The horror began not long after they entered the Aurifex proper. Though this Mire was young, it had already birthed nightmares more monstrous than the creeping fog: Mired Men.

  These twisted creatures were amalgamations of fused flesh and trapped souls, their bodies writhing in perpetual agony, a suffering amplified with every life consumed by their corrupting touch. Driven by an insatiable hunger, they were best dealt with from a distance, as any contact with the monster’s flesh allowed it to fuse almost instantly with its victim. The most chilling part of encountering Mired Men was their deceitful lure: pleas for help uttered in the voices of those already lost. Any who answered these calls would soon join the writhing mass, trapped in a mound of corrupted flesh and endless torment.

  The heart of the Aurifex, the zero point of the Crucible’s detonation, was crawling with them. Some were well put together, still retaining an almost humanoid form, while others, who had fed on each other in a cannibalistic frenzy, were frothing mounds of flesh. They slopped along with surprising speed for a creature whose limbs were not much more than vestigial decorations.

  “Joney, come here, It’s safe!”“Buy this, come buy this, come buy this, come buy this” “So hungry”

  Their voices were discordant as they called out to their prey, the texture of the sound held a hint of every single person that the Mired Men had absorbed, each one had become a choir of damned souls.

  "What a nightmare." Galvos stood atop a rooftop overlooking the ruins of the market square. The once-bustling Aurifex y in tatters—merchant stalls shattered, windows caved in, and the streets crawling with Mired Men. Their misshapen bodies poured in and out of shops, dragging along whatever scraps of flesh they could find in their endless, mindless hunger.

  "Should we get this started?" Rick was eager, his fingers twitching as he waited for the order. The men were in position, hidden in the alleys below, all he needed was the captain’s approval.

  Galvos gave him a nod, and the signal passed like a ripple through the ranks. From the shadows of the alleys, the Kraken Callers and Onorion soldiers emerged. The Gold and Silver Knights formed a solid shield wall, their long spears braced forward, waiting for the creatures to charge. Their formation was impenetrable, their discipline absolute. Behind them, the Kraken Callers took position. Their rifles rested on the shoulders of the front line, carefully angled between the gaps in their shields.

  The marching boots, the ctter of armor, and the Kraken Callers' banter quickly drew the attention of the lurking beasts. From the dark corners of the market, the Mired Men emerged, their malformed bodies shifting as they stood motionless, as if curious, or simply too broken to comprehend what they saw. Galvos didn’t wait. The moment enough of them had clumped together, he gave the order.

  “FIRE!”

  Shots cracked down the line. The air split with the sound of gunfire as bullets tore through the creatures' amalgamated flesh. They screamed. “HELP US.” The stolen voices, raw with suffering, echoed through the ruined streets as their bodies, like wet cy, shuddered and tried to mend the holes. The monsters were quick, they broke into a charge.

  “FIRE!”

  Another volley followed, ripping into them. The Mired Men twitched, but their agony only made them move faster. The bullets were a nuisance, not a death sentence.

  “FIRE!”

  This time, the men aimed low, shooting at the tangled, clumpy stumps the creatures walked on. Some colpsed under the sheer volume of lead, limbs severed by repeated shots. But even as some fell, the rest surged forward, unfazed.

  Another volley.

  Still, they pressed on, relentless, pushing against the storm of bullets like fish swimming against a river’s currents. The Mired Men crashed into the spear line with grotesque enthusiasm, hurling themselves onto the weapons without hesitation. The Onorion soldiers braced, digging their heels in, but the sheer, awkward weight of the creatures threatened to topple them.

  The spears impaled deep into mingled flesh, yet the pain meant nothing. If anything, the monsters only pressed forward, forcing the steel deeper into their bodies as if welcoming it. Then came their grasping hands. Or what should have been hands. Their twisted limbs, coiled with writhing maws, rolling eyes, and slithering tongues, dragged along the shafts, reaching hungrily for the men holding them.

