Chapter 2023 - 2023. Surprise
The journey up until the other side of the sky had been perfect. The white layer had turned out to be a solid mass of Heaven and Earth's most intense feature for the most part. The glowing material that only wanted to devour other laws made the largest share of that immense structure, and the group could only feel grateful for that.
It made sense for Heaven and Earth to be unable to locate the experts or even understand that they had entered the sky. The dark material in their techniques made them invisible, and the rulers' dormant state didn't allow them to notice the narrow tunnels appearing in those relatively disposable areas.
Noah felt like an actual rat roaming through parts of a house difficult to inspect. The owners would sense faint steps and suppressed squeals if they were in the right spot and awake, but he made sure to keep the situation in his favor.
Calculating the actual center of the sky felt hard due to the pressure that hindered the experts' senses, and approaching that part of the mission turned out to be even harsher. The issue came from the immense size of that white layer. The group could reach its midpoint, but that didn't shrink the area they had to cover. A fraction of a seemingly endless mass remained endless.
Still, that remained within their expectations, so they didn't hesitate to proceed once they reached what they felt to be the center of the sky. Noah listened to his instincts and picked a direction where his group resumed to dig.
The experts kept their communications to a minimum. Noah, King Elbas, and the dragon didn't talk at all during the journey. Only Sepunia used precise mental waves from time to time to describe parts of the sky that still occupied her memories.
Her descriptions only happened when the group found other cities. They soon discovered that the buildings in those central areas were taller and shone with a brighter glow. The auras and the avatars there also hinted at the presence of stronger cultivators, which Sepunia justified with their closeness to Heaven and Earth's core.
The group avoided every city they found, performing long detours to make sure that they didn't barge in some large halls by mistake. The heavy tension never left them, but that didn't stop them from proceeding as planned.
The dragon had the most important role during the mission. King Elbas could deploy countless inscription methods that relied on the dark substance, and Noah's dark world had multiple uses. Sepunia could also be incredibly useful with her illusions, but only the beast had the power to refill the stashes of dark metal.
Everything would end if the group depleted their dark metal, so the dragon couldn't stop producing it. King Elbas took care of retrieving that substance whenever it risked affecting the environment, and he also refilled the dragon's energy through items prepared before the mission.
The dragon's innate ability couldn't possibly compensate for the depletion of the stash of dark metal, but it could mitigate it, and that could make the difference in the mission. The beast had immense resilience, but it risked ending up exhausted multiple times as the journey continued. Luckily for the creature, its group had stashed enough pills, potions, and sources of energy that could bring it back at its peak in no time.
The group was in the process of avoiding another large hall when they noticed that something was off. The cities often had large tunnels that connected them from the poor parts of the sky, but the seemingly empty zone that had appeared in front of them didn't have anything similar. The experts needed to squint their eyes and rely on Sepunia's powers to gain a vague view of the environment in front of them, but what they saw made them put aside the idea of taking another detour.
Sepunia had to use a massive amount of dark metal to deploy illusions to turn the white layers in front of the group transparent. Of course, the effect applied only to her companions. No one would be able to notice that those intruders were able to inspect the vast empty area that contained a single rotating prism at its center.
It felt strange for a vast area to contain such a small item, but everything became clear after a few thorough inspections. The surfaces of the empty zone were different from the other white areas of the sky. They had functions that went beyond the simple devouring ability. They sent and reflected power so that the prism could remain immersed in that incredible environment.
The energy sent forward had various features. Noah recognized many laws and failed to understand even more of them. The area resembled a massive workshop meant to inscribe the prism with different true meanings and force them to harmonize in a single item.
'I think I get it,' King Elbas transmitted through precise mental waves. 'Noah, did you study the inscription method from the Mortal Lands that I connected to our world? The natives there used something similar. They didn't even come close to this level of complexity, but the theory is the same.'
Noah didn't need King Elbas' explanation to reach those conclusions, but he acknowledged that parts of that inscription method were impossible to understand with his current expertise. Heaven and Earth didn't only create an item capable of harmonizing so many different laws. The surfaces of the halls also had the power to evaluate the number of true meanings that the prism could contain.
The environment inside the hall often changed, almost after every rotation of the circular item. The surfaces would constantly adapt the density and purpose of the true meanings in the area, which stated that they would notice the group's arrival.
'Do you think that's what we are looking for?' Noah asked through his consciousness.
'It must be,' King Elbas revealed. 'I believe Heaven and Earth are trying to use a general theory behind the formations to harmonize their existence and raise it to the tenth rank. This item probably is only one of the many cores that fill the sky.'
'So, we need to take it,' Noah sighed while drawing his swords.
His gesture didn't need explanations. Everyone knew that they couldn't steal something so important without triggering defenses. They would definitely try to hide their actions, but none of them believed that their methods would be enough.
The order made the experts get to work. The group approached the lower part of the empty area and began to dig a tunnel that led toward the stormy regions. The process required a long time and depleted a large amount of dark metal, but no one complained about that since they didn't dare to approach that part of the mission without planning an escape route.
The group didn't pierce the external layer of the sky. They stopped digging right before returning to the stormy regions to limit their influence. At that point, they flew back to the empty area and prepared themselves to enter it.
Noah and King Elbas went in the group's lead and exchanged a resolute glance before piercing the white material in front of them and shooting toward the prism. A dense aura immediately enveloped them, and its nature also changed as their defenses naturally destroyed the laws in the empty area. Still, they didn't slow down at all.
The prism turned out to be more than a simple sphere. It had many faces, and each of them radiated a slightly different aura. It seemed that the laws contained in the item had never fully harmonized, but Noah didn't ignore the possibility of being in front of an incomplete inscribed material.
King Elbas also had those guesses, but he didn't halt his tracks. He took the item inside his figure while replacing it with a simple copy created during the inspection.
The two immediately shot back into the tunnel after the exchange, but a figure suddenly came out from a surface nearby. A short woman who radiated a gaseous stage aura entered the empty zone, and surprise filled her expression when she noticed the two experts.
That surprise didn't last long since a black line suddenly cut her in half and shattered her world.. A shadow then brought her pieces toward Noah.