If someone had told the version Heinz who was chilling and studying in the forest of Schwarzwald, that in mere days he would be staring at the frozen sign of the Winchester Arms, he would have packed his belongings in a great hurry and disappeared in to the German forest for the rest of his life. A week ago, he had been certain his life of adventure was over, and very happy about it.

Yet, here he was.

The pub was, with the expectation of its current condition, nothing out of the ordinary. The golden letters on the black background and a red wooden facade. Inside, tables and booths and a long bar. Glass littered the floor. He could not help but imagine how the life here had been, before the cataclysm. It was unclear if any of the patrons had survived. If they had, they had not come forward. For decades, if not centuries, this pub, like its kin, had played host to a variety of life's joys and sorrows. People had had their first pints, mourned their loved ones and met new paramours.

Now, it stood a silent testament to one of the worst tragedies of modern history.

Cassandra stepped inside, and Heinz could hear the crackling as the frozen glass quickly melted under her heat spell. Even she looked properly solemn as she slowly explored the Pub of Death.

With similar reverence, Heinz followed her in and looked around. The public space was not terribly large, but there were doors leading to the staff spaces, and presumably the kitchen. It was said that the pub served the best cheeseburgers in northern London. "Do you think the entrance to the lair is in the pub, or just in the same building?" Heinz asked.

Cassandra dropped the coaster she had been examining and shrugged. "Could be either, I guess. How much do you know about 20th century architecture?"

Not much, Heinz wanted to say, but he was not the type of person to admit his lack of knowledge. He considered the building. It was not, after all, centuries old, but looked like early post-war – the second world war, that is, like most of the structures in the neighbourhood. Given what he generally knew of the era, he assumed there would be shelters under most of the buildings. They should be well-isolated, but easily accessible for the local populace.

"Is there a main entrance to the building proper? Or some staircase or big corridor?"

Cassandra looked around and pointed to a door. They went in and found themselves in a hallways coated in garbage – and stairs leading up and down.

"Good job," Cassandra said and headed to the stairs.

"Common knowledge," Heinz shrugged.

The short corridor in the floor below lead to a closed metal door. It must have been at least ten centimeters thick. Cassandra tried to turn the wheel attached to the door, but it didn't budge.

"This is more your expertise," she said.

"I thought infiltration was part of what you do," Heinz retorted.

"Infiltration with finesse, yes, but this one needs a different approach.

Heinz groaned. He wasn't too much into actually using magic. Studying it, yes, but whenever he had to give good old spellcasting a go… he just wasn't very good at it. It had turned out it was one of those skills where practice trumped theory.

He pressed this palm against the ice cold metal and closed his eyes. The shape of the door began to form in his mind. "I need more heat," he said.

The pyromancer complied and began directing more heat to the door, while the air around them grew colder. "I'm sorry, but there's only so much I can do."

Heinz tried to ignore the chill in his bones and and concentrated on the task at hand. The insides of the steel door were gradually melting and the cogs inside began to move. He took a deep breath and enveloped magical power around the clutch. It didn't budge.

"Well?" the shivering woman asked.

"I think it might be rusted shut."

"I thought these things could last a nuclear winter."

The scholar shook his head. "Not these ones, these are just temporary bomb shelters. I don't think they even knew of the long term ramifications of nuclear war when these were built."

"If they did, they might have skipped the bombs altogether."

Heinz chuckled. "That's a rare belief for the rational sense of humanity you're displaying. I think we know by know that self-preservation isn't actually a strength of our species."

Cassandra shrugged. "Not as a species, but we're pretty good at it individually."

"A tad bit too good," Heinz said. The bolt inside the door moved. "I think I got it."

Slowly, the door cracked open.

"I knew you could do it!" she gleamed.

The space inside stood in stark contrast to the post-apocalyptic reality outside. It was clean, save for a slight layer of dust. It looked almost new. Suddenly, lights blinked on. The short corridor ended in a glass door with a small electonic lock displaying a red light. Beyond, a laboratory filled with equipment, enclosed in walls of steel.

"This is no ordinary bomb shelter," Heinz said.

"Jackpot!" Cassandra exclaimed and pranced inside.

