Flames shot into the sky from the enormous crater ahead. Through the fire, Su Xiao could vaguely make out a building at the bottom of the crater—the Emperor's Palace. It was nothing short of an architectural miracle. Even after being bombed so heavily, it remained undamaged.
Su Xiao speculated that this was most likely due to the power of the Abyss. Otherwise, the palace would have been blasted into dust long ago.
Although the Emperor's Palace had not been destroyed, layer after layer of underground palaces had been blasted open, gradually revealing the scene beneath the Royal Capital to Su Xiao: a network of intersecting underground tunnels.
The tunnels were pitch-black. Even Apollo's solar flames could not illuminate what lay within.
Crack, crack, crack~
Dense scraping sounds of bones rang out. A withered, fleshless claw reached out from one of the tunnels. It belonged to a Parasitic Insect Warrior. Its eyes had degenerated, and its entire body was covered in keratinous patterns.
The monster leaped from the tunnel into the crater. Cold air poured from the pores on its face, while the feelers atop its head twisted about, sensing the life aura in its surroundings.
"Hiss!"
The Parasitic Insect Warrior let out a roar. Following that roar, one highly mutated Parasitic Insect Warrior after another charged out of the tunnels, like a swarm of ants pouring from their nest.
Bang.
A bullet struck the head of a highly mutated Parasitic Insect Warrior. Its head jerked back, and the exposed gray-white flesh writhed as the fist-sized hole in its skull healed.
The Parasitic Insect Warriors seen earlier had looked quite similar to humans, but these highly mutated ones resembled subterranean creatures that had lived in a lightless environment for years.
With a whoosh, the highly mutated Parasitic Insect Warrior vanished from