Chapter 11

Power belongs to those who seek it, but is often possessed by those who stumble upon it. We strive to be both of these people.

-Apostle of Order #12412

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Michael crept through the underbrush. Ruined stone buildings could be seen speckled throughout the forest. Not a single one of them looked habitable with their caved in roofs and walls. They were barely identifiable as buildings.

Nothing else out of the ordinary could be seen yet, but he'd only just gone in. Michael pushed forwards. The forest was silent, but as he crept along he began to hear the meaty thwack of something blunt hitting flesh.

Michael paused. Well that's alarming, I should probably check it out. Then again, that's what the main character in a horror movie would do.

Michael weighed his options.

Well I don't want Hearthgrieve to call me a bitch during our next interview, so I guess I'll go see what it is. Besides, survival takes risk.

Chuckling to himself, Michael stealthily moved towards the sound.

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The phone in Dr. Hearthgrieve's office rings.

"Hello?"

"Excuse me Dr. Hearthgrieve, can I talk to you for a moment?"

"I suppose, what do you need?"

"It's about SCP 507, or more appropriately, it's about that crown he's wearing. While he stayed at our facility one of our SCPs began to act strangely."

"Strangely how?"

"Well, It's supposed to go through a cycle of dying and reviving once every week. However, ever since Michael has been at our facility, it hasn't revived. We think he may somehow be the cause."

"What is this supposed to imply?"

"Well, our current hypothesis points towards his crown stealing the souls of the dead."

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Out in a clearing, Michael could see a fit man with blond hair and green eyes repeatedly swinging a mace down on what looked to be an elf. With each swing, a small explosion of white light could be seen. The elf looked scrawny and had bark growing over various parts of its body. It was male and was probably dead, considering it was currently sprawled out on the floor with it's head partially caved in.

Looking closer at the killer, Michael paused in shock.

Wait a goddamn minute, that's guys me! Or more precisely that's one of the Tommys. I guess the Manager did say there was a bunch of him running around, but I didn't think I'd actually run into one. Should I talk to him? He seems to be a little unhinged.

After a moment of deliberation, Michael moved out into the clearing, his shotgun at the ready.

"Hey, mind if I ask what you're doing?"

Glancing over his shoulder, Tommy chuckled a little before shrugging his shoulders.

"Night Druids have crystals in their skulls that increase fire resistance. I'm trying to get to it, but it's a little tough."

Tommy reached down into the druid's skull and ripped out a small purple crystal, before shoving it into his pocket and wiping his hands on his pants.

"Now that that's settled. I'm going to need you to hand over all of your stuff."

"What, you're robbing me, you know I'm not the one at gunpoint right?"

Tommy looked surprised, "Of course I'm robbing you, how'd you think this was gonna go?"

He looked closer at Michael, "Oh wait, you're a new one aren't you"

He chuckled, "I'm sorry to say this, but Order took an interest in ya. So no more of those easy worlds you've been getting. I remember when the worst worlds I would get just had plants screaming at me, good times. Anyways, just toss me that crown you're wearing and I'll let you go. I'm feeling generous today."

"Well that's not going to happen."

"No, I think it is.", Tommy began to walk towards Michael.

Yeah, I'm not letting him get closer to me. Michael fired the shotgun, the pellets reaching Tommy's body, causing him to turn translucent and allowing the bullets to harmlessly pass through him.

He charged toward Michael with his mace held high. Tommy ignored every single shot, not a single one connecting.

The next thing Michael knew, Tommy was in front of him swinging the mace down on him.

Michael held his shotgun up to block the blow. The two connected with a small explosion of white light that sent Michael rolling across the forest floor, his shotgun splintered into pieces.

Michael hurriedly got up, before turning around and sprinting away. No use fighting someone he couldn't shoot. Running through the underbrush, Michael tossed a grenade behind him.

But Tommy didn't seem to care, not slowing down in the slightest and simply running over it. The resulting explosion simply passed through him, his body turning translucent momentarily.

Hmm, interesting.

Michael began to run more towards the right, and idea forming in his mind.

He pulled out a canister of tear gas and pulled the pin.

Gas began to spill out, right into Tommy's path.

Tommy began to cough, and Michael grinned.

After a few minutes of running Michael stopped, dropping another canister of tear gas at his feet. It would have no effect on Michael, his ring made sure of that, but that didn't hold true of Tommy. Reaching into his bag he pulled out his crowbar.

If ranged attacks didn't work, maybe direct ones would.

Tommy ran into the gas, swinging his mace towards him, white light shining from the weapon. Michael backstepped, before cautiously swinging his crowbar towards Tommy. He didn't want to put everything into the swing and leave himself exposed if it ended up just phasing through him.

But it didn't, It connected with his ribs and Tommy winced.

This continued for several minutes, with Michael avoiding swings and retaliating in kind.

Tommy's eyes were watering, and each breath was growing visibly harder as the gas did its work

Michael was gaining the upper hand, but Tommy was durable. Despite taking a beating in his blinded state, it wasn't doing much damage.

So he decided to switch tactics. Michael aimed his blows towards the hand holding the mace. One swing after another hit Tommy's fingers, while he of course retaliated, swinging the mace around blindly.

Michael had to be careful, each swing Tommy made had visible power behind it. One solid hit was likely to be lethal.

Eventually a solid hit knocked the mace from Tommy's hand.

Michael dived for it, grabbing it and swinging it towards Tommy in one fluid motion.

Once it made contact with the side of his head a deafening explosion rang out, completely different in scale compared to what Tommy had been making. A bright blue light shined off the mace and Tommy rocketed through the trees and ruined buildings.

His body crashed through wood and stone before eventually coming to a stop many yards away.

Well that had more umph than I thought it would.

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A moment passed before Tommy stood up, tears and snot running down his face.

Thoughts of killing Michael filled his mind.

He took a step, before his eyes glazed over. He turned around, where a large stretch of animal corpses impaled onto trees stretched for as far as he could see. A single crow among thousands stared down at him.

Hesitantly Tommy took a step towards the tree. He could feel it, it called for him. It's embrace was everything. It looked so warm, why couldn't all of the worlds he went to be like this? Why shouldn't he go to it?

As he proceeded towards the tree, the feeling of tranquility began to feel...wrong? Something wasn't right, he began to panic. His eyes regained life as he looked down. A sharp branch was currently impaled deep through his gut.

No, no, no.

Tommy began to pull himself off the branch. He had a healing factor, he'd be fine, but he needed to get away from this tree.

A sharp pain went through his neck, he coughed and blood speckled out.

He could see the end of a knife poking through, he wanted to laugh. It would take more than that to kill him. He smiled towards the rival apostle, and continued to pull himself off the branch.

That's when the apostle began to use the knife to saw, and he screamed.

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The shift had come shortly after killing Tommy. He wasn't proud of it, but he'd done what he needed to. He'd also made sure to hold onto the corpse. It's was a practical treasure trove of anomalies after all. Once again, weightlessness overtook Michael and space shifted.

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When the shift ended, Michael was standing atop a work desk, completely drenched in blood. He was still holding Tommy's decapitated head in one hand, while the other gripped the now headless body.

Looking down, Michael could see Dr. Hearthgrieve staring upwards, holding onto a half eaten sandwich.

Blood dripped down onto Hearthgrieve, the desk and sadly the sandwich.

They both stared at each other.

…

...

"Uh, I can explain."