Up above, Finn was getting increasingly fidgety. More than two hours had passed since the egg collapsed.

The lava now covered the entire cave and was putting pressure on the double doors.

'If it spills into the city, they'll evacuate. They'll all see us leave; Caroline even mentioned an army. If this gets blown out of proportion, we'll become public enemy number one.'

Finn felt a migraine coming on.

'We don't have the power yet to fight off an entire kingdom.'

'We will once we find the others.'

'Even with their help… Natalie?'

Finn finally felt his childhood friend underneath the lava. Her presence was dim, but it was quickly growing.

'Are you ok? How fast can you recover? The lava is rising, we need to escape.'

There was a pause.

'Worrying suits you,' said his friend before going silent for the next five hours.

During this time, Finn shouted, unsummoned and summoned his weapons, and thought of jumping into the lake multiple times. However, his friend's presence was growing stronger. He could sense her spiritual body rebuilding itself and interfering with the process was likely unwise.

Eventually, Caroline came out of the lava with furrowed brows and crossed arms.

"She'll give it back once she's done with it,"

"Give back what, your thing? So it was there. What is it?"

Forced out of her thoughts, Caroline crossed arms.

"Does loneliness shake your confidence?"

"What? I'm talking about your item, damnit. What's Natalie doing with it?"

Caroline did not offer an answer. Time passed and the amount of lava kept increasing. It passed the middle of the cave and pushed the steel double doors open.

It spilled into the next cave, into the tunnel leading towards the city, then kept rising as if there was plenty of molten rock to go around.

“We’ll use Natalie’s tunnel to get out,” said Finn. “She will protect us from the lava, and her bubble will hide our identities. Once out, we must avoid conflict as much as possible and escape.”

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“Wise decision,” said Caroline.

‘No more showboating?’ Natalie's thoughts reached them.

Finn smiled as his friend finally rose from the lava. Her clothes and weapons had somehow survived, though her body emitted more heat than a stove. Her hair was gone, replaced by countless strands of fire which fell gently on her back.

“If Ifrit was a woman…" Finn smirked.

“No more screwing around, right?”

While Natalie threw Caroline the cube, Finn smiled and showed off his weapons. In a split second, the knife and the gun disappeared from his hands and he gave her a big, strong hug. Almost a minute later, when he let go, he snapped his fingers, the horns on his head disappeared, and both weapons formed almost instantly in his arms.

“He did that continuously for the past week,” said Caroline. A shiver ran down her spine, so she took her eyes off the gun. At the same time, something hot touched one of her stubby feet.

It was lava; it had reached all the way to the top.

“Let’s go,” said Natalie.

She waved her hands and the molten rock surrounded them like a shield. She started moving the bubble towards the metal door, when they were all suddenly teleported beyond them, near the exit she had carved in the ceiling.

“Moving further away is draining,” said Finn.

“Save your strength.”

Natalie directed her bubble through the narrow tunnel. She was forced to elongate it and have the three of them move in a line. The lava was quickly catching up to them from behind, but they were faster, and soon, they were out.

The three of them popped out of the top of the volcano, and moments later, the sleeping titan erupted. Countless mermen, goblins, and even echidnas watched this scene from above.

The volcano was placed inside a canyon, and they were all sitting on the edge. They watched their beloved city burn and melt. They watched the culprits escape unharmed and dart for the surface like they were running out of breath.

Even so, the ocean creatures did not charge, they did not even move. Countless eyes fell on Finn, Natalie and Caroline, but there was no killing intent from any of them.

“Why don’t they attack? It's creepy,” said Natalie.

“The merfolk have stopped caring for this world a long time ago,” said Caroline. “However, I expected the echidnas to be more decisive.”

The three rose above the canyon while still hiding inside Natalie’s bubble. Their identities were concealed by the lava, but it was clear the sphere was unnatural.

Still, no one did anything to obstruct them. Only a single echidna raised his golden trident while the others merely watched.

“That one is a general of the kingdom,” said Caroline. “I advise we avoid him.”

“We’ll go the opposite direction,” said Natalie.

“He doesn’t seem that strong,” said Finn. “If this is the best this kingdom can muster, then…”

Out of nowhere, his vision went black. Something had captured their bubble, something massive and alive.

While approaching, it was invisible to their eyes and undetectable to their senses. However, after entering the creature’s maw, while they traveled deeper towards its stomach, Finn was struck with the realization: “It’s a whale… We’ve been eaten by a mutant Moby Dick!”

The invisible whale swam further and further away from the volcano. A single echidna was riding it, one with a golden trident in one hand, and a purple, crystal ball in the other.

"I have a report," said the echidna after the crystal ball started glowing. "The rebel princess has been imprisoned. I, Gorge, sentence her to death."