Chapter 326

Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine, 7:30 AM

I tracked the corpse of the Fission Bear flying through the air towards the Chernoshroom’s stalk via invisible strings. Given that it was still in one piece and its guts continued to glow bright orange even through its fur, it was easy to keep eyes on. Muzzling the boss so it wouldn’t have an outlet for its energy had been step one, and now it was time to capitalize.

“That’s our target,” I told Mercury, pointing at the bear as it struck the stem and started to become absorbed inside of it.

“About halfway up,” he said, crossing his arms. “Should be doable, I think? What do we do when we get there?” 

“Dodge the attacks, bust through to the Fission Bear’s core, and we’ll blow that sucker up,” I answered. “Overpower it with as much energy as we can until it’s ready to explode, and then we get the hell out of here. Ready?”

Mercury swung the Princess as he struck a dramatic pose. “I was born ready, Warmonger.”

<<<>>>

[[Final Scenario Quest: The Chernoshroom]]

With the reactor bosses slain and absorbed, the massive mushroom finally has enough power to become sapient. Before, it mindlessly spread its spores in an attempt to gain more ground but, now, it needs to. For every moment the Chernoshroom still lives, its reach grows larger. Should it be allowed to proliferate, not even the administration knows how large its domain shall become.

This is the nuclear event of a lifetime, and it can only be stopped now. Chernobyl will become a radioactive wasteland too hazardous to approach if you don’t manage to stop it now.

And, for the record, the Awakened version prevents anyone inside the power plant from escaping. I’d say good luck, but I’m really looking forward to your death.

Objective: Defeat the Chernoshroom.

Reward: +20,000 points

[[Patron Quest: Gather The Last Hellbreaker Material!]]

I checked both defeating the Chernoshroom and this quest to see which one would allow me to give you the most points, and this one won out.

The radioactive material to finish the Hellbreaker bomb is in front of you, it just hasn’t died yet. It’s prudent to defeat the Chernoshroom and grab the parts of its corpse you need as soon as possible. What you seek will lose potency exceedingly fast, even swifter than that of the Uranium Rex.

However, Hernigan has shot himself in the foot this time. By awakening the boss, he’s made what you’re looking for even more effective. His involvement might be a curse, but it’s up to you to turn things around and make it a blessing.

Objective: Gather radioactive materials for the Demon-killing nuke.

Reward: +85,000 points.

<<<>>>

Just as I finished reading through the quests, a wall of fungus erupted from the ground behind us, not stopping until it reached the mushroom cap. It made it harder to flee since we would have to cut them down to get out, but it also kept everyone else from getting in. That made Sara’s first quest of saving as many lives as possible much easier.

It also made things worse for us. Mercury grit his teeth as the radioactive aura blanketing the power plant skyrocketed in power. He almost stumbled for a moment before catching himself.

“No going back now,” I said as I rose up onto my Heelies. I zoomed forward, and he fell in beside me. “If you run out of potions or the effects start getting to you too much, let me know and I’ll hit you with the staff.”

“Thanks. This much is tolerable,” he replied solemnly.

“Good. Then let’s get to it.”

We both nodded as I sent a signal through our Mental Link. I raised up onto my Heelies while he started running. The ground had been completely torn up by the wildlife even before our fight with the reactor bosses and I had to skate along on my Force Fields in order to use Winged Messenger.

The huge Chernoshroom took up most of the power plant’s area, which meant we didn’t have very far to go at all. At our top speed, it really should have taken seconds to reach the stem. It wouldn’t be much of a boss battle if we could just saunter up, however.

Thousands of gray threads made from mycelium, the mushroom’s roots, burst out of the ground. They were fairly harmless so long as you didn’t get caught in them, but these were fairly sinister. Each one was embedded deep inside the corpses of the wildlife that had been killed, but not burnt to cinders.

An entire wall of them appeared out of the ground, rending it asunder. Their bodies were broken, torn apart, and barely put together in a way that mimicked their original form. Claws whipped towards us, snapped bones came like spears, and the meat was used as shields.

Beside me, Mercury’s aura paled as he processed what the Chernoshroom was throwing at us. I sent him a reassuring feeling through our Mental Link and he firmed up. I sent three of my feathered sawblades Spinning forward while the last one hovered by my side.

