Chapter 691 Underground
The situation in Lone Star seemed calm on the surface, but in the depths of the night, it was anything but.
In exchange for the peace that the citizens experienced when the sun rose, many undercurrents had to be forcefully suppressed beneath the moon's light.
One such undercurrent formed from the combined might of several gangs.
After Sylas left Lone Star with the disk, the city lost the ability to control the expansion of the volcano Portal for several long months. By the time they gained a new treasure capable of replacing its function, much of the damage had already long been done.
The temperatures of the city skyrocketed, but more importantly, the landscape of their farmland changed.
Much of the topsoil had been replaced by currents of lava. This alone was fine if not for the fact that the oppressive heat had dug into the land, forming deep, cavernous caves, valleys, and trenches.
Normally, lava alone wouldn't be able to do this kind of damage. The earth would be able to disperse much of its heat.
However, in this case, the lava was formed from a special location of the Aether Plane, while Earth was not yet adjusted to these sorts of shocking environments. The end result was the very location Sylas had barely escaped from with his life, and ironically also the region he had first gained his Path of the Mancer Class Quest, was completely unrecognizable.
It sat there as a mass of blackened land covered in a thick layer of soot and ash. But the true danger was no doubt hidden deep underground.
…
From high in the skies, Sylas confirmed much of the things in the Grimblade's report.
'The opening to the volcano portal was also underground last time. I assume that this change only exacerbated the issue.'
If the Portal was already underground, and then it began to grow uncontrollably after the disk was no longer active, then it was only natural that so many changes likewise occurred underground.
This region was highly monitored. There was no way for Sylas to just drop from the skies unnoticed, even in the darkness. He would almost certainly be spotted.
But at this point… it simply didn't matter.
There was only one reason for that… a beast that Sylas was quite familiar with.
The beast controlling snail.
Unbeknownst to Sylas until he read the report, but snails turned out to be mostly nocturnal creatures. And though this snail had clearly broken free of the normal constraints of its race, this clearly wasn't amongst the habits it had shed.
The peacock entered a freefall, piercing down in a steady streak of darkness.
It was clear in an instant that Sylas had either overestimated the abilities of these government officials, or he had underestimated himself. Either way, he found himself hitting the ground before sensing even the slightest hint of danger.
It wasn't long before he picked out one of the many potholes to the hidden world below. With a touch of his intention, he pulled the peacock into a vine that wrapped around his arm and then vanished.
Glass reflected across his skin as his Aether protected him from the wall of heat that hit him nearly immediately.
The Terranova government had clearly used some special method of keeping the heat from overwhelming the city. Otherwise, Lone Star would have already become a microwave.
These distracting thoughts were pushed to the back of Sylas' mind because he hadn't taken more than a few steps when he heard the sound of conflict and battle.
He controlled his visualization to wind through the tunnels covered in soot and ash, but the fight he saw on the other end didn't seem to be anything special.
On one side, there was a soldier and on the other, there was a textbook rogue. Neither seemed intent on actually trying to kill one another, as though they were trying to stall for time or maybe just acting.
To hand it to them, the battle did look quite believable. Unfortunately, Sylas could feel out their Wills maybe more clearly than they could themselves.
'They're putting on a show. Neither one actually wants to be fighting. That confirms another thing in the documents. This has been a long, drawn-out war between the two factions. The subordinates are probably sick and tired of it, and have long forgotten what they're actually fighting about or for.'
There were several gangs that had hitched themselves to this place, but there were mainly two of any sort of importance.
The first was Second Flame, a gang that Professor Fembroise had allegedly become quite an important member of. In fact, from the context clues, it seemed that she was actually the founder.
The second was the Grimy Blades. The information that Sylas had on them was much lesser because they weren't directly related to Professor Fembroise, but it was enough for him to know that they had done some particularly vile things.
The rogue fighting against the soldier was one of the latter gang members, and that made things less convenient for Sylas. But he decided to work with the cards he was given.
He calmly walked around the corner and his presence, unsurprisingly, instantly drew attention. Both the soldier and rogue were on full alert, revealing themselves as a pair of actors when they didn't hesitate to stand side by side to face off against the unknown entity.
Unfortunately for them, that left no one defending their backs.
The swipe of a black tail smashed them against a wall, practically shattering all of their bones in a single sweep.
The two didn't even get a chance to get a look at the Basilisk King before it was taken back into Sylas' Hibernation Realm.
Walking over to their half-dead bodies, Sylas picked one of them up by their collars, staring the rogue in his eyes.
"The Second Flame gang, point me in the direction of their hideout."
Sylas didn't believe that this Grimy Blade member wouldn't have even a slight inkling of an answer…
And he was proven right.