I was somewhat surprised when the collected spirits of the ancient Netherim bunker flew out of the hole that they had made themselves. In…retrospect, it made sense that they were doing this for more reasons than to just save Aveline. I had no compunctions that these long-dead betrayed people were trying to save my companions and I. We were nothing to them.

  I think…they were after freedom. Freedom from the torturous hell they’d been trapped in for millennia. Freedom from the confines of this damned mountain.

  And freedom from their undeath. That they were saving us at the same time was merely a side benefit for us, and surely something Cecily had considered.

  The moment all of the spirits streaming past us touched the bright light of Tarus in the open air, they dispersed. Their indistinct, ghostly green forms wavered in the light before fading like the morning mist. Each time it happened, I could hear an almost sigh of relief from the now-free Netherim. The combined sound of so many Netherim finding absolution was almost akin to the blowing of a slight wind.

  I could only spare the almost awe-inspiring sight a single glance before my attention was stolen by something else.

  Something far, far more dire.

  All around us, the mountain of Gorenzan suddenly shook. I was nearly knocked off of my feet from the intense earthquake that shook loose stone from the tunnel we stood in. Rock dust and pebbles both fell from the roof and rattled upon the melted floor of Lucretia’s ancient ingress.

  I felt my stomach tighten as I realized what that must be.

  The bunker must have finally fallen, all the way to the interior base of the mountain. Turning away from the exit, I thought I might just be able to see a faint blue-green light in the distance, all the way down the tunnel which we had escaped down.

  That had to be the core. Like I’d feared, it was destabilizing in some way.

  The ghostly form of Cecily was still standing before me, cradling Aveline in her arms. I met the long-dead engineer’s eyes, and a mutual realization passed between us.

  It was time to go.

  Almost reluctantly, Cecily approached and handed me the heart-sick form of Aveline. I took the little girl in my arms and got a good grip on her. I was somewhat surprised that she didn’t protest being given away from her mother, for the last time. But Aveline still stared at the ghostly form of Cecily with longing in her eyes, though she clutched tightly at me.

  Cecily smiled tenderly at Aveline one last time, and brushed a hand along her daughter’s cheeks before she met my eyes. “Go.” She said with finality. “The core will annihilate this mountain shortly.”

  Ah.

  That…presented another problem, but maybe a solution would present itself? It was…all I could hope for.

  I gave Cecily Montblanc one last wary nod, still unsettled by her words to me, before I turned away from her. In my arms, Aveline sobbed slightly and buried her face into my chest. I was a little surprised, and a little touched, that my friends and companions had yet to climb out of the hole in the side of the mountain. I smiled at them slightly and then nodded. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

  “Bout damn time,” I heard Azarus mutter, and then all of us, including Sena, were bounding towards the door that the Netherim had opened. By that point, only a few stragglers among the undead remained, so thankfully, we weren’t running through clouds of ectoplasm to do so. In moments, we had climbed over the roughly hewn rim and stepped into the fresh air of Vereden once again.

  It was…beyond relieving to do so. I hadn’t realized just how oppressive the inside of the mountain had been until we were free from it. In stark contrast to how it had been before we’d all been sucked into the bunker, it was a bright, sunny, almost cheerful day outside. The storm had cleared and there were little more than wisps of white cloud in the sky, leaving the totality of Tarus to shine down on the world below.

  We stood on a broad, flat terrace cut into the surface of Gorenzan. It was, frankly, kind of massive, easily as large as a parking lot from back home. I was initially a little confused at the sight of where we were, as I hadn’t seen anything like this on the surface of the mountain during our approach. I suppose it was…possible that we had just missed this through the darkness and the rain of Tatsugan’s storm.

  That was until I approached the ledge of the cliff, accompanied by all, that I realized just where we were. I hadn’t seen this terrace because it had been submerged by the water. Looking up and down, I could see the watermark where the inland sea had been previously.

  Because it had subsided.

  Looking down, I couldn’t see even an ounce of the enormous pool of water that had collected around the base of the mountain. Which was nuts to me. That enormous lake had been so deep and so wide as to fill the entirety of the gigantic, miles-wide caldera Gorenzan rested within. That had been millions of gallons of water!

