Blood flew from the Zarlan's mouth as he ate Jay's severed leg, seeming to relish it. Blood continued to flow out of the Zarlan, adding to the growing mass of blood above him. Any ideas?

  Just one. I... have an idea. There's something I can do which will probably help.

  Do it, I guess.

  More of his soul flowed out, and Jay felt the amount that came out hit his limit and then abruptly stop. The liquid silver separated, small shards of hardened silver liquid breaking off until it all turned into a collection of jagged pieces. Then the pieces of silver started to swirl, just as the Zarlan finished his leg. Shardstorm.

  Jay instinctively recognized the technique, naming it immediately. How do I know that? And how do you know how to do this?

  I know how to do this because of experien-I mean I had an idea and it worked.

  Jay, unconvinced, didn't push for more, his opponent crunching down the last of his leg. The silver swarm suddenly changed, flowing in a erratic pattern around him. It slightly expanded, a small storm of his own to combat his opponent's blood. He stepped forward, the storm moving as he did. Amon had also left his sword unchanged, a familiar weight in his right hand. "HA! BLOOD! I CAN FEEL THE FEAR WITHIN!," The Zarlan cried.

  Jay watched the blood condense onto the Zarlan, Striaster immediately attacking. I'm still fully stabilizing the Shardstorm. I'm not as strong as before, so I can't do it as well-I mean this is my first try so I don't know what to do. That wasn't very convincing, was it? Fine, I'll give you some answers later.

  You'd better.

  The shards' movement suddenly changed, twisting into a tight formation. No shards bumped into each other, all of them in the right place at the right time. The shards will not obstruct you. Open your thoughts to me so I don't block your vision.

  Jay opened a path to his mind, Amon walking into the area where his eight chains were, though she didn't touch any of them. Shards immediately cleared out of his vision, still there, though they were turned sideways, their edges facing towards and away from him, to keep his vision mostly clear. They only changed the direction they were facing in front of him, however. In all other places, they were parallel to his body. Ready?

  Get on with it!

  The blood finally finished condensing, none of Striaster's attacks affecting the Zarlan. It shaped itself into both armor and weapon, claws of blood appearing on the Zarlan's hands while a bloody spear appeared floating next to him. "I CAN FEEL YOUR BLOOD, SO TimiD AnD delicious."

  The Zarlan had truly gone insane. Jay sighed, speeding forward. The Zarlan noticed the Shardstorm, completely ignoring it. "BlOoD!," Was all he shouted, its arms coming in like pincers at Jay. The shards near his feet immediately coated the ground, letting Jay slide under the blades of blood which came out of the Zarlan's hands. They recollected behind him, his Shardstorm unaffected by the maneuver. Jay combined a Blade with a pulse of The Harsh, Lifegiving Sun, using up the small amount of Aura he'd recovered. He shoved the two skills together. Immediately, he felt the Will and Dominion collide, both trying to attack and destroy the other, until Jay shoved the two together and forced them to become one.

  Domination appeared in his strike, and the Zarlan, for the first time, seemed to be annoyed, at the very least. Blood started to form into an object in front of him, but Amon interrupted it, shards flowing into the area it was meant to form and providing it no space to condense. The Domination whispered to him, but he ignored it, using it as fuel for the strike. His Blade shot forward, heating up with all the power of the sun, before smashing into the Zarlan. Jay stood holding his sword in the Zarlan's heart, surprised he'd pierced through so easily.

  The Zarlan appeared to be equally stunned, staring at the blade. Jay pulled it out with a 'schlop', walking towards Striaster, away from the body. Amon's Shardstorm died down, collecting back within Jay. Striaster nodded and started running once again, directly towards the Infernals. "I got lucky," Jay said. "He wasn't expecting something charged with Domination."

  Striaster nodded. "That may not work next time. And I'm useless in a fight like this because I don't have any forms strong enough."

  "How do you gain new forms?"

  He received a grimace, Striaster almost looking away. "I... I have to eat them. Alive or dead, it doesn't matter. One bite. I've fed on corpses thus far, but it does mean you have to kill the thing you want to get the form of."

  Jay shrugged. "Can't you put more power into your form? Like, if you had a bunny form, couldn't you put more power into that form to be a stronger bunny?"

  "I can't-actually, I can." Striaster frowned. "Why didn't I think of that?"

  "I don't know. It's your brain, not mine."

  "True, that."

  The Infernals soon approached, the mountains looming directly in front of them. Jay stopped at the bottom of a sheer cliff, looking up at the smoke emerging from the top. The heat had grown exponentially as they ran, and it was uncomfortable even to their strong bodies now, Jay starting to sweat. "Do we climb this?"

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  "Yes. There are no paths through the Infernals."

  Jay nodded. "You fly, Amon'll fling me."

  They did exactly that, Jay getting flung up over and over again while Striaster lazily flew up, going at a pace that Jay could keep up with. They soon reached the top of the first mountain, feeling almost unbearable heat at this height. Striaster turned into a large bird, motioning for Jay to climb on. As he did, Striaster jumped off the volcano, starting to fly out of the Infernals. They went a large distance, passing through what Striaster assumed was around half their range, based on the distance markings on the map, which was now bloodsoaked(though only slightly bloodsoaked) and certain areas contained large gashes. It had not escaped their recent conflict.

  "I've never heard of this place before, so the predators at night are unknown to me. I suggest we sleep in midair. I fly through this place and sleep in the Forest of Souls. I should be able to go for a couple days."

