The Fog Does Not End

Karin was hurled across the street, straight through another billboard with that same grinning apple. I swore the damn thing was haunting us. The frame collapsed in flames.

"Karin," Kaguya screamed, stumbling forward.

I caught her wrist before she dropped her satchel. "Stay with me. She is alive. Focus."

The giant pressed forward, its swollen limbs blotting out the street. Two hearts beat visibly through its translucent skin, sacs blistering across its chest. Each step hissed as ichor dripped and ate into the cobbles. Blisters swelled with black ichor.

The guild was breaking. Their grenades flared in bursts, but they threw them blind, wasting charges, scattering the plague instead of stopping it.

"Stop wasting charges," I barked, wrenching a trembling doctor by the collar. His mask was cracked, his hands fumbling with the fuse. "Aim for their joints. Shatter the frame and the fire finishes the rest."

He blinked at me through the grill, too dazed to argue. He threw where I pointed. The grenade burst, tearing through knees and ankles. The Sephis collapsed in a heap, flames racing along their bodies until nothing was left to rise again.

Others watched. For once, they copied me. Clumsy, but it worked. The line steadied, though every few seconds the roar of the giant rolled through the smoke and shook their hands.

◇◇◇◇

A Sephis lunged from the fog, claws sweeping wide. I stepped into it, not away, and jammed a grenade between its ribs. Its jaws clamped down on my shoulder, tearing through flesh and bone. Pain ripped through me, but only for a moment. By the time the grenade detonated and blew half my body across the cobbles, muscle was already knitting back together.

I staggered upright, smoke curling from the ruin where my arm had been, and flexed the fresh limb as it finished regrowing.

The other plague doctors recoiled. One dropped his weapon. Another looked past me at the looming shadow in the mist and nearly bolted.

Karin swore under her breath. Kaguya's quill scratched so fast the parchment tore.

"You are insane," Karin shouted.

"No," I said, brushing ash off my coat. "I am practical."

◇◇◇◇

Another roar shook the quarter, rattling dust from the rooftops. Fire flickered through the haze, revealing the monster's blisters swelling and shrinking in rhythm with its breaths.

The guild faltered again. Their throws went wild, fire scattering harmlessly into the mist.

"Scatter shooting into fog is useless," I barked, yanking a vial from a soldier's belt. I hurled it into the cobblestones at our feet. Flame rolled outward in a sheet. The Sephis recoiled with a hiss, their skin blistering where it touched. "See. They retreat from spread, not sparks."

The soldier stared at me as though I had carved new scripture. Another glance at the giant made him flinch, but he threw again where I told him to.

◇◇◇◇

Three lesser Sephis piled onto me at once. Their claws raked through my chest, shredding flesh and bone. I jammed a grenade between us and held them close.

The blast ripped us apart. For a moment I was nothing but ruin scattered across the stones. Then my body reformed, bone and sinew crawling back into place, skin sealing smooth as if the world itself wanted me whole.

The Sephis writhed, hides charred from within. The guild doctors gaped.

Karin shouted, "Idiot. You will get yourself killed."

I wiped ash from my face. "That proves clustering them makes the fire spread faster."

Somewhere in the rubble, I imagined Kaguya tallying a scorecard. Self-detonations: two. Scientific value: questionable.

Kaguya's hands shook as she scribbled furiously. At this rate she was going to burn through parchment faster than grenades.

◇◇◇◇

A Sephis dragged itself out of the fog, half formed and twitching. I smashed it back with the butt of a rusted crowbar I had scavenged from the rubble. The weight was uneven, the grip slick, but it felt right in my hand.

"Fitting," I muttered. "Another protagonist once made this work."

Karin blinked mid punch. "What are you even talking about?"

I did not answer. Behind her, the giant's silhouette loomed, chest pulsing like a diseased furnace.

Kaguya scribbled the line down anyway, as if it were a vital formula.

◇◇◇◇

Another Sephis slithered low along the ground. I ripped open a sack of salt from a fallen stall and scattered it across its path. The creature convulsed as ichor bubbled against the white grains.

"So they do not tolerate salt either," I noted. "Add that to your notes."

Kaguya squealed. "A chemical weakness. I knew it."

Karin punched another Sephis into paste. "Stop playing doctor scientist in the middle of a war."

"On the contrary," I said, scraping the crowbar against a grenade until the metal glowed red hot, "this is the perfect laboratory."

The bar hissed as it seared the air. I swung, smashing it through a Sephis's skull. Fire burst through the wound as black ichor sprayed across the cobbles. The monster convulsed, then collapsed.

◇◇◇◇

"If this Sephis consumes me entirely," I called back to the sisters, "will I regenerate still holding this."

"What," Karin shouted, but the Sephis was already on me.

It swallowed me whole, tearing me apart. Darkness closed in for a heartbeat.

Then I was standing again, inches from its face, crowbar clutched tight in my newly formed hand. My body snapped back into existence as if reality itself had been waiting to correct the mistake.

The Sephis reeled, ichor dripping from its jaws.

