Volume 44 - Heart of the Infection

== Chapter 517 - Ensnared ==
The city had not one sign of real life left in it, save for the heroes themselves. Everything was wrapped around and pierced through by the black, purple-veined tendrils that they had only begun to see at the previous city.
The air was thick with spores, making it almost impossible to breathe, and they all knew that if they had not taken the cure earlier, they would all already be infected, all already in the thrall of Arthur Grant...or whatever was left of him.
They slowly, cautiously walked through Farfair, making sure to avoid groups of zombies where they could. When the zombies didn't run, they shambled like any other, without drive or purpose. Nothing remained of their humanity, their very forms were mutated into some grotesque form of pseudo-life.
"Fun place..." Falqo remarks, as they continued their walk towards the capital, where Arthur would no doubt be.
"How is this equality...?" Candice breathes. "...how is this happiness...?"
"I'm not really sure if Arthur knows himself, anymore..." Kiyomasu replies. "...this...may be what he clings to in order to keep some of his sanity intact."
"...Then we should put him out of his misery." Andromeda responds. No one refutes this, as they walk into a residential district, and see zombies shambling from the houses.
"...How long can we stay hidden?" Falqo demands.
"...Our cover's just been blown." Kiyomasu answers.
As they hear growling behind them.
== Chapter 518 - The Horde Pounces ==
Falqo immediately whirls around to decapitate a zombie, but the body keeps running at him, and the head crawls towards him with tendrils extending from its neck and, possibly, brain.
"Ugh!" He groans, leaping back to shoot the head repeatedly.
Kiyomasu fires down a number of zombies, slashing one that leaps at him just before it could bite the back of his neck. Dione was punching her way through a number of zombies, eviscerating any non-skyscraper building her fists touched as the area shook.
"W-woah!" Jack stutters, turning around to shoot a zombie in its spine, but it keeps coming!
Andromeda was slashing every zombie that came near her into ribbons, but they kept coming, and the ribbons tried to regenerate. Candice was shielding Kasper as he blasted any zombies he saw into atoms, trying to think of a better setting to use.
Shunsuke was firing down a few zombies with his Winchester, kicking one from behind him into a skyscraper as he saw that even more were coming!
"Damn!" He shouts, putting his Winchester on his back, putting on his brass knuckles, and leaping at the zombies to pummel them into pulp.
"Shunsuke!" Jack yells, throwing a grenade behind himself.
As the explosion burned the nearest zombies to a crisp, Falqo was still slicing apart and shooting down ant zombies he could, Dione throwing a run-down tank at a group of them, said tank shaking the ground when it landed and crashing through a store, collapsing said store into rubble.
Kiyomasu was flying above another group of zombies and shooting them down with his cane, his eyes darting to his left as he slashes in a circle to slice down zombies that were attempting to jump him from behind and above.
Kasper kept firing at zombies, one attempting to leap at him and rip his head off!
That zombie was whacked back by Candice, who looked terrified, as Kasper quickly turns around to atomize that zombie as well, catching his breath for a moment while Andromeda cuts down even more zombies, impaling one on a Psychic Weapon before tossing it aside, and glaring at the rest that were running at them.
"You're not people, not anymore..." She growls. "...just puppets that need their strings cut off." And at that, she slashes through and stabs more of the zombies, walking towards them to keep extending her range.
Jack had stabbed multiple zombies in the backs of their necks, kicking them down and noticing something.
Zombies carrying rifles and miniguns!
== Chapter 519 - Evolution of the Corpse Pile ==
"Everyone, get to cover!" Jack roars, as they all leap behind rubble and destroyed vehicles to avoid the gunfire. Kasper was quickly choosing settings for his keypad as Jack, Shunsuke, Kiyomasu and Falqo were firing back whenever they got the chance.
Dione roared and grabbed the tank from earlier to chuck at the zombies again, but one with a rocket launcher fired a rocket at the tank to destroy it, firing another at Dione as she grabbed the rocket and threw it at the zombies. As it was exploding, she slammed her fist onto the ground to create a shockwave that blasted the other zombies back!
However, multiple tanks were rushing towards them, mushroom-like stalks protruding from the tanks as if to act as receivers for Arthur's will!
"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Falqo demands, as they began to run, the tanks firing explosive rounds at them!
They tried to dodge, but the blasts were knocking them around and coating the area in purple flames. Even the fire itself seemed to be infected, as the smoke had glowing purple particles visible in it.
Kasper had managed to avoid the rounds, as he uses the keypad to summon a dragon, which breathed an orangish-gold flame at the tanks.
