The cold,serpent-etched metal shard lay contained within a specialized stasis field emitter in Lena's grasp,its malevolent aura silenced.Beside it,in another container,the moss with its dying grey-green luminescence served as a silent accuser.Simon hunched over his gear,meticulously recording every twisted line of the degraded circle and each energy spike,sweat beading on his brow despite the pain and the oppressive tension.
"Core matrix deliberately erased or self-destructed.Professional job.Residual energy vectors indicate…a highly efficient,targeted alchemy designed for life Anima extraction and conversion.Far surpasses the'Entropy Gel'we encountered."Simon's muffled voice held the focused frustration of a tech facing an intractable problem."Like…a life Anima vacuum pump cranked to max…and then blown."
"Blown?"Fenrir snarled,claws scraping furrows in the charred earth near the fountain,revealing the same lifeless pale soil beneath."So they made this mess,killed people,just to blow up a damnpump?Are these lunatics eating sewer sludge for brains?"His rage was palpable,a beast's primal rejection of this life-strangled ground.Every breath felt suffocating.
Lena's gaze,sharp as ice picks,swept the circle remnants,then probed deeper into the withered garden."Core destroyed doesn't mean source severed.Simon,widen scan parameters.Look for transmission pathways or receiver signatures.Alan,Fenrir,with me.We push to the center."Her instincts screamed that the fountain circle was merely a branch;the root of this blight lay deeper within the dead heart.
Alan nodded silently,taking a deep breath to quell the escalating agitation within him,stirred by his Harmonizer ability.This place wasn't just visually barren;it felt like a gaping wound in the Anima fabric,a sucking void.Each attempt to sense it was like plunging his hand into icy nothingness,met only with stronger repulsion and an indescribable…thirst.
They moved away from the fountain,towards the area Simon's instruments marked as the absolute epicenter of the collapse–the garden's true core.
Their path was paved with brittle,charred grass and leaves,crunching sickeningly underfoot like shards of bone.Each step kicked up fine black dust motes drifting in the gloom.The air thickened with the cloying miasma of ash,decayed earth,and that faint,sickly sweetness–the stench of solidified death.It pressed on their chests,seeping past the filtration masks,invading nostrils and lungs.
The deeper they went,the more horrific the desolation.Towering trees were reduced to skeletal claws of blackened branches,stripped bare,reaching in silent agony towards the leaden sky.Bark hung in great peeling sheets,revealing grey,dead wood beneath.Ornamental plants were mere charcoal stalks,unrecognizable.No wind whispered.No sound stirred.Anabsolute silencedescended,thick and suffocating,as if the air itself had congealed.
"Life Anima readings…flatline.Ambient Anima density…below instrument detection threshold.Air samples…inert.Soil samples…high concentrations of microbial carcasses,structural disintegration…"Simon's voice crackled intermittently over the comms,laced with disbelief."It's…it's an Anima vacuum!A…dead magic zone?No…worse!A'dead life zone'!"
Fenrir growled,low and guttural,his steps becoming heavier.His amber eyes darted nervously.His heightened senses screamed in this void.It wasn't a specific threat,but a deep,instinctive revulsion in his blood towards the extinction of life.Like a fish on burning sand,every cell shrieked its wrongness."Feels…like I've been skinned and dumped in a desert!This hellhole's sucking more than energy…it's choking thewildoutta me!"He lacked finesse,expressing only the raw,vital suffocation.
Lena's stride never faltered,but Alan sensed her taut nerves.The silence and the vacuum were an oppressive weight,torment for any Animate.She was a drawn blade,her cold will a shield against the encroaching entropy.
Alan's experience was far more complex and agonizing.The suppressor cuff on his wrist grew hotter,its hum intensifying,a constant reminder of the turmoil within.The void's"thirst"felt like countless needles pricking his Harmonizer instinct.It wasn't just agitation;it was a gnawinghunger?An almost primal urge tofillthis terrible emptiness!As if his ability was inherently antithetical to this state of life-energy depletion…perhaps evenantagonistic?Each time he pushed his senses into the dead zone,it felt like hearing the land's silent scream,sensing a vast,greedypulltrying to devour even his own meager power!Dizziness and nausea churned within him.
