Burrowlane gathered to see them off.
Again.
Jax was beginning to suspect Rabbitkin could turn almost anything into a community event.
Weddings.
Trials.
Breakfast.
Departures.
Probably rain if someone brought enough food.
The Darquebane caravan waited near the edge of the family farm while the Vixens said their final goodbyes.
Arial hugged Aurabelle for what was probably the fourth time.
"Be careful."
"I will."
"And eat."
"Mom."
"And sleep."
"Mom."
"And don't—"
"Arial."
Jonathan's voice finally interrupted.
His wife looked toward him.
"What?"
"She's an S-Rank adventurer."
Arial folded her arms.
"She's also my daughter."
Jonathan considered that.
"...Continue."
Aurabelle laughed and hugged her mother again.
Nearby, Auron stood with several of his brothers.
His eyes occasionally drifted toward World Breaker.
He hadn't asked to hold it a second time.
Jax considered that evidence of personal growth.
Llandra checked their supplies.
Zee checked them again.
Nyxian walked toward the front of the caravan.
"Alright."
She stretched her arms.
"Let's get moving."
Darkness gathered around her feet.
Two enormous shapes began rising from the shadows.
Hooves struck dirt.
Muscle formed beneath blackened hides.
Curved horns emerged.
Then—
Grim and Steed stood before the caravan.
The two massive Shadow Bulls snorted clouds of dark mist into the morning air.
Several family members stepped backward.
Others moved closer.
The people who had seen the caravan arrive several days earlier recognized the creatures immediately.
Many others didn't.
Jonathan watched as Nyxian calmly guided the two bulls toward the front of the caravan.
They moved into position.
Shadowy harnesses formed around them.
Leather and darkness intertwined.
A moment later...
Both enormous beasts stood ready to pull.
Jonathan stared.
Then looked toward Nyxian.
"Heck of some useful magic you got there."
Nyxian smiled.
"Yeah."
She patted Grim's side.
"I learned it from Jax."
Jonathan's eyebrow rose.
His eyes shifted toward Jax.
Jax was loading the final supply crate.
Jonathan looked back toward Nyxian.
Then Jax.
Then his daughter.
Aurabelle recognized the expression.
"Oh, don't start."
Jonathan smiled.
"I didn't say anything."
"You were thinking."
Jax looked over.
"See? She does that to me too."
Jonathan laughed.
"I like him more every day."
"Great."
Aurabelle climbed aboard.
"Can we go fight monsters now?"
Arial sighed.
"She says that like she's going shopping."
Nyxian climbed in behind her.
"With us, there isn't much difference."
The doors closed.
Grim and Steed began moving.
And the Darquebane caravan rolled north.
The first several miles were easy.
Burrowlane disappeared behind rolling farmland.
Fields stretched toward the horizon.
Fences divided enormous patches of crops.
Farmers occasionally stopped working to watch the unusual caravan pass.
Children waved.
Aurabelle waved back enthusiastically.
Then the farms began disappearing.
Trees replaced them.
The road narrowed.
Packed dirt became loose stone.
Loose stone became two increasingly questionable ruts.
Outside...
Grim and Steed slowed.
Their massive hooves dug into uneven ground.
The caravan tilted as one wheel passed through a deep rut.
Then—
The dimensional enchantments compensated.
The interior barely moved.
Inside...
Nobody cared.
The Darquebane caravan was considerably larger on the inside than anything its exterior dimensions should have allowed.
A comfortable sitting room occupied the central space.
Bedrooms waited farther back.
A kitchen filled one side.
Storage occupied another.
Jax stood at the counter preparing lunch.
Behind him...
Aurabelle was being interrogated.
Nyxian stared at her.
"You fell asleep?"
Aurabelle folded her arms.
"No."
"You absolutely did."
"I did not."
Llandra sat nearby with a cup of tea.
"You told us you did."
Aurabelle looked betrayed.
"Whose side are you on?"
"The truth."
Nyxian leaned forward.
"While on top?"
Aurabelle's ears flattened.
Zee immediately found something extremely interesting on the other side of the room.
Aurabelle lifted her chin.
"I prefer to say..."
She paused with great dignity.
"...I passed out after overstimulation."
Nyxian stared at her.
Llandra lowered her tea.
Zee's shoulders began shaking.
Then all three lost it.
Aurabelle pointed accusingly.
"You're all terrible."
Nyxian wiped a tear at one eye.
"No, no."
She tried to regain control.
"That's much better."
"It is!"
"Absolutely."
Nyxian nodded solemnly.
