In the end, Jack put out a call for all sorts of civilian and military grade explosives, explaining what C4 looks like and how it is packaged, how PE-4 looks, Semtex and pellets of ammonium nitrate. Detonators were the easy part, he had seen several heavy spools of shock tubing in the back of the IFV. The only question was, whether there was enough for connecting up all the charges, and leading an end out of the caverns and to a safe distance from the ruins of the old temple.

In the end, most of the soldiers were sent looking for explosives and Tiana and with the rest of the mages were creating 4 inch wide holes into the sandstone walls, to put the explosives in.

Still another group of soldiers was gathering weapon crates from all around the caves. Essentially they were bringing Jack either a whole crate or just a few samples from it, Jack would explain what it was and if it was any use down here or not. If it was, it stayed, being explosives, mostly. If it wasn't, it was either weapons or something miscellaneous like vehicle parts. All weapons were moved to the upper levels, close to the stairs to the underground sections. In the eventuality that they did not have to fight off enemy sorcerers.

This did not however mean that Jack had the time for a rest. He himself was measuring out shock tubing for the whole affair. And in case there was not enough of that, he was ready to supplement that with electric detonators, initiated with a car battery or detcord if need be.

Even if his body had some mysterious knowledge about how to use the various weapons of his own world, he had no knowledge or experience about military demolition or commercial mining. Thus, he was basically winging it with the plan to bury everything. Everything had a chance of going very bad, from premature detonations to the explosion merely loosening up the few feet of sandstone and not collapsing the whole cave. That is why he was banking on finding some or a lot of AN/FO explosive. Two to three tons soaked in diesel and initiated with the C4 would collapse not only the sandstone but any kind of reinforced concrete.

"So what do we do next?" Mike asked, looking at the six heavy spools lined up on their sides.

"I have something for you to do." Jack pointed to Marcus.

"Take him and these spools. There should be about 2500 feet of explosive tubing on each, plenty to reach the aboveground. The downside is that it weighs a lot. Lay it out from here to the entrance of the underground. If it doesn't reach, we'll figure out something else.

"This won't... explode, right?" Mike asked.

"Nope, totally safe, that is why I want to use it instead of detcord or electric detonators. I would lay it out myself but with having to sort through the equipment storaged here, I cannot really change locations."

"Don't worry, we'll get it done." Marcus lifted the spools onto his shoulder as if they were nothing and Mike started to carefully lay it out on the ground and rocky walls where necessary, out of the areas of foot traffic.

Just then, Tiana approached him.

"We found something." She said. "I think we need you, this could be dangerous."

"Some bags with pink pellets?" Jack asked, being hopeful.

"No. Not that. We have a situation developing. There was a hidden cave, and we found an enemy survivor in there. She has a stockpile of magical texts and books of every kind and she is said to be setting up a magical array of sorts."

"I don't know much about magic," Jack replied.

"I know. But what she was doing does not look like any magic I know. Maybe it is one of your 'techniques.'"

"Come on, you don't have to say it like that." Jack replied, grabbing an M4 he had pilfered from one of the weapon crates.

"Commander?" Edwin asked.

"Stay here." Jack replied, "there are still people sorting through stuff. I don't want anybody to think I have wandered off. You remember what the others are prioritizing right?"

"Yes, sir. The gray stuff, the yellow stuff and the pink stuff." Edwin replied, "plus wires and tubes."

"Good, then you can instruct your fellow soldiers where to pile up the stuff they find. As for everything else, let it be sent upstairs."

"Yes, sir." Edwin nodded.

*

"I did not think it could be done like that." Tiana said when they were rushing towards the next objective. "What if there is something important in the crates you have ordered to be sent upstairs?"

"What ever it is, we will not need it." Jack replied. "And is that not the point of the whole thing in the army? People follow command without needing to understand why. Not on their own authority, but on their commanding officer's."

"Ordinarily yes, but when dealing with artifacts or suspected artifacts... you simply cannot fathom the kind of processes we usually go through to ascertain whether something is dangerous to remove, move, touch or anything else."

