In the foothills of the mountains near the center of a continent there was a large camp filled with tents of Adventurers from around Mljos Tersa. It didn’t matter that many couldn’t speak to each other, because they only had one purpose. To guard the large door leading into the ground and the heart of the world. A door that lay twisted and broken after weeks of assault from various magicks and non magical means.

In front of the door stood five men. Men with grotesque patchwork bodies. Behind these five men was a metal gate placed to keep anyone not invited from entering.

A sentry called out from a makeshift tower pointed to the west, and cried out a warning.

At first, most couldn’t see what the sentry had pointed out, but gradually an object flying through the sky became visible to all.

Waves of laughter rippled through the onlookers as realization came as to what they were looking at.

A pirate ship!

Most of the Adventurers felt no concern over the pirate ship. Who would be crazy enough to attack such a large gathering of Adventurers? Perhaps it was reinforcements or a ship carrying supplies?

Five figures appeared at the fore of the pirate ship, each with the symbol ‘死’ painted on their chests. Several adventurers recognized the symbol as meaning ‘death,’ but thought nothing of it as they too often used similar symbols as tattoos or decoration on their own armor.

Only a few actively saw the pirate ship as a threat, and moved accordingly just in case.

These few were right, as soon the ship revealed a massive cannon that sent a blast through the onlookers below it.

***

Keeva sat in Shina’s restaurant testing the Japanese woman’s latest attempt at a parfait, one with blueberries, granola, and caramel, “This one’s pretty good. Just needs some hot fudge.”

Shina sat next to Keeva, watching her expectantly, “Ryo is looking for cacao beans again after they come back. We already know where to get bananas and the dwarves said they will bring some if they ever go there.”

Charlotte had a parfait with strawberries, and had a blissful look on her face, “I hope Ryo finds some chocolate. It sounds delicious!”

Keeva had just found out Charlotte was pretty good at Japanese, and the three talked freely because they didn’t know of anyone not affiliated with the restaurant that knew it, not even Niamh.

Keeva gulped as the Mk. II sent her images of Adventurers going up in flames as the pirate ship opened fire, “Umm, yeah… it’s pretty good.” She turned to Shina, “Think Ryo can find some cinnamon too?”

Shina’s eyes glazed over as her gaze became unfocused as she became lost in thought, “Cinnamon rolls… cinnamon tea… cinnamon bread…”

Charlotte cocked her head to the side, “What’s cinnamon?”

Keeva couldn’t quite think of a good way to describe it, “It’s… uh… bark that smells and tastes really good.”

Charlotte didn’t look impressed after hearing it was bark, “Oh.”

Shina’s attention returned and she turned to Charlotte, “I think you will love it! It’s used in lots of sweets and drinks.”

Keeva got a craving for a sweet she hadn’t thought about for a long time, “Think you can make chocolate covered cinnamon bears?”

Shina hmmed as she thought, “I will need to make gelatin. It’s made from bones and skin?”

Keeva nodded, “I heard that too.”

Charlotte’s face turned green, “Bones and skin?”

Keeva shrugged, “Hey, it’s better than throwing that stuff out. I mean, back on earth we eat worse stuff. Like, we eat a red dye made from ground up beetle shells, and smoke flavoring comes from some animal’s anal gland. I think.”

Charlotte pushed her mostly finished parfait away from her and leaned back as she covered her mouth and lowered her ears.

Keeva grinned, “You should see what they eat in China. Bats, dogs, cats, monkey brains while the monkey is still alive, and other weird stuff. Don’t even get me started on traditional Chinese medicine…”

Shina didn’t look upset at anything Keeva had listed except for cats, “I think that is fine. Except the cats. Poor kitties…”

Charlotte nodded along with Shina’s sentiment about the cats, “People who eat cats are monsters.”

Keeva giggled, “Says the cat eared girl.”

Charlotte flared her nostrils as she gave Keeva a pouty look.

Keeva went for another bite as she turned her attention to the five on the foredeck of the pirate ship.

Four of them were small in stature with athletic feminine figures, while the fifth was large and well built. These were the Three Stooges, Niamh, and Ryo. 

Ryo raised his naginata and lept from the ship, his flying gear easily and swiftly bringing him to face the scattering Adventurers below. Madeleine moved only slightly after Ryo and unsheathed her dual wield longswords that gave off a few sparks of electricity as she turned on their enchantments. Marjolaine let out a warcry as she lifted her giant hammer and used it’s boost enchant to help propel her forward.

