"RRAGH!" I bellowed aloud as I kicked off from the raft with all my strength. Powerful hind legs launched us up into the air... but the combined weight of all three of us kicked the edge of the raft down into the waves once I reached the limit. I knew instinctively that it wasn't enough power, even as my feet left the ground.

"Well fuck." I had to try anyway. I spread my forepaws out like a leaping panther, and hit the side of Karkinos' body. My claws scrabbled on the hard shell, and for a breathless second, it felt like I was going to slip and drag us into the water... but then a hook on a rope flew over my head. Angel, hauling back until the barbs caught on one of the many hard ridges of Karkinos' abdomen. It caught: Angel let out a harsh cry of pain as I slipped and scrabbled over the wet chitin, back feet kicking into the open air just before we jerked to a halt. The girls were now the ones straining to hold ME.

"I've got it! Don't worry!" Snarling, I stabbed around with my tentacles, struggling for purchase. One of them found a seam in Karkinos' shell: I ejected the barbed needle tip into it over and over until it cracked, burrowing in. Another tentacle on the opposite side found the same seam.

"Lulu! Let go of me!" Angel called aloud. "We have to lighten his load!"

"Angel! No!" With two tentacles embedded, I wasn't in danger of falling into the drink - but I still couldn't pull myself up. "Just... hang... on!"

Lulu vibrated, torn between the two orders. Then she made an apologetic little noise and unraveled herself from around me.

"Lulu, goddammit!" It was too late to compel her to obey me. Still encircling Angel, the Limne bounced up with her as Angel hauled on her grappling hook and pulled herself from my back, scaling Karkinos' body. And once she left... I was at 15% encumbrance and could move. Panting, my Stamina bar blinking red, I fumbled around for more clawholds and found them. Craning my head, I watched the girls vanish over the edge of Karkinos' thorax. And then the end of the rope came down, toward me.

"Grab on!" Angel shouted.

“And pull you down into the damn ocean?” But Karkinos' HP bar was flashing, and there was only forty seconds left on the timer. I lunged up and snapped the rope in my jaws - and was surprised when I felt a real pull from up above. Angel had some kind of assisted leverage up there. Not much, but enough for me to strain upwards with my tentacles and foreclaws until I could dig my hind claws into the shell seam and kick off from there. Once, then again... and I clambered onto the Daeva's belly, flanks heaving.

Lulu had wrapped around a large spike, the grappling hook both caught on and embedded into her own mass. She stretched out, her slimy body fraying with the effort to drag me over the edge of the thoracic plate.

"Dammit dammit dammit!" We were almost out of time. Tongue lolling, I ran toward the plate covering the crab's heart. The organ was straining beneath it, bulging the plate out with every contraction. But around us, Karkino's legs were beginning to repair, and his HP bar was flashing faster. The bastard was regenerating. "No you fucking don't, you piece of shit!"

I grasped the plate and hauled back on it, pulling until my shoulders popped and the muscles of my forelegs strained... and tore the chitin off like a lid, revealing the top of the organ beneath. Claws and tentacles ripped into it, teeth tearing into soft, sweet flesh so hot it burned the skin away from around my jaws. The world narrowed down to the taste of blood and pain, until the heart exploded over me in a shower of magma. Pain turned to agony, and I backed away, yelping and shaking, as the heart continued to erupt.

"You got him!" Angel ran to me, signing frantically. "Noodles, your health-!"

I had twenty HP left as I sunk down, then rolled over and collapsed, panting heavily. I was pretty sure I'd cooked my own face, and by the expression on Angel's, it was not a pretty sight. She grimly pulled our last potions from her inventory, dousing my muzzle with them, cramming one into my mouth. Lulu hopped and squeaked on her way over to me, flowing around and neutralizing the molten crab bits boring into my body.

[You have defeated Karkinos, the second Daeva of the Fifth Realm.]

[You have gained 2000 EXP. You are Level 22.]

[Lulu is Level 21]

[You have gained a new Relic: AGNI, the Heart of Fire.]

[You have gained new Patrons. You have 551 new messages.]

[You have new rewards. Check your Inventory for details.]

