Undying Warlord

200 Mountain of Lava

There was not much for Dilan to do when he had arrived at the Rian mountainside hospital.

Everyone had witnessed the terrifying roar that had originated from the mountainside. Thus, it was no wonder that even the narrow-minded and doubtful Survivors finally chose to follow Dilan and his people.

Out of the 500 Survivors, who had wanted to stay in the Rian mountainside hospital for various reasons, less than 100 stayed behind after hearing the terrifying roar.

Those who stayed behind were obviously scared but they firmly believed that the existence hiding in the mountainside wouldn't bother them.

No one truly knew how the few dozen Survivors could be so confident about this but it was not as if anyone cared about forcing them to follow them.

At least, Dilan couldn't care less about what choice others made.

They were free to do whatever they wanted to do as long as their decision didn't implicate him.

Dilan was still in emotional turmoil because he was still coming to terms with the fact that Mason had died on his watch.

It annoyed him more than anyone else that his mind was still focused on Mason and the fact that he could have saved him, somehow, as long as he was strong enough.

However, despite his mind and emotions being in chaos, Dilan's body was way too weak, damaged and exhausted to prevent him from overthinking the events that had occurred and those that were currently happening.

He was led to one of the seats in one of the more than two dozen buses they had managed to get their hands on.

Afterward a few elderly nurses were told to take care of Dilan, which they did without further ado.

Their experienced eye told the nurses that Dilan was not supposed to be conscious right now. He had to be in immense pain, and was supposed to be rendered incapable of even lifting a finger without feeling as if his limbs would be torn apart at any moment.

They couldn't even imagine what Dilan had faced outside Rian, and if they were to be honest, they didn't want to know. Dilan's entire body released a horrifying sensation as if he was born to kill.

It felt weird but the nurses tried to ignore it as well as possible while tending to Dilan's wounds.

He didn't move at all while the nurses cut open his clothes when they took off his boots, his gloves, the metal chest plate he had been wearing and the other clothes that obstructed them from observing his wounds and bandaging him.

In the end, Dilan didn't have many clothes on but his impressive physique was the last thing the Nurses could pay attention to.

They looked at him with shock and terror in their eyes as they took in the bloody sight, clearly seeing that not a single inch of Dilan's body was unscathed.

After cleaning his body with a wet towel, his appearance was not as frightening as before but that didn't mean that the nurses felt any better.

He had angry bruises, and blisters all over his body, his legs looked as if an apprentice butcher had attempted to do something great but failed miserably, and his sword-arm looked no better either.

While the nurses tended to Dilan, who was barely able to stay conscious, the others finally completed their last mission; to carry the unconscious Survivors inside the buses.

They started not long after and began to drive off.

At the same time, the majority of Tier-1 Ascenders were ordered to guard the buses. The buses drove slowly as they had to pave their way through various abandoned cars, destroyed streets and the remnants of skyscrapers that had collapsed on the ground.

Leaving Rian took more than 20 minutes and it was only fortunate for their group that they didn't encounter any malicious monsters.

In fact, they didn't encounter a single monster, let alone a group of monsters on their way outside the city.

It was almost as if Rian had been abandoned by all the monsters.

And this was exactly what it looked like when they finally reached the Highway that passed through the Shikan plains.

Even if one didn't want to admit it, with the sight that unfolded right in front of everyone, it was certain that something big was happening.

The terrifying roar had been a warning, and the reaction to this warning was the flood of monsters that fled from Rian as far and quickly as possible.

Tens, if not more than a hundred thousand monsters, mutated animals, and mythical beasts were running for their life just after hearing that blood-curdling roar.

It didn't matter if one was predator or prey, the monsters didn't care about each other as they dashed over the Shikan plains with their terrifying speed, frantically stomping over the weak ones on their way.

On the other hand, the buses and the speed at which the Tier-1 Ascenders were running over the highway could be considered to be slow like a snail.

"Should we speed up as well?…I have a bad feeling…" Xenia remarked with a wildly beating heart. She didn't feel comfortable with what she saw and wanted to leave at once.

However, Sven could only shake his head.

"We don't have that much gasoline, and cannot waste a single drop of it. The weight eight buses have to carry is too huge to drive much faster and the waste of gasoline would increase exponentially just by driving 10 km/h faster...

To be honest, I wish we could drive faster as well but even if we drive faster and we pass by some monsters, we never know if some horde of beasts would attack us to make space, or if another untoward incident would occur.

And without Dilan…I'm not sure if anyone is confident of defeating a group of monsters at the later ranks of Tier-1…"

Even though Yvonne was powerful and ready to fight numerous monsters, it was not as if she could protect everyone, defeat powerful Tier-1 monsters and escape unscathed all alone.

By being slower than the fleeing monsters, they could escape their wrath and prevent being dragged into their mess.

It might be uncomfortable because the lurking dangers from behind them scared everyone but Dilan had warned them early enough to pack up and leave.

"…without Dilan's warning, we wouldn't have packed up even now…" One of the Tier-1 Ascenders commented, feeling relieved of Dilan's forethought.

And it was just at this moment, that a hot gust of wind swept into their back, which caused some of them to fall on the ground.

The Ascenders were nearly sucked into the air owing to the intensity of the hot gust. However, this was not even the most frightening.

Everyone's head turned around in unison. It was as if they were drawn to what was going on behind him, and to the scenery that was now unfolding right in front of them.

The mountain's greenery was ablaze and its greyish stones were covered in thick molten lava that poured down everywhere.

A mountain of lava was created in a single moment.

However…

The mountain of lava was not what everyone looked at with widened eyes that were filled in terror.

"As if…"

Dilan was the only one able to speak through his shock. Yet, even he was not able to hide his expression.

Chills ran down his spine, causing his body to flinch in pain but that was not something Dilan noticed right in that instance.

"That…thing…was hidden in the mountainside?!"

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