Chapter 131 - The Quality of Mercy

Cerberus lunged at me, claws extended and teeth bared. I sidestepped using Celerity, moving faster than his eyes could track. My fist caught him in the ribs as he passed, driving the air from his lungs with a meaty thud. He crashed into what remained of the basement wall, sending bricks flying.

"You got stronger," Cerberus growled, pulling himself from the rubble. "But Cerberus is still strongest!”

"Not anymore," I said.

He came at me again, this time feinting left before lunging right. It was a good move, one that would have caught most opponents off guard. But with my enhanced Agility and Celerity working together, it was like he was moving through molasses. I could read all his moves long before I was in any danger from them. I ducked under his claws and drove my shoulder into his gut, lifting him off the ground and slamming him into the floor hard enough to crater the concrete.

Cerberus rolled away before I could follow up, coming to his feet with impressive speed despite his wounds. His Regeneration was already knitting broken ribs back together. I could see the bones shifting beneath his fur, hear them clicking back into place.

"Small one fights well," Cerberus said. He got to his feet and circled me warily. "But why? Cerberus offers strength. Offers pack. Gives survival."

"You offer slavery," I shot back. "You take away everything that makes people human. Their choices. Their minds. Their souls."

"Cerberus saves them!" His voice was genuinely confused, almost hurt. "Weak humans die easy. Strong pack survives. Cerberus saves humans!”

I realized with a start that he genuinely believed what he was saying. That realization hit me like a bucket of cold water poured over my head. Cerberus wasn't just some mindless monster spreading plague for fun. He thought he was saving people. Thought he was making them better, stronger, more capable of surviving in this new world.

It didn't make what he'd done any less monstrous, but it sure as hell complicated things.

Cerberus launched himself at me again, and I didn't have time to think about moral ambiguities anymore. I raised my hand and cast Lightning Bolt. The spell slammed into his chest mid-leap, electricity arcing across his body. Cerberus howled in pain. He crashed to the ground in a smoking heap, his fur singed black where the bolt had struck.

For a moment, he just lay there, twitching. Then, slowly, agonizingly, he started to push himself back up. I could see it in his eyes the moment he realized the truth, that he couldn't win this fight. Not alone, anyway. Not against a tier ten opponent who outmatched him in every way. That recognition flickered across his face, along with a flash of fear. He was either going to make a suicidal rush or make a break for it.

Cerberus turned and ran.

He leaped from the basement, then clawed his way through the debris of the half-collapsed house and out into the street. His powerful legs carried him at incredible speed back toward where we'd left his pack. I couldn't let him get there. Together, Cerberus and his pack could probably take me down. Even if they couldn't kill me, they could wear me down, wound me enough that one of them would eventually land a bite.

I activated Flight and shot after him like a missile. Cerberus was fast, but I was faster. I caught him halfway down the block. My hands closed around his back leg. He tried to twist around to bite me, but I had already yanked him into the air, using Flight and Strength together to lift him clear off the ground.

"Let go!" Cerberus roared, thrashing. "Cerberus will—"

I spun like a hammer thrower and released him, sending Cerberus sailing through the air. He flew a full block before crashing through the front of a small office building. Glass exploded. Metal supports groaned and buckled. The building's facade partially collapsed, burying him in rubble.

I descended slowly, landing in the middle of the debris-strewn street. Smoke and dust filled the air. From somewhere in the wreckage, I heard Cerberus coughing, struggling to breathe.

He emerged from the collapsed building moments later, limping badly. His right leg was bent at an unnatural angle. He must have broken it in the crash. Blood matted his golden fur. One of his eyes was swollen shut. But he was still standing. He wasn’t going to give up fighting easily.

"Why?" Cerberus gasped, his voice strained with pain and confusion. "Why small one fight so hard? Pack offers everything. Strength. Family. Belonging. Why refuse?"

"Because it's not a choice," I said, advancing on him. "You don't ask. You don't give people the option. You just take them. You destroy who they were."

"Old self was weak!" Cerberus insisted, backing away from me. His retreat was hampered by his broken leg. "New self is strong! This is better!"

"It's not better. It's just different. And it's not yours to decide for them."

He snarled his defiance and launched himself at me. The wounded leg had Regenerated just enough that he was mobile again, but he wasn’t anything close to as fast as he had been, before. I raised my hand, purple energy crackling around my fingers. Cerberus's good eye went wide. He tried to dodge, but with his injured leg, he couldn't move fast enough. The Lightning Bolt caught him square in the chest.

He went down hard, convulsing as electricity coursed through his body. The smell of burning fur filled the air. When the spell ended, Cerberus lay there, smoke rising from his fur, chest heaving with labored breaths.

