Chapter 594 - 590 – THE BLACK STARSTEEL FRAME, THE UNDERGROUND HALL, AND THE FLEET FROM THE CAPITAL

Three days after the first trial, the afternoon sun hung lazily over Fallen Star City. On the newly bustling black-paved streets, workers cheered as they hauled blocks of stone for the new fortress wall. Not one of them realized that right beneath their feet, a hundred meters below the governor’s mansion backyard, one of the most insane projects in the history of the Tianhua continent was underway.

"One more, Sol. Widen it a bit to the left. The wall is still uneven," Sylvia said flatly, standing at the edge of the enormous pit with her arms folded across her chest.

At the bottom of the pit, Sol, in the form of a tiny golden cat, raised a pair of small paws. Golden light radiated from his pads, and the earth and solid rock of the excavation wall slowly melted, then hardened again into a surface as smooth as a mirror.

’I am a sacred Golden Dragon who conquered the heavens,’ Sol grumbled through telepathy, bitterly. ’And now I’m smoothing the walls of an underground warehouse like a plasterer. When was the last time a dragon was treated like this?’

’The day before yesterday. You were treated like this when you went looking for mithril, too,’ Noir replied coldly. The black cat was curled up on Sylvia’s shoulder, opening only one violet eye. ’Nothing has changed.’

’Shut up, Noir!’

Sylvia paid the little quarrel no attention at all. She was used to it. While Sol worked, she raised her right hand, and hundreds of tons of leftover mithril from the System Inventory flowed out as a gleaming purple liquid, spreading along the walls and ceiling of the underground hall, which now measured one hundred twenty meters wide.

The hall was the solution to a problem that had appeared the day after the first trial. The fifty-meter-wide frame of the Main Gate obviously could not be installed inside the small pavilion, whose roof was only seven meters high. Building it above ground was impossible too, since that would be the same as announcing the secret to every corner of the city, and to every spy from the capital. So Sylvia decided to dig downward.

The Mithril Altar in the pavilion now served as the entrance. Beneath its floor, a wide spiral staircase led down to the underground hall, which could hold twenty cargo ships at once. Its walls were lined with mithril and sound-absorbing formations. In the corners, Sylvia had embedded earth-crystal lamps that gave off a soft white glow.

"That’s enough," Sylvia finally said, clapping her hands. "Sol, come back up. Noir, don’t fall asleep. Stacia will start sending the first piece any moment now."

As if she had heard her name called, the holographic bracelet on Sylvia’s wrist flickered. Stacia’s face appeared, her golden hair messier than usual, her laboratory goggles crooked, and a smear of charcoal across her left cheek.

"Sylvia! I’m done forging! The whole frame is finished in twelve segments!" Stacia reported in a delighted, shrill voice. "Each segment is nine meters long and weighs over eighty tons. The dwarves at the workshop nearly cried from exhaustion. I promised them free hotpot for a month!"

"How generous," Sylvia smiled in amusement. "What about the upper arch?"

"Four curved segments and eight upright ones. All of them are engraved with three-layer conduction formations, and resonance crystal cores are embedded at every joint. Once assembled, the frame will become one with the Astral Starforge Reactor here," Stacia explained as she swiped through a complicated chart on her screen. "There’s just one small problem."

"Tell me."

"The anchor crystal can currently only transport objects with a maximum diameter of three meters. So each segment has to be sent one at a time, in sequence. Twelve transfers, with a fifteen-minute cooldown between each."

"That’s enough. We have time," Sylvia answered. "Start with the base segment."

Deep in the hall, Sylvia set up the receiving position. The small altar above was now linked to a giant receiving circle that she had drawn on the floor of the underground hall using mithril powder, so that whatever arrived would not fall into the pavilion but appear right in the center of the hall.

HUMMMMMM!! POP!

The air in the center of the hall bent. In a flash of silver light, a jet-black steel beam veined with gleaming white-gold lines appeared and landed soundlessly on the receiving circle. It looked ordinary in size on the holographic screen, but in the real world its weight made the mithril floor tremble faintly.

"The first segment has arrived," Sylvia reported. "Intact. No cracks."

"Yay! Second segment launching!" Stacia cheered.

For the next six hours, the underground hall turned into an assembly workshop. One by one, the starsteel segments arrived in flashes of silver, and Sylvia shifted each into position with delicate telekinesis, as carefully as someone putting together an expensive puzzle. At certain points, she called on Sol to hold up the heaviest pieces.

"Sol, hold this curved section. Lift it a little more."

Sol was forced to return to his fifty-meter golden dragon form. His enormous body filled a quarter of the hall, his golden scales shimmering sacredly under the crystal light. With front claws as big as horse carriages, he held up an eighty-ton curved segment as if holding a twig.

’I swear,’ Sol complained, gritting his huge teeth, ’if it weren’t for the cloud-silk pillow in that Penthouse, I would have left long ago.’

’That Penthouse is in the capital, and we’re not there right now,’ retorted Noir, who was now perched on one of the segments already installed, licking his paws. ’Besides, you yourself called it "the best pillow of my entire life" yesterday.’

’I never said that!’

