Chapter 1678

The passage leading to the palace stretched before them. This was clearly the heart of Nasaton, a place that should have been brightly lit, yet it was now shrouded in gloom. The massive pipes and gates seemed to be covered in shadows, as if they had grown out of some dark abyss, presenting a treacherous path to the group.

Izhaks glanced back at the two sets of old military uniforms on the ground. "We're on our own from here on out."

Shakira nodded silently and took the lead.

Pipes and bulkheads flashed by. The oppressive and bizarre atmosphere grew stronger. The giant brain had been here for too long, and it had even altered the atmosphere of the palace, making everyone who entered feel as though they were being watched by countless hostile eyes. Faint siren sounds echoed from the distance. The sentries throughout the palace had realized that intruders were present, and the outer passages were being sealed off one by one. Soon, they would find this place, and a battle would be unavoidable.

Hao Ren followed Shakira through the last gate. A grand domed hall appeared before them: a magnificent chamber built of white metal and pale green crystal. Huge glowing pearls were embedded in the high dome, and wondrous bands of light hung down from the stained-glass ceiling in the center of the hall, shimmering gently in the water like rainbows falling from heaven.

However, the group had no time to marvel at the splendid hall. The fan-shaped gate slammed shut behind them, and in the next second, hordes of siren warriors poured out of the hall's dome!

The siren warriors, with their long, snake-like tails, swayed in the water, forming a fan-shaped encirclement that closed in on the group. Behind these serpentine warriors were ranks of mermaid soldiers. They stopped quickly after forming the encirclement, then raised their tridents, which shimmered with magical light, and let out a series of piercing shrieks that seemed to penetrate the soul!

Vivian was preparing an ice blast, but the moment the shrieks sounded, she felt a mental daze. The magic was forcibly interrupted, forming patches of ice rings around everyone, and Elizabeth and Tutan also had their spells broken. Only Izhaks, the reckless brute, withstood the mental shrieks of hundreds of sirens and slammed a lava fireball, two or three meters in diameter, outwards. The fireball dragged smoke in the water as it smashed into the sirens, blasting away a group of enemies and smashing a hole in the hall's dome.

But that was just the beginning. As Hao Ren raised his silver spear, ready to carve a path through, a series of heavy and strange grinding sounds suddenly came from all directions of the hall. Then, the green crystals around the hall sank into the ground, and swarms of new enemies poured in—these enemies were covered in heavy shells, each the size of a main battle tank. Their limbs flashed with magical light, and their raised forelimbs gleamed with cold light.

Hao Ren was dumbfounded at the sight. He turned and shouted to Shakira, "What are these?!"

Shakira strained to maintain a barrier to resist the sirens' shrieks, and shouted back, "Mantis shrimp form! And sea crabs!"

Lili held up her ice-fire claws, her eyes glazed. "You call these sea monsters, which are like tanks… mantis shrimp?"

Hao Ren stared around, relieved to see that the giant sea monsters at least didn't have human faces. This made "them" simply look very mighty. Then, he turned to Nangong Wuyue and yelled, "From now on, you are strictly forbidden to transform into this form for any reason! When you get serious, the whole style changes!"

Wuyue bravely huddled behind the group to help maintain the protective barrier, shouting, "Is this the time to be saying this?!"

After the three sirens on their side barely resisted the maddening shrieks, Vivian immediately seized the opportunity to counterattack. A large swarm of bats wrapped in cold light charged towards the encirclement in mid-air. The bats scattered several meters away from the siren sentries, turning into a wave of sub-zero air that swept through the enemy ranks. Immediately, a huge ice lump fell from mid-air, freezing seven or eight huddled sirens inside. Lili also waved her ice-fire claws and charged towards the swaggering… mantis shrimp. Okay, even though they were mantis shrimp, each one was the size of a tank! That size was no joke!

