The wastewater of the River Styx bubbled and popped toxic yellow mist across a surface steadily expanding from the secluded delta. A memory of watching Ghostbusters as a kid in Dayton, Iowa reminded him of bubbling ectoplasm in New York City’s sewer system. In this real-life scenario, he didn’t have the luxury of walking the video back to the local Casey’s to pick up the sequel along with a new box of King Vitamin for breakfast, since his grandpa sneakily finished the last of their box for dessert.

  This scenario dropped off the dread without a way out. He had to find a way to cross without dying. Chris’s vine was buried and severed by the spillage of waste he tracked to a hole near a narrowing in the tunnel about fifty feet from their docking.

  Danger Sense expanded far enough to trace the man-sized hole in the wall where the glowing waste pilfered into the trap before him. Tim suspected more than Gantus at work in this distraction. It may be their ticket free of this whole mess. If he played his cards right.

  First, a way onto the river. Because sometimes the only way out is through the front door.

  Tim cast Crafting on their boat to snap off a paddling oar from the abso stone along the rim. The heat from his prior spell’s warding it from the floor helped him bend and break a clean enough piece he could smooth it over while Lousa crawled into the boat on her hands and knees.

  Lousa propped back on her heels to keep an eye on their progress.

  Tim paddled, first to push them from the shore, then continued even as the waste expanded deep enough, he couldn’t reach the bottom. He didn’t want to waste precious mana extending his oar only to prove it was really really deep. His storage was up to a third full with his regen buffeting against the resistance in the atmosphere from Venom exuded from the waste in oceanic girth.

  Movement under the water stirred ripples Tim’s Danger Sense tracked from beneath the wall ahead. As though sliding out of a trap, the presence expanded quick as a shadow.

  Tim cast Battleground and Protection.

  An intake of energy created a current sucking Tim toward the bend in their tunnel.

  Tim turned his paddle to try and slow their tugged towing.

  Danger Sense surged through his skin in ripples of burn off tracking the many appendages. One shot out at their boat. Tim swung his oar into its path and struck it with top spin, knocking the octopus looking tentacle backward to splash waste away from their boat.

  The liquid rocked their ride, splashing waste into the insides where steam hissed from weaker lining in the abso. Its charred ozone stench added one more warlike element to Tim’s focus.

  He kept Danger Sense on a dome around them.

  The octopus ricken sent three appendages at their underside.

  Tim braced, unsure in the split second what spell could protect them from below deck. The warding around his boat kept a portable storage of aura but using it would diminish their defense against the waste eroding through and drowning them.

  The appendages jolted the deck and launched the aft forward. The front of the Styx and Stone dipped into the waste in a wedge leaking a new surface of yellow ooze covering the tip.

  Lousa grabbed him around the waist as the boat top sized.

  Tim realized, as his stomach bottomed out and the inevitable dip into the scrambled bunked and cheese beckoned him to a baptism by fire, that his whole plan might work out if he could just bear this one moment of FIRE.

  Tim closed his eyes. He wasn’t a madman. That may have been the only consolation to the surface of the sun bubble bath.

  His scalp and hair parted as if one were a carpet ripped free from the nails lining his skull.

  Aura Form slid home in a windshield wiper of relief, separating him from the heat’s sharp bite, coalescing aura into everything he was, floating in the vicious soup, Healing Bridge working with Protection and Keeper to bond his aura form to Lousa, turning her pain into spirit and freedom to move within the wastewater.

  He let go once her transformation was confirmed. She whipped back and glared, telling him in no uncertain terms that he should have warned her.

  He shrugged. You wouldn’t have thought me capable. I knew your bangle was susceptible to adaptation, and I’ve never actually done that with a human, so. I’m glad it worked out. Not that you’re human. You’re uh similar—”

  Tentacles speared long purple and black shafts upward from the depths.

  Part two of his plan to scare the crap out of himself and those who trust him—i.e. Lousa—included letting the tentacles take them.

