The inside of the volcano does not provide any form of relief against the sweltering heat. Lava spills forth from cracks and crevices in between the rocks of the wall, dribbling over the jagged stone and pooling on the ground. The narrow corridor that the group finds themselves in eventually delivers them to a larger chamber.

The heatwave is stronger here, and Ren can immediately see why. Lava drips from the ceiling in burning drops, landing on the ground nearer the walls. Whilst they are the only sources of light in this cavern, their powers of illumination are more than enough for them to see the entire chamber.

“Okay, I think this is a good spot to rest,” Penny says, plopping down beside a pool of lava, contained within a hole in the ground. She pats the spot next to her, and Ren takes it. Vane and Gridel settle around the hole as well.

“About Claymore…” Ren tilts his head at Vane. “What happened to it? Why did you say that—”

Vane’s frown deepens, if that’s even possible. “Well, I had attempted to use Claymore’s magic to kill it from the inside, much like how Lady Penny did. However, nothing happened when I—.”

“I totally think it’s when you decided to get your blade fixed,” Penny cuts in. “I can’t think of any other time when something like this could have happened.”

Vane sighs dejectedly.

“Well, uh… why not try it out now?” Ren asks. “It might not be Ripwael’s problem at all. Maybe a hiccup just happened then, you know? Like, a small accident.”

“An accident?” Vane asks.

“Yeah, like… maybe you can still use magic, but something random occurred when you tried to do it earlier… or something,” Ren says slowly. “Could you try using Claymore’s power now?”

Vane glances from Ren, to Penny, and then to Gridel. All three of them cast their gaze expectantly onto him. He sighs, again, and picks himself up. Clutching Claymore tightly, Vane raises the blade and slams it to the ground.

From where it strikes the earth, magma bursts from the soil. The sizzling rock shoots up around the tip of the sword, inches from the lava pool.

“It… still works.” Vane stares at it in awe. “Claymore’s power…”

“There’s nothing wrong with your sword after all,” Ren says. “Like I said, it probably was just a tiny accident back there.”

Vane hums. “Maybe.”

“Keep watch on it, though,” Penny says. “It might still act up.”

“Of course.”

“Well, let’s rest a bit first, then we’ll continue to go up.” Penny looks over at the mouth of the corridor to the next cavern. It’s lit up by the veins of lava flowing on the ceiling, bits of magma peeking out from behind the rock face. Kind of reminds Ren a little of Minecraft caves.

He leans his back against the wall, not even caring that the rough surface digs into his back. After having made that long trek from Heliola, and just defeating an Earthworm, he really needs some time to relax.

And yet, it’s much too soon after sitting down that Penny demands that they have to carry on. Ren groans internally. He drags himself up from the ground and onto his feet, before following her deeper into the mountain.

The next tunnel curves in one direction like a spiral. The only living things they’ve encountered are insects, those that swim through molten rock with their paddle-like feet and their hardened, heat-resistant exoskeletons. He bets they feed on the rock too, which makes them immune to a conventional famine.

On and on the winding path goes, taking them higher and higher into the volcano. Its inclines get steeper, and the climb gets harder. Ren struggles to pull himself up the last few metres of the slope, thighs growing weak and wobbly.

“Whoa!” Penny cries. She’s gone on ahead of them, and she’s now stopped at the edge of a cliff, head angled downwards and staring into a massive pit. When he approaches the edge as well, he can see whatever she’s so excited about.

A swirling pit of lava lies before them, the redness of it glaring. This thing… is not active, is it? Ren’s never did particularly well at geography in school, so he’s got absolutely no clue how volcanoes work. If it’s active, they’d better conclude their business quickly and get out of here before its next scheduled eruption.

“This is so cool.” Penny turns to face them with a wide grin. “This is the first time I’ve ever been to a real-life volcano!”

“Same here,” Gridel says. “There isn’t anything like this back in the Ashen Plains.”

Vane wipes his forehead of sweat. “Whatever that is, it doesn’t look safe. Perhaps we should keep our distance.”

Penny nods, her gaze still on the lava, utterly mesmerised. “Yeah, we should.”

“Then shall we head down?” Ren asks. “Before it erupts and kills us? I’m not seeing any palace up here, that’s for sure.”

Surrounding the pit of lava are rocks. Rocks that are orange and brown in colour, jagged and crooked and just plain rough, baking in the heat of the desert. No sign of foliage, no sign of wood, and no sign of anything remotely house-shaped. Nothing with white pillars, nothing with walls, or a roof, on the rim of the volcano. Their climb has been fruitless.

“Oh well,” Penny mumbles, obviously disappointed. “Let’s go.”

They’d better. Ren doesn’t want to remain here longer than necessary. The heat’s starting to blister his skin, turning it red and raw. Hell, if it’s getting this bad for him, Penny got to be having it worse. Vane and Gridel are sweating it out, but if they’re in any discomfort, they don’t make it known.

They make their way down and out of the volcano, stumbling over loose rocks as they descend. Shuffling by scuttling insects crawling along the tendrils of lava curling on the walls. No creature lives here besides the insects, and they don’t pose much of a threat. It makes their exit uneventful, but Ren doesn’t mind uneventful. At least their life is not being threatened.