  "BLOW THEM AWAY!" Galvos roared.

  A fresh line of Kraken Callers surged forward, hoisting their blunderbusses. They pressed the barrels right up against the writhing masses and fired. The deafening bsts tore massive chunks from the Mired Men, shattering limbs and carving deep, gaping wounds through their malformed bodies. Some were blown clean off the spears, colpsing into twitching heaps of flesh too mangled to pull themselves back together.

  A few still spasmed, mouths gasping out fragmented cries, "Help… us…" but their bodies no longer obeyed. The gun smoke lingered in the air, mixing with the putrid smell of burning flesh, but the creatures still came, climbing over their fallen like a living tide. Calhan had yet to be called to the firing line. He couldn’t see much from where he stood, but the sounds of battle were unmistakable, volley after volley, the wet squelch of flesh being bsted apart, the frantic shouts of men bracing against the charge. The fight wasn’t slowing down anytime soon.

  Rowan stood beside him, tense, his fingers tightening around the shaft of his maul. He was itching to fight. "Galvos should send us in!" he huffed, the fire in his voice unmistakable.

  "I don’t think your usual strategy would work so well here," Calhan replied.

  "They’re getting overwhelmed. We handled worse odds before!"

  "You daffy fool!" Nyve's voice fred up, indignant. "You can’t just go out there and beat these things to death with your bare hands! One touch, and you’re lost!"

  "Calm down! Cal can give me range. We should bring out the Kraken again!" Rowan shot back.

  "What’s she saying?"

  "I called him a fool!" Nyve’s voice had rung sharp in Calhan’s ear once again, something he hadn’t heard in a while. And it sounded… off. More flustered than she had ever been.

  “She is right, better to bst them apart than try to get close,” Calhan was still unsure about his feelings toward Nyve, but he didn’t mind if he had someone on his side curbing Rowan’s fighting fervour.

  “TO THE FRONT, KEEP IT GOING” Galvos’ commanding shout had pushed the next row of men ahead of them into the fray while the brothers took their steps forward awaiting to be called.

  The fight at the front began turning in the monster’s favor, the chunks of flesh blown apart by the blunderbuss volley had started being consumed by the mire men’s reinforcements that came crawling out from the back streets of the city, called by the sounds of the battle.

  The front line was faltering under the growing pressure. As the Kraken Callers’ blunderbusses shredded through the festering wave of Mired Men, something far worse began to stir in the back. One of the creatures had gorged itself on the discarded remains of its lesser kin, devouring their torn flesh in obscene gluttony. It swelled grotesquely with every bite, its bulbous frame growing heavier, its twisted limbs thickening . But stagnant meat wasn’t enough, it craved something fresh. Something living.

  With a sickening lurch, it barreled forward, crushing the lesser Mired Men beneath its weight. Their broken bodies squelched and colpsed into the writhing flesh that fed it, a rolling avanche of stolen limbs and pulsing tumors.

  "FOCUS! BRING THAT BIG BASTARD DOWN!" Galvos roared, his voice raw with viciousness.

  The creature loomed over the shield line, a grotesque mountain of shifting, hungry mouths. The Onorion soldiers, now freed from the swarm of smaller horrors, thrust their spears into its mass. Blunderbusses cracked in unison, every Kraken Caller instinctively unloading shot after shot into the towering abomination. And still, it kept coming. Its flesh was tougher now, its wounds knitting together almost as fast as they were made. The towering abomination raised a bloated limb, its hideous bulk shifting with unnatural esticity as it prepared to strike.

  The Onorion soldiers braced, shields locked, spears leveled—but it wasn’t enough.

  The limb came down like a colpsing wall of flesh and bone, smashing through their ranks. Bodies crumpled beneath its massive weight, armor buckling with sickening crunches. Screams twisted into wet gurgles as the creature’s hungering maws giggled in delight, their warped voices overpping in a chorus of childish glee.

