Within the fortified walls of GDA headquarters, nearly five thousand frightened souls huddled together, men, women, and children, their faces carved with terror. The giant holo-screens lining the barricades flickered with live feeds of heroes locked in desperate combat against an endless wave of the undead, the once-vibrant people of Chicago twisted into ravenous monstrosities.
A ripple of awe coursed through the crowd as a jagged bolt of violet lightning streaked across one screen, obliterating an entire horde of zombies in a mist of gore. Santana's voice crackled over the comms, her breath labored from exertion: "Alright, you nightmares, let's see you try that again." Her electrifying aura surged outward, siphoning stray droplets of blood and igniting them into spiraling arcs of electrical fire.
She's merciless, thought Lieutenant Ramirez, clutching his daughter's trembling hand. But we'll take any advantage. As the crackling inferno consumed the nearest abominations, he dared to feel a glimmer of hope.
Santana's sweat-drenched hair clung to her forehead as her eyes darted across the battlefield with machine-like precision. "They've broken formation, splintering toward the North perimeter. Heads up." She paused, her brow furrowing as her gaze locked onto what had seemed moments ago to be a half-collapsed office building.
"What the—?" Santana muttered. That's no building. The structure convulsed, shedding flesh and bone until it revealed its true form: a grotesque tower of writhing corpses, each zombie clawing its way upward in a brutal scramble. At its peak stood a cloaked figure, its tattered garment billowing as it swung a weapon that shifted between a whip of crimson flame and a gleaming longsword.
The crowd below gasped as the figure unleashed a searing arc of energy. WHOOSH! The crimson slash tore through the grotesque mass, carving a molten scar into a nearby skyscraper.
BOOOM! The explosion shattered steel and glass, sending dust spiraling into the night sky.
William Black materialized above the rubble, his reappearing form a harbinger of chaos.
"He's insane," someone whispered, "and thank God he is."
William crouched low, then exploded into the air.
CRACK!
The ground fractured beneath him as he ascended. Hovering, he brushed a strand of hair from his eyes, surveying the chaos below. The grotesque amalgamation of flesh squirmed as it consumed stray corpses, bones crunching in a sickening rhythm.
"Ugh, talk about a diet," he muttered, his sword dripping with gore.
The abomination bellowed, inhaling a nearby zombie as if it were air, its bloated belly expanding to the brink of bursting. William's jaw tightened. "Time to pop this zit." He dove with deadly precision, sword aimed at the creature's core.
But he wasn't fast enough.
BRT… BRT… BRT…
A barrage of bone-like projectiles slammed into him at point-blank range. The shots tore through reinforced armor, shredding flesh and muscle with surgical accuracy. The final impact split him in two.
The battlefield fell silent. Ramirez shut his eyes against the carnage but then blinked in astonishment as crimson mist swirled, knitting rib and sinew back together.
He always comes back.
With a guttural gasp, William reformed, first a hand, then a torso, and finally life reignited in his eyes. Panting, half-clothed, and drenched in ichor, he floated above the carnage.
"Back for more?" he growled, glaring at the monstrous tower. His knuckles cracked as radiant bronze energy spiraled around him, pulsing with righteous fury.
Santana's voice crackled through his comms: "William, status?"
William exhaled steam, activating the device in his ear. "Alive, but pissed!"
William's eyes blazed with fierce determination as he plunged back into the chaos. Below, the grotesque tower convulsed, its base swarming with lesser corpses clawing upward like sacrificial pawns. Each tiny body added to its grotesque arsenal, another bone-bullet primed to launch.
BRT… BRT… BRT…
A volley screamed past his shoulders, close enough to rattle his bones with its force. William twisted in mid-air, gritting his teeth as a pellet seared across his ribs, leaving a line of smoldering pain. Yet he pressed on, defiant. "Can't keep a good man down," he growled, hauling himself toward the monstrous mass.
He landed behind the cover of a shattered column, chunks of concrete cascading around him. Sparks erupted from his suit where jagged bone had sliced it, an unforgiving reminder of the cost of recklessness. But there was no room for hesitation. A direct assault was his only option. Tightening his grip on the sword, he drew a deep breath, strange energy surging through his veins like liquid fire.
"Focus on the core, sever the beast's head, not the tail."
With an earth-shaking roar, he propelled himself forward, his sword leveled like a battering ram. The lesser zombies disintegrated under the shockwave, their bodies exploding into shards of bone and sinew. But as he closed in on the abomination's pulsating core, a storm of skeletal bullets erupted from hidden maws, transforming the space ahead into a deadly gauntlet.
William weaved through the onslaught of hail, each nimble dodge leaving shallow gouges in the fractured plaza. Blood streaked his face, dripping from his chin, but his gaze remained locked on the multitude of dead eyes joined into one. "Get down here and fight like a man!" he roared, his voice reverberating against shards of shattered glass.
