Even with Brand scooping up all the creatures the fungus was sending my way, the journey across the third floor of the garage was still fraught with danger. I had to raise or lower the height of my levitation every other second when some new, awful thing pounced at me from somewhere in the shadows. I botched a turn and ended up slamming into a fungus-riddled wall that fed my body enough to trigger another small burst of transformation—horns, I think—but I pushed off with an arm and zoomed through the entrance to WeElMed's third basement level.

I couldn't let my colleagues get trapped for all eternity inside one of the silver-eyed Norms. I held out hope that they'd still be alive when I found them, but, if they weren't…

I banished the thought. I could cross that bridge if and when I got to it.

I kept my levitation active inside the hospital, lowering my speed to compensate for the narrower space and the tighter turns. The child in me (both myself, and the many dead children whose souls I now housed) was thrilled and terrified all at once. It was like riding down the Expressway, hovering in mag-lev flux, only I was my car. Had I not had the hospital's layout memorized, I would have crashed and burned, and more than once. Fungal abominations leapt out at me as I passed hallway intersections, but, again, I raised and lowered myself midair, flying over or under my would-be attackers.

It was like I was living through an episode of the Swift Racer cartoon.

Andalon clung to my back. "Mr. Genneth!" she yelled, pointing ahead.

Holy…

Fungal creatures were flooding the hallway. There were too many of them for me to dodge, so I landed, using a cushioning wall of psychokinesis to skid to a stop on the vinyl. I stretched the wall around me as I slowed, wrapping myself in a protective forcefield just as the swarm hit.

I slithered forward, undeterred.

Writhing tentacles and skittering limbs rapped against my shields like thickest rain. I batted at the swarm with my claws, deforming the forcefield to fit my hands like mittens. My strikes slammed several ape-things against the walls. Their bodies got crushed to a pulp as I banked around the corner, my levitation swinging me from side to side.

Black ooze splattered across my shields.

The swarm spilled down a ragged hole in the floor, falling to the next basement level below. A moment later, I rode out onto the antechamber of the matter partner room.

I had to slow time just to process everything.

Cassius? I thought.

Having seen Dr. Arbond's transformation through to its end, my wyrm memory knew exactly what he looked like and instantly recognized his disassembled form lying on the floor. He blinked in distress, sliding eyelids over ruptured globes.

Then, there was the wyrm that had attacked him: purple, with horns.

Those horns…

By the Angel… Andalon, I thought-said, is that…?

"Letty," Andalon said, with a wary nod.

She was huge! Not as big as Greg had gotten, but bigger than Larry or the Lizard Guy. She had to be twice my size, at least!

Of course: the morgue!

Mr. Twist must not have killed her when he'd sliced her to pieces. No, he'd just… disassembled her. And now, here she was, back in one piece.

Andalon shook her head. "Miss Letty is a bad wyrmeh. She's a really, really bad wyrmeh." She looked me in the eyes. "She wants to hurt everybody…"

But what could I do to stop her? If her powers had scaled with her size, beast's teeth, she'd be unstoppable…

Andalon floated ahead, phasing through the drifting spore clouds and Letty's enraged coils. She pointed at one of the entryways to the factory floor.

"Dr. JoJo?"

Jonan?

Yeah, it was him. Angel, he was a wreck—and so was the matter printer facility. The control room up front was completely destroyed. Given the massive hole in the back wall and all the scattered and shattered furniture and equipment scattered, I could only assume a wyrm was to blame; i.e., Letty. And through the opening in the wall, I saw Ani, with a look of horror on her face. She was running toward Jonan.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Wait, what was Jonan doing?

I had to know.

At the moment, Letty was coiled mid-air like a Munine dragon, with her gaze focused on Dr. Derric. My only advantage—if I even had one—was that she had her back to me.

I let time advance, but slowly.

As Letty slithered into the factory in pursuit, Jonan yelled: "Fire in the hole!"

Ani screamed. "Jonan, no!"

With a flick of her wrist, Letty's powers shot at Jonan's body like a cobra and pulled him in, jerking him backwards, slamming him against her underbelly.

No!

I screamed inside my mind. There was a blank expression on Jonan's face as his body came apart. With the motion slowed, the process brought to mind time-lapse footage of a corpse decomposing. Dr. Derric spread apart, flesh cleaving from flesh as he came undone, smeared across Letty's chest and sinking into her lavender scales.

Just when I was about to lose it, Andalon turned to me and asked one of her innocent little questions.

"Mr. Genneth, why is fire in the hole?" She pointed to the hole in the control center. "Is that the hole?"