"You mean to say, in the end it is all voluntary. The one who feels most confident does take it?" Jack asked.

"Sort of."

It did not take long for them to reach that one side tunnel which was now blocked off by several of the magic soldiers who had get by without their equipment. This tunnel was located in a totally different direction from the main staircase and entrance aboveground. It would seem the basin with the military tech was the lowest point of the whole site and to the left was the entrance and the active dig and to the right were all the living quarters.

As Jack and Tiana approached, the men made some room for them to get nearer to the vantage point.

"What is the situation?" Tiana asked.

"The opponent has not noticed us. She is in a room right behind that bend. Seemingly she is setting up some sort of weird array with many wands affixed to the floor with some clay or wax."

"Very well then," Jack said, "Tiana, back me up."

He check his rifle to make sure he had a round in the chamber and the safety off.

With whisper quiet steps they moved into the room that the witch was in. Coincidentally, at this moment the witch was in the corner of the room with her back turned, still totally oblivious to them, and thus Jack got a pretty good overview. In one corner of the cave was a rectangular neatly stacked pile books, measuring maybe 5 feet in height, depth and width. To the side was a table stacked with fags of wands, there seemed to be lot more wands than just the possibly 600 or so taken from the magic soldiers.

But the thing that took most of his and Tiana's attention was the thing in front of them on the cave floor. A very large and strange complex drawing, rectangular in shape, surrounded by two circles, with strange, possibly magical characters between the circles. But the rectangular drawing in the center was very weird, what made it even weirder, was that wands were placed upright at strategic locations, made standing with the help of wax, clay, or just some some holes in the hard-packed floor of dirt. There seemed to be a certain rule, based on which either holes in the ground or clay was used.

Suddenly the young witch noticed them, pointing her wand at them. Jack was almost surprised, seeing that she was at most in her mid-twenties. With golden brown hair, fair almost pale skin and green eyes.

"Who are you?! You can't be in here! If you are in here then..!"

"Put the wand down, slowly." Jack said in a tempered voice.

"Why should I? You think you're in control? Just because you saved some of the slaves and found that artifact? Let me tell you, the grand sorcerer Orchard of the Radiant Sun Sect will have you torn apart by his demonic beasts!"

"The demonic beasts are dead." Jack replied matter of factly, "We killed all of them, the sorcerers escaped."

"That is not possible! You're lying!"

"You are the only one left. So, are you going to come quietly, or kicking and screaming?"

"'Come quietly or kicking or screaming'? What kind of phrase is that?" Tiana whispered.

"Doesn't matter. The array is complete. I just need to make one motion and it will spring to life. The alien energies will turn into mystical electron rays which will kill all of you in an instant and create a portal, through which my master can return! You can do nothing when facing the great television magic i have deciphered!"

She waved her wand and Jack pulled the trigger, aiming for her hand. The M4 with the ACOG was precise enough to oneshot 12 gauge shells at 30 yards with ease, so at less than half the distance, it should've been precise enough to hit her in the arm. However that's not what happened. Either due to sheer accident or some mystical intervention, the bullet hit the wand, just as she was putting mana through it. The wand exploded in a spectacular fashion, taking along all the fingers on her left hand.

"Ugh!" Tiana gagged.

"What?" Jack asked.

"I know we wanted her alive, but you did not have to do that."

"Why does it matter?" Jack asked. "You can regrow her fingers with magic, can't you?"

"Yeah, but.."

For the witch it took some time to process what had happened, so it took her almost a dozen seconds to start screaming from the pain.

"It doesn't matter, I can just use one of the other wands to initiate it!" She finally managed to say after her initial screaming.

Jack raised his rifle.

"The next one will go in your head." He said. "Also, the array will not activate. You've failed."

"I cannot fail! I followed the grand magical formula in the tome to the letter! It was so advanced that it omitted the more basic spell structure, but I added it and it will work."

