Chapter 45

"Umm, okay!" Spark responded immediately and levelled her arm with the glass. The world darkened and came to light again, revealing the unaffected window. "Ummm—" She groaned loudly before releasing an awkward laugh.

"This whole section must be stabilized against gravitational fluctuations," Mek-Tek mused as he transcribed runes in the air. "Most likely to maintain the structural integrity of the engine's protective shell."

Mek-Tek aimed at the glass with an outstretched hand and fired a pea from his palm. Thread-like roots stretched to the four corners, impacting the window before tracing the perimeter.

"Try once more." Mek-Tek chirped, and Spark obeyed.

The room darkened again, and then the light returned, revealing an opening to the cavern beyond.

"What? How'd that work?" Gazeas asked.

"I destabilized the glass with just a little of our organics. The singularity tugged the plants, thus tugging the glass out of place."

"Fascinating," Haledon responded, looking to Witch-Hazel, who had already hoisted themself through the portal and disappeared beneath. "Witch-Hazel?"

Peering over the edge, Haledon could see Witch-Hazel twenty feet below, quickly inspecting the space around their landing. Without hesitation, Haledon followed, landing hard on the ground but keeping his footing. Gazeas and Spark, wielding Mek-Tek, followed closely behind, landing with an elegant surefootedness.

"Where to?" Spark asked as she scanned her surroundings.

"Towards the engine," Witch-Hazel answered as they began to run. "Let's migrate, Asteraceae."

The Guild raced across the obsidian-metal floor, dodging the pale pink glowing crystalline trees that towered twice Haledon's height. As lightning struck one of the nearby spires, it illuminated the space and sent a high-pitched ring through the air. The electrified blue of the tree acted as a beacon, allowing Haledon to see much farther than before. And, for a second, he thought he saw something stalking the Guild.

"Mecharrion," Haledon said. "I think."

"We're on a Mecharrion ship." Mek-Tek chirped. "So I bet it's a Mecharrion."

"He knows that." Gazeas cut in. "He was trying—"

"Shh," Witch-Hazel hissed from the front of the group. "Stay quiet unless you can actually see something."

They continued in silence, the Astralaceaes Druids struggling to keep up with the Earth Druids who had gained their stride in the open expanse. Several minutes into their run, the distant chirps and metallic whines of Mecharrion began to echo through the chamber.

"They're through," Spark whispered. "Witch-Hazel."

Haledon swung his head around, looking in the direction the Guild had fled. The faint pink glow of the trees appeared to be dimmed by the oppressive and unnatural darkness of the room. There, Haledon thought he saw movement once more. A slender figure that was fast and low to the ground.

"Something is here." Haledon insisted, turning to the group.

"This spot will have to do then," Witch-Hazel grunted as they stopped and tossed the oversized acorn to Spark and Mek-Tek. "Mek-Tek, prime the bomb."

"Just need a second." Mek-Tek insisted as he crawled down Spark's shoulders to her hands.

Haledon watched as the Druid twisted the acorn's cap, revealing the glowing crystal concealed within. The light soon filled the vicinity, giving Haledon better visibility through the darkness, which he took advantage of to scan once more.

"Once the bomb is armed, we're on a time limit." Haledon listened to Mek-Tek explain. "Each of us needs to convert our bodies to compost as quickly as possible. The more plant material around the explosion, the bigger the boom, got it?"

"Why is that?" Gazeas asked.

"Mecharrion developed these things for organics. Even the tiniest seed results in a large explosion." Mek-Tek finished as he held his breath. Haledon suddenly heard a twig snap, followed by a low whining.

"What was that sound?" An alert Haledon turned back to Mek-Tek.

"The weapon arming," Mek-Tek responded with an exhale before looking to the Guild. "Okay, now for the ritual, recite 'Vita intereo recro humus' and transcribe the runes of open, waves, fractal, closed. Then touch—"

Mek-Tek's body exploded into a spray of compost before his hand could touch the churning crystalline structure. Spark released a shriek as she swung her body around, firing her Mecharrion cannon in the direction of the shot.

Turning to follow her, Haledon saw the slender creature he had seen before. It quickly coiled itself like a metallic snake up a distant crystal tree and stared at them through avian-like eyes. He watched as the snake's tail flared, revealing a dozen metallic peacock feathers. A single red crystal glowed at the top of each blade before winking into darkness. Spark screamed in pain behind Haledon, and he heard Gazeas rushing to help her.