Electronic locks were not a strong suit for Heinz, but this one barely needed a budge before it slid open of its own.

As they stepped inside, the computers started whirring and beeping.

"Where does it get the electricity?" Heinz asked.

Cassandra looked around. "It must have a power source of its own."

"Power source that has lasted for decades?" Heinz asked, but he wasn't expecting an answer. What was clear that whoever built this, was not strapped for resources. It was strong evidence to one of the leading theories about the Necromancer: that he was backed by very powerful people.

Heinz turned on one of the screens. It had a plain black background and seemed to be running an operating system that had not existed since the aftermath of the Cataclysm. Curious, he opened the browser and typed in an address. He gasped as the website opened.

"Bloody hell," Cassandra whispered. "It's online."

The open, accessible to all internet had not existed for over ten years. Yet this old computer seemed to connect to it like it was nothing.

Cassandra pointed at a device on the wall. "Isn't that one of those satellite internet systems."

Heinz nodded. Built by an almost comically evil billionaire in the hayday of the old civilisation. More proof of the backing the Necromancer had received.

"Why back an evil wizard hell-bent on destroying the world?" she mused.

"Greed. Shared values too, probably."

She nodded. "Can we use it to contact someone? Or is it walled off?"'

He considered this. "Phefo taught me something once. Let me see." He typed in a new address. Quickly a new website opened. It was barebones with just text and a couple of buttons and input fields. Heinz tried his username and password. A bunch of messages appeared. "Oh, shit."

"What?"

"Azucena is in deep shit."

They both stared at the last message.

"Did you say you had a dirigible nearby?"

* * *

Unlike most of her peers, Fernanda had been brought up as an atheist. She knew there was no greater power, not all-encompassing plan, but at this like this, it was hard to escape the feeling that, somehow, the she was always swimming against the tides of fate. Setbacks had followed her every success, no matter how big or small and now, when she had finally let a smidge of optimism to seep in after the lottery windfall, it felt even more crushing. Instead of getting to enjoy the high life in her nice, new, spacious apartment, she was hiding in a pub, on the run from a magic-powered hit squad.

Her first instinct was to blame Azucena for the mess she had gotten them into, but she was not the type to go with her first instincts. And the more she untangled the web of causation that had led her to this moment, the more messy it got. If she had listened to Azucena and not thrown the party, had they been found? They didn't really know how they had been tracked.

And what was the point of having all that money if she wasn't allowed to enjoy it? She would not live her life as a recluse in some remote fortress.

Yet, what if what was the prerequisite for living her life with Azucena?

"It's the boy! We all heard it!" Laura yelled. "Why are we still with him?"

"Are you for real asking why we are protecting a child?!" Azucena spat.

"How do you know we're protecting him. We found him in an abandoned mall! Maybe his parents want him back?"

"If his parents wanted him back, don't you think they'd ask first? You don't hire the fucking assault wizard squad to do some social work!"

All through this argument, Luca had not said a word, nor seemed to react in any way, even though the two were literally debating his fate. Fernanda would have wondered if he even understood Portuguese, if he hadn't spoken it completely fluently several times. It seemed he was just completely distracted most of the time – especially in a stressful situation. That, to Fernanda's understanding of psychology, suggested childhood trauma. It wasn't unexpected, as it was possible that he had ran away from his parents.

"Do you think they know about his ability?" she said.

Azucena and Laura looked at her quizzically.

"His parents. Do you think they know about what he can do?"

"Someone does," Azucena said. "You don't just do the Blood Ritual, and forget about it."

"What if," Fernanda continued her train of thought, "he was kidnapped as a child? And then subjected to the bloody ritual thingy?"

Azucena considered this. "It's possible."

Laura crossed her arms. "Well, yes… but…"

"If the people who attacked us were hired by his kidnappers, then do you really think it would be right to give him back to them? Or even just leave him somewhere to be found?"

Laura opened and shut her mouth, and looked away. "I–I'm not saying that…"

"I mean, you know how he is. He wouldn't last five minutes on his own!"

Laura threw up her arms and laid back. "Fine! But we do need a plan!"

