Valak stood where he was, the images from seconds ago still lingering in his eight crystal eyes.
His colleague.
That old officer who had personally torn apart enemy Armored Beasts in three border wars.
At the moment he lunged at that "bipedal creature," he had been frozen in place.
Valak could not understand what had happened at all. The other party seemed to have used nothing more than a glance to bring everything to a halt.
The officer remained suspended in midair in his pouncing posture. Even the venom flung from the tips of his tentacles had solidified into motionless droplets.
After two Black Giants entered, they carried that "statue" away as if transporting a piece of warehouse cargo.
The entire process had seemed so natural and logical that it even made his tentacles go numb.
Valak glanced at the silver-gray color at the ends of his tentacles, which had still not recovered. The patterns in his bark were trembling faintly. It was a physiological reaction caused by excessive tension.
Just then, a towering shadow stopped before him.
It was a Black Giant Priest.
The other party's slender body blocked part of the cold blue light. The vertical slit-like mouthpart in the center of his chest opened and closed slightly, producing a low vibration. Valak instinctively looked up, all eight crystal eyes locking onto him at once.
"Come."
The Black Giant Priest spoke in the language of the Tentacle Trees as well.
Several Black Giants stood behind him like black city walls.
Especially after personally experiencing the Black Giants' combat power, that oppressive feeling was far more real than naval cannons.
Having witnessed the inexplicable time stop earlier, the Tentacle Trees had no intention of resisting. They followed the Black Giant Priest out of the laboratory. The corridor was quiet.