The roaring sound of the engines while the people howled like wolves was so loud that Anna already had a headache.
Kragg, unable to stand it any longer and with a vein bulging on his forehead, shouted without thinking: “Shut up, you two idiots!
You sound like bitches howling!” he ordered.
Anna was slightly surprised to see Kragg’s sudden change in attitude, which until now had shown such a confident calm that it was destroyed by simple howls.
“Do you see what you teach, Lilith?” Kragg scolded a clearly embarrassed Lilith, because she had also been howling.
While everyone was getting ready, Zak looked from time to time at his left side, where his arm was no longer.
“If somehow I hadn’t lost my arm, I wouldn’t be a burden to Anna and the others.
Maybe even Dave wouldn’t have lost his,” Zak thought, questioning himself.
Anna turned slightly and noticed Zak overthinking again.
Without hesitating, she approached and crouched down to shake him.
“Hey!
What did we agree about not overthinking?
Did you already forget?” she asked.
Zak blinked several times before turning his gaze to Anna.
“Uh…
no, I still haven’t forgotten.
Sorry, sometimes…
you know, I think.” “I understand you’re like this, but you can’t keep acting that way.
You’re an adult now.
Besides, if you keep showing insecurity, in the future you’ll bring problems to the team,” Anna explained.
“I know.
But it hurts me to think about the past still and how because of me you have to carry…
me…” he said the last part in a murmur.
Anna immediately slapped him and raised his gaze while her expression turned serious.
“Don’t say that!
I’ve had enough of that stuff!
Are you a child who thinks he’s a burden?
No.
Only idiots think that.
And if you keep thinking like that, you’ll really die from guilt and from being an idiot.” Zak lightly touched his cheek while sighing, clearly already used to that.
“Looks like you already like slapping me, huh?” “I don’t like it, but if I see it’s necessary, I’ll do it every time it’s necessary.” “I understand.
Thank you anyway,” he sighed.
“Good, then let’s go now.
Get up,” Anna ordered.
Anna stood up while thinking: “If he keeps like this, in the conjuring zone it’s going to cost us dearly and I don’t plan to allow that,” she growled bitterly.
Lilith, who had seen everything from afar, simply thought: “This boy really has psychological problems, more so because he seemed resigned to his missing arm…” She sighed before approaching him.
“Hey, Zak!
From what I see you seem very depressed, that’s a shame, especially about your arm.
But guess what, I maybe have a solution for you.” Zak, who was still crouching, immediately raised his head to get up.
“Really?” he asked.
“Yes.
Although it’s difficult.
Unfortunately we don’t have that technology because…
well, I already said it, we got trapped here and that…” Zak listened to her while waiting for the important part.
“Well, it’s a dimension where it’s one of the ten bases of the NRD.
I don’t really remember the meaning because I don’t care.
But in dimension B1 they have a lot of technology related to what I told you before.” “Will I be able to recover my arm?” “No!
We’re not wizards.
But I assure you they’ll see what they can do for you.” “Oh, I understand…” Zak murmured, half discouraged again.
“I’ll explain better later.
Right now that damn Kragg won’t stop calling us.
Let’s go now!
Later I can help you.
Mission first!” Lilith announced.
After a while, everyone got into their respective cars.
A group of four cars was behind the main one, where Zak’s group was going along with Lilith and Kragg, with two more men in the trunk.
“Let’s go!” Kragg gave the signal.
The sound of the engines running filled the air while a curtain of smoke rose due to the years of use of the cars.
Once again, Lilith was driving.
And if she was driving, one thing was clear: the car wouldn’t stop jumping and jumping over the sand hills like crazy, while Lilith seemed to enjoy it.
Anna was simply sitting with her eyes closed, while Zak had his head down just like the other guys.
But in the middle of the journey, a roar sounded.
Everyone raised their heads and saw how an Oruma was heading toward them.
“Damn…” Lilith growled.
She opened the driver’s window, as a consequence filtering sand that Kragg started to spit out.
“Shoot it already, I’m eating sand!” Kragg ordered between spits.
“Yes, I am!” Lilith answered while taking out a gun through the window with which it started to glow as she shot at the Oruma, which immediately exploded into a thousand pieces, leaving a black liquid on the windshield.
Lilith moved a lever and it started to clean automatically.
Zak slightly diverted his gaze toward the window and was able to see how more Orumas of different sizes moved to end up submerging into the sand with each jump.
After a while, they finally arrived at their destination, where everything was desolate and there was no storm nor signs of anything.
