"Wow," Keith told Nathan. "I knew you guys had a private jet, Nathan, but that was definitely not the experience I was expecting."

"I haven't used it in about four years," Nathan told him as they walked to the car waiting for them. "Where's this fucking headquarters?"

"Not far, Nathan," Keith told him. "I'm driving."

Nathan took the passenger seat as Keith took the driver's seat, and they left the private airport the Hunter family's private jet arrived at. Keith, Samantha, Katie, Michael, and William had entered the game again, a full day having passed since the semi-failed trip with Nathan, and as soon as they returned, Nathan dragged Keith to the airport.

They had a mission to undertake, especially after the insulting message sent by the local head of the Black Orb. Their base wasn't protected by a powerful enchanted orb, so Nathan had laid waste to it that night.

Doing so annoyed both Keith and Samantha, but they knew that when Nathan went on the warpath, nothing stopped him. They were among the only people who accepted the merciless killer in Nathan.

Nathan had wanted to leave earlier, but accepted that the trip would go past the time for the group to return, and that trumped his impatience. The Black Orb had sent a suggestion to Nathan and Keith that they join them, and the wording of it made it clear the Black Orb wanted to steal their knowledge and secrets, but Nathan's desire for Samantha to not need to enter the game again was more important that taking out people who wanted his secrets.

The demigod pulled out the printed email and read through it again. It made several condescending remarks poorly disguised as advice and praise, but the gist of the email suggested that Nathan and Keith were only fledglings who knew little of how to really enchant things.

Now, Nathan didn't merely wish to crush the Black Orb's power. He wanted to destroy it entirely.

He folded up the paper and slipped it back into his pocket, then looked out the window at the desert passing them by. They would crush the Black Orb, then head to a hotel for the night. The sky was clear and sunny, and Nathan felt it only made the drive through the desert worse.

"Planning on picking up another member of the harem?" Keith asked.

"No," Nathan snorted. "I can go without sex, Keith. I do it all the time. Now shut up and drive, I don't like looking at a desert."

The next hour and a half passed in silence and concluded with Keith pulling up to a complex surrounded by a ten-foot concrete wall topped with barbed wire.

"Are you sure this isn't a prison?" Nathan asked upon seeing the barbed wire. "I could escape anyway, but-"

"It's their place," Keith pointed at the center of the gate, a large, black metal disk. "That's their sign, after all."

He stopped the car and stepped out, Nathan stepping out as well. They closed the doors as one of the four guards at the entrance approached them.

"This is a private facility," he told them. "Please turn around and leave."

"We're looking for directions," Nathan told him. "I think we're lost."

"We're not lost," Keith rolled his eyes.

"Do you know where we can find the headquarters of the Black Orb?" Nathan asked, and the four guards gave them hostile looks. "Keith here says this is it, but I'd think a place like the Black Orb would pick somewhere nicer to set up shop."

"Who are you?" The guard in front of them asked.

"Nathan Hunter," Nathan said. "And my friend, Keith Ingram. We're rather insulted by the email sent to us by your superiors and want to make it clear what we think of the insults contained in it."

"Yeah," Keith said. "Suggesting that the high-class enchantment we showed one of your high-ranking members was nothing more than a cheap trick when no one else has ever managed an enchantment like it before? That's actually more than a little insulting. Even I'm feeling a bit of bloodlust at it, which is exactly why we're here. Nathan, I told you, we aren't lost."

"Nathan and Keith?" The guard asked. "Ah, you two. The two who believe they could possibly negotiate with Endariv."

"Oh," Nathan looked at Keith. "You're right. We're here."

He reached up to his small orb necklace and pulled out a black crystal orb fourteen inches in diameter, a newer version of the mana orb. Holding it in his right hand as the guards gave him confused looks, Nathan punched forward with his left hand.

A wave of white force magic burst out, ripping through the four guards. Three feet from the gates, it slammed into a barrier that shimmered blue upon contact, invisible until then. Once the attack faded, the barrier returned to its normal invisible state.

"Huh," Nathan said. "It appears I need a little more power than that."

He punched again, then again, then again. After the fourth connecting strike of concentrated force magic, the barrier flickered, turning visible across rather than simply upon contact, no longer able to sustain its invisibility.

Taking a deep breath, Nathan punched forward again, drawing on the mana orb in his hand to generate a large, more powerful punch of force magic than before. It rippled across the air and slammed into the barrier. The moment the spell connected, the barrier winked out of existence. Without a moment's hesitation, Nathan released another force punch at the gate, which bent inwards for a moment before snapping out of its frame, flying several yards into the complex and driving deep gouges into the road before coming to a stop.

Nathan drew on the orb again to replenish his mana reserves, then tossed it to Keith. The pair then entered the facility as Keith began preparing a large spell, the air around him beginning to shimmer purple with his magic.

An alarm began to sound as Nathan assessed the complex. Eight buildings arranged in a ring lay before them, each a different size from the rest. Each held a different purpose, though all connected underground according to Keith.

When guards wielding either magic or guns poured out of the buildings, Nathan drew his own guns and began firing. Bullets of pure-white magic shot forward, punching through the barrier created by the mages and into their casters or the guards. The Black Orb's guards returned the attack, bullets and spells flying at the pair.

