The trapped, corrupted human souls inside the cage screamed in silent, eternal agony, feeding their pain directly into the machine to keep it moving. The Jailer had used the purple fog to hide. It had waited while the mutated refugees attacked Frank. It had let the boy exhaust himself. It had let the golden poison rot his mind. Now, it was stepping out of the shadows to finish the job. "[ ANOMALY DETECTED. ]" the Jailer’s booming, synthesized voice echoed. It sounded horribly distorted. The mechanical speaker was broken, making the voice screech with loud, painful static. "[ PURGE PROTOCOL FAILING. MANUAL ERASURE REQUIRED. ]"Frank slowly lowered his glowing golden arm. He did not look at Elara anymore. He turned his head slowly. He looked over his shoulder at the towering, fifteen-foot monster. The golden poison inside Frank’s brain was pure, unadulterated anger. It was a violent, destructive urge t

Suddenly, Frank was inside the monster. It was dark, hot, and smelled like rotting meat and burning oil. He floated inside the chest cavity of the fifteen-foot giant. All around him, thick iron pipes pumped black fluid. Heavy metal gears ground together, spinning rapidly. And directly in front of him, suspended in the center of the dark chest cavity, was the heavy iron birdcage. The bright green light of the trapped souls pulsed aggressively. The tiny, glowing human faces pressed against the iron bars, screaming in eternal torture. They were the battery. They were the heart of the machine. Frank hovered in front of the green cage. He looked at the screaming souls. "I am going to set you free," Frank whispered. His voice was a distorted, vibrating chorus of electrical static. Frank raised his left arm. His left arm was the Phantom Limb. It was the only part of his body that he had kept perfectly, brutally solid. It was

The ancient, colossal temple was perfectly, terrifyingly quiet. The thick, toxic purple fog that had filled the air was finally beginning to clear. It rolled away across the cold, black stone floor like a dying breath. The giant, broken body of the Jailer monster lay in a massive pile of rusted iron, shattered glass, and rotting gray flesh. The bright green light of the trapped souls was gone, leaving only the dim, flickering orange light of the wall torches. Princess Elara stood near the heavy, open doors of the giant black vault. She was completely frozen. She could not breathe. She could not move. Her heart hammered against her broken ribs like a trapped bird trying to escape a cage. She stared at the boy sitting on the floor just a few feet away. Frank Williams had slowly turned his head to look at her. But it was not Frank looking back. His pale, gentle human blue eyes were completely era

The giant, corrupted Phantom Limb crackled with sick, black lightning. The golden fist clenched tightly. The machine was preparing to bring the massive, heavy magical arm straight down onto Elara’s head. It was preparing to crush her skull into dust. Inside his mind, Frank watched his own arm raising into the air. He saw Elara crying, lowering her weapon, accepting her death. A massive, volcanic eruption of pure, unadulterated human willpower exploded inside Frank’s trapped soul. He was not going to let this happen. He refused to let the machine use his hands to murder the girl he loved. “I AM FRANK WILLIAMS!” he roared in the dark cage of his mind. “YOU ARE IN MY HOUSE!”Frank threw his entire mental weight against the golden walls of the corrupted System. He fought with every single, tiny drop of humanity he had left. He used the pain in his broken ribs as a weapon. He used the memory of his mother&r

The corrupted creature did not look at the screaming crowd. It kept its glowing golden eyes locked entirely on the girl choking in its grip. It raised its massive, crackling golden fist higher into the air. The black lightning whipped around the knuckles, preparing to deliver a massive, explosive kinetic blast directly into Elara’s face. The blast would vaporize her head instantly. Elara’s vision was fading fast. She kicked her boots against Frank’s chest, but he did not feel it. He did not care. She stopped fighting the glowing hand. She looked into the golden eyes. She did not look at him with hatred. She looked at him with profound, absolute sorrow. She had failed him. She had broken her promise. She had not killed him when she had the chance, and now he was going to live forever as a monster, and he was going to kill her. She closed her pale eyes, a single tear rolling down her cheek, and waited for the blinding light of the final punch. The creature pulled its glowing golde