Despondent, we had no choice but to hurry back to Mechadream. Lucina was already waiting for us.

  “Phoebe!”, she called out. “I’m glad you’re both back safe! We all saw Hex’s rocket…”.

  Phoebe nodded. “The king slime… died. Turns out it was Hex’s mother”.

  Lucina looked bewildered. “Well, that’s… bad. The engineers told me that Hex wasn’t just building rockets. He has weapons with power beyond our comprehension, or so they claim”. She waved her hand, as if to break the dark mood. “Come on, the whole city’s been working together to dig out one of our rockets”.

  We followed her to a huge dirt pit leading down into the earth. Sure enough, we could just barely make out the nose of some great machine.

  I gulped. After all, I said I wanted to travel the world, not the galaxy! This was clearly an excessive level of adventuring, no matter how you sliced it! Still, we didn’t have much choice.

  “Alright…”, I forced a smile. “To the Moon… yep… we’re chasing Hex to the ends of the Earth, and beyond!”.

  “We’ll be the first people to see it! I’ve always wondered what the Moon’s like…”, Phoebe clearly shared my nervousness, but with a bit more adventure in her eyes.

  Lucina took a step forward, the first to entrust her life to the machine. With that, we finally moved forwards as well, snapped out of our trance. Indeed, the only way out was through.

  We strapped into our seats. I clung to mine tightly. The last thing I needed was to phase through it at a bad time. And then, liftoff.

  The roar of a dragon filled our ears, and we were punched down into our seats as the rocket shot upwards faster than even a bullet. The rocket shook violently like it was about to fall apart, and it was all we could do to hang on. One minute of pure terror.

  Eventually, we slowed down enough to speak. Lucina informed us this was actually an illusion, and that we had simply broken through the atmosphere- whatever that was. Honestly, I was struggling to make sense of it all.

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  “So… there’s something we need to talk about”, Lucina began. We turned towards her as best we could within our seats. “How is Hex somehow immortal? Regenerating wounds is one thing, but we even burned him to ash”.

  I gritted my teeth. The question had been on my mind as well. “There are two types of ghosts. Most get created through necromancy, like me. But there’s another type called natural spirits”.

  Phoebe looked at me. “The type created through grudges, or an unfulfilled wish?”.

  I nodded. “They’re rare and poorly understood. Filthy cheaters too… they just get to skip straight to ghosthood without being a zombie or skeleton first! Earn it, dang it!”.

  “So you’re saying because of that, Hex is immortal?”, Lucina brought me back on track.

  “No. He’s a unique case. I’m just saying he can’t possibly be a necromantic ghost, since our magic simply doesn’t work that way. He must be a natural spirit”, I answered. “And that means he could still pass away if he fulfilled his wish or lost sight of it, in theory”.

  Lucina frowned. “I doubt that’s happening anytime soon”. Unless we screw up big time, anyway.

  Ten minutes after launch, we felt weightless. Phoebe and Lucina marveled at the sensation, taking off their seatbelts and doing somersaults in the cabin.

  “Count Boogula! Isn’t this amazing?”, Phoebe asked me, as she swam through the air.

  “Not really, I’m afraid. Your form needs work”, I replied honestly.

  “Oh, I forgot. You’re weightless all the time”, she replied. “Being a ghost must be such fun! We’re missing out!”.

  I shook my head, remembering that precious moment I first became a ghost. I fooled around just as much as they did, phasing through the ground and soaring through the skies like a bird. A really slow, fat bird, but a bird nonetheless. Not that I’d tell those two. It would ruin my nightmarish image, after all.

  “How long until we get to the Moon, anyways?”.

  “Three days”, Lucina said nonchalantly.

  My mouth gaped open like a fish. Phoebe laughed. “Feeling a little jealous, Count Boogula~? Up here, we’re basically all ghosts!”.

  “If you want to be ghosts, then you should practice”, I countered. “Here, stop flailing your arms so much… Don’t push off the wall like that! You don’t need that much force…”.

  I sighed as our two new ‘ghosts’ spun around the cabin like babies trying to walk. This was going to be a long flight.