"Very dignified."
Aurabelle looked toward the kitchen.
"Jax."
He continued slicing vegetables.
"No."
"You don't even know what I was going to ask."
"Whatever it is..."
He moved several pieces into a skillet.
"...I'm not getting involved."
Aurabelle stared.
"You're my husband."
"Which is exactly why I'm not getting involved."
Llandra nodded approvingly.
"He's learning."
Nyxian smiled.
"Marriage has made him wiser."
Jax ignored them.
Lunch required his attention.
And offered plausible deniability.
Outside...
The road became worse.
Grim pulled harder.
Steed shifted around a protruding section of stone.
One wheel briefly left the ground.
Inside...
Jax sprinkled herbs across lunch.
Aurabelle stole a piece.
He slapped her hand away.
She stole another.
The caravan continued north.
A soft chime sounded through the room.
Everyone stopped.
Aurabelle's ears rose.
Jax looked toward the front.
"That's them."
Nyxian stood.
Grim and Steed had developed several simple signals over the past year.
Different movements through their magical harnesses translated into alerts inside the caravan.
Obstruction.
Danger.
Destination.
This one was familiar.
They were close.
Jax lowered the heat beneath the skillet.
"Looks like lunch is going to wait."
Aurabelle immediately stole one last piece.
"You could have put that on a plate."
"It tastes better stolen."
"That's not how cooking works."
"It is now."
The Vixens began gathering their equipment.
The mood changed.
Not dramatically.
No fear.
No nervous silence.
Just focus.
They'd done this too many times.
Llandra lifted Starpiercer.
Zee took Sanctaris.
Nyxian secured Lilith's Kiss.
Aurabelle picked up World Breaker.
Jax reached for Peacemaker.
Then they stepped outside.
The first thing Jax noticed...
Was the carriages.
"Whoa."
Nearly twenty of them.
The clearing beneath the mountain looked like a graveyard for failed expeditions.
Old wagons sat scattered across the rocky terrain.
Some were little more than rotting frames.
Others remained mostly intact.
One rested on its side with both wheels missing.
Another had been stripped almost completely.
Several still contained crates.
Weathered tents remained collapsed beside old fire pits.
Harnesses hung from wooden frames.
One carriage had a rusted sword wedged between the seats.
Another still had cookware hanging from its side.
The forest had begun reclaiming several of them.
Weeds grew through wheels.
Vines crawled across doors.
Moss covered roofs.
Nyxian stepped down.
"Well..."
She looked across the clearing.
"...that's inviting."
Echo lifted his head from around her neck.
His nose twitched.
He stared toward the mountain.
Then burrowed closer against Nyxian.
She scratched behind his ears.
"You're not helping."
Aurabelle walked slowly among the abandoned wagons.
Her excitement had dimmed.
"This is why people stopped coming."
Llandra joined her.
"All of these belonged to adventurers?"
"Most of them."
Aurabelle pointed toward the oldest remains.
"Some have probably been here longer than I've been alive."
Zee frowned.
"Nobody recovered them?"
"At first."
Aurabelle pointed toward several stripped wagons.
"People took anything valuable."
"Wheels."
"Tools."
"Supplies."
"But eventually..."
She looked toward the cave.
"...people started wondering whether whatever killed everyone inside might eventually come out."
Nyxian nodded.
"That would significantly reduce my interest in free wagon parts."
Jax opened the door of one abandoned carriage.
Empty.
Another still contained two bedrolls.
A cooking kit.
Several ruined bags of provisions.
Personal belongings.
He frowned.
"They left everything."
Aurabelle nodded.
"That's the story."
Jax looked toward the cave.
"Nobody comes back."
"No one anyone knows about."
Llandra studied the clearing.
"No bodies."
"Not here."
That distinction mattered.
Jax closed the carriage door.
Then looked toward the mountain.
The entrance itself was surprisingly ordinary.
A broad opening in dark stone.
No enormous magical gateway.
No warning.
No bones piled outside.
Just darkness.
And cold air drifting gently from within.
Zee stopped.
Her expression changed.
Sanctaris reacted before she deliberately called upon it.
A faint glow traveled along the staff.
Llandra noticed.
"Zee?"
She raised one hand.
"Wait."
Everyone did.
Zee closed her eyes.
Mana spread outward.
Testing.
Feeling.
Searching.
Her brow furrowed.
"A-Rank."
Aurabelle blinked.
"That's it?"
Zee opened one eye.
"That's it?"
Aurabelle shrugged.
"We're S-Rank."
