Damned Healer

After that movement in the chains, everything went silent again. Darian took a deep breath, then turned to Niara, who nodded in confirmation. After that, he turned to the others.

"Let’s fly up there and take a look."

This time, no one hesitated. That was clearly something really important. They’d felt the power of Spiritual Guardians with multiple rings. If they could save them, it would be a huge gain for the universe.

Niara opened her wings and quickly flew upward. As she got close to the scarlet chains, she stopped. Darian focused on them and realized it was an enormous inscription connected to multiple places across that planet.

Everyone felt an overwhelming danger coming from the chains. If they touched them or tried to pull the bodies out... something terrible would happen.

"I feel wood energy flowing," Rion noticed right away.

Ariu added, "It’s coming from outside... being carried through the chains and... going straight to the bodies."

Darian nodded. He could sense a flow but hadn’t figured out what it was. Now it was clear what that forest was for. It was like a small greenhouse, artificially maintained for a specific purpose.

Those trees and plants, even surrounded by miasma, had survived and adapted—probably with external help. They produced wood energy, something created by nature races, with very valuable healing properties.

That power from the natural races stimulated life energies, helping with regeneration. But finding a high concentration of it was extremely rare.

That was what was keeping those Spiritual Guardians alive.