The quantity and concentration were far lower than what he had consumed before, but it was still worth eating. Since it was underground, he would simply dig in. The massive Black Dragon opened its fanged maw, dorsal spines glowing blue white and shifting toward orange as a deep hum rose from his chest.
A blue white Spiral Heat Ray blasted out, detonating on contact with the ground. Soil and rock could not withstand such extreme heat, and the beam bored through thousands of meters of earth, causing violent tremors. After carving a scorched tunnel filled with magma and crystal residue, Belial walked inside.
If there were still areas to clear, he would simply fire another blast. Tunnel collapse did not concern him either, since a simple Gravity Tornado could compress the soil harder than steel. As for surface quakes or collapses, that was none of his concern.
"Just like before. Time to eat again," he said. The enormous Black Dragon forced its way into a narrow vein, then used Gravity Tornado to expand a huge cavity. The surrounding ore differed from what he had eaten before and contained much less Magic, but with Energy Field active, everything within range was forcibly extracted.
He had not yet confirmed the size of the vein, but it did not seem small. "I'll just absorb it slowly… hmm?" As Energy Field spread, Mephist noticed something unusual. In another area, Magic from the ore was converging in a circular pattern.
In his vision, it formed an extremely dense mass of Magic, carried by a structure that felt oddly familiar. "Interesting. Let's take a look," he said. Whether to inspect it or devour it, his curiosity was piqued.
Nothing underground could stop a Great Dragon. With a lower output Spiral Heat Ray, he carved forward and soon saw the massive Magic cluster. After a moment, he realized what it was. "Oh, that explains why it felt familiar."
Before him stood a huge crystal prism, softly glowing as it gathered and sealed Magic within. Its properties resembled his own crystallization, which saved him a lot of effort. "All this ready made Magic. Don't mind if I do."
"Was that an earthquake?" Wearing a robe and suppressing her presence with Magic, Lilith stepped out of a shop with bags floating behind her. She felt faint tremors from deep underground, seemingly in the direction of her Sky Island.
She tilted her head, unconcerned. The Magic Array used her crystals as solid carriers and would not break easily. It was probably just minor movement caused by extracting Magic Crystal Ore and Magic. It was nothing to worry about.
"You had better give me a reasonable explanation. It collapsed. What happened?"
In the dim room, Ludwig's face was darker than the shadows as he gripped the man's head with one bare hand, as if holding an egg. The man whimpered, kneeling and trembling, not daring to move while pain shot through his skull. "M-my lord, we truly do not know," the supervisor said, his voice shaking.
"There were two high-powered Fire Magic impacts from above the construction site, but we still cannot identify their source," he continued, swallowing hard. "Because of those two bursts of Magic, the foundation below loosened. It could have been stabilized, but then an unexpected small earthquake happened." He hurried to add, "Please be assured, the excavated object was not damaged."
A sound like machinery shifting came from Ludwig's arm, but he did not let go, his expression heavy. "What about the Magic Crystal Ore side? Has that thing been dug out yet?" The supervisor stammered that it had not, though they were certain it was outside that Witch's activity range.
"Keep searching. Replace the watchers with a new group," Ludwig said coldly. After the supervisor crept out, he sank into the sofa and entered his daily habit of emptying his mind, finding a bit of quiet that way. The excavation was progressing well, and in a few more days the full outline should be revealed.
"Ancient Weapon," he murmured, gripping the armrest until his knuckles tightened. His voice was restrained, but heat filled it. "It will be mine. Mine."
"I eat, eat, eat!"
Crunching like biting into an ice pop, Belial easily tore off a large chunk from the tall Crystal Prism. The massive amount of Magic inside satisfied him greatly, and he could tell this crystal was made differently from the surrounding ore. Its structure trapped Magic so that it flowed in easily but barely leaked out.
He also noticed circuit-like lines nearby, similar to Magic Circle. These lines gathered and transmitted Magic even more efficiently, with the crystal as the core. After a bit of thought, Belial felt he understood what this place was.
"It looks like a naturally formed treasure created by some kind of Magic Array. I am really lucky."
He kept eating, gnawing down the entire tall Crystal Prism until nothing remained. Based on his energy sense and judgment, he guessed these natural Magic Array lines would keep directing Magic to another similar spot. That meant there was more than one such crystal node.
He was not in a hurry to find and eat them all, because this gave Mephist a useful idea. The original plan had been simple: lie on the ground, grow crystals, expand Energy Field, and drain all the Magic in the area, then move and repeat until the whole vein was empty. Now that Belial had grown, the range of Energy Field was much larger, so he thought of another approach.
This vein was not as rich or concentrated as the last one, with scattered deposits of lower quality and quantity. That made him think he could make use of these natural Magic Array formations. "They are all crystals anyway," he muttered. "Mine will be better and faster. I will leave one here to grow."
A white crystalline prism burst from the ground, and under the urging of Belial's the Lord, it spread rapidly. It grew taller than the previous one, enough to support the area, branching out like a pale crystal tree. Smaller crystals spread like roots, occupying those Magic Array circuits, expanding Energy Field, and gathering nearby Magic.
According to his plan, his own crystals would play the same role as the original, using the natural Magic Array to collect Magic. That way he could go eat other node crystals, and he would not miss the Magic in the remaining ore here either. After finishing elsewhere, he could come back to harvest.
This was something he could only do now that Energy Field had reached this level. Along the way, he could drop a few more crystals as signal relays, letting his control range spread for dozens of miles. Next, he just needed to sense the largest nearby source of Magic and fire a simple heat beam to open the shortest path.
Relying on his tough head, Belial slammed straight out from underground, blasting an easy tunnel to the surface with a bit of internal radiation. He began a wide search, and from his perception, the nodes seemed arranged in a circle. As long as he flew along the arc from his current spot, he would find them.
"Found another one, nice!"
With a cheer, another heat beam blasted down, and Belial dove underground again. The routine was smooth: eat the crystal, leave his own behind, move on to the next. He was fast, flying to three or four spots in no time, and the huge intake of Magic made both his body and mind feel good.
"Woohoo!"
A team of Mud Golem carrying stones sensed the strange sound and reaction and began to scout the area. In the next moment, their heavy bodies of mud and rock were shredded into Shard by a sudden, violent pressure wave.
"Did I hit something?"
Feeling a bit of odd movement, Belial glanced back while flying low. "Oh, just rocks. That is fine. What is that thing ahead?" He seemed to see something standing on the land in the distance.
"Why are some of my puppets gone?"
Just after leaving the city, Lilith, carrying many packed supplies behind her, suddenly felt several of her puppets lose contact. Losing one or two now and then was normal, since accidents could happen if she was not watching. This time was different, as an entire team was cut off at once, which meant they had been wiped out almost instantly.
Her expression darkened slightly. "That Ludwig would not be trying something sneaky while I am gone, would he?" No matter what, the Witch became serious and hurried back. Being robbed like this meant there was no time for wandering around outside.
A light whirlwind rose from the ground as her abundant Magic expanded to a range of about three meters. Within this ready-made field, she quickly constructed Magic. Lilith shot forward at once, without causing strong wind pressure or breaking the sound barrier.
With extremely precise control and Magic, she quickly returned near her own Sky Island. What she saw was that broken, massive Magic Array. "What is going on?!"
Anger mixed with confusion as more than half of the ritual nodes she had set up were torn out, completely losing contact. At the same time, a strange Magic was being forced into the circuits of her Magic Array. She had no time to deal with that, because her Sky Island was in front of her.