Kyle and Sebastian flew more towards the middle of the World Peak but made sure to avoid the actual World Peak, the big mountain.
They didn't want to fight another thing in the Fourth Realm.
At some point, Kyle stopped, and Sebastian just looked at him with a raised brow.
"So, are you finally going to tell me where we're going?" he asked.
Kyle just smirked.
BANG!
Then, he charged right into the ground.
His body was so hard that he could pass through the mountain stone like it was water.
Sebastian blinked a couple of times.
"Oh!" he exclaimed in realization. "I get it!"
Then, he charged after Kyle.
Like a drill, Kyle kept going further and further down as Sebastian just followed him.
"Need help digging?" Sebastian asked.
"Nope," Kyle answered.
After several minutes, Kyle reached a depth of 50 kilometers.
Since he didn't need any ore, he just passed by any valuable bit of ore.
The magma also wasn't an issue since it simply wasn't hot enough to get through their bodies.
Yet, at this depth, Kyle's speed started to slow down.
He needed to break through the tough stone made of fused Metal and Earth Ether.
BANG!
Sebastian launched a huge bolt of lightning that just entered the ground.
It looked like nothing had changed, and yet, digging became far easier for Kyle.
"That's pretty useful," Kyle transmitted, realizing that the lightning had damaged the fusion between the two kinds of Ether.
"Electrolysis is more useful than you think," Sebastian answered.
"Eh, what was that again?" Kyle asked. "I remember hearing about that in chemistry class."
Sebastian looked at Kyle with confusion. "You don't know what electrolysis is?"
"Hey! I have a high school diploma!" Kyle answered. "I'm not a super-educated guy."
"Huh," Sebastian answered. "I just thought that… yeah, well."
"So, what's electrolysis?" Kyle asked.
"You use electricity to split a molecule in two," Sebastian explained.
"Isn't that nuclear fission?" Kyle asked.
"No, that's atoms. One is exothermic and one is endothermic," Sebastian said.
"Thermic? So, like temperature? One gets hot and the other… takes hot?" Kyle asked.
"Kind of," Sebastian said. "It's more about energy. One reaction releases energy while another one absorbs it. Temperature is a form of energy."
"Okay," Kyle said. "That means you are using electricity to split the Metal Ether and Earth Ether, right?"
"Basically," Sebastian answered.
"What do you mean, basically?" Kyle asked. "That's literally what you said you're doing."
"Okay, yeah, that's what I'm doing," Sebastian said. "It's just that there is a bit more to it."
"Why do you even know that stuff?" Kyle asked.
"I was a nuclear engineer," Sebastian said.
"Wait, so, you made nukes and stuff?" Kyle asked.
"Not originally, no," Sebastian answered. "I was more involved in research for nuclear fusion reactors."
"Not originally?" Kyle asked.
Sebastian sighed. "I got abducted by a small dictatorship and forced to help them with their nuclear weapons research."
"It was… not nice."
"That bad?" Kyle asked.
"They kept my family hostage as well," Sebastian said with a dark voice. "You ever seen a picture of your crying wife having a gun aimed at her head?"
"Yeah, that sounds pretty bad," Kyle answered as he kept digging.
Sebastian sighed. "Luckily, the recruiter dealt with everything. My family is safe. Just sucks that I won't meet them again."
"You couldn't have stayed?" Kyle asked. "Magic Lady said that helping me was just a present. I could still refuse."
Sebastian snorted. "She said the same thing to me, but it's clear that it was not really a choice. The fallout of her actions would have been mine to deal with."
Kyle knew what Sebastian meant.
If he had remained on Earth, some people might have realized that the gangsters had been planning to go to Kyle's apartment, and then, they simply vanished.
Naturally, all eyes would fall on him.
"What about you?" Sebastian asked. "What was your job?"
"Eh," Kyle answered. "I had a drop-shipping business."
"What's that?" Sebastian asked.
"You don't know what drop-shipping is?" Kyle asked.
"No, never heard of it," Sebastian answered.
Kyle felt a bit uncomfortable.
Drop-shipping was not the… most respected profession.
"I bought cheap stuff and sold it for a lot of money," Kyle said.
"Oh, you were a merchant, then?" Sebastian asked.
"Kind of?" Kyle said with uncertainty. "It's more like… buying cheap trinkets, marketing them as self-made high-quality products, and selling them for ten times the price."
"Like the guys at the beach?" Sebastian asked.
"What do you mean?" Kyle asked.
"They sell cheap sunglasses for ridiculous prices and act like they're high quality."
"Oh, those guys," Kyle said. "Yeah, kind of like them."
Kyle noticed that Sebastian didn't seem dismissive or disgusted in any way.
Instead, he seemed quite casual.
Like it was just a normal job. "That needs a lot of skill," Sebastian said. "You probably have to be good at selling and marketing. Figuring out the supply chains and finding the right demographic also can't be easy."
The image of him accepting about five big boxes per day from the delivery guy and simply putting them in the corner of the room shot through Kyle's mind.
"Yeah, sure, I'll take that," Kyle said.
Sebastian just raised an eyebrow, not sure what Kyle meant.
"Wait!" Kyle suddenly said as he stopped digging. "We're at the bottom."
"Bottom?" Sebastian asked. "How can there be a bottom? This is a planet."
"Oh, you don't know about Deepwind?" Kyle asked.
"Deepwind?" Sebastian asked.
"Watch," Kyle said as he pushed through the last stones.
When the last stones were pushed to the side, a stream of black and grey was revealed.
Sebastian looked at the stream with interest.
Many things and concepts shot through his mind.
"Deep… wind. Oh, like Skysand and Winterfire?" Sebastian asked. "Some kind of anti-Element?"
"Yep," Kyle said.
"And we're using that to escape?" Sebastian asked.
"Correct," Kyle said.
Sebastian slowly put his hand into the Deepwind.
"Fuck!" he shouted as he pulled it out again.
It looked like his hand had received some carpet burns.
"I hate this kind of pain! It fucking burns!" Sebastian shouted with annoyance.
Kyle blinked a couple of times.
Then, he put his hand in and slowly pulled it back out again.
When Sebastian saw that almost all of Kyle's skin was gone, he took a deep breath through his teeth.
"Dude, why are you doing this to yourself?" Sebastian asked. "That's gotta hurt like hell!"
Kyle just looked at his hand.
Sure, it hurt, but it wasn't really a big deal.
"Just wanted to check if it really hurts that much," Kyle said.
Sebastian looked at Kyle like he was crazy.
"Anyway, it's time we make our grand escape," Kyle said with a smirk.
"And how?" Sebastian asked. "Just a second in that thing hurt my skin."
"I'll show you how," Kyle said.
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