II.

July 15th, 4018-B, Outside Delth's Cave

It was a hot day, and the sun shone straight down. Delth was hiding out in a cave tucked away in a remote area of a patch of forest. The trees were thick here, and the geography was rough, with steep hills and cliffs. Without the book we never would've found where he was, and even with it we had taken longer than expected to reach him, it being just afternoon now. The leaves were very dense overhead, and with the light barely peeking through, it looked later in the day than it really was. Small bugs and mites crawled and buzzed through the air round us as we stood outside the cave.

Our approach here was essentially the same as it was to our first meeting with Zsuius. It was a very similar location, and we'd do much the same things, this time with better execution. In that first meeting, Zsuius had heard us before we arrived, but in our second meeting he'd taught us how to walk silently (first step down on the ball of your foot, then slowly bring your toes down after). We had also been noticably out of our depth. This was still the case somewhat, but the extra time and experience had made it less blatant and severe. Matt and I looked perfectly natural holding our rifles - Sef was shaking as she held hers, and trying to calm herself down. She likely wouldn't be firing the gun, but just holding it to intimidate. Finally, we'd had no real plan or idea of what we were getting into, and now we had both. We would sneak into the cave, hold Delth at gunpoint, interrogate him for information on Cardo and their organization, and kill him if need be, as it likely would. We were confident and ready.

Well, of course, we weren't actually confident or ready at all. We'd been standing outside the entrance to Delth's hideout for about ten minutes now trying to steel our nerves. Between all the extra time we'd had to get in our own heads and that last incident with Bolthro, we were actually more nervous now than at the start of all this. I took in a deep breath as we entered the cave. We'd just have to manage.

The cave was dark, and the air was cool. There were no lights, so we traced our path by keeping one hand against the wall. We walked slowly and deliberately. While searching around the location we had discovered a second path inside and decided to split up - Matt and I through the front, Sef and M-Bot through the back. By their account, the back path was straight-ahead and well-lit; presumably, the front path was made deliberately inaccessible and unassuming. Our path was quite long, and it took us several minutes before we arrived into the actual home.

The living space was small, but it was much more comfortable and furnished than Zsuius' cave-home. We had arrived into a coldly lit and professional-looking room, which had a stone-panelled floor, plated gray steel walls, full bookshelves, two desks with several chairs, and some miscellaneous pieces of technology. Most notably was a black square built into the center of the floor, giving off a low and quiet hum. The room was empty, and we stood besides the closed door.

I very slowly cracked open the door, careful not to make any noise, and peeked through. This room was a little larger, but more crowded. It was a casual living room, with a wooden floor, a rug, and two couches positioned around a heater, currently turned off. It was warmly lit, and the only indication of its circumstance was the lack of windows. There was an attached kitchen with a refridgerator and sink, two very high-tech and expensive appliances. A lot of us had them back in our old town, but we were using old ones which floated to us from the city across the sea, not new ones like these. There was also a small bathroom, the third room in the house. From the other side of the room, we could see Sefgh and M-Bot already getting into position. Delth was sat on one of the couches, facing away from them and towards us, watching a documentary on the television. I opened the door and walked in, pointing my gun, Matt following behind and the other team silently walking up behind him. Delth looked middle-aged, maybe in his 50s, with short graying hair and a squat face. He wore expensive-looking but slightly ragged black clothes and a watch. He had a solid, short build and rash red skin, like he was perpetually enraged. He had a glass eye and a gold tooth, and leaned forward intently at the screen. I cleared my throat, and he looked up in shock, quickly trying to get up and run before Matt spoke.

"Don't wanna do that, Delth. These guns ain't just for show."

He stopped in his tracks and swore under his breath.

"So who sent you bastards?" He asked.

"We don't have to tell you. We're holding the guns, and we're asking the questions," I said. Delth glared at me. "You're a hitman, right?"

"Was one. Quit a few years back and trying to enjoy my retirement. Look, if you don't know who I am, why don't you just get the hell out of here?" He said, closing his eyes. "I've got plenty of money, I've got tech, I'll give you what you want. We'd all like to keep this simple; I've got associates who you wouldn't want to know about you. Catch my drift?"