“We’re here!” Lilith announced while braking the car to a stop, causing the group to slam against their seats.
“What a parking job, huh?” Zak mentioned sarcastically.
“Of course it is!” Lilith responded smiling.
Kragg simply sighed while getting out of the car, just like the others.
The area was flat…
quiet.
“Why is the area so quiet?
I don’t like it, because every time I go out and it’s like this, it ends badly,” Anna opined.
“You got that right, girl!
Yes there will be danger, but it will be when the conjuring is activated.
That’s why…
I brought allies!” Lilith answered.
More cars started to arrive until there was a total of ten more of those she had seen coming.
“Okay, this is going to end badly…” Anna thought while in the background the people howled again.
Lilith approached a specific area and touched the ground while reciting a phrase in an unknown language.
Out of nowhere, in front of her a small temple rose, half cracked from the years.
“Finally…” Lilith murmured smiling.
“Don’t say it like that, you sound like a psychopath,” Kragg mentioned while passing with destination to the temple.
Lilith growled bitterly while immediately turning to the people who had arrived.
“You already know what to do!
Guard the perimeter and don’t die!” she ordered.
The people, despite having heard the word “don’t die”, weren’t scared.
Quite the opposite: they started to howl and scream happily while taking out their guns and electric swords.
“No way?
Is a war about to break out here or what?” Anna asked, exalted.
“Maybe…!
I don’t know, the thing is to finish this quickly before it gets worse,” Lilith responded maniacally.
“Shit…” Anna murmured.
“Hurry up!” ordered Kragg, who was already at the temple entrance.
The group ran toward the temple while outside you could already hear how the people surrounded the perimeter.
“Okay…
let the conjuring begin,” Kragg commented.
Inside the temple there was a floating base where, on a small pillar, they left the weapon that seemed to be the one that served to travel between dimensions.
“And now?” Zak asked.
“Now you must place yourself there, where you’ll have to make your energy flow.
It’s like trying to open a rift, but calm down, you won’t bleed or anything,” Kragg explained.
“Okay…” Zak said while positioning himself in the indicated circle.
Zak closed his eyes to begin concentrating.
A yellow light started to illuminate lines on the floor that connected Zak with the pillar where the weapon was.
Everyone watched while Kragg remained calm.
Out of nowhere, the sound of explosions and roars started to sound.
“Don’t lose focus!
You keep going!” Kragg ordered.
Zak didn’t stop and kept concentrating while sweating.
Outside it was just as Anna predicted: a mini war.
“Formations!” Lilith ordered while taking out her two huge guns with which she started shooting.
In front of them, a whole horde of fleshy creatures with moldy skin and teeth everywhere ran toward the defenses.
The people immediately started shooting without hesitating.
One or another ran with their sword, which seemed to be made of gamma energy, while slicing the creatures.
“Woogoo!” one shouted while wielding a gun and in his other hand his sword.
He was having fun in the middle of chaos.
In the middle of that, a huge creature arrived.
But this time with a sword that seemed to be made of its own disgusting skin.
And behind this one more arrived.
“Great…” Lilith murmured while putting away her weapons and finally taking out a giant katana with which she wrapped herself in a silver energy.
“The Second Horde has begun, guys!
Don’t hesitate and go all out!” Lilith ordered.
She started to make her way ferociously through the lesser creatures to finally face the newcomers.
With a dry sound, she impacted her katana against the one that seemed to be the leader.
As a consequence, she ended up splitting him in two while the other creatures roared angrily and threw themselves ferociously, brandishing their swords.
Immediately the other people arrived who didn’t hesitate to also use their swords with a smile.
One of the creatures buried its arms in the sand and from it whips with thorns started to sprout with which it began to cut the jugular of the unsuspecting people.
“Damn you!” one shouted while running toward it.
In the blink of an eye, he moved at the speed of lightning passing by the creature.
It didn’t realize that it had already been cut and each part of it fell in the sand, inert from the quick cut.
“Will they be okay?” Anna asked, who watched from the temple the massacre that was unfolding outside.
“I never said they were okay.
But if you notice, even though they know they’re going to die, they smile because it’s the way of dying they would have liked,” Kragg answered without taking his gaze off Zak.
The weapon that was on the pillar started to glow while the transparent side that was empty before began to fill with a greenish energy.
“Come on, Zak.
Just a little more,” Kragg encouraged without moving from his spot.
Zak kept concentrating while his friends feared for what was happening outside…