Leaving Two Holes Behind
Leaving Two Holes Behind
The roar of the engines as well as the thunderous noise of the separated rocks filled the heavens and the earth. Hot air and thick fog shrouded the entire basin where the Giant Tree of Life was located. The earth shook as mountains, which had stood for thousands of years began to collapse in the distortion. Countless boulders rolled down the mountains, while the basin in the center slowly rose.
More than a dozen cylindrical spacecrafts hovered over the Giant Tree of Life. The lights from the spacecrafts shone down as they pulled a 170-km rock column out of the earth. Inside the rock column was the entangled Giant Tree of Life and First Born.
As the column slowly rose, a large number of cruisers came in. Each cruiser had a set of mechanical arms that held an anti-gravity generator. The individuals who flew the cruisers were all skilled engineers. They ascended with the rock pillar, and installed the anti-gravity generators at their predetermined positions. Everything was going smoothly according to plan.
As more and more anti-gravity generators were activated, the speed of ascent and stability of the entire mass were enhanced. A dozen or more cylindrical aircrafts responsible for the initial anti-gravity force started to disengage. About two-thirds of them quickly retreated to a distance, while the rest used their limited anti-gravity beam to maintain stability of the entire structure.
After five minutes, the bottom of the mass had still not completely emerged up from the earth. However, the upper part had left the air shrouded in dust and fog. Its grotesque appearance could clearly be seen by distant observers: tree roots were tangled together like a lump of vines, completely eroding the surrounding rocks. They left no room for soil or stone in the rock column, which was entirely occupied by these living tissues. In between the gaps of the tangled roots, occasional red pulses emitted by the First Born's deepest organ were visible—as the giant creature was still asleep, the red pulses underneath the layers of "vines" appeared faint and weak.
In the upper part of the mass, the vines clearly appeared like normal roots. That was the main body of the Giant Tree of Life—the part that had not mutated.
The formation of the cruisers as well as the towing ship hovered around the mass, and like leaves in a tornado, they constantly made minor corrections and carried out examinations on the mass. Some of the cruisers flew close to the "living tumor" that was entangled by the tentacles. Some large probes were pierced into the tumors, which according to current research understandings, were the First Born's ganglions.
They were injecting the big guy with interference pheromones, the most potent tranquilizer in the world, and effective only on the First Born.
The whole scene was as epic as it could get. It was like a miracle to the people of Holletta.
Who had better digging skills? The Aerymian elves' Sun King; with 200 drilling rigs against the earth's anal cavity, and a 500-men-strong engineering team…
Well, something like that.
The spectacular scene could be seen 100 km away, much more so near the basin. A magical shield was shimmering above the monastery, blocking out the hot tornado of air and steam. The flying debris in the air slammed against the shield, triggering layers of magical ripples. Ophra squinted as she tried to see the Giant Tree of Life's stump, but it was out of her range of sight. She sighed and appeared a little emotional. "It's less epic than the light in Dragonspine Ridge, but it's equally thrilling nonetheless."
"The big guy has a radius of one to two hundred kilometers. Dealing with the likes of it, you can't say that it's not thrilling." Hao Ren shrugged. "The needle used to injecting half a ton of tranquilizers into that thing is already one meter in diameter. Who created this massive monster?"
Lily hugged her arm and said, "Stop saying that, Mr. Landlord. I've got goosebumps all over. I'm most afraid of needles..."
Vivian looked at the husky maiden in surprise. "I didn't know you were afraid of needles? You seemed fearless before this."
"It's embarrassing. It all happened a few years ago. When I first heard about the rabies vaccine, I thought it was specifically for me... I 'borrowed' two boxes of the vaccine, which had already expired, and after emptying them into my body, I suffered from allergies, nausea and vomiting for three days."
Vivian was speechless.
"The progress over the Volcano of Dusk is slightly slower, but it's going very smoothly," Hao Ren had contacted the other team of engineers. Meanwhile, Hilda and Big Beardy were accompanying Mhoren, who was inspecting the operation in the Volcano of Dusk."
"The King personally went to the Volcano of Dusk?" Ophra was a little surprised. "This isn't in his schedule…"
"Yeah, he didn't expect the Queen of Aerym in his schedule as well. It was even more unexpected on your side that the engineering team I brought would be of such a scale." Hao Ren shrugged. "You have to get used to unplanned situations."
