Sleepless Eye (13)

The lengthy exploration of the corridors continued for some time.

The Blazing Flame Lands team had neither prophetic psionics nor a Silver Chip to record maps. Faced with the different forks in the corridors, they had to use all manner of detection instruments—sound waves, dyed water flows, and other methods—to probe and mark their paths. The efficiency was low, and the process exceedingly cumbersome.

Most terrifying of all, many corridors that appeared to lead far into the distance would, after countless twists and turns, return to the main passage—a gigantic U-shaped structure that was profoundly discouraging whenever it appeared.

After some time, even quiet murmurs arose among the Machina Church's cultivator team, while the captain, who had once patiently lain motionless in the jungle for days on end, began to grow anxious.

—This exploration had been a pure accident, not something planned.

To him, danger and boredom were trivial matters. What mattered most was that this had deviated from the plan.

And besides... this place instinctively made him uneasy.

"So far, we've explored for over five hours, yet we haven't seen the slightest sign of Pre-Epoch Civilization ruins."

"The ruins definitely exist, but did those natives really give us the right route?"

He could not help turning toward the cultivator team and asking with a frown, "Or has their information become invalid too? After all, it has been eight hundred, if not a thousand, years since they left the 'Holy Land.' Are the records they left behind truly reliable?"

"This is merely the area surrounding the entrance to the Pre-Epoch Civilization site. We should be beside the true entrance already, perhaps even deep within it."

The leading female cultivator, whose voice came from an artificial vocal cord, calmly explained as they recorded the map route, "The local natives did not deceive us. In fact, Captain, you understand this well too. There is such a vast network of hollow caverns and ecosystems underground, almost no different from the surface. If you had not witnessed something like this with your own eyes, would you have dared believe it?"

That was indeed true. Though the captain still felt uneasy, he could only admit it.

At the end of the day, it was also related to the Blazing Flame Lands Special Operations Brigade having suffered repeated setbacks lately.

A few days ago, a group of trained natives had gone beyond their authorization and, under the Great Shaman's instructions, attacked a White Folk boy from Harrison Port... They claimed he was the tribe's mortal enemy, the reason they had suffered a crushing defeat six years ago.

Whether that was true or not, he was only a fourteen-year-old child. Why send so many people after him?

Yet those hunters had happened to run into guards from the Ellen Family. Not only had their support been exposed, they had all been wiped out!

Harrison Port's defenses had visibly tightened. Even they had nearly left traces that could be caught, and could only lead their team out to sea, disguising themselves as merchant ships to lie low for a while.

Who could have imagined that even then, an accident would strike... The South Sea Anomaly had directly swept every one of them into it.

Fortunately, they had long learned from the natives of the existence of their 'Holy Land,' and remembered the native Great Shaman's instructions. When they encountered the 'gate,' they entered through a relatively stable small breach beside the great rift, allowing them to preserve most of their intact instruments and equipment as they entered the underground ruin complex.

Otherwise, if they had fallen in from the great rift, the people might have emerged unharmed thanks to the water cushioning their fall, but the ship and equipment would certainly have been completely destroyed.

The captain knew very well that his mission was not to explore some native holy land.

But the Machina Church was different.

These Machina cultivators from the Blazing Flame Lands Royal Technical Institute had come here precisely for the native holy land.

Or rather, for the 'Pre-Epoch Civilization ruins'!

Among all orthodox churches on the Terra Continent, the Machina Church was the most fervent about Pre-Epoch Civilization ruins and the most active in exploring them. In pursuit of so-called 'ascension,' they had gathered nearly all surviving Pre-Epoch Civilization records and documents across the land.

This time, after receiving the captain's report concerning the 'native holy land,' the Machina Church had found related Pre-Epoch Civilization records in its archives—the records indicated that this place held a supermassive base that had been critically important even during the Pre-Epoch Civilization era. In the terms of the current era, it was a 'supermassive ruin complex.'

Because it was only a suspicion rather than a certainty, the Machina order had not directly dispatched a cultivator corps. But even for a mere 'rumor,' they had sent one Steel Eye cultivator and two Watcher Knights to assist the captain in exploring the area.

"Now, the ruins have indeed been proven to exist, but the Great Shaman is dead."

Surveying the deep, winding cave mouths and branching paths stretching in all directions around them, the Red Folk captain could not help sighing. "Without a guide, this kind of exploration is far too inefficient... and far too dangerous."

But just as the captain was lost in thought, an exceptionally shrill scream suddenly erupted.

The Blazing Flame Lands personnel jolted in alarm and immediately reorganized their formation, deploying into a defensive array. Part of their mobile force turned toward the direction of the scream. The team's response was highly orderly.

Yet when they looked toward where the scream had come from, even the captain, long accustomed to life and death, felt his entire body explode with chills and his scalp go numb.

A scout marking the wall in a cavern to their left had been carving a trace into the rock with his knife when a long, viscous tentacle shot from a crack in the cave wall and coiled around him. It fiercely squeezed and dragged his entire body toward that tiny fissure. His whole arm was about to be torn off alive, crushed into a mangled mass of flesh and blood.

But what truly stunned the captain was not that—it was the tentacle. It was covered in strange pits, pustules, and festering sores. Beneath its sticky mucus crawled dense swarms of tiny dark-blue insects, darting in every direction, giving off a feeling of utmost revulsion and danger.

