Chapter 62: Shadow of Annihilation, the Rotclaw's Whisper, and the Thornheart's Rift

The heavy alloy door slowly closed behind them, sealing off the cold blue glow of the Sanctuary's core. Retracing the spiraling upward corridor, the atmosphere was even heavier than before. The sensation transmitted from the "Vein Arbiter" in his hand had grown complex—the four-colored Thorn emblem at the sword's guard operated steadily wrapped in the blue energy of Order, suppressing the dormant dark purple deep within the core, but Lin Mo could clearly sense that the ring of blue halo at the emblem's edge was like an invisible chain, its other end tied deep within the sealed depths of the Sanctuary.

"Permanent link… real-time monitoring…" Bronze Beard tapped his mechanical prosthetic hand irritably against the cold alloy wall, producing a muffled echo, "Like an iron anvil hanging over my head ready to drop at any moment! Is that iron coffin (the Sanctuary core) reliable?"

"At least it's suppressing that damned thing for now." Sister Ai Li's voice remained cold, but her face was pale; the silver scar on her chest had consumed a tremendous amount within the Sanctuary's energy field, and the lingering purple qi seemed largely dispersed by the light of the Order Anchor, but her Moonlight power also appeared dim. She glanced at the war-blade Lin Mo gripped tightly, "The price is, you've become its 'battery' and 'alarm bell'."

Wrench, meanwhile, hugged a dust-covered metal box he'd fished out of an emergency storage compartment in the corner of the control console, his bean-sized eyes gleaming: "Who cares! Look what Master Wrench found! Good stuff from the old world!" He couldn't wait to pry the box open, revealing several palm-sized, cicada-wing-thin deep-blue crystal plates neatly stacked inside. "Energy storage units? Or data cores?"

Xiang Lingna stayed close to Lin Mo's side, her small hand still instinctively clutching the hem of his clothes; the green glow emanating from her Emerald Heart shard seemed somewhat drawn to the blue energy of Order, putting her slightly at ease.

Returning to the surface, the roar of the furnace and the heavy solidity of the steel bastion washed over them, bringing a grounded, post-calamity stability. The main body of the Bedrock Bastion was complete, the dark-red fire-patterned steel gleaming with a cold, hard sheen in the setting sun. The reserved gun emplacements and crenellations on the bastion awaited future weapons.

Yet the gloom in Lin Mo's heart had not lifted. The truth of the "Tide of Annihilation" revealed by the Sanctuary pressed down like a heavy boulder. The Rotclaw was actually the twisted incarnation of the "Source Energy Matrix" that had devoured the old world! And the highly ordered energies possessed by the Thornheart—the Vein, the Seed of Life, the Emerald shard… in the Rotclaw's eyes, these were the brightest beacons in the darkness!

He walked to the edge of the Vein fissure, looking down at the slowly pulsing orange-red Vein Heart and the emerald-glowing shard beside it, and sank his will into the 【Seed of Life】. Wrapped in the blue halo of the Order Anchor, the dark purple patterns deep within the orange-red core were like frozen serpents, coiled and dormant. But Lin Mo could feel they were not sleeping—coldly writhing, searching for gaps in the Order Anchor.

"Order… shackles… laughable…"

"Annihilation… is the destination… Devouring… is evolution…"

"The Vein… Life… shall in the end… return to my embrace…"

Cold, viscous whispers, like bone-burrowing maggots, rose again from the depths of his consciousness! This time, the whispers carried a hint of… mockery after being suppressed? As if ridiculing the futility of the Order Anchor.

"Get out!" Lin Mo roared in his heart; the will of the Thorn Guardian and the blue light of the Order Anchor flared simultaneously, slamming violently into those whispers!

Boom!

A soundless collision seemed to ring out in his consciousness! The Rotclaw's whispers were temporarily repelled, but Lin Mo also felt a fierce wave of dizziness. The four-colored light of the Thorn emblem at the sword's guard flickered violently, and the blue halo at its edge visibly wavered.