Millefuelle turned to the side and jumped off, her war scythe still strapped to her back. Keeva imagined she wanted to play with her prey instead of going straight at them like the other three had.

Niamh tapped her longsword on the shield she had tied to her left arm, then jumped off the side opposite Millefeuille.

Charlotte’s expression turned dark as she probably heard her sisters say something as they started battle.

Meanwhile, the ship lowered itself to almost tree level and the rest of the Adventurers began to jump out the back, and into the cover of the forest.

Magical attacks and projectiles began assaulting the ship.

The dwarves had had enough notice to put on heavier armor than the ship had been designed for, which had also reduced it’s speed significantly, and it easily shrugged off all but the most powerful attacks.

Once all the Adventurers had jumped out, the pirate ship pulled back, and began hitting the back lines of the enemy with magical cannon attacks from smaller cannons mounted to the sides.

Ryo and the two cat girls finally met the enemy and began to exchange blows.

Keeva was shocked at how easily Marjolaine and Madeleine moved through their foes. Madeleine used her speed and strength to weave through and overpower her enemies, often engaging two targets at once as she danced through them in a display that would be beautiful if it wasn’t for the gore. Marjolaine made no attempt at making her movements beautiful as she merely used her strength and her hammer’s booster to overpower her opponents in often gruesome ways that mostly involved bones breaking.

Ryo seemed more on par with the strongest of the enemy skillswise, but thanks to the Three Stooges kleptomania, and Keeva’s generous donations of gold, had much better equipment.

Millefuille finally made her appearance as she used the cover of the trees to her advantage and jumped from tree to tree at impressive speed in near silence, catching her prey off guard as her scythe came down on them.

Keeva decided that Millefuille was the one she would least want to fight as even her drones had trouble keeping track of her through the foliage.

Three of the five patchwork men left their posts at the door towards Ryo, Marjolaine and Madeleine, causing the enemy Adventurers to clear out of their way .

The three eagerly charged the patchwork men.

Meanwhile, Millefuille had given up on her stealth and was laughing maniacally as she tore through the enemy.

River, Mathew, and the friendly Adventurers yelled as they ran to join the fight, Niamh finally making her appearance from the forest at this time, as well.

River used the trees much like Millefuille, and shot some exploding crossbow bolts at any enemies close enough to another to get caught in the blast. When she wasn’t using her crossbow she used a rapier enchanted with enchants that allowed the weapon to pierce lightly enchanted armor with ease, allowing her to strike the vitals of her opponents as if their armor wasn’t there.

Charlotte turned to Keeva, “How is the fight going? My sisters are having fun, so we’re winning?”

Keeva nodded, “Yeah, we’re doing pretty good, but we’re outnumbered two and a half to one, so they might give Ryo and the Three Stooges a workout.”

Shina looked around, “Can we watch?”

Keeva looked at the watchlike device on her arm Anton had come up with at the last minute, “Uh… Let’s just say there’s a reason why I stopped eating.”

Charlotte gulped, “I don’t want to. Just… just hearing my sisters is bad enough.”

Shina didn’t look the least bit uncomfortable, “It’s Adventurers against Adventurers! They’ll be back in three weeks a little grumpy. It’s fine!”

Keeva watched as Adventurers cut each other down, “Yeah, but… It’s still pretty bad.”

Keeva wasn’t even there and her heart was still racing.

Millefuille made it to the door and engaged the remaining two patchwork men. 

Marjolaine flipped Millefuille off as she avoided a blow from her opponent.

Keeva turned to Charlotte, “What’d Millefuille say to Marjolaine?”

Charlotte scowled, “Just saying she’s slow… and stuff…”

Keeva smiled, “‘And stuff,’ huh?”

Charlotte scratched her cheek and pursed her lips, “Not swearing though! Jaren gets mad at us if we swear.”

Keeva remembered that the cat girls could still talk to Jaren, “How is Jaren, anyway?”

Charlotte smiled, “She’s good! She finally found a village and is helping them kill some bad monsters that keep killing their animals. She distracts the monsters by letting them chew on her, then the villagers kill it.”

Millefuelle got past the patchwork men and started hacking at the gate while simultaneously attacking the patchwork men.

Madeleine’s patchwork man fell first thanks to the flurry of paralyzing attacks from her two electrified swords. As the patchwork man fell she did a fist pump, and moved to join Millefuille, but was blocked by several adventurers.

It was now that the number advantage was becoming apparent, though still manageable thanks to the help of the pirate ship.

Mathew fell after getting flanked by several of the enemy elite that had already felled his companions.

