Chapter 48

Michael jogged down the street, every now and then disappearing and reappearing far off in the distance. Small fires slowly grew all around him, and most of the cars seemed to have run into one another once their owners had died.

All things considered it was an uneventful trip. Except for the death shadow thing following him and the plethora of corpses he passed along the way.

He'd tried infecting one to see if anything would happen, but they simply stayed in their place upon the floor; almost completely ignoring the effects of the flesh that hates.

So he moved on, teleporting to the top of a nearby building and teleporting from rooftop to rooftop; avoiding the ones currently being consumed by fire.

The trip ended with Michael landing in the parking lot of the aquarium where the monster quickly rejoined his shadow.

"Glad you could make it."

Michael walked through the front doors and ignored the fact that the halls were currently filled with corpses and the fish floating lifelessly in the water.

"You ever been to an aquarium Keith?"

"I can't say I have."

"Then this is going to be a bad first impression."

Michael walked towards a large map painted onto the wall while Keith stared towards the corpses littering the floor.

The mask grinned, "I don't know, this place seems pretty alright."

Michael stopped walking for a moment and flicked the mask, "Shut up Keith. The jellyfish are this way."

He walked nonchalantly through the winding halls, deftly avoiding stepping on the scattered corpses up until he made it to a wide-open room with a fish tank that made up the walls. Inside jellyfish and other sea life floated lifelessly in the water.

"Well, I guess I should go get one."

Michael appeared inside the tank with a flash, where he quickly grabbed one of the jellyfish and teleported out.

Water dripped onto the floor as he held the dead jellyfish out in front of him.

"Let's give it a try."

He willed the virus into the jellyfish, and at first nothing seemed to be happening. So he shrugged and moved to simply absorbing it into his body where after a bit of struggle it slowly began to work.

He grinned and mentally changed some things in his body as he began to softly glow. A few more mental adjustments and the light grew brighter. Chemicals permeated his skin and a bright blue light emanated from his body.

With that the majority of Michael's shadow disappeared, and the creature within made its appearance known. It sprung forth from its hiding place and lunged towards Michael.

It moved incredibly fast, but despite that Michael's eyes could follow it clearly. Its body was made of what looked to be thousands of black fibers knitted together to form a body. Its head was the only exception and looked like somebody had carved it out from a chunk of obsidian.

Michael quickly flashed away from the creature before it could touch him.

It moved towards the small shadows made by Michael's clothes, but he quickly noticed and upped the intensity of the light until he shone like a star in the center of the room.

It was something impossible for a mere jellyfish to replicate, but simply by being the flesh that hates he was gifted a superb knowledge of his own biology. Being able to enhance a natural phenomenon was a given.

The creature didn't seem to fear the light, but it did seem to be unnerved by it.

Michael grinned, if he had to bet, he'd say that it couldn't follow him to other worlds without being hidden in his shadow.

It then fruitlessly tried to pierce Michael with clawed hands, before eventually straightening up and glaring towards Michael.

"I am death, I am a certainty, I am everything. You think you can avoid the inevitable simply because a god's soul has permeated your body?"

Keith faked a cough, "What about me, I'm here."

The creature's head shot towards the mask, black smoke drifting from the pits where his eyes would have been.

"You may be a god, but that doesn't mean you're one that's worth talking to."

He turned back towards Michael, leaving Keith with a big frown on his face.

The creature took careful steps as he began to circle around Michael.

Michael scoffed, "Interesting speech, but there's a problem that you're not seeing here."

"Yeah, it's that he's disrespecting me. Kill him this instant!"

"Shut up Keith. The problem you're not seeing, is that now you're no longer in my shadow."

The creature drew closer, no expression present on its face.

"For the moment, but much can change given time. Your fate being one of them."

"Sure, but even fate needs the opportunity to come to fruition."

"What nonsense are you spouting?"

Michael grinned, and with a flash of light disappeared and reappeared in the bank he'd first arrived in.

He wasn't about to fight something he didn't need to. Especially when there was nothing to gain.

Keith scoffed at his side, "So you're running? I thought I'd get to see a fight."

"You wish. The foundation thinks that that thing's the personification of death. It's already left my shadow; I'm not messing with it anymore."

"Yeah, but I doubt it'll take long for it to get over here."

"Not a problem."

Michael pulled out the phone he'd grabbed earlier, pulled up the search engine, and typed in remote Russian wilderness. A snowy landscape pulled up and he studied it for a moment before preparing to teleport.

Then the temperature in the room dropped a couple dozen degrees as death himself shot out from a corpse lying upon the ground and gripped onto Michael's leg just as he began to disappear.

…

They two of them landed in deep snow in the middle of a rocky forested area, and Michael immediately swung the mace into the creature grabbing onto his leg.

Surprisingly the hit landed with a crack and the creature shot off into the trees where it crashed through the underbrush sending plants falling to the ground. It seemed he could hurt it now that it'd left his shadow.

Michael watched it for a moment longer before shrugging, "Well have fun being here I guess."

He had no reason to stay and fight it. Avoiding it was winning in this case, and leaving it stranded in Russia would definitely be a win in his book. So with that he began to rapidly teleport deeper into the forest.

He moved quickly and could see it falling further and further behind him as he teleported through the forest. With time he slowly became more confident in the whole running away from it plan.

Up until Death suddenly appeared in front of Michael and his arm pierced him through the chest.

It stood before him, despite being miles away just a few seconds ago, and immediately began to monolog.

"Foolish child. I am Death, and wherever there is death, there will be me. Do you think humans are the only thing I killed? The plants that surround you, the bugs buried beneath the soil, and most imp–"

Michael coughed blood into the creature's face, and immediately it began to burrow into its wiry skin.

It tore its arm from Michael's chest and clawed at its face as Michael pulled out his mace and warhammer; the wound on his chest rapidly closing as he rushed towards the monster.

The hammer hit Death in his stomach, sending black bile shooting from its body and blood from Michael's which shot into his body like needles. Then the mace hit Death atop the head and shot him straight into the ground.

"You think you're some kind of death god just because you wiped out a planet or two?"

Michael didn't relent as he swung his weapons into the monster.

"I've been to two other worlds where life has been wiped out! I've even killed half a planet myself. It's not unique, and it certainly isn't hard. You're just another monster in a world with thousands."

Chunks of wiry material began to break off with each strike, and a small crater began to form around his body.

"YOU'RE NOT SPECIAL!"

The death god rapidly regenerated with each strike Michael made. It was to the point that he was making little to no progress with each hit, but that didn't matter. This was clearly hurting it, and the bastard deserved at least this much punishment for what he'd done to this world.

So he kept swinging, and eventually it managed to get a couple sentences out.

"You didn't let me finish. I am where all death is. Including the smallest creatures that you've been breathing in.

And then it disappeared, and Michael fell to his knees in pain.