Onyx nodded to Elena. “If they die, your debt is no longer in effect, correct?”

Elena smiled and winked. He nodded. “So I just have to kill them and hold you back long enough to do so.”

Onyx focused on the three people behind Elena. “Diamond. I see you’ve gone back to your old ways. Gold-what became you to crawl out of the pit I stuffed you in? Platinum. How many times do I have to kill you?”

Gold spoke. “Start fighting. Kill him, quickly.”

Elena nodded. “I’m sure you know I won’t bring out my strongest cards immediately, right?”

“That’s fine. He can’t win against you, let alone kill us all while fighting you.”

Elena opened her mouth, then, thinking better of it, shut it, a smile popping into place, though it was a forced one. Then she disappeared, appearing in front of Onyx at speeds probably only they could perceive. Her first kick, perfectly aimed for his head, went over him as he leaned back, jumping and landing a double-legged strike directly on her stomach. She went flying back as he grabbed the shadows to stay in place and started running for Diamond. The world fractured, and Diamond disappeared before Onyx could get to him.

An instant strike from Gold was easily dodged, with a black, shadowy spear cutting through Gold and letting his guts out. Platinum also attacked and was run through by another spear. Gold’s body faded away, and Onyx scowled. “Illusions.”

Platinum’s body stayed apart, though Onyx knew he wouldn’t for long. That man was devilishly hard to kill.

He stepped to the side, Elena’s sword strike missing him slightly as she coasted on angelic wings, light bending around her, turning into weapons to smite him. “This reminds me of the old days!,” Onyx shouted, every strike missing him. Another smile was his reward, until he used the momentum he’d been gathering to launch Elena again, this time outside of melee range. Onyx closed his eyes for a brief second, stepping to the side and grabbing the invisible arm piercing through where he’d just been standing, yanking Diamond into view.

The world fractured again, but Onyx locked it down, fixing the cracks. “No, you don’t. Not a second time.”

Onyx ripped off Diamond’s arm, enjoying the sound of his screams for a moment before Elena arrived once more. Then he had no way of stopping Diamond’s disappearance, Elena simply pushing him too hard. An icy cold was building around her, and she scowled. “The rat got away.”

Onyx nodded. “So he did. I see you’ve improved.”

“Not enough to beat your ass, though.”

Elena once again disappeared into the distance, unwillingly teleported through the shadows Onyx had manifested around her. One of his favorite tricks.

He gathered his momentum and shot it straight down, stopping himself in the middle of a sidestep he’d been doing to avoid Elena as a crushing hand of earth emerged where he would have been. He twisted his momentum once again, nearly teleporting to Gold as he picked him up. “Not an illusion this time. Die.”

The world fractured, and Onyx rebuilt it as fast as it had fractured. “Like father, like son,” he muttered, squeezing.

Gold’s head fell to the ground, separated from his spine. Then it all wisped away into smoke. “Really? You still have something to save your life?”

Elena appeared in front of him, and he fought her, holding a conversation while he did so. “Diamond ran away with an arm lost. Gold just died, but he has some kind of life-saving thing. And Platinum? The man doesn’t die.”

Elena nodded. “Yeah. So, instead of killing them, you want to… do it?”

Onyx shrugged. “More trouble than it’s worth, but sure.”

Elena nodded. She struck again with her spear, and it went straight through Onyx, who slumped onto it after a few seconds, his heart stopping its beat. He was dead.

Gold watched Diamond’s wound stitch itself together. “That man’s a monster,” he whispered. “To hold off Elena, easily, while fighting all of us? And not even seeming to try?”

Diamond screamed in pain as his skin stitched itself together over the stump of his arm. Elena appeared next to them, and they immediately tensed. “Is he dead?”

Elena nodded. Gold nodded. “Then the debt’s done. But aren’t you supposed to be the strongest in the galaxy? How was he so much trouble?”

“He’s the person who won the intergalactic tournament two years ago. Void’s Nightmare. And my husband.”

Gold gave a small chuckle. “So he died because he didn’t want to kill his wife? That suits us.”

Elena shrugged. “You’re mistaken. Not even I can keep him dead. He died so he could break the debt. He’s probably back by now.”

Onyx was suddenly next to Elena, pulling her into a kiss. After a few seconds, he glared down at Diamond and Gold. “So, Diamond, you’re a traitor. You’re working with Gold. After everything I’ve done for you,” he muttered, his voice cold. Mana gathered around him as he spoke.

The world fractured, and Onyx easily stopped it, knitting it back together in a moment. “You can’t do that around me.” A devilish grin spread across his face. “But I can.”

