Dawn broke across the Floating Forest in shades of gray and gold.
Lin Tian rose from the hollow flower, his body humming with power that was not quite his own. The Sovereign's Wrath sat in his dantian like a coiled star, dense and patient and waiting.
Su Lan stretched beside him, her flames flickering with renewed vitality. Xueya's frost had deepened to a crystalline shimmer that caught the morning light.
Lu Cang stood at the entrance, his spear ready.
"The Resonating Spike is still pulsing," he said. "The forest is dying faster now."
Lin Tian nodded once, slow and deliberate, his gaze lifting toward the canopy where the Resonating Spike's violet pulse bled through the leaves like a second, sickly dawn.
Time to end this.
He stepped forward, and the others fell in around him without a word needing to be spoken.
They climbed, moving through the dying forest with purpose, the Heart-Tree's great limbs groaning beneath them as the Weave unravelled with every passing moment.
