Chapter 736 (1/2)

Randidly was shocked by the power of the winds. He had arrived in the refugee camp by simply willing himself there, but since arriving in the Earth Golem Land, he had fully intended to move everywhere the old fashioned way.

Within ten minutes, Randidly was reconsidering that decision.

The refugee camp was built in the middle of some low hills, so the winds outside of the buildings there were annoying but manageable. But following after the grim-faced Allica, the two of them quickly headed out of the hills into what Randidly originally assumed to be a savannah type biome composed primarily of scrub grass and squat cactuses.

It was so much worse than that.

As soon as they were out of the leeward side of the hills, the wind found them and brought its friend sand with it. Normally this wouldn’t have been anything worth fussing over, but Randidly felt a strange stirring in himself as he witnessed the wind and sand combination.

It was faintly imbued with his own image of Sharpness. With wind moved in sharp slashes and cutting undercurrents, doing everything it could to rip through the poncho and tear his skin. After only a few minutes, his feet stung terribly, and a scowl settled onto his face.

Luckily he had followed Allica’s lead and fastened the strangely binding poncho all the way. He felt like a fool wearing this glorified bastard child of a straight jacket and a small tent, but it certainly kept the wind off of his body.

But Randidly’s stats ultimately made the danger meaningless. It was simply a light sting. So he followed after Allica, inwardly wishing she would pick up the pace.

After about two hours, the pair arrived at a spot that looked completely ordinary to Randidly. There were a few cactuses around them, and a crack in the ground, but otherwise it was just another windswept patch of land. But Allica pulled up and announced, “We are here.”

At first, Randidly was quite sure that he had misheard due to the keening of the wind. He just stood and looked at Allica out of the hood of his poncho.

Allica seemed to sense Randidly’s confusion. There was only a small opening in for her face, but Randidly could see her eyes soften as she looked at him with dawning recognition. “Ah, you have never been to our land before, have you?”

Randidly shook his head.

There were a few seconds without any noise aside from the wind then. The two regarded each other. Randidly was simply nonplussed, but Allica seemed to be searching for something in his face. Eventually, she sighed.

“It is admirable, then, you have chosen to come help in our time of need. For all of my people, I thank you. But then I am even more troubled by your ability to help. Come, I will show you. Witness the true blow that the Coalition Army struck against our Land.”

Allica turned and approached the crack in the ground and began to lower herself into it. Quickly, Randidly followed. There was a series of rock shelves that functioned like giant stairs that curved around on itself, leading deeper into the crack. The roof was pretty close to his head as Randidly lowered himself, but at least it was an escape from the vicious wind.

After about twelve of the shelves, they arrived at a stone path that hugged the wall of this underground gorge. Below them to the left, the crack opened wider and continued downwards into darkness. In front of them…

“It would have been easier to understand if we had walked around to witness the front of this waystation, where trade would enter,” Allica said softly. Suddenly out of the wind, her voice seemed to echo off of the walls in an ominous manner. “But that entrance is completely collapsed, so it would have been another half hour of walking just to see the sights. When there is work to be done… such waste is directly working against our interests. Still, you should understand from seeing it from this angle.”

The path sloped downward and broadened to form something akin to a road that led forward through this strange gorge. Although small, there were spots that opened to the wider world above, so some light filtered down. Whereas back and to the left the crack led to the depths, that distance narrowed in front of them, so there was a connection between the two sides of the gorge. And it seemed that someone had carved a city into the walls here.

And then set off several tons of C4.

Most of the buildings were in pieces, forming a substantial pile of rubble in the middle of the road, blocking it off quite near to where it formed. Adding insult to injury, it looked like the walls above the carved buildings had been collapsed down on top of everything, so there were simply huge boulders precariously perched on top of the building rubble, complicating the matter of excavating the area.

Below, Randidly could spot about two dozen individuals carefully hauling away bits of rock around a particularly large boulder, seemingly trying to create a lane for it to roll out into the portion of crack that would fall below.

Because otherwise, how would they get it out of this place?