Nyxian smiled.
"Our little hammer has gotten confident."
Aurabelle rested World Breaker against one shoulder.
"I know what I can do now."
Llandra looked at her.
A small smile appeared.
"So do I."
Zee's attention remained on the cave.
"But..."
Jax looked toward her.
"There it is."
"What?"
"I don't know."
Nyxian sighed.
"Never comforting."
Zee stepped closer.
"The mana is..."
She stopped.
Tried again.
"Wrong."
Jax's expression sharpened.
"Wrong how?"
"I can't tell."
She slowly moved Sanctaris through the air.
"It's definitely A-Rank."
"The energy inside is powerful, but nothing we shouldn't be able to handle."
"But there's something layered over it."
"Spatial magic?"
"Maybe."
She frowned.
"Something else too."
Jax approached.
The System responded.
RAID CAVE DETECTED
ESTIMATED CLASSIFICATION: A-RANK
STATUS: ACTIVE
SPATIAL DISTORTION DETECTED
TEMPORAL SIGNATURE: UNRESOLVED
Jax read the final line again.
"Temporal."
Zee nodded immediately.
"That's it."
"You can feel it?"
"I can feel something."
She looked annoyed by her inability to explain it.
"Almost like the magic isn't flowing correctly."
Nyxian looked into the darkness.
"Would anyone object if we decided this was fascinating and went home?"
Aurabelle raised her hand.
"I object."
Llandra raised hers.
"So do I."
Zee sighed.
"Me too."
Nyxian looked toward Jax.
He smiled.
"Four to one."
"I hate democracy."
Jax stepped toward the shadows beneath the trees.
"Let's bring some insurance."
Darkness moved.
Warden emerged first.
The armored knight rose to his full height.
Shield ready.
Sword resting at his side.
His crimson cape settled behind him.
"My liege."
"Raid Cave."
Warden turned toward the entrance.
"Understood, my liege."
Gryph emerged next.
The great gryphon spread his wings.
Fang followed, his enormous serpentine body sliding silently across the ground.
Then came the others.
Knights.
Mages.
Wolves.
Several creatures collected from earlier raids.
Approximately twenty shadows assembled around them.
Nyxian stepped forward.
Grim and Steed dissolved from their harnesses outside the caravan.
Moments later...
The two Shadow Bulls rose again beside her.
Echo remained wrapped comfortably around her neck.
Aurabelle looked around.
"We really don't travel light anymore."
Jax smiled.
"I like options."
Llandra stepped forward.
Starpiercer rested easily in her hand.
Her eyes moved across their force.
Warden.
Gryph.
Fang.
The wolves.
Knights.
Mages.
Grim.
Steed.
The Vixens.
Jax.
She nodded.
"This should be enough."
There was no uncertainty in her voice.
Jax noticed.
So did Aurabelle.
The woman who once wondered whether every victory had been luck...
Was gone.
This Llandra assessed an A-Rank Raid Cave and decided they had brought enough.
Jax smiled.
"I agree."
Llandra took the lead.
Warden immediately moved several paces ahead of her.
Two wolves spread toward the flanks.
The mages remained farther back.
Gryph folded his wings tightly enough to maneuver through the entrance.
Fang slithered beside the wall.
The formation happened almost automatically.
Zee noticed.
"Warden."
Jax nodded.
"Looks like it."
Nyxian smiled.
"Someone enjoys his job."
Warden turned.
"My duty is my purpose."
Nyxian blinked.
"...See?"
Jax shook his head.
"Don't encourage him."
"My liege?"
"Nothing."
"Understood, my liege."
Aurabelle laughed.
Then...
They crossed into the Raid Cave.
Cold greeted them immediately.
The temperature dropped several degrees within the first few steps.
Their equipment responded.
Warmth spread through their armor.
Not enough to feel heated.
Just...
Comfortable.
Aurabelle smiled.
"Oh, that's nice."
Zee ran her fingers along Sanctaris.
"Temperature regulation."
Nyxian looked back toward the sunlight outside.
Then stopped.
Jax nearly walked into her.
"What?"
She pointed.
"The entrance."
Jax turned.
At first...
He didn't understand.
The opening remained behind them.
Same size.
Same shape.
Sunlight poured through.
Trees were visible.
Everything looked normal.
Almost.
Jax's eyes narrowed.
The magical signature had changed.
From inside...
The exit felt different.
He stepped closer.
Zee followed.
"You feel it too?"
"No."
Jax examined the opening.
"But the System does."
