Escape to Safety

When Alex called out Crystal’s name, Emma guessed what he intended. But she was nowhere near as confident as Tessa; instead, she grew increasingly worried. "The Savage Land is beneath Antarctica. Who knows how deep it is? Escaping won’t be easy."

"Don’t worry. According to my calculations, the soil layer won’t be too thick." Tessa was brimming with confidence, the smile on her face growing brighter. "At most seventeen or eighteen meters. That’s the absolute limit!"

Emma turned to Tessa with delight. If it really was only seventeen or eighteen meters thick, things would be much easier, and their chances of escape would increase greatly.

With that thought, Emma looked up at Alex, her spirits immediately rising. Clapping her hands, she said, "We can’t just stand around either. Let’s help!"

If they wanted to escape the Savage Land through the dome, the hardest part was obviously drilling through the frozen earth above it. But there was another issue they could not ignore: the dome stood nearly ten thousand meters above the ground. Raising the entire Floating Giant Island to such a height would be extremely difficult!

Tessa realized it too. After the two exchanged a few quiet words, one took charge of gathering people to help power the Floating Giant Island, while the other sought people to prepare essential protective equipment. After all, the air at ten thousand meters was thin and the temperature frigid. There were only a handful of people on the Floating Giant Island capable of enduring it!

Emma volunteered to prepare the protective equipment, because helping the Floating Giant Island rise required immensely complicated calculations to ensure it ascended steadily. Otherwise, if it lurched and swayed, who knew how many people would be injured? Such work was clearly better suited to Tessa, whose mind was like a computer.

Tessa did not refuse. While she began recruiting people on a large scale, she also calculated how to arrange the power points in her mind.

As Emma and Tessa led the mutants on the ground into action, Alex and Crystal’s group finally met up in midair.

"I’m sorry, Alex!" The moment she saw him, Crystal apologized with a guilty expression. Only after things had truly reached this point did she realize how foolish it had been to kill Strucker in a moment of impulse. It was also because of that guilt that she had worked so actively before, hoping to make up for her mistake.

Alex was slightly taken aback, then laughed softly and said without concern, "It’s fine. Even without you, I would have killed him." He paused, reached out, and gently patted Crystal’s head. "It was only a matter of time before things came to this. You don’t need to blame yourself, Crystal."

Before Crystal could respond, Alex pointed above them and continued, "Crystal, I need you and the others to go up there and open a passage. A passage wide enough for the Floating Giant Island to pass through."

Crystal had already guessed Alex’s plan while flying over. She was not surprised in the least, and nodded without hesitation. Then, with an imposing wave of her hand, Crystal led the people behind her toward the energy barrier, only for Alex to react and reach out to stop her.

"Are you trying to get yourselves killed by going out like that?" Alex seized Crystal’s wrist in exasperation and pointed at the silver-white sky beyond the energy barrier, giving her a mild scolding.

Afterward, Alex raised his hand and placed a small energy barrier around Crystal and the others. After hesitating for a moment, he warned them, "This barrier can help shield you from some damage, but it won’t last forever. When it disappears…" The journey to the top of the dome was fraught with danger, and the slightest mistake could cost them their lives. Yet Alex had no choice but to send them out now. Time waited for no one, and they could not afford any delay!

Crystal wanted to declare her resolve, but then remembered that she could not speak for everyone. She immediately fell silent, her eyes discreetly sweeping over the people behind her, her expression tense.

They did not disappoint Crystal. Without hesitation, they nodded and shouted, "For mutants, we fear death no more!"

Alex’s gaze sharpened, then warmed. Looking past Crystal at the people behind her, he was silent for a long while before suddenly bowing deeply. With a solemn expression, he said, "On behalf of a million mutants, thank you! The safety of the Floating Giant Island rests on you!"

After sending Crystal and the others out of the Floating Giant Island, Alex lowered his head and glanced at Emma and Tessa working busily below. Smiling faintly, he activated the Tesseract again. After being used again and again without pause, the Tesseract was beginning to show faint signs of abnormality. Alex noticed, but paid it no mind, continuing as always to draw upon its energy.

Using the Tesseract’s vast energy, Alex fitted the Floating Giant Island with an engine. The Tesseract was the fuel, while Alex was the core of the engine, converting the Tesseract’s immense power into propulsion and steadily raising the Floating Giant Island higher.

As the Floating Giant Island continued to climb, the lightning around it grew increasingly violent. It was not just the lightning; the fierce winds at high altitude even blew the Floating Giant Island’s energy barrier askew.

The Floating Giant Island suffered endlessly along the way, nearly failing to hold on several times. Yet compared to the island’s countless hardships, Crystal’s group had it much easier. The dense lightning seemed fixed on the Floating Giant Island, completely ignoring Crystal and the others. The high-altitude winds did not discriminate, but with Crystal, a master of elemental control, among them, the winds instead became their aid. Riding the wind upward, they were carried straight to the dome, an unexpected blessing.

Upon reaching the dome, Crystal’s group quickly got to work. Having done it once before, they were far more practiced this time. Before long, they broke through the frozen soil atop the dome, and Antarctica’s wind and snow howled through the small opening, filling Crystal and the others with wild joy.

Just as Tessa had predicted, it was truly only seventeen or eighteen meters thick.

The remaining work was much simpler. Destroying the layer of soil was no challenge at all for the mutants.

By the time Alex had lifted the Floating Giant Island to nearly five thousand meters above the ground, Crystal and the others had completed their task. A huge breach had been torn open in the vast dome, and frigid polar winds carrying ice and snow drifted into the Savage Land. For the first time, Earth’s night sky was revealed before the eyes of every Savage Land native. The stars blanketing the heavens nearly dazzled them blind, leaving each of them utterly entranced.

Seeing that the exit was complete, Alex grew even more energized. Not caring whether his body could endure it, he poured every ounce of strength he had into activating the Tesseract’s energy once more.

On the Floating Giant Island, Tessa also received the news and immediately relayed it to the elemental ability users laboring at the island’s base. Those who had been exhausted to the brink of collapse suddenly seemed to see the dawn, their bodies filling with strength once more. More people unwilling to remain "parasites" joined in as well, contributing their own strength to the Floating Giant Island.

For a time, the Floating Giant Island’s ascent did not slow but accelerated, becoming more than twice as fast.

Finally, thirty-two hours after the apocalypse descended upon the Savage Land, the Floating Giant Island flew out through the dome above the Savage Land and appeared in the outside world for the first time.