novelraw Chapter 170: Forget that last part
Chapter 170: Forget that last part
Oasis City was silent as a tomb, with empty streets cloaked in darkness. Everywhere, it was desolate and eerily quiet, with only scattered clothing and open doors indicating that this place was once inhabited.
Inside the spaceship, Grace gazed out the window as if saying goodbye to Oasis City one last time.
"Time to set off," Grace announced, tightening her grip on Leo’s hand as Randall turned the key.
The glass panel lit up, and Aries’s mechanical voice echoed through the room, asking, [Should I engage flight mode?]
"Yes," Grace replied, and they all watched as the button lit up and a soft hum of engines started.
[Checking all engines, air circulation, and gravity systems approximately 3,185 kilometers underground. All systems verified. Automatic mode... flight initiating in three... two... one.] Aries’ voice echoed through the control room.
A burst of flaming energy roared beneath the spaceship, its body trembling slightly as it lifted off the ground.
The spaceship hovered slowly above the ground, ascending at a steady pace.
Everyone watched, their hearts in their throats, as the spaceship approached the rocky ceiling.
Suddenly, the lever moved downward, stopping in the middle, as if pulled by an invisible hand.
Grace watched in awe as the ceiling slid open, letting the spaceship pass through. Suddenly, they were shrouded in darkness; their only light came from inside the spaceship.
They soar through the darkness for what feels like an eternity.
Leo stopped watching and left the control room to check on everyone.
Stone stood before the laver, staring at it with an almost unnerving obsession over how it operated on its own.
Everything on this spaceship challenged his knowledge, and his whole body itched to take it apart, to see its clever design and intricate engines.
"The other control room wasn’t useless after all. It had synced perfectly with Aries’ command and opened that wall for us to fly through—a pathway cleverly disguised as a cave ceiling. The engine..." Stone murmured, moving closer to the controls, his fingers gliding along the edges as he drifted deeper into thought.
Suddenly, he was struck on the back of the head with a cane. "Mm," he moaned softly from pain, his thoughts slipping away as he turned to the culprit with a frown.
"Don’t glare at me, boy! If I hadn’t snapped some sense into you, you would have pressed a button." Ethan’s grandfather, Elijah, muttered, his cane still raised high to land another blow on Stone.
"Dad, why don’t you go bother big brother? Is it because I look easier to bully, right?" Stone murmured under his breath as he dodged the cane, aiming for his head.
But who can dodge the old man’s attacks? The cane hit his backside accurately, making Stone so embarrassed that he wished he could disappear. He could feel the others in the room watching him with amusement.
"You little brat! You think I can’t handle both of you just because I’m old, huh?! Back in my day, I could whip fifty of you into shape. Get lost!" Elijah shouted, swinging his cane with surprising agility and landing a few stinging hits on Stone.
"Ow! I’m not going anywhere; I need to see how the control system and Aries operate. You are not chasing me out of this room!" Stone shouted with all his might, his tone resolute, showing that even if he was beaten to death, he wasn’t going to leave.
Grace watched their banter from the couch; she was amazed at how two brothers were complete opposites.
One lived for monster hunts and intense training, while the other was completely absorbed in his research, often going a full day without eating just to solve a single experiment.
Grace shook her head and looked toward the darkness beyond the spaceship wall. She hoped they would leave safely.
...
On the island, Eva and the group had already explored a significant stretch of terrain.
Destroying some beasts’ nests but leaving behind some beasts that were gentle and posed no threat to them.
"We should head back. As for the rest, we can explore slowly," Ethan announced, wiping the sweat from his brow.
"Why is it so hot today? Is it because of that hot springs vine we saw along these paths?" Eva grumbled, fanning herself with a banana leaf.
Her hands were sore from fanning. The longer they walked, the worse it got, making Eva’s body sticky with sweat.
"Should we check out the cause before I teleport us back? It’s not normal," Julian suggested, feeling it was more than the hot springs affecting this area.
