Looking at the oil painting in his hand, Dago gently brushed his fingers across its surface. Fine specks of light seeped into the canvas along his fingertips.
Soon, something magical happened.
"Rustle, rustle—"
The sound of pages turning rang out. The young man in the black robe within the painting actually "came alive," slowly flipping through the book in his hands as if he were real.
Dago released his hand gently, and the entire canvas was lifted by an invisible force, firmly embedded in the wall opposite the entrance to the secret chamber. A thin layer of ice crystals rose up, giving the painting a crystal-like "frame"—
This method was enough to preserve the entire painting from decay for hundreds of years, perhaps even longer.
Dago quietly admired his portrait, "animated" through special means. Then, with a flick of his right hand, four ice spheres radiating a bone-chilling cold appeared in his palm.
The frost rapidly melted away, revealing metal objects of various shapes sealed within—one was a broken badge engraved with a rhinoceros, another an old brass kettle missing its spout.
Dago made a grasping motion with his five fingers, and with a bang, all four metal objects exploded into great clouds of reddish-brown smoke.
Low monster roars sounded from within the smoke. Vast, heavy bodies gleaming with metallic luster could vaguely be seen emerging.
Dago remained calm as he recited a brief incantation. Threads of white light shot from the tips of his spread fingers, quickly burrowing into the billowing clouds.
Before long, all the reddish-brown clouds contracted and returned to their original forms as metal objects, flying to the four corners of the secret chamber and settling there quietly.
Back at the Mechanical Heart Ruins, Dago had obtained quite a few metal elemental lifeforms. He had kept