I, Captain Nemo, look at Hitler in his eyes.

Burning eyes, pupils red as the blood, a smiling forming under his little mustaches.

On the reflection over the glass windows behind him, I can see myself.

Fiery eyes, burning hotter than his ones, a crown of long, white hairs floating in the courrents crossing the sunken ship.

"I have found you, fiend" I think, my toughs projecting into his mind.

"Yeah, you found me. And now? What will you do? You know your sword is harmless for me?"

"Do you want to try it, demon?"

"Ah ah ah. Don't tell me you don't know about Ladnikia... drinker of souls... Well, let me make you apart of a little secret, pirate... your sword is dying!"

What does Hitler means? Dying? My sword?

"Ladnikia is the sword of Viper. It was forged by the dwarves many millenia ago in the fabled Atlantis, for our Lord Ahriman.
She feed on blood and swallows souls into his hilt... but what you don't know is that she needs to bond with her owner... the contact between the hand and the hilt ties the two beings... until the sword becomes the master, and the man becomes the slave.
Only with this bond the magik of the sword can manifest. And that blade become the most powerful arm that was ever created on the Hyperboards.
And you, stupid fool, have given your hand for the sword... precluding yourself to use her at her fullest potential... what a pity!"

Adolf Hitler begins to laughs maniacally.

"Kill, kill me now! I'm nothing but a spirit, Nemo. Swallow me inside Ladnikia, you will throw me back from where I come.
The sword is dying, I will be free in mere days..."

"TOMB...this is Bibbo. Pull out. I repeat, withdraw from Mandelovia. Re-group in Thunder City."

"That's an order."

I watch Hitler. He is in charge of the invasion. Killing him, as he just admitted, would get rid of him at last for some days...

A lot of time for regrouping, thinking strategies, fighting an army without a commander...

I could easily forget the order, kill Hitler, and in the ensuing panic among the troops, sunk the ship, maybe all by myself.

But the voice of Bibbo... I've never heard such fatigue and sadness in his voice...

Regroup in Thunder City, he said...

I wonder what's happening there...

I watch Hitler. I could easily kill him right now. But the delay of my return, which consequencies could cause to my friends?

"Well, demon, this time it seems you have won!" I say, and much to his surprise, I swim away at full speed to the surface.

I exit from the sea like I am flying.

Over me, an air cruiser labelled M-X.

I land over it, and enter.

Everybody is here, even Prometheus, sitting right next to Malvana.

Even in the darkest hours of the return of Viper, when he took possession of Chewy, I saw such a sad look.

I sit silently among them.

Then, I turn to Joker1, raise my hook and asks abruptly: "Can you heal my arm?"