The giant oars moving beneath the Mountain Ship were like thunderclouds in a phase of eruption, continuously releasing pillars of lightning with astonishing energy, relentlessly striking the labyrinth buildings below.
To truly describe it, the thunder was like rain, with a density and coverage rate that were shockingly high.
This scene was no longer visible to those inside Hide-and-Seek, and the ones witnessing it up close had become Dice Nose, who was still in the labyrinth city.
She hadn't understood the reason for Law's group's hasty departure earlier, but upon hearing the first thunderclap from the Mountain Ship, she realized the danger and immediately climbed to the rooftop of a building.
The first thing to catch her eye was the Mountain Ship wreaking havoc.
Its colossal size cast a vast, heavy shadow, like a black cloth draped over the ancient labyrinth city. Then, the energy gathered by countless lightning pillars, aimed at destroying everything below, completely tore through the shadow.
When the lightning vanished, all that remained in its wake was scorched earth.
And in that moment of stillness, as everything fell silent, the Mountain Ship's shadow was about to reach Dice Nose.
"..."
Seeing this, a chill rose from the depths of Dice Nose's heart. Without hesitation, she turned and ran.
Boom!
The Mountain Ship unleashed another dense cluster of lightning pillars. Blinding lightning flashed from behind, instantly passing through Dice Nose's figure as it sped into the distance.
When the lightning faded, Dice Nose glanced back at the shadow rapidly moving across the cluster of labyrinth buildings. Her expression changed.
That shadow was the Mountain Ship's shadow, equivalent to an all-around bombing zone. If overtaken by that shadow, it would be a catastrophic disaster.
Watching the shadow about to catch up with her, Dice Nose's heart trembled.
The Mountain Ship seemed to fly slowly, but in reality, it was very fast. Moreover, the interval between thunderclaps wasn't long, like reloading ammunition...
Listening to the continuous commotion from behind, Dice Nose's mood grew heavy.
Her speed wasn't fast to begin with… she wasn't ranked high within her clan.
Previously, she was responsible for pursuing Kincaid's group, who fled into the labyrinth city, precisely because her other companions prioritized other tasks, leaving this one to her.
If another magical beast had been in charge of the pursuit, Kincaid and his group wouldn't have had a chance to hide inside a labyrinth building.
Dice Nose was fleeing frantically, yet the shadow behind her was gradually pressing forward, closing in bit by bit.
Inside the base of the Gatekeeper Clan, the magical beasts responsible for eliminating threats were watching Dice Nose's frantic escape. Each beast's mood was heavy.
Regardless of whether Dice Nose could escape the lightning pillar bombardment zone covered by the Mountain Ship, this mission was already a failure.
Since failure was already acknowledged, the magical beasts, seeing the live scene through the Eye of True Sight, could only pray that Dice Nose could escape the Mountain Ship's lightning zone.
But gradually, they noticed the shadow cast by the Mountain Ship was shortening the distance between it and Dice Nose.
If this continued, Dice Nose would inevitably be overtaken by the shadow.
Moreover, she couldn't veer to the left or right, because the Mountain Ship's shadow covered too vast an area. Apart from running straight, changing course in any direction would only lead to being caught sooner.
The shadow was like a tentacle of death, inching closer and closer to Dice Nose.
And the moment the shadow passed over her body, Dice Nose's pupils constricted, her heartbeat suddenly accelerating.
'It's over...'
Above her head, dazzling lightning gradually manifested.
In less than a moment, clusters of thunder carrying immense energy struck down indiscriminately.
Dice Nose, on the edge of the lightning pillar bombardment zone, wasn't directly hit. However, the shockwave generated by the thunder clusters impacting the shadowed area mercilessly hurled Dice Nose's body away, also disrupting her escape rhythm.
Dice Nose was flung out of the lightning zone, crashing heavily onto a corner of a building's rooftop before tumbling into a passageway.
The fall didn't cause any significant injury, but it successfully delayed Dice Nose's escape speed.
Dice Nose quickly got up, discovering several wandering-type Brions in the passageway.
She had spotted the Brions, and they had spotted her.
This phenomenon extinguished her thought of hiding inside the building.
Biting her lip hard, she again scaled the passage wall, heading for the rooftop.
As her hand grasped the edge of the building's rooftop, the heavy shadow quietly arrived, passing over her hand, then the entire passageway.
"..."
Dice Nose looked up and saw the ship's hull beneath the Dragon-Ship Beast. Immediately, shadows covered her pupils.
But soon, accumulated lightning pierced through the shadows in her pupils.
Boom!
Lightning pillars descended directly into the passage.
Dice Nose, hanging on the wall, and the wandering-type Brions that had pursued her were instantly engulfed by the lightning.
When the lightning vanished, charred marks smoking everywhere could be seen on the building and inside the passage, along with dozens of charred, blackened bodies lying on the ground.
Among them was Dice Nose...
Like crushing an ant, the Mountain Ship continued to fly steadily forward, descending clusters of thunder every few seconds, continuously bombarding the cluster of buildings in the ancient labyrinth city, leaving behind patches of scorched black marks.
Meanwhile, the interiors of buildings mixed with metallic materials underwent a dramatic transformation.
The buildings of the labyrinth city were completely semi-enclosed spaces. Because there were too many terrifying biological species on the Dark Continent, including burrowing carnivorous types.
Therefore, the building foundations also consisted of thick floors mixed with metallic material. With not many doors and windows, and those being relatively small, the ventilation systems inside the buildings weren't very good.
The lightning strikes from the Mountain Ship hitting the building rooftops left scorched marks while powerful currents instantly traveled through the walls, then transformed into countless tiny electric snakes, rampaging everywhere inside the buildings.
The electric currents arrived extremely fast and vanished in the blink of an eye.
However, as some flammable items ignited, instrument equipment that had lain silent here for who knows how long all lit up.
Gurgle...
Inside the glass cabinets containing Brions and unidentified embryos, strings of bubbles suddenly rose.
…
Hide-and-Seek dimension.
Everyone was gathered together, but with the addition of the outsider, Giles.
When Law and the others returned to the apartment, the little fox Nen Beast also came along, which meant the external feed was disconnected.
No one knew what was currently happening in the Ancient Labyrinth City, but everyone present had seen the scene of the Mountain Ship unleashing wide-area thunder clusters, so they could roughly imagine what it was like.
Law silently calculated the time it would take for the Mountain Ship to pass over. Meanwhile, Kuro reverted to his original form, gesturing animatedly as he described the terror of the Mountain Ship to Shiro and the others.
His performance was vivid, almost as if he were about to reenact what it was like to be struck by lightning on the spot.
Giles approached Law.
Sensing this, Law turned his head and looked at Giles, saying calmly, "I know what you want to ask, but I have no obligation to answer you."
Giles's many questions were instantly blocked in his throat, then swallowed back with difficulty.
He looked at the composed Law, connecting the various pieces of information about Law stored in his memory...
However, forcibly linking that information with his current understanding resulted in nothing but a muddled mess.
"You... just who are you?"
Finally, that muddled mess prompted Giles to ask such a seemingly idiotic question.