Leaving the high volcano bowl arena behind, Arthur Vance led his squad down an ancient ritual incline carved directly into the tightly packed dense green rock bedrock. At minus twenty-three thousand meters beneath the Earth’s surface, the surrounding rock pressure exceeded six gigapascals. But the giant stone building of the First Great realm held the underground tunnel as rigid and open as an arched cathedral.
The descent along the ritual dense green rock incline revealed the awe-inspiring deep-rock stratigraphy of the planet’s shift zone. At this depth, the rocks were not brittle solids but ductile metamorphic formations, flowing under millions of years of heat-rising heat. Veins of pure native gold, cubic mantle garnets, and crystal-clear coesite shone along the tunnel walls, polished smooth by ancient water-magma chimney pipes. The air was thick, heavy with the weight of an entire world overhead. But perfectly breathable within the protective sky envelope generated by the squad’s timed together auras.
Beside Arthur, the Earth-Shaker Behemoth walked. Now that its heart-artery infection was cured and its tachycardia steadied, the two-hundred-meter titan moved with majestic, fluid grace. Its massive feet, cushioned by thick pads of metamorphic stringy joint padding, barely shook the stone. Its three magnetic horns glowed with rhythmic pulses of sapphire light that lit up the dark descent.
