Almost everyone looked for Y'zaks' source of strength and wisdom. Now, this source of power stood right in front of Hao Ren. The old adage was indeed true, "knowledge is power"... This super high tech contraption right in the bowels of Helcrown was proof!
The massive power generation chamber echoed with the hums and chugging of the generators, while a few technicians clad in alchemist garbs were busy regulating the experimental Demonic Furnace. Hao Ren and the rest slowly made their way along the circular corridor into the equipment zone, yapping in amazement all the way. Lily peered about curiously before squatting down to look for something on the ground. Hao Ren immediately gave her a karate chop as soon as he saw her. "This is a restricted zone! Don't go around looking for pebbles or you'll get thrown out!"
Lily clutched her head dejectedly. "I was just curious about the runes on the floor..."
With a quizical look, Y'zaks stared at the floating crimson object in the middle of the concentric alloy rings. The facilities around the place was initially built by him, but the core device was left incomplete as he could not find anything that could provide a massive but stable output of demonic energies. Even a ton of the purest ores available did not suffice. As such, the theory of a floating castle remained just that, a theory. But now that the most teething of issues had been solved, it was almost unbelievable for the great demon. "What's actually inside the core?"
"We don't know for sure," Y'lisabet said as she played with her small horns. "We got it from the other dimension; three of them actually. One of it was ruined when we did some tests, another one is in there, and the last one is in storage for back-up purposes."
A massive figure approached from the side, and bowed respectfully before Y'zaks. "My Lord, have you come to inspect the energy furnace?"
Hao Ren threw the figure a curious glance. The big creature had dark blue skin and unique, glowing emerald eyes. He also had a reptilian tail, and thin scales were visible on his arms. This was one of the seven main mortal races, the ethereals. It was said that they were highly skilled in alchemy and crystalline technology. Within Helcrown, the ethereals and dark dwarves were the main source of technical expertise.
"Mhmm." Y'zaks nodded. "Let me see that back-up energy core."
The energy core that was placed within the power extractor was surrounded by a crimson hue. The light had a rather unique property, allowing it to completely obscure vision from the outside. Hence, they were unable to see what was going on inside the light. Knowing that there was a back-up, Y'zaks brought up the matter to him.
The ethereal technician was curious about his lord's sudden interest in the energy core, but he nodded without question. "Most certainly. Please follow me."
Hao Ren was curious about the "energy core" as well and he had a gut feeling that the stuff underneath the dark crimson light was familiar to him. He quickly caught up to them. "Let me have a gander too!"
The reserved energy core was placed in a secured vault not too far from the power generator room. This was to facilitate a quick replacement of the core within the furnace in the event it acted up. The secured vault was built out of cast iron and the thickness of the outer wall was about one meter. It was obvious that the content of the vault was valuable in the eyes of the technicians. The ethereal technician opened the vault door and there was 10 m² of space inside. Gentle light glowed from every corner of the room, making the place very bright, and they could see the reserved energy core on one of the storage frames in the center of the room.
It was had the appearance of a red ball with a radius of three meters.
"What's that?" Hao Ren was overwhelmed with a unknown feeling the moment he saw the ball and he stepped forward curiously to look at the surface of the ball-shaped item. It was not smooth, having indentations and wrinkles at places. Its skin was almost like that of some echinoderms, yet when he took a closer look, he could see a pattern within the imperfection, a runic circuit of sorts. Hao Ren touched the ball with a bit of strength, and felt that it was bouncy.
Y'lisabet, who was standing beside him leaped up. "Whoa! You touched it directly?!"
"Huh? I shouldn't?" Hao Ren was also surprised.
The little demon rubbed her cheeks. "Uh no, I was just scaring you."
Y'zaks then pulled his daughter aside and went ahead to get a grip of the aura from the ball. "It contains strong energies... almost primal... Interesting... it's giving me some sort of vibe..."
"Almost like a living thing isn't it?" Hao Ren frowned as a forboding feeling welled up within him. Next to him, Lily had already begun sniffing the object. A worried look appeared on her face and she wagged her tail nervously. "Mr. Landlord... this thing smells awfully familiar!"
Hao Ren tried to listen for anything inside the ball before he pulled out the MDT. "Give it a scan!"
The MDT quickly stuck itself to the ball and said, "Now allow me to show you what real high technology is!"
"I'm just asking you to run a CT scan, how is that even a monumental task?" Hao Ren sneered.
A blue light canvassed the ball for a bit, and the MDT threw out a holographic chart of its internal structure.
The ball's internal structure was suprisingly simple—just an intricate, flexible skeleton, which was almost sponge like. It supported the ball's entire structure, and from the gaps there were elements that looked like blood vessels or nerve bundles. The ball was also filled with a sticky, dark red liquid and its texture was alarmingly familiar.
"I think we have trouble..." Lily gasped as she realized what Hao Ren was getting that. "This thing is really familiar!"
"My word... I swear with all my processing cores!" The MDT darted away from the ball-shaped item and flew towards Hao Ren. "This thing's the same type of organism as the First Born!"
Everyone present turned pale aside from Y'lisabet and Lanina, who were oblivious to the nature of the object. Lily's tail immediately bristled as she leapt two meters into the air and turned tail to run. "Awooo!!! We're gonna die... Ungh!"
"Calm down! Calm down!" Hao Ren yelled for everyone to calm down as he pulled Lily off the vault's wall. "Don't panic! It's dormant!"
Vivian was even paler than usua and she quickly summoned a horde of bats to protect all who were present. It was only when she heard what Hao Ren said, that she noticed the ball was dormant. Its aura was slightly different from the First Born they ran into previously. She carefully ordered a few of her bats to approach the ball, and cautioned everyone else. "Take a step back. Slowly, slowy... don't wake it up like the other time."
Y'lisabet looked at all of them in a puzzled manner. "What are—"
Y'zaks quickly grabbed his daughter by the head and placed her behind him. "Stay still... This thing is dangerous. Papa's seen it before!"
The little demoness gave her father a bewildered look, and noticed that he looked like he facing a mortal enemy, so she grew nervous too. "Dan-Dangerous? There's one in the energy furnace! We can't just stop it at any time!"
"Don't panic, calm down! Let's get a clearer picture before we do anything." Hao Ren turned to face the demonic father and daughter pair before shifting his gaze to Vivian. "What's the situation like?"
Vivian commanded her bats to lie on the ball, and she used her innate sensitivity to blood to check what was going on within the ball. She had one of her bats taste a sample of the First Born's blood before, and she was using that sample to base her judgement.
"No signs of life." Vivian frowned. "The blood's dead too."
"You sure?" Hao Ren was still concerned. "The First Born we encountered the last time was hibernating and dormant as well."
"But that First Born was filled with vibrant life energies." Vivian waved as she recalled her bats. "I can tell that the ball here's a little different than the First Born. It probably died a long time ago. Its blood isn't flowing, but it still has loads of primal energy in it."
Only then did Hao Ren allow himself a breather and he stepped forward to touch the ball gingerly. He was a little afraid that the thing would suddenly come back to life and swallow him whole. "Dead?"
Lily also snapped out of her daze, and she looked at the human-shaped indentation on the wall. "This figure looks familiar..."
So, the dumb husky actually had a use after all: to break the tension.
"You said you found it in the other dimension?" Y'zaks said as he turned towards his daughter. His face was grim. "Quick, show me where—"
Before he could complete his sentence, the alarms wailed throughout the castle. It did not take long for an ethereal technician to barge in. "My Lord! Serathon and Banuklaak's army's outside the walls! We've also detected the Allied Army. They are approaching as well!"