Orion's knuckles were as white as bones as he clutched his throat, and the dark blue veins on his neck bulged like poisonous vines. The blue teardrop stone in the pendant cracked like a spider web, and tiny shards of crystal fell with his violent spasms.
"The counterfeit's shelf life... has expired." Malcolm's sigh carried the metallic grit of friction. The hem of his platinum robe swept across the bloodstained cellar floor, while the giant tree gear totem on his cuff glowed faintly in the dim light, as if alive.
Lysandra's dagger flew through the air toward the alchemist's neck! But it froze before touching his skin—the blade tip was restrained by some invisible force field, vibrating and emitting a mournful sound.
"Rude." Malcolm didn't even turn around. His multifaceted crystal eyes rotated, reflecting the scorching imprint on Lysandra's face. "But your key is more durable than expected." Pale fingers pointed through the air, and Lesandra was struck as if by a heavy hammer, crashing into the crystal cabinet and coughing up blood. As the mark touched the cabinet, the entire "Eternal Contract" flipped open, and fresh blood droplets seeped from the yellowed pages!
Orion's convulsions ceased abruptly. He lay limp in a pool of blood, his ice-blue pupils beginning to fade, tiny crystal particles crystallising at the edges of his irises. "What a pity," Malcolm said, looking down at him, "you were the one who resembled him the most."
The alchemist stepped over the pool of blood, his multifaceted crystal eyes locked on the direction of the shaft: "Finn, how does nitroglycerin taste?"
The fiery explosion surged down from the shaft opening! Finn rolled down, covered in smoke and dust, his goggles shattered, clutching Ella's charred severed arm. He coughed up blood foam and raised his modified crossbow: There's... something else in it!" He pulled the trigger, and an arrow filled with green spores flew towards Malcolm's forehead!
The arrow hovered in mid-air. Malcolm flicked his fingers, and the arrow shaft shattered into pieces, but the spores gathered in the air to form a ghostly image of Ellara! The elf's illusion emitted a silent shriek, and a green light swept across the cellar!
"Ah... the guardian's resentment." Malcolm's crystal eyes flickered for the first time. The light wave touched the hem of his robe, and the white gold fabric instantly carbonised and peeled off, revealing the mechanical body beneath—wrapped in hydraulic pipes and gears! Inside the metal chest, a purple-red tumour, modified from an elf's heart, pulsed in resonance with the frequency of the corrupted mother tree!
Lysandra pounced on Orion. The moment her fingertips touched his skin, she shuddered in horror—it was no longer the warmth of a human, but the cold, slippery texture of crystal! His pupils, faded to grey, stared blankly at her bloodstained face.
"He's crystallising!" Finn thrust Ella's severed arm into the fissure. Vines surged forth, wrapping around Malcolm's mechanical leg, green fluorescence seeping from the wound: "Elven blood can interfere with that monster!"
Malcolm shattered the vines and plunged his mechanical fingers into his own chest! He tore out the pulsating elven heart tumour, its purple-black veins writhing like live snakes. "Interfere?" The electronic synthetic voice mingled with a cold laugh, "This is perfect fusion!" The tumour was pressed against the Eternal Contract, and the blood-stained pages flipped wildly!
The entire cellar began to dissolve. The stone walls oozed asphalt-like black liquid, and the human faces on the flesh carpet on the ground wailed in unison. The crystal cabinet melted and重组ed into a massive gear throne. Malcolm sat atop it, his mechanical torso connected to the throne by countless tubes.
"Three hundred years..." his voice boomed through the cellar's amplifiers, "I erased history, altered bloodlines, all for this moment—" The throne's base cracked open, revealing twelve crystal coffins. Each coffin contained a clone of Orion, their necks pierced with tubes!
"Royal blood is the vessel, and the living imprint is the key!" Malcolm pointed at Lysandra, "And you will ultimately open the true gate to immortality!"
The imprint on Lysandra's face burned like molten iron. She dragged the semi-crystallised Orion back, and the flesh carpet beneath her feet suddenly swelled! The obese body of the Finance Minister burst forth from the ground, with ledgers and parchments fused with his internal organs through the gaping wound in his abdomen!
"The keyhole..." The Minister's throat emitted Malcolm's voice, "requires two keys... resonance..."
The flesh carpet wrapped around Orion's ankles and dragged him toward the throne. Lesandra swung her dagger, but the blade shattered against the suddenly crystallised air! Finn's crossbow bolts flew toward the crystal coffin, but vaporised before impact.
"Useless..." Orion's grey lips moved, his right hand already fully crystallised, "I am... a fake..."
