Sirens rattled throughout Leyton. Church knights draped in white robes and clerics on horses were hustling through the streets, looking for any residents who might have fallen behind. Wind mage was flying from the church to all over the town announcing the evacuation order.
Groups of knights were leaving for the villages and stations scattering in north and south. In the master hall behind the church, teleporting light column constantly lit up the sky sending personnel to the other parts of Beinz to enforce the evacuation order. Beinz, which was half covered by mountains and forest with low population, had many small villages scattering around the line of defense, apart from Leyton and forming part of the line of defense and gazetted as military-civilian use. Meanwhile, knight stations and sentry posts in between these villages were the Sacred Lake line of defense. Now people had to be evacuated from Beinz, the most mobile personnel were deployed for this purpose while knights were responsible for the nearby villages. Magi were also teleported to evacuate people from the remote areas. They were racing against time as those people had only two days left.
The sudden mass evacuation order had left the people and soldiers perplexed. No one knew what it was all about as all personnel irrespective of whether they were clerics or not were ordered to leave Beinz in two days. If not for Bishop Gelton and Marshal Ophra jointly signed the order, chaos might have erupted. The four ascetics had also issued a joint statement to enforce the order. Since no one in Beinz diocese was purely of civilian, and almost everyone was associated with the military or the church, the evacuation could be carried out rather smoothly. But then, even if there were civilians, they would have now moved along under the leadership of the clerics.
Of course Gelton wasn't credulous at all, the old bishop was known for his cautiousness. When he was back in town, he had already despatched his men to the Gnarled Grove to scout out the place. He only issued the evacuation order after he was convinced that the forest was indeed pervaded with a strangely dangerous energy, and monsters of the forest were becoming violent.
Hao Ren and his team were in the king's house, catching some rest while they could. But the disturbing atmosphere in the streets was making them nervous. Lily was unnerved in particular. "What should we do? Are we really going to fight that hundred-kilometre monster? It's suicide!"
Y'zaks clenched his teeth and said, "I've got the meteoroid ready—extra large, enough to level The Gnarled Grove entirely. Wouldn't you stop me again, would you?"
Looking at the meteoroidal maniac, Hao Ren finally saw Y'zaks' tendency to smash up people with meteoroid as a good habit. "We're all counting on you. Or else I might have to call for back up."
Vivian had been sitting near the window, her brows drew together in thought, now looking up. "Do you think it's a coincidence? This place has been peaceful for the last three thousand years. When we arrived few days ago then Gnarled Grove wakes up?"
"It must have something to do with that spaceship." Sucking his teeth, Hao Ren was having a bad feeling about all this. "If not for the kiloton-spaceship crashed a bloody hole in its backyard, the thing wouldn't have waken up. I'm afraid as sweet as the lullaby sounds in the Divine Sacrophagus, that thing's not going to calm down."
Suddenly Y'zaks fell into deep thought before he said, "There's another reason: the maelstrom might have damaged the Divine Sacrophagus, lalluby has stopped playing."
That might sound possible. But it was meaningless to harp this. Becky was wiping her sword over and over again, and mumbling something in her mouth nervously. Hao Ren came closer and heard "...may grandpa protect me, may grandpa protect me. You'd studied history for all your life, now your grand daughter might be history soon..." She paused a second and continued again. "...Life's three greatest joys: get hung on the wall, get hung on the wall, get hung on the wall... There's nothing to worry about. I might be a heroine this time..."
Hao Ren almost laughed out hearing her murmur. He couldn't help but pat on Becky's shoulder. "Take it easy. If worse comes to worst we can always disconnect. We're not going to die."
Suddenly Becky took a sudden change and said, "I've decided not to run away."
"What?" Hao Ren was surprised.
"This is my home." Becky lowered her head and kept wiping her sword. "The First Born might be very powerful. If it escapes from Dragonspine Ridge, I'm afraid no one in this world is going to survive. They have no place to run, so I'm not going to run away too."
Hao Ren was almost impressed until he saw Becky folded the sword in her arms and murmuring again with her eye shut. "But you can always bring me out of here by force, right? Don't you forget that..."
Hao Ren: "....." What a confused little maiden!
Suddenly Lily's ears moved. She slid down from her chair and pressed her ear against the floor as if listening. "Did you guys hear that?"
Hao Ren exchanged a look with the others. "Hear what?"
"There's a rumbling sound." Her the other ear was tilting. "It was coming from underground..."
Cold sweat immediately trickled down Hao Ren's back. "That quick? Isn't it two days later?"
Before his voice trailed off, a commotion was heard from afar. Then the siren went off again and this time it was even more urgent sounding!
Everyone looked out through the window and saw an army of heavily armed warriors running back, and further out was a sea of fire chasing after them.
Y'zaks was the first to run out. "Go and get a look. Something's wrong!"
Hao Ren and company got out into the street and ran toward the noise. People were running back panickly, all coming from the direction of the fire. Becky stopped one of them and asked, "What happen?"
The person was almost scared out of his wit and said without even looking at Becky, "Monster! Monsters are coming out from the ground!"
Hao Ren's stomach churned, thinking it must have something to do with the root system!
He ran ahead of the team and bumped into many residents who were running in his direction. When he got past a row of houses, he finally saw what it was all about:
Tentacles were bursting out from the slab pavement and attacking people indiscriminately!
It was the root system of the Gnarled Grove!
These scary subterrainean creatures had struck fear into the people. People finally knew what the evacuation order was all about. Everywhere, there were civilians screaming in fear and groaning in pain. The tentacles were inflicting great damages and casualty to the town. People were running, sometimes didn't know where to run, trying to escape from the never-before-seen monsters. The church knights were engaging the monsters in hand-to-hand battle, relying on their heavy body armour and their specially enhanced strength to ward off the monsters but struggling to keep the powerful enemies at bay. The magi had been observing and managed to figure a way to ward off the tentacles—by using fire.
The blazing fire from afar Hao Ren had just seen was the idea of the magi.
But the warriors and magi were like David vesus Goliath in the face of the ancient creature but they were no way near David. With just a swing the tentacles would be able to send a handful of heavily armed and armoured warriors flying ten metres back out. The fireballs which the magi had used could only scorch a little layer of scalp off the skin of the tentacles. Soldiers were using themselves as human shield to bog the monster down. But the situation quickly turned south as more tentacles broke out from the earth!
Suddenly a ball of fire brust out from the body of Y'zaks. He rolled straight toward a tentacle as he called the soldier in a loud voice. "Go and inform Ophra and Gelton! Meanwhile, we will handle this!"
Hao Ren pulled out his gun, motioned others and said, "Attack!"