Jones and Dora bolted down the corridor!

Two tentacles instantly shot out from the doorway, pursuing them along the hallway. Their speed was terrifyingly fast, and their strength incredible.

Along the way, the Anti-Demon Walls, which Jones couldn't budge an inch, seemed to transform into ordinary stone walls when they encountered the tentacles. Though the walls weren't outright destroyed as the tendrils brushed past, Jones could see visible clouds of dust shaking free, tremors rippling through them, and in some cases, they even cracked apart.

The deafening rumble shook the entire underground world violently, as if an earthquake had struck, threatening imminent collapse.

As the tentacles began closing in, Jones shouted desperately, "Quick! Discard the armor!"

Without hesitating, Jones and Dora transformed into bats mid-sprint. The Silver Moon Armor they wore shattered to pieces like a disassembled pile of blocks during their frantic dash.

Two bats emerged from the cracks of the collapsing armor, flapping their wings frantically as they hurriedly flew forward.

In an instant, the distance that had been shrinking began to widen. The tentacles, stretched into straight lines, no longer seemed to match the speed of their sweeping attacks.

When they had distanced themselves about ten meters, the tentacles finally paused, as if intentionally abandoning the chase, slowly retracting inch by inch.

Jones and Dora hovered in mid-air, their wings still beating.

But soon, the tentacles, which had been retreating moments ago, suddenly halted again and resumed their relentless pursuit.

Left with no choice, Jones and Dora continued to flee, frantically flying forward until they'd put over fifty meters between themselves and their pursuers.

At last, the tentacles paused again.

Suspended in the air, Jones and Dora stared across the distance at the tentacles.

Of course, "stared" might not be the right term, as the tentacles lacked eyes. Jones couldn't fathom how they perceived him and Dora without vision and were able to carry out such an unyielding chase.

This time, perhaps because the distance was simply too great, the tentacles didn't instantly resume their pursuit when Jones and Dora stopped again.

The two sides entered a standoff.

Jones widened his eyes, carefully studying the grotesque creature before him that resembled a gargantuan worm.

Jones wasn't even sure if "creature" was the proper term. This thing lacked the typical aura of living beings or even magical beasts. As a "Magic Power Source," its existence could only be faintly sensed through Lucy's magic perception. Normally, Jones couldn't detect it at all. Even the core—a sphere resembling an eyeball—was the sole part emitting any identifiable "Magic Power Source." The tentacles themselves had none.

This made it all the more terrifying. To think, the tentacles constituted the vast majority of its body. This meant less than one percent of its form was perceptible, while the rest—a staggering amount—entirely eluded detection, whether through Jones's usual methods of sensing magic fluctuations and energy signatures or even via Lucy's specialized magic sensing.

To make matters worse, the tentacles' length appeared limitless. From Jones's observations, they could extend endlessly, merely growing thinner as they stretched further. He hadn't seen any indication that they could reach a limit. And should those tendrils wrap around him or Dora, their current strength would make survival impossible.

Amid their tenuous deadlock, Dora's voice suddenly echoed in Jones's mind, "Lord Jones, behind you…"

Jones froze, glancing sideways. He saw Dora's widened eyes, nervously observing him from the corner of her gaze.

A chill ran down Jones's spine. Without turning to look, he already knew what awaited behind him.

Without a shred of hesitation, Jones swiftly unleashed a protective spell at lightning speed. But it wasn't for defense—he already understood full well that such spells were useless against the tentacles' direct attacks. The shield was meant to push Dora aside, propelling her to one side while Jones himself retreated to the other.

Almost simultaneously, two slender tentacles stabbed downward from behind them, missing their mark but smashing heavily into the tiles ahead, instantly shattering several solid slabs into a crater, debris spraying everywhere.

It had to be said—Jones's decision to transform into a bat had proven correct. Faced with a monstrosity like this in the underground world, the bat form far outstripped the cumbersome guise of Silver Moon Armor in agility and maneuverability.

Amid the swirling dust, Jones exploited his bat form's diminutive size to weave through the gaps between the tentacles. With his tiny bat claws, he grabbed the still-stunned Dora and forcefully dragged her out of the dust cloud toward clearer ground, fleeing desperately.

After flying a distance and glancing back, Jones was horrified to see no fewer than a dozen tentacles thrashing wildly within the dust cloud—including the two that had initially pursued them and were already fifty meters away before the attack began.

At the same moment Jones turned to look, the tentacles appeared to sense that he and Dora had emerged from the dust cloud. All paused briefly before wildly shifting direction to charge after them once more.

Out of options, Jones frantically flapped his wings, straining with every ounce of strength to drag Dora along as he tore through the unending, intricately woven labyrinth of the underground world, darting and hiding wherever they could, fleeing without pause.

...

Meanwhile, in the original room, the eye-creature had already smashed Lucy's skull into fragments. It widened its monstrous eye, silently gazing at the pulverized remains in the pitch blackness as though waiting for something.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.