"Power belongs to those who seek it, but is often possessed by those who stumble upon it. We strive to be both of these people."
-Apostle of Order #12412
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Michael crept through the underbrush. Ruined stone buildings on either side of him speckled throughout the forest. Not a single one of them looked habitable with their caved in roofs and ruined walls. All together they were barely identifiable as buildings anymore.
Nothing else out of the ordinary could yet be seen, but he’d only just entered this strange place. It still didn’t stop him from getting disappointed when he searched a few of the ruins and found nothing of note though. Even still he grabbed a few small stones from the buildings here and there, just in case there was something up with them.
Other than that Michael pushed forwards. The forest was silent, but as he crept along he began to hear the meaty thwack of something blunt hitting flesh.
Michael paused.
‘Well that noise is a little unsettling, maybe I should go check it out? Then again, that’s what the main character in a horror movie would do, and I do like to think I’m better than them.’
Michael weighed his options.
‘Well I don’t want Hearthgrieve to call me a little bitch during our next interview, so I guess I should go see what it is. Besides that, survival takes risk.’
Chuckling to himself at the thought of Hearthgrieve ragging on him like that, Michael stealthily moved towards the sound.
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The phone in Dr. Hearthgrieve’s office rang loudly, causing the scientist to put down his pen with sore fingers and pick it up.
“Hello?” Hearthgrieve said into the phone.
“Excuse me Dr. Hearthgrieve, do you have a minute do me to talk?”
Hearthgrieve glanced towards the clock, “I suppose, what do you need from me?”
“It’s about SCP 507, or more appropriately, it’s about that crown he’s wearing. While he was staying at our facility during these previous few weeks one of our SCPs began to act strangely.”
Hearthgrieve raised an eyebrow, “Strangely how?”
“Well,” the caller said with hesitation. “The particular SCP that we think he affected is supposed to go through a cycle of dying and reviving once every week. However, ever since Michael came to our facility, it hasn’t revived once. We think he may somehow be the cause.”
“What is this supposed to imply? That he’s keeping it dead?”
“Well, close. Our current hypothesis points towards his crown stealing the souls of the dead,” the caller bluntly replied.
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Out in a clearing, Michael could see a fit man with blond hair and green eyes repeatedly swinging a mace down on what looked to be an elf. With each swing, a small explosion of white light could be seen, further damaging the creature's body. The elf looked scrawny and had bark growing over various parts of its body. It was male and was probably long dead, considering it was currently sprawled out on the floor with its head partially caved in.
Looking closer at the killer, Michael paused in shock.
‘Wait a goddamn minute, that’s guys me!’ Michael realized. ‘Or more precisely one of the Tommys. I guess the Manager did say there was a bunch of them running around, but I didn't think I'd actually run into one. I’m not sure if I should talk to him though. He seems a tad unhinged.’
After a moment of deliberation, Michael moved out into the clearing, his shotgun at the ready.
“Hey, mind if I ask what you're doing?” Michael called out.
Glancing over his shoulder, Tommy chuckled a little before shrugging his shoulders.
“Night Druids have crystals in their skulls that increase fire resistance. I’m trying to get to it, but it’s a little tough.”
Tommy reached down into the druid's skull and ripped out a small purple crystal, before shoving it into his pocket and wiping his hands on his pants.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Now that that’s settled. I’m going to need you to hand over all of your stuff,” Tommy said matter a factley.
“What, you're robbing me,” Michael said in surprise. “You do know I’m not the one at gunpoint, right?”
Tommy looked unperturbed, “Of course I’m robbing you, how’d you think this was gonna go?”
He looked closer at Michael, “Oh wait, you're a new one aren’t you?”
He chuckled at that, “I’m sorry to say this, but Order took an interest in ya. So no more of those easy worlds you’ve been getting. I remember when the worst world I ever got just had plants screaming at me, good times. Anyways, just toss me that crown you're wearing and I’ll let you go. I’ll be generous today since you’re new to this.”
Michael clicked the safety off his shotgun, “Well that’s not going to happen.”
“No, I think it is.”, Tommy said as he began to walk towards Michael. Fearless in the face of the firearm.
‘Yeah, I’m not letting him get closer to me.’
Michael fired the shotgun, the pellets reaching Tommy’s body, causing him to turn translucent as the bullets harmlessly passed through him.
He charged toward Michael with that mace of his held high. Tommy ignored every following shot Michael fired, not a single one connecting.
