Chapter 59

The world around Calder flowed as if it were alive. It moved and shifted with the harsh winds blowing around him and coalesced into the being before him. She was magic incarnate. She whispered to the world, and it listened. A perplexing thing.

She lifted her arm and pointed a finger towards Calder, a slight frown present on her face, "You're disrupting our experiments. Cease this nonsense."

The world itself turned hostile and threatened to eat away at his very being. He could see the changes it tried to make; could follow it with his blinded eyes.

To him it almost seemed like something physical, something he could touch. It took the form of strands of energy stretching out from the monster before him. And each one of them moved towards him with ill intent.

Yet he simply chuckled to himself as the monster tried to kill him. This was nothing, nothing at all. Greater beasts had fallen by his hands, and greater beasts than those would continue to fall.

This was more akin to a child's tantrum, and with a gymnast's flexibility he moved between the strands of magic.

Not a single one so much as grazed his skin, and by the time he'd closed half the distance between himself and the witch she'd begun to get uncomfortable.

Once again, this time more frantically, she whispered to the world, but this time for something different, something he couldn't simply dodge. She asked for the space he occupied to simply cease existing. To become a void of nothingness that would kill him within moments.

An admittedly interesting strategy.

Her one-sided conversation with the world was something he found interest in. It clung on to each word she said. It soaked in her intention and permeated the strands of her magic.

There was just one problem, he could read her magic like a book. Her intent was laid bare for him to see, and he took full advantage of it. He rushed forward, dodging the changing aspects of the world and grasped hold of her magic.

It squirmed in his hands, intent on following the witches' will. So he whispered a command of his own to it, "Stop."

And the chaos that encompassed the world around him halted instantly. A silence permeated everything and clouds of debri floated through the air as the walls that had been moving throughout the field collapsed alongside a dozen or so similar constructs.

The witch stared at Calder with abject horror on her face.

Frantically she whispered her intent to the world and it once again moved to follow her will.

And the same as last time Calder stopped it with a simple word.

A bright smile made its way onto his face, "How grand it is to see a monster get their wings clipped in such a way."

He walked towards her, none of his earlier haste present in his steps.

"You think yourself a god, you all do. So how does it feel to fail so spectacularly?

She grit her teeth, "I haven't failed."

Her body began to morph, becoming smaller as eyes sprung up all over her body.

She didn't get halfway through the transformation before her head went flying through the air.

Calder stood a half dozen meters or so away, yet his sword had still cut the monster and he closed the rest of the distance in an instant.

Her head gasped on the floor despite being separated from her body and she practically screamed her intent; she desperately wanted her body to reform, to escape from this place.

Her magic moved to make it happen, and Calder once again grabbed ahold of it. The witches eyes locked onto him as she stared daggers towards the demigod.

He met her eyes with a smile on his face as he said a simple word, "No." Her magic dispersed in his hands and once more he brought down his sword.

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In a well lit room beneath the white house was the president. He sat at a table with two chairs on either side and a heavily reinforced door stood on the opposite side of the room.

It didn't stay closed for long before a man with short black hair and an authoritative posture entered the room.

The president leaned back in the chair and his eyes glossed over for a moment before refocusing.

A grin spread across the president's face as Michael took control of the body, "So, did they finally decided to send somebody of importance to talk to me?"

The black haired man sat in the chair opposite Michael and set down a stack of papers with a sigh "Michael Stevens I presume?"

He grinned, "The one and only."

"Call me Grant. I'm from the SCP foundation and I've come to negotiate with you."

Michael's eyes narrowed, "Oh, enlighten me. What exactly is there to negotiate about? I'm rather busy if you haven't noticed. I just killed a reality warping witch and I've still got two more to get through; preferably by the end of the day."

Grant took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, "We've already covered up that little escapade of yours. Nobody will remember it. We at the foundation would like to ask that you stop this little temper tantrum of yours."

Michael leaned further back and put his feet up on the table.

"Why should I?"

"Because if you don't, then additional measures will be taken towards your extermination."

Michael raised an eyebrow, "I believe you've already tried that. It didn't exactly work out well for you, now did it?"

Michael waved his hand dismissively, "Besides, no matter what you do to cover up the things I try to bring to light, you'll fail eventually."

Grant's eyes narrowed as he stared towards Michael, "Oh, and how do you figure that?"

"Well for one, I don't know how you erased that speech from everyone's minds, but I'd be willing to bet that it cost something. I don't know what or how much, but I do know exactly how much it would cost for me to make another speech."

Michael held his hands up and wiggled his fingers mockingly, "Absolutely nothing".

Grant rubbed the bridge of his nose, "You really don't understand what you're doing do you?"

"Am I not letting the unwashed masses know about the monsters hiding in their backyards?"

Grant silently stared towards Michael for a moment longer before sliding over the stack of papers. Michael picked up the stack and examined them, "What are these supposed to be?"

"A list of SCPs that grow stronger when exposed to chaos and fear. The more of it in the world, the stronger they get. Some of them can very easily destroy this world."

After a moment Michael tossed the stack of papers aside, some of them spilling off the table and down onto the floor below.

Grant's eyes widened, "What the hell are you doing? You need to take this seriously?"

Michael scoffed, "Do you think I'm stupid? Like I don't know monsters like this exist?"

"You what?"

"I already took those beasts into consideration. They shouldn't be a problem, and if they are, I'll kill them. Simple as that."

A look of bewilderment entered Grant's expression at Michael's proclamation, "You're an idiot! How can you just dismiss monsters like these? You've grown arrogant, you're exactly the fool the council thinks you are."

Michael stared towards Grant for a moment before deeply sighing.

"Grant, how scared of tigers are you?"

"...what? Is that a threat?"

"No, it's a simple question and I'd like you to answer it. How scared of tigers are you?"

With reluctance he answered, "Not very."

Michael spread his arms wide, "A common answer. Now, I'd like you to imagine for a moment that you don't know what a tiger is. You've never seen one, you've never even heard of one. Now, there's one near you hiding in the grass, you can see it. Your eyes meet its and driven by fear you turn tail and flee only for it to sink its teeth in your throat."

"Your point being?"

"If you'd known what a tiger was you'd have known not to take your eyes off of it, and the chances of it killing you would've diminished significantly."

Michael's smile deepened, "There's fear in the unknown, and reason in the known. Some SCPs shouldn't be known by the public. I'll admit that, but there are many that should. There may be a spike in the amount of fear and chaos present in the world for a bit, but it'll die down given time. People are born to adapt, all you need to do is teach them about the monsters that inhabit their world and I'm sure they'll sunrise you."

"That… can never work."

"And why wouldn't it? Just like you're not afraid of tigers, people can learn to not be afraid of monsters. It's not the dark ages anymore. They can handle it."

Irritation began to enter the man's face, "No, they can't. You need to stop this. It'll kill us all."

Michael shrugged, "Meh, agree to disagree."

With that the president's eyes once again glossed over as Michael returned his attention to his main body.