Chapter 972: Sealed Spring [Part 1]
Chapter 972 – Sealed Spring [Part 1]
The water did not ripple.
That was the first thing Lux noticed.
It glowed blue-white beneath the arching stone, clear enough to reflect the burned roots above it, but not a single ripple moved across the surface. No insects touched it. No falling drop disturbed it. No current whispered beneath it.
It was beautiful.
And wrong.
Ely stood at the front of the group, one hand still hovering near the wall of roots that had opened for them. The path behind them remained visible, silver-green light pulsing faintly beneath the blackened root floor. She knew the others needed her to get access. The grove had made that clear enough.
Without her, they would still be walking in circles near the entrance.
Ely swallowed and stepped forward.
The stone arch responded.
A faint elven mark glowed above it, then split in two like an eyelid opening. Silver dust drifted down. The roots that blocked the lower chamber pulled away obediently, one by one, as if bowing to her blood.
Lux watched in silence.
The entrance opened.
Ely walked through first.
The others followed carefully.
Lux stayed close enough to catch her if anything reacted badly, but not close enough to overtake her. This was her territory. The system had made that painfully obvious. His Greed authority would not impress an ancient elven sanctuary that apparently enjoyed turning demons into lost tourists.
Once all of them entered, the roots behind them settled again.
Not closed.
Just waiting.
Ely stopped at the edge of the pool. "Okay..."
Her voice echoed strangely, soft and multiplied by the stone.
"This is the sealed spring."
A pause.
"Or... it’s supposed to be the sealed spring."
She turned, looking behind them.
Now that they had reached the chamber, the background had become clearer. The darkness behind the spring was not only a wall. It rose upward into a huge curved structure of stone and root, swallowed by trees both living and dead.
A mountain.
But not normal.
Its inner body was exposed in layers, like something had carved the heart out of it and let the forest grow inside the wound. Trees crowded across its surface. Some were green and silver, alive and bright. Others were black, twisted, burned down to skeletal branches. Vines crawled between them, and pale flowers bloomed along cracks where ash still clung to stone.
Ely pointed toward it slowly. "And that is the Hollow Mountain."
She frowned. "Well, I’m not sure, but... it looks hollow."
Gula tilted her head. "It looks crowded to me."
Lux glanced at her.
Gula pointed at the slope beyond the spring.
"At least the trees look crowded. Though some are dead, some look fine." She hugged herself and squinted. "Well, since it has a bad past, I guess that’s still okay."
Sira shook her head. "No. It’s hollow."
Gula looked at her. "You can tell?"
Lullaby hugged her pillow tighter and blinked sleepily toward the mountain. "The mana is hollow, Gula."
Gula turned to her.
Lullaby’s voice was soft, barely above a murmur, but the chamber carried it. "Everything has mana. Trees. Stones. Water. Even dead things have traces." She looked toward the crowded forest growing around the mountain. "But those trees... despite some being alive, all are dead inside."
The words made the chamber feel colder.
Ely’s expression tightened.
She looked at Lux. "What do you think?"
Lux didn’t answer.
He and Yue had already stepped forward at almost the same time, as if pulled by the same instinct. Not toward the mountain.
Toward the spring.
They stood between the pool and the others, slightly apart, forming an invisible shield without saying anything.
Their eyes locked on the water.
Yue’s expression had sharpened into something ancient and dangerous.
Lux’s face was still.
Too still.
Ely’s voice grew smaller. "Lux?"
He did not look back. "Elf springs are usually filled with mana, right?"
Ely blinked. "Yes. Sacred springs should be overflowing with life mana. Memory mana too, sometimes. Healing. Root resonance. It should feel..."
She looked at the still water.
"Warm."
Lux’s eyes narrowed. "This one isn’t."
Yue’s voice came colder. "This one is absorbing mana."
Sira’s posture changed instantly.
Gula froze.
Lullaby’s sleepy eyes opened a little wider.
Ely’s face paled. "What?"
Yue’s gaze stayed on the spring. "All kinds of mana. Demonic. Angelic. Mortal. Natural. Spiritual. It does not filter. It consumes."
Ely shook her head. "It—it’s impossible. There’s no way."
Lux lifted one hand slightly. "Ely. Stay back."
The words were calm.
That made her obey faster than if he shouted.
Sira moved beside Ely. Lullaby drifted closer to her other side. Gula stepped back too, though her eyes remained on the pool with a strange, uncomfortable hunger.
Then Yue whispered, "Something is coming, Lux."
The spring rippled.
Finally.
One circle.
Then another.
The blue-white glow darkened at the center, turning deep green, then black, then something murky between water and shadow. The pool began to breathe.
Not metaphorically.
The surface rose and fell like a chest.
Then a roar came from below.
Low.
Wet.
Ancient.
The sound slammed into the chamber and shook ash from the roots overhead.
Ely flinched.
Sira’s aura flared like a crown igniting.
Lullaby lifted one small hand, Sloth power settling into the air to keep the roar from crushing them completely.
Gula winced and clutched her stomach. "I don’t like that sound."
Lux did not move.
The spring split.
Water surged upward, but instead of falling, it gathered. Roots tore from the edges of the pool. Stones cracked free from the arch. Blackened branches snapped down from the ceiling. Moss, ash, mineral, and water twisted together into a single rising form.
Not demonic.
Not angelic.
Not mortal.
It was something made from the place itself.
A guardian.
A corpse of nature given appetite.
Its body towered above the pool, too tall for the chamber but somehow bending inside it. Its legs were formed from tangled roots and stone slabs dripping spring water. Its torso looked like a hollow tree trunk split open down the middle, filled with glowing water that pulsed like a stolen heart. Its arms were long and uneven. One made from braided roots tipped with stone claws, the other a column of wet rock wrapped in vines.