Chapter 24: The Tomb of Black Mist
First World, unnamed foreign mountain range halfway up the mountainside, Priest, after completing his routine report via the transmitter, cautiously and carefully stowed it back into the carrying compartment on the back of his armor.
"There's no need to be so tense, Captain."
Beside him, the Alchemist, who had been watching Priest's report the whole time, saw the other's careful, almost egg-cradling serious demeanor and couldn't help but chuckle lightly. "Didn't we test the transmitter's durability? This thing can withstand a Knight's full-force strike without breaking."
"Fool, not to mention there are plenty of beings stronger than Knights, the transmitter is our only channel to contact the home world!"
Priest was deeply pained by his teammate's flippant attitude. "If this thing breaks and we encounter an accident, we won't even be able to call for help—forget it, is the acid resistance potion ready?"
As he spoke, Priest greeted the Mage and others who were still using various means to survey the surrounding environment, signaling that his report was finished and they could prepare to assemble for the next action. The Alchemist skillfully pulled out five light green potions sealed in small crystal vials and handed one to Priest.
"Lucky I exchanged for the Hydra Heart a while back. Not only does it give me resistance to this acidic environment, but it also nearly doubles the speed at which I can concoct similar attribute potions."
"You should use fewer of those magical beast organ modifications."
Priest nodded noncommittally. He took the light green potion, and a pure white flame of light ignited in his hand—the glow of Battle Qi. The Battle Qi flowed along the outer shell of his Mana Armor, sweeping away the heavy metals and acid mist permeating the air, creating a clean environment around his arm.
The next moment, with a click of armor plates popping up, a slot with a needle groove appeared on the arm of the Mana Armor. Priest calmly inserted the crystal vial into the slot. The light green liquid could be seen visibly decreasing, and a fluorescent green light surged through his entire body, forming a repulsive force that pushed all the surrounding acid away.
Originally, magic potions from the Mycroft World were all oral, using the digestive organs for mana reactions. This absorption method was not only inefficient but also slow to take effect. With technological development, the entire External Exploration Department now uses injectable potions. Besides being faster-acting and more efficient, they can also be used in environments so harsh that one cannot even open their mouth.
Of course, if the world is too extreme—say, the potion boils the moment it's taken out, or is instantly frozen—even injection is useless, and one can only accept their fate.
And the First World where Priest and his team were now was a foreign world that was barely tolerable, but by no means pleasant.
Priest watched his teammates gather, then take potions from the Alchemist one by one and inject themselves. He looked up at the gray-white metallic snow drifting in the sky and the hazy acid fog, shaking his head with a low voice. "It's like someone cast a world-covering Acid Cloud spell, and it's constantly being hit by dozens of Ultimate-rank 'Earth Flame Eruption' spells."
Because geothermal heat is directly conducted to the surface, the ground temperature of the First World exceeds four hundred degrees. High-concentration inorganic acids mixed with heavy metal vapors are heated and rise into the sky—but because there is no sun, at an altitude of about one thousand meters, these hot metal acid vapors cool into snow and fall back to the ground. The temperature difference between the upper and lower layers is nearly five hundred degrees.
"Truly fascinating, different worlds."
Beside him, the Mage who had just injected the resistance potion sighed in admiration. "That's why I decided not to study at the Sky-Piercing White Tower, but to come to the External Exploration Department for advanced training. Seeing a world environment under such extreme conditions once is worth it!"
"You might not be at a loss, but the Empire definitely profits—enough, get in the car."
Before the Mage could continue his lament, on a relatively flat platform halfway up the mountain, the Knight had already deployed his equipment—a four-wheeled off-road vehicle with a simple, seemingly fragile structure, but whose key components were forged from Adamantite. He called out to Priest and the Mage, and everyone boarded this vehicle specially designed for foreign worlds.
The vehicle had three rows. The Knight drove in the first row, the Mage sat in the middle, raising a shield, while the Clergy sat in the front using Holy Light for illumination. Priest and the Alchemist sat in the back, using detection instruments to observe the surroundings.
"Let's go!"