  Shafts melted to tubes wrapping Tim in a vice grip. In the same way he floated along the River current while in aura form, so too did the creature’s Venom based physiology allow it to catch Tim and Lousa. This was what he wanted, protection from the waste and a ride to where they least expected him, the source.

  His tumultuous spin cycle captured a glimpse of Lousa riding shotgun, spun into a knot of inky appendages strong enough to feed momma.

  And Tim had a surprise he hoped would take care of her for good, even if she were one among an infinite horde. Their ride yanked them deep enough his ears popped. The surge of waste galloping over his body pressed and poked as though examining him for weakness.

  He gave them none.

  Neither did he boast. He did not charge a spell lest he giveaway that he and Lousa were caught off guard and would go down as one more meal among many for Mamma Topus.

  The way down leveled out and he suspected would find the dinner table soon.

  He readied his plan. Hand to Hand, and his knife. Not until he was out of the waste.

  A suction hose powered by Momma Topus’s full inhale sucked him in through the tentacles.

  He twisted against pressure so intense he couldn’t keep his head straight. In truth, he had no idea where he was going. So much of this convoluted plan was made up on the spot, and Chris was nowhere to be seen. But. But! It was a plan.

  It went something like this: Tim was in a Haunting, cast by a persnickety little demon, Gantus, whom Tim knows from Spirit Memories obtained in the kids’ field was a Crimoan willing to kill kids to get ahead. Said demon was likely in a prison cell at Adenon, which was also at this time undergoing a riot. When the Scyllatz friend of Ghareven sent Tim back into the Haunting, it threw off Gantus so much that the demon burned precious mana turning Tim into a brizicthi and sticking his foot on a thorn before letting Tim go.

  At this point, Gantus played it cool, but his normal tauntings were absent from Tim punk rock squawking his way to the troll village and then to Sa’s observatory at Tia’s Pointe.

  Gantus underestimated Tim’s wisdom, and why wouldn’t he, the last time they met Tim’s wisdom was twenty points lower.

  The tentacle wrapped around Tim’s awesome brain, along with the rest of his body, seemed less interested in his smarts and more on the tasty morsel it was attempting to turn into a squishy burrito.

  Too bad this one has a bit of glass on the inside.

  Tim wasn’t to that part of the plan yet, though he was ready with the attack once the creature opened wide to let him in.

  That. That was the key. See, Gantus doesn’t entirely rule this enclave. It started as a mix of Kari’s memories, Tim’s Spirit Memory spell, and then the Venom and wonder of demon power. Tim didn’t have the many layers of this enclave-spell figured out entirely. What he did have was a reasonable hunch that he could snap this Haunting if he found the right weakness.

  As a Ranger, his Analyze spell was so ingrained in his mind, he could use it to enhance philosophical as well as physical analysis. The clues gathered together revealed Gantus was not in complete control.

  Next, the motive. Gantus is afraid of Hist. Chances are he could be a mole sent by Hist under the guise of someone on the inside who could break free, luring Tim to how instead of if it were true.

  Motive took Tim to Hist and how he’s a god, but not omnipotent. He has a plan to break free to Earth and grow. He uses dimensional gateway power but has to supplement it with Teo’s Skull.

  Tim may not be thousands of years old, as he suspects Hist to be, but when the Whisper blessed him with how it has, he intended to use it.

  Which took him to the dimensional waste pond that was placed after Chris sent the vine, meaning it was likely a response. Possibly a knee-jerk reaction hoping to thwart enough of Tim’s plan to reach his brother that he wouldn’t realize the window of opportunity it opened.

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  Where did this sea of toxic waste come from? He was still going strong under water pressure equivalent to hundreds of feet, and the Momma Topus carrying them was no longer inside Mount of Sorrows.

  Tim hoped Dryfu was okay. When they were reunited and safe, he hoped to brag only a little about this part of his plan.

