Chapter 560 Tombscreamers.
"What are those?"
Erik murmured with a dazed expression as he watched a sea of golden bugs spread throughout a massive empty underground world with hundreds of shimmering golden pillars.
Those bugs had butterfly-like wings, making them fly in flocks from a pillar to another, leaving behind them a trail of golden dust.
When the dust land on the ground or the pillars, it paints them with a golden color, making it seem like the entire underground world was actually made out of pure gold!
"Look there!" Jones exclaimed with a stupefied expression as he pointed his shaky finger at a gigantic golden pyramid with a shimmering pointy peak.
It didn't have a single window or an entrance, appearing like a rock that had been sculptured into a pyramid.
The most fascinating part was the fact that it appeared brand new without a single spark of dust or fissure on it.
Besides those butterflies, pillars, and the pyramid, there was nothing else in the area.
Just as they wanted to discuss them, they were shocked by the sight of a flock of those butterfly bugs, heading to the hole, where they were peeking using Momo's bracelet.
"Close it!"
Without a single ounce of hesitation, Malak ordered while backing away from the hole!
While the rest were half a beat slower, Pualani instantly jumped below the boulder and picked a giant rock with his bare hands!
Then, he tossed it while shouting, "MOVE!"
The squad scrambled to get out of the way, allowing the rock to land almost near the hole!
Malak did the rest by pushing it easily until it closed the hole completely!
Sshshshshsshs!
Through the cracks between the hole and the rock, Malak was able to hear a soul-chilling noise of millions of wings fluttering altogether.
'That was a close one.' Malak sighed in relief while jumping below, grouping up with the rest. They seemed pretty confused by her decision to close down the hole.
"Is there something wrong with those butterflies?" Pualani asked with a solemn tone.
He moved purely on Malak's orders without having a single clue of the reason. His quick reaction was due to his background in the army as he was an ex Lieutenant Colonel in the Galactical Army of the Milky Way Galaxy.
Only Malak and Felix knew the reason why he turned out to be a slave.
"I don't really know what they do." Malak clarified, "But Sir Felix warned me to stay away from any insect in these ruins no matter how harmless they appeared."
Everyone's expression turned serious at the sound of that.
Since it was coming straight from Felix it only meant that the Organization had difficulties with insects in the other ruins that resembled this one.
Remembering their sheer numbers in the underground world made their hearts sink to their stomachs.
"Let's update the boss first." Khodri suggested.
"Already on it." Malak said while writing a message to Felix, who was currently in the process of concoction practice.
When Felix received it and read all things that transpired, he immediately dropped the practice halfway through and requested the Queen to use Malak's link.
Whoosh!
In a few moments, Felix's body got reconstructed above them. He didn't bother to waste time with greetings as he asked calmly, "Did any of you got touched by those insects?"
Everyone shook their heads.
"Boss, you think they can harm us?" Erik asked while stretching his nanobot suit, "As long as we are wearing this, I doubt those tiny insects could penetrate them and touch us directly."
The rest of the squad nodded their heads in agreement.
They had already done enough research on their suits to understand that they were able to defend against peak 3rd stage bloodliners. Don't even mention little bugs.
"That would have been true if the Tombscreamers didn't have acidic fangs as their secondary weapons." Felix shook his head and clarified their doubts, "The acid those fangs release could melt off those nanobots easily. If we added their numbers to the mix? Your suit wouldn't have been the same if you got engulfed by them."
"Scary."
Felix's words managed to send goosebumps down their spine.
Alas, he wasn't over yet as he mentioned, "That's just to break your defenses, their real weapon is their mental affecting signals that are capable of making you go crazy to gather as many Tombscreamers as possible. You will not even care if you harmed each other for them."
Ssssss!
Everyone drew a deep of cold breath in fear except Momo, who had complete immunity against both effects.
If everyone died, he would survive again just like in his previous squad.
"There are billions of them down there." Khodri sighed, "Even if we wanted to exterminate them, it would take us days and a massive amount of energy stones. If we relied on our spaceship's weapons, they would most definitely sink the entire desert on the ruins, burying them again."
