Chapter 382: Smash the Hell Out of It
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
A loud noise came from the Gnarled Grove. It was like a roar, a rolling thunder, and it tore the earth. The sound was travelling in a way as if it was chasing after them. Even the most seasoned elite soldiers would have lost their courage, hearing the angry roar. All they could do was keep moving through the mountain pass.
Everyone had descended from their horses and hustled through the narrow mountain pass on foot. They hurried the war horses in front them, and at times, they even let the animals go when they came to a forked road. They did that for the safety of the group because once frightened, the horses could behave hysterically, posing a threat to everyone on the narrow path. And considering the loud sound coming from behind, the horses could very well get frightened.
Despite leaving the Gnarled Grove's field of influence and its root system, the group could still feel the earth trembling under their feet. As Beinz was built right on top of the mammoth subterrainean world, when the underground world crumbled the destruction brought everything down along with it, and that almost tore Dragonspine Ridge apart. Hearing the cracking and sound of falling rocks on the mountain, Ophra knew they were still not out of the danger zone. So, she wielded her sword and brought the spirit of her soldiers up. "Keep moving! Don’t stop! We’ll be safe once we pass the ridge!"
Elson was running ahead of the group. With his sharp eyes, he was constantly aware of the possibility of rocks falling overhead. Every rock could be a rock monster. In the depths of the mountain, a rock monster was not going to differentiate who was its enemy and who was its friend. They were just as dangerous as the dinobeasts and tentacles.
Many of the soldiers were hurt. Almost all of the magi were drained. Some of the people were even exposed to the poisonous blood and noxious gases from the dinobeasts. Any energy left was just enough to let them escape to safety, figthing was out of the question. Those who still possessed the ability to fight were Hao Ren and his company as well as Ophra and the five-plus-one giant wolves. Nevertheless, they had to avoid getting into any battle again.
Despite all their setbacks, Ohpra still looked determined. Her ash-covered face could not hide her heroic aura. She knew the rest of the king’s knights were just at the foothill on the east side. As soon as they reached, they would have adequate medicine and food, then the exhausted magi could regain their strength. When fighting a supernatural creature like the First Born, the magi seemed more suited for the job than the warriors.
But deep down inside, she also knew full well that the disparity between mortals and the ancient being was just too great. She could not possibly believe that any ordinary magi could have done any real damage to the thousand-year-old subterrainean monster entrenched underneath the Beinz Diocese.
Hao Ren glanced at Ohpra on one side, then turned to Y’zaks on the other and said, "Is your meteoroid ready?"
"Contact has been established. It’s within the upper limit of my ability. Ferromanganese core. Nasty stuff." Y’zaks grinned as his eyes glowed with a greenish, evil flame. "I'll summon it when we reach the ridge.The energy released will almost be enough to level the area from Beinz Blood Lake to the land leading up to Dragonspine Ridge... Six Tunguskas¹ in size."
Hao Ren ran some calculations in his mind and discovered that it would be more powerful than any nuclear weapon ever made in human history. He felt a little at ease now, thinking it would be enough to finish off the First Born this time.
"Be careful of the blast range." Suddenly, Vivian thought of something. "To the west of Beinz Blood Lake, over the Virulent Flatlands is Werewolf Kingdom. Don’t affect them."
Y’zaks nodded. "I’ve done the Math. I’ll set up a demonic barrier where the blast wave will be stopped in the middle of the Virulent Flatlands. The sacred mountain on Werewolf Kingdom's side may experience a little shock. But, we don’t know what their reaction to this disaster will be. They must have noticed the changes in the Gnarled Grove by now..."
Hao Ren was particularly worried about this as Elson, the lonewolf general and his elite wolf pack were probably concerned about their hometown too. Under the current situation however, no one, no matter how capable, was going to bring the message over or scout out the sacred mountain. So, they had to put their worries on the back burner for the moment. As soon as Y’zaks brought down his meteoroid and finished off the First Born, Werewolf Kingdom would not be a concern anymore.
"What if the meteoroid doesn’t work? Will the First Born also destroy the sacred mountain? Or places even farther?" All of a sudden, Y’zaks’ knitted his brows tightly together. He was expecting the worst. "We don’t know what other capabilities are up its sleeve. So far, all we know is that it’s capable of causing massive geological disasters, and I think that's not all."