Cracks appeared in reality, and its shards flew apart, before eventually coalescing and restoring the world back to its former glory. Gold and Diamond were gone. Elena stared into Onyx’s eyes. “Darn, I didn’t get them. So,” Onyx said. “The Monsters are here. We have less time than we thought we did.”

Elena nodded. “Have you seen anyone promising? To perhaps take up the title of protector of the world?” She turned around, muttering near-silently. “I don’t really want to see someone other than Eternity take his title, but it’s necessary.”

Onyx pretended not to hear anything past her questions. From experience, he knew he wouldn’t win the argument that was fated to happen if he walked down that road. “A group of four students in the academy. Sapphire gave me… surprising news about one of them.”

Elena’s wings formed behind her, and Onyx formed his own-dark, leathery wings reminiscent of a dragon’s settling into place behind him. “Can I go see them?”

Onyx nodded. “Sure. Let’s go.”

Jay blinked at the woman, floating in midair, appeared in their room. He took one look at her angelic wings, made of bent light and not flapping or moving, and Onyx standing to her side, and his head blanked. “Um. Hi?”

Drake simply stared, a piece from the board game they were playing held loosely from his hands. Crystal reached out and grabbed it, inserting it into her own pile cleanly and smoothly while Catherine hid a smile.

Onyx stepped forward. “This is the love of my life, Elena. Yes, she has wings made of light. No, I won’t show you mine.”

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

Jay snapped his mouth shut, nodding. This is an extremely dangerous type of individual.

What type?

A woman.

Jay barely kept himself from laughing, stepping forward and offering a hand. Elena shook it, and he stepped back. “What brings you here?”

“I wanted to see the children Onyx thought so highly of.”

“Elena, I’ve told you before, they’re ‘young adults’ now, and so should be treated as adults,” Onyx said, patronizingly.

Elena glared at him but he simply glared back, unmoving. Then she sighed, backing down. “Fine.” She turned to the side and stomped off to a corner of their room.

“I can now use Blood, Bone, and Flesh,” Jay said.

Onyx nodded. “When’d you learn to do so?”

“When the girls were experimenting on me, a random healer in the crowd was healing me, and then he left and I just kept healing. This is why I kept healing.”

Onyx paused at the word ‘experimenting’, then shrugged it off as a slip of the tongue. “And here’s a diagram of what Catherine’s acid water did to him! And when we combined it with my acid lightning, he really melted!”

Onyx slowly turned over to where Crystal was showing Elena a diagram of Jay’s body, melting page by page. Then he turned back. “Okay. Well. I’ll just skip that. So, the thing is, Diamond defected.”

Jay blinked. “To who?”

“I suppose you wouldn’t know. So we have the Gemstone Council. Our opponents are the Metallic Council. The Gemstone Council protects this world. The Metallic Council fights to take it over for intergalactic organizations. Diamond was originally part of the Metallic Council, and then he joined us. The king vouched for him, so we had to keep him here.”

Jay nodded. There’s one intergalactic organization in particular.

What’s its name?

The Monsters as Men.

“So we have to take out the Metallic Council?”

Onyx shook his head. “It’s not that simple. They’re as strong as us. If I fully commit somewhere, I won’t be elsewhere, so I’m as much of a weakness as a strength. So, we’re going full war-mode, with me going wherever I have to go.”

Jay nodded. “And why does this concern us?”

“If you agree, you’ll be put together as a squad. For the war.”

The room went silent, everyone snapping their heads towards Onyx. “I’ll do it,” Jay said. “Nothing like honing yourself in battle, after all.”

“If he’s in, I’m in,” Catherine declared.

Crystal shrugged, and they assumed she agreed. “Eh. The idiot’s doing it, so I might as well join,” came right after, from Drake.

Onyx nodded. “Well. Classes are still going on. You’ll only be deployed when I say, because you’re still students and not part of the actual Council or any military. You’ll be in school until I tell you to go, then you’re up and out the door. Got it?”

Jay nodded. “Now, can you let us get back to the board game?”

When he hadn’t been looking, Crystal had stolen most of Drake’s pile of pieces, one by one, leaving her with a massive pile compared to Drake’s rather puny one. Then she reached for Jay’s pile and only met a quicksilver shield, Jay not even looking at her. She quickly withdrew her hand, stepping away self-consciously from the game laid out on the floor.

Onyx waved to Elena, and they both disappeared from their view, leaving nothing behind. The group looked at each other, agreed to ignore what had just happened, and went back to their board game in moments, Drake not even noticing that many of his pieces were gone.