Around us, Karkinos' body began to crack and erupt as it reddened. Angel gasped, dodging a plume of molten flesh that erupted beside us. Vents were opening up all over the monster's body. I stumbled up to my feet, prepared to order Angel and Lulu onto my back to at least try and save us by jumping and swimming, but a swirl of vivid scarlet energy licked around us... and before I could even twitch, it sucked us between space and time and deposited us onto the shore of the cenote. We landed beside a crumbling, crab-motif ruin in the shadows of the scaffolding that surrounded the water.

"Holy shit. We did it." Tongue lolling, legs trembling, I stumbled down and stretched out across the blessedly cool, damp loam of the cavern. The not-so-distant sounds of gunfire and screams still thundered on above. The normally vivid blue waters of the cenote had turned red, painted by the sun filtering through the smoke haze. It looked like a portal straight out of Hell, but we'd made it. We were alive. "That was fucking EPIC. We ruled!"

"I never want to do that again." Angel was also shuddery as she slid from my back and sunk to the ground. Her teeth chattered as her body equalized to the cooler temperature. Lulu cooed with concern, but she was also sluggish with fatigue.

"We need to use this AGNI rune before we try and get home, or someone's going to try and take it from us-" There was a distant rumble, like thunder. I paused. "And I think we need to get out of here. The volcano might be popping off."

"I hope it erupts north and covers Fort Hope. That would be poetry." Angel flopped back on her butt to sign, then fumbled at her belt for a waterskin. She chugged it, water pouring down her chin to soak her shirt, then poured the rest over her head.

"Hopefully it fucking kills them all." I opened my Inventory, bristling with pent-up aggression - until I saw a dozen patron loot boxes and the rune waiting for me in there, along with just over a thousand new messages. I was now sitting at about three thousand unread notes. "... Hello dopamine, my old friend. Angel, check your Inventory."

Angel frowned as she called up her HUD. Her eyebrows shot up. "Holy shit. I have marriage offers. So do you. So does Lulu."

"MUWUU?!" Lulu bristled like a sea urchin.

I barked a laugh, and pulled the rune into reality. The flat stone crawled with embers, a crimson sigil burning on its scorched face. As I concentrated on it, the rest of the world darkened and began to slip away, the sigil - a double twining flame - danced as it filled my vision.

[The fluid Breath of G-d. The element which dances at the heart of stars. The energy of creation. The energy of destruction.]

[Fire warms human hands. Without it, you would be savages, animals gnawing on raw meat and bitter plants. With Prometheus's sacrifice came the knowledge of bread and wine; of bricks and lamb and the uses of grain. All civilization owes its existence to fire. And to fire, civilizations fall. Egpyt, Rome, the caliphates and crusades, burned away into the ashes of history.]

[You and your Legions gain +25% HP. You gain 15% attack power.]

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

[You and your Legions gain +1.0% to Fire, Water and Blood effects.]

[You gain +15% speed.]

[You and your Legions gain the Gift of Prometheus. You may claim any three available Schema.]

The rush of energy was so intense that it hurt. Heat roared through my veins and muscles, tempering and darkening my skin. Lulu cried out in alarm as she turned a deep ashy grey... but then the empowerment passed, leaving us stronger.

"Woo. Headrush." I shook myself out, and looked up toward the edge of the cenote. My HP and Stamina had been restored by the rune, and I felt... good. Stronger. Faster. More Noodley than before. But Angel hadn't benefited from the rune. She had her face in one hand, leaning exhausted against the altar. The water canteen hung from the other, and I felt a flash of guilt. If I'd accepted her collar instead of collaring myself, then she’d be stronger. Me and Lulu couldn’t even benefit from the Prometheus thing.

I was about to say something when the earth shook. The gates of the fort, breaking off and crashing to the ground. The quake startled Angel out of her exhausted fugue and causing Lulu to squeak and stiffen. Bellows cut through the air. Dinosaurs and Legions.

"Shit. We've got company." I padded over to Angel and lifted her. She didn't protest as I set her on my back, searching for a place to hide. The cenote was full of shadows, but the only lightless place was behind the altar. Beckoning to Lulu, I slunk behind it and crouched down.

“Centurions?” Angel signed.