But he was still alive and conscious. If I left him alone for even a few minutes, he’d be back on his feet and a threat again. His Regeneration was insane. Mine healed my wounds, but slowly, over time. He walked around like he had a permanent Heal spell running on him. As I watched, the worst of the burns were already starting to fade.

I cast again as soon as the cooldown reset. Another Lightning Bolt slammed into him. This one struck his shoulder. Cerberus screamed, a sound that was half-human, half-beast, and all agony.

He tried to rise, but failed. Then, he tried to crawl away instead. His claws scraped against the pavement, leaving furrows in the street.

I cast again. Each time Cerberus tried to escape, I hit him with another bolt. I felt my mana drain away with each casting, but I couldn't stop. Not while the threat he represented still threatened everyone I cared about. I couldn’t stop until this was finished.

After the sixth bolt, Cerberus stopped trying to rise. He lay there in the middle of the street, his fur smoking, his body covered in burns. His breathing was shallow and rapid. His one good eye stared up at me with an expression I couldn't quite read. Was it fear? Resignation? Maybe a little of both.

I stood over him, my hand raised, another spell at the ready. One more Lightning Bolt would finish this. I could feel it. The pack leader was at his limit. His Regeneration couldn't keep up anymore. One more bolt, and Cerberus would die.

And part of me wanted that. I wanted him dead for what he'd done. For turning Marion. For turning Ruiz. For all the other people he'd infected, all the lives he'd destroyed.

But another part of me hesitated.

Because looking at him now, broken and beaten, I could see something I'd missed before. There was intelligence in those eyes, but there was something else, too. There was something almost innocent about Cerberus, like a child who'd done something terrible without understanding why it was wrong.

“What were you, before you became this?” I asked quietly.

Cerberus's eye focused on me. He didn't answer, but I saw something flicker in his gaze.

"Before the Event," I continued. "Before magic changed you. What were you?"

His mouth opened. For a moment, I thought he was going to lunge and try to bite me one last time. But instead, words came out.

"Was good boy," Cerberus whispered. “My person said was good boy. Good Cerberus."

Oh, God.

The hair went up on the back of my neck, and chills travelled through my whole body as I finally understood. I saw it all now, clear as day. I knew what I’d been facing here, and why.

He'd been a dog.

He was someone's pet. He’d been named Cerberus, probably as a joke, because of the three-headed hellhound from mythology. And when magic had flooded the world, when animals had been transformed into monsters, the dog's protective instincts had twisted into something dark.

He'd been trying to protect humans, to make them stronger and keep them safe from danger. He just didn't understand that what he was doing was destroying the very people he was trying to save!

"Master died," Cerberus continued, his voice growing weaker. "Couldn't save. Couldn't protect. Too weak. But then Cerberus became strong. Made pack. Protect everyone. Save everyone. Make everyone strong so they don't die like Master."

My hand lowered slowly. The purple energy flickering around my fingers faded.

I could finish this. One more Lightning Bolt and the threat would be over. Alex would want that. Hell, most people would want that. Cerberus had killed people, and he’d turned dozens more into monsters. For a lot of people, that would be more than enough for them to feel he deserved to die.

But he'd also been a victim. He, too, was transformed by magic he didn't understand, then driven by instincts he couldn't control. But more than all that, he’d been trying in his own twisted way to do what he thought was right.

And I had a tier ten Cleanse. If it could break the curse on transformed werewolves, and if I was right about how the infection chain worked, then maybe I could save them all. Marion. Ruiz. All the others who'd been turned.

Of course, killing him would probably end the curse, too. He was deeply tied into the werewolf curse. I’d sensed that, when I tried to Cleanse the werewolf back in Harvard Yard. If he was gone, the whole thing ought to just unravel.

I was left with a choice. Either answer would probably save everyone who’d been afflicted.

Should I choose vengeance, or mercy?

"Damn it," I muttered. Then, louder: "Cerberus. I'm going to try something. It might hurt. But if it works, if I'm right? Then maybe I can help you. Can you stay still?"

The werewolf's eye focused on me. For a long moment, he didn't move. Then, slowly, he nodded once.

I knelt beside him, my hands shaking. This was insane. If Alex saw me doing this, he’d be furious. I knew, deep in my gut, that he’d want this creature killed. Even if there was another way, Alex wouldn’t care. He’d want vengeance. I found that bothered me more than I’d realized before.

I placed both hands on Cerberus's shoulders. His fur was matted with blood and singed from the Lightning. His heart beat rapidly beneath my palms. Through my hands, I felt the curse thrumming through him, deeper and more powerful than any I'd sensed before. I’d been right in my guesses, from the earlier glimpse. He was the lock and the key, the center of all of this.

"Here goes nothing," I whispered.

I activated Cleanse.