The air thickened with ash. The sky bled orange and grey. The volcano had blown. But Jack's course was set. He needed to get to the spatial crack.
Jack kept the hoverboard steady. Zipping across the uneven, tangled landscape of the prehistoric jungle. Volcanic debris rained down in the distance. Not reaching his current path though.
He flew back the way he had come. He could remember the direction quite well. He had paid attention this time. He was absolutely sure he would not get lost.
Jack focused on the direction and the surrounding. The target would be the shimmering tear that led back to the Sapphire Mine. No need to think about the noise. Or the shaking ground. Focus on the objective.
He needed to get back to the mine entrance. To see if anyone was still there. To see if Bill, Sam, and Danny had made it.
...
He reached the location. But it had ridiculously changed. It was not the one he remembered. The ground here was scorched and churned up. Trees were splintered. The space crack was... gone.
The gigantic tree where the spatial crack was attached had fallen. And, there was no shimmering gateway. No unstable tear. Just solid ruins of destruction. Leaving him and whoever else was on this side stranded.
Jack immediately made up his mind. Plan B. Well, there was no Plan B. Not a planned one anyway. Just instinct.
Bill, Sam, and Danny were injured. If they got out before this place was destroyed, great. But if they didn't...
Well, the main group went towards the volcano. The logical next step would be to head towards the only other known significant landmark. And potential point of contact. The erupting mountain.
He banked the hoverboard. His direction changed. Towards the growing plume of ash and smoke on the horizon.
...
The jungle floor below began to thin out. As he got closer to the mountain's base. The heat intensified. Even from far away.
As he travelled, he started seeing them. Dinosaurs. Not just the feathered raptors or T-Rex from before.
Gigantic sauropods lumbered along. Their massive forms unfazed by the distant rumbles. Ornithomimids sprinted in flocks. Triceratops herds moved with surprising speed. And predators; allosaurs, feathered theropods...
They weren't running away from the volcano. They were moving towards it. A silent, primordial migration towards the source of the chaos. Strangest of all, they ignored him.
The hoverboard zipped past their legs. Through their herds. But they were focused on something else. Something drawing them towards the fiery mountain.
Jack was just another insect in their path. Not worth the energy to stomp on. He kept flying. Making good time over the uneven terrain, that would have been a nightmare on foot.
Several hours passed. The sun dipped towards the horizon. Painting the sky in violent shades of orange.
The air grew thick with sulfur and heat now. The ground rose sharply. Transitioning from jungle floor to scarred, rocky slopes. The constant distant rumble grew into a deafening roar.
He came over a ridge. The sight stopped him. Forcing the hoverboard to a sudden halt mid-air.
He was close to the summit now. Not right at the top. But close enough to see the insanity unfolding below. And what he saw was an insane battle.
Three humanoid figures. Two humans and a blazing giant beast.
The beast looked like a monstrous humanoid triceratops. Its hide wasn't normal hide. But what looked like solidified, glowing lava. Pulsing with internal heat.
Jagged horns of obsidian and fire crowned its head. It moved with surprising speed despite its size. Each step was cracking the ground. And leaving trails of molten rock.
Clashing directly with it was a bulky, ridiculous-looking man in steampunk mech-armor. His oversized, piston-driven arms were ended in massive, blunt forehands. Just like gigantic mitts made of riveted steel.
He lumbered and moved. Surprisingly agile for its bulk. Meeting the lava beast's charge head-on.
Jack recognized him instantly despite his current armor. It was Big Boss Abe Lodegrey, President of the Mercenary Union.
Flitting through the smoke-choked air above them was another figure. A woman with huge, articulated metal wings. Connected to her more compact steampunk armor. Lady Gemrose, the Vice President.
Her weapon wasn't a sword or handguns. But an oversized Gatling gun. Bolted to her arm. Spitting streams of glowing projectiles. Ones that hammered against the lava beast's armored hide. Forcing it to stagger but not fall.
The battle was immense. Every clash sent shockwaves through the air. The lava beast's roars were matched by the grinding metal screams of Lodegrey's mech and the ripping crackle of Gemrose's weapon.
Rocks vaporized. Steam erupted from fissures. And the very ground beneath them seemed to writhe. This was power far beyond anything Jack currently possessed. Getting involved directly would be suicide.
He wasn't the only spectator. Perched on other ridges and scattered across the relatively flat ground nearby were clusters of other mercenaries.
They watched. Weapons ready but unused. Clearly recognizing, like Jack, that joining this fight was impossible.
