Klaus did not come down.
He stood on the temporary command platform above the Collapse Pit, looking down at the formation below. He had no unnecessary words.
"Begin."
At Klaus's command, everyone began to move.
The bronze protective barrier at the edge of the Collapse Pit had already been gnawed into a sorry state. The Forest Seed-contaminated Great Ghouls had repeatedly battered it over the past few days, leaving the originally laid copper blockade line in tatters. Several sections had been bitten clean through, their exposed copper cross-sections covered in dense bite marks.
The Holy Armor Army soldiers removed the last barricade, fully exposing the breach.
A foul wind surged up from below, carrying the stench of rot mixed with earth.
Leike was the first to jump down.
The instant his figure vanished into the darkness, the dark red writhing things beneath his coat suddenly burst open. Countless flesh worms poured from his body, hissing as they spread out and lunged in every direction.
A few breaths later, sounds rose from below.
The muffled crunch of shattering bones and tearing flesh rolled up from beneath, mixed with the hoarse shrieks unique to Ghouls. Dense and brief, they surged from the darkness wave after wave.
The Great Ascendant jumped down immediately after him.
The moment he landed, his mechanical legs let out a heavy metallic crash. Cracks spread in a ring beneath his feet, while his Mechanical Eyeball lit up with two cold white points in the darkness and swept the surroundings.
Leike had already cleared an open space around the entrance.
The ground was covered in Ghoul chunks and severed limbs. Dark red flesh worms darted through the remains, devouring them at astonishing speed.
Farther into the darkness, countless pairs of ghostly green eyes stared in their direction, densely packed