“I feel like I’ve come home,” said Kurik, a twinkle in his blue eyes as he stared at the massive volcano in the distance. “It’s beautiful, ain’t it?”

Even from miles away, Elijah could feel the oppressive heat emanating from within. They’d been traveling along the coast for a few days, and he’d begun to wonder if the maps had gotten everything wrong. Then, the terrain had begun to change, and far more quickly than should have been geographically possible. Suddenly, instead of walking along a coastal plain abutting a massive sea, they were looking at an enormous mountain range.

The earth shook as the sound of a distant explosion echoed through the area.

Another volcano had just erupted, filling the sky with ash, fire, and debris. It had been an entire day since Elijah had seen the sun, and every breath came with the thick smell of sulfur.

“Bro, I don’t think that word means what you think it means,” Dat remarked with a shake of his head. He removed his wide-brimmed hat, wiping his forearm across his sweaty and soot-stained forehead.

The entire area was a hellscape of igneous rock, lava flows, and sulfuric springs that would melt the skin from a person’s body. What precipitation they’d experienced was almost as damaging, and it had required healing to keep them from taking injuries.

But Kurik seemed like he’d stepped into heaven.

“This is a proper environment for a dwarf,” Kurik said. “Do you know what people back home would pay just to cultivate here? It’s paradise.”

Elijah thought it veered in the other direction, but he wasn’t one to put a damper on his friend’s good mood. So, he said, “Maybe we can find somewhere like this on Earth. I’m sure environments like this have to exist, right?”

“Count me out, bro.”

“Me too,” said Ron.

Sadie, predictably, remained silent. She hadn’t spoken much since the incident at the hot springs, and Elijah didn’t think they were close enough for him to try to help her get ahold of her emotions. If he tried, she would doubtless take offense, making their partnership that much more onerous. So, he’d let her suffer in silence as he focused on everything else.

Fortunately, the trip hadn’t been terribly eventful. They’d been forced to fight off a couple of groups of hunters, both of which had been composed of fairly high-level fighters, but Elijah and his companions had come out on top. One group had retreated after realizing they were outmatched, while the other had been killed before they could make a similar discovery.

Otherwise, they’d had a peaceful journey, which left Elijah feeling a little pent up. He’d tried to explore a little, but the region was almost entirely devoid of any interesting ruins. And the ones he did find gave him no new information as to the fate of the native civilization. So, he was admittedly a little frustrated.

As a result, even though he knew it would assuredly prove to be at least as dangerous as the others, he’d begun to look forward to the next challenge, which was tied to Ignis, the Plane of Fire.

“Are we taking bets on where the challenge will be? Or are we all fine with the assumption that it’s going to be in that big volcano back there?” he asked.

“We don’t know that for sure,” Sadie pointed out.

“Yeah. But you just know that’s where it’s going to be,” Elijah said.

Over the next few minutes, they continued on until they reached the banks of a river of lava. It reminded Elijah of the cave where he’d witnessed the birth of the first dragon, though as far as he could tell, there were no beasts swimming in the molten rock. As they traveled along the riverside, the heat continued to mount until it reached truly oppressive levels. Without their superhuman attributes, they would have all passed out after only a few hours.

Except for Elijah, whose Cloak of the Iron Bear kept him in comfort.

Dat stuffed his cloak in his pack, revealing a sweat-soaked shirt. “This is terrible, bro. Like being in a sauna fully dressed.”

“Please don’t take your clothes off,” Ron said.

“What? I wasn’t.”

“You kind of had that look,” Elijah added.

Ron said, “I’m happy to be wrong, but…”

“Bro.”

“Enough,” Sadie said. Then, to Elijah she asked, “Do you see that up ahead?”

Elijah squinted in the indicated direction, then used Eyes of the Eagle. “A bridge,” he said. It was almost a mile away, and the only reason it was visible at all was because it glittered like black glass. “Want me to go check it out?”

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“I’ve got it,” said Dat. “Need the distraction.”

Elijah nodded at that, and Dat slipped into stealth. Pointedly, he did not use Ghost Cloak, instead opting for a more mundane option. Because of that, Elijah had no issues tracking him, at least until he reached the limits of One with Nature’s effect. After a little experimentation, he’d discovered that if Dat used his more powerful concealment spell, he could still remain mostly undetected. It was just further proof that Elijah wasn’t the only human with a little power.

After Dat left, the group settled down to wait behind a giant boulder of volcanic rock. When the Witch Hunter returned about ten minutes later, it was with a grim expression. “This isn’t good, guys,” he said.

“What is it?”

That’s when Dat launched into an explanation of what he’d seen. First of all, the bridge was the only way across the lava flow, and it connected to a road that seemed to lead into the large volcano Elijah had indicated previously. “That’s the good news,” Dat added. “The bad news is that it’s guarded by char goblins.”

“What the hell is a char goblin?” asked Ron.

As it turned out, they were precisely what the name implied – goblinoid creatures with cracked black skin that spewed smoke. “They’re only about four feet tall, but Hex of Scrying says they’re dangerous,” Dat stated. “That’s all I got out of the spell, but a few goblins isn’t the worst part. Past that bridge, I caught sight of some things called magma golems. I think the goblins either control them or summon them. I don’t know, but I saw one of those golems attack this big dinosaur looking thing and melt it into slurry.”

