The twin stars at the top of the Sacred Tree were particularly bright in the pre-dawn hours, and the Blue Scale Grass of the Lake of Moon Tears spontaneously wove itself into a ladder that stretched from the surface of the lake to the altar at the crown of the tree.Lin Xing wore the plain white gown of elven royalty, with a starry maple leaf woven by Silverleaf's own hand in her hair, while Silverleaf wore for the first time in her silver hair a fine gold ring forged by a human artisan - a token fused by her father from the old armor of the royal close guards.
"The ritual requires the full resonance of your minds."The Elder placed the remnants of the Primordial Pages in the center of the altar, where the tree's root veins were slowly glowing in time with their heartbeats, "The final form of the Starleaf Pact is to allow the Sacred Tree to connect the entire continent to the network of life - but the resonance of the World Tree will only be opened when the bonds between humans and elves are unreserved."
Silverleaf's fingertips passed through Lin Xing's fingers, and the Star Leaf imprint on her palm overlapped completely with hers.The altar suddenly rose in a golden mist of light, and they saw the outline of the continent emerge in the mist of light: the gears of the human royal city began to turn counterclockwise, the forests eroded by the black mist re-sprouted their green shoots, and even the snow fox clans far in the far north were sending out placid howls in the direction of the Sacred Tree.
"So this is the power of the World Tree ...," Lin Xing whispered, and suddenly felt a stabbing pain in his fingertips.The ground beneath the altar cracked, and a giant figure made of bronze and black mist broke through the ground - it was the "Eclipse Star Mecha" piloted by the king, with complete boundary fragments embedded in its joints, and the mechanical wings spread out behind it were covered with star-leaf shaped gun ports.
"A resonance ritual?What a touchingly stupid act."The King's voice came from within the mech, but it was much raspier than before, "When you connect to the World Tree, I will be able to drain all of the Sacred Tree's spiritual energy through the shards-including your father's, and including Tsukuri's!"
The mech's guns spewed out black tongues of fire, and the Sacred Tree Boundary rippled from the impact.Silverleaf's staff quickly grew defensive vines, only to be strangled by the gears as it touched the mech's wings.Lin Xing saw that in the cockpit of the mech's chest, the king was holding an enchanted arrow against his father's heart, and in his palm, the pale gold seal was fighting against the black mist from the mouth of the Star Leaf's cannon.
"He's in pain!"Lin Xing suddenly grabbed Silverleaf's hand and pressed his palm to his brow, "The man under the mechanical armor is actually being revolted by the boundary fragments - just like when the first king was being eroded by the resentful soul!"The golden light of the Star Leaf Seal transformed into transparent threads and seeped into the seams of the mech armor, and she "saw" the king's memories: three hundred years ago, he had watched his brother turn into a monster because of his pursuit of pureblood power, but he himself had to put on a bronze mask to inherit this twisted hatred.
"So you're the real Leon offspring ..." Silverleaf's staff suddenly paused, he saw the walls inside the mech, densely engraved with the name of "Yue Li,""You're not trying to destroy the Sacred Tree, you're trying to free your brother's soul from the Spiteful Soul Curse!"
The king's hand trembled violently, and the enchanted arrow fell to the ground with a crash.The black mist from the fragments took the opportunity to pour into his pupils, and his mechanical wings suddenly spun faster, the star leaf cannon aimed at the altar of the Sacred Tree: "Shut up!The concept of pureblood supremacy cannot be shaken-"
Lin Xing had no time to think and directly pounced on the energy core of the mech.The moment the Star Leaf Seal touched the boundary fragment, the entire Sacred Tree let out a ground-shaking chirp.Her consciousness suddenly fell into a flood of memories: the first generation Contractor Leon injected his soul into the fragment on his deathbed in the hope of guarding the Star Leaf power left behind by Aisha, but it was misinterpreted as a curse by the later kings.
"Lord Leon ..." she whispered deep in her consciousness, "True guardianship is not perpetuated by hatred, but by allowing the light to be reborn."The shard suddenly erupted with pure golden light, merging with her Star Leaf imprint to form a new symbiotic core in the mech's chest - half cog, half vine, with an interlocking Star Leaf pattern suspended in the center.
"Impossible... shards are repairing themselves?"The King looked at the black fog that had suddenly gone out in the cockpit, and realized that the imprint in his palm was resonating with Forest Star's, "Is this what Tsukuri meant when she said 'Star Leaves need each other'?"
