My whole body felt taut and stiff, burning from sore muscles. There were spots of heat along my arms, presumably where my mana channels had snapped. What little strength I had left had left me, half-dead, staggering forward.

  But I could still do something.

  Anything. Anything would be enough.

  Catania was swatted out of the air like a fly, breaking her last stack of guard with a tremendous sound like shattering glass.

  Toya picked her up, slingshotting himself to relative safety.

  Behind us, hundreds of players lay unconscious on the sand, deserted by the surviving players.

  Sip chuckled, saying something along the lines of— “Doesn’t this feel familiar?”

  He coughed up blood.

  “Easy,” I muttered, leading him to the ground. “Rest.”

  His eyes flickered closed.

  The Nightmare hefted itself upward, crunching rock in the process. Powerful cords of muscle snapped to focus from the generation’s black substance that formed the monster’s body. It rammed downward, pounding against the infirmary, no doubt expecting to flatten the entire region.

  Instead, there was nothing.

  My fingers on one hand were black at the end, burned beyond recognition. The other held a screen.

  The Nightmare’s fists rested against mine, utterly harmless. The living corpse flinched backward in surprise.

  I let the screen slip from my fingers, plopping in the sand with an unceremonious puff of dust.

  “C’mon,” I whispered.

  The Nightmare swept its hand in an arc, cracking against my shoulder, splintering bone and going no further. There was a black mark on my arm with a sharp edge where the effects of the blast had been frozen.

  It tried again, stupid in disbelief, knocking against my outstretched hand.

  The third screen joined the others, slipping from my hands, slick with black blood.

  {Grind : (-2b) -6b Hp}

  “That all you’ve got?” I asked, somewhat delirious between the pain and adrenaline. This was a monster equal in size to some mountains. When it stood, the sheer mass of its body blotted out the desert behind it, as if the earth cut suddenly to the night sky.

  Catania jumped to the monster’s jaw, cracking her heel against a pressure point.

  {Nightmare Corpse : (-1m) 2b Hp}

  The Nightmare sniffed. It blew in Catania’s direction, knocking her into the distance.

  I had the monster’s attention.

  I motioned it forward. “C’mon.”

  The next thirty seconds were the most painful and fragile I had ever experienced.

  The nightmare grew additional arms, repeatedly pummeling my face and arms, all in a single continuous stream of attacks. I stopped each one by fractions of a hair, unable to prevent some portion of damage from eating away at my body. And the screens were taking their toll, piling up in the back of my mind, shouting, then screaming for my attention, until they covered the sand beneath my feet, threatening to snap if I lost concentration, like balancing a deck of cards on toothpicks.

  My hands—already numb—became unmoving, like black rags, dripping down. I felt faint.

  The monster staggered backward, twitching in confusion, unable to understand why I wasn’t dying, and why its attacks were failing.

  I moved my arms from the elbows, watching my wrists hang limp.

  “C’mon.”

  The monster shrank back, craning its mouth open, channeling mana in a force that outshone the rising sun.

  I could only stand and watch.

  Sharon’s heart rustled within my inventory.

  “Oh yeah,” I pulled Sip to his feet, pressing the seed in his open hand. “Here you go. That’s Sharon, so take good care of him. He likes plants.”

  Sip staggered, clearly struggling to stay awake. He hadn’t lost too much blood, so he was probably just tired. That much was a relief.

  Sip couldn’t hear a thing I said, but after a moment watching the blood drip from my hands, he took the seed.

  I pushed him away. “Go.”

  And he went.

  The Nightmare unleashed the continuous stream of energy, forcing the air to expand in an explosive manner, tearing my shirt apart, scoring my chest. Burns covered my entire body, throwing me backward.

  I locked in.

  The notifications flickered to life in the midst of a sea of turbulent mana, faster and faster until they were a solidified wall of alerts, twitching and shaking.

  But I was keeping alive.

  My left hand stopped working. Then my leg wouldn’t respond.

  I grabbed the next screen with my mouth, moving a little too slow. Both legs shattered.

  And then, I was fine.

  Ghostly green light warmed my injuries, setting the skin back into place. The roar of energy around me popped in and out as my ears struggled to heal.

  {Grind : (+10k) -102b Hp}

  [Hearing : Damage mended]

  [This ability has no effect on [Mana channel] based damage]

  At no point had I stopped freezing screens.

  By the time the blast finally stopped, my hands were covered in fire, crumpled up and twisted. Some pockets of sand beneath my feet were turned to glass, and all of it was certainly hot, but the vast majority of the aftereffects from the Nightmare’s blast had been dealt with. Behind me, the vast majority of the injured players had been saved.

