-----E-----

Midhaven, a beautiful oasis with humans and lizards. The buildings that are closest to the walls were made out of sandstone and wood to support them. The ground there was mostly sand, but when we go deeper into town, the flora starts to show itself more. And there the buildings start to change from sandstone to more wooden structures, it was actually pretty cool to see the changes with the buildings when we go further into the town.

There were lizards helping humans bringing goods to their market and, of course, humans helping the lizards as well. There were many artifact hunters around, I saw a lizard with a full artifact armor and a rifle hanging to his side, glowing all yellow. Definitely a dynami you don‘t want to get on the bad side with.

„Where are we going again?“ Nia asked.

„We are just looking around, tomorrow we will continue going through the desert and up to the mountain.“

„To Oxy, right?“

Oxy, was a country that I heard and learned about in various taverns. It was a human country that has a few dynami around. They aren‘t like the Kingdom of Stratos, which enslaves the dynami, they are on friendly terms with them, except for, of course, the Dynami Empire. Oxy also have friendly relations with Stratos and Simul.

Mount Vallow, the mountain we are currently going towards, is in the middle of said country. There is no need for us to worry about Oxy, we aren‘t going towards any of their cities, it‘s just a straight line towards the mountain, once we finish crossing the desert. Thankfully the marker on my map isn‘t in the opposite of the mountain, if so, then we would have needed to go into cities, we would likely be fine when we have our ID‘s, not really Nia, though. She would have to wait outside the walls or try to find a way inside, which would likely cause more trouble.

We didn‘t do much around Midhaven, we just looked around, we did find The Artifact Hunters Guild here, and as I suspected, the leader of this guild is still Wilmer. Apparently, he has buildings in most of the cities in all friendly countries. In this guild building, lizards are allowed in, but because of Stratos hating the dynami, they aren‘t allowed to enter the guild there. The guild has been trying to convince Stratos to grant dynami artifact hunters permission to enter the country but to no avail.

We should be safe here for the night, I see no quest on the board about us, thankfully. I have no idea if Wilmer would go all the way to every country just to put up posters about us, I think it isn‘t worth his time, he might do it if he really loathed Nia that much.

While we were in the city, I have been thinking of one thing. And that is how I am going to ditch Vincent for good. I have been talking to everyone about leaving Vincent in secret. And thankfully no one objected.

„I don‘t care about him, he did have a quest to capture me before, remember?“ Nia said to me once I got a chance to talk alone with her in Midhaven.

Letya was the only one that didn‘t like the idea of leaving him, she doesn‘t know what he has done to make us all angry at him. After a long time of convincing her, she finally agreed.

Reve was fine going without Vincent, after all, he kinda screwed up Reve‘s work in Stratos. And Ivona didn‘t really like Vincent. Back when we were trying to get the tank for Wilmer, Ivona‘s people were there as slaves. And Vincent made Ivona angry when he said he wanted something for freeing her people. So Ivona was fine ditching him.

Vincent really needs to stop being an asshole to everyone. And he is likely not going to stop, that is just who he is.

We decided early in the morning to quickly and quietly leave Midhaven while Vincent was still asleep. I hope it will be the last time that I will see him. I have tried to make him my friend, even though he tricked me and tried to kill me. But he is still nothing but a bastard. I really shouldn‘t have told him about Mount Vallow. He will try to follow me, of course, because I am the only way back to where we came from. I just need to find a way to leave him again. And once we are done at Vallow, I am going to find the gemstone.

-----V-----

I put on my glove that was part of the blaster, then holstered the artifact itself. I wore my old jacket above the armor. Ethan and I still had the armor that we got in Dunwich, the armor that was made out of wolf scales.

I walked outside my room and glanced around the hallway, no one was around, except for some lizards chatting about.

„They must be downstairs, drinking,“ I muttered.

Once I was walking inside the tavern‘s bar, I didn‘t find the others. They might still be sleeping in their rooms, but I was sharing a room with Ethan and Reve, and they weren‘t there when I woke up. Their backpacks and other stuff were already gone.

Then the thought hit me.

„Ethan, you son of a bitch.“

I rushed outside, looking down the road with squinted eyes. Didn‘t find him or the others. Just the locals getting ready with their shops.

He actually left, so I was right. Back at Dunwich, he did make a different face when he said that he wouldn‘t leave me, it was the face of a liar. But I do know where they are going, Ethan was dumb enough to give me that information. Or he might have lied about Mount Vallow, likely not, his face was telling the truth about that.

I need to catch up with him until I truly lose his tracks. He is the only way off this rock. Amara might be behind him, waiting for the right moment to show herself. Or maybe. . .

I quickly bought an arachnid and immediately rode off into the desert, some of the locals told me that it would be dangerous for me to go alone in the desert because apparently there are giant worms that hunt down and eat humans, lizards, and animals that are alone. I didn‘t think much of it, I do after all have a blaster that can go through flesh easily.

