Kuroshio

As soon as Vivian raised her barrier, the entire team became like a silent, black serpent, slowly sliding into the lifeless town.

Every step they took was unnaturally heavy and painstakingly cautious.

Each footfall echoed across the ruins, magnified by the overwhelming silence.

*Screee—*

A charred wooden door, half-hanging from its frame, suddenly swung on its own despite the windless air.

The harsh screech startled everyone.

In the next instant, the entire team snapped into combat readiness.

But aside from that one noise, there was nothing.

“Don’t panic.”

Vivian’s calm voice steadied the group.

“From what I can sense, there’s no one else here. So don’t let your nerves get the better of you.”

“Y-Yes, ma’am!”

Luna and the others quickly responded.

But the further they moved toward the direction of the mine, the more suffocating and chaotic the dark energy became.

The air was beginning to crackle with visible black arcs of static, snapping sharply.

In the shadows of the wreckage, twisted and formless silhouettes seemed to writhe and slither—yet when eyes focused on them, they vanished, leaving behind only a chilling sense of being watched.

“The darkness here… it’s been corrupted.”

Her frost mana instinctively rejected this kind of chaotic, unstable darkness.

It was as if something powerful had violently stirred the area, disrupting the natural balance and preventing any proper settling.

Vivian didn’t speak, but a grave look flashed through her crimson eyes.

This was completely different from the abandoned mining town she remembered.

And during As’s earlier reconnaissance mission, his team hadn’t reported the environment being in such a degraded state either.

This wasn’t a natural evolution…

Someone had clearly tampered with it.

Vivian’s brows furrowed.

And just then, the others signaled a warning—

**Contact ahead.**

The team immediately stopped and assumed a defensive formation.

Vivian’s pupils contracted sharply as she looked forward.

At the edge of the town’s central plaza—just in front of what should have been the town hall or miners’ guild—stood several… statues.

Humanoid figures, molded from some viscous, tar-like black substance that hadn’t fully solidified.

They were frozen in mid-run, in poses of screaming or vainly trying to block an attack.

Their expressions were locked in extremes of fear and agony.

Shreds of clothing still clung to them—tattered, but enough to make out the garb of miners or townsfolk.

“What… What the hell is this?!”

The Black Obsidian Troll in the group, Old Stonehammer, couldn’t help but cry out.

Because those “statues”—

—they were his kin.

Black Obsidian Trolls, the very same race, and among the most common miners of Evernight Crystal.

“It’s them! The miners! My brothers from the town! Damn it all—what *is* this thing?!”

“Petrification?” Lucia’s voice trembled with a hint of cold and fear.

“But it’s not exactly that. It’s more like their bodies were instantly consumed and solidified by an extremely concentrated burst of chaotic dark energy…”

“It’s the *Black Tide*.”

Vivian spoke quietly.

“A destructive surge of dark energy—triggered when chaotic mana spirals out of control. Anything caught in its path gets instantly corroded, assimilated, and frozen into… this. Not even Black Obsidian Trolls, with their immense resistance, can survive.”

Vivian’s brows furrowed further as she glanced at Lucia.

“As a mine that produces Evernight Crystal, this site is saturated with powerful energies. Otherwise, it couldn’t continuously birth those crystals.”

“But if that very energy were to go out of control…”

“…then it would turn into a disaster.”

“A disaster happened here?” As asked in a low, grim voice.

“Unlikely to be a natural one.”

Vivian’s gaze swept across the statues frozen in despair, then shifted to a massive, scorched crater in the distance—an abyss so deep it seemed to have no bottom.

Clearly left behind by a violent explosion or a catastrophic mana burst.

“More likely… someone *triggered* something. Or something far more terrifying than expected awoke in the depths of the mine.”

She paused.

“We keep moving. We’ll only know for sure once we reach the mine entrance.”

“Yes, Demon Lord.”

The group grew even more silent and alert.

They circled around the disturbing plaza and pressed on toward the main mine entrance nestled in the hills behind the town.

The closer they got, the worse the environment became.

Black dust blanketed the ground, reaching up to their ankles.

The dark energy arcs in the air grew thicker and more numerous, occasionally striking Vivian’s barrier with a hiss, draining her mana with each zap.

But for a Demon Lord like her, this level of consumption was negligible.

After over ten minutes of careful progression, they finally arrived at the entrance to the main mine.

It yawned open like the gaping maw of some enormous beast.

Dozens of meters tall, with rails laid across the ground for transport.

Rusting, broken minecarts and mining equipment lay scattered across the entrance.

It looked as though the entire operation had been abandoned in a single instant the moment disaster struck.

From the cave’s depths blew a constant, icy wind—thick and cloying, laced with sulfur and the sharp tang of metal.

The wind carried with it the nauseating stench of rot and an even more violent surge of chaotic dark energy.

“D-Demon Lord… this…”

Old Stonehammer’s voice trembled as he stood at the edge of the cave, feeling the brutal force of the energy within.

“At this level… there’s no way we can go deeper, not into the mining zone! Even a Black Obsidian Troll like me wouldn’t last long! Let alone try to extract Evernight Crystals!”

“Demon Lord! At this rate, this mine might not be operational again for years!”

Vivian fell silent.

Truthfully, she hadn’t expected Blackstone Town’s condition to be this dire.

And now, she had no clear idea what could have caused it.

“Demon Lord…” Lucia looked at Vivian, her ice-blue eyes filled with uncertainty.

As the Winter Messenger, she had a duty to ensure Evernight Territory could maintain its crystal supply.

But now… this situation placed her in a difficult position.

Evernight Territory had other mines, yes.

But this one was the best.

Vivian stood at the edge of the cave.

Her long violet hair whipped wildly in the raging mana currents as she stared into the bottomless darkness.

The others fidgeted uneasily nearby, waiting for her decision.

“I’m going down to take a look. Maybe I’ll find the root of the problem.”

“Demon Lord! You mustn’t!”

“That’s too dangerous, Demon Lord! Inside there—”

Old Stonehammer and Lucia both immediately tried to dissuade her.

“It’s fine.”

“I am the Demon Lord.”

“This level of mana turbulence isn’t enough to threaten my life.”

“Hold your position. Guard the entrance. Report *any* anomaly—no matter what it is.”

On this matter, Vivian allowed no room for negotiation.

She *had* to see for herself what had happened down there.