Damned Healer-Chapter 486: Dragon Vein
All two hundred and fifty thousand had gathered after spending a long time exploring that region. They were waiting for Darian's return, while the three leaders mentally prepared themselves for the tough battle ahead — one they'd have to face without his support.
But when they saw that figure rushing toward them, carrying Niara on his back, relief spread through everyone present.
Darian asked without delay, "How many hours left?"
"Twelve hours, Sir," Norio replied, making him feel relieved.
Immediately, Darian asked what they had found in that place. They told him that, besides some strange herbs like before, they'd also found some low-intelligence demonic beasts.
Those creatures had peculiar physical traits and powers, and had attacked them the moment they met; so they killed them and brought the bodies back for analysis.
Without wasting time, one of them pulled from his spatial ring the corpse of a three-meter-tall beast. It looked like a black bull, with a massive mane that emitted a fiery aura.
Darian quickly focused and, with his senses, identified, "Its power's some kind of mutation... there's nothing specific in its body we can benefit from. Anyway, these beasts are useless once dead."
On his back, Niara shivered slightly. He snorted, "Since we've got time... Niara needs to eat; let's cook these beasts."
Hearing that, everyone nodded. The Mannaz needed food, and what they'd brought would eventually run out. Since those creatures had no value after death, they might as well serve a purpose.
Quickly, everyone took out the beasts and lit fires, preparing the meat. Darian examined each of the hundreds of bodies; all the Beasts were mutants, with nothing useful inside.
Their power was anomalous due to the nature of their mutations. From now on, as long as those beasts didn't attack, they'd simply ignore them — they weren't worth the effort.
After several minutes, when the meat was well roasted, Niara jumped off Darian's back and started devouring everything she could, nonstop.
Meanwhile, Darian sat in a corner and started reading through the vast knowledge he had received. First, he was curious about the Root World.
The Divine Flame of the Soul really held immense knowledge. It was so much that Darian's mind felt overwhelmed, and he realized he'd need to read it all slowly. Fortunately, it was easy to search for specific information.
It didn't take long before he found that the Root World was a special place left behind by Enfield. Deep underground, there existed something extraordinary called the *Dragon Vein*.
Despite the name, it had no real connection to dragons — it was just a reference to their power. The Dragon Vein was something physical, existing beneath the surface of the first planets in high-level universes. It naturally attracted the universe's energy, nurturing the entire planet — especially its Gaia. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦
A whole Dragon Vein was buried in the Root World, protected by the Array. That was what caused all those strange herbs to grow at such insane speed — and made the beasts there mutate more often.
'If I could steal that... maybe, if I placed it on a dead planet, it could be reborn over time?' Darian thought, excited. The problem was figuring out a way to take it with him.
When he finished reading everything, two hours had already passed, and Niara had stopped eating. She moved to his side and sat down, falling into a deep sleep with her head resting on his shoulder.
Darian took a deep breath, studying her and observing the changes in her draconic/primordial core. It was now radiating a strange and powerful soul energy that hadn't existed before.
Then he focused on finding out exactly what the Divine Flame of the Soul was. After a few minutes, his eyes gleamed with new understanding.
In short, after the Celestial Shadow was wounded and nearly killed, countless methods were created to try to heal it faster. The main and most efficient one was that strange, eerie tree Darian destroyed when he reclaimed the Divine Dragon Academy in the past.
But within the Sacred Tree of Enfield, another method had been developed with great potential. They used to send traitorous Spiritual Guardians to that place, gradually spreading their corruption among the members of the Blood Race.
The method consisted of using the purest and most primitive power of that race. Unlike the Heavenly Elemental Spirits, who were born from natural elements and were one with them, the Blood Race, upon reaching maturity, could absorb any kind of basic energy — becoming one with whatever they absorbed.
The Celestial Shadow's plan was to create five primordial hearts, each containing: the power of the soul, the mental power, the life energy, the primordial essence, and the material essence.
He carried out a long selection among the entire Blood Race over millennia, choosing five newborns of the highest level to fuse them with those elements.
In the end, they were imprisoned and nourished by the whole race. Their primordial hearts began generating an immense amount of power — a terrifying, primordial power — and that power was absorbed to help resurrect the Celestial Shadow.
That method was much slower, but after Darian destroyed the other one, it became the best remaining option.
Three of the five primordial hearts had already been completely used up and were now useless; that had restored the Celestial Shadow's soul and 80% of its physical body.
The Divine Flame of the Soul was one of them, but there were also the Divine Flame of the Mind and the Divine Flame of the Life.
Since they'd become useless, they were handed over to the Blood Race so members could take whatever energy remained before they died. By absorbing that power, Blood Race members could perfectly assimilate the primordial energy inside them — something that would normally be impossible.
The Array hadn't been set up to detect that kind of energy inside them. So, besides helping people advance their circles, members of that race could slip past the Array's power restrictions.
All this had been happening for the last thousand years. The three Divine Flames had been sealed in three easily accessible worlds, used by members of the race themselves.
The last two were the final pieces needed to fully resurrect the Celestial Shadow.
According to the info, the process would take at most another hundred years, but thanks to the Divine Flame of the Life — the last one to be absorbed — that immortal being's body could already wake and fight for short periods.
Darian swallowed hard... he had to steal those two and stop it. But how, if that immortal could just wake up?
He breathed in. He'd have to find a way. The important thing was that the other two were also inside Enfield's Sacred Tree, but in two hard-to-reach worlds. So he was already in the right place — he just had to climb the tree to the top.
'Well... for now, we've got some time. The Celestial Shadow's in a critical state, and even if they eventually find out I attacked and stole the Divine Flame of the Soul, they wouldn't care much and wouldn't attack my academy.'
His initial goal was set. He needed to move through the three worlds and look for an opening. At the same time, he'd capture the other two Divine Flames. They might hold extra info or help in other ways.
Besides that, there were lots of details about the other four worlds. That fascinated Darian, because the two hardest-to-access worlds were well described.
When he finished, he looked at the nearby army, already prepping for the next fight — less than three hours left now.
Darian stared at one of the Spiritual Guardians and pushed his senses to the max, searching for something...
'Nothing. He doesn't have Merit Power stored.' he murmured, disappointed. Killing those with Black Blood didn't give that.
Then he thought of something and turned his attention to himself...
"!"
He saw a huge amount of Merit Power marked on him by the laws of that universe. An excited smile appeared on his lips.
'Killing those with five or more circles, who were boosted by the Celestial Shadow, counts as a goal to save this universe — just like the Risen.'
How many of those did they kill in that place recently? Thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands. Not all were in that trial, just in that region, but they were caught by the total destruction. Niara and Darian counted as one, as did all Summoners and their partners; when she killed, the Merit Power was granted to Darian.
He breathed deep and activated the rings on his fists. Immediately, everything flowed into the four rings on his forehead, being absorbed by him.
...
A bit over two hours later, he opened his eyes. Niara watched him, already awake, eager.
"I'm at ninety percent for the five rings," he told her calmly, then his eyes flashed, "Now that I've got a better idea about all the spots in this Array... let's hunt them down and level up rings fast."
