Chapter 493: The Nexus Does It’s Job

"BY THE GODS!" Tasmin shrieked in horror.

"SHE HAS A LIVING TRANSPORT?!" Brida roared, her eyes bulging out of her skull! "THAT IS AN UNFAIR USE OF MAGIC!"

SWOOOOOOOSH!

The massive emerald root shot straight over their heads, clearing the remaining two hundred yards in a single gliding leap.

It gracefully touched down right before the threshold of Blessed Land, setting the cheering girls and the colossal Titan Golem down onto the gravel outside with a soft rustling sigh, arriving at the boundary a full twenty seconds before anyone else.

SKRRRR-SLIDE!

Brida and Tasmin pulled their Blessed Wolves to a violent frantic halt outside the entrance with their mounts kicking up massive waves of slush as they skidded across the road.

"WE WERE ROBBED!" Brida screamed, throwing both hands into the air as she glared at the smiling goddess. "SHE DIDN’T EVEN USE LEGS! SHE RODE A VEGETABLE!"

"That is a clear violation of everything!" Tasmin hissed, jumping down from her saddle, her face pale with bitter burning resentment. "She bypassed the entire terrain!"

"Now, now, ladies! Calm yourselves! Lower your voices!"

Stepping out from the gatehouse into the falling snow were half a dozen stout dwarven officers, led by a dwarf named Boa.

The dwarves were bundled in heavy shearling coats, holding thick brass measuring calipers, ledger slates, and clipboards.

"You lot put on a hell of a show," Bodil grunted, waving her clipboard to usher the panting women into the outer yard. "Master Thora’s already inside the logistics hub... The Lord of Blessed Land has received the preliminary extraction manifests, and he’s thoroughly pleased with every single detachment."

The girls paused with their breathing heavy, looking at the dwarf with wide eager eyes.

"Is he coming out to see us?" Brenda asked, shivering slightly in the cold.

"Aye, eventually," Bodil chuckled, rolling her shoulders. "The Lord will personally receive and review every single squad to hand out your commendations and rewards. But... and he was very specific about this, he ordered that every single woman is to take a hot bath first."

The yard went completely silent.

The twenty women from Brida and Tasmin’s squad blinked and the girls from Eluned’s detachment stopped their cheering as well as the other arriving women.

Not a single woman looked offended.

Instead, a slow wave of rosy warmth began to creep across different female faces simultaneously.

’He... he wants us to bathe first?’

Their minds instantly raced with wild unholy interpretations.

Why would their Lord specifically demand that they wash off the stone dust, soak in hot water, and cleanse their skin before he received them in private?

"Well..." Sion murmured softly, her fingers nervously twisting a lock of sweat-matted hair that was dusted with gray limestone powder.

Her cheeks turned a brilliant adorable shade of scarlet. "I... I suppose I really am quite filthy. It would be terribly rude to stand before the Lord smelling like sulfur and monster guts."

"She’s right!" another woman gasped, her eyes shining with excited energy. "I have chalk all over my thighs! I need hot water! I need that scented jasmine soap too!"

"If he’s going to inspect us," Levia whispered, practically vibrating with nervous anticipation. "I’m scrubbing until my skin is glowing!"

A chorus of breathless eager giggles rippled through the gathered army of women.

The exhaustion of eight hours of brutal labor vanished in a flash, replaced by a mad chaotic scramble as the women began dismounting, checking their mirrors, and whispering furiously among themselves about bathhouse rotations and lavender oils.

Boa shook her head with a dry knowing smirk, stepping aside.

"Open the gates properly!" Boa shouted. "Let the wolves through to the Pavilion!"

The massive gates creaked inward.

The women, leading their panting Blessed Wolves by the reins, surged into the warm torchlit interior of Blessed Land, their laughter and excited chatter echoing off the stone walls as they rushed past the Spirit Trees and toward the territory’s bathouse.

Left behind in the wide outer staging yard, standing beside the towering stone walls, was the massive fleet of heavy transport constructs.