"Here."Lena's voice sliced through the suffocating silence.
They stood at the garden's heart.Where open lawn studded with ancient oaks and a gazebo should have been,lay a field covered in a thick blanket of grey-black"ash."The oaks stood like massive,charred crucifixes,bark gone,wood beneath seared black.The gazebo's timbers were stained a deep,fire-scorched brown.
The silence here was absolute.The air hung like liquid mercury.Even Simon's comms reports seemed swallowed by the space,distant and muffled.
Lena knelt,gloved hand brushing aside the thick ash layer.The soil beneath was a horrifying,lifeless bone-white.She carefully dug a small section with a trowel.The granules were dry,powdery,devoid of moisture or organic matter,as if fossilized for millennia.
"No visible circle traces…at least not surface-drawn."Lena's tone held a thread of grim tension.It defied logic.Such massive energy extraction couldn't leave the source untraceable.
Alan fought the overwhelming discomfort,focusing his perception on this central void.This time,he didn't feel the violent"pull,"but a deeper,more profound…emptiness!As if all life-signatures had been ripped out,roots and all,utterly erased.What remained was pure,icynothingness.And at the heart of this absolute void,he caught the faintest,yet starkly clear imprint—a pure,chilling will directed towards decay and termination!Identical to the resonance from Victor,and the lingering taint on the Ouroboros shard!The core residue of the Withering!It was like a drop of ink in clear water—minuscule,yet tainting the whole pool!
"The power…it lingers here…"Alan's voice was hoarse,pointing at the bone-white soil."Not a circle…an…'imprint'?Or…a'wound'?It's still…radiating that'thirst'…"He struggled for the words to describe this abstract horror.
Suddenly,Simon's voice spiked over the comms,sharp with surprise."Lena!Alan!Near you!Energy scan picking up faint disturbance!Not Life Anima…it's…the moss signature!Same source!Faint!At…at the base of the largest dead tree!Right in front of you!"
All eyes snapped to the base of the tallest,most thoroughly withered ancient oak at the garden's core.Its massive roots snaked across the ground,mostly buried in ash.
Fenrir snarled,lunging forward.Powerful claws swept aside the thick ash piled around the roots!
Dust billowed.
Nestled within the crevices of the exposed,equally dead-grey roots,they saw it.
Not a pinch.A…patch.
A patch of deep green,almost black moss,clinging stubbornly to the dead wood.
But its state was far more pitiful than the sample by the fountain.
Its color was duller,almost blending with the ash.The broken ends emitted not a grey-green glow,but a feeble,dying,almost imperceptiblegrey-white luminescence!Like the last gasp of a candle flame.Worse,the moss itself showed grotesque changes—its edges curled unnaturally,blackened and brittle as if scorched by acid,scars from the violent life-force theft!
"It's the moss!The Epping Forest moss!"Simon's voice was thick with shock and confusion."But…how did it gethere?And…why likethis?"He knelt swiftly,using specialized tools to collect samples,his scanner humming."Life Anima activity…less than 1%!Contamination index…off the charts!Decay affinity Anima contamination…accelerating its death!It's…it's like a microcosm of this land!Forcibly implanted…then forcibly drained!"
Alan stared at the moss with its dying grey-white halo,his heart gripped by an icy fist.The symbol of Epping Forest,representing pure natural vitality,clung to life in this blighted wasteland in such a tortured,distorted way.This was no accident.It was a cruel signature,a malicious token left by the perpetrator.
Fenrir leaned closer,his keen nose twitched,then recoiled with a disgusted snarl."Pah!The stink…besides rotten mud…there's that stench!Like the slimy sewer monsters!Like that Victor freak!"His instinct linked the moss's corruption directly to"The Stitcher."
Lena stood.Her ice-blue gaze swept from the dying moss to the boundless desolation,finally settling on Alan's pale face.Her voice cut through the stagnant death-air,cold and sharp as a scalpel:
"This wasn't a failed experiment.This is…a marker.And a warning.Ouroboros is demonstrating the terminus their power brings.And Epping Forest…"Her gaze seemed to pierce London's fog,looking northeast."…is likely already their next designated'garden'."