Episode-925
Chapter : 1849
The crushing pressure of the demonic vines had reached a critical threshold. Suspended ten feet in the air, encased in the matte-black armor of the Aegis Suit, Lloyd Ferrum was no longer fighting a physical battle; he was fighting a mathematical one. The warning alarms inside his helmet were screaming, a cacophony of red lights and digital chimes that warned of imminent structural collapse.
[Alert: External Pressure at 9,000 PSI. Shield Integrity Critical.]
[Warning: Biological Siphon Active. Mana Reserves Depleting at 15% per second.]
Lloyd’s vision blurred at the edges. It wasn't just pain; it was the literal extraction of his vitality. The "Blood Array" beneath the city wasn't just drinking his magic; it was pulling at the threads of his life force. He felt cold, a deep, marrow-freezing chill that no amount of thermal regulation could fix. He didn't waste a single second re-analyzing the trap. He already knew the physics: the city was a vacuum, and he was the high-pressure gas being sucked into it. He knew that using his "Steel Blood" would only turn him into a lightning rod for the drain.
Below him, Ben was fighting his own losing battle. The Ironwood Sovereign was pinned under a mountain of writhing purple flesh. But Ben wasn't screaming. He wasn't begging.
"Spirit: Sloth," Ben rasped, his voice barely audible over the tearing sound of the vines. "Stasis... Field... Self."
Ben wasn't trying to break free anymore. He knew he couldn't overpower the drain. So, he did the only thing a master tactician could do in a hopeless situation: he hit the pause button. A sphere of grey, heavy light expanded around Ben’s body. It didn't push the vines away, but it froze the time within his own cells. He put himself into a magical coma, slowing his metabolism and his mana output to absolute zero. He became a rock. The vines clawed at him, but they couldn't drink from a stone.
"Stubborn bastard," Lloyd grunted, impressed despite the agony. "He bought me time. Now I have to use it."
There was only one card left to play. It was a dangerous, forbidden card that he had kept locked away in the deepest, darkest corner of his System Inventory.
"System," Lloyd’s voice was a strained rasp, amplified by the neural link. "Initiate the 'Parasitic Overwrite.' Force-kill the Ferrum Bloodline active circuits immediately. I don't want a drop of iron in my marrow for the next ten minutes."
The System Administrator’s cold, genderless voice echoed in his skull, sounding hesitant for the first time.
[Warning: Forced termination of the Ferrum Bloodline will cause immediate biological shock. The host’s cellular structure is currently reinforced by heavy metals. Removing this reinforcement while under pressure may result in skeletal fracture. Nervous system integrity will drop to 40%. Do you wish to proceed?]
"Proceed," Lloyd grunted, tasting copper in his mouth. "Do it now, or we become fertilizer."
[Acknowledge. Unlocking Void Wood Protocol. Disengaging Iron Will.]
Lloyd felt a sickening snap deep inside his bones. It felt as if his very DNA was being unspooled and re-wound by a careless hand. The cold, metallic comfort of his "Steel Blood"—the power that had defined him, protected him, and made him a Sovereign—vanished instantly. It was replaced by a hollow, agonizing emptiness. His body felt like a house with the foundation ripped out. For a split second, he was just a normal human being crushed by a monster.
But in that vacuum, he invited the Void.
He triggered the [Void Wood: Life-Eater Protocol].
This was not a benevolent nature spirit. This was a power he had purchased and refined during his year of preparation in the Soul Farm, a biological "black box" designed to counter the Abyss's own parasitic nature. It was not a plant; it was a conceptual predator that existed to consume entropy.
The pain was unlike anything he had felt in two lifetimes. It wasn't the clean, sharp sting of a sword; it was the feeling of thousands of tiny, dull needles growing from the inside of his bone marrow outward. The grey, petrified wood didn't care about his skin or his expensive suit. It forced its way through his pores, tearing through the inner lining of the Aegis Suit’s gauntlets.
"Argh..." Lloyd let out a low, guttural groan as thick, gnarled roots erupted from his forearms.
