The transition from the sterile, white-stone peace of the Void-Pocket to the atmosphere of Viridian Prime was like being plunged into a sea of liquid moss.
"The sensors are losing it!" Elis shouted from the cockpit of the Celestial Vanguard. "The atmosphere isn't just air; it's a soup of airborne spores and bio-metallic microorganisms. The hull is already starting to... itch."
Kael looked out the viewport. Below them, the planet didn't have oceans or continents. It was a single, undulating carpet of neon-green canopy. Massive vines, the size of skyscrapers, reached up into the clouds like grasping fingers.
"I DO NOT LIKE THIS PLACE," Ignis rumbled, his voice strained. "THE FLORA IS WHISPERING TO MY PLATING. IT WANTS TO RETURN ME TO THE DIRT."
"Aurelia is struggling too," Lyra said through the comms. Her face appeared on the side-screen, looking worried. "The Aurelian Wing is built for speed and light, not for fighting off invasive vines that grow six inches every minute."
Kael tightened his new Resonance Gauntlet. He could feel the device humming, siphoning off the restless violet energy that wanted to burst from his skin. "Doc said the Emerald Talon is at the center of the 'Root-Heart.' We drop in, we grab the ship, we get out. Valerius, you ready?"
The General was standing at the equipment rack, but he wasn't grabbing a blaster. He was coating his amber blade in a thick, black sludge. "Anti-fungal resin," Valerius grunted. "Standard issue during the Great Forest Campaigns. In this jungle, a gun is just a loud way to tell the trees where to eat you."
The landing party—Kael, Valerius, and Lyra—descended via a specialized "Burn-Pod" that scorched a landing zone into the canopy. When the doors opened, the humidity hit them like a wet blanket.
Everything was alive. The ground was a tangle of roots that pulsed with a faint green light. The air was thick with the sound of chattering insects that looked like flying copper wires.
"Stay on the scorched earth," Valerius commanded, his sword already drawn. "The vines won't cross the ash for at least an hour."
Kael closed his eyes, activating his Tier 3.2 resonance.
Through his Starborn vision, the world changed. He didn't see leaves or wood; he saw Bio-Code. The planet was a massive, living supercomputer, its roots acting like fiber-optic cables.
"The Emerald Talon isn't just buried," Kael whispered, his eyes glowing violet. "She's being used as a battery. The jungle is tapping into her Dragon-Core to fuel its growth."
Suddenly, the ground shook.
From the dense foliage emerged a figure that made even Valerius take a step back. It was a man, but his skin was bark-brown, and his hair was a wild mess of glowing silver thorns. He rode a beast that looked like a fusion of a panther and a venus flytrap.
"Scavengers," the man hissed. His voice sounded like grinding stones. "You come to steal the Great Root's heart?"
"We come for our sister," Lyra said, stepping forward. Her silver hair seemed to react to the forest, glowing with a sympathetic light. "The Emerald Talon belongs to the Starborn."
"The Starborn are ghosts!" the man roared, raising a spear made of living wood. "I am Kahn-Zul, King of the Verdant Mists! This world has fed on that ship for five centuries. It is our god. You will not touch it."
"We don't want a fight, Kahn-Zul," Kael said, raising his gauntlet. "But that ship is alive, and she's suffering. Can't you hear her?"
"I hear only the hunger of the forest!"
Kahn-Zul whistled, and the jungle itself seemed to wake up. Massive, whip-like vines shot out from the trees, aiming for Kael's throat.
Kael didn't draw a sword. He reached out with his gauntlet and grabbed the air. Gravity Manipulation.
The vines didn't snap; they were suddenly weighted down by the force of ten Gs, slamming into the dirt.
"I'm not a ghost," Kael said, stepping toward the Jungle King. "And I'm not a scavenger anymore. I'm the User. And I'm here to debug this forest."
[NEW CHARACTER ENCOUNTERED: KAHN-ZUL (LEVEL 45 JUNGLE KING)] [OBJECTIVE: DEFEAT OR PERSUADE KAHN-ZUL TO REACH THE EMERALD TALON]