The tanks had exploded, but numerous fighter jets were firing missiles at the dragon, Kasper creating his own missiles to send at said jets. Zombies carrying grenade launchers were running towards the area, as Dione rushed at them to throw her punches and swing her kicks.
The explosions that resulted blasted everyone back, the buildings toppling over as if they were made of cardboard from the shockwaves and heat.
Kiyomasu had protected everyone with a forcefield, and whirled around to slash down a zombie carrying a chainsaw. Another chainsaw-wielding zombie slashed at Falqo, who threw his jacket at the chainsaw to jam it and cut the zombie's arms off, shooting it in the forehead as it stumbled back.
Jack, having just struggled back on his feet, noticed long-armed zombies with blobs of biomass on their backs running, almost galloping, at them.
"Wha?!" Jack yelps, firing at the zombies as they took the bullets and kept coming. Shunsuke and Falqo helped, but the zombies almost seemed immune to gunfire!
Kiyomasu swings his cane, now a sword, through the air to send a fiery shockwave at the zombies, burning them to ashes as the furthest ones remained just intact enough to burst into clouds of spores.
"He doesn't know we're immune, yet..." Kiyomasu remarks, looking on at the clouds, right before he pointed his cane at a beam of purple energy to create a shield to block it!
== Chapter 520 - The Amalgam ==
They all looked up to see...something, floating in the air, arms raised, the moon, shining purple through the smoke clouds, behind it. As they were able to make it out further, they could see it was a humanoid creature with tentacles sprouting from its body, especially its head and what passed for a face.
Its body comprised of the melding of what seemed like a hundred bodies, human, Netraxian, Socqreath, Qhaikra, Olgaih, Larqud, Gnayiliv, Secoi and another species they didn't know. They could also see numerous weapons, thrusters, wings and balloons grafted onto its body, including what looked like Gnayiliv technology!
"...Shit..." Kiyomasu breathes, as the abomination began to form an orb of energy in its hand.
They all immediately run into an alleyway, as the creature fires the orb at them as another beam, cutting right through the block they were hiding in and creating an explosion that toppled the nearest buildings across the streets!
The smoke cleared to show Kiyomasu's forcefield flickering away, as Dione rushes to punch the beast in what counted as its face, but it barely flinched back, grabbing her with its 'hand' and tossing her through another block.
"GAH! ARGH! GUH!" Dione roars, as Kiyomasu turns his cane into a minigun and begins firing the disintegration blasts at the monster, Kasper doing the same with his keypad.
The blasts are themselves disintegrated by the energy field surrounding the chimera, which then forms another orb. This one splits into smaller blasts that rush at the heroes, Andromeda trying to block all of them as Shunsuke was trying to spin a tank around and throw it at the monster. It notices, and lifts the tank up with what seemed like telekinesis, before slamming it down on Shunsuke repeatedly!
"GAH! AGH! ARGH! GUH! GRAH!" Shunsuke screams, trying his best to block with his arms and roll out of the way of the tank. "No!" Jack roars, as Kasper forms another dragon to rush and slash at the nightmarish being.
It blocks all of the slashes with its 'forearms', catches the dragon's fire breath in its hand, and blasts it back as another beam, eviscerating the dragon and blasting the top of the mountain behind it clean off.
"GH?!" Falqo grunts, as Kiyomasu was rushing far from the others." What the Hell, man?!"
The beast seemed to have not yet noticed Kiyomasu, as Dione leaps onto its back and starts punching its 'neck' repeatedly. It plucks her off with two 'fingers' and tosses her into a skyscraper, causing half of said skyscraper to snap off as if it were a faulty radio tower.
Kasper had sent two massive, spiked boxing gloves at it, hitting it and sending it back a yard or two, but it forms a blade of energy, cuts the boxing gloves in half, and then throws the blade down as a spear to create another massive explosion!
== Chapter 521 - The Chimeric God ==
The smoke cleared from the grounds of the now-destroyed and burning city, everyone on the ground, severely burned, twitching at best for a few moments, as the creature floated above them, still illuminated by the moon as it prepared another attack.
It noticed numerous Olympian fighter jets firing bullets, lasers and missiles at it, its forcefield destroying all of said projectiles as it unleashed the beam at the fleet, obliterating every last jet down to the last atom in a matter of seconds.
Artillery rounds and tank shells were destroyed from behind it as it turned its attention towards the anti-aircraft weaponry and tanks below. Olympian Knights were trying desperately to overwhelm its defenses, as it gathers all the energy from the attacks and the electricity powering the robots, and sends it down to them as seemingly a small white ball, which explodes with the force of a nuclear explosive!