"Boss, since you know all of this about them, do you have a solution?" Erik inquired.
"Indeed." Felix smiled, "The Organization didn't know what type of insects you will meet in the ruins but they were confident that you will meet with a type or two. So, they had given me plenty of defensive spray against them."
"As expected of the boss and the Organization." Erik gave a thumb up in appreciation and said, "Always reliable."
The rest sighed in relief as well after realizing that their problem had been solved.
Felix pointed at the spaceship and informed, "Someone go check the warehouse and bring with you a box with an insect label."
"Leave it to me." Erik immediately dashed towards the spaceship's gate. Though, it took him ten minutes to come back since the warehouse was far from the spaceship's entrance.
Thud!
Erik placed the grey metallic box on a rock and backed off. Malak stepped forward and opened it up with her scanner. Then, she pulled out multiple green spray cans and spread them on the squad.
"Spray your entire suit until you start to stink with the stench." Felix explained, "Then, immediately enter the hole and aim for the pyramid without making too much noise. They may not approach you on their own due to the spray but they will keep buzzing a couple of meters around you, annoying the hell out of you."
The squad members nodded their heads in understanding while spraying themselves.
Felix continued speaking, "After you reach the pyramid, make sure to stop at the last staircase. There is a high chance that the closer you get to it, the more likely you will end up activating a trap."
Felix knew that there weren't any traps before the pyramid. but he didn't want to expose everything now.
Better wait until he actually sees the pyramid and concocts another bullshit excuse for his future knowledge.
A few minutes later...The squad was standing above the boulders while a couple of empty cans were spread on the ground.
They couldn't smell their stench but they presumed that it should be enough after emptying a whole bottle on themselves.
"Ready?" Pualani asked while placing his hands on the rock that was closing the hole.
Upon seeing that everyone had nodded their heads, he lifted it and threw it away like it weighed nothing.
Then, he pulled back with the rest, worrying that a flood of Tombscreamers would burst at once. However, they waited a couple of seconds and nothing emerged.
"They had returned below, let's move quick!" Malak said while jumping through the hole without hesitation!
While she was freefalling in a straight posture, she kept counting down the seconds backward. The moment she reached zero, she activated her ability *Wings of Eternity!*
Two enormous wings created from blue flames had emerged from the back and started flapping like a graceful swan, helping her descent slowly to the ground.
The instant she touched the ground, the heat had managed to burn off hundreds of Tombscreamers around her.
It seemed like she didn't have an issue with them if she was willing to keep her wings active.
Malak had no issue with that since her wings could remain active for eternity, not consuming even a bit of her elemental energy!
While Malak was fully confused about how does that works, it was explained to Felix by Lady Sphinx after he heard about the ability as well.
He was told that the wings rely on the same concept of transmutation. The flames transmute the natural energy around the user into elemental fire energy, making them able to sustain themselves without relying on the user's tank!
Truly a worthy ability of a primogenitor!
Whoosh Whoosh!
Erik and the rest followed after her, each using their own method of descent.
Momo simply jumped down and ended up smacking face-first on the ground while Malissa carried Khodri, flying him below with her bat-wings.
As for Nicci? She used long vines to connect to the ground and climbed down on them. The rest used her method as well.
After they gathered below, they kept their noises down while surveying the area around them that was infested with Tombscreamers.
'Stay away from the pillars and try to move in one line to have each other's back.' Malak ordered while taking the lead towards the Pyramid, 'We never know if there are other dangers hidden in here.'
Unbeknownst to her and Felix, the dangers weren't really here but on the outside, as a medium-sized fleet of ragtag spaceships was currently approaching the planet at the speed of sound!
No matter how the spaceship was shaped or looked, all of them had one gigantic flag painted on the right side.
A flag that had a white spider skull while it was crossed by eight white bones, appearing just like its legs!
Below the flag, there was a name written with the common universal language.
It says...The Bloody Mary Pirates!