It was a city constructed of metal.
So this city had also been teleported by that flashing, unknown object?
And it was still moving?
Could this behemoth, in essence, be a living creature?
Shock and bewilderment washed over him in interwoven tides.
At this moment, Morrow was high in the air. Before he could think further, his body, like a dead leaf in a gale, was about to be swept even higher by the violent air currents.
Terpsichora.
A pale red aura erupted from above his shoulders, instantly coalescing into a puppeteer that flickered between solid and ethereal.
Countless long, thin, and resilient Nen strings dropped from the puppeteer's hands, anchoring Morrow firmly in mid-air.
The unnaturally fierce wind continued to surge, causing him to swing violently in the air.
But it could no longer send him flying.
After steadying himself, Morrow, through his violently shaking vision, once again looked at the slowly moving metal city that seemed to possess life.
The city was a chaotic patchwork of countless metal prisms of varying sizes, as if a child had haphazardly stacked a handful of geometric blocks and then poured transparent, solidifying glue over them.
In terms of overall structure, it was even more random and disorganized than a crumpled ball of paper.
However, for such a vast number of huge metal prisms to be able to interpenetrate and embed into one another at angles that defied gravity and structural logic...
Even cantilevering...
This in itself was incredible.
Not to mention it was moving, without the slightest sign of falling apart or even dropping a single prism.
Morrow stared intently at the metal city.
Lightning intermittently streaked across the sky, each flash briefly outlining its massive silhouette before it was swallowed again by the deep night.
Amidst the sound of wind and rain, a low rumbling accompanied its slow yet heavy steps, continuously grinding over the earth as it pushed forward.
Morrow recalled the strange sensation of being squeezed out earlier and grew more convinced that this moving metal city might very well be a living organism.
But no matter how he tried, he couldn't imagine how that unknown object, only the size of an adult bull, had managed to teleport this entire metal city away.
This is too absurd...
Since the metal city was moving extremely slowly, he was in no hurry to catch up.
Using the lightning that occasionally tore through the sky, his gaze swept quickly across his surroundings.
Using the distant forest silhouette and the undulating terrain of the wasteland as reference points, he quickly confirmed that he was indeed in his original location.
However, the dung-shaped mountain the team had been using for temporary shelter from the storm had vanished without a trace, as if it had evaporated from the face of the earth.
My guess should be correct... after I absorbed that unknown object, everything sealed within it returned to reality and was able to perfectly overlap and merge with real-world objects.
Based on the various reference points around him, Morrow was almost certain that the dung-shaped mountain where the team had been was now integrated into the slowly moving metal city.
I didn't expect its ability... to be this powerful.
An image of the unknown object flashed through Morrow's mind, and he couldn't help but glance at the Tree Rings on the back of his hand.
A mechanism-type calamity capable of teleporting an entire metal city, such an unreasonable existence was utterly powerless before the Tree Rings.
Although the Entropy Bird's fortified luck had also played a part, Morrow gazed at the Tree Rings.
And you... what exactly are you?
After so many years, he once again posed this question to himself.
However, he still didn't let himself dwell on it.
Whatever the Tree Rings were, it couldn't change a more direct fact.
He had absolute control over them.
Morrow's gaze shifted, once again landing on the silhouette of the giant city in the wind and rain.
Deceptive Shooting Star.
A fluorescent green aura surged from his palm, instantly condensing into a Nen bullet that tore through the rain curtain and shot out.
The Shooting Star traced a brief trajectory in the air, then hovered, turned, and shot straight toward the metal city.
Morrow glanced sideways, his pupils reflecting the speeding green light.
Astral Step.
His figure abruptly vanished from thin air.
In the next instant, he appeared near the Shooting Star.
Terpsichora's Nen strings had already precisely attached to the Shooting Star, pulling Morrow along as he flew toward the metal giant.
This Shooting Star had locked onto the Star Mark on Chimera.
Its direct flight toward the metal city further confirmed that Chimera was indeed somewhere inside.
Soon, the Shooting Star broke through the rain curtain and zipped over the metal city.
Seeing it head with clear purpose toward a tower-like structure formed by numerous tall, stacked prisms, Morrow immediately retracted the Nen strings.
Then, the pale red aura surged out again, coalescing into the ethereal Terpsichora puppeteer, which suspended him in mid-air.
Below him, countless prismatic structures were embedded together, forming what looked like a chaotic metal labyrinth.
A large amount of rainwater, carried by the strong wind, slammed against the prisms, splashing up clouds of cold mist.
Boom!
