Eila and the remaining passengers and crew gathered at the balcony of the Serenity. Clearly, Tristan and the pirate captain had fought here; signs of battle were everywhere, and a portion of the railing had been broken through.

That was a minor thought in the current situation, however. In front of them was their ticket off this airship—the Scapegoat, the pirate’s ship.

Blocking the gangplank were three pirates with their decks out. They didn’t seem as confident fighting wise as the others had been, however. They were only Apprentice, and all three were much older than the pirates who had boarded the ship.

Behind them at the end of the gangplank was another older, graying pirate. At his feet was a large violet box like a safe, but the inside of it was swirling in a vortex of Chaos energy. The pirate held a card to it like a hostage.

“Take one step,” the pirate warned, “and we’ll all be meeting our maker soon enough.”

Beside her, Rivingtol cursed. “That’s a [Warpbox],” he said, and anxious murmurs spread through the group.

Eila’s heart sank. She didn’t recognize it at first, but she of course knew what a [Warpbox] was. A highly volatile matrix that allowed instantaneous transportation of cards across large distances. If it was damaged, it would create a massive black hole that sucked in everything around it.

Why in Nyx’s cloak was one aboard the Serenity? Had the pirates brought it aboard as a fail-safe?

“What do we do?” asked the tall, dark-skinned man from the dining room earlier. Eila learned his name was Lidio.

Rivingtol didn’t answer. Eila could see in his face the impossibility of the situation. If the pirate followed through on his threat, they were all dead. But if they didn’t do anything, the pirate captain could return.

That would mean Tristan had lost.

Someone in the group snarled and stepped forward, and the pirate with the [Warpbox] thrust his card closer to it.

“Don’t move!” Rivingtol snapped. “We can talk this through. You pirates. Are you really willing to die for this? Die for a captain who’s willing to use your lives as a bargaining card?”

The three pirates in front of the gangplank looked uncertain. But the older one at the back just sneered.

“You fools have no idea what you’re talking about,” he barked. “The Cap’n is cruel, but she’s fair. She takes care of her own.” His eyes flickered to something past the group, and a wide, smug smile stretched his face. He nodded at the back of the balcony. “Case in point.”

“Oh gods,” said someone at the back of the group. “She’s here. The captain’s here!”

Eila turned around, a wave of dread and denial washing over her.

Flying down towards them from the fifth floor hall was the [Sky Wyrm] with Dennier on its back.

Tristan had lost.

—🃁—

Senior Engineer Vero had dreams of being a valiant cardbearer when she was young. Like every child from her generation, she had grown up on stories of heroic cardbearers like Ilyana Dragonsbane, who reached Master at the age of 13 and cleared the [Drakean Dominion] plaguing her homeland. Those stories had nurtured her like spring water to a seed, and upon the age of sixteen, she set out as a fresh Novice to stake her own place in cardbearer history.

She still remembered that first monster she encountered. An [Infiltrator Vineling], a Novice monster on Majerno, one of the eight beginner islands surrounding the Continent. The monster was a greenish, coconut-sized bulb with teeth that stretched out thin vines for easy prey to swallow up.

She likely could’ve just stepped on the thing and killed it, or smashed it with a rock. Instead, she’d turned, fled, and booked the first airship back home. The moment she saw that monster, she knew she wasn’t the type of person the playwrights immortalized in the grand theaters of Elegos, the capital city of the Continent.

She’d spent some years wandering, doing odd jobs here and there. Then, she’d heard of a training camp hosted by the Crystal Guild, and with nothing better on the horizon, she’d used the last of her chips to join.

There, Vero found her place. She found her calling, her purpose. She might never be an Ilyana, a legend, but that was okay. She worked hard, studied, and advanced through the ranks in her own way.

A clearer memory than that first monster was when she was hired to run the crystals on the Serenity. She had been presented with her own team of younger engineers to mentor and guide, to teach.

Mejo. Burnwood. Peony. Eliver. Postyn.

All dead. Killed by the pirates. They’d tied her up and threw her into their ship afterwards, laughing at her tears, barking at her to shut up. Dismissed her as a threat, for she was a woman of 58 now with no fire in her eyes.

They were wrong.

Outside the ship, she could hear the former hostages of the Serenity shouting. It sounded like the captain had returned.

Good.

Vero stood up, using one of the chairs bolted into this boarding chamber to offset her tied arms and legs. Her joints popped and ached, but it didn’t bother her anymore.

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Standing at the entrance to the ship was the pirate. An older man her age, who the others called Duro. Underneath him, the [Warpbox], vibrating ominously. The pirate was casting cards outside, bellowing nonsensically.

I’m sorry, my students, Vero thought. I couldn’t save you. But I can avenge you.

With a silent scream, Vero rushed at the pirate.

—🃁

—

Eila had to shove down that voice inside her screaming that Tristan was dead. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be able to move, to dodge the [Sky Wyrm] as it unleashed its breath skill.