Jay and Catherine ended up ganging on Crystal, who quickly lost. Then they turned on each other, Drake not a threat, and Jay demolished Catherine by making a quicksilver dome over the game board. Amon told him where the pieces were inside, but Catherine couldn’t see through the quicksilver screen, so it was a free win for him.

Then, as the others filed out of his room, did Jay finally think about what he’d done in agreeing to Onyx. Is this a good idea?

Yes. You’ve always grown fastest in the crucible.

Jay asked nothing past that, going to sleep.

Onyx ascended into space, Elena following him. “We’ll have to pick off as many of the Monsters as we can,” he said, Elena nodding behind him. “This time, seriously, no holding back.”

He didn’t look back this time, but he could almost feel her nod. Then they arrived at the edge of the galaxy, moving far faster than the large, approaching force could. Onyx flew cautiously through space before he found a scout, swiftly approaching. The space around the scout twisted, ripping them apart, as Onyx continued to fly forward, unruffled. They encountered more scouts, every single one of them ripped apart by the surrounding space.

Soon, they found a battalion of soldiers, slowly flying in formation through the air. Onyx hissed. “Elena, return. There’s no one they’ve left alone. I have to fight the battalion.”

“I want to help!”

“Remember the pact we made?”

Elena disappeared in an angry flash of light, attracting the attention of the battalion. Space twisted, and suddenly Onyx was in their formation, spears of darkest shadow erupting from him. Many died from his first attack, the few who survived summoning beams of flame and frost which only struck a fading shadow as more died, his daggers cutting through their armor like it was butter, and their skin even more easily.

Only one survived a slice through the back of their neck, but quickly turned to stone and shattered, though nothing had hit her.

Armor condensed around Onyx, purple gear formed by the energy of the Void, and made him a blank spot on the world for anyone looking. His daggers received a coat of nullified existence, and he faded into the Void to wait.

For the commander was coming to check out his soldiers’ deaths.

He came into view rather quickly, an aurora of flame surrounding him as he stumbled to a halt in the center of the dead battalion. “Show yourself, evil warlord! For you have incurred the wrath of the Monsters as Men and will not survive much longer! If you show yourself, you may yet be inducted into our gracious organization and not be horribly executed on sight!”

“As if you could touch me.”

Twin daggers slid through the man’s neck, severing it. Then Onyx continued, not wasting a second. He had to do as much damage as possible before retreating. A pulse of Void engulfed a massive area, telling him where absolutely everything was, as well as what it was. Suddenly, Diamond was cutting through another battalion, and another, and another, and none knew what hit them until they were all gone.

The commanders came, of course, but none lived, for none were strong enough to touch Onyx. Eventually, someone with experience attacked. A general.

Onyx could kill as many commanders as he wanted, but it would barely make up a drop in the ocean of the Monsters. Killing a general would make a difference as, suddenly, a large amount of the Monsters’ troops were no longer coordinated. Diamond sighed as he faded out of existence once more, the general approaching his latest battlefield. “Fiend. This is your last battle.”

The general turned in a circle, and his eyes locked onto Onyx, who faded back into the world. His ruse was up. The general, with no further talk, hefted a massive sword, heavy, icy armor appearing on him. Then he started attacking, frozen arcs flowing away from his sword as he spun in a kata.

Onyx easily dodged, waiting for the general to make his next move. The general shouted, and Onyx immediately sensed the modified Thoughtcleave suddenly start next to him, arcing for his neck.

“Nice trick. But you’re not the only one who can do it. Frostcleave.”

An identical attack from Onyx stopped the first. Onyx immediately teleported to the surprised general, apparently of the School of Thought. The general raised his sword, expecting more Thought-based attacks, but Onyx proved him wrong. “As Daybreak Arrives, Darkness Takes Over.”

Absolute darkness coated Onyx’s vision as it hid all the light in the area. Then it hid lives, and the screaming started as his darkness drew away his opponent’s life force with no resistance. Onyx frowned. I expected a general to be stronger.

Then he teleported to the general’s body, slowly being captured by gravity. He was definitely dead. Shrugging, Onyx started back. He couldn’t push too far, or someone beyond him would arrive.

Suddenly, a presence erupted behind him. Onyx froze, turning. A woman stood there, her eyes closed. She wielded no weapon. The woman wore a simple dress, decorated with black birds down her left leg, right arm, and collar. Onyx started running for his life, the Void pulling him faster than he’d be able to go otherwise. He’d heard legends of her. The Nightingale.

One of the five slave-kings of the Monsters as Men.