The journey back through the hidden ruins beneath Level Three was a slow, mechanical march.
The ancient weapons were heavier than anything the teenagers had carried before, adding dead weight to every step up the shattered basalt incline. Ren complained about his hammer every few minutes, grumbling that it had been designed by someone who hated shoulders.
Arata ignored him, carefully managing the longer draw of his new blade. Sera walked behind them, the armlet fixed securely around her wrist. The blue crystals remained cold and silent. The black dagger rested at her hip, and Mochi refused to leave Daichi's pack whenever Sera came near.
By the time they crossed the upper threshold into Level Three, the environment changed completely. The freezing air of the fracture zone gave way to the damp warmth of the underground forest. Wet earth, moss, and thick ferns twisted across the ground, blending with the distant hum of the research station's diesel generators. Civilization. Safety. Or at least, that was what it felt like.
They had barely entered a narrow, root-choked defile when Daichi raised one hand. Everyone stopped.
A low growl emanated from the brush ahead. Ren tightened his grip around the hammer, while Arata drew his dark sword halfway. Sera turned, her eyes scanning the shadows.
Branches shifted, and a creature stepped into the path. It was roughly the size of a large wolf, but its body was longer and lower to the ground, with multiple joints along its forelimbs and a mottled gray hide that blended almost perfectly with the stone. Its dark eyes reflected the dim station lights behind them.
Daichi raised his carbine. "Formation."
The creature lunged. Arata met it first. The new sword felt heavier than his old blade, but its balance was surprisingly clean in motion. He stepped aside from the snapping jaws and brought the weapon down across the creature's shoulder. The blade cut, but not deeply enough to sever the bone. The creature twisted with terrifying agility.
Ren came from the side. "Move!"
The massive iron hammer crashed into the beast's ribs, the impact throwing it sideways into the rock wall with a sickening crunch. Ren stared at his weapon in awe. "That worked."
"Focus!" Daichi shouted.
The creature recovered faster than expected, launching itself again. Arata blocked its jaws with the flat of the dark blade, the sheer kinetic force driving him backward until his boots tore lines through the wet soil.
Ren planted his feet. "Arata!"
Arata twisted aside just as Ren swung again. The hammer struck the creature directly beneath the jaw, cracking the bone and collapsing the monster into the dirt.
For a few seconds, nobody moved. Then, the creature's body began to dissolve. It didn't rot—it simply broke down into a thick, ash-like sludge. As it dissolved, a faint, almost invisible shimmer lifted from the corpse.
Mana. It rose in thin, luminescent threads from the dying creature. Arata saw it. Ren saw it too. But neither understood what they were looking at.
The shimmering energy drifted upward, then drifted sideways, drawing directly toward Sera.
The blue crystals in her armlet suddenly brightened. Sera stared at her wrist, her breath catching. "Wait."
The threads of mana touched the silver metal, and the sapphire crystals absorbed them effortlessly. One. Then another. The glow lasted only a few seconds before fading back into dormancy.
Sera slowly turned her wrist. "Did you see that?"
Ren looked at Arata. "Please tell me you saw that."
"I saw it."
Daichi stepped forward, raising his diagnostic wand. The needle rose—not much, but enough to register a clear spike. Daichi stared at the reading, then at Sera. "The bracelet absorbed residual mana."
Sera's eyes widened. "Why?"
"I don't know. But they weren't glowing before. Something changed after the creature died."
Before Daichi could finish the thought, a sharp rustle echoed from deeper in the forest. Everyone spun around as another creature emerged from the trees. This one was smaller, leaner, and impossibly fast. It lowered its body, preparing to spring.
Sera instinctively raised her arm to shield herself.
The sapphire crystals flared. Brilliant light gathered across the armlet, and a thin, glowing circle appeared in the air just inches from her open palm. Sera froze, her heart hammering against her ribs. "What's happening?"
Eight small spheres of water formed perfectly around the edge of the circle. They hung suspended in the air, perfectly round and perfectly still.
