Drake faded into the world once more, the significance of his gift helping him do so, as Catherine twirled her hammer, ready to crush whatever came. Crystal floated, acid spilling from her fingers, as she channeled the new element she could apparently use through her Thought.

All while Jay stood, brazenly creating a lattice of onyx within himself, chained to an ethereal companion of Memory. He couldn’t rush this, or it would come to like Eternity’s lattice.

Don’t worry. This one’s going to be better. Eternity didn’t use any Memory when he made his-he distanced himself from his past.

The rumbling grew louder before the earth split, a massive ravine opening itself in front of them, outside the forest. Out of it, monsters of all kinds climbed, forming into ranks, Hell once again at their fore. The earth closed after a solid ten minutes as the army waited outside the Forest, and they weren’t willing to leave its safety.

The army, however, was perfectly content with coming in.

The monsters descended on them, entering the forest, where the four of them waited. Then they started fighting, as if they were a traditional party. Catherine was at the front, water cascading around her. Jay stood beside her, both defending and attacking, precise where she was simply hitting everything that was in the way. Occasionally, he had to dodge her attacks, but it wasn’t much of a problem.

Drake took every opportunity to kill, monsters randomly dying for no visible reason as his invisible daggers slipped through their spines, without resistance. Crystal stood behind them all, elemental attacks cascading out of her and descending onto the opposing army, which advanced through the pouring rain.

Jay asked for help, and the Forest answered, the rain turning from a harmless, soaking downpour into bullets raining from the sky, slicing through their enemies while leaving nary a mark on them, for the Forest was on their side.

His body morphed constantly, both to dodge attacks and to attack in one, and to take attacks meant for Catherine. The army facing them slowly adapted, tanks that could take one or two attacks coming for them, letting more attacks through, though that didn’t affect them much.

Especially when Jay’s lattice reached his hips, and he started twisting his upper body at incredible speeds, incredibly long blades of quicksilver flying through the opposing army, bisecting dozens per slice.

The army lessened, the tide of beasts not enough to harm them.

Then the strongest demons revealed themselves. Ones with blades coming out of their elbows were first, tough enough that a strike from Catherine or Jay wouldn’t kill them. Drake’s attacks pierced them, and could kill if done expertly enough, and Crystal’s seemed to ignore absolutely everything they did, melting them all the same.

Jay and Catherine were pushed back, Jay forced to retreat along with her.

His lattice reached his knees, and he moved faster than ever, though everything below his knees regularly exploded in blood, the tension too much for those parts of his body.

Jay thumped his fist on the side of one tree. This one’s Beastmaster’s.

He drew in a bit of power from the tree, spectral wolves coming out of everywhere and nowhere, tearing enemies out of the world and into the void. The tide truly turned, however, when he summoned a dragon, watching it let out a single breath, a massive swathe of demons gone.

Then giants entered, attempting to uproot trees and failing, grabbing at the tiny figures on the ground who they’d been told to kill.

Catherine knocked them down, a single swing for each busting through their legs and leaving them easy prey for Drake or Jay. Catherine built up massive balls of acid, larger than ever, and tossed them to melt through the giants.

Jay’s aura locked down the world as his foot hit another tree. Soul.

Several of the weakest demons fell to the ground, their twisted souls congealing into a massive ball, attempting to rupture under its own pressure, until, finally, it fell into itself, creating a black hole that sucked souls in, each destroyed and added to the singularity, until Hell herself struck, shattering the small orb of darkness, which faded into nothingness. She stalked forward, the elite troops all that were left. They were men and women, all with completely black skin and red pupils. Their irises were vibrant, unnatural colors, yellows and purples the most common. Some had tails, and all held various weapons.

“Just like you have your useless school,” Hell said, more than a tinge of contempt in her voice,”We have a better one. These are the finest students of our school, and they will doubtlessly outclass you.”

Jay smirked. “Not in the Forest.”

“Come out and stop hiding in your forest, and fight each of them, one on one.”

Catherine pretended to think about it. “Hmm. No. I rather like this place, and all of them can come at once, instead of one at a time. I think that’s fair.”

One recruit spoke up. “Kittens, stop hiding behind your mother. This Forest, no matter how strong it is, can’t save you. After all, this world is rather weak, and to grow something that can keep us away?,” vicious teeth shone from a brief smile. “You’d need someone stronger than you to help. Just tell us who your demonic mentor is and we might spare you.”

Jay blinked. “This is my Forest. I created it. Don’t interrupt when your elders are talking, child.”

The demon, successfully enraged, ran into the forest. A brief tap on a trunk made a tree right next to the demon attack. The tree was made of metal, with a hammer engraved on one side. Weapons of all kinds hung off he branches, and when the demon arrived, they attacked, ripping it to shreds.

“Anyone else want to try?,” Crystal asked, fireballs and globs of acid popping into existence around her.

She linked to Jay, asking a question in his mind. Jay. How much longer till your lattice is done?

Amon answered for him. Soon. One or two minutes.

