The moment Fang Senyan finished speaking, an invisible shockwave swept over them, accompanied by gale-force winds exceeding level twelve that made it impossible to keep one's eyes open! The wild grass and trees not far away were sliced off at the waist, flying up into the sky like debris.

Pilot Pete, who had just been preparing to climb onto the aircraft, his expression of astonishment not yet faded, was instantly flung hundreds of meters like a small stone, disappearing into the swirling dust and fragments without a trace! He didn't even have time to utter a scream! Had this Black Hawk not been positioned with its tail facing the direction from which the shockwave and gale were coming, it would surely have been flipped and blown away!

Immediately following this, the colossal grey-red cloud in the distance seemed to swell and grow frantically, now dominated by black interspersed with fiery red accents, rushing towards them like an overwhelming tide. What was even more terrifying was that within the black cloud, which threatened to engulf the entire sky, there were numerous small points of fiery red speeding towards them with incredible velocity! On the surface, these were small red sparks, but in reality, they were core stones violently churned up from the deepest parts of the earth! Saturated with blazing magma, they were ejected from the mantle at unimaginable speeds, only to be drawn back by gravity and plummet down!

These were the most lethally destructive products of a volcanic eruption! Volcanic bombs!

At this moment, Fang Senyan and the others watched with mouths agape as the very earth disintegrated before them. The massive black ash cloud generated by the super-volcanic eruption approached with a deceptive slowness, while countless incandescent, red-hot volcanic bombs, trailing long plumes of black smoke, rained down like a deluge, carving plumes of dust from the ground!

As they drew closer, the specifics became discernible. Some of these volcanic bombs, the giant ones, were larger than a heavy-duty truck, while the smaller ones were only the size of washbasins. Some bombs consisted of high-temperature compounds whose cores had not fully dissolved, while others were formed from molten lava flung into the air and subsequently solidified, resulting in different impacts upon hitting the ground.

The solid core bombs plunged into the earth like meteors, creating impact craters.

The lava bombs were akin to chewy pastries—crisp on the outside, molten within. Upon impact, the rapidly cooled, solidified outer layer shattered instantly, causing the incandescent red magma within to splatter viscously over an area spanning several hundred square meters, igniting everything combustible.

The scene unfolding before Fang Senyan and his companions was one of dark clouds, molten rock, trembling earth, and countless volcanic bombs screaming down from the blackness! This sight could only be compared to the high-magic world's ultimate spells: "Meteor Swarm" or "Doomsday Judgment."

"We need to hurry…" Fang Senyan murmured. "The nearest volcanic bomb just slammed down less than two kilometers from us. Ah! Look at that poor tree!"

Zi turned back, glaring at Fang Senyan, biting her lower lip with a distinctive, fierce charm, and hissed: "I want to hurry too!!"

Just as Fang Senyan was about to speak, the ground shook violently again. Then, the distant earth appeared to be seized by two invisible giant hands and violently wrenched apart. A terrifying fissure rapidly opened in the distance, casually slicing mountains and terrain asunder. At the terminus and bottom of that fissure lay an indescribable, terrifying abyss, suggesting that the once unified ground was about to cleave in two, parting ways!

The most perilous aspect was that the Black Hawk helicopter seemed positioned precisely in the path of this rift!

The creaking sound in the air grew increasingly distinct. The concrete of the helipad began to fracture, cracking audibly, and the fissures rapidly widened, from one centimeter to two, then to five...

At this point, Fang Senyan and the others were slick with sweat, not only from tension but because the superheated gas erupting from the chasm instantly raised the ground temperature to thirty or forty degrees Celsius! Even the air they inhaled felt searing hot, like inhaling embers.

If they looked down now, they could see the scarlet, roiling magma boiling thousands of meters below, viscous bubbles rising to the surface. The rift expanded rapidly; immersing one's vision in it instantly induced a feeling of plunging into an abyss, a prison, an ocean, a haze! It felt as if one could be sucked in!

Just then, a volcanic bomb whistled down and struck the Humvee they had just been riding in. The sturdy steel vehicle instantly tore itself apart in an explosion, sending up a small mushroom cloud, while massive splatters of magma sprayed out, intensely hot.

