Frank swallowed hard. He tasted the bitter, metallic flavor of his own blood. He remembered the cold nights in Lyrendale. He remembered the rich merchants ignoring him while he starved. He remembered Roderick and the bullies kicking him into the mud. The monster was right. The world had been cruel to him. "Look at the people you protected," the Amalgamation whispered, sensing Frank’s hesitation. "They called you a monster. They wanted to smash your head with a rock. They hate you, Frank. They will always hate you because you are different. You are not one of them."The giant, twisted centaur reached out with one of its massive arms. A hand made of petrified black wood and melted gold opened its giant fingers, offering Frank a place. "You belong with us," the chorus of weeping voices said gently. "You belong in the golden light. If you surrender your System Core to us right now, we will stop the pain. We will heal your broken body. We will give you a place of honor on our chest. You

Frank Williams roared. It was not a human sound. It was a raw, wild, animal scream filled with pain, anger, and absolute defiance. He charged forward. His heavy leather boots slammed into the soft, squishy, dark red floor of the Inner Sanctum. Hot, glowing golden acid rained down around him from the broken tubes high above, but Frank did not care. Above him, the sixty-foot-tall Amalgamation brought six of its massive arms crashing down. The weapons were terrifying. There was a giant club made of white bone, a rusted iron spear the size of a tree, a thick black tentacle of petrified wood, and three jagged swords made of dark alien steel. They fell through the hot, humid air with terrifying speed. They were aimed directly at Frank’s head. They held enough heavy, crushing power to smash a castle into dust. Frank did not stop running. He did not try to dodge. He raised his left side. The new, mutated Phantom Limb flared with blinding, unstable light. The pure neon blue magic of his S

The arm was completely wild now. It was no longer shaped like a perfect human arm. It was a massive, chaotic storm of bright blue and fierce gold energy. Thick spikes of lightning shot out from it randomly, burning the floor. It was too much power for his broken body to hold. If Frank kept fighting a long, slow battle, he would lose. The monster would just keep glitching away until the ten minutes were up. He would turn into a mindless monster, and then the Amalgamation would kill Elara. There was only one way to win this. He had to put every single drop of magic, every single ounce of his remaining human life, into one final, unstoppable attack. He had to hit the monster so hard and so fast that it could not glitch away. He had to bet everything on one punch. "System," Frank commanded. His voice was cold, deadly, and completely focused. [ WARNING. CRITICAL MUTATION AT 40%. ] the red text flashed weakly in his dying brain. [ DO NOT USE FURTHER ENERGY. ]"Shut up," Frank ordered

Frank Williams knelt on the soft, wet, dark red floor of the Inner Sanctum. He lowered his head. He closed his human eyes. He waited for the end. Above him, the colossal, sixty-foot-tall Amalgamation raised its massive arm. The weapon was a jagged sword blade fused heavily with sharp white bone and rusted iron. It dripped with boiling, highly corrosive green acid. The giant blade hung in the hot, humid air, casting a dark shadow over the broken sixteen-year-old boy. Frank had absolutely nothing left. His magical Phantom Limb was completely destroyed. The blue Echo Core inside his chest was drained, empty, and dark. His left arm was just a burnt, blackened stump. The golden poison of the Root pumped through his veins, burning his human cells, slowly rewriting his DNA. He was out of time. He was out of magic. He was out of hope. "You are empty," the Amalgamation whispered. The voice was a chorus of a thousand weeping, tortured souls. It vibrated loudly through the massive, circular

The sharp, jagged tip of the massive steel blade sliced directly into Frank’s right side. It cut straight through his torn, bloody shirt. It sliced easily through his skin, his muscle, and slipped perfectly between his shattered ribs. The giant blade punctured Frank’s right lung. The feeling was absolutely horrific. It was not a hot, burning pain like the acid. It was a freezing, cold, terrifyingly sharp shock. Frank felt the cold alien steel sliding deep inside his chest cavity, invading his body, touching his organs. Then, the monster violently yanked the blade backward. The jagged steel ripped out of Frank’s chest. The force of the pull caught Frank’s body like a hook catching a fish. Frank was thrown through the air once again. He was tossed across the room like a discarded piece of garbage. He flipped uncontrollably, landing heavily on his back, twenty feet away from where he started. Frank lay flat on the squishy, dark red floor. He stared up at the high, curved ceiling o