Chapter 1613 - Another Force? (1/2)

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

As time was limited, plus the purpose of this sortie was not to study the organizational structure of the corrupted army, so Hao Ren was not able to allocate more time to study those ‘summoning platforms’, but he managed to surmise the amount of these platforms along the equator based on the situation at the bottom of the canyon. Not surprisingly, the numbers were shockingly massive.

While unable to compare with the scale of the ‘mechanical apocalypse’ of the droid swarms across the universe, the rate of these corrupted monsters creating their troops was terrifying. Their tainted army was like an unassailable wave of despair before any mortal armies, and it was little wonder that Salaman and his guardian defenders were slowly being beaten back in this thousand-year war, and was reduced to relying on Agodal’s doomsday weapon and the core’s powerful shields to survive. Even that, if not for the Apocalypse Torrent to turn the tide of battle, and the remaining defensive power of the core itself, the defenders would have been destroyed a long time ago.

“Those brain monsters… they are linked to the summoning platforms, so they are also the commanders of the army as well?” Vivian wondered.

“More like they are the initiator of the summoning rites from what I see,” Y’zaks had a different opinion. “Those platforms are for collecting and amplifying the energies to empower the summoning rituals. I am a demon myself and I’m quite sensitive to the aura released by these rituals.

Y’lisabet then used her tiny horn to prod her dad on the leg, “Papa, this place is so different from ours your experience might not be all that useful you know.”

Y’zaks, his point sabotaged by his own daughter looked a little awkward before he continued, “Well, that’s just an idea, you can just see it as a reference.”

“I too think that those brain monsters are simply the initiators of the ritual,” Hao Ren supported Y’zaks’ idea, “Remember that brain monster we saw in the s earlier? If a part of the brain monsters is in charge of commands, then the one back there was more like a commander.”

Vivian turned to Hao Ren, “Based on?”

“I noticed the room had some display equipment, and on the display was the situation with the droid swarm in space,” Hao Ren explained. “Compared with those platforms at the bottom of the canyon, that room looked more like a command center.”

“Regardless of how these monsters replenish their numbers, that have little to do with our mission.” the MDT floated as it displayed a route map; from the land above the rift to beneath, the parts with missing information had been updated with new information, while a short red line was leading the crew towards an exit not too far from the platform. “Based on my calculation, we should go out from there, and from there we will enter the system again and will be on the right path again, after that we will be able to reach the container zone of Amantir’s crystal.”

Following the MDT’s guide, Hao Ren’s eyes were fixed on the cliff wall as he moved slowly and soon he saw that exit on the holographic display: It was diagonally beneath the platform that they were standing, about five hundred meters away, and was a pretty unremarkable platform itself.

And between these two platforms, there was only a precipice, and there was no place to land at all.

Jumping five hundred meters across the precipice was not a problem for anyone here, but the fact that this precipice was without any obstacles was a problem in itself, this was longer an unsupervised and unguarded conduit pipeline, but a vast outdoor space. There were newborn tainted beings flying out of the canyon every moment, and there were monsters and corrupted giants patrolling the canyon above, jumping over just like that bore a high risk of being discovered.

Yet, there were no other paths to take, the MDT’s radar had already run a scan of the local topography and there were no other usable pathways.

“Seems like we can only go from here.” After observing the movement pattern of the corrupted monsters, Hao Ren came to a decision. “The new monsters will fly up every three minutes, and the airborne patrol will have a short time-lag between rounds, plus Vivian’s Night Veil, if we are careful we should not be discovered.”

Considering that the dimensional fluctuations created by teleportation can be easily detected, the MDT’s teleportation ability could not be used, so was Nangong Sanba’s natural ability as a demon hunter, so every one of them had to find a way to make the five hundred meter leap, the lucky thing was that the platform was diagonally opposite of them, that reduced the difficult by somewhat.

Vivian first refreshed the duration of the Night Veil on everyone before dispersing into a swarm of bats and easily crossing that totally ‘insignificant’ distance. Next was Lily, she basically just leap over without even needing to do an approach run…

Rollie followed soon after and the catgirl nimbly ran along the cliff face to the opposite side as if she was on flat ground. Nangong Sanba, after being spun around a dozen times was successfully tossed by his sister to the opposite side while Wuyue liquefied herself and seeped through the cracks within the rocks before appearing on the other side…

Those buggers sure had their way of doing things and that amazed Hao Ren.

One by one, the team had managed to clear the gap, and Hao Ren was the second last to reach the opposite platform: He too had leap over like Lily, but needed a ten stride approach.

The last of them was Y’zaks, Hao Ren nervously monitored the movements of the patrolling monsters and was counting in his heart the time to the next wave of monsters. Only when he heard the loud thud of Y’zaks landing that he let out a sigh of relief.

The timing was just right.

“We made it.” Lily’s bristled fur on her ears had softened again, she was saying it with much relief. While Vivian’s Night Veil was a potent tool, it could only hide one’s aura and provide a partial visual obscuration, but if they were to run into the monsters at a close distance, it would not help. “Quickly! The gate is opened and there’s no on….”