The next thing Michael knew, Tommy was in front of him swinging the mace down at him. Michael quickly lifted his shotgun up to block the blow. The two connecting with a small explosion of white light that sent Michael rolling across the forest floor, his shotgun splintered into pieces.
Michael hurriedly got up, before turning around and sprinting away. There was no use attacking someone he couldn’t fight back against. So running through the underbrush, Michael tossed a grenade behind him.
But Tommy didn’t seem to care, not slowing down in the slightest and simply running over it. The resulting explosion simply passed through him, his body turning momentary translucent.
‘Hmm, interesting,’ Michael noted as he began to run more towards the right, an idea forming in his mind.
He pulled out a canister of tear gas and pulled the pin. Causing gas to spill out right into Tommy’s path.
Tommy began to cough, though didn’t let up the chase as Michael grinned.
After a few minutes of running Michael stopped, dropping another two canisters of tear gas at his feet. It would have no effect on himself, his ring made sure of that, but that didn’t hold true of Tommy. Reaching into his bag Michael pulled out his crowbar.
If ranged attacks didn’t work, maybe direct ones would.
Tommy ran right into the gas, swinging his mace towards Michael, white light shining from the weapon. Michael backstepped, before cautiously swinging his crowbar towards Tommy. He didn’t want to put everything into the swing and leave himself exposed if it ended up just phasing through him.
But it didn’t, it connected with his ribs and Tommy winced.
This continued for several minutes, with Michael avoiding swings and retaliating in kind.
Tommy’s eyes were watering, and each breath was growing visibly harder as the gas did its work
Michael was gaining the upper hand, but Tommy was durable. Despite taking a beating in his blinded state, it wasn’t doing too much damage.
So Michael decided to switch tactics. He aimed his blows towards the hand holding the mace. One swing after another connecting with Tommy’s fingers, while he of course retaliated, swinging the mace around blindly.
Michael had to be careful, each swing Tommy made had visible power behind it. One solid hit was likely to be lethal, so he needed to make sure none of them landed.
Eventually a solid hit from Michael knocked the mace from Tommy’s hand.
Michael dived for it, grabbing it and swinging it towards Tommy in one fluid motion.
Once it made contact with the side of his head a deafening explosion rang out, completely different in scale compared to what Tommy had been producing. A bright blue light shined from the mace as Tommy rocketed through the trees and ruined buildings, crashing straight through the wood and stone before eventually coming to a stop many yards away.
‘Well that had more umph than I thought it would,’ Michael thought, staring at the weapon with wide eyes.'
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A moment passed before Tommy stood up, tears and snot running down his face.
Thoughts of killing Michael filled his mind.
He took a step toward him, before his eyes glazed over. He turned around and saw a large stretch of animal corpses impaled onto trees for as far as he could see. A single crow among thousands stared down at him. Whispering to him, ushering him.
Hesitantly Tommy took a step towards the tree. He could feel it, it was calling to him. Its embrace was everything and it looked so warm. Why couldn’t all of the worlds he went to be like this? Why shouldn't he go to it?
As he stumbled towards the tree, the feeling of tranquility began to feel...wrong? Something wasn’t right, he began to panic. His eyes regained life as he looked down. A sharp branch impaled deep through his gut.
‘No, no, no,’ he desperately thought.
Tommy began to pull himself off the branch. He had a healing factor, he’d be fine, but he needed to get away from this tree first.
He was stopped thought when a sharp pain shot through his neck, he coughed and blood speckled out.
He could see the end of a knife poking through just below his chin, and he wanted to laugh. It would take more than that to kill him. He smiled towards the rival apostle, who looked at him coldly, and continued to pull himself off the branch.
That’s when the apostle, suddenly and violently began to use the knife to saw, and Tommy screamed.
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The shift back home had come shortly after killing Tommy. He wasn’t proud of what he’d done, more so of the way he’d done it, but it was what he’d needed to do. He’d also made sure to hold onto the corpse and its possessions. It was a practical treasure trove of anomalies after all, and he’d already sacrificed much more for far less. So with conflicted feelings weightlessness overtook Michael as space shifted around him.
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When the shift ended, Michael was standing atop a work desk, completely drenched in blood and holding Tommy’s decapitated head in one hand, while the other gripped the now headless body by its shirt.
Looking down, Michael could see Dr. Hearthgrieve staring upwards, holding onto a half eaten sandwich.
Blood dripped down onto Hearthgrieve, the desk, and sadly the sandwich.
They both stared at each other.
…
...
“Uh, I can explain,” Michael said slowly.