Amano Hiro then briefly explained to them the fate of their ancestors, and how the gas dispersed when the First One-Eyed King transformed into the Dragon had altered them into ghouls.
The leader's voice trembled as he spoke: "You mean... it was *that Galraja* that turned us into... ghouls?" He struggled to utter the unfamiliar word.
"Exactly," Amano Hiro confirmed.
This was the first time they had heard the truth about the world, the first time they realized they were not truly "human," and the first time they understood that these dark, confined ruins were not the entirety of the world.
The "walls" they could not cross, seemingly impenetrable, were not the edges of existence.
The leader fell into a long silence, his beliefs and understanding undergoing a seismic reconstruction.
After a long while, he finally lifted his head and asked the most practical and survival-driven question, his voice betraying a subtle hope:
"The world... above... is there enough food?"
Amano Hiro looked at him, then at the other tribe members behind him. Though cautious, their eyes also reflected expectation. He nodded in acknowledgment.
Eto stood beside him, her gaze calm as it swept over the natives, lingering on the composed middle-aged leader.
She keenly sensed that he had considerable strength. Once incorporated into Aogiri Tree, he could serve as a capable officer.
Moreover, if the plan succeeded, and the Dragon was eventually awakened, this underground world would no longer be habitable.
Recruiting these natives would not only provide them a path to survival but also give Aogiri Tree members familiar with the underground environment, already possessing some combat capability.
A guaranteed win. She quickly made this judgment in her mind.
At that moment, Amano Hiro spoke again, drawing Eto's attention back. "What's your decision?"
The leader's gaze shifted between Amano Hiro and Eto.
Finally, his desire for light and survival outweighed his long-held caution and unease.
He drew a deep breath and nodded solemnly: "Alright! We'll go with you to the surface!"
"Rest assured. You won't regret this choice," Amano Hiro said confidently.
For him, bringing these people out of the underground was a trivial matter.
He immediately shifted the topic to another critical issue. "By the way, do you know if there's anything special about this 'Dragon'?
For example, an area obviously different from the rest, or... its core?"
"Core? Something different?" The leader was momentarily stunned, thinking deeply.
Faint memories were stirred. He vaguely recalled older generations in the tribe speaking of...
"I remember... a long time ago, elders said that somewhere on *that Galraja's* body, there used to be a spot... that emitted a faint glow."
He strained to remember. "But that was a long time ago, a legend. I've never seen it myself. Even the elder who told me had only heard it from their elder. I can't be certain... if that's the place you're looking for."
A glint of determination flashed in Amano Hiro's eyes. "Do you know where that legendary glowing spot is?"
"I remember the general direction. I can take you there," the leader nodded.
"Good. Thank you." Amano Hiro signaled for him to lead the way.
The leader turned, preparing to guide the two toward the legendary location.
Eto leaned closer to Amano Hiro, lowering her voice. "Hiro, you're searching for that spot because you want to...?"
Amano Hiro followed the leader, explaining quietly: "To awaken the Dragon, we first need to find its core.
With such a massive body, blindly searching would be like looking for a needle in the ocean.
Moreover, after a hundred years of dormancy, the core may have died, making it even harder to sense."
He glanced at the native leader ahead. "So when I met them earlier, I thought these generations-long underground residents might know some clues. I didn't expect I'd ask the right people."
Eto's expression shifted, a teasing note in her voice: "Oh~ so that's why you insisted on meeting the elders of those three little girls. From the start, you had this plan in mind."
Soon, they arrived at the edge of a massive circular pit that made one's heart race.
Bottomless, seemingly reaching the center of the earth, the darkness exuded an unsettling aura.
"This is it," the leader said, pointing to the black abyss. "Generations have passed down the story: the bottom of this pit used to emit a faint light."
Amano Hiro stood at the rim, staring into the pure darkness below as if gazing into the throat of an ancient, colossal beast.
Without looking back, he said to Eto: "I'll go down and check."
"Be careful," Eto's voice carried rare solemnity.
Amano Hiro nodded slightly and leapt. His dark-red wings instantly spread behind him, countering his descent, letting him glide steadily through the darkness like a bat of the night.
His sharp gaze swept over the steep walls like a searchlight.
After descending a considerable distance, near the pit's bottom, his eyes locked onto something, a section of the Dragon's dark-red body that was completely different from the rest.
Its shape was peculiar, covered in overlapping, petal-like hard keratin layers.
Curled and closed, it formed a huge, yet-to-bloom pale bud.
Amano Hiro's gaze sharpened. *Found it. It's really here.*
He flapped his wings, accelerating his dive, and landed precisely atop the massive bud, over ten meters in diameter.
The surface was cold and hard, seemingly a fusion of bone and exoskeleton.
Without hesitation, his arms swiftly transformed into sharp blades. Hand rose, blade fell,
*Crack!*
Accompanied by a harsh shattering sound, a thick, uneven outer shell was cleanly cut away, revealing a slightly softer inner layer with bizarre patterns.
Amano Hiro pressed his palm directly onto the exposed tissue, holding his breath.
This time, he clearly felt a faint but unmistakable pulse, like a dying heart struggling in its last moments, far more noticeable than anywhere else on the Dragon's body.
He continued to manipulate his blades like a master surgeon, carefully excavating and peeling away the tissue along the area of strongest vitality.
Soon, deep within the layers, a curled form emerged ,
The remains of the First One-Eyed King.
Yet, the sight before Amano Hiro was nothing like he had imagined.
The body was utterly desiccated, skin tightly pressed against bone, a dark-brown petrified texture, as if some force had drained all life and moisture.
Most of the body had completely fused with the surrounding pale Dragon tissue, indistinguishable from it.
Rather than "inhabiting" it, the corpse had essentially become an organ of the Dragon.
This was a far cry from the relatively independent existence of Kaneki in the anime inside the Dragon core.
The First King before him looked more like a seed left at the heart of a fruit after all nutrients had been extracted, hardened and lifeless.