  Where the hell had it all gone?! I know I’d been told it would drain in some way after Tatsugan’s death, but I hadn’t expected that to happen…so…quickly…

  How…long had we been in the bunker, anyway…? That was a question for later, I decided.

  Right now, we had to get off of this mountain before we were vaporized by the core. The problem was…

  I had no idea how to do that.

  Looking around, I couldn’t see the barge that had ferried us anywhere. Liora and Bella were nowhere to be found. Casting another eye downward into the dark, empty chasm of the caldera below, I hoped to God that they had gotten out before they’d been sucked down into wherever the sea had gone. That, or they were possibly even now stranded on the face of the mountain, wherever the hell the trapped bunker entrance was in relation to where we were.

  I was knocked out of my half-panicked observations by Kazuma coming to stand next to me. “We aren’t out of danger yet, are we?” He stated loudly, drawing the attention of everyone who had been looking around.

  I grimaced but nodded. “No, we’re not,” I reluctantly acknowledged. I floundered, then, realizing that I didn’t know how to explain what the actual danger was.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  How do you explain something like a destabilizing power core to people who merely understood lightning, much less electricity?

  “There’s something in the bunker that’s going to explode and destroy the mountain,” I eventually settled on. “We have to get off, and I don’t know how.”

  At the grim looks my companions exchanged, I was nonplussed. Huh.

  I guess it hadn’t been that hard to explain.

  As if to underscore my explanation, we all felt it as another tremor struck Goryuen. Somewhere deep, deep below us, I could hear a cracking and groaning sound, as if the very bones of Vereden were struggling to withstand a mighty force. The noise echoed up out of the bowl of the caldera eerily, resounding as if it were little more than a speaker. Everyone winced at the assault on their ears.

  In my arms, I felt Aveline shudder anew and tighten her grip, causing me to realize I hadn’t covered her ears during my words to the group. I did my best to comfort her, laying one hand on her head and whispering in her ear. “Don’t worry,” I whispered to her, causing one fearful emerald eye to meet my own. I smiled at her. “No matter what, I’ll get you out of here.”

  And…I would. I had realized one way that I could save Aveline and I from the explosion.

  I could fly us out of here.

  With the wings granted to me by Vis Maledicta Exactoris, I could simply fly away from the collapsing mountain with Aveline in my arms. She would be safe, then, and I would be keeping my promise to Cecily.

  But to do so would be to leave all of my friends behind to die in the collapse. I don’t think I would be able to come back for anyone, either. The distance from here to the ridges and plateaus of the mountain range would already be the single longest distance I had yet flown. I would be exhausted by the time I reached a point where I could set the child down and wing back.

  That wasn’t even considering that the mountain might have gone up by then.

  No.

  If I did this, it would be solely to save Aveline and I. It would be the ultimate betrayal of every ounce of trust that my friends and companions had placed in me. Not just on the large, arduous trek to reach the mountain, in the entire time I had known each and every one of these people. I...don't even think most of them would blame me for it, either. They were all noble enough, in their own way, that I suspected that some wouldn't begrudge me that choice. But…

  But.

  I…I think…if it came down to it…

  I would do i-

  I was knocked out of my grim thoughts by an unexpected sound. Sena had abruptly tensed her entire body and crouched down. Not to leap once more, as she had down at the door to the bunker.

  No, this time, she threw back her head…

  And roared, arcing her back as she did so.

  Loud, deep, and bassy, something in my primordial DNA tensed at the sound of it. That was a call akin to a creature that hunted my kind across the plains and savannahs, back at the dawn of mankind. It echoed out across the caldera in a cacophony, almost defiantly drowning out the creaking and groaning coming from the base of Gorenzan. When the last note of the roar had faded, everyone looked over at the Shurengan with varying degrees of confusion or irritation.

  “The hells was the point of that-”

  Azarus never got the chance to finish his griping.

  An answering roar echoed out across the caldera, even louder and deeper. There was a note of something familiar in that call that shivered across the Aether of the air, touching at the very soul. For a moment, I wasn’t able to parse where the cry had come from.

  And then I followed Sena’s gaze and looked up.

  Something was falling out of the sun.

  At least it looked like that. At first it was a distant, indistinct black dot. But in seconds, it grew larger and larger and larger until features became more visible.

  It…looked like a cat?

  My eyes widened as I made the connection, and I shouted. “MOVE!”

