Space Odyssey: Spect Chapter 568: Western Continent IX

Chapter 568: Western Continent IX

Jace slid down the vine and swiped his sword as he did before jumping off and landing on the ground. A pair of scaled snakes fell to the ground and off the massive vine he slid across. Their bodies flailed as they shriveled up.

"What the hell were those?" Victor asked as he jumped off the vine as well. They used it to scale down the mountain and into the hole that led into the ground.

"I have no clue, but there are more around." Jace answered as he swiped his sword through the air and suddenly two bipedal creatures that appeared to have leathery and jagged skin appeared. They then fell to the ground with their bodies splitting in two. "They can be seen in the infrared." Jace explained as he nodded at Eduta who grabbed sothing out of the air before throwing it. "Clearly you can see them just fine."

"Not see, but you are correct. I can sense them naturally." Eduta nodded its head. "But what are they?"

"I think they are sothing that does not belong here or any other galaxy." Jace told them as he moved toward the wall and put a hand on it. He could feel the heat through the wall. He pushed so electricity through and sensed the entire wall.

If they planted an explosive here and set it off, the result would collapse not just this upper area but it would flood the massive cavern underneath. They were really hiding sothing very deep underneath the ocean. How fun. "We going further down?" Victor asked.

"Nope." Jace shook his head before waving his hand and the storage box appeared. "Protect

while I set up these explosives." He instructed as he opened the box and pulled out several blocks of explosives that he acquired from the Basilisk gang.

He could hear the fighting as he started putting the explosives along the wall. It only took a few minutes but it was clear the fighting would increase the longer they stayed. This was why he did not want to co near this thing. He knew it would be annoying.

"Done." Jace told them before turning around and closing the box before dematerializing it. When he turned he saw that the bodies had started piling up. But the blood had not. In fact it looked like the blood from the dead creatures were just being sucked up by the vines. "Let’s get above the hole." He told them before jumping up onto a vine and kicking a creature that ca toward him.

He started scaling the vine and the other two followed quickly after him. "How are we so sure that they won’t attack the explosives?" Victor asked as he suddenly appeared ahead of Jace.

BOOOMMMM!!!!

There was a massive explosion behind them that was followed by a loud reverberation of cracking. "Don’t look back!" Jace called out as he pulled himself up. "It will not take long for the wall to completely break." He told them as he quickly scaled up the vine.

Back down below at the wall where the explosion occurred, a chunk of the wall had been blasted away. But the water from the massive ocean was still kept out of the hole by a now thin piece of rock that was slowly breaking apart. Leading up from this hole was a crack that slowly reached up farther and farther.

"When it does, the water level of the planet will lower. How deep is that hole?" Eduta asked. He was already past them, using his clawed hands and feet to climb up the vine vertically instead of an angle like Victor and Jace had to do.

In fact, Jace was the one farthest back of the three of them. Victor was using his phasing ability to scale the vines much more quickly than he can. "I did not see a bottom. This will change the geography of this planet." Jace told them as he pulled himself farther up. But as he did the vine under them started moving. "Shit." He cursed before suddenly the vine started lifting up.

Victor threw himself up to the edge of the hole and Eduta was already above it. So they quickly moved away and out of sight. Jace went to jump up but suddenly sothing grabbed his leg. "Gladiator. Are you okay?"

Jace slamd his sword into the rock wall and looked down to see his leg was wrapped up by a thin black vine that ca from further down. "Nope I-"

CRACK!

He looked to the side and saw the wall started to crack and break apart and the first spout of water shot through. Fortunately it hit the vine that was holding his leg, unfortunately it also hit his leg. So he could feel the heat as it withdrew. "Aaarggh!" He scread involuntarily in pain before pulling himself up and onto his blade so he was standing on it. The wall started to break apart around him so he jumped upward and dematerialized the blade as he did.

He reached up and a clawed arm grabbed his out reached arm and pulled him up and over the side of the hole. "Did you scream in pain?" Victor asked right before they felt the ground shake and heard a thunderous roar.

"Yeah." Jace answered as he pulled himself up. "We need to get up there." He nodded at an area just above where they were standing and started moving toward it. But he struggled to move as he did. Until Victor and Eduta helped him climb up to the raised area.

Once they were up there they saw the wall around the hole completely break apart. As it did they watched as the water flooded into the hole. As it did the plains beca visible again, or rather several volcanoes beca visible.

"GRRAAARRGGHHH!!"

There was a screeching coming from the hole that shook his brain for a mont. The mont the noise occurred, Victor dropped to the ground. Jace steadied himself as Victor was out cold. Knocked out by the noise coming from the hole that was sohow painful but not damaging.

Then Eduta made a screeching sound of his own before fainting. As he did, Jace had to pull him away from the edge. After he did he focused on blocking out the sound that was trying to shake him. Watching as the water continued to lower.

—--------------------

"Um..." One of the mbers of the bridge raised their voice as they stood from their position.

"Sothing wrong?" The prince asked from his seat. The archivist was standing next to him. They had been discussing so of the tallic materials they found and the similarities to the scans they got of Gladiator’s armor.

"Your highness. We can now see the Western Continent." The bridge mber explained. "It’s... well... Do you want

to put it up on screen?"

"Yes." The prince nodded and the main screen changed to show a view of the continent. But the prince frowned and looked at the crew mber. "I thought you said you had the Western Continent. What the hell is that?"

The crew mber shrugged.

"That is the Western Continent." The archivist declared as she got closer to the screen and pointed at a black dot. "This is a hole, a hole that might reach deeply into the ground. Deep enough that the water that has flooded the planet is being drained."

"How...?" The Prince asked as he leaned forward in his chair. "We thought it was not possible."

"One of the creatures that was on the angel’s ship is basically a massive earthworm. I am guessing it dug deep into the ground. But that is not natural. It looks like sothing triggered the collapse of an outer wall of the hole, which in turn triggered further fallout." The Archivist explained. "That is a clever solution to the problem that had arisen, the chance of any of the creatures inside the hole surviving is low. This is his work... Gladiator."

"We need him. If we could create the evolution of humans using his blood then we could rule this galaxy." The prince declared with a mad grin. "You said that almost like you admire him. Do you?" The prince asked the archivist.

"In a way, yes. I do." The Archivist agreed.

"Check on West and Sherlock, we need to know how far along they are in their assignnt." The prince told her and she started walking away. "Archivist!" She stopped by the door. "Do not get soft on

now. We have co too far." The Archivist nodded and walked out the door.

"Your highness... We just lost contact with the southern islands." One of the bridge mbers explained.

"Another jamming signal like what was happening on the Western Continent?" The prince asked.

"No..." The bridge mber audibly swallowed their saliva as they looked at the prince in fear. "The military bases are down. The islands are officially under the control of rebels. They are broadcasting claims of independence from the empire."