The battlefield was a nightmare of screams, fire, and shattered steel. Nomu poured through every breach, unstoppable and ever-changing. Our toxin injections slowed them, but the enemy's brutal evolution was relentless.
Amid the chaos, a figure dashed through the smoke and debris—Ryah, my old science ally, her face streaked with grime and determination.
"Phantom!" she called out, sliding a small, reinforced case into my hands. "I've got something new. Explosive toxins. One drop can wipe out a squad of Nomu."
I glanced at the case, fingers tightening around it. These weren't just any weapons. Ryah's toxins were deadly, volatile, and utterly final.
"Too powerful for close combat," she warned. "But perfect for controlling the dark hole—that abyss where those new monsters are spawning."
I swallowed hard. The dark hole had become our nightmare, a source of endless horror. If I could seal it, even for a moment…
"Thanks, Ryah," I said, voice low.
She gave a grim nod and disappeared back into the fight.
I opened the case, pulling out a small vial filled with swirling black liquid. The toxin pulsed like a living thing.
Holding it in my palm, I felt the weight—not just of the vial, but of the choice ahead.
One drop could level everything. It would kill indiscriminately—Nomu, possibly trapped civilians, anything too close.
But if I didn't act, the darkness would swallow us whole.
I turned to the dark hole, gaping and hungry, spewing out twisted abominations.
Time was running out.
With a steady breath, I lobbed the vial deep into the abyss.
The explosion ripped through the night, a brilliant, terrible bloom of fire and poison.
The air thickened with death.
For a moment, the world held its breath.
And then…
The flow of Nomu slowed.
The hole began to collapse.
But the cost was immediate.
The ground trembled violently.
Our ears rang with the deafening roar.
And somewhere in the distance, a scream—haunting, desperate—cut through the chaos.
I couldn't tell if it was victory or something far worse.
The war wasn't over.
But I had made my choice.
And now, there was no turning back.