53 Chapter 53

The figure sitting upon the throne of spores lazily opened an eye to look upon Michael before raising an eyebrow, "Now how did you get here?"

Michael walked towards the throne, sidestepping around the plethora of corpses, "Well you didn't exactly lock the door."

The creature glanced towards the wide-open entranceway and sighed, "It is as you say."

He closed his eyes once more as Michael approached him. Seconds later a soft snore could be heard emanating from the figure upon the throne.

Michael stood before him with a mixture of emotions on his face, "Are you being serious right now?"

He leaned in towards the sleeping figure, "Wake up!"

After a moment the man's eyes opened again, "Oh, you're still here?"

"Yeah, I am, and I'd like to know who you are and why your house is full of corpses."

The man lazily blinked his eyes before slowly standing upright, "I am the demon prince of sloth, Asteros, and I didn't kill anybody. The spores did."

Michael's eyes widened slightly at the title, "By any chance, are you related to the demon prince of pride?"

He smiled, "That would be my brother. How do you know him?"

With a grin Michael stood before the demon prince. The two's height not dissimilar as they met eye to eye.

"I bested him twice in battle."

Asteros chuckled, "Now that I find surprising. He's always been proud of his ability to fight. That's why he refused to use his name, and instead simply chose to go by his title of pride. I'm glad he's finally found somebody who can actually play with him."

Michael cocked his head to the side, "Don't get the wrong idea, we aren't friends."

"And yet you both breathe. How peculiar."

Asteros walked past Michael and laid down in a patch of mushrooms against the far wall.

Michael chose to ignore the comment, "Are we in the same dimension that Pride lives in?"

"Of course, all of the demon princes live in this place, whether we want to or not. I simply chose to cut myself off from the rest. They can all be so dreary sometimes."

Michael watched as Asteros made himself comfy among the bed of deadly mushrooms and spores, "Alrighty then, now you never actually told me how these bodies got all the way to this room specifically."

Asteros waved his hand dismissively, "That was probably just Vhogral."

"And who the fuck is Vhogral."

Asteros pointed a finger towards Michael, "Oh they're right behind you. Y'all have fun playing now, I'm going back to sleep."

Michael's eyes widened a bit at the comment as he immediately teleported across the room and turned around.

The throne that Asteros had been sleeping on was gone, and there seemed to be a new liveliness to the spores spread across the floor. They rapidly began to coalesce into the shape of something bestial and Michael cursed under his breath.

It had long, slender arms and a wolflike head. It's hands and feet were clawed, and it was slowly stalking towards Michael from across the room.

The warhammer and mace left Michael's sides as he once again readied himself for battle, and in the next instant the pure white beast of spores was upon him.

Michael was thrown through the entrance way of the room and sent spiraling across the forest floor before eventually rightening himself, but the beast was relentless.

Michael swung his weapons, and the spores of the beast's body simply opened way for the weapons to pass through harmlessly.

Its arm swung down upon Michael, and he quickly lifted his weapons to block it, but the spores simply shifted over and around the weapons and the clawed hand hit Michael full force sending him straight into the ground.

Michael gritted his teeth and teleported several dozen feet away where he pulled out his crossbow.

Bolt after bolt flew towards the beast, and they all detonated prematurely as small clumps of spores left the beasts' body to block the projectiles.

Michael quickly switched the crossbow out for his mace as the monster sprinted towards him. He planted his feet into the ground, waited until the monster was upon him, and swung his weapon as fast as his arms would allow.

The mace impacted the creature, causing an explosion to go off in its center just as its clawed hand impacted Michael and sent him flying off into the woods.

Trees after tree splintered under the impact of his body and a moment later he found himself lying amongst them. Blood trickled down his face as he laid within the wreckage.

Not far off in the distance he could see the monster approaching like sand in a sandstorm. Its wolflike body seemingly forgotten. Michael stared onwards at the approaching monster for a few seconds before slowly breaking into a laugh.