I grinned behind my mask. "Hypothesis confirmed. Think of the implications. This stuff actually keeps me up at night."

The crowbar hissed as I scraped it against another grenade, the metal igniting red hot. I brought it down across the creature's skull. Flames burst through the wound, ichor spraying across the stones.

The sisters gasped. Kaguya's quill screeched across parchment, her face alight with manic excitement. Karin's fists trembled, her eyes wide.

They should have been disgusted. Instead, they leaned in.

I spread my arms, ichor dripping from my coat. "Let us carry on with the ultimate hypothesis."

Kaguya nearly squealed. Karin muttered curses, but even she could not look away.

For once, they saw me not as a subject but as one of them.

◇◇◇◇

The giant roared again. The sound rattled the barricades, made the timbers groan. Even the lesser Sephis hesitated, waiting for their master's signal.

"Keep your aim low," I snapped. "Do not let the roar break you. It is flesh, not a phantom."

They moved again, shaky but enough to hold the tide.

Masks wavered. One doctor bolted, but the rest held their ground.

"Listen," I shouted. "Do not waste fire on the body. Aim for the sacs. Burn the infection, not the host."

No one moved. Their eyes darted between me and the monster as if they could not decide who was madder.

So I moved first.

The crowbar glowed as I scraped it against a grenade, heat building until it hummed in my grip. I sprinted straight into its reach, priming another grenade in my free hand.

I slammed the heated bar into the nearest sac. The skin split with a wet hiss. Ichor spilled across the stones and ignited on contact. The giant roared, staggering as fire climbed its torso.

Before it could swing, I shoved the grenade into the wound, leapt back, and let the explosion rip through the swelling. Half its chest collapsed inward, ichor raining across the street.

"Do you see," I roared, crowbar glowing in my grip. "They move because the plague moves. Burn the infection and the body collapses."

The guild shifted aim, finally understanding. Vials cracked against sacs, fire raced down corrupted veins. I carved through blisters with the crowbar, each strike followed by ignition, each grenade bursting fire deeper inside the beast.

The monster thrashed, staggered, and finally collapsed in a storm of ash and smoke.

When it fell, the quarter sank into silence, broken only by the hiss of burning rubble.

At last, they stopped gawking and listened.

◇◇◇◇

When it was over, the quarter reeked of smoke and rot. Corpses hissed as they burned. The dome above flickered faintly, its wards strained but intact.

Doctors moved among the wounded, wrapping cuts with dirty cloth, splinting bones with unwashed hands. I watched them work and bile rose in my throat. They threw fire like heroes, then wrapped wounds with filthy rags. Suicide by ignorance.

"For all your advancements," I said, voice sharp, "you have not even learned basic germ theory, have you."

The words froze them more than the smoke.

Kaguya's cheeks flushed. "G germ… theory?" Her hands trembled as she scribbled, eyes wide.

Reika snapped. "Absurd. Nonsense. Nothing of the sort exists. I will not have my soldiers distracted by phantom pests." Her voice cracked, but her blush betrayed her.

I ignored her sputtering. "Boil everything. Knives, cloth, water. If it touches blood, it goes into boiling water before it touches another patient. Or you will keep killing your own."

Kaguya bit her lip, eyes darting between me and her parchment. Her face was still red, but she leaned forward eagerly, absorbing every word.

Reika folded her arms, glaring. "Do not misunderstand. I am only enforcing discipline. Not because I believe your ridiculous theory."

Then she jabbed a finger at her men. "You heard him. Boil everything. Instruments, bandages, even your gloves. If I find one of you ignoring it, I will drown you in the pot myself."

The soldiers scrambled. Kaguya scribbled furiously. Karin's jaw tightened, her glare fixed on me as if she could not decide whether to punch me or agree.

◇◇◇◇

I rolled my shoulders as if none of it mattered. "Now then. Dinner. Grilled fish with vinegar glaze. Acidity slows bacterial growth and aids digestion. Steamed greens with garlic on the side. Good for immunity. Both of you work too hard to keep skipping meals."

Kaguya's quill nearly snapped. "Acidity… immunity… incredible…"

Karin folded her arms, scowling. "Stop making dinner sound like a medical prescription."

I ignored her. "Broth too. Salt and collagen for recovery. You may not thank me, but your hands will."

Karin's face reddened, but then she grabbed Reika by the sleeve and yanked her closer. "And you. Tell him the truth. You are worse than us. As her roommate I practically starved. We lived on stale bread and takeout because this captain cannot cook to save her life."

Reika went crimson. "Stop spouting nonsense, you muscle brained fool."

I tilted my head, watching her sputter. "Do you have any allergies or dislikes I should know about."

Her ears burned as she looked away. "No allergies. But I absolutely hate bell peppers. So do not you dare try."

"Alright," I said with a laugh. "Just do not expect to get away without greens on your plate."

Reika spun on me, shouting, "I am not a child, of course."

Her soldiers pretended not to hear. Karin smirked. Kaguya was already drafting a new type of medicine in the margins of her notes.

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