CHAOS
That would be how one would describe the current state of the industrial complex, with soldiers running inside the factories, dragging out criminals.
Smoke rose from the factories and fell back to the ground mixed with the raindrops, tainting them black, just like the criminals and gangs in this city, polluting it with their selfish acts.
Amidst the chaos, Galreid stood beside the officers without an umbrella, getting drenched in the rain as his soldiers were.
The drops slid down his bald head as he scrunched his nose, breathing in the ashy metal scent that came from the factories.
"Our carriages are full; we will have to make trips to take these men to the prison." A soldier ran, informing Galreid and the officers.
"Will we have enough men to hold the excess captives, make the trips and still search and arrest more?"
The men collectively shook their heads. "We had to arrest a fourth of the city watch. With the remaining men, we can cover the city, but the mines are too vast for us."
Hmmm
Placing his finger under his chin, Galreid closed his eyes.
Trod
Trod
The sounds of a horse came from the smoke, causing the men to look back.
Through the smoke came a pure white horse, upon it a man clad in a brown jacket.
"Raghav!"
Pushing his wet hair back, Raghav looked at him with squinted eyes. "Galreid, is the cleanup going smoothly?"
"It is, but we are running low on men."
Dismounting Gati, Raghav stepped into a puddle of muddy ash, from where he pulled his foot out and held it under a stream of water, falling from the edge of an awning, before inquiring further.
"Any sign of Lord Vasqe?" "No, he vanished without a trace after Aurelia and An were attacked; he is most likely under the influence of a cloaking spell. But we have managed to apprehend nearly a thousand of his henchmen, his closers and those in affiliation with him." One of the officers answered him.
"We have stirred something dangerous here, look at this."
Galreid guided Raghav to his carriage and opened the door, revealing boxes full of papers. "Deals struck around every corner of the planet, the Plieders and the Mineority, despite being focused in this city, were being used by bigger threats; they are sure to not remain silent over this."
"We are looking at civil unrest throughout the kingdom, potential protests influenced by these shadow organisations, all this at a time of war. We can't even rely on the King or his council."
A hand landed on his shoulder, stopping Galreid's rant. "This is for the best. The underworld is a problem that needs to be resolved, and they are not as untouchable as they seem; they are a shadow of society."
Raghav spoke as he looked at the officers. "They have connections, fronts, and everyone knows who works for whom, who is behind what. Even if the underworld seems like a thousand entangled strings, you need to pull on just the right one, and the entire tangled web comes undone. I am certain each of you knows what string to pull here."
"Indeed, we cannot capture all of them; some of them escape. We will do the same in other parts of the kingdom; we will not let them thrive in any city, town or village, nor will we let them hurt anyone else. Now, City Commander, of what use can I be to you?"
"We need someone to clear out the mines. Can you do it?"
Hmmm
"You can count on me, Commander. Before I leave, I need a word with the Duke."
Following his request, the officers and city commander left Raghav and Galreid alone.
Looking around, Raghav enclosed himself and Galreid in a Mana Barrier that blocked out everything, from sound to magic.
"Do you remember Mark?"
"How can I forget? Nearly lost my neck because of him. What about...." Galreid paused as his lips slowly parted, looking Raghav in the eye. "He is here, isn't he?"
Silently nodding, Raghav looked over his shoulder before looking back at Galreid as he made the barrier opaque. "He is planning something; he gave this letter to a man named Markus, a renowned businessman. He contacted us last night offering us help in taking down the gangs, because he was troubled by them. We refused his offer today, which was when he gave us this letter from Mark. He is planning something on Sunday, knowing the last two times he was involved in something were framing you and the attack on Marne by the Mythical beast. He will not be doing anything small, that is certain."
His eyebrows clenched as Galreid's expression dropped, and he asked Raghav in a slow and heavy voice. "He was behind the attack on Marne as well?"
"He was, but we need to stay focused and not lose track. We have a day and a half before Sunday begins, and we need to uncover his plan if we wish to stop it from ever going into motion. If we do not uncover it, then we will still deal with it when it happens, just like the last two times."
"You are right. So I guess for the next two days, we are going to work day and night. Isn't that right?"
"It is. Stay safe, keep Gati with you. I will go down into the mines and see what I can find."
"How's Aurelia?"
"Feeling down, but we both know she will not stay that way for long."
The barrier vanished as Rain fell on the two of them once more, and Raghav began walking away.
"Raghav?"
"Yes?"
Stopping in his tracks, Raghav looked back at Galreid
"I was thinking a lot today, about the prophecy... it spoke that the Hero would save the world from 'Evil.' What is Evil? Is it a monster, a dark being or just this?"
He finished gesturing around himself.
A gentle smile grew on Raghav's face as the rain stopped and sunlight fell upon him.
"It does not matter what the mentioned Evil is; all we need is not to give in and to never let it do as it pleases."
In the time it took Galreid to blink his eyes, Raghav vanished, leaving behind a gust of wind.
"Well said, Raghav, well said, like always."
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The mines of Plied were only present under Old Plied on the southern half of the rift as a way of preserving resources for centuries.
Now, one may ask, how does someone enter the mines that were under a city?
The answer was simple: a vertical system of mining sectors, on the southern cliff of the rift.
With hundreds, if not thousands, of open tunnels alongside platforms that moved up and down like giant industrial lifts, to raise the extracted materials and transport the miners, to and fro the factories along the top of the cliff.
Raghav stood before the entire rift, standing on the underside of the Central Bridge.
