City Lord Ditya stood with two guards by his side. They weren’t nearly as large as Moose, but they had quite some heft to them nonetheless.
His eyes gleamed as he looked down at a rush of white energy spiraling into the air.
This was the Aether Stone Mine.
However, he, much like the others, didn’t dare to move. As for the reason…
The charred remains of a bear demon lay scattered on the ground, the pickax it had been wielding likewise laying in a strewn-out pile of splintered wood and dented metal.
By the side, there were other bear demons that had been in the vicinity that suffered from the impact as well. They were currently licking at their wounds. But some of said wounds were so ghastly and gaping that one could only wonder what kind of help licking at them would provide.
There was one bear demon whose left arm was gone, along with large patches of flesh from its left chest. Ditya and the others were even quite sure they could see its ribcage. And yet it continued to lick at itself as though it wasn’t bleeding out.
As for Moose, its leader, he seemed blissfully unaware as though it had nothing to do with him.
Finally, Braxwell understood why it was Moose would come personally. He had already suffered a loss.
Though the bear demons he had working on the mine were certainly the weakest in his charge, every City Lord that had made it this far could tell you that the tightest resource wasn’t food, water, or even treasures and resources…
It was people.
Finding good people, powerful people, loyal people…
That was the struggle of every City Lord.
Moose definitely had a way of ensuring the loyalty of even these demons. But whatever that method was, Braxwell bet it came at a high price, and he wasn’t unwilling to lose even a few miners.
“What happened?” Braxwell eventually asked.
“We were just mining as normal, and one of the bear demons must have hit a vein or something. There was an explosion—an oddly contained one—and then this white steam started coming up. The working theory is that the demon ruptured an Aether Stone. But now that we know this is possible, we need to be more cautious…” Ditya explained slowly.
The Aether Stone Mine was invaluable. Although they didn’t know about all its uses, these three had done their own research. While only having touched the tip of the iceberg, they knew that it was something they had to have.
Of course, they wouldn’t be able to monopolize it. The only reason they even knew this mine was here was because of the Africor Continental Government. However, in return for mining it for them, they would be able to keep a portion of the profits, and they were very much looking forward to that.
However, they had not realized that those two kings and the queen of the continent weren’t just handing them free money because they were lazy. In all likelihood, they knew how dangerous these mines could be and were more than happy to pawn the danger onto someone else.
Ditya’s speculation was correct.
Mining an Aether Stone Mine was akin to mining for lithium batteries… if lithium batteries were about a hundred times more explosive.
Aether Stone Mines were formed when a high concentration of Aether was trapped underground. Without being able to find an escape route, the Aether would begin to burrow into the normal rocks and eventually saturate them. This process would turn otherwise normal rocks crystalline.
As the Aether’s concentration increased, the rock would begin to atrophy from the inside out. It could even be said that Aether Stones had a shelf life that had to be taken into account because of them. Which was also why the Africor Government had provided special containers to deal with them.
To make a much more complicated geological process simple, the Aether Stones were practically ticking time bombs of energy looking for an outlet to escape.
Nine out of ten times, the exterior of the stone would be sturdy enough to withstand a hit or two. But if you happened to hit an Aether Stone that was on the verge of bursting… well, this was the result.
One dead bear demon and about a half a dozen more lightly to severely injured ones.
As for why the explosion was more contained than a normal one, even to the point Braxwell hadn’t heard it, it was because Aether in its natural state, at least neutral Aether like this one, was quite docile.
The moment this Aether entered the atmosphere, it could integrate seamlessly. As such, the danger was short-lived, abrupt, and had no sustained peak.
Unless, of course… there was a chain reaction triggered in the mine.
Whether it was Braxwell, Ditya, or Moose, this was what they were the most concerned about.
What would they do if they hit a ready-to-burst Aether Stone that was near others like it? Would that chain reaction explode the entire mine, taking them all with it?
The obvious choice was to keep having Moose sacrifice his bear demons. But even Ditya didn’t believe the simple giant was stupid enough to accept that.
A silence fell over the encampment until all one could hear was the haggard breathing of the injured bear demons. The wind howled around them as though it were trying to suck the atmosphere clean of it all.
Moose was the first to frown. Their breathing alone couldn’t be influencing the wind to this extent. His gaze shot up only to find a sight that made his eyes widen.
Above, there was the body of a large peacock. It must have had a wingspan of at least 15 meters, its feathers of violet, black, and icy blue shimmering beneath the high sunlight.
It was so high in the skies that it didn’t even cast a shadow over them, almost vanishing within the rays of the sun.
Sylas was here.
WHOOOSH.
