Chapter 507: Little Vine Wanted More
If the queen brought down the ceiling or used them as shields, they would suffer heavy losses.
Sonny and Vanish understood her intention.
They moved towards the nearest cocoons, searching for a safe way to detach them from the walls without pulling out the roots connected to the captives’ bodies.
Chief Gao suddenly began laughing.
The sound was weak at first, but it became louder.
"You cannot save them."
Lu Zhen glanced at him.
Chief Gao pressed both hands against the mist barrier.
"The Mother is connected to all of them. If she dies, they will die too."
"Is that true?" Leng Pan asked.
Chief Gao’s smile widened.
"You have no choice. You should surrender."
"You sound very confident for someone trapped inside my barrier."
"The Mother will free me."
Almost as soon as he spoke, the queen released a low vibration.
The parasites inside Chief Gao’s body reacted.
His skin bulged in several places.
Leng Pan felt them strike her purifying mist from the inside. They were trying to tear their host apart to escape the barrier.
Chief Gao screamed.
His earlier confidence disappeared immediately.
"Mother! Stop! Please!"
The queen did not care.
To it, Chief Gao was only a tool.
Now that he had failed, it had no reason to preserve him.
The parasites gathered beneath the skin of his chest.
A large lump formed over his heart.
Leng Pan tightened the mist before the parasites could rupture the organ.
Chief Gao collapsed.
Blood flowed from his mouth.
"Save me," he begged. "Please save me."
Leng Pan looked at him coldly.
"Didn’t you say the Mother would free you?"
"I was wrong."
"That was fast."
"It doesn’t care about us," Chief Gao gasped. "It never cared."
"You only realized that after feeding it people for months?"
Chief Gao had no answer.
Leng Pan had no sympathy for him, but she still needed the information stored inside his head.
She directed more purifying energy into the barrier.
The parasites tried to hide deeper inside his body, but the mist followed them.
However, Leng Pan did not destroy them.
She only weakened them enough to stop them from killing their host.
Chief Gao curled into a ball, breathing heavily.
The queen seemed angered by Leng Pan’s interference.
Several tendrils shot towards her.
Lu Zhen waved his hand.
A wall of fire rose in front of them.
The first tendril entered the flames and burned instantly.
The others changed direction.
Instead of attacking Leng Pan directly, they struck the ceiling above her.
Cracks spread through the stone.
Large chunks of rock began falling.
Leng Pan raised her hand.
A sphere of water formed above them and caught the debris.
The water softened each impact before carrying the rocks aside.
"You will damage your own nest if you keep doing that," she said.
The queen released another screech.
Thin parasites poured from its mouth like a pale waterfall.
They spread across the floor and walls.
Some moved towards Leng Pan, while others crawled towards Sonny and Vanish.
Lu Zhen sent flames across the ground.
Hundreds of parasites burned, but more continued emerging.
"There are too many!" Vanish shouted.
"Get closer to us," Leng Pan replied.
She expanded her mist throughout the chamber.
The parasites slowed as soon as the purification energy touched them.
However, Leng Pan noticed something worrying.
The queen kept producing more.
As long as it remained connected to the blue crystal, it could replenish its energy continuously.
Moreover, every captive attached to the root network provided it with another source of strength.
They could fight for hours and still fail to exhaust it.
"We need to separate it from that crystal," Leng Pan told Lu Zhen.
"I was thinking the same thing."
"But if the crystal is keeping the captives alive, removing it might kill them."
Lu Zhen looked at the blue light inside the queen’s abdomen.
"Then we need to find out whether the crystal is supporting them or only supporting the creature."
"That would be easier if it stopped trying to eat us."
"I could ask politely."
Leng Pan looked at him.
Lu Zhen raised his voice.
"Are the captives connected to the crystal?"
The queen answered by throwing another group of tendrils at him.
"I don’t think it wants to talk anymore," Leng Pan said.
"I noticed."
Lu Zhen burned through the tendrils.
At the same time, Little Vine slid from Leng Pan’s wrist and grew rapidly.
Its green tendrils spread across the floor, intercepting the pale roots that moved towards the captives.
The queen froze.
All its eyes shifted towards Little Vine.
"Altered botanical organism detected."
"Energy exposure exceeds local limits."
Little Vine waved one tendril in what could only be described as an offended manner.
It did not like being examined.
"Don’t worry," Leng Pan said. "I also find it annoying."
The vine rushed forward.
Green tendrils wrapped around the queen’s pale roots and pulled.
The queen screamed as several connections broke.
However, instead of retreating, it turned its attention to the vine.
A thin needle emerged from one of its roots.
It pierced Little Vine before Leng Pan could stop it.
Little Vine shook violently.
Dark lines spread across its green surface.
"Little Vine!"
Leng Pan tried to recall it, but the queen’s roots held it in place.
"The altered organism will be assimilated."
More needles appeared.
The queen injected something into the vine.
Leng Pan could feel Little Vine’s fear and pain through their connection.
She released a concentrated blade of water.
It sliced through the roots trapping the vine.
Little Vine retreated and wrapped itself around her arm.
Its colour had darkened.
Small bulges moved beneath its surface.
Parasite eggs.
The queen had infected it.
Lu Zhen’s expression became murderous.
He prepared to burn every root in the chamber.
"Wait," Leng Pan said.
Little Vine tightened around her arm.
Its fear was disappearing.
In its place came something else.
Hunger.
One of the bulges beneath its surface stopped moving.
Then another disappeared.
Leng Pan sensed energy flowing into the vine.
It was not being consumed by the parasites.
It was consuming them.
The queen’s red eyes flickered.
"Assimilation failure."
Little Vine unwound from Leng Pan’s arm.
Its darkened colour faded, replaced by a deeper and brighter green.
The vine grew thicker.
New tendrils sprouted from its body, each moving independently.
Then all of them turned towards the queen.
For the first time since Leng Pan entered the chamber, the massive creature recoiled.
Little Vine had enjoyed the taste of its parasites.
And it wanted more.