Azucena's smile said "that's my girl." But aloud, she said: "The plan is to lay low until my friends get here."

"I hope they're more useful than you are," Laura said, rolling her eyes.

Fernanda winced. If it wasn't for Azucena they'd all be dead. Or they hadn't be attacked at all. Or they'd still be in the mall. Fuck, it was all so confusing.

The door to the pub opened and three men walked inside. They were dressed casually, in jeans and t-shirts. Fernanda couldn't hear them, but judging from their body language, the were familiar with the bartender. Seeing them, Azucena frowned.

"You know them?" Fernanda asked her… girlfriend? Were they going steady? They hadn't really had time to discuss the whole dating thing.

Azucena nodded. "They're… working with the Corrupted."

"But not mages themselves?" Anna asked with a surprising enthusiasm.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Azucena shook her head. "They're paid thugs. I don't want to deal with them when I don't have to."

Anna deflated.

"When do you have to deal with them?" Laura asked.

Azucena waved her hand, "not now," and sunk to the booth.

One of the men turned, smiled, and waved.

"Oh, that fucking idiot," Fernanda heard her say under her breath. "Please, don't come here."

Of course, all the men came directly to the booth. "Hey, I didn't know there was a whole table of hot babes here," the one who had waved said. The women collectively rolled their eyes.

"You can leave now," Azucena said coldly.

"Oh, you going to keep all of them to yourself, AZ?`"

AZ? Fernanda could see the woman seething.

"Can you just fuck off," Anna hissed.

"That's rude!" another guy said mockingly. "And after we just did your friend a big favour, too!"

"Can you not discuss work in a fucking bar," Azucena said.

"What favour?" Laura asked.

Suddenly, Anna's eyes grew wide. "The apprentice?" she gasped. Reading the men's faces, she continued, "what happened with him?"

Azucena gaze spoke of gallows.

The men shrugged and chuckled. "He's alive. Safe."

"Oh, I see," Anna said and her whole manner changed from cold as ice to flirty as hell. "Well, the way I see it, it would certainly be rude to just dismiss them like that. They are doing us a big favour!"

Azucena rolled her eyes and left the booth. Fernanda followed suit. The men shouted something after them, but she neither heard or cared what it was. She took Azucena's hand.

"What. The. Fuck." Azucena said.

"I don't know. PTSD?"

The woman shrugged. "I guess…"

"Can we just let her have her fun?" Fernanda said. "I know, you don't have to listen to me, and I don't exactly have the best track record with my suggestions…"

Azucena's face softened. "It's ok, you didn't know." She sighed. "I guess there's not much damage she can do now. They're assholes, but they're our assholes, I guess. The worst that could happen is she gets the syphilis."

Fernanda smiled. "Well, that sounds like a she problem."

Azucena chuckled. "You're right about that, girlfriend." She blushed.

Fernanda could feel the warmth rising on her cheeks too.

"I– I'm sorry…"

Fernanda squeezed her hand. "Don't be. Unless you didn't mean it."

"Oh, I certainly did!"

"Then," Fernanda said and started dragging her girlfriend towards the bar, "calls for a drink and –"

"And?"

"And I don't think we finished our dance?"

"Which one?"

Fernanda grinned "All of them."

* * *

The first base of the Necromancer. The first base of the Necromancer! I found it! Cassandra thought in excitement. Honestly, she'd have thought the occultism nerd with her would be more exited, but he looked like he was having a fit.

"We have to go!" Heinz yelled. "Now!"

"And leave all this behind?!" Cassandra demanded. "This is the find of the decade, if not the century!"

"Azucena is in danger!"

She waved her hand. "Oh, come on, she can take care of herself, she's a big girl!" She did admit that getting attacked by the magic assault squard was kind of a big thing, but Azucena had defeated the Necromancer, the single most powerful wizard ever to threaten existence. She could handle a couple of trigger-happy combat mages while they extensively searched and catalogued the zombie lab.

"I can't believe you right now!" Heinz screamed. "All of you," he added, "completely driven insane by the ghost of the Necromancer. Why are you all so obsessed?!"

Cassandra shrugged. "I'm not obsessed, but I do appreciate the historical value of this place."