"You copied the formula alright. But it is not a magic formula."

"Not a magic formula..?" she asked, blinking her eyes.

"It is the wiring diagram of an old television set. A device any mundane could build, activate and receive and image and sound transmitted from a faraway place. So you either surrender, or join the other corpses."

"Not a magic formula..?" She asked once more. "How dare you deceive me, Kristanna Helmine of the Brecht family!"

Right then, a blue flash hit her in the chest and she lost consciousness.

"There was no way I could have stood her whining for another second." Tiana said.

She pointed at the array of wands and chalk-drawn schematic. "So this is not a magic spell, are you sure?"

"I do recognize the symbols, as for whether it is magical or not, I cannot say. I have no concept of magic."

"What about the books they have collected?"

"Let me see." Jack replied. "By the way, on the desk there are a bunch of tied up wands. Perhaps, they saved the wands for this person and her experiment."

Some of the soldiers made their way towards the desk.

"Yes! My wands are here! I can sense them!"

Quite soon, the magic soldiers were each again equipped with their wands. Jack in the mean time sorted though the books in the pile. This neat little pile, which reached almost his shoulder, contained probably around a thousand books. But to Jack's utter disappointment, most of the books were published in the 20th century, consisting mainly of cheap bad fiction and political literature of various communist regimes. However there was also something interesting.

"What about the books?" Tiana said impatiently.

"Most of them is junk, but I did find something of interest to your fellow soldiers."

He pulled a brightly colored drawing of a naked young girl being intimately assaulted by a set of tentacles, opening it from the full size middle and showing it to Tiana.

"I guess you see this most every day, but don't you think your male co-workers deserve a peek too?" Jack asked mischievously.

"Put that away! What the hell is that vile drawing anyway!?"

"It is called tentacle porn." Jack replied. "Doesn't she kind of look like you?"

"Wow, she really does!" One magic soldier quipped, and was then also rendered unconscious by a blue bolt of light.

"Give it to me!" She demanded. "Don't you dare show that to anybody! Shaming female body like that!"

"I think it is honoring female form." Jack replied. "Doesn't matter. I think there is literally a ton of porn here, not all of it in pictures, some are in text too. So there is plenty for the men to get excited about."

Suddenly, one of the soldiers ran up to them.

"Fitch, reporting that Master Arandas and Master Anton have arrived, with the sorcerers."

"Go deal with it," Jack replied to Tiana, "I have to get back."

"Get back to where?" Tiana asked sheepishly.

"To the center, I'm not leaving until the whole facility is wired. Also, if you see Marcus and Mike, tell them to keep their end of the tube absolutely secure, cool and dry. If that end is compromised, our plan fails."

"I know, I know." Tiana replied, watching Jack depart.

She then turned to the soldiers around her. "Now listen up! I can forgive you for laying your eyes on that otherworldly filth, but there is a price! I want every single volume found on that stack sealed to Master Arandas's personal seal. If I find one unsealed book, I will tell my father and the commander what you guys perused. Lets see what happens to you then! Now get to work! Before Jac-, I mean the executive commander is finished with the task, I want these tomes sealed and brought to the surface, to the designated safe area! Is that clear?"

"Yes, ma'am!"

*

Not much time before that, a small team of robed people were quickly making their way at the foot of the mountains. This small group consisted of seven people total, and they were ridding what could only be described as pegasae. Horses, which seemed to be slightly larger and bulkier than the usual variety, but with long wings growing out of their backs, just behind their front shoulder.

The beasts were colored the purest white, their coat and the feathers even had a metallic lustre or sheen in the sunlight. As for the wings, these were not for flying, they were for gliding. Instead of galloping like regular horses, when on open ground, the pegasae unfolded their wings and leaped into the air, gliding on their wings. This may have made them slightly slower than a similarly sized magical horse at full gallop, but with the gliding, the pegasae could sustain the speed far longer, covering hundreds of miles in a day if need be.

