After a few deep breaths and letting his shoulders drop all their tension, Arkyn removed his hands from the door and turned back to forge.
If he wasn't careful about the time he spent away, the metals on the furnace would boil over the crucible, ruining his chances of shaping two ingots worth of iron.
Now that his high-running emotions were dispersed, Arkyn had thought back to his interaction with Dusk. Just the thought of his agitating questions were bringing the anger bubbling back to the surface.
'I swear every time I let a Fractal Snake roam around the forge, they get more and more daring in testing my patience. They are only good for catching rodents and talking back.' Arkyn finally thought while turning another corner.
He just shook his head and started walking more quickly back the way he came, letting the feeling of the Heart fade away as well. The lingering sensation it left behind never remained long on his skin.
Sometimes he wished the forge was closer to the enchanted doors, but he knew in the long run that constantly working so closely to the Heart would put everything at risk.
There were countless experimental creations that went haywire or just flat out exploded when something went wrong. Arkyn wouldn't put the entire castle above him in danger just because he liked the comforting feeling the Heart gave him.
The [Heart of the Castle] was the whole castle's source of power, keeping every enchantment and magical item charged within its boundaries. Its safety meant the castle and its people would be safe as well.
It was in his best interest to only approach the Heart when his mind was a mess, that way he wouldn't become complacent under its aura and no risks were made to the people above.
When Arkyn was a few steps away from leaving the Heart's effect, he felt compelled to savor the last few steps and not waste it. At the outskirts of the area, he stopped and took a long breath.
Just when he thought it was going to fade completely, Arkyn suddenly stopped on his inhale and froze.
Something stopped him, an anomaly to his senses. Somewhere around him, something irregular was happening and it took a moment to realize what it was.
He was so fixated on the drumming in his skin, he thought his mind might've been playing tricks when he heard a low pitch sound from another corridor. When he turned to listen closely, the noise only became more clear.
It had been a long time since he even looked down that tunnel, but Arkyn knew it led to the surface levels of the castle.
At that moment, Arkyn's mind was split two ways. A part of him wanted to just turn and walk right back into the forge to argue senselessly with Dusk like normal, but now the noise was eating at the other part of him.
If he let it continue without seeing the source, only the long dead gods would know the truth. Arkyn steeled himself from debating what to do and walked through the hallways he had not used in perhaps years.
The tunnels were always well lit and had very few spots that managed to cast shadows. Geodes known as Light Crystals were cut and evenly spaced between each other along the walls. The cut crystals were known as [Light Crystal Bulbs], emitting an artificial light of gold that led the way for him.
Just like the rest of the underground tunnel lights, they were powered by the Heart and never grew dim or faltered for as long as they stood. Yet the few shadows they still projected made Arkyn feel uneasy, like they hid something dangerous in the cramped spaces of darkness.
He pictured ghosts hiding in them, and thought back to what Dusk said about the war being over without rage clouding his mind.
If the jerk of a snake was right, how likely was it that his side was the victor and they just never got around to telling him? How likely the ghosts Arkyn was seeing weren't just figments of humanity's primordial fear of the dark?
Arkyn didn't get a chance to think about the oddness, as he was stopped by a rather unsurprising obstacle.
A part of the ceiling and wall in front of him had collapsed. All the support beams and light crystals were perfectly fine, but the dirt surfaces had the annoying habit of collapsing every once in a while. Being so far underground, the fall of loose debris was inevitable.
Thankfully, as a member of the Royal Blackguard, he was trained to deal with such things almost instantly. It wouldn't be very prestigious of someone from the Blackguard to be stuck underground for days at a time whenever the dirt decided to give.
Arkyn extended his hand, releasing an invisible strand of mana. At the same time, he began using an ability known to certain Odbranian mages as [Mage Sight]. He started circling more magical energy in his eyes, and it wasn't until his red irises started glowing white that he could actually see where the matching white strand was going.
Not only could he see the glow of his own mana, but he could see the countless, golden-lines of mana tethers branching off the [Heart of the Castle] and heading up to the surface. Only a few thin branches of mana had to touch the [Light Crystal Bulbs] and kept them full of luminant energy.
The rigid tethers of gold were much brighter and stable compared to his own, but Arkyn knew his body could not compete with such a device.
After all, he created the [Heart of the Castle] and knew its strength.
Arkyn let his smaller tether drift towards the pile of rubble and it spread on contact. The mana bled into all the rocks and debris until nothing was left untouched from his mark.
The white threads of mana slowly took on the color green, signifying the earthly element had infused with his mana.
Once the green encased most of his white mana, Arkyn held it for a moment before clenching his fist.
Every piece under his influence started to cluster together, compacting and breaking down to smaller chunks. All the empty spaces and gaps disappeared as the pile shrunk down, compressed into a dense and bumpy sphere.
In just a few seconds, the collapsed mass of the tunnel ceiling was turned into a boulder that blocked only a majority of the tunnel. When Arkyn changed his stance, the rock trembled slightly under his control.
'Good gods, it's been a while since I practiced any Elemental Magic.' He winced. Arkyn felt so out of practice, it made him feel like he was pushing stiff muscles to their limit with no preparation done beforehand.
He gritted his teeth and bound both hands to the line of mana. After a strong heave with his whole body, the string of mana followed his arm's motion and whipped the boulder to the side, clearing the path.
It began raining unsettled dust down on his head shortly after the impact against the wall.
'I could just go back with an excuse and tell Dusk the cave-in probably prevented anyone from reaching me, but what in the name of all hellfire is that damn noise?' Arkyn thought as he was hunched over and wiping the sweat off his brow.
Now that the corridor was completely clear, the noise was much louder. It couldn't have been wind running through an air shaft, it was too consistent and didn't falter for a second. The noise was a single, monotone note.
His curiosity and worry was starting to turn into annoyance, wondering just what exactly was going on at the surface. Arkyn started walking double-time, not letting himself lose steam as a few more turns took him to the set of stairs.
The stairs were a straight set of stone steps carved out of the mineral around the tunnel. At either side of the staircase, there were ramps to push loaded carts to the surface. Mages and researchers sometimes needed raw materials in their studies too, so miners would bring requested portions up to the surface.
None of the carts were present, which didn't mean anything good or bad from Arkyn's perspective. The only thing that would scare him was if there were carts left filled and unused, making him picture something disastrous happening in the middle of a workshift.
He looked at the staircase, not wanting to think about how dusty and unused they appeared. He covered his mouth and nose with his tunic and made his way up to the top. It took only a few minutes, but it still felt like an eternity to him.
The low-pitch sound grew louder until it started humming lightly in his chest. Nothing about it was helping the knots that were starting to form in his stomach, making him feel queasy. Only after reaching the plain, wooden doors to the castle's inner pavilion did he let out a sigh.
He finished creeping through the tunnels of the castle and the door to the surface level seemed to be in one piece. It was a little dusty, but nothing was wrong with the enchantments embedded to it. The threads of active, golden mana attached to the door proved it was still capable of operating an alarm if not opened correctly. The only anomaly was the whistling clearly emanating from something on the other side.
Not wanting to dread the final question any longer, Arkyn pushed down on the latch and opened the door. He was completely blinded by the outcome.