CHAPTER 251: _EXCAVATION

Kyren’s POV

*****

"Save the pleasanteries." He waved dismissively at the armoured soldiers who stood in an arranged formation to welcome him.

Stepping away from his battle craft as the ramp withdrew back into it, his crimson gaze soon found Farrell and Ishtar several meters behind the soldiers.

He walked past the soldiers, his black cloak blowing into the scorching desert wind. "Any updates on my last orders yet?"

Farrell still blinked at him like he couldn’t believe he was here. He did say he’d stay in Lunaria till further notice. And that was simply because he wanted to protect Elian from his mother.

But time was running out.

For all he knew she could have plans for the Divine crystal buried beneath the Dark Lands.

What he could do now was be in his homeland while the war with Arcadia raged. Then hope on the necklace he left with Elian to do its job if his parents tried any funny business...

"My Lord." Farrell and Ishtar bowed in unison when he got in front of them, the farmer’s voice shaking with surprise.

They straightened, his commander continuing. "I didn’t expect you to come back so—"

"I asked a question, Farrell." Kyren cut him short, voice clipped. "Give me reports on the orders I gave you. And for your sake, you’d better have updates. I had a long trip."

It was about twenty minutes via his battle craft. But that was unimportant.

"Of course, my Lord." Farrell nodded, hastily typing on a holographic tablet in his hands. "Ishtar and I followed up with the excavation right away. We followed your story of this... Energy source potentially crashing in the capital years ago."

"Aeons." Kyren corrected. "Not that you should know. Like I told you, the fewer people who know about this, the better."

Farrell glanced at Ishtar who took over, adjusting her magi tech glasses. "Your theory is a remarkable one, my Lord. For centuries we’ve built around the crater of the capital without wondering what crashed on it. Now you’d think it’s an asteroid but—"

"Ishtar. Love." He placed a hand on her shoulder, shaking his head. "Get to the point."

Her cheeks reddened but she nodded, clearing her throat. "We found traces of something. An energy... Similar to moon essence energy found in the Alpha aura of Alphas."

Kyren’s eyes lit up.

Now that’s the kind of news he wanted to hear!

"Take me to the excavation site." He muttered.

Ishtar didn’t waste a second, tapping a button on her wrist. A flash of white swallowed them for a few seconds, the fabric of space-time warping.

When the light cleared, they were in a different spot. It was a large hole, probably about ten meters deep with tens of meters in radius. There were stairs already etched onto the side walls.

Here, the red skies still blistered, but the hole itself was dimmer than the surface.

"The site is cloaked from outsiders with our strongest cloaking tech." Farrell chimed as they walked toward the site’s centre. "I personally hand-picked the people doing the digging."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Kyren grunted, scanning his gaze past the excavators.

There were about ten of them, scattered around the hole like ants. Each wore a dull silver nano suit, red glass face shields covering their faces as they worked with the devices at their disposal.

"The energy readings, sir." Ishtar handed him a holographic screen. "If you look at the bar you’ll see just how rich this site is in energy. Especially at the epicenter."

Kyren squinted at the screen.

There was a half-circle bar divided into three colours. Each coloured part had percentages attached to it.

From white, yellow, orange... And then red.

The lowest was zero per cent, of course, attached to the white part. Currently, the bar had an arrow pointing at twenty per cent. Somewhere around the yellow part.

"Twenty per cent doesn’t seem like much," Ishtar mentioned as if she knew what was reeling through his mind. "But compared to the rest of the capital, that’s a lot of energy just brimming from this one spot. The question now is—"

"What is the source?" Kyren passed the screen back to her, pausing in his tracks.

He took slow deep breaths, closing his eyes. Soon, he felt it. The energy humming through the air. Soft. But heavy enough to make his lips quirk.

"It’s really here..."

He turned to Ishtar and Farrell who both seemed lost but kept silent.

"What we’re searching for should be underneath all this." Kyren finally said. "We’ll need to dig deeper. Much deeper."

Something told him traces of his parents’ Ascension protocol experiments would be buried here as well. If that’s the case, he might be able to find something out about Elian’s origins.

His little flame had been distraught with existential dread before he left Lunaria. He didn’t want to leave him. But when Elian insisted he’d stay behind for his wedding to Lucian... Kyren just had to oblige.

Like he told him, he’ll pick him up when the time is right.

"Sir, there’s another thing I found rather puzzling though," Ishtar spoke with that usual intelligent spark. "The sediments we found here aren’t old at all. I was expecting at least a few millennia or way more. But instead—"

"Let me guess. Three centuries?" Kyren made a contemptuous sound.

Not at Ishtar. But at his snake of a mother.

The divine crystal changed the Dark Lands millennia ago. After Amara and Garrick discovered it and began using it for their experiments, they probably didn’t want anyone discovering it once they were done.

So they buried it again, alongside any trace of their research.

The picture was already clear, even while Ishtar stood there in shock.

"How... How did you know, sir?"

Kyren’s lips curved faintly. "I just do."

He turned away from the pit, cloak trailing on the cracked ground. "Keep up the excavations. I want full clearance by dawn tomorrow. Every centimetre of this site should be scanned, analysed, and documented. If you find anything that doesn’t belong..."

He paused, his crimson eyes flashing, "You report to me directly."

"Yes, my Lord," Ishtar and Farrell chorused.

Kyren gave a short nod, then motioned to Farrell. "Walk with me."

The lad scrambled after him as he strode out of the hole. The desert wind howled, carrying dust that shimmered faintly under the crimson glow of the sun.

Farrell adjusted his gloves nervously. "About the next target, my Lord—Arcadia’s defences around the southern perimeter, Runecrest city specifically, are still under reconstruction. If we strike there, we could secure one of their remaining energy vaults."

Kyren hummed thoughtfully, gaze drifting toward the horizon. "Then that will be our next strike. But we’ll need stealth this time. No flashy displays, no alerts to the Arcadian Council. They’re already twitchy after the temporary cease-fire."

"Yes, sir. I’ll—"

Farrell’s words died when Kyren’s wrist console buzzed sharply. A red holographic projection flickered into existence before them.

Kyren’s eyes narrowed. "Who’s sending this transmission?"

He soon got his answer when Duke Onika appeared on the screen, a grim expression on her face.

Oh no...

By Hades’ gates, what now?