Confirming everyone was in their seats, the tall Knight revealed a grin that said, "I've been waiting for this." He stomped hard on the mana pedal—immediately, the off-road vehicle's four upright wheels rotated and transformed, their surfaces turning downward into a rotor-like structure!
A rapid, faint hum sounded. With a strong gust of wind mixed with mana jets, this "off-road vehicle" lifted off the ground!
"A driver who doesn't want to fly isn't a good Knight!" The Knight, who had never even touched a horse in his life, laughed heartily, then drove the hovering vehicle, now ten meters off the ground, speeding forward in a straight line. From above, one could see an oval light point topped with a mana shield flying rapidly toward the edge of the foreign mountain range.
"Don't forget our mission! The objective this time is to find traces of the Unified Grand Database—!"
Priest, afraid the Knight would get carried away and start racing through the foreign world, quickly reminded him. "We need to head to areas with relatively stable geological activity to collect mana radiation first. Don't drive recklessly!"
"Relax, I'm just a bit excited since this is my first real practice."
True enough, although the Knight drove fast, he always followed Priest and the others' directions, heading toward areas with fewer volcanoes and earth fissures. Soon, after about an hour and a half of high-speed travel, with the vehicle's energy reserves nearly depleted, the group arrived at a flat metal plain, having traveled nearly two hundred kilometers from the mountain range.
Because there were no nearby volcanic eruptions, there were no metal clouds blocking the sky. After confirming there was no danger in the vicinity, the team skillfully disembarked and began setting up some important exploration equipment on the plain, starting a large-scale collection of all mana fluctuations in the area.
The process of collecting and filtering valuable information was tedious and dull. Hours passed in the blink of an eye, but the Elite Squad had been trained countless times and found it no hardship. Soon, the Mage, having finished collecting the surrounding mana radiation information, brought a mana cluster containing a large amount of data and walked over to Priest with a frown. "Captain, no abnormal mana radiation was detected on the surface… Apart from the high-energy reactions from volcanic eruptions and underground magma, this world only has a bit of wind and earth elemental fluctuation from the heavy metal acid cloud cycle."
"Nothing on the surface? You mean there's something in the high altitude?"
Priest understood immediately that his teammate had more to say. The Mage nodded, his brow deeply furrowed, his expression serious. "Exactly… This world has no sun and no stars, so there's no noisy mana fluctuation. That makes the abnormal radiation in the high altitude especially obvious."
Hearing this, there was no need for the Mage to continue. Everyone understood. The five members of the Elite Squad looked up in unison at the "dark rainbow" that had been rising and setting in the sky for a week, then fell silent.
"Say, could that rainbow in the sky be the 'Database' Lord Count and the others are looking for?"
The Knight, blunt as always, voiced everyone's suspicion. Priest could only nod in response. "Very possible… Let's use high-altitude detection."
Since the target wasn't on the surface, this was the only option. After a brief discussion, the team chose a flat metal surface and began pulling various parts from their packs to assemble a strangely shaped mana machine.
Although it was strangely shaped, if an Earthling saw this scene, they would easily recognize that Priest and his team were assembling a miniature rocket! However, this rocket wasn't built with technology; its exterior was engraved with various sacred Holy Light runes. In other words, it was a Holy Light rocket.
Using Holy Light as the power source for a miniature high-altitude detection rocket was the optimal choice confirmed by Joshua after multiple experiments. Although Holy Light lacks the explosive power of Battle Qi and the plasticity of mana, it is more durable than Battle Qi and more stable than mana. In the unpredictable conditions of foreign worlds, only Holy Light has higher universality, but for that very reason, it has no special effects.
A dozen minutes later, with a dazzling burst of holy radiance, the Holy Light rocket, carrying the high-altitude detection device, ascended into the sky in a pillar of pure white light. The rocket could be seen separating stage by stage, sending the topmost detection device into the high altitude.
When the estimated time was up, Priest, acting as the controller, decisively connected the signal. A snowy, static-filled image appeared on the control light screen on the ground. The other four members of the exploration team stood behind Priest, holding their breath, waiting for the results sent back by the detection device.
