I could feel there was definitely a demon domain down here, but not a very powerful one. At least, it didn’t ‘seem’ powerful. Something about it was soft, quiet, like it wanted to be subtle and hidden. It took the full focus of my instruments to detect it at all.

  Why pick a place like this though? It seemed silly that a demon lord would even bother setting up in a sewer like some ninja reptiles or something. The only possible explanation any of us three could come up with was that he was trying to hide it from the world, using things like tunnels and manholes to sneak around undetected. Until we had more pieces of the puzzle, the picture remained to be seen.

  Amanda explained to us that she had an idea of the sewer layout and was searching around for a potential entrance into that holy steel factory. If her theory was correct, we weren’t far from what she was looking for. Unfortunately, the more she led us around, the stronger I started to sense supernatural power.

  Accompanying the dark energy was a pretty strong trace of mana flowing through the air. It was only a little at first, but the amount grew pretty steadily until we discovered a big hole in the sewer wall.

  “What is this?” Amanda asked, inspecting it closely.

  “Heh, are you stupid? That’s a hole in the wall,” Indena cockily replied, as if she wouldn’t have said something more stupid at some point.

  “Obviously…” Amanda gave her a sassy stink eye. “Why is there a hole in the wall, you degenerate? Could this be the entrance we are searching for?”

  This hole was where the mana readings were coming from. The demon's domain even seemed to moderately grow in potency around it as well.

  “Nothing ventured…” I stepped forward, walking down the clearly man made cave tunnel.

  If my suspicions were correct, this cave likely connected with the Nalnara network. That would explain why anyone would set up shop down here.

  After a few hundred meters it seemed like my theory came true. Colourful crystals were growing all over the walls, very pretty and extremely calming to the touch. Amanda pulled out a camera and started snapping photos before following me in as well. Indena was just behind her.

  “What is this?” Indena rubbed her fingers over the glassy crystal’s surface, watching as the inner glow expanded and touched the opposite side of her finger. It then turned orange. “Oh, now I remember… Back at the valley…”

  Amanda also touched the crystals, but they didn’t seem to get excited by her presence.

  “These crystals growing on the walls are pure mana,” I replied. “It’s a sign that this tunnel connects with the Nalnara cave network.”

  “I’ve always heard stories of how beautiful these crystals are…” Amanda commented, “but seeing them in person truly paints an even better picture.”

  Both of them were extremely calm, affected by the soothing properties mana imparted on the human soul. Even I had to take a moment to breathe and enjoy the spiritual energy all around us.

  “If only I can show this to the world…” Amanda sighed, snapping more photos. “They’ll all believe me. They’d know they’d been lied to…”

  “Even if they saw it, I doubt they’d believe it,” Indena commented. “People are stubborn that way.”

  “It takes a mule to know one, so I trust your wisdom,” Amanda said, pressing her forehead to a crystal on the wall. It began to glow a rainbow light. “This is the most bliss I’ve felt in years… It’s like being a child again.”

  I knew that feeling well, since I myself was a kid.

  “To think, this fuels our entire civilization…” Amanda said. “How could this ever run out?”

  It was impossible for me to believe too. If a cave this close to the surface was so rich with mana energy that came all the way from Elysium, something must have been preventing it from getting to where the humans were.

  “When did all this mana shortage start, anyways?” I asked.

  “It’s always been a topic of conversation, but some activists became enamored last year when we temporarily lost about 80% of our geo-mana energy production.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  If it was a year ago, that meant that it was around the time that Janus and Anima were stealing all the mana from Elysium, which probably would have caused quite the nasty shortage on the surface for a few days.

  “Oh, you guys had that too?” Indena turned to her. “Okitoshi got hit by that. The top brass of the Family of Sai didn’t seem too worried about it.”

  “That’s probably because they were the ones who ordered it,” I told her. “Remember that Janus guy? He was one of the two stealing it… Actually, he was technically two people himself, so maybe one of the three…”

  Having two faces with distinct personalities was really weird to rationalize.

  “I still don’t understand why they’re up to that,” Indena said. “Stealing mana to make demons just doesn’t fit in our MO.”