He scanned their faces. Searching for Bill, Sam, Danny, or the girl Danny protected. He didn't see them. Only grim, tense faces watching the titans clash.
The ground around the battle wasn't just rocky. It was littered with bodies. Not human bodies. Dinosaur carcasses. Piles of them. Crushed, burned, sliced, mangled. The silence of their death was unnerving compared to the roaring battle.
Suddenly, the mountain roared. A deep, fundamental rumble from within the earth itself. From the main crater at the very summit, a new eruption began.
Not ash and rock this time. But a geyser of pure, white-hot lava. One that shot high into the twilight sky.
And from the heart of that molten column, a new shape emerged.
Another gigantic humanoid beast. This one, however, was clearly a tyrannosaur-man. It was clad head-to-toe in the same pulsing, glowing lava armor. The same as the triceratops creature.
Its roar was a sonic blast. Shaking the air. And driving the watching mercenaries to cover their ears. It landed near the triceratops beast with a ground-shaking thud.
Jack expected the fight to become two monsters against the two humans. An impossible situation for Lodegrey and Gemrose. But that wasn't what happened.
The newly arrived lava T-Rex immediately turned its blazing gaze. Not just on the mech and the winged woman, but also on the lava triceratops. Its first move was a savage, molten bite. Aimed at its fellow lava creature.
The battle devolved into a chaotic three-sided melee. Lava Triceratops vs. Lava T-Rex vs. Lodegrey's Mech and Gemrose.
The combatants tore at each other. Magma was splashing. Metal screeching. Energy bolts flying. The destructive scale doubled. Then tripled.
The watching mercenaries edged further back. Caught between the impossible fight and the surging tide of incoming dinosaurs.
As the three giants hammered each other, Jack saw something else. A shape in the sky. It was a pterosaur. One of the massive, winged reptiles.
It flew directly towards the summit. Not towards the fighting. But towards the newly opened, still-spewing lava crater.
It wasn't attacking. It was diving. Headfirst into the molten heart of the volcano.
Suicide? It looked like it.
But then, Lodegrey's voice, amplified to an impossible volume by his mech's speakers, boomed across the landscape. Cutting through the battle's roar.
"Stop them! Don't let anything reach the crater! If they get in, more of these lava beast will come out! Stop them!"
The warning was instantly validated. Three feathered raptors broke from the dinosaur masses and sprinted towards the summit crater. Following the pterosaur's suicidal path.
The mercenaries were already jolted into action by Lodegrey's command. They opened fire. Energy bolts, bullets, explosives, anything they had ripped into the charging raptors. Cutting them down before they could reach the edge.
But Jack had seen the sheer number of dinosaurs moving towards the mountain during his flight. Stopping three wouldn't matter. There were thousands more.
The mercenaries were already few in number. And outmatched by the main battle. They would be overwhelmed trying to form a perimeter against the entire prehistoric ecosystem.
The crater was the source. Lodegrey's frantic warning made it clear. Something was happening inside the volcano. Something that turned living creatures into these monstrous lava beasts.
If the cause wasn't dealt with, they'd just keep coming. Jack wasn't strong enough to fight the beasts. But maybe he could do something about what was creating them.
He needed to check the crater. But diving into several thousand degrees of molten rock as Jack Night... Even with his tough human body, it was a 'No way!' choice.
That was a guaranteed, instant death. Not even his high regeneration would save him from being vaporized.
But Jack had spotted a small, steaming pool of water nearby. In a secluded location. Nestled between some rocks. Sulfuric, judging by the smell. Perfect.
He zipped the hoverboard towards the pool. He landed beside it and stepped off. He quickly activated his [Mysterious Mirror World] ability.
The sounds of the battle vanished, replaced by silence. Inside the Mirror Space, Jack used [Incarnation Shift].
His current form, the robust human Jack Night, began to shimmer and dissolve. Reforming itself. He felt the familiar, chilling transition.
His physical substance faded, replaced by ethereal energy. Muscles and bone melted into mist. Steampunk gear dissolved into ghostly shrouds.
The transformation into Jack Mystery, the spectral stage magician, took the standard three minutes. His masked face formed. His ghostly tailcoat outfit appeared.
He was ready. Jack Mystery, the mysterious specter. Ethereal. Intangible. Immune to physical heat and pressure.
He stepped back out of the Mirror Space. Reappearing back beside the sulfuric pool on the volcano's slope.
The roar of the battle hit him instantly. The heat was intense for a physical body. But as Jack Mystery, it simply washed through him like warm air.
