**Blazemelt City – Dawn**
Dawn in Blazemelt City. The sun had not yet burned through the thick fog clinging to the Mo Erosion Mountains, and the air reeked of molten metal and sulfur. Deputy General Dulin's drilling convoy rumbled over shattered rock toward the mountain range. Ten iron-plated trucks groaned under loads of "waste slag," while in the hidden compartments beneath the beds crouched Fa, Arya, TISK, Salsa, and Rex. TISK's metal magic had etched fake corrosion scars across every surface, perfectly masking the heartbeat and breath of the living inside.
They were infiltrating the Mo Erosion Mountains to expose the secrets of Beastman General Hidden Claw · Grum — and to hunt for any trace of a star shard.
**First Checkpoint – Outer Mining Zone**
The convoy reached the outer perimeter. Through a crack in the plating, Fa watched three-story-tall "magma-tech burrowers" chew into the mountain face, tungsten drills spitting pressurized arcane slurry that melted stone into rivers of glowing slag. Magnetic nets scooped up the dribbles of low-grade crystals — dull, lifeless stones, exactly as Dulin had warned: the periphery had already been stripped bare by machines.
Guards in glowing power armor swept the trucks with luminous electro-spears. Dulin leaned out the window, rust-colored beard bristling, and barked in Dwarvish, "You really think I'd smuggle something in slag, you suspicious bastards?" The guards peered at the rolling furnace ash, shrugged, and waved them through. The massive gate groaned upward. They passed.
**The Second Stretch**
Beyond the gate, the scene changed. Thousands of beastmen and dwarves — barefoot, shackled, radiation wraps around their limbs — chipped at the rock by hand. Crystal dust glittered under their broken nails.
Dulin's voice came low over the earpiece. "Machines out there because the ore's worthless. In the inner zones the veins are rich — too rich. One wrong vibration and the whole lattice collapses. So Grum uses living picks instead. Says it's to 'protect the resource.'" He spat. "Truth is he wants every high-grade crystal accounted for personally."
The trucks rolled on.
**Third Mining Zone Entrance**
They stopped again. The guards here wore wolf-head insignias that pulsed blood-red — personal guard of the Fierce Claw Empire.
"Where's the General?" Dulin asked.
"Deep in Zone Three, overseeing labor," the guard replied.
"Good. I'll find him myself later."
As soon as the guards turned away, the false bottom of the lead truck slid open. TISK rolled out first, covered in ash, eyes shining. "Secret mithril suspension springs! Uncle Dulin, you sneaky old—"
"Shut it, boy. Old tunnel. Move."
**The Hidden Tunnel**
Dulin led them into a narrow, dripping service shaft carved centuries ago and long forgotten. Ancient dwarven runes still glowed faintly on the walls.
Halfway through, Fa suddenly froze. Her star-eye flared silver. She seized Dulin's wrist.
"There's another pulse. Not the main vein. Right fork. Stronger. Hidden."
Dulin frowned at his map. "Nothing on the charts…"
"Trust me."
He did.
They veered into an even tighter passage, pushed aside a camouflaged boulder, and descended a rope shaft.
**The Fourth Pit – The Truth**
The shaft opened into a cavern of horrors.
Hundreds of iron cages hung from chains in the ceiling. Inside were "missing" miners and "fallen" soldiers of both the Fierce Claw Empire and the Steelforge Alliance — beastmen with broken horns, dwarves with chained wrists, humans branded on the face, even a few elves. All half-dead, all breathing despair.
Dulin's hammer trembled in his grip. "These are our own people… listed as dead or lost."
Fa whispered, "Stay low."
Three figures stood deeper in the pit.
Left: a creature wrapped in gray mist, fragments of a soul-devouring bell embedded in its chest — Cthulhu.
Right: silver-haired, crimson-eyed blood elf spinning threads of living blood between his fingers — Sister, the mastermind behind the Golden Merchant Fortress attack.
Center: General Hidden Claw · Grum himself, crystalline skin cracking across his body, dark red curse-marks crawling over his forehead.
Cthulhu's voice was needles on glass. "Shipment status? Has the Beast King noticed anything?"
