Chapter 18: The Sundering Root

The mountain screamed as the first sun-forged projectile struck.

A pillar of white fire erupted through the cavern ceiling, vaporizing stone and roots alike. The heat seared my bark-flesh, sending sap boiling from fresh cracks. Around me, Joren's newly blackened flames *recoiled* from the light, while Lina's wind scattered into useless eddies.

(Worldroot Symbiosis: 90% → 88% from solar damage)

(Alert: Verdant Dawn using purified sunlight weaponry - Direct counters to decay)

I barely had time to process before the second strike hit—this one shearing through my left branch-arm. The severed limb crashed to the ground, writhing like a dying serpent before petrifying.

"Told you they'd come,"the spirit whispered from the shadows, her voice thick with vindication. "They always burn what they can't control."

Joren dragged me behind a stalagmite as another blast shook the cavern. "We need to go deeper!"

I flexed my remaining arm, feeling the mountain's pain as my own. The roots were retreating, their consciousness recoiling from the solar barrage. But one path remained open—a jagged fissure exhaling air that smelled of iron and old lightning.

The heart chamber.

Lina stuffed two glowing fruits into her pack. "Will these help?"

"No!"The spirit lunged for them, but I intercepted her with a root-tendril.

"Enough lies." My voice was barely human now, all echoes and creaking bark. "You knew about the weapons. You led them here."

Her glow flickered. "I led you to the truth. The fruit is dangerous—"

Another explosion cut her off. The ceiling groaned.

(Arbor Ex Nihilo Duration: 00:04:12 remaining)

I made the call.

"Joren—burn us a path to the fissure. Lina—gather every fruit you can carry." My roots dug into the stone, drinking the last dregs of the mountain's strength. "We end this at the heart."

The fissure opened into a cavern that defied reason.

Its walls pulsed like living flesh. Its floor was a mosaic of fossilized cultivators, their petrified faces frozen in silent screams. And at its center, suspended in a web of molten gold chains, floated the mountain's *true* heart—a jagged shard of emerald the size of a man, its surface webbed with cracks.

(Rot Vision Analysis: Ancient damage. Age: 4,302 years. Cause: Sun-forged pickaxe.)

The spirit let out a wounded sound. "You weren't supposed to see it like this."

Joren's fire sputtered. "What the hells is this place?"

"The first Harvest." I approached the heart, my roots instinctively reaching to heal—only to recoil as the chains flared white-hot. "They didn't just tap the mountain. They mined it."

Lina traced a fossilized hand protruding from the wall. "These people... they tried to stop it?"

"And failed," the spirit whispered. "Like you will."

A tremor shook the chamber. Dust rained down as the bombardment continued overhead.

(Arbor Ex Nihilo Duration: 00:02:35 remaining)

I turned to the spirit. "You've been guarding the heart. Why?"

For the first time, her glow dimmed with something like shame. "Because I'm the one who told them where to strike."

The confession hung in the air like poison.

The story unfolded in broken pieces:

- The spirit, born from the first tree's *betrayal*, not its death

- The cultivators' desperation as the tree's roots drained their lands dry

- The fateful bargain—she would reveal the heart's location in exchange for *one* sapling being spared

- The Grand Elder's perversion of that sapling into Eclipse

(Worldroot Symbiosis: 88% → 85% from emotional trauma)

Joren kicked a fossil. "So we're cleaning up your mess?"

"No." The spirit floated to the heart. "You're finishing what they started."

Her meaning crashed over me. "You want us to destroy the heart."

"It's the only way to stop the cycle!" Her glow flared crimson. "The fruit's power is addictive. Your mother knew—that's why she buried it!"

Lina hefted a fruit. "Then why does this feel right?"

A thunderous crack answered her. The ceiling split open, revealing a dozen Verdant Dawn elites rappelling down on glowing chains. At their head descended my mother, her jade robes now edged in funeral white. In her hands gleamed a weapon that made my roots shiver—a sun-forged scythe, its blade humming with the same frequency as the restraining chains.

"Lishen." Her voice was glacial. "Step away from the heart."

(Arbor Ex Nihilo Duration: 00:01:10 remaining)

The spirit hissed. "She'll use it to control the rot forever."

My mother's smile was a knife wound. "Or you could join us. Be the bridge between Verdant Dawn and Eclipse." She extended a hand. "Isn't that what you want? To matter?"

The sapling in my chest ached.

(Choice:)

1. Shatter the heart- End the cycle but doom the mountain

2. Defend it - Fight mother with dwindling power

3. Merge completely - Become the new heart (100% symbiosis)

I made my choice.

I ate the second fruit.

The explosion of light and memory should have killed me. It would have killed anything less than 85% Worldroot.

(Symbiosis Critical Threshold: 85% → 95%)

My body unraveled.

- Bark-flesh sloughed away in great sheets

- Roots dissolved into liquid gold

- Quartz eye melted and reformed as a perfect emerald

I was neither tree nor human now, but something between—a conduit. A bridge.

(New Form: Heart's Avatar - Temporary fusion with mountain core)

My mother's scythe struck—and stopped an inch from the heart, caught in a web of my own molten veins.

"You misunderstand," I whispered with the mountain's voice. "I'm not choosing sides."

With a thought, I sent power surging through the chains—not to break them, but to repurpose them.

(Ability Awakened: Golden Web - Redirect enemy energy sources)

The Verdant Dawn elites screamed as their own sun-forged weapons turned against them, the blades melting into the chains that now pulled them toward the heart.

My mother dropped her scythe. "What are you doing?"

"Balance."

The heart pulsed. The chamber shuddered. And from my outstretched hands, a rain of new seeds fell—each one a perfect blend of sunlight and decay, designed not to overwhelm, but to sustain.

(Worldroot Revelation: The first tree didn't steal—it overgave. The fruits were meant to be shared, not hoarded.)

The spirit wailed as the seeds took root in the fossils, their stone skin splitting to reveal fresh growth. "No! You'll doom us all!"

Joren caught one of the sprouting seeds. His black fire turned green at the edges. "Uh. Lishen? I think I can hear the mountain now—"

The final projectile struck.

Not from above.

From below.

The floor vaporized.

A geyser of liquid sunlight erupted, swallowing two Verdant Dawn elites whole. From its depths rose a figure armored in bark and bone—the Grand Elder, his body now a grotesque fusion of Worldroot and Eclipse corruption.

(Rot Vision Analysis: 44% Human, 33% Parasite, 23% Pure Worldroot)

His voice was a chorus of screams. "Did you think petrification could hold me?"

My mother stumbled back. "Impossible—we killed you!"

"You* tried*." He lunged, his root-claws sinking into her chest. "But rot always finds a way."

(Arbor Ex Nihilo Duration: 00:00:00)

My borrowed power snapped.

The last thing I saw before collapsing was the Grand Elder driving my mother toward the heart—and the spirit smiling as she floated into his shadow.