"Yeah. Keep your head down. Your skin is so pale they'll see it easily. And you, no oohing or aahing," I warned Lulu, sliding my muzzle out just far enough that I could see into the cavern. "They're close."

Lulu was just about to 'oo' in agreement, but stopped herself. She wiggled like a plate of Jello before flattening down.

The victorious Centurions came trooping down the narrow spiral stairs that ringed the edge of the cenote. The two men at the front carried guns, swinging them warily as they scouted the way. Behind them was Prima Falks, stiff and trim in her bloodied armor. She held a gladius in one hand, a shield in the other. None of the blood looked to be hers. And behind her...

"Holy shit," I thought to Angel. "That's Hong."

"Who?" Angel had equipped a hood and a cloth mask on to conceal her face. She peered around me, frowning. When she spotted the man, her eyes widened.

Hong was still dressed in his mixed Maroons gear. Same red bandanna, a cigarette hanging out the corner of his mouth. My first thought was that he'd been captured, because he wasn't visibly armed - but his hands were free, and the Centurions following up behind were keeping their distance, acting as if they were protecting him as well as Falks. I bit down the urge to growl.

"Well, now we know who tipped off Targent and Eisenblatter about the Maroons takeover of Fort Victory," I muttered.

"And the timing error on the caravan route..." Angel signed slowly. "That's so weird, though. That Elijah guy is the one that doesn’t like us, but Hong is in cahoots with Targent?"

"Doubt this has anything to do with us. Not directly." Keeping low to the ground, I strained my ears to listen in to the pair of them over the gurgle and slosh of the water.

"-And you went along with this mad scheme, did you?" Falks spoke in Russian. She had a neutral business mask on, her voice a touch over-polite and stiff.

"I had to. Otherwise, I'd have blown my cover." Hong replied in the same language. He had a kind of nonchalance about him, a swagger in his step despite the low-key threat in Falks’ words – and the pair of legions who followed the group down the stairs. He pulled up beside Falks at the water’s edge, pinched his cigarette between his fingers, and took a long drag before tapping it over the pool. "I tried to talk Merc out of it, but you know how she is. Wouldn't listen to me. And she's sweet on the albino girl."

"Of course she is. This 'Angel' is an arch manipulator." Falks scowled, the polite mask briefly slipping into something ugly. "And ambitious. The volcano only erupts when someone defeats Karkinos... there's a very good chance it was defeated by her, the Reaper, and their pet slime."

"Something's up with that Legion," Hong said. "It's too fucking smart."

"We already know that for a fact. The Reaper is a sentient." Falks peered out across the water in our direction, but my Hiding icon remained dull and crossed out. “Of course, Targent was too stupid to realize that.”

"A sentient? What do you mean?"

“That’s the Chief’s business.”

I frowned. The word she’d used for Chief in Russian, Pakhan, was a Russian mafia term. The Pakhan was a senior commander – or the titular commander – of multiple criminal cells. She had to be talking about Kaban.

“C’mon. I get what the word means. It means he’s got like, a human mind, right? Why not just tell me what it means to the Chief?”

"You still have five lives, Hong. If you value them, never ask me that question again." Falk’s voice turned snippy. "The Chief wants the Reaper captured and the girl dead, and that’s all that matters. Give me a cigarette."

"Fine." Hong didn't argue. He took a fresh smoke, lit it from the end of his, and handed it over. Falks took a long, grateful pull from it. "Anyway, Ms Falks… speaking of my lives, and what I'll need to keep them..."

"Your papers are being prepared in Fortuna. Because of your background, you will be vetted by a tribunal," Falks said, exhaling a thin plume of smoke through her nostrils. "It’s a formality; the fact you've brought in one of the most wanted traitors to the Empire means that the Chief is sure to approve your entry to the ranks immediately. Even if you DID masquerade as a Centurion to stir trouble."

"Either I went along with the plan, or I tipped off Merc," Hong said. "I told you already. Anyway, what are you complaining about? The Centurions just took Oil Town and the second boss spawn. You've just added one of the best oil resource nodes on the islands to the Empire. If the Chief doesn't promote you, I'll eat my fist."

