Several days had passed since the church incident, and Michael hadn’t seen any foundation members since then.

'Maybe they’d lost me?' Michael idly thought. 'No, that seems unlikely. They’ll probably find me eventually.'

He'd seen enough of those ‘how to catch a murderer’ type shows to know that he probably didn’t have much time before they caught up to him. He’d given them a pretty large problem to deal with in the form of Shy Guy, but they'd likely dealt with it days ago and had moved on to him.

“Another refill, sir?”

Michael turned to the waitress, he was currently sitting in an IHOP. He hadn’t gotten to eat any trashy fast food since the whole stealing Tommy’s body incident, so he was making damn sure to get some now.

“No thank you mam,” Michael replied with a warm smile.

The waitress simply smiled and walked away. He offhandedly wondered why her heart was beating so fast, but quickly disregarded it. He had some pancakes to eat.

----------------------------------------------------------------

By the time Able had arrived back at the church to challenge the pale warrior to a rematch the beast had already been contained by the foundation. Its body was covered in chains, and it’s head encased by a thick sack.

'What a bunch of annoyances.'

“Hey you there, release the pale one. I wish to fight with him again.”

The staff guiding Shy Guy into a truck went pale, as one of the more high-ranking guards quickly moved in to try to change Able’s mind.

“Able, we can’t have you sparring with this entity again. Did you not see all the bodies on the way over here?” The guard said carefully.

Able thought back to the dozens of corpses he’d seen on his run back, each one nothing more than a red puddle of blood and viscera on the forest floor.

“I saw them, but did you think I’d care for what happened to the weak?” Able asked without a hint of emotion in his tone.

That actually got a scoff out of the guard, “Stop being edgy. I’ll tell you what, go find SCP-507. The one that sicked the Shy Guy on us in the first place. I'm sure you'd find that far more entertaining, and as a bonus .”

“Are you telling me what to do?”

“I’m your superior, that’s my job.”

The two stared at each other.

…

…

...

Able broke eye contact first, punching a nearby tree in frustration. The base of it practically exploding as foundation members scurried to get out of the way as the tree collapsed.

“Alright I’ll find the apostle, but if he’s not interesting I’m coming back for the pale warrior,” Able said annoyedly.

With that Able turned and left, his assigned team reluctantly following behind him.

The high-ranking guard he'd been speaking to sighed, “Allright, who’s the dumbass who approved sending that thing out on missions?”

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Michael idly made his way back to his hotel room. The walk was peaceful, even if he wasn’t equipped with all his weapons at the moment.

That didn’t matter though. They were close by. Besides, he couldn’t really go walk into a restaurant with a shotgun strapped to his back. Not if he wanted to stay lowkey. The crown already made that rather difficult to him.

Michael chuckled to himself, “Maybe I should have gone to a burger king instead.”

Then suddenly he sensed flesh rapidly moving in on his position.

He sighed, "I should probably find somewhere remote. No need to make trouble for everyone else."

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Subtlety wasn’t exactly the vibe he’d gotten from Able’s file, and the madman coming this way right now was definitely Able.

Michael could smell him, the unique scent of his ancient flesh wasn’t something that could really be hidden. He smelled like he’d practically sat in a coffin for several thousand years, which he had if the file he'd been given was correct.

Michael leisurely walked into the nearby woods, he’d suspected something like this would happen. Slowing the foundation down was an easy task, but them finding him was an eventuality. They simply had access to far too many anomalies that could be used to track somebody.

'Hell, Able may have just tracked me himself. The guy practically thinks he’s a wuxia protagonist.'

Michael soon came across a decently sized clearing where he decided to sit and wait.

His soldiers were at work, as Michael's mace was pushed up through the loose soil next to him.

He grabbed it and gave it a few practice swings to get the dirt off. He didn’t want to use the thing, but he would if he needed to. Safety came first after all. The rest of Michael’s gear was pushed out of the soft forest soil, which he readily equipped.