"Oh, I appreciate historical value aplenty, but not when my friend's life is in danger!"

"Friend? You barely knew her."

"We saved the world together! You should remember, you were there!"

Cassandra sighed. "Fine, can I have an hour? I would loathe to find something like this and have to leave immediately. She can wait for one hour longer, can't she."

Heinz threw up his arms. "Alright! One hour!"

One hour wasn't much, but it was better than nothing. Hopefully enough to find a way to reseal the place so that only they could re-enter. She took a look around. There were multiple computers, a shelf full of old school witchcraft materials, a table with…

"Is that a third seal invocation circle?" she gasped.

Heinz looked at the table and his jaw fell. "It – that can't be no ordinary – it's engraved in – fuck, that must have cost a fortune."

A table with a soul-binding demon seal engraved in Californium. That is how he got so ahead of everyone else. He and his backers were filthy rich. This was industrial grade necromancy.

"How very 21st century that even our greatest magical scourge was ultimately due billionaires," she sighed.

The scholar did not lift his gaze from the table. "The Egyptians were characterised by a millennia-spanning death cult. The first Chinese emperor was killed because he coveted the immortality of the philosopher witches. Then there were the Roman war wizards. The magic always reflects the zeitgeist."

"You Germans always have the best words for everything."

"That is the magic of compound words," Heinz grinned.

Cassandra walked to the computer and pressed a key. It made a bleeping sound. "We could really use our own, unrestricted internet. Phefo would be ecstatic."

"I'm sure that's how Merlin felt about Excalibur," Heinz said, looking through the equipment on the other side of the room.

"That's different."

"Is it, though?"

The browser had bookmarks for all the popular early 2000s social media websites. Cassandra had been on several of them. She wondered if she had been in contact with the Necromancer. She could even have been a mutual. No one still knew his real identity. Magic had, possibly intentionally, twisted him into an unregocnisable monster. It was rumoured that he had used social media extensively for recruiting the apprentices, and finding victims. "I guess not."

"There's something behind this cabinet," Heinz said. He pushed it, but it barely budget. Cassandra hurried to help, and together they revealed a door behind it.

"A secret door in a secret lab?" Heinz asked.

Cassandra pushed the door. It moved. "It's not locked."

"Why bother, though? I thought he worked alone at this point – or at least with a very select inner circle."

"I think we will see," she said and went in.

The room was shaped like a hexagon and lined with glass windows on each wall, save for the one reserved for the door. Behind the glasses were monstrous creatures with dark barky skin, enormous claws and mouth lines with sharp teeth.

"Abominations!" Heinz gasped from behind her. "Was that what he was hiding from the others?"

Cassandra was not convinced. He had released his infernal creations eventually, and anyone not realising he had been hell-bent on destruction from the beginning would be painfully ignorant.

There was also a glass on the floor.

She stepped forward. The glass was frosty, but she could make out a roughly humanoid form. "I think this is it."

"A frozen person? That seems hardly groundbreaking."

"Can you tell me anything about them?"

Heinz shrugged and closed his eyes. A minute went by and suddenly his lids blew open. "It– I don't know what it is, but it's not human."

"An alien?"

"Don't be ridiculous. It's definitely the same lineage. And it – they have magic. Very dormant, very powerful –"

A hiss echoed in the room. Cassandra slowly turned her gaze. One of the Abominations has staring at her. "Uh, I think it's clear that the Abominations weren't what he was hiding."

Heinz gulped audibly. "They are the guards."

Cassandra nodded and very slowly took a step back. The tanks bulped as the liquid drained away. She did not have a lot of power left. She had been conservative with her use of magic and saved enough to get her and Heinz back to the warmth of the domed city, but if they had to fight their way, they would freeze to death somewhere in the ruins.

And they really should not lead five Abominations to the city. Hundreds would die.

"I'm open to any great ideas right about now," she whispered, taking another step backwards.

"If I had any, I'd have told you already," Heinz replied.

The creatures were… sluggish. The Abominations Cassandra had encountered previously had been battle-hardened monsters, but these were clearly barely out of the cocoon. "I think we can lock them inside," she whispered.

"Will the facility hold them?"