“You don’t understand a damn thing, do you?” Falks’ voice carried a sneering hint of amusement. “I’ve already been promoted, because our dear Captain Targent has been dragged off in chains to Fortuna for his error of judgement. I’m the Dux of the warfront now. Tomorrow, we will vacate this place and abandon it to the Pigs.”

“To the Pigs…?” Hong sounded as confused as I felt.

"Did I stammer?" Falks rolled her eyes. "If the Chief decides you need to know more following your confirmation, you will know more."

My eyes narrowed. Despite her apparent victory, Falks looked... worried. Stressed, even, because my eyes were keen enough to see the way her fingers trembled while she brought the cigarette to her lips. Hong noticed, too. His eyes darted across while they fell into a brief silence.

"What are they saying?" Angel signed beside me.

"Nothing good." I snorted softly, flexing my nostril vents and the muscles of my jaws to work out some tension. "We need to get a message to Merc. Hong has betrayed her for some kind of promotion within the Centurions. Falks is talking about bringing her in."

"What? Holy shit. I'll message her." Angel dropped back, eyes darting as she opened her menus. "There's literally five million messages in here, but… none of them are from her. Doesn't look like she sent me anything yet."

"Yeah. And Targent’s been arrested for some reason." While Angel mailed our friend in the Maroons, I began to search for a way out. The only real route was via the stairs. We were just going to have to wait.

Falks and Hong didn't really talk more after that. The tension between them was that of relative strangers forced to share space, thickening until Falks suddenly flicked the end of her cigarette into the cenote, turned on her heel, and marched for the stairs. "Well, time to whip this place into shape. We’re occupying it overnight, at least. Might as well run a few Dux candidates through the dungeon while we have it. I will assign you quarters and whatever food or gear you require."

"Sponsored gear," Hong said, as he trailed her. "Or Silver Patron or above. It's all I'm interested in."

"Fancy yourself a contender for the Daeva, do you? You need Legions for that." There was acid in Falks’ voice.

"Need gear to get Legions. Might even lure the girl and the Reaper in close and PK her, take the Legion before she realizes. They trust me."

"Clearly, you know nothing about women. She’ll see right through you. Besides, you and every other man on this island wants that Reaper," Falks replied. "He's off-limits."

"Off-limits? What do you mean, 'off-limits'?"

"Off-limits as in the Chief will be claiming him and using him to fight the last Daeva so he can ascend to the next Realm before his shift replacement arrives. And if you want to make a career as a Dux in this guild, you had better show you respect his orders from the very beginning, or your tribunal hearing will not, in fact, be just a formality."

They continued to bicker quietly as they climbed back up to the ground level.

"Listen to those fuckers, talking about me like I was a piece of meat." My tail flicked back and forth restlessly.

"Choo-voo-noosts," Lulu said.

"Chauvinists to the max," I agreed. "The Pakhan… they have to be talking about Kaban. So Falks wasn’t just Targent’s spy. She’s working for Kaban himself, and he’s pissed that we upset the balance of the battlefield. Which implies there has to be Pigs working for him, too."

Lulu wobbled uncertainly. “Ooo.”

"I can't send messages to Merc." Angel's hands flashed in the corner of my eye. She was frowning, staring at her unseen interface. "I wrote and sent her one, and it bounced."

"What does that mean?" I turned my head toward her.

"I don't know. I'm hoping it doesn't mean she's been captured." Angel paused to rub her hands on her pants. "I've got a bad feeling about this. We need to go to Eden."

I rumbled softly. "No. Eden is the last place we should be going."

"She was there for us against the Pigs," Angel signed. "I'm not abandoning her to her abusive ex and his Roman fantasy RP cult."

A groan curled in my throat, and I swayed from side to side for a moment. "Fine. But we go in as stealthily as possible, no unnecessary exposure. We're good, but we're not 'take on an army' good. I don't want to end up in Kaban's collar, and whatever they'll do to Merc is shit they'll just as happily do to you now we pulled off this stunt."

"I know. But we have to try." Angel's face hardened.

Much as I wanted to argue, I thought back to the squalor of Fort Hope... and couldn't bring myself to. "Alright. Chug some amphetamines or whatever is in those stamina brews, and hop on board. Next stop, Eden."