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Israfel

The submarine was like my worst nightmare come to life.

The three days I spent cooped up in a tiny steel can with ten other guys was hell. Worse, the ceilings were too low for me to stand up properly. My back was killing me.

The submarine could only accommodate a total of twelve people. Since the minimum number of crew to man it was nine, that meant only three of us could go on the mission. Katja and Sofia had wanted to come, but I privately pointed out to Oren that it would be a bad idea to bring one of the girls to live alongside a bunch of horny sailors.

There wasn’t much privacy there either. The girls conceded that it wouldn’t be a good idea when they saw that the submarine’s sole toilet didn’t have a door. It had a curtain. We’d be able to hear everything the girls did inside.

As for our mission, Sofia taught us what signs we needed to look for. The thing, whatever it was, was only active in a certain area of the ocean during certain hours of the day.

We hit the jackpot on the third day. Thank goodness I didn’t have to stay in the submarine longer than that. The thing was a large black mass made up of various monster parts. It looked like the monster we’d fought in the caves but much, much bigger. The crew hit it with missiles and underwater incendiaries until it sank into the ocean floor and disintegrated.

A few hours later, the strange golden lights that had appeared in the abandoned mine covered the ocean floor and where the monster’s corpse was. We were too far away to see, but I wondered if this corpse would disappear just like the giant black slime’s corpse had when we’d gone back to explore the mine further.

It was really too bad that I’d helped kill two S-class monsters without getting any monster cores, but the important thing was that I’d finally escaped that living nightmare of being stuck underwater in a metal tube.

“Thank the goddess for dry land!” I fell to my knees and kissed the ground.

We were on a lush tropical island. The girls had been frolicking in Magnus Kraej’s beach house here while Oren, Ravn, and I had been stuck in that smelly, airless hellhole for days.

Katja, Sofia, and Asteria were waving to us from the beach house. It was surprisingly modest, a simple wooden house with a small garden. I would’ve expected the Kraej to spend their vacations in a palace. The girls, dressed in light summer dresses over their bathing suits, had set up a table and some chairs outdoors. Asteria and Sofia were manning the grill while Katja was setting the table.

“Hey, babe.” Oren hugged the priestess, who blushed.

“I’m back.” Ravn went straight to Katja and kissed her.

I looked away, embarrassed.

“Oh my gosh, what’s with these public displays of affection? There are single people here!” said Asteria.

“You’re not single. We all know you’ve got something going on with Seraph,” said Oren. He had his arm around the priestess’ waist.

Ravn and Katja were still passionately kissing.

“Is something burning?” I asked.

Katja hurriedly pushed Ravn away and ran back to the grill.

“I hope you’re all hungry. We’ve been cooking food since yesterday,” said Sofia.

The table was full of delicious-looking dishes. There was seafood soup, stuffed grilled fish, a cold salad, herbed rice, and kartofler, a caramelized potato dish that was popular in this part of the world. Asteria and Katja brought plates full of grilled meat to the table.

“Let me guess, Katja was the one who cooked these,” said Oren. He pointed to a black, charred mass.

“I’m sure the inside is fine,” said Ravn.

We stared at Ravn wide-eyed as he cut into the burned meat and ate the less charred bits at the center.

“By the goddess! It must be true love,” said Sofia.

“He’s a keeper,” said Asteria to Katja.

“Someone’s coming,” I said. I could hear helicopter sounds from far away, I pointed in its direction for the non-ELs whose hearing wasn’t as good as mine.

Ravn, Oren, and I were famished so we continued eating, but the girls stood up and peered into the distant horizon where a black spot was slowly getting bigger.

“It’s probably just Magnus,” said Asteria.

“Here to fulfill his part of the bargain, I hope,” said Oren.

“Hmm.” Katja exchanged a look with Sofia and they went inside the house.

“What is it?” asked Ravn.

“They’re getting their weapons. Better safe than sorry, after all,” said Asteria.

“What about you?” asked Oren.

Asteria took her wand out of her pocket. “I’m always prepared!”

Katja and Sofia returned. Katja had put her bracelets on, and I could see Sofia’s wand poking out of her pocket.

“Did we make enough food for Magnus and his bodyguards?” asked Asteria.

“I’m sure the staff in the main house have enough,” said Sofia.

“Good point.”

