When I got to the bottom of the lift, I realized I wasn't wearing my nightvision goggles anymore. They must have melted in the molten core. My eyes had somewhat adjusted to the low light. As I looked around, I realized it wasn't actually pitch black like I had thought it was. There were lights. They were just really dim. Well, this is what I would have to work with. I wasn't going back up the lift to get another pair. Not with the chance Lucifer was still there. That would be incredibly awkward.

"No, I'm not coming back for you. I'm still done with you. I'm just grabbing another pair of goggles. Okay, bye again!" Is what I imagine I would say. Yeah, I wasn't doing that.

I walked back to the courthouse, where Tim was walking down the front steps. "Tim! Judge Tim! Your honor!" I said.

"You do not have to call me judge or your honor outside of the courtroom, Dave. Did you require assistance with something?" Tim said.

"Yes. I can't use the elevator back up. Lucifer is there and I can't associate with him anymore. Do you have another way back to the surface?" I said.

"Why are you unable to associate with Lord Lucifer anymore? Are you not friends, or at least associates?" Tim asked, with a puzzled look on his adorable little mole face. Sorry, they're adorable. I can't help it.

"He was partially responsible for dropping the sword. He tackled me while I was holding it, causing me to drop it. But he just blamed me so he didn't have to be put on trial or suffer any punishment. I can't associate with someone who would betray me like that," I said.

"That is most understandable, Lord Dave. I wouldn't either. But why didn't you say that in the courtroom? Lucifer would have been put on trial then," he said, rubbing his forehead.

"I didn't want to risk being down there for a year. I have a limited time left to live and I can't waste it. This is going to sound ridiculous, but I need to save the world before I die," I said, sighing. It sounded ridiculous when I said it, but it was the truth.

"That does not sound ridiculous in the slightest. That sounds noble. Truly befitting a lord of the surface world. If you do not mind me inquiring, how much time do you have remaining?" Tim said, looking worried.

"Until 7 pm tonight. And I estimate it's about 11 am right now. So I have eight hours," I said.

"Well, then we better get you moving! Normally I would suggest just traveling to another mole colony and using their elevator, but that would take hours, which is time you do not have in your possession! You'll have to take The Bubble. Come with me," he said, beginning to walk towards the cave wall.

I followed him, and we came to a tunnel opening in the face of the cave wall. It was essentially a cave in and of itself, but not naturally formed. It had been formed through artificial means. I had to duck slightly as we went inside. There was a strange-looking vehicle set up on a track leading to a lava flow on the far side of the room. It was hot, but it was far enough away to be bearable. I assumed the track was there, so you didn't have to try to get into the vehicle while it was in lava. Not only would your skin probably melt off, but if you missed and fell, you'd be toast.

The vehicle itself had treads, spider legs, turbines, and a massive drill at the front. It seemed to be called The Bubble because the shape of the body of the vehicle was like a bubble, complete with a glass dome shaped view on the upper half.

"The way in which this vehicle functions is it finds the quickest way to the surface through the magma flows and shoots you out of a volcano," he said.

"Which volcano will I be shooting out of?" I asked.

"Most likely Black Mountain," he said.

"Is that an active volcano?" I said.

"It is not, but it is the closest to being directly above us," he said. "The drill at the end is there to bust you through the rock of the inactive volcano."

"Ok, what about the glass dome? Won't that just melt instantly?" I said.

"No, it will not. It is coated in a magma resistant resin as well as being infused with small amounts of the same magma retardant metal that the cage is made out of," he said.

"'Magma resistant' doesn't give me a lot of confidence. Has this been tested before?" I said.

"No. This is actually a prototype. We built it in case of catastrophic meltdown of the atmospheric generators. It fits four mole people comfortably, or one surface dweller, uncomfortably. Its purpose is to allow any remaining mole people to inform the surface dwellers of the generator meltdown, so they can rebuild or start a new mole colony with new generators," he said. "But you're impervious to physical damage. If the glass melts, you will be alright."

"You do realize that most surface dwellers don't know that the atmospheric generators and mole people, for that matter, exist, right? Also, I'll be alive, sure, but I'll be stranded in a magma flow with no way to get to the surface," I said.

"I am quite certain that the glass will hold out until you reach the surface. We performed micro testing of the materials. We just did not test the vehicle itself because that would render it useless for our purposes," he said.

"Why is that?" I asked.

"The vehicle knows how to get to the surface. It doesn't know how to go back down here. The mole person testing the vehicle would have no way to report back to us if it performed its duty correctly. Colony to surface radio transmissions do not work. We are too deep underground for the signals to travel to us," he said.

"I see," I said nervously. This thing better work. I was not ready for another magma bath. That was horrifying, and I wasn't anxious to experience it again.

"Hold on a minute. Most surface dwellers don't know we exist? Why is that? Don't they wonder what makes the atmosphere?" he said.