Very soon, they come to the mouth of the cavern where they entered from. Through the entrance, Ren spots sand—an entire sea of it—but he also spots something that should not… be there. Should not be moving, rather.

And there are tons of them.

“What the—” Penny starts, but Ren slams a hand over her mouth, muffling her startled shriek.

“What is that?” Vane whispers.

They keep to the shadows of the cave, not daring to venture too far out where those monsters can see them. Ren lets Penny go, and he grips Ifrit tight. He watches the movements of the creatures, lumbering back and forth like sentries, as the skeletons roam the land.

White-boned beasts, walking on all fours, looking just like Ren’s wearing bad X-ray goggles or some similar spy gadget. Some are quadrupedal, whilst some walk on both feet. Most of those on four legs look like animals that he’s familiar with, though the ones that are bipedal resemble dinosaurs, like velociraptors and the Tyrannosaurus-Rex.

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“Are those… Those are the skeletons, right?” Penny’s voice is low, to the point where Ren can hardly hear her. “The ones we saw all over the desert?”

Gridel nods. “Seems that way. Why are they up and about now?”

The thought irks Ren, now that he thinks about it. Why are they active now? Why were they just lying motionless earlier? Did something trigger whilst they were in the volcano? Something that they were unaware of?

“Maybe they’re friendly,” Penny suggests.

“Friendly? I think they’d want to eat us for lunch, and maybe save some for dinner,” Ren mutters.

“The undead are usually never friendly,” Vane says. “Take my word for it.”

Ren wouldn’t; he doesn’t have any cause to dispute Vane’s experience. The man was living in a world ruled by Death himself for so long.

“Now what?” Penny asks. “We’re stuck here till they leave, then. There’s way too many of them to outrun if they’re actually hostile.”

Ren hums, thumbing at his chin. What to do indeed?

“Is this the only entrance?” Gridel asks. “Did we come across any unexplored tunnels?”

“Well, I wasn’t keeping a lookout, but maybe,” Ren says. “We could go back and check.”

“But wouldn’t they have the whole place surrounded?” Penny asks. “Even if we manage to find another tunnel, who’s to say that they haven’t got that place surrounded?”

“Yeah, but we don’t know that for sure. We know that this tunnel is a hundred per cent unusable, but unless we see with our own two eyes, we wouldn’t know about the other tunnels,” Ren says. “I’m all for trying.”

Gridel nods. “I agree. I’d much rather find out that the other exits are not viable too, before we think of another plan.”

Penny smiles. “Okay, then. I guess—”

Before she can continue, a sudden rumble almost knocks them off their feet. Ren bites back a strangled yell, his back slamming against the wall. Gridel toppled over onto her knees, and Vane and Penny have their knees bent, shooting surprised glances around. What in the world was that?

“Guys, I hate to be the bearer of bad news,” Penny says. Her voice sounds like it’s on the verge of cracking, hints of hysteria leaking from behind the controlled calmness. “But we’re in a volcano, and I think that—”

Ren’s blood goes cold. Oh no… he does not like the sound of that.

“We have to get out, now. Before the lava rises!”

“But with those things out there…” Ren’s mouth dries as he trails off. They’re certainly stuck between a rock and a hard place. Between lava and the undead.

“We’re just gonna have to chance it,” Penny says. “You and Vane know how to make walls and stuff, right? Or use that big dragon thing?”

Ren hums. He can’t call the dragon out on command, but the fire wall is a viable option… “I suppose. I mean, I could…”

“Right then, Vane will take one side, and you will take the other,” Penny says. “Just make us a straight path as long as you can, and if any of the skeletons break through our barrier, me and Gridel will deal with them.”

Sounds like a plan. Albeit a very haphazard one, but at this point, it’s the best they’ve got. The rumbling has yet to cease, though it is much gentler now compared to the quake before.

“The lava’s coming.” Gridel points at a slithering trail of red from the incline of the slope. Before long, this place is going to be filled with the hot stuff, and Ren does not want to stick around when that happens.

“Okay.” Penny glances between Ren and Vane. “Whenever you’re ready.”

There’s no time for them to think. Any moment now, the overflowing lava would fill their cavern, and burn them alive, with not even their bones to remember them by. Ren takes a deep breath, and he approaches the entrance of the cavern with Vane by his side.

He meets Vane’s gaze, nodding when the latter turns back towards the mouth of the cave. Ren lifts Ifrit, and he waves his staff.

A wall of fire bursts from the ground, geysers of flames rising upwards in a straight line. Vane plunges Claymore into the ground, and a wall of stone follows the fiery columns.

“Go, go, go!” Penny yells.

Ren and Vane lead the way, their view of the skeletal creatures completely obscured by the two barriers that flank their path. Over the crackle of fire and the pound of bon against rock, Ren hears screeching and shrieking. Sounds he didn’t think that skeletons could produce.

But their plan is working. Penny rushes ahead, taking care of snarling velociraptors from the front, whilst Gridel hangs back and shoots skeletal elephants from the back. Ifrit’s ruby orb shines bright with the colour of rubies. The flames not once spluttering, not once diminishing.

