The countless hours Jade had spent in the simroom did nothing to prevent the wave of dread that washed over her when the battle started. Each footfall of the scorcher reverberated through her body. She felt the rage and bloodlust of the others as they dispatched the monster.

She was finally shaken from the sight when someone grabbed her hand. Jade looked down to see Klaus with a finger over her lips, who then gestured away from the battle.

“Are you running away? I am not leaving Azona.” Jade didn’t know if it was some strange maternal instinct or an effect of the Worldtree magic, but the thought of leaving Azona to die was unbearable.

Klaus gave a devious little grin. “I am going to kill as many bugs as I can, and you are going to help me.”

Jade followed the little dryad. They jumped from rooftop to rooftop and made quick time through the ruined base. They jumped down to the ground to find Mouse pulling up on Rezu’s ramdart. Jade said. “What are we doing?”

“You wanted to drive, didn’t you?” A harness appeared on the dryad’s tiny body. She turned and held her arms out. “Pick me up.”

Jade did and straps came out of the back of the harness and bound Klaus to her chest.

Mouse stepped off the ramdart and onto a platform that appeared attached to the rear of the ramdart. He turned into a large cube and was then bound tight, like a block of luggage.

Without any more prompting Jade hopped on the ramdart.

Klaus poked at the buttons on the control panel for a minute. Straps appeared and bound them tightly. A display appeared with a map of the area and a path drawn through it, or more accurately across the rooftops. Klaus maneuvered the ramdart to face a wide arched hanger with a roof that came all the way to the ground.

“Have you used the flight assist system in the simulator?”

“Yes.” Jade said.

After a few moments Klaus said, “Ok. I have linked the settings with your mecromail. You drive. Just follow the path. I will only interfere if necessary.”

Jade took a deep breath, grabbed the controls and nodded. “Ok.” She stared at the path on the display and the roof that was now a launch ramp. Her palms were sweaty as she willed herself to start.

“Do you want me to do it?” Klaus asked softly.

“No. I have it.” She gunned the throttle and let the FAS guide her movements.

In a fraction of a second the ramdart was racing up the arched roof. With a burst of energy at the apex they launched through the air.

Klaus cheered and Jade screamed as they soared across the ruins.

Jade’s heart jumped out of her chest as they landed on a large wide rooftop. A cushion of energy kept them from becoming a flaming wreck. The ramdart danced from one rooftop to another as the ruins blurred past them. Soon they shot off the last roof and were going full out along the runway.

Klaus was reading the screen and pressing buttons. A cage appeared around them and a large sloped ram appeared on the front.

“This is insane!” Jade shouted and laughed.

“Stop cheering and focus. We can’t power this, so we only have the charge that’s in the batteries. If we get stuck, the Anterra will chew through this box and eat us. We need to do as much damage as possible, then get out. Hopefully we can break them up enough for the treants to secure the line. We have anterra, murder hornets and scorchers already. I just hope nothing else shows up.”

“Ok. Got it.”

“Watch out Kytheras, ramdart incoming.” Klaus shouted into a vox.

“Affirmative.” Came Kytheras’ voice back.

“And don’t accidently kill me again. I am riding with the Second.”

Maniacal laughter was the only response.

“What do you mean by acci…”

“Shut up and drive!” The little tree girl ordered.

Jade nodded.

The display traced a path through a gap in the dirt wall the treants had built up. Jade increased the speed as she lined up with the gap. The dart shot through the gap and into a mass of anterra.

Jade was hit with the sight, smell and noise of an anterra swarm. Her stomach knotted and her body went numb as the dart plowed into the dense mass of screeching bug flesh.

“FASTER!” Klaus ordered as she grabbed throttle and gunned it.

Jade blinked as the swarm of anterra was turned into a high speed art project. The grey goo they have for blood and organs sprayed all over the dart and the slats of the cage as they rapidly dissected part of the swarm. A bit of the goo hit her mouth. It tasted even worse than she remembered. She must have really been starving when she was in the Deep Dark.

Then came the realization that anterra were screaming and dying by the dozens. She was getting sweet, sweet revenge on them. Jade’s heart raced. She nodded and stiffened her hold. “I got it! I’m good!” She took back control and followed the path Klaus had set.

Klaus pressed a button and the cube fell off the back of the dart. Mouse deployed to his full height and boomed, “MOUSE CAN PLAY!” like a multi-ton toddler that had found his favorite toy.

A massive spiked ball of anterra body parts raced alongside of them smashing everything in its path. It was cackling with laughter.

“Go Kytheras!” Klaus’ little voice cheered. “This will make such good soil!”

Jade laughed at the little dryad.

They were killing hundreds of the bugs as they went deep into hostile territory, but it barely seemed to make a dent in the mass of the swarm. The terrain was rocky but the larger boulders had been removed within 2 kilometers of the wall.

They drove back and forth across the swarm again and again killing them by the dozen. But no matter how many they killed the swarm seemed endless.

“One more pass and we are out of here.” Klaus said as she guided Jade towards a dense patch of anterra far from the wall.

Jade said. “There are still so many. I don’t feel like I did much.”

“Every little bit helps. We have given the others some breathing room.”

 There was a deep rumble as the ground lifted up in front of them. Klaus screamed and snatched the handlebar and they barely avoided the hole and the massive scorcher head that came out of it. A rain of boulders and soil fell turning their world into a dust cloud.

