Chapter 75: Broken Branches, the Roaring Colossus, and the Rift of Return

「Annihilation Countdown: 00:09:58……」

The crimson digits clung to the edge of his vision like parasitic worms, each pulse striking his taut nerves. The doctor’s cold voice still echoed through the ruins, dripping with cruel mockery. Meanwhile, the destructive roar grew ever closer, the heavy footsteps pounding the metal floor like war drums, shaking their very hearts.

“Fuck! It’s the doctor’s final move! He wants to blow us and this hellhole to hell!” Wrench’s face was ashen, clutching his battered probe case, his voice cracking. “And that thing! Its energy reading is worse than the nest! We’re trapped!”

Ali forced herself to stand, ignoring the violet mist churning in her left arm wound. Her fingertips once again gathered faint threads of moonlight, her icy gaze locked on the source of the roar—a dark passage leading deeper into the ruins, its walls scarred by colossal claw marks. “The exit is blocked. We must deal with that thing first… or find the doctor’s annihilation device!”

“No time!” Lin Mo’s gaze flashed like lightning—he made his decision instantly. Nine minutes against an unknown horror and the doctor’s meticulously laid annihilation trap? Charging forward was suicide! His eyes locked onto the fragment of sealed sapling glowing faintly green amid the rubble—Lingna’s final message, the “key” the Rotclaw sought, and… possibly the primordial force tied to the Jade Heart! This was the future hope of the Thornheart—and perhaps the key to countering the Rotclaw!

“Wrench! Record all spatial parameters of this coordinate! Especially the weak points!” Lin Mo spoke rapidly, bending low, his right hand sheathed in the blue glow of the Anchor of Order as he cautiously reached for the world-tree sapling sealed by moonvine tendrils. The moment his fingertips touched the cold, cracked silver moon-seal—

Hum!

A pure, gentle surge of life energy, mingled with a touch of cold moonlight power, flowed into his fingers! Lin Mo’s spirit sharpened; the energy he’d expended seemed to recover slightly. The sapling, as if sensing the same origin as the Order-light (the Anchor of Order stemmed from Ark technology, somehow linked to the Moon Priestess’s moonlight power), trembled faintly, a single drop of crystal-clear, jade-like sap oozing from its broken end.

No hesitation! Lin Mo carefully wrapped the entire sapling in blue Order-light, sealing its aura, then swiftly placed it into a prepared metal box lined with Lingna’s purified moss. The moment the box snapped shut, the fresh life energy was completely cut off.

Almost the instant the sapling was removed, another anomaly erupted!

BOOM—!!!

A deafening roar erupted from deep within the passage! Accompanied by the screech of tearing metal, a monstrous figure—vast enough to fill the entire corridor—smashed through every obstacle and burst into view!

It was a grotesque beast forged from rotting metal, withered giant trees, and countless bones forcibly stitched together! Its core was the rusted remains of a massive engineering mech, but its head had been replaced by a rotting giant tree burning with purple-black flames, its crown hung with pale skulls. Its arms were swapped for colossal claws woven from thick, decaying vines, dripping toxic slime. Countless purple-black energy conduits pulsed like veins across its twisted body, radiating a suffocating aura of decay. This was the doctor’s ultimate creation—[The Stitched Colossus]! [24] The spears buried deep into their targets! The purple flames on the tree-head flickered under the moonlight’s suppression, and the energy nodes erupted in thick globs of purple-black slime! The Stitched Colossus roared in agony and fury, its massive body staggering!

“ROAR—!!!”

The Stitched Colossus’s rotting tree-head let out a deafening roar, a cacophony of grinding metal and cracking bone! Its vine-claw, wielding the power to tear space, slammed down toward the three standing before it! Before the claw even struck, the crushing decay wind had already blown away the fungal mats and metal shards beneath their feet!

“Move!” Lin Mo barked, shoving the frozen Wrench aside, then swung the Earthvein Arbiter—a concentrated dark-gold sword qi lashed out toward the giant claw!

The sword qi struck the vine-claw, exploding in blinding energy light! The sharp blade sliced through part of the vines, spewing purple-black pus! But the claw’s force was too immense—the residual impact hurled Lin Mo back several steps!

Ali moved like lightning, exploiting the moment the claw was blocked. Ignoring the agony in her left arm, her hands wove rapidly before her—not a net, not a blade, but dozens of spear-like shafts of condensed moonlight, their tips gleaming with piercing purifying cold!

“Go!”

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

The moonlight spears tore through the air, striking precisely at the burning rotting tree-head and several pulsing purple-black energy nodes along its torso!

Plop! Plop! Plop!

The spears buried deep into their targets! The purple flames on the tree-head flickered under the moonlight's suppression, and the energy nodes erupted in thick globs of purple-black slime! The Stitched Colossus roared in agony and fury, its massive body staggering!

“Now! Wrench!” Lin Mo bellowed, seizing the instant the colossus was stunned!

Wrench snapped to attention, a mad gleam flashing across his face. He yanked from the side of his probe case a crude device shaped like a horn, assembled from energy conduits and thorn-steel shards, and aimed it at a cracked metal dome above the passage!

“Try this! Overclocked Geomagnetic Noise Cannon!” He slammed the switch!

WOOOOO—!!!!

A visible beam of sound energy—blending orange geofire with the blue-green shimmer of thorn-steel—slammed into the dome’s fissures!

CRACK! BOOM—!

The already fragile dome structure could not withstand the internal shock—it collapsed instantly! Massive chunks of metal rained down like meteors, several striking the Stitched Colossus’s massive body. Though they couldn’t kill it, they successfully buried and blocked its bulk!

“Go!” Lin Mo grabbed Wrench, still mourning his “cannon,” and called to Ali, sprinting toward the spatial weak point Wrench had recorded—a narrow fissure torn open by the explosion on the other side of the nest, lined with twisted pipes!

Behind them, the Stitched Colossus roared in fury, thrashing free of the rubble. Ahead lay an unknown dead end. At the edge of his vision, the crimson countdown pulsed mercilessly: “00:05:17…”

The three plunged into the pipe fissure—narrow, twisted, lined with sharp metal shards and slick moss. Ali led, using moonlight threads to cut through obstacles. Lin Mo brought up the rear, forcing thorn-root tendrils to pry open impossibly tight spots. Wrench was sandwiched in between, clutching his precious case, muttering prayers under his breath.

“00:03:01…”