509 Earth Elemental
Shortly after Vaan escaped the sudden attack from above, his gaze flickered with a severe glint as he watched the spiral cone-shaped stalactite formation move.
They weren't just simple stalactites hanging from the ceiling; they were part of a much larger earthen entity - one that didn't seem to possess a shred of life force.
Rumble...!
After the giant earthen entity slammed into the ground, it continued drilling deeper into the earth. It moved so quickly that it was like a fish in the sea; the hard rocks in the earth failed to impede its movements.
They were simply like soft tissues in front of the giant earthen entity – easily torn apart.
Nevertheless, as the giant earthen entity continued drilling deeper and deeper into the depths of the subterranean region, Vaan could see the rest of its hard rocky body passing through the vast underground space.
At the same time, a three-dimensional image of the giant earthen entity's body slowly formed in his head.
However, it was only after the giant earthen entity completely disappeared into the deeper depths of the subterranean region did Vaan form a complete image of the giant earthen entity's whole body.
The giant earthen entity's form resembled a rock worm - its outer body was completely covered in hard rock-like scales, and the countless thousands of stalactites were actually its teeth.
The Stalactite Milk was something like drool excreted from its mouth.
Nevertheless, the giant earthen entity's outer appearance was the extent of its resemblance.
Beyond that, the giant earthen entity was anything but a rock worm. At the very least, it wouldn't be an ordinary rock worm if it was one.
Its body was simply huge to an unprecedented scale!
Based on Vaan's visual measurement, the giant earthen entity measured just a little over 100 kilometers long and 4 kilometers wide!
Calling it colossal would still be an understatement of its sheer size!
And because it wasn't just enormous beyond belief but also very fast, Vaan immediately viewed it as a considerable threat.
"What kind of creature is this?!" Vaan frowned.
Rumble...!
'It's coming back!' The slight tremors in the ground immediately alerted Vaan. His eyes instantly flickered with a sharp glint.
Boom!
Vaan's figure disappeared from the location with another spatial shift just moments before the solid ground beneath him shattered, giving way to the giant earthen entity.
After the giant earthen entity missed Vaan, it continued shooting upward and entered the dimensional crack hanging above.
Vaan had retreated a great distance, and yet the giant earthen entity still managed to locate him.
If the first attack was just a coincidence, then the second attack was a certainty. Vaan was the target of the giant earthen entity's attacks.
After the giant earthen entity completely left the dark underground space, Vaan discovered the two newly-formed abysses the giant earthen entity left behind.
They were around the same dimension as the existing underground space.
In other words, the dark underground space must have been formed by the giant earthen entity passing through the earth. Unfortunately, all traces of its movement had faded away over the terribly long years.
As such, Vaan failed to discover how the dark underground space was truly formed.
Nevertheless, after the two attacks, Vaan got a deeper understanding of the giant earthen entity's bodily structure.
It might look like an oversized rock worm, but it had no life; it was purely inorganic and entirely made up of earth elements.
"This thing is very powerful, but it's not an earth spirit..." Vaan muttered with a frown.
If the giant earthen entity were an earth spirit, it would have been possible for it to be a divine earth spirit.
However, higher-ranking spirits would have greater intelligence.
Vaan made several attempts to communicate with the giant earthen entity. Unfortunately, none of his words seemed to have reached it. He didn't get any responses other than its attacks.
As such, he couldn't classify it as a divine earth spirit. He could only call it a pure earth elemental worm without intelligence.
After all, if he died, the Stalactite Milk would be lost in his Heaven-Swallowing Space, drifting off in some subspace between the dimensions.
If communications were possible, he could have negotiated to return some or even all of the Stalactite Milk to the pure earth elemental worm.
However, since it was non-intelligent, all forms of negotiations were off the table.
'It's coming again!' Vaan's gaze sharpened.
Boom!
Once again, Vaan escaped the range of the pure earth elemental's attack, moments before it shattered the hard rocky ground and drilled back into the depths of the subterranean region.
