"By all that is right!" Mason shouted as he flinched, feeling the sudden final lurch of impact as the Helgat, a divine artifact that had withstood a millennium of history, shattered. He and his brother Mercer both reacted, putting their hands over their heads instinctively.


    Everyone else, however, looked up at Li as he calmly grabbed the chrysalis with his tether of roots, manifesting once more the Sanzuwu wings to keep everyone afloat and not hurtling down into the abyss below. He watched as the shards of adamant that once formed the Helgat fell down into a yawning void of darkness, their blue glimmer rapidly fading.


    Li narrowed his eyes as he peered down. "More darkness, huh?"


    "It should not be so," said As as she put a finger to her lips. She noticed Mason and Mercer still cowering and spoke out. "Collect thine wits. Thou art about to witness lost history discovered oncemore. Grant it the respect it deserves."


    Hearing As''s words snapped Mercer out of his stupor and he shook his brother to normalcy. Li could not really me them for how they reacted. For all this time, they had witnessed power that seemed feasible to them. Power that they knew was incredible but within the boundaries of reason they had built up through their whole lives.


    But for the first time, they truly saw before them raw, overwhelming strength that shattered all their previous conceptions about the invincibility of divine might and blessing and myth and legend.


    "What do you mean?" asked Li to As. The glowing red light from his fiery wings lit up a significant amount of space below, but even that was not enough to appreciably see anything except for darkness.


    "There should be light. The dwarven city of Stedheim lies below the Helgat, and though the dwarves be people of the earth, by no means are they of the dark. Whencest recorded, Stedheim was a city of lights andughter, of warmth from the heat of its three great forges."


    "I sense absolutely no life below," said Li as his green tinted eyes peered down, their life sensitive gaze finding but muted nothingness. Not even the choking undead mist was here.


    Tia, too, nodded, agreeing with Li. "Nothing. Scary nothing."


    "A crying shame," said Old Thane. "By the time I''d made me way down south, the triforge dwarves had already fallen. I had heard many tales from their rtives in Montagne of the great city of Stedheim, how within its three great pirs there was equal parts hard work and merry drinking.


    But s, the tides of war and time and fate favor but precious few."


    "At the very least, havinge this far, knowing that this ck mass lies below, I will give the dwarves peace of memory. Ensure that they are remembered properly." Li fluttered his wings, and he began his descent down below.


    ===========


    As the light from Li''s zing wings lit up the centuries sealed civilization of Stedheim, he first encountered more of the ck mass. It pulsated in a massivework of interconnected tendrils lined with strange dark veins that seemed to stretch out infinitely, and yet, this time around, the mass was not hostile.


    It seemed instead rather dormant, even making way for Li as he approached, as if afraid of the light and heat he emitted, shrinking away with surprising quickness. But after some amount of descent, through the cobweb of tendrils, Stedheim became visible.


    "Impressive," remarked Li.


    "Impressive?" As shook her head with a wistful smile. "Impressive is insufficient to describe the scale of Stedheim."


    Mason and Mercer stood at the edges of the chrysalis, peering out with childlike wonder, and Tia joined them with the same level of energy. Vilga and She were a little moreposed, but even then, the twinkle of wonder and curiosity shed in their eyes.


    Stedheim was, in essence, three enormous pirs of stone that supported the vast underground cavern that once housed the entirety of the dwarven civilization. Each pir was spaced far from each other, visible only when Li shot out bursts of me to light up the scene for everyone else. They were far enough from each other that Li could make out that they lied underneath each of the three peaks of the Triforge Mountains.


    And upon flying closer to a pir, it became evident of the sheer enormity of its scale. Each pir must have had, in total volume, space simr to Riviera itself, one of the four cardinal cities of Soleil. When Li reached the pirs, the ck mass that covered them in a thick coating of tar like ooze shuddered and withdrew, revealing countless openings carved into the stone that looked like doors and windows, leading into living and working spaces.


    Sort of like the mega apartments back in Li''s own world, though instead of reaching high into the sky, these spires reached down below, deep into the depths of the earth.


    "Wish you could see this, old man," said Li.


    Old Thaneughed. "No worries,d. I''ve told you already – my blindness is a part of myself that I have long epted. There is no need to wish for this or that. And, though it may be hard to believe, I can ''see'' quite well."


    He nodded down to Zagan, who twitched his ear in recognition.


    Li understood. He knew that Old Thane essentially used his various senses to construct a mental image of the world around him, and because of his superhuman senses, he could do so at an efficiency and rity that far outstripped what any normal blind man could.


    And from Zagan, he could sense a fair amount of magical energy tethering into Old Thane, massively enhancing his stats such that it must have seemed like aside from seeing color, he could construct the world around him nearly to the detail of a non-blind man.


    "Such scale," muttered Mason. "And these pirs are not roughly made either. Their surfaces are so intricately carved, smoothed, each and every living space marked with runes of ownership for what must have been countless dwarves."


    As rapidly scribbled on her tablet, recing them in quick pace as she energetically recorded everything she saw. "Each of these pirs lie below one of the peaks of the Triforge and are equal in magnificence to any great human city. The pirs lie at three points of a World Vein, for the dwarves were masters of reading the flow of magic through the earth and harnessed it with an efficiency not known to any mortal race.


    Two hundred years in the past, and thou wouldst have seen the mesmerizing, awing glow of a World Vein as it powered each of the pirs, sending lines of shining orange reminiscent of melted rock all throughout. Fitting for a people dedicated to the forge.


    The light would have provided warmth and light and power, and with those, there would have been the merry bustle of countless dwarves living in harmony."


    "And all of that gone," said Mercer somberly.


    "All gone," repeated Tia with a frown. "I hoped something here. Dragon outside protecting here. Thought there was still life. Something to protect."


    Considering the sheer size of the pirs, there must have at one point been over half a million dwarves living here, and yet now, there was not a single living, breathing soul remaining. Strangely, the ck ooze as it withdrew to reveal the pirs, showed no damage to the pirs themselves.


    "There may yet still be something," said Li. "We keep going down."


    As exined. "At the base of each pir lies a forge of unparalleled greatness, and all three link together to create the Triforge itself, the only forge known that properly channels the immense might of a World Vein. It is there that the vast majority of mystical artifacts of legend that thou hear of in tales and legend were forged."


    "Perhaps this ck mass feeds off of energy," said Li. "A World Vein would do wonders for it."


    "Perhaps," said As. "And yet, the absence of magic in it does wonder me against such thought."


    "I see," said Li.


    "World…vein?" asked Mason.


    "As can exinter," said Li. He began to pick up pace, actively flying downwards. "After I get to the literal and figurative bottom of this situation."


    ==============


    As Li traveled further down, the spires changed, the living spaces carved in them bingrger and more ornate. As exined that these were noble spaces for the dwarves valued closer connection to the depths, often living longer and healthier lives the closer they were to the World Vein, and so the spaces close to the base were like prime real estate meant for the upper ss.


    But even here, there was no life.


    Instead, the ck mass''s presence became that much thicker, but it was still not hostile, retreating when Li approached and shrinking back in ce after he left.


    At the very base, right by the Triforge of legend, As also exined there would also stand a royal pce that could put even the duchess''s pce in Et to shame.


    It did not take long for Li to reach the bottom of the pirs to where the triforge and royal pce were. Or rather, where they were supposed to be.


    Instead, he found the source of the ooze.