"Last chance," Greg said, and his fake arm returned to its previous position. "Please..."

"Let me try to save you."

"Save them instead," Agatha said, pointing to the walls where thousands of trapped souls were screaming silently. "I'm already lost, but they don't have to be."

"Finish this! Please kill me now, and...! LET THEM GO!"

There was a lot of violence in the chamber. The two smaller Calamities broke through opposite walls, their giant bodies filling the room and weapons sticking out of every surface.

At the same time, more living weapons came out of the walls around Greg, making a sphere of death that was closing in on him from all sides. He was in the middle of everything.

Totally, completely surrounded. Agatha stood in the middle of it all, her broken body pulsing with the power of the core.

"This is it," she said in a low voice. "The only way to go. The only way to set them all free."

"You know what you need to do."

Greg looked at the weapons that were getting closer. At the Calamities, get into position.

Agatha stood in the middle of it all with that awful, resigned look on her face. He knew she was right.

Not that redemption is impossible or that this is the only way, but that the immediate tactical situation is what matters. He couldn't handle everything at once; he couldn't save everyone while also trying to save her. He had to make a choice.

His prosthetic arm started to glow more brightly than before, and Greg reached deep into the Thoughtforged technique. He was not trying to create something new; instead, he aimed to alter something that already existed.

He pulled metal from the walls, the debris, and even the weapons themselves, bringing it all to him until he started to make a hammer and pickaxe. Tools for making and breaking things came together to make something that didn't fit into either category.

Something that could break anything if you swung it hard enough. The weapon that grew in his golden hand couldn't be classified.

It was a hammer, a pickaxe, and something else all combined into one. Its head shone with all the colors of forge fire, and along its shaft were golden circuits of light that pulsed with Greg's heartbeat. The notification from the system flashed in front of his eyes.

[WEAPON MADE: BREAKER'S RESOLVE]

[QUALITY: LEGENDARY]

[PROPERTY: BREAKS BONDS, SUNDERS CORES, FREES SOULS]

"Another legendary creation... I knew it... this new power really can make anything possible!" He knew, looking at it, that this was precisely what was needed.

The tool that could end this nightmare. The hammer that would break the Calamity's heart and free everyone trapped within.

"Thank you," Agatha said softly, and for a moment, her eyes were her own again, like it was something that a human could've shown, and they were full of tears. "Tell the story of my father."

"Tell the truth about why he died. Make sure his death meant something."

Greg said, "I will," and then he ran.

The weapons came at him from all sides, but Greg didn't care. Wherever he struck, weapons broke as he swung the Breaker's Resolve in broad arcs.

Not merely broken, but shattered. The souls within were liberated from their confines when they fractured into pieces that transformed into light.

The Calamity's walls held living weapons. These are the twisted constructs that carry out Agatha's bidding.

The hammer freed them all, knowing how to break without destroying the essence underneath. The two smaller Calamities attacked with blade-like appendages the size of buildings, but Greg used his free hand to make barriers.

Golden shields that absorbed and redirected the kinetic energy. He was moving with a grace he had never had before. The Thoughtforged technique let him react faster than conscious thought, and his body and weapon became one system focused on a single goal.

[Get to the core]

[End this.]

[Free them all.]

He broke through a wall of swords. He avoided a spear the size of a tree and stopped an axe that could have split him in half.

He had to pay with pain and blood for every step he took, but he didn't stop and couldn't stop. He was the only person who could help the people stuck here.

He was counting on Agatha's father's legacy. And outside of this nightmare, his family was still fighting, and he still believed that he would find a way.

Twenty feet away from Agatha.

Fifteen.

Ten.

She wasn't fighting back anymore. She was just standing there with her arms out, ready for what was coming. Greg pulled back the Breaker's Resolve, putting all of his strength and will into the swing that would end everything.

He hit it.

The hammer hit Agatha's chest, right where the core was, and the pain was worse than anything Greg had ever felt. Not just physical force, but also metaphysical force.

The hammer understood its target, recognized how the Calamity was structured, and subsequently shattered it. All of them.

At the same time. The core broke apart with a sound like the sky splitting, and purple light poured out of the cracks.

Agatha gasped, her eyes went wide, and for a moment she smiled. Smiled a lot. "Finally," she said in a whisper. "I can relax."

Greg pulled back for the second hit, tears streaming down his face, and hit again. A second crack echoed through the air, and more purple light began to leak out.

The Calamities around them started to scream, breaking their connection to the core. Weapons fell from the walls like rain, hitting the ground and becoming still again.

Greg could feel the souls that had been trapped passing through him like a cold wind. They were finally free after so long.

He raised the hammer for the third and last time, the one that would break the core completely and put an end to Agatha's suffering for good. "Sorry," he said. "I'm really, really sorry."

"Don't be," Agatha said, and her voice was clear again. "You gave me what I needed."

"Not salvation, but completion. That's more than I deserved, so... finish it up! SET US ALL FREE!"

Greg hit the hammer with all his might until the core burst. It didn't explode outward. Instead, it imploded, pulling everything in the room, even Greg, toward it. As the implosion threatened to swallow him up and pull him into the collapsing singularity of dark energy, something grabbed him from behind.

One of the smaller Calamities had wrapped a huge arm around his waist and lifted him off the ground. The force was so strong that Greg's grip on the Breaker's Resolve slipped.

The legendary weapon fell from his golden hand and fell toward the imploding core. Greg reached for it with his last real hand.

He yelled, "Hammy!" when he saw the slime on his shoulder.

"Lend me a huge favor and get the hammer for me, boy!"

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