The bullet landed in the middle of the forehead of the face that the Worm Rampager carried on top of it.
Blood splattered, along with strands of flesh, painting the walls a deep red.
The creature let out a monstrous growl, hundreds of small worms, all carrying fanged mouths at their ends, shooting out from the holes on its body.
Bang!
Another bullet landed right at the location of the first one.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
By the time the last bullet hit the Rampager, it had already stopped moving.
The entire front side of the Worm exploded into smithereens, tiny worms scattering in all directions, squirming like a lizard's cut tail.
Slowly, the figure turned around, with fire lighting his face and the bloody background beyond him.
Alex, who had thrown mutated Peter, looked at the man as he casually began reloading the revolver.
Typical western gunslinger getup.
Round, hazel glasses.
Mushrooms…
Mushrooms?!
Alex looked closely.
Yes, they were mushrooms.
One small mushroom was coming out of the stranger's left ear.
Another, as large as a head, stood on his left shoulder, glowing with a cyan hue.
The moment Alex saw those mushrooms, the only conclusion he reached was that this was another monster.
But, then, why would a monster help him against another monster?!
A growl attracted Alex's attention, then.
"Sir!" Parker's voice rang, echoing across the corridor. "Behind you!"
Alex, keeping his torso sideways, snapped his head in the direction Parker was pointing at.
Peter, now looking nothing like a man, towered as tall as him, hanging from the ceiling like a spider. The pus-filled claws of his six hands were embedded deep into the metallic ceiling, smoke hissing as the acid ate into it. His eyes were glowing bloody red as well, foam and saliva dripping from his mouth.
Worse, Peter was still mutating, becoming larger, uglier, and… stronger.
Tank!
The snapping of a heavy cylinder back into the revolver.
Alex's heart pounded.
On one side lay one of his men, who had become a monster right in front of his eyes. He didn't understand how, but he could easily tell that Peter had lost all reasoning. Then there was Parker, who might not even survive a moment against the mutated Peter.
On the other side, there was a stranger about whom he knew nothing.
A stranger who had walked out of fire and killed the Worm monster without blinking an eye, while carrying mushroom-like mutations of his own.
[The Corruption is far worse,] Singularity told him. [I've never experienced such extreme cases before. Not only has the mutation made the corrupted people's Quirks stronger, but the rate of infection is extremely high as well. If even one of these creatures found its way to Earth, then…]
Alex's face paled.
Forget about one of these creatures for a moment.
Just what would he do if Star had become such a monster?
Who in the world would ever be able to stop her from turning all the world into a walking hell?
The monster lunged, crawling on the ceiling with blinding speed, leaving behind a trail of smoke as the metal melted.
From the other side, the stranger adjusted his hat, unbothered by the mushrooms at all.
He must move, Alex knew.
He must do something…
He must… kill…
"Step aside," the stranger said. "The last thing we need is you getting corrupted as well, Radiant."
Alex's eyes widened.
The stranger fired.
Bang!
With a surprising display of agility, Peter dodged the bullet, landed on the wall on the side, and jumped right toward Parker.
Flames burst in front of Parker, and the stranger again walked out of them.
With a squelch, the monster's infection-carrying claws entered deep into his body.
"…?!" Alex took a massive step forward, almost spreading his accumulated 100% weight.
However, in the next moment, the stranger's entire body crumpled, becoming a small, white paper figurine, which instantly turned black.
And, also instantly, Alex knew who this stranger was.
Because he remembered another man using such a weird abilities.
Dr. Blessed!
Walking out of thin air, the stranger appeared in the monster's blind spot, the muzzle of his revolver only an inch away from its head.
Then, with successive bangs, he emptied the revolver once again.
With a loud thud, the monster's corpse fell on the floor, spots of acid melting metal in all directions.
Silence.
Alex's eyes glowed blue.
"Who are you?" he asked. "What are you doing here… Apostle?"
"Name's Gehrman Sparrow," the Apostle introduced himself, reloading the revolver again. "Let's work together and find out Star's status."
Alex's face blanked.
"How do you know about Star?" he asked.
Gehrman Sparrow casually snapped the cylinder and began playing with the mushroom in his ear.
Alex stormed toward him and grabbed the man by the collar, pulling him up.
"I asked…" he growled, "… how do you know about Star? What are you doing here?"
There was something wrong with this man, Alex could tell.
He could see it in those eyes.
A madness.
This was less a man and more a monster himself.
Alex, despite being battle-hardened over decades, felt disturbed by Gehrman's presence.
"Why don't you ask Her?" Gehrman asked. "Has She gone silent? Can't She tell what my Quirk is? Hello… Can you hear me, Miss Sin…"
Alex dropped the man. What… he asked in his mind, …is he?!
[…] Singularity kept quiet for a moment. [He is blocked from my sight. What I can tell is that he is not corrupted. If Dr. Blessed sent him, then it's best to accept the help.]
Why?! Alex asked.
The last thing he wanted to do was to involve himself with that fanatic again, unless it was to take him down for good.
[Because…] Singularity replied before going quiet. [… Dr. Blessed wouldn't want to see the world burn, either.]
Alex stared down as Gehrman Sparrow got up and adjusted his shirt and hat.
"Why?" he couldn't help but ask one more time. "Why would you risk coming here and helping me?"
Alex knew what was at stake here.
If this person were an Apostle, then he must know it, too.
Then… why?
"Because…" Gehrman Sparrow said, adjusting his glasses. "… Mr. Fool wished it so."