But the results left them puzzled.
"What's going on? Why is it still pitch black?"
The Alchemist stared at the flickering snowy screen on the light screen and the pitch-black scene behind the static, puzzled. "We're already ten thousand meters up—still rising—and we still can't reach that dark rainbow?"
"Yeah, and the size of that dark rainbow hasn't changed at all."
The Mage found it hard to believe. He said softly, "The high-altitude detector has already risen to twenty thousand meters—gravity is lower here, so the propulsion speed is faster than we expected—but the size hasn't changed. That means…"
He paused, then shook his head. "It means the target is much farther away than we thought."
Priest didn't join the increasingly heated discussion among his teammates. He just stared at the various data fed back on the light screen. The high-altitude detection device had now risen to nearly thirty thousand meters. This was originally impossible, because by Mycroft's standard power, the device would run out of power at around ten thousand meters and be captured by gravity, falling back to the ground.
But now… because the dark rainbow was right above them, the high-altitude detection device instantly broke free from the planet's gravity, entered a weightless state, and flew directly toward that ring of shimmering, colorful rainbow!
“…Can't pull it back.”
Priest input the return command several times, but the distance was too great, and the device was completely weightless, so it had no effect. He could only watch helplessly as the lens gradually blurred while flying toward the rainbow. He exchanged glances with his teammates and sighed, self-deprecatingly. "At least the device is still working—maybe in a few days, it'll get close to that rainbow?"
Ultimately, this small setback was nothing major. Losing a high-altitude detection device was something Priest and his team had mentally prepared for. After all, this was a foreign world; anything could happen.
But just as the Elite Squad was preparing to set up camp on the metal plain, planning to conduct deeper exploration and data collection of the First World the next day, a strange change occurred in the lens of the now completely uncontrolled high-altitude detection device, which was flying deep into the dark void.
In the shadowless darkness without a sun, in the darkness within darkness, a mass of hazy, dreamlike 'black mist' flashed past the front of the lens… It also seemed to want to approach the distant dark rainbow, but appeared to be hesitating about something, never daring to get close.
And this scene went unnoticed by anyone.
On the other side, the Carlis World.
Joshua and Carlis, one man and one serpent, had been watching the light screens all night. Even when the entire Silver Fairy community had fallen asleep, they were still engrossed.
"Barren worlds are barren worlds indeed. No gains at all."
Joshua held a light screen displaying the detection results from all eight exploration teams' worlds. On it, Worlds Two, Four, Five, Six, and Eight were completely barren, with nothing of value, marked with a red cross. Only Worlds One, Three, and Seven were circled with red strokes.
Joshua looked at the data for these three worlds and murmured, "Besides Worlds One and Three, which might have clues to the Database, only World Seven, the water-rich world, is worth mentioning… This plane, almost entirely composed of oceans, seems to have no metal or rock core at all. It's a true super water world."
This was the complete opposite of the Chronos World, where the oceans had been completely evaporated—the homeland of the Dragon Girl Lisa. Joshua felt there was great potential for manipulation here. Perhaps in the future, he could consider opening a temporary portal to allow the two worlds to exchange resources.
The metal-rich world needed no introduction; it could serve as a mineral base, though it remained to be seen whether the valuable veins were worth opening a permanent portal. The other barren worlds were truly barren, though the ice world was worth mentioning—it could be made into an eternal cold storage! A world trapped in absolute cold—such a large refrigerator was hard to find.
"This ocean world is very similar to the 'Abyssal Sea Realm' your Mycroft World connected to back then. That was the home world of the Abyssal Sea Demon Dragons."
Beside him, the Steel Serpent looked at the water world's data and nodded slightly. "But the Abyssal Sea Realm has been confirmed destroyed, while this world is clearly recovering on its own, even nurturing basic life. It probably wasn't hit too hard back then and has already recovered."
"Yeah, Black would probably love it. A world of nothing but water, where even a Dragon can move freely."
Joshua wasn't particularly concerned at first, but after thinking for a moment, he nodded. "Next time I get a chance, I might go play there—this world is indeed quite interesting."
