The light from the march lamps shone into the void, but the cavern seemed exceptionally vast; the meager illumination couldn't reach the far reaches.
Clearly, this cavity was far larger than the one where they had found the previous bronze pillar.
The team came to a halt at the entrance as the scuttling sound of clashing carapaces echoed continuously from the endless darkness.
The number of greater ghouls here was evidently far beyond imagination. In that moment, everyone finally saw a vertical silhouette standing in the center of the pitch-black void, flickering with a faint light.
Extremely faint, dark-gold light was scattered across the surface of that silhouette. There was a bronze pillar there!
Judging by the brightness of the outline, this bronze pillar was thicker than the previous one, and the inscription density was clearly much higher. However, in the visible sections, most of the inscriptions were flickering unsteadily, with only a few struggling to stay lit.
What truly caught Lu Yuan’s attention was the lower half of the bronze pillar. It was pitch black, with only a few stray inscriptions flashing occasionally. It seemed to be covered by something.
No! It was ghouls!
Dense, layer upon layer of ghouls!
They were stacked on top of one another, piling up on the lower half of the bronze pillar. The innermost layer was covering the pillar's surface in some unknown way—which was strange, given that bronze pillars were highly corrosive to greater ghouls!
How were they clinging to it?
From a distance, the entire structure looked bloated and dense, spreading from the base of the copper pillar up to its midsection, looking like a massive mold spot growing on the bronze.
Looking closer, Lu Yuan discovered that those clinging to the pillar were all Forest Seed mutants.
The greyish-blue wooden bark-like crust and traces of roots on their bodies were strikingly clear under the march lamps.
They weren't pressed directly against the pillar; each one clung to it with minimal surface contact, their knuckles hooked into the grooves of the pillar's patterns while the rest of their bodies hung outward.
The mutants closest to the pillar showed slight scorch marks on their skin.
Something was slowly writhing deep within the hive. The stacked bodies of the ghouls blocked the view, making it impossible to see what it was. Occasionally, one ghoul would be squeezed out from the inside, only to be dragged back in by its nearby kin.
Not only Lu Yuan, but Lake and the others had noticed this scene as well.
With such a dense concentration of greater ghouls, it was only a matter of time before they gnawed the entire bronze pillar clean.
The failure of the inscriptions above was also just a matter of time.
The group exchanged looks.
“Ready?” As Lake spoke, the skin across his body began to writhe subtly as the Swarming Worms were mobilized within him.
The Blue Knight’s fingers curled slightly, pale blue threads wrapping around her palms, flickering in the dim light.
Adrian did not speak. The old Archbishop silently stepped back two paces and pressed the holy emblem on his chest. He knew well that his holy light was the most glaring beacon of hatred for the ghouls; standing too far forward with such numbers would be tantamount to drawing the attention of everything at once.
The Great Ascendant stood in the middle of the team, his silver-grey pupils slowly scanning the cavity. His gaze lingered on the hive for a moment before moving to the exposed inscriptions on the upper half of the pillar.
“There are more than an order of magnitude more than the upper levels estimated.” His voice emerged from his metal chest, his tone flat and devoid of tension.
Lu Yuan didn't look at him.
His gaze pierced through the dense hive of ghouls, landing on the exposed upper section of the pillar. The inscriptions were mostly worn away, and the surface was riddled with pits and corrosion left behind by the gnawing roots. In some places, the copper had been hollowed out into thumb-deep pits, completely severing the lines of the inscriptions.
He pulled a second linked brain core from his waist.
The moment his finger pressed down, the dark red connection lines between the brain cores lit up. The ghouls' turbid aura seeped from the surface, once again covering his entire body.
“With these numbers...”
He scanned the greater ghouls scattered on the ground around the copper pillar. The greyish-white writhing bodies covered every inch of the floor as far as he could see, extending deep into the darkness.
“Even a rank 4 might not be able to withstand this level of attrition.”
His gaze returned to the copper pillar.
“But this pillar must be cleared. If they keep gnawing at it like this, it’s only a matter of time before the inscriptions are completely broken.”
Adrian raised his hand, and the tome above his shoulder turned half a circle, flipping to a new page. Pale golden holy light condensed into a conical beam, shining toward the copper pillar.
The beam pierced the cavity, cutting through the darkness to land on the dense mass of ghoul bodies on the lower half of the pillar.
The hive-like cluster of ghouls on the copper pillar practically exploded. Over a dozen greater ghouls near the holy light were scorched and blasted off the pillar, their heavy bodies tumbling and crashing onto the ground, sending stone fragments flying.
Immediately after, the second and third layers of ghouls peeled off the pillar and fell. Before they could even find their footing, they lunged toward the source of the holy light like madmen.