"They do wonder why, but they think it was volcanoes," I said. I remembered watching a documentary on it on TV.

"Well, they are not necessarily incorrect. The atmosphere we generate travels through the magma flows to the surface, but the volcanoes themselves do not create it. Does no one know we are down here?" He said.

"Important people do, and that's what matters. We appreciate you and God appreciates you. Without you, the world wouldn't exist as we know it," I said, patting him on his soft, furry head.

"Please do not patronize me, because I am smaller in stature to yourself," Tim said.

"I'm sorry. You're just so soft and furry. It makes me want to pet you. You see, furless surface dwellers like myself have a strange relationship with furry surface dwellers. We keep them as pets and pet them as a sign of affection," I said.

"That sounds incredibly demeaning," Tim said.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"It is, now that I think about it. I'm sorry. I will refrain from petting you in the future," I said, and lightly bowed.

"I appreciate your effort to resist your base desires," Tim said, bowing in return. "Now, you should deposit your person within the vehicle before we waste any more time. There will be a large red button to turn it on and The Bubble will do the rest."

"Ok. If we never see each other again, it was nice meeting you, despite the part where I was tortured," I said, as I pulled on the side handle. The whole dome opened up, and I climbed inside.

"Good luck," Tim said.

When I closed the dome, I had to kneel down to get it to shut. I pressed the big red button labeled "Start."

The treads on The Bubble engaged and rapidly drove toward the magma stream. It dove under the magma and I don't know what it did after that. I heard a lot of different mechanical noises going on at once, and I felt the cabin turn vertical, throwing me back slightly, but that didn't concern me. What concerned me was the fact that I could see nothing but magma all around me.

A small screen popped up on the dashboard and displayed a radar view of the magma flows and ducts. We sped through the flows rapidly, covering what looked like miles in seconds. I closed my eyes and tried to relax, but flashes of my time in the cage ran through my mind. What if the glass failed? What if the vehicle got stuck, and I had to swim out? I couldn't do that again. I just couldn't.

Seconds felt like minutes, that felt like hours all over again. I squeezed my eyes shut and clenched my body as hard as I could to distract myself. I was about to really start freaking out, when I heard the drill engage and I looked at the radar screen. We were drilling through the inactive volcano surface! I was almost out! It was so close I could taste it, then 10 minutes later, after I lost my shit all over again, we finally popped out of the top of Black Mountain and traversed the land. A joystick came out of the dashboard and I could control the treads. I sped along the desert plain looking for a road.

Without thinking, I reached into my pocket to pull out my phone and, surprisingly, my phone was in there. Whatever Lucifer did to regenerate my clothes also extended to my personal items, as well. My wallet was in my other pocket too. Along with the remaining $7,500.

"Hey, Lilith! Where's the bank robbery going to happen?" I said.

"Mmph!" she said from within the sheath. I pulled the sword partially out of the sheath. "It's going down in Vegas!"

I put Las Vegas into the GPS, and it gave me a route. I was 5 minutes away from a road and only 20 minutes away from Vegas. It made sense I would be so close since we went down the elevator in Vegas.

"Where exactly is this bank and how does robbing a bank end the world?" I asked.

"It's Las Vegas Cryo Bank and I don't know," she said.

"'Cryo Bank'? What the hell is a 'cryo bank'?" I said.

"I don't know! Look it up on your phone!" She said.

I did, and I was confused. It was a sperm bank. "Lilith, what starts the apocalypse in the bible?" I asked.

"A lot of things really," she said.

"Why don't you list the major ones and I'll see if anything makes sense?" I said.

"Why? What kind of bank is it?" She said.

"Just list the apocalyptic events and I'll tell you after," I said.

"Fine. The breaking of the seven seals, the trumpet and bowl judgments, the rapture of believers, the rise of the Antichrist, the—" she said.

"Wait, that's it! The rise of the Antichrist! They're trying to birth the Antichrist! The bank is a sperm bank. They must need a specific person's sperm to do it," I said.

"Lucifer! They need Lucifer's sperm! This isn't in the bible, but our demon texts say the Antichrist must be the child of the Devil." Lilith said, with panic in her voice.

"We need to get Lucifer's sperm before they do! That's a sentence I never thought I would say. But seriously, we need to get that sperm! Also, a sentence I never thought I'd say. Do you know when they plan to do it?" I said.

"I don't know! It might have already happened or it might not," she said.

"Let's just get there as fast as we can!" I said. I sped along the highway to Las Vegas in a tiny car meant for mole people. It was the size of one of those old electric vehicles from the early 2000s. Clearly not meant for actual humans to drive. My knees were up to my chest.

A thought occurred to me in the silence. "Why do you think Lucifer deposited sperm at a bank?" I asked.

"How the hell would I know? Maybe in case he died or something as a back-up plan?" she said.