"We're not here for money," I said, "we're here to know about one of those associates. Catch our drift?"

"Who?"

"Cardo."

He grimaced. "Cardo? He's been off the grid for a decade now. If I couldn't find him, you're not gonna find him. Fuck, I'm off the grid. How did you find me?"

"We've got our ways," Matt said, "and we'll find Cardo too. Matter of fact, we already know where he is. We just wanted to stop by here an' ask a few quick questions."

"You're serious?" Delth said, narrowing his eyes. "Well that's somethin' for you. I spent a year trying to track that fucker down."

"To kill him?" I asked.

"To die trying. No way in hell I'd be able to kill him, but at least I'd get the satisfaction of goin' down shooting. He's a demon. Shooting him won't work, and he has ways of killing you before you can even pull the trigger."

"Such as?"

"Lightning. Fire. Plain convincing you to do it yourself. He's got a devil's tongue and a witch's magic."

"And why do you wanna kill him, anyways?" Matt asked. Delth glared again.

"What do you know about him?"

"One of your friends, Zsuius, told us he was a sick man, and a death fanatic. We have reason to believe he's trying to cause the end of the world." I responded. Delth snorted.

"Wouldn't surprise me. Zsuius as my friend would, though. Don't hate that bastard as much, but I'd kill 'em both. Cardo's sick, and Zsuius is just plain stupid. You wanna know what happened last time I saw Cardo?"

"What?"

"We were in our base, right? Hitmen, if you didn't know. Cardo had some kind of freakout and blew the whole damn thing up. Killed one of our best men and stole the body. Don't know what he did with it. Cooked the organs or some shit, maybe. He had a habit of doing things like that, weird things nobody ever wanted to ask about. Took the bodies, cut them up, put brains in jars, stunk the whole fuckin' place up until one of us made it an issue. Unprofessional, you ask me. We were both captains and neither of us even had to do any of the killing ourselves anymore, and at that point I almost never did - who wants to keep putting their neck on the line when you're the boss, right? He did! Did it for fun. I never got that. It's dirty work, moneymaking work. You go in without attachments, you solve other people's problems, you take the shit they give you. You don't take home trophies, you don't gloat about what you did, you stay quiet and professional, work your way up, retire to a nice place like this and hope nobody finds you. Got a bit screwed on that, though. Say, mind getting me a drink?" He pointed at Matt. "Should be some water right in the fridge."

We eyed him suspiciously, but after a moment Matt obliged, walking over to the kitchen to get some water. I kept my gun fixed, and Sef and M-Bot fixed their guns on him, too.

"Hey, where's the water?" Matt asked.

"It's in the back. Get a cup from the cupboard and pour it in one, too, will you?" Delth responded. He looked back at me and said, quietly, "Sorry about this, kid. Just business."

From Sefgh's eyes

Delth reached down his shirt, pulled out a pistol, and in a split second, before Maine could even react, shot him in the head. He ducked down in the blink of an eye as we shot at him. He'd known we were there. He shot two more times, once at me and once at Matt - the first missed, and the second knocked the rifle out of Matt's hands. He ran out from behind the couch and tried to get straight through us, but M-Bot punched him and he went down hard. M-Bot pressed its rifle against his head.

"Can't blame me for trying," He said, coughing.

I took his pistol and shot him in the leg. He screamed, but grit his teeth and tried to compose himself. He was scared now, panting and starting to sweat, but I could still almost see him thinking, I can still get out of this. He looked up at me.

"Come on. All the... all the money you could want. I've got... so much locked away in here I, fuck, I don't even know what to do with it. Nothing to spend it on! I'll tell you anything you want, too. Tell you about our- about our organization. Tell you about the other captains. Who we killed. How much we made. Tell you when we started, when we, when we stopped. Tell you anything you want to know about Cardo, who he is, weak points. Lots of crazy shit I can tell you about him."

Matt was hunched over Maine's still body. He looked up at us.

"No pulse. He's dead."

