We hit the beach again in our zigzagging way. With the three young adventurers keeping their distance behind me, all I had to do was what I already had been doing. I walked in silence, letting the surf splash up against me.

My excitement was waning a little bit. Something felt off. Like there was danger on the air when there shouldn’t be.

"How much longer?" the girl with the bow asked impatiently. She'd said it loud enough for me to hear, but I didn't bother to answer.

"Shut it, Wendy," the boy replied to her instead. Finally, he'd stopped playing the hero. He was confused and frustrated. A little goblin beat them in combat, and now it was leading them to safety. He had to feel embarrassed.

Served the wanker right, I thought, smiling.

I couldn't help but brag as we walked. The problem was that my words became as much self-assurance as a statement of fact. "You're gonna see you little shits. There's gonna be a big parade for me and everything! Just you wait, dumbasses. You three got parents?"

"Yes," the meek girl with the staff replied.

"Well, I just saved their lives. You're welcome,” I said.

The adventurers had been outside the city when the World Giant fell. If anything, I had put them in danger by dropping the monster where I had, but it's not like I had much choice.

When I thought back to how close we came to failing, it filled me with a small, quiet dread. Now that the high of victory was starting to wear off, I wondered anxiously just whether the gods had it all in hand, or if we really had nearly failed so many times.

The Rot was a god, and he had lost, I thought. He allowed his servants to see into the future, which meant it was a power he possessed. And yet, even with his power to plan by foresight, the future had been for him to fail. If the good gods could see ahead too, did their abilities cancel out? Was it all just a game of chess?

These thoughts were too big for a goblin, I decided, and put them to rest. My destiny was mine, and mine alone. That was what I had proven when I survived, even though I was certain the plan was for me to die. Fuck the gods.

Galhim was approaching, and it wouldn't be long until we were safe in its walls again.

I saw ships waiting out in the water, and as the coastline snaked on, I thought I saw what looked like the edges of buildings rising over the trees. Canoes set out with nets and sails for their morning catch. It was less than a mile now to our destination at the outlet of the city river. There was not as much traffic as usual, but some brave souls went on with their jobs anyway. They thought the trouble was over and hauls had to be made.

But they were wrong.

As the four of us moved ahead, we saw a large boulder nestled partway into the sand. Its impact created a crater around it, and over its sloping edge, a mysterious strangling sounded. It was like an animal in pain, frantically trying to breathe.

The young swordsman became eager again as he sensed the danger. He jogged up beside me to see what the problem was while my pacing slowed. I approached the rock with more caution. There was a small monkey at the bottom of the incline, just where the sand met stone; at least what was left of one, struggling and screaming for release.

I heard about these creatures. They inhabited the tropic forests outside Galhim, swinging in trees and moving in troupes. I had never seen them in person before, though.

The monkey's tawny fur was stained red with blood. It tore at its own arm which was trapped in the porous holes of the boulder. Creeping up around the limb there came small, burrowing tendrils of fungus. They infected the animal’s flesh, moving faster up through the neck and corrupting everything that it touched. The eyes in its skull turned a burning yellow. Pustules formed, and slowly the screaming became of the monkey became silent.

Its face turned to us suddenly. Still grinning and shaking with pain, it began to scream more aggressively. Not for help, but as a warning.

Its arm pulled free now without resistance, and it moved in a flash up the slope of the crater.

"Nasty bitch!" I swore as it leaped free beside me on the cusp.

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The boy was its target, and he fell as it latched itself to him. The monkey's own face transformed, splitting open like a blooming flower of festering teeth. It was no longer recognizable as the animal it once was. As those teeth sunk into the boy, they tore a wide chunk of skin from his neck.

The two girls in the back screamed high-pitched and helpless cries. They didn't think to raise their weapons. They just froze in shock. I drew my daggers then and slashed at the monkey, but it dodged them easily, springing back into the sand and hissing at me.

The rotted monster sized me up, but as it took one look at the girls in the back, it knew who the easier target was. It possessed the same uncanny intelligence I saw back in Caslite; in those creeping, hiding places where the Rot grew. As it started to clear the distance toward them, I ran after it. I knew I couldn't get there first though.

"Attack!" I yelled at the two girls. "Move, dammit! Hey!"

The one with the stave remained stuck, but the archer girl snapped free at my words. She nocked an arrow and drew back, letting loose in the final moment of the monster's leap. Her attack struck true.

