Chapter 145: Chapter 145: The Fungal Abyss

Chapter 145: The Fungal Abyss

The wind violently rushed past my heavy helmet as I plummeted into the absolute darkness.

The drop from Strata 4 was staggering. I fell for nearly a full minute, the sheer depth of the Great Iron Labyrinth revealing its true, terrifying scale.

I did not brace for the landing. I locked the hydraulic joints of my Ironclad armor.

CRASH.

I slammed into the floor of Strata 5 like a dropped anvil. The kinetic shockwave cracked the ground beneath me, sending up a thick cloud of dust.

Seconds later, heavy impacts echoed around me as the rest of the Pack landed.

Rolf hit the ground with a heavy, metallic thud, his silver armor absorbing the fall flawlessly. Kaelith landed without making a single sound, her boots barely disturbing the dust. Lysandra floated down on her maroon wings, gently setting Anise and Nyssa on the floor.

"Lysandra," Anise whispered, gripping her holy staff tightly in the pitch-black void. "We need light."

"We do not," I corrected, my baritone voice rumbling in the dark.

I ignited my core, but I did not manifest a flame. I pushed the mana directly into my optic nerves. The dark red visor of my helmet flared to life, easily cutting through the absolute darkness.

The Pack did the same. Rolf’s golden-amber eyes burned with primal, predatory sight. Kaelith’s twilight eyes completely absorbed the shadows, turning the pitch-black cavern into a perfectly clear grayscale landscape. Lysandra’s pink mana illuminated her own vision.

We had awakened our Laws. We were Apex threats. The dark could no longer hide anything from us.

I looked around Strata 5.

It was not a rocky cavern. It was not a ruined city.

It was a colossal, sprawling fungal nest.

Massive, fleshy stalks stretched hundreds of feet into the air, holding up the ceiling of the strata. The ground was covered in a thick, spongy layer of purple and blue bioluminescent moss. Glowing spores drifted lazily through the stale, suffocating air. The entire cavern smelled of ancient rot and sweet, sickening decay.

"It is alive," Nyssa whispered, looking at a massive fungal stalk pulsating like a beating heart. "The entire strata is a singular, biological ecosystem."

SKRRRRCH. CLACK.

The sound of massive, hardened chitin dragging against the fungal floor echoed from the gloom ahead.

It was deafeningly loud.

"Form up," I commanded, raising my heavy brass gauntlets.

The glowing blue spores parted as a colossal nightmare slithered out of the darkness.

It was an ancient Insectoid monstrosity.

It was easily eighty feet long, possessing the segmented, horrifying body of a colossal centipede, but its upper torso reared up like an Arachne. Massive, scythe-like legs gouged the spongy floor with every step. Its head was a terrifying cluster of jagged mandibles and eight dead, black eyes.

Its entire body was covered in a thick, iridescent black chitin that gleamed with an unnatural, oily sheen.

"Progenitor class," Anise gasped, her hands shaking slightly. "That is an ancient terror."

The colossal beast reared back its head and let out a deafening, clicking shriek.

SCREEEEECH!

It snapped its mandibles forward and violently expelled a massive torrent of glowing green liquid directly at us.

"Scatter!" I roared.

The Pack exploded in six different directions.

The green liquid slammed into the exact spot where we had been standing. The reaction was instantaneous and horrifying. The thick fungal floor instantly boiled, melting into a bubbling puddle of toxic sludge.

A few stray drops of the liquid splashed against my heavy brass shoulder plate.

HISSSS.

Thick white smoke immediately hissed from my armor. The ancient corrosive acid was eating directly through my hardened brass, trying to reach my flesh.

"That acid will melt us to the bone!" Rolf growled, stepping defensively in front of Nyssa.

"Kill it from a distance!" Lysandra commanded.

The Succubus Queen raised her hands. She condensed her absolute charm into a lethal, concentrated beam of volatile pink mana and fired it directly at the beast’s colossal head.

At the exact same moment, Kaelith emerged from the shadows on the ceiling. She hurled three daggers forged from pure, condensed twilight magic, aiming perfectly for the gaps in the monster’s neck.

FWOOSH. TING. TING. TING.

The magic struck the iridescent black chitin.

It did absolutely nothing.

Lysandra’s pink mana harmlessly reflected off the oily shell, scattering into the cavern walls. Kaelith’s twilight daggers completely shattered on impact, failing to leave even a single scratch on the pristine armor.

The colossal beast didn’t even flinch. It turned its eight black eyes toward Lysandra and prepared to spit another wave of corrosive acid.

"Magic is useless!" Anise screamed, recognizing the ancient biological defense. "The chitin is a perfect mana reflector! It completely nullifies magical energy!"

I grinned behind my dark visor.

"Perfect," I growled, rolling my broad, mechanical shoulders.

