Chapter 625: Under Attack (1/2)

Zac immediately rushed back when hearing the commotion, fearing that the mysterious entity that had snatched up his people from the bridge had returned. But thankfully they hadn’t been ambushed by the Collector or any rival faction, but rather the base itself. The walls had gone crazy, frenziedly attacking a group of cultivators who desperately activated one defensive talisman after another to stay alive.

The halo of [Conformation of Supremacy] appeared behind Zac’s back as he flashed forward. He used the avatar of the axe this time, imbuing each swing a great force and sharpness, allowing him to crush the spikes as they tried to stab at everything that moved.

The cultivators were all elites as well and they organized their efforts to block the attacks. They normally wouldn’t have been strong enough to deal with something like this, but Zac quickly realized that the attacks were pretty weakened compared to what he was used to. A series of cracks echoed out a second later, and the walls fell apart, exposing a neighboring corridor on one side and an empty storage room on the other.

Zac bent down and picked up a piece of Memorysteel, and found that it was quite malleable.

“What happened?” Zac asked with a frown as he turned to a panting soldier.

“I don’t know,” the bloodied soldiers said. “The walls suddenly started vibrating. Its surface looked like water during an earthquake. Then it just started attacking.”

“I think the programming in the research base is unraveling because of the state of this base,” Kenzie said as she came running. “This might not be the last time.”

“We’ll see if we can gravitate towards open platforms as much as possible,” Zac nodded. “For now, have everyone keep watch for any changes in the surroundings.”

The group set out again, but the scouts soon came back with the news that they wouldn’t be able to reach the platform the way they were going. Zac hesitated for a few seconds before he walked over to the Anointed.

“Help me destroy the walls. They seem to have limited energy now. As long as we can cause enough damage they should crumble,” Zac said. “Finding a new path would waste too much time.”

“Let us handle it, Warmaster,” Rhubat said. “We know you must have expended a lot of energy during the previous battles.”

He turned to a group of Anointed the next moment and they nodded in understanding. A squad of a hundred Zhix followed behind, and four massive seals appeared in the air. The whole section started shaking a moment later as the Anointed unleashed an all-out barrage on the walls. The seals pretty much acted as hammers, slamming into it over and over.

The spikes were crushed as soon as they formed and the walls had to keep expending energy to reform the massive dents and cracks that appeared. Finally, after just 40 seconds, the walls crumbled, providing them access to a neighboring corridor.

From there on out they kept moving quickly, taking the path of least resistance where they either forced their way through the walls or followed hte corridors depending on what seemed fastest. Reaching the third platform went without issue, apart from some disagreements about who would go first. Only after Zac and the Anointed quashed any dissent could they get across the bridge, a 50-meter wide strip of land.

The third platform continued with Memorysteel walls for ten minutes until they suddenly gave way to large fields of farmland. It seemed to have been recently harvested though, and Zac realized they had reached the sector the Cartava Clan lived in.

“I’ll go ahead,” Zac suddenly said before he turned into a blur as he flickered back and forth, running to every corner of the fields over the next 30 minutes as the army kept running straight ahead.

He even entered a series of side paths and corridors, but Zac couldn’t find what he was looking for; the glasshouses that held the race-boosting treasures. Zac could only sigh in disappointment and rejoin the others. Zac knew it was a longshot that a bunch of valuable natural treasures would be waiting for him in this place, but he couldn't help himself from making sure.

But the Cartava Clan had clearly picked everything clean before they set off. He had got his hands on two of the Cosmos Sacks of the elders though, so it wasn’t impossible that some of the stored items were the race-boosting fruits Leviala mentioned. But now was not the time to properly go through his haul.

The group kept going, and they soon passed the farmland biospheres to enter the corridors again. However, this place was different compared to what they had encountered so far. It wasn’t the empty shells of the outer sector, but it also wasn’t the abandoned opulence of the inner layer.

Most importantly, the tunnels were drastically transformed from the bare aesthetic. There were paintings, mosaics, statues, benches adorning the walls, and the roof was covered in what looked like a starry sky. All the art looked somewhat recent as well, no doubt additions left by the Cartava clan. A huge crack in the wall allowed Zac to see a vast warehouse, spanning hundreds of meters even after the spatial expansion was gone.

Inside was a whole neighborhood of small Memorysteel townhouses in straight rows, forming a series of parallel streets. The houses were all made from metal, but they were somehow dyed in bright colors to bring life to the section. Some of the houses even had small gardens.

Large broken spheres hung in the sky, probably a source of light that had broken during the massive shake-ups. In fact, quite a few of the houses had fallen apart, some missing whole walls, while others were essentially unscathed. Zac guessed that repairs and upgrades had been made with spatially expanded materials, which then shrunk during the upheavals.

It was clear that they had appeared in the proper residential districts of the Cartava Clan, though they were still just at the edge. Those houses likely belonged to families who worked the fields, while the real elites lived somewhere further inside.

Zac and his followers didn’t get much further though before he suddenly stopped in his tracks, the hairs on his arms standing on end. There was no hesitation as the chains shot out from [Love’s Bond] to form a wide net that pushed everyone back as Zac desperately retreated.

“WATCH OUT!” Zac roared as he threw out a set of defensive talismans before summoning [Nature’s Barrier] and infused it with the Fragment of the Bodhi. A series of massive explosions quickly followed and a scorching heat slammed into the frontlines the next moment.

Layers after layers of emerald leaves were incinerated, but Zac kept infusing Cosmic Energy to create a storm of leaves that filled the whole corridor. Others were thankfully quick on the uptake, and a series of barriers quickly sprung up to lessen his burden. Only half a minute later did the inferno subside, allowing them to breathe out in relief.

“Those explosions were definitely not a part of the base,” Kenzie said as she looked down at her tablet. “I think we triggered some trap when we entered this section.”

“Why did they boobytrap their homes?” Joanna said with incomprehension.

“Revenge,” one of the Anointed said. “These natives fight without honor, breaking bonds without pause. I can see them doing something like this.”