“Run!”
Lin Du roared, grabbed two Containment Team members by the collar, and took to his Legs, running.
The mouth of the pit expanded madly behind him.
The Ground was not so much collapsing as being attracted by something underground; everything was converging toward that dark center.
The Strange People struggled to push themselves up and ran forward with all their strength.
“This is bad, run!”
But they were not fast enough.
Before they could even move their feet, they were swept back by the storm.
Screams came from behind, growing more distant, until they were swallowed by the storm underground and became nourishment for Gluttony.
“Sorry!”
The Containment Team member on the left turned back and shouted to Lin Du, “We didn’t know this would happen!
I’m truly sorry!!”
“Your procedure was not wrong.”
The Knight’s voice was cold.
Even running faster than a car, he was not out of breath.
“It’s just… you picked the wrong opponent.”
He stepped on the Ground and leaped, landing on the rooftop of a tall building, and gently set the two people down.
The Street underfoot was gone, replaced by a Huge pit.
The edge of the pit was still expanding outward.
Rubble clattered downward, as if someone had torn up an entire Street by the roots and thrown it into a meat grinder.
“Damn!”
White Li rushed out of the elevator, ran up to the Rooftop, and gasped for breath with her hands on her Knees.
“This whole area… I’m afraid it’s going to swallow it all clean.”
“I guess… it might be a rampage caused by forcibly interrupting Magical Energy.”
White Li walked forward a few steps, leaned on the railing, and said intermittently, “A rampage caused by interrupting Magical Energy?”
“Then what do we do?”
The Knight turned his head.
“Is there any way to solve it?”
“Leave this place… once the Magical Energy runs out, it will stop on its own.”
White Li took a deep breath and blinked.
“What about this area?
There are still residents taking shelter underground.
If the pit continues to expand, it will affect the nearby shelters.”
Lin Du looked toward the pit.
Sunlight shone down, and at the deepest part of the pit bottom, a black hole appeared that seemed capable of swallowing even light.
Fragments were sucked in from the edge, spinning in midair, gradually torn into fine powder and drawn into that dark pupil.
“I think I know where the Magical Organ is.”
Lin Du’s tone was full of Confidence.
“I advise you not to entertain that kind of thought.”
White Li’s voice tightened.
“If you get close, you will be torn to pieces, Same as those Strange People.”
“We have to try.
How will we know it won’t work if we don’t?”
Lin Du crouched slightly, Knees bent, feet grinding against the rooftop waterproof layer to gather strength.
“Hey, hey, wait–“
White Li instinctively reached out to pull him, but Lin Du had already leaped out, falling toward the Huge pit opening.
The Wind howled in his ears.
Cracks in the Ground spread rapidly beneath him, and rubble and concrete blocks flashed past him.
“Tch, you move fast.”
White Li withdrew her hand that had grasped empty air and slowly clenched it into a fist at her side.
She stared at the falling red figure and bit her Lips.
The two Containment Team members behind her exchanged glances, their Gazes jumping back and forth between her and Lin Du.
“Oh no, she isn’t the Blazing Knight’s Girlfriend, is she?”
One member lowered his voice and whispered.
“If this gets out, that’s bad!
The righteous Knight has a Strange Person girlfriend?!”
“Come on.”
The Band-Aid member cut in.
“I think she’s a Fox girl he saved before, and now she’s here to repay the favor.”
“I can hear everything you’re saying, you know~”
White Li’s ears twitched.
She turned her head and glared at them with her azure Eyes.
The air seemed to grow several degrees colder.
The two of them shrank their necks at the same time and took a step back in unison.
“Do you still have that kind of black metal rod from before?”
White Li asked.
Lin Du was falling rapidly.
The wind pressure pulled his head upward, as if someone were yanking his collar from behind.
Fragments flew past him and struck the armor, producing a clanging sound.
He regretted it.
He had been too impulsive.
Jumping down like this without a battle Plan was practically giving himself away.
But the black hole would not give him an Opportunity to regret.
