Unlike the version in mythology, Nidhogg actually went mad while gnawing at the roots of the World Tree. Only afterward did the black dragon become a monster that knew nothing but destruction and slaughter. And what it had gnawed at was none other than one of the Firstborn's neural lines.
Its lair lay directly above a node in part of the Firstborn's brain tissue. The poor thing had chosen to build its nest atop a super-powerful Mental Energy emitter, which had doomed it from the very beginning. Even if Nidhogg had never touched the vines and source blood spreading up from underground, it would sooner or later have gone mad in its dreams from listening to the Firstborn's murmurs.
Hao Ren left Anthony and Izax's father and daughter on standby at the surface, then led the others into the enormous cavern beneath Nidhogg's corpse.
This was not his first close encounter with the Firstborn's deep organs, so the strange, oppressive environment did not unsettle him as strongly as it had the first time. As they advanced through the cavern, he was able to calm himself and introduce Galadriel to the results of his research into this super-demigod creature while observing their surroundings.
"The Firstborn's large tentacles can sometimes reach several kilometers in width, but smaller ones, such as neural bundles, may be only a few meters in diameter or even smaller. I estimate that this cavern leads directly to the brain tissue, so most of what's here consists of neural lines." Hao Ren pointed at the winding vines—or tentacles—growing along the cavern walls while keeping an eye on the ground. "The Firstborn's method of neural transmission is extremely peculiar and doesn't entirely follow the laws of the universe. Some of its neural signals even travel faster than light. A single