novelraw Chapter 187: Liquid Forbidden Zone
Chapter 187: Liquid Forbidden Zone
The Devourer Ammit, constructed from ancient Egyptian mythology and endless yellow sand, did not roar or howl, because it simply lacked any vocal organs.
The monster with the crocodile's massive maw opened its bloody, gaping mouth.
A powerful suction force capable of forming a vortex erupted from its deep, sand-filled throat. Its body, composed of lion claws and a hippopotamus torso, began to spin at high speed in a disjointed yet highly efficient manner.
"Whoosh!!"
A destructive sandstorm instantly formed within this narrow, enclosed space.
This was no ordinary storm, but more like a "meat grinder."
The sand grains, hardened by the UMA's power to be harder than diamond, were driven by the high-speed vortex, forming streamlined patterns visible to the naked eye.
This was one of its core abilities, a materialized attack derived from its description in the Book of the Dead as the judge of sinners' souls—【Sandstorm Devourer】!
All the wooden tables, chairs, shelves, and the plaster decorations on the walls inside the shop were ground into fine powder that filled the air before they could even make a sound upon contact with the sandstorm.
The entire space was instantly filled, visibility dropping practically to zero. The air became thick with a choking mixture of wood dust, stone powder, and cursed sand grains."【Deflection Malevolence Mirror】!"
At this critical moment, Ethan took out his personal treasure. He poured all of his mental energy into the small round shield forged from mithril in his hand.
"Hummm—"
The deep blue cat's eye gemstone at the center of the shield erupted with a dazzling light. A translucent spherical force field constructed from pure spiritual energy expanded, enveloping the four team members.
"Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!"
The hard sand grains hammered densely against the force field. Most of the sand grains controlled by the Devourer Ammit turned into ordinary yellow sand the moment they touched the spiritual force field.
The power from the UMA was severed!
However, the spiritual force field trembled violently under this grinding assault. Ripples of energy spread across its surface, indicating it was on the verge of shattering.
"I... I can't hold it anymore!"
Ethan's face turned deathly pale from the severe overdraw of his mental energy. Large beads of sweat slid from his temples, only to be instantly evaporated by the violent airflow.
Protecting the team, he felt as if he were trying to shield a small candle flame with a tiny parasol in a hurricane capable of destroying a city.
The four team members huddled back-to-back on the isolated island Ethan was desperately holding up with his life, resisting the sandstorm that could strip flesh from bone.
William lowered his center of gravity to the minimum, his posture stable. He extended his powerful arms, grabbing Julian and Lin Jie by their collars, using his own body as a shield against the potential impact should the force field shatter.
In the face of this purely indiscriminate area-of-effect attack, precise shooting, ingenious tactics, and profound occult knowledge all lost their meaning.
They were trapped. Apart from passively enduring and hopelessly waiting, there seemed to be no possibility of counterattack.
Amidst this chaos where one could not open their eyes, could barely breathe, and where thoughts were about to be shattered by noise and vibration, one person's brain was operating at a frantic pace.
Lin Jie tightly closed his eyes, letting the violent sand grains hammer against Ethan's force field, treating the deafening noise as background music for his thoughts.
His brain entered a state of calm overclocking. He abandoned all complex tactical deductions.
He began to return to the essence of things.
Sand. The essence of this monster was sand.
No matter how much divine power it was endowed with or how terrifying a form it was molded into, its fundamental units were still primitive, microscopic sand grains.
The greatest characteristics of sand grains were looseness and fluidity, a collection of countless independent individuals in a disordered manner.
So, how to combat looseness and fluidity?
The answer instantly sprang into his mind, a simple, primitive, even obvious nemesis.
Liquid!
Any form of liquid could destroy the loose structure between sand grains through its surface tension and wetting properties.
Water could make sand clump together, become heavy, and lose its fluidity. Petroleum could make sand sticky and solidify it. Even blood could.
He opened his eyes, then leaned his head close to Julian's ear, which was being assaulted by the gale. Using all his strength, he roared at Julian, "Water!!"
"Julian! Use all your knowledge to tell me where the nearest water source in Cairo is!"
Lin Jie's hoarse shout was like a thunderclap, piercing through the noise of the sandstorm and exploding in the ears of every team member.
Water?
While everyone else was intimidated by the power of the "Sand Deity," their thoughts frozen, Lin Jie proposed a simple, almost childish solution.
Yet this simplicity, this return to fundamentals, instantly opened the door to survival in everyone's minds, a door that had been locked shut by danger.
Understanding flashed in William's eyes, and the flame of hope rekindled in Ethan's pupils.
Julian, named by Lin Jie, erupted with a fervent thirst for knowledge and fighting spirit after a brief moment of stunned disbelief.
"Damn it! Why didn't I think of that!"
Julian growled in frustration, his brain also beginning to operate at high speed.
"Water sources in Cairo."
His brain, like a living database, began frantically searching.
The city water supply system was no good. The cast-iron pipes were too sturdy;
they couldn't breach them in a short time.
The ancient qanats were no good. The wells were too scattered and most had dried up.
The underground tributaries of the Nile River were too deep, at least dozens of meters underground.
Many plans were instantly proposed and rejected by him.
At that moment, the meat grinder formed by the sandstorm increased its rotation speed. A crack appeared on the surface of Ethan's 【Deflection Malevolence Mirror】 force field. More and more yellow sand piled up at their feet.
"Julian!"
Lin Jie's urging voice rang out again, each syllable heavily pounding on the French scholar's nerves.
"Don't rush! Let me think! Let me think!"
Julian bit his lip, trying to grasp a lifeline in the vast torrent of information.
His thoughts raced past colonists, the Fatimid Caliphate, the Ayyubid dynasty, and the Tulunid dynasty.
"No, that's not it. It needs to be earlier! Earlier than all the later arrivals!"
Before all the Islamic dynasties named this place "Cairo," there had been an ancient, magnificent empire on this land that focused on infrastructure construction.
"Rome!"
"It's the ancient Roman Empire!"
In the 1st century AD, the legions of Augustus conquered this place and established a military fortress named "Babylon." And what the Romans prided themselves on, besides their legions, was their ingenious aqueduct systems spread across the empire's territories.
A historical memory sealed away for nearly two thousand years was dug out by Julian from the forgotten stacks of paper.
He found it. He found that possible path to survival.
However, the violent sandstorm threatened to tear him from under William's arm. He couldn't stabilize himself to utter a complete sentence.
William instantly understood his intention. The veteran roared, using all his strength to press Julian to the ground, using his body to build a protective barrier for him.
In the storm, Julian answered Lin Jie's question rapidly with an excited voice, "There is—!!"
"According to what I saw in a copied fragment of an ancient Roman Empire Far Eastern province urban planning map in the Vatican's secret library..."
"The main thoroughfare at the very core of this civilian district, the Khan el-Khalili Grand Bazaar, was built almost entirely along the ruins of the 'Babylon Road' from the ancient Roman era."
"And the Romans' urban planning habit was to always build the city's main water supply aqueduct directly beneath the main thoroughfare, to facilitate distribution to residential areas on both sides!"
"So!" Julian's voice at this moment was like light cutting through darkness, "The main underground aqueduct that specifically supplied daily water to the ancient Babylon fortress, its location should be right under the main alley outside this dead-end lane!"
"Less than twenty meters from our current position!"
Twenty meters.
A distance that seemed within reach, but within this sandstorm-shrouded prison at this moment, it was a chasm difficult to cross.