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"So, it was just a misunderstanding. For now, let's deal with the real bad guys first. The forest is crying—sounds really serious." Lumine didn't dwell on it any further.
"That's right. If the forest keeps getting sick, in the end a super huge Marana will appear and suck away all life. All the flowers will wither, and all the leaves will fall off!"
"We're here to help."
"Thank you, but Marana is very scary. Bad things will happen to the Nara." Ararycan offered a well-meaning warning.
Arana shook its head. "Nara Victor has defeated a super huge Marana before. And there's also the golden Nara, just like the legendary Nara Varuna. It feels very reliable."
"Alright then. Ararycan can probably sense where the 'illness' is. It's over by Big Iron Mountain."
"Big Iron Mountain? You mean that super huge Ruin Guard over there?"
Paimon looked toward the Ruin Golem whose presence was impossible to ignore.
Because of their size, even ordinary adults would be described by the Aranara as very tall. A Ruin Guard that was several times taller than an average person was already unimaginably huge to them—but this so-called 'Big Iron Mountain' was no exaggeration at all.
That Ruin Golem sat quietly collapsed among the mountains, like a person who had found a barely shaded corner to sit down and rest.
If it decided it didn't want to rest anymore, stood up, and started walking, just a few strides would be enough to cross Devantaka Mountain and reach Vimara Village. At that point, the entire village would be swallowed by its shadow.
Jog a little farther north, and it could reach Sumeru City. That sacred tree supporting half the city would only be about a person's height to it—maybe if it stretched out its arms, it could wrap the tree in an embrace.
That was just how enormous it was.
When Victor Wang first saw it, even he couldn't help but marvel once again at the advanced industry and overwhelming technology of Khaenri'ah.
"Ararycan doesn't know about Ruin Guards, but if it's Big Iron Mountain, then it means that one."
"A Ruin Guard this big but without a core… it feels like it would attract a lot of bad people…" Lumine frowned slightly, sensing something amiss.
"Bad Nara, don't know. Inside Big Iron Mountain, there is a very strange Nara. Ararycan will take you to find him."
After the group circled around and entered the mountain that the Ruin Golem was leaning against, they discovered that the 'strange person' Ararycan mentioned was actually a scholar from the Akademiya.
The scholar's name was Jazari. He had been researching the Ruin Golem here for some time. By chance, he knew the location of the Golem's core and had detected energy leakage from it—but the path leading to the core had been blocked by someone.
Jazari wanted to conduct his research, the Aranara wanted to deal with the pollution, and so naturally, everyone needed to find a way to activate the Ruin Golem and use its power to open the passage.
To activate the Ruin Golem, they first needed to open the cockpit. To open the cockpit, they had to go to Port Ormos to buy a key from an antique dealer called Royinjan.
Sure enough, the key had been lost. And to find the key, they had to head to Vimara Village…
It was an entirely familiar routine.
Running around with everyone, Victor Wang let out a helpless smile in his heart.
"Victor, put on your cloak hood, quick!"
"What is it?"
"Just put it on first."
Under Paimon's insistent urging, even though he was confused, Victor Wang still put on the hood.
Before being cleansed by Anemo, he had been used to the sense of security that came from being fully covered. But after that, he had barely worn this cloak hood at all.
"It really looks alike! Too bad there's a pattern on your cloak."
"What?"
"Look, look! There's a black-cloaked person on that boat over there! See, he's looking this way too. He must've noticed your cloak!"
Following Paimon's pointed gaze, Victor Wang finally saw it this time. A boat was moored along the riverbank—it was the Mirrormaster's boat. The Mirrormaster stood at the bow, and the gaze hidden beneath his cloak seemed more like it was fixed on Lumine and Paimon.
Victor Wang considered his relationship with the South Wing to be extremely bad—the kind of enmity that went all the way to the bone.
Although the Mirrormaster didn't care much about ordinary people, he clearly protected his companions. After all, they all served the Heavenly Principles. Night Spring and Celestial Moon were likely formidable elites among them.
Victor Wang didn't know what the Mirrormaster intended to do to him. He was said to possess the ability to wipe out all of The Doctor's segments in Sumeru, and the key point was that The Doctor actually believed it. If they fought at full strength, his current self probably wouldn't be his match. Still, while death would be troublesome, he wasn't that afraid of it.
The boat they were riding continued toward Vimara Village. The Mirrormaster's boat gradually fell behind, and both sides withdrew their gazes.
After that, no further incidents occurred. Everyone successfully found the key to open the Ruin Golem's cockpit, successfully activated one of its arms to smash open the passage to the core, and successfully thwarted the Abyss Order's plan to retrieve the energy within the Golem's core.
After conveying Araja's wish to reunite, and bidding farewell to Arana and Ararycan, Victor Wang and the other two headed for their next destination.
The third stop was the Ashavan Realm. Here lay the 'Ashvattha' left behind by Nara Varuna.
"Ashvattha is something Nara Varuna left behind. It's about as powerful as Varuna's mechanisms. It can gather elements and nutrients to nourish the forest. Very, very amazing."
Aranakin explained.
"But after many, many moons passed, Marana swallowed Ashvattha from the moon's shadow. The walking Fungi aren't afraid of Marana and followed it here too. Ashvattha is in great pain. We need to heal it quickly."
Paimon replied with practiced ease, "We're here to help."
Aragaru nodded, then shook his head. "You are good Nara. But only after injecting the elixir 'Arahaoma' into 'Jamikayomars' will Jamikayomars open the path leading to Ashvattha."
"Arahaoma?"
This time, Aranaga explained:
"The elixir Arahaoma is the essence of memory. It carries our memories and the vital force of our lives.
To prepare Arahaoma, three kinds of plants are needed: 'Yajna Grass,' and its companions, 'Barsam Flower' and 'Zohrah Mushroom.'
Under the moonlight, precious memories must be refined from them for the elixir to be complete.
Once Arahaoma is offered, Jamikayomars will awaken. Then our 'memories' will flow out and circulate through the forest, and Ashvattha can be saved."
Although the word order was somewhat jumbled, Lumine still realized something—creating Arahaoma seemed to require not only three plants, but also three Aranara to offer up their memories.
She looked at Victor Wang with a questioning gaze and found him letting out a sigh.
Precisely because of Ashvattha's special nature, merely reaching that place required an enormous price. That was why Arana had sought out Victor Wang, who could determine whether a place contained a Withering without needing to get too close. But now Ashvattha was already in such pain that even the outside world could sense it—there was no longer any need to determine it. What was needed was to eliminate the Withering.
To eradicate the Withering within Ashvattha, the sacrifices of Aranakin, Aragaru, and Aranaga were unavoidable.
Only Paimon remained completely unaware, even after the elixir Arahaoma had been fully prepared.
"Tell us the memories you want to leave behind. I have a very good memory—no matter how many moons pass, I'll remember everything perfectly. After that, we'll return those memories to you."
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