CHAPTER 350: CHAPTER 350: OBJECTIVE: FLY

A few moments earlier.

Chloe had raced down the passageways of the Arkship, being chased closely by a group of tigers.

She had not even managed to deal with any of them during the pursuit. She wasn’t like Katari.

Instead, she was injured badly and had bloody burn marks and scratches all over her black-feathered and furred body.

She had been intentional, keeping mobility at the highest while maintaining her Conquering Essence for a burst of speed. This was one of the reasons why she was able to keep the distance between her and the tigers.

By now, the tigers were deeply frustrated and full of killing intent. They didn’t care about what Belgrod wanted at this point, they just wanted to catch Chloe and kill her.

They had pursued, always catching up at some point. And then, there would be a burst of speed and a torrent of black wind, throwing the whole group into chaos.

How many times had they gotten so close to catching her? If she were an ordinary tier 4 lioness, they might have gotten her since.

Through winding maze-like passageways, left, right, deeper. They had made different dangerous sharp turns. Chambers, also artificial mini worlds, that they didn’t know existed were seen with their own eyes.

With fluctuations of the awakening operating system, the gates leading outside had all been locked shut, both those exposed and buried.

However, the gates to the chambers were all opened, allowing the racers easy access around the insides of the Arkship.

Alas, the tigers did not have the opportunity to explore the arkship and had to focus on pursuing Chloe.

For reasons unknown to them, Chloe seemed to be able to easily navigate her way through the chambers. She seemed to always know where the gates were, or how long a passageway was before the next turn.

It didn’t look like she was following any map of sorts, rather, she was moving around based on familiarity.

It had taken some time, but she finally made it.

She arrived at a new chamber, the ten tigers hot on her tail. Her back was covered in a long wound and her hind legs ached.

This new chamber was familiar to her, not the terrain. There were large square dents in the dirt ground. These dents were rough and the edges looked jagged, like they had been worn down but the material was still durable.

There were holes and concrete dust everywhere.

These were the foundations for a lion pyramid. That meant that this chamber had probably been used by lions in the past.

Chloe streaked to the sky leaving black after images behind, her eyes scanned the horizon and the artificial sky.

Although these Pyramid foundation structures were smaller than standard pyramids, there were dozens of them.

If the Lions had used this chamber world in the past, it probably meant that the Command Chamber should be nearby.

Chloe’s eyes shifted rapidly, using her enhanced vision, she finally located the gate.

Unfortunately, this gate was closed. It was different from the other gates. The gate stood ten meters high and long, similar to the other metal gates.

But it being an entrance to the Command Chamber, it required access from a lion or lioness specifically and couldn’t have opened automatically like the rest.

This was probably programmed into the Arkship long ago, Chloe reasoned.

She didn’t need to turn back to know that the tigers were coming at her with their full force.

The War Tiger jumped high, shooting into the sky like a bullet and crushing the earth below. Chloe leaned to the right, dodging the tiger.

The Air Tiger behind her took this opportunity to slash out with his two front claws, sending out arcs of sharp wind blades dozens of meters long.

The wind blades cut through the sky, heading for Chloe who had just evaded the War Tiger.

She tried to dodge but she wasn’t able to maneuver her way out of the net of wind blades.

Her right wing was cut, and blood gushed out. The wing hung to her shoulder by a strand of flesh, basically becoming useless.

Chloe roared out in pain and spun through the air.

Without her right wing, she could still fly but wouldn’t be able to fly well.

She spiraled down, using her wind to maintain balance. The tigers were finally catching up.

She was so close.

Chloe roared, expending her remaining Conquering Essence. The pool was drained and her aura rose.

This time, she didn’t use it to boost her speed, she didn’t need that. She condensed her power, turned around mid-air, and performed a devastating wind slash with her remaining functional wing.

The Air Tiger was too close.

The land was cleaved into two, extending for more than one kilometer.

The Air Tiger fell to the ground, his body dividing into two bloody halves before smashing onto the ground.

