Euro strolls in a few moments later with a proud expression and a simple ring. A small silvery band with a wooden inlay that looks extremely familiar. I don't need the system's help to know everdriftwood when I see it. At first glance, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it.

"Nice find!" Jumble grins and pats Euro on the head. "Where was it?"

"Deep in the drain. But there was a thin strand of wire just barely in the drain that it was attached to, and I just pulled that up." Euro grins and places the ring in Jumble's hand.

Jumble recoils and almost drops the ring. "Eugh! Why does it feel like that?"

Euro shrugs. "That's how I knew it was the last anomaly. How did it go with you two? Did you make any progress while I was looking?"

"You could say that." I say humorlessly. "Ready to get this over with, Jumble?"

She nods and carefully plucks the ring between two fingers. "I'll type out the question, but you have to feel this. It's absolutely disgusting!"

I stare at the offered ring and make no motion to take it. "If it's disgusting, why do I have to feel it?"

"Because I had to feel it. Come on, it's only for a second." Jumble insists. "I won't make you do it, but I'll be really annoying about it if you don't."

With a roll of my eyes I reluctantly stick out my hand. "Fine. Let's see how disgusting this really is."

Jumble smiles wide and drops the ring into my palm. It lands with a quiet squelch, and… distorts like a glob of gelatin as it settles. Disgust paints itself onto my face as the squelch shifts into a warm gooey mass, almost like someone sneezed into my hand and left a… a… hurk. No, nope, not following that train of thought any further. With a rising green-ness I pluck the ring with my other hand and hold it as far away from me as possible like the damn thing is radioactive.

"That's disgusting!" I say with utter disbelief. "It's like something washed up dead on the beach and a crazy-ass jeweler said 'yeah, that's what I'm talking about' and made a ring out of it!"

Euro nods vigorously in agreement. "That's exactly what it feels like!"

"Really?" Jumble tilts her head. "I thought it was more like a jeweler sneezed it out. But maybe that's just me."

I swallow a mouthful of saliva and carefully set the ring down on a shelf. Jumble leans over and taps it with the absolute tip of her claw to bring it into her inventory, then shudders and goes right back to typing her message. Before anyone can bring up anything else about the disgusting ring, Jumble taps her Class Card one final time and sends a bolt of anomalous magic straight at the construct.

It shudders, then raises one hand and looks down at it with utter confusion written plainly on its face. With a wet slorp and pop like a stuck rainboot being yanked out of the mud the hand simply falls off from the wrist down. And that causes a cascade, body parts sloughing off in perfectly cut chunks until we've got a pile where the construct was a second ago. None of them flicker like the fifth body, though.

"Somehow, that wasn't what I expected it to be." Jumble notes with a frown. "Where's all the distinct constructs within the construct? Oh, don't tell me we have to find way more anomalies because the last body is technically like a dozen in one. I just want to get out of here."

"So do I." I agree. "Which is why it could be empty hope, but I think we're fine. None of the other anomalies changed how the construct's main body actually looked aside from the method of death. If it was going to change for each body in the flickering patchwork, then it should've done the same for the other four, right?"

Jumble hems and haws, then slowly nods. "You're right. I think I'm just getting jumpy."

"Rightfully jumpy." I point out as I summon my Class Card. "Here comes the pun."

Key Information Found: Reconstituted Ring

This information tears you up inside and out.

Use it carefully.

"Come on now." Jumble sighs and shakes her head. "I'm so tired of this. The quest doesn't deserve to try and be funny. I'm putting in the other anomalies."

I take a step back and herd Euro along with an arm. They follow along without any resistance, eyes locked on the construct as Jumble batters it with words. It's strange watching pieces get assaulted with conditions we've only seen happen to the wholes, but it's also a little cathartic after what it did to the blur and body.

Whatever sympathy I might've had for it dissolved like spun sugar in a storm from that attack. Even if these people were innocent victims before–which we have proof is wrong for at least one of them–the system made them into a monster. One that needs to be put down or locked away. I'd prefer option number one, but I'll settle for number two if it means we're done with the subquest.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Last one." Jumble says, her finger hovering over her Class Card. "I don't know what's going to happen. Protect us?"

I nod with a shield and projectile filling my palms. "Ready."

Jumble breaths in through her nose, and with a long exhale, taps her message into the construct. It twitches in a pile that has been peeled, shocked, ripped in two, and had a chunk gouged out of it. She takes a step back and protectively stands in front of Euro right at my side, fingers wiggling as she takes even breaths. I work a shield through my fingers, the image of the construct so easily breaking through it playing over and over in my mind.