It was constantly expanding, like a stomach opening wide, about to digest the entire block.
As a Knight, he could not Sit by and do nothing, so he could only jump down.
The deeper he went, the stronger the suction became, as if invisible hands were reaching out from the pit bottom, grabbing his body and pulling him down hard.
Alarms blared inside the armor.
Red warning lights flashed before his eyes, and the hull integrity number dropped rapidly.
He wanted to turn around and first get out of the storm, but it was already too late.
His direction was no longer under his control.
He could only follow that suction downward, approaching the center from which even light could not escape.
The ice crystals on his body were being peeled off piece by piece by the storm, breaking into ice shards and flying toward the center from which even light could not escape.
Lin Du looked up and saw the Giant poke its head out from the pit mouth, plummeting toward him, kicking off airborne building fragments as it roared at him:
“White Li?
What are you doing?”
“Hey, hey–can you hear me?”
White Li’s voice came through the Communicator, mixed with crackling static.
She held the Containment Team member’s helmet to communicate with Lin Du, her face twisted in pain as if she were wearing a Mask of agony.
“Wait… I’ll help you get close to the core, then have the Containment Team people activate the Black Rod remotely.”
The Ice Crystal Giant opened one palm.
A black metal rod lay in the palm, its body entirely pitch-black, its patterns not yet activated.
“Based on what just happened, this thing can buy you four or five seconds.
Use that Opportunity to destroy that guy’s core.”
“Got it.”
Lin Du’s voice came back through the Communicator.
“Thank you.”
“You won’t die, will you?”
White Li’s voice carried anger.
“Next time, don’t rush forward without thinking.
You don’t really think you…”
“I won’t next time.”
The Ice Crystal Giant extended both arms.
Its ten Fingers slowly closed, wrapping Lin Du in its palm.
A Cool touch surged in from all directions, isolating the external storm, and the surroundings suddenly fell silent.
Lin Du breathed a sigh of Relief and tucked the Black Rod under his arm.
The Giant held him up and continued to sink.
“Crack–crack–“
Ice cracks began at the Giant’s shoulders and slowly spread downward.
With each new crack, White Li’s brow furrowed a little tighter.
The ice broke apart piece by piece in the storm, turning into blue powder in midair.
Through the gaps in the ice crystal, Lin Du saw cracks constantly bursting open across the Giant’s body.
He listened to the girl’s gasps through the Communicator, and White Li’s pain-twisted face surfaced in his mind.
“That’s enough, White Li.”
He shouted into the Communicator.
“Don’t force yourself.
My armor can still hold.”
“I’m… still okay.”
White Li’s voice trembled slightly; she was clearly enduring the pain.
“There’s still a way to go to the core.
There’s only one Opportunity.
I have to send you to the very center.”
The Giant continued to descend in height, and Lin Du finally saw the thing at the pit bottom clearly.
The Gluttony Monster’s body was several times larger than before.
Its belly was stretched transparent, revealing the blood vessels and organs inside.
A Huge mouth split open at its navel, tearing from its chest all the way to its lower abdomen.
Its Lips were thick, its teeth uneven.
Deep inside that mouth, something was glowing.
A dark red light pulsed faintly like a heartbeat.
That was the Magical Organ, and also the source of the entire storm.
It was the thing Lin Du needed to destroy.
“Creak, creak–“
The ice crystal palm wrapping Lin Du began to crack.
The cracks extended from the fingertips toward the palm, as if someone were chiseling holes in the ice with a hammer.
The closer to the black hole’s center, the faster the ice collapsed.
Lin Du looked up and saw that almost nothing remained of the Giant’s body.
The palm holding him was the last intact part.
But this last piece was also cracking.
Fine ice shards drifted out from the cracks and were swept away by the storm before they could scatter in the air.
“I can’t… hold on much longer.”
White Li gritted her teeth, half-kneeling on the Rooftop.
She supported herself on the Ground with one hand and kept her other hand pressed on the helmet’s Communicator, shouting with the last of her strength:
“Get ready!”