Adam was no stranger to the heat. He had endured the muggy summers of his home city. He had stood around barrel fires set up by park hobos in the winter. He lit cigarettes, stole bread from a running oven and once dunked a kid's head in an open vat of casserole because the asshole dared to insult his sister.

The flames surrounding them made the Steeldale summers seem like ice-cold lollies in comparison. A backdrop of bright orange and yellow overrode the red skies. The insides of his mouth were frying to a crisp. Every breath he took absorbed a cloud of smoke. He hated to think what this nightmare would've been without Lucy's makeshift mask.

His opponent approached. The shadow, its form obscured by the smoke, dragged itself along the ground with gangly legs. Its hands fell by its sides. A single pinprick of light outshone the fire, and Adam's forehead felt like it was about to explode. The corruption was here. Its color was hidden by the fire and the sky, but the mystic synapses inside of him were reeled at its presence, like little pigs squealing at the sight of a wolf.

"No, no, no, not like this! Get away from me!" A voice, echoed as if down a dark tunnel.

"It burns, it burns!"

"Please, oh mighty Witch. Have mercy. Have mercy! Have mercy, Flame Witch!"

Burning flesh. Entire buildings collapsing to the ground, their occupants scrambling away like ants. Teams of strong men and women firing their bolt-actions at an unstoppable enemy. The visions played out again and again, overriding and overloading his senses.

"Adam! Adam!" Miriam's voice snapped him back to reality. He yanked his hand away from the pickup truck. Blisters coated his palm.

"Miriam!" He coughed, "What the hell…"

"Focus!" Miriam said. "The Flame Witch is right in Klavdia's face!"

"Damn it!"

Adam sprinted forward. He saw Lucy, staring, unmoving, her composure shattered. She took her mask off and shouted again.

"Saria!"

Pure dread lay on that single cry. Flame Witch came into view. She was humanoid-shaped, strands of fiery red hair streaming from its oversized head, ragged and tangled. Her face had no nose, no mouth and no eyes. Only a single chunk of shining rock embedded in the centre. It was pure white like diamond, its hue divorced from the flames.

"Saria! That's you, isn't it?" Lucy screamed. Her voice overpowered the flames, as if the smoke wasn't there. "It's me, Lucy! Your friend, your fellow War Maiden! Do you recognise me?"

Light, pinkish like a newborn, beamed from the rock. It waxed and waned. The tattered remains of the War Maiden's uniform, untouched by fire, fluttered in the smoke-infested air. The Flame Witch twisted its neck towards Lucy and growled. Lucy's chin trembled.

"You're corrupted, like I was. That's so terrible, Saria! I'm sorry I didn't search for you. I'm sorry that you had to wander beneath these foul, starless skies for so long! It'll be okay, though. The Chosen is here now. He's purified me, and he'll save you too!" Lucy cried. "Just a little bit longer, Saria!" We'll get you out of there soon!"

The Flame Witch advanced as if Lucy never spoke at all. She dragged her oversized feet, gangly arms dropping by its head. The turn of its neck made this horrid, metallic screech. Her pink light shone upon Adam, and then it screamed. A howl with the sound of an air-raid siren and the raw force of a grenade knocked him off balance. Before he recovered, the Flame Witch dashed into view, claws sliding towards his neck.

Lucy vanished and dragged him back in a flash. The Fire Witch's claws hit the ground and a plume of fire burst out. A couple of bursts hit Lucy in the back, searing the cloth and the skin underneath. Without missing a beat, Lucy snapped her fingers and a dozen light spears formed and shot towards the Flame Witch, slamming her back like a carelessly thrown doll.

Lucy drew her rifle and began blasting the downed Flame Witch over and over. "Chosen, retreat! Leave this to me!"

The laser blasts tore up dirt, obscuring her. Adam's chest pounded against his ribcage. More light spears formed out of her open skin and raised in the air. He must have stared at her, shocked, because she gave him a maddened smile.