The same can’t be said for Vane’s stone wall, though.

One moment, it was fine, holding up well against the monsters’ attacks. The next, every single one of those pillars crumble to dust.

It happened so fast, so suddenly, that Ren hadn’t any time to respond before a pack of skeletal wolves barge in through the shattered rock. Gridel is the fastest to react, firing arrow after arrow into them, ricocheting off their hardened bodies. However, the impact makes them good deterrents, and the wolves shy away after a couple more shots.

Vane stabs his sword into the ground again, but the wall doesn’t come up again. To his left, a gazelle leaps at him with a snarl, deadly horns poised to strike.

“Vane!” Ren shouts. He sends a fireball careening through the air, slamming the gazelle head on. The gazelle bursts into flames, stopping in its tracks and throwing its head back. Ren sprints over and pulls his wrist. Claymore comes loose from the sand, and Vane lets himself be dragged along.

Away from the horde they go. Ren has no idea how long he’s been running, his fingers enclosed around Vane’s wrist. He now has to work doubly hard, spreading fire along both sides of their path. The dunes stretch for as far as their eyes can see, but at the same time, Ren can see what looks to be a pyramid just up ahead.

“Pyramid!” Ren calls, in between his exhausted gasps for breath. “Let’s head for—”

But he does not get to finish his sentence before a sudden explosion rings out behind him. Ren tosses a glance back, eyes widening, jaw dropping, when he sees the crimson of molten rock pouring out from the volcano’s peak. Rocks of lava soar in arcs, their pure red colour camouflaged by the sky’s own shade.

The volcano finally erupted, and the lava is trickling down the mountain at speeds that Ren never did think it could reach. Holy shit. He’s never been at the site of a volcano eruption, and he never wanted to be, but the lava is travelling fast. If they don’t match its velocity, or run even faster, they’re going to perish a most painful death.

Their only saving grace now is that pyramid… cluster. Now that they’re nearer, Ren can see it: there are more than one pyramid. Three golden structures stand in the distance, their majesty undermined by their age. Surely they must be far away and tall enough that climbing them would grant them a safe spot from the river of lava that is rapidly forming.

Ren’s throat is as dry as sandpaper, his heartbeat and pulse are racing, and each step stings his feet. The tips of his hair drips with sweat, and his back is drenched as well, his shirt sticking uncomfortably to his body. No thanks to the overbearing heat of the desert, radiating from the very grains of sand he sprints on.

With every metre they cover, the bigger the pyramids get. Ren chances a glance back, to find the sea of lava consuming the skeletal creatures, eating them up with satisfied sizzles. No longer are the creatures focussed on attacking them, but they are fleeing from the volcano’s wrath as well.

Ren flicks his wrist, and the walls of flames die down, letting his magic power seep back through Ifrit’s shaft and into its core. No longer does he need to expend energy keeping those barriers up, but he can channel that power into his legs, to bring him faster and farther away from the encroaching lava.

Penny is the first to reach the pyramid, clambering up onto its first platform. Ren, Gridel, and Vane scramble up as well, a tangle of frantic limbs. Ren’s skin scrapes against the chipped, weathered walls, but he does not stop. Not even as the lava approaches—a whole wave of it too—and not even as he cuts himself and draws blood.

By the time the lava cascades down their path, they’ve managed to make it high enough that they can simply watch it take over the land, with no price to pay of their own. Ren leans back against the wall, breathing a sigh of relief with a hand over his heart, trying to calm his own breathing.

“Well, that was something.” Penny slumps against the wall beside Ren, eyes squeezed shut and her face covered in sweat.

“I never want to do that again,” Ren says.

“Neither do I,” Gridel chimes in. “After all we’ve been through, I think that was the single most harrowing experience I’ve ever encountered in my life.”

Ren has to agree with that. He’d rather be out there in the seas, fighting off Sirens, or on top of Mount Drasil, fighting off a Nidhogg (actually… perhaps not), than run for his life from lava. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that there’s no way to fight the lava.

“I think we should take a rest first,” Penny says. “Wait for the lava to leave.”

“And bake here?” Vane grits out. “It is unbearably hot out here. We would suffer from heatstroke before the lava pool ceases to be, I’m sure.”

It could be just Ren, but there is a bitterness to the man’s tone. Does it have something to do with how that rock wall broke apart? Did the same thing that happened to Claymore earlier with the Earthworm… happen again? It had been fine back in the volcano…

“Let’s find a way into the pyramid, then,” Penny says. If she sensed Vane’s annoyance, she does not mention it. “Well, most pyramids’ entrances are at their bases, but maybe there might be a way in from the top or something.”

She picks herself up, a little wobbly on her feet, and she sheathes Mira. They’re halfway up the pyramid, which means that there’s quite a bit of a distance to climb. Ren steels himself—especially his thighs—and stands as well. As much as he’d like to rest, he has to agree with Vane here, that they’d have survived the lava only to surrender themselves to heatstroke.

And so, they climb. Higher and higher up the pyramid, in search of an entrance at its very top.