Keith scoffed at his side, "Don't tell me you're already going crazy on me." Keith paused, "Well, more crazy in your case I suppose."

"No, I'm just realizing how much of an idiot I am. I talked so much shit to Ion about me not being a monster, but I'm still letting my mindset hold me back. What a joke."

After a moment Michael pushed himself up from the rubble with a grin on his face. The beast of spores seemed mostly unharmed, but Michael simply walked towards it with confidence in each of his steps.

"You dodge my attacks; you don't seem to take damage and you're everywhere at once. Two can play at that game, ya know", muttered Michael.

Slowly at first, flakes of red began to flutter off Michael's arms. They floated wistfully in the air before being joined by more and more. Michael's body faltered with its steps as more and more of the flakes of red came off his body, but he never stopped smiling.

The flesh that hates was an interesting creature. It was bloodthirsty, it was a hivemind, but if you disregarded all of that it was nothing but a giant mass of spores, and that's all he needed right now.

Michael's body collapsed, and a cloud of spores was left where he stood. His crown stayed floating at the center of the cloud as he moved to meet the beast.

The opposing cloud of spores paused for a moment at Michael's change, before rushing forward with equal ferocity.

The two of them shot through the forest towards one other, and an ocean of red and white impacted in the forest, quickly becoming a mix of colors.

They tore into each other. Neither side having a clear superior, nor a clear winner. Both sides simply tried to kill the other. The two clouds of spores periodically separated from one another before slamming into one another, the impacts echoing throughout the forest.

Michael would have grinned if he could. The beast was strong. Easily worthy of being owned by one of the demon princes, but it was just that, a beast.

Ever so slowly Michael gained the advantage. Each impact, winning him ground and each of his spores slowly overpowering the opponents. His body had been enhanced several times over. It was a given that he'd win this given enough time.

Which made it a pity that he was beginning to feel the pull of space warping around him. But he didn't retreat. Michael's spores latched onto the weakened opponents. He wasn't going to let it escape, this one was coming with him.

Space warped as Michael's spores smothered those of the opponents, it covered him, and in the next instant he found himself back in the abyss, but despite his victory he immediately felt something was wrong.

The corpses of monsters completely covered the floor around him and an unmistakable presence stood not five feet away.

The man at the bottom of the abyss smiled, "Welcome back, monster."

Michael allowed himself a moment of panic, but that was it. This man was strong, and very likely the being that had created the abyss he found himself in.

In an instant the red spores coalesced back into Michael's form, although much more naked than preferable.

Despite that Michael smiled, "Sorry about the appearance. My stuffs over there, you don't mind me dressing first do yo–"

The man didn't wait for Michael to finish and swung a greatsword crafted from bone towards him, and Michael immediately ducked beneath the slash. Air rippled above his head from the passing blade and Michael quickly dove to the side.

He'd expected to get some space from the man and maybe pick up his mace in the process. Instead, he found the man's sword pierced through his back.

Blood trickled down Micahel's lip, "You're rather fast. Although I suppose I already knew that. You wouldn't have been able to send me to this place if you weren't, but sadly for you, I don't think blades work on me anymore."

Michael's body seemed to dissolve into hundreds of thousands of red spores that immediately rearranged and then coalesced around the blade.

The blade was still pierced through his chest, but now Michael was facing towards the heavily scarred figure.

The man's gaze was stern and didn't seem to be affected by the calmness of his opponent, "What manner of monster are you?"

After a moment, Michael began to move towards the man, the sword being pushed deeper and deeper into Michael's body with each step.

"Well, despite what you think I'm not a monster. Matter a fact, I think I want to free you from your self-made prison. How's that sound?"

"..."

A moment of silence passed between the two, before the scarred man's expression finally cracked.

"You're lying."

The sword moved with unbelievable speed, and bisected Michael before he could even say a word.