After all, even he couldn't create matter and raw materials out of nothing. If he wanted to ignite the Fusion Core Heart furnace, he would naturally need a large amount of raw elements. Constantly absorbing water from the Sea of Bewilderment would be bad for the local environment, but if it were a water world entirely composed of oceans, taking a little water shouldn't be a problem.
The taste of those few mineral-rich worlds should also be good, making it easier to supplement his metal element intake… Just as Joshua was thinking about future resource replenishment, one of the eight light screens floating before him suddenly changed. This interrupted the warrior's train of thought, and he looked up at the screen that had changed.
"It's World Three."
Seeing the world number, Joshua perked up and carefully examined the records sent back from the light screen—after all, this could be the world containing the Grand Database, so it needed thorough review.
But what he saw was a detailed analysis report on the local special metal particles sent back by the World Three exploration team.
This might be valuable to the Empire or the Mycroft World, but for Joshua, who only needed raw materials, it was meaningless. However, out of basic responsibility, Joshua still read the report carefully… and then he froze.
"What's wrong, Joshua?"
Beside him, Carlis, who was watching the unfortunate exploration team in the Fifth World, the ice world, struggling to survive in temperatures of minus one hundred degrees, noticed that Joshua had suddenly stopped chatting. Puzzled, it turned its head to look at the warrior. At that moment, Joshua abruptly stood up from his seat. In his left hand, he held the report; with his right hand extended and palm open, Steel Force surged within. He was attempting microscopic material reconstruction based on the data sent back by the World Three exploration team.
"Too similar!"
Joshua stared at the report before him, muttering softly. "Almost exactly the same—but I can't be sure yet. These data aren't detailed enough!"
The material in Joshua's right palm had roughly taken shape—a mass of loose, dust-like small particles. But Carlis couldn't tell what it was at all. The only thing the Steel Serpent could confirm was that it was definitely not something that could form through normal world evolution.
At that moment, Joshua closed his eyes. A gray-silver light began to flow over his body. He fully mobilized his Steel Force, crossing the nearly infinite distance of the multiverse, directly resonating with the Restorative Pillar stored in the exploration team's pack in the Third World of the Dark Domain!
Dark Domain, Third World.
At this moment, the Third Team was driving their off-road vehicle across a desert plain entirely composed of metal particles. They were collecting data on the surrounding environment and planning to find a relatively solid, flat rock surface to set up camp and rest.
But with a flash of silver light, the Third Team's Captain let out a cry of surprise—the armor compartment on the back of his Mana Armor suddenly burst open. A silver light pillar shot out, carrying him along as he leaped out and crashed heavily to the ground. Immediately, the speeding off-road vehicle turned around and headed back to retrieve the accidentally dropped exploration supplies and their Captain.
Then everyone discovered that what had fallen out was the Restorative Pillar they had previously complained was "so heavy." The pillar had opened on its own and was now standing upright on the metal desert.
"What's going on? Why did this Restorative Pillar open by itself?"
The Third Team's Captain, supported by the Mage, stood up groggily from the metal sand. He looked up at the Restorative Pillar and complained, somewhat baffled. "Did we get a defective product? Scared me half to death—I thought I was attacked by something."
"It was a prototype anyway, isn't it normal for something to go wrong?"
Beside him, the Third Team's Mage comforted him. "The goblin alchemists I know blow up every time they invent something new. Once you've seen it, you know that prototypes malfunctioning is a hundred percent certain. You'll get used to it."
"Goblin products, truly shocking—I know that, but this is a Moldavia product… Forget it."
At this point, the Captain saw that the other teammates had also gotten out of the vehicle and were gathering around the Restorative Pillar. He couldn't help but sigh. "This place is about right—I guess we're still a good distance from the edge of this metal desert. Let's set up camp here."
To be honest, when the Third Team conducted their second high-altitude detection, everyone had realized that this metal desert was probably not the remnant of some shattered high-level magical creation… because it was simply too vast. Spanning an area of over twenty thousand square kilometers, all of it was this metal desert. The sheer volume was so immense that everyone was almost convinced their instruments were broken.
