Irfan went between them both, weapon ready. They were his cover, scaring away any potential threats from the flanks.

  As soon as they descended a quarter of a kilometer in, they came face-to-face with the meeting delegation.

  “Feels good being famous, right Joseph?”

  “Wrong audience. I prefer one that can at least laugh and smile, not the one that only stares at me without any eyes.”

  Irfan pretended to press the trigger on his flamer. Shades made a step back.

  “Slowly and steady," the doctor whispered. "Without rash movements. Very gently…”

  The shades were standing barely two meters away. Each random spark could send the mine into the abyss, but it was either open fire to show them the threat or not going in there at all. Which Joe would very much prefer, but they had no choice now.

  The trio was walking down the tunnel, surrounded by shadows on all sides. The place was wide enough, which was working in their favour so far.

  Joseph forced himself to calm down. As long as the fire was close to him and his hand was steady, not a single shade would dare to attack. He hoped for it to be the case.

  The tunnel ended pretty soon. They were on the edge of a huge cave. He noticed the familiar black-purple-blue color palette on the ceiling ice.

  And down there, way below them, he saw it.

  He saw a plain stone ground, covered in long huge cracks.

  He saw the same colorful gas with a black outline, coming out of it. The clouds of gas were bursting out from the vein every other second, spreading around the cave.

  It felt weirdly rhythmic. One - two, one - two...

  Joe felt his mind drowning in the pattern. His thoughts were mesmerized by the pulse of the otherworldly gaseous abomination...

  He forced himself to look away.

  He saw broken and long-forgotten machines, and pump-like devices, connected to the vein.

  He saw pieces of tree roots, sticking out of the walls all the way from the bottom to the top of the cave. Some looked like they were cut or torn apart, some were seemingly in one piece.

  But all of them were ashen in color.

  “The heart…”

  The black smoke was rising up with much more intensity than anywhere else. It was almost reaching the edge they were standing on. Joseph could swear that some of the clouds were deliberately floating closer to the wall and sucking themselves into the roots.

  This gas was truly defying most of the known laws of physics and logic.

  The pile of clothes and weapons was lying near the edge. Joe’s memory connected the dots instantly. He internally prayed, hoping that Henry’s death was as quick and as painless as possible.

  Pat crouched and reached his right hand for the remains. He searched through them for a bit, then pulled out a circular item.

  “An Emperor’s Pride and Honor Medal… Something he wasn’t letting go of even in the Medbay. He was a soldier to the end, even if he disliked the ways of the Empire itself…”

  They went silent for a minute. But Joe reminded himself that they had no time for idleness.

  “Time of leave, then. We got what we came for.”

  They went back the same way. Shades weren’t daring to step on their way, but the feeling of something deeply furious burrowed into his mind. Some shades twitched, like they were going to attack, but remained in place. Irfan and Pat both shuddered - they must’ve felt it too.

  That feeling was following them all the way to the exit, only letting go when they saw the majestic and welcoming rays of sunlight.

  Pat and Irfan both ran to the car. Joe hesitated. He saw the abominable shadows standing right at the line dividing darkness and light, not stepping any closer.

  “Joe! What are you doing?! Move! We leaving!”

  His fingers felt a bump in his right pocket. The doctor's shouts were drowned out by his thoughts.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  “Sir Joseph, Kon’jar shove your rifle up your arse, what are you standing there for?!!”

  He held an item in his hand.

  He recalled the faces of Henry and Vas.

  He saw the body of Lady Edna and her bodyguards.

  He remembered the destruction on the square. The memory of dying Archrhyder has left him with a sorrowful feeling.

  The first night was still burning brightly within his Spirit.

  “Hey, Bane… You like it when things get spicy and crispy, don’t you?”

  He received no answer. He never expected one. His face widened in a maniacal grin.

  “Well, then… just let me add some more fire for your welcoming party!”

  It was a cheesy line, but Joe enjoyed every second of it.

  The orange bomb landed right into the group of shades, who scurried to get away in time.

  They never managed to.

  The entire island roared in hellish pain, just as the bomb unleashed the Apocalypsis upon this land.

*****

  He turned around and ran away. The hill was still blowing up behind him, crushing giant pillars into dust.

  The black forest was engulfed in a fire of truly cataclysmic proportions. Everything was covered in smoke now, blocking vision, but Joe picked out a wheel on the ground. He dashed for it, praising his mask within his mind, and demanding any Deity out there to make it his personal artefact.

  He jumped on the passenger seat. Pat pushed the gas pedal, and the car fled the enveloping Gehenna.

  Joseph looked behind them one last time. The hill was collapsing into itself, like a self-devouring beast. The mine was completely annihilated, the conveyor building was swallowed by the hole beneath.

  The entire island was wrecked by the disaster on the magnitude of Pompeii.

  Pat glanced sideways at Joseph and said only three words.

  “You. Are. A moron!”

  Joe full-heartedly agreed.

  The road was clear, the vision was not. They were driving down the tunnel into the flaming abyss, barely seeing what’s up ahead. Pat, praise be for his balls of steel, slowed down only when the fire died out somewhat.

