Stone cracked under his strikes, splintering like brittle bone. The tunnel filled with sparks as veins of crystal shattered, and from within the rubble emerged another fragment—larger than the first, its glow steadier, as if it had been waiting.

Rhys brushed the dust from it, feeling the faint rhythm pulsing against his palm. "Two," he counted quietly, slipping it into his pouch alongside the first.

The path forked again. Puddle's divided slimes leapt ahead, their translucent forms rippling faintly with the echoes of what they sensed. One returned almost immediately: "Collapsed. No way through." Another paused before sending back: "Ore veins… but cold. Empty." The last whispered, "There's something… but not alone. Another mole guards it."

Rhys clicked his tongue. "Figures."

When they reached the third path, the ground was already trembling with the vibrations of heavy claws. The mole burst from the wall in a spray of gravel—its body studded with sharper, brighter crystal than the others. The air around it hummed faintly with absorbed essence.

"Rank 3," Rhys judged aloud, eyes narrowing. "Better."

The beast lunged, its crystal spines glowing faintly. Rhys met it with a flare of mana through his arms, twisting as the pickaxe arced. The enchanted metal struck the mole's skull with a clean crack. Sparks of essence spilled as the body convulsed, then collapsed into dust, leaving behind a core glowing brighter than the ones before.

Puddle scooped the fragment embedded in the wall. "Master… the ore was feeding it."

Rhys accepted the piece, running a thumb across its warm surface. "And now it feeds us. Three."

They pressed deeper, the tunnels tightening until they had to squeeze through narrow stone throats. The heartbeat grew stronger again, steady as drumfire. Rhys followed the pulse to a vein buried beneath collapsed beams. He planted his hand against the stone, mana essence humming through his veins as he pushed—stone cracked, splintered, and with a groaning rumble, the collapsed ceiling parted.

Another fragment glimmered in the rubble. Puddle's light bathed it gently, her voice reverent. "Four."

By the time Rhys retrieved it, sweat clung to his skin and the tunnel's air shimmered faintly with his lingering mana. His pouch pulsed faintly with each fragment collected, their rhythms syncing like pieces of a single heartbeat waiting to be reborn.

But the final one… that was different.

The pulse wasn't faint or buried. It thundered. Every step closer shook dust loose from the ceiling. The air thickened, carrying a heat that didn't belong in a mine. Rhys's brow furrowed, grip tightening on his pickaxe.

"This one… isn't just ore," he muttered.

Puddle drifted beside him, her glow dimming in unease. "It feels alive. Old. Angry."

They rounded a bend—and the tunnel opened into a cavern where a massive, jagged crystal jutted from the ground. The entire vein pulsed, glowing like a living organ of the mountain itself. The rhythm thundered in his chest, matching his own heartbeat for a moment before throwing it off balance.

And guarding it, coiled around the vein, was a mole unlike the rest. Its body shimmered with prismatic shards, its eyes burning like molten stone. Each breath it exhaled warped the air, thick with essence.

Rhys's lips curved faintly. "The heart of the mine has a guardian, huh?"

He raised his pickaxe, mana flaring along the runes etched into its edge.

"Good. Let's make this last piece count."

Rhys exhaled, letting the heat of the cavern wash over him. The pulse of the Heartsteel vein thundered in his chest like a war drum, and in answer, his hand shifted from the pickaxe to the weapon at his side.

The Ruinous Darkness Blade slid free with a whisper, its jagged edge drinking in the glow of the crystals around them. Shadows oozed from the steel like smoke, wrapping his arm as the etched runes along the fuller burned with a ruinous violet light. This was no miner's tool. This was a weapon that carried calamity in its wake.

The Rank 4 Ore Mole lifted its massive head, crystalline spines glimmering with fractured colors. It hissed—a jagged rumble that split the air—before slamming its claws into the cavern floor. Shards erupted outward, slicing the cavern like shrapnel.

Rhys's mana flared, his movements sharp and deliberate as he slipped between the raining shards. His eyes glimmered faintly, his aura sharpening to a razor's edge.

"You're not just some mole," he growled. "You're the mountain's hunger given form."

The beast lunged, jaws snapping like colliding boulders. Rhys met the charge head-on, blade raised high. The Ruinous Darkness Blade carved into its crystalline hide—sparks and shadows exploding together, the impact shaking the cavern walls. The mole screeched, its armor cracked faintly where the cursed steel had bitten through.

But it wasn't enough to fell it. Not yet.

