Primeval Magic Beasts and True Dragons were both exceptionally powerful creatures, occupying the apex of Terra Continent's ecological niches, even standing alongside "humans."
They were often collectively called "Ancient Dragons," but in truth, some Ancient Dragons were not ancient at all; the history of their birth could be traced in full.
But that was unimportant, because the defining trait of an Ancient Dragon was that its very existence completely transformed the surrounding ecology.
The Rust-Steel Dragon's alteration of Indigo Mountain and the surrounding ranges was obvious. Changes to the physical properties of rock were the most terrifying manifestation of an Ancient Dragon's power. Their Origin Matter and potent Life Psionics were like a living volcano, endlessly spilling outward, subtly dyeing all local matter and living beings in their own colors.
Some even said that Southern Ridge had so many earth-element, metal-branch Magic Beasts precisely because of the Rust-Steel Dragon. But other scholars refuted this, believing the truth to be exactly the reverse: it was precisely because Southern Ridge had so many metal-based lifeforms that the Rust-Steel Dragon had an environment in which to gestate and grow.
Ian's thoughts on the matter were simple.
"Doesn't this sound like an upgraded version of the Crystal Dragon's 'Extraterrestrial Ecosphere Core'?"
"Primeval Magic Beasts and True Dragons... or perhaps, a kind of artificial super-lifeform?"
Riding a pack beast, Ian looked up at Indigo Mountain not far away. This peak, over two thousand meters tall, already pierced the clouds, while the mountain range it belonged to stretched continuously southwestward, eventually reaching the vicinity of Harrison Port and thrusting into the Storm Ocean, forming the skeletal foundation of today's Baisen Peninsula.
And at the very end of that skeleton lay the underground "Redwood Base." Among its thirteen subterranean Variant Ecospheres was one known as the "Metal-Based