Ren looked at Arata. "Is she doing that?"
"I don't think she knows."
The creature charged. Sera panicked, her hand shaking as the water spheres wavered. Driven by pure terror, she thrust her wrist forward. The water spheres elongated instantly, stretching into narrow, pointed forms. They were no longer spheres—they had become thin, high-velocity liquid needles.
They shot through the air, striking the leaping creature simultaneously. The water projectiles pierced its shoulder, foreleg, torso, and flank with the force of solid steel. The creature collapsed in mid-air, hitting the mud dead. The water needles burst apart into harmless droplets, the magic circle vanished, and the sapphire crystals dimmed to a cold silence.
Stolen novel; please report.
Sera stood frozen, her arm still extended.
Ren slowly lowered his hammer. "Did your bracelet just..."
Sera stared at her trembling hand. "I don't know."
Arata looked at the dead creature, then at Sera. "You just attacked it with water."
"I know."
"You turned water into needles."
"I know."
"You looked terrified the entire time."
"I know."
Ren nodded solemnly. "Good. Just checking."
Daichi approached carefully, sweeping his wand over the fading corpse and then over Sera's armlet. The gauge remained slightly elevated. "Don't use it again."
Sera looked at him. "Why?"
"Because we don't know what you just spent." Daichi pointed toward the faintly glowing crystals. "The bracelet accumulated something from the first creature. And whatever you just released came from that stored energy."
Arata looked down at his own dark sword. "So the weapons consume mana."
"Possibly," Daichi said.
Ren lifted the heavy hammer. "And these?"
"Probably the same principle."
"Probably?" Ren gave him a look.
"You want me to lie?" Daichi retorted. "Stop asking questions I can't answer. We're moving."
They returned to the station before nightfall.
The central research annex was brighter than the dungeon chamber had been. The four ancient weapons lay across a reinforced examination table beneath humming surgical lamps. Dr. Hayama stood over them, his glasses pushed high onto his forehead. For several minutes, he examined the sword, the hammer, and the armlet in silence, before finally turning his gaze to the sealed dagger inside its containment cylinder.
Daichi gave his field report, detailing the ambush, the armlet's absorption, and the subsequent water projection. Hayama listened without interrupting, his expression tightening.
When Daichi finished, Hayama looked directly at Sera. "You didn't intentionally activate it?"
Sera swallowed. "No. I didn't even know how."
Hayama nodded slowly, an analytical detachment sharpening his features. He moved back to Arata's sword. "These crystals are not decorations." He pointed the tip of a stainless-steel probe at the red stones. "Their placement isn't natural. Each stone was cut and embedded deliberately. The channels are too precise."
He reached for a stack of photographs beside the table, displaying ancient monoliths, sealed doors, and strange geometric markings discovered throughout the mountain. "I've been calling these structures ruins because we don't know what else to call them. But whoever built them left fragments of the same system scattered everywhere. And now we are seeing similar patterns inside forged weapons."
Sera studied the photographs. "The same system?"
"Possibly." Hayama tapped the violet crystals on Ren's hammer. "The craftsmen who created these understood how different minerals interacted with mana. The arrangement may determine how mana moves through the weapon."
Arata looked at his sword. "So they're dormant."
"They appear to be," Hayama said. "But based on what happened in the forest, we may finally understand the first layer. The runes seem to control the movement of mana through the crystal structures. Think of it as a circuit."
Ren frowned. "Ancient magic electricity?"
"Not exactly. Mana enters, it is held or directed by the rune channels, and eventually released." Hayama turned to Sera. "When the monster died, some of its residual mana entered the bracelet. And when you used the water projection, you depleted part of what had accumulated. That is our working theory."
Hayama turned to the dagger inside the transparent containment cylinder. "This one is different. Only three black stones. No extended sequence. No obvious channels. Because it behaved differently from the others, it stays here."
Sera looked at the cylinder. "Because it's dangerous?"