Haledon watched as the snake slithered down the tree and into the darkness. He tracked it as it climbed another crystal and flared its tail's plumage again. The eyespots began to glow.

Instinctively, Haledon muttered in Druidic and raised his hands. Plants flowed from his body, creating a thick burl that erupted into compost. The blast of splinters and leaves sprayed against his face, causing him to step back.

"Everyone, on the bomb," Witch-Hazel called out, their hands twisting and beginning to mumble Druidic. Touching the bomb, they arched their back, and their body transformed. "This is it. See you back at the Astra."

Haledon watched as Witch-Hazel's form expanded around the Druids. Their face disappeared as they transformed into a thick bark sphere encircling the Guild. The mumbling from Spark intensified as Haledon turned around. He watched as she touched the crystal, and her body transformed into a thick, bramble barrier that twisted and merged into the form that had once been Witch-Hazel.

Beyond the wall, a Mecharrion's shriek pierced the barrier and sent a chill through Haledon. He looked to Gazeas, who stared at him with a weak and worried look. Her glossy foliage showed signs of a nutrient deficiency, with visible gaps between her brambles.

"Ready?" She asked as a heavy claw cut through the protective burl, and the ruby eyes of a Mekanaut looked in.

Both Druids frantically began to recite their chants as their hands signed the proper runes. Gazeas touched the crystal first, her body transforming into vines that filled the space, leaving Haledon and the Mecharrion.

Finishing the final runes, Haledon placed his hand on the crystal, but nothing happened. His heart dropped as his mind raced to discover the problem. In his panicked preparation, he had missed a step and would need to begin again.

The Mecharrion's whine echoed as the burl instantly filled with a cloud of biocide. Haledon coughed and gasped against the vapour as it stung his body and brought him to his knees. Around him, the plants wilted, transforming into an inorganic black goo that puddled onto the floor. Haledon could feel his form weakening, the bramble losing its integrity and conscious tether.

Looking up, a lightning flash revealed the horde of bipedal Mecharrion, multilimbed Mekanauts and the slithering serpentine-like peacocks surrounding him in the dark.

Taking a deep breath, Haledon found the energy to try to chant one final time. He closed his eyes and felt the world around him in silent observation. Touching his hands to the cold floor, he experienced something strange. An unusual connection that reminded him of the fungi within his Arctic stone caves a lifetime ago.

He muttered in Druidic, remembering what Witch-Hazel had last taught him, and dug his hands into the metal. There, he could sense the resources of the ship. It wasn't the nutrients of the Astralaceae but the metal and electric charge of the Comet.

He thought quickly, fighting his mind as it tried to return to his body from the failing bramble. Reaching his arm deeper, he connected with the ship's resources, using them to catch and store the energy back into his bramble. And like that first shock but amplified, he felt an electric surge pulse through him, unlike any nutrient Gazeas had ever given him.

“Rhizomatous fractalis abstergo ferrum sphagnum tessalae.” Haledon screamed out with a burst of energy.

He observed as moss grew around him—not from his body but from the metal itself. He could sense the moss expanding, retreating, and accepting feedback as it evolved and chewed away at the inorganic surface, converting it to a thick living mat. The Mecharrion cried and shrieked as they began to claw at their limbs.

Haledon slammed his hands to the ground, yelling once more in Druidic, his mind focusing on the yield he hoped to achieve. The cries became frantic, and Haledon tried to adjust his damaged bramble to observe the world around him. He watched as the creatures became overwhelmed with moss, their forms consumed and frozen in statuesque positions.

The wave of green extended out from Haledon, decomposing the metal for nutrients and converting it into moss. A living wall climbed the crystals, covering them and forming branches that crept higher and higher. As lightning struck one of the trees, Haledon watched the plants race along the arc of electricity in the blink of an eye, bridging the gap to the engine and tethering the crystals with the core in a single long vine of lichen.

As Haledon's vision finally began to fade, he could see bioluminescent pollen drifting from the moss, revealing a sea of Mecharrion trapped in their organic form. He could feel the flow of Nature now spreading through the heart of the Comet, and even as his body failed, he could sense the moss continuing to consume their world faster.

Muttering the final words in Druidic, he touched the crystal, and his eyes opened in the Hypogeal Nexus.

The world was filled with screams of pain and cries of terror. Quickly inspecting the room, Haledon could see the Primevals still deep in a trance around the central trunk as wounded Astralaceaes Druids had begun to fill the remaining space. Red sap poured from their SOIL as vines attempted to crawl over and seal the wounds.

