Clang—clank—clank.
A steampunk-style alchemical train thundered forward through a tunnel buried thousands of meters underground.
At the very end of the train, Niv was controlling a set of alchemical puppets, tossing spherical relay nodes out of the window at regular intervals.
Meanwhile, at the front of the train, Hel sat beside her, poring over a wide, glowing map.
"What's the temperature outside right now?" Hel asked.
Niv closed her eyes for a few seconds, sensing carefully before answering,
"Somewhere between 54.9 and 55.4 degrees Celsius. It's a little hard to be exact with the train moving this fast."
"Right…" Hel sighed and shrugged helplessly.
"We're at least a kilometer deep underground. How in the world did those goblins dig this far down? And with the temperature outside that high, how is this antique of a train still running this fast? It makes no sense."
"But it makes perfect magical sense," Niv said with a playful smile.
Hel fell silent for a moment.
Fair point. It was very "magical."
"We've been moving northwest this whole time," Hel continued, tracing her finger along the map.
"Judging by the last few relays, we've already covered around six hundred kilometers. That puts us… here."
She tapped a point on the map — in the northern region of the Kingdom of Humility, just beyond the borders of the Kingdom of Honesty.
"At least we didn't end up under the Beastmens' territory. If we got buried alive there, getting back out would've been a nightmare."
"If that happened, you could just teleport back through the Undead Space, couldn't you, Master?" Niv said innocently.
"Well… that's true," Hel admitted.
At that moment, the train began to slow down.
"Master, we're almost there," Niv said softly.
Hel nodded, rising to her feet and making her way to the rear car.
She needed to disembark before arrival — find a safe spot to hide.
If they were detected too early and the facility initiated its self-destruction protocol, they could easily be trapped underground.
Even though she could blast through a Yao-Gold gate, it would take time — and time was exactly what she couldn't afford if things went wrong.
As light began to shine at the end of the tunnel, Hel jumped from the train.
She landed soundlessly on the ground, then pulled a Yao-Gold Blast Shield Sphere from her ring and crawled inside.
Meanwhile, Morrigan, lying motionless in one of the front cars, slowly opened her eyes.
"Master," Niv whispered.
Hel gave her a small nod — she was in position.
A second later, a soft, mechanical female voice echoed through the carriage:
[Vehicle identification in progress…]
[Verification complete. Current subject: B501 Underground Train. Registered to: B5 Gene Research Institute.]
[Ascension Brain Authority detected.]
[A2-B5-001, please state your purpose.]
Niv didn't hesitate. She immediately repeated the cover story she and Hel had agreed on beforehand.
"B5 Research Institute has discovered the cause and solution to the goblin gene collapse. We are here to request higher research access."
The voice paused for a moment — as if taken aback — before replying.
[Verification accepted. Please proceed slowly to the station.]
A faint vibration rippled through the ground. The stopped train began moving again, drawn forward by an unseen elemental force.
Moments later, it pulled up to the station.
With a hiss, the doors slid open automatically. Clearly, Niv no longer had control of the train.
The two women exchanged a silent glance.
"…Let's go," Hel said finally, taking Niv's hand and stepping out.
The moment they set foot on the platform, two squads of heavily armed Alchemical Guardians marched forward.
[Name]: Rock Guardians
[Rank]: Tier 5
[Description]: The elite war machines of goblin engineering.
They stood three meters tall — towering humanoid constructs carrying tower shields as large as themselves in one hand, and massive double-handed greatswords in the other.
Weapons that would take several men to lift, they handled as effortlessly as ordinary blades.
"Snow elf? No… a synthetic lifeform," said a curious female voice from inside one of the guardians' helms.
The moment the term snow elf was spoken, all nearby guardians subtly raised their shields — as if the very word carried danger.
But soon, the voice spoke again, this time filled with fascination.
"How did you manage this? A normal synthetic mind could never handle such a massive computation load… Don't tell me you abandoned your Knowledge Core?"
"And you are…?" Niv asked cautiously.
There was a pause. The guardian straightened slightly, as though embarrassed, then replied,
"I am Edwina Swindetus Petra — administrator of this underground city, and operational core of its primary control system."
"Perhaps," she continued, "we should move somewhere more private to talk."
With a small gesture, she summoned a floating platform from across the station.
"Please, step aboard."
She walked onto it first, while the remaining guardians subtly tightened their formation, encircling Hel and Niv.
"Master," Niv murmured through their shared soul network, "something's not right."
Hel scanned their surroundings calmly, then gave her a reassuring smile.
The group rode the levitating platform deeper into the city.
From the air, Hel finally caught a full glimpse of the underground metropolis.
To the north stood three colossal trees, arranged in a triangular formation.
But curiously, a massive curved wall separated them from the city proper.
Hel could faintly see small figures flying from the trees toward the wall — but before she could focus on them, the platform glided into a building.
The interior was crafted from pure white metal of an unknown kind.
At the center stood a towering transparent pillar filled with cascading streams of light — pure data flowing like liquid.
Then, the same calm female voice spoke again — this time resonating from within the pillar itself.
"Welcome to my city."
Her tone was smooth and emotionless.
"Now," she said, "will you tell me what technology you're using?"