Chapter 2121: Transformation
Noah had warned the upper tier turtle, but that was his last resort. His inspection of the seabed came first, but he informed his companions about his deal with the pack before that.
The seabed was strange. The veins seemed to belong to a living being with their flas.h.i.+ng pale-green glow, but Noah didn"t find anything hidden under the sand and rocks. Each grain and small rock carried odd energy that filled the underwater area with a vibrant atmosphere.
Still, Noah"s worries turned out to be on point. The whole vibrant atmosphere felt incomplete, and the presence of the turtles even blocked most of the liveliness that the sea would typically have.
Noah waited for June and his other companions to complete their inspection, but their findings didn"t differ. Fiery Mountain, Old Tyrant, and Gabrielle"s expertise covered various fields, but they couldn"t give different opinions. Something was missing in the harmony of the floor, and the sea was behind that issue.
Noah felt forced to voice a soft growl. The upper tier turtle reached his position instantly, and the reason behind its summoning became evident even before Noah started to speak. Still, he needed to say those words.
"Can you store some energy from the sea?" Noah asked.
"The sea gives us the energy we need," The leader explained. "We would have to take away the water itself to store it."
"How long does the floor take to restore the water?" Noah questioned.
"I don"t know," The upper tier turtle admitted.
"I"ll perform a few tests," Noah sighed before shooting toward the surface and deploying the dark world.
His companions inspected him while his technique sucked away a large chunk of the sea and kept it in the sky. Then, Noah waited to see the reaction of the separate reality.
The area hidden in the deeper dimension was empty, so Noah knew that the floor wasn"t getting energy from any lifeform. Still, the sea slowly rose as time pa.s.sed. The Labyrinth itself was providing the fuel needed to create more green water, but the process wasn"t even close to being fast.
Noah studied the process for a while before doing some math. The pack of turtles featured hundreds of specimens, with many of them in the eighth and ninth rank. They wouldn"t need to do much, but their bodies would require ma.s.sive amounts of energy anyway.
Noah tried to compare the time he would need to transform the sea to how much he could store. He also had to calculate the years spent waiting for the floor to restore all the water, and the prospect looked far from good. There was a high chance that the turtles would have to starve, and the same went for his group.
The underground meeting happened again. Noah met with the leader and explained his plan. He could store some water for the pack, but that would only slow down the transformation of the sea. After all, in its current state, the floor was creating the mutated waters on its own, which meant that the turtles had affected the area deeply.
"I will order my pack to move to the sky," The leader agreed after hearing the plan. "Still, if your plan fails after you take away our energy source, we will eat you and your friends before going back to feeding off each other."
"You shouldn"t threaten your future leader," Noah joked before recalling something. "Though I think that many of my underlings did that."
The leader didn"t answer. It hissed, and its pack gathered around its figure. The upper tier turtle glanced at Noah one last time before leading everyone out of the sea.
June, Fiery Mountain, Old Tyrant, and Gabrielle found themselves glaring at the hundreds of turtles that left the sea to take their place in the sky. The pack did its best to keep its distance from the group of experts, but the exchange of tense glances was inevitable. Both sides knew that they would become enemies if Noah"s plan were to fail.
Noah appeared almost unaware of the evident tension. He left the sea and released the water in his dark world before deploying as many workshops as possible. He even relied on his potential to enhance the properties of his mind and endure more techniques.
The dark world divided itself into multiple giant pillars that dived into the sea and connected the seabed to the sky. The dark matter could now touch every material on the floor, and Noah let his ambition run freely.
The water condensed, the seabed trembled, and faint purple clouds began to acc.u.mulate in the sky as Noah"s ambition ran freely throughout the floor. He didn"t have an actual method to restore the sea to its previous state, but he could force everything to improve to solve his issue.
The sea, sky, and seabed retained their original ideas, so Noah believed that he could force them to express better versions of their true forms by letting them evolve through his ambition. The only issue was in the sheer amount of matter that he had to affect, but the dark world came in handy there.
Noah had worked on methods to enhance the effects of his ambitions and spread its influence in a vast area. The quasi-living workshop had been his latest creation in that field, but his power had increased by then, and his situation was also different now.
Noah didn"t need to create many distant spots that could carry his influence. He only had to transform the entire floor before the arrival of the drawbacks, which was doable if he went all-out with everything he had learnt about enhancing and spreading his ambition.
The pillars radiated his ambition and forced the floor to change. The purple clouds expanded, the sea froze, and the seabed started to generate metallic materials that fused with its structure during its tremors.
Everything evolved to a level that went beyond the planning of its creator. The floor even darkened to compensate for the superior amount of energy required by its new state. Noah was messing with the very stability of the Cursed Labyrinth, and he did that with a cold smile on his face.
The sea showed greater changes compared to the rest of the floor, but Noah expected as much. Its water gained yellow shades before turning completely red and continuing its transformation.
It didn"t take long before everything transformed into its superior version. The sky became a ma.s.s of thin clouds, the sea a giant slab of ice, and the seabed a ma.s.sive chunk of metal with some spots that radiated a scarlet light.
Noah felt exhausted when he recalled his pillars. Transforming the entire floor had almost emptied his ethereal blackness. The success in the feat was forcing his world to produce more fuel, but the process wasn"t as fast as he wished, and the drawbacks had fallen on him by then.
A sharp headache had taken control of his mind, and his senses felt dull. Still, his job wasn"t over, and he could even feel the many gazes from the turtles on him.
Noah punched open the sea and created a tunnel that led him to the metallic seabed. The veins still existed, but they had turned into solid structures that filled the area with a scarlet halo. He had to take out his swords to pierce one of them, but the light remained unclear with his senses in that state.
The turtles began to voice hisses as Noah waited for his senses to return to a decent state. The transformation had lasted years, and the ambition had also affected them. Their hunger was drilling their minds, but they were doing their best to endure that instinct under their leader"s pressure. Still, the situation was becoming dangerous.
"What does it even want?" Noah wondered while he studied the light.
Then, an idea appeared in his mind. The flashes had initially reminded Noah about a beating heart, so he decided to treat the area as a living being. He built vortices with his dark matter and turned the sea into dust before letting the veins absorb everything.
Under everyone"s surprise, the metallic seabed began to tremble again, and a deep growl eventually left its fabric.