The wind before dawn carried the smell of burning and blood, sweeping across the ruins of Rustwater Alley. Lysandra stood on the altar base of the church ruins, her feet above Renard's body bound by iron chains. The sheriff's expensive uniform was covered in mud and blue tearstone powder. A miniature film reel projected a looping sequence onto the broken walls—**Container Transport Record, Signed by: Renard Hawk**.
"Fake... all fake!" Leonard screamed, spitting blood and saliva. He struggled to lift his head, searching the silent crowd for a hint of wavering, but saw only three hundred pairs of burning eyes. Above those eyes, lion-headed brands of varying depths formed a furious totem in the morning light.
Finn manoeuvred his steam wheelchair over the rubble, the cannon barrel still smoking. "Signal interference complete!" he tapped the homemade device on the wheelchair's armrest. "The Security Bureau's distress pigeons have all turned into roasted quails!" Suppressed laughter erupted from the crowd, only to be drowned out by the dull thud of Gideon's iron crutch hitting the ground.
The veteran with one eye scanned the crowd. "The Branded Army—" his hoarse voice cut through the cold wind, "Before today, we were the shameful mark under the crown! But now!" He pointed his iron crutch at Leonard, "The brand will become the mark of judgment!"
"Judgment!" The limping blacksmith raised his tongs first, the old brand on his face flushing red with excitement.
"Judgment!" The washerwoman clenched her pestle, the brand on her temple glinting in her grey hair.
The roar swelled like a tidal wave, crashing like thunder. Lysandra felt the brand on her face burn and throb, as if it were about to melt through her skull. She leapt down from the pedestal, pulled out the half-spear stuck in the scorched earth, and pressed the tip against Leonard's throat.
"In the name of the wrongfully deceased of Rustwater Alley," her voice was soft, yet it froze the boiling crowd instantly, "I sentence you—"
A piercing sound tore through the air.
A steel arrow wrapped in green flames pierced Renard's left eye, and the arrow shaft exploded with dark green fluid inside his skull! As the body convulsed violently, a second arrow struck Lasandra's forehead!
Clang! Sparks flew.
Orion appeared like a ghost, his dagger precisely deflecting the poisoned arrow. His expensive velvet coat was splattered with brain matter, but his icy blue eyes locked onto the clock tower at the alley entrance: "Alchemical poisoned arrows. Malachi's hounds have struck."
A black-robed figure flashed past the clock tower window. Almost simultaneously, an ominous tremor shook the ground.
"Underground! Spread out!" Gideon roared in warning.
Bricks and stones exploded! Three armoured burrowing beasts burst forth from the ground, their mouths spewing acid. An old woman holding a kitchen knife was instantly corroded into white bones, her screams cut short as she collapsed to the ground. The crowd scattered. Finn's wheelchair cannon roared, shattering the head armour of one of the burrowing beasts. Viscous green blood spattered the stone slabs, which hissed and smoked.
"Lead the men to the eastern sewer!" Gideon's iron crutch smashed into the compound eyes of another burrowing beast, spraying him with foul-smelling bodily fluids. "They track us by vibration!"
In the chaos, Lysandra charged toward the bell tower. A hooded figure was descending the rope ladder, and she threw her dagger to sever the rope. As the figure fell, the hood flapped open, revealing mechanical legs—gears meshing at the knees, hydraulic tubes wrapped around bio-muscle fibres!
"Malachi's toy..." Orion's voice echoed behind her. He gracefully dodged the mechanical leg's sweep, his dagger striking like a venomous snake into the gap between the knee joints. Sparks flew as the cloaked figure's throat emitted an electronic synthetic voice: "Living key... retrieval procedure... initiated..."
The black-robed figure suddenly self-destructed! Lysandra was blown away by the blast wave, and Orion shielded her with his body as they rolled into the rubble. Scorching metal fragments grazed Lysandra's right arm, leaving a charred mark. As the smoke and dust cleared, only half of the black-robed figure's head remained, its electronic eyes flashing red: "Elven Forest... Purification Protocol... Completion rate 71%..."
The red light faded.
***
The sewer was filled with the stench of blood and rust. Survivors crowded into the makeshift shelter Finn had built from scrap metal, the suppressed sobs of children echoing through the pipes. Gideon tore open Lesandra's sleeve and applied a pungent ointment to her burned arm.
"Cybernetic augmentations," Finn dismantled the collected metal fragments, his goggles reflecting a cold glow, "The neural interface is an outdated model from Malachi Industries three years ago, but the energy core..." He held up a charred chip, "It's infused with elf blood."
Lysandra looked at the map drawn in charcoal on the rock wall—the elf forest marked with a huge red cross. "The purification protocol the black-robed man mentioned before he died..."
"Waste contamination is just the beginning." Orion wiped his dagger with a silk handkerchief, then suddenly slammed a yellowed blueprint onto the table. The parchment depicted an eerie totem of giant trees缠绕ing gears, with ancient elf script annotations stained by blood. "Malachi's 'Natural Domestication Plan'—using alchemical toxins to改造 the elf forest, turning ancient trees into living energy towers!"
