The Rise of the Black Plain

As they advanced against the enormous armor, the group working with Minos soon realized the inner structures of this metallic thing were not as resistant as the outer parts.

While the surface layer of this metal body could stop the attack of even mid-level Demigods without being seriously damaged, the inner parts could be affected even by the power of high-level Sages.

Intending to dismantle this armor as quickly as possible, Minos' group was able to disassemble the first parts of the armor easily.

As they did so, they could sense that this armor, even though Minos sealed it, was aware of what they were doing.

But Minos' seal was powerful, and for the moment, the armor could do nothing against them.

"This thing is impressive! I've never seen anything like it!" One of the Marine Empire mercenaries said as he helped dismantle the neck of the armor.

"Yes, I've never seen anything like this before. The inscriptions on the body of this armor look like spiritual energy veins of living beings... It's like a living metal body!" One of the Sea Folk members agreed with the mercenary, seeing that Minos was entirely right in everything he had said.

There was indeed an extraterritorial threat!

Nothing in this world could justify some of the technology they saw in that armor, and the special circles around that part of the North Sea were also completely out of the ordinary. 

Together with their testimony, these two things were what they needed to prove to the rest of the world about the danger hidden in the North Sea!

Sensing this, some of Minos' witnesses felt their hearts beat faster as more and more pieces of that armor's neck fell to the deck of their ship.

Minos watched alongside the people who were dismantling the metallic creature, his eyes narrowing as he saw more and more of the inside of the armor.

From the outside, the armor looked like a large and very powerful version of things that could be made in the Spiritual World. You couldn't tell from its appearance that no one was controlling this thing from the inside.

But looking inside, anyone would have the look of shock and doubt that Minos' companions had on their faces at the moment.

Inside this armor was a complex robotic system with structures similar to those of living beings but without a single organic part, something very strange to these individuals.

This armor looked very much like some kind of artificial life!

'Could it be that life on other fragments of Panvuter evolved so differently from ours?' Minos wondered as he watched the last parts of the armor's neck being dismantled, finally revealing the core essence of the thing.

Looking at what would be bone marrow if this creature were organic, Minos' group saw a metal structure with a golden essence inside that connected the rest of the body to the head.

When they separated this structure from the head, the golden glow diminished in intensity until everyone in the vicinity felt as if this being was watching them.

Meanwhile, the detached end of the head continued to glow, indicating that its essence was inside the head.

As he looked at it, Minos' expression changed, and he moved quickly, picking up in an instant what was in place of the creature's brain: a soft, golden thing, something that carried extremely strong energy.

Compared to what the Sea Folk's ship crew knew, it would rank higher than Saint-grade medicines.

But to Minos, it seemed like a pseudo-Divine-grade medicine!

It lost out to medicines of that quality, but it was closer to Divine Medicines than Saint Medicines!

Not only that, that essence, which felt like absorbent cotton when touched, had cultivation laws that Minos had never felt before, something very strange to him.

Everyone on the ship, including the four severely injured beasts, looked at Minos' right hand, held their breath, and fell silent for a moment.

"What do we do with this?" Ruth was the first to speak, while no one else was worried about the armor that had lost any sign of danger to them.

Minos looked at his wife and then at the beasts standing there. "As incredible as it sounds, we know nothing about this essence nor about what might happen to those who use it. So I'll keep it for now to decide what to do in the future. But we must consider that there may be others of this kind in the North Sea and..."

As Minos spoke, everyone in the group shifted their gaze as they looked up at the sky and saw the many circles in the sky change, opening their way towards the depths of the North Sea while the path towards the Central Continent closed in on them.

Seeing these unique circles grow in size and some even change shape, manipulating more spiritual energy, the entire crew understood what was happening.

If they tried to continue to the central part of the North Sea, they wouldn't have any of these enemy defense formations to get in their way. But if they tried to leave this place and go back to where they came from, their journey would be even more difficult than it had been to enter it!

"I think we..." Grant was about to say when a black thunder suddenly appeared above them and came down on them so fast that no one had time to react.

As they felt time stand still in front of them, everyone there saw the special essence of that armor and its entire body being obliterated by that bolt of lightning.

In a single instant, the various parts of that being were erased, turned into dust and spiritual energy, and ceased to exist as if they had never been there before.

The level 93 dragon saw all this while being carried by a crewmate and felt his heart beat faster, experiencing fear for the first time.

Gulp!

'That... What just happened was...' He shuddered as he forgot the pain in his body and thought about what had just vaporized that creature.

"Lightning Tribulation, Black Lightning," Minos said as he felt his heart almost bursting out of his throat, saying what several people in his group had been thinking, almost all of them too scared to say anything now.

But his voice confirmed their worst nightmare and showed them that their enemies were much worse than they had thought.

Having lost their only proof, they were finished!

...