"So, Arandas, what do you think of our mounts?" a finely dressed man with long thin mustache and a slicked back hair asked.

"I cannot argue, master Arkon, you have the best stuff at your disposal at the Imperial Capital." Arandas agreed.

"Well, naturally." The well-dressed man continued to boast. "These are mid-gold level beasts, you know, and they are not cultivated to mid-gold level, they are born as mid-gold level. Just a few steps away from achieving human speech and a bit more away from being able to take human form. But at mid-gold level they still have human-like reasoning, complicated social structure, their own language consisting of both sounds and movements."

"So why would they act as mounts for us?" Anton asked.

"It is a contract." Arandas said, glancing at the four men riding behind them in formation. "Am I right?"

One of the men in bright orange robes gave a small nod, without his face moving otherwise.

"It is a contract, not like a spell, but as you or me would have an exchange of goods and services. But in this case, the pegasae will act as mounts, while the sorcerers offer their natural energies for the beasts to consume and refine."

"This is it," Arandas said, looking around him. "The ruins should be up that winding road."

Anton looked ahead and could just make out some of the walls of the stone platform from between the trees.

"Halt." A gruff voice suddenly said. One of the sorcerers in orange robe had stopped and was scanning the surrounding warily.

"What.." Arandas tried to ask, but the sorcerer silenced him with a slight wave.

This wasn't just Arandas stopping his words. As the man waved he literally could not get them out. In the realm of magic, this was nothing spectacular, Arandas himself knew at least ten spells offhand which could achieve a similar result, but achieving the same effect with a wave, without any detectable magic tool, or even change in the flows of natural mana... this was true sorcery. Incomprehensible for mages.

The sorcerer was still looking around and then he exchanged glances with some of his colleagues behind him after which he relaxed somewhat.

"This area has traces of sorcery-level power having been used."

"What kind of power?" the man with fine clothes and a thin mustache asked.

"Demonic," the old sorcerer replied. "A powerful demonic beast has passed this place, a level four."

"So the messenger was not mistaken about that." Anton said.

"Are the sorcerers still around here?" master Arkon asked.

"No. These are just the traces. There are traces of something else – destructive distillation of a powerful artifact. Whatever spell the process was fueling, the spell reacted to something at this very spot."

"At this very spot..?" Arandas scanned the ground and then found something.

Before he could whip out his wand, this something rose gently from the ground, as it carried by undulations of air itself. One glance at the old sorcerer revealed him being behind this, with his eyes focused on the strange object.

"I! I know what it is!" Anton blurted out. "This is one of the items Jack used in his artifact. He called it a gun."

"This is a gun?" the sorcerer with the gruff voice asked.

"No, the artifact is a gun. This, I believe, is what is left of a round. A casing. Or a shell if it was larger. It contains a powder of exploding material, capped off by a metal bullet."

"Truly primitive people, some of the otherworlders." The gruff-voiced sorcerer mused. "To use explosive substance to accelerate small pieces of metal to speeds that can penetrate flesh."

He tossed the casing to a younger sorcerer behind him.

"Number two. Perform a localized temporal inversion field."

"Temporal inversion?" Arandas asked.

Temporal inversion was an extremely high level spell, able to take an area, and reverse the flow of time in said area. This spell was extremely costly, requiring several high grade mages to perform. Also the amount of time it could rewind and the area it effected was proportional to the cost in mana. The effects were not permanent, only maintained by the magic spell. Thus it only allowed to review that which had already happened, and not to change the past, i.e. how it happened.

"Yes, sir."

A somewhat younger but still at least a middle-aged man in an orange robe dismounted and produced a dark purple crystal from underneath his robe. He then started the spell by performing a series of hand seals which then evolved into complicated movements of the hands and following that, a peculiar dance with no music.

At some point the man stopped, and only then did Arandas notice that they were in the middle of a shimmering sphere roughly 30 feet across. The top of the sphere was above their heads, while the bottom was probably hidden below the ground, as the shimmering edge cut right into the ground. Also, it had become darker inside the sphere. Beyond the shimmering wall, it was still full daytime, while inside, it was twilight. And to Arandas it felt like it was getting darker still.