After most of the anti-gravity generators had been activated, the entire mass appeared weightless as it climbed at an increasing speed without risking disintegration and causing excessive turbulence. After 30 minutes, the Giant Tree of Life and two-thirds of the basin had become a vague shadow in the sky. The place where it once lived was now a freaking hot hole with heavy smoke billowing from it. The whole place was shrouded in dust and fog. No one could see the situation down at the bottom.
Vivian summoned a gust of wind, but the wind only managed to bring the fog near the hills away temporarily, not the hot air draft rising up from the crater. So, it seemed that the dust and fog were there to stay for some time.
Hao Ren tilted his head skyward. The sky was clear, but the plume from the deep pit of the basin was slowly spreading out. There was a possibility that the plume would engulf the whole area for a few days. "This reminds me of my hometown," he lamented.
Y'lisabet was sitting on her dad's shoulder. She waved her fist and shouted, "I miss my hometown too!"
Listening on, Ophra was surprised. "You have such smoke in your hometown every day?"
Hao Ren shrugged. "It depends. When the weather's good, you can see the stars. When the weather's bad, you gasp for air. The situation in Y'zaks' hometown is even worse. When the weather's bad, they all run towards the mouth of the volcanoes, gasping for fresh air."
Ophra said, "...No wonder you guys are so strong. You essentially live in a place where warriors are trained and tested."
Hao Ren felt that the marshal had misunderstood him, but it did not seem like he could clear the misunderstanding.
An hour later, the first space signal came from Holletta's synchronous orbit. "Team B has arrived in pre-set orbit. 'Cargo' is stable. The 'lullaby' device is working properly!"
After a few minutes, news that Team A was in orbit was heard too.
What remained was the transportation of the two living First Borns to Tannagost's orbit. However, the elven spacecrafts were not capable of doing this. Hence, the responsibility fell on the Petrachelys.
Of course, the space expansion installation in the Petrachelys had its limits. The storage window at least, was limited. To stuff a First Born with a width of nearly 200 km into the cargo space would be out of the question, so the Petrachelys had to use the spatial bubble transfer method to send the two living samples into Tannagost's orbit.
After sending the First Born along with the Giant Tree of Life into the predetermined orbit, the Aerymian engineering fleet left as scheduled. The Petrachelys appeared near the two samples piloted by the autopilot computer. The spacecraft's host computer launched its warp function and expanded its coverage to the nearby space.
Starlight in the distance appeared distorted within the space of several hundred kilometers around the spacecraft. It was as though an unprecedentedly large gravitational force was interfering with the optical phenomena. The starlight twisted into a circular arc and rapidly formed into a ring. The surrounding space closed up, becoming a spatial bubble, before the Petrachelys and the two living First Borns vanished into it.
The next moment, starlight returned to normal, and the spacecraft as well as the two strange lumps of tentacles were gone.
Hao Ren and the others returned to the capital of Holletta through the portal first, while the two engineering teams arrived later. Hilda and Big Beardy, who were accompanying the king as well as the pope to the Volcano of Dusk had also arrived through the portal.
As everyone was back, the first thing Hao Ren had to do was put away the scarily massive engineering equipment. This was to prevent the old guys of the Royal Masters Association from getting a heart attack (and also to prevent the stirring of Y'lisabet's screwdriver frenzy). Hao Ren checked the time: they arrived on the planet earlier in the morning, but the sun still hung on the west side of the horizon; it had been a massive operation, yet it was accomplished faster than expected.
Hilda found Hao Ren and she was all smiles. "The operation was successfully completed. I hope we have been of help."
"Yeah, you definitely were." Hao Ren quickly nodded. "Are your attempts at diplomacy going smoothly?"
"What can I say..." Hilda grinned and spread out her hand. "We are two worlds apart. Only through your portal can we communicate. We were just exchanging cultures, history and things like that. I am just fulfilling my personal curiosity... It is nothing too serious."
Meanwhile, Ophra came up to them and interrupted their conversation. "I hate to interrupt you folks, but the King invites all our foreign guests to his banquet. I guess you have time to join this time?"
Hao Ren smiled and looked at Lily, whose eyes were glowing with eagerness. He waved his hand and said, "It would be impolite to decline the invitation especially when there's so much food to eat. Why not? Think of it as compensation for our hard work!"