  “Let’s just take it as a reason for us to foil their plans,” Amanda concluded. “We should move on. This could be connected to them.”

  Deeper on in the tunnel was the entrance to a true mana cave. The meager amount of crystal that had been grown on the walls of that man made tunnel was nothing compared to the concentrated aura these crystals put out. The two of them nearly fell asleep from how potent the tranquil power was. I had to pinch them a few times to get them to stay awake.

  The sound of a machine humming in the silence caught my attention quickly. It was coming from a path on our left. We tracked it, careful not to take any alternative routes that presented themselves. Eventually we stumbled upon something that looked like a big industrial fan blocking the rest of the way.

  With how fast the blades were spinning I could see through it down the path beyond. It was nothing but baron cave and rock, much of which had been carved away to a more flat and accessible size for human activities.

  “Yalda, what is this?” Indena asked. “It one of your people’s collection things?”

  “I’ve never seen anything like this… Not in a cave, anyways.”

  This industrial looking fan must have been here for a reason. It wasn’t Exceed in design. It had to have been human. My hunch however was that it had to do with all the lost mana.

  I turned to Amanda, thinking she might know more about it.

  “There’s no doubt about this…” she inspected the machine a bit more closely. “It must be what’s stealing the mana before it gets to the surface.”

  “Is that really even possible?” Indena asked.

  We were in a pretty big cave vein. If this giant fan were set up here, it could take a huge amount of mana in all at once, only allowing small branches of it to escape through little paths. From the looks of it, there wasn’t even much mana getting through into the other side at all.

  With my hacking power, I placed my hand over the surface of the fan and began interfacing with it to get info. It definitely was stealing mana, but I couldn’t find out who made it.

  “I’m going to shut this down,” I said.

  “No…” Amanda pulled out her little camera and began snapping photos of the machine. “If we turn it off, they’ll know we were here. I’d like to catch them in the act by informing the ISF of what they’ve done.”

  Waiting to turn this off didn’t really sound like a good idea, but Indena seemed to support her idea, even though she wanted to break it with her two bare hands.

  “This won’t be enough proof that the Poles Party is involved however,” Amanda claimed. “Let’s go a little deeper, shall we? I think if we can find that factory, it’ll be enough to catch them red handed.”

  That was a good idea. Plus I hadn’t found that demon yet, so we needed to keep looking.

  “You’re Maj…” I wasn’t supposed to call her a queen here. “Elma, do you want to help us deal with the demon that’s here?”

  She had a curiously wide expression, but then smiled. “I’d be honoured to help the Eighth Star.” She held up her scepter, as if claiming it her weapon of choice.

  “No offense, uh… Elma… but you ain’t exactly fighting material,” Indena said.

  “Doubt my skills, do you?” the queen gave her a sly smirk, snapped her finger and did a twirl. Once she turned to face us again, she capped off her little display by thrusting her scepter in our direction.

  An aura suddenly came to life around Indena and I. It was blue and watery, hugging close to our body, but not leaving us moistened in the slightest.

  “What did you do?” Indena asked, still able to produce her fire, of which I suddenly felt the need to warn her not to do inside a cave.

  According to my status screen, she just buffed our defense and added a protective water barrier to us. That was crazy cool!

  “You can use support magic?” I asked.

  “Of sorts. It’s an old Elkhearts art passed down for generations… So I’ve been told. The only complication is that I must use this scepter to channel it.”

  Apparently she had the ability to not only use that water barrier, but she could buff our offense, speed, and our magic. She could only do one at a time, but that was still awesome nonetheless.

  Normally, a king would get the more aggressive forms of buffs, while a queen was supposed to get the defensive ones, but since there was no king, the arts were fully passed down to her when her parents both passed away.

  “So long as there is mana in the air, I’ll be able to use these powers. So I do hope they can be helpful in some way along our journey.”

  “This’ll be great, thank you.” I smiled. “That demon won’t know what hit him!”

  “I’ll be the one hitting the guy first,” Indena raised her gauntlet-covered fist.

  Amanda and I both gave her a disappointed smirk before continuing to search for any more clues to what was going on down here.

  Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed, please support me, Taylor The Writer, here on Royal Road! :)