“It’s not a mineral,” Sean whispered. “It’s a receiver . Someone—or something—built this.”
He held up a cylinder identical to the thermodrill, but smaller. Inside was a slurry of crushed obsidian from the first journey, suspended in a synthetic magnetic gel. journey to the center of the earth 2
They dropped through the crust at an alarming rate. By day two, they had passed the deepest mines and entered the mantle. The thermodrill’s sensors painted a terrifying picture: the convection currents of molten rock were organizing —flowing in spiraling patterns around a vertical axis, as if guiding them down. “It’s not a mineral,” Sean whispered
Kael, the explosives expert, panicked. He fired a grappling hook into one of the crystalline trees. The tree answered by emitting a focused blast of infrasound that liquefied his internal organs in under two seconds. He fell without a scream. Inside was a slurry of crushed obsidian from