the heart!"
The spirit wailed, her form flickering. "No no no—they'll make me sick again!"
Joren's fire turned cobalt, his veins lighting up like lava channels. "Then we dig deeper."
I sheathed the poisoned dagger in my own chest hollow, where the sapling's roots coiled protectively around it. "No. We meet them."
(Worldroot Symbiosis: 62% → 65%)
The tunnels reshaped themselves as we climbed, roots retracting to form a spiraling staircase. With each step, my body changed further:
- Feet: Toes fused into taproots that drank vibrations from the stone
- Skin: Patches hardened into bark armor at the collarbones and joints
-Voice: When I spoke, the mountain whispered beneath my words
(System Alert: Photosynthetic Decay Active - Sunlight Exposure Required Within 6 Hours)
We emerged into a storm.
Verdant Dawn cultivators in jade-green robes surrounded the mountain's base, their earth-shaping staves driving cracks into the slopes. At their head stood a woman with white-streaked hair and my own split-pupiled eyes.
(Rot Vision Identification: Genetic Match - Maternal Lineage 97%)
My *mother* didn't even blink at my mutated form. "Lishen. You've done well to survive the infection." Her staff pointed at my chest hollow. "Give us the heart shard, and you may keep the rest."
Joren's flames roared. "Like hell—"
I silenced him with a raised root-hand. "You sent me here to die."
"To ascend," she corrected. "The Eclipse trials weed out the weak. The strong..." Her gaze trailed over my bark armor. "...become vessels."
(Soul Rot Revelation: Verdant Dawn never wanted to heal the mountain. They wanted to control the rot.)
The spirit's whisper tickled my ear: "She lies. The bad man lied to her too."
My mother's staff glowed. "Last chance, child."
The sapling in my chest squeezed.
(Worldroot Communication: Let me speak through you)
I opened my mouth—and the mountain's voice boomed from my throat:
"YOU WERE MEANT TO TEND, NOT TAKE."
The ground split between us.
My mother staggered back as the chasm widened, revealing a nightmare:
Thousands of skeletal hands clawed at the edges, their fingerbones fused with root tendrils. The Verdant Dawn's *real* graveyard—every failed Eclipse experiment, buried alive.
(Earth Sense: Detecting 2,143 soul imprints. Average age: 12 years old.)
Her face paled. "This... this wasn't our design. The Grand Elder swore—"
"HE WAS YOUR DISCIPLE FIRST!"the mountain roared through me.
A memory not my own flashed across my vision:
My mother as a young woman, pressing a kiss to the Grand Elder's brow as he departs for the Demonic Sect. "Make them fear the rot," she whispers. "So they'll pay anything for the cure."
(Decay Veyra Level 9 → *Mutation: Memory Theft)
I staggered under the weight of the betrayal. "You created Eclipse... to sell antidotes?"
Her silence was answer enough.
Joren's fire turned white-hot. "You bred your own son to be a fucking pesticide?"
The Verdant Dawn line wavered. Some lowered their staves. Others looked ill.
My mother's jaw tightened. "Harvest the specimen."
They attacked in waves.
Earth-shapers sent boulders tumbling. Wind-callers hurled debris. My mutated body reacted before I could think:
- Root-hand speared through stone, redirecting projectiles
- Bark armor hardened against glancing blows
- Photosynthetic Decay neutralized poison darts midair
(Combat Log: Worldroot Synergy - 72% Efficiency)
But we were outnumbered fifty to three.
Lina's windblades grew erratic as fatigue set in. Joren's fire dimmed to embers. A spear grazed my chest hollow, sending sap-blood spraying.
(System Alert: Solar Energy Depleted - Photosynthetic Decay Failing)
My mother watched from the rear, her staff untouched. Waiting.
The spirit wailed in my ear: "Use the bad knife! Please!"
I hesitated. The poisoned dagger in my chest pulsed like a second heart.
(Risk Assessment: Deploying Weaponized Worldroot May Accelerate Symbiosis Beyond Human Threshold)
Joren took a knee beside me, his breath ragged. "Do it. Whatever your creepy tree buddy wants—do it."
I plunged my root-hand into my own chest.
The dagger came out singing.
Where the Grand Elder's corruption had once festered, the blade now glowed with stolen sunlight, its edge lined with my gold-flecked blood.
(Weapon Evolution: Dawnthorn - Purification Through Annihilation)
I swung.
Not at the cultivators—at the *earth itself*.
The blade's edge split the world in a line of molten gold. Where it touched:
- Verdant Dawn staves sprouted flowers and crumbled
- Eclipse-corrupted cultivators vomited up black sludge
- The skeletal hands in the chasm finally stilled
My mother screamed as the wave hit her—not in pain, but realization.
"You fool," she choked. "That blade was meant for the mountain's heart!"
(Memory Theft: Activated)
Her last thought flooded into me:
A nursery. A baby with gold-flecked eyes. A whispered lullaby: "Grow strong, little rot. The world is hungry."
Then—nothing.
The Verdant Dawn forces lay scattered like fallen leaves, their weapons rusted, their robes turned to moss. My mother knelt unscathed, but her hair had turned the white of old birch.
(Decay Veyra Level 9 → *Epiphany: The Rot Was Never the Enemy)
The spirit materialized, her glow now steady. "Now you understand. The rot was always part of the cycle. They just... twisted it."
I looked at my mutated hands—half rot, half rebirth—and finally understood.
To Be Continued…