Jay twisted around, the arm ripping out of him, as he struck out, his own strike landing directly in Diamond’s surprised face. Diamond flew back before the world fractured and he was standing, once again, in front of Jay. “When’d you get your arms back?,” Jay asked, noting the two hale arms Diamond now had.

Diamond pointed at the sky. “The Monsters remade them for me.”

Jay nodded before twisting aside, dodging Gold’s punch from behind, healing his stomach as he did so. “Why is everyone so intent on hitting me from behind?”

Jay jumped back, far enough that both Diamond and Gold were in front of him. Behind them, he saw Onyx’s body on the floor, lying in rapturous death. The colorful mask continued to change.

In a moment, Jay gathered enough momentum to speed to his corpse without being touched by Gold or Diamond. Amon, why’d I come over here?

To induct him into the Forest, so he is forever remembered.

Jay touched Onyx’s corpse, absorbing the entirety of him into himself, where Amon sent Onyx’s remains elsewhere. Now he will be remembered.

Jay turned, one of his arms flattening into a shield just before Gold’s strike landed, drawing squealing lines down his arm. Then Diamond struck, and Gold struck, and the shield shattered, pieces flying everywhere. In his soul, he heard Amon mutter annoyedly as he staggered back.

Then a claw flashed for his eye, and Jay took the blow, letting it rip the organ out before he created another one, grabbing the momentum from the strike to stab the broken stump of bone left on his shield arm into Diamond.

Gold lashed out with a leg, cutting into Jay’s leg, but a wave of fire flew out from him, causing Gold to hiss and back off. Jay observed Diamond, flailing on the ground, as he reached into his body, grabbing hold of Diamond’s bones. Before he could shatter them, Gold was on him once again, and Jay had to light himself on fire to drive him off, Gold staring warily at the human torch.

Jay reached out again, grabbing Diamond’s bones, but this time he could shatter them. Before he did so, he paused. Diamond wasn’t attacking. He was just lying on the ground, completely in his control. Mercy?

I vote against it. He’s done a lot of evil in this world, and if you don’t kill him, he’ll come back and bite you later.

Jay held his life for a few more seconds before releasing it. If he attacks again, I’ll kill him.

Poor decision, but it’s your choice.

Start molding me again?

Yes. Your body is currently both merged and not merged with your soul. If I’m controlling a portion of it, your soul takes over in that area, and it strengthens into the quicksilver you’re familiar with. If I’m not, it’s simply flesh that’s stronger than it should be. But he broke the shield I created, which basically rips it out of quicksilver form and forces it into a construct detached from your soul. I’m deeply entwined with your soul, so it being damaged harms me as well, though you don’t feel pain from it.

Jay nodded, his arm regrowing. An arm came out of his chest, holding a sniper rifle glowing with an inner light from the fire infused into it. A single eye opened behind it, Amon taking a shot for Gold’s head, the recoil such that Jay took a step back, even though he absorbed all the momentum he could.

The superheated bullet shot towards Gold’s face at speeds Jay couldn’t perceive. Jay looked up, the gun disappearing back into him, and saw Gold, standing, silent.

With his head tilted to the side, hale and healthy.

A deep, evil purple shone out of cracks all over Gold’s body as Jay watched his eyes change, an insanity taking over his conscious thought. Amon shot another bullet, but Gold’s face snapped to the other side, easily dodging it at a speed that just looked instant to Jay. “You’re not Gold anymore. Who are you?,” Jay asked, addressing the madness behind the eyes.

“Very astute,” a gravelly voice spoke, not at all anything like Gold’s smooth tones. “I am the Monster. The original.”

The creator of the Monsters as Men. He’s probably lying, or you’d be dead.

Jay peered at him. “No, you aren’t. Who are you?”

“Heh. Void, you called him. He knew nothing of us. His second death was his death knell, and he knew it. His third was simply a formality.”

“Three deaths?”

The entity behind Gold chuckled. “So you don’t know? Eh. Anyway, time to kill you.”

Jay stepped forward, and for a single moment, the weight of Eternity was behind him. “You haven’t told me who you are,” he and Amon said in tandem, their words echoing across the battlefield.