“What kind of dinosaur?” Elijah asked. There was a big difference if they were facing velociraptors or t-rexes, after all.

“You know the ones that look like they have sails on their backs?” Dat asked.

“Dimetrodon.”

“That’s the one. Were you into dinosaurs when you were little, too? My favorite was the triceratops.”

“Every kid is into dinosaurs,” Ron said. “My daughter made me watch all the Jurassic Park movies on loop. Even the newest ones.”

“Sorry, bro.”

“I never cared about dinosaurs,” Sadie muttered.

“Anyway,” Elijah said after an awkward moment. “So, these golems are pretty dangerous. Okay. Ward of the Seasons should help with that.”

“But that’s not the worst part, bro. I got a glimpse of where the road led.”

“And?” asked Sadie.

“It’s a fortress set into the side of that big volcano. I don’t know. I’ve got a really bad feeling about this one,” Dat said.

“I like it,” Kurik stated, his first contribution to the conversation. “If we made it through that crypt, we’ll be fine with this.”

“You just like the heat,” Elijah responded with a roll of his eyes.

“Can’t deny that.”

“As much as I enjoy inane banter, I feel I should be the one to ask what we plan to do? The most prudent course of action is to use the same strategy we’ve used so far. Dat and Elijah can scout the –”

“Small problem, bro.”

She flexed her jaw. “What, Dat?”

“Those golems can see through all kinds of stealth,” he said. “Plus, that bridge is enchanted.”

“Can I just fly in and create a distraction, maybe?” Elijah asked.

Dat looked up. “There are things up there in the ash.”

“What…sort of things?”

As it turned out, the answer to that question was both fascinating and disturbing. In those dense clouds of ash lived the fire-attuned equivalent of the spirits they’d encountered in the Whistling Cliffs. Dat claimed that he’d seen a bird venture too close to one, and it was burned to a crisp before it even knew what was going on. That was enough to dissuade Elijah from giving flight a try.

Not that he’d expected it to work anyway. Every challenge they’d faced had featured some sort of flight deterrent. Whether that was a feature common among more advanced societies of the multiverse or if it was just the system creating obstacles, Elijah had no idea. But he was certain that he didn’t want to see just how durable Shape of the Sky really was.

“What’s the alternative?” she asked.

“I think we all know the answer to that question,” Elijah said. “Full frontal assault.”

“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” said Kurik. I’ll build some traps. We’ll –”

“I was joking. Obviously,” Elijah lied.

Kurik frowned. “Didn’t sound like a joke.”

“You sounded serious, bro.”

“That’s what I heard,” Ron added.

Elijah glanced at Sadie, who just shrugged. He let out a sigh, then asked, “Is that really what you all think of me? I don’t just go charging into every situation.”

“Just a couple of weeks ago, you went into an unknown tomb without telling anybody, bro.”

“That was different.”

“And you almost died in those ruins you were talking about. The ones with the really simple puzzle,” Sadie pointed out.

“How was I supposed to expect it to be booby trapped?”

“You’ve also told us stories about going into multiple towers without any backup,” Ron said. “Even when you didn’t have to.”

“Right, but –”

“I think you might need to acknowledge you have a problem,” Sadie interrupted. Then, against all odds, she reached out and patted him on the shoulder. “It’s okay. The first step to getting better is admitting that you have an issue. Then, you can –”

“I don’t have a problem,” Elijah insisted, pulling away from her touch. “Besides, what none of you want to acknowledge is that I survived all of those encounters. That has to count for something.”

“Sheer luck?” suggested Dat.

“The favor of the gods?” Kurik said.

“Chance?” Sadie guessed.

“It’s skill!” Elijah said exasperatedly. “I take those chances because I know that I can survive. God, I feel like I’m taking crazy pills here. I’m –”

That’s when Dat cracked a smile and opened the floodgates of laughter. Even Sadie joined in with a couple of giggles.

“Oh. I see how it is,” Elijah said with exaggerated affront. “Just pick on the poor Druid, right? It’s not like I recently got ripped in half. Literally. In half. You’d think that would get me a little sympathy, but I guess not.”

Then, he grinned as well. Elijah wasn’t above laughing at himself. In fact, he had learned the value of self-deprecating humor early on in life, and it had really been hammered home during his battle with cancer. Without it, he never would have survived with his mind intact.

“You know we’re just teasing you, right?” said Dat.

“I’m painfully aware that I am now the butt of everyone’s jokes,” Elijah said, still smiling. “But seriously – as cathartic as laughter can be, we need to figure out what we’re going to do about this challenge.”

“I think we’re forgetting somethin’,” Kurik said. They all looked his way. “Gettin’ in might be the first problem, but I got a feelin’ it won’t be the hard part. Fightin’ through that fortress ain’t gonna be easy. Mark my words on that’n.”

“We’ll just figure it out as we go, I guess,” Elijah said. Though based on everything they’d experienced so far, he knew that Kurik was probably right. Getting in had never been the hard part when it came to the challenges. Surviving whatever was inside was.