The Restarted Ruins

At this moment, Ian removed several packs of alchemical explosives that had been hanging from his waist.

After defeating Patrick and the hive mind, he had prepared to do what he had intended from the very beginning—completely destroy the hive.

Without question, the place where the hive mind resided was absolutely not the hive's weakest point.

On the contrary, the seat of that will at the bottom was the area where living metal materials and crystals were densest and strongest. Trying to trigger the collapse of the hive by blowing up that place was nothing short of a fool's dream—simply an impossible task. At the very least, the few bags of explosives Ian had brought were nowhere near enough.

Rather, these mere four packs of explosives, aside from their instantaneous burst of force, might not even have had as much total destructive power as Ian swinging his sword forty times.

So the question was: where could he blow up just one part and bring down the entire hive?

Good question! Ian did not know either.

Unless he used Precognitive Vision.

"Right here."

Crossing layer after layer of hive partitions, Ian raised his head, watery radiance flowing through his eyes.

He swiftly spotted the places within the enormous hive where fissures and gray mist converged.

That was where the Brain-Eating Insect Queen normally lived and lay dormant.

Because the Brain-Eating Insect Queen had lived here for so long, the environment had adapted to her presence. Once the queen failed to return for an extended period, the chambers, zones, and passageways that had originally relied on her to bear their pressure would rapidly weaken, then collapse.

Countless fissures converged here. Just a tiny explosion was enough to catalyze the self-collapse of every load-bearing area in the hive that had fallen out of balance.

Using Precognitive Vision, Ian carefully placed each pack of explosives in the most suitable location, set their detonation signals, then turned and walked toward the outside of the hive.

"No."

Sensing the turmoil of the giant beasts' battle outside, Ian remembered something. He turned back and headed deeper into the hive. "I nearly forgot. There are still some things I haven't taken."

At this moment, outside the hive.

The battle between the giant beasts was already nearing its end—the queen had been suppressed by the White Mist Bishop and the Aether Crystal Dragon, the Dark Radiance Offshoot had lost its energy, and the parasitized Surging Tide Giant Eel, after raging for a while, had fallen utterly silent. It remained motionless where it was. No one knew whether it was dead or had merely lost its sense of self under overwhelming psychic pressure.

"Hold on a little longer!"

When Ian emerged outside with three dragon eggs wrapped in a huge blanket made from hive flesh and planted his feet solidly on the crystalline ground, his legs suddenly went weak. He felt as though his whole body were about to fall apart.

—Every task had been completed, and nearly every enemy had been dealt with. He had truly lost the breath that had kept him fighting all this time, and the exhaustion accumulated over nearly three or four days came crashing down all at once.

"Hah... Andor's armored suit, the native High Shaman and the crocodile dragon, the Blazing Flame Lands special operations team, the local Magic Beasts, Patrick... These past few days really have been fulfilling. And I used up all the Origin Matter I'd stored over more than a year..."

Ian was not particularly distressed over the Origin Matter he had stored in the Ancient Dragon Core. Not only could the crocodile dragon's crystal core repair the Ancient Dragon Core, but the Morien Steel he had just acquired could also lay a solid foundation for his future advancement to the Third Energy Level. He had profited beyond profit...

The highest authority over Redwood Base alone, along with the complete design blueprints for the Aether Furnace Core and the Kindling, were enough to make him cry out that the gains were incalculable.

It was just that he had used up more than three hundred and sixty days' worth in three days. The intensity of his recent life truly had been a hundred times greater than usual.

Just as Ian's steps began to stagger, a figure hurried over from ahead and supported the youth.

It was Isengard.

The blond youth had come to meet the comrade who had fought alongside him these past few days. He did not need to ask to know the outcome of the battle inside the hive, so he said nothing. He merely gently prepared to take Ian back to Master Gose, so that the alchemy master could prepare a few stamina potions and restore his strength.

"Here."

But Ian, unsteady on his feet, drew a sword from his waist—it was Patrick's mithril longsword. He handed it to Isengard, then lowered his head and instructed him, "Your uncle said to leave this for you—it counts as spoils of war, I suppose."

Isengard, supporting Ian, paused. He turned his head toward the hive, unable to keep himself from feeling a little melancholy.

After a moment of silence, he murmured, "Uncle is in there?"

"Forget it. Let it be."

"Don't worry." Ian spoke to comfort him. "He died quite painfully. He didn't look very happy."

Isengard had a fair understanding of just how catastrophically terrible Ian's sense of humor was, but he had to admit that hell jokes did have their purpose.

