Chapter 96: Chaos Fireworks, the Thornheart's Call, and the Prelude to Flight

The instant Wrench Heavy slammed down the button, his already badly damaged probe box let out an unprecedented, teeth-grinding shriek! The orange-red energy lines on its surface blazed blindingly bright in an instant, like a red-hot branding iron! Countless fine electric arcs leapt and crackled wildly across the exposed wiring and broken casing!

Woooooo—!!!

A violent, chaotic energy storm—mixed with the unique high-frequency vibration and piercing noise of Thornsteel particles—erupted outward like an invisible shockwave, blasting in all directions from the probe box! This was no targeted attack, but an indiscriminate, suicidal venting of energy!

Taking the brunt of it was the rotting wyvern that was diving down, its claws about to touch the stardust light barrier!

Gyaa—!!!

The wyvern let out a shrill, pitch-warping wail of agony! The chaotic energy storm slammed into it hard! The rotting flesh on its surface caved in and burst apart as if struck by an invisible giant hammer! The high-frequency Thornsteel particle vibration was like hundreds of millions of steel needles, madly churning its fragile internal tissues! Like a kite with its string cut, the wyvern tumbled from midair and crashed into the ruins, twitching a few times before going still.

Next, the chaotic energy storm slammed into Sister Ai Li, who was gathering her second wave of rotting claw-light!

Sister Ai Li's body stiffened abruptly! A flash of extreme agony and confusion shot through her ashen right eye! The gathering claw-light instantly collapsed! That pure rotting power seemed abnormally sensitive to and repelled by this disordered, chaotic energy saturated with Thornsteel interference! She clutched the tumor on her left arm, which was throbbing violently, and let out a roar that mingled Sister Ai Li's own pained moan with the furious bellow of the corrupting will, staggering back a few steps, her attack broken!

Even the stardust light barrier guarding Lin Mo rippled violently under the impact of this chaotic storm, its glow dimming a few shades more, but it did not finally shatter.

However, the price of Wrench Heavy's desperate strike was enormous!

After erupting in this final "firework," the probe box's core overloaded; the orange-red light died instantly, billowing thick smoke and a stinging burnt stench, completely scrapped into a pile of sparking scrap iron. Wrench Heavy himself was also hurled away by the blast's recoil, crashing heavily into a rubble pile a few meters away—his whole body scorched black, one arm twisted at an unnatural angle, blood trickling from his nose and mouth—and he passed out on the spot.

The chaotic storm subsided.

The cost: Wrench Heavy gravely wounded and unconscious, the probe box completely destroyed.

The result: one wyvern instantly killed, Sister Ai Li's attack broken and thrown into brief confusion, and another wyvern so frightened by this violent, chaotic energy that it anxiously climbed higher in its circling, not daring to approach for the moment.

Copperbeard seized this fleeting chance! Pain and venom were blacking out his vision, but his massive mechanical prosthetic hand plunged into the scorched earth beneath his feet, and he forced himself not to fall.

"Sister Ai Li!" Copperbeard bellowed at the figure lost in confused agony, his voice like sandpaper scraping, "Listen! You are Sister Ai Li! Guardian of the Thornheart! Not a puppet of the Rotclaw! Think of Lin Mo! Think of Xiang Lingna! Think of the home we guard!"

His roar seemed to pierce through the chaotic corrupting whispers and stab into a corner of Sister Ai Li's consciousness buried beneath the ashen haze.

Sister Ai Li clutched her head, her body trembling violently; her ashen right eye and the last sliver of clarity in her left eye flickered wildly! The tumor on her left arm pulsed even more violently, purple-black pus gushing out like a fountain! Meaningless roars tore from her mouth, as if she were locked in a terrible tug-of-war with the horrifying polluting power inside her.

"Ugh... Lin Mo... Xiang Lingna... Thornheart..." Broken syllables forced their way out of her ashen lips with great difficulty.

Just then—

Hmm... hmm...

