  Motivated by recent developments connecting non-supersymmetric heterotic
string theory to the theory of Topological Modular Forms (TMF), we show that
the worldsheet theory with central charge $(17,\frac{3}{2})$ obtained by
fibering the $(E_8)_1 \times (E_8)_1$ current algebra over the
$\mathcal{N}=(0,1)$ sigma model on $S^{1}$ with antiperiodic spin structure
(such that the two $E_8$ factors are exchanged as we go around the circle), is
continuously connected to the $(E_8)_2$ theory in the
Gaiotto$-$Johnson-Freyd$-$Witten sense of going "up and down the RG
trajectories". Combined with the work of Tachikawa and Yamashita, this
furnishes a physical derivation of the fact that the $(E_8)_2$ theory
corresponds to the unique nontrivial torsion element $[(E_8)_2]$ of
$\mathsf{TMF}^{31}$ with zero mod-2 elliptic genus.