The youth's worries were instantly amused away. Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, he shook his head repeatedly. "How could anyone be happy after dying? Ah, forget it, forget it... You're much heavier than I imagined!"

He had originally assumed that someone with Ian's build would be easy and light to support, but he had never expected that beneath that slender, long-limbed appearance, Ian was practically no different from an iron-cast statue in human form. "Walk faster. The queen isn't dead yet!"

That was indeed true.

At this moment, the queen was still raging. The enormous shelled soft-bodied insect constantly tried to rush back to the mother hive. It was not the swarm mind, but it was the individual closest to the swarm mind—if one had to put it that way, it barely counted as the hive mind's "offspring," a creature with some chance of replacing the hive mind and gathering the swarm once more.

However, neither the White Mist Bishop nor the Aether Crystal Dragon would allow it to do so.

"Back down."

Blue psychic halos flickered in the old bishop's eyes as he shouted sharply, his beard and hair bristling.

At the same time, the elder stepped forward and pushed both hands ahead, as though shoving open a heavy door.

Starting from that motion, a layer of pure white radiance gathered with a blue psychic glow, transforming into an azure halo that pressed directly toward the queen—the halo passed through water mist that rippled aside and earth and stone that yielded, while invisible telekinetic force slammed directly into the middle of the queen's body.

The queen had originally been struggling to push forward, but the next moment, a pair of invisible giant hands pinned it firmly in place, even forcing it to wriggle backward.

That very stalemate gave the Aether Crystal Dragon its chance.

As a giant beast that had clearly been on the verge of advancing, only to fail because of the celestial phenomenon caused by the labyrinth's opening, the Aether Crystal Dragon was not actually in very good condition. Yet enraged by the theft of its dragon eggs, it activated the "Kindling Module" within its body, burning its own life to battle a queen one major tier above itself.

The power granted by the Kindling temporarily gave it the ability to fight its opponent, but the result was mutual ruin—the queen lost the hive mind's guidance due to its obstruction and descended into madness, while its own breath had burned a massive hole into the lower half of its body.

And now was the chance for the final blow—to destroy the queen completely!

At this moment, everyone present saw the pale crystals within the Aether Crystal Dragon suddenly light up, causing the Origin Matter reaction around its body to surge more than tenfold. Pale and scarlet particles visibly swirled around it, even drawing arcs of tiny lightning.

Opening its jaws, the Aether Crystal Dragon aimed at the Brain-Eating Insect Queen that was still locked in a contest of strength with the White Mist Bishop.

Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz!

Charge after charge, the endless power from the Kindling Module surged forward along the dorsal fin spikes, ultimately gathering in the Crystal Dragon's mouth.

Then came a streak of white lightning!

Boom!

The queen, locked in stalemate, had its shell instantly shattered by the Aether Crystal Dragon's all-out strike. Its entire insect body was hurled away like trash by the combined force of the White Mist Bishop's telekinesis and the Crystal Dragon's attack. Its massive form crashed heavily onto the bottom of the hive, leaving it sprawled miserably amid murky river water and crystal fragments.

The giant insect seemed to sense that death was about to come for it, and the fluorescence flickering across its body gradually began to dim, blinking uncertainly. Its glowing flesh even wriggled faintly, as though it were weeping.

—They had failed.

—They could never leave this place, leave this underground prison.

—They... could never, ever...

Rumble!!!!

At that moment, the explosives Ian had planted inside the hive detonated, shattering the most vital support points of the more than two-hundred-meter-tall nest.

Whoosh—whoosh—!

Amid violent winds, the upper half of the hive tilted and bent through billowing black smoke, then... came crashing down!

It fell directly onto the queen, which had completely lost its ability to resist and whose life force was nearly extinguished!

The hive collapsed, burying the queen completely beneath it.

Splash...

At the same time, the sound of rushing water suddenly intensified.

"Quick, get ready to leave!"

Ian, who had been helped over to Master Gose by Isengard, abruptly rose after drinking a stamina potion. Forcing his exhausted body to hold on, he solemnly told the two, "The hive has been destroyed. The bug in the cooling interface is about to disappear..."

"All the cooling port's functions are about to restart completely!"

"We have to get out of here as fast as possible!"

Boom! Buzzz—

At that very moment, an earth-shaking tremor spread through the entire rift region.

A colossal silver metal pillar suddenly burst through the rock shell above everyone's heads, followed by a second, then a third...

Until at last, along the outer edges of the entire rift region—the hive's location, every waterfall, stream, and crystal-covered area—a silver ring formed from countless metal cylinders.

