Matthew hated hospitals with all his heart.

  Why did they always have to paint them white? Because it made it easier to spot the blood and dirt? Because the color white was cheaper? Whatever the case, these corridors never failed to remind him of bones and death, and the Old Town grand hospital was no exception.

  He sat in the hallway leading to the operation room, alone, waiting, and shaking. His phone beeped with each message Amélia and the others sent him, none of which he had the strength to answer. He simply stared at the door, waiting anxiously for someone to step out and tell him the terrible news.

  Matthew had lived through all of this once before, and he hated it.

  He heard footsteps in the corridor and looked up to see Maggie approaching him, hands in her pocket and a dark scowl on her face.

  “You heard?” Matthew asked.

  Maggie nodded gravely. “I was in the area,” she said while sitting next to him. “How… how are your teammates?”

  Bad. “I don’t know.”

  Maggie squinted at him. She always knew him better than most. “What happened today wasn’t your fault, Matt.”

  “It was,” Matthew replied gloomily. “That thing wanted me.”

  “Fuck that self-pitying bullshit, Matt,” Maggie said sternly. “You know as well as I do that thing would have attacked anyone showing up in the Mall. That’s what it does. It hurts people.”

  “But–”

  “This wasn’t your fault,” Maggie cut in with a tone that broke no disobedience. “Neither of your teammates will blame you for falling into a trap. They took one for the team, end of the story. This was an Act of God. Nothing more, nothing less.”

  An Act of the Devil, yes. Matthew didn’t believe Maggie, but he kept his mouth shut.

  His heartbeat skipped a beat when the door finally opened. Nurse Florence stepped out, her pale blonde hair restrained by a scrub cap and her blue eyes the only part of her face uncovered by a surgeon’s mask.

  “Kari will be alright, though I’ll have to keep her under observation for now,” she reassured Matthew, though his respite didn’t last long. “John…”

  Matthew lost all strength. “Is he–” He bit both of his lips while Maggie watched on in silence. He didn’t dare ask that question out loud. “Is he–”

  Florence hesitated a moment before telling him the full truth. “He’s in a coma right now, and I’m not sure I can pull him out of it. My Key struggles to affect a subject’s brain, and whatever that monster did to him put immense strain on his cerebral activities. I would need Finn’s expertise, or a Blue Crawler specialized in neural pathways.”

  She tried to sound hopeful, to soften the blow, the same way the doctors once kindly told Matthew that Ulysses might learn to walk straight again one day.

  He never did.

  Florence noticed his anguish and tried to reassure him. “Crypto informed me she’s in negotiations with the spider to release Finn from its custody in order to assist with the operation. He’ll know what to do.”

  Yes he would, but knowing and doing were two very different things. No matter how much Matthew told himself things would improve, that it could have been way worse, he still couldn’t muster the strength to believe in it.

  “Can I visit them?” he asked, no, pleaded.

  Florence uncomfortably shifted in place. “I’m… I’m afraid I can’t do that, Matthew. They need to be quarantined for everyone’s safety. They’re still infected with traces of that monster’s Flux, and it might react violently to you. I swear you’ll visit them as soon as it’s feasibly possible, but...”

  “It’s… it’s fine, Florence,” Matthew replied, his voice so low he could barely hear himself. “I understand.”

  Even if he was allowed to visit them, what would he tell them? All he could think of was to apologize for failing to protect them the same way he failed to save Perse. From being such a weakling.

  “I’ll keep you informed,” Florence promised as she returned to the operation room, leaving the teens alone.

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  “This wasn’t your fault,” Maggie said again.

  “I know,” Matthew lied through his teeth.

  This didn’t satisfy Maggie, who grabbed him by the shirt and forced her to look at her. “Listen to me, Matt,” she insisted. “Really listen to me instead of pretending you do. This wasn’t your fault.”

  “How many times are you gonna tell me that?!” Matthew snapped back.

  “Until it gets through your thick skull and you fucking believe it.” She let him go. “If it had been anybody else in there, those two would be dead. That’s a fact. You did your best and they’re both alive, and when the Mall is concerned, that’s a whole bloody victory.”

  Matthew scowled silently, only for his cell phone to beep in his pocket. He checked it half-expecting another message from Amélia, only to recognize Crypto’s number trying to call him.

  He picked it up.

  “Florence told me about John and Kari, Matthew,” Crypto said. “I am in discussion with Tarantulas to have Finn returned to us. We’ll get through this together, I swear to you.”

  “Thanks,” Matthew replied, his fist clenching. “Is the Doc… is he safe?”

  “Yes. He and his host were about as surprised as we were once the link between their Dungeons closed. All evidence points to a lack of cooperation between Tarantulas and Durge.”

  This didn’t surprise Matthew. Smart, solipsistic monsters wouldn’t get along by default. He was relieved to know the Doc hadn’t been caught in the crossfire at least.

