Chapter 4385: Too Many Cats for a Single Mouse

Another route appeared before Harksha, and without wasting any time, she immediately angled the airplane downward. Now that the vessel had lost much of its previous speed, maneuvering through narrower passages became considerably easier. Even so, Harksha still couldn’t understand what good that would do if the guardians eventually managed to surround them again. Reduced speed only meant less room for mistakes.

It took barely three minutes for the pursuing guardians to catch up once more. Their superior speed gradually erased every bit of distance Roan had painstakingly created, forcing Harksha to continuously adjust the airplane’s trajectory to remain outside the range of the incoming laser barrages.

Roan, however, remained completely calm.

The three-dimensional map projected before Harksha suddenly zoomed in, revealing far more details than before. Tiny adjustments appeared across the route, indicating altitude changes, precise turning angles, and even the safest flight lines through the surrounding terrain.

"Just follow this path."

Harksha was momentarily taken aback.

According to the projected route, she would eventually have to fly straight into an underground tunnel. Judging by the countless collapsed sections already shown on the map, those ruins had existed for an unimaginably long time. With so much age and erosion, it was only natural to assume that the entire place could cave in at any moment, especially once dozens of guardian lasers started striking the surroundings.

Still, she kept those thoughts to herself.

Complaining or questioning Roan again would only invite another humiliating scolding. Besides, she didn’t exactly have a better plan to offer.

The first laser shots began arriving from extreme distances.

Most missed the airplane entirely, streaking past before exploding against ancient ruins, mountainsides, and massive stone formations. The few that did come close were bent away by the Light Bending Plate Arrays.

As the pursuit continued, more and more guardians caught up with them.

At one point, there were well over forty guardians directly behind the airplane. An endless rain of lasers tore through everything in their path, reducing who knows how old structures to rubble and carving glowing scars across the landscape. The scenery behind them resembled complete devastation.

Meanwhile, the projected flight path before Harksha continued changing every second.

Minor corrections constantly appeared as new terrain data was collected. Sometimes Roan adjusted the angle by only a few degrees. Other times, entire turns shifted several hundred meters after newly scanned obstacles appeared.

Harksha had to remain completely focused just to avoid missing one of those sudden changes.

Fortunately, the effort paid off.

Despite the overwhelming number of incoming attacks, the airplane rarely ended up directly in their trajectories. Every adjustment shaved away another fraction of a second, causing countless lasers to miss by mere meters.

Unfortunately, Harksha also knew the truth.

Even with Roan’s impossible flight paths, there would eventually come a point where simply avoiding everything became impossible.

Just as the Light Bending Plate Arrays were approaching their overheating limit, Harksha finally saw it.

The tunnel entrance.

It was the remains of an ancient artificial passage carved deep into the mountainside countless years ago. Without any hesitation, she aimed directly toward it.

*Pling! Plang! Dum! Raaaask...!*

"Fuck! This thing is too narrow!" Harksha couldn’t help shouting.

The airplane’s fuselage repeatedly scraped against uneven stone walls. Loose rocks smashed against the sides while broken support beams and hanging debris constantly struck the aircraft as it squeezed through the cramped passage. Sparks occasionally burst from the reinforced hull, but thankfully, nothing penetrated the outer armor.

Roan completely ignored her complaints.

"Third passage on the right. Then continue for thirteen kilometers until the three-way intersection. Take the middle route."

Senkiyu carefully observed the same three-dimensional map before asking, "But... the middle passage seems even narrower. Can the airplane even fit through there? The other two routes look much safer."

Roan gave a slight nod. "It fits." He paused briefly before adding, "In fact, it’s the only path we can use."

Since the question came from Senkiyu rather than Harksha, Roan didn’t mind offering a brief explanation. Well, that’s just because he now had the time to do so. Senkiyu wasn’t reducing the speed that Harksha was following Roan’s orders, after all.

He zoomed the map outward.

Only then did everyone notice what Roan had already seen.

Although the other two passages initially appeared wider, the airplane’s scans from when they flew above the ground revealed that both had collapsed several kilometers ahead. Massive cave-ins completely blocked them.

Only the narrow middle tunnel remained open from beginning to end.

"I see..." Senkiyu muttered.

Roan shifted his attention toward the rear of the airplane.

Although they could no longer see outside, the radar clearly showed numerous guardians entering the underground passages in pursuit.

"The good thing," Roan said, "is that those things have an even larger circumference than this airplane. Maneuvering through these tunnels is far more difficult for them than it is for us."

Cantra still looked uneasy. "But... they’re extremely intelligent. They already tried to ambush us several times. Won’t they simply wait for us at the tunnel exit?"

Roan wasn’t concerned in the slightest. "Even though we didn’t have much time to map everything, it’s obvious that the underground beneath these ruins is filled with an enormous network of interconnected tunnels. There are countless entrances and exits leading to different areas."

He looked toward the projected map. "Besides..."

Without another word, Roan walked toward the rear compartment and opened the hatch leading outside. "You Aura Gods."

