Reincarnated as the Final Villain's Vessel

Chapter 180: Ash and Blood[2]

Hundreds of creatures entered the edge of my senses and reached above us within moments.

The instant they arrived overhead, the corpses we had left there vanished from existence and were devoured in an instant.

Their numbers were enormous, but this wasn’t the first time we had encountered swarms like these, and every time we either hid or moved away depending on what the situation allowed.

But this time wasn’t the same. Apparently, those things sensed our presence while we were isolated several meters underground.

And worse, they were digging and breaking through the earth toward us rapidly.

”Elliot, this direction.”

I pointed toward the direction the monsters were coming from above us while the light in Elliot’s hand quickly went out before being replaced by Izel’s flame.

Under the dim firelight and the tremors around us, the rocks before Elliot began opening up and forming a tunnel nearly two meters wide forward.

”Elliot, faster!” Izel shouted while staring at the ceiling above us that had begun filling with cracks.

At the same time, Elliot opened the path for several meters and advanced forward while continuing to carve our escape route. ”I’m trying.”

Without hesitation, we retreated behind him while fleeing underground as the place around us shook even more and I felt the monsters digging through the earth above us and creating tunnels to reach us.

”How long does this go on?” Ellen’s voice cut through the rumbling noise.

”Hundreds of meters.” From what I could sense, this swarm stretched hundreds of meters wide in this direction, while being extremely long.

So long that it extended beyond the range of my senses, which covered a full kilometer radius.

The only good thing was that the entire swarm didn’t seem to be chasing us.

Only the ones directly above us were after us, while the others continued their path across the ash field, which made moving against their direction and escaping behind them the best option.

While Elliot dug the tunnel and we followed behind him, the chamber we had previously been in collapsed while dozens of monsters poured down from above at once.

Essence gathered over my fingers and compressed together before I directed it toward the monsters charging from behind us while fighting amongst themselves inside the narrow tunnel.

Their forms resembled worms nearly a meter long, with gray scales and dozens of thin legs ending in sharp tips.

They had no eyes anywhere, while their mouths were hidden beneath their bodies near their bellies.

And just as Kyle described, each of them was roughly our size... slightly smaller.

Because of the narrow tunnel, only two of those monsters could charge at the same time, causing them to fight and climb over one another.

Without hesitation, I released the essence from my hand, piercing through the darkness of the tunnel and spreading light along the way until it reached the front of the swarm twenty meters away from us.

In the next moment, a powerful explosion shook the place while dust rushed toward us and the monsters in the front were torn apart before the walls around them collapsed and sealed the path.

But that only lasted for a single moment.

In the next instant, I saw the rubble blocking the path tremble and crack while those things tore through the rocks with their thin limbs.

Just as they would do to us if they caught us.

This time, Ellen’s blades shot forward, tearing through the air before plunging into their heads or the front of their bodies, piercing through the scales like paper.

In an instant, blood burst from five monsters as they fell lifelessly, blocking the path before the others while Ellen’s blades flew back toward her.

But instead of pushing the corpses aside and continuing toward us, the others crawled over the remains of their siblings, their large mouths underneath opening and tearing apart their flesh before swallowing it within seconds.

It didn’t stop there. Cracks spread through the path Elliot had created as it collapsed behind us before dozens more monsters fell down and flooded into the blocked tunnel.

”What the hell are these insane things?” Izel cursed while staring at the chaotic swarm of monsters behind us.

”Elliot, please hurry!” Leona shouted, while Elliot answered in a voice full of urgency as he manipulated the rocks to create the path faster.

”I’m trying!”

”Then try faster!” I urged him even more.

Essence gathered in my hand once again before I launched it toward them. This time, because the tunnel was packed entirely with monsters, they absorbed the impact and several at the front had their bodies torn apart and blasted across the place before more leapt over them and devoured the corpses of their siblings while continuing toward us.

Ellen’s blades shot one after another, stabbing into their heads and dropping them in a single strike, buying us some time.

But at the same time, the ceiling we had passed through was collapsing and more of them were coming from above.

Their shrieks echoed through the tunnel while arrows flew one after another, bringing them down before they could even step inside.

This place wasn’t suitable for fighting... just as it was narrow for the monsters, it restricted us as well.

Izel couldn’t use her flames or she’d burn away every bit of oxygen, while barely two of us could attack at once, and at the same time Elliot wasn’t digging the tunnel fast enough.

So now, before my eyes, everything disappeared beneath the mass of monsters crawling toward us while their sharp screeches filled the tunnel.

I gritted my teeth while firing essence at them in small bursts, while blades pierced them and brought them down followed by sharp arrows.

”Caius, how much farther?” Elliot shouted from the front.

”Not much left!”

The sound of feet and sharp limbs scraping against the rocks grew louder, accompanied by the sound of flesh tearing.

I sensed more digging above the area we were passing through, but we had also neared the end of this swarm and not much remained.

”We’ll be buried here if this keeps going!” Kyle shouted, his usually calm voice filled with worry, panic... and fear.

I gritted my teeth while those monsters surrounded us from literally every direction. Even the direction Elliot was digging through was no longer clear because more had begun tunneling toward us from there.

After a moment of thought, I shouted, ”Elliot, open the way upward and blow this place apart with everything you have!”

I couldn’t see his face, but I heard the doubt in his voice. ”Are you sure?”

”Just do it!”

In the next moment, the ground beneath our feet shifted and tilted upward while the swarms rushed after us from behind and some began appearing from the side walls.

Were they eating those rocks or what the hell?

”Get ready, I’m opening the path upward now!”

Elliot stopped creating the tunnel, leaving it sealed several meters ahead of us while white lightning energy condensed in his hand and compressed together.

But cracks began consuming the entire tunnel ahead of us and above us, and before the place could collapse on top of us and crush us beneath the swarms, Elliot unleashed the plasma from his hand directly forward.

At the same time, ice formed around us while the deafening explosion echoed and shook the entire place, and all those souls there vanished from this world.

The ice melted away, revealing sunlight while the heat from the explosion struck our faces... but that didn’t matter because we were still being chased.

”Now let’s get out of here!” I shouted for everyone to move.

Without delay, everyone rushed upward through the rubble and molten rocks, and at that same moment the monsters poured from behind into the place we had been in, their shrieks making the sounds around us impossible to hear.

Finally, I stepped onto the surface while taking a breath of air as I looked at the destruction caused by that explosion.

Dust scattered through the air while torn corpses were everywhere, some missing half their bodies while others had lost limbs.

A few of them were even still alive, writhing around in pain.

”Holy fucking hell...” Leona’s shocked voice echoed out.

But it wasn’t because of this small destruction or the dozens of scattered corpses, but because everywhere around us... literally everywhere.

From all four directions and from the destroyed tunnel we had just emerged from, hundreds of those grotesque monsters surged toward us and piled over one another with pure hunger while devouring the remains of their siblings.

We moved closer together, forming a circle.

”So what do we do now... I really don’t want my end to be getting eaten by those worms.”

I raised my swords at Izel’s words while looking toward a certain direction where they were less dense.

”You’re right, there are better ways to die.”

I swung my sword, cutting apart the first worm that leapt toward me.

”So let’s break through from this direction.”