The sight of the chaotic three-way fight was still there. Just a short distance away. The waves of dinosaurs were still pushing towards the summit.
Without hesitation, Jack Mystery rose from the ground. Zooming towards the summit. Directly towards the glowing, turbulent heart of the erupting crater.
He ignored the fighting giants. He ignored the desperate mercenaries. He ignored the stampeding dinosaurs. His focus was singular. The source within the lava pit.
He reached the edge of the caldera. Hot gas boiled around him. Lava churned below. It should have been absolute death. But as a specter, he simply passed through the superheated environment.
He phased through the blazing crater. Descending into the belly of the beast.
Suddenly, Jack felt that disorienting feeling again. And he found himself not in a simple volcanic vent. But in a vast, hidden natural hall.
It was a chamber carved from obsidian and glowing rock. Radiating immense heat and light. Yet perfectly stable despite the eruption happening above it.
This was a temple. A blazing natural temple, deep within the volcano.
In the center of the grand hall, an object was suspended in the air without visible support.
It looked like a miniature sun. Not big though. Perhaps only slightly bigger than a bowling ball. But it was radiating not just light but also strange energy. Filling the chamber with immense, archaic power.
He recognized the feel of the energy. It was slightly similar with the Webmother's Inheritance Orb from Tideless Island. But, it was more primordial, ancient, and far older.
And he wasn't alone in that place. Sharing the chamber with him was a creature. It was the pterosaur he had seen diving into the crater.
It was floating beside the 'mini sun'. Surrounded by a shimmering, fiery cocoon of energy. It was undergoing a transformation.
Its form shifting. Reshaping. Clearly on its way to becoming another one of the lava beasts. It was already partially changed. One of its wings had been replaced by molten rock.
This was the factory. This mini sun was the catalyst. The creatures diving in were the raw material.
Jack Mystery immediately surged forward. Intending to smash the 'mini sun'. He covered his hands with [Mysterious Control. His ghostly hand passed right through it. No resistance. No impact. It felt like trying to punch fog.
It didn't work. He somehow knew, deep in his spectral core. That this object required physical force to interact with it. To damage it. His intangible form was useless against it.
Then... The creature. Stop the transformation. He focused his spectral power. He tried to unleash [Mysterious Dream], his ability to inflict terrifying mental images. Not working. The aura of the mini sun seemed to dampen it.
He tried summoning his spectral grimoire. And firing Magic Missiles from his Mystic Arts. Bolts of pure arcane energy. They dissipated upon contact with the creature's transforming form. Absorbed by the fiery cocoon.
It was the same problem. Anything related to energy or mental manipulation was suppressed in this place. It seemed that, like the with mini sun, interacting directly with the transforming creature required a physical presence
He was a ghost here. Unable to affect the things that needed affecting.
He had made a choice coming here. He had gambled on his spectral form being able to bypass the volcano's defenses.
It worked for getting in. But it was useless for doing anything about what was inside.
There was only one way to gain a physical presence in this chamber. And still have a chance against the heat and the potential conflict with the transforming beast.
He needed a body tough enough. With enough resilience, to operate here. And he had it. His draugr form. Jack Deathspark. It was physically imposing, resistant, and wielded a physical weapon. The Grim Reaper Scythe.
But there was no reflective surface here. Transforming took time. He could always do it safely within the Mirror Space before. But here...
It was a huge risk. Doing it here? With a transforming, hostile creature just feet away?
This was incredibly dangerous. If the pterosaur finished its change before he finished his, he would be... a helpless, dissolving specter against a fully formed lava beast. In a confined space.
Jack gritted his teeth and made the decision anyway. Hesitation wasn't an option. He activated [Incarnation Shift]. Right here. In the blazing temple hall.
His spectral form began to shimmer. The edges were blurring. The smoky shroud started to thicken, to condense, taking on substance.
The mask faded as bone, muscles, and skin began to form. The ghostly attire started to tear and darken, becoming tattered fabric.
He felt the cold, undead energy coalescing. The familiar eerie physique of the draugr form beginning to assemble itself.
Beside him, the transforming pterosaur pulsed with fiery flame. Its form convulsed. Growing larger. More solid.
The molten rock was hardening. The shape was becoming clearer. A monstrous triangular head with a beak full of jagged, burning teeth. Claws of obsidian. It was reaching the final stages of its own transformation.
It was a race. Whose new form would solidify first? The undead revenant or the lava beast?