Chapter 10: The Hidden Ecosystem

BOOM!

Down came the sounds of an explosion, blowing apart the walls that concealed the hidden part of the mines, a large chunk of rock and stone being mere pebbles and dust, coughing sounds from the Demon and debris that gets shooed away, the mines themselves shaking a bit due to the damages it took. What Harvard casted was a spell that caused such an explosion, blowing up the very walls that hid themselves away from the duo. What they are left with was an abnormal sight that they haven't seen at all before. One such sight that only a select few can have under the right conditions, from the sun-like energy that provides the nutrients, to the flora and fauna that roams in its dark depths.

An entire Ecosystem, or at least, an attempt of one. The first thing that caught their eyes was a waterfall crashing down, making a strong path across the stones, paving a strong direction, whilst being the reason the flora grew so much. It was pouring down and making somewhat lengthy rivers across the area, dampening the likes of the rocks above, as it would trickle droplets down onto the stone below them. Grass-like fields across the sides of the water, which would be revealed to be the likes of strong moss, yet behaves exactly as what traditional grass are. It even supplies the oxygen in the same manner as trees, which would explain the few creatures that exist in it. Lizards to frogs to salamanders to birds which feed on what seemed to be an equivalent of fruit, to fruit flies and dragonflies, it was a marsh which held the bare necessities of a home for such creatures, a small cavern turned forest for the small creatures that chose to live within its natural yet sturdy home, and the boys would be enamored by such an articulate design.

"Woah.....Pretty..." Harvard was almost hypnotized by such work, climbing down from the rubble in order to investigate the area further. Zazel, meanwhile, would be underneath said rubble, shaking off the stone after having a sigil protect themselves from the incoming explosion, shoving the stones to a separate location should they be able to leave the scene through such a brash entrance. He had an expression of pure vitriol towards the card magician for not warning him sooner about his grand idea of blowing a hole inside the mine. "What?" Harvard would ask, seemingly unaware of what he did.

"You just-. . ." Zazel groaned to himself, massaging his forehead to calm himself before continuing. "Its fine. Its fine. Just....warn me next time, alright?"

Harvard was still confused, but he nodded in acknowledgement for that. He shifts his focus back onto the ecosystem, following the trail of water streaming down from the waterfall, while Zazel investigates where such a waterfall was coming from. Zazel wanted to know where it started, while Harvard wanted to know if there was more of such a world hidden away. "You think the golem is in here?" The boy asked, his voice somewhat echoed across the cavern. The children noticed it, and giggled to themselves at such a nice sound reverberated across the area.

"Maybe! We may need to see what else this place has." Zazel would echo back, having the boys investigate further. When they do, They came across a few details regarding it. For Zazel, it was that the mouth of the cavernous ecosystem, wherever it was, seemed to be pouring out from the sides of the walls. When he sent a sigil to interact with the water, it would showcase that it was holding a lot of liquid from its beginning point, meaning some sort of water source is providing this ecosystem to thrive, possibly something from outside. He'd return the sigil back to himself whilst continuing to explore this marsh

On Harvard's side, it would be somewhat evident that the location was bigger than one expected, spanning higher than even a standard village. What he didn't expect to find would be what seemed to be cracks on the wall. Possibly due to damages from mining out the cave, such cracks upon the walls seem to have holes big enough to fit the likes of a limb in them. "Hmm....These look big enough for..." Harvard said to himself, coming to a realization of where the supposed Golem may be hiding from. By casting a spell which protrudes said limb, in this case a metallic one, it would be having just enough size to slide within the cracks, reaching to the other side. When he did, he was able to touch something. Something smooth, yet with smaller holes. Something that reacted. Something that would make a noise, paranoid about such a touch. Such a noise would be in absolute fear.

It was the golem. There was no doubt about it.

Upon investigating further in this ecosystem, he would notice the cracks being more apparent, more man-made, as if a force was made from within the ecosystem itself, branching out to make holes in the walls themselves, wide enough for the human body to fit through. Based on the child's observations, The golem must've been living here all this time, and was currently spying on the kids for what would most likely assumed to be invasion of his property. That, inherently, would be Harvard's fault, and he would rightfully acknowledge it. He would retract the metallic hand back into his cards and make his way towards Zazel. "Oi! Zazel! Zazel! I found something!"

"Eh? You did?" Zazel would ask, coming down from the waterfalls and looking beyond to Harvard's location.

"Yeah! Yeah! Get over here, quick! I think we might have found the golem! He's just over here!"

Once he captured the demon's attention, the two explained their findings. The Details made regarding the water being an outside source, and the Golem that breached into this cavern from within. Piling the information altogether they'd start investigating further by going to the holes in the wall, hoping to get some answers out of the construct