~ 💎 WEEKLY POWER GOALS 💎🔥 60→1ch | 100→2ch | 200→5ch ⏰ Resets Monday! Thanks!
Kong's massive body thundered across the terrain at full sprint, the Monarch convoy trailing close behind as they pushed through the rugged mountain wilderness.
"Where the hell is it trying to go?"
Jared kept his eyes on Kong's back from the driver's seat of the middle vehicle, brow furrowed. The giant ape hadn't looked back once.
They didn't have telepathy, and sign language wasn't exactly in their skill set. All they could do was follow.
Even Jia, who could actually communicate with Kong, had no idea where he was headed. He'd only said he wanted to go in that direction.
"Maybe he's homesick," Old De offered.
"Homesick?" Jared raised an eyebrow.
"Most likely." Dr. Vivian spoke up from the back seat, her tone precise. "It's a homing instinct. Animals navigate by magnetic fields, scent trails, visual landmarks — a combination of factors guiding them back to a place that's 'home' for their species, even if it's their first time in the Hollow Earth."
Kong was following something older than memory. Pure instinct.
"Sounds complicated," Jared said, both hands on the wheel. "But it tracks with what I figured. Titans are animals too."
Then he glanced through the windshield and stopped talking.
Two creatures at eleven o'clock — something between a giant python and a bat, massive and fast. His gut clenched. He hit the comms immediately. "Heads up! Large bioforms, eleven o'clock. They're coming for us!"
Warbat.
Kong reacted before any of them. The moment the threat registered, he slowed and turned, planting himself between the convoy and the incoming creatures.
ROOAAR!!
The two Warbats came in from opposite directions with a ROOAAR, red wings snapping as they dove. Kong was the target. Both creatures matched him in scale, pushing the hundred-meter mark. They moved like hunters that knew exactly what they were doing.
Kong roared, wrenched a boulder from the earth, and launched it. GRAAAH!!
The Warbats were fast. They peeled apart, the rock passing between them, and then both lunged at once , jaws wide, drool stringing from rows of teeth.
Kong caught them. One in each hand. He dug in, muscles straining against their thrashing bodies.
"Damn it, he needs us!"
"Let's show these Hollow Earth locals how it's done!" Jared hit the brakes and kicked the door open before the vehicle had fully stopped. He caught the rocket launcher Old De tossed him, and the two of them split left and right, sighting down on the Warbats' gaping jaws.
BOOM! BOOM! Two shells streaked out on trails of fire. Kong moved with them. He swung both Warbats forward in the same motion, hurling them directly into the path of the rockets. The explosions ripped across their bodies , not enough to put them down, but enough to scramble their senses and leave them reeling.
Kong pressed the advantage. THOOM! THOOM! THOOM! He spun the dazed creatures overhead and drove them into the ground, into the earthen slopes, again and again. Green blood sprayed in broad arcs. These two were massive, but their durability wasn't in the same class as a real Titan.
When both Warbats finally went still, Kong exhaled. He turned toward the convoy and gave a single, slow nod.
"Nice work, handsome." Jared stowed the rocket launcher, stubbled jaw spreading into a grin, and gave Kong a thumbs-up.
Honestly, he'd always had a soft spot for Kong. It's why, back when he was still with Monarch, he'd snuck those photos of Kong's backside in the first place.
"Don't worry," Natsuki said from the vehicle behind, speaking to Jia, who had been watching the fight with her hands tight in her lap. "Our friends can handle themselves. Those two especially — they'd be insulted if I jumped in before them."
'Mm.' Jia nodded.
Then she went still. A tremor moved through her chest, faint but unmistakable, like a voice reaching for her across a great distance. A signal. Something like a cry for help.
She turned toward the left window.
'That way.'
...
Twenty minutes earlier.
Hidden behind a waterfall somewhere in the Hollow Earth, tucked into the folds of a mountain gorge, lay a ruin.
This was Iwi territory. Their civilization had endured for centuries in this world below the surface , ancient in ways that surface humans had long since abandoned. They had not climbed the great tree of science. They had stayed close to the earth, to mystery, to something older.
Matching strength against the Titans was never an option. So the Iwi had chosen invisibility instead. Under ordinary circumstances, no Titan ever entered their territory.
Deep in a stone chamber below the ruins.
'Are you certain she will come?' A short-haired woman with gold-patterned powder across her face looked at the woman standing at the center of the room.
Most of the Iwi wore plain yellowish-brown cloth robes. The woman in the center wore an ornate scaled robe. Her bearing made her rank clear.
'She will come.'
'The stone walls have already recorded it.' The woman, who carried herself like a high priestess, turned slowly and looked at the short-haired woman. She gave a single nod.
They exchanged no spoken words. Everything passed through Telepathy.
It was an ability the Iwi had evolved over long ages in place of language, something that let them move through this world more cleanly, more quietly than speech ever could.
The dim chamber around them was lined with murals. Ancient carvings covered the walls, accompanied by Iwi script , records of the past, visions of what was to come.
'The imprisoned giant apes are destined to walk the earth again.'
'Our doom is already moving toward us.'
'According to the prophecy, the "she" who descends from the surface will become our savior , the one who awakens our guardian.' The woman in the scaled robe gazed at the carvings, her thoughts carrying clearly to the short-haired woman. 'Reach out to her again. She will come to us.'
The Iwi of the Hollow Earth could broadcast mental signals through special crystals. The girl on the surface, Iwi blood in her veins, would feel it.
'I understand.' The short-haired woman dipped her head. The signal was her responsibility.
But she didn't leave. Not yet.
Her gaze moved along the wall, slow and deliberate, until it settled on the final mural. The only one with no Iwi text beside it. No inscription. No explanation.
'Is that... our fate as well?'
In the carving, darkness swallowed the land , the Hollow Earth and the surface above it both. Some Titans lifted their heads toward that darkness falling from beyond the sky. Others, far more of them, were fleeing.
'I don't know. The ancestor who carved it left no description.'
'After this mural was finished, that ancestor went to their rest.' The high priestess shook her head. Even within the Iwi, this final carving was a mystery.
They did not know what the darkness was. They did not know what the light above the Titans, there at the center of the image, was meant to represent.
'But that isn't the most pressing concern.'
'They are already here.' Both women turned at the same moment, heads snapping toward the same direction, sensing through solid stone what their eyes couldn't see.
The enemy had crossed into Iwi territory.
The end had arrived.
➤ Next: Titan Giant Ape
— .—— .—— .—— .—— .——
Enjoying the story?
📚Read 35+ chapters ahead on Patreon.
💎Join the free community tier for early access to the latest updates:
🔥patreon(.)com/DarkGolds