  “If there’s a silver lining to the situation, it’s that Tarantulas considers its request fulfilled now that the Mall severed contact with its Dungeon and failed to reestablish it,” Crypto said. “The monster agreed to cooperate with us and provide the intel we seek. Considering the situation, his assistance should prove critical.”

  Considering the situation. Neither Matthew nor Maggie missed out on the obvious implications. Crypto had been busy coordinating other Crawlers in the last few hours to check on the Mall’s expansion, and from her grave tone, the news on the ground wasn't good.

  “How many?” Matthew asked, though he dreaded the answer.

  “Worse than we feared,” Crypto confessed. “The Mall is assimilating all Dungeons in its vicinity in an attempt to break out of confinement and reach its metastasis stage. I’ve received reports of rifts appearing in places reaching as far as Old Town. The junkyard Dungeon is only one case among dozens.”

  A terrible silence fell upon the hospital corridor. Maggie and Matthew shared a dark look, the same thought crossing their mind. They knew just how close the Mall had been to triggering a timeshift before the Dungeon Wreckers Association managed to seal its entrances.

  Every new Dungeon core it added to its own, every new level it built from the cannibalized remains of another, brought Evermarsh an inch closer to destruction.

  “I’ve mobilized everyone to destroy the infected Dungeons before they can be assimilated into new Mall levels, but considering many of them are likely slipping under our radars I fear we’re only delaying the inevitable.”

  “How long?” Matthew whispered back.

  “Until it emerges?” Crypto let out a sigh. “I cannot say yet. Months, if we’re lucky. Weeks, if we’re not.”

  Christmas would come early then.

  “Matthew.” He could almost hear Crypto taking a deep breath on the other end of the line. “I won’t force you to do it, and I hope with all my heart that it won’t come to that, but should the worst come to pass… we’ll have to put extreme measures on the table.”

  “I know,” Matthew replied. He understood the burden of the strong better than anyone, and how much his life weighed against the thousands living in his city; his friends and teammates included. “I know.”

  If the worst came to pass, he wouldn’t hesitate.

  With Kari and John staying at the hospital, Officer Kresnik took it upon himself to drive Maggie and Matthew home. The latter would have found a ride in a police car funny, but he was in too much of a dark mood to enjoy it.

  The Doc was a morally ambiguous spider’s prisoner, John was in a coma, Kari was out of commission, and the Mall would eat Evermarsh sometime soon.

  What did that French president say once? That trouble always flew in squadrons?

  And there was the Black Flux matter, which Matthew hadn’t confided to Crypto about for now. Waiting at the hospital had given him plenty of time to ponder the issue, and he didn’t like the answer he had come up with.

  Timeshifts changed the backhistory of places and objects, and according to the Doc, those with errors sneaking their way in produced Black Flux by their paradoxical nature.

  Could that apply to humans too?

  Matthew’s own parents couldn’t agree anymore on whether or not they even owned a house at some point, but he encountered his first Dungeon there as far as he knew. Maybe reality had started calling his own goddamn existence into question.

  Somehow, the thought of blinking out of existence didn’t terrify Matthew as much as it should. He had been ready to blow himself up to destroy the Mall until the Doc talked him out of it. What was his life if he couldn’t even protect those he loved?

  “Stop it,” Maggie said at his side.

  “I didn’t say a thing,” Matthew replied, his eye turned towards the outside. Night had fallen on Evermarsh, and they would reach the dorm near midnight.

  “Stop thinking about it,” Maggie replied dryly. “It’s your boss’ fault. She should have sent more people with you.”

  “At this rate, we’ll need to launch another raid on the Mall,” Officer Kresnik said at the front of the car. “You’ll get your wish then.”

  Maggie clenched her jaw so tightly Matthew heard it crack. The dark irony of their situation wasn’t lost on either of them. After giving Matthew an ultimatum to help her attack the Mall by Christmas, she risked having her wish fulfilled early. What a poisoned gift.

  Officer Kresnik checked his phone—violating all driving laws while doing so—and frowned upon reading whatever message he had received. He took a left at the next turn, ignoring the GPS.

  Matthew frowned in confusion. “The path to my school is the other way, wolfie.”

  “We’ll need to take a detour to the port.” Officer Kresnik scowled. “Charlie sent me a distress signal.”

  As the French said; trouble always flew in squadrons.

  Dungeon Wreckers now has a preorder on ;)

  Dungeon Wreckers on Amazon & Kindle Unlimited myself. Unlike Gunsoul (which is in the top 10 Best Rated completed and thus visible to users) Dungeon Wreckers has basically has no exposure whatsoever on Royal Road and is a solo novel rather than a series; as such I suspect it'll be forgotten as soon as it finishes on RR. I figured I should publish it on Amazon quickly after it finishes on RR while the iron is still hot.

  July 1st after it reaches completion on Royal Road, so you'll see the full story before I stub it ;) hope you'll enjoy the finale.

  https://www.royalroad.com/amazon/B0F959D6T1

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