"Don't worry, Chosen. I'll win! I'll beat Saria, deliver her to you and you'll purify her! Her Providence shall will it!" The yellow light swirled around Lucy, its glow almost swallowed up by the fire. "Now go!"

Adam scrambled back as the Flame Witch tore itself out of the dirt and launched itself towards Lucy. There was a shrill whine, then an explosion.

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This was hell, Penny thought.

Grandma had talked of it in her stupors. A blue sky overridden by the crimson tendrils. The ground cracking open and swallowing it all out. The screams of hundreds of thousands—a number she could barely conceive—snuffing short as fire, poison and darkness bellowed out of the earth.

She heard the fire scream. It had words. It shouted the wrath of the Flame Witch, and its spittle were the sparks that set the nearby fertile farmland ablaze.

She turned and ran, not bothering to look back. She didn't care about Adam or Lucy. They could have this. They could fight this damn monster and die if they wanted. She was just a scavenger girl, whose only actual combat experience was watching her comrades get slaughtered by another Witch. Why, oh why, had her life turned out like this? Why had Adam brought her along instead of letting stay at that mysterious pillar?

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Her feet tripped on a rock. She tumbled a distance and splattered face-first into hardening mud. She spat dirt out, then gasped. The river was here. Glenn's Rest was nearby!

A crackling sound made her stomach drop. The source was a monster—a floating, human torso with its outer shell blackened. Strands of burned meat curled upwards from the neck in a circle, forming a shape like a candelabra's head. A flame burned in the centre.

The monster reached into its 'head', drew out some of its flame and hurled it at her. Penny shrieked and ran into the water. It burned her skin the instant she touched it. She continued to crawl through it, the silt slowing her movements down. The floating torso turned around, aimed, and rammed its lower half straight at her.

She heard a bang as she squeezed her eyes shut. The torso fell to the ground. A second blast ripped it to pieces. Adam stood above her, panting.

"Penny, you alright?"

"Boss!" Penny sniffled, "Thank you!"

"No time for that! Get the hell outta here!" Adam glanced up the direction of the river. He tossed her Rick's radio and the revolver from the abandoned cabin. "Find Jona or Cole and ask whatever you can about the Flame Witch!"

"Ask what?" Penny gasped.

"Anything! Clues, rumors, weaknesses…we need all the intel we can get!" Adam said. "Don't worry about the radio! I hooked it up so that it talks to me!"

He fired again, striking a second torso in the head. He worked that strange magic of his and crushed the monster into shreds. He didn't have time to relax, because a whole heap of those torso monsters were approaching.

"What are you gawping for?" Adam shouted. "Move your ass, Penny!"

She almost pulled a muscle in her haste to swim away as fast as possible. It was only after she climbed to the bank on the other side that she realised.

For the first time in a long while, neither Adam nor Lucy were observing her.

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"Adam, you're surrounded!" Miriam said. "What's going on?"

"Monsters! They're coming out of the Witch's flames!" Adam shouted. "Heads are like candles!"

"Say what? No, never mind. Work with me, Adam! I'll track their movements for you. Remember to look up or down too!"

"I'm counting on you, Miriam!" Adam said. He swiped open ADOSCH and accessed the Augmentation Foci. It was good luck—or bad, given the situation—that he hadn't received enough time to lock in his initial choices of [Improved Respiration] and then [Respiration Filters] which would allow him to breathe through the smoke. That wouldn't be enough in this hellish minefield of candle-headed monsters. He needed to be faster, both in moving his legs and pulling the trigger.

User Adam Westfield will install the [Aim Stabilizer 2], [Improved Respiration] and [Lower Limb Booster 2] augmentations. Cost: 6 Biometric Keys. Is this correct?

Do it!

His muscles jolted and his chest tightened as ADOSCH worked its magic. 6 Biometric Keys vanished.

[Improved Respiration]: Improves the power of the lungs, allowing the user to breathe more efficiently, conserve energy and retain stamina. Also filters out minor-sized dust particles.