"That actually makes sense," I said.

"I come up with good ideas every once in a while. You might try asking me for them more often," she said sarcastically.

"Hey, we've just met," I said.

"That's true!" she said.

We drove the rest of the way in silence until blue and red flashing lights showed up behind us and the sound of a police siren went off. I pulled over to the side of the road in the most ridiculous looking vehicle ever created. I opened the dome because I couldn't roll down a window. I was blasted with hot air, but I barely even noticed. I had experienced heat far worse than this.

"Stay in your vehicle, sir!" the police officer said through a speaker in his car.

"I'm staying in my vehicle!" I said.

"No need to get agitated," he said.

"I'll show you agitated," I said under my breath. I was trying to save the world here. You'd think people would have the common decency to stand back and let me do the thing that I decided was my job.

"What was that?" he said.

"Nothing," I said.

"Good. I'm exiting my vehicle now and I'm going to walk over to you. Don't make any sudden moves," he said.

I just sighed and said nothing. The police officer approached me with a hand resting on his gun. "Umm, sir, what kind of vehicle is this?" he said, smacking his gum. He pulled it out of his mouth and threw it into the brush.

"I would say 'that's littering,' but as you are a police officer and I am not, I will restrain myself," I said.

"I appreciate your sense of self preservation. Now answer my question. What kind of vehicle is this?" he said in a slight to moderate drawl.

"It's a Bubble," I said, and smiled my most innocent looking smile.

"What's a Bubble?" he said.

"A bubble is a spherical object made out of soap or glycerine," I said, still trying to maintain my innocent look.

"Now is not the time for jokes, son. What is the make of the car? What company is it?" he said.

"The people who made it are not with any company," I said.

"You're telling me this is an unknown, unregistered vehicle? Where are these people that made this thing? So I can question them," he said.

"In the sub-basement of The Last Temptation Casino," I said.

He just stared at me for a bit through mirrored sunglasses with his mouth open. I was tempted to close it for him, but I realized he might consider that assault of a police officer and I didn't want to get arrested. Especially not now.

"Uh huh," he said. "Can I see your license?" I handed it to him. "Wait here. I'm gonna call this in." He walked back to his car and got inside.

"Time is wasting," I said.

"Yes, it is," Lilith said.

I sighed heavily. I was tempted to try to outrun him, but I didn't trust my ability to weave between cars once we got into Vegas itself. This thing was on treads, which meant it had the maneuverability of a tank. We waited nearly an hour. This was almost worse than the molten core. At least that only lasted 10 minutes.

Several more police cars pulled up. He probably just called his buddies to come look at my wacky vehicle. I doubt I seemed like a threat to him. An entire squad of police officers got out of the cars to come inspect what I was driving. Several of them took pictures. A few asked me dumb questions.

"What happened? Did you leave your clown car at home?" One said.

"So, were you planning to rob a bank with this thing?" Another said.

"Do you need to call your wife so she can pick you up?" A third one said.

"No, no, and no," I said, exasperated.

The original officer came around again and said, "We're going to have to impound your vehicle. Here's a citation for driving an unregistered vehicle and here is your driver's license back, Beauregard."

"That's not my name," I said.

"That's not what your license says," he said.

"It's Dave," I said.

"Well, Dave, are you gonna hoof it, or do you need a ride back to the city?" he said.

"A ride would be nice," I said. "May I get out of the vehicle now?"

"Yes. You can get out of the vehicle," he said.

I stepped out of the Bubble and he said, "Whoa! Is that a sword?"

"Yeah. Aren't blades legal in Nevada?" I said.

"They are, but that thing looks cool. Can we see it?" he said in awe.

"Sure," I said, removing Azrael's sword out of the sheath. Its blade flickered with flame.

"Whoa! How is it doing that? Is it hot?" he said.

"Very. It can melt through concrete," I said.

"No way! I gotta see this. Do it," he said.

I plunged the sword into the highway, making sure to keep a firm grip on it, and pulled it back out. Now there was a flaming hole in the highway.

"Holy crap! Do you know how it works?" he said.

"No idea. I got it from my ex girlfriend," I said. Which was true. I did.

"Is she single?" he asked.

"I don't know," I said.

"Oh, sorry. Bad break up?" he said.

"It wasn't good, that's for sure," I said.

"I'm sorry to hear that," he said. "Do you still need that ride?"

"Yes, please," I said. I put the sword back in the sheath.

"You can ride in the back," he said.

I gave him a look.

"Don't worry. I won't sneakily arrest you. If I was going to arrest, I would have done it already," he said.

"Ok, thanks for the ride," I said.

"No problem. We are taking your car, or whatever you called that thing," he said.

"True," I said.

We drove back to Las Vegas. It was early afternoon. About 12:30 pm. Six and a half hours before my death.