Wayland looked up at the lifeline stretching toward the surface, shimmering like a falling star in the midnight depths.
"Please proceed to your designated position."
Wayland pulled up the 3D map on his HUD. Unlike the broad contour maps from earlier, this one focused on a hundred-meter radius, providing a much more detailed view of the terrain.
It wasn't complex.
The topography here was relatively flat.
According to the map, the most prominent feature was the white coral reef; there were no other immediate anomalies.
Wayland began walking westward, stopping at the edge of his designated zone and turning back to face the reef.
Due to the murky conditions, his floodlight couldn't reach that far. He could no longer see the coral with his own eyes and had to rely entirely on the 3D map for orientation.
"Code-name 112 in position."
"Begin the deployment of the ritual array."
Wayland reached into a pouch and pulled out a high-grade ruby. He cleared away the silt at his feet, exposing a solid patch of stone, and set the gem down.
He began to chant the formula in a low, steady voice.
Rank Two: Prana Sensing.
The previously calm waters began to shift, the magical energy manifesting as a series of long, serpent-like trails of light that spiraled slowly around him. The silence of the deep seemed to swallow the sound of the moving water.
A brilliant, transparent red glow began to rise from the facets of the ruby, curling upward like wisps of smoke.
Twelve people, scattered across the seabed, were chanting the exact same sequence.
From above, the glowing trails would have looked like a massive, five-pointed star slowly forming on the ocean floor.
A few moments later, Wayland finished the final verse.
The ruby on the rock had disappeared, its substance consumed to manifest two vibrant lines of magical energy that extended outward to find the neighboring points of the array.
Wayland was standing at one of the vertices of the pentagram.
The world before him suddenly changed.
The murky water was now filled with millions of tiny, deep-blue sparks of light.
It felt as though he had stepped into a swarm of fireflies on a summer night.
In the end, the ocean was comprised almost entirely of the Water element.
Only the faint traces of the Earth element from the seabed provided any contrast.
The reason they hadn't used this particular magic earlier was simply because the ocean was too vast.
Deploying even a hundred-meter-range enhancement array for prana sensing cost twelve precious rubies. Even for the Department of Policies, such a consumption was not something they would undertake lightly without a clear and valuable target.
Wayland closed his eyes, using his consciousness to direct the influence of the array from the surface of the seabed down into the depths.
A pale, yellowish glow filled his mind--the signature of the earth.
"Depth: Ten meters."
Hishiri Adashino had taken over the comms for all twelve operatives. She monitored their feeds, watching the depth readings climb on her screen.
Wayland's consciousness continued to sink deeper.
The world remained a constant, pale yellow.
"Depth: Twenty meters."
Hishiri's voice was a steady cadence in his ear.
"Depth: Thirty meters."
Wayland's eyes snapped open. His consciousness had reached a void--a world filled with a swirling black mist. In an instant, his mind, along with those of the other eleven operatives, was forcibly expelled from the depth.
"Found it!"
A subtle smile played across Hishiri's lips. "Deactivate the array and remain in position on the seabed. Pascal, initiate a sub-bottom sonar scan at thirty meters."
"On it!"
Pascal worked the controls, sending a series of rhythmic infrasonic pulses into the earth.
Ten minutes later, he looked up with a look of genuine excitement. "Scan confirmed! There's a hollow space at the thirty-meter mark. It covers approximately six thousand square meters."
"Upload the precise coordinates to the operatives' 3D maps."
"Understood."
An instant of static flickered across Wayland's HUD before the new data appeared.
In the center of the rock layer, a perfectly square void became visible. It was a flawless rectangular hall, its angles so precise they looked as though they'd been measured with a protractor.
Wayland stared at the map. 'What is this thing?'
As he was contemplating the discovery, a flicker of pale green light caught his attention.
"What was that?"
He wasn't the only one; nearly everyone on the bridge had seen it.
"Enlarge the feed," Hishiri commanded.
The 3D map rotated and vanished, replaced by a single, focused image on the main screen--a rune.
Wayland recognized it immediately: it was a Rune from the Norse system.
But he had never heard of Morgan le Fay being a practitioner of Runes.
"A Rune?"
Hishiri recognized it as well. Although she wasn't a specialist like Wayland, she had dealt with the association's experts and knew the system's basics.
"No... wait. That's a Divine Age Rune."
She adjusted her glasses, her voice dropping to a murmur. "This could be trouble."
While the Mage's Association had acquired reconstructed Runes from Touko Aozaki, true Divine Age Runes were almost non-existent in their archives. The few they did possess were classified so highly that only a Lord would have the clearance to view them.
"Has anyone here studied Runes?"
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]