Below Becker a persistent contingent attempting to rush up the stairs or let bolts fly while taking advantage of the spiral stairwell.

  Close and behind, the sve now struggled to free herself from Becker's hand while desperately chewing through the cloth.

  The very walls resonate with the reverberations of low explosives and small arms popping off.

  His very flesh feels as if about to fluff out of his bones, his eyes sting with sweat and blood slowly pooling in and an infmmatory pain.

  And in his mind, an oppressive drone and an acute hiss come more into audible range, wracking his cognition.

  The most he could do is aim in anticipation and open fire as soon as a blob enters into vision.

  *Pfft-pfft-pfft*

  Those cking prudence continue to make for the duo, quickly tumbling backwards down with the other dead.

  *Get back! Wait for the others!*

  Letting go of the sve to reload, Becker slumped back, barely able to keep a steady aim.

  *Mhh* *MHHH!*

  Looking back up, he saw the sve calling for him with red frustration on her cheeks and drool dripping from her mouth.

  *RUHRHIHKHMIMEEEGH!*

  She rubbed her cheek and mouth upon the wall, almost scraping her skin upon the coarse stone. Longing for nothing more than nursing a wicked hangover after a marathonic piss-out in a ten minute speed-run rather than the unnatural pain his brain was being subjected to, Becker almost flung himself down the flight of stairs getting up and let the sve's gag hang.

  *Keep us sa---!*

  His mind continued to fog as he sat himself down propped by the wall, barely able to hear what else she was saying as she too went back against the stairs, almost rolling down until Becker grabbed her by the armpit almost as if wanting to yank it out of pce.

  The young sve continued to mumble something as her eyes blurred in a spiral of pastel colors. Shooting below, the warriors bunching up dodged, though none made death agonies nor anything to indicate being wounded.

  *Everyone stay put!*

  There was but the slimmest of chances they would not think creatively and not wait.

  Reaching for one of his pouches, he pulled out a modernized Mills bomb, slightly heavier and with a cleaner sheen upon its surface.

  *Clink* *Clink* *Clink* *Clink*

  His reactions were growing more deyed as he started to doze off, but he bit himself until he tasted copper, even trying to injure his finger upon the pin of the bomb. Only when he saw the tips of short spears and fxes around the corner did he pulled the pin and flung the bomb cooking it for about a second.

  *BANG!*

  The cries of the dying and of the few survivors rushing forward mingled in a caucophanous soundtrack. One more warrior tripped and slid down with a streak of bright red. Another came close to the sve as his belly ruptured with 9mm. Switching to full auto, the MP5 dumped ammunition across the stairs, wounding one more in the shoulders and another in the face before somersaulting down into the dark.

  *Thwok*

  Becker barely had a chance to move his head backward as the spear bounced off his armor, the ceramic pte perfectly withstanding the impact as the pole bended against itself and colpsed. Bringing himself back up, he just had enough time to bring out the Webley.

  *Hwah!*

  The warrior's sword never dashed at its mark as .455 ruptured through his thigh and knee.

  Slowly, Becker's mind infmed with a suffocating strangle as his eyes closed, unable to continue further.

  The only other thing in his field of vision was the sve breathing heavily, looking up at the roof and boobing her head, her droning words unbroken in their fluidity.

  ...

  *---ecks!*

  ...

  *Becks, status!*~

  Bringing himself back from the bck, the abominable sensation was gone, only a lingering and noticeable phantom pain running across his flesh.

  The woman continued to stare up into the roof still not catching her breath and glistening heavy with sweat.

  Becker: *Speaking.*~

  Wilrd: *Something went wrong. The device is going critical. Evacuate, now! Move your arse!*~

  Helping the sve back up was difficult as the sweat made her too slick to grasp.

  Becker: Get up, you! GET ON WITH IT!

  Rather than wait for her to respond, he forced her up and pressed her body against him, locking his grip between her left arm and waist while digging his hand upon her supple flesh. Moving through the mangled corpses, the slippery streaks of red, and parting through the littered weaponry, Becker felt tacit humidity on the walls intensify.

  Pulverized dust fell on top of him as they made it to a level with a short cloistered hallway leading further into the citadel. There was nowhere else they could head out to.

  Becker: To the corner, move!

  He pinned her down in the opposite side of the cloisters and threw his weight on top of the sve, covering the nape of his neck as he waited for something, anything to happen.

  ...

  When the deafening bang hushed, Becker recovered to see the hallway almost impassible with rubble, clouds of dust fuming into the air while rocks crashed and bounced from on high. Becker slightly rose to check the scenery while pinning the sve to the ground, and after a while, he brought the grime coated sve up and both went up the ruptured stairwell where they were immediately hit by the fresh ocean breeze, sitting on the highest level avaible now that most of the tower was gone.