Nangong Wuyue could not imagine the First Born to be so powerful. "Really? As powerful as it is, it’s just a tree, isn’t it?"
Y’zaks shook his head and did not say a word.
They stumped up the mountain and were finally about to arrived at the highest point of the ridge. Then, they heard loud crashing sounds from the nearby mountain peaks. Lily looked up instinctively before crying out in fear. "Arf—"
Shortly after, Elson's voice could be heard. "The northern peak has collapsed! The northern and southern peaks have all collapsed!"
Hao Ren looked up in horror as he saw two of the highest peaks on Dragonspine Ridge covered in smoke and dust. He could still peek through the blurry clouds, and saw that the peaks were indeed slowly crumbling down. Vivian sent out a bat into the air to get a bird’s-eye view of the situation, and was shocked to find almost seven-tenth of Dragonspine Ridge in the west was collapsing!
She told what she saw to everyone. Ophra’s jaw almost dropped to the floor. "Could this whole mountain range be made from rock monsters?"
"I don’t think so. At least where I stand, the mountain hasn’t collapsed yet. Fortunately, not yet." Hao Ren took a deep breath. "This mountain range must be a defense barrier against the First Born. Now, I'm starting to understand why the topography of the Beinz Diocese is so weird; mountains on both sides, ocean at the front while a gorge at the rear. This is likely not a natural phenomenon. Just like the legend, the terrains are creations of the ancient mage-emperors!"
Holding her sword shakily, Becky said, "They could create a world, but were unable to defeat the First Born..."
Right. The entire Beinz Diocese was created in the shape of a cage by some massively powerful forces. As powerful as the ancient mage-emperors were, the ancient civilisation was still destroyed by the First Born. Wasn’t it?
The army of rock monsters which rolled off Dragonspine Ridge had quickly formed into a sea of grey, rocky waves, rushing towards the Gnarled Grove. However, as gigantic as they were, they looked a little more like ants in the face of the massive monster. The Gnarled Grove had completely risen and formed into a bowl-like shape. Numerous massive tentacles attached to the main body of Gnarled Grove were waving frantically. Leaves had completely fallen off the trees, and their trunks and branches were sticking out like black thorns. More massive than a mountain, the First Born monster just scoffed at the rock monsters on its foot. With a slight shake of its body, the surrounding ground began to crumble and cave into a bottomless abyss. The rock monsters fell into the gap, and were trapped by the web of roots. They died in an instant before crumbling into piles of broken rocks.
But, more rock monsters charged at the First Born. It looked like they wanted to encage the First Born by forming a rock shell around it with their own bodies.
By now, the group had arrived at the ridge. They turned around and saw a horrific monster beyond their human imagination. It was capable of striking fear into their hearts and dismantling their will of resistance at once.
An entangled mass was standing between the heavens and Earth. It was something between a plant and animal, as huge as a mountain but devoid of any recognisable facial features or limbs, with only tentacles of strange shapes attached to its hundred-kilometre mass. The ground under its "feet" was entirely gone. It was unclear whether the ground had sunk to the bottom of the caverns or it was consumed by the roots. The only thing left was a tumor-like monster with its entangled roots a.k.a tentacles.
Hao Ren felt a sense of dizziness just from glancing at it: it was obvious that the psyhic tentacles were unleashing their psychic assault energy indiscriminately.
"Even if we do escape, will there be anyone out there who can fight this monster?" A sense of horror finally struck Ophra, who now looked visibly fearful. She realised, even if she could make the escape today, it was probably just a delayed death sentence at best. If the being known as the "First Born" was capable of destroying the ecology of the Second Sowing, it would not just stay in one place. It had to be capable of moving itself or spreading its influence to other parts of the world. In light of this, what use was there in escaping?
Hao Ren looked at the messy creature again, and allowed the MDT to explore a bit. After he determined that there was no way of communicating with the monster, he patted Y’zaks on the arm and said to him, "Let’s do it."
Y’zaks nodded and walked away from the group before shapeshifting. Ophra glanced surprisingly at his strange "mercenary" and asked, "What are you guys going?"
"Helping you solve the thing you couldn’t." Hao Ren exhaled. "You can stand aside and watch but, could you possibly please first let your soldiers leave?"