None reached them, however, a translucent white barrier shimmering around the two, creating a dome to protect them from attack. However, it was designed to only stop attacks from outside reaching in, a one-way barrier Nathan and Keith had worked on for awhile.

Their own attacks were unhindered, so Nathan continued gunning down the guards, firing only a single bullet for each.

"Done," Keith said.

"So am I," Nathan said, no more guards attacking them. "The rest are probably waiting to ambush us inside."

"Probably," Keith held out his right hand, inhaled deeply, then exhaled.

Though nothing seemed to happen at first, only a second later did the spell's effects come into play. The buildings themselves began to glow with blue light as their own wards began to flare up, attempting to resist the wind assaulting them, dust beginning to rise around them from the spell. The clear sky began to cloud up, thick gray stormclouds forming in seconds.

Less than thirty seconds after the assault began, the cloud opened up, a heavy rain beginning as lightning began flashing down, striking the eight buildings. The wards on the buildings flared even brighter, and after only a few strikes, disappeared.

Then, Keith's wind magics began ripping the buildings apart. Machines, papers, people, chunks of concrete, and more began flying around the air, quickly shredded by the wind. Keith pulled off his shirt as Nathan unbuttoned his own, the two of them releasing their powerful familiars, which flew out of the barrier shielding them from the rain.

After fixing their shirts, the pair approached the nearest building and descended into it, Nathan shooting anyone who came into sight. Their familiars would deal with anyone who exited the complex.

Anytime they came across a warded room, Keith used his magic to shatter its defenses and door.

"They're pouring magic into the orb," Keith told Nathan. "Someone's manually telling the enchantment which areas to protect, too. As soon as we destroy something, they shut off the protections for it to focus more elsewhere. The mages are probably going through most of their stocked-up mana potions in order to try to stop us. They'll likely consider this place lost and focus on protecting the orb room."

"Everyone dies," Nathan stated.

Keith nodded, and they resumed their attack on the complex, wiping out everyone they came across while moving room-to-room. They descended to the next basement level and repeated their action, continuing until they reached a room on the third basement level marked by a keypad and a black metal disk.

Keith held up a fist, and an orb of violet force magic formed in his hand, growing and condensing repeatedly for nearly a minute. Then, he flicked his hand forward, and the orb slammed into the door, a blue barrier forming for a minute before disappearing, the door breaking inwards in an instant.

Nathan stepped into the room and began shooting, killing everyone on sight. Once the twenty mages in the room were dead, he looked around it. The entire room, from the walls to the floors to the ceiling, were covered in glowing enchantments, all connected to a pedestal in the center upon which a black orb sat.

He raised his guns, increased their power limits, then shot the orb until first it cracked, then it shattered. The moment it did, the mana stored within released in a ripple of blue force magic that splashed off his barrier and into the walls, cracking it as the enchantments faded.

"That's their leader," Keith indicated a man who had been beside the orb as he put their own mana orb away.

"Former leader," Nathan said as he released his barrier. "The Black Orb's survivors might recoup, but at least they'll know to not fuck with us. We offered them power, and they decided to insult us because we were young and they were arrogant."

Keith shrugged, then began moving the mana potions from their boxes on the tables into his own storage orb, and Nathan went through the corpses' pockets, looting the cash from their wallets.

"Nathan," Keith gave him an amused look. "You're rich. Why are you stealing their cash?"

"It's not like they'll be using it anymore," Nathan said. "Aren't you draining their bank accounts, anyway?"

"Yeah, but I'm not taking cash right off their bodies."

Nathan shrugged, the waited for Keith to finish looting the boxes and rejoin him. He manifested his barrier once more, then they left the facility, their familiars flying alongside their barrier, confirming they killed everyone who left.

When they reached the car, Keith manifested a large barrier to surround it and them so that they could bring their familiars back inside them without getting wet, then they entered the car. After shutting off his barrier, Keith left, and Nathan looked outside again, nodding in satisfaction.

"Much better when it's raining."

Keith laughed at Nathan's comment, but said nothing as he drove to the nearby town, which was just-barely outside of the rain range, though they knew that the natural weather patterns would shift the magical storm into it soon.

He parked in the parking lot of a hotel, then they stepped out and made their way inside.

"Nathan Hunter," Nathan said when they approached the counter. "I have a reservation for a room with two beds. It better have two beds."

"Why didn't you just book two rooms?" Keith asked.

"There was only one room available when I booked," Nathan told him. "And this is the only hotel chain in the area I trust."

"Ah."

Nathan showed his ID and paid the deposit, then they accepted their room keys and made their way up to their room as Nathan tried to figure out what he wanted to do for dinner. Keith told him he could live with pizza and ordered it, and Nathan opened up a video chat with Samantha and Cyrus to update his girlfriend on how it went.

Their call lasted until the pizza arrived, then Nathan ended it and waited for Keith to bring their food in. He had ordered a pepperoni pizza, breadsticks, and pink lemonade for them to drink. They sat on their respective beds to eat, the food resting on the nightstand between the beds.

"You handled killing a lot of people better than I expected," Nathan told Keith.

"You did the killing."

"You handled me killing a lot of people better than I expected."

"I'm used to the bloodshed of the game," Keith said. "And seeing people die all around me, Nathan. I might not be you, with your ability to simply kill people without a thought, for any reason, but I can handle deaths around me."

"Oh," Nathan thought for a few moments. "I was trying to compliment you."