Chapter 1073: 1073. Predator

Noah had interacted with divine beings in his life, but they always had something that stopped them from expressing the seventh rank's real power.

Divine Demon was a will, Shandal was the same, the winged beasts' leader was only half-step into the divine ranks, and the Ape God had lost most of its power to create the black sky.

They were never at their full power, and they could barely consider themselves as beings in the divine ranks. Only Divine Demon was an exception since his true self was somewhere in the Immortal Lands.

What he had found at the bottom of the Dark Gorge was different. Noah was in front of a proper divine beast. Something that shouldn't exist in a lower plane.

Moreover, the rank 7 Pterodactyl didn't seem to suffer from the same malnutrition as the specimens. Noah had seen the Ape God unleashing its anger on the world, but his instincts told him that the caged creature was more dangerous.

Noah felt safe on top of those bars, but his mind had automatically compared the Ape and the Pterodactyl. The intensity of their auras wasn't comparable. The caged creature was on another league according to his instincts.

The Pterodactyl's body was long, it stretched for twenty meters, and its unfolded wings covered more than thirty meters. The lines that made its shape were thick, and the darkness in their structure appeared denser compared to the blackness of the Gorge.

Noah couldn't diagnose if the beast's condition due to its peculiar body, but its aura was enough to confirm that the Pterodactyls weren't the weakest species that he had ever seen.

A problem quickly became evident. The cage of the divine creature was intact, and its lines didn't have missing pieces. The Pterodactyl continued to sleep even after Noah's attack, which indicated how used it was to disturbances of that kind.

Not even King Elbas might have managed to do anything to that creature, and Noah couldn't help but feel helpless at that thought. He didn't believe for even a second that he could succeed where King Elbas had failed.

'What can I even do with you?' Noah thought as he continued to stare at the Pterodactyl. He had many ideas in mind, but he felt confident that King Elbas had already tested them all.

'Should I just move the cage?' Noah acted as soon as he thought that.

His fists landed on the ground while he walked away from the cage. Noah tried to find the spot where his strength became able to pierce the rocks, but he didn't find anything even after he reached the other end of the valley.

It was as if the bottom of the Gorge was part of the prison. That explained why Noah didn't find any sign of digging in the valley, but it left him without any viable approach to seize the divine beast.

Noah walked back to the cage only to discover that the aura leaking from it had become colder. The laws inside the area's darkness had become still as if waiting for something or someone's order.

Noah's mind felt a faint pressure coming from under him. That was a feeling that he knew well. It was the sensation usually experienced when a predator looked at him as if he was a prey.

His eyes went downward and fixed themselves on the upper part of the Pterodactyl's head. Noah didn't know where its eyes were, but he was quite sure that the creature was looking at him.

His stare continued for long minutes. He felt completely safe on the outside of the cage, but something told him that he would be already dead if those metal bars didn't protect him.

The silence in the depths of the Gorge was oppressing, but human words broke it and made Noah widen his eyes in surprise. "You are different from the others."

Noah had kept his eyes on the Pterodactyl for the whole time, but the creature didn't move. Yet, he was sure that those human words had come from the beast.

'Can all divine beasts speak?' Noah wondered, but he promptly put that doubt in the back of his mind. A creature that had lived in the Immortal Lands could speak fluently, so his curiosity had moved toward other topics.

"I come from a different organization," Noah said, but the Pterodactyl suddenly slammed its head on the bars right under him.

Noah didn't flinch at that attack, but the whole Gorge trembled. According to Noah's understanding of the species, the beast's physical strength was off the charts, and that wasn't even its best ability.

"Trying to scare me away?" Noah asked as roars mixed with his human voice. He had managed to maintain his calm, but his mind had entered a battle mode when it saw that sudden action.

The Pterodactyl retracted its head before moving it right and left. Noah felt as if the beast inspected him from every angle, but there was a limit to how much it could sense from inside the cage.

The metal bars didn't only restrict the Pterodactyl as a whole. They even blocked its investigative methods.

"You smell like those arrogant beasts," The Pterodactyl said in its slightly high-pitched voice, "But you appear different from them too."

Noah crouched on the bars before giving voice to a question. "What do you mean by arrogant beasts?"

The Pterodactyl ignored the question and continued to inspect Noah. Its head would slam on the bars from time to time, but he guessed that it used the vibrations of the Gorge to analyze how his body reacted.

Noah tried to ask more questions concerning the Immortal Lands, but the Pterodactyl never answered him. It would only speak to underline the peculiarity of his body.

'I might as well try something,' Noah thought, and a starry sky filled the cage as he roared downward. The Pterodactyl stopped moving while the black flames raged around it, but it didn't seem bothered by their presence. It even resumed its previous behavior when it deemed that fire boring.

Noah flew higher in the air and took out the stuffed winged beast at that point. The Pterodactyl stopped its inspection again as a second divine aura spread in the environment.

"I'll give you a piece if you start answering," Noah said in an attempt to gain something out of that encounter. He would give away part of the winged beast, but he was ready to say anything needed to give some value to that exploration.

"Why would I even want it?" The Pterodactyl answered. "My species eats darkness."

Noah's eyes widened once again, but that didn't come from his surprise. He had guessed that the Pterodactyl's food was peculiar already since their bodies were unique. Yet, he didn't expect it to reveal such information by itself.

"Your companions didn't eat enough of it," Noah said as he tapped his space-ring. "I have all of them here."

Something had triggered an honest answer from the creature, and Noah tried to find what topic achieved that. The first thing that came to his mind was its pride toward its species.

"They were a malnourished bunch of weaklings," The Pterodactyl said in disdain. "They have spent so much time in their cages that they have forgotten how to live in the darkness."

"You seem to have forgotten too," Noah said, storing the stuffed winged beast and descending to knock at the metal bars.

The Pterodactyl began to roar in anger at that point, and only a few human words appeared among its cries. However, Noah could understand the true meaning contained in them. "Don't you dare underestimate my kind! I am the strongest predator inside the darkness! I've reached godhood undefeated!"

"And now you are in a cage in a lower plane," Noah said before heaving a sigh. "So much for the strongest predator."

The Pterodactyl raged inside the cage, and his cries expressed more angry words. "The sky has forced me to hide underground, and the humans have trapped me in these cages! My kind has never lost to creatures. We have lost to the world!"