  I and my companions scattered out of the way, and just in time. The figure that had almost seemed to be hiding in the light of Tarus above touched down onto the terrace we all stood upon with a small, localized earthquake. I stumbled from the force of it and looked up to see who I was already expecting to have descended on us.

  Shurenga herself, only daughter of Tarus.

  So that’s what she had meant when she had said she could scout around the island unseen. The daughter of the sun could literally hide in the light of her father on high and move about that way.

  Kinda terrifying, honestly.

  The already gargantuan form of Sena’s mother looked to have grown even more. The first time I had seen the titanic crimson-and-black saber-tooth tiger, she had stood multiple body lengths above me, and that has just been from the ground to her shoulders. Never mind her length. Now, though, she was larger.

  I had already known Shurenga could change her size at will, considering the smaller form she had showed us that night in Mt. Umetsuji. But this was the exact opposite. Now the progenitor of the Shurengan people looked to be larger and longer than an eighteen-wheeled cargo truck from back home. Her long, flaming mane of Aetherial hair flowed in the wind as she pondered the whole of us, her amber eyes lingering briefly on the form of Aveline huddling in my arms. Then, she looked down at Sena near her feet and appeared to frown at her daughter. Sena’s ears flattened on her skull, and she bowed her head in contrition to her matriarch.

  Ah, that’s right. In all the chaos, I had briefly forgotten that Sena had apparently followed us against the will of Shurenga and Tarus. That’s how she had ended up in the bunker herself when she had stalked her way up to the alcove hiding the bunker entrance. Just in time to get sucked in with the rest of us.

  I shook that off at the same time Shurenga apparently put off her daughter’s punishment for later. “All of you, on my back,” Shurenga ordered us, her spiritual voice easily carrying over the rumblings increasing below us. “I shall ferry you away from this tomb.”

  Guess Tarus had been keeping her updated.

  Her tone brooked no room for argument, and why would I? Shurenga might as well be an angel descended from on high to save us from certain doom.

  Almost literally.

  Nobody argued with the gigantic Spirit made flesh, and instead clambered and jumped their way up onto the extremely broad, furry back of Shurenga. I situated myself near her head, with the rest of my companions at my back, so I could ask her a question.

  I leaned into closer to an ear taller than I was and almost shouted into it. “What about Bella and Liora!? They were out here while we were in there!”

  Shurenga shook her massive head slightly, as she crouched in place. “Worry not for your companions, Nathan Hart. Another has already seen to their safety. You shall see. Now, HOLD ON!”

  I did as she asked, burying one hand deeply into the massive feline’s fur as the other held onto Aveline tightly. I hunched in place from what I was expecting to be quite the jump.

  I wasn’t wrong.

  Shurenga launched herself up and forwards in a display of physical might I hadn’t been sure was possible, and I was driven down almost flat onto her back from the g-forces alone. I heard the massive terrace we had been standing upon only moments ago outright shatter from the force of her leap, to crumble into the caldera blow. We all sailed out into the open space over the chasm that surrounded Gorenzan, some of us hollering in glee, some of us shouting in fear.

  I couldn’t really tell which I was doing.

  However, as I raised back up, trepidation rolled over me.

  It wasn’t enough. Shurenga’s leap only appeared to have taken us halfway across the miles-wide distance from the mountain to the greater range. The daughter of Tarus already felt like she was starting to descend, and there was nothing but open air beneath us now. I opened my mouth to shout a warning or ask a question or something.

  But I needn’t have worried.

  Unexpectedly, Shurenga’s paws touched down onto something that sounded almost crystalline, and she started racing forward. At first, although I was relieved, I didn’t see what she was already sprinting along. But in moments, her path had extended out in front of her and revealed itself to me.

  It looked like fire. Pure, solidified flame, in a form that almost resembled that of the communication stone she had given me those days ago. Shurenga was manifesting a road of the material in which to race across the breadth of the caldera to the other side. I shook my head in wonderment at the sight and I relaxed.

  Sometimes, Vereden really did have magnificent sights to show me.

  I relaxed too soon.

  Behind me, I felt the increased rumblings of it first, and then the light. I turned my head just in time to watch as the gargantuan mountain of Gorenzan…

  Began to crack, and an intense, blue-green light began to shine up from those fissures.

  The core had finally gone critical.