Chapter 374: Spine King Worm
The moment the viscous agent slid down their gullets, a sickening crunch echoed through the cavern. Their pale carapaces warped and buckled, mutating under the sudden influx of volatile chemicals. Deep within their chests, their Ether cores pulsed with a frantic, violent rhythm. Driven by raw, unadulterated instinct, the creatures immediately snapped their attention toward a far more tantalizing prize: the massive, untouched reserves of Ether Fuel resting nearby.
One of the beasts lunged forward, swinging a razor-sharp forelimb with brutal force. It slammed directly into the connection valve of an intact fuel tank.
Bang! Hiss—!
The pressurized metal ruptured. A thick, glowing cloud of highly concentrated Ether energy violently hissed into the air, bleeding out from the fractured container.
"Tsk!" Sarah clicked her tongue, her sharp features twisting with a potent mix of irritation and deep regret. She cast a rapid, calculating glance back toward the cavern's entrance. Even through the suffocating distance and the dense, swirling Hollow fog, the heavy, oppressive weight of an approaching threat pressed against her skin.
Her cold gaze swept over the two Spine-Thorn Proto-Insects, watching them frantically gorge themselves on the spilling fuel. She shook her head, a bitter sneer curling her lips. "...Such a precious agent, entirely wasted on these pathetic, low-level Ethereals. What an absolute pity."
Yet, she didn't have a single second left to mourn the loss. Just moments prior, a chilling whisper had pierced through the very fabric of reality. It bypassed her physical senses entirely, echoing directly within the deepest recesses of her soul. The voice delivered an absolute decree: she had to evacuate. Immediately.
It was no mere suggestion; it was an ironclad command. Her heart hammered wildly against her ribs, a frantic rhythm that nearly drove her to her knees in sheer, ecstatic worship. Accompanying that divine mandate was a surge of warm, overwhelming power flooding into her veins—a direct gift from the supreme entity she worshipped.
This divine gift bypassed her physical limitations, acting directly upon the very fabric of space before her. Sarah reached out, pressing her trembling palm toward a relatively intact section of the cavern wall. Her lips moved rapidly, chanting harsh, staccato syllables dripping with fanatical devotion.
The air in front of her outstretched hand began to warp and twist with violent intensity. Ambient light was brutally shredded apart as a jagged spatial rift tore open. Its jagged edges flickered with a sickening array of chaotic colors, while the abyssal interior seemed to writhe with countless tiny, unblinking eyes opening and closing in the dark. The portal was forcibly squeezed into existence, defying the natural laws of the world.
The sickening energy radiating from this tear was fundamentally different from the spatial distortions naturally birthed by the Hollows. It felt ancient, unfathomably obscure, and drenched in a suffocating, otherworldly aura.
Sarah's face immediately flushed with indescribable euphoria and twisted glory. Within the ranks of The Assembly of Praise, only a select handful of top-tier Bishops ever earned the right to directly hear the whispers of The Primordial One. Lowly Executors like herself were entirely relegated to following layered, second-hand instructions.
But now? She had not only received a direct, personal mandate, but had also been granted the divine authority to tear open her own escape route! What magnificent favor! What unmatched honor!
Her already fanatical devotion to The Primordial One ignited like a raging inferno doused in boiling oil, blazing so fiercely it threatened to incinerate whatever fragile shreds of sanity she had left. Without a single microsecond of hesitation, and without sparing a final glance at the mutating Spine-Thorn Proto-Insects or the ruined plaza, Sarah threw herself into the chaotic spatial rift.
The instant her silhouette vanished into the abyss, the jagged tear rapidly shrank and collapsed in on itself, reacting as if it were a living, breathing organism. It dissipated into nothingness, leaving behind only a rapidly fading, nauseating ripple in the air, erasing all evidence of its existence.
Meanwhile, the two abandoned Spine-Thorn Proto-Insects continued their grotesque feast. Having gorged themselves on both the Sacrificial Ghost Agent and a massive quantity of high-purity Ether Fuel, their bodies underwent a terrifying, accelerated mutation.
Piercing shrieks, a horrifying blend of agonizing pain and feral ecstasy, ripped from their maws. The smooth surfaces of their white carapaces splintered and peeled away in massive, bloody chunks. Beneath the shedding shells, a newly formed armor emerged—a jagged, crystalline carapace as translucent as amethyst, yet boasting an incredibly dense, impenetrable hardness.
Their physical mass swelled grotesquely, expanding as if violently inflated from within. They quickly surpassed the size of large hounds, their bulk rapidly approaching that of small calves. The frantic buzzing of their wings deepened into a heavy, bone-rattling drone. The lethal spikes protruding from their tails elongated, doubling in length until the razor-sharp tips began to crackle and arc with visible, violent purple electricity.
Fueled by this unnatural chemical catalysis, the Spine-Thorn Proto-Insects had forcibly evolved in a matter of mere seconds. They shed their previous weakness, ascending into a far higher, infinitely more dangerous form: the Spine King Worm.