Suddenly, I forgot all about Jonan's death, and instead, all I knew were those words: fire in the hole.

My mind raced, freezing time all over again.

No, I thought, don't tell me he—

Then, as if on cue, impossibly bright lights flashed on the factory floor in near-unison.

No… I thought.

I quickened my thoughts as much as I could.

More blasts.

Bam. Bam. Bam.

Andalon screamed. "What's happening!?".

The vats are exploding, I thought-said.

And Ani was nearby. And if she was nearby, then Heggy was—

—Oh fudge. HECK AND FUDGE!

There needed to be a forcefield around those explosions yesterday. I had to contain the blasts, or else.

"No, you can't!" Andalon said, alarm flashing on her face. "It's too much!"

But I have to! I have to do something!

"What about your family? If you use all that power, you'll get really really hungry, and then you'll get really, really wyrmeh!"

For the record, I really hated moments like this. I hated having to choose, and it didn't help that I was indecisive as heck. Sadly, I didn't have time to debate myself. Even with my perception of time slowed to a standstill, the explosions were still progressing. Secondary blasts budded off their parents, like fungal fire.

And they grew and grew.

Thickening my wyrmsight, I disassembled my force-shield, unfolding the plexus and lifting it up high like I was airing out a sheet. I made it grow and grow, and grow even more, stretching it past boundaries I didn't know I had. Through my magicked eyes, the sheet glittered like a veil of streaking stars. I had to shape it with accuracy and care

Andalon pointed over my shoulder, eyes wide with worry.

"Behind you!"

Crud, I thought.

The fungus creatures were still chasing after me, and I'd just dismantled all my defenses.

Fudge.

I filled my veil with an imaginary wind, swelling it until it was as big as the factory itself and then lowered it onto the slowly-growing conflagrations.

I squeezed them tight and let the power flow.

The explosion was defiant and unyielding. I compressed it and compressed it, but to no avail. It kept growing, pushing off my forcefields, swatting them away like wayward sheets. I could feel my strength draining fast. And, worse, I could feel tingling further down my tail.

Angel, the creatures were starting to fuse with me!

I guess this is it.

I would have screamed in frustration, but I couldn't even manage that. I'd thought I'd at least be able to stop the explosion, even if it meant sacrificing my remaining humanity. But, apparently, I couldn't even manage that. The fungus was going to force my transformation to complete and then try to take over my mind, to strike at &alon. My need to help others would facilitate what the fungus' demons and incursions had failed to do.

What a way to go…

The explosions kept growing. The air quivered from the heat. Ani seemed like a mere shadow against the backdrop of fire and light behind her that flowed like burbling magma.

Andalon quivered. "No, Mr. Genneth. You—you can't!" She started to cry. "You gotta fight it! You gotta!"

But what can I—

—Suddenly, another veil descended from above, glistening and bright, and it made mine seem like a handkerchief in comparison. The massive thing phased through mine and wrapped around the explosions like a tarp.

What is that? I thought-asked.

Andalon's eyes widened in astonishment. "It's Greggy…" She waved her arms in excitement. "IT'S GREGGY!!" She floated up to me and grabbed my arm. "Quick, Mr. Genneth! Quick! Make your shield! Make your shield!!"

And I did. I drew my veil back, whirled around to my backside, and spread it across the entrance like a sheet of metal, sweeping up all the fungal creatures in the way or on me, and squishing them against the walls.

"Look!" Andalon said.

We watched in awe.

Greg's glittering plexus scooped the explosions up like a paper towel wiping up a spill. Bits of the storage tanks—molten metal, spraying flak—rose up under the influence of Greg's miracle as fire and light were bundled into a ball.

The ball slowly floated over to Letty, all casual-like

No way…

I was agog.

Greg's magic was an unstoppable force, and I couldn't deny feeling an almost perverse glee as I watched Letty struggle against the inevitable.

For once, it was someone who deserved it, and—even better yet—that someone wasn't me.

She sent plexus out by the sheet-load, one after another. Her billowing powers swatted the approaching conflagration, teetering like a flame at the edge of death. But it was no use. Letty's plexuses grew frantic at the sphere's inexorable advance. In the final moment, she tried to spread her weaves as wide as possible in an audacious attempt to envelop the sphere and subsume it.

But again, it was no use. Greg's weave lowered itself onto her, immobilizing her even as it consumed her.

I let time flow, but… slowly.

Forgive me for wanting to savor the moment.

I misjudged you, Jonan, I told myself, as I savored the sight of Letty frying. You made the ultimate sacrifice. You're a dragonslayer. I won't let anyone forget it, I promise.

And I promise, I'll get you back.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.