Super Mothership
The terrified captain of Alpha Squad had been fleeing at full speed for nearly half an hour before he finally slowed down a little, still shaken as he looked nervously back at the pitch-black tunnel behind him.
Strange... why aren't they chasing?
Even if they're slower than me, there should at least be some noise, right? Could it be they're lying in ambush ahead, waiting for me to walk right into the trap?
"RUMBLE—!"
Just as he was overwhelmed with confusion, the entire passage suddenly shook violently, with bits of stone tumbling down from above.
The situation nearly scared him out of his wits!
Damn! Do they really have to go this far?!
Trying to take my life—do they really need to bring down the entire tunnel to bury me alive? Just how pissed off are they?!
If I get buried at this depth, I might not be found until a thousand years later, as a fossil!
Panic-stricken, he summoned every ounce of strength he had left and sprinted desperately toward the exit...
Meanwhile, at the underground lava lake...
The entire underground space was shaking violently, with huge chunks of stone falling and splashing into the crimson lava, sending up waves of molten rain.
Countless black tendrils, like enormous serpents, began to writhe in unison in a massive frenzy.
Under the control of the Eternal One, the tendrils uprooted themselves from the ground where they'd been anchored for ages, surging up from the lava lake and twining together in the air.
Gradually, they began to wrap entirely around the Eternal One’s body.
Like an invisible weaver at work, a completely black spindle-shaped structure slowly took form in the underground space.
And beneath the lava lake, due to the Eternal One withdrawing the root-tendrils—as if uncorking a sealed bottle—an overwhelming rush of blazing magma from the asthenosphere began pouring wildly into the space.
The lava lake rose at a pace visible to the naked eye, gradually flooding the entire underground chamber—submerging both the space and the black spindle...
Some time later…
“Whoosh!”
A dirt-covered figure suddenly shot out of the underground passage, and with a heavy “THUD!” crashed onto the ground.
His legs gave out and he staggered, nearly falling over before regaining his balance.
“Huff… huff…”
Panting heavily, the Alpha Squad captain looked completely disheveled, yet he remained alert as he scanned his surroundings.
Seeing no pursuing enemies blocking the exit, he finally relaxed and let out a relieved smile of someone who had just escaped death.
But the ground beneath his feet was still shaking—and it was getting worse. The tremors were more intense than he had expected, and the area affected seemed much larger.
In the jungle around him, wild animals were fleeing in all directions, panicked and confused, like the end of the world was upon them.
Strange… this chaos doesn’t seem to be directed at me?
Could it be… a natural earthquake?
“RUMBLE—!”
Just then, a deafening sound like thunder suddenly came from the distance.
It sounded like muffled thunder from beneath the earth—deep, oppressive—like something monstrous was about to burst out!
“What the hell?!”
The sense of relief he had felt moments ago vanished instantly.
"BOOM!"
Finally, after a thunderous roar, a massive explosion erupted from an extinct volcano dozens of kilometers away, sending thick plumes of smoke billowing into the sky!
Dark red magma burst out, wrapped in rolling black smoke, with deafening rumbles pressing outward in waves. Scorching-hot rocks were blasted high into the air and then fell like meteors, leaving thousands of blazing red streaks across the sky.
Even from this distance, the Alpha Squad captain could clearly feel the overwhelming, world-ending force of nature.
"Huh? A volcanic eruption?"
Frowning in confusion, he muttered to himself.
An extinct volcano erupting wasn't anything unusual on Kara, a planet notorious for intense geological activity—but for some reason, his thoughts drifted to that giant tree, and the underground magma lake…
Could all of this really be just a coincidence?
Unable to suppress his curiosity, he flew into the sky to get a better look at what was happening over there.
And in the very next instant, his eyes flew wide open.
From the massive crater of the volcano, seven or eight enormous, black, root-like tendrils—all looking disturbingly familiar—stretched out from the searing magma, anchoring themselves on the edge of the crater.
