Rumble... rumble...
The earth continued to shake violently, a deep, groaning sound emanating from the very ground beneath their feet.
Leyvi immediately spread his Spiritual Sense across the surface of the land, but he detected nothing unusual that could be causing the tremors. He quickly redirected his senses downward, probing deep underground.
However, after reaching a depth of a few kilometers, his Spiritual Sense could go no further. It was blocked by something immense. The only thing he could discern about this colossal presence was that it was moving, and its movement was undoubtedly the source of the earthquake.
"I don't think this is a natural earthquake," Leyvi reported, his voice tense. "Something gigantic is moving underground. But I can't tell what it is. It's far too massive."
"Something underground?" Dastan replied, a flicker of alarm in his eyes. "Don't tell me they are demonic earthworms again?" The memory of their perilous encounter with the giant worms was still vivid.
"No," Leyvi said, shaking his head grimly. "This thing is absolutely enormous. Those earthworms couldn't compare. They would look like ants next to this."
Inwardly, Leyvi felt a knot of nervousness tighten in his stomach. The sheer scale of the entity below was staggering. If it decided to surface and act against his group, there was absolutely nothing they could do to stop it. His only hope was that it would remain deep underground, indifferent to their presence.
RUMMMMBBBLLE!
BOOM — BOOM — BOOM!
However, mere moments after Leyvi finished speaking, the tremors intensified dramatically. The enormous entity underground seemed to be making much more violent and extensive movements.
It was no longer a tremor. It had become a full-scale, devastating earthquake.
The vast, flat prairie was instantly deformed. Sections of ground thrust upward, forming hills in seconds, while other areas sank into deep pits. The earth split open with thunderous cracks, and the entire landscape underwent a terrifying and rapid transformation.
Leyvi was shocked to see that everywhere within the fifty-kilometer radius of his Spiritual Sense was experiencing the same catastrophic, earth-shattering changes.
The specific area where they had stopped was rising rapidly, lifting them to a perilous height. They could hear the panicked roars and agonized death cries of animals and demonic beasts as they fled for their lives or were tragically caught in the disaster, swallowed by chasms that opened and closed with the violent shifting of the land.
"Dammit! Everyone! Get back into the carriages! I'll hold them safe!" Leyvi shouted urgently. He had not expected the situation to deteriorate so rapidly when he called them out to see what was happening.
Leyvi remained outside, using his Spiritual Pressure to anchor the three carriages firmly to the ground, preventing them from tumbling off the newly formed, precarious cliff edge.
They scrambled back into the carriages. The formations within worked perfectly, and the violent shaking ceased the moment they were inside. The primary concern now was protecting the carriages themselves from physical destruction, as they were designed for comfort, not defense. A fall from this great height could shatter them, and being crushed by a collapsing section of the cliff would be equally disastrous.
However, in the sudden chaos, a few of them were caught off guard. Victor, Viola, and Seraphina lost their balance on the violently tilting ground and began to slide down the newly formed slope toward the cliff's edge. Thankfully, Victor and Viola managed to react quickly, using their respective techniques to grab hold of the shifting earth and anchor themselves.
Leyvi, who was already fully occupied using his Spiritual Pressure to pin the carriages in place, was forced to activate his Dual Mind benefit. Simultaneously, he summoned his invisible hands. They shot out, reaching Victor and Viola, and swiftly threw them back toward the safety of their carriage.
But Seraphina was in a full state of panic. She flailed helplessly, unable to stop her slide down the steep incline. If she went over the edge, she would plummet into one of the deep chasms torn open by the earthquake, certain to be swallowed and crushed to death.
"Shit! She is too far from my range now!" Leyvi exclaimed in frustration. His position was fixed, as he had to maintain his focus on securing the carriages; he could not move to save her.
"HELP! SAVE ME!" Seraphina clawed desperately at the ground, her voice a raw scream, but she could not get a proper grip on the loose, shifting soil. She slid over the edge, tumbling into the dark, gaping chasm below that she saw as a gaping mouth of death.
"NOOOOOO...!"
In this life and death moment, though everything was happening in a blur of motion, her mind perceived it all in agonizing slow motion.
No, no... It's happening again... Please... I don't want to die... Please...
