Michael and Calder watched as a great beam of light pierced the sky. It seemed to stretch upwards endlessly, and clearly originated from somewhere very far away.

Then, just as soon as it had appeared it dissipated into nothingness. And Michael and Calder exchanged glances, “By any chance, is that something that happens normally here?” Calder asked.

Michael sighed, “Sadly no. That’s… probably going to be a problem.”

A wave crashed nearby the duo, and suddenly Able lunged from beneath the water with his sword aimed to pierce Michael’s chest.

The anomaly grinned brightly as his weapon met Michael’s flesh and pierced through all the way to the base of the swords hilt.

But his smile quickly faded when he felt a large gust of air blow past him accompanied by the sound of something striking flesh.

His eyes quickly shifted upwards where he could see Michael’s right hand gripped tightly around the blade of Calder’s sword, which hovered ominously over Able’s head.

Able looked back towards Michael who didn’t seem all that concerned over being impaled.

“You’re in over your depth here man”, Michael said while pulling Able’s sword out from his chest.

Able’s smile returned with renewed vigor as he began to laugh, “You two are strong! Excellent, extraordinary! You eclipse me, I haven’t seen something like this in centuries.”

“What about that beam of light? Have you ever seen anything like that?”, Michael asked as Able took several steps back, abandoning his sword in Michael’s grip.

“It’s a simple monster, a destroyer. Although it's been a long while since I’ve seen it, truth be told. I'd heard it’d been sealed away a long time ago, but it's definitely what escaped. Heavens freaking out about it. I can hear them sometimes. The old man up there doesn’t ever seem to know what he's doing, but this in particular has him really stumped. But on a more interesting note, those cowards at the foundation think this is your fault. Too much chaos in the world, too much fear.”

Michael cursed under his breath; it hadn’t even taken an hour since the people he’d infected had started making changes and shit like this was happening. This was a shit show.

Able pulled out a large sword from seemingly nowhere and pointed it towards Michael once again, “But that’s not important. You two are warriors worthy of tasting my blade. Wouldn’t you agree?"

Calder scoffed, “I’ve seen monsters with more sense than you. You bloodthirsty fool.”

Michael pushed the tattooed man’s sword aside with the back of his hand, “Put the sword down you idiot. I need you to tell me exactly what made that beam of light? Be specific.”

Able smiled even brighter and outstretched his arms, “That would be the great devourer. This world probably doesn’t have much time left; truth be told. It’ll be bathed in blood soon, if there’ll even be any left after it’s done. So let’s have one last fight before it all goes to hell! One last bout between warriors.”

“... well”, Michael scratched his beard in thought for a moment.

“Do you want to go kill it with us?”

“...”

The warrior nearly dropped his sword, “You can’t kill something like that. It’s a giant, it eclipses mountains. No blade can truly wound it, and the men who sealed it are long dead alongside their techniques.”

He pointed his sword back towards Michael, “We’re strong, but what can we truly do? I’ve fought a dragon before, and even I couldn’t kill it. This foe is much, much more dangerous. What can you do to a foe like that, warrior?”

After a moment of thought Michael sighed and laid his warhammer across his shoulder, “I reckon I’ll just beat it to death.”

“... are you insane?”

Michael grinned, “Who isn’t?”

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Able smiled and laughed to himself, “You, I have respect for you.”

He looked towards Calder, “You as well. It takes courage to fight something knowing you’ll lose. I’d almost forgotten that. Every battle I’ve undertaken for the last couple millennia has at least had the chance of victory.”

His sword fizzled away in his hand, “I’ll join you. It’ll be interesting, fighting alongside those of similar strength against something impossible to overcome.”

“Similar strength?”, Keith scoffed. “Whatever you say.”

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The second that the man made from machines had become somebody else's problem, Michael had felt the restraint on his teleportation lifted.

Which was convenient, because he already knew where he needed to teleport to. With the snap of his fingers their group suddenly stood atop a skyscraper. Several of the people he’d infected were watching live feed of the giant at that very moment, and they had a clear picture of the landscape.

