The peaceful respite of the floating campfire lasted exactly six hours.
At seven in the morning, timed together with the sky tides of the upper world, the High Altar of the East awakened.
The four cardinal water gate gates at the base of the jade ziggurat reopened with a deep, high-pressure chime. The turquoise water of Vault 5 began to circulate through the world-size mantle in a smooth, smooth-flowing cycle, purifying forty thousand cubic miles of underground salt water with fresh Wood-Water Creation essence.
From the center of the jade ziggurat, a huge pylon of living emerald crystal rose into the cave air.
Echo, still floating belly-up in luxurious body-energy torpor, opened one eye. With a lazy flick of his massive tail, the great dragon-whale channeled a single pulse of his newly awakened Qinglong power into the water.
SHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUM.
A blinding pillar of emerald-cyan light erupted from the crystal pylon, shooting straight upward through the vaulted ceiling, piercing forty miles of lithosphere, and striking the Pacific sky like a lance of living spring.
Arthur checked his wrist console.
