The oppressive atmosphere continued to intensify as Dia followed Nero and the others. The Holy Son of the Black God had erected a moving dome of mana, which served to protect them from any unruly gusts of mana.

Thunder rumbled, and webs of lightning sundered the sky over and over again.

“Fortunately, the lightning doesn’t strike down on us,” Nero muttered. “The scenes you see above are in a different time and space; they are transient, ethereal visions of a past long gone.”

He paused. “The God of Hope’s death is the reason behind such a phenomenon, and it’s the only reason why we don’t look up into the sky during his passing.”

“What happens if we look up?” Farah asked.

“Didn’t I explain it to you guys before?” Nero made a little sound in his throat. “Maybe I should go into more detail. Let’s put it this way, shall we? On no account should one look at a descending divinity, because in that very moment, the divinity is laid bare for all to see. This information overloads the mind of anyone who takes it in, and their heads explode. Now, let’s take it even further. The death of a god entails the pure unravelling of their mind, body and soul; if not controlled consciously, the sheer amount of information released will eradicate any mortal completely.”

He paused. “Your soul dissipates. The ultimate End, capital E. You cease to exist now and thereafter. The God of Hope’s death back then was the reason behind why virtually no one made it out of this place. You are welcome to join these ancient ranks by looking up.”

“…Okay, it’s really scary…”

“I’m glad you understand that,” Nero replied, looking around the place cautiously. “Anyway, don’t just look straight ahead. We need to be careful that we are not caught in the middle of a battle.”

Dia and the others nodded, and resuming their scanning. The battlefield of Hope’s passing had been levelled smoothly, so a single sweep of their eyes was enough to take in a vast range of things.

“Alright, found it.” Nero made a smug chuckle. “Come on, let’s fill this cart up!”

“Prana jade?” Farah asked.

“Sure is.” Nero pointed at the patch of ground three metres to his northeast. “See the purple-green mist? That’s proof of prana right there. Let’s go and dig it up.”

Dia grabbed the spades and pickaxes and handed them out to everyone.

“Don’t be too engrossed in digging,” Nero warned. “Look up every so often and make sure that we aren’t in the middle of two enemy parties while we’re digging. We won’t last more than ten seconds in a crossfire.”

“That strong, huh…”

“And we aren’t entering the centre of the battlefield. This is where the God of Hope perished. The ennea-folders who killed him won’t be holding back.”

Dia wondered about the Coloured God who had killed the God of Hope, but she really doubted that she was going to get an answer today. Hefting the spade, she and the others scooped away the dirt first, revealing a thick vein of purple-green light.

“Tadah! Prana jades right here.” Nero examined his pickaxe, and then nodded. “Don’t worry about damaging it; prana jades will coalesce when they’re done breaking down to form lots of similarly-sized lifestones. We’ll start by digging up the whole vein, and then we’ll break it into small pieces on level ground. Any questions?”

He paused for a moment, and then gestured with his left hand. Mana poured out from it, wrapping the unearthed vein of purple-green rock and digging it out with absurd ease, despite the vein being the size of a few men. “Done. Let’s start breaking it down.”

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Dia looked at the excavated vein of prana jade. “It’s such a weird shape. Like random clumps of rock stuck together.”

“It’s really different from lifestone mines, aren’t they?” Risti asked. “Lifestones all have a nice shape and size, but this thing is so wild.”

“Yeah, prana jade veins tend to be very random,” Nero replied. “No one knows why, though, but I know that the Saran Supreme actually has a collection of oddly shaped prana jade veins.”

“Why would the ruler of the Saran Supremacy have such a thing? That doesn’t make sense.” Farah frowned, before chipping off a small, fist-sized prana jade. “Is he just bored?”

“Probably,” Nero replied. “He’s cranky, and I hear that he’s very, very cruel as well.”

“Cruel, huh…”

Metal continued to ring out as the four of them chipped away at the prana jade vein, creating small fragments that glowed with mystical power. With them working really hard, it didn’t take long before the vein of prana jade had been reduced into small, purple-green rocks.

Dia wrapped a bunch of them with her mana, before depositing them into the cart behind her. The others followed her actions, and before long, no proof that a prana jade vein once existed here remained.

“That wasn’t so bad,” Dia commented idly.

“Which is why miners work in groups and not alone,” Nero replied. “And besides, it is just the first day and the first vein. Don’t be so sure that this is easy, or else you might just burn out from swinging your arms too much.”

“I’m a professional swordswoman,” Dia replied. “I don’t think tired arms will be an issue.”

“So certain.” Nero shook his head. “Anyway, let’s move on. If we can fill up the cart early, we can go back to base earlier too!”

“You sound very excited about that last bit,” Risti muttered.

“You guys aren’t?” Nero asked. “But it’s camping outdoors with you guys! There’s a lot of things we can do other than mining prana jade! It’s the first time we all went out to do something together, after all.”

Dia looked at the excited Holy Son of the Black God, and then remembered that for all his maturity, all his power, he was younger than them by a few years. Given that he had lived a sheltered life, this was probably the first time he went into the wild without needing to execute an actual mission.

She smiled. “Let’s all have fun when we’re done with today’s load, then.”

The others glanced at her once.

“Yeah, that sounds fun,” Farah replied. “You know, I’ve always wanted to create a really huge fire when I was young. Stack up lots of firewood and watch them burn. It’s pretty.”

“You sound like you’ve done that before,” Risti observed.

“W-well, it was during the harvest festival in Farah County,” the countess replied. “But they never let me do much. Still, there was one time when they piled up the wood and then attached a string to it.”

“A string?” Nero asked. “Wait, did they try to attach a flaming ball on a hook and then slide it down?”

“Yes, yes!” Farah’s eyes glittered. “How did you know?”

“We did that too!”

As the two sheltered fellows talked about campfires excitedly, Dia took over the role of scanning for danger. Fortunately, nothing happened, and before long, the two fire-crazy fellows calmed down and made a few awkward chuckles.

“Ahem.” Farah rubbed her nose. “Anyway, we should have an actual campfire, not just a fire pit for cooking.”

“Sure, sure.” Risti smiled. “It won’t take much effort if we all go out and gather the materials. I’m sure there’ll be some animals we encounter on the way, so just kill them and bring them back too!”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Dia noted. “Ah! That’s another vein, right?”

Everyone looked at the steady column of purple-green light, and Nero’s face returned to normal. With his youthful smile now gone, he said, “Let’s head over, but be careful. That’s a huge vein of prana jade. With the amount of prana it’s leaking out, all sorts of visions may come to life.”

Nodding, Dia scanned her environment over and over again as they closed in on the pillar of purple-green light.

“Wait.” Nero raised a hand. “Look. There. Do you see those people on the high ground? Those are the echoes I told you guys abou—”

Blue light glittered around the indistinct figures, and the ground shook as they unleashed gigantic bolts of light southwards.

“Get down!” Nero screamed, before throwing himself onto the ground. Dia followed suit instantly, and everyone lay prone as gigantic blobs of mana came from the south, landing not too far from them. A ring of mana surged outwards from the impact zone a moment later as the retaliatory attacks landed on the barriers around these indistinct figures.

Dia felt a chill run down her spine. If they had been standing up, the ring would have passed through their necks, and from the urgency in Nero’s voice…this mana was probably as real as their own.

“It’s over,” Nero replied. “Come on, let’s hurry over and dig this huge vein out before anything else happens. The amount of prana here is so much that it might even spontaneously generate more phenomena, so keep a look out.”

“Got it,” Risti replied.

“Let’s move, then!”