It was in the middle of a city, and a veritable desert's worth of sand had buried almost all of the buildings.

A deep hole stretched downwards in the center of the ruined city, and all the sand within a mile of the hole had been turned to glass.

Monsters clawed their way out of the pit in a steady stream. They took every form imaginable, but one similarity prevailed throughout all of them. Black ichor seemed to be what made up their bodies. It seeped from the crevices in their skin, from their mouths and from their eyes. Past that it seemed to be fair game what appearance they took.

They sprinted out from the hole and seemingly ran randomly in every direction with no real intent besides spreading themselves as far as they possibly could.

“That’s his army. He keeps them deep within his stomach. Chances are he’ll let them all loose before acting”, Able said with excitement in his eyes. He already had a giant of a sword in his hands with a deep serrated edge.

Michael watched the monsters a moment longer before turning towards the group.

“Alright, this needs to be done. I didn’t expect something like this to happen so soon, but I do have a backup plan if all else fails. I just really don’t want it to come to that. So let’s make sure it doesn't. Are y’all ready?”

“It’s just another monster”, Calder said calmly.

Conversely, Able walked over to the edge of the building before turning around and smiling with the eyes of a hunter, “We’re all going to die. This is going to be fun.”

With that he jumped off the edge of the building and fell onto the sand down below.

“Michael, what are the odds that the crown will eat his soul if he actually dies here”, Keith whispered.

“Pretty high.”

Michael clapped his hands together, “Welp, time to get to work.”

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

Michael impacted the sand heavily, sending up a cloud of sand into his surroundings. Truthfully, he was upset. He could feel the sheer amount of bodies buried beneath the sand. It was his fault, he knew that. Sure, the giant was bound to escape eventually, but he’d done his part in speeding up its escape.

The people buried beneath the sand could have lived for months or even years longer than they did.

Michael grit his teeth and sprinted forwards. He’d make it up to them. It was unfortunate, truly, but you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. And in the long term this would save more lives than it cost. At least that's what he told himself.

Michael reached the first monster, which seemed to have been made by interlaying the shells of thousands of insects over one another.

His mace hit the monster in the center of its body, and surprisingly only a few cracks spread out along its shells before dozens of its limbs shot towards Michael.

Michael cursed, and the black ring on his finger responded to his will as armor stretched over his body. His blood rapidly began to flow down the same channels in the armor it always did, but this time it felt different.

It felt more vivid, clearer. It was as if a fog had been lifted from his mind. He’d stolen the body of the flesh that hates twice over, and while his proficiency in controlling flesh and blood didn’t double in power, it had certainly increased.

Blood shot from Michael’s body, intercepting the limbs of the monster in front of him and stopping them in their tracks.

Michael’s blood circulated throughout the armor at a speed surpassing anything he’d ever achieved before. Weight assaulted his body, but strength granted by the armor alleviated the majority of it, and in the next instant he brought his warhammer down upon the bug, and the monster’s shell instantly cracked under the weight of the blow.

Its skull splintered as the hammer sunk into its exoskeleton, and its black blood spread out across the sand.

Michael looked out across the desert that had eclipsed the city towards the hundreds of thousands of monsters sprinting across the sand and came to a decision.

Almost immediately the blood being pulled into his armor took a darker shade as the blood from the beast he’d just killed joined his own.

This was risky, he knew that. It could be a poison stronger than the jade ring could handle. Or it could very well have a hundred other side effects, but he didn’t care, it was worth the risk.

Because when the next monster was upon him his blood pierced its body and ripped it apart from within before it could even move to attack him.

Its blood joined his own.

Then another's did, and another's, and another's.

He ran across the desert accompanied by a river of blood that stretched out across the battlefield. It ripped apart monster after monster before they even neared him, and in no time at all the sand beneath his feet became glass that cracked under his feet as he stood before the pit holding the supposed destroyer of worlds.