Chapter 2006 - 2006. Underground
Noah used his bare body to dig through the ground and reach the center of the island. The dragons were the only magical beasts in the area, and they lived on the surface, so no one noticed his sprint. King Elbas' powder also helped keep his presence hidden, so Noah didn't bother holding back too much.
Noah felt almost nostalgic at the sight of the azure ground. It was a rare material after Heaven and Earth decided to destroy the entire higher plane. Even the regions he had salvaged had turned black after his ambition forced them to express their full potential. .
The scene of the bright underground areas brought his mind back to the exploration of the new continent in the Mortal Lands. Noah had then grown used to that sight in the higher plane only to lose that scenery forever.
The many memories that filled his mind didn't distract him from his task. Noah soon sensed something during his sprint inside the island. A familiar trustworthy feeling alerted his instincts and attracted him toward a specific area of that landmass.
Noah adjusted his direction and dug forward until an immense underground area unfolded in his vision. The hall seemed to make up for almost half of the island, and its smooth dark floor revealed the presence of foreign material. The aura radiated by that pitch-black layer also confirmed that he had reached his destination.
His instincts remained alert even if the dark floor continued to send trustworthy vibes. The desire to land on that material filled his mind, but he suppressed it. Noah knew that his superior awareness couldn't help in that situation. He wouldn't touch the metal until he gained a clear idea of its fabric and the area as a whole.
The area featured Heaven and Earth's presence. Noah could sense inscriptions all around the underground structure, but none seemed to have defensive purposes. The rulers didn't bother placing protections there since the island already had the barrier. The formations there seemed the have the sole task of affecting the dark floor.
Most of the inscription acted to suppress the innate aura radiated by the metal. They did their best to contain it inside that underground area, but something always leaked since the material could naturally oppose Heaven and Earth.
Instead, other formations had a far harder task. The parts of the rocky walls directly above the metal had intricate white lines that applied constant pressure on the dark floor. That force slowly destabilized the unique material and made tiny drops fall from its surface.
Heaven and Earth were still melting the dark metal, which revealed their plan to create more of those strange dragons. The liquid amassed in special cavities that featured different types of inscriptions that clearly had another creator. Noah followed one of those tunnels by resuming the digging until he found large pools full of that material in another underground hall.
The second hall also featured inscriptions that didn't belong to Heaven and Earth. It became impossible to deny Noah's theory at that point. The rulers had a helper.
'Snore,' Noah called through the mental connection, and the snake soon materialized at his side.
Snore didn't need orders. It directly flew toward the pools and made its leg touch the spinning black liquid. Noah prepared himself to sever that part of the snake's body, but nothing harmful happened. The dark matter in Snore's body simply swam among that dense liquid that filled its head with pleasant sensations.
The snake wanted to dive into the pool and drink that metal, but Noah stopped it. Snore would be the first to obtain that liquid if its actual properties turned out to be as valuable as Sepunia stated, but it was too dangerous to use now. It also felt like a waste to rely on that raw shape.
'The transformation happens here then,' Noah commented in his mind. 'Heaven and Earth probably rely on one of their privileged cultivators to liquefy the metal and bind it to the dragons.'
That explanation felt lacking in many aspects. Heaven and Earth had found a loophole in that flaw. They could use the dragons to transform the metal into something that could work as a deadly weapon against their opponents, but Noah had yet to see entire parts of the procedure.
A simple fusion wasn't enough to change the nature of such a unique material. The dragons had to transform after obtaining the metal, and Noah couldn't find that process in the two underground halls, so he resumed digging around to find the missing pieces.
More pools appeared as he continued the exploration, and what he was looking for eventually unfolded in his vision. An underground hall placed right under the metal hid a series of white chrysalides that contained convulsing dragons belonging to different species.
Inscriptions that Noah couldn't even attempt to understand converged toward the ten chrysalides on the wall of the circular area. Those structures had power in the ninth rank even if most of them contained rank 8 specimens. Only one had a rank 9 dragon, but the specimen was in the lower tier.
The inscriptions, the chrysalides, and the hall as a whole brimmed with Heaven and Earth's influence. The rulers had created that area without relying on external help, but Noah couldn't confirm whether they had put the dragons inside those structures on their own. That hypothesis sounded off, but the rulers were resourceful enough to come up with something that made that process automatic.
The dragons inside the chrysalides were unconscious, but they still shook every time part of their bodies transformed. Noah's mental waves were strong enough to seep past the crystal surfaces of those structures. They allowed him to inspect the process and memorize how the corruption worked.
The process was extremely slow. Noah actually had to pay attention to each cell of the dragons' bodies to notice when a change happened. Moreover, each transformation required a long period of maintenance meant to stabilize the creature to its new state.
'Heaven and Earth probably need these breaks due to the metal's unique properties,' Noah guessed.
The underground area didn't have much more. Noah found other pools and countless formations, but everything had already grown clear by them.
Heaven and Earth had hidden the metal under the island through a secret helper. Also, that same cultivator had set up inscriptions capable of liquefying the material so that the dragons could fuse with it. Everything else had the sole purpose of corrupting those mutated creatures so that the rulers could gain access to an unstoppable weapon.
The procedure also helped Heaven and Earth get rid of the material. In theory, the dark metal still existed even after its corruption. Noah guessed that the world couldn't generate more of it when the planned amount continued to be in the higher plane, but he had no way to prove it.
His only clue about that theory came from the unused space in the central hall. Noah could see it as a coincidence, but he didn't dare to ignore those details completely. The dark floor had probably shrunk since its first appearance.
Noah stopped exploring after inspecting the entirety of the underground structure. It was time to seize the metal. He approached it carefully and let Snore interact with it first, but he soon decided to touch it with his bare hands.
The contact with the original form of the metal sent a series of images that he couldn't stop to his mind, and his eyes closed as he started inspecting them.