Monster Integration

'I should not underestimate these old bastards,' I said to myself as I shook my head in disappointment. The more powerful they are, the more wily ways they will have their arsenal.

I did not waste much time thinking about it as I have more important things to do. Nero is down there, and I have to reach it. I am sure, once it is inside my core, he will be fine with the huge amount of purified bloodline energies stored for him; they will heal him in a jiffy.

With every step I take down the stairs, I would feel a greater density of death and metal energies. Currently, I am fine, but just like the Grimms, if I want to enter the deeper part of the underground, it is far from enough.

I will think about that later; Nero is not far from me, just base of the stairs; I think my method will manage it by then.

As I climbed down the stairs, I couldn't help but wonder about the making of this place that, even after such a huge explosion, I could barely find any sign of it. If I did not know there had been a powerful explosion here, I wouldn't have been able to guess it.

Hun!

It took me nearly five minutes before I reached the end of the stairs, near the broken formation where both Bullman and the Golem had been trapped. That formation had been crushed into pieces, and the ground caved. It is the biggest sign of explosions I have seen so far.

"Nero, come out," I said to Nero; I could feel he was hiding underground, right below where the explosions happened.

Some might consider it the worst hiding spot, seeing the explosion's impact would be higher there, but when one considers the strength of ground which mares caved and not exploded into pieces, they would understand it.

"Nero, come out," I said again and this time a little more loudly, but this time too, I have got no response from him, seeing that a frown couldn't help but appear.

I waited for a few more seconds, calling Nero through my connections again and again but got no response from him.

Seeing there was no response, I decided to take the things in my hand and the pink strings of rule-bending power released from my hands and begin burrowing into the ground.

Unlike the other energies, the rule-bending power felt no resistance from the ground; it begins to burrow inside it before finally reaching Nero. Nero is lying nearly a hundred meters deep inside the ground and seems to be in a deep sleep.

Seeing that, my heart couldn't help but ache, and I wrapped my strings around him before beginning to pull him up toward me.

A couple of seconds later, my strings finally brought Nero out of the ground and seeing his condition, my heart couldn't tear up. Seeing his condition, I couldn't help but blame myself for being too weak.

How could I not understand what Nero did is for me; he wanted to find a way for me to enter this place, and for it, he decided to take a such a risk.

Seeing his condition, I felt like the weakest person in the world who could not even protect this precious thing.

I took Nero in my hand, who had also reduced his size to the size of my hand. He is in a deep sleep to make a recovery.

Nero has one of the best self-healing power; with the Necrotic and Soul Core he had consumed, it won't take him long for him to heal. His share of purified bloodline energy stored in the core would help a lot; I just hope he recovers soon.

I brought him back to my core and placed him below the mysterious tree; it is his favorite spot. Both Ashlyn and Nero live on the mysterious tree; while Nero sleeps in its shade, Ashlyn perch on the branches. I was quite surprised when they chose their places and did not fight over the tree.

Hun!

After placing the Nero in the storage, I walked a few steps before stopping couldn't help but get surprised seeing the state of the garden.

The explosion affected the garden but did not as much as I had expected. Only a few meters area of it damaged while the rest is fine. If I am not wrong, the new glittering runes on the bone around the garden might be the reason why the garden had not been affected.

The garden now looked more horrifying than beautiful, with those glittering runes shining on the bones.

For some reason, when I looked at the bones, I couldn't help but shudder with all the hair on my body standing up. It seemed like the bastards who were running this place doing something horrifying; clearly, there is battle had happened here, unlike in the bronze graveyard above.

They have done something here, and I hope they died a similar horrible death at the hands of the people who attacked this place.

I looked around the garden, and I wanted to step toward it, but I was already at my limit. The metal essence tree inside me does not seem to be helping other than constantly making the loud rustling noise in my mind every second.

It wants that dead bronze half tree, and I would have given it to it if it gave me some help, like giving a protective aura. So I would bear the dense energy, but it is not doing any of those things.

I begin to think of ways to bear this dense aura; the best option I have is to modify the runic formation of my armor to deal with these energies, but it will waste too much time, and I don't want to spend too much time doing that, but it seemed like I do not have much choice.

I was about to start modifying the formation when suddenly my eyes fell on something far.