An extremely faint, yet soothing and summoning thought wave, like a pebble dropped into a dead pond, quietly spread out from beside the crack in the ley line. The wave did not come from the unconscious Xiang Lingna, but from that buried, completely withered twig of the World Tree!

At the tip of the twig, where the long-extinguished withered-yellow bud had been, a wisp of green so faint it was almost imperceptible flickered once more—extremely arduously, tenaciously! As if spending its very last drop of origin, it sent out a broken thought:

【... Sister Ai Li... big sister... come back...】

【... Thornheart... calling... home... needs... you...】

This faint-to-the-extreme call, like the last straw, crushed the frenzied counterattack of the corrupting will in Sister Ai Li's consciousness!

"Aaaagh—!!!"

Sister Ai Li let out a scream of agony so shrill it was extreme, as if her soul were being torn apart! She dropped to her knees with a thud, and the ashen-horned right hand plunged viciously into the scorched earth! The murky ashen haze in her right eye receded rapidly like a tide, and her ice-blue pupil briefly regained clarity, filled with endless pain and struggle! The tumor on her left arm also stopped its violent pulsing, the surface cracks temporarily closing, but the purple-black patterns still savagely coiled over half her body.

She raised her head, her ice-blue pupils looking at Copperbeard, at the unconscious Lin Mo inside the stardust light barrier, at the direction of Xiang Lingna buried under the scorched earth behind Copperbeard—her eyes filled with desperate sorrow and deep exhaustion.

"Go..." she forced out a single word, her voice hoarse as a grinding wheel, "Take... them... go... I... can't hold it... much longer..."

She wrenched her right hand out of the scorched earth, and the ashen horn covering that hand seemed to have faded a little. She pointed toward the depths of the withered forest, in a direction far from the bastion ruins. "Over there... there's an... old-world... underground pipe entrance... might... lead to... the depths..."

The moment her words fell, the clarity in her right eye flickered violently like a candle in the wind, and the ashen hue began to spread again! The tumor on her left arm also began its ominous pulsing once more!

"Quickly... go!" Sister Ai Li let out a roar of suppressed agony, spun around abruptly, and with the hand that had regained a little strength, grabbed viciously at a massive burning Thornsteel wreck nearby! She was going to buy her companions the final time to flee!

Copperbeard looked at Sister Ai Li's resolute and pained back, then at the unconscious Lin Mo, Xiang Lingna, and Wrench Heavy; the dwarf's blood-smeared face twitched violently. He stamped his foot hard (a piercing pain shot from his injured leg), and let out a beast-like growl: "Go!"

His massive mechanical prosthetic hand scooped up the unconscious Wrench Heavy from the ground and tucked him under his arm. His other hand, ignoring the pain, struggled to scrape away the scorched earth covering Xiang Lingna, carefully lifted the faintly breathing little girl, and cradled her against his chest. Then, dragging his wounded leg, he summoned his last strength and staggered toward the stardust light barrier guarding Lin Mo.

The barrier was already very thin after Wrench Heavy's "firework" impact. Copperbeard smashed the edge of the barrier hard with his mechanical prosthetic hand!

Pop—!

The already teetering barrier shattered at the blow, dissolving into scattered specks of milky-white light.

Copperbeard ignored the tearing pain in his chest, his massive hand grabbing Lin Mo's scorched-black body and hoisting him onto his broad but wound-covered shoulder! The stardust crystal on Lin Mo's chest gave off a faint warmth at the contact, temporarily suppressing the corrosion at Copperbeard's wounds.

Carrying three unconscious companions (Lin Mo, Xiang Lingna, Wrench Heavy), Copperbeard, like a wounded great bear, stumbled into the shadows of the ruins and the drifting smoke and dust in the direction Sister Ai Li had pointed! Every step he took left a footprint smeared with fresh blood and purple-black pus.

From behind came the crash of Sister Ai Li fighting the burning wreckage, and her roars she could no longer suppress, brimming with agony and the stench of corruption. And the wyvern in the air, after a brief hesitation, let out a greedy shriek once more and gave chase!

The flight, amid the embers of destruction, stained with blood and tears, began in panic.