I didn’t listen to any more discussions, just ran out of the mausoleum. The deadmen parted for me, or got pushed aside. When I was out of the room, it seemed as if dawn had come. There was a faint glow as if the sun was just starting to rise. It threw off my sense of time for a moment, but I realized it couldn’t be dawn. Not enough time had passed, and aside from that the dawns light was warm, red’s, oranges, yellows, what was lighting the sky now was a pale green coming in the direction of the Cut.

I started running through the city, drawing my sword, and inhaling deeply. I could smell a large number of deadmen gathering, the smell of burning air from the firing of Cerberus las-guns, the gunpowder of traditional guns, and something else. The scent was incredibly powerful, pure radiation, blood, flesh, decay, but also fresh meat. It had a touch of the man-wyrms to it, as well as the earthy scent of the Edenites forest. Below that was the scent of death clinging to it, and below that was something familiar. A scent I hadn’t encountered since I’d left Eden. The scent of the First.

Before I reached the outskirts of Pott’s I started to hear the sounds of weapons fire and screaming. There were several other running in the same direction as me, carrying weapons of their own with looks of determination on their faces. I quickly outpaced them, reaching the edge of the city, where I was finally able to see what was coming.

The monster was the size of a building. In the past the largest rad-mutated beast had been the Ursans. Beasts large enough to rip men in two, crush walls, and topple houses. This monster looked as if it would be able to eat through an Ursan in three bites. It looked vaguely like a man-wyrmm, with a massively distended face and mouth, but it was covered in bumps and tubes, that as it walked closer, I realized were arms, large eyes, and even bone ridges extending from it’s flesh in horrific ways. It was glowing with such intense brightness that it took my eyes several moments to adjust to what I was seeing, and my mind several more to fully digest the horror in front of me.

I saw its mouth open, and heard a familiar roar. The creature didn’t just smell like the first. It was the First. I wasn’t sure what had happened to him. Mary had said that the beast had begun attacking and destroying Eden shortly after I left. Had the damage I’d done to him resulted in him mutating into this creature? If so then why had he destroyed Eden? Had our battle cost him his mind, or was he still sapient, trapped in the horrifying form that was now lumbering toward Pott’s?

I watched as concentrated las-fire slammed into him, melting his flesh, tearing chunks of bone from him, and leaving scorch marks. None of the damage lasted long though, even as I watched, what wounds were dealt to it were stitching closed, the flesh near the wounds flowing over and sealing them like water over sand. It wasn’t going to be enough, I wasn’t sure anything would be.

I unslung my pack, and strapped what few explosives I still had together to my belt. It was possible I might be able to do enough damage to the creature to overload its ability to regenerate, and even if I couldn’t, I could at least buy some time for the rest of Pott’s. I grabbed my shotgun, and started running, straight for the monster.

I heard cries of concern and people telling me to turn around, but I ignored them, pushing forward. As I got closer I started to feel waves of intense heat emanating from the monster. They crashed against me, again, and again, and suddenly I found the rads I’d gathered to be out of sync. I ignored it, letting my own rad level run wild and my skin start to glow green, matching the monster I pushed myself toward.

Its immensity became more harrowing the nearer I got to it. Its legs were as thick as three men, and when it opened its maw to scream, its teeth were jagged pieces of bone like broken glass, the size of my head. I wondered if it could even see me as it continued to move toward Pott’s, its attention seemingly focused on its defenders on the domes.

My wondering was answered, when the moment I found myself nearly beneath it, a dozen eyes the size of dinner plates that covered its body, whipped toward me to affix me with a horrifying stare. I met the glowing eye’d stare with one of my own and the monster suddenly stopped moving. There was a horrible moment when we just stood there in silence. I showed all my teeth and let out a defiant roar, and the beast responded in kind, at a volume that left my ears ringing as if a gun had been shot directly next to my head.

I slid beneath the creature, slicing its stomach deeply with my sword, and firing my shotgun at the same time.

The monster attempted to fall onto me, using its weight to crush me, but I was out from beneath it too quickly.

I raked its side with my sword, driving it as deeply as I could, and was rewarded with a spray of hot, green, ichor. Where it landed, a kind of steam rose from the ground, the blood burning as if it was acid.

For a moment, I felt as if I had a chance at winning. The creature’s size made it slow, and I may be able to damage it enough, and keep it away from the walls long enough, that we may be able to slay it.

Just as I was moving for the creature’s back leg, a tendril sprouted from its back and shot toward me. It was almost too fast for me to see, and while I was able to keep it from stabbing into my heart, it was driven deep into my shoulder, and slammed me into the ground.

Several more tendrils appeared and shot toward me, even as the monster started to shift around, bringing its maw toward me. I swept my sword in front me. Severing the tendril that had me pinned and slicing across the incoming tendrils at the same time. I pulled myself to my feet, ripping out the bone barb that was still embedded in my shoulder then firing off two more shotgun shells at yet more tendrils that were flying toward me.

I started to circle the beast that had been the First, avoiding yet more tendrils that sprouted from his tumor like body. I tried freezing him, but activated the ability as a tendril entered my vision and found that only that individual tendril was stopped. I tried using mass freeze then to halt more of them, but it didn’t matter, the First just produced more and kept turning toward me. The small arms that jutted randomly from his body reaching toward me like beggars asking for fresh water.

I had managed to turn him away from Pott’s, and his back was being peppered by las-fire every second. I wasn’t certain, because the difference was almost imperceptible, but it seemed as if his healing was starting to slow down, whether from whatever process was creating the tendrils, or simply being overwhelmed by mine and Pott’s attack.

When the monster was finally facing me, it lifted its entire body and slammed it down, missing me with its strike, but shaking the ground with its enormous weight.

I jumped up as it came down, and avoided losing my footing by leaping onto the creature’s back. I pulled the pins on all of my grenades as I ran across it, and drove my sword deeply into its spine, resulting in its entire body undulating as it screamed out in pain. I threw the belt of explosives into the cut I made, even as it was starting to heal, and leapt from the monster's back.

It spun, hitting me in the chest with its tail.

I heard my ribs crack and felt the air leave my lungs as I was flung at least a hundred feet from the creature. I started to stand, feeling myself healing, and fired my shotgun.

The beast completed its spin facing me, and as our eyes met, there was a rumble, and the creature's flesh expanded for a sickening moment, several chunks of its flesh violently exploding outward, the air clouding with smoke so thick I was temporarily blinded.

I reloaded my shotgun, feeling my ribs put themselves back into place, and ignoring the discomfort to watch the smoke clear.

Before it could, I felt something wrap around my leg, and then my neck, and stabbing sensations riddled my body. The smoke cleared, and I found myself lifted into the air, the creature’s maw in front of me, and getting closer as the tendrils that had impaled me moved me toward it. I struggled, screamed, bit, and tried to tear free, red overtaking my vision. Then, the creature's jaws closed around me.