Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 872 - 871 - Corridors of the Dead

"I still object to you being there, True Lord." Wen was with Lind at the airlock. It had taken a week for the bridge to stabilize and even turn a faint shade of green.

"I am the only one that can safely disarm any Fiend traps or other issues with their Qi. You saw that for yourself." She could not deny that at all.

All alone, he had basically dismissed Fiend Qi and sigils at the Shard Tier as if they were nothing. No one could replicate what he did nor could they count on artifacts that reproduced his harmony as it was not enough in the case of more sigils.

He was the only weaver on the entire ship!

"The I should–" He held up his hand once more to stop her.

"If the worst happens, you need to take the ship straight up and get out of here. There should be a height to safely fly back." Both of them knew such a command was useless as if he died, they were all dead.

It was more for the rest of the crew he spoke the words. It was better to have a positive outlook and a plan to enact than simply give in to despair.

Wen turned to the silver haired man with small horns.

"Gard, make sure to keep the True Lord safe." The dragon bowed low. He was the greatest technical expert next to Lind himself.

It was entirely possible the artifact in front of them was closer to the Wings of Freedom rather than a standard artifact.

It would be the first time Lind encountered something built on the principle of many artifacts working together rather than making a single artifact for a purpose.

It also would confirm the origin of the damned thing for him. A being reborn from his old world!

Oz was also coming with them as he wanted the bones examined by an expert. It was odd there were bones at all.

That place should have been sealed for a million years at least so why was there nothing but dust or at least fossils instead of bones?

The last person was Jeryl.

She had impressive strength with only LInd and Wen above her. The small party made their way up the light bridge until they found the corridor of bones.

Lind checked nothing had cropped up first since the last time he had been there but all was well.

"Oz, if you would examine these remains and give me an idea why they were actual bones and not dust please?" As Oz moved to examine the remains, Gard examined the wall itself for clues.

Lind and Jeryl kept an eye out for any issues.

"I can't get anything other than a strong alloy was used to make these walls. A damned strong one too." Lind could only agree as it was a perfectly smooth wall.

Unlike the sigils or arrays, it was simply a well refined alloy.

His hand changed to his dragon version and he swiped at them. Sparks flew but he did not even leave a scratch!

Only one kind of material could resist his natural strength, peak grade 7! It was all peak grade 7!

"This should not exist here. Not on this scale. Even in the upper layers it was said grade 7 items were hard to come by at the peak." Gard was as versed in the practical study of artifacts, refining, and materials in general.

In many ways, Gard was actually more of an expert than Lind high grade 7 and above.

"True Lord, you were right to question the preservation of the bones. These are only Heaven Realm humans at best. They should have been dust long ago." She held up a forearm but it was a bone no matter how he looked at it.

He used his Eyes and was shocked at what he saw.

At the very core of the bone was a Fiend sigil! It was slowly refining every bit of essence from the bones themselves!

His emerald flames swept outward and all saw the bones vanish into dust.

"Just what happened here?" It was damned odd. Lind had seen Fiends consume their allies before but why so slowly here?

"Now that it is gone, I can confirm all the dust around us are remains. We are literally surrounded by the dead." The corridor easily had a 3 inch deep dust layer. Oz's evaluation was not really a surprise but it reeked of contradiction.

If they were being refined, why were they not reduced to the withered bodies he had always encountered before.

He examined the dust more completely than before and his body went cold.

Nothing, he felt nothing at all from the ashes for the most part. The bones that had just turned to dust were the only dreg of life left!

It was a complete and total refinement!

It was like the difference between grades. The greater the impurity removed, the better the results by far.

A rough metal alloy that barely come together would work but a smooth mixture and refinement would produce 2 to 3 times the result with half the effort.

Fiends refined living beings' lifeforce but they were usually quick and dirty about it. They took what they could quickly by any method and refined it in their dantians.

The desiccated remains left behind were the result. Dead certainly, but the essence remains would linger in the dried up flesh and bones.

What they saw in that corridor was a total refinement. Every scrap of life ripped away from each atom of the body!

Patience, long term planning, and horrific levels of detail were all the hallmarks of Fiends.

"Let's move slowly along the corridors. Look for any doors but do not open them without me inspecting them." All nodded and they moved inside. Almost instantly, Lind had to act to protect their group as various arrays and weavings tried to attack the other 3.

He was treated like he was invisible until he acted and then he too became a target.

Each time, they found more corpses but the style began to shift from surrendering to the inevitable to fighting.

Swords, daggers, and other weapons were left lodged between bones in clearly lethal positions. Many of the weapons had broken down but he could still make out what they were.

They also finally found some doors but they mostly led to empty rooms or small skeletons that revealed a child had died there. Some from starvation from what he could tell or sadly mercy killings.

At least, he hoped they had been.

They found very little else. Even if there had been storage treasures, they did not seem to be with the corpses. Further, they could endure a lot longer compared to other artifacts.

Still, he had sensed none of them at all which added to his confusion.

The lack of all but weapons used to kill was strange.

Where were the other artifacts that should have survived easily over a million years if made properly?

The rooms were bare of all but supports for beds and shelves.

The spartan design left little idea how bad life inside the artifact had been before it all came crashing down.

There was no sign of control flags or other areas but there had to be some. Even if it was not like the Wings of Freedom, formations and weavings on that scale needed tools to assist them.

The true power of the structure became clear the more they saw of what should be there and yet they found nothing.

All the support and compromises Lind had to do to get the Wings of Freedom to work were totally absent inside the monstrosity they wandered in.

The sigils stopped attacking after a day of walking inwards and the design changed. Rather than a narrow corridor, they found a massive space that clearly channeled the dark energy from the 3 spheres into a central building that mimicked the outer shell.

It was another octahedron. Lind narrowed his eyes to notice 3 more halls heading outward to the other panels but only in the lower section as they had come from. The path ahead tilted upward and led into the new structure ahead of them.

"So those were living structures behind us. Ahead is the actual main area." Gard spoke up but all of them grasped it already.

Lind felt sick just looking at it which told him a lot of what went on inside. They slowly walked forward but the cavernous space had no reaction. It was like all those defenses were only for the living areas and not for the interior workings.

It made a bit of sense as weavings had a limit and the profound function of the artifact was clear to all. Lind, however, had a darker thought.

"Those weren't traps for us. They were for the builders when it was done." He spoke out loud and all shivered at the truth of it. It was a death trap inside and out. Just what crazed mind had designed the thing?

They kept walking but everything felt colder to them as they approached the very center of the artifact.