The damn thing is so much more powerful than we've been led to believe. If the quest wants to get rid of us right here and now, all it'll take is one command. I can get out with relocation, but the other two would be stuck here. Can't let that happen. Not with everything I've learned.

I summon two hexagonal coins and pass one to each of them. Jumble raises an eyebrow and looks down at it while Euro holds it close like it'll protect them. With a thought I push relocation into each of them, and the eyes of the pair of paindne–one construct and one not–widen at the same time. Jumble clenches it in her hand and nods with a thankful smile.

"I'll keep it safe." She says seriously.

"No, you won't. Unless you want to teleport two inches." I hold a palm out as the construct twitches and writhes in a mass of shifting plastic. "Relocation works by trading your place with the coin. I need to keep those on me for when I relocate away, then I can bring you two along with me."

Jumble blushes, then silently hands me the coin without meeting my gaze. Euro taps my shoulder a moment later to hand over theirs, and I accept the both of them with shallow nods. I shove them in my pocket and refocus on my weapons, no matter how useless they may end up being. The construct's hands swell like overfilled balloons, plastic skin stretched to the absolute maximum against the pressure from whatever's happening inside. One ruptures with a strangely quiet burst, sending scraps of 'skin' all over the room to reveal a skeletal hand underneath.

It opens its mouth, which somehow made its way to the top of the pile, and silently screams. I push the deadliest projectile I can manage with my coin and control to the forefront of my mind and carefully balance it against my thumbnail. The moment the message appears is the moment that thing attacks; I can feel it in my gut.

Seconds crawl by as more and more body parts rupture to reveal the construct's skeleton. Hands and feet burst first, then thighs and forearms, and everything else up until only the upper chest, neck, and head remain whole. Well, as whole as the thing can be with all the anomalies piled atop one another on it. Which… actually… the thing shouldn't have any skin left to rupture. It's all spiraling around it in a plasticy flesh whirlwind. So where'd the skin come from?

"Something's weird, because of course it is." Jumble grumbles. "It's taking way too long. I'm… I want to help, but I don't have all the strength I could have right now."

I pat her shoulder with my shield hand. "Just focus on staying safe. That's more important than anything the quest could try to tell us."

Jumble looks like she wants to say something, but instead she just closes her mouth and nods sheepishly. While staring at me with wide eyes. I try to ignore it, but now she's more focused on me than the construct. Which could get her and Euro seriously hurt.

"Jumble, focus." I whisper.

The messenger dings as the construct's head bursts, sending skin everywhere. Something smacks against my forehead with the force of a flicked eraser, but with a sharp edge. I grimace and snatch it out of the air before it can clatter to the ground. When I look down at it, some part of my brain screams significance.

A tooth with a rotten root. One that might sink into your gums if you pressed on it.

(Question Recognized)

I am not a good person.

But I shouldn't be one person.

Now… I remember that.

I'm a murderer.

But I'm also a hard worker that tried his hardest to make things safe for other paindne.

I'm an artist.

I'm a scientist.

I'm a fighter.

I'm a failure.

I'm so much.

But I've been reduced to nothing more than a… walking mockery of everything I once was.

Please… stop this.

The… the way I–we–got in here is hidden.

You need system permission to access the doors.

The construct shifts, snapping me back to reality in the middle of the message. Its bits hover in place, then spread out wide–one little bit in a dozen different spots. Part of it looks unbelievably terrifying, but then… the skeleton lurches forward. Bones knit together to form a skeletal construct barrelling at us with arms spread wide, bony claws arcing with electricity that fills the air with a metallic scent.

I twitch. The rest of the message sears into my mind in the spaces between seconds.

We need to die for you to get that permission.

Kill the one that deserves it.

Kill us.

Please… end our suffering even though we deserve to suffer.

Give us the rest that was robbed from us.

Give us the rest that we so unjustly forced onto others.

Send us to the trees.

My finger twitches. A projectile roars through the skeleton, shattering it into a million pieces and splintering those pieces into a million more. It splatters the walls with plastic, slowly melting into a squirming mess that I can see squelching towards the rest of the construct that didn't explode. I bear my teeth in a guttural snarl that surprises even me with its malice and scour the room for the teeth.

Jumble holds out a hand before I can say anything. In it are the rest of the teeth–exactly the same number as we'd pressed into the construct's jaw. We both ignore the messenger ping telling us we just finished the subquest and that we so mercifully sent the construct to its final death, even though we can see it trailing towards reconstructing itself again. The wall opens up to reveal the hidden room.

"Not yet." Jumble mutters. "We have to actually end this."

I nod in agreement and take the teeth.

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