The grand tiered arena hummed with a newfound, peaceful energy.
Twelve twenty-foot black glass titans stood in orderly formation, their freshly washed star-black glass armor gleaming with gentle violet starlight under the quartz star-patterns overhead. For the first time in three hundred thousand years. Their internal was dark rock gears spun in silent harmony, unburdened by the shrieking friction of ancient soul-rust.
Da Shi stepped forward from the rank. His sapphire eyes glowed with respectful warmth as he looked down at Lin Xiao.
“Sovereign,” the chief stone-mason rumbled. His deep shook through the bedrock like a gentle summer swell. “You have restored our cohort to sanity and granted us the honor of building rather than destroying. To serve your mountain, we must place the ancient art of the Earth-Core at your command.”
Lin Xiao tilted his head, brushing a stray lock of raven hair from his forehead. “The ancient art? You mean the way you guys shape stone?”
“Exactly, Sovereign,” Da Shi answered. He turned toward the eastern outer edge of the tiered arena, where several massive slabs of raw, jagged granite lay strewn about. Rubble from an ancient ceiling collapse that had occurred during the era of earth-shaking shifting.