Gideon's lone eye sharpened: "The disappearance of the Border Legion three years ago... The transport vehicle we found bore this emblem." He pulled open his collar, revealing a twisted scar beneath his collarbone—the very imprint of the giant tree and gear totem. "The survivors all went mad, screaming, 'The trees are bleeding!'"
Finn suddenly jumped up, his goggles pressed against the edge of the blueprint: "Wait! The words covered by the bloodstain..." He picked up a small amount of powder with tweezers for analysis, "It's moonlight moss spores! Only the 'Sleeping Tomb' deep within the Elf Forest grows this!"
A child's scream echoed from the depths of the pipeline. Everyone rushed over, only to see several children pointing at the polluted water surface—floating on the water were countless rotting fish carcasses, their eyes cloudy and white, with tiny black vines sprouting from their gills!
"Black Tide mycelium..." Orion used a dagger to pick up a piece of vine, "The corruption of the Elf Forest has already contaminated the water system and will spread to the royal capital's reservoir within three days."
The mark on Lesandra's face twitched violently. She grabbed the half mechanical skull left behind by the black-robed figure: "How do we stop the purification protocol?"
Finn connected the skull to a homemade device. The screen flickered with garbled code: "We need... an ecological neutraliser... the formula is..." A piercing noise erupted, and the skull's electronic eye dimmed completely, "...the ancient trees in the core zone... Elara..."
***
The edge of the Elf Forest was shrouded in a sweet, putrid stench. The once-lush giant trees now had twisted branches, their bark oozing viscous black resin. The air was filled with fluffy black spores, and Finn's goggles were already caked with grime.
"The gas mask won't last much longer!" He adjusted the spore detector on the wheelchair's armrest; the needle trembled wildly in the red zone. "The concentration is ten times the lethal dose!"
Gideon wrapped a cloth around his mouth and nose; his wooden prosthetic limb sank into the fungal-covered humus layer. "Twelve o'clock direction, three hundred metres." He lay prone, listening. "Something is gnawing on the tree trunk... there are many of them."
Orion suddenly pulled Lesandra down. Ahead, black mist swirled, and faintly visible were pale limbs writhing—dozens of humanoid creatures with wood-like skin were tearing into the ancient trees with their teeth! Their joints were covered in tree tumours, and their eye sockets were filled with black fungal threads.
"Forest Guardians..." Orion's voice was heavy, "corrupted elves."
One Guardian suddenly turned its head, "looking" toward the bushes where they were hiding! Its lower jaw was torn open to the ear, exposing a wood-like throat, emitting a silent shriek! All the Guardians stopped gnawing simultaneously, their fungal-filled eye sockets locking onto their direction!
"Run!" Gideon threw a smoke grenade.
As the black mist and white smoke mingled, the guards charged on all fours, moving as swiftly as cheetahs! Lysandra's dagger struck the first attacker's neck, but it made a dull thud like cutting through hardwood. The guard's wooden arm swept across her ribs, causing excruciating pain that nearly choked her.
Orion's dagger flashed, piercing precisely into the guard's joint crevices. Where blue blood spattered, the guard screamed and disintegrated into rotten wood. "The joints are the weak point!" He spun and kicked another guard's knee to pieces.
Finn's wheelchair blasted through the encirclement, but drew more guards. Gideon's iron crutch smashed one's skull, and viscous blue blood splattered his cheek, causing his skin to immediately emit a blue smoke! "The blood is corrosive!"
Two faint green lights flickered in the depths of the black mist. The guards suddenly ceased their attacks, retreating to the sides like puppets on strings. A tall figure emerged from the mist—a silver-haired elf woman with pointed ears, vine tattoos writhing on her dark skin, and amber pupils that had dilated into an eerie pitch black!
"Elara!" Finn exclaimed in shock.
The elf raised her hand. Fungal threads erupted from the ground, wrapping around Finn's wheelchair! More threads coiled like venomous snakes toward Lasandra, who slashed them with her dagger, causing the severed ends to spurt foul-smelling black liquid.
Elarra's pitch-black pupils turned to the brand on Lysandra's face, her lips twisting into a grin: "Living key..." Her voice overlapped with countless screeches, "Offered to the Mother Tree..."
A thunderous crash echoed from the depths of the forest. In the tremors of the earthquake, a black tornado rises in the distance, connecting heaven and earth—a storm composed of countless mycelium and spores, devouring all life in its path!
"The final stage of the Purification Protocol..." Orion severed the mycelium缠绕ing around Lysandra, his ice-blue pupils reflecting the destructive storm, "We have only one choice left."
He pointed to the centre of the storm's eye—a half-rotted ancient tree loomed faintly, its trunk embedded with a massive metal device, gears slowly turning amidst the fungal threads.
"Destroy the 'Corrupted Mother Tree'." The dagger spun with a cold glow between Orion's fingers, "or perish with it."