A mist covered sky lit up in bright red after a large explosion. The source of this eruption was a large flying ship with sails. It was pierced by a monstrous appendage that was able to take it out in one attack.
This thing looked quite bizarre, dark in coloring, and made out of flesh. From it, a myriad of squiggly tentacles was wiggling around. Each one of them covered in mouths, these mouths weren’t uniform in design. They were a mix of beasts and humanoid creatures alike, the teeth on them looked to belong to carnivores as well as to herbivores.
The shrieks of a thousand creatures were heard from those flailing tentacles. Their cries were soon erased by a red beam of molten plasma. It connected with the thick dark tower of flesh and caused it to burn up. The tentacles attached to it went up in flames along with it while screaming in a high pitched wail.
“How’s that?”
“Qiang watch out, below you!”
Huo Qiang who was up in the air and also the first one to attack looked down. He was quick to react by dodging to the side as another large spire of flesh tried devouring him from below. This one actually looked more like a giant worm with a toothy mouth but it also had a lot of those slimy tendrils coming out of it.
“The mist is a lot thicker in this part…Captain, activate the formation!”
Zhang Dong called out while also moving down from the Argonaut. It was time to get his hands dirty and to help out his sect brother that was getting swarmed by some strange tentacle monsters. Zhang Liena wasn’t far behind as all of the nascent soul masters sprung into action. The other cultivators remained on the ship that was equipped to protect them.
The ship that went down belonged to the Divine Fist Sect. Fang Heng the man responsible for them was on the other ship but he was now hovering above it. There was enough time to evacuate the core formation elders onto the other flying vessel before the skyscraper-sized monster flesh trees got them.
Thanks to The Argonaut what they were facing would soon come to light. The large metallic ships’ large array formation started glowing bright gold. Runic symbols started appearing on the bubbly like barrier before it started expanding outwardly.
Within a matter of moments, the whole ship lit up in a bright golden hue. It started pulsating with energy that was shooting outwardly in a burst of bright light. This continued for a time while causing the miasma around the area to get pushed back forcefully.
Finally, everything was appearing before them, the fog was clearing up. The people that were looking at the ship’s screen and the ones that were outside to witness everything started gasping. What they saw was truly appalling, a sight that they didn’t expect to ever see.
Where everyone expected to see ruins or some sign of a city that was here, they witnessed flesh. Everything was covered in a layer of meat, squiggly living one to be exact.
What used to be the ground or the ruins were covered in a mountain of flesh. Tentacle-like appendages were protruding out of everything, strange mouths, eyes, even ears and noses were attached to that flesh. It was like out of a horror flick where some kind of alien monster had fused with every living being that it came across.
“What is all of this…”
Zhang Dong had to do a double-take over everything. He wasn’t sure what he was looking at, was this mass of flesh the Cthulhu monster that he was supposed to be facing? He tried examining everything with his system but it showed corrupt numbers and question marks over everything. Even it had trouble identifying what this thing was and he had a sinking suspicion as to why.
“This thing… it’s made up of thousands… no millions of living beings… It has somehow fused with them together… “
He detected vast amounts of demonic qi coming from the creature below. It was on different wavelengths that brought him to his conclusion of it being composed of various living creatures, humans included.
The ship continued to send out waves of divine energy into the distance which helped in keeping the mist at bay. The tentacle mass below wasn’t all too happy about this fact and started thrashing its tower sized tendrils at the unwelcome guests. Luckily for Zhang Dong and his people, their ship was quite mobile and this monster below wasn’t the speedy kind, evading its attacks was manageable.
The Argonaut wouldn’t be taking a passive stance in this battle. The crew inside was ready and waiting. The ship was equipped with large spirit cannons that were powered by the ship’s engine. Their power could be further boosted by the person using them. The order to attack was given long ago and the people were quite trigger happy.
A rain of various colorful projectiles descended from the sky. It was as if shooting stars were descending from above. These energy attacks collided with the screeching monster below, tearing into it while it tried to defend itself with its massive body of squiggly flesh. The sight wasn’t pretty as the moment the monster’s body was pierced dark blood and pungent smell followed.
This wasn’t the only enemy that was waiting for them. There was a myriad of flying monsters separate from it coming their way. They were quite strong at the pinnacle of core formation and able to move even without the mist surrounding the area around them.
Zhang Dong looked at the monsters but he didn’t join the battle yet. The other three nascent soul elders had joined with the flying ships to support them but he was still looking around. There was something off about this whole place. The flesh monster did give off nascent soul fluctuations of energy but it wasn’t that strong.
