Chapter 98: The Worm Tide Gnaws the Bone, the Price of the Prosthetic Eye, and the Ember of the Sapling

Hiss... hiss...

The purple-black tide of worms spread like a living, flowing carpet of filth, racing across the cold sludge of the dim pipe. The dense, fine rasp of countless teeth grinding together merged into a deathly chorus that made one's scalp crawl; a thick stench of rot washed over them, nearly suffocating.

Copper Beard leaned against the cold pipe wall, his massive mechanical prosthetic hand flickering with dangerous red light from overload, emitting a faint electric buzz. He tried to stand, but the searing pain from his wounded leg and the dizziness from blood loss blackened his vision, his movements sluggish. With Xiang Lingna in his arms, Lin Mo and the Wrench lying at his feet, he had almost nowhere to retreat!

The vanguard of the worm tide—those swarming, ferocious little worms with their round mouthparts gaping open—was less than five meters from Lin Mo's scorched ankle lying in the sludge!

"Get lost!" Copper Beard roared like a cornered beast, his massive mechanical prosthetic hand stabbing into the sludge beneath him and viciously hurling a great slab of black mud, worms and all, at the worm tide ahead!

Splurch!

The sludge crashed down, briefly blocking off a small patch and crushing plenty of worms. But more of the bugs swerved around the obstacle, their speed undiminished! The enraged worm tide let out even shriller hisses and surged faster instead!

The worm tide was about to engulf Lin Mo's ankle!

Hum—!

The pure stardust crystal on Lin Mo's chest, as if sensing the extreme proximity of the rotting threat, suddenly erupted with a milky-white radiance several times stronger than before! The light, like a tangible barrier, instantly spread to a one-meter radius around Lin Mo's body!

Sizzle sizzle sizzle—!!!

The worms at the very front, upon touching that milky radiance, were like bugs dropped into boiling oil—instantly letting out shrill wails, their bodies giving off purple-black smoke, withering, carbonizing, and turning to ash at a speed visible to the naked eye!

The purifying power of the stardust held absolute dominion over these low-level creatures of rot!

But the worm tide was simply too vast! Endless, like an infinite flood! The worms at the front turned to flying ash, and those behind surged forward in a frenzy! They madly slammed against the stardust shield, gnawing with their tooth-ringed mouthparts, using their bodies to sap the shield's energy! The shield rippled violently, its light dimming at a speed visible to the naked eye! The crystal's own glow was fading fast as well!

This could only buy time! Once the crystal's energy was spent, everyone would be devoured by this terrifying worm tide!

Copper Beard looked at the stardust shield dimming rapidly under the worm tide's assault, then at Xiang Lingna in his arms, her breath faint as a gossamer thread, then at the unconscious Lin Mo and the Wrench. On the dwarf's blood-smeared face, the muscles twisted from agony and resolve. He could not die here! His companions even less so!

His gaze finally fell on his own mechanical prosthetic eye, which kept flickering red and emitting overload warnings. This was the prosthetic part most severely damaged in the furnace explosion; its internal energy circuits had long been in total disarray, liable to fail completely or even blow up at any moment.

A mad, tragic resolve took shape in Copper Beard's heart.

"Damn it... a dwarf's life... is a tough one!" he cursed under his breath, with a ferocity that bordered on release.

He gently laid Xiang Lingna from his arms beside Lin Mo, snug against the inner edge of the stardust shield. Then, his massive mechanical prosthetic hand, without the slightest hesitation, brutally dug into the mechanical prosthetic eye flickering red in his left eye socket!

Squelch—!

Accompanied by the teeth-grinding sound of metal tearing and flesh parting, Copper Beard wrenched his overloaded mechanical prosthetic eye right out of its socket! Blood instantly gushed from his hollow left eye socket, mingling with the smell of machine oil and scorched wiring! The searing pain convulsed his whole body and drew from him a muffled groan he could not suppress.

He did not pause for a heartbeat! That mechanical prosthetic hand, slick with blood and machine oil, gripped tight the flickering red core of the prosthetic eye, as if clutching a bomb about to detonate!

"You bastards! Have a taste of this!" A terrifying murderous light blazed in Copper Beard's remaining eye as he hurled the mechanical prosthetic eye with all his might into the dark depths behind the worm tide!

Hum—! Beep beep beep—!

The mechanical prosthetic eye traced an arc through the air; its disordered internal energy circuits, the instant they were freed from their restraints, went completely out of control! A blinding red light erupted like a small sun, accompanied by a shrill, urgent overload alarm!

BOOM！！！！！！！

A muffled yet immensely powerful explosion thundered deep within the pipe! The runaway energy storm swept through that section of the worm tide! Countless worms were instantly reduced to flying ash by the blast wave and searing heat! The explosion's fierce light briefly illuminated the deep pipe and triggered a small-scale collapse; rubble and sludge rained down!

The worm tide was completely stunned by this sudden explosion! The worms behind were torn apart by the blast wave, the ones ahead were thrown into disarray by the fierce light and thunderous roar, falling into brief chaos and stagnation; their assault on the stardust shield slowed for a moment!

The price: Copper Beard had lost his left eye; the searing pain and blood loss left him nearly faint, able only to lean against the pipe wall and gasp violently.

The pressure on the stardust shield eased abruptly; though its light remained dim, it stabilized for the moment.

Seizing this precious breather, Copper Beard struggled, using his one remaining eye to peer into the pipe's depths. The collapse triggered by the explosion had blocked off most of the passage, but it had also revealed the entrance to a smaller-diameter branch pipe, relatively intact, half-buried under the blasted rubble.

That was the only way out!

He gritted his teeth, tore a ragged strip from his clothing, and roughly stuffed it into the hollow, bleeding eye socket. The agony sent waves of blackness through his vision. He bent over with great difficulty, and with that massive mechanical prosthetic hand, slung Lin Mo and Xiang Lingna side by side across his broad but wound-littered shoulders. Then, with his one still-intact hand, he seized the unconscious Wrench by one ankle and, dragging him like a sack of cargo, hauled the Wrench step by agonizing step toward the newly revealed branch pipe entrance.

Every step left a heavy footprint in the cold sludge, mingled with blood and sweat.

Behind them, the worm tide, after its brief chaos, let out an even more furious hiss and, like a purple-black tide, swept around the blast zone and surged in pursuit! Faster!

The stardust shield flickered stubbornly on Lin Mo's chest, but its light was now like a candle in the wind.

Just as Copper Beard was about to reach that half-buried branch pipe entrance, Xiang Lingna in his arms—the small hand pressed close to the stardust crystal on Lin Mo's chest—moved unconsciously. Her fingertips, with the faintest touch, brushed against that withered, grey, world-tree sapling twig Copper Beard had tucked into her clothing.

At the tip of the twig, the spot where the last trace of emerald had once flickered, under the steady soaking of the stardust crystal's pure order-power and the faint resonance of Xiang Lingna's life-breath, flickered once more—ever so faintly, like a hallucination. A single speck of emerald light, finer than dust, carrying an ancient breath of life, flashed for an instant on the withered branch, then utterly merged into the dead twig, never to stir again.

As if it were the last, unwilling ember before the final burning-out.