Chapter 1345 — Fighting Takes Brains

"Beiyila..." Bertlem fought against the fear left deep in his soul by his earlier psychic wounds, and as his willpower gathered, that fear did indeed gradually recede. "I know you're bluffing! I've already seized your weakness here! Accept reality—we've swapped offense and defense here. Right now, I am the hunter, and you are the prey!"

"You've merely managed to encircle a part of my tissue by luck... and you think you've grasped the lifeline of victory..." The distant, icy voice stirred within Bertlem's thoughts, still carrying that contempt and arrogance he loathed and hated so bitterly. "Then let us wait and see, who exactly will become the other's nourishment in these dark depths..."

The stabbing pain in his mental world abruptly vanished, and the emptiness and daze that followed briefly enveloped Bertlem. He felt Beiyila's will withdraw and depart, but that did not make him relax in the slightest.

Instead, he was on guard as against a great enemy.

"Attention—the enemy's counterattack is coming!"

The dark pontiff suddenly called out loudly to warn his followers, and almost at the very instant his voice fell, a series of low rumbles and dense clicking sounds abruptly shattered the silence of this underground space, surging in from all directions!

From the corner of his eye, Bertlem saw countless enormous vines burst from nearby rock crevices, and large numbers of combat organisms previously judged to be remains suddenly "came alive." Deeper in the cavern, an immense dark mass of combat fission-bodies swarmed in like a plague of insects, their pitch-black chitinous shells and combat claws glinting like cold steel in the blue glow cast by the dark river!

These were all "guards" that had been lurking throughout the caverns, using pheromones or neural interference to slip past the root network's perception, lying in wait until just now!

Behind the dark priests, the deformed creatures that had followed them all the way from the surface let out a series of frenzied roars and murmurs, throwing themselves without hesitation at the enemies appearing in their perception. Chaotic and horrifying battle erupted abruptly in this underground space—yet at the very center of the melee, Bertlem, the commander, could not help but laugh low in his throat.

There were indeed traps here; Beiyila had indeed set an ambush. But these traps and this ambush proved precisely the judgment he had made before—

That was all she had.

Moreover, the activation of these ambushers had simultaneously produced a huge number of highly conspicuous "command signals," and these signals had helped him finally confirm the exact location of that "command source"!

"Release all servant units—they can all be expended!" he suddenly shouted, and at the same time activated all the root networks around him. "I've found the organ's true location—brethren, follow me!"

Deep within the heavy soil and rock, a series of thunderous booms erupted violently. The dark root network, which had been operating methodically, suddenly went berserk and began a frantic assault on the nearby living forest roots without regard for losses. The deformed servants who had followed the dark priests here likewise entered a berserk state at the same moment, hurling themselves with exceptional ferocity at the "biological weapons swarms" of the Solin Giant Tree emerging from the underground caverns. Roars, snapping sounds, explosions, and the splash of fluids instantly filled the entire underground space—and amid such terrible fighting, Bertlem and his followers simply abandoned the "soldiers" allocated to them by Pontiff Bolken and swiftly, quietly slipped into another cavern complex nearby.

Just as Bertlem had said—"servants" could all be expended. As long as he could seize Beiyila's weakness, everything he expended here would be repaid with a great merit!

They threaded through the darkness, leaving the sounds of slaughter behind. They went around or swiftly broke through wave after wave of defenses, drawing ever closer to the deepest space of this natural cavern complex. They traveled on for who knew how long before Bertlem suddenly felt a radiance appear before his eyes.

The space before him opened up all at once.

No one would ever have imagined that such a place could exist in the dark, deep underworld: lush green plants covered the entire cavern, glowing vines hanging from the ceiling lit everything around, and masses of deep-brown aerial roots propped up the cave floor and dome, their tops twined with flowering vines and dotted with green leaves, forming a wonder like an underground forest.

This place... was one of the "command nodes" Beiyila had set up at the frontline?

Bertlem stared dumbfounded at the sight before him.

He could no longer remember how many years it had been since he had seen such a scene.

Yet in the next second, this faint "emotion" turned into even greater hatred and rage, and guided him to notice the central point of all the thought-pulse signals in the cavern:

A great cluster of flowering vines grew at the deepest part of this "garden," and upon those vines lay something shaped like a brain... no, it was a brain—a brain resting quietly amid the flowering vines, utterly defenseless.

It was alive; flowing motes of faint light kept welling up across its surface, and it rose and fell slightly like a heart.

It looked unspeakably eerie—and... completely unguarded.

Only then did Bertlem truly smile—though his hideous features could scarcely form a genuine smile anymore, he knew that his mood at this moment was exceedingly pleasant.

A thought organ—Beiyila's aesthetic sense and creativity really were just as expected—it lay quietly before him.

No matter how immense its function, no matter how many powerful guardians it had, in the end it was still nothing but a thought organ... having broken through the defensive system nearby, its true body was so fragile, so helpless.

"So you can feel fear too... you slimy lump of flesh..."

Bertlem spoke in a low voice. In his perception, the biometric signals of the deformed creatures and the root network he had forced into a frenzy, left behind in the rear, were rapidly fading—but this did not affect his pleasant mood in the slightest.

"Sever its connection to the surrounding biological tissue and 'extract' it whole."

Bertlem said casually.

A dark priest in whom he placed the greatest trust immediately stepped forward from the ranks and walked toward that brain which seemed so fragile and utterly defenseless.

One step, two steps, three steps... Bang!!

Bertlem watched helplessly as that subordinate of no small strength was instantly struck down by something, a heavy burst of impact exploding forth, smashing the man's lignified body into countless fragments that scattered in all directions midair.

The next second, he saw the brain float up from its "pedestal." From beneath the brain extended a dozen thick, muscular tentacles, whose tips brandished heavy mechanical warhammers, giant rods crackling with electric light, burners poised to fire, and arcane main cannons that ought by rights to have been mounted on heavy tanks!

Bertlem: "?"

(End of this chapter)