Delth was sweating harder now, his eyes darting back and forth between us. He looked up at M-Bot. "I know how to use tech. I can make you a new body, a better body. I mean, I can give you a new arm, too, kid. I can fix you all up."

"I don't care," M-Bot said.

"Fuck. Look, there's a lot I can do for you. I can do anything. I swear to god, I can give you more money than you've seen in your life, I can call my guys and get them to help you, call up a manhunt on that fucker. I can tell you every single thing you've ever wanted to know about Cardo. I can tell you he's insane, he's a killer, I can tell you who's hiding him, who works for him. The shit I know about him, you wouldn't believe, crazy shit, you know he's a fag?"

"Shut the hell up," I said, my voice harsh, "Do you really think we want to hear this right now? Do you think I even want to hear that?"

"You fucked up, man," Matt said quietly.

Delth was silent. After a moment's hesitation he closed his eyes and said, "Look. There's one more thing, one thing I can show you that I know you'll want to see. Just as long as you don't kill me. If you kill me now, you'll never see it, and if you see it, you won't kill me. Won't even want to, I bet. Deal?"

"Deal?" Matt repeated back at him.

"Come on," He said, gritting his teeth, "Damn it, you can kill me, just see for yourself. It's just in the other room. Come on. Just... just lift me up and bring me to the other room. I don't have another gun. My leg's shot. Fuck can I do to you?"

We looked at each other.

"Fine," I said, "M-Bot, carry him to the other room."

M-Bot tucked its rifle behind its back and lifted him up, dragging him by the armpits. We followed them, and I averted my eyes from my friend's corpse. When we got to the room, Delth was unceremoniously dropped. He winced from the pain.

"This is- this is the room I hold meetings in, and the room I store everything in. Most of these stone panels, you can lift them up and find a vault, put a code in, find some cash, or guns, whatever. In the center- in the center is what I want to show you. This is a... very special piece of technology. You've never seen anything like it before. Trust me."

Delth limped his way to the center of the room, and put his hands around the black panel in the center of the room. He lifted it up to reveal a glass trapdoor, locked with a security code. He talked as he beeped the code in.

"This is very, very special. It's not a regular door, see. There's nothing under here but stone. No, no, this is... new."

The trapdoor swung open and he began to crawl through.

"Brings you to a pocket dimension, see."

I grabbed his leg and furiously pulled him back out. "Where the hell do you think you're going?" I asked.

He let out a low, tired chuckle. "Just, ah. Well, you can follow after me, can't you? Just bringing you to see it."

"We don't need t'see it. You can just tell us, can't you?" Matt responded.

"Well, it's a pocket dimension. You go through here and into another world. It works off the same technology the Witch used, the same, uh, principles. I didn't make it, of course. What, uh, what do you take me for, right?" He cracked a weak smile, distant and distracted. "But it brings you to a world I designed. A, uh, system of volcanoes. You come out the other side in a volcanic cave, it seals up behind you, and you can hide out for quite a long time. And you know- you know why you'll want it? I know where more of these portals are. It's hard to navigate, but I can help you. You can- you can get a lot closer to Cardo that way, that's for sure. Come on, come on. I'm too important to kill. Got it? Too important."

"I don't know, Delth," I said, "I'm just not sure I believe you." I closed the trapdoor back shut, tapped at it with the butt of my rifle, and smashed it. Delth's face fell. He sighed and closed his eyes.

After a moment of silence he said, "That's not the only thing I hid in here." He made a sudden motion with his arm, and another panel in the wall fell aside, a turret sticking out. Arm shaking, he started to make another, when suddenly-

Maine ran back into the room. Our heads turned, and my eyes went wide. The streaks of fur on his cheeks and under his eyes, normally black, were glowing bright silver. As he ran he took the knife out from his belt and stabbed it into Delth's neck. His limbs thrashed, and he choked on his blood. The turret swung wildly without firing, and at one motion went dead. Maine brought the knife back out, and Delth seized and made a horrible noise before finally going limp, eye bulging and red. Blood trickled out his mouth and stained his gold tooth.

He was dead, and Maine had come back to life.