Everything on the western outskirts of the city, including the western outskirts of the city, was annihilated, as the beast was rammed by numerous large planes, which burned it somewhat but did little else, the burns regenerating within a minute or less.
Then, a large, orange laser hits the monster's shield, prompting it to turn towards the sky, where a large spacecraft descended, fighter craft flying out of its hangers to circle around and fire at the beast. It closes its 'hand' into a 'fist' to crumple the fighter craft into balls of scrap metal with its telekinesis, right as bomber craft rammed into it and exploded.
"Did we get it?!" The commander of the ship demands, the pilot checking and looking shocked as the creature emerges from the smoke, lightning crackling around it before rushing at the ship to rush through and fry every last circuit and fuel tank!
"GAH!!!!! DAMMIT!!!!!" The commander roars, before the beast tears off the front of the bridge of the falling ship and stares down the commander and pilots, snarling viciously, with multiple overlapping voices of different tone and gender.
"FUCK YOU!!!!!" The commander roars, firing at the beast with his pistol, yet it simply ignored the bullets and fired a laser at the commander, through the ship, from its mouth, flying off as the ship explodes in the air, its flaming debris crashing onto the ruined city below.
Fairfair was nothing more than a rubble-covered wasteland at this point, as the creature began to float down towards the ground.
== Chapter 522 - Wrath of the Destroyer ==
The heroes, with Kiyomasu's healing, had managed to regroup during the chaos, and had watched the Olympian Fleet be torn to shreds.
"Wh-what the Hell is that thing...?" Falqo breathes.
"It's Arthur's masterpiece...his ultimate weapon." Kiyomasu guesses. "That...thing...is probably what he plans to use against the Galactic Defense Force."
"How the fuck are we supposed to beat it?!" Falqo roars.
"I have a plan." Kiyomasu explains. "You need to all draw its attention, and I'll place the trap. We need to make sure it's far above the city."
"Easier said than--agh! ...Done..." Shunsuke remarks, holding his broken ribcage in pain.
"We have to try...or the entire galaxy is finished." Jack says. "Everyone can still fight, follow me!"
They nod and follow Jack towards parking lot near the Amalgam. It had been searching for them, but stopped when its shield disintegrated a bullet from Jack's gun.
"Hey, Ugly!" Jack shouts, waving his gun in the air as the Amalgam turns towards him. "Over here!"
He and the others then run, the Amalgam tearing the entire parking lot out of the ground to throw at the as it follows! Kasper fires multiple missiles at it to destroy it, using a forcefield to defend them all from the debris while they run towards the south outskirts of the city.
Andromeda had been waiting on top of a skyscraper, closing her eyes and sighing, as the Amalgam neared, not yet having noticed her. Right as it's charging a blast, she leaps onto it, grappling its 'arms' and 'legs' with two Psychic Weapons each while using ten more to boost them high up into the air, Jack watching in fear and sadness.
Andromeda says nothing as she starts slashing the Amalgam over and over and over again, on every part of every body grafted to its horrific frame. It howls in agony and tries to crush her with its telekinesis, but was unable to focus due to all the stimuli from the slashes. She continues slashing it, right as she is blasted off, and a bomb-covered net whirls around and ensnares the beast.
Andromeda lands in Jack's arms, Kiyomasu looking on at the speck that was the Amalgam as the bombs go off, filling the entire sky with a bright orange light, blasting all the clouds away and toppling all the tall buildings into piles of rubble.
When the light fades, the moon was once again a clear white, and the dust that was the beast falls to the ground. Everyone looked on in silence, knowing just how close they had all come to oblivion.
They needed to get to Arthur, to City Hall, now. And luckily, hopefully, there would be no more hordes attacking them after that Armageddon.
== Chapter 523 - Despair Sets In ==
They walked towards the capital, which still seemed so far away, knowing Arthur would be there. They were so close to finally putting an end to this madness. Yet, none of them celebrated, none of them were even thinking of celebrating.
Farfair, their home for so long, was now just rubble. This wasn't a mission of saving, it was a mission of avenging.
They walked by Chapman's Bakery, where Jack looked over and saw where the struggle had taken place. One of the zombies they had fought here...was probably Chapman.
He may have...even been a part of the Amalgam...
"Hey, Dione." Falqo says, breaking the silence. "You've been rather quiet lately. Why's that?"
She didn't verbally respond, but did look away, clenching her fists.
"Fine...keep it to yourself." Falqo mutters, as they neared the capital. Only a few blocks away.
