Chương 235

The argument at the central table picked up again soon after, but it was now just a pointless cycle of raised voices and wounded pride that neither side was willing to let go of. Still, they had gotten permission, and that was all Orion cared about. He slipped away from the group, walking toward the exit, smiling gently as his shadow shifted, and he felt more than heard Pauline fall into step with him.

"Let's go," Daelin said, pushing the heavy doors open. He eyed Pauline with some curiosity, but the urgency of the matter was such that he didn't make a fuss. Unfortunately, not everyone was as wise.

"Halt," one of the older generals barked, causing everyone to turn and look at him. His thick beard bristled with indignation.

"The boy can go if he wishes to die in the magma, but the witch must stay. We can't allow unknown magic users to wander the deep shafts unescorted." Pauline barely turned to look at him, curling her lips. A moment later, the shadows gathering at her feet surged upward, twisting into thorny spikes that hovered just inches from the general's throat. She bared her teeth in a smile completely devoid of warmth.

"I go where he goes. Try to separate us, and you won't like the consequences." The man swallowed hard and slowly inched back as the shadows grew closer. Before things could escalate further, Daelin signaled for the guards who had taken offense to her actions to stand down.

"Enough!" he shouted.

"I will be going with them. Should I take this as a stain on my honor, General Aztum?" The older dwarf, who had been struggling to unsheathe his axe while surrounded by shadows, suddenly froze, then grunted something that could have been an apology. Daelin took a moment to meet everyone else's eyes with his own hard stare, making it clear he wouldn't tolerate any more interruptions.

When even the Clanlord nodded, looking strangely approving, they finally managed to leave the chamber, and Orion silently apologized to Samael and Jonatan, who would no doubt face even more dwarven nonsense. I'd take the magma over butting heads with the elders every day. As they moved past groups of armored guards and soot-covered artisans, Orion noticed the quiet whispers spreading through the crowds, and it didn't take him long to realize that Daelin's admission in the war room was already circulating.

Eyes widened, and heads bowed slightly as the young dwarf walked by, his unassuming leather armor no longer hiding his true rank. Daelin ignored everything without showing any sign, though Orion planned to apologize later for exposing him. It was necessary, but I'm sure he had his reasons for hiding so thoroughly. Soon, they arrived at a fortified gate guarding the main descent shaft. Daelin pulled a series of levers, and a chain-driven elevator platform halted before them.

"Word travels fast," Orion noted as they stepped onto the grated metal floor, finally out of reach of prying eyes and ears. The platform jerked, beginning a swift, stomach-dropping descent into the mountain's core.

"It was bound to happen eventually," Daelin sighed, leaning against the railing as the rock walls blurred past.

"The Hidden Heir tradition exists to protect the First Foundry's lineage from rival clans during times of peace. It lets us learn the trades without targets on our backs, away from clan politics that would taint everything. But peace ended the moment those machines scaled the outer wall, so I do not hold you responsible." Since Daelin now appeared willing to talk about it, Orion gave in to his curiosity.

"Will your title hold weight outside this specific fortress?" he asked, watching the glow of magma veins illuminate the shaft as they descended deeper into the earth. The title "Hidden Prince" suggests it's a significant role, but he said it's a traditional rite of passage, so it might be less so than I'm thinking.

"It will," Daelin confirmed with certainty.

"The Adamantine Range is broken into many holds, but the First Foundry has the blueprints for the deepest vaults and the oldest supply routes. If we survive today, my seal will grant you passage into fortresses untouched by humans for centuries. We just need to ensure a mountain remains for us to defend." I notice he didn't say anything about where that puts him in the hierarchy, but I guess I should let him keep some of his secrets. For now. This story originates from Royal Road.

Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. The ambient temperature soared as they descended toward the tectonic roots of the range, and soon even Daelin was wiping sweat from his brow, used to the environment but visibly uncomfortable. For Orion and Pauline, who came from the frigid Sanctum, it was nearly unbearable and would probably only get worse from there. A subtle, spinning current of air surrounded the three of them at Orion's command.

By adjusting the pressure and centrifugal force in their immediate area, he calculated the molecular weight of the toxic gases and spun the air, pushing the heated sulfur dioxide outward while drawing a steady flow of cooler, oxygen-rich air straight down the shaft into the center of their vortex. Thanks to [Atmospheric Centrifuge], the oppressive heat quickly became manageable, and the air turned fresh and breathable.

Daelin raised an eyebrow, feeling a sudden chill and watching the shimmering distortion of the centrifuge push the volcanic smoke away.

"That's not a standard cooling spell. I don't sense any condensation, and ice magic never works in places like this." Considering how dense the Field was with fire and ground mana, along with all their derivatives, that was understandable. Fortunately, there was enough wind mana to make casting the spell feasible without tiring himself too much.

"Just a little trick with wind magic," Orion replied, ignoring the suddenly keen look the young dwarf was sporting.

"Much more efficient than trying to out-freeze a volcano." The elevator hit the bottom with a loud clang, as the heavy chains rattled against their spools. They stepped out into a cavernous utility chamber, where the heat was even more intense, and Orion appreciated his foresight in dealing with it beforehand. The noise was a deafening roar of trapped energy and groaning metal.

