Chapter 99: The Desperate Fork, the Corrupted Claw Brand, and the Dawn Underground

The icy sludge submerged his ankles, every step of pulling free a struggle as if through viscous asphalt. Copper Whiskers's lone eye burned red, his vision constantly blurring and wavering from the agony and blood loss. From the socket where his left eye had been, packed with coarse cloth, warm liquid kept seeping out, each heartbeat bringing a tearing, throbbing pain. The wounds on his back and chest had torn open again under the violent exertion, purplish-black pus mixed with fresh blood soaking through his tattered clothes, releasing the stench of rotting flesh mingled with rust.

Like a wounded ancient mammoth, he carried Lin Mo's scorched body on his left shoulder and Xiang Lingna's cold, tiny body on his right, while his massive mechanical prosthetic hand dragged the unconscious Wrench. The weight of the three nearly crushed his broken frame. The stardust crystal on Lin Mo's chest emitted a faint milky-white glow, like the sole beacon in the darkness, barely holding back the hissing insect-chirp and the stench of decay drawing ever closer behind them.

The tide of purplish-black worms surged in pursuit through the pipe behind them, clinging like bone-deep leeches. They seemed drawn by the blood and pus endlessly dripping from Copper Whiskers's body, their speed increasing, their shrill hissing gathering into a wave of death that echoed through the sealed pipe, deafening.

At last, Copper Whiskers, Dragging Heavily, staggered and burst to the entrance of the branch pipe blasted open by the explosion. The opening was half-buried by collapsed rubble, barely wide enough for one person to crawl through. The deep, dark maw exhaled an even colder, damper air, bottomless.

No time to hesitate!

Copper Whiskers first carefully pushed Xiang Lingna through the opening. Then the unconscious Wrench—his twisted arm let out a faint crack of bone as he was hauled, but Wrench felt nothing. Copper Whiskers's heart clenched, but there was no time for it. Finally, he shoved Lin Mo in as well with all his strength.

Just as he himself was about to crawl into the opening—

Hiss—!

A purplish-black worm, terrifyingly fast and as thick as an arm, suddenly launched itself from the vanguard of the swarm! Like a poisoned arrow loosed from its string, it crossed several meters in an instant, its round maw bristling with fine sharp teeth snapping viciously at Copper Whiskers's wounded left leg, dragging behind him!

Copper Whiskers yanked his leg back sharply!

Rrrrip!

The worm's maw grazed past his calf, tearing off a large chunk of trouser leg along with flesh and blood! Agony shot through him! Copper Whiskers let out a muffled grunt, and his massive mechanical prosthetic hand slammed down in a backhand!

Splurch!

That worm was smashed into pulp!

But more worms had already surged to his feet! They scrambled madly up his trouser legs! Their sharp mouthparts gnawed at his boots and skin!

"Get off!" Copper Whiskers roared like a beast, his massive mechanical prosthetic hand sweeping frantically around his legs like a broom, crushing swathes of worms! Viscous, foul-smelling purplish-black juice splashed all over him!

Seizing that brief gap, he bent sharply and dove headfirst into the narrow branch-pipe entrance!

The instant he was inside, he immediately used his massive mechanical prosthetic hand and his body to seal the opening tight!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Countless worms surged against the rubble outside the opening and Copper Whiskers's prosthetic hand blocking it like a tide! Their sharp mouthparts gnawed madly at rock and metal, producing a teeth-grating scraping! The slick, wriggling feel of their bodies seeped through the cracks, turning Copper Whiskers's stomach upside down.

"Ugh..." He held on with everything he had, every impact racking his Already Heavy wounded body with agony that felt like tearing apart. The mechanical prosthetic hand bore tremendous pressure, groaning under the strain, its surface armor plates hissing as the worms' acid ate into them.

Blocked, for now.

Copper Whiskers gasped violently, his lone eye struggling to adjust in the absolute darkness. This was an even narrower pipe, less than two meters across, its floor likewise covered in thick sludge. He groped about, pushing Xiang Lingna, Lin Mo, and Wrench as deep into the pipe as he could, away from the opening.

The hissing of insects and the frantic battering continued at the opening, like the din of hell. Copper Whiskers leaned against the cold, damp pipe wall, feeling the sharp pain from every part of his body and a bone-deep exhaustion. The chill of severe blood loss began to spread, and his consciousness started to blur.

He instinctively touched his empty left eye socket; the sticky warmth reminded him of the price he had paid. Was it worth it? For a few companions he'd barely known, fighting to this point? The dwarven stubbornness and his guardian oath held him up, but the limits of his body seemed right before his eyes.

Just then—

Hum!

A faint yet utterly abrupt pulse came from Lin Mo's direction!

Not the soft glow of the stardust crystal, but... a familiar wave—cold, sticky, brimming with greed and brutality!

Copper Whiskers's mechanical eye (his only remaining right eye) locked onto it sharply!

There lay Lin Mo in the sludge. The dark-purple mark on his right arm, which had been covered and suppressed by the stardust crystal, was now pulsing madly! On the surface of the mark, the milky-white film of stardust energy was visibly thinning and dimming! As if something inside were slamming against and devouring the stardust power in frenzy!

It was the Corrupted Claw Mark! Sensing Lin Mo's extreme weakness, the massive drain on his stardust power, and goaded by the thick, same-source stench of decay (the worm tide) outside, it had begun its frenzied counterattack!

