Instantly, a faint spatial fluctuation was transmitted, along with an incredibly familiar and unique sensation belonging to his father Neltharion.
Nefarian understood, and slowly injected a trace of black dragon magic.
Buzz!
A low rumble came from inside the mountain wall; the rock slid open to both sides, revealing a massive metal door deeply embedded in the mountain.
Intricate Draconic runes were carved on the door, slowly lighting up as magic was infused.
In the center of the door, an ancient word appeared:
Ziskra.
Nefarian repeated the strangely pronounced word softly, then pushed open the dust-covered door with force.
Unexpectedly, inside the door was not a gloomy, oppressive lair, nor were there abandoned experimental items.
What appeared before his eyes was a towering, spacious arched hall.
Its architectural style was similar to the dragon ruins in other areas of the island, but the details revealed a stronger individual dragon presence.
The scent of lava and earth mingled with the dust and arcane energy, faint yet exceptionally clear.
In the center of the hall, an arcane crystal platform floated.
Fine energy conduits extended from the platform, connecting to four nodes in different directions.
Nefarian recognized at a glance that this was a teleportation hub leading to different areas of the vault.
He approached the platform, his gaze sweeping over the Draconic markings inscribed on the nodes, but his brow furrowed slightly: only short, meaningless syllables were carved on all four directions, without any specific labels or hints.
"So typical—" Nefarian couldn't help but mutter under his breath, with a hint of helplessness, "It's clearly his style."
His gaze lingered for a moment before the four teleportation nodes, and he finally gave up trying to decipher the meaning of these syllables.
"Anyway, all four areas will have to be explored sooner or later, so I'll just pick one randomly first." He mused to himself, then no longer hesitated, pressing his dragon claw onto the leftmost node.
Buzz! A dazzling light suddenly flared, instantly engulfing his figure.
When the light dissipated, a pungent smell of sulfur and char filled the air.
Nefarian instinctively took a deep breath, the corners of his mouth curving slightly, and his mood relaxed a bit—this was the most familiar and favored scent of the black dragon race.
He quickly scanned his surroundings.
This seemed to be an extremely vast underground laboratory.
The dome was high, early extinguished runic lamps were embedded in the rock walls, the air was dry and hot, and transparent pipes with flowing lava ran beneath the floor.
Not far from him, a row of twisted, deformed, and broken restraint devices lay scattered.
Thick metal shackles were already broken, and chains were pulled and bent like twisted ropes.
The surrounding walls were covered with deep, crisscrossing claw marks, several inches deep, messy and intertwined.
Nefarian lowered his center of gravity, his dragon claws lightly touching the cold ground as he cautiously explored forward.
His gaze warily swept over the surroundings:
Large glass cultivation tanks lay scattered, most of them shattered, with some strangely colored viscous liquid and decaying organic residue remaining inside.
In the few remaining intact tanks, the extremely distorted remains of dragon beasts were submerged; some had overgrown and misplaced limbs, like deformed tumors;
Some had large patches of skin and scales peeled off, revealing wriggling flesh beneath;
Others had bones twisted and broken at physiologically impossible angles, clearly failed fusion experiments.
A dead silence.
Only the faint gurgling of flowing lava and the soft tapping of his claws on the ground.
Suddenly, "Crack-a-lack-a-boom!!!"
From the depths of the laboratory, a bone-chilling sound of tearing metal erupted without warning!
"Roar-aow!!!"
Immediately after, a roar filled with pain and madness completely shattered the silence!
A huge dark shadow suddenly crashed through a half-shattered cultivation tank, rushing out, stumbling, bringing with it viscous liquid and glass shards!
This was a nightmarish fusion creation.
Half of its body was still covered in dragon scales, while the other half was bizarrely fused with characteristics of some insect-like creature, covered in chitinous carapace.
The flesh beneath the carapace disgustingly wriggled and pulsed.
One of its eyes was a murky yellow, while the other glowed with a frantic crimson.
This monster had clearly completely lost its sanity, leaving only the frenzy born from tormented pain.
It let out a deafening roar, charging at Nefarian on all fours with an aura of utter destruction!
Nefarian was about to raise a claw to cast a spell when the corner of his eye caught something: a patch of floor in the monster's charge path seemed slightly unnatural.
"A trap!" He instantly realized—but that monster, lost in madness, clearly wouldn't notice!
In a flash, its heavy foot, without reservation, stepped onto that abnormal patch of floor!
"Click!"
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