Chapter 7: The Heart of the Matter
The pulsing blue light grew stronger, casting long, dancing shadows down the root-walled tunnel. The air hummed with a tangible energy that raised the hairs on Alistair's arms. It was the same feeling as his Admin powers, but magnified a thousandfold—raw, untamed, and ancient.
They moved forward with heightened caution, the bodies of the Root Grinders a stark reminder of the cavern's guardians. The tunnel opened abruptly into a vast, breathtaking chamber.
It was a cathedral carved by nature. The ceiling soared overhead, held aloft by the great tree's colossal taproot, which descended through the center of the space like a pillar holding up the sky. And at the base of that root, in the center of the chamber, was the source of the light.
A nexus of glowing blue energy swirled and pulsed, a miniature star trapped in a web of crystalline filaments that connected it to the root and the very earth around it. This was the Planetary Core. It was beautiful and terrifying.
[SCAN: UNSTABLE PLANETARY CORE.]
STATUS: DORMANT. LEY-LINE SYNCHRONIZATION: 12%.
ADMINISTRATOR AUTHORIZATION DETECTED. INITIATE CORE LINK? Y/N
Twelve percent. The number was depressingly low. It explained the wild, untamed state of the planet, the rampant monster infestations, the sheer struggle for survival. The planet was sick, running on a fraction of its power.
But before Alistair could even process the prompt, a new threat revealed itself. Coiled around the base of the great taproot, between them and the Core, was a creature that made the Scythe-Maws and Root Grinders seem trivial.
It was a serpent of woven roots and living wood, as thick as a man and longer than their hut. Its body was studded with thorns that glistened with a familiar, sickly green sap—the same as the Strangle-Vines. Where a head should be, there was a gaping maw lined with rotating, crystalline teeth, identical to the Grinders, but large enough to swallow a person whole.
[SCAN: VINE-TAIL SERPENT. APEX PREDATOR. GUARDIAN-CLASS ENTITY. DRAWS SUSTENANCE FROM THE UNSTABLE CORE. WEAKNESS: FIRE. CORE VALUE: EXTREME. ITS HEARTWOOD IS A TIER-4 ALCHEMICAL REAGENT.]
Thora, Kael, and Roric froze, their spears lowering slightly in sheer awe and terror. This was not a creature they could fight with bone and chitin. This was a force of nature.
The serpent uncoiled with a sound like grinding stone, its crystalline maw opening in a silent shriek. It began to slither toward them, its body moving with a horrifying, fluid grace.
"Fire!" Alistair shouted, his mind racing. "We need a big fire! Now!"
Kael and Roric looked at him, their faces pale. Their small torch was a joke against this behemoth. Thora's eyes darted around the chamber, looking for anything that could burn, but the living roots were damp, resilient.
The serpent was closing the distance, its maw rotating hungrily.
Alistair's gaze fell to the Strangle-Vines that still clung to parts of the chamber walls, their faint green glow a taunt. Their weakness was extreme heat. The serpent's body was woven from the same kind of organic material.
He had one shot.
He didn't have the power to summon a volcano. But he didn't need to. He was the Admin. His power was not to create, but to command the system.
He slammed his will into the Terrain Manipulation interface, but he didn't focus on the ground. He focused on the air itself, on the particles of dust and moisture, on the very friction in the chamber. He focused on a single, pinpoint location—five feet in front of the serpent's gaping maw.
The command was not "Raise Land." It was a raw, desperate scream into the system: **IGNITE.**
The energy cost was immense. It felt like his soul was being siphoned out through his eyes. His vision swam, and he stumbled, catching himself on the wall.
For a terrifying second, nothing happened.
Then, the air in front of the serpent *rippled*. A point of blinding white light appeared, no larger than a marble. It hung in the air for a fraction of a second before erupting outwards in a concussive wave of pure heat and force.
**WHOOM.**
The fireball was small but intensely hot. It engulfed the serpent's head and the front third of its body. The creature recoiled, a genuine, piercing shriek now tearing from its maw—a sound of agony and surprise. The green, sap-filled thorns on its body popped and sizzled, spreading the flames along its length. The smell was acrid, like burning plastic and cooked meat.
It thrashed wildly, smashing against the root walls, but the magical fire clung to it, eating deep into its woody flesh.
"Now!" Thora yelled, her voice cutting through the chaos.
She didn't charge the burning beast. Instead, she sprinted in a wide arc around the thrashing serpent, Kael and Roric right behind her. Their target was clear: the unprotected Core.
Alistair pushed himself off the wall, his head pounding, his body feeling hollowed out. He staggered after them, the System's prompt flashing urgently in his vision.
INITIATE CORE LINK? Y/N
He reached the swirling blue nexus. Thora and the others stood guard, their spears aimed at the burning serpent, but it was done. It was weakening, its thrashing growing slower, the flames consuming it.
Alistair placed a hand on the cool, humming surface of the Core.
"Yes," he whispered.
Power. Not a wave, but a tsunami. It flooded into him, through him. It was not the gentle increase of Authority from building his settlement. This was the raw, untapped potential of a world flowing into his veins, anchoring itself to his will. His headache vanished. His fatigue was burned away. He felt… immense.
CORE LINK ESTABLISHED.
ADMINISTRATOR AUTHORITY: 15%.
POWER POOL UNLOCKED. CURRENT CAPACITY: 100/100.
LEY-LINE SYNCHRONIZATION: 15%.
TIER-2 CONSTRUCTIONS UNLOCKED.
TITLE EARNED: PLANETARY STEWARD.
He opened his eyes. The world was different. He could feel the ley-lines now, faint threads of power running through the stone and soil. He could feel the life of the jungle above, the water in the river, the silent strength of the stone. It was all connected, and he was now a part of that network.
The serpent gave one last, weak thrash and lay still, its body a charred ruin.
Thora turned to look at him. The awe was back in her eyes, but it was deeper now. She wasn't just looking at a man who could summon rocks or walls. She was looking at the heart of the world itself, and he was holding its leash.
Alistair took a deep breath, the power thrumming within him like a second heartbeat. He had paid for his first assets with credits. He had paid for this one with blood and fire.
The start-up had just secured its seed funding. And the real work could now begin.