Just then, the Deceptive Shooting Star struck the tower-like structure of stacked prisms. The violent explosion instantly tore open its metal skin, sending a large amount of debris mixed with some kind of gelatinous substance flying in all directions.
To this metal city, an explosion of this scale seemed insufficient to attract its attention.
It continued its slow, steady advance, grinding over the earth, pushing forward toward an unknown destination.
Morrow hung in the air. Seeing no reaction from the metal city, he immediately flared his aura and, like an arrow loosed from a bow, cut through the wind and rain, rushing toward the breach blown open by the explosion.
"Roar!"
But before Morrow could get close, Chimera's roar burst out from deep within the breach.
The sound was clearly mixed with a hint of panic.
Morrow detected the abnormality in Chimera's cry and instinctively went on high alert, a bright and ample aura flowing around his body.
At that very moment, the power of his fortified luck quietly manifested again.
The violent air currents that had been blowing him from side to side suddenly subsided without warning.
The timing was, one might say, perfect.
Just as Morrow's body completely stabilized in the air, a scorching breath of lava suddenly erupted from the breach in the prismatic tower structure.
The searing torrent instantly melted and expanded the edges of the breach, creating an even larger opening.
The lava breath was Chimera's biological ability.
Morrow's eyes narrowed, a Nen bullet already primed in his palm.
The next second, Chimera's massive body shot out from the huge, melted opening. Its scale-covered wings flapped urgently, stirring up a chaotic airflow.
Just as it flew out, a dense black swarm of flying objects pursued it from behind.
It seemed to be a cluster formed from countless metal fragments. They could fly through the air, relentlessly chasing Chimera.
The hint of panic in Chimera's cry probably stemmed from this swarm of metal fragments.
"Roar!"
Chimera suddenly twisted its body in mid-air, its bird-like head and tail-orifice turning simultaneously.
In an instant, two streams of searing lava breath intertwined and blasted toward the pursuing metal cluster.
However, as if they could detect heat, the swarm of metal fragments abruptly scattered the moment Chimera's lava breath erupted, dodging with astonishing speed.
The two torrents of lava could only pass through the gaps between them, not even grazing a single small fragment.
Seeing this, Chimera shook its bird head in extreme frustration, its posture practically screaming: So annoying!
But Chimera soon caught sight of Morrow, and its agitated mood instantly calmed.
Morrow's gaze, however, went past Chimera, locking tightly onto the swarm of exceptionally agile metal fragments.
Very agile... but I can't see any fluctuations of Nen or energy. How are they flying?
Seeing the swarm of metal fragments regroup after dodging the lava and resume their relentless pursuit of Chimera, Morrow slightly curled his fingers, and the nature of the Shooting Star's aura in his palm abruptly changed.
Then, with a flick of his hand, the Shooting Star transformed into a streak of fluorescent green light, zipping past Chimera's side and shooting straight toward the dense black cloud of metal fragments.
Faced with the incoming Shooting Star, the swarm of metal fragments attempted to scatter again, trying to open a gap for the star to pass through.
But the Shooting Star was one step ahead.
It abruptly burst in mid-air into a dense star rain.
Countless awn-shaped aura projectiles rained down, colliding thunderously with the swarm of metal fragments.
A series of energy flares instantly exploded in the air.
Amidst the rampaging blast waves, debris from the shattered metal flew everywhere.
Chimera looked back and saw this scene. All traces of its frustration vanished, replaced by excitement and joy.
It flew against the strong wind, its body a little unsteady, to Morrow's side. Its bird head eagerly drew close, nuzzling him affectionately several times.
Morrow stroked its head with his free hand, his eyes still fixed on the lingering aftershocks of the explosion in the air.
Only after confirming that all the metal fragments had been shot down did he slowly retract his gaze.
"Chimera, are you hurt?" Morrow asked.
Chimera shook its head, indicating it was completely unharmed.
"That's good."
Morrow smiled slightly, then looked down at the metal city shrouded in the rain below and instructed, "You stay here and wait for me. I'm going to find the others."
"Roar roar!"
Although Chimera was still shaken by its experience inside the metal city, it wanted to go with Morrow to find their other companions.
Morrow flicked its head lightly with a bent finger.
"Be good."
"Roar..."
Chimera let out a low cry, looking at him with pleading eyes, but finally nodded.
Morrow glanced at its slightly strained posture in the strong wind. Without another word, his body dropped, falling toward the cold, complex metal city below.
—--
Finding Biscuit and the others within such an intricate, multi-layered structure of prisms would be no easy task.
