The chill of St.Clare's crypt,the bite of acid mist,the crushing impact of stone gargoyles…these nightmare memories were etched into Alan's senses.Even two days later,sitting on a cold chair in the safehouse medical bay for a routine check,his fingertips seemed to recall the damp stone floor and gritty dust.The sutures on his back throbbed dully as the painkillers wore off,each breath tugging at healing flesh.Mental exhaustion ran deeper,the hollow ache of his forced power surges clinging like a parasite.The suppressor cuff's constant low hum was a perpetual reminder of his"special status"and Thorne's control.
"Elevated heart rate.Anima core fluctuations stabilizing,but activity thirty-five percent below baseline.Somatic cell repair rate abnormally elevated…likely passive effect of your ability.Inhibitor metabolism normal,no rejection.Conclusion:Profound fatigue state post-overexertion.No new organ damage.Recommendation:Mandatory rest.Continued monitoring."The Warden physician recited the report tonelessly,tapping notes onto a datapad.He treated the expensive"gift"on Alan's wrist as mundane.
Mandatory rest?Alan's lips twisted bitterly.Grandfather still lay pale and unmoving in the life-support pod.The clue pointing to Epping Forest burned like a coal in his mind.The cold Ouroboros fragment and the faintly glowing moss sample were locked away in high-security evidence.He could feel Thorne's gaze deepening,Lena's scrutiny sharpening.Rest?Impossible!
Suddenly,the safehouse's low,urgent assembly klaxon blared!Short,rapid pulses hammering against the ribs!
Alan and the physician looked up.A flicker of surprise crossed the doctor's face,then vanished.He packed his gear swiftly."Priority task.You're activated,Consultant."His voice held no inflection.
Alan's heart sank.Ignoring his body's protests,he bolted for the briefing room.In the corridor,Fenrir and Simon hurried from different directions.Fenrir wore annoyance at the interrupted downtime,but his eyes were sharp.Simon,hair wild,dark circles prominent,radiated nervous energy mixed with tech-fueled adrenaline.
The briefing room hummed with tension.Lena stood before the main screen,clad in fresh tactical gear,the wound on her back professionally treated but a subtle stiffness in her posture betraying it.Her face was grimmer than usual,ice-blue eyes fixed on the displayed map and live feeds.
The screen showed a satellite map of London's Camden district,zoomed in.A glaring red zone covered several blocks centered on a community garden labeled"Greenhaven Corner"and surrounding residences.But the expected green was replaced by a sickly,eye-searing yellow-brown!Live feeds revealed a horror show:Lush lawns,shrubs,and flowers appeared charred,devoid of life,a brittle,ashen brown without fire damage!Tree leaves hung withered and curled,branches a diseased grey-black.Private gardens and window boxes in nearby homes mirrored the desolation.
"Task designation:'Wither'."Lena's voice held zero warmth,cutting straight to it."Two hours ago,Warden monitoring detected a massive,anomalous collapse in Anima concentration within Camden's Greenhaven Corner sector.Concurrently,reports confirmed a sudden ecological disaster."
She switched feeds:Close-ups of the garden showed blackened rose stems like skeletal fingers;a Golden Retriever lay listless on dead grass,eyes dull,breathing shallow,vets baffled;A casualty summary:"…One confirmed fatality:Agnes Whitaker,76,retired low-tier'Zephyr Sensate'(Anima attuned to air currents),cause:Sudden Anima core failure with rapid organ collapse…Other affected Animates:Marjorie Flower(Florist Witch,plant affinity),Anima activity down 80%,comatose;Owen Green(Retired Druid acolyte),natural affinity severely impaired,Anima leakage,critical…Multiple pets of normals exhibiting lethargy,anorexia…"
An environmental report:"…Soil and water samples indicate Life Anima(Anima Vitalis)near zero,soil microbiota decimated,water inert…Airborne trace residue:'Decay'affinity Anima…"
"Event profile:"Lena summarized,tone arctic."Targeted area:Rapid,forced extraction of Life Anima from all lifeforms(flora,fauna,Animates),resulting in withering,failure,death.Anima environment rendered'inert desert'.Wardens designate this event'The Withering'.Threat level:High Priority.Impact zone under assessment.Core area quarantined."
The screen shifted to an energy scan of the core wither zone.It was a terrifying void,an Anima vacuum.The chaotic city energy around it seemed weakly drawn towards and consumed by this emptiness.The epicenter lay deep within the Greenhaven garden.
"Our objective:"Lena's gaze swept the team,lingering fractionally on Alan."Immediate deployment to Greenhaven Corner epicenter.Determine direct cause,energy mechanism,and contagion risk.Locate caster traces or residue.Assess site for cleanup and stabilization.Simon,deploy high-sensitivity environmental scanners and Anima contamination kit.Fenrir,Alan,prep for potential hostiles."
"Sucking life?Like that'Wither'crap in the sewers,but…bigger!Meaner!"Simon gasped,shoving gear into his oversized pack,his earlier excitement replaced by grim focus.
"Hmph!Scum playing with life!"Fenrir snarled,eyes flashing with primal fury.His own vitality was deeply tied to nature;this violation sparked instinctive rage.He flexed,knuckle-dusters snapping out and back.
Alan stared at the screen's dead expanse,nausea churning.The scene instantly recalled the depths beneath London,the"Mimir's Forge"lair of"The Stitcher"Victor!The same energy draining,death and decay!But the scale…orders of magnitude larger!And more precise…more malicious!A targeted assault on life itself!The precious herbs in Grandfather's shop,nurtured by life force…exposed to this…He shuddered.A chill crawled up his spine,born not of fear,but of white-hot rage.
"Move."Lena offered no more words,turning towards the armory.
