Book 11, Necropolis of the Gods – Chapter 22: Regrowth
The Queen Mother, Lachapelle, had the face of an angel, but her actions were that of a devil’s.
“Children, keep a tight watch on this exit. As long as a single one of you remains alive, you cannot permit them to enter.” The voice of the Queen Mother, Lachapelle, shook the heavens, and instantly, a large number of noises could be heard in the ground below the sand.
Countless tendrils and vines erupted forth from beneath the sand, and the black pyramid structure was covered by three layers on the inside and three layers on the outside by the tendrils.
Lachapelle’s lips curved upwards slightly, and then with a ‘swish’, the air around her suddenly began to tremble.
The Queen Mother, Lachapelle, transformed into a streak of green light, chasing after Linley’s group at high speed. It had to be said that Lachapelle’s speed was simply too fast. In but a short while, Linley’s group discovered that Lachapelle was behind them in hot pursuit.
“Quick, quick.” Each person in Linley’s group were exerting themselves to fly at their utmost speeds.
“Rutherford and Karossa, two powerful experts, were killed and devoured in the blink of an eye. The power of this Queen Mother is simply terrifying.” Linley felt his heart clench as well. Before, when Bebe had captured that ‘child’ component plant, although it had also been able to surround everyone, not a single person had died.
In particular, the likes of Linley and Fain hadn’t even been injured.
The difference between the ‘child’ and the ‘mother’ was simply too great.
“Boss, be careful.” Bebe’s voice suddenly rang out in Linley’s consciousness, and Linley immediately looked backwards. He saw a green, semi-translucent tendril the thickness of an arm shoot towards him through space at high speed like a sharp arrow.
Linley’s speed was only considered below average amongst the eleven remaining experts.
“Break!” Linley delivered a backhanded chop with Bloodviolet, and Bloodviolet carried with it its devilish violet flashes of light, causing space to suddenly distort as it chopped down against the semi-translucent tendrils.
Profound Truths of the Wind – Tempos of the Wind, level two!
Linley had a feeling...much like how, when he was young, he had tried to use a hatchet to chop down a tree.
“Bang.” Bloodviolet sank into the tendril, but Linley’s full strength blow had only been able to cut 80% of the way through this arm-thick tendril. At the same time, Linley suddenly sensed a tightness around his waist. That tendril had already wrapped itself around Linley.
“It didn’t break?” Linley was amazed.
Linley knew exactly how powerful this full force sword attack of his was. But a single tendril of this Queen Mother, Lachapelle, had reached such a terrifying level. Linley didn’t think anything else, and immediately the Bloodviolet flexible sword in his hand began to tremble.
Profound Truths of the Wind – Rippling Wind!
In almost an instant, the Bloodviolet sword that had already sank into the tendril trembled more than ten thousand times, sawing straight through the remaining 20% of the tendril.
But as Linley was chopping off this first tendril, his speed was impacted, and instantly, hundreds of tendrils swept towards Linley, seeking to surround him. Linley’s face instantly turned absolutely pale. “A single tendril was already so hard to break, but hundreds...”
Those hundreds of tendrils surrounded around Linley in the blink of an eye, and those people who were fleeing ahead of them felt their hearts tremble.
This had happened once already, not too long ago. Rutherford and Karossa had been surrounded by these tendrils, and the result was...not even their bones were left. Linley was the expert with the most powerful attack in this group. If even Linley were to die, what could the rest of them do?
“Boss!” Bebe called out in terror, and at the same time, ignoring the danger, he immediately turned and charged back towards Linley.
“Swish.” Bebe transformed into a black ray of light as he flew at high speed.
In the same instant those hundreds of tendrils surrounded him, in Linley’s other hand suddenly appeared the adamantine heavy sword. Linly now had the adamantine heavy sword in his right hand and Bloodviolet in his left. The adamantine heavy sword floated down with seeming grace, but in truth, it had shot out as fast as lightning.
Profound Truths of the Earth – Throbbing Pulse of the World, 64 Layered Waves!
The time had come for him to go all out.
“Break for me!!!” Linley’s face was extremely ferocious.