  Jay shrugged. "That should work. If you say you're fine with it, that's good with me. I trust you know your limits."

  Striaster chuckled. "My limits are perfectly known to me. It seems to me that you don't know yours, and yet you blast past them all the time."

  "That's just what I do."

  Striaster turned into a bird again and they started flying, quickly cresting the volcanoes before leveling out and flying in the direction the map indicated. As they did, Jay kept a constant vigil, paranoid after the Zarlan's attack, until Striaster told him to sleep. "Jay. I can tell you used up most of your resources in your last fight. You launched yourself at him and even regrew part of your body after he cut it off."

  "No. I have to keep vigil. Nothing else can sneak up on us. That would be bad."

  Amon decided to gang up on him as well. I'm relatively tired as well. If you sleep, I do, in a way, as well. Sleep.

  Jay finally gave in, lying down on Striaster's back. Some kind of harness morphed into place around him, holding him in place. "I'll keep you here," Striaster said, his beak opening slightly to give him the words before closing.

  Jay finally fell asleep and he felt Amon fall into dreams along with him, somehow joining him. "I promised you answers," the silver woman said.

  Jay nodded. "Yes."

  "I have answers. About the past. I'll show you pieces of your past. The rest you'll find eventually, but... Watch the tale of Eternity and his Blade."

  Jay nodded, accepting Amon's touch to his forehead. He felt her slowly pull memories into him, letting him experience them as if he was there himself. Vaguely, he sensed that they were his own, pulled from somewhere within his own consciousness. He accepted it, falling into his past.

  The blood fueled him. It did not let him die. In turn, he ever craved for more. He stood up after they left, the blood flowing back into him. A bare moment of clarity hit him and he fell over, retching. Ostein, for he remembered his name now, used an ability he used to have. A bolt of light appeared in front of him, and he turned it towards his own heart. He could not be allowed to live, not after the God of Blood had possessed him. It flew directly towards his heart, flying straight through. Ostein smiled. He could finally die no-

  The familiar fog pushed him to the back of his own mind, a passenger once again. No! I am Ostein! I am Ostein! I am... Ostein! I am... Who am I? I want... BloOD. I WaNT DeAtH. I waNT BLOOD!

  The creature got up, healing instantly. Blood flowed out of him once again as he morphed, the blood god instantly pushing his full powers into Ostein. "Tut tut, child. You're my vessel and my vessel alone. That personality need not exist. Now, I have a new mission for you. Kill the child who wounded you and deliver his dead body to me."

  "YeS MaStER!," the creature said, morphing from a human body into one of pure blood.

  Carefully, Night watched this occurrence. "So, the child's the legendary Eternity, eh?," she said to herself, receiving a message from his companion, the nice silver lady who'd gotten into their meeting. Or, Amon, as she preferred to be called. "Well, he's back."

  Night smiled an almost insane smile, fingering a pair of daggers she had locked in an alternate dimension. The Nightingale was so close, and yet so far. It was only a matter of time until she was back in action. "I'd better warn him."

  She created a message, sending it directly to Amon. "Amon, nice to see you back with Eternity. There's a creature of Blood following him. With a capital B, yes. It... can probably hold against A Single Strike to End the World. He needs to get stronger and faster, but I doubt he'll fail this time. How many reincarnations does he have left, by the way?"

  She received an instant reply. "Nightingale! Nice to see you here. Last reincarnation, we actually met someone who called themselves the Nightingale, and another who called themselves the Breaker as well. Do you have any connection to them? They also used your Aria and Breaker's Blade as well."

  "Amon. They are... you could say they're proteges of ours. We taught them our skills, but they can't really use them yet."

  "Okay. And for the rest of your questions. The creature of Blood... that may be a problem. I barely had enough soul space to activate a minor Shardstorm. We need to level, and quickly, and we'll probably need a subtle activation of Midnight to win as well. This... is his last life. He has no power left to reincarnate any more. This one has to count."

  "Okay. Tell Eternity to start leveling. We can talk later."

  Amon sent back a salute, breaking their link. Night sat back, withdrawing her daggers. She cleaned and maintained every single one, putting them in their places in her pocket dimension. The Three, back together, with new comrades... This would be fun. Especially since they had an affinity with some of the dead Blades' powers.

  Night stopped herself from spiraling into the pit she'd gone into so many times before. She carefully marked out each and every one of them, pulling out the books Eternity had left her before he'd gone into reincarnations and they'd gone into hiding. "Beastmaster. Destroyer. Shatterer. Chainer. Insanity. Void. Defender. End. Mirage. Fusion. Apocalypse. Calamity. Fission. Sun. Nova. Gravity. Infinity. And so many more."

  She caressed each one, remembering the friends she'd had and then swiftly lost. All the people who hadn't even received proper names before dying. They were proponents of good. The ones who sacrificed it all for the world. And in the end...

  Only three of them were still alive.

  One of them was waiting for when she could come back to fight, doing all the good she could do during that time.

  Another, the strongest of all their group, had been forced into a cycle of reincarnation, slowly growing ever stronger during this time. He, however, had beaten the odds for all Eternity, as his name said, and would survive this time as well.

  And the last had been traveling around the world, spreading good in his own way.

  Night mourned the dead for quite a while, remembering the ones who had protected them and allowed them to spread good. Then she stopped. Their souls had moved on. They had made peace with their death. Now, so did she, once again, as she had done for quite a while. She watched Eternity once again. "I remember. You will be the best. Don't fail this time."