After their fierce battle, the main forces finally broke through the layers of gates and the sea of chimeras. Their jaws dropped to the ground when they saw the massive cavern.
Their prior speculation was correct after all; the main peak of Sacred Mountain was hollow and it had been turned into an underground base.
This huge cavern was conical in shape, and the opening where everyone entered into earlier was an alloy platform halfway up the cavern. There were more alloy structures of a similar nature on the walls of the cavern. A large number of mechanical tracks and conduits were intertwined on the cave walls, connecting the platforms together to form a traffic route. A large number of unmanned mechanical devices were running around carrying out work on these tracks. Meanwhile in the centre of the cavern, a towering battleship stood before their eyes. The battleship was covered in black paint and it was adorned with a series of sail-like black crystal flaps as well as odd rings with red light in the middle. Many mechanical devices were busily working on the metal scaffolding that criss-crossed around the black battleship. They appeared to be conducting checks and final repair works.
Hao Ren suspected that the scaffolding may have already stood there for thousands of years.
This battleship was smaller than the black battleship seen on Planet Io. However, this giant-made battleship was still incredibly large, perhaps was occupying one-third of the total volume of Sacred Mountain.
Right now, the battleship seemed to be undergoing a series of take-off preparations. The red halo of on the outside was pulsating, and the engine nozzles and anti-gravity generators were firing up in sequence. Each engine warm-up cycle would cause a thunderous noise, and each anti-gravity activation would lead to the gravity imbalance in the cavern, causing millions of tonnes of rock rubbing against each other, and producing an earthquake-like phenomenon.
Apparently, this was the source of loud noises and vibrations earlier.
"No wonder the reaction of the brain-monster was so strange," said Y'zaks, squinting. "It seems that it has been focusing all its energy on this."
"What the hell is this...?" Ophra could not believe what she saw. She was at a loss seeing this thing that looked even more incredible than Hodeceus. "What does it want to do?"
"I think it's planning to fly," said Nangong Sanba, swallowing his saliva as he looked up at the complicated mechanical installation on the ceiling of the cavern. It was a silo cover, no doubt about it. "This thing may be flying out through that hatch…"
Before Nangong Sanba's voice trailed off, a loud rumbling noise filled the cavern; the spacecraft's engine had fired up. As if standing inside a giant bell, the noise kept reverberating in the cavern. Lily covered her ears with both hands. Her hair was puffing up. "Argh…"
Now the husky regretted having four-channel ears—with only two hands, she could manage to cover two.
Immediately they felt a sense of weightlessness. Some unwary soldiers began to float up in the air. Lights were blinking on the black spaceship. Everything in the cavern seemed to be weightless as they all began to float around slowly. Nangong Wuyue clutched the railing using her tail immediately. "What's going on? What's going on?"
Rollie began to float. She was panic. Hao Ren grabbed her tail, just in case she drifted out and away from the platform. He tried to explain amid the noise. "The gravity engine has started. It's taking off!"
The black spaceship shuddered, smoke rose from the bottom of the steel scaffolding. The battleship would be taking off in no time. There was mechanical grinding sound at the top of the cavern. Rocks began to fall like it was raining, but all rocks were suspended halfway in the air by the anti-gravity field.
While this happened, they heard the gates opened in the corridor behind them. Hordes of chimeras and bizarrely deformed creatures came out from the corridors. Those monsters began to pin down the knights and monks at the rear. The sound of fighting was getting closer and closer: the brain-monster had started the battleship in desperation; it would not allow anyone to stop it.
Outside Sacred Mountain, in the Hodeceus fortress above the crystal pit, soldiers who were monitoring the situation of Sacred Mountain also panicked. They saw the mountain shaking violently amid a muffled booming sound. A moment later, avalanche happened as snow crushing down the peak like a collapsing sand castle. A cavalier officer looked at the bishop beside him, helplessly. "What is this situation there? Have they started fighting with the evil spirit?"
The bishop called out to the Goddess in his mind. How much revelation could he possibly get from a dead goddess? The bishop could only say a few comforting words to the others as he grabbed the sacred ornament on his chest. "Don't worry. The power of the goddess will defeat the heretics. The greater the shake in Sacred Mountain, the more powerful the Goddess is in there—"
But before he could finished saying, soldiers in the vicinity shouted. "The mountain top is opening up! The mountain top is opening up!"
An incredible change was taking place amid the shaking and rumbling on the Sacred Mountain. The peak had cracked open like petals. Rocks that used to disguise the shells for thousands of years or even tens of thousands of years began to crumble down the hillside. In the centre of the petal, rocks were floating in the air, neither dropping nor rising, as if there was some kind of gravity anomaly.
The massive machine gradually emerged from under the 'blooming' peak. As the glorious sun shone through the launching port, the interior of Sacred Mountain began to receive sunlight for the first time. Looking down from above, a black spacecraft was slowly rising from the cavern.
A chimera had sneaked up from behind. Lily quickly cut it up into several pieces, and kicked the disgusting thing away from her. She then called out loudly to Hao Ren. "Mr. Landlord, quickly think of something!"
Big Beardy the ascetic was leading a team of men emerging from another platform one hundred meters away. He looked at the scene and shouted at Hao Ren. "Mr. Landlord! Shoot that damn thing down with your spaceship!"
Honestly, Hao Ren had long thought of that. But it was definitely not a good idea this time. The black battleship would fight back. What would happen when the two interstellar battleships fought in the atmosphere? Probably everyone in the western part of the kingdom would be wipe out.
The situation was not the same as when he struck the First Born back them; the First Born was stationary at that time. Back then, what was more important was that the First Born had just woke up from deep sleep; it was still in stupor. In contrast, this black battleship had been hiding away on the planet for thousands of years. It was combat ready and manoeuvrable, and the pilots must have witnessed first-hand the killing of the First Born by an outer-space fire. Under this condition, Hao Ren would not be able to ensure that he could take down the battleship in just one shot.
"We can't fight it here in the atmosphere!" Hao Ren exclaimed. "Wait till it goes into space, I will meet it there!"
As the black battleship rose higher, it could no longer rely on the thrust of the conventional engine to help it escape the planet's gravity. Instead, it must use its gravity control. The brain-monster (or the giant race) obviously had infused their own 'giant' style in battleship building—rough and powerful. The anti-gravity field of the spacecraft could cover a very large range of space and brought up large quantity of boulders into the air. Hao Ren and his team were at a distance from the battleship, they still had a weak gravity under their feet. As long as they kept their guard up, they would not end up being 'sucked' into space. Something suddenly crossed Hao Ren's mind as he watched the rising battleship. He quickly hurried everyone into the corridors. "Get out of here! Get out of here!" he shouted.
Sure enough, when the black spacecraft reached a certain height, it lowered the output of anti-gravity field. Then…
Huge stones started raining down from the air.