Chapter 1362
The colossal Mana Crystal at the very center now resembled a beast devouring everything. From every opening, torrents of mana erupted, merging into a storm and rushing toward the gigantic crystal at the core.
The howling gale tore through the narrow tunnels, carrying an overwhelming force. Hubert jammed his bare hands into the stone wall to anchor himself, while Reina pressed close to the wall, freezing the area within several meters to form a raised arc, shielding herself from the raw mana storm.
Leon, together with Lord Shaun and Hughes, also clung tightly to the stone wall. A pure aura of mana enveloped them like a smooth net, protecting Leon, Lord Shaun, and Hughes from harm.
Lord Shaun wore a look of horror, shrinking to palm-size and clinging to Leon's shoulder, clutching his robe and trembling violently.
"Merlin, we should've caught up with that damned wretch and finished her off earlier. Even if the expedition failed, we wouldn't be in this mess! Damn it, now we've awakened this monster. I can feel it—the soul inside is stirring. It's incredibly powerful. Just its soul alone must be at least level forty-eight. We're doomed..."
Hughes flapped his wings, a trace of spatial power flickering on his body as he tried to escape, only to be snatched by Leon.
"Let me go, let me go! Lord Hughes is going to get eaten! Damn it, Lord Hughes is going to get eaten..."
Hughes screamed at the top of his lungs. As a unique spatial beast, his senses were the sharpest—he could already feel the monster here was about to awaken...
Leon's expression darkened as he gripped Hughes by the neck.
"Idiot, behave yourself. If you want that monster to notice you first, then go ahead and try running away—remember, we're inside its body."
With just a word from Leon, Hughes, who had been flapping around, instantly quieted down. He may be the darling of space, a Void Behemoth in his own right, but that didn’t mean he could mess around inside the body of another spatial monster. This creature could evolve itself into an entire plane—a terrifying entity. If Hughes dared to use spatial magic to escape, he’d be devoured in an instant…
Ahead, the gale of raw mana howled, and a faint sense of repulsion began to surface. Even the stone walls behind them seemed to push them away—the entire space here resisted their presence.
The moment that repulsive force appeared, a completely opposite power surged within everyone. The waves from their bodies mingled with the repulsion, and together, they simply faded away.
Once the repulsion vanished completely, all that was left to contend with was the terrifying storm of mana…
The purest mana, once gathered into a storm, unleashed a terrifying power that inspired dread. Just the force of these mana tempests required each of them to expend at least half their strength to withstand.
Within that spherical chamber, countless ghostly beings were torn from the caverns, only to be shredded into fragments inside. The power of death itself was forcibly obliterated by the overwhelming mana, and the remnants of their souls were ripped apart again and again by the raging storm.
The soul remnants left behind by the ghosts were gradually dispersed beneath this grinding, millstone-like tempest. In the end, only the purest essence remained—the core soul energy, which was then devoured by the Soul Mana Crystal.
Inside the Soul Mana Crystal, vast and majestic waves of soul energy gradually surfaced. The essence of those ghosts—ground down and refined—was devoured entirely by the soul within the crystal.
Apparently, having tasted the benefits, that terrifying devouring force grew even stronger. The ghostly beings erupting from the cavern mouths were no longer emerging of their own will—they were being forcibly dragged into the heart of the spherical chamber and shredded by the overwhelming mana.