Silverleaf took the opportunity to use his staff to connect to the resonance network of the World Tree, and the natural power of the entire continent began to converge towards the Sacred Tree: the water of the Moon Tear Lake condensed into ice crystal arrows, the winds of the desert rolled up a shield of golden sand, and even in the gardens of the human king's city, the elven fluorescent butterflies that had been in captivity for years took wing and flew in to illuminate the mecha's joints with phosphorous powder.
"It's time to end."Lin Xing held the king's hand, the golden light of the shards simultaneously surging into his heart, "Look at the name you carved on the wall - Yue Li never blamed you, she just wanted you to see that there is another legacy beyond hatred."
The king suddenly cried out in pain, and his mechanical armor disintegrated in response.He knelt in front of the sacred tree, looking at the same mark on his palm that was identical to Lin Xing's, and finally said the words he hadn't said three hundred years ago, "Back then, when my brother was devoured by the spirit of resentment, I should have been guarding the sacred tree with Yue Li ... but instead I chose to wear this mask..."
The golden light of the altar reached its zenith at this point, and the outline of the World Tree manifested itself in the clouds.Each leaf reflected the face of a different race: human children sharing fruit with elf fawns, human guards bandaging the wounds of injured elves, and even the snow foxes of the far north guiding the direction of lost human travelers.
"This is the power of empathy."The Elder trembled and knelt, "The Starleaf Pact is not a key, it is a bridge - a bridge that allows all beings to hear each other's heartbeats."
Silverleaf gently picked up the exhausted Lin Xing and realized that the starlight maple leaf in her hair had somehow become solid, with the king's tears of remorse still condensed on the blade."Does it hurt?"He asked softly, running his fingertips across the fine sweat on her forehead.She smiled and shook her head, looking over at the dissipating mechanical wreckage, "You see, gears and vines can be symbiotic too."
At dusk, the hole in the root of the Sacred Tree opened up a direct star track passage to the human king's city.The king removed the bronze mask he had worn for three hundred years, revealing a face similar to Leon's but much gentler, and personally escorted his father back to the elven village.When his feet stepped on the Blue Scale Grass of the Moon Tear Lake, those plants that had withered due to the black mist actually took the initiative to bloom with a welcoming luminescence.
"In fact, I should have realized a long time ago," the king looked at the reflection of himself and Silverleaf in the lake's water, "Moonlily's dying words, 'Starleaf needs both sunlight and shadow,' were not meant to be antagonistic, but rather to... "He looked towards Lin Xing who was treating the injured fluorescent butterfly, "The junction of light and shadow is where life flourishes the most."
Late at night, Silverleaf came to the altar alone and looked at the shadow cast by the World Tree in the starry sky.Yue Li's vision quietly surfaced, this time holding a real Starlight Maple Leaf in her hands, "Silverleaf, look, the light of the Starlight Leaf has finally illuminated a thousand years of misunderstanding."He nodded, his fingertips brushing over the imprint on his chest that overlapped with Forest Star, "Because we learned that more important than guarding-"
"Is to grow together."Lin Xing's voice came from behind her as she tucked the human hand warmer into Silverleaf's cool palm, "Like you taught me, to listen with my heart, not fear with my eyes."
The World Tree's Wheel of the Year chimed brightly at that moment, and the life energy of the entire continent poured into the Sacred Tree along the star trails.Silverleaf suddenly lowered his head, and under the cover of the starlit maple leaves, gently kissed Lin Xing's fingertips, "This time, it's my turn to hear your heartbeat - it's warmer than any sound of nature."
The blue scale grass at the bottom of the lake suddenly turned to them en masse, and words made up of fluorescent light flickered on the surface of the water, "The love song of the star and the leaf is never a one-way street - it is the dance of light and shadow, two souls that have finally found their way back to each other in the root vein of the World Tree."
When the first ray of morning light pierced through the clouds, the two stars at the top of the sacred tree completely fused, forming a brand new star and leaf pattern - that is, the stars were embedded in the center of the leaf veins, and the edges of the leaves were surrounded by starlight, just like the two people who were embracing each other tightly at the moment, after experiencing fear, misunderstanding and sacrifice, they finally let the different rays of light, in the same branch, blossomed out the most touching symbioticThe beauty of symbiosis.
And in a corner of the continent, the giant wolf that had been eroded by the black fog was lying quietly outside the human village, watching the villagers use the branches of the sacred tree to mend the fence that had been destroyed by the war.When it saw a human child reaching out to it, it didn't hide, but instead gently pressed the tip of its nose against the warm palm - just like what the Star Leaf Pact had long ago taught the entire world, true strength is never about confrontation, but about learning to let different heartbeats resonate the melody of peace under the same sky.