"Because we don't understand it," Hayama corrected. "Those are not always the same thing." He secured the lock. "As for the sword, the hammer, and the armlet, you three will keep them. Your old equipment is damaged beyond practical use. But you will treat them strictly as physical tools. No forced activation attempts until we understand them."
Ren nodded. "Understood."
Hayama pointed toward the doorway. "Daichi and Mina will take you to the training annex to teach you how to physically handle them without breaking your own spines."
The training hall was a broad, sand-floored vault reinforced with heavy timber railway ties. By evening, the floodlights had been dimmed to half-power, casting long shadows across the wooden barriers.
Ren stood in the center of the ring, the enormous hammer resting head-down between his boots. He wiped sweat from his forehead. "If this thing has an ancient activation sequence, it should at least come with an instruction manual."
Arata sat on a wooden bench, cleaning the dark steel of his blade with an oiled cloth. "Maybe the instructions are written on it."
"Can you read them?"
"No."
"Then they're terrible instructions."
Sera stood nearby, adjusting the segmented armlet. "The crystal arrangement may respond to the person holding the weapon, but shouting at it is pointless."
Ren grinned, stepping toward a thick cedar training post. "Actually... just one test."
Arata looked up. "Ren, don't."
Ren planted his feet, heaved the massive hammer overhead, and yelled dramatically: *"Ignite!"*
He brought it down with all his strength.
*THUD.*
The striking face smashed into the timber, sending splinters flying across the sand through brute force alone. The violet crystals remained completely dark and silent.
Arata stared at the split wood. "Very mystical."
Ren pulled the heavy head free. "Shut up. Your turn, Tagetsu. Say something dramatic."
Arata sighed. He stood, took a two-handed stance before the second training post, felt completely ridiculous, cleared his throat, and muttered: *"Awaken."*
He lunged forward, driving the blade three inches into the wood.
*THUD.*
Nothing happened. The red crystals remained cold and dark.
Ren burst out laughing, leaning on his hammer haft. "Behold! The legendary sword has awakened to the thrilling power of chopping firewood!"
Arata pulled the blade free. "I hate you."
Sera covered her mouth, a small laugh escaping anyway. When Arata glared at her, she kept her face deadpan. "I said nothing. I was documenting."
"With your face?"
"Yes."
From the doorway, Daichi stepped onto the sand holding an analog telemetry scanner, accompanied by Mina carrying fresh water flasks and wraps. "If you're finished performing theater for the subterranean wildlife, look at this."
The laughter died instantly. Sera stepped toward him. "Did something register?"
Daichi held up the display. The needle on the analog mana gauge wasn't resting at absolute zero; it was twitching in a tiny, rhythmic flutter at barely one micro-unit.
"It's not listening to your shouting," Daichi said, taking a sip from his mug. "When you physically handled and swung the weapons, the scanner detected a slight resonance. We don't know the cause yet, but the materials are reacting to your grip. Only barely."
Arata looked down at the dark hilt in his hands. Deep within the fuller, the first tiny red crystal wasn't entirely inert. For a fraction of a second, a pinpoint of faint crimson light flickered deep inside the stone, pulsing once before falling completely dormant.
Beside him, the violet crystals on Ren's hammer gave a faint, almost imperceptible hum through the haft, while the blue stones on Sera's armlet remained cool and quiet against her skin.
Mina smiled gently, handing each of them a water flask. "One step at a time. Tomorrow we start proper training."
Ren took his flask. "Does proper training include instructions?"
Daichi turned and walked away. "No."
Outside the reinforced walls of the station, the vast, primeval forest of Level Three stood silent beneath the mountain.
And deep inside the locked diagnostic laboratory, inside the heavy containment cylinder, the three tiny black crystals of the sealed dagger gave a single, soundless shudder.
For less than a heartbeat, the darkness around the stones seemed to deepen, as though the ambient light itself were being drawn into the facets, before settling back into absolute, impenetrable stillness.