Chapter 1255 Sprite
The world hidden within the mountain of coarse silver was an astonishing one. Wall to wall, for hundreds of meters, dense metals shone with blaring rainbow lights, covering its interior. Surprisingly, unlike what Dyon expected, there were major hallowed out tunnels, all leading to this very core.
In the center of everything, an oddly shaped crystalline structure sat. It seemed to hover in mid-air without any support to speak of, spinning slowly.
Suddenly, Dyon felt a keen sense of danger. His divine sense swept over everything, but he couldn't find a single enemy. To make matters more confusing, Dyon was certain that without his method of entry, even a celestial would have to dig for months to reach this point. In addition, even the formation masters who had come from the Sapientia Quadrant Guilds wouldn't have dared to use his method because he was certain that none of them had powerful enough divine senses to see what was inside of the mountain. For all they knew, it was just a dense mass of metal through and through.
Still, Dyon trusted his instincts. Although he had only just begun to refine his own bestial senses, they had already saved him from danger more than once.
"Don't move…" Dyon said to Madeleine softly, holding her more tightly. He was prepared to send her out with a teleportation array the moment things went left.
Madeleine nodded without a word. She too had more bestial-like instincts from following Amethyst's path. They weren't as refined as Dyon's, but at the very least, she too felt that something was off.
'Little Yang, Little Yin, what's going on? Do you have any idea where this danger is coming from?' A massive pressure was weighing on Dyon's heart. He felt the need to run away immediately, but his more human-like thoughts told him that that wasn't the answer either.
'Big brother, this is bad.' Little Yin said in a weak voice.
'Very bad.' Little Yang seemed to think that Little Yin's words weren't even remotely enough, but even he didn't dare to say much more.
They didn't have much to worry about themselves, but they had grown fond of Dyon. In addition, a celestial hamster could only ever bond once in their lifetime. Even if they survived after Dyon died, they would be doomed to float along the time stream without an anchor. Such was their curse.
'Stop being cryptic, explain.' Dyon frowned. Now wasn't the time to panic. He had come for the sake of spending some time with his wife. In fact, he had purposely chosen the locations with the least amount of dangers. Although their treasures were also comparably lesser, he felt that there were more important things than chasing the biggest payoff for now.
Yet, even with his efforts, he somehow ran into a place likely more dangerous than the locations he purposely chose to avoid!
'The core of this coarse silver mountain is a sprite.' Little Yang said as though this should explain everything.
'What the hell are you talking about?'
'Where do you think the sprite species came from? That Daisho Ken guy you met that seemed half human, half illusory, it would be more accurate to say that he's only half sprite.'
'Be straight forward!'
'The rise of the Sprites was more abrupt than other humanoid evolutions. This is why the Golden Era could have been so short, yet there could already be a dominant species of this Modern Era. By all logic, if an Era ended so quickly, it would take more time for a new Era to rise up, but this one is already dominated by its own species.
'The most accurate way to label the dominant species of this Modern Era is to name them Half Sprites. That's because full 'blooded' sprites are technically inanimate objects that gain sentience.'
'Are you saying that the Daisho Clan had an inanimate object as one of its ancestors?' Dyon felt dark lines forming on his head as he thought of the ramifications of what he was hearing.
'Well, it would probably no longer be proper to call them inanimate since they have gained sentience.' Little Yin chimed in with a small voice.
'How does that even happen? How do an object and a human reproduce offspring?'
'It's not done in the traditional sense. Just like you and your wives meld your souls together to confirm your love for one another, a full sprite can do this with a human. The result of their love is a half sprite with heavenly talents that are often comparable to the offspring of heaven's children.'
Dyon eyes contracted. He remembered that when he first learned that Eli was a Heaven's Child, his grand teacher had told him that the first-generation offspring of one was always a talent at the very peak of what was possible for human evolution. He had also said that before this child was born, it was given the very same protections as its Heaven's Child parents, but then could live and die like a normal living being after this birth.
Clearly, the hamster twins were saying that the first-generation offspring of a human and full sprite gave results just as overbearing. In fact, they were so overbearing that even the later generations were powerful enough to dominate this Era!
'So Daisho Ken's Clan…?' Dyon suddenly asked.
'One of his ancestors was definitely a shocking talent who's likely already transcended by now. If we're correct, his sprite ancestor was likely a sword spirit…' Little Yin interjected once more.
'Then this sprite here?' Dyon asked semi-nervously.
'This is a mineral sprite… You've entered its domain… If it wanted, it could bring this whole mountain crashing down around you…'
Dyon took a deep breath. Losing his mind to fear wouldn't help him, but he felt like there was an added weight to his heart since Madeleine was with him. If he was alone, he probably would have gotten a grip on his emotions long ago. But, there was something about risking a life that wasn't his own, especially when it was a life he deeply cared for, that fried his brain.
Of course, Dyon thought about sending Madeleine into his inner world, but there were a few problems with that. Firstly, if he died, she would still die as well. Secondly, he couldn't send others into a new space just because he felt like it. If that was possible, he'd never lose a battle again. He was certain that Madeleine would resist, and if that happened, his attempts would bear no fruit.
Then there was the issue of his spatial transference array, the one that allowed him to enter in the first place. But, that was once again useless. If he could just coat himself in an array that allowed everything to go through his body without harming him, wouldn't he once again never lose another battle? The issue was the core principle of the martial world: will.
When someone actively attacks him, unless their difference in strength was sufficiently large, the effects of the array would dull and often stop working entirely.
Back at focus academy when Dyon used the spatial transference array to survive Oliver's strike – Madeleine's elder brother – it had worked because Oliver's will was weak. He had barely comprehended a 3rd level will and he was a mere meridian formation stage expert. He didn't have the ability to negate the effects of Dyon's array.
However, a heavenly entity like a mineral sprite was on a completely different level. Even if Dyon had Amphorae with him, there would be no guarantee of survival!
'Do you guys have any ideas?' Dyon asked.
'Sprites love nothing more than the paths from which they are born. Wind sprites love wind, fire sprites love fire, sword sprites love swords…'
'Mineral sprites love minerals…' Dyon smiled bitterly. How did he know that things would come to this? He had only asked hoping to hear a different answer, but it turned out that his fears were reality now.
Between his inner world, his demon sage tower, and his spatial rings, Dyon had many valuable materials a mineral sprite might fawn over. However, that didn't mean he wanted to give them up.
Dyon's eyes flashed with an odd light. With a thought, he began to bellow outward with pure soul energy. This was something he rarely, if ever, did. Often times, his opponents would have next to no idea what his soul strength was simply because he could keep it hidden so well. But, this didn't mean that he wasn't capable of doing exactly this.