In any case, such thoughts were best saved for later, as he met a few of his captains leaving the city hall with packs in their hands. Lao, Jeffrey and Pyotr were leading a few of the alien captains behind them, and upon seeing Sam, they grinned.

“There you are. We decided that today is as good as any a day to leave. Having fun with the hoi polloi, were you?” Jeffrey called out towards Sam, snickering.

“You know I don’t think of the citizens as that,” Sam replied. “And no, I was doing administrative work. You know how much that bothers me. Anyway, let’s get going then. Shall we?”

The relief on his face was palpable, and Jeffrey was almost about to say something, but one of the stony faced alien captains hurried him along with a sharp prod on the back. It seemed that the Manthrox sect members cared about efficiency over all else. Sam hid a smile at the rough treatment of Jeffrey, and joined the group as they headed for one of the gates.

There was no fanfare upon their departure, given that they were simply going on a routine mission to clean up the aftermath of the battle. It wasn't like they were doing something dangerous.

As the gates created open in front of them, Sam frowned. The landscape around the city, which he had not seen properly in a few days, was covered in a toxic smog of radiation. As he looked around the ground with him, he saw that more than a few of them were surprised by this. Hillocks rose out of the mist like green icebergs in a green sea, and Sam could see strange monsters lurking within the hollows and dips in the landscape, filled in by the radioactive smoke. It was a dismal sight, but also strangely intriguing as well.

In any case, it would not harm any of them, save perhaps Lao, who had come prepared. He shielded himself with a barrier of his Dao energy, and they all walked into the mist. The world became eerily quiet as they entered, and they were soon lost in the solitude of the mist. The only reason that they were entering this area was because the weather above the city had been stirred up by the multiple nuclear bomb detonations, and if they tried to fly off, they would be overturned, or perhaps even crash. They would have to set up the ship further away from the city in order to use it properly.

As they walked through the smog, monsters occasionally attacked, low level beasts that had been warped by the radiation. Larger creatures lurked in the recesses of the smog, but they were intelligent enough to avoid Sam and his forces.

As they walked, the smog began to seem endless, and it took them hours going at a decent clip to exit it. By the time that this happened, they were already at the canyon. The area of effect from the bombs had been absolutely massive, and Sam was struck by just how much damage had been dealt. Where they were going was probably even worse, given the magnitude of the explosion there.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

They stopped upon reaching a safe part of the canyon wall,and Sam set down his ship, letting it expand to its fullest size as he pumped mana into it. The ship glistened in the light of the sun as it sat there, and the captains trooped on in, None of the aliens had spoken as of now, and Sam was finding them to be unique taciturn individuals. Talnor had been friendly enough, but these people were another story altogether.

Sam followed them into the ship a moment later, and sat down next to them in the central seating area. One of the aliens shifted uneasily in their seat as the ship took off. As the thing juddered in the air, one of them snorted.

“What is this ship, some second rate smuggler’s craft? This feels like I am riding a Dire Bear. Where did you get this heap of trash?”

The alien asked out loud. Sam looked over at the man and frowned.

“Sure, it has a few faults, but it isn’t exactly trash. It’s served me well over the past weeks.”

Sam was expecting some sort of drama with the alien, but the man merely snorted and looked off into the distance, thinking about something else.

Sam sighed, and closed his eyes, cultivating his Dao as the ship flew. Their destination was only an hour away, and it quickly arrived. The ship shook as it landed, and the aliens all jolted to awareness as it did so.

The ramp slowly extended down, and Sam unbuckled himself. The aliens followed, their mood grim. Sam had no idea why they were so miserable all the time, but he suspected that it was to do with his presence. There was likely some casual jingoism among the aliens, and they did not like the fact that he had beaten their leader. Such feelings would likely dissipate over time, but for now, the atmosphere was frosty.

Nobody talked as they exited the ship, which was just as well, as the sight that they beheld was stunning. They had perched on a small hill about fifty miles away from the ocean, which was about as close as they could get.

The landscape was covered in strange low hanging clouds, colored a dark green. The air was utterly still, without a single noise save for a thundering sound coming from the direction of the ocean. The land was eaten away to a maximum depth of about two miles in a large radius, extending all the way to the shoreline, and to about ten miles to the front of them.

The ocean poured into the hole from the far end, clearly visible even from this distance. Great cataracts of polluted water dropped like rain into the depths of the pit, heading towards the base, where superheated rock lay, covered in glowing green scum that seemed to be radiating the heat.

The hole was at its deepest in the center, and it extended so far down into the earth that you could have fit a dozen skyscrapers end on end there. The base of the hole was so hot however that the water instantly evaporated upon striking it, which was keeping the ocean from filling the hole.

Steam billowed up in great bursts from the bottom of the hole, and it was tinged with a green hue. They beheld the view for a few minutes, struck dumb by the sight. It was by the far the most imposing thing that Sam had seen since coming into this world, and that was saying a lot.