RAID EXIT DETECTED
SPATIAL DISPLACEMENT ACTIVE
Jax stared.
"That's interesting."
Llandra immediately looked toward him.
"I don't like that voice."
"What voice?"
"The voice you use immediately before doing something."
Jax smiled.
"I just want to check something."
Aurabelle folded her arms.
"Jax."
"I'll be right back."
"You don't know that."
"Technically true."
Nyxian pointed toward him.
"I want it officially recorded that this is a terrible idea."
"Second objection noted."
Jax summoned another shadow wolf.
It appeared beside him.
He pointed toward the floor.
"Stay."
The wolf sat.
Jax looked toward the Vixens.
"If anything happens..."
He pointed toward it.
"I have my way back."
Llandra sighed.
"Thirty seconds."
"That's very specific."
"Thirty."
Jax stepped backward.
Through the entrance.
And vanished.
Sunlight struck his face.
Jax stopped.
"...Huh."
No carriages.
No caravan.
No Vixens.
No Burrowlane hills.
He stood halfway up a mountain.
A very large mountain.
Wind whipped against his clothing.
Far below...
An enormous valley stretched toward a distant mountain range.
Jax slowly turned around.
The Raid Cave entrance remained behind him.
Same stone.
Same darkness.
Completely different mountain.
He looked toward the sky.
Then toward the sun.
His smile disappeared.
The angle was wrong.
Very wrong.
Jax had spent enough time traveling the continent to recognize what that meant.
He checked his map.
Then stared at it.
"...No way."
He expanded it.
Checked again.
The Raid Cave had moved him...
Across almost the entire continent.
Jax looked toward the distant landscape.
Then back toward the entrance.
And suddenly...
Twenty abandoned carriages made considerably more sense.
Adventurers entered.
They fought.
They reached the point where they couldn't continue.
So they retreated.
They walked back through the entrance...
And emerged thousands of miles from where they'd begun.
Their carriage?
Gone.
Their supplies?
Gone.
Their home?
Possibly weeks or months away.
Some probably never returned.
Others might never have figured out exactly where they'd been transported.
Jax laughed.
"The cave where nobody comes back."
He shook his head.
"Because going back would suck."
The mountain wind answered.
Jax raised one hand.
"Shadow Swap."
Darkness consumed him.
Inside the Raid Cave...
The wolf disappeared.
Jax emerged in its place.
Aurabelle immediately looked toward him.
"Four Minutes and twenty two seconds."
Jax blinked.
"You counted?"
"Of course I counted."
Nyxian smiled.
"She was going to get angry at Five Minutes."
"I was."
Jax looked toward the empty space where the wolf had been.
Then summoned it again.
Darkness gathered.
The same wolf emerged beside him.
Aurabelle pointed toward the entrance.
"Well?"
Jax smiled.
"The good news..."
"People probably survived this cave."
Zee's eyes widened.
"The bad news?"
"They came out on the other side of the continent."
Silence.
Nyxian stared at him.
"The other side of the..."
"Pretty much."
Llandra immediately understood.
"The carriages."
Jax nodded.
"Some of those adventurers probably escaped."
"They just didn't come back."
Aurabelle looked toward the sunlight.
"That's why nobody ever sees them."
"At least some of them."
Zee looked deeper into the cave.
"Some."
Jax nodded.
"The cave's reputation is exaggerated."
He looked into the darkness ahead.
"But we don't know by how much."
Llandra raised Starpiercer.
"Then we find out."
They went deeper.
The sunlight disappeared behind them.
Stone narrowed around the party.
Ice began appearing along the walls.
First...
Thin patches.
Then entire sections of rock coated in frost.
The cold intensified.
Their armor quietly compensated.
Aurabelle touched the frozen wall.
Then looked down at herself.
"I don't feel anything."
"Neither do I," Zee replied.
Nyxian smiled.
"It feels like a nice spring afternoon."
Jax nodded.
"Brannic and Merriweather did good work."
"Again."
Llandra continued forward.
Warden remained ahead.
Shield raised.
Then—
He stopped.
One fist rose.
The entire formation froze.
Something moved beyond the next bend.
A growl echoed through the cavern.
Low.
Then another.
Then five more.
Blue eyes appeared in the darkness.
Ice-covered wolves stepped into view.
Larger than ordinary wolves.
Their fur looked almost crystalline.
Frost rolled from their mouths with every breath.
Aurabelle smiled.
"Finally."
The first wolf charged.
Warden didn't move.
Instead...
One of Jax's shadow wolves rushed forward.
The two collided.
Claws tore across darkness.