  "So sweet, so sweet," it crooned, its many tongues slithering out, pping hungrily at the spttered blood. The sound was nauseating, like a swarm of children scrambling for candy.

  "FALL BACK!" Galvos bellowed between shots, his gun kicking against his shoulder as he reloaded with shaking hands. "GET INTO THE ALLEYS! STAY IN THE NARROWS!"

  Some of his men were already running, their resolve shattered by the sheer crushing violence of the beast’s attack. Though Calhan and Rowan had not yet had a clear visual on the chaos in front of them, they felt the rumbling beneath their feet. They heard the panicked screams of their fellow Callers as they ran past in terror.

  “RUN, IT’S OVER! THE BEAST WILL KILL US A—”

  The poor soul was yanked by his colr.

  “Ey! Calm down, where you going?” Rowan held him tight, wanting to know what was going on.

  “It’s massive! A giant! The guns aren’t working, the spears get sucked into its flesh! It’s eating everything!” The man tried to rip himself out of Rowan’s grip, but he couldn’t muster the strength.

  “We gotta get up there, get a better look. Come on, Cal, we can do something about this.”

  Calhan could feel the man’s fear radiating off him. Around him zipped the panicked voices of the others as they ran for their lives into the alleys. It was an aching sight of what might have been. He wouldn’t let this py out again.

  “You’re right. We can do this.”

  Calhan’s eyes fshed an emerald glow. Rowan’s soul pulsed throughout his body, the sensation weakening his grip for a moment, letting the man escape and disappear into the streets behind them. Rowan’s arms melted away into the thick tendrils of the Kraken. His back sprouted four more, bringing the total to six, one of them grappling onto Calhan and hoisting him into the air.

  “Let’s get to the rooftops first, We’ll get a look at it before we attack alright Rowan?.”

  Calhan knew they had to stay cautious, but they couldn’t linger in the back, waiting for orders anymore. Rowan let out a small chuckle, barely containing his excitement as he stretched out his tendrils onto the rooftops, pulling himself and Calhan to the top.

  “OY, IT’S OUR KRAKEN!” one of the Callers cried out, pointing at the brothers as they crawled along the rooftops on the Kraken sinewy tendrils.

  “GET HIM, BOYS! KILL THAT BASTARD!”

  They cheered, seeing the brothers as their new chance in this waning fight.

  “Hear that?” Rowan hoisted Calhan over the open air, his feet dangling above the crowd of crewmates roaring their names.

  “The Kraken and his caller off to save the crew, eh Cal?” Rowan teased.

  Calhan’s lips curled slightly. The praise felt different from the gawking and questions at the tavern. It felt nice. But the moment faded as they neared the battlefield. The cheers grew distant, and soon, the only voices left were the panicked shouts of Onorion soldiers still engaged with the beast, dodging its lumbering attacks.

  The crewman hadn’t exaggerated, it was massive. At least fifteen feet tall, its grotesque body was riddled with spears, its flesh pocked with gunshot wounds that sealed shut in seconds. The market was a ruin of blood and carnage, fresh crimson pooling in the cracks of the stone pavement, red spattered across the walls like macabre murals. Across from the brothers, Galvos fired shot after shot, his voice just barely audible over the chorus of gunfire, cshing steel, and the monstrous, bone-crushing blows shaking the battlefield.

  Rowan’s tendrils tightened, poised to unch them both off the rooftop toward their target. But just as he was about to propel them forward, both Calhan and Nyve shouted in unison—

  “STOP!”

  “It’s RIGHT THERE!” Rowan barked, frustration bleeding into his voice.

  Nyve shot out from his hair, her wings a blur of frantic movement as she unleashed a flurry of tiny kicks and sps straight into Rowan’s nose. “Do you ever listen?! You can’t touch the creature!”

  “I won’t be touching it!” Rowan curled one of his tendrils in front of her, flexing it in demonstration. “See? It’s not really me, right? I should be fine.”

  “We shouldn’t take our chances,” Calhan admitted. “We need to think this through.”

