Earth's Greatest Magus

Chapter 3071: Hunted

Parasite Hounds surged up the face of the dune, twisted quadrupeds with worm-like heads and jaws that split wide to reveal rings of rotating fangs. Purple mucus dripped from their mouths, hissing as it struck the hot sand, but the creatures showed no hesitation as they rushed forward in a coordinated swarm.

Emery didn’t slow.

Wind gathered sharply around his outstretched hand before lashing forward in a crescent of compressed air. The first dozen hounds were caught in its path and came apart mid-leap, their bodies sliced cleanly through before their claws could ever reach the ground.

A heartbeat later, dark green roots erupted from beneath the sand as Elysian Vines shot outward in every direction. They wrapped around the hounds that had escaped the initial attack, crushing their bodies and dragging them beneath the shifting sand before they could gain any footing.

Beside him, Soltz raised one palm, and the desert itself seemed to come alive. The sand beneath the Parasite Hounds suddenly shifted and surged upward, swallowing their legs before twisting around their bodies like countless invisible hands. Any hound that stepped onto the affected area was immediately dragged down as the sand tightened around it, crushing its body beneath the immense pressure before it could break free.

Barely a minute passed before the desert fell silent once more.

Hundreds of Parasite Hounds had been reduced to scattered wreckage across the dunes.

Then Emery’s expression shifted.

His Divine Sense was still spread across the surrounding desert, and what he sensed next made his gaze turn toward the horizon. A second wave was rising from beneath the sand, far larger than the first and packed much more tightly together, with every creature moving in the same eerie coordination.

"More are coming. A lot more."

Soltz’s jaw tightened as he looked toward the approaching swarm. "How many is a lot?"

Emery didn’t answer immediately. His Divine Sense continued expanding, reaching farther across the desert as more and more life signatures emerged from beneath the dunes. With every passing second, the number continued to climb.

It wasn’t hundreds anymore.

"Too many," he finally said. "Let’s not waste time here."

A spatial gate tore open beneath them, and the two dropped through before reappearing a dozen miles ahead. They emerged in midair and immediately resumed their flight east without breaking stride.

An hour passed in silence before another horde rose from the dunes directly in their path, forcing them to change course once again. Emery opened another spatial gate, carrying them several miles forward before they continued their journey.

Less than an hour later, a third horde emerged ahead, blocking their path once more.

Emery slowed and stared down at the writhing mass below, his eyes narrowing as the pieces finally fell into place.

"...I see," he murmured. "They’re communicating with each other."

It made a grim kind of sense. Something was directing these hordes toward them, either herding them from behind or warning the others ahead of their approach. With enough Parasite Hounds scattered across the desert, it was only a matter of time before their escape routes were completely closed.

"We need another approach," Emery said, glancing toward Soltz. "Old man, do your thing."

The old man nodded once.

Closing his eyes, Soltz focused on the terrain beneath them and slowly extended his senses into the desert. Golden-brown energy rippled outward from his body, sinking into the sand as his essence merged with the earth itself.

[Earth Meld].

An advanced technique that didn’t merely conceal one’s presence; it allowed the caster to phase directly into the ground. Soltz’s body gradually dissolved into countless dust-like motes before sinking beneath the surface, carried through the earth as though he’d become a part of the land itself.

His Divine Sense stretched outward with him, allowing him to feel every shifting grain of sand and every subtle movement beneath the dunes. He could sense the terrain for miles around, moving through it like a ghost while remaining completely hidden from the creatures above.

"Very nice," Emery said.

He followed, weaving his own earth-based spellwork into Soltz’s technique. His understanding of the Earth Law allowed him to keep pace with Soltz, following closely behind him beneath the shifting sands.

For the first time since the desert had turned against them, the relentless pursuit finally came to an end.

It cost them dearly to maintain the technique. For three straight hours, they remained beneath the sand, both of them continuously pouring energy into keeping the Earth Meld stable, but the effort allowed them to cover a considerable distance without attracting the Scourge hordes.

When they finally surfaced, Emery immediately layered one spatial gate after another, using the successive jumps to fling them more than two thousand miles farther east.

"That should do it," he said, finally allowing himself a moment to breathe.

Soltz looked distinctly pleased with himself, clearly satisfied that his technique had managed to get them this far.

Unfortunately, their peace lasted only two hours before another horde rose from the dunes ahead, blocking their path exactly as the others had.

"Dammit," Soltz muttered as he stared at the approaching swarm. "They’re everywhere."

They pressed on anyway, and whenever another horde appeared, Emery and Soltz simply tore through the weaker creatures or used spatial gates to bypass them. The Parasite Hounds were numerous, but none were strong enough to stop either of them, and even when hundreds came rushing from the dunes, they posed little more than an inconvenience. The Scourge could continue sending hordes after them, but as long as nothing stronger appeared, the two could keep moving east without slowing down.

Then something different appeared on the horizon.

"Humans!" Soltz’s voice suddenly lifted with hope. "Finally—"

Emery said nothing. His Divine Sense had already swept across the group, revealing a dozen individuals, all of them Grand Magus cultivators. Within the Magus Alliance, such a group could be considered a super-elite force, yet something about them immediately felt wrong.

Humans were walking freely through a desert crawling with Scourge swarms,.

Still, Emery needed to know what was happening. Whatever these people were, making contact with them was necessary.

As the distance between them closed, the truth gradually became clear.

Most of the group were human, though a giant and several elves also walked among them. Despite their different appearances, however, they all shared the same horrifying corruption. Purplish veins crawled beneath their skin like spreading rot, while their eyes had turned a uniform, unblinking blood-red.

They were infected individuals.

Emery’s Divine Sense swept across the group and quickly identified eight individuals at the One Cosmos realm and another four at Two Cosmos. There was no obvious leader among them, which wasn’t surprising considering what they had become.

Emery didn’t flee. Instead, he slowed to a stop, and Soltz settled into a ready stance beside him as they waited for the group to approach.

A dark-haired woman near the front finally spoke, the corruption along her jaw pulsing faintly beneath her skin as she looked at them with an eerie calm.

"To think there are still some of you hiding out here," she said, her voice carrying unnaturally well across the desert. "Good. Be ready... to become part of us."

Emery’s expression didn’t change.

"Become as ugly as all of you?" he replied. "No thanks."