Chapter 879 879. Digging
That wasn’t very practical since the group couldn’t make use of their strongest scanning tool. Still, that dimension aimed to imitate the Immortal Lands according to their hypotheses. It was only normal for beings in the heroic ranks to be unsuitable for that environment.
Noah realized that they didn’t have time to escape from the path of the tornados in time as soon as he saw them. That colossal storm was advancing so quickly that it would envelop that area in a bit more than a minute!
"Dive underground!" Noah shouted, and his words mixed with the growls that he instinctively released in that moment of danger. "Storm!"
June, Faith, and Daniel didn’t divert their attention from the battle since the Ghostly Snake was too dangerous for them. Yet, the creature reacted at Noah’s roars and materialized next to its sealed companion to stare at the storm.
At that point, the trio could join the Demons in their amazed stares toward the imminent calamity.
The sides of that battle had vanished as soon as everyone became aware of the incoming storm. There was no point in fighting when they would die if they didn’t find cover soon.
"Now!" Noah’s roars accompanied his words as he punched the ground and began to dig a tunnel as quickly as he could. The snake restrained by his spell struggled for a second before deciding to follow him, enlarging the passage that he had created in the process.
The other hybrid next to it hesitated. It wasn’t under the control of the cultivators, but its mind was a mess, and it could only think of ways to escape from that situation.
The sky was almost a forbidden area for beings with a mental sphere, and the storm was too tall anyway. There was no chance that it could reach a safe altitude in time.
The same went for the other directions. The tornados were faster than any other creature in the fifth rank, so it was impossible to escape from their area of destruction.
Only the underground world could offer some safety, but it would still take time to reach the depths necessary to avoid that calamity altogether. The snake was decreasing its chances of survival with every passing second.
Its instincts ultimately forced it to follow Noah and the other snake in the tunnel. In its mind, the fact that they had been enemies just a few seconds ago had lost any importance in front of certain death.
June, Faith, and Daniel didn’t reach for Noah’s tunnel but began to use their spells to dig through the terrain. As they kept on digging, their teamwork improved, and they even reached a speed similar to Noah.
The Demons didn’t have problems either on the digging aspect, and they even had a submitted snake helping them in the process. The only issue was that they had to leave the frozen hybrid behind.
The frozen snake was still alive. It couldn’t enter a space-ring. Also, it was in a coiled pose, which meant that Flying Demon would need to enlarge the hole by a few dozens of meters if he wanted to bring it with him.
Noah had given up on punching through the azure terrain at some point and was directly headbutting the ground to increase his digging speed. The two snakes enlarged the tunnel that he had created as they followed closely behind him.
There was no destination nor a safe area in his mind. Noah only knew that he had to go as deep as he could before the storm enveloped the region.
The tornados eventually reached that area, and the entirety of the underground world started to tremble as they unleashed their destructive power on the environment.
The matter of the world would directly disintegrate when it came in contact with the chaotic and dense laws carried by those wild winds. The laws inside it would then become part of the tornados and make them even thicker.
Noah saw the ground around him trembling and cracking under the influence of the storm, but he kept on digging as he waited for the calamity to end.
The tremors only lasted for a few seconds. The tornados were incredibly fast, and it took them only a few instants to cross the entirety of the region.
Noah stopped when he sensed that the area was now stable, and his consciousness expanded to look for the other cultivators on his group. His mental waves quickly found the Demons and the trio who were safe in their tunnels.
"Let’s wait for two parts of incense just to be sure," Dreaming Demon said through her consciousness when she sensed the mental waves of her companions interacting with her.
The lack of tremors was a reliable indicator that the storm had gone away. Still, that dimension tried to imitate the Immortal Lands. There was too much that they didn’t know, so it was better to play it safe.
The groups resurfaced after two minutes and stared at the destruction caused by the tornados. The plain was a mess filled with cracks and uneven boulders now, and there was no trace of the frozen snake anywhere. There wasn’t even a single shard of ice there.
The vegetation had disappeared too, and the only thing that had survived was the azure river in the distance.
Noah and the others became interested in the river when they saw that it was still in its previous state, but they had to settle an important matter before they could resume the exploration. Of the three surviving snakes, they had submitted two of them, but the last one had returned to its immaterial form during the trip back to the surface.
Noah knew that it was still in the area because he could sense the tense atmosphere that it created. However, he couldn’t do anything while it was in that form.
"You," Noah said as he turned to his submitted hybrid. "Tell it to come out and surrender if it cares about your lives."
Noah’s words were mostly an appeal to the human side of those creatures, but it was also a loud threat that he didn’t hesitate to convey. After all, those creatures had intense instincts ruling all their actions, so it was better to trigger an emotional response by using one of its companions.
The snake bound by the Shadow Sword spell showed some signs of struggle, but it hissed nonetheless.
The remaining hybrid didn’t answer, and the tension that it caused vanished in a matter of seconds. Its instincts had taken control of its mind by then and forced it to abandon its companions to keep its freedom.
A beast would never surrender from a safe position. Noah’s plan was unlikely to work in the first place.