Elder Shalsheed received the reply late into the night, just before he was going to take a rest. The content, however, dispelled all drowsiness. After watching the video message several times, he made an encrypted call to the sect.
"Elder Shalsheed?" The voice in his head replied a few seconds later. "What happened?"
"Sect Master, I may have discovered the Citadel. I am sending you some files right now." Answered Elder Shalsheed in an urgent voice.
"Is this for real?" Answered the Sect Master in an excited voice. "Hold on, I'll check it right away."
"Who's the guy in the video? Where is this filmed?" Said the Sect Master's voice a few seconds later.
"This is the newbie that I added to the Explorers den forum yesterday; he calls himself Abyss Lord. I don't know his real identity or where this was filmed. All I know is that he is somewhere out of the retransmitter's reach. I thought he was some newbie enthusiast, but after seeing this…I am not so sure anymore. His voice sounds quite young, though it may be AI-adjusted."
"So you don't know where this citadel is?" Asked the Sect Master in a gloomy voice.
"That's not the point. The reason he sent me this message was because he noticed that the elevator-like structure in his citadel seemed similar to the one we have found. Look, this is the picture my granddaughter took." Said Elder Shalsheed.
"We scanned the ruins and there was no indication of the existence of lower levels, but if he is right and it really is an elevator…"
"Hadron layer." The Sect Master said. "A layer of material made of subatomic particles would be impenetrable to our scanners, and scan results would only show an endless layer of ground."
"That's my guess. If there really is a chamber with the second strongest material in existence as a shell underneath this ruin, it must be a hidden citadel." Said Elder Shalsheed.
"I am sending the fourth Elder as backup immediately. We must make sure the information does not leak. Who else knows about it?" The Sect Master asked.
Elder Shalsheed stalled for a second before answering.
"What is it?" Asked the Sect Master, sensing his hesitation. "Do you think this guy will be a problem?"
"No. That's not the case. He seems to be reasonable. Both messages about the elevator and this explanation video were sent to me privately, but my granddaughter may have accidentally drawn attention to the case in the forum." Answered Elder Shalsheed in an embarrassed voice.
"What?" Said the Sect Master, with anger in his voice.
"We thought it was just an old, dilapidated ruin; if not for her selfies, we wouldn't even know it was there, but… it's my mistake, Sect Master. I did not take his words seriously and allowed her to do something rash. It was not her mistake; she couldn't have known about the Citadels. It was my failure as her teacher." Said Elder Shalsheed apologetically.
"Take all the necessary measures. We must secure it before anyone else realizes what we discovered." Said the Sect Master, in annoyance. "Or at least hold the front until backup arrives."
"It will be done." Said Elder Shalsheed, and the connection was broken.
"Aini!" Said Elder Shalsheed sending the message to his granddaughter.
"W…what? Grampa, what happened?" Answered the sleepy voice.
"You must delete your thread about the guy you posted today and all the selfies you posted yesterday, immediately."
"Wha…? You woke me up for this? Why should I? He called me a liar, so he should answer for his wo..." Said the girl in an annoyed voice.
"Now!" Said Elder Shalsheed in a commanding voice, and the girl went silent, sensing the seriousness in her grandfather's voice.
"Ok. Done." She said a few seconds later. "Can you tell me what's going on?"
"Get dressed. We are going back to the ruins immediately." Said her grandfather.
"Shahray!" Elder Shalsheed called on his team channel.
"Yes, Captain?" Answered his vice commander a second later.
"Full sortie. We are blockading these ruins. Fighter ships are to immediately secure the perimeter. Block all comms except for the team channel. No communication can be sent outside as of this moment. And prepare the ground team; we are going back to the ruins."
"Yes, sir!" Answered the vice commander, and a second later, a loud signal sounded throughout the entire ship, calling the crew to prepare for battle.
A few minutes later, Aininad, wearing her battlesuit, walked into her grandparents' room where she saw both her grandfather and grandmother similarly wearing battlesuits and fully prepared for battle.
