Deep within the passage, O克斯 and the others were unaware of what was happening at the exit. Even if they did know, they had no way back. They had finally gotten a chance to complete their mission, and whether it was for the Western nations or the ridiculously high reward, they wouldn't give up.
Inside the frozen passage, O克斯, at the head of the group, suddenly stopped. He cautiously leaned against the shadow of the wall, then peered out towards the exit. A huge cavern appeared, illuminated by a dim red light.
Inside the enormous cavern, countless pieces of flesh gathered into a meatball nearly three thousand meters high. Beneath the meatball, countless root-like, blood-colored veins spread throughout the cavern, each with a pulsating fleshy nodule about a meter apart.
Snap!
The next second, a nodule burst open, and a Gluttony Monster, only half a meter tall, crawled out. Slimy liquid dripped from its body. The birth of this Gluttony Monster seemed to be a signal, as Gluttony Monsters emerged from the nodules one after another.
In just a few minutes, nearly tens of thousands of Gluttony Monsters were born before O克斯's eyes. Then, the monsters automatically walked towards the giant meatball in the center of the cavern, and tentacles extended from the meatball, piercing into the bodies of the newborn Gluttony Monsters.
As the tentacles pulsed, a large amount of nutrients was transported into the Gluttony Monsters' bodies. Visibly, the size and aura of the newborn Gluttony Monsters began to increase continuously, and the nodules that had birthed them were already beginning to gestate new Gluttony Monsters.
"Is this the monsters' lair?"
The archer, crouching next to O克斯, looked at everything below with a troubled expression and whispered. It was the first time he had seen Gluttony Monsters being born, and it seemed that they were all gestated by the meatball in the center.
"Lord O克斯, what should we do? Should we try to destroy that meatball directly?"
The mage in the team suppressed his inner excitement, looked up at O克斯, and asked softly. If the giant meatball in front of them was the root cause of the monsters' birth, then destroying it might kill all the monsters.
"Don't forget, our mission is just to find out the reason for the monsters' birth. And with our strength, it's impossible to destroy that meatball!"
O克斯 glanced at the excited mage. But the next second, O克斯's cold words extinguished the mage's excitement like cold water. In fact, the moment he saw the meatball and the birth of the Gluttony Monsters, O克斯 had considered destroying it himself.
However, after sensing the magic essence possessed by the meatball, O克斯 fell into despair. In his perception, the amount of magic essence within the meatball was no weaker than that of a Demon Lord. In other words, the meatball in front of them was essentially a Demon Lord!
However, at least O克斯 was now certain that he had found the reason for the monster's birth. In his perception, the giant meatball was constantly emitting a distorted, chaotic power, constantly eroding and transforming everything around it.
And the monsters were born under this power. In other words, as long as they successfully returned and told the Hero everything here, once they completely destroyed the meatball in front of them, everything would be over.
"Yes, Lord O克斯..."
The others on the side gradually calmed down after hearing O克斯's words. Especially the mage who had suggested killing the meatball, nodded in agreement. But halfway through his sentence, his tone began to falter, his pupils shrank to the extreme, and a look of fear appeared on his face.
The others also noticed the mage's abnormality and quickly looked up at O克斯. A scarlet pupil was staring at them intently from the fleshy wall behind O克斯, as if examining some interesting toy.
What terrified them even more was that at the same time, a long crack opened on the surface of the three-thousand-meter-high meatball in the center of the cavern. As the crack widened, a pair of scalp-numbing pupils appeared in everyone's eyes. Inside the pupil, which was as big as a small mountain, were countless eyes the size of human pupils, looking at them.
In an instant, everyone felt as if everything about them had been seen through. A fear from the depths of their souls caused their bodies to completely lose control, and they could only stay in place, motionless. What made them even more desperate was that when they gazed at that terrifying pupil, their souls seemed to be dragged into endless darkness by countless black arms.
At this moment, in O克斯's eyes, the people in front of him suddenly stood motionless, their expressions frozen in fear and despair. Their original skin began to squirm constantly and peel off their cheeks, and the skin that fell to the ground began to squirm around as if it had its own consciousness.
The magical equipment hanging on their bodies was also constantly emitting dazzling light. It was a pity that the purifying light, which was originally reassuring, was now gradually dimming, or rather, was being eroded bit by bit.