The arrow lodged into the monkey's open maw, piercing out the back end of its head and dropping the tainted fiend at once. All it took was one good hit.

Just to be sure, I cleaved the monster in two. Parts of the fungus still festered and crawled in the corpse, as if they threatened to break free from their host.

"W-what is that?" the other girl asked.

My eyes wandered back to their dead friend. His fingers twitched at his side, and I could see the bite he'd been given was blooming already. It wouldn't be long until he stood up.

"It's the Rot," I said. The name of him almost forced itself free from my throat, like a cough. Nalashtu. Nalashtu was here in these lands.

He had held the World Giant together before. I had crawled through darkened, fungal caves to its head for my killing blow. How could I not have seen it then, I thought.

The giant wasn't just meant to destroy. Every crack and crevice of the beast’s stone had brimmed with taint. Like blood in a body, it spilled out now, poisoning the land. It was the dark god’s perfect backup plan.

"No. Oh, shit," I whispered, shaking my head. This was bad. Lang needed to know about this. The people in the city had to be prepared. It would already be spreading through the woods.

The swordsman's corpse groaned, and the girl with the staff gasped. "He's alive!" she said.

"Wait!" I warned her.

I tried to stop the mage from running, but she was their healer. She went to him and pointed her magic down at the body, trying to wash a saving white light over his wounds.

The corpse’s hand shot up with inhuman speed. Its reaching tendrils grasped for her leg, but I arrived just before they landed to sever it clean and stop the attack. Frantically, I hacked at the corpse as it tried to rise. I put it down for good.

"Don't get near the fungus!" I spoke. My blood was rushing in my ears from the speed I had to move at. I only barely saved the girl.

These things were strong, I thought. Much stronger than any monster that was native to the area around Galhim.

The mage was still looking down at his body. "Daniel..." she said.

I motioned the two girls to follow me again. "We have to pick up the pace. Give the boulder a wide birth, alright? It's not fucking safe."

"What about Daniel!" the archer cried as I started to run.

"We can't do anything for him now!" I shouted back. Then I added more forcefully, "Think about yourselves, dammit! You wanna live, don’t you?!"

Those words sent a shock of useless pain through the weaker one, but the archer understood. Her face hardened. At least one of them was cut out for this job.

She pushed her friend to follow, and together the three of us finished the last leg of our journey. We arrived at the outer wall of Galhim. It was old and in disrepair; not maintained since the ancient days of the Great Horde. So, easy to hop over.

Past the stone, we made our way into the trappings of civilization. Here on the outskirts of the city, it was nothing but slums though. Crumbling stone houses from a bygone age and new wooden shanties. Small home gardens littered the area, and the streets were crowded with empty shops. Everyone was in hiding.

As we continued to move into the city, we saw someone standing out in the streets with a spear in hand. It was an adventurer, no doubt coming in from the jungle as well. He was of a higher level, dressed in fine copper-plated armor and helm, with a full shield at his side.

He readied up a bit when he saw me approaching, but with the girls at my back, he put two and two together fast. He wasn't an amateur like the others.

When our eyes met, there was finally a look of recognition. We had spoken briefly once before back in the Guild Hall weeks ago. In his eyes, I saw a steely focus. It was unmistakable to the real adventurers.

"The rocks are tainted!" I spoke. "We gotta get back and let the Guild know. The city has to put up guards and bring the humans in," I said. My mind was racing with everything necessary to contain the Rot’s spread. Lang was smart, I thought. He would know what to do.

The spear wielder stepped back, showing us that he was standing over an infected dog he killed. "I know," he confirmed. "I've already sent the whole village in; I was just looking for stragglers. We must abandon the outer ring and the slums. Those are the king's orders. The inner ring and city will hold, but it's like Ragnarök out here."

"Just be happy there's a city to defend," I told him. "I fought this shit back in Caslite. We can deal with it."

"You came from the north?" he asked. "On that thing?"

The adventurer pointed, and I noticed for the first time that a section of the World Giant's head had fallen upright. It stood like a nightmarish monument at the gate of the forest, just off to the east. Half of its skull was blown open from where I set off the bombs, and only one eye socket remained. It gazed openly at the sky.

The World Giant’s mouth was wide, and the wind seemed to pass through it in a never-ending groan which could be heard quietly over the air. Almost like it was alive.

"Yeah," I said slowly. "…On that thing."