But every team member carried a paper doll made by Kalluto.
These paper dolls not only served a crucial communication function but could also be used to pinpoint each person's exact location and provide real-time feedback on their vital signs.
So, no matter how bizarrely complex the internal structure of this metal city was, Morrow could rely on the paper dolls' directional positioning to accurately find Biscuit and the others.
Thanks to the living paper dolls' precise positioning and real-time communication, the two parties eventually managed to reunite without any major incidents.
This was the value of Kalluto's paper dolls in an environment like the Dark Continent.
Even though maintaining the number and ability of the paper dolls constantly drained a portion of Kalluto's aura output, this communication and positioning ability, which could not be easily blocked by distance or environment, was already a vital cornerstone of the team's survival.
—--
At this moment, the group had gathered in a corner formed by three metal prisms of varying heights.
Deep inside was a hole that had been forcibly smashed open.
Biscuit and the others had escaped from there.
Now, the opening had been sealed by Chimera's lava breath, so there was no need to worry about any unknown things crawling out of it.
And while the corner they were in wasn't an enclosed space, the outward-facing side was shielded from the wind and rain by Chimera's massive body, making it a barely acceptable temporary shelter.
They didn't plan to move rashly again until the harsh weather subsided.
In any case, as long as they didn't encounter any more of those strange things, this place could be considered a relatively safe spot for a temporary rest.
"Before you came out, did you encounter anything unusual inside?"
Morrow asked as he took out some dry grass fluff and had Chimera light it with its lava breath.
Soon, an orange-red flame sprang up on the damp, cold metal ground.
The damp water vapor in the air, and even the rainwater flowing down the surfaces of the metal prisms, had no effect on the burning flame.
It steadily radiated warmth, dispelling the chill that clung to everyone.
It was because of this property of the grass fluff that Morrow had deliberately collected a good amount of it.
It seemed like a wise decision now.
After all, in the pitch-black and perilous Dark Continent, fire was indeed very important.
"Before we left that... soft, fleshy membrane area, we were attacked by some fleshy things that looked a lot like meridians."
Hearing Morrow's question, Ponzu replied with lingering fear. "They came out of the membrane walls. There were a lot of them, and they could spray a highly corrosive mucus. It was quite dangerous."
Biscuit immediately added, "Luckily, Ponzu's bee swarm was scouting ahead and could draw out their attacks in advance, so we were able to react in time. Also, on our way out, we found this."
After speaking, she took off her backpack and pulled out a ring-shaped crystal that looked like a bracelet.
The inner ring of the crystal was covered with fine barbs like glass shards, while its surface was engraved with a shallow spiral groove.
Extending from the end of the groove was a dark gray metal chain that glinted coldly.
At the end of the chain was a smooth pull-ring, just large enough for a finger to pass through.
"This thing was embedded in a very 'high-tech' platform. We couldn't figure out its purpose, but we thought it might be valuable, so we had the familiar spirit try to retrieve it."
Biscuit said, tossing it lightly in her hand.
Menchi also took out two similar crystal bracelets from her bag, saying, "And there were quite a few of them. We each packed two or three."
"Let me see."
Morrow took one from Menchi's hand.
The crystal bracelet was cool to the touch. It didn't look very big, but it felt heavy.
And as soon as he held it, the Tree Rings once again prompted him with the option to absorb it.
Hm?
Morrow was slightly taken aback.
He hadn't sensed any obvious Post-Mortem Nen from this crystal bracelet.
Could it be like the Klein Bottle, with its energy depleted...
This possibility suddenly occurred to Morrow.
If that were the case, then this crystal bracelet, much like the Klein Bottle, might possess some kind of unactivated function.
This place...
Morrow suddenly turned his head, looking at the metal breach that Chimera had sealed with molten lava.
This metal city that could move on its own...
It seemed that after being teleported into the internal space of that unknown object, it had been successively fused with other things that were subsequently teleported in.
It sounded utterly incredible.
But this phenomenon had indeed occurred. Which meant, if that unknown object wasn't a stationary, territorial creature, but a type that roamed and hunted, it was possible that during its long journeys, it had teleported numerous things into its internal space.
And it would only selectively chew and digest some of those things.
So, it was like a traveler with a tattered cloth bag, stuffing everything it "saw" along its path into that tattered bag.
But for explorers who set foot here, this moving city, a composite of countless unknown creations, was, in a sense, a walking treasury.
Of course, the aggressive entities lurking within were also a glaring risk.
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Bonus chapter @200powerstones