Unfortunately for Rudra and the group, they couldn’t find an ambulance or even a medical supply transport truck that usually transported oxygen and other important materials. Maybe they existed, since the hospital was indeed a large one, but they might have been completely ruined in the rain. The only thing they were left with was a small Omni van, a vehicle that was jokingly called a kidnapper’s vehicle due to its doors that rolled to the side instead of stretching out.
To make matters worse, the van was completely rusted, and its floorboard seemed to have oxidised badly. If it were any other time, Rudra would have chosen to find another vehicle, but with literal monsters fighting just a kilometre away, they didn’t have much time.
Rudra didn’t even try to pull out the engine and the other unnecessary parts. Thinking that he could do it after leaving the town alive, he took apart whatever he could quickly remove.
Ranga loaded everything into the back of the van.
Pranay started covering the van with waterproof bed sheets they found on the beds in the hospital, while Rudra wove a temporary rope from several pieces of curtains. After noticing that everyone was done, he pulled the van out.
Entering the rain, Rudra looked back at the van nervously. Due to the urgency, they were not able to cover the van with two layers of waterproofing material. If there was even a single hole in the bed sheets, the only vehicle they had found would be completely unusable.
Thankfully, the structural integrity held up, and Rudra’s shoulders dropped in relief.
Holding the little girl in her arms, Laila called out. "Rudra."
Rudra looked at the little girl hesitantly, and after getting a nod from Ranga and finally from Pranay, who did so with reluctance, Rudra turned towards Laila and gave a firm nod.
Laila stepped one foot into the rain, and, saying a prayer in her heart for the girl’s sake, she decisively stepped out.
For a moment, even the giants fighting in the distance didn’t matter. It was as if the world came to a standstill, with everyone’s attention being directed towards the little girl.
The little girl’s cheeks immediately became rosy, and a stream of blood flowed out from her mouth.
Thinking that it was over, Rudra naturally lowered his head in disappointment, but
"Guys, look," Laila called out, her voice containing a hint of excitement.
Rudra looked at the girl, and seeing her body turn red, his eyes widened in astonishment.
"Ah."
Apparently a bit too hot, Laila exclaimed in surprise and placed her on the ground as gently as possible. When she looked at her arms, she was surprised to see a thin, whitish layer of blisters forming over them.
Rudra was taken aback by the reaction from Laila, but he was ultimately just relieved.
"She’ll definitely survive," he said.
Ranga nodded. "I think so too, but isn’t her adaptation too intense?"
Rudra looked at Ranga and couldn’t help but think that the guy was consistently good at coming up with names.
He stroked his chin in contemplation and spoke.
"Probably because of the potency," he said.
"My adaptation was during the second rain, and it was the same for Prabhu."
"I don’t know about myself, but Prabhu’s body was not this hot."
"Then again, it might be due to her frail condition. It’s difficult to ascertain the truth."
Ranga nodded in understanding, but he noticed a problem.
"How are we going to take her with us?" Ranga asked.
Rudra’s brows pinched into a frown.
This was indeed a dilemma.
She couldn’t be placed on the van since there was a chance that the heat from her body would directly melt the waterproof bedsheets. She couldn’t be put inside as well since none of them was planning to sit inside the van; it was full of supplies, and the doors couldn’t be opened in the first place. They just needed the van so that they could carry more supplies.
The only option left was someone carrying her. But who would that be?
Rudra hesitated and went forward. He thought maybe his better constitution would help. Even if his skin blistered, the rain would heal it right away. Not to mention the injuries he suffered during the fight with the giant had already healed, and there wasn’t even a scar to be seen.
"Damn."
The heat stung, and he could feel the hairs on his skin being burnt. However, to his surprise, the pain actually disappeared when the Aayu within his body reacted.
Almost as if the heat was part of himself, his own body started to get hot, although not as hot as the girl, definitely hot enough to cause a fever.
Rudra didn’t divulge his findings to anyone and motioned for everyone to pull the van.
"Kick, kick, kick."
