The Cloud Ghoul was keeping the Golden Entity pinned with its electrifying chains, meanwhile, the apex Fire Lord Ghoul was madly bashing away at a specific area of the earth. It released drilling infernal strength to pierce through multiple layers of rock. The abyss it dug up surpassed the depth of the one Zexx created with its explosive planetary bomb.
Witnessing this shocking scenery, made the remaining Tomb Riders aghast. “That lady was right when she told us it was searching for something. Even the fire pit stopped chasing after us!”
“Those Magma Ghouls have also stopped appearing where we are. They are standing by near that monster!”
“Huh… what might it be digging up?” looking closely on the monitors, Angelina along with the others eventually discovered the item which the Fire Lord Ghoul was rapaciously searching for.
Ripping away the final layer of the earth, the Fire Lord Ghoul uncover the object of its pursuit. “Fiiinnaaally… I’ve found yoou---” Sayeth the Ghoul in its interpreted dialect.
At the very bottom of the hole was a mystifying sapphire entity, the core existence of a Ghoul Graveyard. It resembled the external heart already discovered by the Nox research facility. The difference with this heart was its incomparable size coupled with the myriads of large veins attached to it.
Ba-dump! Ba-dump!
At every set interval, it circulated the essential essence needed for that particular Ghoul Graveyard to function. If it were to be destroyed then that entire Ghoul Graveyard would cease to exist. Not only was this heart being guarded by swarms of Ghoul Defectors but it had its own magnitude of defence. Specifically, a deadly frost wave that instantaneously transformed the liquefied pit of fire around it into ice.
“Huh?” The Tomb Riders were bewildered by this discovery. “Doesn’t that beating blue heart resemble the one that we saw at the entrance of the Ghoul Graveyard’s gate?”
“It does! The only difference is this one is a lot larger.”
“Hmm. What the heck is going on?” Even Armoured Hero along with the rest of the captains was dumbfounded. They had no clue such a thing existed in a Ghoul Graveyard. Many among the bewildered group of began forming their own hypothesis.
“That is a striking duplicate of the external heart. I wonder what that monster plans to do with it after digging it up.”
“Perhaps, is it going to eat it?”
“Probably, but what will it gain by doing so.”
“All this guessing is useless! We just have to wait and see what it does.” The Tomb Riders continued watching the monitors to witness what the unscrupulous Fire Lord Ghoul did next.
Unexpectedly, the Fire Lord Ghoul began dishing out dreadful attacks towards the Sapphire Heart. The Ghoul Defectors acted quickly to protect the heart. However, they were obviously no match for the Fire Lord Ghoul’s strength. Hence, their countless numbers dwindled to the single digits swiftly.
Now that the first line of defence was completely annihilated, the frost spirit belonging to the Sapphire Heart activated a powerful field of ice to force back the Fire Lord Ghoul’s fierce attack. Meanwhile, the Golden Entity was struggling to get itself free from the Cloud Ghoul’s captivity.
Angelina also took notice of this issue. “Is it trying to prevent whatever that fire monster is up to…?” she returned her gaze to the monitors.
With many more barrages of attacks, the frightening Fire Lord Ghoul succeeded in destroying the Sapphire Heart’s defence. Right after, it tightly grasped the Sapphire Hearts’ bulging veins and began uprooting it from the ground.
Due to the extreme duress brought about by the Fire Lord Ghoul’s continuous yanking, it made the Sapphire Heart conjured a widespread storm of gigantic hales which spread across the entire Ghoul Graveyard.
“What the heck are those huge ass snowflakes?”
“Everyone take cover!” In response to the sudden assault of hails, the Tomb Riders were forced to seek shelter elsewhere. They rode towards a tall monument that had a small entrance underneath, but before they could get there, another shocking reality greeted them.
The aggressive Fire Lord Ghoul retaliated to the Sapphire Heart’s attempt by invoking a greater uprising of magma-bombs from the earth; they also covered the entirety of the Ghoul Graveyard.
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“That monument shattered!” With the combined assault of falling snow bombs coupled with rising magma-bombs, the Tomb Riders had nowhere else to hide. All they could do is keep on riding.
“Holy shit!”
Angelina had to suddenly jam her front brake and used the uplift to spin her motor in the opposite direction of the rising magma-bomb. She then wheelied over a shattered tomb to gain enough air to activate her aerial drive. Even with the freedom of being able to move throughout the air, she still found it difficult to manoeuvre properly due to endless barrage of snow and magma bombs.
“How stressful! Those monsters aren’t even aiming at us and it is giving us so much trouble. Imagine if we were their target…?” Angelina accompanied by the others continued to direct their motors away from danger without any set destination in mind. For now, survival was their only priority.