The figure responded with a laugh, a dry, hollow sound that seemed to shake William to his core. With a flick of its wrist, the whip-blade lashed downward, slicing through a hunk of decayed flesh and hurtling it toward him like a cannonball. William vaulted over the projectile, landing deftly on the back of a staggering ghoul. Using its shoulders as a springboard, he propelled himself forward, closing the final gap in a single, fluid leap.
His sword struck with precision, tearing through the amalgamation's hide in a burst of black ichor. The blade carved a luminous blood-red arc, sinking deep into the monstrosity's warped form. Yet the creature barely reacted, its grotesque bulk shifted, and the severed corpses that composed its body slid together, knitting the gaping wound closed almost instantly.
The wound sealed shut with a nauseating squelch, bones weaving together like twisted roots, while sinew slithered over the gaping tear as if alive, stitching it closed. William's blade lingered in the writhing mass a fraction too long, enough for the tower to convulse, its fleshy surface rippling with undulating limbs like spasming muscles, grasping at him in an attempt to consume.
He tore the sword free in a violent motion, propelling himself backward as a gleaming arc of viscous black ichor followed the blade. He landed heavily on a crumbling rooftop, knees nearly giving way, one hand instinctively clutching his battered ribs.
"Damn thing's healing faster than I can cut it."
The air was a suffocating mix of decay, blood, and gunpowder, heavy enough to burn his lungs. Each breath came in ragged gasps. His gaze fell to his torso, his flesh mangled and torn beneath shattered armor, regeneration faltering against the relentless assault of bone fragments still embedded in his body. The faint glow of his energy shimmered weakly around his hands, flickering like the last embers of a dying flame.
He was nearing his limit.
The cloaked figure perched atop the abomination's crown slowly lifted its head. Though the hood revealed no eyes, William felt its gaze pierce through him, a cold, ageless stare that spoke of a cruel and ancient intelligence.
A guttural voice resonated in his mind.
"You burn brightly, little flame... but even stars succumb to the void."
The abomination roared, a cacophony of thousands of voices screaming in horrifying unison, discordant and maddening. Then it moved. The colossal form heaved forward like a mountain stirring to life, its base erupting with jagged bone appendages that slammed into buildings and roads, tearing apart the cityscape as it began its relentless march toward the GDA perimeter.
Inside GDA HQ, Ramirez and the others watched in stunned silence, captivated by the horrifying and awe-inspiring events unfolding on the screen. His daughter clung tightly to his side.
"Is he—?" she whispered, her voice trembling.
Ramirez remained silent. He didn't have the answer.
Out on the battlefield, William stood resolute, blood trickling down his face as his sharp eyes focused on the monstrous tower, rising like a tidal wave of destruction.
"Fine," he muttered, spitting out a mouthful of blood. He squared his shoulders, his voice steady. "You want a dying star?"
The blazing aura around him flickered again, brief but unstable.
He couldn't trust it.
Not yet.
With determination, he surged forward.
The ground cracked beneath his feet as he charged toward the abomination. Its tendrils lashed out, massive and grotesque, each one a writhing mass of limbs and teeth. William dodged one, slashed through another, vaulted over a fallen light pole, and rolled under a volley of bone shards.
The monster fought like an unrelenting force of nature, and he was just one man.
The tower unleashed another torrent of bone projectiles, an endless barrage tearing apart the ground, obliterating cars, and destroying what little cover remained.
William darted between the explosions like a man possessed, but even he had limits.
A jagged spike tore through his thigh, sending him crashing to the ground. He skidded across the pavement as another shard embedded itself in his shoulder. Blood arced through the air, painting violent streaks as pain consumed him like fire.
He let out a scream that resonated not only in his voice but in the energy within him.
Deep inside, something ancient stirred. Something far greater than the pain. Something ravenous.
A rhythm.
A pulse.
Like a heartbeat.
Like a furnace, waiting to ignite.
William staggered to his feet, blood cascading down his torn suit in rivulets. His thigh screamed with every step, and the embedded bone spike in his shoulder throbbed like a brand. But he didn't stop. He couldn't.
The monstrous tower of the dead loomed above him, shadowing entire city blocks now as it dragged its bloated form toward the last GDA perimeter. It moved with terrifying purpose, bone appendages gouging into buildings, tearing up concrete, absorbing corpses as it marched. Every few seconds, the ground shuddered with its weight.
Another volley of bone shards tore through the air.
William raised an arm but he was too slow.
Three jagged fragments struck, one grazing his temple, another punching into his side, and a third embedding itself just beneath his collarbone. The force hurled him across the street, his body skipping like a stone before slamming into the husk of a burned-out bus.
Smoke and sparks rose from the impact. William coughed violently, blood painting his teeth.
"Move, damn it…" he growled, trying to push off the wreckage. His arms trembled. His bones ached.
