Planetary News: The South African Alliance and East African Society have joined forces and deployed their armies to the North of Africa to deal with the horde of mutated animals that are threatening to invade the last two territories on the continent.

Wolf fell from the sky and crashed through the cathedral's roof, landing on the thick wooden table at the high altar—it reduced the impact of his fall, but the pain still shot through his body. Especially his back.

"These reckless falls will come back to haunt me when I'm older."

He groaned when he stood and stretched his arms and back. His joints cracked with each movement before stopping. Pressing the back of the earpiece, the helmet dematerialized.

The smell of piss and shit covered the room as dead bodies lay in front of him, their insides hanging out like a scene from horror movies. He nearly puked his guts out, but quickly pressed the back of the earpiece, producing a mask that covered his nose and mouth, purifying the air.

"Wolf, you're not alone," Wednesday said. "Look above you."

Wolf gazed at the ceiling and saw two golems crawling on the wall while staring at him. He assumed they were the ones who killed his fellow newcomers and were now taking their time before killing him.

"Wednesday, check the security feed and see if Victoria and Olivia escaped? If I'm going to die, I want to know that I helped them leave this place."

"Will do."

After fighting the creatures all night, Wolf learned there were two kinds of golems: Wingless, and Winged.

The wingless ones were erratic and irrational, fighting their enemies and each other with the aim to kill. With pieces of white clothing and colored habits clinging to their bodies, they were the believers and security nuns Wolf saw when he entered the city.

Sister Mary had a hard time controlling all of them, relying on the winged golems to pin some to the ground until they calmed down.

The winged golems were calm and ruthless, having been the deacons and bishops. Wolf wanted no part in fighting them. It was why when they attacked him, he made sure he was positioned next to a wingless golem, knowing when he evaded the winged one's sharp claw, the wingless would fight its superior without care.

The golems dropped to the floor, making the building shake, their gigantic shadows looming over the bounty hunter. One resembled a mammoth, and the other a T-Rex, with wings on their backs.

"Dammit!" He hated when enemies ganged up on him. His mind would have to work overtime, thinking of ways to escape without losing a limb. Or worse, his life.

The T-Rex stepped forward. "Don't you remember us, Wolf?" it asked.

Wolf recognized its feminine voice, but he couldn't remember where he had heard it. "Have we dated before?" he asked. "Was I a good boyfriend?"

She scoffed. "Nonsense."

Wolf wanted to ask the same question to the mammoth, but it swung a claw at him. He dodged it with a sideways roll before getting to his feet and wiping dust and dirt off his jacket. "That answers my unasked question."

"You truly don't remember us?" the T-rex asked. "How unfortunate."

"You stunned us in the security room," the mammoth said. "Remember that?"

"Oh, right." Wolf smacked his forehead with his palm as though it should have been that obvious. "Jerry and Catherine, long time no see. How have you been? How's life treating you? How are the kids? What about me? Thank you for asking. I'm doing great, considering the circumstances. I've been, you know, fighting a golem here and a golem there. Pesky little things, if I may say." He chuckled while scratching the back of his head. "It's life, though, you know."

Jerry and Catherine glanced at each other.

"Did he just call us pesky little things?" he asked.

"He did," she answered.

The mammoth smiled. "We should kill him."

"Then eat him afterward." The T-rex licked her lips with her metallic tongue. "I'll have his body."

"And I'll have his limbs."

Wolf gulped. He could try flying away, but they would intervene. A fallen pillar blocked other pathways, leaving the holes on the roof as the only escape options.

"Wolf, you need to go see Olivia right now," Wednesday said.

"What happened?" he asked. "Is she having trouble leaving?" He feared The Forgotten Nuns might have gotten to her and were now making it a challenge for her to escape with Victoria. If that was the case, he had to dispose of Jerry and Catherine quickly and go help them.

"She's dying."

If Olivia died, she would be revived into her clone body. Victoria, on the other hand wouldn't. Not only was it illegal for her to have a clone, but Beltan blood was too "impure"—as Martian scientists had labeled it—to use to create a clone.

"Is Victoria safe?"

"Go see Olivia!" Wednesday shouted.

Usually, he would have scoffed at her for such an attitude and continued with what he was doing. But this was different. Something might've been wrong with the hyena, and he had to find out what it was. "Alright."

Catherine and Jerry approached him slowly, taking their time like the predators they were. The former licked her lips while the latter grinned as he gazed at Wolf from head to toe.

"I'm going to enjoy eating his organs," Jerry stated.

"Me too," added Catherine.

With his mind focused on Olivia and Victoria, he tapped his nano-ring until it transformed into a glove with a repulsor on its palm. Three shots remained before the ring disintegrated—prototypes didn't last for long. Wolf decided he would fire two rounds at the deacons, saving the last one for Destroyer.

He aimed at Catherine and Jerry. The deacons glanced at each other before laughing.

"We are invincible," Catherine said.

"And immortal," added Jerry.

