The man— No, creature— took his time to come out from his cell as if he had merely woken up from his afternoon nap. He obviously wasn’t going for a surprise attack, but Felix’s breath caught anyway.

A tall spindly figure with overly stretched limbs. Facial features that were barely recognisable with black scales covering them. Golden light poked out where the eyes were supposed to be. Every fibre of Felix’s being screamed in horror and recognition.

Gaius Matthiou was an Unending… somehow.

“Oh, gods. Not again…” Marcia whimpered from Felix’s side.

The deranged man grinned at Felix like a rabid ape about to gouge its victim’s eyes out. Felix motioned Marcia to get behind him.

“Well, at least we got him out,” he blurted stupidly. “And he isn’t angry.”

“Truly?” Marcia asked incredulously, physically stopping her body from trembling further.

“Yeah, he’s just hungry. He wants to eat our souls.”

“That’s not any better!”

The siblings inched back slowly as though trying to calm down a wild tiger, but Gaius only continued prancing towards them like a predator intent on playing with its food. Felix’s mouth went dry as he detected a hint of playfulness in Gaius’ twisted mind. Oh gods, he’s dragging this out on purpose.

It took Felix a few moments more to realise that Kleopatra’s staff was still glowing with magic. It took Marcia the next to figure out what just happened.

“Fuck, that damn witch must’ve remotely deactivated the gaol security to get us killed,” she whispered from behind him. “Should’ve known the government had already transferred command to her staff when she came to us. We sprung her trap.”

“Figured. It’ll be easier for her to manage the prison if there are hardly any inmates left too.” Felix tossed the staff onto the floor, and Gaius seemed to disappear in a flash.

The psychic leaned back, barely dodging the man lunging towards him. He flung his hand to the side and sent Gaius crashing through the door out of the hallway instead.

Commotion burst from outside. Felix and Marcia ran out, gawking at the chaos in front of them. Almost the entire prison was rioting; every prisoner was engaged in some sort of sick battle royale with their fists and makeshift weapons. The magic-nullifying collars on their necks were still active, but the guards had long fled from their posts.

Felix's eyes darted around. There was no time to hesitate; he still needed to get one of the Solstices embedded within Gaius’ body. He closed his eyes, focusing his much finer psychic senses instead. It finally locked onto his quarry, who was already covered in blood.

Gaius charged towards his next target with a flying kick, which was promptly caught with ease. A sickening crack filled the air as the inmate slammed his heel onto his thigh, snapping it by the hip joint. Normally, that would’ve been enough to incapacitate a regular person.

But Gaius was far from normal, and in the worst way possible.

Gaius laughed hysterically as though the pain merely tickled him before a fist collided with his mouth. Muffled sounds of giggling mixed with the sounds of bone crunching as the particularly skilled prisoner rained down a flurry of blows on his face.

The punching abruptly stopped as the prisoner was sent flying forward from a kick to his buttocks. He rolled to his feet quickly and leapt up, aiming a knee straight at The Mad Badger’s chin. Gaius caught it with ease and pushed it back down, but the martial arts expert was not quite finished yet.

He climbed on his opponent’s body immediately, preparing to slam an elbow into his skull. He was flung to the side instead. His feet whipped towards his opponent’s head less than a second later. His thigh was struck instead.

Aggression possessed his gaze as he moved faster and began to unleash a full martial arts combo on the crazed man.

Only to find his every move parried and dodged with ease now.

Blood splattered from his throat as a sharpened edge found its way through the back of his neck. Gaius continued laughing and pulled his jagged fingers from the dying man. He lunged forward, snapping his victim’s neck to finish it off.

A golden beam of light pierced the corpse, pulling a humming ball of light from its torso.

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Gaius turned around swiftly, running on all fours towards a group of people this time. The four men turned their attention to him and immediately swung their weapons. The laughing stopped abruptly as a particularly long blade sliced his face open. The other prisoner did not let up, plunging a stake into the back of Gaius’ open mouth.

The Mad Badger seized their wrists and wrung them with an absurd amount of force.

The two men screamed in pain, their entire arms practically twisted in all the wrong directions. More blood sprayed as Gaius slit their throats with his sharpened toes. He turned his attention to the others, who weren’t looking so tough anymore.

