The Exalt [Cultivation Fantasy]

Oscar stabbed his powerful silver lance into the beating forest heart, exerting his shattering wave to carry on and destroy it from the inside. At the same time, Orden swung his hammer down vertically with all his might, multiplied by twenty, and sent in his earthen echoes for the same reason as Oscar.

The forest heart was no match for their combined might and exploded in an explosion of a foul mixture of green liquid, which Oscar and Orden quickly dodged, wary if the liquid had any unsavory properties.

"Is it done?" Oscar put up a stance, ready for anything, but the forest heart shriveled up and became a mess of brambles and branches. He felt slightly disappointed that this place had nothing more to offer, but an easy win was an easy win. "We should be glad there isn't much else to be done. Gol-4, how do we reactivate the central furnace?"

Staring down at Gol-4 on his chest, Oscar, again, became annoyed at his silence and knocked on the head. "Gol-4, wake up."

"Sorry, I was recuperating. I thought something else would have happened when you destroyed the forest heart and wanted to take a rest." Gol-4 looked up at Oscar. "You already took care of it."

"Nothing happened," Oscar said coldly. This golem had the gall to go to sleep while they fought for its plan. "What can we do? Nothing is blocking it, but the furnace won't open."

The furnace lay behind a circular lock that prevented the foundry's true form from coming into being. There was no keyhole or latch, just a thin slit to indicate it was closed. Gol-4 stared at this and around the area. "Yes, this is of a similar make to the one in the vault. It is closed because it requires two large pulleys to keep it open."

"You mean those broken chains?" Orden pointed at two large chains, about Orden's width, that hung down from the walls.

"Yes, you need to pull those chains. Pulling them will open the central furnace, and you need a way to keep them open." Gol-4 explained.

Orden crossed his arms and said in his rough voice, "Only a job the two of us can handle."

Oscar turned and walked toward one chain while Orden went to the other. The chain hung down from a metal hoop and went into the wall to some unknown area, but the crucial point was the broken remains of a pillar. The pillar used to control the chain, but the central furnace remained dormant since that was gone.

"Now is the time for you to wake up," Oscar breathed in and activated his Adamasreis, cladding every possible part of his body in Edureisclad. His Ein flowed and exploded around him in a fiery blue aura to further his power and defense. His hand reached out and gripped one of a part of the chain, not able to grip completely around one of the links, but the worse of the burning sensation followed by a hiss.

"A little burn doesn't scare me!" Oscar took off his jacket and shirt, his feet and legs tensed and enlarged from his bursting muscles. He swung the chain around his shoulder and stepped forward to the Orden on the other side. His eyes caught Orden doing the same, and the two continued.

Their eyes trembled, and their faces contorted in pain from the heat of these chains. If not for the protection provided by his Ein and a little extra from Edureisclad, Oscar could have burnt the chain into his flesh a while ago. He had removed his upper clothes because of the potential of catching on fire.

Orden had the same idea, and his massive bulk was on full display, an incredibly toned body that matched the hardness of steel and seemed indestructible. His face still wore the gleeful smile he always had on. "Nothing like a good contest of strength, right Oscar?"

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"Shut up!" Oscar pulled further, his chiseled body covered in sweat.

Orden did not say anymore but pulled. As they continued to pull, the gate to the central furnace began to open wider. They could hear the bubbling of magma underneath like praises from a crowd.

Finally, they arrived before each other and made one final attempt with all their strength. They linked their chains together through the broken gaps and swung them around to form a makeshift knot. This final step fully opened the central furnace.

After Oscar and Orden fixed the central furnace, the chamber began quaking. The bright light from the exposed magma rivers of the deep filled the room, and a vast heatwave burned away the remnants of parasitic vine corpses, reducing them to ash. The magma began to rise and flow through the many indented lines across the ground as rivers of lava.

Oscar traced the flowing lava to the edge of the chamber, where they collected in a large moat around the central furnace, except for the spot in front of the entrance. Red bubbles formed and popped as the lava flowed down the many pipe openings. With a laugh, Oscar untied Gol-4 from him and let him levitate freely to see this wondrous scene.

Hot steam floated upward as the large vents opened up to let them in. Gol-4 saw this scene with an indifferent look due to his golem face, but the skipping in his levitation betrayed his joyful feelings. To Oscar, it looked as if Gol-4 was dancing and basking at the moment until he fell to the floor, making Oscar chuckle.

"Open the doors, and let's see the foundry return to its former glory," Gol-4 asked Erik, who was still leaning on the door.

Erik's heart jumped, and he stood up with a red face, both from the heat and his anger. "Are you trying to kill us?!"

"Trust me. The increase in the temperature has already killed off the ones surrounding the central furnace. The others must be trying to scurry away, but their little feelers won't take them too far." Gol-4 said in certainty, as always, even with his theories.

"Oscar?" Erik asked, and Oscar nodded in return. In shock, Erik turned to Orden, who he still did not trust, and gestured for his opinion, but his hopes were dashed again as Orden yawned, not caring about the decision. In a huff and stomping of his foot, Erik kicked the gate open to allow everyone to see.

They exited the chamber of the central furnace and gazed across the district. The hot lava continued to flow through the wipes, and they could see the steam rising from the evaporation of the damp waters that fell from the cavern ceiling, acting like an increasing border of new territory reclaimed for the Divine Stone Clan. As the borders of the steam continued to increase, they witnessed many parasitic vines within the recovering bounds of the foundry start to plop dead on the ground and pop into splotches of purple blood that joined the concert of steam.

In the distance were the endless tides of parasitic vines, trying to run away from the rising heat, but soon they all fell and became nothing as if the renewed district wished no hint of its degraded past to remain. The district began to tremble, and Oscar held on to the gate, hearing the sounds of gears and hot eruptions of smoke coming from the large vats.

In the end, the entire district emitted an orange, red glow. The rivers of lava flowed ceaselessly and freely without any obstructions. Oscar smiled at the sight and patted Gol-4's head. "Great view."

"Great view, indeed." Gol-4 agreed with a nod. "Thank you, everyone. This feat could not have happened without you all. As a golem of the Divine Stone Clan, I have to thank you for what you have done."

"What about the rewards?" Orden said half-jokingly because to him, as a fabricator, letting this place return to its former glory was good enough. Still, as a member of the Earth Core Academy in Ashen Grove, he could not allow himself to come up empty-handed.

"Do you know what those large vats are for? The rivers of magma are made up of many different melted metals. The large vats isolate every single type and lead it into a different smaller vat. Those can be your rewards."

"Seriously? As much ores as possible? What's the highest?" Orden shouted.

"Unfortunately, no indication of any ores higher than grade two. The new rules for this realm must have prevented the higher-quality materials from forming naturally. Either my predecessors or the Forest Heart Clan made off with all the higher-grade materials. Also, the Forest Heart Clan must have filled the realm with rewards meant for Elite Exalts. The fact the fat one managed to find some grade-three ores is an incredible stroke of luck."

"I'm not that fat!" Erik protested.

"In any case," Gol-4 ignored Erik. "This is all yours, as much as you can collect. Take it with my blessings."

"Thank you," Oscar said.

Orden looked deep in thought and turned to Oscar, lifting his hammer toward him, prompting Erik's response with his gauntlet anima at the ready. But Oscar's hand extended out to stop Erik, and he walked to the behemoth.

"Right now?" Oscar understood without Orden saying a word. It was natural to feel this way between fabricators in a foundry.

"Yes." Orden smiled. "Let's compare our skills as fabricators. I challenge you to a contest of armaments."

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