The entire ground trembled. The claws of countless greater ghouls slapped against the rubble simultaneously, the dense impact sounds merging into a muffled roar. A greyish-white tide surged from the foot of the copper pillar, crushing the corpse-rot fungus mats along the way as the surging bodies filled the passage.
Lake stepped forward. The skin beneath his trench coat suddenly burst open as the flesh across his entire body tore apart. Countless dark red meat-worms erupted from the openings.
The density of the swarm was far greater than any previous time. The needle-like heads of the worms pierced into the eye sockets and mouths of the front-row ghouls, and the surging tide of worms that followed completely submerged them.
The swarm consumed with terrifying speed. Within seconds, the ghouls' flesh was gnawed away, their skeletons collapsing. Even the finger-thick layer of corpse-rot fungus on the ground was shredded and dissolved the moment the worm tide rolled over it, exposing the damp rock floor beneath.
The Blue Knight cut in from Lake’s right side.
She moved with extreme speed, her boots making almost no sound on the rubble. Her blue cloak traced a smooth arc as she moved. Her ten fingers splayed, connected by a dense web of pale blue threads that glinted coldly in the dim light.
Three greater ghouls lunged from the side, and she passed between them.
The moment the threads tightened, the three ghouls froze. The threads had pierced through their chests and cervical vertebrae, even severing their limb joints. With a slight pull of the Blue Knight’s fingertips, the threads snapped taut, and the three massive bodies were simultaneously shredded. Shredded meat and ichor sprayed out, splashing onto the rocky ground.
A second and third wave of ghouls pounced, and she wove between them, leaving behind a trail of corpses pierced by threads with every pass. Her movements were so graceful they seemed unreal.
The dull sound of metal clashing rang out from the center of the team. Lu Yuan turned to see that the Great Ascendant had finally made his move.
His silver-grey pupils suddenly brightened, light surging from deep within the sockets until it flared into a blinding white. His entire metal face switched from a silent, cold grey to a completely different state in an instant.
The sound of mechanical joints operating shifted from a low hum to a sharp whine. Every alloy part across his body was rotating at high speed, and his first step crushed the rubble beneath his feet.
The nearest greater ghoul lunged at him, opening its mouth full of rotten teeth. The Great Ascendant’s right fist smashed directly into the front of its skull.
The entire head caved in at the point of impact. Brain cores and bone fragments mixed with ichor squeezed out from the cracks in the back of its head. The ghoul’s body was sent flying by the residual force of the punch, knocking over two more behind it. The three bodies tumbled together and vanished into the darkness, but the Great Ascendant didn't stop.
A second punch followed immediately. With his mechanical systems fully engaged, his punching speed was astonishing. Every blow landed precisely on a ghoul's head, dealing instant death. His alloy fists were covered in blackish-red ichor, which glinted with a dull luster under the white light of his eyes.
Lu Yuan watched for a few moments before withdrawing his gaze.
“He hasn't been acting until now... he was waiting for a battle of this scale.”
The thought flashed by, leaving no time for deeper reflection. Adrian’s tome had already risen to a position three feet above his head.
The old Archbishop pressed both hands against the holy emblem on his chest, his prayers low and hurried. The tome flipped to a page in the middle, and the text on the page began to glow. A pale golden halo erupted from above the tome, rapidly expanding to envelop the entire rear area within seconds.
Wherever the holy light reached, the corpse-rot fungus on the ground charred in patches. The ghouls hissed and retreated, not daring to step across the boundary of the halo.
Agnes pulled the nun back into the range of the holy light.
The edge of the halo expanded toward Lu Yuan.
“Don't shine it on me.”
Lu Yuan’s voice wasn't loud, but it was enough for Adrian to hear.
The old Archbishop’s prayers didn't falter. The expansion of the halo stopped in front of Lu Yuan, its edge pulling back slightly to actively bypass his position.
He was still covered in the turbid aura emitted by the brain cores. If the holy light touched it, there would be a direct conflict. The moment the turbid aura dissipated, his human scent would be exposed to every ghoul in the room. Adrian didn't ask why; he saw the brain cores in Lu Yuan’s hand and understood.
Lu Yuan retreated into the shadows at the edge of the holy light and crouched down, staring at the battlefield ahead.
The three rank 4s were killing many. Lake’s worm tide had spread out into a kill zone nearly ten paces wide, and every ghoul that charged in was consumed until only withered skeletons remained scattered on the ground.
The Blue Knight’s threads were harvesting ghouls further out, clearing the flanks patch by patch. The Great Ascendant advanced along the right wing, leaving only shattered bones and splashing ichor wherever his fists landed. Yet ghouls continued to pour out from deep within the hive, filling the gaps left by the front lines. There seemed to be no end to them.
Lu Yuan didn't focus on this. His attention was elsewhere.
From the start of the battle until now, all the ghouls rushing forward were ordinary greater ghouls, their greyish-white skin clean, without any trace of Forest Seed infection.
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