C14 Stone Egg

The beast was more savage than he had anticipated! Despite its teeth clearly shattering against the stone, it refused to release its grip. It clamped down on the Stone Egg, lifting both the Egg and Martina off the ground in a single motion!

The final hail of bullets rang out!

The massive jaws were pummeled by the gunfire, blood and tissue flying everywhere, yet the creature's grip remained unyielding! It thrashed its enormous mouth wildly from side to side! Only when the momentum reached its zenith did the jaws finally open!

Crash! Martina's Stone Egg slammed into the wall! The bas-relief crumbled, a large chunk tumbling down! The Stone Egg cracked but, thankfully, did not shatter! However, Egil distinctly heard Martina groan from within the Stone Egg, likely suffering from a concussion.

The Stone Egg, still intact, rebounded off the wall and dropped.

Hiss! Another gaping maw was already waiting below!

It was like a game of wall ball, the two massive mouths working in perfect sync!

"Got it!" Egil's psionic power flared to life, and the descent of Martina's Stone Egg slowed to a crawl in his heightened state of awareness.

What to do? If the mouth below clamped down, Martina would be done for!

Stay calm, stay calm. Martina was still falling; there was time.

The two massive mouths were in sync, tossing and catching. Yet, after Martina was thrown, the mouth near Egil ceased its movements. It didn't resume its attack on Egil. Instead, it froze as if its attention had shifted elsewhere, neglecting its immediate surroundings.

Upon closer inspection, Egil noticed that the creatures' mouths extended far underground. Martina had mentioned before that it wasn't two separate beasts but one creature with two mouthparts. It appeared she wasn't kidding.

With their mouths exposed above ground and their main body buried, the creature lacked limbs. Its elongated torso connected to the subterranean core, undulating in wave-like motions to move, creating thudding sounds reminiscent of footsteps. If Egil had to draw a comparison, he'd say the monster resembled a corpse flower.

A biohazardous version of the corpse flower, with two large blooms rooted deep, sharing a single consciousness. Thus, when one bloom's attention was captured, the other would become slow and sluggish. In Egil's dilated perception, this was particularly evident.

Understanding the composition of the monsters meant there was a way to handle them—actually, there were two strategies.

The first was to seize the moment while Martina was under attack and the monster flower was distracted. By using the 'die and understand' technique, one could achieve a perfect dodge, sprint to the entrance, and escape to safety!

But what would happen after the escape?

The Willoughby University representatives at the ruins only took orders from Martina. The mercenaries were on Martina's payroll, too. Most absurdly, the students from Azure Dragon Garden now saw Egil as a traitor and wouldn't heed his words.

There was no real choice. Whether considering the objective circumstances or the fact that Martina was in danger because she had tried to save him, Egil had to opt for the second strategy. He truly wished there was another way.

With his last bullet, Egil fired at the monster flower before him!

As expected, the monster flower shifted its focus. The flower entangling Martina became sluggish. The Stone Egg enveloping Martina veered off just a tad at the critical moment. The monster flower failed to catch Martina, and her Stone Egg ricocheted off its teeth, flying far away.

Martina managed to evade, but Egil was not so fortunate.

His longstanding issue was that while his senses quickened, his speed did not. At such close quarters, the monster flower's frenzied bite left Egil with no choice but to be devoured, following in the footsteps of Rapper Mark.

This was exactly why he had been reluctant to resort to this second strategy. He could only hope that Martina, for his sake, would spare the Azure Dragon Garden students any trouble.

He deactivated his psionic power. As per the old rule, it was better to die decisively.

"No, Egil!..." Martina's cry rang out once more.

She used Egil's nickname again, and perhaps that was the very reason he had resolved to sacrifice himself to save her.

Boom!

The ground where Egil stood was now a gaping pit. The monster flower writhed and chewed, and Egil was nowhere to be seen.

"Impossible..." Martina's wail was heart-wrenching. The Stone Egg burst open, and the glow of her psionic power flickered erratically. "...It can't be you!"

Just as Martina was on the verge of hysteria, the entire lab was flooded with light, bright as day!

Martina squinted and shielded her eyes, temporarily blinded by the sudden brilliance.

The space was exactly as Egil and Martina had surmised: a circular structure with a flat expanse below and a ring of platforms above, reminiscent of a viewing gallery.

What they hadn't anticipated was the solitary throne in the center of the ground, shrouded in darkness and thus impossible to discern!

The creature, as Egil had predicted, was indeed a monstrous entity—a giant corpse flower sprouting from a common root!

One of the corpse flowers undulated its way to the lonely throne with a series of thuds. Suddenly, Egil found himself unceremoniously deposited onto the throne, drenched in a green substance! A smear of the liquid graced his face, emitting a thankfully plant-like fragrance. Egil was utterly bewildered.

"Fire!" Martina dashed toward the throne, paying no heed to the monster flower at her side, which, curiously, ceased its assault.

"Are you okay? Oh, thank goodness! Ugh…" Martina nearly reached out to Egil but recoiled in revulsion.

Egil looked around, perplexed: "What's going on? Where am I? What happened?"

Martina regarded Egil with a mix of relief and disgust, her cheeks still tinged with the aftermath of her fright. "Looks like you're unharmed, and that's what matters. As for what happened? Well... do you smoke?"

"No."

"Then it seems you've passed the test. The holy beast must see you as the rightful king of all, hence why you were spat onto the throne."

Martina's aversion to smokers was evident. Last time, a smoker was expelled only from the waist up, the act of smoking implicating his lungs. But Egil, he was spat out entirely. Did his lower half smoke too? How? By using hemorrhoids?

While Egil was still reeling, trying to clean the green liquid from himself, Martina began to scrutinize the throne.

"Jibberish…" Her voice echoed from behind the throne, the words indecipherable and odd.

It appeared there were ancient inscriptions at the back of the throne, now visible in the well-lit circular edifice, eliminating the need for tactile reading.

"Ha! You've truly been acknowledged as king." Martina, having deciphered the archaic script, addressed Egil with an odd inflection, "The creator of this place believes that only one who is willing to sacrifice themselves for the good of all can be deemed the true king."

"Huh?"

"It seems your act of saving me was interpreted as a sacrifice."

"Damn! I never would have guessed that those ancients were a bunch of 'holier-than-thou' types!"

Muttering under his breath, Egil examined the throne he was seated on.

The backrest towered over him, rising well above his head. Even if Egil stood on the seat of the throne, he guessed he'd barely reach the top of the backrest.