CHAPTER 112: hollow crystal.

I watched as the two children ran away hand in hand, until my eyes could no longer follow them.

It gave me a vague sense of relief that that thing posing as a child was no longer near me. tough it did not seem to harm me on purpose, nor did it seem evil.

The way it acted and the things it spoke about all felt so vaguely familiar. So, I already had an idea what it could have been. But I did not want to believe this.

Because if it was what I thought it was, then there was a much bigger problem than demons simply invading worlds and merging them with their realm.

When I decided that my wounds were healed enough, I flew down to meet the dwarf.

His gaze was worried when he saw the blood stains that were still on my skin.

"Those wounds, was that kid…"

"It is possible."

His face turned pale since he also realised what could be going on if that thing were what we tough it was.

"Don't lose all hope yet. If that kid really was one. Then that means that they are at least alive."

I tried to comfort the dwarf. But in truth, it did not matter if they were alive or not. If they were not allowed to intervene, then what was the point? It would only prolong the inevitable.

"Are you alright? You're covered in blood."

I looked at some of the wounds that were still closing. Since I was almost completely healed at the moment the wounds closed a lot slower than at the beginning.

"yea. I'm doing better now it will probably heal on its own."

"That's good. Anyway, you should probably be more careful with the coming weeks. As long as those children are not found people will look for them."

I looked at the direction in which the children had ran.

"then they will probably search for a long time. They are probably heading to the surface. If that boy is what I think it is, then they will have no problem surviving up there even if millions of demons are after them."

The dwarf nodded. "Yea. I am sure that they will make it."

He suddenly looked up when he suddenly remembered something. "Oh, I forgot to tell you this. But I have to go back to the city for a few days. There are other demon researchers there and the want to hold a meeting to discuss a few things that they have discovered. They are basically a bunch of airheaded idiots who are way too full of themselves. but they will probably keep pushing me until I eventually agree. So, I hope that they will leave me alone for a while after this."

"When will you leave?"

"Probably tomorrow."

"Do you have everything prepared before you leave?"

He scratched the back of his neck. "Well, I did not manage to finish the detection crystals. There are still a lot of flaws in them, so I don't really have anything to show them."

"Then what is wrong with the crystals now?"

He sighed and took one out of his pocket. This one seemed to be hollow and had dreads made of the moss all around it.

I could see that it was faintly glowing because I was close, but it was way too weak to let the moss emit any sounds.

"this one is a new design that I have been working on. As you can see this one is hollow. So, when the energy is divided over the material it is purer than the other ones, so that it can shine a lot brighter and thus activate the moss. The only thing is that it requires more demonic presence than usual to activate due to it having less mass."

I took a closer look at the item that was faintly glowing.

"does it even work at all?"

"you can hold it. Then it should work. But right now, it is basically useless. I don't think that demons that are planning to invade would simply pick up any strange crystals they find in the tunnel and thus activate the alarm".

When I held the object in my hand, it indeed let out a humming sound that could clearly be heard. So, it indeed worked, it just had to be more sensitive.

"Since it is hollow. Can't you just put one of my scales in there so that it remains half active at all times? So, when a demon comes close it would be the final push to activate the alarm."

"Well, I guess that that would work. It only requires some time to figure out how big the scale should be."

"At least you have a solution now. and if people question were the scales come from, you can always claim that you got them back in the fight in the stone city."

By now the humming was driving me insane so I handed the object back to the dwarf.

"the only downside is that you can't prove that it works without revealing me."

The dwarf rubbed his chin. He knew that he and everyone else around me would get in trouble if I were to be revealed.

"I think that it will be fine if we just make sure that it works. After that, it is the problem of Atlantis."

Because it was not that late at the moment, we decided to try it out. We were certain that it was not going to work until at least after the meeting. But the dwarf would have something to show so that the people would leave him alone for a while.

I had ripped off one of my scales on my arm and handed it to the dwarf.

He unwrapped some of the moss and cracked the crystal open with my help.

After putting the scale inside and closing the two halves with the moss the object let out a pretty loud humming sound.

"Alright kid, I need you to back away a little so I can see if there is a difference when you are close or not."

I did as I was asked. But despite the fact that the sound became softer it never truly stopped.

"I think that the scale is too big," the dwarf exclaimed. "maybe it will help if I cut a piece of, off it. But I will do that later. I am going to prepare a few other things so that I can leave tomorrow without having to worry that I can't find my stuff."

"Okay. I think I am going back to that tower. Just in case some people come here, looking for those children."

And with this I took off towards the tower.