The enormous alloy sphere—the escape pod that carried their last trace of hope for survival—had its fate completely rewritten in an instant.
It was no longer a sturdy shelter, but like a watermelon struck midair by a ten-thousand-ton giant hammer, it burst apart amid a dull boom that seemed to come from the core of Earth's Core Lava—BOOM!!!
Destructive energy erupted from within without restraint.
The superalloy hull, capable of withstanding the pressure of several thousand meters beneath the sea, was now as fragile as tinfoil before absolute power.
Torn, twisted, and stretched mercilessly by an unstoppable force, it finally shattered into countless strangely shaped metal fragments with edges sharp as blades.
Mixed with the pod's delicate instrument parts, severed pipes, and even the wreckage of seats that had no time to react, those fragments became a deadly metal storm of terrifying density and speed, blasting into the dark depths in every direction on the heels of the explosion's shockwave!
Every shrieking piece of wreckage carried a deathly scream powerful enough to pierce flesh and destroy structures.
The instant vacuum created by the explosion drew an unforgiving response from the deep sea.
The enormous pressure difference gave the surrounding icy seawater an outlet. It was no longer gentle water, but transformed into a violent, ravenous beast!
The seawater surged madly into the narrow space that had just been torn open and still contained traces of air, with the force of an avalanche.
This inrush was not silent. It let out a horrifying wail that made scalps tingle and marrow freeze—"Wooooom—!!" Low, drawn-out, and filled with destructive suction, it was as though the abyssal jaws were greedily devouring the last trace of life.
At the murky center, where the devastating halo from the explosion had yet to fully dissipate, a dense