Dozens of Phase 1 Titan Golems and Phase 2 working units stood in neat disciplined rows, their chassis caked in snow and their massive alloy bins bulging with hundreds of tons of high-grade ores, Mana Diamonds, Star-Iron, virgin alloy... and so many more.

VUUUUUUUM!

A gentle shimmer of spatial mana resonated through the falling snow.

Materializing right in the center of the staging yard was Aeliana.

The high-elf hero stood tall and immaculate, her pristine golden hair cascading down her back like liquid sunlight, completely untouched by the freezing slush.

Her striking silver-gold eyes swept across the gathered constructs, her slender hands resting lightly over the white-and-silver robes of her rank.

She brought her hands together, letting out two crisp authoritative claps.

CLAP! CLAP!

"Splendid work, everyone," Aeliana’s melodic voice rang out with crystal-clear clarity. "The field operations are concluded. Golems, execute uncoupling protocol and lower the payloads."

WHIRRRR-CLANG-HISS!

The dozens of colossal stone constructs stirred simultaneously.

Standing on their massive hind legs, the golems reached behind their shoulders with their articulated bedrock arms.

Heavy iron locking latches snapped open with the sound of cracking timber.

With terrifying precision, the constructs lifted the massive reinforced alloy storage crates... each one weighing several tons and bulging with extracted wealth cleanly off their backs, setting them down onto the frozen gravel of the staging yard in neat organized motions.

Aeliana walked gracefully along the rows of stacked crates, turning her silver-gold gaze toward Boa and the gathered dwarven logistics crew.

"Do you have the perimeter tallies secured, Master Boa?" Aeliana asked politely.

"Aye, Lady Aeliana," Boa replied, saluting with her clipboard. "All bins accounted for and the ledgers are accounted for too..."

The magic of the ledgers was that what the girls wrote was reflected in the main paper and the Boa and the rest had been tallying them since.

"The haul is ready for transit."

"Very well."

Aeliana stepped into the center of the massive grid of crates as she closed her eyes, inhaling a slow deep breath of the freezing basin air.

She raised both hands, her slender palms meeting in a single, resounding clap.

CRACK-FLASH!

A blinding dome of silver spatial mana erupted outward from her silhouette, enveloping Aeliana and every single multi-ton alloy crate in a roaring vortex of distorted space.

When the light snapped shut a microsecond later, Aeliana and hundreds of tons of raw ore had completely vanished from the staging yard, leaving behind only the cold wind and empty gravel.

Boa and the dwarven crew stood in the quiet yard, looking up at the towering silent siege constructs standing before them.

Bodil raised her portable rune slate, pressing the master rune.

"All units," Bodil commanded gruffly. "Operation concluded so deactivate!"

CLANK-HISS.

The amber lenses on every single golem flickered, dimmed, and extinguished.

The hydraulic hiss of their mana conduits died down to absolute silence as their internal cores settled into deep,dormant sleep with the massive stone bodies stiffening, deactivating, and returning to harmless unmoving pillars of mountain rock.

’It seems the changes that were made to them before being used today are working...’

Boa pocketed her slate, letting out a long foggy sigh as she looked toward the gates.

"Bloody hell..." the dwarf muttered, scratching her rough beard-line with a heavy sigh. "After a day like this... I hope the Lord’s got a few of those special rewards saved for the logistics crew too. We’re the ones who have to count every damn pebble."

Boa herself wouldn’t mind it if her mouth was full of his dick.

...

POP-FLASH!

Deep within the reinforced subterranean foundations of the Keep, the air inside the Sovereign Distribution Nexus twisted with a sharp spatial snap.

Aeliana materialized cleanly in the center of the polished rune-carved floor.

Surrounding her in towering, perfectly aligned rows were the dozens of massive alloy transport crates, their heavy leather tie-down straps still holding the vast mountains of raw ore securely in place.

Towering overhead were sprawling networks of brass sorting conduits, pneumatic vacuum tubes, and glowing crystalline conveyor tracks that stretched across the vaulted ceiling like the circulatory system of a modern industrial complex.

Standing near the primary control dais was Thora, her soot-stained face illuminated by the soft blue light of the central terminals and standing right beside her, leaning his forearms casually against the polished alloy railing, was Silas.