Soon, the time inside the sphere rolled back into the darkness of the night. Only because of the special effects of the spell could they see in the dark, while the brightness outside the sphere was still there. It took a few more minutes to reach the action of what had happened the previous night, but due to the speed of the spell, it all zipped past them in less than a second.

"Ho!" the leader of the sorcerers suddenly said with a bemused tone. "A very interesting lad you have there. Too bad that he has no propensity for magic as we know it. He would be a matchless star in your academy."

He glanced at Arandas, and seeing his bewilderment, directed the gaze at his subordinate.

"Yes, sir. I will replay the sequence at normal speed."

Moments later they were all shown how Jack, Mike and Tiana had arrived and then defeated the barrier.

"He is a good seedling." Master Arkon agreed. "Still, too bad he was born a mundane."

"Even without knowing magic, he could still become a scholar of magic." Arandas replied.

"That is true, but for a mundane scholar it is significantly harder to revolutionize the field of magic." The old sorcerer said.

Arandas and Anton could only gave at this statement, along with master Arkon.

"I am jesting here." He added. "Watch out for this one. He may not understand how magic works, but therefore he is also not bound by precognitions which we take for granted. We should continue onward."

*

As Tiana was rushing towards the exit from the underground, a soldier flagged her down.

"Vice-commander! We may have a problem!"

"I know, Arandas and the reinforcements have arrived."

"No, that is not it." The man replied, "commander Fichte gave us some.. frankly weird orders. And I would like your confirmation."

"And how is it your place to doubt your commander's orders!?" Tiana asked.

"Because they are in conflict with master de Lune's orders. Master de Lune is in charge of sorting the artifacts found underground, yes? And he has considered the divine rods to be of low value and ordered them to be left behind. Well, commander Fichte has ordered to secretly gather all the divine rods, all the ammunition that it can use, while setting aside a designated unit as well as a lot ot black and green-over-silver tips, for master de Lune's use."

"So what is your question?" Tiana asked. "Underground, master de Lune is in charge. However commander Fichte is in command of this whole area. Thus his word is final. Also you are not allowed to reveal this to master de Lune."

"Very well, mam."

Tiana continued rushing towards the exterior of the ruins. She reached aboveground just as the seven pegasae landed on the hard rock floor of the ruins.

Speaking of the external layout it had changed a lot from their nightly assault. Fichte was doing his utmost to turn it into a makeshift stronghold as his best speed. This meant that most of the valuable stuff was moved away from the floor of the massive ruin. On the floor itself thick black lines were drawn using magic to indicate the direction of the epicenter of the main chamber. This way, there was less of chance that any of the soldiers would stash valuable supplies on a ground that would most likely cave in once the charges were detonated. Luckily for them, the epicenter was not directly under the ruins but further up the mountain.

Of course, a large blood red command tent was set up. But Fichte himself was very likely not in it. Instead, he was setting up various countermeasures and arrays that only he could. Using the extremely corrosive and magically violent black blood of the demonic beasts. In a sense they were lucky: these had been bound beasts. If the beast had been unbound, then they would have been way more dangerous, both alive, but also in death, with their blood and bodies radiating off a powerful natural demonic aura.

Tiana rushed towards the flying horses which had landed in the middle of the stone floor. The soldiers doing their work paid little attention to this, having long since become accustomed to important people riding rare or strange beasts.

"Masters!" Tiana took a bow. "Tiana Orrenbach of the Fichte family, Vice-commander of the 77th magic batallion of Section 8 welcomes you."

"Hello. I am master Arandas of the Swordfish academy. This is master Julius, the quartermaster and vice-head of research at out local outpost." Arandas introduced himself and Anton.

"I am Arkon Brecht, external elder of the Section 8 at the imperial capital. These are the sorcerers I managed to bring along."

The men in bright orange robes gave a faint nod without saying anything.

