Rough TL this time; MF really needs a better proofreader.
I like the idea of the core being either ground up in the dirt, or so tiny that it's a nanomachine; a nanomachine, or just the dirt, that can't make it up past the long-ass tunnel, perhaps?
Nanomachines makes macromachines (the golems) and eventually carry out their orders... which destroy the civilization due to any number of reasons.
Hell, if you gave the machines the order to destroy anything with certain amounts of electricity, or a certain class of magic item... if you were under attack, and the last surviving officer, you might give that order. And the surface would become uninhabitable, after a while; totally destroy civilizations just as they begin to bloom.... lots of thoughts from the last couple chapters!
Good writing!
Thanks for the TL, rough as it was.
This exploration arc promises some big possibilities!