Ryo was on the verge of being overwhelmed too, but some small arms fire courtesy of some dwarves, Anton, and Evan forced them to back off.

Keeva had forgotten about Anton and Evan until then, because she hadn’t expected them to provide more than damage control, but when she saw several dead and injured dwarves and less experienced Adventurers on the deck of the pirate ship she understood why.

The pirate ship itself was holding up well, so it appeared the enemy had taken to picking off whatever crew they could.

Anton fell back inside the ship, “Hey, get scythe girl away from the door. We’re about ready to fire the main gun again!”

Keeva turned to Charlotte, “Get Millfuelle away from the door. The ship’s gonna shoot it with the big gun.”

Charlotte nodded, “Okay.”

Millefuelle paused and her posture showed she felt annoyed, but she easily disengaged from the heavily injured patchwork men and jumped away.

The patchwork men didn’t follow and moved back to guard the door.

The pirate ship turned to point its main gun at the door, and fired.

The projectile hit almost dead center on the door, exploding with a thunderous roar and flame engulfed the patchwork men and causing several nearby Adventurers to stagger from the shockwave.

Once the dust cleared, Keeva saw they had breached the door and could now enter.

Keeva smiled and turned to Charlotte again, “Tell her we’re ready.”

Charlotte’s expression became worried, but she nodded, “Okay.”

Soon, several probes lifted from where they had been hidden behind Shina’s, turned invisible, and jumped to the site of the battle. These included three specially modified attack drones that held a prototype gatling plasma weapon, two particle beam drones, a cargo drone, and three drones that held Niamh’s special surprise.

The drones jumped to just above the door and passed over the charred remains of the two patchwork men that had guarded it and moved inside unnoticed.

Keeva turned on the Mk. II’s loudspeaker now that they had infiltrated their objective, “Retreat! Back to the ship!”

Keeva felt that they could still win the fight, but it would be close and they needed to keep their numbers up just in case the evil spirits counterattacked.

Only the Three stooges stayed in their places on the battlefield. Until then, none had come close to matching their battle prowess and all but the most hardened Adventurers ran when they saw them at this point. Keeva wondered if these three alone would have been enough to defeat their enemy.

Once the last two patchwork men fell, then they too retreated. And they looked exhausted.

None of the enemy chased the retreating Adventurers into the forest, and they merely watched in disappointment as the pirate ship lifted off and began circling the door out of range of their attacks.

Keeva focused on the infiltrating probes.

What she saw disturbed, but amazed her.

There were rooms filled with pods of creatures of varying gestation from fetus to adult. She even saw one or two mature monsters get sent down tubes to some unknown destination.

Keeva had one guess as to what was happening. This was where the monsters were grown and then shipped off to replace the ones killed by the Adventurers.

Keeva decided to look at this place later and continued forward, but had no idea where she was going, so decided to head deeper, because since when did anyone put anything important by the main entrance? The final boss was always at the end of the dungeon. She just hoped she wouldn’t have to listen to a monolog.

It didn’t take long, despite several more patchwork men patrolling the hallways, before she found what appeared to be an elevator, which had a patchwork man guarding it. Since the elevator would be obvious it was being used, she looked for a stairway and found one. Using this, the probes easily wound their way to the bottom. 

A man with platinum blonde hair and striking gray eyes entered the restaurant and approached Keeva and the others at their table, speaking in Japanese, “Are those parfaits?”

The three women turned in surprise at the man’s unexpected use of Japanese.

Shina smiled and nodded, “Yes! You speak Japanese?”

The man smiled, “Among several others. I travel quite a bit, so I try to learn at least some of the language wherever I go.”

Charlotte entered shy mode, her ears and tail drooping slightly, and shrunk in her seat.

Shina stood up, “Your Japanese is very good!”

“Thank you.” The man held out a hand, “Name’s Radah. Just Radah.”

Shina took his hand, “It is a pleasure to meet you, Radah. My name is Shina Nagano.”

Keeva stood up and eyed Radah suspiciously, “Keeva. Umm… Just Radah, you look familiar…”

Radah laughed, “Like I said, I get around alot. And that was a good dad joke.” He turned to Charlotte, “And you are?”

Charlotte stood up, though the way her tail drooped further and her ears had flattened against her head it was obvious to everyone how she felt, “Umm… Ch… Charlotte…”

The man nodded, “Nice to meet you Charlotte.” He turned back to Shina, “Now, if you don’t mind my asking… how much for one of those delicious looking parfaits?”

