Law Of Metal

Seeing that Richard’s interest was piqued, Lyos explained calmly, “I hope you will allow my bloodline to continue existing in this world, even if you banish the imperial family. In return, I will give you the coordinates of the residence the three of us shared in the void. All of our treasures over many years are stored there, ripe for the taking. In addition, I don’t mind giving up my life to put you at ease.”

Richard’s followers immediately showed signs of agreement with the deal. Even at the brink of death, a legend was extremely dangerous. Lyos being willing to give up his life meant their own wouldn’t be in danger; this was the best outcome.

However, Richard just smiled, “You know, Lyos, I have much more experience with the nightmare creatures than you do. They’re incredibly sensitive to life, incredibly. So why would they rush out to attack me without a single one staying behind to continue hunting you? I believe the answer is simple...

“You’re already dead.”

Lyos froze up before flashing a wry smile, “So I couldn’t fool you. You know far more than I expected, I’m really curious about where you’re from.”

“Norland, a primary plane.”

“Primary plane... I’ve been exploring the void for centuries, but what is a primary plane?”

“You don’t even... Unfortunate, this is common vernacular in the higher echelons of the myriad planes.” Richard shrugged; the word primary plane had obvious requirements behind it to anyone in the know, but the legends of Faelor had no such experience. As a first-generation explorer, it was unlikely for Lyos to have even come close to a primary plane and survived. Many got to know of such things through other legends, but not coming across one for centuries was quite normal in the boundless void. Had such an encounter occurred, Faelor’s destiny might have been changed long ago.

Although Richard didn’t explain anything, Lyos’ expression changed and, in an instant, understood what had happened. He slowly calmed down, “So what’s your evaluation of Faelor?”

“Pretty good, second only to a primary plane.”

“Hehe, so that means we’ll never have the chance of getting there. In that case, none of you should even think of getting something I can’t! Let’s die together!”

The entire mountain started trembling once more to the tune of his bellows, coming from deep underneath. The tunnel started shaking heavily, starting to collapse.

“You can go down with me!” Lyos yelled like a maniac even as the earth below them sank down.

Despite the imminent danger, Richard maintained his calm, “Do you really want everyone in the Frozen Throne to die? Aren’t they your descendants?”

“So what if they die? Useless trash has no value anyway, only the strong have the right to say anything!”

By this point, the tunnel was already filled with rocks. However, Richard still showed no signs of being flustered, even his followers just forming up back to back and watching out for debris. He continued peacefully, “Let me tell you a secret I found out recently. The main frostiron ore vein under this mountain passes right below the Frozen Throne. Right underneath is a world of magma, and the entire mountain is supported by a few dozen pillars of metal.

“Now, let’s say someone wanted to have a backup in case they failed, to bury their enemy with them. That someone might be using steel golems to destroy the pillars right now.”

Lyos’s expression quickly changed, “How did you know?”

Richard just smiled softly, a golden aura shining around his body, “You’re not the only one who can control metal, and with your current state you’re not even the best. Nasia?”

The tremors in the mountain gradually calmed down, the earth coming to a halt. Lyos’s eyes twitched a few times before going wide as saucers, “You’re... Legendary! How? You weren’t! How?”

A strange blue colour quickly spread across Lyos’s skin, his voice gradually weakening until he was only a steel statue. Cyril’s body quickly followed suit, turning into a statue of mithril. As the souls of the two legends dissipated, the power of laws in their bodies had gone out of control and reformed them into their metallic essence.

Deep below, the golems trying to destroy the pillars let go and fell into the magma one by one. The stone walls and pillars of the mountain that had already started growing brittle were coated in a layer of frostiron, becoming solid once more. Some worker drones could no longer stand the high heat below, falling from the holes they had burrowed into to scout.

Richard walked to the two statues and examined them calmly, trying to analyse their structure. Lyos seemed to be made of common frostiron; this was a valuable metal, but this entire amount was only worth a million gold or so. However, a more thorough scan revealed a similar yet more powerful consciousness like the one in the iron spear. Even if damaged, the sculpture would reform on its own. Taking advantage of his legendary state, he trapped this consciousness quickly as well.

This left a bland statue of pure material, but it was no easy task to obtain such pure frostiron. Even a small sliver would bring any weapon or tool to the superior grade, with increased resistance to fire alongside extra hardness and sharpness. There was enough frostiron here to arm 10,000 people.

Richard couldn’t find any similar consciousness in Cyril’s statue, but the material itself was pure mithril and worth over ten million gold. This metal had various uses in creating enchanted weapons and armour, with chainmail made from it especially resistance to mana.

He suddenly had a thought of turning a dozen powerhouses like Cyril into their base resources, gaining hundreds of millions of gold in mithril portions. However, he burst into laughter at the thought; there were a hundred ways to use them that were better than something so stupid.

Unless... he suddenly fell into thought, making a few calculations in his mind. There were many legendary materials that even Sharon did not possess. Auvitrum itself was one such material, but it would only be on the lower end of the spectrum. If he could turn legends into one of these materials, then the value of such a transformation would be much greater than that of the legend if they were alive.

Still, this was all just wishful thinking. Richard wiped away the stray thoughts and had his followers prepare the statues for transport; thousands of workers were already burrowing furiously into the mountain. In only half an hour an elite broke through the wall, with the passage large enough for everyone to walk upright in an hour more.

Once the party returned to the surface, Richard handed an image diamond to the Thinker and directed him to guide the worker drones in a search. This was painstaking work that required patience, but thankfully the drone had that in spades. In the meanwhile, Richard returned to the castle and allowed his followers to get some rest, heading straight for a temporary lab he’d set up to start studying the cores from the spear and Lyos’s body.