The force of the wind was great enough to generate enough residual force to blow back the other tigers. Some of them got injured and were not able to get back up immediately.

Chloe’s body smashed down from the sky, digging a short and shallow tear shaped out in the process.

That final attack had cost her every Conquering Essence within her body. Fighting against ten tier four tigers at the same time was no joke.

But the chase was not yet over.

Chloe crawled forward with her remaining strength, using her power over the wind to increase her speed. She turned into a black blue that sped over the terrain of the Chamber World.

She quickly reached the gate and pressed her paw on the rune circle beside it. The magic circle flashed once but didn’t open.

Another magic circle formation formed beside the first one and began emitting a cold red light. The red light washed over Chloe’s battered body, scanning her to confirm her physiology.

After the scan was completed, the gate trembled. After more than a million years, it was finally opening.

At the same time, the Arkship had automatically registered Chloe as the default owner and commander of the vessel and had begun to work toward following her commands.

The gate slid into the side of the metal wall, revealing a chamber world that was different from the rest.

The tigers had already gotten up by now and were making their way over to her.

Time was running out.

No, it was over already.

Chloe dragged her body, ignoring the pain. She crossed the gate entrance and stepped into the cold interior of the Command Chamber.

Immediately, the gate slid shut behind her, separating her from the tigers.

The tiger’s eyes were wide open as they realized what this meant. They had seen the interior of that Chamber World, and it wasn’t like the rest.

If it was really what they thought it was, their situation was incredibly severe.

As if to confirm their suspicion, a loud mechanical voice echoed out from nowhere in particular, reverberating through all the chamber worlds of the Arkship.

[ATTENTION, ALL SYSTEMS REBOOTED.

ATTENTION, OPERATING SYSTEMS ONLINE.

NEW COMMANDER REGISTERED.

INTERPRETING NEW OBJECTIVE COMMAND...

CONFIRMING FIRST OBJECTIVE...

OBJECTIVE CONFIRMED.

OBJECTIVE: FLY.]

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*BOOOOOOOOOOOM!*

The whole world seemed to wake up at this moment as every single part of the planet of Eridoria experienced a tremor of some sort.

Places that were farther away only experienced light shaking. Not enough to be serious but enough to be noticeable.

Close to the peach valley, the land experienced a devastating earthquake. The tectonic plates which had joined together and had remained unmoved for eons were forcefully pulled apart, breaking the world from below.

Chunks of earth rose and fell, then rose and rose and rose. It was clear something was blasting its way out of the planet’s crust and it was doing so in a very destructive manner.

Hundreds of lava pillars shot into the sky one by one, their numbers increasing with every passing second.

Creatures began to die in multitudes, tigers or otherwise. Peach trees were obliterated, their exotic fruits falling to the ground and some of them sinking into the newly formed lava pits.

The cracks in the earth grew wider and wider, giving way for the ascension of the machine.

Through all this, the battle between Katari had ended, not because a clear winner had come out, but because the tigers were trying to preserve their lives.

The independent gravitational pull of the machine had been activated, everything was wrong and capable of killing them.

Seeing no reason to fight, Katari dragged her injured body into a spatial fold.

Meanwhile, as the peach valley was being shattered to ruins, Kael faced off against the three tier 5 tigers.

The world that crumbled around them didn’t seem to be of their concern.

Constantyne wanted to beat Kael and prove to himself that he was stronger, Belgrod just wanted his plan to work, and Agatha was just letting her ferocious nature and fury lead her.

Pillars of lava burst into the sky from the ground around them, casting their environment in a reddish-orange glow.

Suddenly, a look of clarity appeared in Kael’s golden eyes as he stared at his enemies who were rushing toward him.

The slit at the center of his head in between his eyes flashes with a grey light, trembling.

The slit parted and the world watched in awe. All illusions before heaven and earth were vanquished before the enlightened Primordial.

A third eye had been opened...