He could have run away, and Able probably wouldn’t have been able to find him, but he had some questions that needed answering and Able may just be old enough to answer them.

'Ah, speak of the devil,' Michael thought.

Out from the treeline came Abel and Michael's body instantly became semitransulecent to let a rifle shot harmlessly pass through him.

Unsurprisingly, they had snipers. Not that it really mattered.

Michael greeted the man with a smile, “Able, I’ve been meaning to talk to you.”

However, Able didn’t seem in the talking mood.

Michael could see bloodlust in his eyes, and he could most assuredly smell it on him. The flesh that hates could be considered more of a beast than anything else, and it could easily sense something with this much hostile intent towards him.

Michael sighed, “Alrighty then, I guess it was a long shot anyways.”

Flesh sprung from the ground all throughout the clearing. It took the form of thorny vines, and quickly overtook the dirt. The upper torsos of Michael’s soldiers emerged from the thorn covered ground, firing rifles towards Able.

Able reached into its pocket dimension and pulled out a large black blade, quickly blocking all the incoming bullets as he moved throughout the field. He wasn’t letting the thorns consume him, as he never touched the ground for more than a second.

Michael had trouble following his movements, even with the crown’s energy flowing through him.

'Maybe if I just…'

Michael began to shift his eyes until they resemble something more akin to a bird of prey, as he began his advance towards Able.

Able rushed towards him though, his feet barely touching the ground as he attempted to cleave Michael in twine.

He was still hard to follow, Michael's eyes didn’t really lose him now, but it was difficult to process the information. It was a hard task for one man.

But he wasn’t alone was he?

Several of the torsos firing upon Able retreated beneath the ground, quickly dedicating all of their mental power into helping Michael’s reaction speed.

So when Able’s sword descended towards Michael, his mace was able to meet it with a resounding explosion.

They were both pushed back, with Michael rolling across the field of flesh. The countless thorns not so much as scratching their owner’s skin.

When he stood, he saw Able hadn’t been substantially injured from the encounter either, but he did have several fleshy thorns embedded in his body.

Michael frowned at the sight. Despite Able taking more damage during their brief encounter, he had been far stronger than him.

It wasn’t something surprising to find out, but it was strangely irritating for some reason.

But did it have to be this way. Michael’s dominion was flesh and he’d already unconsciously improved his muscles once.

What would happen when he actually put some effort into it?

So he did, more of his soldiers retreated underground to dedicate their minds to rebuilding his body.

This would free up Able’s movements since he’d be under less fire, but it would hopefully be worth it in the end.

With the coverfire all but gone, Able moved upon Michael. He could feel his muscles reknitting and condensing in on themselves, as their weapons met once more. Michael wasn’t thrown like before, but it still wasn’t enough.

The resounding explosion of the strike separated them, as an overwhelming amount of energy began to flow from the crown and into Michael’s body.

It had seemingly responded to the improvements of his body. It was more energy than he’d ever received from it before, and the feeling was addictive.

Michael shifted his stance, as the ground itself moved to assist him. Eyes sprouted from the field of fleshy thorns as Michael used the thorns to launch towards Able, a tidal wave of energy moving from the crown into Michael’s body. Every movement Able made was seen by the eyes, and the ground itself tried heartily to remove the man’s footing.

The mace and sword met, and the sword was the one to falter. Cracks spreading down the blade as the energy within the mace broke through it, letting the weapon reach Able’s stomach.

A large portion of the man’s midsection was forcefully removed as he was thrown into the field of thorns.

The ground quickly moved to restrain him, covering most of the man in an instant. Michael had won.

The warrior coughed up blood, he was bleeding heavily, but seemingly uncaring of that fact he had a big toothy smile on his face.

“That was the most enjoyable battle I’ve had in ages!” Able yelled out from the ground, laughing.

'God he’s an idiot,' Michael thought at the sight.

“Well I’m glad you had fun, but we still need to talk.”

Able grinned, “Oh fine, to the victor goes the spoils and all that. What did you wish to inquire about?”

“I need you to tell me everything you know about Order.”