The only thing it had going for it was its size. It didn’t look like it would be able to handle all of them, which would make this an easy victory for their side. From his experience when things looked too good to be true, most of the time they were. That is also why he remained vigilant while scanning for other enemies.
“What is that…”
It wasn’t long since the mist cleared out but now he noticed something. In the distance there was a strange structure, it was still composed of flesh and part of this monster. It looked like three arches coming together into one spot. At the spot that they connected was some kind of fleshy rope that dangled around.
It connected to a spherical object, due to the explosions it was swinging around. From it, he detected a strange energy signature. He focused more, listening in as he had a suspicion that this thing wasn’t anything simple.
“Is that a… heartbeat?”
Zhang Dong was quite far away from those flesh arches but he could tell that they were the size of 100 meter tall towers. The thing that was hanging down from it was close to their size but much wider, the more he looked at it the more it appeared to be some kind of egg covered in a fleshy membrane.
“Fuck… it’s in there…Qiang, Liena, help me out!”
Zhang Dong pointed at the egg-like object in the distance while trying to get his ally’s attention. He didn’t like the way that thing looked and if his suspicion was correct it would be best to get rid of that thing as soon as they could.
The two were having their own battles in the distance but they were quick to react to his summons. Liena and Qiang looked to where Zhang Dong was pointing to. They could see the strange fleshy structure with a strange dangling egg in the middle. Even they could tell that there was something not right with that thing.
“What is that evil aura…”
Liena gasped.
“Could it be?”
Qiang narrowed his eyes while looking into the distance.
Zhang Dong just nodded while pointing out with his hand, his soul beast was summoned behind him and roared out. The other two didn’t wait long before summoning their own beasts. The red Ifrit radiated massive plasma energy while the Storm Phoenix brought storm clouds over.
The three moved their hands out while pointing their palms at the egg-shaped mass of flesh. Energy started gathering a few meters away from where they were standing as the three grand elders concentrated for a combined attack.
Green, red and gold energies started mixing with one another. The combined might of the three nascent soul elders caused everything to tremble around them. While the three were charging up, the mass of flesh below reacted.
It seemed like the monster wouldn’t just allow the humans to continue with their attack without retaliating. Soon various massive tentacles traveled towards them, on the tips giant mouths with teeth set on devouring the three young grand elders.
The three soul beasts that were hovering around the trio from the United Element’s sect wouldn’t just remain passive for this to happen. The massive beasts gave out a roar while charging towards the incoming tentacles. Their own mouth opened up wide and each one released a burst of energy that looked like an elemental breath attack.
Those masses of flesh weren’t strong enough to resist this burst of energy and started to crumble. This didn’t stop new ones to appear for a continuing surge of monster flesh. These tentacles reformed themselves almost as fast as they were burned up, showing off how good at regenerating themselves they were.
Luckily the three soul-beasts were capable enough to overwhelm the regenerative abilities of this being. This gave enough time for the three elders to gather their nascent soul energies in one spot.
It started from a tiny fingertip-sized orb in the center. It gave out a burst of energy while expanding into something the size of a basketball. The three types of energies were combining into one which made it look like a taijitu.
Soon the three were finished with concentrating and a massive torrent of spiritual energy was released. It looked like a massive beam of light that was composed of three dragons. They all shot towards the strange-looking egg while circling around themselves. They converged into one three colored dragon before connecting with their target, the explosion sent shockwaves into the surrounding causing the flying ships to buckle under pressure.
The cultivators that were lighting up the sky with cannon fire stopped with their attacks. They all looked to the distance where the three grand elders sent their attack towards. What remained there was a mushroom cloud and dust, probably anything that was there was incinerated into nothingness. Any parts of that flesh monster that connected to that spot were crumbling into dark dust.
“Was that it?”
Huo Qiang called out while crossing his muscular hands together, his tone indicating his disappointment.
“Let us hope so, I don’t want to remain in this evil place for much longer.”
Liena replied while fanning herself a bit. Zhang Dong didn’t chime in as he just squinted and looked into the distance. Then his eyes jolted open wide while he bolted for his wife. Liena gave out a surprised yelp while getting pulled to the side by Zhang Dong. A fraction of a second later a giant black beam of light shot towards where the three grand elders were standing.
A massive howl could be heard from the spot the three fired their combined attack. That was also the spot from where the dark beam of evil energy shot from. The dust started to slowly settle revealing a huge monster lurking within.