A few days passed and the expedition team moved with minimal stops and rests.
Old-Shell slammed his calcified dome against the subterranean bedrock. The earth finally gave way miles beneath the Southern Badlands. Millions of tons of neutral dirt collapsed inward to reveal a sprawling, hollowed-out cavern. Six petrified Treants slid down the massive crater behind him, scraping their iron-wood branches against the stone walls.
The Southern Vault resembled a subterranean megastructure lost in absolute darkness. Colossal pillars of oxidized Star-Iron supported a ceiling hidden in shadows. Skeletal remains of multi-headed serpents and winged leviathans rested in eternal suspension across a floor of crushed bone and fused glass.
Old-Shell paused near a shattered obsidian altar holding two distinct artifacts. A glowing, emerald-colored crystalline organ rested beside a sealed, translucent geode containing a swirling vortex of primordial plasma.