“Oh, me? I’m… Well, I suppose I could translate my name to Hell.”

Drake chose that moment to put a dagger through the creature’s head, which was dodged. It’s retaliation, a purple energy spike flying out of its spine, hit only air, with Drake having teleported away. Jay felt Amon change his eyes, pulling it into a form better suited for battle, though it would be far more strenuous on his mind.

His sight went black for a moment, then came online once more, everything in perfect sharpness. Catherine was now winding back for a swing, purple cracks now showing on Gold’s arm, his face in a rictus of surprise as she hit it again, more cracks forming. Then he roared, a fireball ramming itself between his jaws and down his throat. Gold expanded for a moment before settling down to his original size, the cracks on his chest opening up, releasing more purple light.

Jay ran to striking range, then took one last, heavy step, bringing all his momentum to bear in a cleaving blow direct at Gold’s chest.

He struck true, his sword slamming directly into a crack on Gold’s side. Gold cracked further, his skin becoming a mess of purple, then shattered, his entire body falling apart in chunks, black and grey flesh left on the floor.

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In his place floated a purple creature, its edges fuzzy, a light emanating from within. It was vaguely shaped into a human, though it had no features of any kind. “Oh, time for you to pay!,” the creature remarked in excitement.

Jay bent over backwards, a whip of purple energy passing above him as he countered with his own, to absolutely no effect. Amon bounced off, dealing no damage at all, and yet, every hit he took obliterated whatever was hit.

He turned just in time to see a whip nearly hit Drake, a cut appearing on his side from the sheer speed it was traveling at. Jay jumped, his Aura cascading into Fire, the very air around him lighting on fire and burning as he rocketed at the purple effigy.

It didn’t seem to care, knocking him out of the sky, shattering many of his bones as he landed on the ground. He healed, coming back together as he stood up, coughing out part of one of his ribs onto the ground, from which it rejoined the rest of the rib in his stomach. Then, from the distance, he heard a familiar voice. “Idiots. Didn’t even let me give them their gifts before they got me killed.”

Jay turned around, and saw Onyx, sauntering towards them wearing a fine suit. “You’re alive?”

Onyx didn’t turn to him before replying. “Nope!,” he said, cheerfully. “I quite like being dead, actually. It’s nice here, and I don’t have to deal with any of you. Anyway, I sent the last of my power back in order to give you the gifts I had for you.”

Out of his suit, Onyx revealed a bag. Opening it, he pulled out the first item and tossed it to Drake, frantically dodging purple. “For you, Drake, I award you with the invisible. A cloak woven out of clear Moonstone, which will hide you and bring the stars to your aid.”

The cloak unfolded in midair, covering Drake. Abruptly, he was no longer there, the Moonstone hiding him from the world. The tentacles attacking him were cut short without warning, the purple being hissing as it brought its new stumps up, looking at them for a moment.

“Crystal, you get a staff fashioned out of Amethysts. Make ever better fireballs with it.”

Crystal grabbed the staff out of the air, and looked at it for a moment, surprised, before nodding. A fireball appeared in front of her, purple, and shot at the purple being, who flinched away, some of his tentacles setting on fire. He cut them off, the fire eating through the purple matter without problem.

“Catherine. A hammer of pure Sapphire, deep and clean. Wash away your enemies. Or, in other words, hit things harder.”

Catherine dropped her old hammer, grabbing her new one and twirling it into a tendril, blasting it into pieces. She laughed. “Thanks, old man.”

Onyx, paying no heed to her words, turned to Jay, who caught what Onyx had thrown to him out of the air. “For you, Eternity, I give you a gift I once gave before. An Onyx to fuse with yourself, to create a crystal lattice of significance never yet seen. One even better than the last one the world had known.”

Jay caught the ring, a carved ring of a metal he couldn’t recognize, shining with a silver luster. The ring had no gems on it, with an empty inset. It was covered with markings that shined in whatever colors they seemed to want to shine in, Onyx’s last laugh. Then Jay realized. This wasn’t an actual ring, but a figment of Dream. It was the significance that Onyx had given to them, and the world had filled it in. The genuine items were in Onyx’s office or his quarters, more likely. As he thought, an onyx tumbled through the air, and Amon caught it. Ready?