She pleaded inwardly as she fell. But then a cold, grim realization washed over her. Nobody in the group liked her. Why would any of them risk themselves to save her now? That panda woman would probably be happier if she simply disappeared. In her mind, their secrets would be safer without her around.
Seraphina stopped crying for help. A strange calm settled over her as she resigned herself to her fate, falling helplessly into the darkness. Her consciousness began to fade.
In the front carriage, the moment Anda saw Seraphina slide over the edge, she let out a soft sigh. "Lilian. Help her," she instructed.
Without a word of reply, Lilian raised her hand. Wood Qi channeled through her palm, and a thick, vibrant vine erupted from it. The vine extended with incredible speed, shooting down into the chasm after the falling noblewoman. Just as Seraphina was about to be swallowed by the darkness, Lilian's vine wrapped securely around her body and went taut, halting her fall.
The vine yanked upward, and Seraphina bounced upside down a few times from the sudden force.
Lilian then carefully pulled her up and into the front carriage, recalling the vine back into her hand. By this time, Seraphina had already fainted from the terror of the experience.
"This girl..." Anda began, looking at the unconscious form with a mix of exasperation and pity.
"Is she really a noble lady? She keeps pissing herself at every frightening moment. She should just wear a diaper at this point. Why did she even participate in the Mystic Realm expedition? She can't do anything besides being annoying and engaging in amateurish scheming. She is obviously not a good person, and she goes against me all the time. I don't know why I keep saving her." Anda vented her frustrations aloud.
"You are too soft on her, Big Madam," Valenia commented from the side.
"Sigh... I know," Anda admitted, her expression softening slightly. "For some reason, I have a soft spot for the damsels I save. Perhaps it is my own wishful thinking, hoping that the ladies I rescue will become my loyal subordinates one day."
She did harbor this expectation. After all, the other three women she had saved, Tamina, Viola, and Cempaka, had all become fiercely loyal to her. She had hoped for the same from Seraphina, but the noble lady proved to be a different breed entirely.
The only reason she had ordered Lilian to save her this time was that, ever since their journey toward the colossal tree began, Anda had noticed a change. While Seraphina's arrogant and confrontational personality remained, the malicious, ill intent she had once sensed from her had completely faded.
Outside, the terrifying earthquake continued its rampage. Many of the newly raised plateaus and hills now crumbled piece by piece, collapsing back into the churning earth.
Each time Leyvi sensed the ground beneath him giving way, he instantly dispersed his Spiritual Pressure, burst away to a more stable spot while pulling the carriages along, and immediately pinned them down again with his Spiritual Pressure at the new location.
Throughout this entire ordeal, Leyvi never let his guard down. His Spiritual Sense operated at its maximum capacity, constantly scanning for any threats while he dealt with the land-altering earthquake. He remained especially wary of the humongous entity moving underground, the clear cause of all this devastation.
After repeating this desperate relocation several times, the violent shaking finally subsided and came to a stop. However, the sounds of falling rocks, crumbling earth, and the panicked cries of animals and demonic beasts still filled the air.
"Phew... That thing finally stopped moving. What a mess," Leyvi said, catching his breath as he gazed upon the destruction as far as his eyes could see. The vast, once-flat prairie was no more. It had been transformed into a shattered, chaotic landscape of deep gashes, jagged newly formed cliffs, and precarious mounds of unsettled earth, like a wounded giant's skin.
He was not sure how widespread the earthquake was, but the scale of the devastation was definitely beyond what he could see.
"I wonder what that thing underground was," Leyvi muttered to himself, his mind still reeling.
"Human Leyvi, you still can't guess what that thing was? It is very obvious, you know," Lapin's voice chimed in from the Spirit Beast Bag hanging on Leyvi's waist.
"Eh? It is obvious?" Leyvi was surprised.
"Kekeke! Sometimes people really miss the most obvious thing, huh?" Lapin replied. "What's the most gigantic thing you can see here? No, from everywhere in this world?"
Leyvi's eyes widened as his gaze snapped toward the distant, impossible silhouette of the colossal tree. The realization struck him with the force of a physical blow. "You mean... the thing causing all that just now was... that tree's root?!"