"What's happening?" Haledon asked.

"Wounded have been flooding into the Nexus," Gazeas replied as she tended a nearby Druid. "You took a while."

"Something happened—"

"Haledon, you've returned. Good." Sparrow interrupted as she flew in front of him. "Mesa has lined up the Astra, and we're on for our final seeding. The Guild must head down to the Nucleus to aid Birchbark with navigational pattern recognition."

Haledon looked around the room, noticing Mek-Tek and Spark approaching as Witch-Hazel gathered Gazeas. He looked over the Druids that crowded the floral room, and, for a moment, he remembered the first time he entered the Nexus as a Pioneer. Observing passing memories of bare walls, wooden benches and broken nutrient lines at the center of the Astralaceaes, he admired that it looked nothing like it did today. And for the first time in what felt like a lifetime, he thought of Farran and his parting words.

With a deep breath, Haledon felt a sense of calm. It was not the forced calm from Gazeas' vines but a sense of peace that can only come from surviving.

"Okay," Haledon said, turning his head towards Sparrow with a hopeful glint in his eye. "Thank you."

Haledon placed a hand on Sparrow’s left shoulder. Examining her gaze, he gave her a nod and looked back to his Guild, who watched him expectantly.

Stepping away, he tumbled down the nutrient tree and into the Nucleus. Without hesitation, he crossed the room and walked through the trunk onto the raised platform. The shield covered his eyes, revealing a sea of stars stretching from the floor to the ceiling and exposing the carnage drifting in the void. Haledon inspected the destroyed Astralaceaes and Megacolides that travelled behind the spherical walnut and withered husks that made up the lone surviving seed. The last Megacolides squirmed towards the Comet with fervour, pushing the remnants of the withered Astralaceaes in front of it.

"You are aligned," Haledon heard Mesa's voice announce. "Releasing bite now."

Haledon watched as the worm's massive form pulled away from the Astralaceaes, tearing with it the remnants of the final pod. With a forced oscillation, it moved quickly into position beside the Astra.

"Nature guides you, Astralaceaes," Mesa finished.

"Thank you," Witch-Hazel said softly from the other side of the room. "Mesa, Render of Steel Mountains and Emergent of the Carnyx."

A sudden flash of light, flame, and metal exploded from the Comet's arm as the bomb detonated. Haledon watched bipolar jets of shredded matter erupt from the polyhedron, spraying out every wavelength of the electromagnetic spectrum at once in a concentrated burst. Around the protective shell, the metal form started to fold in on itself as the sea of metal flowed back into the titanic fissures that had begun to form.

"Gravitational Anomaly," Witch-Hazel announced with a subtle echo of Birchbark in their voice. Adjusting their hands, they revealed a silver foam that drifted through the sea of stars. It swirled and flowed, attracted by gravity, revealing their optimal path into the black hole.

"I see it," Haledon responded, the voice of Birchbark echoing every word in the back of his mind. He felt that their minds were one, experiencing everything in unity.

The front pods of the Astralaceaes began to stretch as the gravity distorted his perception of reality. Simultaneously, Haledon felt the Astralaceaes pods ripping from his core. The ship groaned against the gravitational tug, and he could sense the unprotected pods being torn apart.

"Incoming!" Mek-Tek and Birchbark yelled as one of the tentacles of the Comet lashed against the hull.

Haledon felt the ship rock against the impact before hitting the side of the Megacolides. The worm began to veer off as the Astralaceae continued on course.

"Everyone, concentrate," Witch-Hazel ordered as they looked to the Guild. "We're guiding this seed home."

"Home?" Haledon asked as he suddenly felt the pull of gravity taking hold of the shell, ripping it forward in an uncontrolled dive toward the edge of the Mecharrion engine.

A hand slipped into Haledon's, lacing fingers with his and growing flowers to bind their wrists. Looking over, he stared at the nervous face of Gazeas as she gave him a slow, insecure blink.

"We're going to be okay, I promise." He returned with his hopeful blink as he tightened his grip on her hand. He looked forward and spoke loud enough for everyone to hear. "We're all going to be okay."

"Passing the event horizon in three, two, one..." Mek-Tek and Birchbark's said as one.

The thick shell crashed through the tear in the Mecharrion hull, scraping past the jagged metal and sea of living cogs. The gravity, like a riptide, had no problem overwhelming the Astralaceae and pulled it the rest of the way, consuming it in darkness.