Always.

As Onyx’s mirage disappeared, Amon slapped the gem into the ring, and Jay put it on his right ring finger. It shined, and Jay knew-even if his arm was destroyed, the significance would reappear when he healed it.

Energy flowed into his body from the onyx, and Amon grabbed it. Immediately, she directed it to his fingertips, a lattice of black energy forming, both curves and sharp angles involved in the architecture, which didn’t obey traditional physics, but instead laws of its own.

Jay helped, weaving another lattice with all five of his energies, which fused themselves into strands of Memory accompanying the onyx lattice ephemerally. They complemented each other, the Memory solidifying the onyx and infusing the lattice with power.

One of his arms completed, and Jay swung his fist, Amon joining him, creating a spike of quicksilver, tinged black from the onyx lattice’s power.

It lodged into the purple being, and tore out, a flow of purple blood cascading out of the wound. It screamed, before turning into a swirling vortex, a being exiting the new portal. A woman stood, her hair made of purple strands of light, wearing a dress of the same material. The light was opaque, deadly. Purple spears appeared around her and fired at them. She did not bother with banter. Jay’s fist collided with the one flying at him, and he found his hand destroyed, even with the lattice supporting it.

He easily recreated it. “Hell, I presume.”

The woman didn’t answer him. She just attacked.

Jay tried to dodge all the spears, but his lattice hadn’t extended past his shoulder just yet, so he was hit by every single one. She laughed as she stared at him, watching him die. Then he pulled back together, and she stopped laughing for a brief second before redoubling her efforts.

Her hand was suddenly forced down, cut halfway through. Then Drake struck once more, creating a deeper cut, then the third time, got through the bone, dislodging the hand. It hung loose by a few flaps of skin, and Hell stared at it distastefully as black blood leaked from the wound. “The Monsters will not be denied!,” she screeched, her hand falling off only to be replaced by another made of purple energy.

Jay wove Memory through his ribs, the lattice following, as Catherine struck, like a storm hitting the shoreline, devastating attacks cascading faster and faster onto Hell, purple lightning striking from Crystal whenever there was an opportunity.

Catherine leaned to the side for a moment, long enough for Jay to shoot a bullet of superheated, black crystal through into Hell. It exploded, shards of onyx bombarding Hell, who grunted in pain before raising her purple hand. A chain formed behind her in midair. It shattered. Another appeared, shattering much the same, as did a third. She’s shattering her Chains of Sanity to kill you. In return for losing part of who she is, she’s drawing more power out of herself.

Jay shuddered as his lattice climbed through his heart, making it miss a single beat before infusing it with onyx and Memory alike before continuing on to his left arm, his head and everything below his ribs so far untouched.

He visualized a forest, a record inherited from Eternity of all the people he wanted to remember. There was a new tree, made of nothingness, a tree of Void unleashing its jagged branches towards the sky. A mask hung from one branch, and another was made of deep, black onyx. The tree molded itself to the forest, another part of the countless people, now dead, who Eternity had lost.

Jay called the Forest out into the world.

It suddenly started raining, the emotions coating the forest changing the weather. There were no clouds, rain falling from a bright sky as trees sprouted from nothing, each different from the next. Hell stared at Jay, and he stared back. Crystal stopped channeling Lightning and Fire, her Thought receding into herself for a moment as she looked around, taking in the sights.

“The Forest of Spirits welcomes you, Crystal, Catherine, Drake.” Jay’s eyes hardened. “Hell. This is where your end comes. In the Forest of Spirits, among my friends, their significance engrained around you.”

Jay turned his face up, arms spread out, feeling the rain falling drop by drop onto him. “This is the end. All of us against you.”

The trees around him rustled, and Jay almost winced. He wouldn’t be able to call it again for a good while, but this was worth it. After all, Hell wasn’t done just yet. He was proved right when she nodded at him, her anger subsiding for a moment.

“I call the First Circle of Hell against you and this PITIFUL WORLD!,” she screamed at the end, her anger resurfacing as she faded out of view.

The world rumbled, and Jay got ready for the first wave of the Monsters.