Lyla’s body floated in the air and went down into the pit. It was very deep, and it was understandable why the Count hadn’t noticed the ruins’ existence even though they were under the very building he lived in.
“Should we wait until the others come?”
“It’s fine. Let’s just quickly finish the job by ourselves.” Zich kicked the dirt covering the metal door, and the shape of the door became more and more visible. Like the entrance of other ruins, there was a groove at the center, and Zich stuck Windur into it.
Clack! As Zich twisted Windur around, the door made a clicking sound and slowly opened. A staircase that led to the basement came into view.
“Let’s go.” Zich stepped onto the staircase first and Lyla looked up to the top of the pit.
“Can we just leave the pit exposed like this? What if other people see this ruin?”
“I requested the Count to prevent people from coming near this place for now. I don’t think we have to worry, since he keeps promises like the traditional man he is. Besides, what can people do after seeing this? They will just learn that a ruin exists below the Steelwall Estate and the matter will end like that.” Then, Zich tapped his shoulder with Windur to emphasize his point. “It’s not like they can come in without this guy.”
“That’s true.” Lyla nodded and went through the door. When the two went down the staircase and reached a certain level, the door automatically closed and cut off the connection with the outside. The staircase spiraled downwards, and it wasn’t hard for them to see in front as there were stones that emitted light stuck on both sides of the wall. It seemed clear that the ruins’ functions were still alive.
The staircase wasn’t that long, and after they reached the end of the stairs, they saw several stone plates hovering in the air and tunnels leading to the basement. Zich raised his head and checked the other end of the tunnel. It appeared to be considerably long, considering that he couldn’t properly see the end. Then, Zich turned his attention to the hovering stone plates.
“Do we have to go down while riding on those things?”
After studying these stone plates, Lyla nodded. “Yeah, that’s probably right.” Then, she climbed on top of one of them. Then, she asked Zich, “What are you doing? Get on.”
“Are you able to move it?”
“Probably?” she answered.
Zich got on top of the stone plate. At the center of the stone plate, there was a square pillar as tall as the lower half of a human body. Lyla glanced at the top of this pillar and lightly pressed on it.
Wiing! Zich felt mana pour into the stone plate, and the stone plate began to move slowly toward one of the tunnels.
“How did you manage to move it?”
“They have the instructions to start it here.” Lyla pointed at the small bits of writing at the top part of the pillar. They were probably Clowon’s writings. It seemed like Lyla could now fluently read simple messages like this without any trouble after continually researching Clowon’s typography. The tunnel continued for a long distance—the plate first slid down a long slope, then the ground eventually returned to horizontal. Like that, the two moved along the tunnel for a long time.
“I think we are outside the Steelwall Estate now. What do you think?”
“Way beyond it. We probably are out of Violsa now.”
Finally, after a long wait, Zich and Lyla moved out of the tunnel and entered a new space. The ceiling was so high that they had to arch their necks backward completely to see it, and they barely made out the floor beneath them. The stone plate continued to move while hovering in the air.
Zich and Lyla’s focus shot toward the direction the stone plate was heading. There was an object in the distance that looked like a gemstone. From all sides of its multi-faceted surface, it reflected mana light coming from the ceiling, appearing like a diamond or a crystal. As it separated the light shining on its surface and scattered it everywhere, it was beautiful enough to make even the coldest soul stare in wonder.
One could think that this object was a precious gem that Clowon had placed here. However, it also had another characteristic: it was very big. The gem was bigger than most castles, and the beauty of it, combined with its sheer size, was enough to make viewers’ minds go blank from its overwhelming magnificence.
“The scale those Clowon guys operate on is something else entirely,” Zich said in a mocking tone. “It must not be a diamond, right?”
“Yeah, it appears to be a crystal.”
Zich wondered how much value that rock would have if it was a diamond. No, even if it was a random crystal, it would have an astronomical value. There was a circular ring around the crystal, and the stone plate stopped in front of it. The two climbed over the ring, and from closer up, the crystal appeared to be even more impressive. They felt the mana directly coming out of the crystal, and the structure appeared to be even more special considering that it was in a Clowon ruin. Then, Zich and Lyla walked one lap around the ring and studied their surroundings.
“There are no trees.” All the clones of the World Tree they had seen before were in the shape of a tree, even though they had truly unique characteristics. In this space, however, they couldn’t find anything that could be considered a tree or even resemble it.
“This can’t be the tree, right?” Zich asked while looking up at the crystal.
“No way. Even if the World Tree’s clones are special, I doubt they would take such an unusual shape.” Lyla disagreed.
The ring was generally circular in shape, but it protruded in two places. One place was the area where the stone plate which Zich and Lyla had been riding on stopped and seemed to be a stop station. The other protruding spot was located inside of the ring and stretched toward the crystal. This spot was full of devices with unclear functions.
“This must be the equipment to suppress the ruin, right?”