Once I was far away from Midhaven, I jumped off of my arachnid and glanced around in all directions.

„Amara!“ I shouted. „I know you are here! Show yourself!“

I actually couldn‘t know for sure that she was around, but it was worth a try. After all, she likely has a tracker on me. When Letya said that she placed Nanos inside us to track us, it immediately gave me a thought that Amara might have one on me. I doubt that she has managed to place one on Ethan, but I could be wrong.

I waited a few seconds, then a few minutes. I shouted a few more times, but she didn‘t show herself.

I sighed and was about to continue to ride towards Mount Vallow when Amara finally appeared.

She appeared from thin air, around her the scenery wavered, her helmet that covered her head appeared first, then her body slowly came into view, it was like seeing through glass at first.

She had armor that could make her go invisible, of course, she has armor like that. But I didn‘t see what she used to ride on, maybe that as well was cloaked.

„Let me guess, you don‘t know where Ethan is?“ I asked.

She chuckled.

„Of course I know where he is.“

I noticed that she vaguely flickered a bit, or maybe it was just the desert screwing with me.

„Why are you then here if you know?“

„First of all, I want to ask something.“

I crossed my arms in annoyance.

„Fine, you first, my lady.“

„Why thank you, you‘re such a nice man.“

„Yeah yeah, whatever.“

„How come you managed to be tricked by Ethan?“

„I didn‘t get tricked, I knew that he was going to leave me at some point, and I really didn‘t care that much, I would eventually find him later on.“

„But if you didn‘t?“

„Then I would be in deep shit right now.“

„Oh honey, it would have been better to have your third eye open while asleep.“

I just gave out an „Aha“ and didn‘t think much of it. I am a human that needs sleep, I can‘t just waltz around while being sleep deprived, being well-rested is much better than being sluggish.

When she talked, she sounded like she was always flirting with her womanly charms. It really annoyed me. she did have the looks of a pretty lady, but with her hair gone and having robotic implants, you can just sign me out.

Once again, a vague flicker around her showed.

„Tell me now why you are still following me, and not Ethan.“

She sighed. „Vincent, I thought you would already figure that one out.“

She walked up to me, and once she got so close, I noticed something weird.

Her helmet was so close to my face, and she was going closer while I was slowly going backward, and then I found out what was going on.

I let her holographic body go through me, glitching and flickering. I couldn‘t feel a touch from her, because her real body wasn‘t here.

„You get it now?“ She backed off.

„I would have found out quicker if I wasn‘t in a desert, Tessera is quite blinding.“

So if she isn‘t here, then she really is behind Ethan right now. She wouldn‘t kill him, of course, she needed him.

„Why are you taking your time talking to me with that hologram?“

„I just got bored, Ethan and his party are just so slow. I wish that he finds the damn gemstone so I can finally go back to space!“

There was her anger, it was just deep inside her crazy mind.

„You are not going to help me I assume.“

„Of course not, even though you are a handsome guy, I‘m not going to waste my time helping you when it will only make things worse for me.“

„Makes sense, but I. . .“

All of a sudden I saw my arachnid start to get agitated. Amara noticed.

„Uh oh, someone is in trouble, well it was great having a handsome face around, but it appears the worms are near. If I were you, I would run.“

Her holographic form disappeared. And a slight rumble from the ground was starting to grow.

I pulled out my blaster, the arachnid dug into the sand, hiding from whatever it was.

„If the spiders are scared of them, then they really must be dangerous,“ I muttered.

I wasn‘t scared at all, I have faced countless of insects in my artifact hunting career. This was just the same.

The sand moved in front of me, and a giant worm that could eat me whole appeared out of the sand and jumped at me. Its length was unknown to me, the back end of it was still in the sand when it was only a few steps away from me.

I quickly fired a singular shot and dived to the right. I could see its fangs inside his gaping mouth, and once his head was about to hit the ground, it closed its mouth and looked more pointy to dig through the sand. Then I saw the back end spewing out the sand that was likely inside its body.

I fired many more rounds at it when it hopped at me again and again. Its flesh was getting burned by my weapon.

When it went underground and came up again, he didn‘t come up alone. The arachnid that dug into the sand was now on top of its head, furiously biting at it.

Maybe that is how the spiders kill them? To wait until one worm suddenly comes from beneath?

The worm alongside the spider went underground, I prepared myself to blast it into many bits until it died.

Then it rose back up, the spider and worm fighting and struggling at each other.

I unloaded my blaster with my explosive program at the worm. Its blood gushed out. It was noticeably getting weaker.

The spider was thrown away, then the worm started going the opposite direction from me. It was fleeing.

I gave out air, then began charging back my blaster with a zettra stone.

The arachnid walked up to me with scars that bled.

„He did a lot more to you then he did to me, I hope you recover soon, if not, then I might just die out here.“

The arachnid looked annoyed, maybe he understood me, or I am just going crazy because of this damn desert.