"Third batch already loaded," Grum growled. "Of the five Fierce Claw generals: one holds the border, one guards the capital, one rots in my prison, one tours the provinces. That leaves me. When the veins run dry and the capital starves for crystals… my legions march."
Sister smiled, caressing a dark crimson crystal. "Excellent. These stones will push our research far beyond what the old fools dreamed."
Fa and the others exchanged looks of cold fury.
**Battle and Sacrifice**
Dulin whispered, "We get this information out. I can take Grum alone, but not all three. We retreat—"
Sister's head snapped toward their hiding spot. "Who's there?"
Blood threads lanced like spears, blasting chunks from the rock.
"RUN!" Dulin roared, charging. His hammer met Grum's greatsword in an explosion that cracked the floor. TISK melted cage locks with liquid metal hands, screaming for the slaves to flee. Arya's elemental arrows flew — vines wrapped Cthulhu's soul-body, fire arrows were swallowed by darkness. Salsa's dark crystal staff birthed twelve shadow-wolf knights that crashed into the rising undead tide.
Sister pointed at TISK. "Kill the dwarf boy first. Break his heartfire emblem."
A blood spear streaked — Dulin intercepted it with his shield, solar flare erupting from the impact.
Grum's axe carved through Dulin's back. Blood sprayed across TISK's face.
TISK screamed, hammer resonating with molten rage, and snapped Grum's greatsword in half.
Rex's nano-drones threw up shields. "They're feeding on the vein energy — every attack we make feeds them!"
Sister raised a bone flute. Blood coalesced into a gigantic crimson eye that began scanning for weaknesses.
Dulin was slowing, armor rent, chest opened to the bone. Still he stood between his kids and death.
Grum raised the killing blow.
Dulin's eyes ignited. Ancient dwarven words rumbled from his bleeding mouth. His heartfire emblem blazed like a second sun.
"Get them out… NOW!"
His body swelled, armor plates glowing white-hot. He triggered the forbidden technique — Lifeburn Heartfire.
A vortex of molten fury hurled Grum and Sister backward, bought the others precious seconds.
But three against one was too many.
Fa saw it happening before it happened.
Grum's blade rose for TISK's unprotected back.
Cthulhu's bell opened to swallow Dulin's soul.
Fa's star-eye burned gold.
The short blade slammed into the stone. A spiral of celestial light exploded outward. Rock turned transparent; she saw three kilometers up through solid mountain, saw the Steelforge Council halls in Dulin's memory, saw TISK's childhood forge in Silver-Red Village.
"Stellar Gate… OPEN!"
Golden star-map wrapped them all — Fa, Arya, TISK, Salsa, Rex, and the dying Dulin.
Cthulhu shrieked. Sister's blood eye showed fear for the first time.
Then — whoosh — they were gone.
**The Meadow – Final Words**
They landed hard in soft grass far beyond the mountains.
Fa collapsed, her star-eye dimming to faint silver.
TISK cradled Dulin's broken body. The old dwarf's beard was matted with blood, but he forced his eyes open one last time.
He pressed his heartfire pendant into TISK's palm. The tiny furnace inside still pulsed weakly.
"Listen, lad… you hear metal breathing… you make scrap live again… you're the future of our people…"
His bloody hand found Fa's wrist. "Deep… deeper in the mountains… finish it…"
Arya wove a crown of living vines and laid it on the ruined hammer.
Dulin actually smiled. "Never thought… an elf would give me flowers…"
The light in his eyes went out.
The heartfire pendant went dark.
TISK's scream was not loud — it was the sound of something inside a dwarf breaking forever.
Salsa's soul-form hovered silently. "His soul has returned to the great forge of the mountain."
Fa closed Dulin's eyes.
"We bury him with full honors when we reach the Steelforge Alliance. Then we make them all pay."
She handed TISK the war hammer. The heartfire emblem was cracked, but the words "Friend of Steelforge" could still be read.
TISK wiped his face, stood up, and slung the hammer across his back.
"I'll carry it for him."
He said he wanted to see my improved mithril cannon."
His voice did not shake anymore.
"It's time they saw it."