Flames surged from the Guan Dao and slammed against the inner wall of the bubble. Under the violent fluctuations of Reiatsu, the seawater churned and boiled in every direction.
Bai Zhu gripped the hilt with both hands, ready to charge forward, when the ground beneath his feet suddenly rose.
The Gatekeeper's head swelled upward, its grooves stretching open one by one. Its tentacles, which had shrunk from exhaustion earlier, thickened again. Rows of suckers opened, and its body soon rose above the hundred-meter Stone Gate.
Milluki hugged his terminal as the numbers on the screen kept climbing.
"It's recovering?"
Piyu stood at the edge of the bubble and kicked away a swooping black crow.
"Bai Zhu, is that sword of yours replenishing its strength?"
"How would I know?"
Bai Zhu lowered his head and patted the Gatekeeper.
"Buddy, if you understand me, move twice."
Four of the Gatekeeper's tentacles rose. Two clamped onto the left edge of the Stone Gate, while the other two wrapped around the stone pillar on the right. Its remaining tentacles pierced the ruins' foundation, their suckers pressed tightly against the rock.
The bone wings behind the gate pressed outward.
Boom!
The Gatekeeper's body shuddered. Several cracks split across the stone pillars, and rubble rolled down the foundation into the Old Trench.
The Stone Gate, which had opened nearly halfway, stopped.
The Gatekeeper's tentacles pulled backward, forcibly halting the Stone Gate's slow opening.
Milluki stared at his terminal, the flesh on his face trembling along with it.
"If we do this a few more times, won't whatever's inside be unable to get out?!"
"Don't celebrate too soon."
Piyu raised her hand and pointed at the gap in the gate.
The giant eye had already withdrawn behind the gate, but several rows of feather-bones were wedged between