His Vitality meter flashed, ticking down the percentage for staying close to the flame. Adam gripped his rifle tighter. He stared down at the advancing horde. "You want some? Come and get some!"

The monsters—candleheads, his brain came up with—were endless. The Flame Witch leaked corruption wherever she went, so it was inevitable some of her runoff would mix with the dangerous flames. Penny's old crew must have dealt with so many wraiths amidst their battle with the Blast Witch.

"Adam, right side, thirty-four degrees!"

He whirled around and blasted the encroaching candlehead right in the chest. Bone fragments exploded out. He stomped on its neck and destroyed it. These monsters were weak defensively, but they were no less damaging with their fireballs and ramming attack.

"Left side, sixty-seven degrees!"

He dodged to the side, plucked a grenade from his belt, and tossed it. The shockwave sent the candleheads flying, their body parts raining down like wreckage from a building. He activated [Physio-Dash], sending him almost tumbling into the river. He ran across the bank, shooting all the while. A headless torso swarmed him, its spear aimed at his heart. He grabbed it with [Psycho-Push] and regretted it. There was no physical contact, yet pain shot through his mystic synapses as if he touched a live wire. The torso seemed to laugh as its bones jiggled out. Adam gritted his teeth, clenched his hold tighter, and drew his tomahawk. A smash, a rifle blast, and the monster was down for the count. Half a second too late and that bone spear would have pierced his chest.

"Help…help…"

"We can't control this. We couldn't control her! What we were…"

"Miriam, do you hear that?" Adam cried.

"Hear what? Is that scavenger girl still with you?

"No! The candleheads. They're talking!" He blasted apart a candlehead. A voice rang through his ears as the monster's corpse dissipated into a pile of ashes. It drowned out the roar of his surroundings, as if the red itself taunted him, demanding he listen to the cries of the Witch's victims.

"Scatter! Run away! We can't fight…"

" …can't control her! This job was a mistake! Nothing can kill a Witch, nothing!"

"Mama, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…"

He opened full-auto fire across his landscape, dropping the candleheads like flies. The recoil sent a sharp jolt of pain up his arm. He grasped his neck, choking.

Vitality: 60%

Plasma: 60%

And there were still so many enemies approaching. The ammunition gauge on his rifle was not as full as it used to be. He needed a more permanent solution.

He glanced backwards. Esther had mentioned that the skilled practitioners of [Psychokinesis] could rip apart less solid states of matter, such as liquid, gas, plasma or even the fabric of space itself. If the candleheads were any indication, attempting to pull the flames would give him another 'mental' burn. What about water? He checked the river, saw the steam pouring out of it, and shook his head. Then he saw the mud below.

"Miriam, watch me! Where's the nearest gap?"

"Left side, thirty degrees!"

"Perfect!"

He ran forward and [Physio-Dash]ed through a gap in the candleheads. He ran across the bank, his [Psychokinesis] reaching out for river's mud. It rose in a large clump that hovered by his side, smooth and easy. That additional point in PRECISION had helped, after all!

"Take this!" Adam hurled the clump at the nearest flame. The mud covered the grass, stifling it instantly. The flames next to it threatened to consume the mud, but Adam was already gathering up another ball and hurling it to the side. The candleheads all shrieked and rushed towards Adam. He drew his pistol, activated [Perception Acceleration] and fired.

A dozen clumps of river mud and an almost drained plasma meter later, Adam had quashed the nearby flames enough to drop the candleheads' numbers. He blasted one, point-blank, and stabbed his arm with a regenerative syringe.

"Lucy." He breathed. He turned to the wall of fire. His mud piles surrounded parts of it, preventing it from spreading across the rest of the plain. "Miriam, how is she?"

"Lucy won't be finished that quickly! It's War Maiden against War Maiden! Those fights take forever to finish!"

That didn't convince him. He activated [War Maidens' Bond], saw Lucy's vision and he gasped.