"I don't give a shit." Wolf fired the weapon, destroying the top half of their bodies before the ring returned to its original shape; a red warning light blinking from it: One round left before self-destructing.

He activated his jet-boots and flew out of the chapel, heading to where Wednesday had seen Olivia and Victoria. Arriving at the scene, Olivia lay on the ground facing the sky. The Forgotten Nuns stood over her body, observing it as though the hyena was an intriguing specimen they wished to dissect and study, not worrying about the battle around them.

When Wolf landed on the ground, the three stepped back. He dropped to his knees and placed the hyena's head on his lap. "Hey, Olivia." He patted her cheeks, and she opened her eyes. "It's going to be alright. You'll be back. Don't worry."

Olivia tried talking in between weak breaths. "I... I..." Tears clouded her eyes before they rained down her face. "I... forgot..." She coughed out blood, and a string of it hung from her chin. "Tell... truth."

"You what?" Wolf tried to decipher what she was trying to say. "You forgot to tell me the truth? Is that what you wanted to say?"

Olivia nodded gently.

"What truth?" Tears welled in his own eyes, and he rubbed them off with the back of his hand. He didn't know why he was crying. Olivia was a Martian—everything would be fine. She would die, her consciousness would be transferred to her clone, and she'd return. Every Martian had a chip implanted in their brain that was wirelessly connected to the one in their clone, recording and backing everything the original body saw and experienced second by second.

"This... is it... for..." Olivia pointed at herself before her hand slumped to the ground. "Me... a clone."

Wolf rubbed more tears from his face. This couldn't be it. He wanted to tell her to fight for her life, live for Victoria because the girl depended on her to escape the city. But when he glanced around, he saw Sister Ophelia sitting on Victoria's chest. The nun grabbed the beltan's chin and moved her head to face him.

A gasp escaped his lips, the lifelessness behind Victoria's eyes made his stomach tie itself into knots. A trail of dried blood came out of the bullet holes in her head.

"This can't be it," he muttered.

The truth hit him like an ocean's wave, freezing him on the spot.

"They're both dead. It's all my fault."

He hugged Olivia's body and cried his eyes out. Though he only knew her for the short time they were on Coupon, he considered her a friend. The moment they shared on the cathedral's roof where they told each other about their lives was proof they had become more than allies.

Why didn't she tell him she was a clone?

"Stupid, stupid, stupid." He slapped himself multiple times. If he knew she was a clone, he wouldn't have let her escape with Victoria with just a light gun for protection. With the countless weapons in his nano-ring, he would have given her something lethal.

Everyone he got close to always died. The only one who hadn't so far was Rainbow, and that was because she had never left Paradiso. If she did, she would be dead too. This was why he chose not to get close to anyone. He easily cared for people, and because he was notorious for being reckless, they died because of him.

"Wolf, you need to get yourself together or you will die," Wednesday said. "Please, Wolf. Snap out of it."

A large shadow towered over him. He looked up and saw Sister Patricia pointing the barrel of guns in her fingers at him. "I will end your pain, Wolf. You did your best to get this far. But like those before you, you too have failed." Bright lights materialized at the tip of her fingers. "May Jesus Christ—"

Wolf was tapping his nano-ring the whole time Sister Patricia was talking. When he reached the last weapon, he activated it. The red warning light shot out of the nano-ring and towards the sky, brightening the city.

If the war in Coupon hadn't gotten the attention of Venus authorities and local residents, then the red light definitely would.

The nano-ring started burning his finger. Wolf took it off and threw it at Sister Patricia, who caught it and stared at the ring in confusion.

Silver, dust-like particles came out of the nano-ring like a swarm of locusts and spread out. Wolf tried touching them, but the particles floated away from him. He smiled, remembering at the bottom of the instructions, there was a note from Rainbow that said:

Destroyer won't harm you or anyone you touch, Wolf.

The particles enveloped Sister Patricia, disintegrating her in a second. The same thing happened to the rest of the city. Whether it was buildings, dead bodies, golems; they all faced the same fate.

Because Olivia was in his arms, the silvery dust didn't touch a single hair on her body.

Wolf had never seen such a weapon before. No wonder Rainbow had ordered him to use it only when necessary. If it got in the wrong hands and was mass-produced, Destroyer would be used to cause heavy casualties and there would be no evidence left behind.

It was the perfect weapon.

"Help! Please, help!" Sister Mary cried out as she tried to run away from the silver particles. They caught up to her and began eating her limbs. Sister Ophelia and the remaining golems tried to save her, but they got disintegrated.

"We need Sister Mary," Wednesday said.

She was right. If Wolf wanted to complete the bounty, Sister Mary had to exist—whether alive or dead was his decision to make.

"Shit!" He activated his jet-boots, flew to her, and put his hand on her head. The particles moved away from her and continued with the rest of the city.

Wolf carried Olivia on one shoulder and Sister Mary on the other as he flew into the sky. Hovering in the air, Coupon City vanished below him. It was as if it never existed to begin with. The only reminder it did was the half-disintegrated Sister Mary.