"So can I get some answers?" Asked Aini.
"Sit." Said her grandpa, curtly pointing at the couch.
Aini sat as she was asked and looked at them worriedly, sensing something serious was going on.
"I already apologized to the Abyss Lord for your post on the forum." Said Elder Shalsheed. Aini was about to reply, but was stopped by his raised palm. "All comms are now blocked, but as soon as they are allowed, you will compose an apology as well. Public one." He added with a hard voice.
"Why? I was not wrong I…" Started to say Aini, but her grandmother stopped her, putting her hand on the girl's shoulder and patting it.
"Just listen, girl. Don't interrupt." Said her grandmother.
Aini crossed her hands and sat silently with a pout.
"He sent me a reply. It was an eye-opener. I agree with him that the structure we saw may have really been an elevator leading to the lower floors."
"But the scanner…" Said Aini
"Was wrong." Said her grandpa, interrupting her. "Not because it was faulty, but because it could not scan through the wall."
"What can block a neutrino scanner?" Asked Aini in surprise, looking at her grandparents in confusion.
"There are two materials in existence that may do it. One of them is solid 4GM material from which the Arena is made. That much you know quite well, I am sure. This material is what our civilization, even at its best, has never managed to understand. Up to this day, we have no idea how to recreate it.
The second one is hadron crystal, or what we'd call a 3GM material.
"The solid material from Third Generation Matter? You mean it's possible to make a solid object entirely out of subatomic particles? But that's considered possible only inside some superheavy objects, like stars." Said Aini surprised. "Right?"
"With our current science, yes. But in the past, our ancestors really managed to achieve it, creating material purely out of hadrons. As these particles are smaller than atoms, the crystal lattice of such a material is so hard that it is almost indestructible. I say almost because we can destroy it with 4GM weapons, but in the past this was truly an epitome of high tech. Now this technology is lost, and we have no idea how to recreate it.
However, our enemies, a demonic race, were a lot more advanced in the 3GM materials use than our ancestors.
When our previous civilization could barely coat a sheet of paper with a layer of hadron material, a demonic race could coat an entire structure with it. It wasn't easy even for them, though, so they used it only in some very special cases. For example, as a protective shell for their most important outposts, which we call The Citadels.
"You think there's a Citadel under this ruin?" Asked Aini with open eyes.
"Yes."
"And we are going to enter it?" She asked with even more excitement.
"We will try. However, this will be very dangerous. Citadels, protected by 3GM material, have a high chance of still being in a functional state, so inside we will be met with all kinds of protective mechanisms and weaponry pointed at us.
"When?" Asked Aini excited, ignoring her Grandpa's warning about the danger.
Both her grandparents exchanged a look and shook their heads.
"It won't be easy to penetrate the hadron layer. It is the second hardest material in existence, after all. But with my strength, I think we will manage in a week. However, while I dig, I will excite my 4GM particles a lot. This will weaken my fighting power, so if someone attacks us while I am in this state, we may need to retreat. In this case, we will lose this treasure. So it is very important to prevent anyone from trying to snatch it from us until our backup arrives.
"Backup?" Asked Aini.
"Yes. I already spoke with the Sect Master, and he will send the Fourth Elder to our help immediately. It will still take them some time to get here, though. That's why Aini, your post on the forum today endangered this mission. You attracted attention. There are smart people out there who may put the hints together and realize that we have found a real treasure."
"But I did not know." Said Aini with a drooping head.
"I know. That's why I apologized to that man. If he takes offense at your post and decides to take revenge, he might give the information to some of our rivals. If everything goes well, however, this would mean that his hint was what greatly enriched the whole sect, and your post calling him out would seem very inappropriate."
"I understand. I will apologize. I am sorry for this, Grandpa. Said Aini in a sad voice.
"I am proud that you can put the greater good above your own pride, my dear. Now let's go see if he really was right! This is once-in-a-century discovery!" Said her Grandpa, in a cheerful voice, ruffling Aini's
"Yeah." Said Aini nodding with a smile.