Corrupted beginnings.

The root-vault shudders. Violet light leaks through the black-crystal seam, and the mountain answers with a low, hungry groan.

Tululu raises her spell blades. The runes on their skin flare in hard, bright pulses, matching the beat of the fractured floor.

The dragon lowers its head and spreads its wings, gold scales flashing against the violet seam, ready to spring at Tululu's command.

The crystal wall splits wider for a breath, revealing black roots braided around a pulsing core beneath the mountain, the source of the throne's instability.

Tululu drives both blades down, not into stone, but into the seam of hunger and root. The black core opens like a wound offered to the light.

A world-tree pulse answers from deep below, bright and green-gold. The Ash and Gold Dragon releases a clear, ringing roar, and the searing dark in Tululu's blades folds inward instead of spilling out.

Light and shadow braid together around the core, then snap clean. The tether tears free in one sharp shiver, and the exposed roots knit shut behind it.

The violet bruise in the mountain fades to a calm, steady glow. Fresh crystal veins bloom across the wall where the wound was, while the chamber exhales as if it has been holding its breath for centuries.

Then, from within the sealed core, a softer current stirs, like a hidden path waking beneath the roots, waiting for Tululu's next command.