Chapter 33: Purified Sap and Final Grasp
Deep beneath the thrashing roots, Emily lay half-buried in damp soil, her body heavy with poison. Her vision blurred at the edges, the world reduced to faint shadows and distant thunder from the battle above. Every breath felt like fire in her lungs.
Then the strange voice returned, soft, layered, a haunting mix of feminine and masculine tones that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once.
"Easy now, child.fight the darkness. Don't Let it cradle you a moment longer."
Emily's eyes fluttered. "Who… who are you?"
The voice chuckled gently, warm like sunlight filtered through leaves. "That does not matter right now. You are hurt. Poisoned. Your meridians are clogged with shadow venom. Open your mouth."
She clenched her jaw instinctively. Trust did not come easily her who had lived within Devil Blade Academy all her life, especially not to a disembodied voice inside a monster tree.
"I said open your mouth," the voice repeated, still kind but now edged with quiet urgency. "The only way you can rejoin your comrade causing all that commotion on the surface is to do as I say. He is fighting for you even now. Do you wish to remain buried while he bleeds?"
Emily hesitated only a heartbeat longer. The distant sounds of explosions and the Mother Tree's screams filtered down to her. She parted her lips.
Pure, crystal-clear sap poured in, thick, sweet, and glowing with soft golden light. It tasted like spring water mixed with honey and something older, something alive. The moment it touched her tongue, warmth spread through her body like liquid sunlight.
Her meridians opened with a rush, clogged channels flushing clean as the poison was forced out through her pores in thin black streams. Strength returned to her limbs. The burning in her neck faded. Her silver aura flared back to life, brighter and purer than before.
"I had refined this sap for over three hundred years," the voice said with quiet sorrow. "But now it is useless to me."
Emily sat up slowly, wiping the last traces of black venom from her lips. "Who are you? Why are you helping me?"
"Do not pry further, child. Some answers only bring more pain. You should be able to move now."
Without another word, Emily pushed herself to her feet. The roots around her parted slightly, as if the voice had commanded them. She began climbing, hands finding purchase on rough bark and tangled roots, pulling herself upward through the narrow tunnel toward the surface. Her body felt renewed, stronger, cleaner, the refined sap still humming in her veins.
Halfway up, a familiar inky shape blocked her path.
The Shadow Lurker that had kidnapped her earlier was trying to scramble toward the surface, its movements frantic and weakened. Its red eyes widened when it saw her.
"You damn insect," Emily said, voice dropping to icy cold. "Where do you think you're going?"
She dropped the words like a blade. Without hesitation she threw her fist forward, a powerful punch filled with surging silver energy. The impact sent the creature flying backward into the tunnel wall with a sickening crunch. Stone and root cracked under the force.
Emily closed the distance in an instant, a cold smile curving her lips. She drove a heavy palm strike straight into its face, caving the skull deeper into the wall with a wet crunch.
"Ha… you seem weaker," she laughed, the arrogance from earlier now backed by real power.
The lurker tried to spit another needle of poison. Emily dodged with contemptuous ease, the dart splattering harmlessly against the dirt.
"Really? Is that truly all you have?"
She grabbed its neck with both hands. The flesh was still as tough as forged steel, but it did not stop her. With a savage roar she pulled with all her renewed strength.
Muscles tore, shadow essence sprayed, and the creature's head came clean off its shoulders in a fountain of black mist. The body slumped to the ground, gasping uselessly as its red eyes dimmed.
Emily didn't spare it another glance.
She turned and continued climbing toward the surface, silver aura blazing around her like a second skin.
Above ground, the battlefield had become a wasteland of craters and smoldering roots.
I ripped Anki free from the Mother Tree's eye with a wet, sucking sound. My left hand slammed against the trunk, holding me steady as blood poured from a dozen wounds. With a roar I slashed several times in quick succession below the main body. The blade cut through ancient wood like paper, exposing a pulsing purple-black fragment embedded deep in the heartwood, the abyssal shard the tree had guarded for centuries.
"Nooo!" the Mother screamed, voice cracking with terror.
I let go and regained my footing, running downward as the massive tree began to topple with terrifying force. Roots still attacked in a frenzy, whipping and stabbing. In one final leap I jumped high, stretching my bloodied hand toward the glowing bead-shaped fragment.
A gentle, almost peaceful smile touched my pale, exhausted face even as pain tore through every nerve.
From the ground, Emily burst free in a shower of dirt and broken roots. Her eyes widened at the scene of absolute destruction, craters still smoking with violet fire, shattered stone, and the colossal tree tilting like a dying giant.
In the center of it all she saw me, my beaten, blood-soaked body still moving with relentless determination toward that pulsing purple light.
"What… what happened while I was inside that place?" she whispered, stunned.
The moment my fingers closed around the abyssal fragment, the remaining roots surged with desperate final strength. They wrapped around me like a living cage, tightening into a dense ball that completely encased my body and lifted me into the air.
Emily screamed, "No! Let him go!"
She charged forward with all her renewed power, silver aura flaring. As she moved she took in the full scale of the devastation, the ground torn apart, the air thick with lingering purple flames and the stench of scorched shadow.
All she could see now was the massive ball of thrashing roots suspended in the middle of the dying tree, holding the blind boy captive inside.
She skidded to a stop, chest heaving, staring at the pulsating prison of roots.
"Who… who are you really?" she whispered, eyes locked on the ball that contained Liam Heart.
The blind outer-academy student who had turned down three great academies.
The boy who had fought a cursed Mother Tree alone while she lay helpless.
Emily stood motionless amid the wreckage, silver hair whipping in the dying wind, wondering for the first time what kind of monster she had been partnered with on this mission.