"Lin Mo!" Sister Ai Li keenly sensed the disturbance in his aura, immediately drew close, Moonlight flowing at her fingertips, the cool aura attempting to dispel the chill in his consciousness.

"It's… assaulting the Order Anchor…" Lin Mo gasped for breath, his face contorted. The Rotclaw's power was more terrifying than he'd imagined—even across the planar barrier and despite the Order's suppression, it could still deliver such clear spiritual contamination!

Just then, an unexpected change occurred!

Hum—!

The entire Thornheart domain shuddered violently! Not from underground, but from… the sky!

Above the gray wasteland sky, without warning, a pitch-black fissure split open! Within the fissure, no starlight, only endless, churning, suffocating withering fog! A terrifying eye, incomprehensibly vast, covered in rotting bark and sharp crystal clusters, oozing purple slime—like an abyss peering down—squeezed out from that rift! Its murky yellow vertical pupil, brimming with endless greed and fury, fixed itself on the hollow surrounded by the steel bastion below! More precisely, it fixed itself on Lin Mo!

The Rotclaw! It had actually forcibly torn open the planar barrier and cast down a substantive projection!

A terrifying pressure descended like a tangible tsunami! The newly built Bedrock Bastion groaned under the unbearable weight, the orange-red energy shield on its surface flickering wildly! Within the hollow, the Star Radiance Moss Xiang Lingna had cultivated instantly withered to black char! The blue crystal plate nearly slipped from Wrench's hands! Bronze Beard and Sister Ai Li faced the greatest of threats, their power surging to the limit in an instant!

"Ants… stealing… the power of Order…"

"Hand over… the core… return… to rot…"

A vast, chaotic spiritual roar filled with the will of decay exploded directly in everyone's mind! Not language, but a direct spiritual impact!

"In your dreams!" Lin Mo's eyes split with rage; under the terrifying pressure, he drove the "Vein Arbiter" viciously into the earth! "Thornheart—Domain Bastion!"

Rumble!

Countless dark-gold thorn roots laced with emerald veins burst from the ground, intertwining and weaving, instantly constructing a massive Emerald Thorn Bastion that enveloped the entire core area of the hollow! On the bastion's surface, the four-colored Thorn emblem blazed brilliantly, the blue light of the Order Anchor flowing across it!

However, this time, the Rotclaw's projection was clearly far more powerful than the previous assault of will! Within the giant rotting eye, purple-black withering energy gathered frantically, condensing into an utterly concentrated beam of decay—as if it could pierce through spacetime—and slammed viciously into the Emerald Bastion!

Sizzle——!!!

Like a red-hot iron rod plunged into solid ice! Where the Emerald Bastion was struck, the emerald life energy and dark-gold thorn roots rapidly dissolved and disintegrated under the terrifying power of decay! The four-colored emblem flickered violently, the blue light of Order flowing frantically in an attempt to repair, but the speed of repair was far outpaced by destruction! A shocking, enormous fissure, its edges oozing purple slime, was rapidly spreading across the bastion!

"Hold!" Bronze Beard roared, pushing his mechanical prosthetic hand to maximum output, firing a scorching energy beam at the giant eye in the sky—only to be easily swallowed by the churning withering fog around the eye.

Sister Ai Li gathered all her Moonlight, a silver purification pillar shooting toward the giant eye—equally like a clay ox entering the sea!

"Energy output overload! Bastion structural damage at 13%… 19%…" Wrench stared at the crude detector screaming alarms in his hand, his voice cracking.

Lin Mo bore the greatest pressure. He felt as if his soul were being ground on a millstone of decay! Deep within the 【Seed of Life】 core, the dark purple patterns suppressed by the Order Anchor, stimulated by the Rotclaw's true form, struggled and swelled frantically as if injected with a powerful stimulant! Hammering against the blue cage of Order! The dark purple portion of the Thorn emblem blazed brightly, even beginning to inversely corrode the emerald life and dark-gold thorns!