The mole twisted, its spiked tail whipping around like a warhammer. Rhys dropped low, rolling aside just as the tail smashed a crater into the stone where he'd stood. He rose to one knee, blade angled forward. Dark essence pooled along the ruinous edge, and with a flick he released it—[Ruin Crescent]—a scything arc of corrupted mana that ripped across the mole's flank.

The beast bellowed, shards of crystal splintering from its back. Enraged, it spun, claws carving trenches through the rock.

"Master!" Puddle's voice rang sharp in his mind. "Its core—it's feeding on the vein itself!"

Rhys's eyes narrowed. He saw it then: the mole wasn't merely guarding the Heartsteel—it was bound to it, its crystal spines pulsing brighter with every throb of the ore. Unless that link was severed, it would keep drawing strength.

The mole thundered toward him again, faster, heavier. Rhys steadied his stance, shadows surging thicker around the Ruinous Darkness Blade. "Fine," he muttered, voice low as the cavern quaked. "Then I'll cut you from the source."

With a burst of speed, he dashed forward—dark steel against living stone, ruin against endurance—meeting the beast in a blur of shadow and shattering crystal.

The mole's charge turned the cavern into a quake, stones splitting beneath its claws. Rhys darted low, mana surging through his limbs, the violet glow of the Ruinous Darkness Blade leaving streaks of shadow in his wake. The beast's maw snapped down like a guillotine, but Rhys twisted into a pivoting slash—

[Umbral Sever] —the blade cut diagonally across its jawline, shadows exploding outward like burning tar.

The Ore Mole reeled, screeching as fragments of crystal shattered from its face. Yet instead of falling, the fragments were drawn back into its body, reattaching and glowing brighter, reforged by the Heartsteel vein's pulse.

"Tch—so you really are leeching straight from the source," Rhys spat. His eyes narrowed. "Then I'll bleed that source dry through you."

The mole roared and spun in a frenzy, spiked tail and claws creating a storm of stone and shards. Rhys was forced back, his Mana Shield sparking as debris ricocheted against him.

He answered with speed—his body blurring forward, boots skimming broken stone. His blade arced up in a vicious spiral.

[Abyss Spiral Cut] —a cyclone of ruinous darkness whirled upward, carving a spiral wound into the mole's forelimb.

The beast stumbled, roaring, its massive body crashing against a wall. Crystals rained down, lighting the cavern in violent flashes. The impact nearly buried Rhys, but he emerged through the dust, eyes glowing violet with mana resonance.

From above, the mole leapt, its spined bulk collapsing down like an avalanche.

"Master!" Puddle's voice rang in panic. "It's going to crush you!"

"Not today." Rhys dug his heel into the ground, raising the Ruinous Darkness Blade overhead. Shadows converged, eating the light.

[Calamity Breaker] —a two-handed overhead strike.

The blade met the beast's falling weight, darkness detonating outward in a shockwave. The cavern floor cracked into fault lines. The mole howled as its spines snapped from the backlash, shards exploding outward in a hail of crystal daggers.

One shard grazed Rhys's cheek, leaving a thin line of blood. The Ruinous Darkness Blade pulsed in response—hungry. His vision blurred for a moment as whispers coiled in his head.

Feed me. Split its core. Ruin it.

Rhys gritted his teeth, forcing the cursed murmur down. "I'll use you. Not the other way around."

The mole, bleeding violet light from its cracks, staggered upright. Its chest glowed—a throbbing crystal heart in sync with the vein.

Rhys steadied himself, mana roaring through his veins. His stance shifted, everything funneling into the blade. Shadows warped, forming a jagged halo around the edge.

The mole lunged for the last time, jaws opening wide to swallow him whole.

Rhys dashed forward to meet it, his voice rising in a battle-cry:

[Oblivion Rend] —a forward cleave that split both stone and spirit.

The Ruinous Darkness Blade howled as it carved straight into the mole's chest, through hide, through crystal, through the false heart feeding it. A geyser of violet-black light erupted as the link to the vein was severed.

The mole shrieked, body convulsing, spines exploding outward like dying stars. Its bulk collapsed with a final quake, its crystal core splintering in half.

Silence followed. Only the echo of dripping mana-light remained.

Rhys stood panting, the blade buried deep into the fallen beast. Shadows licked at his arm, reluctant to let go. Slowly, with willpower alone, he dragged it free.

The mole's body dissolved into shards of ore and crystal, leaving behind a pulsating fragment—a piece of Heartsteel Core, faintly glowing like a trapped heart.

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