Chapter : 1850
They were the color of a dead moon—a dull, lifeless grey. They didn't grow toward the light; they twitched and thrashed, seeking the highest concentration of mana like a shark seeking blood. They wrapped around Lloyd’s own arms, tightening like tourniquets, pulsing with a hunger that threatened to consume Lloyd’s own mind if he lost focus for even a second.
"Calibration check," Lloyd muttered, his teeth gritted so hard they threatened to shatter.
He activated his [All-Seeing Eye]. The world turned into a blue grid. He looked at the grey roots writhing on his arms. He had to program them in real-time. He visualized the wood not as a tree, but as a series of biological logic gates. He had to write a code that told the parasite what to eat, so it didn't eat him.
If (Mana Frequency == Demonic), then (Consume).
If (Target == Ben), then (Filter/Protect).
If (Feedback == Toxic), then (Reroute to Spirit Core).
If (Source == Host), then (DORMANT).
He was coding his own survival while being crushed. The grey roots began to vibrate, emitting a low-frequency hum that caused the purple demonic vines to shiver. Lloyd wasn't just using a new element; he was performing a "System Reformat" on his own soul. He forced the grey roots to bypass his human nervous system, plugging them directly into the Golem Heart of Anubis that powered his suit to use as a regulator.
"Input accepted," Lloyd whispered, his eyes glowing with a dull, predatory grey light. "Now... let's see who has the higher suction power."
He drove the roots forward. They didn't strike like spears; they burrowed like maggots. The tips of the Void Wood were covered in microscopic, rotating teeth that ignored the demonic vines' armor. They plunged into the wet, purple flesh of the plants, seeking the central sap-vein.
Thwack. Thwack. Squelch.
Dozens of grey roots buried themselves into the vine that was holding Lloyd. They clamped on tight, sealing the connection. Lloyd was now physically plugged into the trap.
The moment the connection was made, the "Blood Array" underground felt the intrusion. The city’s trap tried to increase its suction, trying to pull the "wood" into its maw. The trap thought it had found a new, tasty source of fuel. It pulled harder, trying to drag Lloyd’s soul down into the earth.
"Big mistake," Lloyd said, a savage, sarcastic smirk appearing on his face despite the blood trickling from his nose. "You just plugged a high-speed drain into a black hole."
He closed his eyes and flipped the switch in his mind. He didn't push back; he pulled. He opened the floodgates of the Void Wood’s hunger.
The reversal of the energy flow was so violent that the air around Lloyd literally cracked. The sound was like a thunderclap trapped in a small room—a sharp, booming implosion that shook the dust from the buildings surrounding the square. The "Blood Array" beneath Gator City, which had been designed as a one-way street for mana, suddenly found its valves forced open in the opposite direction.
Lloyd initiated the [Hostile Takeover].
Using the Void Wood as a high-speed data cable, he didn't just take his mana back; he "hacked" the city’s energy grid. Through his All-Seeing Eye, he saw the red lines of the Blood Array flickering. He began to dump "Void Noise"—stagnant, unusable, heavy energy—into the city’s circuits while pulling the refined, concentrated demonic mana into himself.
It was a dirty, brutal tactic. He was polluting their system while drinking their fuel.
"Iffrit! Fang!" Lloyd roared in his mind, his mental voice booming through his inner world. "Open the filters! I’m bringing in the trash, and I need you to burn it into usable fuel! Don't let the corruption touch the core!"
Inside his soul, the two Transcended Spirits reacted instantly. Iffrit, the Demon King of Annihilation, roared with delight. He manifested in the center of Lloyd’s core, acting as a massive, spiritual furnace. As the black, oily demonic mana was sucked in by the Void Wood, it passed through Iffrit’s flames. The "evil"—the madness and the corruption of the Abyss—was burned away, leaving behind raw, purified energy.
Fang Fairy acted as the stabilizer. Her blue lightning arced through the flood of power, weaving a net of electricity that ensured the influx didn't cause Lloyd’s heart to explode from the pressure. She howled, running circles around the core, converting the raw power into speed and reflex.
The visual impact on Gator City was catastrophic.