It wasn’t hard to convince the foundation to send him after the Yule Man. Up to this point they’d had no idea where its lair actually was and no real way to track it.
It was a keter class monster that had been around for centuries and they were ecstatic that he was so motivated to kill it.
It was far away, and he’d need to take a plane to get there, but luckily the flight wouldn’t take long to set up. Apparently the foundation always had planes on standby incase of emergencies.
He could tell the monster was somewhere far up north in a cavern deep beneath the ground. So he simply instructed the pilot on the direction to fly, and they were off.
During the flight, Michael further improved upon his soldiers. He hardened their skin, and reconstructed their muscles from the ground up. It was far easier than it usually was, it seemed the flesh that hates worked best in a stressed state.
After several hours of flying, Michael and ten of his soldiers had reached their destination. He could see nothing but wilderness for miles, they’d have to jump from the plane.
They’d already been given a rundown on how to use the parachutes and it didn’t seem too difficult. Besides, if things went wrong the fall probably wouldn’t kill him.
With that, Michael and his men jumped from the plane into the icy tundra below.
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When Michael reached the ground he could immediately feel the cold making him slower, but it wasn’t terrible. He was circulating his blood faster than normal and wore several heavy jackets.
Still, he didn’t want to waste much time before burrowing into the icy tundra. So he quickly shifted several of his soldiers into forms fit for digging and began burrowing towards where he could sense the Yule Man.
The cold seemed to be affecting his soldiers worse, but as they dug deeper the temperature seemed to rise to a more comfortable level.
Michael had been brainstorming how to kill this thing, and had several strategies on how to deal with it. It would die today.
With that Michael’s soldiers breached through into a wide cavern. The very same one he’d seen in the other dimension. It had the same kids working at the same tables. The same disfigured girl, and the same monster standing amongst them.
Michael and his soldiers didn’t hesitate before rushing the creature. They reached it in seconds, and Michael’s hammer slammed into the unaware beast’s chest. Blood shot from the monster's body, and seconds later from Michael’s body as well.
Several soldier’s shifted their bodies once they made contact with the monster, molding themselves onto it and rooting into the ground.
The blood that had burst from Michael’s body changed midair, as he shifted his influence into it.
It may have left his body, but was still a part of him. It shifted in the air, turning into spears that plunged into the creature.
The Yule Man howled in pain before attempting to teleport away. But Michael and his soldiers had never let go of the beast throughout the battle.
Seconds later they all appeared on the surface, alongside a large portion of stone the soldiers had been rooted into.
But it didn’t matter, and Michael continued to swing the hammer into the beast.
It struggled and attempted to escape his soldier’s grasp, but was stopped by the unceasing rain of blows and spears that pierced through its body.
Michael didn’t let up, as the creature panicky teleported them throughout the forest, before resorting to more extreme measures.
They appeared thousands of feet in the air and began falling to the earth, but Michael only smiled.
“Is this your plan? It’s a dumb one!”
His heart beat heavily, and energy flowed from his crown into his body. He reached to his side and pulled out his mace.
The soldier’s that restrained the monster formed spikes over their body, if they hit the ground now, the monster’s defenses would truly be tested.
But why not give it a little push? Michael tightly gripped the monster's arm with his left hand and swung the mace downward with all his strength.
The first hit echoed throughout the air.
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The third hit tore chunks of flesh from the creature's body.
The fifth hit violently tore the monster's arm from its body, shooting it towards the ground with extraordinary speed, and leaving Michael free falling by himself.
Air rushed past him as he fell, and he could see the creature blink from existence now that he wasn't grabbing hold of it.
He scoffed, “Typical.”
The ground fast approached, and Michael couldn’t help remembering how he’d died from a similar fall in the world the flesh that hates had taken over.
But he wasn’t the same as he was then. Michael reached to his side and pulled out his knife and quickly slit his wrists.
Blood flowed from the wounds as Michael forced more and more of it to leave his body. It flowed over him as large tendrils formed out of the blood and reached towards the ground.
The tendrils quickly touched the ground and did their utmost to slow Michael’s descent. Sadly, he didn’t have much blood to work with. The hammer had already used up much of it during the fight, and even with his high rate of regeneration it was hard to keep up with that rapid loss of blood.
