Chapter 614: The Last Connection

A wounded civilian militia member named Corin lay upon the linen mattress, his face pale and beaded with sweat.

Corin curled his left hand against the mattress and tried to hide the tremor that crossed his wrist whenever the filament pulsed.

A dark parasitic resonance filament pulsed beneath the skin of his left wrist, linking his core to the choral possession network.

Vella stood beside the cot in her manifested form, her gold hair and violet streaks tied back loosely with a silver ribbon.

Beside her, Hajin rested his left hand against her shoulder, keeping the Ring of Forgotten Eternity actively grounded between them.

The equipped Spirit Ring contract served as an immovable spiritual anchor, absorbing excess mana feedback before it could overwhelm her vessel.

The young militia fighter looked up with trembling eyes, clenching a small carved toy songbird in his right fist.

"I carved this little bird for my daughter before our unit marched into the hills," Corin whispered through parched lips.

"For the past three days, that horrible voice in my head kept telling me to throw it into the mud and surrender to the choir."

"It wanted me to forget her face, her laughter, and every single memory of my home in the valley."

"You will not forget her," the spirit maiden reassured him softly, her tone carrying deep, unyielding empathy.

"I am going to test the sequence using Ferra’s hand dial, copied from the fixed timing wheel we recovered yesterday."

"You will feel a sharp chill across your wrist, but you must remain completely still while the conduit opens."

"I trust your skill, healer," the young soldier nodded with quiet bravery, closing his eyes to brace himself.

"I would rather endure frost on my skin than remain a mindless puppet for that singing abomination!"

"Hold the anchor steady, partner," she murmured, her golden healing mana weaving through her fingertips like spun silk.

"Steady as bedrock," the summoner promised, channeling pure divine resonance through their soul bond to stabilize her flow.

Vella brought the portable hand dial down onto the junction plate, aligning its copper teeth with the patient’s wrist filament.

The divergence point identified by Didi flared with pale azure light as the civic irrigation channel smoothly disengaged from the parasite.

Instantly, the dark filament writhed violently, and a hostile possession core attempted to force its way upward into the patient’s mind.

A shrieking psychic voice echoed through the tent, seeking to drag Corin’s consciousness into the collective choral madness.

"You will not have this soul!" the spirit maiden declared coldly, her eyes flashing with incandescent fury.

She did not flinch, severing the encroaching tendril with a surgical lash of dark mana while isolating the soldier’s living soul.

She redirected the hostile core’s death throes straight into the Spirit Ring tether, where Hajin’s divine aura safely dispersed the shockwave.

The black filament dissolved into harmless gray ash, leaving Corin’s wrist clean, unmarked, and completely free of corruption.

The young soldier let out a long, shuddering gasp of relief, his fever breaking as normal color returned to his cheeks.

He sat up slowly on the cot, staring at his unblemished wrist before looking down at the carved songbird in his hand.

Tears of profound relief slipped down his face as he pressed the small toy against his chest, breathing freely for the first time in days.

"My thoughts are quiet," Corin choked out with a wet, joyful laugh, "the singing is completely gone from my head!"

"Drink this fresh water and rest your eyes," Hajin told him gently, offering a clean ceramic cup to the recovering soldier.

"You are going home to your daughter, soldier... the nightmare is over."

"The test is successful," the spirit maiden announced with a confident, triumphant smirk, wiping a bead of perspiration from her brow.

"The surgical sequence isolates the hostile core completely, without damaging the patient’s underlying mana pathways!"

Outside the tent, Ferra set down her tongs beside the portable forge, inspecting three newly forged grounding couplings.

"My forged couplings will hold against the surge," the forgemistress reported, wiping soot from her forehead with her forearm.

"I tuned each socket to absorb the physical feedback spikes whenever our team severs a regional relay station."

Across the clearing, Eirwen checked the living willow roots that dipped into the riverbank, her eyes glowing with ancient elven wisdom.

"The root continuity is verified across all twelve regional nodes," the archer confirmed, rising gracefully to her feet.

"The ancient taproots survived Keldan’s drainage, and their vascular channels are ready to receive our harmonic signal."

"When the signal sounds, the living network will channel the harmonic pulse without suffering a single systemic fracture."

Juna walked into the camp carrying her recurve bow, having completed a ten-mile reconnaissance circuit around the mountain perimeter.

"The eastern approach is completely clear," the wolf girl reported, slinging her bow across her shoulder with fluid grace.

"I eliminated three scouting drones along the ridge, ensuring nobody observes our staging positions before the national release."

"Their forward sentries are blind to our movements, giving us an unhindered window to execute tomorrow’s operation."

Loccy bounded through the clearing carrying a wicker basket filled with fresh biscuits, handing treats to the recovered militia guards.

"Eat up, everyone!" the rabbit maiden cheered merrily, "tomorrow we do some serious hard work, and empty bellies make for sloppy footwork!"

Ferra struck a small tuning fork against her anvil, letting a clear, resonant chime ring through the evening camp.

"That is the reference frequency," the forgemistress explained, pointing her tongs toward the copper grounding coils.

"Whenever the choir attempts to hijack the grounding pins, this harmonic tone will bleed off the surge."

Eirwen traced the ridgeline on the map, her slender fingers marking the windward slopes where the ancient willow crowns greeted the sunrise.

"The morning breeze will carry our living signal across the valley in less than two minutes," the elf noted with quiet poise.

Vella gathered the companions around the central map table, laying out the precise sequence of operations with absolute tactical authority.

"We have twelve nodes to sever across three separate districts," she instructed, pointing to the illuminated markers on the map.

"Eirwen opens the living network, Ferra’s couplings absorb the physical shock, and Hajin anchors my contract while I execute the severance."

"My stop condition is non-negotiable: if any patient’s lifeline fluctuates beyond twenty percent, we pause immediately and reset the anchor."

"We are here to liberate these people, not sacrifice them for a hollow military victory!"

"Agreed," the summoner nodded firmly, his split-colored eyes reflecting absolute faith in his companion’s expertise.

"You call the shots on the medical line... the rest of us will hold the world steady while you work."

The stream filled with worried questions about the soldier’s pulse until Vella showed the stable reading beside her portable dial.

[ Seoul_Tactician: "Vella demonstrating the severance protocol with clinical perfection! She is such an incredible genius!" ]

[ StarlightScholar: "Hajin acting as her spiritual anchor while she operates, their partner bond is so deeply moving!" ]

[ IronVanguard: "Every station is manned for the national release. Somebody check the timing wheel once more!" ]

The spirit maiden smiled, resting her palm gently against Hajin’s chest while their soul contract hummed with harmonious unity.

"Tomorrow morning, the forest speaks," she murmured softly, looking toward the dark canopy of the mountain pass.

"And when the trees answer, we will shatter their stolen chorus once and for all!"