Ethan looked up at the canopy above, vines woven in a tangled crisscross between the trees, and scowled.
To make their way through, they’d have to cut down the tangled vines. The path they’d taken earlier had been difficult as well, another reason he’d suggested they consider turning back.
Eva followed his gaze and quickly shook her head. "I haven’t recovered from the other vines and grasses we cut... my hands are still red from the tiny thorns hidden in them. Maybe we should look for another way in, or come back with more help."
At her words, Julian abandoned the idea of venturing further; he had nearly forgotten how frustrating it was to clear out these vines.
"Alright, hold—" Julian’s words were cut off by a fierce roar and gentle tremors in the ground beneath them.
"Roar!!!"
Their expressions shifted to caution. "Looks like we’re forced to go further in," Julian muttered to Eva, while Ethan’s dismay and frustration showed clearly.
"If I find out which beast this is, I’ll drain the last bit of energy from its body. Tch." Eva clicked her tongue, tossed her fan to the ground, and drew machetes from her space.
Each took the machete handed to them, and with practiced ease, they started cutting down the vines and grasses in their path as they walked.
The roars and loud stomping grew louder the further they traveled, and the heat intensified so much that Eva almost thought her face was melting.
Ethan had to surround them with blocks of ice to cool them down, but it still wasn’t working. The ice melted quickly, turning into water and soaking the ground, but it dried up fast because of the heat.
She couldn’t take it anymore and took off her outer blouse, leaving her camisole on—her skin flushed red and sweating profusely. "Aren’t we there yet? The heat is killing me..." Eva asked as she fanned herself with her top.
Ethan and Julian had shed their clothes at some point — the sweat sliding down their toned abs made Eva’s mouth go dry, and the heat intensified.
’What eye candy... I wish I could lick cream off their abs... (〃﹃〃). Damn, it’s too hot—my imagination is malfunctioning,’ Eva thought through gritted teeth. It felt like she was hitting the juicy part of the smut when suddenly her phone shut off, or her book accidentally sank into water. So infuriating (ノ•̀ o •́ )ノ ~ ┻━┻
"We’re almost there. The fighting sounds and roars are getting closer." Ethan responded, his wolf ears twitching slightly and adding a deadly allure to his already devastating figure.
"Hah!!" Eva let out a short scream to release her pent-up frustration blocking her heart.
Julian looked at her, his puzzled gaze filled with confusion at her sudden outburst.
’Maybe it’s the heat getting to her.’
Finally, they reached their destination, their hands numb from cutting the veins and their bodies drenched with sweat and flushed red.
Two-horned beasts were locked in a fierce battle, but what immediately caught their attention was the volcano-like skin of the beasts.
The one on the left unleashed lava from its freaking mouth toward its opponent, making Eva’s already shattered worldview shatter even more.
"I’m hallucinating... the heat is making me see things. I can accept fire, but damn—lava? That takes the cake." Eva’s voice rose slightly in disbelief, and then a thought hit her—actually, all of them.
"So, this was what’s causing the heat," Julian muttered with certainty, his face lighting up with realization as he watched both beasts fight ahead.
Eva’s face shifted from realization to boiling rage. "So it was this culprit that almost fried my brain and made me sexually frustrated!" Feeling their gaze on her, she quickly said.
"Forget that last part. How are we going to kill this thing, and how many more of them are in this area?" She quickly changed the subject, their intense gaze frightening her a bit.
"We will revisit that topic later. For now, let’s wait until they tire themselves out, then we make our move." Ethan’s tone was full of promise, his gaze so intense that Eva felt completely exposed.
Julian tucked her hair behind her ears and whispered softly, "I am to blame for not satisfying my wife well enough. Tonight, I’ll make sure you can’t leave the bed." He pressed a kiss to her ear and straightened, Eva staring at him in shock.
’Sh*t, it’s over.’ These words echoed in her mind, and she hugged herself in fear, even as her heart secretly thumped with anticipation.