He recalled how poorly he had slept near the volcano and felt satisfied. Then he remembered how Lilith's Magic Array had once been set up, only to be chewed up by him as a snack. He also remembered being blown out of his bed while sleeping in a volcano.
"Haha, how could that happen? I am buried so deep, and there is no one around."
"The outermost crystals even have automatic defenses. Anyone who comes close will get guided ghost crystals."
"With all this in place, I should finally sleep well."
Laughing, Belial felt he had worried too much. Being disturbed even while sleeping underground would be ridiculous. With that thought, he lay down, wrapped himself in his wings, and his massive body slowly sank into the crystal tree.
The Black Dragon steadily absorbed nearby Magic, breathing evenly as it fell asleep. Around him, there was nothing but crystals, silent and still.
"Boom!"
"What was that?"
"Did we dig into something?"
A massive explosion echoed from deep within the underground mine. Several hours later, the overseer entered the dark tunnel with a grim expression, having just received injury reports from below. He glared at the trembling subordinates in front of him.
"Do not tell me you messed up the blasting ratios and hurt yourselves. There is no compensation for that."
Sweating, they hurriedly denied it. They explained that they had uncovered something strange deep in the mine, and that it exploded. The overseer frowned and fell silent for a moment.
"What was it?"
"It looked like some unknown crystal mineral."
They opened a box containing dull fragments of a gray-white crystal, shattered by Rend. The overseer picked up a small Shard piece and infused it with Magic.
"Hm?"
The crystal slowly began to absorb the Magic and emitted a faint white glow. This unheard-of trait made the overseer draw a sharp breath. He quickly compared it to something important in his memory.
"Do not let anyone touch those crystals for now."
"Also, gather more samples and send them to my residence."
After issuing these orders, his expression changed subtly. Once outside, he quickened his pace and boarded a vehicle. The thing Ludwig was looking for might finally have been found.
An identical crate was opened in front of Ludwig. Inside were fragments of white crystals of all sizes, mixed with dirt, all dull and already broken by Rend. Ludwig glanced at the steward standing respectfully nearby, picked up a piece without expression, and injected a trace of Magic into it.
Bang. The crystal crumbled into powder in his hand, and the steward's face stiffened. "Ah, no, that is not right. My lord, please let me explain." "Shut up."
Without changing his expression, Ludwig continued to handle the remaining fragments in the crate. Some shattered with a little pressure, others with a thin flow of Magic, all breaking into Shard and dust. "Leave." "Yes."
The steward withdrew in a trembling hurry, relieved that there was no immediate punishment. Ludwig selected a relatively intact fragment, and the skin of his palm split under a ripple of Rend, exposing a dull gray metallic structure beneath. He drew the Shard into his body for analysis, and shapes like extra eyes seemed to form beside his own, filled with a malice that went beyond Laws as the crystal was stripped apart layer by layer.
If the steward had seen Ludwig like this, he would never have taken the man for human. A sound like a soft chuckle escaped, half smile and half the scrape of joints, as threads forced a grin across a face stiff as a puppet. It was very good, because even if this was not the core node he sought, it was at least a clear lead.
That weapon that had once destroyed his forces had not lost its most important core too far away. After decades of preparation, he had finally found it. "Come in."
After a short while, the steward was summoned again and entered the office after knocking. He saw Ludwig sitting stiffly, hands folded. "This thing might be a clue. Was it found in the deepest mining area?" "Yes, my lord. It was found in the newly opened deep zone, and I have sealed that area for now."
Ludwig smiled. "Continue mining. These crystals explode, so I will send troops to deal with it. Have them widen the tunnels." He paused, then added, "Deal with everyone who knows about this. An accident or anything else, your choice." "Yes, my lord."
The order was absurd, but the steward did not hesitate. He only felt his body stiffen for a brief moment as he bowed, without realizing it himself. That strange stiffness matched Ludwig perfectly.
Deep within the cavern, the only light came from a few hanging oil lamps. Heavy footsteps and a dull vibration rolled across the ground, followed by a low hum as several towering figures squeezed into the narrow space. Soldiers hurried out of the cavern, and memories of puppet-like war machines left a trace of fear.
Below stood several machines four to five meters tall, built from Magic-infused metal and thick steel. Their lower halves were rolling tracks, and their upper halves carried heavy engineering tools, more like siege engines than mining machines, with cannons and drills mounted in place. Refined magic crystals burned in their engines, belching black smoke.
"So these are the special crystals?" Anried, dressed in the uniform of a special unit, stared with interest at the faintly glowing white crystals around the perimeter. He had heard they had already killed more than ten people, but to him that was nothing at all.
"These are nothing," he said with confidence. "I will not disappoint the legion commander. Move." The massive machines behind him stirred as threads extended from his fingers along with Magic commands. One machine spun its huge drill and drove it straight into the crystals.
A violent explosion followed, and shards of Shard sprayed out like shells. "Block it!" Startled by the force, a nearby machine raised a massive shield, while the closest unit took visible damage.
Anried let out a breath. "Just this much? I will find out what is inside." After checking the damage, he used the machines to clear a path and advance deeper. As a Magic apprentice focused on controlling magitech, he could still sense that these crystals held far more Magic than ordinary Magic Crystal Ore, though their tendency to explode made them worthless to mine.
Orders were orders, and the legion commander wanted to know what lay at the deepest point. Anried led his squad forward, while other teams explored underground at the same time. Explosions around them were manageable for these elites.
Aboveground, Ludwig stood with his hands lowered, threads extending from him into something unseen as he felt the situation below. A faint smile appeared. This level of abnormality meant it was almost certainly connected to the core, or at least something useful, and the central area should be the final gathering point of Magic.
In his analysis, the crystals themselves were ordinary minerals mixed with impurities. What mattered was the Magic within them. The scattered energy from the weapon's core had formed this vein, radiating outward in a circular pattern, though the presence of several nodes still puzzled him.
He did not dwell on it. A weapon born of extreme intellect having parts even he could not fully read was normal enough. Let the puppets test the way ahead, since it would not be him who died.
Soon, several puppet teams approached the node areas. Anried, covered in dust, finally reached a wider cavern after being blasted along the way. At its center stood a brighter, taller conical crystal, with smaller crystals spreading outward from it.
It pulsed with Magic like breathing, and Anried could tell it was unusual from the flow around it. Following orders, he decided to take it back first. "The commander said nodes like this should not explode easily. It should be safe."
Even so, he stayed cautious. He had the heaviest machine shield him while others destroyed the base crystals to pry the whole thing free. Tracks crushed smaller crystals, triggering a series of small explosions that could not shake the machines' massive weight.
A machine extended a toothed circular saw and cut smoothly into the base. The tall crystal began to flash rapidly, but since it did not explode at once, Anried pushed harder. Then the cavern shook violently, crystals fell from above, and he felt as if he were under bombardment.
"What is going on?" he shouted.
A surge of light spread outward, and the machine cutting the crystal was torn apart by a massive Magic shock. Its engine detonated, and the tall crystal spun like a drill, glowing as every surrounding crystal exploded at once.
Above, Ludwig was not surprised to see several puppet teams lose contact. These were disposable scouts, and triggering expected dangers meant they had done their job. Simple explosions could not stop him, and the blast radius looked roughly circular, making containment easy.
He was about to send in the remaining forces when he froze. The ground began to tremble, growing stronger, and every remaining unit was wiped out in an instant. That should not have been possible, even accounting for losses.
"What is that?" Several intense Magic sources rushed toward him from underground, and by his judgment, they were the nodes themselves. The feeling was like stealing from a safe only for it to grow legs and chase you.