Soon,the unmarked Warden transport slid into Camden.The closer they got to Greenhaven,the thicker the oppressive atmosphere became.Streets were unnaturally empty,residents evacuated or confined.The air held a cloying miasma of charred vegetation,damp earth,and a faint,sickly-sweet undertone that induced unease.Roadside trees,not yet fully dead,showed yellowed,curling leaves,stripped of vitality.
Temporary Warden barricades and Anima dampening fields(largely symbolic given the lack of energy to dampen)cordoned off the quarantine zone.After clearance,the transport entered the heart of desolation.
The reality was worse than the feeds.
Greenhaven Corner,a place meant for life,was a necropolis.The brown grass crunched like cinders underfoot.Rose bushes were charred skeletons clawing at the leaden sky.Trees stood as massive,scorched skeletons,grey bark peeling.Garden soil was an unnatural,lifeless pale grey.No birdsong,no insect hum,only suffocating silence.
The surrounding houses fared slightly better,but private gardens were graveyards of dead blooms.Window box plants were brittle husks.The air's decay signature intensified,tasting cloyingly sweet and cold in the lungs.
The team donned filtration masks(more for dust and psychological comfort than the Anima-level Withering)and stepped into the dead zone.Each step on the brittle grass echoed like snapping bones.
"Full spectrum scan,Simon.Now."Lena ordered,her voice muffled.
Simon deployed disc-shaped drones and handheld scanners.Instruments whirred,screens flashing data.
"Life Anima readings…approaching zero!Ambient Anima density…critically depleted!Worse than the sewer'Wither'zone!"Simon's voice held shock."Residual energy spectrum…high correlation with'Entropy Gel'signatures from the church site and Bai Cao Tang!But…more complex!More…efficient!Like…a directed,degraded application of'Conflux of Elements'?Targeting Life Anima specifically!"
"Conflux of Elements…"Alan murmured the term he'd overheard in Thorne's briefings,a deeper chill settling in.The power of a Prime Glyph?Or a pale imitation?
"Locate the collapse epicenter!"Lena's gaze swept the dead garden like a hawk's.
"There!Near the central fountain!"Simon pointed to the deepest point of the void on his scanner.
They moved towards the garden's heart.The deathly aura intensified with each step.Alan felt his suppressor cuff warming again.The surrounding"emptiness"pressed on him physically.His Harmonizer ability stirred restlessly within,not absorbing,but repelling,as if the violated land itself cried out in silent agony,rejecting all foreign energy.
They reached the fountain.The dry basin held only viscous,discolored sludge.Around it,the dead grass formed a radial pattern of deeper,charred black.
"Here!"Simon knelt,carefully scraping away layers of ashen grass and soil.Beneath,dark red lines,like dried blood,formed part of an intricate,profane alchemical array!
"Alchemy circle!Incomplete?Or…activated and degraded?"Lena crouched for a closer look.The circle's core seemed deliberately damaged or erased,lines fractured."Residual energy…matches reports.Highly dangerous life-draining properties."
Fighting nausea,Alan pushed his perception towards the circle's remnants.Instantly,he"saw"utter void!Deeper than the crypt,more absolute than the sewers!The Anima,especially life-sustaining Anima,had been utterly sucked dry by some ravenous force!Only a poisonous residue of decay remained.At the void's heart,he caught a faint,chillingly familiar pulse—cold,greedy,consuming!The same signature he'd felt from Victor in the underground forge,and the residue at the church trap!
"It's the same force!"Alan blurted out."Victor…and the church residue!It's Ouroboros!They're experimenting…or…harvesting something?"He recalled Victor's fanatical cry:"Source Prime Glyph…Loom of Life…"
Just then,Fenrir,agitated by the lifelessness,scraped his claws against a loose flagstone by the fountain's edge."This damned place,even the dirt stinks!"he growled.
Clatter!
The stone shifted,revealing a patch of less contaminated soil beneath.And lying there was a small object.
Simon spotted it first,retrieving it with forceps.
It was a jagged metal shard,no larger than a fingernail.The material was identical to the Ouroboros sigil fragment from the church crypt—deep grey,light-absorbing.One corner bore the unmistakable etching of half a coiling,self-devouring serpent!Half of a tiny,blood-red gemstone remained where the serpent's eye should be,still radiating a malevolent glimmer!
"Ouroboros!"Lena's voice cracked like glacial ice,laced with lethal fury.The attack on Grandfather,the traps,the Withering…all roads led back to this shadow serpent!This shard was irrefutable proof of their latest atrocity!
"And…look here!"Simon's forceps probed the soil near the shard,retrieving something else.
A tiny pinch of deep green,nearly black moss.Its form was strikingly similar to the samples from the church crypt and under Grandfather's bed!But crucially,the broken ends of this moss didn't emit a healthy emerald glow.Instead,they gave off a feeble,sickly,grey-green luminescence!As if its own life force had been brutally drained by the Withering circle,leaving it barely clinging to existence!
"Energy signature…match confirmed!"Simon's voice held disbelief and a thread of fear."Same origin as the Epping Forest moss sample!But…its Life Anima…it's heavily contaminated and depleted!Just…just like this land!"He looked at Alan,eyes wide with dawning horror."Alan…this moss…why is it here?What's its link to the Withering…to Ouroboros?What's happening in Epping Forest?"
Alan stared at the moss,its deathly light flickering,then at the cold Ouroboros shard in Lena's hand.His heart felt clenched in an icy fist.Epping Forest…Grandfather…Wildheart…Ouroboros…The Withering…All the tangled threads converged on that mist-shrouded ancient woodland!It seemed to hold both the source of everything…and the greatest peril.
He could almost hear the silent scream of the legendary"Heartwood Oak,"violated by Ouroboros'greed and the Withering's touch,echoing from the depths of the forest.