His descent slowed dramatically before the tendrils snapped under the pressure, throwing Michael violently to the ground.
He forced himself to stand, he was injured but it was nothing he couldn’t heal. He quickly moved his attention to his soldiers and cursed.
It seemed the Yule Man’s teleporting ability didn’t negate the momentum of the fall. Its body was filled with fleshy spikes, large chunks of its flesh had been torn off and its neck had been broken at a weird angle. But it was still alive.
Only one of Michal’s soldiers had survived the fall, and it was in no condition to do anything but watch the monster.
It had chosen to teleport them back into its cavern, resulting in the large pile of flesh and blood beside their work tables.
It hobbled out of the flesh towards the kids, who backed away nervously. Most of them were crying as it approached and trying to stay out of it’s reach.
Michael could sense that the creature was more than a dozen miles away. He wouldn’t be able to make it there before it did something to the kids, and the last remaining soldier would take too long to rebuild from this distance. Scratch that, it just died. He didn’t even have the option anymore.
He was running out of choices here.
He racked his brain for a moment, before he finally came up with something that could work.
He sensed his surroundings and quickly discovered the creature’s arm had fallen several meters from him. He moved without hesitation. The flesh that hates’ power worked on instinct, and he felt he could do this, so it would work.
He grabbed the creature's arm and forced his blood into it. It shifted and condensed as it began to succumb to the infection. It was much more receptive to his influence now that it wasn’t a part of that monster’s body.
Not ten seconds passed before the infection process was complete. It shifted it into a small sphere of flesh, no bigger than a marble.
He hastily placed it in his mouth and swallowed. He then focused and exerted his influence upon the flesh, making it a part of him and immediately felt something new awaken in him.
He grasped this feeling and directed it towards the cavern. Towards the place he desired to be. Michael immediately got that familiar feeling of weightlessness, and with a flash appeared next to the monster as it was reaching for a child.
He didn’t give it the chance to react as his mace quickly met its flesh, throwing it into the far wall with a resounding explosion.
He rushed towards the creature, his weapon meeting it’s skull and crushing it into a meaty pulp after several dozen swings.
It was dead.
Michael fell down beside the monster, breathing heavily.
But he couldn’t allow himself to rest long, he still had a job to do.
All eyes in the cavern were on him. He’d just killed their tormentor, their own personal demon, but he hadn't exactly looked like a knight in shining armor while he did it. The large pools of blood and flesh throughout the room made that apparent.
So he put on his most approachable smile and looked towards the kids.
“Hey guys, sorry I'm late. I came to rescue you. I’ll have you back in society by morning.”
Immediately the atmosphere in the cavern became lighter, as the children seemed to breathe out in relief.
With that, Michael began to make his rounds throughout the cavern, infecting and healing the most injured ones first.
Some of the injuries he discovered were extremely bad, and he had doubts even the foundation could do anything for them. Large patches of skin replaced with cloth and bones changed into some unknown material were just a few examples of how the monster had tortured the kids.
Luckily he could fix them as long as they were alive.
The storage room was the worst of it. It contained dozens of lifesize dolls that were clearly just redecorated corpses. From the looks of it they were tortured before death as well.
He moved past the room and continued healing all the wounded.
As he walked throughout the cavern he spotted this world’s version of Bobby, crying in a corner and covered in what was likely his parents' blood. He felt bad for him, he’d told the other dimension's version of him he could protect them.
Michael sighed, “Sorry I lied kid.”
He moved deeper into the cavern, there were more people to heal.
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Around forty minutes passed before he’d finished healing all the kids. He’d already called in people from the foundation to pick them up. He needed to recuperate before trying to use that teleport ability again, but at least the kids were going to make it home safe.
However he wasn’t content with this outcome. Sure, he’d saved the kids in this dimension, but the kids in the other dimension still had their fate sealed. They’d all die to the monster he couldn’t kill in time.
But he didn’t blame himself. No, he blamed Order. If he was dictating where the dimensional shifts went, he likely dictated when he left as well.
Thinking back on it, he’d never left a dimension before he faced something dangerous. It seemed like anything past the danger was inconsequential to it.
What does it really mean to be that thing's apostle?