Out of all the Tomb Riders who were evading the combined assault, the captains found it more difficult. For they had to multitask in operating the Automatic Guiding Cubes to keep track of the situation while dodging vicious attacks of opposing directions.
A few minutes later, the Tomb Riders realized that the falling hails were slowly decreasing. Giving their eyes back to the monitors, they discovered that the Sapphire Heart had summited to the dominion of the Fire Lord Ghoul.
“What’s this?”
The Cloud Ghoul suddenly separated a portion of itself to go assist the Fire Lord Ghoul. The portion it abandoned was still restricting the Golden Entity’s movements.
After it arrived at the area in question, the Cloud Ghoul held up the defeated Sapphire Heart with its thunderous chains; allowing for the Fire Lord Ghoul to act freely.
“What are they up to?” The Tomb Riders witnessed something shocking.
The Fire Lord Ghoul began directing all of its higher-tier halos at its anterior. It combined them into series to resemble a magnifying glass. The rainbow-coloured halo was at the forefront since it was responsible for cognitive representation and understanding.
Seconds passed and the combination of halos began yielding some results. They sent out penetrating rays into the centre of the Sapphire Heart. It began to be influenced by the Fire Lord Ghoul’s will.
With every speeding moment of the Sapphire Heart’s pulsation, a magnificent reaction started coming into existence. Particles of various shapes and sizes were condensing into something all too familiar to the seasoned Tomb Riders.
“It couldn’t be?” Meliodas was taken by the rear. “Isn’t that thing forming into a gate???”
“It is!” Cool Zephyr added shockingly. “How is this possible?”
Ghost Rider was also alarmed. “I suspected that Ghouls were capable of opening gates since they appeared in our world, but I had no idea this is how they do it.”
Water Lilly gave her opinion. “What troubles me is the destination which that portal leads to.”
.......
“Huh? What is this?” Back at the external outpost of the Nox Ghoul Graveyard, a scientist who was monitoring the Sapphire Heart’s condition identified that it was behaving erotically.
“Why is the heart behaving like this?” Many more researchers began crowding around. Soon they all witnessed the shackles placed upon the heart’s entrance showing signs of opening. The safety mechanisms they had clamped around it were breaking apart.
“How is this happening? Somebody inform the Director immediately!” The facility was in great disarray.
Sometime later, the Director of the Nox facility came rushing in with few essential figures by his side.
“What is the urgent emergency to have us rush down here? This better be something… huh?” The main organiser of the ongoing expedition, Zenur Banshee was immediately flabbergasted upon recognizing the great confusion brewing near the heart.
“W-why are all the clamps unlocked? Did somebody other than myself authorise the activation of the gate?”
“Director, Mr Banshee…” An alarmed scientists came over to explain the situation. “This wasn’t any of our doing. The heart just suddenly started beating erotically then it began forcing the clamps loose all by itself. We tried applying others but they’re not working. I think something is forcibly trying to open the gate from the other side. It’s beyond our control.”
“Could it be the expedition team we sent in?” Zenur Banshee pondered. “But that is impossible! They shouldn’t have the means of opening a gate from within the Ghoul Graveyard. The extraction wasn’t due until another 4-days.”
“We are aware sir. Which is why this matter is so puzzling.”
“Ok, tell everyone to calm down. We won’t get anything done with everyone behaving so disorderly. Forget about the clamps for now. Someone send in a visual probe to identify the cause of this matter.”
“We’re right on it, sir. But the quality won’t be that good since it is going into another dimension. The link will also dissipate a few seconds after entry.”
“It doesn’t matter. At the immediate sign of something compromising, we’ll shut this place down. Get to it!”
The researchers hurriedly brought in a functional visual probe. Finished setting up the globular mechanism, they launched it into the heart’s gate.
“Now let us see what’s causing this great disturbance.” The Director, Zenur Banshee along with some other important figures gathered around the monitors. “Why is this damn thing so blurry?”
“I told you earlier, sir. The video feed will be extremely low quality with the separation of space involved.”
“Alright I understand. But I still don’t like how these flashing grains are affecting my eyes.” The Director complained arrogantly. “Something is finally coming into view. Huh? What is that glimmer?”
“It looks like a stockpile of rings, I think. I can’t tell due to the abysmal quality. The probe should give us better visuals soon if…”
“Huh? What happened to the probe? The video feed has been cut off completely.”
“I think it was destroyed, sir.”
“Already? But it usually lasts longer than this?” The scientists couldn’t fathom what had caused their probe to suddenly self-destruct. They had no idea that it was actually the hellish heat beaming off the Fire Lord Ghoul that caused their probe to go to hell quicker.