  The warm morning betrayed the white sky aesthetic.

  Becker: What did you do back there?

  Sve woman: I exposed the hexer. There were six others...I think they shredded him.

  There was a soft tiredness in her youthfully matured voice, honeyed with a coquettish inflection with a very discrete sigh at the end of her sentences.

  Sve woman: He aimed to kill you! He blighted his presence, but he could notice things. Us! I broke him out of his meditation, that's all.

  Her eyelids went heavy as she looked down at the muzzle pointing at her slightly heaving chest, his hand slowly pulling the weapon closer to his right hip. She bit her lower lip as moist built up on her eyes from the wind blowing straight at it.

  Sve woman: Wha...will you hurt me? Did this lowly sve not do well?

  His hand rapidly switched to the Webley as his eyes bored straight into the sve's pupils which seemed to be stricken with crystalline light dots. The woman let out low gasps as Becker slowly brought her closer until the barrel dug straight into her breasts and her perspiration soaked his coat again. Cautiously, he gagged her again until the corners of her mouth ached.

  Becker: Nothing has changed, much less now that you have exposed your peculiar talent.

  She reneged at the grim accusation, pleading with her moans before feeling the barrel dig deeper into her flesh.

  Becker: You will have your case determined by my employers. I will intercede but their word will be final. You use your trickery against me or the others, you forfeit your soul. You will comply. Rules are rules! Understand?

  Her quivering eyes and worried face cave in surrender as her spirit drained out, too exhausted to even cry. Reflexively, he sunk her face onto his shoulder, lightly shaking his head in disgust and holstering the revolver.

  Becker: *Brother, come in. I'm stuck on what's left of the tower with the prisoner.*~

  Wilrd: *Stand by. I'll have Soyd come get you, even if it is cramped. All units reporting in, plenty of prisoners to process.*~

  Becker: *Any idea as to what set off the device?*~

  Wilrd: *Some, but it's best I tell you face-to-face. How's your hand?*~

  Becker: *I think the pain is going away. If this is a hex, I'm not sure what it's suppose to do...*~

  *Zrrrrrf*

  The two reacted as a boat sped off to the west emerging from the channel between the ruins and the cliffside.

  High above on the east the Mil Mi-17 Assault Transport slowly came in range of the boat. Passing over the ruins the gunship dove and fired a few explosive rounds from the forward cannons. The two got up to observe the scene as Becker switched over channels to listen to Bob Soyd.

  Wilrd: *...ill them, damn you!*~

  Bob Soyd: *Rex, sonny! They're exploding ahead of them, anyway. As soon as I get in range I'll fire up the speakers. If you want me to rip their motor, now's the time to tell me.*~

  Wilrd: *No, we don't want to risk it. Just encourage them to crash into the sand...*~

  *EKH* *EKH* *EKH*

  Becker ripped out the earpiece and vigorously tapped on his tragus as he brought it close enough to continue to hear.

  Bob Soyd: *I got to bail out, there's a nearby void maw! The boat's dead in the water!*~

  Wilrd: *WHAT! Don't just let them alive, open fire! Do it now!*~

  The gunship rose higher as it maneuvered backward, while in the water an indentation on the surface was slowly growing in size and pulling in the boat as it spun through the waves, its construction about the closest thing to a modern ship seen yet with a cockpit and cabin encompassing much of the boat's body.

  The Mi-17 fired a missile and a rocket at the boat, along with fire from the cannon and machine gun. Just as the projectiles almost made impact, they ceased their trajectory and joined the boat in swirling around growing whirlpool in mid-air.

  Bob Soyd: *Too te, old boy. They'll wish they died now.*~

  Wilrd: *Fuckin' 'ell! Of all the bad luck...*~

  The helicopter slowly backed away, angling itself in a way that the other occupants could observe down.

  From the water pit rose an ink bck pudding with rge oval pits in pce of eyes. The men in the boat rushed to jump out into the water but smmed against an invisible wall. The blob rose just high enough to barely make out something resembling a head and shoulder mass.

  Even from afar, Becker and the sve listened to it ugh and giggle like child committing an innocent prank, its pits narrowing in joyful glee.

  From its opening chest a swirl of infernal star dust spaggetified the matter in its grasp, and those on the boat smmed harder against the invisible wall, slowly stretching into string and sucked into the vile bowels of the creature, all the while eted at what it was doing and unduting happiness.

  What was a matter of minutes felt like a lifetime.

  The void maw contently sunk back into the depths as the indentation moved away before the ocean rushed back to fill in the space.