In the blink of an eye, the geological structure that had once seemed incomparably solid, as though it supported the heavy rock strata above, was completely shattered. Those seemingly indestructible layers of stone were now like crumbs of dirt clinging to some colossal creature's body. With the slightest shake, they tumbled wholly to the ground like meteors striking the earth.

As those rock layers gradually peeled away, one could vaguely see a vast, towering, incomparably enormous supermassive metal pipeline slowly descending from above, moving to slot and connect with another metal pipeline structure that was slowly rising from below.

There was no doubt that this was the cooling interface's true form... an emergency cooling channel capable of pouring in the waters of an entire sea!

Previously, because there had been no need to activate the emergency channel, this place had only contained gently flowing water, serving as a source of ornamental water. But now, the furnace core's extreme heat urgently needed to be relieved. This was precisely the moment when emergency cooling had to be carried out!

Yet the hive had jammed it, and the Great Elder had used biological signals to input erroneous commands, preventing Redwood Base from proceeding to the next stage and leaving it stuck in place.

But now, everything had begun operating again.

"Move!"

There was no need for Ian to say more. Master Gose and Isengard immediately went pale with alarm. They carried Ian on their backs, gathered their equipment, and prepared to flee at once.

At the same time, the Aether Crystal Dragon let out a long cry. It was not in good condition after defeating its opponent, but it still had enough strength to swim, and it was now following a river channel upstream to escape.

"Follow the Azure Sea Crystal Dragon!" Ian shouted. He could tell that its long cry had been telling them to follow—it had decided to save these humans, whether because they had fought side by side before, or because of the dragon eggs in Ian's hands.

"Sha Sha!"

"Whoa!"

With loud calls, the Ironclad Shark and Andor, who had recovered most of their strength, burst from the river channel the next moment. They had long been lurking nearby, waiting for the opportunity to help everyone retreat.

And now, the opportunity had come!

Everyone mounted Sha Sha. Though they were rather heavy, with the Origin Matter assistance bestowed by Andor, the water rose into the air and carried Sha Sha swiftly toward the Aether Crystal Dragon.

Meanwhile, the silver metal cylinder sealing layers continued descending. They gradually sealed and interlocked, like an immense gear whose edges could not be seen, meshing together through an intricate structure and method, rebuilding the grand megastructure of a thousand years ago.

After Ian and the others had followed the Crystal Dragon several hundred meters away from the edge of the gigantic pipeline, the enormous interface pipeline had finished connecting.

The hive, the giant beasts' corpses, the Blazing Flame Lands soldiers who had failed to retreat in time, and the Giant Metal Centipedes were swallowed as though by a giant mouth. Though they should have been enormous, before that colossal mechanical structure measured in kilometers, they were as insignificant as flying insects.

They fell into a dark abyss—an abyss leading who knew where.

Then came superheated, high-pressure furnace steam, carrying unimaginable heat and radiation!

Ian turned back. He stared at the colossal metal pipeline behind him. Precognitive Vision could not make it out clearly, but the thermal vision granted by the Silver Chip let him know.

Everything behind him had already turned into a dazzling gold-red, like the sun.

Everything was being devoured...

It was cooling fluid so scorching that it was nearly ionized, located around the out-of-control furnace core.

At this moment, it came with thunderous force, erupting from the far side of the furnace core that had been sealed for who knew how long. Like a tsunami, it piled atop itself, converging together...

Then poured into the place it should have gone from the start.

The hive? The queen? Or anything else?

Under heat nearly as scorching as the sun, they would become nothing but ashes.

On the other side of the official road, cold cooling fluid also began pouring into the cooling interface layer, heading toward the blazing furnace core that had waited for it for who knew how long, soothing those high-temperature structures that had long been unable to bear their burden.

The extremes of cold and heat, bearing layers upon layers of pressure enough to silence even the sublimated, rose and fell in crossing paths from beyond the heavens and the sea, bringing endless clamor and the roar of the ocean.

At that moment, whether it was Ian or Isengard, Master Gose or the White Mist Bishop—

Even the Aether Crystal Dragon fell silent and sighed in awe.

They gazed reverently at this relic of the Pre-Epoch Civilization, which had begun operating normally once more, as though witnessing the great work of a god.

—The surging waters swept forth, reducing everything to nothing.

Whether it was the distant passage of time, or grief that had endured without end.

The real wrap-up comes next. Ah, once I finish the ruins arc, I need to rest for a while. I said the new book would update steadily at six thousand words a day, but it still ended up averaging ten thousand.

If this keeps up, my body is going to collapse again. I need to slow down...