“Probably.” Lyla scanned the device. “It doesn’t seem like it’s broken.” However, it was the same as broken if they didn’t know how to use it. While Lyla inspected every inch of the equipment to find instructions for it—
Bamm! A large sound rang in the space.
“Kyaah!” The ring vibrated, and Lyla’s body shook. Zich immediately grabbed her arms and supported her. He felt an enormous amount of mana sprout out from its surface. The two of them quickly moved to the edge of the ring and looked down.
Thuuud! The sight in front of them was spectacular. It looked like a fairy’s whimsical dance on one hand, and despair scattered at doom’s day on the other hand. The floor they saw before was shrouded in darkness, no longer visible. Instead of the ground, the sight of red, blue, green, and brown colors colliding and shattering against each other came into view.
‘It’s mana.’ It was an amazing sight. Although mana was normally invisible, it was hard to believe that one could see it so visibly. How dense was the mana?
‘Is it red for fire mana, blue for water mana, green for wind mana, and brown for earth mana?’ Mana with different properties showed different and distinct colors. They collided against each other as if they were fighting for space. When the red mana approached the blue mana, its strength significantly decreased, and when it approached the green mana, it increased in strength. This was not strange considering the nature of their properties. On the other hand, something else caught Zich and Lyla’s attention.
“The mana feels familiar,” Lyla murmured. The mana swirling below them felt familiar. “Is that mana from the World Tree’s clones?”
They sensed all the mana they felt from the trees they had seen so far. Lyla pushed her face slightly further out of the ring. “It seems as if the mana from the World Tree’s clones spread out all over the world is gathered here.”
“Then, is this like a magic reservoir for mana?”
Kuoooohhhh! The mana breaking apart and increasing in size began slowly spinning around the crystal sphere. It wrapped around the strong pillars reinforcing the crystal sphere and climbed up. Then, the crystal absorbed the mana. Zich and Lyla saw multi-colored mana fill the crystal like paint dripping into transparent water. The mana strands inside the crystal began mixing with each other and eventually lost their original colors. Soon, the four different colors completely disappeared, and only white mana was left in the crystal.
The crystal let out light. It wasn’t the same beautiful light surrounding the crystal anymore. It was intense like the sun, and the mana inside the crystal began rising up again. It wrapped around another pillar connecting the large crystal and ceiling and began climbing again. After a while—
Flash! The mana let out a bright light and swept to one side; in an instant, it was absorbed into the wall without leaving a trace. The only thing left was the faintly visible ground and the light-reflecting crystal. They could no longer see the mana from the World Tree’s clones.
“It seems like it’s over.” Zich had been holding onto Lyla to protect her from an unknown danger, but he let go of her arm.
“Oh my, I don’t mind if you keep holding onto me.”
“It’s too cumbersome.”
“Well, I’ll do it then.” Lyla put her arms around Zich, and he didn’t push her away. Then, Zich glanced down.
“We just saw something quite interesting.”
“Yeah. It would be very hard to see a sight like this anywhere in the world.”
“What do you think it is?”
“Hmm. We have too little information to make a final decision by just seeing that. If I make a prediction…” Lyla slightly tapped her chin with her thumb. “Don’t you think it might be the energy maintaining the Brushel System?”
Zich also had the same thoughts as Lyla. “Then, the direction that the white mana headed towards must be where the Brushel System is, right?”
“Yeah, I think so too.”
“The original World Tree would be there as well.” Zich and Lyla stared at the wall that the white mana had disappeared off to. Zich smirked. “It seems as if we’ve finally found our last goal.”
“Control your expression, Zich. If the other kids see you right now, they’ll not only burst out crying but they’d all freak out.” Zich’s expression was so terrifying that Lyla almost instinctively let go of Zich’s arm. However, considering that he snorted, he definitely had no intentions of listening to Lyla’s words.
“To change the subject—” Zich moved his gaze away from the wall and turned his body around. The enormous crystal came into view. Since they were near the crystal, he couldn’t even see the whole shape. However, the size of the crystal was of no importance to Zich.
“Lyla, did you perhaps see what happened when the crystal let out white mana?”
“Yeah. You’re talking about the shadows reflected inside the crystal, right?”
When the white mana left the crystal, they saw some type of shadow inside. Zich put more strength into his eyes and intently stared at the crystal. After finding out that there might be something inside the crystal, it seemed as if he could really see something that seemed like a shadow inside the crystal.
Zich asked, “Then, what do you think it is?”
“I could barely see it, so I’m not sure. But if I have to say it…” Lyla recalled the shape again—it was a shadow among the bright light inside the crystal. It had an enormous body with folded wings and a long tail. There were even horns on top of its head. Lyla had never seen it in real life, so she couldn’t be sure, but there was one existence that came to her mind. “It looked like a dragon.”
“Yeah.” Zich stared at the crystal with sharp eyes. “I think so too.”