The volcanic eruption intensified, with more and more black tendrils surging upward without end.
And then, right before his stunned gaze, an enormous, jet-black, sharp object—covered in those writhing black tendrils—slowly "climbed" out of the volcanic mouth!
Once the giant entity had fully emerged from the crater, its true form was at last revealed.
It was an absolutely massive black spindle-shaped object, over thirty kilometers long, its entire surface covered in swaying tendrils.
And as it finally pulled itself above the ground, the countless black tendrils coiled around its body began to slowly unravel and fall away, gradually revealing its true appearance…
Upon seeing this, the Alpha Squad captain finally understood why—despite him stealing such critical intelligence—not even a single pursuer had been sent after him.
With things like this happening now… would there have even been a point?
"This... this is impossible!"
His face was filled with disbelief.
What is that thing... and how in the world did it come up here?!
How the Eternal One came up naturally starts with how it went down...
Volcanic eruptions are one of the most common geological phenomena across many planets.
Due to crustal shifts and other forces, magma stored in underground chambers can erupt under extreme pressure and temperature, creating these spectacular displays of planetary force.
Most magma expelled during volcanic eruptions originates from the asthenosphere—the semi-molten upper layer of the planet's mantle.
From there, the magma travels through deep crustal "mantle plumes," like wells piercing the crust, feeding into the subterranean magma chambers closer to the surface.
Long, long ago, the Eternal One had descended into the underground sanctuary through one such mantle plume on Kara, where it underwent its prolonged evolution.
That underground lava lake had naturally been connected to both the asthenospheric magma reservoir and a mantle plume.
However, after the Eternal One seized control of the area, it essentially became an uninvited "cork", blocking part of the connection at the base of the mantle plume.
Once this "cork" was pulled out, the immense underground pressure naturally forced the Eternal One to be blasted to the surface—on a fountain of erupting magma!
High orbit above planet Kara...
The sea tribe's flagship and three escorting frigates had already arrived at their designated orbit, beginning their blockade mission. Meanwhile, the Kara planetary surveillance satellites deployed by the Twin Stars naturally detected the anomaly occurring on the planet.
Everyone was stunned by the satellite images showing a massive, unidentified creature.
Countless enormous tendrils were holding the Eternal One aloft. Each tendril stretched tens, even hundreds, of kilometers long. The sheer number of them made people's scalps tingle. They were nearly submerging the volcano below, and the tremendous force they exerted was steadily lifting the giant tree-like entity upward.
There was no need to guess—this was undoubtedly a biological weapon developed by the Karans, and what’s more, its body appeared to have undergone a significant degree of mechanical augmentation.
Its threat level was still undetermined, but with the earlier wormhole assault followed now by the emergence of a colossal unknown bio-weapon on Kara, any officer with a brain in the Twin Stars’ military could see the pattern: this was clearly a coordinated operation orchestrated by the Unity of All Beings!
As a result, the three frigates quickly sent requests to the flagship, asking whether they should open fire immediately. Before long, they received a response from "Gustav":
"Hold your positions. This is a universe-class rare lifeform. The military is currently assessing its value to civilization and preparing a plan to capture it alive. No one is to fire without my direct order!"
Although they felt something was off, the three frigates still obeyed the command to the letter—forced to just watch helplessly as the massive creature on Kara, taking advantage of its long-legged structure, continued climbing skyward...
3 kilometers... 10 kilometers... 20 kilometers...
Half an hour passed.
Although it clearly didn’t seem capable of flight, from the look of things... was it really trying to leave the planet?!
Could the Karans be trying to construct a low-orbit fortress that grows out of the planet itself, to compete for airspace dominance?
As more and more of the giant creature revealed itself—especially as it exposed an increasing number of sinister-looking turrets—the three frigate captains began to break into a cold sweat.
And yet... the order to attack never came.
TL Note- Traitor.....
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