"Huff... huff... huff..."
Heavy breathing echoed continuously. O克斯 forcibly resisted the urge to turn around and look behind him. Under the threat of death, O克斯's instincts were frantically issuing warnings. He had a feeling that if he turned around at this moment, he would die completely and become one of those monsters.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Suddenly, crisp cracking sounds rang out. In O克斯's almost frozen gaze, the magical equipment on his teammates' bodies exploded one after another. However, at the moment of the explosion, all the purifying power contained within the magical equipment was released.
The adventurers, who had been unable to move, instantly sat down on the ground, gasping for breath, their eyes full of horror and fear. They had almost died here, and only from a single gaze.
"Lord O克斯, run! We..."
At this time, the adventurer in the team holding a shield looked at O克斯 with a bitter and resolute expression. He had already noticed the changes in himself and the teammates around him. They, who were originally humans, had now turned into terrifying beings. The skin on their humanoid bodies was squirming densely like worms, and their original hands had merged into one, turning into tentacle-like appendages.
He could even clearly feel the blood, flesh, and internal organs in his body constantly activating, as if they had their own consciousness and wanted to break free from their bodies and see the world.
In this situation, even if they escaped back, they would only be killed. Because many adventurers on the front lines had become like this before, and once they became like this, it meant that they would soon completely lose their self-awareness and become Gluttony Monsters.
In that case, he intended to use the last of his self-awareness to buy time for O克斯, who was the only one who hadn't changed yet, so that he could successfully escape from here. At least by doing so, their final mission would be considered complete.
"Lord O克斯, go!"
The others also stood up. Even though the skin on their faces had either completely disappeared or was covered with slender fleshy sprouts and tentacles, they showed a hint of a smile. A terrifying, indescribable smile filled with resolution.
Seeing this, O克斯 took a deep look at his companions. He knew that this was their last meeting. Next time, they would either die here or become one of the monsters.
The next second, O克斯 stood up and ran without hesitation towards the passage he had come from. But he didn't intend to return the way he came. Instead, he planned to leave directly using space teleportation after leaving a sufficient distance.
Behind O克斯, five humanoid, indescribable monsters looked at each other, then looked at the Gluttony Monsters surging like a tide below. The next second, the five charged towards the enemy, who outnumbered them tens of thousands of times, without hesitation.
"It didn't disappoint me for acting so hard,"
A small slime crawled out of the mountain-like eyeball, looked at the five who had been submerged and devoured by countless Gluttony Monsters below, then looked up at the depths of the passage where O克斯 had left. In a corner of the passage, O克斯 was constantly using magic power to engrave a magic circle on the ground.
With his strength, he could only rely on the amplification of the magic circle to teleport directly back to the front line of the battlefield. At this time, the Gluttony Monster closest to O克斯 was under his feet, or rather, the location where O克斯 was engraving the magic circle was actually on the body of a Gluttony Monster.
However, 陆洺昊 didn't stop him. Instead, he allowed O克斯 to continue engraving the magic circle, just so that he could send the information here back. And this was exactly the tomb that 陆洺昊 had built for the Hero and the others.
As for when he made it, of course it was after 陆洺昊 knew about the mission yesterday. 陆洺昊 had 特图 transfer his consciousness to this clone at night to build it. Otherwise, would you really think that the birth of Gluttony Monsters required gestation or something?
"Alright, this side is settled. Now there's still the Red Rose side."
Saying that, 陆洺昊 once again integrated this clone into the pupil behind him and transferred his consciousness to his main body. As for why 陆洺昊 didn't care about the other adventurer teams, it was entirely because they had all been completely ruined by 芙罗拉 as toys, completely and thoroughly ruined.
On the other side, inside the capital of the 艾德拉斯 Kingdom, 索菲莉 cautiously hid under the flesh wall, looking at the many Gluttony Monsters wandering not far away. At this time, the armor on her body had become tattered, and even one of her arms had disappeared.
Beside her, the Red Rose team, which originally had seven members including 陆洺昊 and 莎莉, was now left with only four. The assassin 贝拉 and the archer 希尔芙 had been swallowed by Gluttony Monsters that suddenly emerged from under their feet on the way here.
Even 莎莉 had been pulled into the depths of the ground by a giant tentacle in a battle. It could be said that from the surface, the Red Rose team had suffered heavy losses.
