Susanoo appeared at once, shielding everyone standing nearby.
"Careful! It's the Gold and Silver Ingots! Turn around and evade!"
Ronin first warned everyone, then issued the order to Ging.
No one had expected that the moment they caught sight of the ancient labyrinth city, the Gold and Silver Ingots' attacks would arrive alongside the morning light.
"Abaki, Neon, and Veronica are injured!" Kurapika's chains had already wrapped around the wounded people he named, pulling them completely behind Susanoo.
Golden beams swept across Susanoo like machine-gun fire, but they could not truly break through its defense.
The advancing floating island slowly began to stop.
During this process, even more golden beams bombarded the island. Explosions rang out one after another, while large amounts of shattered stone continuously fell from the sky.
Looking toward the ancient city in the distance, one could see sphere after sphere gleaming with golden light flying out from the enormous stone buildings.
Susanoo stepped backward while shielding everyone. Only after the group had completely disappeared from the edge of the floating island did the intensity of the golden bombardment seem to weaken slightly.
However, that situation did not last long. The moment the floating island began retreating, figures of Gold and Silver Ingots appeared in the sky.
Even more golden beams swept horizontally toward the people on the floating island.
At the same time, amid repeated popping sounds, an overwhelming number of spores burst from the bodies of the Gold and Silver Ingots, covering the entire floating island.
Susanoo was already close to shattering, but under Ronin's protection, most of the group successfully entered the laboratory.
No one knew what material the laboratory had been built from, but the golden beams could not penetrate it.
Meanwhile, Gold and Silver Ingots also began appearing on the floating island itself.
However, compared with the scale of the attack coming from the ancient city, the island's counterattack seemed pitifully weak.
Before Susanoo shattered, Ronin completed all forty-four hand seals and unleashed Fire Release: Great Flame Annihilation.
A sea of fire spread across the now-barren floating island.
At that moment, the spores in the sky descended. The intense flames ignited them like hot oil, creating an even larger sea of fire in midair.
The floating island accelerated toward the depths of the flower sea while engulfed in flames. However, the Gold and Silver Ingots that had emerged from the ancient labyrinth city showed no intention of ceasing fire and continued pursuing them relentlessly.
Through the surveillance footage recorded before the island's cameras were destroyed, Ronin saw the Gold and Silver Ingots chasing them. The intermittent tremors and explosions across the island further confirmed that they were genuinely being hunted.
Ronin's expression darkened.
He had no intention of counterattacking.
There were simply too many Gold and Silver Ingots. Their numbers were on a completely different scale from those on the floating island.
The pursuit continued for more than half a day.
It did not stop because the Gold and Silver Ingots had chosen to abandon the hunt. Rather, their energy supplies could no longer keep up after such a prolonged attack.
The explosions gradually weakened, and the thunderous bombardment slowly subsided.
When Ronin walked out of the laboratory, he saw the formation of Gold and Silver Ingots—which had destroyed nearly a quarter of the floating island—turn around in perfect unison and begin returning toward the ancient city.
However, their return journey did not go smoothly.
The instant the Gold and Silver Ingots stopped attacking, something unexpected emerged from the ground below.
Several enormous vines suddenly lashed upward!
Amid deafening whistles, vast numbers of Gold and Silver Ingots were smashed apart in midair by the colossal whips that seemed to reach into the heavens.
Standing on the floating island, Ronin and the others stared at the brown lashes tearing across the sky, their minds going blank.
So the energy source beneath the flower sea truly was underground!
But what exactly were those enormous "whips"?
Were they vines, the roots of some tree, or some unknown plant they had never encountered before?
Ronin and the others had no clues whatsoever.
Still, watching large numbers of Gold and Silver Ingots being smashed apart in midair filled them with instant satisfaction.
Serves you right for chasing us!
Go on, keep chasing!
The colossal whips rising from the earth had no intention of sparing the Gold and Silver Ingots.
However, they were simply too enormous. By the time they completed one attack and prepared to strike again, the retreating Gold and Silver Ingots had already erupted with unparalleled speed.
Amid sharp sounds of air being torn apart, the Gold and Silver Ingots rapidly vanished beyond the horizon.
In the end, the enormous whips failed to launch a second attack. They merely thrashed across the ground several times, as though venting their unwillingness, before sinking back into the earth.
Only after the colossal existence had completely fallen silent did the people standing at the edge of the floating island look down and discover that the ground below had become a chaotic mixture of blood-red and multicolored flowers.
No one knew how many flowers and creatures moving among them had been sacrificed when that enormous existence erupted from the earth.
However, two Gold and Silver Ingots that had survived the fall became conspicuous points amid the devastation.
Large numbers of plant roots rapidly reached toward them.
Without giving them any chance to struggle, the roots dragged the still-functional Gold and Silver Ingots underground within moments.
Flowers began blooming across the land again.
In only a short while, they completely concealed the crimson bloodstains covering the ground.
Viewed from high above, the entire flower sea had already returned to its previous appearance.
No—it had become even more beautiful and vibrant than before.
The floating island had stopped. Everyone on it looked toward the distant horizon and the ground below with lingering fear.
"It feels like the appearance of the floating island triggered an extreme defensive reaction from that city," Ging said helplessly as he became the last person to emerge from the laboratory and surveyed the devastation across the island.
The floating island had not even entered the city's airspace. It had still been several kilometers away.
Yet even from that distance, the city's guardian Gold and Silver Ingots had completely locked onto it.
It was almost unbelievable.
"I really wonder whether that ancient labyrinth city has some kind of grudge against this floating island," Ronin said, spreading his hands with equal helplessness. "How badly damaged is the island?"
"It's fine. Although more than a quarter of it was destroyed, given enough time, the damaged sections can 'grow' back using the floating island's continuous energy supply," Ging replied, not particularly worried.
Clearly, the possibility of the floating island being damaged had already been considered by its former owners.
Ronin breathed a sigh of relief, then turned his gaze back toward the ancient city.
"Looks like we'll have to leave the floating island here. We'll cross the flower sea on the ground and enter the labyrinth city directly."