Shina shook her head, and bowed in apology, “I’m sorry! I’m still testing and so I will give you one for free, but I’m almost out of ice cream, so is half okay?”

The man smiled and nodded, “That would be excellent.”

Shina bowed, “Thank you for your order,” then went into the back room.

The man turned back to Keeva and Charlotte, “I apologize for interrupting your conversation. I’ll find a table and wait for your friend to bring me my parfait.”

Keeva couldn’t shake the feeling she’d seen this man before, “Oh, no problem. I was distracted, anyway.”

The man nodded and sat at a nearby table. 

Something about his expression made Keeva think he knew something he wasn’t letting on, but turned her attention back to the drones.

The drones were in a long hallway that was suspiciously empty and so Keeva moved them slowly as the plasma gatling drones moved in search of anything dangerous.

Soon, they exited the hallway and entered a large domed room with a large metal sphere into the floor. 

Next to the sphere were several holographic control panels, two destroyed, and two figures. One was Healer Fawinn, and the other a beautiful brown haired Aos Si that looked sort of like Charlton Heston mixed with a Tolkein elf if it had super longer ears.

Charlton Elfston’s ears twitched and he looked directly at the cargo drone, “Such tricks won’t hide you little cat girl.”

Charlotte straightened in surprise and turned to Keeva, “Viennesoire says she found the two evil spirits. They’re possessing Healer Fawinn and the Aos Si.”

Keeva had suspected as much, “Just those two?”

Charlotte paused, then nodded, “Yes.”

Keeva closed her eyes and took a deep breath, “Alright. Tell Viennesoire I’ll distract them while she gets Niamh’s weapons ready.”

Charlotte nodded, and looked more nervous than ever.

Keeva fanned the plasma gatling drones out just to see if Charlton Elfston could see them, but he didn’t react.

Keeva smiled, “It looks like the Aos Si can only see Viennesoire. Maybe her spirit?”

Charlotte shrugged, “M… maybe?”

Charlton Elfston picked up one of the fanciest magic staves Keeva had ever seen, “Quit this hiding and show yourself!”

Healer Fawinn held up a hand, “Ryan, I know you can hear me. No need to hide.”

Keeva decloaked the storage drone that held Viennesoire, “Yeah?”

Healer Fawinn smiled, “No need to be so unfriendly. In fact, once we’re done here, we plan on leaving this world permanently. You see… Niamh’s betrayal has made this world useless to us, so we plan on starting over somewhere else. A little setback, yes, but with the knowledge we gained here, it shouldn’t take us long to recover.”

Keeva felt her lips curl into a snarl, “After you do what? Don’t think I didn’t see those two panels you destroyed. There’s no way you’re not up to something.”

Healer Fawinn smiled and put her hand on the destroyed panel closest to her, “Oh, we just reset and turned some unnecessary systems off in the facility. Like… the resurrection pods for the Adventurers and the containment for this lovely sphere.”

Keeva’s thoughts turned to the battle. Mathew and every other Adventurer that had died wasn’t coming back?

Keeva held back a scream, “Why? Why would you do that?”

Healer Fawinn shrugged, “They have already died once just to get here. I would say that alone is something exceptional and unfair to all the others that never had the chance.” She snarled, “Especially to those that never had the chance to live in the first place.” Her snarl changed back to a grin, “But that’s not the least of your worries.” She turned to the metal sphere, “Did you know that this world’s gravity comes from an artificial black hole? Well…” She turned back to the destroyed panels, “In a few days the gravity containment field around it will fail, and… well… I imagine it won’t take long for it to consume this world.”

Keeva’s face turned white, “You… did… what!?”

Healer Fawinn began laughing.

Charlton Elfston rolled his eyes, “You know they can use the Gateways, right?”

Healer Fawinn stopped laughing and sighed as she turned back to face the storage drone, “Yes, but there are hundreds of thousands across this world. They can’t possible save…”

Ryan lost control of Niamh’s drones as Viennesoire took control over them.

Charlotte tensed and her hair fluffed up as if from fright.

A metallic sound echoed through the domed room as Viennesoir deployed Niamh’s drones, then clanged again as they slammed onto the floor, directly around the two possessed by the evil spirits.

Both of the possessed’s eyes widened in fear as they realized what the drones, now cages, they now found themselves in were.

Keeva’s snarl turned to a grin, “Bye!” 

The two devices around the possessed targeted the evil spirits and shattered their very souls, sending their intelligences into the void.

One more chapter to finish up this arc and transition to finishing the Meatball arc. After that will be the long journey home.  ...or will it?