Chapter 1118: 1118. Royal Metal

"We have beaten the second guardian," King Elbas said as he landed on the metallic land. "The raw laws are at the center of this region."

"What is this land?" Great Elder Diana asked. "How many more guardians do we have to face?"

Her patience had reached its limits after swimming through the magma for years. The last part had been even worse since she hadn't been able to use her power as she wished.

Noah could feel part of that annoyance now that he floated next to that black metal. Having the range of his consciousness restricted made him virtually blind in that foreign environment.

He guessed that the suppression would be even stronger once deep inside the region. For the first time since the beginning of the mission, Noah thought that his level wasn't suitable for that journey.

King Elbas glanced at the group still floating in the magma. Runes shone in his eyes, and his expression didn't carry his usual arrogance.

The Royal heaved a sigh before replying. "Nothing can live here, and the same matter tries to force you away. There are only three more guardians, but there are no words to describe the last two."

Both the Royal and the Matriarch had boosted their voice with their "Breath" to speak. Their mental waves couldn't reach their companion, so they had to spread vibrations through the magma to speak.

"The third guardian is the land itself," King Elbas said as he tapped his foot on the metal. "We must walk in these conditions until we reach the very center of the plane. The journey will be rather peculiar."

No sound came out of the metal when King Elbas tapped on it, and no mark appeared on its surface. Still, there was something off with that material. It lacked any aura.

It would typically be impossible for anything to survive in that environment to be devoid of aura or halo. Yet, the metal appeared empty of any quality.

'It's not the metal,' Noah thought after seeing that. The magma's radiations became more intense when they touched the region, but the land didn't do anything to make that happen.

Noah's curiosity eventually made him separate from the group and reached King Elbas on the landmass. His mind trembled slightly when his feet touched the metal, and the environment appeared different there.

It was a strange feeling to describe. Noah felt as if his existence spread through the ground and expanded. The sensation was extremely addicting since his growth lost any limit once in contact with the metal.

Noah's survival instincts kicked in at that point. His dark star spun faster than ever to restore his focus and make him jump to leave the ground.

Once his connection with the metal broke, Noah found himself inside the yellow magma again. He was far above the landmass, and the group of experts stared at him with a curious expression.

The Demons and Elder Julia had methods to use their eyes in that environment, and they stared at Noah's faint figure with evident confusion. They felt glad that Noah was fine, but they didn't understand what had happened.

On the other hand, Noah found his dantian partially drained. His cultivation level didn't regress, but a chunk of his darkness had disappeared.

'What was that?' Noah thought before slowly descending again toward the landmass.

The feeling that had invaded his mind was as captivating as an illusion, but he knew that it had been real. His existence had really spread, but he wasn't in control of the process.

Noah hesitated a bit before placing his foot back on the metal. The strange feeling returned, and his focus wavered in the incredible sensation of his expanding existence.

However, he forced his mind to remain focused, and the feeling slowly disappeared as he kept his individuality in check. If he didn't lose himself, the ground didn't absorb his darkness.

"You sure are full of surprises," King Elbas said under the attentive gaze of the rest of the group. His praise toward Noah was honest, and it even carried a trace of admiration.

Then, a smile appeared on his face as he questioned Noah. "They are quite captivating, aren't they?"

Noah was still quite confused about everything that had happened, but the Royal's words confirmed one of the many hypotheses that had appeared in his mind.

"Are these raw laws?" Noah asked. The metal behaved in line with what he knew about that resource. The process only appeared to happen in reverse.

According to what he knew, the raw laws had to flow inside cultivators and fuse with their existence. Instead, the ground applied the opposite effect. It absorbed individualities to fuse them with its fabric.

"Sort of," King Elbas replied. "I think they are close to their pure form. These are raw laws to obtain meanings. They don't have a clear state yet, but the world has already tasked them to become something."

Noah nodded as he crouched to study the ground. The surface was uneven, and there were various cracks across it. Yet, he couldn't rip a piece of that metal even with his physical strength.

"I guess they are still in this form because the world doesn't need more yellow magma now," Noah said, and King Elbas nodded in agreement.

The land acted as a reserve of laws ready to refill the yellow magma, and Noah even guessed that it could turn into other materials. Everything depended on the true meaning that it absorbed.

'Such a ductile material,' Noah thought as disappointment surged inside his mind. 'This can turn into anything, but I can't even seize a small piece.'

"I call it Royal Metal," King Elbas continued. "I wonder what will happen if it manages to absorb an entire individuality. It's regretful that no slave can ever reach this place."

The Royal wanted to study the various features of the landmass, but its peculiar environment made any research impossible. Mental waves couldn't survive outside of mental spheres there. It was needless even to consider the functioning of inscribed items needed for the study.

The other cultivators slowly gathered their courage and approached the landmass. The Demons were the first to step forward, and the rest followed right after them.

The same backlash that had hit Noah struck them, but their protective inscribed items activated and preserved their individualities. The only ones to struggle even after that were True Speed and Elder Paul.

King Elbas looked at the two young powerhouses with a blank expression. He didn't want to reveal his thoughts, but the other experts could vaguely understand them since they felt in the same way.

True Speed and Elder Paul appeared too weak for that environment. Their battle prowess was above average, but their individualities seemed too frail to reach the end of the mission.

Still, they couldn't go back now. Only King Elbas and Noah could move freely inside the yellow magma, but none of them would ever decide to escort them back to the red sea.

God's Left Hand and Great Elder Diana intervened when they noticed how bad their underlings' situation was. Inscribed items came out, and some of their "Breath" seeped inside them to protect their centers of power.

True Speed and Elder Paul's condition stabilized after that. They even became able to see, but they couldn't express their true prowess due to their leaders' restrictions.

"What's the fourth guardian?" Noah asked while he waited for everyone to become used to the landmass.

"We will need to fight," King Elbas answered and didn't reveal much more. Still, that piece of information was enough to bring some tension among the group.

Noah was relatively okay, but the other experts were only cultivators. Fighting without spreading their minds would be hard, and spells might even not work at all because of the restrictions.

The group eventually started to move again. The experts walked, but they only took a few months to find what King Elbas had said.

The ground began to morph in front of them, and strange metallic shapes rose to stop their path. They didn't seem intentioned to charge at the group, but they didn't feel harmless either.