"Right, there's enough explosives in there to blow out the pipe, rip the ceiling brace out and rupture the reservoir itself. When it goes, it's going to go with a bang! We're going to need to clear this place pretty quickly once that feed pipe is down! Where's Joe?"
"He's making sure the saw for the final explosion is positioned correctly, so this place really does go with a bang. He's trying to find a more suitable material to place beneath the saw rather than obsidian. He says the saw is cutting through it too quickly, and the sparks die down..."
"Well we can't have that... And once all of the lava has been converted to obsidian, this chamber is going to be flooded with noxious, volatile gases... We won't have an option to come back down here once the reservoir is gone. We have to get it right first time... Has he tried altering the speed of the saw? Maybe reducing it could prolong the length of time sparks are given out before the obsidian is spliced through..."
Almost as though he had responded to his name, Joe appeared from the stairs, coming back from the warehouse, with a smile on his face.
"Fixed it! I had to slow the cutting speed of the saw down... It's not an ideal substitution, but it'll do. Are we all ready?"
"Yeah, almost. THEROS is taking one last look through the chests and files up top to see if there's anything of value there. Maybe we can deliver another blow to HoN Co. if we find some useful information we can use..."
"Might as well meet him there then. Syeonyx, Joe? Go upstairs and wait with him until this is done."
No way! I was staying down here to see the beginnings of a decisive blow thrown against HoN Co., and that meant watching the reservoir come down... I wanted a photo of that!
"Fine, but be ready to move out as soon as I do!"
I nodded, and Joe went up the stairs to meet with THEROS. I remained beside the iron railings, and watched as UOPETA moved off to the left, going down towards the reservoir switches. Just in sight, I could make out a wire connect to one of the switches. UOPETA placed one hand on the lever, and looked back at me. He then motioned a countdown with his fingers on his free hand. 3... 2... 1... He pulled the lever and ran! I stood and watched... And waited... Nothing happened. UOPETA had already reached me by this point, and I was beginning to wonder if he'd done it wrong. He was still smiling though, which suggested he knew something I didn't... Then, with an ear-splitting roar, and a flash of light that seemed impossibly bright, the TNT detonated! Instinctively, I covered my head and crouched behind the railings. UOPETA followed suit, and we sat there for a few moments, as debris pinged off the walls all around us!
"Told you it would go off with a bang!"
I barely heard the words, as the sounds of exploding were replaced with screeching metal and rock, as the iron piping slid from its support. With an almighty splash, it dropped into the lava, and promptly sank! Thousands of gallons of water followed quickly behind it, pouring out onto the surface of the lava, throwing up mass quantities of steam!
"Take your photo now; we are leaving!"
Holding me by the arm, UOPETA practically dragged me up the stairs, as I watched in awe at the spectacular show that was going on around me... THEROS and Joe saw UOPETA and me emerge from the stairs, and bolted for the exit! Passing through the motion sensor door, I snapped back into reality, took control of my body again, and ran after the others. They scaled the small hill that overlooked the main building, and stopped...
"Is this far enough away? If that place blows, there's going to be a big crater... The building could sink into it... Along with us!"
"I doubt it... The build-up of gases would probably only be sufficient enough to uproot a few trees. There won't be a crater... There will be a big bang though, bigger than the first. It would be so much more rewarding if that was the master portal chamber down there..."
"True, but we'd need to deactivate every primary portal first... Even if we could, we'd have a giant hole, a collapsed tower, and still intact master portal. I doubt HoN Co. would shrug and say 'oh well'... They'd recover that site very quickly, throwing mass resources at it."
THEROS was right. The master portal was HoN Co.'s keystone to the entire plan. Without it, their entire plan would crumble in a matter of days, but with it, they were stronger than any of us could handle. We would have to chip away at their resolve piece by piece. It was just a good thing the destruction of the obsidian farm was a pretty hefty piece!
We had been waiting outside the entrance atop the hill for some time, and yet there had been no further explosions... We were beginning to wonder if something had gone wrong at the final stage. Was the air too humid for the sparks to take effect? Or maybe there wasn't a sufficient volume of gas released to create an explosion? Or maybe even the saw might have packed up... So many different outcomes may have already taken place without us knowing...
"Is it possible the quantity of gas was insufficient, but the explosion created only blew out a small amount...?"
"No way! The amount of lava down there, and the amount of water being released, more than enough gas was released to blow the entire place to smithereens! We would have felt and heard the explosion... Either it's slow to act, or nothing's going to happen..."
We remained silent for some time, with partially held breaths, hoping that there would be some activity... Then, without warning, a huge explosion ripped through the silence, knocking us all off our feet! Huddled on the ground, we protected our heads, as debris rained down from the sky! After a few moments, we peered out through the spaces in our arms, worried that there was more to come... The only sounds now were those of the remaining debris continuing to come down, rushing water, and burning! However, from where we were, we couldn't see much in terms of damage... Had anything even happened? Looking back towards the sound of the explosion, we saw many trees blown towards us, with vast quantities of foliage missing!
"This could be fun..."
We headed in the opposite direction the surrounding trees had blown in, wondering how much damage had been done. Then we saw it... It. Was. MASSIVE! A huge crater lay before us that ran all the way down to the chamber - well, what was left of it - with thousands of gallons of water pouring in from the sea! All of the trees close by had either lost all of their leaves, been set on fire, or had been completely uprooted and thrown aside like twigs!
"Erm... Well... That worked... I guess..."
We were speechless... We didn't want to stand too close to the edge for fear it wasn't stable enough to hold our weight. Peering down as far as we could, we could see the lava still bubbling and boiling away at the bottom, in small pockets, whilst vast quantities of water poured in through hidden springs, and the sea...
"I wonder how much of the underground bit is left... We can't see if from here, bu judging from the hole, I doubt anything of the warehouse is left..."
"Shall we go and see?"
"Is it safe?"
"Only one way to find out..."
We headed back towards the entrance to the main building to see if we could see anything from within the chamber itself. Passing through the entrance, we could already see a change; there was a lot of dust around on the floor, and a lot of the fencing had been displaced, with much of the furniture thrown against the far wall. A little more hesitantly, we moved down the stairs and towards the chamber. The minecart tracks had been bent severely out of shape, and from the top of the final flight of stairs, we could see the beginning so the damage done...
"A very powerful blast, from the looks of things..."
Moving down the stairs, we were careful of the rubble lying around, and looked into the chamber... It was even more beautiful from below!
"Yes... Well... Okay..."
Syeonyx signing off
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