Rudra gazed into the distance, and a look of disappointment appeared on his face.
After slaughtering all the smaller and larger ants, the red giant started chasing the ant king. Maybe the threat of death brought it back to its senses. It did not try to mindlessly attack the enemy. It was quite smart as well. It ran directly into the influence of the curtain of cloud, using the giant vines from the entity within the clouds to resist the red giant.
The red giant was hit several times, and it created more craters in the ground, but every time it got up, it got more dexterous, and it started to avoid the lightning-fast whips.
To make matters worse, it started casting its bizarre magic as well. Although its power was not as impressive as when it was on land, and its attacks were quite inaccurate, it got better with time, and finally, the ant king was hit.
The giant ant, which Rudra couldn’t fathom defeating no matter how much he tried, turned into bloody paste and was absorbed by the red giant.
He should have been happy since Kavya and the others had been avenged, yet only bitterness was left in his heart.
He still consciously knew that these were emotions that should not appear in his heart, and he tried his best to remain indifferent, but time and time again, he failed.
"Let’s speed up," he said.
Now it was only between the monster behind the cloud curtain and the red giant the size of a six-story building.
There was no one at the steering wheel, but it didn’t matter. With Laila and Ranga manually turning the van on its axis, the van moved just fine.
However, unfortunately, they couldn’t go far before a shadow appeared before them, and it got larger and larger.
(Bang!)
Rudra stumbled and fell to his knees, and his ears rang with a loud buzz.
He looked forward, his face filled with astonishment. It was the vine of the monster within the cloud curtain.
’It can’t be.’
His eyes widened, and his mouth hung agape. Even the ant king had held on for so long. How could the mighty cloud curtain be defeated so easily?
Rudra saw Pranay looking towards the town, with the colour in his face visibly disappearing and turning white like a piece of paper. The reactions were the same from Prabhu, Laila, and Ranga as well.
Rudra had a bad feeling about this and slowly turned around.
"Shiva!" Shaken to his core, he exclaimed.
The appearance of the being behind the cloud curtain had finally been revealed.
He didn’t think he would ever be able to forget what he had just seen. The image was seared into his brain, something that could potentially haunt his nightmares for years to come.
It was a monstrous plant, a plant that stretched into the sky, dwarfing even the tallest skylines and making people doubt their own senses. With nothing else beside it or behind it, as though the entire world had been swallowed by its presence, its massive form stretched across the horizon.
Its enormous body was formed from countless interconnected branches and leaves, twisting and intertwining into an incomprehensible mass. Weird white flowers bloomed at the ends of its branches, standing out against the endless green.
Weirdly enough, he got a familiar feeling from this plant.
"Is that a Congress plant?" Prabhu took the words right out of his mouth.
Congress plants were simple weeds growing in most farmlands and unattended fields. They usually only grew to knee height and, in rare cases, up to the waist, but this monstrosity, with vines stretching out from each strand of the plant and making the buildings look like pebbles, was an entirely new dimension of size. The only comparison would be standing before the majestic Himalayas.
However, what was even more astonishing was that the red giant had cut off one of the vines from the Congress plant with a single blast of its crimson energy. And it continued to cut off more.
"Don’t tell me the plant is going to lose too." Rudra could even feel his cheeks tremble in fear. He was so terrified that he completely forgot to realise that the heat in his body had risen, and it continued to rise while the Aayu within his body started to riot.
With his mind numb, Rudra looked at the gigantic vine that had fallen before them. Its size was no different from the trunk of a century-old banyan tree, and he took a big gulp.
"Leave the car. Let’s go." He made a decision and ran towards the end of the vine. He no longer wanted to take any chances.
Prabhu, Laila, Ranga, and Pranay woke up from their stupor and ran behind Rudra.
Prabhu, being the fastest, overtook everyone and was about to cross over from the end of the stump, but he froze in place.
Rudra’s brows furrowed, and he increased his pace.
Yet as he reached the end of the stump and looked at the boiling red energy attached to it, his legs felt cemented to the spot.