  There was just one issue.

  Screens fuzzed, attempting to unfreeze.

  First a few, then everything, screaming in the back of my mind. My stomach churned as I tried to cope with the pain.

  I slipped, finding myself pressed against the sizzling earth.

  It was stained black.

  I’d lost too much blood. One of the hundred notifications must have shown that much.

  Was this my limit?

  Was I still too weak?

  I tried to make myself stand again, but nothing worked anymore.

  Cold arms wrapped around my shoulder, pulling me to my feet.

  “Grind!” Screech cheered, climbing into my arms. “You’re so strong! The bad guy can’t do anything!”

  He laughed, prodding Grey.

  She had knelt on the ground, sifting through stacks of frozen screens. “You are dead.” She remarked.

  “Not quite yet,” I said, forcing a chuckle. “Please stand back.”

  The nightmare growled like a feral dog, prowling in a wide circle, all other players and monsters entirely forgotten. It didn’t know what was going on. And that made me scared.

  My vision briefly doubled under another wave of pressure.

  “You do not know you are dead, but you are,” Grey said. “Stop fighting. It is.” She had to think for the words. “Stupid.”

  Soise cast another ability from somewhere safe, restoring function to most of my damaged limbs.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  “I’m fine,” I said.

  In truth, the screens for my own body were relatively easy to manage, though there were a lot of them.

  “You’re destroying your mind. There is too much burden.”

  I could do this. As long as I concentrated

  Grey slapped me across the face with a sound like clapping thunder.

  Dozens of screens registered in an instant, forcing me to throw myself to the ground, grabbing their edge before ludicrous damage vaporized my entire body, if not the whole city, if not the entire desert.

  It was easy.

  That was the first thing I noticed.

  I’d let go of a screen. A big one.

  “GREY!” I screamed, whipping toward her.

  Her armor shimmered a violent orange, tinted red around the edges.

  “Please don’t be angry.” Grey said. She kissed Screech on the forehead. “Grey protects.”

  “Momma?” Screech called, reaching helpless toward her as she pulled away. “Momma Grey?”

  I grit my teeth. “Grey, you can’t kill that.”

  “Grey protects. Trust.”

  She started walking.

  {Absolute Complex Abstraction : Detonation : Active}

  [[Riot] has taken effect on [Grey]]

  I stared at the Nightmare. It had stopped circling. It’d attack any moment.

  “No,” I whispered. “I’m not going to lose you.”

  Her eyes went white and she locked in place,

  “This is a Grey choice.” Grey said, continuing to talk through a locked jaw. “Grey will finish her duty.”

  “There’s a better way!”

  My throat caught.

  A Grey choice?

  Grey watched me. “You are a good man. Which would you prefer?

  To die for another or them die for you?”

  “I…” I hesitated. “Okay.” I was choking on the word. “Okay.”

  Screech grasped her armor. “Momma’s gonna fight?”

  Something flickered through her expression. She bent down.

  “I love you.”

  Grey jumped into the sky, vanishing into the scalding light of the sunrise.

  I grabbed Screech tight, struggling toward the infirmary.

  Toya reached me first, snapping a web around my ribs. “Grind!” Toya hissed. “What’s she doing?”

  “We need to get these patients moved! Now!”

  Toya took one last look at the orange dot. “Fine.”

  He formed a net, tethering to the civilians as fast as he could. “Catania! Grab this!”

  It probably wouldn't be much…but then again…

  How much force had Grey built up? She’d pretty much absorbed a Stormhaven’s entire nest, not to mention the ludicrous transcendent damage buffs I had built up, which ought to transfer to her too, the moment she exploded.

  “What’s happening?” Screech called. “Grind?”

  I closed his eyes, throwing the two of us to the ground.

  Heat passed over our backs like sunlight, tender and bright, unable to deal the slightest bit of damage. It was…refreshing.

  When I first opened my eyes, I didn’t recognize the desert.

  If you could even call it that.

  {Nightmare : (-10b) -8b Hp}

  What was sand shone like diamonds. Even squinting I could hardly stand to look around.

  To the east, crystal hills stretched on, to the horizon and beyond.

  To the west, the ground was black.

  And it was disintegrating.

  {NOTICE}

  [Devourer Core latent effect has been absolved by [Extreme and Excessive Force]]

  [Undead corpse [Nightmare] has been vaporized]

  [Devourer Core has been expelled.]

  [Failure to kill Devourer in [1:00:00] will enable Devourer to select a new host.]

  That had been enough.