The dark-blue insects writhed, even triggering Origin Matter reactions. The tentacle suddenly exerted force and instantly tore off the scout's arm. As torrents of blood spurted out, the dark-blue insects burrowed into his wound.

"Open fire!"

The captain issued the command sternly, and the soldiers immediately fired—bullets carrying violent force tore through the air like hailstones, shooting toward the rock wall where the tentacle had emerged.

Boom! Boom! Boom! The sturdy water-formed rock wall immediately crumbled beneath the terrifying impact of the bullets, revealing the cavity behind it—a giant black octopus, over three meters long without counting its tentacles, crouched within the hollow and greedily devoured the scout's arm with its mouthparts.

The dark-blue glow in the octopus's bulb-sized eyes was brilliantly bright, but upon closer inspection, one could see that the light came entirely from gathered insects, like dim fireflies.

A rain of bullets shot toward it, like a wildly pounding storm.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Numerous bullets struck the body of this Magic Beast-class giant octopus, sending ripples across it but failing to penetrate. All impact was absorbed, deflected, and dispersed by muscles as supple as water.

Sensing the attack, the giant octopus sprang up, tearing apart the rocks that had concealed its body as it charged forward.

That charge was like a missile, hurtling straight toward the crowd, ready to splash forth countless 'waves.'

But a fully armored knight wielding a massive metal shield, who had been watching the situation all along, charged forward without hesitation to meet it—he raised his shield and began charging as well. His heavy footsteps shook the earth, making him resemble a chariot marching across the ground.

Boom!

The greatshield knight and the giant octopus collided head-on, but it was the larger octopus that was sent flying. Though it appeared enormous, most of its body consisted of air sacs and water. The knight, on the other hand, cultivated an earth-aspect inheritance that allowed him to wield strength far beyond normal underground. His armor and greatshield together weighed over half a ton, and his center of gravity was incomparably stable.

Yet the giant octopus was not badly injured. Its body was boneless, supple, and incredibly slick, unable to take force at all. Seeing that things had gone wrong, it immediately intended to dart into the caverns to flee, spraying great clouds of dark-blue mist behind it to confuse its pursuers.

Such tricks might have been enough against ordinary people, but they were still lacking against professional Blazing Flame Lands special operations members.

The captain stepped forward and drew his sword, thrusting through the air. A blade of wind pressure, rapidly expanding and contracting as it twisted around itself, instantly swept aside the inky mist and descended over the creature. At the same time, an alchemical bullet blazing with fierce flames fired from a specially made firearm, launched later but arriving first, and struck the giant octopus.

Bang! In an instant, the waterlike giant octopus, previously unaffected by bullets, emitted a strange scraping shriek. Nearly half its body was shattered by the flame-transformed alchemical bullet. The remainder struggled and writhed, trying to extinguish the fire, but then the captain's wind-pressure sword struck it, instantly tearing it into hundreds of uneven chunks of flesh.

"Stop!"

Seeing that the Magic Beast had been killed, the medical team nearby wanted to tend to the wounded, but the captain stopped them with an awful expression. "Do not approach! Watch the dark-blue liquid on the ground—seal it all off and block it!"

"Vicha, can you hear me? If you can, answer!"

The captain's command halted everyone's movements, but all of them watched the scout with worried eyes.

"Cough... cough... haa... ngh..."

Called by name, the scout lying on the ground and convulsing coughed as he slowly rose.

Just as the captain's expression eased slightly, the scout turned his head, once again sending a shudder through everyone present.

In that brief exchange of fire, blue spots had already spread over the scout's entire face. His eyes spun rapidly in different directions, while his tongue and mouth stretched out with all their might. His whole face twisted until it no longer looked human.

He coughed up blood and vast quantities of tissue fluid, his body twitching and contorting in an extremely unnatural manner.

Faintly, beneath the scout's scalp, one could see clumps of 'things' bulging and writhing, like earthworms tunneling through soil.

"Unknown parasites! Burn them with fire!"

Gripping his longsword tightly, the captain's face turned ashen. At his instruction, a Machina Sister carrying a nozzle stepped out from the cultivator team.

She silently activated the device, and a stream of blue-white flame swept through the cavern ahead.

The clean holy fire burned away all oxygen, and even the troops some distance away felt a distinct lack of air.

More than ten seconds later, she shut off the nozzle and returned to the formation. The cavern before them had been burned dry; both the scout's corpse and the giant octopus had been charred into blackened husks, releasing a strange scent of roasted meat.

"Please excuse me. Let me examine the situation."

Immediately afterward, the cultivator leader accompanying the captain—the Iron Sister—stepped forward to inspect it.

This female cultivator's face was covered by a specially made gas mask, while her eyes were unmistakably artificial, possessing the luster of gemstones.

Now, those gemlike eyes bloomed open like flowers, revealing the bright observation crystals within.

Two beams of light shot forth, shining upon the bodies that still writhed faintly despite having nearly turned to charcoal.

These gemlike artificial eyes were the distinctive hallmark of the Sleepless Eye, one of the Machina Church's two great factions.

The Machina Church was exceptionally skilled at—or rather, revered—replacing its own bodily tissues with artificial organs, retaining only the most essential brain and cerebral marrow, or even merely the neocortex... Yet perhaps because they lacked the restraints of the body, the Machina Church possessed an enormous number of psionics, second only to the Church of Light's Embrace, whose members had to strictly uphold oaths and doctrines.

At this moment, the Sleepless Eye sister was using her psionics and Machina organs to inspect and observe.