The adjutants around him immediately connected their nerves to the Aberration Fortress. Amid thunderous rumbling and squirming flesh, thin bulges slowly emerged one after another along the outer walls of the enormous Flesh Bastion.
Beams of light shone from those bulges, illuminating the entire underground root system.
Only then did they finally see the full extent of that [Aberrant Whale].
In that instant, their faces went deathly pale.
Several adjutants even stumbled back a few steps.
"What in the world is that...?"
Under the powerful beams, they saw the outer walls of the enormous [Aberrant Whale], riddled with gaping holes.
Copious amounts of putrid blood and flesh dripped from the ruptures.
Most terrifying of all, the flesh and fleshy walls were rapidly decomposing and rotting at a rate visible to the naked eye, as though an invisible maw were devouring the giant whale bit by bit from within.
Something...
Was eating that [Aberrant Whale]!
In that instant, the commander shuddered.
He abruptly remembered something-a scene he had witnessed during a major battle against the Mechanical Church.
"Run!" he said, trembling.
The adjutants around him froze. "Sir... what's wrong?"
"Run!"
At that moment, he lashed his tentacles wildly and roared:
"Get the fortress moving! Get out of here now! Hurry! Hurry!!"
He had finally realized what horrifying thing they had encountered!
It was a storm!
Something the Mechanical Church had developed specifically to exterminate Flesh Creatures en masse...
The Mechanical Nanostorm!
The enormous Aberration Fortress immediately withdrew its beams and accelerated toward the direction they had come from, fleeing frantically like a sheep that had wandered into a pack of tigers.
Meanwhile, the rate at which the enormous Aberrant Whale's flesh was decomposing suddenly dropped by half.
In the darkness.
A faint breeze seemed to sweep through the tunnel.
Then the