Shadow-Enforcer Malrik’s eyes locked onto the cheerful yellow calligraphy for half a heartbeat.
“Full reverse,” Malrik whispered, his voice cracking with sudden dread. “Disengage the drill-heads!”
The helmsman slammed the reverse thruster levers with both hands.
The spirit engines shrieked in frantic protest as the counter-current void-propellers spun backward, spraying clouds of boiling cavitation bubbles into the tunnel.
It was already too late.
The heat-seeking proximity runes inscribed upon the twenty Cloud-Veined Supreme Flame-Lotus Mines detected the friction of the diamond drill-heads.
A single crimson spark flared at the base of the five-tier pyramid.
Then the Great Basalt Fissure ignited.