“Get it done as fast as possible. We’ll talk and protect you, if necessary. Why are we the ones always doing the protecting?”

Jay ignored her, sinking into his body to weave the rest of his lattice. Onyx arches flowed along the bottom of his right foot, then his left, with a triangle in each of his toes. Memory followed, strands of power woven behind the onyx.

It all glowed briefly when he’d finished, and he moved on to where Amon was wrapping onyx through his head. Memory accompanied her, and they wove glyphs together, infusing his head with the last of the onyx lattice. More onyx disappeared into his head, and Jay followed it with Memory. They only had a small amount left, but that was fine.

Then they went back down to his right arm, and wove the final pathways, connecting every part of his body to every other one.

His right foot connected to both legs, the other foot, his head, his torso, and both of his arms. Every single part of his body interconnected with the final, looping pathways connecting all the glyphs.

Jay opened his eyes and saw Hell, staring at him. “Y-you were buying TIME! WHAT DID YOU DO!?,” she screamed, unable to hide her ever-present anger.

Jay tapped a tree and disappeared, Fluorescence’s ability letting him bend light around him. As he did so, twin blades of onyx flowed out of his arms and into his hands, Amon speaking in the background. True Soulblades, online. Go get ‘em.

The onyx longsword in his right hand, light as a feather, morphed into a revolver which he flipped before letting a full volley of six bullets loose from his invisibility, directly at the students.

To his surprise, they were blocked, though not without damage to their targets, shattered bones a result of the kinetic force behind each bullet.

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An uninjured one’s pupils turned from red to violet before it gazed through Jay’s invisibility before breaking it. Fluorescence wouldn’t have been seen by these idiots, unlike him. She was just too good.

The trees gave him lesser versions of the holders’ abilities, and so he wasn’t able to replicate Fluorescence’s feats as well as she could.

Jay looked up at the sky, his eyes catching onto the Lonely Star, and he grabbed the Calamities, pulling them onto the world. He felt the Lonely Star mesh with the Forest of Spirits, though there was a… part missing. A third part of the trio, unknown to him. How does the Lonely Star mesh with one of Eternity’s abilities?

They’re your abilities too. The Forest is responding to the Lonely Star, but not all your bases are covered. There’s more.

Jay flipped his revolver, and it turned back into an onyx sword. He stared down the line of demons, many still nursing wounds. Neither side was willing to leave their area, but Jay’s side had an advantage.

He nodded to Crystal, and she started firing, acid, fire, and lightning cascading towards the demons. As she did, Jay lay down bullets with his two swords merged into a sniper rifle. Amon helped guide his aim, and they worked in tandem, four hands working to aim and place each bullet exactly where it they wanted it.

His gun instantly converted back into two swords as Jay cut through the demons’ attacks, arrows and various magical strikes from the other side all blocked. Then Hell gestured. “Attack.”

The demons charged, weaving around the trees they couldn’t seem to break and rushing towards the team. Catherine jumped, her hammer coming down on an unfortunate demon’s head, Jay’s swords availing an opportunist of the same necessary object.

They were skilled, and it was evident that the first two were outliers, as one demon matched Jay in skill with swords, and Amon had to turn his blades into a glaive to end him. Jay struck repeatedly, building enough momentum to end with a final overhead slash, the onyx making up the glaive slightly bending, letting the tip whip down with immense force.

It crumpled the demon’s swords, but notably didn’t kill him. The demon wasn’t ready for the glaive to instantly shift to an assault rifle putting dozens of bullets through his chest, though, and died swiftly afterwards.

Jay’s swords came back out to confront his next opponent, a woman wielding a tessen, water, ice and lightning flowing with her attack. He blocked, his swords not channeling the lightning down to his hands, and struck once more, but was deflected by the stream of ice following her.

She flowed over to Catherine, who completely ignored her, confident in Jay, and attacked. Instantly, she stepped back, barely dodging a bullet. She grimaced in annoyance and waved at another demon to fight him.

Jay finally embraced the full power of his lattice, feeling the Memory beneath roil as the onyx burned with its energy. A slash with his swords at speeds the tessen-wielding girl didn’t expect ended her, cutting into her head, before he took the attack from the one she’d signaled to, an arrow enveloped in wind cutting through his arm. She laughed at him as his dropped sword dissipated, but he simply smiled, his arm regenerating with a new one held in it.

She retreated, putting a few more steps of distance between them so she could continue shooting. Jay tossed one of his swords straight up, and Amon caught it, letting him fight another enemy while she aimed the newly made revolver at the bow-wielder.

The first bullet caught her on the side, enough to make her stumble directly into the path of the next one, carving through her brain.

Amon dropped the gun, which morphed into a sword in midair, Jay grabbing it and stabbing it through the demon he was facing. He moved back into position to help Catherine, his lattice red-hot with the power it was channeling.

Hell stepped into the fight, a claw hitting Catherine’s hammer. She pushed, slowly overwhelming her prodigious strength. Catherine pushed back with a grunt, holding up long enough for Jay to lash out with a flaming spear. Hell batted it aside, losing her grip on Catherine’s hammer, and she spun, knocking Hell into the sky when she turned around.