The ramdart lurched upward as it ramped off an unseen obstruction and more debris pelted them. Light and dark traded places repeatedly as they rolled and rolled sideways. The crunch of bugs, metal and stone was deafening.

Then everything fell quiet. Jade blinked herself back to reality as the sound of anterra increased again. She was now hanging upside down on the seat with Klaus still stuck to her chest. “Owe.” She groaned.

Klaus’ little voice shouted desperately. “Ramdart down. Scorcher active. Ramdart down. Scorcher active.”

Multiple distorted voices responded, but Jade couldn’t understand them.

Jade checked herself for movement and wounds. She had learned something useful from all the flight simulators. “I can move. Can you?”

“Yes but the cage is jammed. The power is out. And that thing will be coming for us.”

“I’ll get the cage. Watch your head.” Jade used her arcane to cut the straps holding them to the ramdart. They landed in a painful lump. She squirmed to get them upright inside the metal box.

The screech of the scorcher shook the cage as the glow of fire consumed the dust cloud.

Klaus sang an arcane note as red and yellow energy flow from her little body forming a large glowing dome of flames around the ramdart. She screamed and strained as the torrent of the scorchers fire washed over them.

Jade focused on cutting a way out on the opposite side. The lock and hinges popped and the cage door clattered to the ground.

The dome of flames dissipated revealing a scorched land of charred and popping anterra corpses. “Get us away. There is a delay.” Klaus gasped then she passed out and hung limp in the harness on Jade’s chest.

At least the flames had cooked any nearby anterra, though the acrid smell was almost vomit inducing. Jade crawled out of the cage and got to her feet to find that the day was not getting any better. Another scorcher was reading to spray them with flaming death. “Cunt.” She muttered as she sent a trace out and hoped she still had enough strength left to bind and turn it’s head to redirect the flames. Her body burned with unexpected surge of energy that flowed from her.

The ward appeared under its chin with a chaotic mix of green and yellow arcane. Tendrils shot out and grab the massive blue beetles head. The monster screeched as its skull strained and cracked. It was snatched sideways with enough force to roll the massive thing over. The body continued onward as the head tore loose, still bound by the ward.

Unable to think or hear or feel anything other than the rush of energy, Jade stood in shock at what she had done.

She was only snapped back to reality when the ground beneath her shifted. She was tossed aside like a piece of dust as the soil and stone piled up around her. With quick reflexes she was able to avoid being buried alive but she was far from safe.

The hole the scorchers had come from was widening as a massive black domed face rose out of it.

“A chomper.” Jade gasped breathlessly.

The caterpillar looking monstrosity’s rounded face looked like it had a skull carved into it. Chompers had been used as siege breakers in the great war. Jade was facing it alone, strapped to an unconscious passenger, and with unstable arcane.

She held tight to Klaus as she arcane jumped away. Her mind screamed obscenities and hoped it hadn’t noticed her. With a glance back while in mid-air she realized that her luck was far from improving.

It’s mouth was agape as it charged a void black ball of energy.

 She ignored the problem she could not solve and focused on landing. The arcane jump had been stronger than intended. This was good because it was carrying her farther from the beast. But it was bad because a vortex spell was activating soon.

The half dozen anterra near her landing site were impaled by various thrown weapons with one being crushed by a large piece of salvage from the hanger.

She hit and spun to face her enemy as she used a ward to bind her feet to the ground.

Just then a vortex spell activated in it’s mouth. Dirt, bugs, rocks, well, anything smaller than a troop transport was being drawn into the crushing effect of the chomper’s spell.

The stone Jade had landed on was large but even it was beginning to shift.

She fell to her hands and knees and poured her yellow tainted energy into the ground using ward, after ward to increase the mass of her new home. But no matter how much material she tied together it was barely compensating for the growing vortex.

Jade screamed as her energy burned around her like a flame. All of her anger and fear and regrets were coalescing. “Power.” She whispered as she grabbed for that seemingly bottomless well of strength.

“Stop.” A voice spoke softly in her head as someone prevented her from reaching any deeper.

“I NEED IT!” Jade cried.

“No.” The force and presence grew stronger.

“I WILL DIE!”

“Rest, Mother.” The voice said.

A wave of calm washed over her like she had not felt since the night she had first snuck into Zagreus’ room. The painful thoughts of him were quickly drowned by the serenity of the energy that was flowing from the ground.

The chaos around her suddenly seemed distant, detached, like watching a replay in the simroom. No wind or debris came near her. She felt like an observer as her stone began to shift. Countless vines grew out of the ground, binding her and the stone in place.

A streak of purple energy shot across the terrain impacting with the giant bug’s eye with enough force to stagger the creature. The vortex collapsed as the monstrosity was twisted sideways. Debris rained as a raging line of purple arcane burned down the length of the monsters flesh. The thing was cut cleanly in half.

But the Goddess of Spite was not done with her target. More purple lines divided the flesh of the creature again and again, over and over, with more and more intensity until no piece larger than a finger could have remained.

A mosaic of runes and wards spread from the kill and coated the land in unbridled wrath. Every bug that was touched exploded into a shower of gore. Mushrooms of dust erupted as their tunnels were collapsed.

The connection to the calming spell was severed as the assault intensified. All of the terrain was being diced into tiny pieces around Jade. The world shook and everything shifted as more and more was destroyed beneath her.

Did Rimmer collapse the whole deep dark? Jade wondered as the last of the rumblings dissipated.