But as they did, they heard more footsteps. There was another zombie. When they whirled around to point their weapons at it...they saw who it was.
It was Grimwald.
== Chapter 524 - Lost to Madness ==
"...Grim..." Dione breathes.
"...Kill...me..." Grimwald groans, shambling towards him, half his body now part of Arthur's biomass, a large gun in the infected hand. "...End...it..."
Dione teared up, and collapsed on her knees, while Kiyomasu, closing his eyes, pointed his cane, now a cane gun, at their former ally.
"...Go. All five of you." He says.
"What?!" Candice demands.
"GO!" Kiyomasu roars." "If Arthur is killed, his influence on Grimwald will cease, but if he kills us all here, then the entire galaxy or beyond could be converted into these things! STOP ARTHUR!"
After a moment, the heroes reluctantly agree, and leave the battlefield towards the capital.
== Chapter 525 - Decaying Heart ==
"ARTHUR!!!!!" Dione screams, throwing numerous punches at Grimwald, crying and grimacing. Grimwald was hit by them and sent flying through a building, right as he points his gun at her and fires a blast of energy, sending her through multiple buildings with a roar of pain.
"SHIT!" Kiyomasu shouts, firing at Grimwald with his cane. Grimwald dodged the blasts and fired at Kiyomasu, Kiyomasu creating a forcefield to block the blasts as Falqo slashes at Grimwald from behind. Grimwald grabs his wrist, and tosses him through a street light.
"Argh!" Falqo grunts, throwing his machete down and landing on its hilt.
== Chapter 526 - Alone ==
"Damn you...Arthur..." Grimwald groans, his voice becoming more and more distorted. As he fires more blasts at them, Dione leaping out of the rubble, grabbing Grimwald's neck, and stabbing a shard of concrete with green blood on it into his heart.
"G-guh..." Grimwald grunts weakly, dropping his gun and looking into Dione's eyes. "...Thank...you..."
"...Goodbye...Grim..." Dione whispers, taking the shard out, as the blood on it coursed through Grimwald's veins, the biomass of Arthur beginning to revert back to his own, as he falls to the ground, lifeless, his blood pooling beneath him.
Falqo and Kiyomasu looked on silently. This wasn't a victory, it was a tragedy.
== Chapter 527 - Heart of Darkness ==
Andromeda, Candice, Kasper and Shunsuke walked into the decrepit capital. It was covered in tendrils, and part of the roof had been taken out. Sitting on a makeshift throne, was Arthur. His skin grey, his eyes pitch black. He was wearing regal clothing, but half of his body was that same biomass they had seen everywhere.
"Hello, you five...four." Arthur says, sounding slightly hesitant to speak, yet smiling darkly. "Soon, you will be a part of something greater. All...will become one."
"...What?" Andromeda demands. "I thought you wanted to make everyone equal."
"I do..." Arthur retorts. "I will make...every...one...I will...make every...one equal! I...I WILL ABSORB ALL LIFE! WE WILL EXIST TOGETHER FOREVER! TOGETHER, WE WILL OVERTAKE EVEN THE GODS!!!!!"
"What the fuck...?" Andromeda breathes, as Arthur began to morph and change before their very eyes, screaming in agony.
His chest burst open to reveal his ribcage, his clothing torn as more and more of his body turned pitch black and mutated further. Horns and tendrils grew from his head and body, as very little of what could classically be called Arthur remained. 
The abomination standing before them...was no long Arthur. The center of the disease, perhaps, but it was now clear that what they just witnessed...was Arthur being overtaken, and destroyed.
They weren't about to fight Arthur, they were about to fight the disease itself, manifest in a roughly humanoid form.
== Chapter 528 - Unfold, Darkness ==
Jack was walking through the tower that sat behind the capital, surrounded by the last remaining skyscrapers. He had his gun out, cautious, and was pointing it around. He knew what, who, he was looking for, and knew to be ready for any attack.
Right then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw someone leap down at him. He whirls around and points his gun at Karim, Karim pointing his own gun at him as the moon illuminated them both.
Then, simultaneously, as if choreographed, they pulled the trigger. Jack's bullet went through Karim's stomach, as Karim's bullet hit Jack's shoulder.
"Gah!" Jack yelps, as Karim lands on one knee with a small grunt.
"So you've come to take me on yet again." Karim remarks. "Kid, we both know you've got no chance."
"I...I wasn't gonna miss the party." Jack tried to quip, nervous and weak as he felt, as Karim chuckled.
"Oh, no..." He replies. "...The party's only just begun."