  “Yes! Some sense, some thought! You must thoroughly plot!” Nyve cheered, spinning in exasperation.

  Rowan groaned. “Oi, what was the point of the big show getting up here, then? If we’re not gonna do anything, we should at least get its attention, give our boys a chance to flee!”

  “You dangled me off the ledge and made a scene. I didn’t tell you to do that!”

  “Well, no taking it back now,” Rowan grumbled. “What’s the pn, then?”

  Calhan narrowed his eyes at the massive beast, scanning for anything that could be a weakness. The weapons lodged in its body stood uselessly, sticking out like discarded twigs. The bullet wounds, though visible, were already sealing over, knitting the thing back together in seconds.

  “We should get its attention first,” Calhan said, pulling a blue orb from his belt and loading it into Jubilee. “Don’t engage directly, alright? We’ll keep it distracted, let the others pull back, and then…”

  He hesitated. He had no idea how they were actually going to put the thing down.

  Rowan gave a knowing grin. “I gotcha. We’ll keep it busy.” He gently waved Calhan through the air like a pything, smirking. “And lucky for us, I’ve got the perfect bait.”

  “Alright, alright, calm down, I need to aim!” Calhan said, trying to steady his shot.

  “CAPTAIN!” Rick shouted, jabbing a finger across the battlefield. “Look! Across the rooftops, it’s Rowan! You see? That the trick his brother can pull off!”

  Galvos barely had a second to look. He was too focused, his shots ringing out with diminishing returns against the monstrous behemoth. Between volleys, he flicked his eyes toward where Rick was pointing. Sure enough, two figures leaped across the rooftops, closing the distance fast.

  “They’d best hurry up with whatever they’ve got pnned!” Galvos grunted, ramming a fresh round into his gun. He took another shot, useless. “Damn it, I’m running dry!”

  And then—POP. That distinct sizzle cut through the battlefield, followed by the comet-like spiral of Jubilee’s orb as it shot through the air. It bounced once, ricocheting beneath the Mired Man with a sharp clink before jetting upward—straight into the creature’s body.

  A second passed.

  The beast halted its assault on the Onorion soldiers, its grotesque form twitching in confusion. Then—BOOM.

  A brilliant explosion of color burst from between what the creature might call legs— Vibrant, dazzling fres erupted in blinding streaks, the intense light was enough to force the creatures eyes shut. It lurched backward, its malformed appendages cwing at its own flesh in disoriented agony.

  “FALL BACK! RUN NOW! GO!” Galvos bellowed, seizing the moment.

  The exhausted Onorions staggered away, barely able to keep to their feet, while the Kraken Callers scrambled back, putting as much distance as they could between themselves and the blinded beast.

  “Good shot! You miss on purpose this time?” Rowan ughed, giving Calhan a pyful jostle.

  “Hey! It’s not meant for direct hits, you know? Damn things always go bsting off into the sky,” Calhan huffed, elbowing Rowan’s tendril in retaliation.

  “Oi, attention please! It’s coming!” Nyve’s voice rang sharp as she darted ahead, her erratic, shimmering flight pattern acting as a guide toward the shifting beast.

  “It’s hot!” the creature whimpered; its many stolen voices yered into one. “So bright!”

  Then, without warning, the monster colpsed backward, smming into the stonework with a heavy, wet thud. Its bloated legs retracted into its body with a sickening slurp—only to burst forth again on the opposite side. In an eerie, unnatural dispy, it dragged itself forward like a massive, rolling slug, realigning its grotesque limbs to crawl toward them.

  By the time it rose again, it loomed tall against the walls, its hulking mass halfway to the rooftop. One of its massive arms stretched outward, its weight pressing into the stone, sending hairline cracks spidering across the building’s edge. Rowan’s tendrils tensed, instinctively recoiling, anchoring themselves away from the grasping monstrosity.

  “We’re in deep shit if this thing brings a building down,” Rowan muttered, his tendrils flexing as he stretched them both over the edge.

