"Although I don't know who you are, I can sense your kindness, and I will listen to you." Corax, swayed by Swain's sincerity, agreed.
"Ephrenia, take him and go," Swain instructed. Then, turning to the remaining miners, he commanded, "Start working, strip them of their equipment, and then blow this place up!"
Watching Ephrenia lead the newly arrived Primarch away, Swain quickly issued his orders to the others.
"Swain, the drill rig is still here!" Arendi was stunned by this command. This machine represented the future of everyone in the camp; to start it, all of the camp's valuable minerals had been invested. Was it truly worth sacrificing for someone who had just appeared out of nowhere?
"Do you trust me? Just like when you first nominated me to be the boss of the camp," Swain asked, looking at his hesitant companions. "Trust me, in the future he will definitely lead us to overthrow the rule of these overseers, and even lead us out of this planet and into the galaxy!" Swain assured everyone with conviction.
"Swain, I trust you!" Arendi said firmly, recalling the past.
"Boss, we trust you!" The rest of his companions, hearing their leader's words, simultaneously remembered the miserable state before Swain became the camp leader. At the very least, after Swain took charge, no one had starved to death here again.
"Good. In that case, hurry up and hide this equipment. Remember to remove the batteries. Arendi , send someone to inform the overseers that there has been a collapse here," Swain said. Anyone who frequently engages in killings knows that directly collapsing a mine is the best way to destroy bodies and evidence.
Swain and Arendi quickly calculated the required explosive yield and weak points based on the mine's layout. They only needed to place the mining explosives on the key supports and anchor bolts; the mine would easily collapse once it lost support and was affected by the explosives' energy. Afterward, the Tower wouldn't bother to excavate here just for the deaths of five mere overseers. While the lives of these low-level overseers on Lycaeus were worth more than those of the miners, they weren't considered much better off.
"Swain, the explosives are set, ready to be detonated at any time," Arendi reported after directing his companions to set the explosives as quickly as possible.
"Saro Jin, after the explosion, you immediately go to the exchange point to report, saying that there was a collapse at the drill rig, and the entire area is gone," Swain said to the youngest lad in the team.
This young boy was none other than the famous Raven Guard, Nicona Saro Jin, also known as the Raven of Omen. Saro Jin was originally a tragic salt child—someone who, while young and small, used their diminutive body to mine salt in narrow salt mines.
The constant threat of collapse or drowning made the living conditions for salt children extremely harsh. If not for his skilled techniques and the protection of fate, Saro Jin would have long since been buried in the salt lake. When Saro Jin grew to 13 years old, his body and bones were set, and he could no longer adapt to the work in the salt lake, so he was sent here to work in mining.
"Yes, Brother Swain." Saro Jin took the order and began to walk outside.
"In a sense, Ephrenia truly has the feeling of a destined woman," Swain sighed, watching Saro Jin's retreating figure. A small gathering place was truly a den of hidden dragons and crouching tigers.
Look who was here: Arendi, commander of the Dark Raven Guard Primarch's personal guard; the Nef brothers, commanders of the Raptors and Talons respectively; and Saro Jin, the most renowned figure among the Dark Raven Guard, a super tough guy capable of headshotting a Primarch.
(T/N: These guys might be made up by the author)
It could be said that when the Dark Raven Guard Primarch Corax was absent, these few individuals basically called the shots. Of course, Saro Jin's position in the Legion was not as high as the others; his strength lay in his personal combat ability, but he was also a member of the most mysterious Shadow Masters within the Dark Raven Guard.
"Hiss—"
A small cluster of sparks suddenly shot up the fuse, like a crimson viper swiftly slithering along the cord, drawing a flickering red light in the darkness. Sparks jumped and consumed the hemp thread, and the air immediately filled with a pungent smell of sulfur.
"Go!!" Swain lit the fuse of the explosives and then called out to all his companions to quickly leave the area. Arendi and the others had already calculated that the detonation would occur halfway out of the mine, a distance that was already safe enough and would not arouse suspicion.
To avoid arousing suspicion from others, they also needed to time their escape from the mine well. It couldn't be that as soon as a collapse occurred, everyone in the mine would rush out en masse. The Tower was not so easily deceived. So everything needed to be carefully calculated.
In the dark mine, a fire snake slowly but surely climbed towards its predetermined target until it reached the end of its life.
The moment the fire snake burned out, time seemed to freeze—
Sparks licked the canvas exterior of the explosive package like a venomous snake flicking its tongue, and a wisp of blue smoke rose with a "hiss." Immediately after, a muffled thud came from the high explosives wrapped inside, like the groan of a giant beast awakening in the abyss.
Then, the violent energy wave generated by the explosion swept through the entire mine, and the collapse began. Sections of rock layers began to collapse from above, burying the bodies of the overseers left in the mine and everything from the drill rig under the rubble. Perhaps it would take decades or even a hundred years for all of this to reappear before the public, or perhaps by then, Lycaeus would have already seen a new sky.
Inside the mine, a group of miners were frantically running out. Even though Arendi had set aside enough time for a safe evacuation, the collapse in the mine might not necessarily follow the calculated range.
"Quick, run, throw away anything that gets in the way except for your pickaxes!" Swain shouted at everyone. From behind the mine, dull thuds were already heard, and dusty, turbid air was squeezed out of the mine due to the large-scale collapse.
"Huff, huff, huff…." A group of people rushed out of the mine in disarray, arriving at the open pit outside, gasping for breath.
"We made it out, finally made it out." A group of miners, having survived the ordeal, lay ungracefully in the open space of the mine. The oppressive feeling of the mine collapsing, like an act of divine power, was simply too terrifying for mortals.