Gaius ripped the stake from his throat and shoved it into one of their heads before any could react. He resumed his deranged giggling and dragged the stake out together with an eyeball. The man sank to his knees, wailing in horror and pain as he clutched at the empty eye socket still squirting blood.

The Mad Badger chewed the eyeball like a gelatinous fish ball for a few seconds, before spitting it out again. He kicked the man to the floor and stomped hard on his head, mercifully ending his pain.

Primal fear took over the last man and he dropped his weapon, running for his life. Gaius casually flicked the stake with incredible precision, burying it deep in the skull of the fleeing prisoner. His glowing eyes simmered as he took the moment of peace to consume the fruits of his labour again.

And then his head jerked without warning towards the man silently observing him.

Felix’s mouth went dry instantly. He was leagues stronger than a simple regenerating Meta. Hell, he was even powerful enough to shatter the moon. There should be no one on Earth that he was afraid of.

But that… thing. It was scaring him.

Gaius leapt up to the ceiling in a single leap, sinking his jagged appendages into the concrete and jerkily crawling towards the siblings like a demon-possessed spider. He reached Felix’s position in a few seconds and lunged towards him before he could process what to do.

So the psychic simply reacted.

Felix thrust one hand forward and pulled the other back towards him without thinking. The pouncing man froze in the air for a second, before being tossed backwards with an absurd amount of force.

The psychic’s eyes flickered, stopping a mass of red before it touched him. His mouth turned down in disgust as the telekinetic force shredded away the deformed heart around an ancient-looking book. He plucked it from the air.

“Gross…” Marcia commented as Felix flipped the book open. It was entirely blank, but Felix could practically taste the magical energy wafting around The Summer Solstice. One down, one to go.

“About damn time,” his sister said. “What about the other book?”

“I don’t sense it anymore. Not even a lick of its presence,” Felix replied; the subtle pull in his soul was completely gone by now. “I don’t think it’s in this universe.”

“Hey, pass me the book.”

“Why?”

“If this is one of Janus’ books, it only makes sense that it would be naturally drawn to the other, just like how your soul can sense it. I’ll see if I can figure out a way to magically activate it.”

Felix passed Marcia the book as he cast a grim look at the rioting prisoners. This world was already fucked, but it didn’t have to stay that way. The weight of both worlds was now on him. He couldn’t fail them.

“Alright, let’s get the hell out of here.” The psychic clawed the air, tearing open the reinforced steel walls as though it were a thin sheet of tin foil.

They had barely taken more than two steps out of the place when Felix’s psychic senses screamed in warning.

He ducked, only to see the scaly mass of flesh kick off from a nearby tree and fling itself towards him again.

Felix leaned back, but Marcia was not as quick. She yelped in pain as sharpened fingertips grazed her cheek, leaving behind two trails of red. Felix hissed; he hadn’t expected Gaius to regenerate so quickly.

“Where’re you going, you naughty thief?” The annoying rhyming voice was back. “Don’t you worry, your pain will be brief!”

“Son of a bitch!” Felix yelled as psionic energy flooded his palm, preparing to push The Mad Badger away again—

Blood sprayed as Gaius’ head was flung back. Blue plasma bolts rained into his body as he staggered backwards with each shot. Marcia walked into view with a pistol in each hand, murderous coldness possessing her gaze as she fired her weapons relentlessly.

The man stumbled and collapsed to the ground as the last few shots disintegrated his legs.

“Felix, attune with the book. Hurry!” Marcia fished out The Summer Solstice, which was pulsating now.

Pink light left his hand as Felix quickly touched the pages, linking his life force with the book. He tried his best to ignore the rabid groaning from behind. Black particles trailed behind Marcia’s fingers as she weaved them through the air like an experienced music conductor.

“Let’s see you handle this,” she growled before her voice blossomed into a roar. “Purgatory swallow you!”

Light charged towards the man, but something else seared from his head and reflected it instead.

“What the hell? This wasn’t supposed to happen!” Marcia exclaimed as Felix pushed her aside, barely avoiding the beam.

The light sloshed around in the air for a moment, before being forcibly morphed into a doorway by something. But this was no time to think.

Felix jerked violently away from Gaius’ gnashing teeth as he shoved Marcia into the doorway. He flailed his arms in a futile attempt to regain balance as his feet tripped over the other, causing him to fall into the doorway as well.

And the endless void greeted him again.