There were so many enemies that the carnage was hard to keep track of. My sawblades went low, aiming to cut through the mycelium rather than the corpses. They were unnaturally tough, but the power I could put into the discs had increased by leaps and bounds recently.

I swung the Vague Sword, using Orbit to augment it, as I met the wall of body parts head on. It cut through the front line with ease thanks to my psychic powers, and I added a Distant Slice to the equation. The first set of monsters fell, and so did the second.

Mercury jumped behind me and onto the sawblade I let trail me. He was the very picture of balance as I moved it forward and above. The Princess was a blur as she extended and struck down those in our path. She was as light as a feather now and easy to wield despite her increased length, which was just another perk of her evolution.

My companion handled many of those in the front, but he couldn’t get them all. Every time I finished a swing, I’d shift the Vague Sword so that the blade swapped sides and kept its momentum going. The weapon preceded me as I cut a path through.

Things were going well but slowing down was an inevitability. The pack was too dense, and those that weren’t cut down pressed in even harder. Our escape route was nonexistent as it became cluttered with monsters surrounding us. We managed to push about halfway to the stem of the Chernoshroom when the wall suddenly became much denser.

I began charging one of my attacks while I kept swinging. A few of the mycelium monsters attacked Mercury above me since his mobility was limited. Their stitched-together bodies gave them extended reach, but I protected him with the extra Force Fields. I only needed to alternate two with my Heelies, so I still had four and a Shield to work with.

“Mercury, get ready!” I announced as the sawblades went wide. Just as I was almost forced to stop, I finished charging.

Without closing my mouth, Dragon’s Breath erupted. I made it as wide a beam as I could, firing off in a huge cone of at least ninety degrees in front of us. Resistance all but disappeared as the golden light broke them down. It wasn’t something I wanted to prolong, but it was the first step of the combo.

Mercury knelt on the sawblade he was riding and dipped the Princess into the energy I was spewing. Her multicolored blade almost immediately took on the same golden color as she absorbed what she could. That was the whole reason I attacked high, other than that my beam was striking the stem.

That proved much harder to damage, though it was still losing its outer wall. My attack simply wasn’t concentrated enough. The Chernoshroom was going to be tough to breach in its awakened form, but not impossible.

I paid close attention to how the ninja was doing. His aura was already full of pain as he moved despite the radiation poisoning affecting him. The resistance we set him up with was better than mine, but that didn’t mean he had my levels of Constitution. He kept the Princess in the beam far longer than was physically safe, but he winced and sent a mental signal to me.

We switched places the moment I closed my mouth, ending Dragon’s Breath. I was suddenly on the sawblade while he was running on my Force Fields. They kept coming in a straight line, so there was no risk of him falling off.

“Holy Aura Wave!” Mercury roared as he jumped, holding the Princess out, and spun.

Golden light sliced through large swathes of the corpse wall, cutting down the mycelium threads and the depraved puppets they were controlling. The attack was impressive in its range, made possible due to the sheer amount of energy the Princess had absorbed from me. It lingered slightly, causing the fungus to hesitate, and by the time it figured out what it wanted to do we were already at the stem.

For Mercury, this part was easy. He was a ninja so he could simply run up the Chernoshroom. Without Flight, I had no way to work my way up the massive mushroom without taking the long way or pausing between jumps. Not ideal, but what I did have was a companion.

Just like how I gave him a ride, Mercury was going to return the favor.

He landed on the side of the mushroom and waited long enough for me to wrap the end of the Cable Conglomerate around his waist. “Go!” I yelled.

As soon as he got the word, he started running. I had given him permission, so he had no trouble lifting me off of the ground. The Chernoshroom’s stem wasn’t completely smooth, but it was good enough for our purpose. Instead of dangling underneath the ninja, I put my feet out and rode upwards on my Heelies.

The way up was a much longer trek than the one we took to get to the mushroom. We had already been relatively close, but the enemy was incredibly tall. Not only that, but it had its own defenses here that it hadn’t used on the ground.

Most of the buildings had been torn apart and shoved onto the Chernoshroom’s sides as though it could benefit from having armor, but they served a dual purpose. They certainly weren’t for decoration.