Ice spread instantly across the shadow's shoulder.
Zee's eyes widened.
"Freezing effect."
A second ice wolf attacked.
Then a third.
Jax watched.
Learning.
The shadow wolf deliberately took another strike.
Ice spread farther across its body.
"Interesting."
Aurabelle looked at him.
"It's freezing solid."
"I know."
"Should we help?"
"Not yet."
The shadow collapsed beneath the pack.
Then—
Warden moved.
His shield struck the first ice wolf hard enough to send it into the wall.
Llandra's arrow passed over his shoulder.
Straight through its eye.
Nyxian's whip wrapped around the second wolf's hind legs.
She pulled.
The creature crashed sideways.
Grim charged.
The Shadow Bull hit it like a battering ram.
Aurabelle stepped toward the third.
World Breaker moved.
Once.
The wolf ceased being a tactical concern.
It embedded halfway into the cavern wall.
Aurabelle stared.
Then slowly looked toward her hammer.
Nyxian looked at the crater.
Then Aurabelle.
"Was that necessary?"
Aurabelle smiled.
"Yes."
The remaining creatures attacked.
Zee raised one hand.
A lunging wolf stopped in midair.
Telekinesis caught it.
She twisted her wrist.
The creature slammed into the ceiling.
Fang struck another.
His bite held it in place while a shadow knight drove its sword through the creature's chest.
Gryph took the last.
Claws closed around its back.
One violent movement ended the fight.
Silence returned.
Aurabelle rested World Breaker over her shoulder.
"That was A-Rank?"
Llandra looked farther down the tunnel.
"That was the entrance."
Aurabelle's smile widened.
"Good."
They continued.
The cave became larger.
And colder.
New creatures appeared.
Crystal-backed lizards fired shards of ice from walls.
Warden blocked the first volley.
Zee redirected the second.
Llandra destroyed the creatures before they could launch a third.
Winged beasts attacked from above.
Gryph intercepted them.
Nyxian dragged another from the ceiling with Lilith's Kiss.
Aurabelle crushed anything unfortunate enough to reach the ground.
Jax mostly watched.
Not because he wasn't needed.
Because he was learning.
How the creatures attacked.
How the cave reacted.
What effects carried through armor.
What Warden could block.
What Zee could redirect.
How the upgraded weapons performed.
And how much stronger the Vixens had become.
They weren't the struggling adventuring party he'd first met.
Not anymore.
Hours into the raid...
Warden stopped again.
This time...
Nobody needed him to explain why.
Bones rested against the wall.
Human.
Three bodies.
Long dead.
Their armor had rusted.
One still held the remains of a sword.
Another skeleton lay near a shattered shield.
The third had collapsed against the wall.
Ice covered half its remains.
The humor disappeared.
Aurabelle stared.
"So..."
Zee spoke quietly.
"...not everyone escaped."
"No."
Jax walked closer.
Marks covered the walls.
Sword strikes.
Claw marks.
Old blood.
A desperate fight.
One these adventurers had lost.
Llandra looked toward the darkness ahead.
"The reputation isn't entirely exaggerated."
Jax nodded.
"No."
He looked back toward the bones.
Then toward the path ahead.
"Some people found the exit."
"Some people didn't."
Aurabelle tightened her grip around World Breaker.
She wasn't smiling now.
But she wasn't afraid either.
"We're not leaving them here forever."
Jax looked toward her.
"What do you mean?"
"When we're finished."
She nodded toward the remains.
"We tell Burrowlane."
Zee immediately understood.
"So their families can come for them."
"If they have families left."
Aurabelle nodded.
"Someone should know what happened."
Jax smiled softly.
"Agreed."
Llandra stepped forward.
She raised Starpiercer.
The others followed.
Behind them...
The mystery of the abandoned carriages had finally begun to make sense.
Ahead...
The temperature continued falling.
Ice thickened along the walls.
And somewhere much deeper beneath the mountain...
Something enormous roared.
The sound traveled through the stone.
World Breaker vibrated faintly in Aurabelle's hands.
Everyone stopped.
Nyxian looked into the darkness.
"That..."
She tightened her grip around Lilith's Kiss.
"...didn't sound like a wolf."
Aurabelle's ears slowly rose.
Her smile returned.
"No."
She lifted World Breaker onto her shoulder.
"It didn't."
Warden raised his shield.
Llandra drew another arrow.
Zee's staff began to glow.
Jax looked toward the frozen darkness ahead.
The cave where nobody returned from...
Had finally met a party that had no intention of turning around.