No doubt, the pure earth elemental worm would come for him again.
Each of its movements was huge and shocking, causing enormous tremors throughout the expanding underground space.
It wasn't the kind of attention Vaan wanted to draw onto himself.
'I can't stay here, Vaan's frown deepened.
Once he made up his mind, he immediately flew through the dimensional crack. He left Chaos and returned to the surface of the moon.
Even without looking back, Vaan knew the pure earth elemental worm was coming for him.
As such, he didn't linger on the surface of the moon. He quickly took off and ventured into the void of dark space, creating as much distance from the moon as possible.
In order to lose the pursuit, Vaan circled to the other side of the moon, where he would be out of sight once the pure earth elemental worm emerged from the dimensional crack.
After drawing a safe distance, Vaan observed the surface of the moon for changes.
Time passed, but they felt longer than usual.
Seconds felt like minutes.
Nevertheless, several dozen breaths soon passed without any changes on the surface of the moon. Alas, it didn't keep staying that way.
Several more breaths passed before the pure earth elemental worm emerged from the moon.
However, the pure earth elemental worm didn't go around the moon to find him. It directly drilled through the entire moon, from one end to the other, in order to reach him!
Rumble!
Right after the pure earth elemental worm fixed its maw of stalactite teeth in Vaan's direction, the entire region of space around the moon shook!
'Spacequake!' Vaan's pupils shrank into slits.
The pure earth elemental worm's silent roar could cause temblors in the moon's magnetic field and scatter it.
It was a different kind of spacequake compared to the ones generated by the explosions of azure energy during the clashes of asteroids.
There was no sound or anything that indicated the pure earth elemental worm roared at Vaan. And yet, he still had the feeling that it did.
More importantly, it was a roar without any sign of anger or emotions, for that matter.
Since the pure earth elemental worm lacked intelligence, it also had no feelings or expressions. It wasn't mad at Vaan or anything for stealing its Stalactite Milk. Or rather, the Stalactite Milk was irrelevant to it.
It just wanted to devour him.
The pure earth elemental worm was simply an inorganic existence that acted to hunt all other lifeforms on instinct!
It was a life destroyer!
'I can't bring this thing back to Pangea!'
Vaan decisively flew away from Pangea the moment he witnessed the pure earth elemental worm travel through the void in order to reach him.
It would be a catastrophe if no one could slay the pure earth elemental worm. And even if they could, it wouldn't happen without Pangea suffering devastation on a seismic scale first.
Nevertheless, it truly surprised Vaan that the pure earth elemental worm had a magnetic field, which it could manipulate for interstellar travel.
'I've truly stirred one hell of a hornet's nest this time,' Vaan thought.
As he used spatial shift and pyrokinetic thrust to venture deeper into the depths of space, further away from Pangea and closer to the asteroid field, he glanced back occasionally to check on the pure earth elemental worm.
Although the pure earth elemental worm was very powerful, it was fortunate that he was still faster than it.
However, it was too soon to increase their distance.
He had to drag the thing further away.
...
Sixteen hours later...
After Vaan traveled through 2,000,000 kilometers of void space, he encountered a small debris field of shattered asteroids. It didn't have any azure crystal deposits, but it was rich in minerals.
Although unfortunate, the large mineral deposits were still very useful for forging various items.
Nevertheless, he decided to make the debris field his standing ground. We would face the pure earth elemental worm there.
Throughout the entire trip, the pure earth elemental worm had chased him without giving up.
'You chased me for so long. I hope you are prepared to suffer for it,' Vaan conveyed to the pure earth elemental worm with earth spirit telepathy, knowing it might not understand.
Rumble!
The surrounding space trembled with spacequakes as the pure earth elemental worm responded with a silent roar.
'Is that your answer? So be it. Come! I will use you to test the extent of my power!' Vaan raised his battle spirit and appeared full of vigor.
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