  Below, the creature’s countless jaws snapped open and shut, their frantic teeth cttering like the rattling of a snake’s tail. Its multitude of eyes swiveled unnervingly, locking onto them with a desperate, gnawing hunger.

  “What’s the pn, Cal?”

  “I don’t know yet… but at least we’ve got its attention.” Calhan took a gnce at the men. The crew and soldiers were scattering, fleeing into the narrow streets and alleys—out of the beast’s reach. His focus snapped back as the creature lurched again, its pulsating limbs stretching further, reaching, grasping, for them.

  “We can’t just stay bait forever,” Rowan’s words were then punctuated by an foreboding silence. The creature’s jaws snapped closed its eye shut, and its body began to tense.

  Calhan began loading another orb into Jubilee, “I don’t like what it’s doing Rowan…” He said anxiously.

  “Be ready boys!” Nyve shouted, flittering far from the beast.

  Then, with terrifying speed and force, the Mired Man unched itself skyward. Its legs shattered under its own weight, the propulsive force cracking the ground beneath it.

  Rowan reacted on instinct, yanking them away at the st second. Calhan jerked violently as he was pulled back, his head missing the creature by mere inches. For a brief moment, he saw its unduting mass rushing past him—tongues slithering, countless eyes sweeping over him, hungry, starving. The creature soared beyond the rooftop’s ridge, high into the sky, its rotting legs exploding into viscera mid-flight. Bck, putrid rain spattered down in globs, forcing Rowan to veer away.

  “Holy shit,” Rowan’s voice was awestruck, his tendrils anchoring them safely away. He pulled Calhan close, giving him a quick once-over. “Did it touch ya? Sorry for the yank, didn’t think it could move that quick!”

  Calhan, still shaken from the sudden whipsh, snapped his head upward.

  “KEEP GOING, IT’S COMING DOWN!”

  Rowan didn’t hesitate. His tendrils shed forward, flinging them across two more rooftops. A second ter, the meaty meteor of the creature’s body came crashing down, smashing through the roof they had just been on. The entire building colpsed under its monstrous weight.

  “We have to kill this thing.” Calhan’s voice had a slight tremor—a crack of fear he couldn’t quite suppress. This thing was too dangerous. He didn’t even want to imagine what would happen if it ever lost interest in feeding on itself and turned its attention to the rest of the city.

  “I think I know what to do,” he said, forcing himself to focus.

  Nyve giggled, her voice lilting with knowing amusement. “You saw it then?”

  He ignored her. There wasn’t time to unravel whatever she meant or why she hadn’t interfered. He turned to Rowan instead.

  “Rowan, you got a favorite drink around here?”

  Rowan blinked at him. “Bit rich for us, don’t you think?” Then something clicked in his mind. A slow grin spread across his face. “Ah… but I do know where they keep the good stuff.”

  Calhan nodded, raising Jubilee toward the colpsed building.

  “Then that’s where we’re taking it.”

  He fired. Another fre burst in a crackling shower of sparks, and the creature shrieked again, its chorus of stolen voices wailing about the searing light. It hauled itself from the rubble, blind and furious, dragging its body after them. Rowan didn’t wait for orders. He swung them between the rooftops, weaving through the market streets, leading the monster away from the Aurifex’s heart.

  “The beast is gone, Captain…” Rick said, his voice ragged with exhaustion.

  Galvos exhaled hard through his nose, his fingers tightening around the grip of his gun. “Aye…”

  He scanned the devastation. Bodies y crushed under impossible weight, others torn apart mid-escape. The street was a graveyard of blood and broken stone.

  “Regroup. Find Marcurio and that bsted worm of his. We’ll tend to the wounded.”

  He sighed, shaking his head, his voice low under his breath.

  “More fuel for your Pyre Ollie…”

  ?? ?? ??

  “Where are they? Where are they?”

  The creature lurched, its many eyes darting frantically across the skyline, searching for its lost quarry. “So hungry… where are you?”