My feathered sawblades, including the one that had been set aside for transportation, surged ahead of us when the tendrils coming out of the middle of the mushroom’s stem started whipping like crazy. Each one had a large piece of rock, metal, or something else attached to their end, turning them into dangerous flails.

The sawblades flew in formation, and I added four more as Constructs. Each one was Lifted and Spun, cutting through the area we were heading for. Heading in a straight line was asking for trouble, but it was the shortest path to our destination and Mercury was on a time limit.

While my squadron took out everything that was immediately in front of us, some of the tendrils were long enough to hit us anyway. After my first Distant Slice, I sent the Vague Sword away and spun the Staff of Raphael in order to deflect blows. I saved my Force Fields for Mercury.

I could feel his gratitude though the Mental Link and he sheathed the Princess momentarily. The ninja swiped open his inventory and pulled out a bottle of tea before quickly downing it and throwing the container back in to be reused later.

A quick check of my own hit points told me that my regeneration was still beating out the constant radiation damage, but only barely. It was getting worse the higher we got. I snapped away the status screen as a new threat appeared.

“Building!” I yelled in warning. “We go through, follow the sawblades!”

“Roger that!”

An entire building emerged from the mushroom’s stem. This one was long and situated vertically. It was clearly meant to stop us from taking the path we were on. I wasn’t about to take that sitting down.

My squadron of sawblades cut through the rest of the flailing tendrils before slamming into the reinforced concrete wall in our path. The sound of them cutting through was loud and chunks of debris fell down on us. I bit the inside of my cheek, trying to gauge whether or not they would be done in time.

Not leaving it up to fate, I made the four Constructed sawblades disappear and replaced them with barrel-sized hammers. The cuts were deep enough, I felt, and the weapons slammed into the opening I was trying to make.

More dust and stone fell our way, but I could see the way through. Mercury jumped through the opening, twisting in midair, and landed on what should have been the building’s ceiling before continuing his upwards run. I had to do the same, only with the added pressure of finding our way up through this new obstacle.

As instructed, he switched back to the “floor” and followed my sawblades as they navigated the halls. Three of them went ahead to cut through doors while the last stayed behind as a guide, and I was forced to relinquish my grip on him. I ran along walls that were facing downwards and pierced the drywall with hands and feet so I could climb.

We went through room after room as the building shifted while we were in it. Based on the way it was tilting, the Chernoshroom was ejecting the whole thing while we were still in it. Gritting my teeth, I pulled my sawblades away from the wall they were working on and started cutting through the floor.

The foundation was strong, but I had plenty of warning this time. Between the sawblades and the hammers, I was able to create a new pathway for us to take. We both breathed more easily once Mercury oriented himself and double jumped back onto the stem. I caught him with the Cable Conglomerate, though our relief was short lived.

“Strings!” I yelled as I activated Shield around the ninja.

“Go for it!” he replied.

I cast Strings of the Puppeteer seconds before it was too late, glad that I could use it on the willing, and jerked Mercury to the side. The Nuclear Boar’s radioactive mane, which flowed down its back, emerged from the Chernoshroom like a shark’s fin cresting the water. It stayed for only a few moments before diving deeper into the stem.

We were getting into boss territory now, and they could attack with barely any warning. Strings of the Puppeteer along with my Absolute Awareness was an amazing combination, letting us dodge things that he would have to do on reflex with ease. I sent Mercury running diagonally as the claws of the Irradiated Lynx came flying out of the stem.

The only issue was the damage he was taking. The spell only lasted until the target took 25% of their max hit points in damage, and the Shield I put on him was rapidly depleting. It was only a matter of time until it broke.

Since it was on my mind, I reached up and tapped Mercury with the Staff of Raphael. Touch of Heaven activated, healing him for half of my total hit points and reinvigorating the man. I wasn’t about to try and navigate his inventory for a potion while controlling his body, so this was the best alternative.

I had Mercury dodge left while I went right as we were both attacked separately. The Fission Bear’s mouth appeared around me, now without the wire rope, and I had to jump to narrowly miss it. Of course, the Atomic Boar’s spiky mane emerged right where I needed to land, so I rolled upwards on my Force Field and missed it entirely.

The Atomic Elk’s hooves shot out of the Chernoshroom’s stem, trying to kick the ninja off, while the Irradiated Lynx’s claws and teeth attempted to keep him from swerving. I took a breath as I concentrated hard on keeping the both of us safe.

