At this time, the trio was clearing the remnants of the Adept hives and slowly approaching the Master band. Suddenly, they paused. Darius and Xela seemed dazed, like their minds had been struck by something.

Gunner showed a similar reaction, yet his was less intense and he frowned a lot more. Currently, the three of them were hit by a warning from their spiritual senses stemming from their high Luck stat.

They could feel that a fatal danger was approaching them quickly. If they continued on, they felt only had a 30% chance to survive, and most of it lied on Gunner.

When the trio came out of their stupor, Darius gazed between his two Branded Servants and smiled bitterly.

"It seems this Quest is destined to be filled with twists. Initially, I was afraid that it would be nigh impossible, since I believed the Insects had Gods and True Lords on their side. However, I discovered while that had been the case that they were all supposedly killed in the war. If our spiritual senses are warning us that we have a low chance of survival it can only mean one thing..."

Gunner folded his arms with dissatisfaction. "At least one mighty God or True Lord of Faust must be heading our way."

Darius nodded. "I am not sure of the specific details of a True Lord's power, only that they should be far stronger than the Gods of Elysium. Still, since we have a 30% chance to survive, it has to be either a weakened True Lord or a group of Insect Gods around Gunner's power level if not slightly higher."

Xela sighed. "We have made good progress down here too. Just after this level is where the Master hives should be, and by now the Soul Curse should have fully weakened them. Oh well, I guess we'll have to retreat for now."

Darius patted her on the back gently. "Take heart, Xela. At least, we have invested correctly, so we're forewarned. We still have a couple of months to finish this Quest and I have many means at my disposal to slowly whittle down the strength of the Insects from a safe place, so there is little need to worry."

Xela nodded and waited for Darius' next move. The fellow used Group Teleportation on all of them, but instead of heading deeper, they rapidly retreating.

However, despite climbing upwards with insane speed, the trio felt the aura of suppression and demise approaching them more and more. This shocked them, as they had no idea what it meant as of now.

......….

As for the rapidly approaching Grandmaster Insects who were led by Beelzebub, they were unaware of Darius and co's change of heart until Spidersin's cold expression changed slightly.

"My Lord, they have stopped and fled, returning to the surface! Somehow, they must have sensed our approach!"

Spidersin's words made the faces of all the powerhouses here change. They became worried that their prey would escape their grasp and their mobilization would have been for nothing.

Beelzebub was the worst of them. He had entered a minor hunger craze and had been drooling all this while as he was looking forward to tasting Darius' succulent draconic flesh and blood that should be sufficient to allow him to regain his former peak.

He had already envisioned more than a hundred ways he would have devoured the flesh, with what additives and seasonings on top. The idea that his meal would up and leave when he had expended himself this much to come out truly infuriated him.

"NO! No one is allowed to leave the underground unless I will it!" Beelzebub shrieked with madness, as a wave of energy burst from his body.

It traveled throughout the entire underground, passing through Darius and co as well as the various Critterbots and Guard Androids that had been working on harvesting more mental and expanding the metallic empire above.

Nothing seemed to happen at first, but soon enough a shockwave occurred that shook the entire continent. From around the city in which the underground entrance was located, hundreds of different shadows were rushing over from all around.

A human eye would fail to discern them, but Miranda's renovated city of metal could easily use technology to identify what they were.

Insects!

Hundreds and thousands of Insects of all classes, most of them between the Amateur to Adept stage, yet a few Masters were also among them!

This mighty swarm was rushing towards the city with madness in their eyes, looking like they would use any means necessary to topple the city.

Miranda was an AI, so she was able to process the data quickly and find out the problem's cause and effect. As such, she decided that these bugs were likely pulled over by a bloodline connection to prevent Darius and co from leaving the underground by stalling them.

Miranda reported her conclusion to Darius, as well as her actions on fortifying the continent by transferring it to his mind, doing the same for Gunner and Xela. The moment the trio received the information, Darius stopped.

He then closed his eyes to think and in a split second, changed all his plans.

"First, let me praise you for doing a good job Miranda. Your proactivity has given us a way to deal with this issue more smoothly. Secondly, seal up the entrance to the underground with metal, and make sure that only methods approved by you will allow anyone entry or exit."

"Thirdly, use the army of artillery you have amassed to kill off every bug on the surface within a week. Once you're done, continue to expand freely above the surface without worrying about us down here." Darius instructed quickly and concisely.

"Yes, Daddy! But what about you?" Miranda couldn't help but ask worriedly.

Darius smiled softly. "We'll have to deal with this threat directly. We'll engage in a defensive battle to find out the various weakness of our enemies and retreat if necessary. Miranda, I'll also need you to use your network down here to find the enemy's eyes and ears that have been feeding them information so that we can pluck them out."

"Leave it to me! I have long noticed that various tiny spiderlings have been stationed systematically within the underground, but only hindered their senses instead of killing them so as to not to alarm your main enemy." Miranda reported with a smile and a salute.