Caroline waited for the crabs to disperse. Eventually, they all huddled in front of the double doors, so she tried to scare them away using fire. Instead of running, they attacked her, so she blew them up, around 100 at a time.

Her crystals were extremely destructive when detonated, but they needed quite a bit of time to summon. What was likely just a few minutes of combat felt like an eternity to Caroline, and when she finally opened the double doors she half expected the battle on the other side to be over.

When no lava poured out of the cave, she was taken slightly aback. When she saw Finn floating above a giant egg of molten rock her eyes went wide.

She flew over and asked "It's over!? Where is Miss Natalie? Where is my item?"

Finn pointed at the lava egg with the muzzle of his gun.

"Did they slay each other?"

Finn frowned.

"We must retrieve my item."

"Wait."

"Mr Finn…"

"Just wait. Natalie's inside there, and I don't think the hydra's stupid enough to try something."

Finn rolled the gun on his finger which drew Caroline's attention to it.

'That's new.' She inspected the weapon by feeling its energy. On the surface, it seemed normal, just a simple tool imbued with its wielder's mana, not that different from Natalie's sword.

However, in the middle of her inspection, Caroline made the mistake of sensing the energy within the barrel of the gun.

Immediately, every hair on her body stood up. A black crystal appeared in front of her and her body flew backwards almost a hundred feet. She was shaking, her senses were telling her to flee.

'He's not… my enemy… thankfully.'

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It took a long time for her to calm down, although time was definitely not an issue. As they waited for Natalie, minutes quickly turned into hours and hours into days.

Neither of them knew what had happened to her. However, Finn was not willing to leave and Caroline did not press the issue.

Eventually, she had no choice but to make trips into the city for supplies. None of the mermaids stopped her, fortunately, but everyone watched her.

She thought of confronting the ruling echidna, but it would have solved nothing. Judging from everyone's reaction, it was clear as day: 'The tuna's left the school. The only question remaining is will they attack within the volcano or will they ambush us when we exit?'

The bartender she talked to when they had first arrived was gone, replaced by a much less cooperative goblin. Fortunately, the city’s merchants did not outright ban her from their stores. They let her in, let her buy, and after she left, guards would follow and take away the crystals.

'He's shrewd that one. What was his name, Luciano?'

When a week passed and there was still no attack, Caroline was convinced: "There will be an army waiting for us when we leave."

Finn raised an eyebrow but said "So be it. I came prepared for a fight."

Suddenly, the egg shaped cluster of lava showed movement. Its surface trembled for a long time until eventually it lost its shape.

The egg collapsed into a normal pool of lava, and then grew to the size of a medium sized lake. More and more lava poured in, until the surface of the cave was all but covered.

"It's over," said Caroline. She summoned a black crystal around herself and dived into the lava before Finn could stop her.

He was preoccupied. 'The hydra is dead, but I still can't feel Natalie.'

While he pondered what happened, Caroline reached the very middle of the molten lake. There, she could see the lava being pushed from below, from the planet's core.

'It's going to erupt.'

Fortunately, this meant what she was looking for would likely be pushed upwards too. About an hour of searching later, she finally found it.

It was a cube, black in color and slightly larger than her head. Tiny, blue tentacles popped out like zits from its surface, but other than this, it was inert.

As soon as she saw it, Caroline's eyes became moist. She moved her crystal to the cube and tried to absorb it. However, despite floating in the middle of the molten lake, it did not budge.

"Something has a grasp on it."

Caroline tried to wriggle it free, but the more she pulled the more the foreign power pulled back.

Eventually, she saw something resembling a hand attached to her cube, a skeleton’s hand, with just a couple of veins.

'Miss Caroline? This is my family's treasure. Please let go.'

'It… your family… can have it… when I'm done.'