Above the clearing, over the crater.
Rings of dust, squeezed out by the crushing pressure, slowly spread from the tightly packed sphere formed entirely of densely interwoven rock thorns and stone spikes, gradually dissipating several meters up in the air.
"Crack!"
Suddenly, a fissure split open along one side of the stone-spike sphere, followed by a clattering sound as fragments rolled down.
"Slap!"
Then, a pebble-like fragment fell from midair and landed in the mud.
"Crack... crackle... crack-crack-crack..."
Then, as if it were some sort of signal, cracking sounds began to come from other parts of the spiked sphere. One, two, three... countless cracks split open in an instant and spread outward.
In the blink of an eye, nearly half of the spiked sphere, from the bottom upward, was covered in cracks.
"Drip!"
Somehow, a single droplet fell, tracing a glittering arc through the air before striking the muddy ground heavily and splattering into a dark stain.
"Drip... drip... drip..."
Then two, three, four... countless droplets began to fall in a light drizzle.
"Psh!"
After that, as though it could finally no longer hold, a jet of water suddenly shot out from one of the cracks amid the rainlike droplets, arcing through the air before pouring down.
"Psh! Psh! Psh!"
Then two, three, four... streams of water sprayed from different cracks. The entire spiked sphere suddenly leaked everywhere, its arcing jets cascading down like waterfalls.
"Crack-crack-crack-crack-crack!"
As the streams of water sprayed forth, the cracks that had stopped spreading across the lower hemisphere suddenly surged upward.
Before long, the entire stone-spike sphere was covered in cracks.
"Psh... psh... psh!"
At the same time, once the cracks spread over the upper hemisphere, jets of water also shot out from the fissures above, cascading down in a torrent.
The formerly dense and