  It twisted, peering over rooftops and around street corners, sniffing the air like a beast that had mispced its meal. But the brothers had vanished. Frustration trembled through its writhing limbs. “Back, back, where we came…”

  Abandoning the chase, it turned, ready to stagger back toward the battle, to where it knew fresh prey awaited.

  Then it froze.

  Its countless eyes all swiveled in unison, locked onto something hurtling toward it from above.

  A dozen barrels. They crashed against its body, wood splintering, liquid sloshing over its flesh in cascading waves. The stench of alcohol filled the air.

  “AY! Direct hit!” Rowan whooped, his tendrils curling around another batch of barrels. “I should be the marksman!”

  With another powerful swing, he hurled them forward, the Kraken’s strength turning each container into a missile. The barrels smmed into the monster, shattering on impact, soaking it further, leaving jagged wood splinters buried in its corrupted flesh. The Mired Man screeched, filing, its massive arms swinging wildly to knock away the onsught—but every strike only shattered more barrels, drenching itself further in the brew.

  “How drunk do you want this thing, Cal?” Rowan called, his tendrils already curling around the next batch.

  Calhan pulled out red orb from his stash,

  “All of it.” Then pushed it down into Jubilee’s barrel. “Then get us close.”

  The Mired Man staggered forward, thrashing violently through the storm of barrels, crushing everything in its path. Rowan hurled one final lob, sending another cask of precious ale sailing through the air. A fortune in drink, now wasted, soaking deep into the creature’s corrupted flesh.

  "You ready?" Rowan called, his tendrils coiling tight around the broken steel of a massive archway he had ripped from the rcened brewery.

  Calhan’s fingers trembled on Jubilees trigger. The weight of the moment pressed down on him.

  "Yeah…" He steadied his breath. "Go!"

  "HAHAHA!" Rowan’s wild ughter rang through the streets as he unched them forward, his limbs curling and stretching through the shattered masonry with spider-like grace. The Mired Man stumbled after them, its massive limbs sweeping blindly, tearing apart walls and windows, barely missing them each time. Rowan twisted, spun, swung—faster than the monster could follow.

  Then— he let go.

  Rowan’s tendrils snapped taut, the massive archway whipping back like a colossal spear, soaring through the air with bone-shattering force. It struck true.

  CRACK!

  The steel impaled the monster clean through, bursting out its back and driving deep into the stone streets—pinning it down like an insect.

  "HAHA! I CAN’T MISS!" Rowan howled, his tendrils catching them mid-fall, slingshotting them toward the filing beast.

  Calhan was held steady in front, his aim lined up perfectly. The Mired Man writhed, struggling against the impalement, its body ripping apart as it tried to tear free.

  "HURTING US… STOP!" Its voices screamed, a hundred agonized throats crying in unison.

  Calhan said nothing. He exhaled. Steadied. Fired.

  POP—

  The red orb streaked through the air, catching the wind as it ignited mid-flight, a burning comet roaring straight toward its mark.

  Then— impact.

  "AAAAAAAAAAAHGH!"

  Fire erupted across the monster’s body, devouring it in seconds. The fmes crawled from its core, racing across its limbs, swallowing its flesh in an inferno of burning alcohol. The monster’s eyes spun wildly, rolling in their sockets, its many mouths gaping open in a chorus of raw agony.

  "UAAUUGHHH! STOP! PUT IT OUT!"

  It colpsed backward, the massive arch still speared through its chest, keeping it pinned to the street. The fire roared higher, turning the fifteen-foot monstrosity into a writhing mass of bckened flesh. Its eyeballs melted, bursting from the heat. Its body curled inward, shriveling beneath the inferno.

  "No… Joney… Mommy… Baby… help us…"

  The fmes devoured what remained. Its arm lifted weakly toward the sky—

  "No more… suffering."

  Then— it fell.

  The Mired Man colpsed into a charred mess, sending embers spiraling into the air. The battle was over.