Linley was entirely surrounded by tendrils, and in the space in front of him alone, there were dozens of tendrils blocking him from going forward, trapping him within their net.
The dozens of tendrils struck by the adamantine heavy sword all shuddered, but the soft, pliable, yet tough tendrils were extremely resilient against vibrational forces. Despite Linley attacking at full strength with his Throbbing Pulse of the World – 64 Layered Waves, only ten or so tendrils in the path of the adamantine heavy sword transformed into splinters, while the other ten tendrils remained.
“Swish!”
A devilish violet light chopped out, and the dozens of tendrils in front, almost as though they had become brittle, were chopped through by Bloodviolet.
“Swoosh!” Linley immediately seized the opportunity to fly out from the hole he had created.
“Boss.” Bebe immediately flew over. “Quick, onto my back.”
Bebe had transformed his size to become larger, and without hesitating at all, Linley directly leapt onto Bebe’s back, and Bebe’s speed immediately increased dramatically. Bebe, Desri, and Fain were the fastest in the group, and now that Bebe was moving at maximum speed, he quickly escaped the tendrils behind them.
“Whew.” Only now did Linley let out a long sigh.
Just then, the feeling of being surrounded by hundreds of tendrils really was akin to the feeling of the end coming.
For the sake of chasing after Linley, the Queen Mother, Lachapelle, had lost ground on the others. In addition, after witnessing Linley’s dangerous situation, the others had learned to be smarter.
“Quick, Olivier, onto my back.” A Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lion shouted, while the other Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lion barked the same to the nearby Rosarie. Amongst these experts, the fastest were Bebe, Fain, and Desri, and after them were the three Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lion, Tulily, and the Blackscale Scorpion.
As for Linley, Olivier, and Rosarie, they were slightly slower.
Both Olivier who trained in the Elemental Laws of Light and Linley who trained in the Elemental Laws of the Wind were all extremely fast. In addition, Olivier combined both darkness and light, while Linley was a Dragonblood Warrior...but compared to the likes of Bebe, Fain, Tulily, and the Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lions, the two were still slower.
“This Blackscale Scorpion is really fast as well.” One of the Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lion said casually while flying.
The Blackscale Scorpion was of a race that normally was of the ninth rank. It was already quite incredible for this Blackscale Scorpion to reach the peak Saint stage. For his speed to be so fast as well...truly was amazing.
The eleven experts fled at high speed, and in the end, the Queen Mother, Lachapelle, finally gave up.
“Just now, that human youngster’s sword was quite strange.” The Queen Mother Lachapelle stared as Linley’s group disappeared beyond the horizons. “With but a single sword, he broke over ten of my tendrils, but the most amazing thing is...although the other dozens of tendrils his sword passed by didn’t shatter, they were damaged so severely that they only had a tenth of their usual strength.”
“Whew. Let’s take a rest.” Desri said.
The eleven experts didn’t dare land on the desert, and so they halted in mid-air. Clearly, that Lachapelle had truly terrified this group of people.
“This Queen Mother is simply too much of a monster.” Fain said with a frown. “Even Rutherford and Karossa were killed in an instant, and just then, when she chased after us, I felt extremely nervous.”
Everyone was resting right now.
When they were fleeing earlier, they hadn’t dared to be the slightest bit incautious.
“Linley, I saw that Queen Mother attack you. What do you think?” Tulily looked at Linley.
Linley’s face was rather ugly to look at.
That scene earlier had been way too dangerous. Linley shook his head and said solemnly, “This Queen Mother is far more dangerous than the Flame Tyrant. When I attacked it with Bloodviolet just now, my full force blow wasn’t able to break through that tendril. This...you must understand, there were thousands on thousands of these tendrils.”
“It didn’t break under your full force blow?” The faces of all the experts changed.
Everyone knew how strong the Dragonblood Warriors were. Despite combining that with the Profound Truths of the Wind, Linley still hadn’t been able to break through the tendril with a single blow. One could imagine how tough that tendril was.
“Afterwards, when the tendrils surrounded you, Linley, we were all very worried. How did you manage to break out? Given the toughness of those tendrils, it must have been extremely difficult.” Desri asked, and all the nearby experts looked at Linley.