  Thanks in part to his research at the farmstead, and memories he captured from Surion and the dead Padstoligans, Tim might have found a way to extend his Enclave Tree spell to tap into this dimensional gateway storehouse of energy and absorb Gantus in a rebound maneuver that could free them all.

  To do that, he first had needed a way to protect himself while Foraging the resource. Thanks to Sa’s glove and Warding spell, he’d crafted Styx and Stone to get him out on the water, so to speak. Back at the shore, his Danger Sense picked up the predator lying in wait on the other side of the Haunting.

  This part Tim was almost certain Gantus didn’t know. Again, part of Tim’s leveling since they last met enabled him to differentiate the essence between the Haunting and an outside force interfering while also trying to stop Tim.

  Gantus might be trying to work with Hixel Mur and the Artisans who came to kidnap Sa, but Chieftain Ulmont was the real force there, and he let his emotion drive him. He wanted revenge for Tim trapping him outside the farmstead while those creepy leth huri laid eggs in his pores and ate patches of skin while he was tied up.

  Back on the shore, he’d respected the chief for the threat of the toxic waste, as well as the way it could have diverted them backward to his reinforcements. He’d respected the chief, but he wasn’t delusional. The chief didn’t have the ability to open a hole into the dimensional waste pipeline and dump a river into their path. It was doubtful Hixel or his artisans could either. Which meant Hist was involved.

  This link in his theory was highly speculative, yet all the preceding info made it clear enough to act: the same vision Tim saw of Hist before was connected through the hole intersecting Gantus’ haunt and Kari’s memory, which meant… Tim was now in Hist’s domain.

  And he was carrying Gantus’s haunting and Kari’s Spirit Memory Enclave like a drug mule with balloons in his stomach.

  All he needed next was the accelerant. Momma Topus pulled him through the window, thank you very much, and once he provided the chance to safely kill it—with the thought of safety as far as possible from reality—the shift in leveling XP and power into Tim’s control would allow him to… he’d let the magic show for itself once he got there.

  All it needed was a little poke.

  Lousa had stopped her muffled cries from close behind. He hoped she still had time. His mana and ability limitations showed themselves in keeping her within his Aura Form, yet failing to keep her healed under the overwhelming exhaust of waste. Even through Momma Topus’s tentacles, it made his ears ooze with poison expunged from his skin.

  Honestly, he thought the creature would have found a feeding place by now. And he started to wonder if Hist had called her home.

  That part had not made it into Tim’s plans.

  Maybe they should have.

  Surprising him with cloak and dagger would be less likely than a dumb sea squid.

  Hey Lousa… you awake?

  She didn’t respond and within a few seconds his direction shifted from straight ahead to sideways, turbulence bouncing him across rough waters.

  An eerie awareness of eyes drawing him into their sights told Tim his hoped outcome of finding a cool place to be eaten were no longer on the table. Rather, they’d been thrown out the window and this was the temper tantrum in motion.

  Secrecy shed like a ceremonial cloak, Tim prepped a spell smorgasbord, starting with Spirit Memory. He cast it on the creature where its grip pressed the greatest pressure points. Tied to the motivation for its hold and why it hadn’t stopped yet, Tim read through the fog of memories through these waters.

  It was on its way to a shore where Hist or his ricken would sometimes feed it surface food, and had stopped in a valley while raising Tim and Lousa to crest a sand bar and coral hardened in abso stone silt and Venom.

  Their carriage rose, escaped the water, and twisted in the air like a ride at the fair, lifting toward the heights Mamma Topus reserved for receiving gifts directly from Hist.

  Ja-Seong warned him not to take on Hist until he had all five Enclave Gates from the prophecy to empower him. Since it appeared, the dark lord didn’t plan to wait, Tim planned his best sucker punch.

  Tim’s smorgasbord tapped into Peel for the speed and a mix of Draw and Pheonix’s Eye. He activated Snipersight in the dark, arms still wrapped to his sides and his jaw pressed painfully against his neck. Phoenix Eye and Peel reached green, but Snipersight was still red with the angle of Topus’s appendage. It slowed and once it stopped, Tim discharged Peel.

