Inside the largest castle built by the Amons race.
It was a massive architectural complex, a mix of dark brown giant wood and gray-white stone.
The main keep rose hundreds of meters high, its outer walls draped in dark green vines. The layers of leaves shimmered with a brilliant luster under the sun.
At the top of the main keep was the circular Council Hall.
The dome hung high above, and the walls were inlaid with pale green crystals.
In the center of the hall stood a massive round table, surrounded by one hundred and nine seats.
At this moment, most of those seats were occupied.
The hall was silent.
No one spoke. Everyone’s gaze was fixed on the massive crystal in the center of the table.
Pale gold light flowed within the crystal, projecting real-time images of the distant battlefield.
A strongman standing three and a half meters tall, his body covered in blue-black tattoos, stared at the images in the crystal. A trace of gravity flashed in his eyes. "These outsiders are quite powerful."
An old woman beside him nodded. "Indeed. They are truly beings that the Mother Goddess herself warned us about."
A priestess dressed in dark red robes rose from her seat. "High Priest, when do we begin the plan you asked us to prepare?"
As soon as she spoke, a sneer came from another seat nearby.
It was a short, fat old man in dark brown robes, his face full of flabby flesh and a vertical eye tattooed on his bald head.
He leaned back in his chair, arms crossed, and squinted at the priestess. "What’s the rush? The High Priest naturally has his preparations."
The priestess frowned and was about to speak when High Priest Orion raised his right hand.
The hall instantly fell silent.
"There is no rush. These outsiders are strong, stronger than we anticipated. But those they have sent out now are merely the vanguard. Their true powerhouses have not yet moved."
Orion extended a withered finger and tapped the image in the crystal.
"We are waiting. They are also waiting. Whoever loses their cool first loses the initiative. Keep watching."
...
Meanwhile, underground, Ethan checked the time. It had been about ten minutes since he was injured and fled into the earth.
"Alright, time's about up. Time to go back up and continue the harvest."
He stretched his neck.
Vines sprouted from beneath his feet and wrapped around his waist, preparing to send him back to the surface.
Ethan suddenly paused.
"On second thought, let's try a different spot."
The vines shifted from upward to downward, wrapping around him as he sank deeper.
Soil and debris surged down from above, pushed behind him by the vines.
Before he had gone far, the root system of an old vine ahead suddenly snapped taut.
"Something's there!"
"Be careful!"
The conscious ripple was piercingly sharp, completely different from the submissive tone used for passing information earlier.
Ethan hurriedly stopped.
He pressed his palm against the roots of the old vine, his mental power extending forward along the system. His Plant Affinity passive transmitted the perceptions of more distant plants back to him.
"What is it?"
"I don't know." The roots of the old vine were trembling slightly.
"So big, so big." The conscious ripple of a patch of moss was as faint as a whisper.
"So fierce, so fierce." Another underground vine was already retracting its roots, its leaves shivering.
Just as Ethan was about to probe further with his mental power, a dull boom suddenly echoed from the soil layers above.
Rumble!
The space itself was vibrating.
The vine roots interwoven across the ceiling tightened simultaneously, the emerald light on their surfaces flickering erratically.
Fine soil fell from the gaps between the vines, pelting Ethan's shoulders and head.
The surrounding plants all curled into balls. The old vine's roots desperately dug deeper into the soil, the moss clung tightly to the rock walls, and several underground shrubs simply closed all their leaves, shrinking their entire forms into spheres.
The earth shuddered.
The vibration traveled up from his feet, surging through his bones.
The amplitude grew larger. At first, it was just a slight tingling, but after a few breaths, it turned into a violent shaking.
Ethan’s expression changed drastically.
He stopped trying to change directions.
Vines exploded from beneath his feet, enveloping his body as he lunged toward the surface.
Soil and debris churned frantically before his eyes.
The drill at the front of the vines spun at maximum power, churning the earth and pushing it behind him.
Ethan could feel all the surrounding plants screaming. The terror that made them shake from root to leaf flooded into his consciousness through his Plant Affinity.
"It's coming, it's coming!"
"Run, run!"
"We're going to die, we're going to die!"
Ethan's speed was incredibly fast.
The vines beneath him propelled him upward with explosive force.
Soil and debris churned wildly before him as the vine-drill ground through the earth at full throttle.
But the thing below was faster.
In less than a second, a vicious wind swept up from beneath his feet.
Too late.
Ethan could feel the thing was less than three meters below him.
Fortunately, he was also less than three meters from the surface.
"OPEN! UP!!!"
Emerald light exploded from Ethan’s entire body.
The surrounding soil, debris, and plant roots were detonated by mana in the same instant, blasting outward in all directions.
The ground violently burst open, forming a crater five meters wide. Soil and debris mixed with broken roots shot into the sky like a reverse rainstorm.
Ethan's body launched out from the bottom of the pit.
A massive maw lunged out from below.
It was a behemoth that seemed to be a twisted fusion of a loach, a man-eating flower, and a worm. Its body was as thick as a thousand-year-old tree, with dark brown skin covered in viscous secretions that shimmered with an oily sheen under the sun. It had no eyes and no nose—only a giant mouth that occupied its entire front end. When the mouth opened, it split into four lobes, each lined with rows of hooked, dark green teeth with fine serrations at the tips.
The speed at which it burst from the ground was absurdly fast, its dark brown body leaving a blur in the sunlight.
The four-lobed maw opened to its limit, snapping down toward Ethan.
A crushing sense of pressure radiated from it, making the surrounding air feel stagnant for a moment.
Ethan's pupils constricted.
"At least a peak First-Tier lifeform."
Just as the thought crossed his mind, the giant maw clamped shut.
The dark green teeth bit down simultaneously from all four directions. The serrated tips pierced through Ethan's torso, limbs, and neck.
The hooked teeth snagged his muscle fibers and pulled inward, dragging him deep into its throat.
The monster chewed a few times.
Teeth crushed through his Wood Armor, his shields, and his skin, muscle, and bone.
Ethan's body was repeatedly squeezed, torn, and ground within the massive maw. Dark red blood mixed with shredded flesh squeezed through the gaps between the teeth, dripping onto the dark brown skin.
【Dead. Consumed 1 year of longevity. Perfect Resurrection.】
The darkness lasted only an instant.
Ethan's eyes snapped open inside the monster's throat.
"Damn, this thing is wrong. How is it this fierce? It can bite right through my physique?"
With that thought, mana surged through Ethan's body.
Rate on N.U.