Silas had already visited the private quarters to wash off the grime of Cavern KB-22.

He was dressed in a loose comfortable dark bathrobe made of thick, midnight-blue silk, belted loosely around his waist.

His dark hair was still damp with several wet strands clinging to his forehead, and his neck and chest were clean, radiating the fresh invigorating scent of mountain pine and warm water.

Aeliana took a single step forward, and then her breath subtly hitched.

Her silver-gold eyes locked onto Silas’s damp hair, his relaxed posture, and the effortless aura of masculinity pouring off him in the warm light of the Nexus.

A delicate rosy blush instantly bloomed across the high-elf’s porcelain cheeks as she quickly averted her gaze, her small hands clasping shyly in front of her robes as she offered a deep demure bow.

"L-Lord Sy..." Aeliana stammered softly, her voice barely louder than a whisper as her heart gave an uncharacteristic fluttering leap beneath her ribs. "The... the extraction haul from all outer sectors has been successfully retrieved and secured within the Nexus perimeter."

Silas turned his head, offering her a warm and deeply appreciative smile.

"Incredible work, Aeliana," Silas praised, his voice rich and relaxed. "Your spatial precision saved us hours of dangerous surface hauling in this blizzard... You’ve done Blessed Land an immense service today."

Aeliana’s blush deepened to the very tips of her pointed ears, her lips curving into a small blissful smile.

"It... it is my honor to serve your will, my Lord."

"Alright, enough blushing and bowing!" Thora’s rough boisterous voice cut through the romantic tension like a rusty saw.

The dwarven forge master grinned, stepping up to the central control pedestal and planting her calloused hands onto the glowing master rune.

"Look alive, Lady Elf!" Thora barked proudly, her amber eyes gleaming with manic industrial excitement. "You brought the payload to the right floor! Watch what the building can do! Don’t blink, or you’ll miss the magic!"

Thora slammed her palm down against the activation rune.

KRA-VUUUUUUUUUUUM!

The entire Sovereign Distribution Nexus woke up with a small whirr as the glowing blue lines etched into the floorboards flared with blinding brilliance, washing over the dozens of multi-ton alloy crates.

SHING-SHING-SHING-SHING!

Aeliana blinked her silver-gold eyes.

In that single imperceptible fraction of a second... faster than a heart could beat, the entire room transformed.

The heavy leather straps vanished and the sealed alloy lids opened.

FZZZZZZT!

With a sound like a deck of cards being shuffled by a god, hundreds of thousands of individual minerals, gems, and metal ingots dissolved into pure shimmering light.

They were instantly dematerialized by the Nexus’s automated sorting arrays.

Aeliana gasped softly, her eyes widening as she looked up.

High above, lining the massive multi-tiered walls of the vault, thousands of reinforced storage alcoves snapped shut in rapid synchronized succession.

CLACK-CLACK-CLACK-CLACK-CLACK!

Every single mineral had been instantly analyzed, cataloged by purity, and shelved into its exact designated containment cell!

Over on the eastern wall, thousands of raw uncut Mana Diamonds from KB-22 glowed behind transparent crystal panels, neatly sorted by carat, color, and elemental affinity.

On the northern shelves, the constellation-flecked midnight-blue branches of Star-Iron rested in specialized zero-friction cradles.

And in the central high-security vault, the impenetrable slate-gray slabs of virgin alloy that Eluned had extracted from Mine XVIT sat bathed in stabilizing runic fields, their weights and molecular densities already logged into the digital tab by the counter.

On the floor of the Nexus, the dozens of massive alloy transport crates were completely empty.

...Not a single grain of dust remained on the metal.

Thora threw both hands into the air, her face split into a wild grin as she let out a roaring triumphant cackle that echoed off the ceiling.

"GWAHAHAHAHAHA!" Thora yelled at the top of her lungs, hopping from one steel-toed boot to the other with pure industrial ecstasy. "LOOK AT THAT! PERFECT RECOGNITION! ZERO LOSS! INSTANT REFINEMENT CATEGORIZATION! HA! TAKE THAT, BLESSED LAND RULES!"