And still, that pulse in his core persisted.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
It wasn't like his normal energy. Not the disciplined bronze, honed and steady.
This was raw. Unshaped. Untamed. It didn't obey him, it defied him, dared him to wield it.
A furnace. Waiting. Starving.
Inside the cratered remnants of his chestplate, a glow ignited, deep orange, streaked with violent white-gold veins that pulsed like magma under glass. His fingers sparked with it. His breath steamed. The ground beneath him began to warp.
The abomination slowed, sensing something had changed. Its limbs shifted, quivered, then it roared. A deafening, animalistic scream of survival.
"Let's end this," William rasped.
He rose, not slowly, but with explosive force.
BOOM.
The ground exploded beneath him as the strange energy surged from his core, his aura swelling with raw, incandescent rage. Flames spiraled around him in wild torrents, no longer orange but blindingly white-hot at the edges, flickering blue at the center like a collapsing star.
Debris radiated outward from the blistering heat. Street lamps bent and warped. Concrete turned to molten pools in wide, expanding circles.
In the GDA bunker, civilians watching the holo-screens gasped collectively.
"He's… he's on fire," Ramirez murmured, awe creeping into his voice.
"No," someone whispered behind him. "He is the fire."
The abomination howled, realizing the threat too late.
William roared, igniting the heavens as he lunged forward, faster than ever before. A blazing comet of blue fire tore through the smoke, carving a shockwave in his wake that shattered windows and split buildings for blocks.
The tower lashed out with its monstrous tendrils, massive, writhing limbs of corpses and spines, dripping gore and lined with howling maws.
William didn't evade.
He tore through them.
Each impact unleashed bursts of fire that obliterated flesh on contact. His velocity shredded limbs, and corpses ignited as he passed. One colossal arm swung down, but William sliced through it with his aura alone, leaving nothing but ash in his wake.
Then came the impact.
BOOOOOOM.
The collision was cataclysmic. William drove himself into the abomination's chest, fists first, burrowing into its rotting mass like a meteor piercing a mountain. The tower screamed, not in a thousand voices this time, but one singular, primal wail of agony.
He didn't stop.
He plunged deeper, through bone and blood, through writhing bodies that clawed and wailed, all disintegrating under the relentless force of his power. His aura spiraled furiously, a gyroscopic inferno of blue-white flame that expanded with every pulse.
He wasn't just burning it.
He was annihilating it from the inside out.
From the outside, the corpse-tower writhed in agony, convulsing with violent tremors. Smoke and light burst forth from cracks that spread like veins across its grotesquely bloated sides. Black ichor spewed into the air in geysers, while bone arms flailed chaotically, aimless in their desperation. Massive clusters of eyes erupted in showers of rot, and every inch of its horrid form warped, twisted, and boiled as it succumbed to chaos.
Within, William's roar reverberated like the wrath of a vengeful god.
"Burn."
The energy surged in response.
His aura blazed with an intensity that was almost unbearable, a fusion of raw starlight and searing gold, encased in flames so fierce they warped the very fabric of light.
"BURN!"
He drove himself deeper, his fists hammering through barriers of flesh and bone. Corpses disintegrated in his wake, reduced to ash by the sheer force of his power. The regenerative tissues that had once healed the abomination now shriveled and died on contact, unable to withstand the consuming energy.
The monstrous entity attempted to rebuild itself, to reform its grotesque body, but the stolen mass it relied upon betrayed it. Its internal structure collapsed, melting into a putrid sludge of failure and decay.
From streets away, onlookers could see the beast's violent death throes. Entire sections of its grotesque form erupted, hurling flaming remains across rooftops and into shattered windows. A column of fire shot out from what had been its spine, filling the air with the acrid stench of scorched bone and vaporized rot.
Then, from the abomination's chest, a spiraling pillar of blue-white flame ascended into the heavens, piercing the storm clouds above with a blinding brilliance.
At the epicenter of it all—
William, incandescent and unstoppable, emerged from the creature's core like a star born in the crucible of destruction.
The corpse-tower crumbled instantly.
Its limbs went limp.
Its foundation disintegrated.
And the towering mountain of corpses collapsed inward, reduced to molten, sagging heaps of flesh that bubbled and hissed like meat left too long on a burning flame.
Silence.
Only ash.
Only steam.
William hovered above the devastation, his body fractured, steaming, and glowing faintly. His suit was entirely incinerated, leaving his scorched yet resilient skin exposed. Each breath was a ragged rattle in his throat.
The flames danced weakly one last time before retreating into his chest.
"...Overcooked it," he murmured, just as his body gave way, plummeting like a stone. But before he could hit the ground, a streak of lightning snaked through the disbanded throng of undead, catching him mid-fall. The crackling bolt cradled him and surged away, carrying him safely back to the GDA facility.