Right into Crystal’s sights.

Hell stared into a roiling ball of acid, which covered her, melting through her skin. Purple energy attempted to rub it off, but it was already on her. There was only so much it could do. Fire descended next, catching onto the acid, which ignited without warning.

Jay added his own fire, which burned as hot as possible. It converted everything it burned into more heat, and it burned everything.

A sniper rifle damaged her further, putting bullets through her, as Catherine jumped, yelling a war cry as her sapphire hammer glinted in the sun. A dragon, made completely out of water, flowed behind it, and the hammer struck, smashing Hell into the ground. The rain collected around the dragon, which rushed down with Catherine’s fall, smashing into Hell’s landing position once more.

Drake revealed himself, a pillar of darkness descending from the sky just as Catherine got out of the way, making no sound before it disappeared a second later. They all watched the hole, but nothing came out. It was quiet.

Jay let his lattice cooling, and the four of them descended onto the hole, one on each side.

Hell lay at the bottom.

Her flesh was still dissolving and burning at the same time. Darkness joined the acid in eating away at her as purple energy tried to extract the acid, and failed. Jay’s bullets were still in her as well, the shards of onyx restricting her abilities, as onyx apparently did. She had no eyes, but if she did, they would probably fill with hate even in her last moments.

Amon created a body for herself, stepping out of Jay. She raised a silver sword. Catherine raised her hammer. Crystal raised her staff. Drake raised his daggers. Jay raised an onyx spear.

All of them let their weapons descend, utterly destroying Hell’s body. They left nothing of her in the end, Crystal smashing her staff into Hell’s face a few more times than necessary.

And as one, they smiled at each other. They’d won.

The Forest behind Jay called to him. The trees spoke through rustles, though they did not truly speak in a human sense. They told him they had to go.

For a moment, Jay unlocked the box of memories and saw these trees as if they were memories of actual friends he had known.

The Forest-or at least a small part of it, for Eternity had lost enough friends to fill a universe-faded as if it had never been there. The rain abated, and for a moment, Jay cried tears, lost in the rain, for people he had never known, people who had defended good until their last breaths.

Then he turned away, locking the box of memories, Amon flowing back into his body.

The four of them, without talk, walked into the distance, leaving a crater behind them.

The war had only begun.

Weeks after the war

Jay entered Onyx’s study, the last bastion of a man long dead. His items lay as they were before he’d died, a thin sheen of dust covering them. He was in a snow-covered bunker hidden from prying eyes in the harshest places of this world.

He walked over to the desk, one that had a single drawer, and pulled it out, finding a bag inside.

He grabbed the bag, pocketing it. There was also a letter. The address on it was to him, Crystal, Catherine, and Drake.

Turning around, he opened the letter, showing it to the same people, standing behind him. They read the letter, silently, solemnly. Then Jay turned it around, reading Onyx’s ultimate message.

I don’t fear death. I have never feared death. For though it is an end, it also means the end to responsibility. I can leave and look down upon the world from wherever I go.

That also means I cannot die early, for I must complete many of those responsibilities before I can rest. As Eternity once told me, ‘Death is rest, yes. But it is also running away if you do it too early. Do not run away until your job is done.’

He was the best man I’ve ever seen. He carried so much responsibility and weight. After losing so many, he continued. He never stopped. His death should have been his rest, but he came back to save the world again. In you, Jay.

I have gifts for you, in the bag in my desk. If I don’t end up giving them to you before I die, I will after I die. Know these objects are useless in the face of the significance of giving them to you. Lose them if you want. And Catherine, just so you know-it took ages to fit your hammer in there. I had to shrink it, and figure out how to do that without destabilizing its power. Be grateful.

You four, who no doubt found my lair, are probably strong enough to take over this world. I know you won’t, though.

You’ll continue on to bigger things. Outside the planet.

Know that this planet, if you destroy the Metallic Council, is safe. For the time being. The Monsters as Men cannot enter, for the Metallic Council was providing them entry through a barrier created long ago by someone who defended this planet. I know not who.

You must journey. Leave this sandbox and explore the beach. Gain power beyond your wildest dreams.

Another quote from Eternity: ‘I will be the best. If I’m the best, no one will dare to question me, and I can keep the corrupt fools in order.’

Eternity also created an organization. The Council of Fools, he called it. A joke that we all laughed at. Many of its members are still alive, out there. Like me.

The Monsters have enslaved many. An example is the Nightingale, one of the slave-kings. I suppose she is a slave-queen, though. Huh.

Eternity could not destroy them.

You’d better do it. I’ll be watching.

See you when you die.

-Void, also known as Onyx, the creator of the Gemstone Council, the Spymaster of the Council of Fools, the Master of Nothing, the Welder of Everything, the Creator of the Gemstone Council.

P.S: The Council’s gone. I’m the one who made them exist, so with my death-they die too.

The End of Book One