But the instruments weren't broken. What they saw was real. The metal desert was that big. If this desert really were the remains of some magical creation, that creation would have to be tens of thousands of meters tall, as large as an entire Imperial province.
Soon, the Third Team began setting up camp around the automatically activated Restorative Pillar. They also started checking what was wrong with the pillar… Naturally, no one could find any fault, and they could only lament their bad luck for encountering an accident that had less than a one-in-ten-thousand chance of happening.
On the other side of the world, the Carlis World.
Joshua, who had activated the Restorative Pillar and used it to directly absorb a small piece of metal particles into his body for analysis, opened his eyes wide. Across the endless void, he murmured back, "No, this is indeed the remnant of a high-level magical creation—but it wasn't decomposed from some enormous object!"
"Quite the opposite. These particles are large waste particles formed by the coagulation of countless smaller creation remnants!"
As he spoke, his tone was absolute. He raised his right hand and stared at the palm, where the foreign world material was rapidly perfecting itself based on the analysis data. Large swaths of dust-like metal particles could be seen rising into the air under an incredibly strong electromagnetic force. They transformed into a vast, hazy black mist, floating beside Joshua, forming a layer of ethereal gaseous armor!
"This is the 'corpse' of the Black Mist!"
With that, the warrior clenched his right fist. The entire layer of black mist returned to his palm, condensing into countless tiny, microscopic dust particles and fragments. Its form, accelerated by Joshua's perception of time, completely transformed into the appearance of those metal particles in the Third World!
Yes, that metal particle desert, covering at least tens of thousands of square kilometers, was in truth the discarded remnants of the Black Mist!
On the other side, Carlis had no idea why the warrior was so serious, but it could tell that Joshua was pondering some extremely important issue. So the Steel Serpent coiled nearby, watching as he once again carefully reviewed the report sent back from the Third World.
"High-altitude observation from over ten thousand meters shows a vast area of over twenty thousand square kilometers covered in this metal desert, and they can't even detect its thickness, meaning it's at least eight hundred meters deep."
At least twenty thousand square kilometers, eight hundred meters deep of metal particles… That's a mass of hundreds of billions of tons! Even his current true form descending would be no more than that. The Black Mist's accumulated corpses here weighed at least that much, possibly more, certainly not less!
Joshua's gaze was heavy. He looked up at the light screen for the Third World and murmured, "That explains the mana density over eleven times higher than a normal world—the Black Mist itself carries a massive amount of mana. If a few Black Mist clusters that had absorbed full energy from the Void Great Maelstrom crashed into this world, even dozens of times the normal density wouldn't be surprising!"
"But the question is, why did the Black Mist break down?" This was the problem Joshua couldn't figure out. Back in the Chronos World, it had taken him, the Ancient Dragon, Baniel, and William—four Legendary experts ganging up on it—to cleanly destroy that Black Mist cluster. Although he could have beaten it one-on-one, he couldn't have stopped it from destroying the world's environment.
How could the Black Mist, so powerful that it could even protect the Alpha Sanctuary from the Evil Gods, and was the highest-level creation of the Sanctuary Civilization, fall in such large numbers in this unremarkable Dark Domain world? If high-level magical weapons comparable to Legendary beings could be mowed down like grass, just how dangerous was that world?
In that instant, Joshua immediately decided to recall the exploration team in the Third World. Thinking it, he did it. He concentrated his spirit, created a communication device in his hand, and contacted the Grand Sefa in the void, preparing to request the Imperial authorities to terminate the Third Team's mission.
And at that moment.
In the First World, the high-altitude detection lens released by the Elite Squad was flying rapidly into the dark depths of the high sky.
The rainbow encircling the darkness could be seen shimmering in the lightless high heavens. It wrapped around a darkness that obscured all light, its true form invisible, spinning and leaping rapidly. It released circles of magnificent ripples completely invisible to the human eye, as if dancing in the void.
This was the 'dance' that would make even the sky, the earth, and the very stars tremble.