Right now, experience was very important.
Rutherford and Karossa, who had also been surrounded by the Queen Mother’s tendrils, were both dead. Only Linley had escaped.
“My escape was an extremely risky one.” Linley admitted it openly. “A large number of tendrils had surrounded me, and in that sort of situation, I had to go all out.” Linley’s face had a hint of bitter laughter on it. “So I immediately used the adamantine heavy sword, combining both swords in my attack.”
“I first used the adamantine heavy sword to utilize the Profound Truths of the Earth, the same blow which killed the Flame Tyrant.” Linley shook his head. “My most powerful sword blow was only enough to destroy ten or so tendrils.”
“But the strange thing was...when I followed it up with Bloodviolet, I was instantly able to easily break through dozens of tendrils, and then I seized the opportunity to charge out.” Linley said.
Earlier, when Linley had first used only Bloodviolet to chop at that tendril, he hadn’t been able to break through it despite striking with full force. But this time, he was able to chop through dozens.
“How is that possible?” The others were puzzled as well.
Linley hadn’t had any time to consider this question while they were fleeing, but now, Linley suddenly understood after thinking about it. “Right. The Profound Truths of the Earth rely on vibrational waves to attack the enemy. The ten or so tendrils in front of me were directly vibrated into little pieces. Most likely, the dozens of tendrils behind them, although not completely destroyed, should have been badly damaged internally.”
With its internal components damaged, the tendrils naturally were no longer very tough.
Following with another full strength blow from Bloodviolet, it wasn’t too difficult to break through those dozens of damaged tendrils.
“Enough about that. What we need to think about is...how we should deal with the Queen Mother. If we don’t eliminate the Queen Mother, it most likely won’t permit us to enter the exit and go to the eighth floor.” Desri said with a frown.
The experts all nodded.
“What should we do?” All of them frowned in thought.
One of the three Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lions spoke. “Based on what I know, once the tendrils or vines of a plant creature are destroyed, it will be very hard for them to regrow them. The higher class the plant creature is, the tougher and more resilient their tendrils will be, but similarly, the tougher it will be to regrow them.”
“Therefore, what we can do is to divide into multiple attacks, eliminating a few tendrils with each attack. In the end...once the Queen Mother no longer has any tendrils left, won’t we be able to slaughter it as we please?”
Hearing the words of the Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lion, Linley, Fain, and the others all nodded.
If everyone joined forces and used forbidden-level spells and their ultimate attacks at the same time, they should be able to destroy a few tendrils. Once the Queen Mother, Lachapelle, chased after them, they would flee. But then they would attack her, again and again...
To reduce the number of tendrils the Queen Mother have was something they were capable of.
Slowly, one step at a time, they would still have a chance of success.
“Can’t be done.” Bebe shook his head.
The entire group of experts looked at Bebe, confused. Bebe shook his head and said, “Earlier, when I went to rescue the Boss, I saw exactly what happened. After the Boss broke through those tendrils and fled onto my back, those tendrils were regrown, and the speed of the regrowth was very fast. In a short period of time, they were completely recovered.
“How is that possible?” The three Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lions couldn’t believe it.
“Impossible! Absolutely impossible!” A Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lion shook his head.
“But this is what I, Bebe, personally witnessed. How can it be false?” Bebe rebutted. “In addition, how could I possibly lie about something like this?”
The three Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lions fell silent. They all believed...that in a critical moment such as this, Bebe wouldn’t possibly lie. But the three brothers had encountered this sort of plant creature in the past, and they knew some things about this type of creature.
“No matter what the reason is, the fact of the matter is that this Queen Mother’s tendrils have the ability to regrow.” Desri said solemnly. “We need to come up with a method on how to kill the Queen Mother.”
Everyone stayed silent.
The tendrils were so tough that even Linley’s full force blow with Bloodviolet couldn’t break through. The worst part was...this Queen Mother’s tendrils could regrow themselves.
What to do?
The deaths of Rutherford and Karossa were still fresh in the minds of every single expert.