The remains of the Ark "Gaia's Heart" drifted in the absolute darkness of the rift in the Sea of Entropy, like a speck of dust falling into ink. The last pale flame of the tail engine struggled to die, completely swallowed by the boundless silence. On the hull, at the edge of the huge wound torn by the rift barrier, the alloy armor showed a twisted crystallization of melting and freezing. Fine, dark purple lightning, like a living thing, flickered and spread deep in the crack, emitting a teeth-grinding "sizzling" sound. This sound was the chewing of death gnawing at steel, the wail of order tainted by chaos.
Undercurrent
General Raymond coughed up a mouthful of black blood stained with visceral fragments and struggled to lift himself from the cold floor of the bridge. His gaze swept through the observation window—no longer a starry sky, only a pure, soul-absorbing nothingness. The main screen had long since gone dark, and only the emergency lights, trembling amidst the violent tremors, cast a ghostly red glow, illuminating the mess and twisted bodies. Every metallic creak as the ship's structure buckled under the internal stresses sounded like the dying gasp of a great beast.
"Report...surviving units..." His voice was hoarse like sandpaper.
"Bridge... seven life signals remaining. The Origin Temple... the energy barrier... is temporarily stable, but... an unknown contamination is spreading within! Areas A to D... completely destroyed..." The adjutant's voice was intermittent, filled with despair and numbness. The huge casualty figures had lost their meaning; they felt like they were in a cosmic morgue.
"General! The temperature in the core area of the Cradle is plummeting! The readings have fallen below the theoretical threshold of absolute zero!" the monitor's voice suddenly rose, tinged with inhuman fear. On the screen, the 3D model representing the core area of the Temple of Origin was engulfed by a strange, writhing, dark purple shadow. Like a living bacterial blanket, it greedily absorbed all heat and energy.
Raymond's heart sank into an icy cave. The cradle... there slept the last flame of humanity! He slammed the communication button, his roar piercing the silence: "Owen! What's happening at the temple?!"
Origin Ice Prison
The Temple of Origin had been transformed into a hell of ice and chaos. The vast passageway, pierced by Xu Shuangyao's destructive light stream, had become a vessel for the entropic sea's contamination to invade. A thick, oil-like, violet energy mist, mingled with tiny, shimmering ice crystals, poured continuously from the absolute darkness at the end of the passage. Wherever the mist passed, the alloy floors, walls, and the shattered remains of equipment were instantly coated in a thick, ever-growing layer of sharp, black-purple ice spikes, emitting a strong aura of corruption and doom. The air temperature had long since fallen below the lower limit of the instruments, and even the light seemed frozen and distorted.
The few remaining medical staff and engineers huddled behind a makeshift, feeble energy barrier, their faces livid, their breath instantly turning to ice shards. Dr. Owen's eyebrows and beard were frosted, his back hunched, his chilblained hands pressed firmly against the control console, his aged eyes staring hopelessly at the light screens of the two life support pods.
Xu Shuangyao's life support pod was completely frozen in a thick, wriggling layer of dark purple ice crystals, like an ancient insect trapped in amber. His vital signs were so weak they had practically vanished, and the remaining "Frost Mark" activity index was suppressed to a dozen decimal places, like a candle in the wind. Inside Lin Mo's life support pod, the scene was even more terrifying—he was suspended in a pale blue nutrient solution, his body coated in a thin layer of purple-black frost. But the truly terrifying thing was his left eye.
The nebula-like vortex within the hollow eye socket spun at an unprecedented speed. The tiny dark gold ember at the core was compressed to its limit, its light faint as a firefly. Meanwhile, countless dark purple dots of light, permeating the vortex, were incredibly active and expanding! Like billions of ravenous parasites, they frantically gnawed and tore at the dark gold. Each bite caused Lin Mo's broken body to twitch violently, and more spider-web-like purple veins emerged beneath his skin. Even more terrifying, wisps of dark purple energy, as thin as gossamer threads but carrying a strong aura of pollution, emanated from the vortex. Like living tentacles, they penetrated the force field of the life support pod, greedily absorbing the energy of the remaining World Tree roots within the temple, even... entwining the ice crystals that froze Xu Shuangyao's life support pod nearby!
"Pollution... is alive! It's eroding the entire temple through Linmo... and connecting to 'Frost'!" Owen's voice trembled in the extreme cold. "General! The cradle... is being transformed into a source of pollution! We... must isolate it!"
"Isolate?!" Raymond's roar exploded across the communication channel. "Isolate what?! The heart of the Ark is the cradle! Destroy it, and we won't even have time to struggle! Hold on! Activate the 'Heart of the Ark' protocol! Connect all the remaining roots of the World Tree... to Lin Mo!"
"What?! General! That will accelerate the spread of the pollution! And his body definitely can't withstand it..."
"Execute the order!" Raymond's voice was firm and filled with desperate madness. "He is the spark, and the only 'connector'! Either he burns through this darkness, or... we sink into chaos together! Bet the Ark's last strength... on him!"
Echoes of the Heart
Cold... sticky... boundless darkness enveloped consciousness.
Xu Shuangyao felt herself sinking, sinking into an icy abyss deeper and more eternal than the stasis pod. The Frostmark fell silent, like a completely extinguished fire, leaving only cold ashes. Pei Du's final ray of light, the warm bridge of light that connected them, had long since dissipated. Only the deepest sorrow and the emptiness of loss, like a heavy anchor, dragged her down.
"Pei Du..." Silent thoughts spread in the dark void, carrying endless fatigue and sadness, and were then swallowed up by deeper coldness.
Just then—
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