He pointed toward a highlighted location on the map. "We’re about to pass one of the main support pillars. Destroy it."

Senkiyu and the others immediately stiffened.

Destroy it?

Wouldn’t that bring the entire tunnel down on top of them?

Even so, after witnessing Roan’s judgment over the past hour, nobody voiced any objections. A few seconds later, the designated pillar entered their line of sight.

"On my mark..." Roan calmly watched the timing. "...Now."

The Aura Gods instantly unleashed their Godly Energy.

Several ranged attacks shot through the open compartment, striking the pillar dozens of meters behind the airplane. The ancient support had already deteriorated after countless years underground, so the combined attacks shattered it instantly.

The tunnel began collapsing.

An enormous roar echoed behind them as countless tons of stone crashed downward.

Surprisingly...

The collapse mainly spread toward the direction they had just come from.

No...

That wasn’t entirely accurate.

It was also propagating forward.

The difference was simply that the airplane was still moving faster than the collapse itself spread.

"We’re outrunning the cave-in..." Senkiyu finally realized.

The destruction chased after them like a gigantic stone wave, but the airplane remained just ahead of it, escaping section after section before the ceiling could crash down.

Roan calmly closed the rear compartment before returning to the projection table. "That’ll delay the guardians for a while."

He pointed toward one of the radar recordings. "When the first guardian attacked Harksha earlier, it emerged from underground. However, it wasn’t digging through solid rock and dirt. It was using these existing tunnels and only broke through the ceiling once it reached the correct position."

He continued, "Their bodies are mostly energy, but their cores aren’t. They can’t simply phase through mountains. If a tunnel collapses, they’ll have to clear the debris before continuing."

The airplane continued weaving through the underground network.

Occasionally, another section of the fuselage scraped against the tunnel walls or clipped protruding rocks, but none of the impacts were serious enough to threaten the vessel.

That was hardly surprising.

After all, Rean had personally designed the airplane using extraordinarily durable alloys specifically intended to survive dangerous exploration missions.

One tunnel gave way to another as they repeatedly changed direction through the underground maze.

Just when everyone finally believed they had found a place where they could safely buy some time... Roan changed his orders again. "Take the next right."

He zoomed in on another section of the map. "It’ll lead us back outside."

Harksha narrowed her eyes but obeyed without hesitation. Sure enough, less than a minute later, daylight appeared ahead. The airplane burst out from another tunnel entrance.

Why?

Why would Roan willingly expose them again?

*Ziu! Ziu! Ziu! Ziu! Ziu...!*

The answer came immediately.

Several laser barrages descended from above while others swept across the surrounding ruins.

Fortunately, most of them struck nearby buildings, cliffs, and natural rock formations instead of the airplane.

"We need to go back!" Harksha shouted while already trying to turn the airplane around.

Roan immediately stopped her. "No. Keep following the route." He then pointed toward the projected map. "We die if we turn back."

"So they’ve occupied the tunnels as well?" Fohui, the Lamp Spirit, finally spoke again after remaining silent for quite some time.

Roan nodded. "They aren’t idiots. They adapt. Once we stayed underground for too long, they naturally began flooding every tunnel entrance they could find. At that point, it became only a matter of time before they completely surrounded us underground."

He then pointed toward the outside. "Pay attention to the laser fire."

Everyone looked again. "...There are very few."

Kentucky quickly checked the radar before answering. "Only three guardians."

Even underground, the radar continued detecting their Godly Pressure, let alone now that they were outside.

"Exactly," Roan said. "The others are still trapped inside the tunnel network, searching for us or clearing the collapsed sections. Keep following the route I marked and don’t remain exposed any longer than necessary. We just bought ourselves another five or six minutes. By the time the rest reorganize and emerge from the tunnels, we’ll already be somewhere else."

"Understood." Harksha nodded.

For the first time in quite a while, her voice carried genuine confidence instead of uncertainty. And so, the desperate chase continued.

Thirty minutes...

Thirty-five minutes...

Forty minutes...

Roan continued exploiting every advantage the terrain offered, but the guardians were adapting at an alarming pace.

Each trick only worked once. Every successful escape simply taught their pursuers something new.

Meanwhile, the Light Bending Plate Arrays had been operating almost continuously since entering the barrier. One array after another finally reached its limit.

Several plates cracked.

Others completely shattered.

With every destroyed array plate, the airplane’s ability to bend incoming lasers weakened further.

Roan narrowed his eyes. "It was good enough to get us here," he finally said. "But we can’t keep this up."

His gaze shifted toward another point on the map, and a new route immediately appeared before Harksha. "The thrusters continue losing efficiency. You’ll see another tunnel entrance two kilometers ahead. Enter it."

He then looked toward the Aura Gods. "The rest of you, collapse the tunnel behind us as soon as we enter it."

"So we’re flying through the tunnels again..." Harksha muttered while preparing for another narrow entry.

"No. You will land the airplane." He highlighted a specific location deep within the tunnel system. "Right here."

Silence immediately filled the cabin. The place Roan marked... had no space for the airplane to fly forward anymore.

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