She ran to the side as the monster let loose a concentrated ray of Air energy. It cut through the balcony decking like a hot knife through butter, and the former hostage scattered. A few returned casts at the monster, but it effortlessly dodged and turned the breath towards them.

The moment the skill hit them, they simply burst apart. A person accidentally triggered the Trap Dennier had set, and the analytical part of her recognized it as [Fulfill: Disassemble] as that person and a few unlucky ones nearby simply fell apart, their limbs separating from their bodies.

At this point, Eila was numb. Numb to death and wanton carnage. If she survived, she would deal with the ramifications afterwards.

Backing up to get a better angle, she cast a [Water Bolt] at the pirate’s head. Somehow, it managed to cut through all the chaos and strike her on the cheek.

There was no [Armor] there. Tristan must’ve managed to do that. But the Attack was too weak to do more than leave a red mark.

Dennier turned her head in Eila’s direction, murder in her eyes. Then, she gave a wide, frightening smile, and Eila knew she recognized her. Eila backed up, her legs suddenly weak, and her back bumped against the railing.

A flicker of movement from the Scapegoat drew her and Dennier’s attention. The pirate captain’s eyes went wide.

“Duro!” she shouted. “Behind you!”

Eila turned and saw an older woman in a lab coat, arms and legs tied, tackle into the pirate at the doorway. The man grunted, spinning about, and the two plummeted off the gangplank.

The [Warpbox] fell down with them.

A strange moment of surreal calm descended on Eila. She watched with disbelieving eyes as the [Warpbox] dropped through the air, tumbling around, becoming a distant violet speck that hit the airshield at the very bottom of the Serenity.

Silence.

Then, it exploded.

—🃁—

The moment the Field card’s duration hit 30 seconds, Tristan was already climbing up the ladder at the end of the room. He figured that Dennier had just turned around, not willing to step into the Trap he’d clearly set up for her. He couldn’t go back through the Field though, as she might’ve set Traps for him.

Sweating from the nerve of anticipating Dennier’s arrival, he quickly ascended the ladder and popped open the hatch.

He entered into a long access shaft that seemed to curve around the hull of the Serenity

. There were little carts here set behind slits in the wall; a closer look revealed that these were where the used [Item Cards] went for later re-use. There was another ladder here that led up to another shaft, presumably to the Topaz floor, and another ladder up to the Sapphire and so on.

He was climbing when an unnatural shriek pierced his ears.

A horrifying shudder ran through the Serenity.

Then, the floor beneath him tore away. A loud boom rumbled in the air as the airship depressurized. Tristan yelped and clung tighter to the ladder as the whole bottom of the Serenity simply sheared away from the rest of the ship. The ship groaned louder as screaming, icy cold wind rushed into the now exposed bottom layer, the ladder in his hands rattling uncomfortably loud.

Tristan looked down and saw hell.

At the very bottom of the Serenity’s airship was a gaping violet vortex. It swirled like a whirlpool, tendrils of Chaos energy greedily sucking in bits and pieces of the airship. He watched in horrified confusion, his hair whipping about him, as the multiple receptionist's desks from the lobby got swallowed up in that maelstrom.

Without a warning, the vortex simply vanished. Refuse from the now-gutted Serenity tumbled down like the leaking entrails of some giant beast. The entire bottom portion of the airshield was open to the elements, and the wind rushed in. Severe cold set Tristan’s teeth chattering, though thankfully the still intact portions of the airshield must have kept some level of pressurization as the cold was the worst of the effects. He wasn’t exactly sure what sudden de-pressurization did, but he knew it couldn’t be good.

Something went horribly wrong that was clear. He had no idea what caused the vortex to appear, but at least it seemed to be over.

An awful popping sensation rang his ears, followed by a nauseating sensation of vertigo in his guts.

The Serenity began to drop.

Tristan clung to the aggressively shaking ladder, alternating between praying to and cursing every god in this world. Gritting his teeth, his hair flapping about him—he really needed to get a haircut—he looked up and used his final activation of {Darklink}. Peeling one arm off the ladder, he pulled his last cast of [Midnight Javelin] and curve-cast it high.

The powerful Adept Attack thankfully was unimpeded by the rushing wind. It tore through the air and landed right on the wall of the access shaft on the Sapphire floor.

Taking a deep breath, Tristan jumped off, turned mid-air, and pulled [Backstep] before reactivating {Darklink}. He blinked to the spot and cast the card, plunging through the other side.

Neat trick, that, he thought, getting to his feet. He ran to a door a little ahead, the whole shaft rattling beneath his feet. A close cast of [Dark Kunai] took care of the lock, and he burst through into an employee breakroom, judging by the look of it.

He quickly went through and out into the Sapphire floor. The Serenity groaned around him, shuddering, and he tore through the hallways until he found one of the corridors that led to the [Teleport Stone].

Summoning his [Binder], he pulled out the [Employee Access Key].

Praying the damaged ship didn’t somehow affect teleporting, he set the key to the fifth floor and pressed it against the crystal.