’You talk in your sleep.’

Sylvia pretended not to hear. The corners of her lips curled up faintly.

Near midnight, the twelfth segment arrived. Sylvia lifted it, connected its end to the topmost arch, then channeled a little power into the joint. The white-gold veins in the starsteel lit up one by one like blood vessels filled with light, spreading along the frame until the whole ring was connected.

A colossal gate now stood upright in the middle of the hall: fifty meters wide and thirty meters tall, with a jet-black surface that reflected the crystal light like a night mirror. Inside it there was only emptiness, but the air within the frame had already begun to pulse slowly, awaiting a command.

Sol shrank back into a tiny cat, then flopped onto his back on the floor with all four legs in the air. ’Done. I’m going to sleep. Don’t wake me until that gate lights up.’

"It’s not time to sleep yet," Sylvia said as she approached the gate frame and pressed her palm against one of its golden veins. A wave of warm energy ran up her arm. "Stacia, I can feel the frame’s resonance has merged with the reactor. How are the readings over there?"

"Perfect!" Stacia’s face on the screen looked teary-eyed. "Sylvia, we did it! Only one step left: full activation and living-creature testing. But the reactor has to be raised to peak voltage, and I need one full day to calibrate it so it doesn’t burn out the anchor crystal."

"One day. Fine." Sylvia nodded. "I’ll let Zhaoyue know."

Sofia appeared beside Stacia and looked at Sylvia with a gentle smile. "You must be tired. Go and rest first, Sylvia. Tomorrow we’ll do it together. I will personally lead the first line from Nocture. When you summon our cargo ships there, I want to see the faces of the Tianhua people when they see them."

"Don’t scare them too badly," Sylvia chuckled.

"I won’t do anything. They’ll be terrified all on their own," Sofia replied lightly, winking.

The call ended. Sylvia let out a long sigh and looked at the giant gate one last time before turning to head up to the surface. Noir leapt onto her shoulder, while Sol had to be carried by the scruff of his neck like a lazy kitten.

As soon as they stepped out of the pavilion, the cold night air greeted them. On the mansion’s veranda, Zhaoyue was already waiting. Her face no longer held its usual cheerfulness. The young princess stood upright with a thin cloak over her shoulders, and in her hand was a rolled-up report.

"Sylvia, you’re not asleep yet," Zhaoyue said softly.

"Neither are you." Sylvia raised an eyebrow, instantly catching the change in her friend’s expression. "What’s wrong?"

Zhaoyue handed over the scroll. "The lookout post guards in the Deathcloud Mountains sent a report through a communication crystal an hour ago. They saw a convoy of combat airships moving south. Six high-grade mana-crystal ships, escorted by twenty combat wyverns and about thirty flying mages. Their banners... bear the crest of the Grand Noble Council."

Sylvia read the report calmly. It contained a sketch of their formation, flight speed, and an estimate of how many Tier 6 to Tier 8 mages were among them. Enough to destroy an ordinary border city overnight.

"They’re sending an investigation fleet," Sylvia murmured. "That fast."

"The Second Prince must have arranged this since the night of the banquet," Zhaoyue bit her lower lip. The hand holding the edge of her cloak trembled slightly, but her gaze was steady. "They’re expected to arrive in two days. Officially, they’ll call it a ’territorial inspection’ on the Council’s orders. But I’m sure they’re coming to seize the city and arrest us."

"And you’re afraid?"

Zhaoyue fell silent for a moment. Then she shook her head slowly. "I am afraid, Sylvia. But not of them. I’m afraid of losing this city after everything we’ve built. The people have started to believe in me."

Sylvia gazed at her friend for quite a while. Then she reached out and gently ruffled Zhaoyue’s hair as if she were a little sister, making the princess flinch in surprise, her cheeks turning red.

"Listen carefully," Sylvia said gently. "This city is yours. As long as you’re still standing here, no one on this continent can take it. That gate will light up tomorrow night, right before they arrive. Let them come and see for themselves what you are building."

"But their numbers..."

"Thirty mages of Tier 6 to 7?" Sylvia snorted softly. "I once destroyed the Storm Sea King single-handedly. For an army like that, I don’t even need to step in. I have an archangel who has been waiting for her turn since yesterday."

Zhaoyue blinked in confusion. "You mean... Sofia?"

"Her and my entire army," Sylvia answered with a knowing smile. "Make sure you welcome them politely, Princess Zhaoyue. Serve them the finest tea. Let no one say the ruler of the Southern Star doesn’t know her manners."

Zhaoyue gasped, but slowly a faint smile tugged at her lips, the smile of a young ruler beginning to understand just how much power stood behind her. She bowed deeply in respect.

"I understand. I’ll prepare everything."

Sylvia turned and went into her room with Sol dangling from her hand and Noir perched on her shoulder. Before closing the door, she glanced once more toward the dark northern sky, where six faint points of crystal light seemed to move far along the horizon.

’Two days,’ she thought. ’Enough time to prepare the tea. And enough time to prepare a welcome party.’

Underground, the giant Black Starsteel gate pulsed softly in the dark, as if waiting for tomorrow night to arrive.