Dwarven engineers scrambled around the periphery, shouting over the racket as they desperately tried to reinforce a series of thick iron pipes. However, the metal was glowing a dangerous cherry red, buckling and vibrating under unimaginable pressure, and everyone could see it wouldn't be long before these, too, would burst. Straight ahead, a large stone archway led into the main thermal vent, though at the moment it was entirely blocked by tons of fallen basalt.

Under normal circumstances, that might be enough to prevent a disaster, but this was intentional sabotage. I don't think the Iron State will be satisfied with just inconveniencing the dwarves.

"The magma is pressing against the other side of that," Daelin yelled, pointing at the blockage as they hurried forward.

"It's forcing the heat back up the secondary lines. If those pipes burst, the lower levels will flood, and the pressure feedback will tear the primary forge apart." Orion moved closer to the hazard, ignoring the frantic engineers who paused to stare at the humans. He activated [Hypotheticism], allowing the stream of data to flow over his vision, and mapped the blockage, noting how the edges had been shaped and interlocked to form a temporary dam. It's good work.

They managed to build something fairly stable even under extreme stress. Unfortunately, it won't last. The pressure is still increasing.

"Your mages were correct not to blast it," Orion observed, tracing the structural stress lines.

"An explosion here would cause a shockwave that could shatter the pipes instantly. We need to clear the blockage carefully, avoiding any friction or impact on the environment, while handling the magma."

"Can you do it?" Daelin asked. Strangely, he seemed the least nervous dwarf around. Orion calculated the pressure difference. If he simply pulled the rocks away, the sudden release of trapped magma would surge forward like a tidal wave, destroying the containment ring and splashing against the fragile pipes. No, he would first need to establish a complex system to manage the flow. By creating a controlled pressure gradient, he could make the molten rock behave predictably.

"I will have to pull the rocks out," Orion explained, raising his hands toward the archway.

"But I am also going to increase the gravitational pull directly in front of the vent. It will act as a funnel, compressing the magma flow and speeding it straight into the containment ring without letting it splash against the walls." Bernoulli's principle in practice, but it's not like anyone would understand what that means. He didn't wait for Daelin to give the go-ahead, as it was unlikely the dwarf even understood what he was planning.

With some effort, Orion cast a complex web of negative gravity strings with [-g], anchoring them precisely to the outermost boulders of the rockfall. This was not something he could have managed even a few weeks ago, but the hunt for the Silence canisters had given him plenty of practice with fine gravitational manipulation, and this was simply the result of all that hard work. After carefully ensuring his creation was stable, Orion slowly withdrew his hands.

The basalt boulders floated away from the archway, gliding silently through the superheated air. With a gesture, he neatly stacked them to the side, completely bypassing the fragile pipes. The physical and mental strain immediately intensified. He was balancing the weight of the rocks while simultaneously managing the [Atmospheric Centrifuge] and preparing the high-gravity funnel for the upcoming magma surge. Sweat formed on his forehead, quickly evaporating in the dry, spinning air.

Next, he removed the middle layer of the blockage. The glowing magma became visible through the narrow gaps, bubbling angrily against the remaining stones, only kept in check by the earth mana wards layered on the blockage. The heat surged, contending with Orion's atmospheric shield. Vaguely, he was aware of Pauline and Daelin pushing people away, and of a lot of shouting, but he couldn't take his mind off his work.

"Almost there," Orion gritted out, aiming at the last keystone boulders holding the dam together and starting to redirect all the extra pressure away. However, as the rocks shifted, a section of the rubble near the ceiling moved in a way that did not match his calculations. A sleek, multi-limbed construct uncurled from the crevice where it had hidden. It lacked the heavy, bulky armor of the surface siege walkers, being built instead for stealth, infiltration, and sabotage.

Its dark metallic chassis blended seamlessly with the basalt, and its optical sensors had been completely dimmed to avoid detection. The Iron State Saboteur that had caused the collapse had waited patiently in the rubble to make sure the pipes burst, only for Orion to arrive just before it could finish its mission. Seeing its work being actively undone, the construct leaped from the stones, hurtling straight through the air toward the glowing thermal pipes.

Its front limbs clicked open, revealing a cylindrical charge packed with concentrated Silence powder. It clearly meant to detonate the charge against the metal, ensuring no magic could ever repair the breach. That would also mean its own complete destruction, but the tortured mind guiding it lacked any survival instinct.

"Stop it!" Daelin shouted, drawing and tossing an axe from his belt. The shot was well aimed, but a puff of Silence drained its mana, and the axe slammed into the chassis without inflicting enough damage to stop it. Unfortunately, Orion was unable to intervene, as his gravity web risked failing without his input. If he let go of the rocks now, the dam would collapse catastrophically, releasing pressurized magma that would flood the chamber and incinerate everyone.

Operating purely on instinct, Orion maintained the delicate extraction with his right hand and snapped his left hand toward the leaping construct. [Event Horizon]. The area right in front of the fragile pipes warped, turning reality into a shimmering, gravitational lens. The saboteur hit the distortion, causing its path to violently skew off-course, sending it tumbling away from the pipes and into the open space of the cavern.

The construct landed smoothly, its articulated limbs absorbing the impact, and it immediately recalibrated, its optical sensors flashing a bright, angry red as it prepared to deliver the Silence charge at all costs. However, it was now surrounded by dozens of angry dwarves.