Chapter 357: Five Mirrors, One Heart

The northern stream flickered beneath Ronin’s gathering attack, its golden light struggling against the purple energy spreading through the surrounding roots.

Arthur could feel the pressure building through the Mirror network, and the eastern stream, which they had just purified, was the only connection no longer carrying the corruption. If Ronin destroyed another stream, the remaining network might lose the balance Luna and Athena had worked so hard to establish.

"He’s going to strike the northern connection directly!" Luna warned. "If he breaks it, the pressure will spread through the other three before we can compensate!"

"Then we don’t give him the chance," Arthur replied. He turned toward Vedas, whose golden armor was already beginning to flicker. "We have to work faster. I’ll expose the conduits, and you sever them. No unnecessary attacks, no chasing Ronin, and absolutely no damage to the living roots."

Vedas adjusted his grip on his spear. "You make it sound as though I enjoy destroying things without a plan."

"You did throw an entire root through the platform earlier."

"It was trying to crush Kong."

"Fair point."

Their exchange ended as Ronin released the attack. A spear of purple energy shot toward the northern stream, tearing through the air with enough force to distort the surrounding roots. Arthur moved first, extending his hand as [Pillars of Dominion] erupted between the attack and the stream. The golden pillars forced the corrupted spear to split around them, but the impact shattered two of the pillars and sent a shockwave through the chamber.

Vedas charged through the opening before it could close. His spear struck the remaining energy, redirecting it toward an empty section of the platform, while Arthur used [Reality Dominion] to identify the exact point where the corrupted channel entered the northern stream.

"There!" Arthur shouted. "The conduit runs beneath the third root on the left! Don’t cut the root itself!"

Vedas changed direction immediately, but Ronin had anticipated their movement. The roots around the northern connection twisted together, forming a dense barrier that concealed the conduit. At the same time, another wave of corrupted energy surged toward the eastern stream, attempting to overwhelm the connection they had already purified.

"He’s attacking both sides!" Athy called. "The northern stream is his main target, but he’s trying to destabilize the eastern anchor!"

Athena raised both hands, reinforcing the eastern barrier. "I can hold the anchor, but I can’t keep redirecting this much pressure indefinitely!"

"Then don’t redirect it," Luna replied, her eyes fixed on the five streams. "Let the eastern Mirror carry its natural flow. I’ll adjust the resonance through the other four so the pressure doesn’t concentrate there."

Athena hesitated for only a moment before following Luna’s instructions. Instead of forcing the incoming energy back toward the northern connection, she allowed the eastern stream to maintain its established circulation while Luna redistributed the resonance through the other Mirrors. The golden light steadied, and the pressure against the eastern barrier began to ease.

Athy watched the change with surprise. "It’s working! The eastern stream isn’t fighting the northern one anymore!"

"Because they were never meant to fight each other," Luna explained. "The Mirrors are supposed to stabilize the same network. We were treating every fluctuation as something to suppress, but the streams need to remain connected while we remove the corruption."

Arthur heard the explanation and immediately understood its importance. They did not need to isolate every stream from the others. They needed to remove the artificial conduits while allowing the World Tree’s natural circulation to continue.

"Everyone, keep the network stable!" he called. "We don’t have to stop the energy from moving. We just have to stop Ronin from controlling it!"

Mithra and Melo responded by changing their approach on the western side. Rather than simply cutting away the incoming roots, Mithra began redirecting their attacks toward empty sections of the chamber, creating openings without severing the living network. Melo spread her dream mist through the gaps, concealing the true paths of the corrupted tendrils and forcing them to reveal themselves whenever they tried to follow the energy toward the streams.

"I can see the pattern now!" Melo called. "The corrupted roots keep shifting toward whichever stream is under the greatest pressure. If we make the flow look unstable in a different direction, we can draw them away from the real connection!"

Mithra glanced at her. "Can you keep that up while I clear the western approach?"

"Yes, but if you ask me to create another illusion while I’m doing it, I’m charging you for the extra work."

"I’ll pay you after we save the world."

"With interest, I hope."

Mithra laughed and darted forward, her golden sword cutting through a cluster of corrupted tendrils as Melo’s mist drew the larger roots toward a false opening. The two moved together with practiced precision, keeping the western connection clear without damaging the living roots that carried the World Tree’s natural energy.

At the southern approach, Sun and Kong were having a less elegant time of it.

A mass of corrupted roots had gathered beneath the platform, forcing its surface upward as they attempted to reach the central heart. Kong planted his feet and caught the largest root before it could break through, his Fiery Stone Ape form radiating heat as he forced it away from the southern stream.

"Sun! I need that thing off my back!"

Sun swung Long and released a concentrated shockwave through the smaller tendrils. The impact loosened their grip, allowing Kong to wrench the main root aside and slam it against the platform.

"You’re welcome!" Sun declared.

"I haven’t thanked you yet!"

"You’re thinking about it. I can tell."

Kong snorted, but his expression quickly became serious when another root appeared beneath his feet. He shifted his weight, caught it with one hand, and held it away from the southern stream while Sun struck its exposed section. Their combined effort forced the corrupted growth to retreat, preserving the southern connection long enough for Luna to maintain the network’s balance.

"How much longer?" Kong asked.

"Until Arthur finishes!" Sun replied.

"That is not a time!"

"It’s the best time I’ve got!"

