Chapter 467: The Eye Beneath Greyfen [ 1 ]

The cavern continued trembling long after the Cindermaw Geode Salamander died.

Fragments of stone occasionally broke loose from the ceiling and disappeared into the enormous crater Sage had created, while streams of molten rock glowed between shattered slabs before slowly darkening.

The ancient chamber they had entered no longer existed in any recognizable form.

Several ruined pillars had collapsed, the western wall had been partially buried beneath Sage’s Earth Magic, and enormous roots summoned by his Nature Magic still hung across the battlefield, their surfaces blackened by fire.

Mina stood near the edge of the crater with her shield resting against one shoulder, studying the destruction before glancing toward Sage with an expression that made it obvious she had revised several opinions about the supposedly harmless Guildmaster who spent most of his days buried beneath paperwork.

Lucan looked equally thoughtful, although he disguised it better, while Rowan had already moved toward the Cindermaw’s remains to inspect its abnormal crystalline growths. Iris alone wasn’t interested in the corpse. She was staring beneath it.

"Sage, come here," Iris called, crouching near a fracture that had opened across the cavern floor during the battle.

She held one palm several inches above the crack, and a small blue Magic Circle rotated beneath her hand as droplets of water gathered from the damp stone. "The mana current became stronger after your Earth Magic broke this section open. I don’t think that’s because we’re closer horizontally. I think we’re finally close enough vertically for my spells to sense it properly."

Sage walked over and crouched beside her. Even without the Aetheric Insight Eyes, he could feel something now. It wasn’t pressure in the ordinary sense.

Mana didn’t pour upward from the fracture like it might from a rich vein or magical spring. Instead, the ambient mana surrounding his body seemed reluctant to remain where it was, as though an invisible current beneath the earth constantly tugged at it.

Sage extended his hand and released a tiny amount of mana from his palm.

Rather than dispersing naturally, the energy drifted toward the fracture and disappeared below.

"It’s still pulling," Sage observed, watching the last traces vanish.

Iris nodded immediately, her fascination overcoming the exhaustion of the previous battle as she explained that the pull had become considerably more organized.

Before entering the ruins, she had detected a general directional movement. Here, however, every reading was descending toward the same underground region.

Rowan returned from the carcass carrying a broken piece of crimson crystal.

He tossed it beside Iris before saying, "That thing was affected by it too. The crystal growths near its spine are newer than the rest of its armor. Some hadn’t finished hardening."

Iris picked up the fragment and examined its interior before her expression tightened. She pointed toward several irregular layers within the crystal and explained that the growth was unnatural, almost as though the creature had absorbed more mana than its body could properly process and had been forced to store the excess physically.

Lucan rested his sword against his shoulder and looked toward the ruined battlefield before asking whether that meant the creature had been sitting above whatever was beneath Greyfen and feeding from the mana concentration.

Rowan gave a slight nod and replied that it was the most likely explanation, although judging from the abandoned territories above, most Magic Beasts had possessed enough instinct to flee instead.

Mina approached the fracture and peered into the darkness before asking, "Can we go down there?"

Sage immediately shook his head and caught the back of her armor before she could lean any farther over the edge.

"Not until we know what ’there’ actually is," he told her, pulling the eleven-year-old away from a drop whose depth none of them could see.

Mina gave him an offended look but didn’t argue. Sage turned toward Iris instead and asked whether her Water Magic could map the lower chambers.

Iris formed another blue Magic Circle, sending several narrow streams through the fracture, but after nearly a minute her brow furrowed.

She eventually cancelled the spell and admitted, "There’s too much interference. My water travels downward normally for perhaps two hundred feet, and then the feedback becomes distorted. I can’t tell whether I’m sensing empty space, stone or something else."

That answer bothered Sage more than if the spell had simply failed. He looked toward the fracture again before straightening.

"Everyone move away from me," Sage instructed, his expression becoming serious. "I’m going to push farther than I did above. I don’t know how long I’ll need."

Rowan immediately moved Mina and Lucan toward the surviving eastern wall, while Iris reluctantly followed after giving Sage one final look.

Once they were clear, Sage sat on a relatively intact slab and closed his eyes. He steadied his breathing, ignored the residual ache from his earlier spellcasting and began directing mana toward his eyes.

The amount he had used previously had been enough to perceive natural mana veins across several miles of Greyfen. This time he didn’t merely want to see where those veins travelled. He wanted to follow them to their destination.

When Sage opened his eyes, the cavern disappeared beneath light.

Mana filled everything. The remaining roots above him became vast branching networks of green energy, crystals burned like scattered stars inside the walls, and the bodies of his companions appeared as brilliant concentrations of organized power.

Sage ignored them and focused downward. Layers of stone became increasingly transparent beneath his gaze as the Aetheric Insight Eyes traced mana through cracks, underground water channels and mineral deposits.

The natural veins he had observed before immediately appeared, but from this close their distortion was far more dramatic.

Enormous currents descended beneath Greyfen from every direction, bending toward a point buried far below the ruins.

Sage followed them.

His vision descended through hundreds of feet of earth. The pressure behind his eyes increased, but his Divine Grade Mana Veins continued supplying the ability without hesitation.

More currents appeared. Mana from the east joined mana descending from the northern hills.