  Whiplike propulsion and his equipped sword gripped in his gloved hand sliced through the thick muscle bindings.

  Jerking forward into this resistance produced an exit velocity and posture of stepping off an escalator, a bit wobbly but over before you know it. He sprinted on the current of aura and was brushed back by a furnace of heat and Venom saturating the air with defiance. A cooldown restriction prevented his second Peel, and in the arcing leap, Tim locked eyes with

  Fire breathing pits fifty yards away. Hist’s hundred-foot smile sneered back to expose sharpened teeth glistening in yellow green Venom. He’d come for a meal and Tim busting out like a bee in his bonnet evoked a snarl roaring in the deep channels in its chest. The fire in his eyes ignited into a glow of blackened violet over the pointed lesions and horns sprouting from his head as magic swelled toward release.

  Tim’s Peel activated. His stride chirped aura off venom in the air as it launched him at Hist. Corded strength across his core squeezed his frame into the angle he’d need to hit the lord in his smirking little face.

  Tim’s Snipersight locked green. He cast Phoenix Eye, drew Farji back and sliced across his body. The space from Momma Topus to Hist disappeared in that simple motion. He put a Ranger’s Gambit spell on the backstroke, feeling spicey, and let him have it, for Vignyia and Kingdom!

  Hist’s schoolbus wide mouth craned back, and Tim flew right in. A tooth as large as a spear cut through his shoulder, burning a gash open and spinning him off course. Downward for the tongue. Not his ideal target, but once Greensight locked and he restored his grip despite a cage match with tigers happening in his good shoulder, he thrust the sword home.

  Phoenix Eye drove his blade as it had guided him to this spot. The blade coursed with Crystal and sparked a blinding eclipse against the violet Venom along the muscle. Its tip cut and flesh curled off in thick slabs of putrid meat. Viscous black blood popped into Tim’s aura form. He cast Draw and sucked in a deep breath of Venom infused aura and essence and memories from Hist.

  “Gantus says hello!” Tim said, bouncing off the lord’s blood slick tongue. He cast Spirit Memory as Hist’s mind recalled putting Gantus in his cell.

  An eruption of heat and red blazing fire shot him backward. A suction hose transported Tim backwards, catching Lousa with an aura hook for her arm bangle and towed her with as he directed Hist’s revenge lust along his memory of Gantus.

  A tunnel of flashing aura encircled them on the ride.

  Tim wiped blood from his eyes.

  Gantus was gonna love this part.

  Tim suspected the message to meet Chris at the snow cone shop was a trick to get Tim deeper into the haunt. Gantus didn’t have full control of this enclave. Hixel and Chief Ulmont’s interference handed the bat to Hist. Tim landed a solid blow on the lord’s dome but knew it wouldn’t kill him. Best he could do was use the response to get what he wanted.

  Kari’s memory and his ability brought him to this memory enclave; why not ride a lord’s memory of the target using his access and power to send Tim there?

  Tim Warded the Hist Venom into a lather on his sword blade. Next, he cast Cleanse and focused all his c-mana into purifying the riftlord’s aura.

  A second eclipse parted the curtain of aura drift and light welcomed him into Gantus’s cell.

  The demon swept in a backward arc away from the bars.

  “What’s up beeeeee-itch!?” Tim swung his sword on a backhanded stroke and equipped his dagger in his following hand.

  Gantus’s reaction speed lost itself in the aura wafting from his blades. Tim cut him into three with a Triple Whammo enhanced by Hist’s desire for revenge and the backend of his Phoenix Eye. He cast Prison into his sword. The parting of spirit from demonic spirit sent Venom in a bucket of black paint against the cellblock wall. The other spirit, Gantus, former Crimoan, murderer, and a wealth of knowledge, absorbed into the new spot boosted by being an Exorcist.