"We'll have to hope so," Cassandra said, turned on her heels and ran to the exit. Heinz was not far behind. The undead mutants screeched and flailed as the two pushed the door closed. Heinz touched door and closed his eyes.

There was a loud thumb on the other side. The creatures were shaking off their sleepiness. Another one. She could see her companion grit his teeth. With the third bump, the door budged a bit. Cassandra pushed against it.

"Any time now!" she hissed.

"The bold is frozen ag–" Heinz started to reply when they both were thrown back by the force of the Abominations striking against the door. Cassandra's head was dizzy, and she could barely see from the pain, but she could make out two demonic forms by the door.

"Burn, you motherfuckers!" she shouted and released a shower of flame from her hands. Heat filled the room. Had the creatures stepped back? She bolted towards the door and crashed into it. It closed.

"Right about now would be a good time!" she yelled.

Heinz was already next to her. There was a sound of metal sliding. The steel boomed as the monsters crashed into it on the other side. But it held.

"Fuck that was close!" Heinz panted.

"We're not in the clear yet," Cassandra said. "I had to use a lot of power for that fire blast."

The German deflated. "We're going to freeze to death."

Cassandra waved her hand. "We're not going to freeze – but we might get bloody close." She could see Heinz starting to tremble as she lowered the ambient temperature. "We'll stay warm if we keep on the move, let's go."

"I should have never come with you!" Heinz said.

"And miss finding the Necromancer's original base? I think not!"

The scholar said nothing, which told her more than enough.

* * *

These guys are the stupidest jocks I've seen in my life. You'd think people who get to work with actual wizards would be a bit more… civilised. But these three, Anna didn't remember or care what their names were, had to be the bottom of the barrel when it came to any sort of independent thought. It did make her task exceedingly easy, though. She could not help but wonder why, if you had an evil lord of the undead, you'd put him into the care of these absolute buffoons.

For some reason, Laura seemed to be head over heels into them. It might not have surprised her, if she had met the girl some other way than as a prisoner to a skeleton horde, extraordinary situations brought extraordinary sides out of people. She should know, she had been rather shallow in the past, before the true nature of the world was revealed to her. She had been 14 and suddenly thrust into not only the grown-up world, but one of magic and malice as well. But she had turned alright, in the end.

She just had to put up with these guys long enough to get one of them to take her to the the man who had held her hostage for days and then make him fuck her. It might not have been the best of plans, but she had to come up with it in quite a hurry when these idiots appeared.

Fortunately, Azucena and Fernanda were also busy dancing and smooching.

"So, tell me about work," she said to the guy who was sticking his face way too close to hers. "How's it like, working for actual wizards?"

"Nah, I don't care about that Star Trek crap."

"Don't you mean Harry P–" she started, but realised nothing could be gained from correcting him. She faked a laugh. That usually worked with this type.

"So, how's Germany this time of the year?" he asked.

"I wouldn't know, since I'm here in Brazil," she replied with a smirk. When the guy just stared at her, she added: "Good. Very nice."

He nodded approvingly. "Yeaa! That's awesome. You know –"

Oh please don't drop some random and completely false Germany fect.

"My cousin lives in Germany."'

"Oh, where in there?"

"Brussels."

Could be worse, could be worse. Could have been, say, Paris.

She grinned. "Oh, nice!"

When the guys went to get new drinks, she leaned towards Laura, and whispered: "Are yuo for real with these guys?"

Laura shrugged. "I know they're about as bright as a black hole, but you know what you can trust with guys like that?"

Anna raised her brow.

"They're an incredibly good fuck."

She couldn't help but chuckle. It was a cliché – but…

"I haven't had a good shag for ages. First the whole thing in the mall, and then the lottery fund, and when I finally thought I'd be up for some good time, that fucking SWAT team bursts in!"

Anna chuckled. She understood where the girl was coming from. Sounded like they both would be having sex tonight – just for very different reasons. "Do you think we could convince them to take us to the place where their keeping that asshole Jóse Ignasio?" as said teasingly.

"Oh? Ohh. Nasty!"

Anna nodded with a grin. "It would be so hot."

"It would. Girl, you have the best ideas!"