  Even a monster the size of a city could only take so much punishment at once.

  Screech tugged on my shirt. “Did mommy Grey do that?”

  “Yeah.”

  Kill the monster.

  Kill the core.

  I ran, barely thinking. Just one foot in front of the other.

  All the monster’s stats had been piled high, spread out over where the city used to be. Not only had the giant nightmare been killed, but so had every single infected monster for miles around.

  Black and red stains covered the desert, as if the ground had broken out into sores. The heat of the dirt was unbearable.

  The pile of stats shifted.

  It was smaller than before.

  I finally registered Screech, still clinging to my shirt. I set him on the ground. “Get everyone else.”

  He jumped up, grabbing one foot. “But the ground’s hot!”

  “I know. You’ll be safe. Go!”

  I tossed a durability orb toward him, pushing the kid away.

  When I looked back at the pile, the orbs formed no more than a thin layer, scattered loosely around.

  And in the center, the Core was sitting down, smiling to herself.

  {Gauntlet of Observation}

  [High Osmium]

  [70m Str 5m Dur]

  [This unit has been afflicted by {Unknown Affliction}]

  “We’re not doing any dungeons this time,” the core said, mimicking Sern’s voice. “I’ll admit, that little trick with the screens? Never even knew a player could break the game like that. But it’s all over, anyway. None of you have anything left to fight with. No money. No potions.” She licked her lips. “It’s hopeless, isn’t it?”

  Hostile mana brushed over my mind, and the Core started laughing.

  “Oh! Oh! I didn’t realize it worked like that! I assumed you blocked the attack, naturally, but now that I’m seeing what—negative one billion health you’ve got stored up—surely you realize, the very moment you die, this whole region will die with you, right?”

  “I know.”

  Should I?

  My hands twitched toward my head, and there was a strange look that flickered across the Core’s face.

  I shook my head.

  The sheer impact of a hundred billion damage would kill the core, but it would also kill everyone else I knew.

  And I’d already lost one person.

  My throat caught again.

  I had lost, hadn’t I?

  Someone I care about had already died.

  The Core laid a hand on my shoulder, smiling to herself. “But don’t you worry. I don’t want to kill you.”

  I spun.

  “Cores can be reasonable once in a while,” the Core stated. “I know you’re already thinking how you’ll kill me in the next life.”

  She shuddered.

  “Time travelers really are a nuisance, aren’t they? And you’re already a pile of shredded bone and muscle, so there’s no point attacking you, is there?”

  She won’t kill me?

  {Gauntlet of Observation : //10k Str//}

  My entire arm dislocated instantly.

  “See?” The Core asked. “You don’t even feel a hint of pain anymore. And then there’s your life story! It was considerate of you to spend so long fighting my nightmare,” she said. “It gave me time to process your memories.”

  I grabbed my shoulder, popping it back into place with a sharp click.

  “What do you want?” I hissed.

  “Revenge.” She extended a hand and the glass desert shattered, flowing like a river. Screech flailed and screamed, pulled through mental energy into a web of glass shards, inches from splitting his skin. “I can’t believe you trained with a Core. You’re such an interesting person, you know that?”

  She started squeezing. “Now, beg for me to free this child. Go on.”

  The Core smiled.

  “Beg.”

  I knelt to the ground, and the Core started laughing.

  “Go on.”

  I looked at her. “Really?”

  What did she want?

  She already had stats and exp, and by her own admission, she can’t kill me, so why attack a child? Why…would the game force a monster to do something like that? The Queen bird already proved monsters have some choice as to which weaker humans they kill.

  There was only one possibility.

  I looked at it. Really, truly looked at the monster.

  The monster laughed again. “What are you waiting for? You love the kid, don’t you?”

  The monster did not care about free will, or justice. It was not being forced to do this.

  This core was killing a child purely for the fun of it.

  That was all.

  “Getting cold feet?” the Core asked. “Should I tear him to pieces before or after you start begging? Here,” she said, grabbing his little hands and spreading them wide. “I’ll start at the fingernails. He wouldn’t mind losing a few of those, would he? Humans can regrow those, right? Right?”

  I was talking to a monster.

  That was all.

  Some monsters are people.

  Some people are monsters.

  And some monsters are just monsters.

  I twisted my left arm over my back. “Hey, Core, you know what they say, right?”

  The Core paused. “Excuse me?”

  “Third time’s the charm.”

  I grit my teeth, tearing my arm from the rest of my body, barely registering the hot snap or the puff of sparkling dust as it flopped lifeless to the ground.

  With one brace attached.

  // {Notice} //

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