Tiana said nothing, just kept smiling courteously, but inside, she had just barely managed to keep from flinching. Master of the Brecht family who had brought along sorcerers. While at the same thime they had a wounded collaborator downstairs who had clearly identified herself as the daughter of the Brecht family.

"Follow me, I will take you to the command tent. I will also notify Fichte."

"Lady Tiana, can you tell us about the situation?" Arandas asked.

"It is best if you spoke with the commander." She replied.

"I am only interested in master de Lune and his servant, Please, lady Tiana."

"Master de Lune is establishing a contingency at the main chamber. His servant is assisting him. The soldiers are removing every weapon and piece of ammunition and moving it aboveground under the instructions of master de Lune. Commander himself is personally setting up a defensive perimeter."

Tiana led the people into the blood red tent, and to her slight disappointment, Fichte was already there, overlooking a magically drawn perimeter map, which was laid out on a stone slab, acting as a makeshift table. She had expected him to be somewhere off setting up arrays so that she could approach him privately tell him of the situation.

"Masters Arandas and Julius, Master Arkon of the Brecht family and the sorcerers have arrived." Tiana introduced the guests.

"Welcome. I am glad you could make it." Fichte said warmly, "We are spread pretty thin here and time is of the essence."

"We at the Imperial Capital agree." Master Arkon replied. "Therefore this is only what I could grab along with a short notice. We have also dispatched an imperial battleship, which is making its way towards this location."

"Which one?" Fichte asked.

"The Vindicator."

"That's captain Richter ship. Well, he is a good soldier, even if he is an asshole." Fichte nodded.

He turned to Tiana. "Any updates?"

"Y-yes." She took a breath feeling relieved. She walked around the table, leaned closer in and as Fichte bowed slightly, she whispered in his ear.

"I see." He said. "Please return and bring it upstairs."

Tiana nodded and left the tent.

Fichte produced a wand.

This seemingly inconsequential act went unnoticed to Arandas, Anton and Arkon, but the sorcerers suddenly became apprehensive. Moments later, the air within the tent changed, with others noticing the strange undulations of magic.

"What is the meaning of this, Fichte!?" the leading sorcerer asked.

"That's what I would like to ask you." Fichte replied calmly. "I may not be a sorcerer myself, but that does not mean I have no measures to defend myself and my soldiers from the likes of you, restrict you or even wipe you all out. Therefore do not insult me by trying to escape.

Our asset determined that the object in the main chamber is important enough for the enemy to retreat, regroup and try to retake this place. I was ready for all kinds of different strategies, but to think one would try to infiltrate the area under the guise of being our reinforcements. That is novel."

"Have you gone mad?!" Arandas asked. "Fichte, you know us!"

"Yes, I do know you. But I don't know them." He pointed at the sorcerers. "And I definitely do not know this gentleman." He pointed at lord Arkon.

"You are lord Arkon Brecht, of the Brecht family, is that correct?" Fichte asked.

"Yes. And you do know me, Fichte! I am an elder of Section 8. Your superiors answer to me!" Lord Arkon was also losing his patience, but Fichte's next words chilled him.

"Therefore you should be aware of another member of the Brecht family. One Kristanna Helmine."

"She is my daughter."

"I know." Fichte said.

"If you knew, then why did you ask? What does my daughter have to do with anything!?"

Before Fichte could answer him, two large soldiers followed by Tiana entered, dragging along a young woman bound by her hands and feet. It took a few moments for people to take in her presence, considering both her haggard looks, the injured hand wrapped in cloth as well as a vacant gaze in her green eyes.

"Kristanna?"

This single prompt returned life to the woman's eyes, as she raised he face.

"Daddy! Help me please! Save me! Loot at what they've done to me!"

"What is the meaning of this! Release her right now!" Lord Arkon roared.

"Yeah, that's not gonna happen." Tiana replied.

"I said release her now!" The furious lord Arkon produced a want and pointed it at Tiana. "I do not know what game you are playing but this is unforgivable! I will make sure you are all executed for this!"