I completely deactivated the Fire of Rage in my core. I did not need conceptual magic. I had my Kinetic Force parameter, and it was currently sitting at an absolutely monstrous 3,500 points.

"Rolf! Kaelith!" I barked over the beast’s shrieking. "Distract the mandibles! Do not let it spit!"

Rolf howled. The Silver Colossus launched himself forward, completely ignoring the sheer size difference. Kaelith vanished into the shadows, reappearing instantly at the beast’s flank to slash at its massive scythe-legs, drawing its attention.

I did not run. I activated the heavy steam-thrusters built into my Ironclad boots.

FWOOSH!

I rocketed forward, flying low over the bubbling pools of acid. I closed the distance in a fraction of a second, launching my massive armored body directly onto the creature’s back.

THUD.

The beast shrieked and began to thrash violently, trying to throw me off. I slammed my heavy brass boots into the grooves of its shell to anchor myself.

I crawled up its segmented back, completely ignoring the sickening, oily texture of its shell.

I reached the base of its terrifying head.

I found the thin, biological joint connecting the impenetrable chitin plates.

I jammed my thick brass fingers directly into the gap.

"Let’s see how much force you can reflect!" I roared.

I planted my boots and pulled backward with everything I had. My mechanical gears screamed. The hydraulic pistons in my arms hissed with maximum steam pressure. I channeled all 3,500 points of my Kinetic Force into a single, brutal motion.

CRRRRACK!

The impenetrable chitin did not melt. It did not burn. It simply snapped under overwhelming, raw physical strength.

I violently tore a massive, ten-foot plate of black armor completely off the beast’s back.

Dark, foul-smelling ichor erupted from the open wound. The colossal monster let out a final, agonizing shriek that shook the fungal nest.

I did not stop. I plunged my entire right arm deep into the creature’s exposed flesh, digging through muscle and sinew until my gauntlet wrapped around a massive, pulsating object.

I ripped my arm out.

SQUELCH.

I held a massive, glowing biological core high above my head. It was the size of a small boulder, radiating an incredibly dense, ancient energy.

Without its power source, the colossal Insectoid immediately went limp. Its massive scythe-legs collapsed, and its eighty-foot body crashed heavily onto the spongy fungal floor.

I jumped down from the carcass, landing heavily beside the Pack.

DING!

[System Alert: Progenitor Threat Eliminated.]

[Loot Acquired: Ancient Bio-Mechanical Core (Grade: Unknown).]

[Notice: The energy density of this core violates modern magical limits.]

I looked at the massive, glowing boulder in my hands. The energy output was absolutely staggering.

"Nyssa," I called out, holding the core toward the scholar. "Will this power the Absolute Aegis Shield Generator?"

Nyssa adjusted her glasses, her glowing green eyes frantically scanning the core’s data.

"Sovereign," Nyssa breathed in sheer awe. "This core doesn’t just power the shield. It is a limitless, self-sustaining battery. If I hook this up to the Forge, the Velkrath Imperium will never experience a power failure for the next ten thousand years. It is perfect."

I smiled. The conquest of Strata 5 was already paying massive dividends. I stored the colossal core in my spatial ring.

"Good work, Pack," I rumbled, dusting the corrosive ash off my armor. "Let’s harvest the chitin and get back to the surface. Malacor is still waiting for us."

"Wait," Kaelith said sharply.

The Noctharion Elf was standing near the massive, severed head of the beast. She had her twilight daggers drawn, using the blades to pry open the monster’s complex mandibles.

Anise jogged over, holding her glowing staff near the creature’s crushed thorax.

The Level 100 Hero frowned. She placed her bare hand against the cold, dead flesh.

"This doesn’t make sense," Anise whispered, a deep chill creeping into her voice.

"What is it?" I demanded, walking toward them.

"The biological markers," Anise explained, her eyes wide with sudden panic. "This creature is massive, yes. But it has no reproductive organs. It possesses no royal pheromone glands. The mana signature in its nervous system is entirely subservient."

Rolf gripped his axe, looking out into the pitch-black fungal forest.

"Are you saying what I think you’re saying, Hero?" Rolf growled.

Anise slowly looked up at me.

"Sovereign," Anise whispered in pure horror. "This eighty-foot monster... it isn’t the Queen."

The entire cavern suddenly fell dead silent.

"It’s just a worker drone," Anise finished.

Before anyone could speak, the spongy floor beneath our feet began to violently vibrate.

It wasn’t coming from a single direction.

SKRRRRCH. CLACK. SKRRRRCH. CLACK.

The terrifying sound of massive chitin scraping against stone echoed from the darkness ahead of us. Then, it echoed from the left. Then, from the right. And then, from the cavern ceiling high above.

The glowing blue spores illuminated the shadows just enough to reveal the truth.

Dozens of colossal, eighty-foot worker drones were slithering out of the fungal forest, completely surrounding us.

The true hive had been awakened.