The exact moment their evolution finalized, the fragile, instinctual alliance between the two King Worms shattered. To their newly heightened, ravenous senses, the remaining puddles of Ether Fuel were nothing more than a pathetic drop in the ocean. Devoid of any hesitation or communication, pure, unadulterated greed took over. Driven by an insatiable craving for absolute dominance and energy, the two massive beasts lunged, pouncing on one another in a brutal, bloody deathmatch.
The sickening, heavy thuds of crystalline carapaces slamming together echoed through the ruined plaza, accompanied by the metallic screech of tail spikes grinding against armor. Feral roars and agonized howls bounced off the cavern walls. Violent arcs of purple electricity splashed across the battlefield with every strike, leaving deep, smoldering scorch marks scarred into the stone floor.
The territorial clash was as brief as it was bloody. The slightly smaller King Worm—having perhaps absorbed a fraction less of the catalyst during its mutation—rapidly lost ground. Its once-pristine amethyst armor was brutally torn open in several places by its larger counterpart, thick, glowing purple ichor bleeding heavily from the jagged wounds.
Emitting a shrill, unwilling shriek of defeat, the injured beast slammed its crackling tail spike directly into the solid stone floor. It wasn't an attack. The electrified tip began to spin at a blinding speed, effortlessly chewing through the bedrock like an industrial drill bit. Its massive body blurred into a frenzy of motion, burrowing deep underground in a desperate bid for survival. It left behind nothing but a perfectly smooth, circular tunnel as its Ether signature rapidly faded into the abyssal depths of the Hollow.
Left alone on the battlefield, the victorious Spine King Worm reared its ugly head back and unleashed a deafening, triumphant roar, violently proclaiming its absolute sovereignty. Snapping its jaws, it turned its attention back to the prize, greedily gulping down the remaining pools of liquid Ether Fuel. With every frantic swallow, the amethyst luster of its crystalline armor deepened, glowing with a sickeningly bright intensity. The sheer, oppressive energy pressure radiating from its mutating form grew increasingly terrifying by the second.
However, the massive quantity of high-purity Ether energy bleeding into the open air was a beacon. It was akin to dropping a bucket of fresh, hot blood into a silent, shark-infested sea. The surging, volatile energy fluctuations rippled outward from the ruined plaza, echoing violently toward the deepest, darkest sectors of the Hollow.
Deep within the suffocating fog, the shadows began to stir. Heavy, chaotic footsteps, the sickening sound of chitinous limbs crawling over stone, and low, guttural roars—all dripping with ravenous intent—began to echo through the gloom. It wasn't just the mindless, ordinary Ethereals being drawn to this all-you-can-eat feast.
The eerie, flickering silhouette of a Dullahan phased in and out of the dense mist. From a distance, the rhythmic, earth-shaking footsteps of a Thanatos steadily approached. Beneath the cacophony, the sickening, wet friction of a massive, unseen creature dragging its bloated body across the cavern floor could be heard echoing from the abyss. Drawn by the scent of pure power, a massive horde of Elite Ethereals was rapidly converging on this single, isolated fuel point from every conceivable direction.
Two minutes later.
Hu Tao's squad finally shattered the last wave of Ethereals barricading the passage. Weapons drawn and breathing heavily, the group rushed toward the immediate vicinity of the plaza's main entrance.
The overwhelming concentration of overflowing Ether had forcibly thinned the suffocating fog in this sector. Peering through the haze, they could clearly see the faint, pulsing purple light illuminating the plaza. The grating, wet sounds of the Spine King Worm aggressively consuming the fuel echoed off the walls, entirely masked by the terrifying chorus of numerous, unseen threats rapidly closing in on their position.
However, just as Hu Tao bent her knees, fully prepared to charge headfirst into the fray, Venti suddenly shot his hand out, physically blocking her path.
The Anemo Archon, a bard who practically lived with a carefree, teasing smile plastered across his face, now wore an incredibly rare expression of absolute solemnity. He tilted his head, listening intently to the unseen currents of the cavern. A sharp, calculating light flashed continuously within his bright azure eyes.
The wind—his ever-present eyes and ears—had just delivered a deeply disappointing piece of news. Mere moments ago, an extremely unique, highly volatile spatial fluctuation had erupted within the plaza, only to vanish just as quickly. It had completely bypassed the natural boundaries of the Hollow, taking Sarah's distinct aura right along with it.
Almost simultaneously, Zhongli halted his advance. The former Geo Archon reached out, gently pressing his gloved palm flat against the cold, damp stone of the passage wall. There was no need for him to voice his thoughts; the freshest, lingering echoes of Remembrance recorded deep within the surface matter of the earth were more than enough to perfectly corroborate Venti's grim discovery.
The brutal, forceful tearing of space, the sickening sense of absolute blasphemy lingering within the residual energy fluctuations, and the sudden, complete disappearance of the target's life signal were all crystal clear. Their prey had escaped.
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