【... hungry... devour... stardust...】

【... release... annihilation...】

Chaotic, evil shards of will, like cold serpents, slipped along some invisible link into Copper Whiskers's weary consciousness!

"Not good!" Copper Whiskers's heart lurched! He struggled to get closer to Lin Mo.

But it was too late!

Hiss—!

The stardust film on Lin Mo's right arm shattered like a fragile eggshell! The dark-purple Corrupted Claw Mark erupted with a blinding, evil light! A wave of decay power, far purer and more terrifying than before, burst forth in an instant, like an invisible shockwave, slamming hard into Copper Whiskers, who was right there!

Pah—!

Copper Whiskers was Like Struck by Weight; his Already Heavy wounded body could hold out no longer, and he spat out a mouthful of fresh blood mixed with fragments of his innards! He slammed heavily into the pipe wall behind him, his vision going black, nearly passing out entirely! His mechanical prosthetic hand dropped limply.

Without the stardust's suppression, the Corrupted Claw Mark was like a beast freed from its cage, greedily drawing in the lingering stench of decay in the surrounding air (drifting from the worm tide), the purplish-black light spreading rapidly, even beginning to creep up Lin Mo's scorched arm! Lin Mo's body convulsed violently; beneath his charred skin, dark-purple vein-like patterns flickered in and out of sight, and an unconscious, pain-filled moan escaped his lips.

Worse still, this burst of decay power, like a beacon in the night, instantly goaded the worm tide outside the opening!

Creak! Creak! Boom!

The rubble blocking the opening finally crumbled completely under the worm tide's frenzied assault and acid corrosion! Dense swarms of purplish-black worms, like floodwaters bursting a dam, surged into the narrow branch pipe in an instant! The hissing song of death filled every inch of space! Their target—straight at the Corrupted Claw Mark exuding that alluring, same-source aura, and at Lin Mo's body!

Ahead, the runaway Corrupted Claw Mark devouring Lin Mo; behind, the lethal worm tide pouring in! Copper Whiskers on the brink of death from his wounds, Xiang Lingna and Wrench still unconscious!

An absolute death trap!

Copper Whiskers looked at the surging worm tide and at Lin Mo, whose whole body was beginning to radiate a purplish-black aura; his lone eye was full of unwillingness and despair. He struggled to lift his mechanical prosthetic hand, but couldn't move even a single finger.

"Is it... over...?" The thought flickered through his fading consciousness.

But then—at the very edge of that abyss of utter despair—

Hum... hum...

A wisp of emerald-green light, impossibly faint yet unusually tenacious, like dawn piercing through heavy rock, quietly lit up from within Xiang Lingna's embrace, pressed against Lin Mo's chest!

The source of the light was that withered sprig of the World Tree!

At the tip of the sprig, where the last ember had once flickered, an unprecedented, serene and profound emerald-green halo now radiated! No longer a faint flicker, but a steady light pulsing like breath! It gently enveloped Xiang Lingna's tiny body, and, as if alive, flowed along her arm pressed against Lin Mo, slowly streaming toward his right arm—now being devoured by the Corrupted Claw Mark!

The emerald halo and the dark-purple evil light, like fire and water, mortal enemies, collided on Lin Mo's right arm in an instant!

Hiss——!!!

A shrill sound of dissolution rang out! No violent explosion, only silent annihilation and contest! Under the emerald halo's glow, the dark-purple erosion patterns, like snow exposed to sunlight, began to rapidly dissolve and retreat! The wildly pulsing Corrupted Claw Mark, its light doused as if splashed with cold water, instantly dimmed, letting out a silent shriek of agony and fury!

This sudden surge of pure life force, like sweet rain, also jolted awake the depths of Lin Mo's crumbling consciousness. The blue light of the Order's Anchor, buoyed by the stardust crystal's faint support, was instantly strengthened; together with this external emerald power, it began a frenzied counterattack, suppressing the runaway Corrupted Claw Mark!

Stardust (Order), the sprig (Life), the Order's Anchor (Will)—the three forces, at this moment, through Xiang Lingna's unconscious link and Lin Mo's survival instinct, formed a brief resonance! Temporarily suppressing the Corrupted Claw Mark's eruption!

And the surging worm tide, upon touching this spreading halo of pure life and order mixed together, recoiled as if facing its bane, letting out terrified hisses, the momentum of its charge stuttering sharply! The worms at the very front even began to shrink back in fear!

Life force, blooming within an absolute death trap, because the withered branch had been utterly "burned out"!

Copper Beard stared at this impossible scene, a light of escaping death bursting from his single eye! He somehow squeezed out the last shred of strength, his massive mechanical prosthetic hand violently pushing his body up!

"Go! Run!" he roared hoarsely, grabbing the ankle of the wrench nearest to him, dragging them without a care, stumbling and crawling toward the unknown darkness deep within the pipe!

Lin Mo's body, wrapped in an emerald halo and stardust-blue light, stopped convulsing; the terrifying violet-black aura was temporarily suppressed back into the mark on his right arm. Xiang Lingna remained unconscious, but the tender branch in her arms emitted a steady, breath-like emerald glow, illuminating the path ahead and driving back the approaching swarm.

The flight, guided by the faint glow of the burned-out withered branch, continued deeper into the dark underground labyrinth. What awaited them ahead—utter annihilation, or... a single ray of dawn?