“What main house?” asked Oren.

Ravn and Katja were too busy making eyes at each other to join the conversation.

“This house is just one of the smaller guest houses. The actual Kraej island retreat is on the other side of the island,” said Asteria.

“It’s enormous! It has thirty bedrooms, three infinity pools, two spas, a gym, a ballroom, a private theater, and a garden with hundreds of rare tropical plants,” said Sofia. “Typical Kraej extravagance!”

“They have eighteen villas dotted around the island for guests,” said Asteria. “We thought we’d all be more comfortable here. This beach doesn’t have sunset views, but we can walk to the other side for that.”

“Look, the helicopter is going to the other side,” said Sofia.

“Good. We can finish eating,” I said.

“These potatoes are great,” said Oren.

“Sofia made those,” said Asteria.

Oren, Ravn, and I had been stuck eating mostly canned beans for days so the food tasted amazing. I stuffed myself full to bursting. By the time we finished eating, the helicopter had landed so Magnus Kraej must be on his way to us.

Or maybe it wasn’t Kraej because I heard a second helicopter coming. This one was coming from a different direction.

“Another helicopter.” I pointed at the black spot in the distance.

“Someone’s coming.” Asteria frowned and walked a few steps to the side, staring at the western side of the beach before looking out to sea in the second helicopter’s direction.

I didn’t see anyone at first, but soon I saw three familiar silhouettes. What were the S-class ELs doing here?

“They better not be here to tell me Kraej isn’t coming,” said Oren.

“Fuck!” said Asteria.

We all looked at her in shock. This was the first time I’d ever heard her swear.

She took her wand out of her pocket and pointed it at the helicopter. That was crazy. The helicopter was too far away for anyone to hit with a spell.

“What is it? Calm down,” said Oren.

Seraph, Uriel, and Sariel started running towards us.

“Stop!” shouted Asteria. “Ely, run back to your helicopter and fly away!”

The three commanders stopped running and, after a short pause, started running the other way.

We all backed away from Asteria when a bright golden halo surrounded her body. Incredible! I’d never seen such a strong anima aura. Her hair rose up and her blue eyes glowed.

“Eat electric death!” shouted Asteria.

A bolt of golden anima shot from Asteria’s body into the sky. Then a storm of lightning smashed down into the area where the helicopter was. One of the lightning bolts hit it directly and it fell into the sea.

“What’s going on? Who was that?” Oren asked Asteria.

The golden light had left Asteria’s body when she cast her spell. Sofia and Katja made twin exclamations of dismay when Asteria fell to her knees and started vomiting.

“Asteria! What’s wrong?” Katja was stroking Asteria’s back and holding her hair out of the way.

Sofia immediately cast cure, but Asteria continued to vomit.

“Help me up. We need to check on Ely and the others,” said Asteria when she finished puking. She put a hand on her mouth as though to hold back more vomit.

“Look.” In the distance, I could see a black smear in the water growing bigger and bigger.

“It’s still alive,” said Asteria. Her voice was shaky. “We need to kill it and check on Ely and the others.”

“Alright.” Oren took command, as always. “That thing is still too far out to sea for us to fight so let’s check on the commanders first.”

Despite her protests, I picked Asteria up and we all ran towards the other side of the beach.

“No one ever listens to me. I told them not to come to see me, but no, they can’t even do that,” said Asteria.

“What’s wrong with the commanders?” asked Oren.

“They’re, um, allergic, kind of, to that monster,” said Asteria. “Er, if they act weird just knock them out.”

Knock them out? With which army? The commanders must not have reached the helicopter because I didn’t hear it starting up.

“Put me down, I’m gonna puke.”

I hastily put Asteria down. She fell to her knees and was noisily sick. When she didn’t have anything in her stomach to vomit anymore she just dry heaved. She waved her arm, indicating that we should go on without her.

“Sofia, stay with her,” said Oren.

The rest of us ran on. We found the commanders in a small clearing beside the beach. Uriel was lying on the ground behind Sariel and Seraph. The two of them were looking out to sea in the direction of the downed helicopter, but Sariel turned towards us when we approached. Seraph looked fine except for the fact that he was standing ominously still.

There was just one problem.

“Uh oh,” said Katja.

Sariel’s eyes had turned black just like the monsters during the monster wave.