He was not worried about anything. It was just that the poisonous gases created during a meteoroid impact could possibly sicken them. They would be fine if they were far away from the ridge.
Ophra looked at Hao Ren, feeling confused. Suddenly, she felt a disturbing burst of energy in Biggie. As she came to her senses, she waved and ordered her soldiers to move. "Keep going, don’t look back!"
After the soldiers had gone, Y’zaks finally released his energy in full. Amid a pool of molten rock and stinking sulfur dioxide, a five-metre-tall demon stood, engulfed in flames.
"De—demon?" Ophra’s jaw dropped to the ground again. "Demons still exist in this age? Who are you people?"
Y’zaks pointed one of his hands towards the sky to guide his meteoroid as he spoke to Ophra, spewing out a mouthful of sparks in the process. "I’ll talk to you later, little girl. Hold your breath!"
A cloud of fire began to form in the sky as powerful magic converged in the centre of it. The monster, who stood on the ridge guiding the magic, the gnarled First Born, the warped sky, and everything below it, all had Ophra the heroine quaking in her boots. Becky also began to mumble to herself, "...Finally, I’m qualified to be hung on the wall, Grandpa. Are you seeing this? Your little granddaughter is going to complete her mission..."
The First Born below the cloud of fire began to move as if had sensed the danger. A slit opened on top before a few gigantic tentacles poked out from the opening. Hao Ren instantly called out, "Now!"
A loud bang in the sky was followed by a dimensional door, which appeared amid the cloud of fire. Y’zaks did not let the meteoroid crash through the atmosphere. Instead, he had opened a dimensional door right above the target, so that the meteoroid would crash down at full speed as it would in space. He had only one aim: creating the greatest impact!
A meteoroid as large as a small hill emerged from the dimensional door. As soon as it came into contact with the air below, it turned into a ball of fire and fell towards Earth at hypersonic speed. So fast that Hao Ren could not get a glimpse of the true face of the meteoroid.
However, at the same time, the air above the First Born also warped in an unusual manner and suddenly, the meteoroid froze in mid air.
There was no movement, no explosions. As if a movie tape was stuck in its player, the Ferromanganese meteorite stopped in the air as soon as it emerged from the dimensional door. It was floating in the air.
The air above the First Born was riddled with rings of ripple. The MDT analysed it and screamed out, "Holy f*cking moly! It’s an anti-gravity and kinetic energy neutralising field!"
Nangong Wuyue jumped up and yelled, "Is this still a tree?"
The MDT yelled back, "It never was a tree!"
With just a flick of its finger—so to speak, the First Born had stopped the low-tech meteoroid. The few gigantic tentacles poking out from its top opening waved in air for a moment before suddenly pointing at the meteoroid in unison. Beams of strong light were fired from the tips of the tentacles and the meteoroid of Ferromanganese core was shattered into thousands of pieces instantly.
Not a single hair on the First Born was burned!
Everyone on the ridge had their jaws dropped to the bottom of the mountain. Y’zaks was especially dumbstruck for a long while. At that moment, Vivian suddenly noticed something beginning to move around the First Born.
The gigantic creature of mess began to leak fluid out of its body. The fluid was the exact same viscous blood they had seen down in the caverns. The red fluid quickly formed a pool around the First Born and then, it spread rapidly outwards.
The fluid surged and spread in all directions. It consumed everthing—rocks and trees—in their path.
Organic or inorganic, it took all matter as its nutrients, and then spread out even quicker!
Suddenly, the young ascetic nun realised she had collected a sample of the fluid. She screamed and quickly took the bottle out. Sure enough, the red fluid in the bottle was surging violently and it beginning to corrode the crystal bottle. She threw the bottle away as hard as she could.
The crystal bottle was shattered upon impact with a rock. Fluid was splashed all over. As soon as the fluid came into contact with the rocks and soil, it surged even more rapidly like a duck taking to water before it formed into a small pool of blood, the size of a washing basin. Then, the fluid flowed down rapidly toward its parent's body—the First Born. It kept growing as it travelled down the mountain.