"Don't even bother, master Arkon." Fichte said. "I used the copious amounts of level 4 demonic beast blood to set up a dampening array. Other than me and my men, no other magic will trigger. Even sorcerers will have to spend quite a bit of time to solve it."

"As for your daughter, she colluded with a dark sect to take over a whole provincial town, enslaving all citizens and visitors, also magic soldiers or section 8, in order to use them to excavate otherworldly artifacts, which are used exclusively for war. Several of those artifacts hold power so terrible that even level 4 bound demonic beasts will only be ripped to pieces when confronted by it."'

"Daddy, they are lying! I was doing my research while they just burst in, destroyed my wand along with my hand!"

At that point the old sorcerer stepped forward and said in a quiet and calm voice.

"Master Arkon, I can detect two very distinct auras on her. The first one is that of level 4 demonic beasts, Spider Panthers to be exact."

"What's the other one?" Arkon asked.

"The faint magical aura of wands, dozens and dozens of wands."

"Wands? What use would she have for gathering so many wands?"

"There are some forbidden magicks, which use wands themselves as a power source.."

"You don't mean.."

"Destructive distillation. In any case, I advise you to stand down right now. This blood magic using demonic beast blood was created especially to counter sorcerers and would take some time and effort to dispel. Also, the soldiers here are unusually adept at using the artifact weapons, thus us escaping this place without great loss is unlikely."

Arkon took a look at his daughter and sighed.

"Honey, I will sort it all out. But not right now. Right now, you need to remain their prisoner. If they have hurt you unjustly, I will certainly make them pay."

At that moment, the people in the tent were joined by two other people. Two youngsters. They did not look like anything master Arkon had seen before. They wore no armor, no robes, no expensive clothes or even school uniforms. At first glance their clothing was simple with no ornaments whatsoever. But undoubtedly it was a uniform of some sort, with both of them wearing similarly placed straps around their bodies, with black metallic items on their hips. In addition, one of the young men was carrying a massive metal object on his back, nearly as tall as himself.

As soon as the young woman saw them, she got up on her feet and despite an injured hand rushed towards one of them. But before she could make her move, a well-placed right hook sent her to the floor, unconscious.

"YOU!!" Master Arkon yelled and tried to attack the young man as well, but was immediately stopped in his tracks by the sorcerers.

"Let me go, Bert!"

"Arkon." There sorcerer directed his friend's attention to something else entirely. At the moment, two black metallic artifacts which had been on the boys' hips were now pointed at him. Also, a female magic soldier was holding a blade across his neck, while an additional half a dozen swords were drawn and now pointed at him, never mind Fichte, who had a wand in each hand.

"Your artifacts don't scare me!" Arkon hissed angrily.

"They should," Tiana said. "Because those same artifacts liberated Coldwood and dispatched all level 4s."

"Arkon." Fichte said. "We have a massive crisis on our hands. Are you with me or with her?"

Master Arkon took another look at her daughter on the ground and then lowered his hands dejectedly.

"I am with you. Just don't hurt her anymore. She is a willful, but unexperienced in these matters."

Jack and Mike put their pistols away, while the soldiers picked up the unconscious Brecht girl. As they lifted her, something fell out from her good hand. A small dagger with an ornate redwood hilt.

"You are in luck, Master Arkon." Tiana sneered.

"How so?"

"Don't magic soldiers usually execute any attackers on the spot? Isn't that the rule you yourself are a proponent of?"

"Enough, Tiana." Fichte sternly interjected.

He turned towards Jack and put his wands away.

"How are things on your end?"

"The contingency plan is set up and can be executed at any time. I have given the men standing orders to execute if any outside attack is detected."

"Very good." Fichte gave a faint smile. "Now these gentlemen are here to assist us. Master Arandas and Anton you already know. This very combative one is Master Arkon, an elder of Section 8 at the Imperial Capital. And the ones in orange robes are master Bert and his squad of Imperial sorcerers."