  Bling!

  A gender reveal glitter bomb of XP exploded in bis body and he landed on weak legs, his aura form exhaling into a stumbling over legs and his physical body restored. He banged a hip on a sink or a toilet, he wasn’t sure. Smelled like the worst of both worlds.

  The prison claxons blared loud enough he barely heard Lousa crash into the floor beside him.

  A chunk of venom paste fell to the floor. Tim scraped it clean then cleared the wall with his blade.

  The prison bars faded with the folding of Gantus into Tim’s blade jewel and helmet. An auto function with the guards absent from their post, he assumed, and wasn’t sticking around to file a complaint.

  “Where’s Chris and…”

  Tim turned, “Back at E’Tic’s grove, where our trip began. I conquered Gantus and his spell. When Hist retaliated, Gantus withdrew. For now, let’s help our allies in this prison. Chris, Kari, Lank and I suspect Sa Reoleigh is there too from the essence I’m picking up in the spell discharge. They’ll need the rest until we get there.”

  Tim leaned over the camera screens lined up at the guard desk until he found the wing with Zoonza’s cell.

  “Then what?”

  Zoonza’s cell was empty, with smears of dark blood from several species slashed across the floor and walls.

  Tim tapped into the aura and Spirit Memories left by the guards’ fingerprints on the keyboard and desk. A gelatinous blob in between the letter keys had a sticky surface grimed over with the most residue. Tim transferred Hist’s Venom by a single drop from his sword gem into his gloved fingers perched to keep any from dribbling off. The Venom beaded in a pea-sized violet globule on the gem’s red surface, forming into a hardened circle. Now we’re cooking with gasoline.

  Tim charged Draw and Spirit Memory and Magic Hunt for good fun, swirled it into the beaded glass and flicked it over the desk. Guard aura beamed up from residue and chunks of water berries with their sap all over the stalks.

  A moving picture of transparent banyan trees responding to the initial prison break.

  Hist’s Venom and Gantus’ soul empowering his helmet allowed him to take the guard’s use of a spell to alert all guards, to recasting that spell with an all-points bulletin. “Hey punks! This is White Fuego.” Tim cast Danger Sense on the frequency and watched beacons light up where surviving guards received the APB. An ally finder tripe of essence rebound alerted him to the DS ping nearby. Zoonza.

  Are you okay? Tim sent over their Party comm.

  “We took the fight to the fourth floor. Almost done. How about you? Ready for me to send you back?”

  Tim didn’t get a chance to respond before shivers of magic washed him clean of this realm. He absorbed back into the dungeon, its waste smelled dank as it was dark.

  The surface rocked under him. Water sloshed over the edge of their raft.

  Ghareven glowed from a corner at the aft.

  “Welcome back. We’re over silo 19 and waiting for you before we descend.”

  “Yeah, Welcome back.” Dryfu’s voice vibrated in his pocket. The coy little stykiller had his hammock shape all figured out. When Tim pulled out the top, Dryfu saluted and blinked his eyes sideways, just to mess with him. “I don’t want to hear it,” he said and winked. “We stopped a prison break without you.”

  I learned to fly, as a duck.

  You must be so proud. Also, it’s called a brizicthi. It is twice as strong as your earth ducks, and the intelligence—

  Whatever. Brickhouse. Got it.

  Dryfu swayed from appendage clutching Tim’s shirt to appendage clutching fibers.

  You going to be okay to dive? Tim asked.

  Better than you, probably, but still, probably not. We don’t have time to escape. The artisans are in the tomb’s labyrinth. They have a map, so it won’t take long. We must get to Teo’s Skull before them or they’ll use it to connect the rift to Earth and forever bind our worlds with Hist’s Dimensional Rift.

  Time to play Gatekeeper, Tim thought. And for some reason, the theme song for Duck Tails played a background music salute to his quest. Spicy aura fizzed along his mana channels like little ducklings wiggling off to war.