Although everyone on the scene was powerful, and even "Gungnir" could rely on his Golden Apple-enhanced physique to fight the trident-wielding siren soldiers, fighting in the water was a bit restrictive after all. Many spells became less effective due to the interference of the water flow, and they had to be more carefully controlled to prevent accidentally injuring themselves. So everyone on the scene was a little frustrated while fighting. But in any case, after slightly adapting to the environment here, they still steadily suppressed the offensive of the ordinary sentries.

The scene was a chaotic battle, and even Elizabeth used powerful demonic magic to join the fight. Everyone had never seen this little girl fighting, and only then were they convinced that the saying "like father, like daughter" was true for this little girl as well: she cast spells empty-handed, without incantations, and powerful sulfur fire and shadow arrows bombarded the enemy like a rainstorm. And looking at the excited red glow on her face, it was clear that this demon daughter was very much enjoying this moment.

But they couldn't waste time on these sentries. According to the information from the undead sailors, this hall was the last barrier before the siren queen's bedroom, and the queen was behind the door opposite the hall—and in order to maintain the connection with the Nasaton energy source, the siren queen couldn't leave her bedroom too far, so the group's target was already close at hand.

"Charge over!" Hao Ren threw a graviton bomb, blasting away the armored sea monster and the mermaid mage in front of him, leading the team in the lead. "Once we catch the queen, we'll have it all settled!"

Two sea snake-like siren sentries rushed over, wielding their tridents. Izhaks grabbed their tails and tied them together, then threw them out like a meteor hammer, smashing away a group of enemies. He turned his head and pointed in another direction of the hall. "According to Ivan, there should be an entrance to the underground secret room over there, a group should go to the brain monster's prison."

"You two lead the three demon hunters and the Nangong siblings to deal with the siren queen, the rest of you come with me to deal with the brain monster. Shakira, Soma, each of you choose a team to follow!" Hao Ren quickly assigned the manpower. Although the assignment seemed a bit rushed, it had been planned from the beginning: he was the only one among them who had experience dealing with that giant brain, so he naturally had to go there himself. And the siren queen was said to have extremely powerful strength, so Izhaks and the three master demon hunters had to be there to hold the line. The other personnel balanced the combat power of the two teams.

And Shakira and Soma were still acting as guides: even if they didn't know the exact route, they were at least familiar with the environment here.

As for how to deal with the brain monster, although Hasu had suggested a sneak attack before, Hao Ren decided to wait and launch a head-on attack after going down: because he seriously doubted how successful a sneak attack would be against a monster with mental sensing abilities.

Everyone had no objections to this assignment. Izhaks then smashed a sulfur fire on the palace gate, and the heavy alloy gate immediately swayed precariously, the powerful shockwave even making people's eardrums crack. A second sulfur fire from Elizabeth was timely applied at the moment the gate began to sway, finally blasting the gate open completely.

At this time, the surrounding sentries had been wiped out, and the remaining siren mages and sea monsters were powerless to stop the intruders. Hasu casually solved the remaining enemies with a crossbow, and slightly sealed their souls with a few holy words to delay the resurrection of these sirens, and then strode into the siren queen's palace with Izhaks.

Hao Ren led his group to the entrance on the other side of the hall.

A fan-shaped sluice gate sloping out of the surface blocked their path. "Gungnir" was about to step forward and scratch it, but Hao Ren quickly grabbed the stupid cat. "You're getting bold now—Lili, go!"

Lili howled to indicate she understood, and grabbed the alloy frame on the edge of the sluice gate and pulled it up. While her feet sank several inches into the ground, she tore the entire sluice gate off easily.

Hao Ren covered his ears, he found that the movement was still not small...

Under the sluice gate, a dark passage sloped away into the distance, with only very weak dim yellow lights illuminating the road. It seemed to be an abandoned sewer. According to the information provided by Ivan, this was a shortcut from outside the palace to the underground secret room. There were no forks in the road. As long as they solved a few sentries, they could reach the secret room where the brain monster was hiding.