"Can we trust them?" Jack asked.

"No," Fichte replied, "but they're the best we have, unless you can compel them to commit a larger force to this endeavor. You understand this matter the best out of any people in this room, so please, the floor is yours."

Jack sighed and joined Fichte on the other side of the stone table. He took a few minutes to compose himself and then started.

"What I am about to say, may not leave this tent. It may not be discussed in the open. As for the reasons why... you'll hear it quite soon. What the dark sect had discovered here, and what they were excavating was a collection of artifact weapons. It would seem from the architecture of the place that an entire section of an otherworldly military base, along with equipment has been rendered into this world. I cannot say by what mechanism, whether it was a gate, a spatial or temporal displacement. Whether is was technological or magical. In the end that does not matter.

What matters is that along with other more harmless equipment we have this."

Jack drew a crude drawing of an aerial bomb.

"A Mark-41 thermonuclear gravity bomb. With an estimated maximum yield of 25 megatons. But this one is even more dangerous, because I think the casing is damaged, so it is leaking radiation."

"What is radiation?" Master Arkon asked.

Jack sighed. Even the simplest matters and concepts which he had regarded as self-evident had gone out of the window along with the rest of the world he had known.

"In layman's terms it is a kind of invisible poisonous light. In small amounts it can make one ill, by altering small parts in your cells so that they grow uncontrollably, in larger amounts it can cook your skin off, along with other organs, and destroys your body's ability to replace cells. But the leak is not that severe, none of the soldiers I asked had come down with more severe symptoms or radiation poisoning."

"Still, the main problem is the bomb. Since none of you probably understand how much a megaton is, then let me take you through it. You should know what black powder is."

"It that explosive that is usually used in mundane fireworks." Anton said.

"So you do know. Explosive power of these weapons is measured in tons of TNT. I am not gonna explain in detail what TNT is, but it is also an explosive, about one and a half times as powerful as black powder, but it can release that energy at nearly ten times faster. Now 25 megatons means 25 million metric tons of TNT, or nearly 40 million metrics tons of black powder. Or 44 million of the tons you're used to."

"44 million tons?! But that exceeds the total black powder production in the Empire by at least tenfold! Just how big is that weapon!?" Arkon asked.

"About 12 feet in length, 4 feet in diameter, weighs about 11 000 pounds."

"The true problem is the damage it can cause." Jack continued. "The fireball alone would be 6 miles across. Within 4 miles, every building would be rubble, within 8 miles every wooden building would be rubble, Within 21 miles, every window would shatter, and within 25 miles, any person outside at the time would have their skin burnt off by the light emitted from the blast. It will raise an unfathomable amount of dirt and dust in the air, contaminate it all and rain it down hundreds of miles towards the direction of the wind, poisoning vast areas of land for years to come. It is very likely that anybody the cloud falls on, will die within ten years."

"And all this destruction is achieved without any magic?" Master Arkon asked.

"No magic whatsoever." Jack replied.

"That would mean, there would be no way to detect it in time." Arandas added.

"I think we need that airship." Master Arkon turned to the old sorcerer Bert.

"I sent the message a few minutes ago." Bert replied. "They will be he in half an hour."

"What is your proposal regarding this weapon?" Arkon asked. "Surely you must have some ideas how to make sure it does not fall into enemy hands."

"I do." Jack continued. "We bury it. We have set explosive charges all throughout the digsite and can detonate at once. After burying it, I recommend a fort be built top of it, with a permanent garrison. Also the ground should be somehow treated or enhanced with magic or other means to make any future attempts to uncover the weapon futile."

"I accept this proposal." Master Arkon replied.

"We must also find out how did they find the location at all. Unfortunately, your daughter is the only lead, as the only prisoner."

Before master Arkon could reply to him, a massive earthquake rocked the tent as well as the whole stone platform it was set on.

"Was that the..?" Arkon asked.

"The whole payload." Jack replied. "Which also means we may be in trouble."