Chapter 33

  Purification

  "--mmi? Remmi!"

  I pry my eyes open to see two Ayres sliding to their knees next to me. At least that means I wasn't out for more than a moment or two.

  "Remmi, are you alright?"

  The fashionable elf twins' voices echo into my ears, and I squint to filter them through my everything-ache.

  Reflexively, I check to see if I'm alright or not. I'm down to just twenty-some hit points. I've gotta stop running this so close.

  "Depends," I'm pretty sure I slur. "Did we get 'im?"

  Both of them look back, but they're starting to merge back into one. The echo's clearing up, too. "I don't know. The smoke hasn't settled yet."

  With some effort, I find my knees and get one under me, then prop the other up on its foot and push my way up. "Let's go find out, then."

  Poor Ayre doesn't know what to do with her hands. "Are you sure you should? That looked pretty bad."

  "I'm down to less than ten percent of my hit points," I tell the archer flatly. I start putting one foot in front of the other until I'm managing a facsimile of a walk toward the center of the clearing. "But I'll let you in on a Hero secret, Ayre. If that thing's not dead, my relative distance isn't going to make them come back any faster."

  That seems to drive her to silence as we pass through the thinning cloud of dust and smoke. It stinks like a crematorium, which I decide to take as a good sign. I expected to be finding my footing on bone fragments, but whatever sent me flying did the same to them. Everything down to the dead, dry dirt has been blown clear.

  When we break through the last of the smoke, my breath catches in my chest, and a moment later, I hear Ayre gasp as she stops behind me.

  Floating in the air before us is the only remnant of the abomination, a violet flame nearly the size of my head. It just hangs there with a bit of a bob to it, like some sort of evil will-o-wisp.

  This must be the true heart of the abomination, the animating force of all of the undead. This twisted feeling it gives me, is this what Corruption looks like?

  Ayre's feet start moving again, slowly, sluggishly, and I look back to see her approaching the thing with what I first think must be trepidation, but as she slowly begins to raise a hand, the sickly light reflecting in her eyes, I feel my stomach freeze.

  "It's ... so beautif- uungh!"

  As she tries to pass me, I grab her around the waist and hurl her back with all of the strength I can muster in the moment. She's surprisingly light, and lands on her back ten feet away.

  As a precaution, I load a yellow bullet directly into the chamber.

  "Oww, what was that for?!"

  "Sorry, Ayre, it was for your own good," I answer back. The gun's lowered, but I reflexively check with my thumb that the safety's off. "Whatever that thing is, you can't touch it."

  Diagnosis confirms, she's got a status effect called Enamored. Probably more than addled, less than charmed, and definitely the flame's fault.

  She looks up at me in uncomprehending confusion at my words. My refusal to let her near just makes no sense to her. I can see the exact moment her enchanted mind latches onto the only explanation it can be allowed to conceive. Her face twists into such an expression of rage and betrayal that I'll never be able to forget it, and I know it's over.

  "You just want to take it for yourself! We worked together! I supported you! You--"

  And her rant falls silent as I shoot my new friend through the chest.

  With a heavy sigh, I turn my back to her and face the flame once more.

  "Now, what do I do with you? I have a feeling a bucket of water isn't going to cut it."

  I can see what Ayre was talking about, though. I compared it to will-o-wisps, St. Elmo's Fire. There's a reason they led so many people to their deaths. The crackling dance of the flames is uniquely enticing as they spin and pirouette.

  I frown, creasing my brow as I raise my pistol and fire a round right through the middle of the flame. The air pressure splits it for a moment, but otherwise leaves it unscathed. The entrancement, however, immediately lifts from me.

  It does tell me that it's immune to physical damage, though. Despite my words, I can't actually try a bucket of water, either. I'd have to leave it here alone with Ayre, and I don't dare leave it unsupervised.

  Oh, wait, that's not actually a problem.

  I quickly open up the store and buy a simple bottle of water. I half expect it to arrive in a cheap plastic bottle, but when I open the wooden box that appears, it's instead in a waxed paper bag, like some sort of disposable canteen. Eh, I suppose that's just as uselessly cheap an equivalent. And, hey, biodegradable, too.

  Unfortunately, it promptly proves as futile as I first guessed. I upend the bag and the water splashes right through.

  I'm at a loss of what to do. My previous idea of checking the store for holy rounds was fine for a skeletal monstrosity, but the element doesn't matter if they just go right through this new form. Yorin might know something, but to go get her, I'm back to leaving this thing alone again.

  Maybe I could put it in a bottle, avoid direct contact that way.

  Yes, I could keep it close to me, keep it safe, make sure nobody is tempted by it. Keep it from--

  Two more shots ring through the air, again only briefly disrupting the flame with their passage.

  I glare right at it, careful to resist the urge to get face to flicker with it.

  "Annoying little fucker."

  Ayre didn't seem to feel the same sense of wrongness it gives me, now that I think about it. She also didn't seem to resist it at all, falling to its charm the moment she laid eyes on it.

  I've now resisted it twice. Why? What's different about me? Well, besides the obvious that I'm from an entirely different planet where magic is a thing of fantasy.

  That ... actually could be it. Ayre said raw magic changed and empowered lifeforms. This thing could be raw magic infused with a will of some sort, which would explain all of its abilities. From my simplistic yokel understanding of it all, anyway.

  Maybe, not having grown up exposed to ... arcane radiation, I guess, I'm more sensitive to it? More resilient? The radiation hasn't built up in my cells like it has everyone else. Or something equivalent.