  Their return was met with a furious expression of Xander, an unreadable one from Alchfrid, a gigantic smile of Ralf, and one additional boat. Armsmaster’s happy face quickly turned into the cold one, the very moment he noticed what was in their cargo.

  Pat and Irfan carried the injured into the newly arrived boat. The doctor jumped inside and sat down between the bodies.

  “I will tell everything to Roth, but Captain’s on you!” He turned on the engine and flew away to the ship, leaving the dumbfounded crew behind.

  Alchfrid turned his head to the doctor’s frowning companions.

  “Well?”

  Joe tried to find the words. Thankfully, he did come up with some.

  “Me and Irfan will tell all of you about our adventure, but first… I want to ask for a postponement of our departure for a day, or two.”

  Xander raised his eyebrow.

  “Really? Why?”

  “We have a few things to finish in this place. It will all become clear, once we get to a safer place.”

  Ralf glanced at the shadow of the once intimidating forest. The very same forest, that was now reduced to barely a single-digit number of sticks on the ground.

  “Quite a journey it had to be to end on a bang of such inspiring apocalyptic event!” He laughed. His face went dark for a moment, but he kept the smile. “Well, no matter for now. Cap, let’s give our heroes a heartwarming welcome!”

  Xander sighed. He turned to Joe, with a frown on his face.

  “When all of this is over, find me on the ship. I want to talk. Face-to-face.”

  Joe didn’t like the subdued furious tone, but he nodded.

  The additional boat did come in handy. The Captain brought some unfamiliar crew members with him, and among these Joseph saw the arid, who was bleeding out in the Medbay after his very first gunfight. He nodded to him, but the horned man didn’t understand and didn’t react.

  The unloading, the loot sorting did not have a lot of interesting moments, but a couple of them stood out still. Alchfrid was turning around a revolving rifle in his hands. Joseph couldn’t tell what he was possibly thinking about such discovery, but seeing him just standing there, borderline obsessed with the weapon, for ten whole minutes, gave Joe a fairly good idea.

  The reaction on the Archrhyder’s body was quite calm, but as Joe noticed, the crew members were glancing at Irfan and him from time to time, expressing their silent respect.

  Water barrels were met with applause and disappointment (because there were only two) at the same time. One had to wonder, just how tired of distilled water miserable-looking sailors were…

  Ralf got his spices. He was almost literally glowing. He tapped both of them on their shoulders, grabbed everything edible he could carry, and went upstairs to the kitchen, humming a song on the way.

  Xander got the journal. He briefly flipped through its pages, nodded to himself, and told one of the closest standing crew members to drop it into the Wardroom.

  Captain, when he finally woke up from his weird fascination with the new weapon, ordered to transport the set of armor into the Arsenal, and toss the body, that was still inside, off the ship. Their metallic saviour was also sent there. A fitting neighbour, Joe thought.

  Pat left Henry’s Medal with Irfan. Hunter gave it to the quartermaster, whose eyes widened for a moment. Xander clenched it inside his fist, murmured a quiet “Thank you”, and left the Hold entirely, putting the rest of the sorting on the shoulders of the Captain.

  Joe felt curiosity rearing its head inside of him. Just how close they even were?…

  Just how close all of them were? From what he knew about pirates and history, in this cutthroat business, while genuine friendship did have a place to be, it was the first time he saw an example, where the quartermaster had the balls to scream at the captain, dismiss his words entirely, and do it in front of everybody. This was not the behaviour Joseph expected to be forgiven. Yet the Captain didn’t seem to care much, or he was showing an absurd level of tolerance. Did he really not give a damn about that? What crew might think?

  Either way, they almost had everything wrapped up. It was time to face the music. Alchfrid called them both to the Wardroom, and they followed.

*****

  The Wardroom was filled with all kinds of things, Joe didn’t know what to put his gaze upon.

  He saw a map, which wasn’t really resembling anything he knew from his world. Then one wardrobe with uniforms inside - like the one he left on the island, and never even remembered to pick up because it was too damn hot anyway. A shelf, full of books (the real treasure!), a huge table out of the dark wood, with fancy swirly legs, with chairs of the same material and quality. At the wall, a couple of cabinets for an unknown purpose, a very old lever-action rifle on hooks above them, drawers. One wooden statue of a black cat, for whatever reason resembling Ailuros, and more and more.

  Joseph’s eyes were running around, trying to pick out every single detail, and he just couldn’t.

  And a sink in the corner. Of course.

  Xander poured some water into a cup and drank it. He frowned, as if he just swallowed an entire lemon, and sat down on one of the chairs at the table.

  There were only five of them in the room. Alchfrid, Xander, and Ralf as three main officers of the ship (at least Joe was starting to think, that it was the case), Joseph, and Irfan as the heroes of the occasion.

  “Well, you rowdy daemons, what did you do? What kind of divine fate has compelled you to set aflame a small insignificant island?”

  “Why the colorful language suddenly, Ralf?”

  “Just felt appropriate, Zan. It’s not every day I see the destruction of such magnitude - and by whom! The new kid, the small-time doctor, and the hunter, who leaves this ship only to catch a couple of animals once in a while! No, something huge went down there, and then the prizes they brought, with the motor carriage and everything… and the fate of our strike team crew, Henry and Vas. And it’s only been two days. Two! Days!”