Simultaneously, the terrifying ground fracture spread to an astonishing width of over twenty meters. Under the stress of the widening rift, the Black Hawk's landing gear groaned, instantly bending with a sharp crack before snapping off, flinging several meters away. The fuselage pitched towards the abyss!

At that instant, Zi's face hardened as she activated the power to maximum. The engines roared with a sound almost loud enough to cause an explosion. The lift generated by the rotors finally overcame the aircraft's weight. The fuselage strained upwards, slowly climbing out of the terrifying chasm, then adjusted its heading and sped towards the distance.

However, just as they broke free, their vision was abruptly darkened, plunging them into near total darkness where one could not see one's hand in front of one's face!

This occurred because, after a volcanic eruption, the molten magma beneath the surface is expelled from the crater under immense pressure, forming a magma mist—a process known as magmatic atomization. It is similar to the spray from an atomizer; under pressure, water exits the nozzle as mist. This magma mist cools and solidifies to form volcanic ash.

The ash clouds from a volcanic eruption are terrifying, capable of blocking out the sun. The 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia claimed nearly 92,000 lives. Its resulting ash cloud darkened the skies, causing global temperatures to drop by more than 5 degrees Fahrenheit (about 2.8 degrees Celsius) and leading to a year without proper planting in 1816.

Fang Senyan and the others were now being engulfed and swept up by the aggressively pursuing ash cloud! In this fog composed of dust particles mostly smaller than two millimeters, not only was visibility hampered, but prolonged exposure would cause fatal damage to the engines due to the abrasive particles!

Fortunately, by this time, the Black Hawk's powerful engines were fully engaged. The rapidly spinning rotor blades provided sufficient thrust to tear through the black cloud, and they accelerated away from the danger zone, quickly outstripping the speed at which the ash cloud was spreading.

In a mere forty seconds, light flooded their eyes again. They had successfully burst free of the sky-obscuring ash cloud! Although red-hot volcanic bombs trailing black smoke were still raining down everywhere, these bombs were fundamentally "Earth-element" projectiles. Kurut's strange ability was able to nudge their trajectories off course, allowing them to escape the horrific area relatively unscathed.

Watching the last volcanic bomb slam into the lake behind them, sending up plumes of white smoke and mud, everyone involuntarily let out a long sigh, feeling utterly drained. Kate was weeping uncontrollably, clutching her two children, while Miss Boji felt an indescribable, agonizing pain radiate from her injured leg. Her face was pale, and she bit down so hard on her lip that it nearly drew blood, trembling on her seat.

Seeing this condition, Fang Senyan spoke to Reef: "The emergency hemorrhage control medical kits should be standard issue on military helicopters. See if you can find one to help treat them. My perception is higher, so I need to stay forward and assist Zi with control."

Reef nodded, searched around briefly, and without much difficulty, located the red-cross marked emergency kit on the luggage rack. It was fully stocked with various medicines. He quickly administered morphine to her, then used a triangular bandage to meticulously dress the wound, removing a steel tube from a nearby disassembled chair to splint the limb.

After this rudimentary treatment, Miss Boji's pain lessened significantly, and some color returned to her face. However, when Reef offered her antibiotics and other medications, Miss Boji refused. She first looked toward Dr. Gordon, then towards the rather bewildered Kate, before lowering her head and quietly saying: "I'm so sorry. I'm pregnant now. These medications... probably aren't suitable for expectant mothers."

"Oh," Reef replied calmly. But when Miss Boji uttered those words, Dr. Gordon’s reaction was the most dramatic; he sprang up from his seat only to be yanked back down by his seatbelt, stammering: "You, you..."

Miss Boji looked at him with eyes brimming with sorrowful tears, sobbing but remaining silent. Yet, any man witnessing that look would have been heartbroken. A mask seemed to descend over Kate's face, and Dr. Gordon finally managed to speak a full sentence: "Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"I only confirmed it this morning through tests..." Miss Boji replied helplessly.

Under these circumstances, what choice did Dr. Gordon have? He could only sigh and say to Kate: "I... I am so sorry, Kate. You know I desperately wanted a child, but..."

Kate shook her head expressionlessly, replying lightly: "I understand. You need to take good care of Miss Boji. She's already very weak, and she's injured. Once the painkiller wears off later, it might get worse..." Fang Senyan and the others exchanged glances, surprised that this tangled quadrangle relationship had been resolved so easily.