Looking at the expanse of mines, which stretched nearly a dozen kilometres on either side.
It was nearly impossible for one man to patrol them, emphasis on the word nearly.
Taking a deep breath, Raghav spread his Mana out and formed it into a humanoid construct, giving his appearance to it, through the use of illusion magic.
Effectively making a clone of himself after the success of one. He made one for each mine, and they scattered, entering all the mines.
The true Raghav dropped down from the bridge and into the rift, running down along the cliffside as he went inside the deepest cave.
It was around a hundred metres above the bottom of the rift.
To avoid the water collected in the rift from entering the mines, during the monsoon season, the rift would often fill to a height of sixty metres, which seems low, given that the monsoon lasts for two and a half months.
However, what prevents it from filling up more is its length; the rift spans a total distance of forty kilometres.
This effectively divided the poorly planned, Old Plied, from the carefully mapped and well thought out New Plied.
Raghav stood at the entrance to the mine and looked up at the sign on top.
"Property of Alpha Mines."
He lowered his gaze and entered the mine, looking at the empty tunnels with space for walking and a track for carts, with high quality light bulbs to light up the tunnel, instead of the low quality, cost cutting ones, which did more damage to the eyes than the dark.
It was weird for it to be so quiet, and Raghav knew it. He walked deeper until he reached an intersection.
Standing in the middle, he looked at both sides with his eyes closed before walking forward, sealing the tunnels off with Mana barriers.
This repeated a few times.
Each time, Raghav would look for any living being around before he continued onward.
A few hundred metres in, he began to hear voices, and soon he came across a mining team.
They stopped and turned around to look at him. "The Hero? / It is the Hero! / What is he doing here?"
They murmured among themselves as Raghav walked past them, his eyes focused on the man with hip length black hair, who stood in the middle of the tunnel facing away from him. It was Markus, the owner of Alpha Mines.
As Raghav tried to walk past the man, the bald man standing beside Markus extended his hand to the right, holding a piece of paper.
Effectively halting Raghav in his steps. "This is private property, you are trespassing. I must ask you to leave."
Raghav too held out a piece of paper. "I have a warrant to search the mines for any suspicious activity or criminals; this mine is no exception."
"Then you can be assured, we have nothing of the sort here, neither do we have something to hide."
"Then if you have nothing to hide, you would not mind me taking a look."
The bald man looked at Markus, who simply gave him an upward nod. "You speak... the truth. Very well."
He lowered his arm, letting Raghav pass.
At first glance, it would look like Raghav was just walking through, not looking at anyone, not talking to anyone.
But things are not often as they seem on the surface. His Mana was flooding all around him, invisible to everyone. Mapping the entire mine, searching for anything odd in the mine.
For the miners, he could sense that none of them were afraid nor uncomfortable by his presence, which made it certain that the men he was searching for were not here.
Now, he stood at the end of the mine facing a wall of solid rocks. Markus stood a few steps behind him, watching him without an expression.
This was the first time they were present in the same space, yet they did not exchange a single word as Raghav was busy in duty and Markus didn't disturb him.
Raghav looked at the rock wall and reached for a small pebble.
He grabbed the pebble and pulled it out, causing a rumble to spread throughout the mines.
The wall collapsed and fell back into a large opening. Raghav stepped forward, standing on the edge, having created two spheres of light in his hands.
The two spheres entered the hole and flew in opposite directions, lighting up the empty cave as they travelled along the edges and stopped when they hit an end.
"Six kilometres in width." His voice echoed through the vast space, travelling in the dark.
Then they travelled forward, and something shone in the distance as Raghav looked at it with narrow eyes.
When the spheres hit another end, Raghav moved one of them up and another down.
The one moving upwards travelled for only a few metres while the one going down went for some distance before they stopped.
"Eight Kilometres in length and Four Hundred metres in height."
Once he was done taking measurements, Raghav brought the two spheres together, and when they collided, their illumination was enhanced, giving light to the entire cave.
An empty pocket underground, directly under Old Plied.
What had saved Old Plied from sinking four hundred metres was metal and stone supports, creating a scaffolding that supported the entire mountain above, preventing it from collapsing.
The next moment, Raghav jumped down inside the cave, while Markus narrowed his eyes, observing Raghav walk through the vast space, carefully observing the walls and the structures.
There was a natural wind current present in the empty void, blowing his hair and creating a whistling noise.
Just as he reached the centre, something happened.
Static
Static
"Welcome, Raghav Suryanshi."
Greeted a static voice, speaking through a radio, immediately revealing to Raghav who was behind this.
"My Lord and the great Mark could not be there to see your end, but know this, your demise shall bring him no joy, nor sorrow. You were merely an inconvenience."
Beep
Beep
"Decide, if you will die trying to prevent the city from collapsing or live with the guilt of letting millions die."
Beep Beep Beep
BEEP BEEP BEEP
The beeping sound grew louder and louder as it began to come from every corner of the cave.
Instead of responding to the man's words, Raghav simply bent down, continuing with his investigation, picking up a blue shard the size of his finger from the ground.
It was blue to the point it was starting to turn white, just like a clean ocean wave, foaming as it reached the shore.
BBBBEEEEPPPP
One last beep before the cave exploded with a flash of light, engulfing everything.
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Aurelia woke up as she looked around to find An sleeping beside her.
She looked up behind the bed and reached for the curtain, moving it slightly as she saw the red sky.
"Is the sun setting already?"
Her body shivered as she stretched, sitting upright.
"Where is Raghav?"