The ascent from minus twenty-four thousand eight hundred meters was a leisurely, triumphant journey. Riding the heavy magnetic cargo platform hoisted by the Aegis Vanguard’s quantum cable array, Arthur Vance and his squad climbed smoothly through the steadied channels of Caldera Tartarus.
The platform passed through the central arena of Progenitor Vault Two. Then, the Earth-Shaker Behemoth was resting peacefully amidst the cooled dark rock pillars. Its massive, sixty-meter magnetic horns glowed with calm blue light, its steady, forty-eight BPM heartbeat resonating through the rock like an ancient drum of world-balance. The great titan slowly raised its massive head as the elevator passed. It exhaled a single, gentle gust of warm steam in quiet salute to the healer who had saved its life.
Arthur raised his hand in return. He felt the deep, iron-hard bond of pack kinship across the expanse of the cave.
Arthur looked back down into the depths of Caldera Tartarus through the open grating of the platform. He watched the glowing landscape of the lower mantle recede. The Sea of White Flame, which had raged like a stormy ocean of fire when they first dropped, now flowed in calm, golden-azure peace. The deep fault lines that had threatened to split the land-wide crust were sealed beneath miles of unbending pre-Cambrian glass. For millions of years to come, the Indonesian mantle would hold firm.
