Chapter 454: Subterranean gigantuous conch
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The deadliest combination of Pandora’s creatures, had been utterly annihilated by the unending streams of the lowest tier arachnids!! Such an immense discrepancy, would cause one to become loss for words.
Except, the current Sheyan had no time to be emotionally stirred. Instead, he ordered the zerglings to continue searching, once they finished gnawing away at the brains of Cherokee and his tier-7 Thanator! Ordering them to pay attention to any abnormal happenings!
Only 2 hours left till his return deadline. Sheyan raised the communication device in his hand; notifying Mogensha and Reef who had returned to the nightmare realm to be teleported over. Right now, Sheyan had doubled his caution, especially after experiencing a near accidental fate of being crushed by a collapsing underground tunnel. Alas, for Cherokee and his mount, they couldn’t escape the fate of having their brains gnawed to bits even after death.
A radiance glittered, as Mogensha and Reef were finally teleported back. Due to their possession of a ‘GDS Point Orientation System’, they didn’t even get the chance to step into the nightmare realm but directly entered the space where world evaluation and rewards was done. Time flowed at a much rapid pace over there as compared to this nightmare world, and 3 days worth of time was practically equivalent to several minutes.
After the trio reunited, there was no time for words. Nevertheless, they already had an exceptional taciturn mutual understanding between each other. Nodding at each other, they entered the underground tunnel that the drones had drilled open. This tunnel was semi-corroded with the acidic fluids of the arachnids, and its appearance naturally transformed weirdly. Fresh distinct vein lines were drawn across the tunnel walls, resembling that of growth rings.
The ground of the tunnel was rather moist, and the air infused with a piercing acidic odour; inducing choking sensations onto the humans. As they headed deeper, the tunnel became moister with the surrounding tunnel walls oozing out with droplets of fluids.
Unknown when it started, dripping sounds echoed monotonously through the tunnel. Yet considering the scene they were in, those weren’t water droplet sounds, but the sounds blood dripping down from necks!
While mining, the arachnid drones had avoided harder regions, and thus the tunnel passage became additionally curvy. Nevertheless, their journey wasn’t very long, and Sheyan and company spent roughly only a minute to reach the end; finally stepping onto the damp soil of a underground space.
As for why this was a moist environment, it wasn’t strange at all. Several active volcanos that would erupt once in centuries or millenniums, may form lakes within their volcano paths; what more, this was evidently a dormant volcano? Probably when it rained heavily, the rain water would seep through the cracks of the Windstone Highland ground, and congregated beneath here.
The area Sheyan and company were standing on was analogous to a low-lying swamp terrain. Only, they could vividly see erected stone pillars that were 17-18 metres tall, seemingly supporting the earthen plate above. The stone pillars were coiled with thick, bulky algae vines like tentacles constricting it tightly, and even spread towards the vast spacious underground ceiling. At this brief moment, Sheyan was specially observing the ceiling; seemingly discovering something, but keeping it to himself instead.
After reaching this underground space, the surrounding terrain had become fairly complex. They could only follow the guide of mushy pathways trampled out by the zerglings. Naturally, these pathways had no railings and were pretty narrow; hence, they adopted heightened caution. Psshh pshhh! As they advanced, squishy sounds of flattened mud and sewage echoed. A cold air lingered all around, issuing a gloomy and chilling ambience.
A line of humans continued trudging forward under the guidance of zergling footsteps. As they travelled for around hundred metres, they realized in the swamps ahead, several enormous shadows could be seen growing. Upon closer observation, those shadows were unexpectedly kelp like vegetation that grew in river sources. Broad leaves interlaced with vein lines, pasted onto the ground as it grew in meandres. One could faintly discern thick, solid, and plumpy spotlessly white aerial roots criss crossing out from the swamp.
The vegetation grew relatively concentrated in specific regions, with their expansive leaves, like japanese banana, intersecting together. Any trace of light here was already fairly limited, and these large abnormal vegetations probably thrived in the darkness. They resembled freaks that were crawling throughout the ground; harbouring malicious intent, as they slithered forward. Leaving one with a sinister and surreptitious impression.
At present, Sheyan finally understood why the Mosake clan weren’t afraid of a draught. With an unimaginable tremendous space of dampy swamp, extracting water was essentially a no brainer affair. Still, it was fortunate that food remained a challenging issue. If not, internal cracks wouldn’t have surfaced, or finally leading to a crumbling division.
Although they had acquired reports from those diligent zerglings, and roughly understood the state down here; imagination would differ greatly from reality.
