Chapter 115: The Snake King’s Arrival

Inside the sanctuary of the Survival Space, Ethan sat on a wooden crate, slowly regulating his breathing.

Using Spatial Cut and Breath of Corrosion in quick succession had heavily taxed his spiritual reserves. The concussive shockwave from the marked soldiers detonating had left his ribs aching, and every breath reminded him that he was in no immediate condition for another high-intensity fight.

Across the room, Tessa lay curled up on a soft cot, her face pale and drained. The deep Life Link connection she had maintained had burned through nearly all her energy, leaving her fast asleep and unconscious.

Sofia sat beside her mother, Rose, watching her anxiously. Every so often, the young girl glanced up at Ethan, silently searching his face for reassurance that everything would turn out alright.

"It’s going to be fine," Ethan said softly, reaching out to ruffle her hair before turning his attention back to the shimmering light screen mounted on the wall.

Outside the guest dormitory in the deep underground residential sector, the acrid smoke was beginning to clear from the corridor. The ten marked soldiers had left behind deep, scorched craters in the concrete floor. Jagged pieces of military uniforms and shattered rifle parts littered the ground~silent, grim reminders of the horrific suicide blasts.

Dr. Lilith Cross stood beside one of the smoking craters, her pristine white lab coat splattered with dark blood. The jagged red meteorite clutched in her hand glowed brighter by the second, pulsing with an erratic, angry rhythm.

She stared up at the reinforced doorway of the guest room, a cold, ruthless smile spreading across her veiled face.

The chain of explosions should have drained the absolute last drop of Ethan’s available energy. Even if he possessed some spatial trick to survive the blasts, he had to be critically weakened~far too vulnerable to mount a defense against another wave.

Behind her, the four Plant Ability users stood completely motionless, thick crimson vines twisting and coiling hungrily around their fingertips as they waited in eerie silence for her command.

Lilith took a deliberate step toward the entrance.

Suddenly, the reinforced concrete floor beneath her boots shuddered.

A low, subterranean rumble rolled through the bedrock, followed immediately by a harsh, grating hissing sound that seemed to vibrate directly inside everyone’s skulls. It grew louder by the second, accompanied by the dreadful, heavy scrape of countless scales dragging against solid stone far below. The ambient temperature in the cavernous underground shelter plummeted sharply, growing noticeably colder with every passing heartbeat.

Lilith stopped dead in her tracks.

"The Snake King?"

Her fingers tightened instinctively around the glowing meteorite.

She had witnessed the apocalyptic battle between the Snake King and the Tyrannosaurus Rex from a safe distance days ago. The scale of destruction those two King-level Mutant Beasts could effortlessly unleash had left a permanent, terrifying impression on her mind.

Her hypnotized soldiers and blood-vines stood zero chance against a creature of that magnitude.

Before she could pivot or decide which direction to flee, a furious, panicked shout echoed down the vaulted corridors from the main elevator entrance.

"Everyone, get deeper into the reinforced sector! Move, hurry!"

General Nash appeared out of the stairwell flanked by an elite squad of patrol guards, shouting orders and directing terrified civilians toward the inner fallback shelters.

"Close the heavy steel blast gates the moment everyone is inside!"

As the stream of panicked citizens hurried past, General Nash caught sight of the destruction outside the guest room. His boots crunched over the debris as he stopped sharply beside the craters, his sharp gaze sweeping across the charred remains before fixing on Lilith and the four unmoving Plant Ability users.

General Nash’s jaw tightened. "Dr. Cross, what in God’s name happened here?"

Lilith didn’t miss a beat, quickly masking her surprise behind a mask of professional urgency.

"That new Space Ability user broke into the residential block and abducted Rose, one of our essential Plant Ability users," she lied smoothly, pointing a gloved finger toward the dormitory. "These brave soldiers tried to intercept him, but he slaughtered them with some horrific spatial trick."

She played the victim with chilling perfection.

Inside the quiet safety of the Survival Space, Ethan raised an eyebrow as he watched the monitor.

*So she isn’t working directly with General Nash after all.*

If Lilith and Nash were allies running a joint operation, she wouldn’t need to invent such a clumsy, transparent fabrication to explain the soldiers’ mangled bodies.

Ethan was about to trigger his teleportation and step outside to expose her lies when the light screen in front of him suddenly shook violently.

The entire underground shelter violently lurked upward.

"What is happening?!" Sofia cried out in panic, grabbing Ethan’s arm for support.

On the display screen, thick clouds of concrete dust poured from the vaulted ceiling. Civilians stumbled and fell as the stone floor buckled beneath their feet, and agricultural workers scrambled desperately to shield the delicate vegetable plots from falling masonry. Children began screaming in terror while soldiers bellowed orders, trying to herd the panicked crowd toward safety.

A logistics worker pointed frantically toward the upper rock vault.

"Look up there! Something is trying to smash through the bedrock! It’s the Snake King!"

Another colossal, earth-shattering impact shook the foundation of the bunker. Dust rained down in sheets.

Lilith’s face turned deathly pale beneath her red veil. Survival instincts completely overrode her desire for revenge.

"Forget the dormitory! Follow me right now! We’re evacuating through the northern emergency drainage exit!"

She spun on her heel and sprinted down the secondary corridor.

To everyone’s absolute horror, five hundred civilian survivors in the shelter immediately turned and followed her in lockstep. Their eyes were completely dull, glassy, and lifeless, their physical movements locked in an eerie, synchronized march.

Every single one of them had been infected with her mental mark.

General Nash watched the mass exodus disappear down the dark tunnel, his expression darkening into a stormy scowl. He didn’t have the manpower to chase her down right now; with the entire subterranean ceiling threatening to cave in under the weight of a King-level beast, protecting the remaining uninfected civilians had to take precedence.

"Get everyone behind the secondary blast bulkhead!" Nash roared over the chaos. "Seal the heavy defensive gate immediately!"

Ethan turned his gaze down toward Sofia, who was gripping his sleeve. "I’m heading outside to help secure the base. Stay right here inside."

She nodded reluctantly, biting her lip.

Ethan activated Teleportation, a soft distortion folding the air around him before he reappeared directly on the concrete floor beside General Nash.

The general glanced sideways, letting out a sharp breath. "So you were hiding in this sector the whole time. What Lilith claimed about you murdering those guards... that was a complete fabrication, wasn’t it?"

Ethan gave a curt nod. "She used a psychic meteorite to mind-control Rose and force those soldiers into a suicide charge."

General Nash slammed his fist against a steel support pillar, a low growl escaping his throat. "I should have seen the signs months ago."

He let out a harsh, self-deprecating laugh. "After the world fell apart, everyone was terrified. When Lilith claimed her Mental Ability could pacify violent disputes and cure trauma, I authorized her to run medical trials. I genuinely thought she was helping us keep the peace."

His jaw set into a hard line. "I never dreamed she was turning my own people into mindless meat-puppets."

He turned his eyes back to Ethan. "At least you exposed her before she managed to put a collar on the entire base."

Just then, several muffled, ground-shaking explosions echoed from the surface above. The violent tremors gradually began to subside, and the heavy scraping sounds started shifting away from the agricultural sector toward the outer perimeter.

A scout cautiously peered through the narrow observation slit of the closing defensive gate. "General! The shaking overhead has stopped!"

Ethan and General Nash exchanged a sharp, decisive glance before sprinting up the concrete stairs toward the surface exit.