Suddenly, Becky recalled the story she had read about the legend of the apocalypse and the goddess: the goddess tossed her wine glass onto the earth, as the wine flowed out of the glass, it spread to the land and burned everything in its path. The fire kept burning for many days until the world was totally consumed...
The description in the story was actually not about actual fire, but this blood before their eyes!
This was the ultimate weapon of the First Born. The tentacles may have been powerful enough to destroy a whole army batallion, their scorching light beams may have been able to shatter any mountain peaks, but to rebuild the ecological sphere, it needed something more horrific—the red fluid was its ultimate weapon of mass destruction. The fluid would consume everything that contained basic organic elements—including living things and lifeless objects. Then, it would grow indefinitely. The phagocytosis and multiplication process would increase expotentially, and no force in the world could stop it from spreading to the whole planet. Not doubt, the ancient magic civilisation was strong but, it was totally helpless in the face of such a disaster. If the goddess had not left behind a safety mechanism to restrict the First Born, the planet would not have survived for the last 10,000 years!
As the First Born of the Original Seed, it possessed the ability to simulate the Blood Tide, and perhaps this was what the red fluid was all about.
But now, it was meaningless to study what it was simulating. The most important thing was to find out how this thing could be killed!
"We’re running out of ideas." Hao Ren turned around and looked at the four ascetics and Ophra, whose face was pale like a ghost. Suddenl,y he patted the MDT. "Shall we consider the solution we discussed earlier? Just give me a definite answer!"
The previous night, Hao Ren and Y’zaks discussed about the meteoroid option. Both of them had run through the worst case scenario: what if the meteoroid did not work? Although Y’zaks’ signature skill was already many times more powerful than a nuclear weapon in theory, they did not dare bet all their hopes on a single piece of space rock simply because—the weaponry of an ancient magic civilisation was not necessarily inferior to those from Y’zaks' hometown!
The ancient magic civilisation was already capable of interstellar travel, building teleportation gateways on Earth and the moon, constructing colonial cities on foreign planets, and even researching forbidden realms like the creation of life; it was safe to say that aerospace, physics, chemical and every other technology of theirs were far more advanced than the technology on Earth today. Most likely, nuclear weapons were not something new to them. They could have very well possessed the capability to summon a meteoroid strike already.
Such an advanced magical civilisation, along with its ecological sphere, was completely wiped off by the angry First Born. If history was anything to go by, they were no better off than a sitting duck.
So, Hao Ren had already anticipated the possibility of the meteoroid strike failing, and put in place a plan B, which was practically the last resort. But, even if that was the only option left, he had to think not twice, not thrice, but many more times.
Uncharacteristically, the MDT was silent for a long moment before it spoke with its emotionless, synthesised voice, "You must think it through and through. The operation manual has cleary stated that it is forbidden to strike the surface of any planet!"
"I know. I’ve read all of the safety regulations. I know why it is forbidden to strike the surface of a planet. It's to prevent total destruction of the regional ecosystem, and the crystalisation of a good half of the country." Hao Ren pointed at the First Born, which kept releasing what was possibly the Blood Tide. Hao Ren stomped his feet. "But now, the ecosystem of this place is quickly being destroyed! One strike won’t make it worse!"
The MDT was silent again for several seconds before it hovered up. "The application has been submitted to the Data Network and approved. However, you and I will be held responsible if the amount of casualties turn out higher than computed. This is a serious matter! Destruction of a regional ecosystem is punishable. The punishment is death by fire squad. You better not miss and bombard the werewolves' hometown! This is an extra safety agreement operation, which must be done manually. You know, manual control!"
Hao Ren took a deep breath. "I’ve read Introduction to Small Spacecraft Cannons."
"...Are you sure?"
"...I’ve read at least half of it."
"F*ck you... Focus your mind. I'll use you as a springboard to pull the Petrachelys into this world. But, only one shot is allowed. The interference of psionic energy is very high; as we’re still on emergency connection mode, you guys might be bounced out of this world after the shot. And you’ll have to wait for one month before you can establish connection again."
Becky stood nearby, listening to Hao Ren arguing with the MDT for a long time. However, she understood none of it. She could not help asking, "What are you guys talking about?"
Hao Ren took another deep breath and looked up into the sky.
"Inspector Hao Ren requests for orbital bombardment!"
Becky was flabbergasted. "...What?"