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The trek to the Great Mine was a masterclass in atmospheric tension.
Kenta walked in the eye of a storm, flanked by Seele on his left and Bronya on his right. The Express trio trailed behind like a bewildered rear guard. Stelle, for her part, was not enjoying the formation. Finding both prime spots beside Kenta occupied, she had considered clinging to his back or demanding a piggyback ride, but March 7th had shut that down with a sharp, "Don't be weird, Stelle!"
Now, the "Galaxy Bat" could only burn holes into Kenta's jacket with a mournful, intense stare, hoping he'd take the hint and reshuffle the deck.
Seele hadn't intended to play escort. She'd planned to scout ahead, but the thought of leaving Kenta alone with the "Overworld Princess" sat in her stomach like cold lead. Bronya, meanwhile, was on a mission; she needed to find Oleg and see the truth of the Underworld with her own eyes.
"Sigh." March 7th slumped her shoulders. "Life is tough when you're the only normal person in a group of disasters."
Dan Heng, however, wasn't bored. He was struggling. As he watched the silhouettes of Bronya and Seele ahead, a jagged spark of déjà vu lanced through his skull. For a fleeting second, their outlines shifted—he saw a white-haired girl with fox ears and a woman in blue and white. The vision was a splinter of ice in his brain.
"Ugh... I am not him anymore," he whispered, clutching his forehead. "I am Dan Heng." Then, his gaze refocused on Kenta's back. "But only you... I cannot forget."
The silence of the Great Mine was long gone, replaced by the roar of an escalating riot. At the entrance, a wall of vagrants had barricaded the path, keeping a group of desperate miners at bay. Natasha was already there, tending to a few bloodied workers.
"Natasha? Things must be bad if the Doctor is on the front lines," Seele said, her hand drifting to her scythe.
"Oleg took a squad of Wildfire deeper into the shaft," Natasha explained, her face drawn with worry. "The vagrants got greedy over a new vein, but there's a third force involved now. Robots. They've locked down the central passage and aren't letting anyone through."
"Robots?" Bronya looked genuinely baffled. "Robots are tools of the Preservation. They shouldn't be hostile to humans unless programmed to be."
Seele let out a sharp, mocking laugh. "Down here, 'Preservation' has a different face, Princess. They're taking orders from Svarog."
Kenta felt a familiar twitch in his eyelid. Svarog. Is this your damn 'Calculation' at work again? If you keep this up, I'm going to personally unscrew your head.
March 7th clapped her hands, trying to break the gloom. "Alright! Time for a little Trailblazing encouragement! Let's go kick some scrap metal!"
The group fought their way through the trestle bridges and tunnels, clearing out vagrants who were more interested in looting than listening. As they neared the central vein, the mechanical rumble of a massive engine echoed through the cavern.
"I just wanted Mr. Svarog to see that the miners and vagrants are hurting," a soft, familiar voice drifted toward them. It was Clara.
"I have already neutralized the conflict," Svarog's booming, metallic bass replied.
"But it's not enough... everyone is still scared..."
"My mission is the Preservation of the Underworld," Svarog stated coldly. "Human behavior is an erratic variable. Trust is a redundant calculation. Their presence here proves they are incapable of self-governance."
Kenta stepped into the light of the ore lamps, his face a mask of profound irritation. "Svarog! We still haven't settled the tab for those palm cannons you fired at me!"
Clara looked up, her red eyes lighting up with relief at the sight of Kenta. Svarog's singular eye flickered red. "Seele of Wildfire... your resistance is statistically insignificant. My calculations confirm that total isolation is the only path to survival."
"Wait a second, you overgrown toaster," Kenta interrupted, holding up a hand. "These people are outsiders. They have a perspective that isn't trapped in your little data loop. Why don't you listen?"
Clara stepped forward, her bare feet pressing into the cold dust. "Mr. Svarog, please? Just listen to the big brothers and sisters?"
After a long pause that sounded like a cooling hard drive, Svarog nodded. "Variable: Outsiders accepted. State your demands."
Dan Heng stepped forward, explaining the Stellaron—the cancer of worlds, the cause of the Eternal Freeze, and the barrier to the Express.
"Authorization level: Insufficient," Svarog replied instantly. "Access to Stellaron data is restricted."
Kenta felt his blood pressure spike. He'd had enough of the circular logic. "Authorization? Calculations? Svarog, if this is how you 'Preserve' the Underworld, maybe you should just retire. Come on, let me give you a lesson in actual problem-solving."
Kenta stepped forward, gesturing with four fingers as if explaining a recipe to a toddler.
"Listen up! One, two, three, four. It's easy! Step one: I go to the Upper District and use my connections to bench Cocolia. Step two: I squeeze the Stellaron's location out of her. Step three: Once I have the coordinates, I use a flame-jump to bypass your 'isolation' and flash-attack the target. Now, we've got the Stellaron surrounded and its HP is low. What do we do then? We don't use your clunky missiles!"
He turned, grabbed a very confused Stelle by her collar, and lifted her off the ground like a prized weapon.
"We directly summon the Trailblazer! We throw her right into the heart of the anomaly! She seals the cancer, I use a 'Black Flame: Burn to Ashes' command to maximize the damage, and boom—forced seal complete. What the hell do you know about Preservation? Your way is just waiting for the lights to go out!"
Svarog: "..."
The silence of the Great Mine was absolute, broken only by the sound of Stelle dangling from Kenta's grip, wondering if this counted as holding hands.
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