Malcolm's mechanical arm inserted itself into the throne. All the clones inside the crystal coffin opened their eyes simultaneously—icy blue pupils, each with a scar on their left eyebrow!
"Fakes?" the alchemist cackled, "No, you are perfect fuses!" The clones' neck tubes glowed with blinding red light, energy surging through the tubes toward the flesh tumour heart at the centre of the throne. The cellar dome cracked open, revealing the ruins of the royal court above—corrupted black mycelium surged from the fissures, devouring the fleeing nobles!
"The purification of the Elf Forest... was just a warm-up..." Malcolm's voice echoed throughout the capital, "Now, let the true purification begin!"
***
Lysandra's broken dagger plunged into the flesh carpet, the腐液 burning her palm. Finn dragged Ella's severed arm and screamed, "Resonance! He needs the resonance of the genuine article to activate the throne!"
The real thing? Lysandra's gaze swept over the twelve ice-blue-eyed clones, finally settling on the half-crystallised Orion in her arms. Flashbacks of memory fragments: his mocking toss of an apple on the Siren, the silent lip-reading in the tomb, and... the unmistakable fear in his eyes as he threw himself at the girl to block the poisonous bullet.
"You're not a fake." Her bloodstained palm pressed against Orion's crystallised right cheek. "You're the bastard who'd take a bullet for a stranger!"
The mark suddenly erupted with molten gold-like light! The light flowed through her palm into Orion's crystallised skin, the grey-white quickly fading away, and the ice-blue reappearing! The shattered blue tearstone pendant around his neck floated upward, its fragments refracting millions of light points.
"Resonance... interference..." The tumour-like heart on Malcolm's throne beat erratically. His mechanical arm swung violently, sending a tidal wave of flesh crashing toward Lysandra!
Orion's left hand—the only part not crystallised—suddenly grabbed Lysandra's wrist. His ice-blue pupils locked onto the throne's base: "There! The resonance point!" He used the momentum to leap up, his crystallised right arm smashing like a warhammer against the giant tree gear totem embedded in the throne's base!
The crystallised arm shattered with a loud crash! But a crack also opened in the centre of the totem. Finn's crossbow bolt pierced the crack precisely, and the test tube tied to the arrowhead exploded—the green liquid from Elara's severed arm mixed with Leandros's blood, splashing into the core pipeline!
The throne shook violently! Emerald-green patterns spread across the flesh-covered heart, and the twelve clones inside the crystal coffins screamed in unison. The scars on their left eyebrows split open, revealing intricate electronic components beneath the skin!
"No!" Malcolm's mechanical hand plunged into his own chest, attempting to sever the contaminated pipeline. But the green patterns had already crawled up his crystal eyeball, and his left eye burst with a pop, spattering engine oil and neural fluid!
The cellar ceiling collapsed completely. As boulders crashed down, Lysandra dragged Orion into a corner. Finn pointed with Ella's severed arm at an overturned crystal coffin—the clone's face inside was peeling off in the tremors, revealing entirely different features beneath!
"Look at the serial number!" Finn shouted.
Etched on the inner side of the coffin lid was a line of small text: **Prototype-Zero. Production batch: New Moon Calendar Year 3. Blood donor: Orion Blackwood (authentic)**
Orion was struck speechless. He lunged toward the crystal coffin, his fingertips brushing the words "Authentic." The parchment ledger on the Chancellor's abdomen suddenly flipped to the final page on its own—the transport records, obscured by bloodstains, revealed their true form: **Living Container—Code Name "Nightingale." Status: Alive. Containment Location: Tomb of Slumber.**
"Lilian..." Orion's hoarse whisper was drowned out by the collapsing roar, "She's still alive..."
Malcolm's maniacal laughter drowned out everything. His remaining crystal eye floated out of its socket, and his mechanical torso disintegrated on the throne: "Too late! The Purification Protocol has entered its final stage! The fungal threads of the capital will bloom when the Blood Moon rises—" The eyeball emitted a red light, projecting a countdown on the collapsing dome: **03:00:00**
"Take the genuine article to the Nightingale..." Malcolm's electronic voice faltered, "Only royal blood... can shut it down..."
The giant stone completely engulfed the throne. Lysandra grabbed Orion from the dust and tore the ledgers from the Chancellor's abdomen, stuffing them into her bosom. Finn used the last green light from Elara's severed arm to prop up the vine dome, and the three fell into the surging sewer river.
In the murky current, Orion clutched the peeling artificial face from the crystal coffin—his own lifeless face. His ice-blue pupils reflected the blood-red countdown in the water, and a bestial growl rose from his throat:
"Malcolm... I'll shove every single one of your gears... into the deepest depths of hell!"