"Brother Lin Mo!" Xiang Lingna watched the rapidly expanding fissure on the bastion and Lin Mo's pain-twisted face, her little face deathly pale. The Emerald Heart shard on her chest erupted with unprecedented emerald light, pure life energy pouring desperately toward the fissure in a desperate attempt to repair it. But her power before the Rotclaw's projection was like trying to douse a cartload of burning wood with a cup of water.

The fissure grew larger and larger; the withering aura poured in through the breach, and wherever it passed, the ground rapidly sandified and charred black! Several Bedrock Roots near the fissure instantly turned to ash!

"Argh——!" Lin Mo let out a pained roar, his body swaying violently; the dark purple on the sword's guard emblem nearly occupied a third! The blue light of the Order Anchor was compressed to its absolute limit!

At this critical, hair-trigger moment!

A faint yet exceptionally clear thought, following that invisible Order link, came from the Sanctuary core deep underground:

【Detected… Domain Bastion… high-load damage…】

【Detected… bound carrier… spiritual/energy dual overload… contamination backlash intensifying…】

【Executing… secondary protocol: energy overload transfer…】

【Warning: transfer will cause 'Ark Core' (Sanctuary) energy reserves to drop to critical threshold (17.3%), partial functions permanently shut down…】

No hesitation!

Hum——!!!

A surge of blue Order energy, far more vast and condensed than what had been infused into Lin Mo before, like a breached river of stars, thundered along the Order link into the Emerald Thorn Bastion!

The imminent collapse of the massive fissure was instantly frozen! The churning purple slime was as if encased in ice! The vast Order energy, like the toughest alloy, forcibly bridged the fissure and spread and reinforced frantically along the bastion's surface! The entire Emerald Bastion erupted with unprecedented resplendent light; the Order blue within the four-colored emblem utterly dominated, shoving the power of corruption back hard!

The rotting giant eye in the sky let out a howl mixed with agony and fury! The projected beam of decay was forcibly scattered by the surging Order bastion! The churning withering fog around the eye shook violently, and the massive rift began to destabilize!

【Energy overload transfer… complete…】

【Ark Core energy reserves: 17.3%… entering dormant maintenance…】

【Link maintained… basic monitoring…】

The Sanctuary core's thought, carrying obvious weakness, fell silent.

The Rotclaw's giant eye stared fixedly at the bastion below, blazing with light and flowing with Order, its murky pupil filled with unwillingness and venom. Under the impact of Order energy, the planar rift began to slowly contract.

"Get back to your abyss of decay!" Lin Mo, forcing himself to hold on with the last of his will, roared at the giant eye in the sky.

The giant eye cast one final glance filled with endless greed and curses, then slowly withdrew into the churning withering fog. The pitch-black rift finally closed completely.

The light of the Emerald Bastion slowly receded, returning to the dormant state of dark-gold thorn roots. But on the bastion's surface, a massive, winding fissure-shaped repair scar, permanently fixed by blue Order energy, was clearly visible—like a scar upon the earth. And on the "Vein Arbiter" in Lin Mo's hand, at the edge of the sword's guard emblem, the blue light representing the Order Anchor had also grown much dimmer.

The Sanctuary, at the cost of slumber, repelled the Rotclaw's projection. But everyone knew this was only the beginning. The Rotclaw had locked onto this place, and the countdown on the bomb buried within the Thornheart's guardian had not stopped.

The Doctor's base main screen, at the instant of the Sanctuary core's energy overload transfer, captured that vast flow of Order energy piercing through the planar barrier. A new line of analytical data popped up:

【Captured high-purity Order Energy Spectrum (Ark Seven Core)!】

【【Seed of Annihilation】contingency database updating... merging this spectrum... generating new protocol...】

【New threat assessment: Heart of Thorns (Order Anchor)... Priority: Highest.】

The Doctor's cold fingertips tapped rapidly on the virtual keyboard, pulling up a new weapon interface model, whose core energy signature was strikingly similar to the Order energy transmitted by the Sanctuary.