Whenever the sawblades came close, the mushroom switched directions so I wasn’t having any luck meeting attack with attack. Unlike other foes, I couldn’t read their auras to figure out their next plan of action. It was all uniform.

Ahead of us, traveling upwards at the same speed we were, several pieces of antlers held together by more tendrils appeared. They twisted and turned as if trying to solve a puzzle before the blue sphere manifested between them. This was what I was waiting for.

I had Mercury pull the Princess out of her sheathe and hold it in front of him just as the blue energy came our way. She cut through it, causing it to split down either side of us and slam into the ground until the blade started absorbing the energy.

The increased radiation caused my Shield to break, and I knew it was only a matter of time before my Strings broke. More and more energy went into the blade as I cast my awareness even further. I started charging up my Dragon’s Breath again.

Even though it started causing Mercury damage, the Princess continued to absorb the radioactive energy. I flinched as I felt his resolve waver through our link, and I sent my sawblades up to stop the antlers. They quickly returned to the stem before I could break them, ending the attack, but that didn’t stop the ninja’s weapon from being dangerous to himself and everyone around them.

“Where is it, Sara?” I signed with one hand, not wanting to open my mouth and start the attack. It took a beat for her to respond.

<<<>>>

[[Patron Message]]

You’ve just passed the Fission Bear’s heart. Fire at a 45 degree angle downwards the moment you finish reading this.

<<<>>>

I wasted no time doing what she asked of me, and I let Mercury go to stop and fire. My momentum made me continue upwards for a few seconds, but I landed on a Force Field a fair distance away from the stem. I could still be attacked, but I could still intercept anything it threw at me.

The whole thing shook as my Dragon’s Breath drilled through the stem wall and deep into the fungus. I gently shook my head as the feathered sawblades protected me, making the wall big enough for Mercury to go through.

My Strings controlling him snapped, but he was ready for it. The ninja backflipped off of the Chernoshroom, narrowly missing a hoof knocking him far away from the battle, and I summoned a Construct for him to bounce off of.

Holding up my hand, I pointed into the hole I was making and sent him an aggressive feeling through the Mental Link. He understood me, and dove in.

My Dragon’s Breath was still very dangerous to him, but he already had it in hand. Thanks to the widened tunnel he was able to spin and adjust the Princess so she was under his feet, with him riding on her. They dipped into the golden light for a moment, singing his shoes, before the radioactive energy created a barrier for him to safely stand on.

Maybe not safely given that it was still hazardous, but it allowed Mercury to surf down my Dragon’s Breath like it was a gentle slope.

The Chernoshroom shook again as I saw the boss bits dive back into the stem wall. They were all chasing him now, paying me no mind, and I Pushed him forward with as many instances as I could. At the same time, I retrieved some human-sized sandbags and sent those into the hole with the last one on my Force Field. Mercury was going to need an escape route.

He was moving faster than he had any right to, and the ninja arrived at the end of the line in moments. Spinning in a way that could only be called far too dramatic for the situation at hand, Mercury plunged the Princess into the Fission Bear’s still beating heart.

A split-second later, all of the energy she had accumulated was fired into it, but nothing came out. The organ absorbed all of the radioactivity, glowing even brighter in the process. This was really the only way to defeat the Chernoshroom; it had so many hit points that we could literally be here for almost a whole day trying to bring it down.

Mercury lingered for a moment to make sure that it had taken hold before turning. Every piece of the reactor bosses the mushroom had left erupted from all around him, looking to kill him outright with one well-placed attack. A fleeting moment of panic overtook him.

Only sand spilled in the chamber. Despite his surprise, he still managed to activate his switch teleport. And he did that twice more before standing next to me, triumph in his aura.

So I tackled him off of the Force Field and started Dropping and Pushing us both. My feathered sawblades touched me and went into my inventory as I ejected the rest of the Cable Conglomerate behind me to use as a shield. Mercury curled up, making himself smaller as I planned on taking the brunt of this blow.

We made it halfway to the ground before the Fission Bear’s heart blew up.

The Chernoshroom may have been able to absorb radiation, but explosions were another story.

We were caught by the shockwave, and plummeted towards the ground like a meteor. I did everything I could to make sure Mercury survived this.