Meanwhile, the manifested Arthur and Vedas continued pushing toward the northern connection. Arthur’s future-state synchronization allowed him to perceive the corrupted conduits through the shifting roots, but Ronin was adapting to his movements, changing the network’s arrangement whenever Arthur identified a vulnerable point.

The golden markings across Arthur’s body flickered as Eden struggled to maintain the connection. He could feel the strain building through the synchronization, and every burst of power made the light around his arms grow less stable.

"Eden, how much time do we have?" he called.

The Chrono Fairy’s wings trembled as she fought to keep both connections intact. "Not much! The Mirror network is helping, but maintaining two future states is still more than I can comfortably handle!"

"Then we’ll finish before you have to worry about it!"

"Arthur, that is not how time works!"

"I know! I’m trying to be encouraging!"

"Try being encouraging by finishing faster!"

Even through her exhaustion, Eden’s response brought a brief smile to Arthur’s face. He turned back toward the northern connection, where Vedas was holding the corrupted roots apart with his spear.

"I found the conduit!" Arthur shouted. "It’s wrapped around the central root, but the actual connection is beneath it. I need you to hold the outer layer open!"

Vedas planted his spear and pushed forward, forcing the roots apart with a burst of golden light. "Then make it quick! I can hold this position, but I cannot promise the roots will remain cooperative!"

Arthur focused his perception on the narrow gap. The corrupted conduit pulsed beneath the living root, drawing energy from the northern stream and feeding it back toward Ronin’s core. He could not simply strike through the entire structure, so he adjusted the angle of his mana and followed the conduit to its entry point.

[Sovereign Piercing Light] condensed around his hand, forming a narrow line of golden energy. Arthur waited until the conduit pulsed, exposing the junction for a fraction of a second, then struck.

The purple channel split.

Ronin roared as the connection recoiled toward his chest, and the northern stream surged with golden light. The corrupted roots surrounding the platform convulsed, losing the coordinated movement that had allowed Ronin to control them. Vedas immediately withdrew his spear, preventing the collapsing outer layer from dragging him into the gap.

"Another one!" Vedas shouted. "The northern connection is severed!"

Luna felt the change spread through the Mirror network. The eastern and northern streams were now carrying their natural circulation without the artificial conduits, and the other three connections responded to the restored balance.

"Keep going!" she called. "The network is stabilizing!"

But Ronin was already retaliating.

The purple core in his chest pulsed violently, and the remaining corrupted channels began drawing power from the surrounding roots. He forced the corruption toward the western connection, where Mithra and Melo were still maintaining the opening, while another surge threatened the southern stream.

"He’s trying to overwhelm the remaining connections!" Athena warned.

Athy’s expression tightened as the western stream began to flicker. "If he forces the corruption into all three at once, we won’t be able to keep them stable!"

"Then we don’t let him!" Mithra answered, cutting through a tendril that had slipped past Melo’s mist. "Melo, draw the roots away from the western stream! I’ll keep them from reaching the connection!"

Melo’s tails spread as her dream mist thickened. "I’m doing it! But I can’t keep misleading this many roots forever!"

At the southern approach, Kong and Sun continued holding back the largest threats while Athena and Athy reinforced the chamber. Luna coordinated the five Mirrors, keeping the restored eastern and northern streams synchronized with the remaining three. Their combined efforts prevented Ronin from breaking the network, but the pressure continued to rise.

Arthur looked toward the western, southern, and central connections. Three remained, and the synchronization around his body was beginning to fracture. The golden markings on his arms faded for a moment before Eden forced them to stabilize again.

"Arthur!" Vedas called. "We cannot maintain this pace indefinitely!"

"I know. We finish the remaining connections together!"

The two surged toward the next exposed conduit, moving as a coordinated pair while the supporting cast held the chamber steady. The five Mirrors brightened in response, their resonance spreading through the heart as the remaining corruption began to lose its grip on the natural network.

One by one, the western, southern, and central connections were exposed and severed through the same coordinated effort, with Arthur identifying the artificial conduits and Vedas protecting the openings long enough for the precise strikes. Mithra and Melo kept the western approach clear, Sun and Kong held the southern roots away from the stream, and Athena and Athy maintained the chamber’s stability while Luna guided the resonance through all five Mirrors.

The final connection broke with a sharp pulse of golden light.

All five streams turned gold.

The World Tree’s heart beat once, then again, its light spreading through the chamber without the purple corruption twisting its natural circulation. The corrupted network had been separated from the Tree’s essential roots, and Ronin’s borrowed power collapsed around him.

His body sagged against the remaining roots, and the purple core in his chest dimmed. The overwhelming pressure that had filled the chamber disappeared, leaving only the unstable energy still trapped inside the artificial core.

Sun lowered Long, staring at the restored streams. "Please tell me that means we’ve won."

"No," Arthur replied, his eyes fixed on Ronin. "It means we’ve taken away most of the power he was borrowing."

Kong exhaled heavily. "I’ll accept that as progress."

Vedas stood beside Arthur, his manifested armor flickering as Eden’s synchronization approached its limit. "The connections are severed, but Ronin is still embedded in the heart."

Across the chamber, Ronin slowly raised his head. The corruption no longer flowed freely through the World Tree, yet the artificial core remained lodged within him, and the roots still held his body in place.

Arthur tightened his grip.

They had separated the corruption from the Tree’s natural circulation.

Now they had to separate Ronin from the heart itself.