One must understand, the Mosake clan had constructed such a magnificent colossus of their pyramid temple, just to act as a cover over this secret underground entrance. One could imagine how vast this underground space would stretch out to. Even with the zerglings paving the way for them, they still required several tens of minutes to finally approach the core belly of this underground space.
Prior to reaching the core of this underground space, the passage had gradually begun inclining downwards. If the place they entered was the pinnacle edge of this volcano, then this would be the innermost portion of the volcano’s concavity. At present when tilting one’s head up while shining with a torch, one would notice the ceiling was separated 200-300 metres away from the ground. Still, the ceiling was infested with that tentacle like, moss green viny vegetation.
As they travelled deeper into the abyss of this infernal, they could perceive that this place wasn’t a natural primitive environment, but instead a development of highly intellectual organisms. Artificial marks of constructions could be seen everywhere. Occasionally, congestions of decayed and ruined pillars could be spotted, along with disfigured remnants of delicate cavern engravings; of which, detailed designs of malevolent and ferocious creatures of the sea, that were seemingly worshipping something, as well as multitudes of puppet slaves transporting a certain object.
Suddenly, a gigantic clump of darkness emerged ahead; a dense luxuriant mass, fuzzy and bewildering. It was as though a detached being was prying, like the strong preying on the weak; as though it existed in a dark gloomy world. One could even faintly hear the roaring sounds of ocean tides!
Sheyan carefully invested his vision in, as he vaguely realized – an incomparably dignified thing had entrenched itself there. It appeared like a towering mountain range, serving one with a sense of reverence.
Inching forward a little, one could faintly discern that shadow was rolled up like a steam bun, towering and unmoving. It was as tall as 50-60 metres, with an exceedingly broad perimeter; at the minimum, it occupied a good half of this subterranean land. For unknown reason when Sheyan saw that colossal thing, he felt his head turn dizzy. As though a current of baleful aura had swept in, along with an intensified fishy odour, causing Sheyan to teeter on the brink of falling.
Examining that insanely thick darkness ahead, Sheyan’s heart shuddered! Just based on its physical size, it could stomp and squash nearly a 3 figure sump of zerglings! To compare it with a plankton, that would be a long drawn-out war of calculating! If this colossal monstrosity were to emerge, then Sheyan reckoned; this Golden Side Mission would go up in smokes.
Luckily, Sheyan’s perceptive sense was adequately outstanding; he very swiftly sensed that though that colossal shadow was awe-inspiring, it lacked a strong vitality within. The feeling he got was like sightseeing the majestic imperial courts of ancient dynasties, or gazing up a lofty city building complex; evidently, it had been dead for a long time. Yet thinking from another perspective; if it could release such lofty imposure after dying for a long time, how would it have been when it was still living?
Quickly following that, an assailing stench wafted in from ahead. This was an extremely familiar stench to Sheyan and buddies. Especially to him and reef. It was the foul stench emitted from a zergling carcass. Without a ‘Creep’ carpet to disintegrate the carcasses here, those corpses were all heaped up together; a spectacularly bitter and bloodied scene.
At this instant, Mcdh produced a signal-gun like object, and fired off towards the ceiling. Instantly, a dazzling radiance skyrocketed up, naturally serving as a flare. Moreover, when the radiance of light scaled to 100 metres, it hung in midair; illuminating the area like a light bulb. Although it failed to irradiate everything like glorious bright daylight, it still attained the glow of an overcast sky.
Instantaneously, Sheyan heaved a mouthful of cold air. He could finally see that clear outline of that colossal shadow. That shadow, was astoundingly an unprecedented gigantic conch!
That gigantic conch stood towering like a mountain range, with its shell imbued with grains that were shaped like eyes, that followed an entwined arc along the shell. It was as though innumerable demonic eyes were glaring callously at them.
However, this gigantuous conch had already been dead for a long time. Its flesh should’ve inevitably decomposed to the extreme, and merely left behind a vacant and erected conch shell. A portion of that shell remains were buried beneath the ground.
And right in front of that that gigantuous conch, remains of an epic battle of bitter desperation had been fought!
The mightiest na'vi hunters against the lowest tier arachnid creatures. The former’s viciousness and prestige overflowed into the heavens, engulfing the world. The latter viewed death as a return home, replacing one another in death. Finally, the mighty was utterly exhausted and condemned to death……. Such was the intensity and sorrow of this battle!
Except, Sheyan had no time to appreciate such a scene. His gaze directly halted onto the head of Chieftain Cherokee, a head still grimacing in pain.