"Rumble," the library shook. Books fell from shelves; dust blew up into the air causing Lucas to break into a coughing fit. Grabbing a few random books and the one off the table, Lucas returned to his companions, who were ready to leave.
As they left the treasury, the ceiling of the throne room started to sink with rubble falling here and there. Lucas knew time was tight, and they needed to act quickly. "Everyone take turns running across in groups of ten, Rex. You go first!" Lucas called out to his companions to keep them organized.
Rex quickly made it across the room with nine other prisoners, group after group soon followed.
As Lucas was preparing to bring the last nine over with him, the ceiling couldn't handle the pressure anymore as it crumbled, and a house-sized spider smashed into the floor.
Stunned by the fall, it took a moment to gather its senses.
The nine guards stood stunned by the beast before them. The King was even more panicked as he couldn't also move! But the one with the most fear running through their veins at this moment. Was Dilla who was sitting far up on the King's shoulder with the Stalker Queen's piercing gaze locked on her.
Lucas came back to his senses and ran for the stairs at the same time the Stalker Queen started a fierce attack on the King and Dilla.
Like a small meteor, the Guard Captain fell from the hole in the ceiling and landed on the back of the Stalker Queen, Stabbing one of her eight eyes.
Staggering from the heavy blow, she backed into the wall Lucas was running by. One of her feet pierces into the ground only on from of him, causing him to fall on his butt and rollback.
Catching sight of Lucas out of the corner of her sobbing eyes. Dilla called out. "Please! Take me with you!! I'm scared!!" Dilla slid down from the King's shoulder and rolled on the ground in Lucas's direction. She had yet to realize the Stalker Queen was following the scent of her broken eggs still lingering on Dilla's foot.
Still holding onto his blade that was plunged into the Stalker queens eye for dear life, the moment he saw Dilla dash out towards Lucas, he firmed his resolve. "Run, Princess! Go!" He called out while ripping the blade from the Queen's eye and slashing at her numerous times across the head.
Every time the Queen stomped her eight legs into the ground, one or two would always be aimed at her, still just missing her causing her to stumble and roll across the floor.
Gritting his teeth in annoyance with a mix of pity, Lucas pushed Silvia towards the prisoners who were already waiting at the stairs and ran back, Silvia broke out in tears, worrying for Lucas.
Rushing between the Queen's legs, dodging back and forth, Lucas managed to reach Dilla just in time for a sharp Stalker leg to come down, stabbing at his shoulder. Being pushed down to one knee, The Queen's leg caused sparks to fly when her leg met the scales on his shoulder and down his arm.
Pushed down to his knee, Lucas gritted his teeth and grabbed that infuriatingly annoying little Princess and ran back to the stairs with Dilla held like a sack of potatoes under his arm.
"Ok! No time to waste. Everyone goes up now!" Lucas yelled as he reached his team.
Grabbing Silvia, Lucas held Silvia under one arm and Dilla under the other and took up the rear, running up the stairs.
Reaching the second floor, there was a giant gaping hole where everyone could still see the giant stalker trying to kill the Mole-man on its back. At this point, the King had already been killed by a leg that must have stabbed through it, as everyone could see a gaping hole in his chest.
Lucas was surprised to see Dilla without much sadness, Only anxiety and worry. Running around the outer edges of the floor, avoiding the hole. They made their way to the stairs to the next level, where a plethora of Stalkers greeted them.
Surrounding the women and children. The prisoners and Lucas brandished their weapons, killing Stalkers as they come. His Obsidian sword cutting through Stalkers like butter, It became even easier to use as his strength grew. Lucas was pleasantly surprised.
Following the trail of Stalker webs, they climbed floor after floor, All of which had a giant hole through the center.
Reaching the top floor once again, Lucas went to a balcony to see the town one last time. Corpses were littered across the streets; Spider webs could be seen spread across the ground and into houses. Even on the cave ceiling. This was no longer the world of the Mole-men.
The spiral staircase to lead farther up was smashed to bits, with a gaping hole in the ceiling, but luckily the smaller sliders left webs hanging down, which made the climbing not too demanding on them.
All the underground dwellers were baffled when they saw the tiny light of the sky far up; something only heard of in children's fairy tales from their elders long ago.
Reaching the stairs in the big room, Lucas helped them up the ledge as they each came and then urged everyone to continue running up.
By this point, everyone could hear the thundering stomps of the Queen's giant legs catching up to them from below.
Making it halfway up, the Queen could finally be seen squeezing through the tunnel she broke open the first time down and racing towards them. The Guard Captain couldn't be seen on her back this time, but nobody had time to worry about that now!
Each of her steps was equal to hundreds of theirs. It didn't take long to catch up at three quarters the way up. Standing together, the blood drained from everyone's faces at once, coming face to face with the mighty behemoth.
Moving her fangs closer, she paused just before her teeth sank into Lucas, who happened to be her main target with Dilla under his arm.
With the pause, the Queen slowly tipped back... and fell...
Just as the queen was vanishing down below, Lucas caught sight of the Guard Captain on its back again, falling along with her.
Dilla broke out into a stream of tears.
Lucas breathed a sigh of relief and urged everyone up once more before the other thousands of spiders caught up to them.
Upon reaching the top, Lucas and everyone had to close their eyes to the blinding light of the sun, warming them.
Prisoners broke down into tears as the first time in their life seeing the sky. Blue as far as they could see. Pure and beautiful. Lucas, however, was dumbfounded in another way. All he could see was ruins for miles.
Earth looked like it was overrun by vegetation, abandoned cars were littering the streets. The Spider hole was in the middle of a park in the middle of a city on a hill.
In spots that should have been flat, mountains now existed — toppled over skyscrapers and trees just nearly as prominent. Even farther than that, Lucas could spot floating islands farther up in the sky, making him think he was in a different world. But the old technology told him otherwise.
This was earth, the new earth.
Getting comfortable, Everyone was enjoying the beautiful scenery when the ground started to rumble again, making everyone's faces go dark. Looking down, Lucas could see a never-ending tide of Stalkers climbing up at a face pace.
Thinking fast, Lucas gathered some dry grass and started a fire... Taking the bits of smoldering embers in his hands, Lucas dropped them on the edge of some webs hanging out the side of the hole, which quickly caught fire and races down to meet the horde of spiders.
Screams echoed through the tunnels for hours after the group left.
Searching around, it didn't take Lucas much effort to find out where he was, Walking through the city. It was Norder city, just 30km north of the town he lived in before.
rejoining the group, Lucas smiled at everyone. "Welcome to the surface!"
Everyone looked at him in appreciation and nodded warmly.
"This was all thanks to you, Kid!" Rex patted Lucas's shoulder and also nodded.
"First thing, we should probably find food and water before making any other plans. Will you continue following me?" Lucas asked with hope in his eyes; There were advantages in numbers in an unknown situation like this.
"We know nothing here if we don't follow you. Who do we?" Rex gave Lucas a bit of a quizzical look, everyone else agrees with him.
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