  Damn, now I wish I had a geiger counter. It wouldn't be useful for much more than testing the theory, assuming it's even ionizing in the first place, but now my curiosity's piqued. At least it'd tell me if a lead box could be a good idea.

  No, now's not the time to go all science nerd on it. It can't stay here, and anything that doesn't help me come up with a solution to that is an intellectual dead end right now.

  Actually, there's another possible explanation for my resilience. I'm a Hero. There could be an innate resistance granted with that. There was a strong implication back at the Grand Temple that my body, as a Hero, was basically reconstructed entirely from Essence. Given that the whole System runs off of it, my ability to spend points could imply I'm still connected to wherever Essence comes from.

  Since it's an energy distinct from magic, and if I'm right that this stuff is raw magic of some form, it might be that it just isn't as compatible with me as it is with a native like Ayre.

  Its ability to augment beings is, according to Ayre, downright rules-breaking, if the skeletal rats are any indication. If the abomination was the extent of this much flame's power, that also meant that this little bit was on par with a start-out Hero.

  If it had gotten its claws into Ayre and turned her into some sort of "Dark Ranger" type boss, I don't think I could have beaten her.

  ... Of course, with a stronger will than the flame's got, that kind of power boost could do a lot of good. If I really did have some sort of resistance that let me keep its control at bay, I could bend it to my will as another tool in my arsenal. I wouldn't be the weakest of the Heroes, reliant on a piece of technology to keep up. I could march on their foes and crush them single-handedly. Even Xuhi's crazy stats wouldn't stand up to me.

  "DAMN IT, YOU ONE RING PIECE OF SHIT, STAY OUT OF MY FUCKING HEAD, ALREADY!!!"

  My shout joins the roar of my gun as I wheel back on the flame and keep firing until the hammer starts clicking. My arms shake as they keep my gun outstretched, my chest heaving for breath.

  This thing's too dangerous to let my guard down around for even a moment.

  I spare a thought for the fireballs that must have gone off in the distance. I hope they didn't do anything too serious. We're in the middle of a forest, so surely they hit trees or something. The blasts are too short-lived to start fires in green wood, surely.

  My eyes twitch to a flicker of blue in the corner. It's a System Window, but I've never seen one flicker before, like there's interference.

  Tentatively, I take a few steps back from the flame, and the window clears up.

  AN APOLOGY FROM

  HEAVENLYTM SYSTEMS INC.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Dear Customer, this notice

  is to inform you that there

  has been a terrible

  oversight on our part.

  We at HeavenlyTM Systems

  strive to ensure that all

  of our products meet the

  high standards that you

  have come to expect from us

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  for all of your Heroic

  needs. Everything from

  body enhancement to flash

  education to the healthiest

  options in emergency food

  supply, our sacred duty is

  to enable you to do YOUR

  sacred duty.

  Unfortunately, we love our

  job and all of our cute

  little Heroes so much that

  sometimes, very rarely, we

  may lose track of some very

  minor detail or two.

  We regret to inform you

  that this is one of those

  extremely scarce times.

  Our systems indicate that

  you have encountered a

  [Heart of Corruption]. As

  you may have noticed, it

  possesses no corporeal

  form for you to damage.

  Similarly, we have

  neglected to stock any

  support item for its safe

  elimination.

  We understand that this

  ever so minor oversight is

  absolutely unforgivable.

  We hope to one day earn

  back your trust in us

  through our steadfast

  dedication to your needs.

  As a first step in proving

  our penitence, we have

  generated a new Skill for

  your cause. With it, you

  will be able to eliminate

  any [Heart of Corruption]

  or similar threat you may

  encounter.

  Our systems show that a

  special Skill has already

  been promised to you as

  part of your current

  System-issued quest. Rest

  assured that acceptance of

  this Skill will not

  replace the one to be

  generated in compensation.

  Happy hunting, Hero, and

  remember HeavenlyTM Systems

  for all of your Heroic

  needs!

  A new skill? That's an exciting prospect, especially if it'll let me deal with this annoyance once and for all. I quickly navigate to my Skills page to check it, and focus my attention on the icon, helpfully illuminated with a "NEW" tag.

  PURIFICATION CANNON

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Ever seen a super-cute holy

  warrior fire off a beam of

  energy as they shout

  something like Love-Love

  Cure Beam, and thought,

  Hey, that looks more like a

  Death Ray? Well, don't

  tell the locals about it,

  they'll just give you weird

  stares and back away

  slowly.

  Instead, use this super

  cool knock-off-- I mean,

  absolutely legitimate real

  deal! Turn your firepower

  into the HeavenlyTM embrace

  of love and wash away all

  of that nasty evil in the

  world!

  Expend the remainder of at

  least one magazine to power

  the beam. More bullets

  mean more power! Any

  special effects of the

  expended rounds carry over

  to the cannon, as well!

  Purification Cannon!

  Punish your enemies in the

  HeavenlyTM name of love!

  ... Okay, that was definitely written by the sales department instead of whoever normally does the skills. Yeah, I'm way past wondering if there's actually someone, or at least some intelligence, actively writing this stuff.

  Instead of dwelling on it any longer, I pop the empty magazine out, toss it aside to pick up later, and slide in a load of overpressure rounds. Special effects of the rounds ... With these, it would be damage and penetration, right?

  I rack the slide and return my attention to the flame with a grin. Time to see how this works.

  And as I shout, I pull the trigger.

  "PURIFICATION CANNON!!!"

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