Chapter 58

The world changed around Michael as he moved. Walls folded, air thickened, soil rose and a hundred more small changes occurred.

Michael simply walked through it all, unbothered and untouched. Until he eventually came upon a building standing tall amongst the chaos.

It was obviously one of the foundation buildings, and the walls reeked of magic. So he stepped up and placed his hand against it.

Energy flowed into his body, and sections of the wall began to give way as they crumbled beneath his grip.

A few moments later Michael had an entrance, and he stepped into the facility only to be greeted with an eerie silence. The sounds of the world outside didn't seem to reach into this place.

Michael watched the turbulent world outside the building for a moment before he simply shrugged and moved on, his steps echoing across the tiled floor despite the whirlwind outside.

And his heart beat.

"Delicious."

Michael rolled his eyes, "You're awake now?"

The heart ignored Michael and continued to speak, "Take the next left. The emotion is there."

Michael didn't respond, but followed the heart's directions nonetheless and it led him to a large steel door.

With a single kick to its center it buckled and fell from the wall. Michael took a step into the room and blood quickly splashed against his face as a man's head rolled along the ground.

A ginger girl wearing a suit floated high up towards the ceiling and beneath her was an assortment of monsters fighting very poorly equipped foundation scientists.

Michael's expression shifted and the heart let out an exclamation of satisfaction.

"This, this is something truly delectable! Aged like fine wine and purified by a monster. True despair, how rare is that to find in this world?"

The monsters stopped moving upon noticing Michael's entrance into the room. The orange haired girl slowly floated down towards the ground and addressed Michael with a thick Welsh accent.

"Now what do we have here? A strapping young lad interrupting my test, how rebellious, hahaha."

Michael stepped over the disembodied head, "What do you think you're doing?"

She grinned, "I'm teaching these kiddies lessons about the world, or something like that. They've been putting up a real fight against my monsters! Right impressive that is.

Michael looked throughout the room and not a single scientist was still alive. Most didn't even resemble bodies at this point.

"Why did you do this?"

She chuckled, "Do what, experiment? These kiddies have been doing that much longer than me. Besides, I take pride in my work. It being fun is simply a byproduct."

Michael crouched down and traced his hand through the blood scattered at his feet. It somehow seemed old. Like the scientists hadn't truly been alive in ages.

He looked up towards the witch, "...are you not scared of me?"

She waved her hand dismissively, "Who's scared of a child? Love, you're a hundred years too young to scare me."

Michael stood once again, "Wanna bet on it?"

She smiled, "Sure, of course, let's make it a test! I've been begging my sisters for more durable subjects, and you look just like the durable type. This is simply perfect!"

She pointed her finger towards Michael, "Let's see how you handle this."

…

…

Nothing happened. Nothing except for the runes making up Michael's antlers growing slightly brighter as power flowed into his body.

He smiled, "Great test, I can really feel the effort put into that, but now it's my turn."

Michael disappeared with a flash of light and reappeared over the woman. He moved like a bullet as he brought down his mace upon the girl's head and sent her rocketing into the floor.

She crashed into the tiles and sent cracks throughout the floor as the impact created a crater around her body.

A moment later she pulled herself out from the floor with a bright smile on her face, and a small trickle of blood flowing down her forehead.

She paused and lifted her hand to her head, and winced as she touched the wound. She rubbed her fingers together and looked at the blood covering her hand with confusion on her face.

Michael simply landed on the ground and began walking towards her.

She looked back towards him, "How the hell?"

Michael kept walking.

She quickly stood and took frantic steps away from Michael.

"Y-You shouldn't be able to hurt me! What did you do?"

Michael grinned, "I followed my heart. More specifically his choice in jewelry. I doubt you're a god, but it should work just about the same."

She waved her hand and hundreds of Monsters suddenly took form throughout the room.

"Love, you better tell me what you did, now."

Michael rested the warhammer on his shoulder as he moved, "I stripped away your immunities, or at least some of them. It lets me deal some damage that will stick."

Her expression grew cold, "You overconfident brat. I was going to go soft on ya, but now you've done it."

She gestured to the monsters, "There's no magic in these pretties. Let's see your runes deal with them."

The monsters had long since filled the room, but if Michael had to be honest. He wasn't all that concerned with them.

Michael spread his arms, one hand holding the mace and the other the warhammer.

He confidently smiled, "Well then get on with it why don't ya?"

She scowled, "Yes, let's."

Michael's heart beat heavily in his chest and spoke.

"Despair is an emotion born from a lack of hope against the overwhelming. Every moment feels like a hundred as those feeling the emotion pray for their situation to end rather than to get better. Truly hard to achieve, truly complex, truly delectable."

Michael pushed himself off the ground and moved as fast as his body could handle throughout the room, and the monsters seemed to be moving incredibly slowly.

One after another their bones broke beneath his weapons, and not a single one was quick enough to react. Creatures of bone, ash, stone. None of them could respond to his movements, and in what felt like mere moments Michael stood in the center of the room with blood covering his body. Corpses littered the ground beneath him and Keith cursed.

"Holy fuck! How'd you do that?"

The witch pointed towards Michael, "What manner of beast are you? Killing them in such a manner shouldn't be possible for something like you."

Michael ignored the girl and wiped some of the gore off his shoulders, "What did Calder mean when he called you a monster? I haven't known the guy for all that long, but I've definitely noticed just how literal that man is. He wouldn't call you a monster based on your actions or a little magic. So tell me, what exactly are you?"

Her smile slowly fell away and she began to float towards Michael, "You kids and your questions, but at least I know what your lesson should be now."

Her body began to warp as she approached Michael. Needles sprouted from her skin as portions of her flesh turned to metal. Her body seemed to shrink as well. No, a better description would be that the majority of her body simply ceased to exist. In the end she seemed to have only retained about a third of her original mass, and even that was questionable. Flesh was missing where it should have been and needles had sprung up almost randomly over her body.

She grinned, "Today you'll learn that some questions shouldn't be asked."

She took a step towards Michael, "One sister became three, and the world wanted them gone. Yet they rebelled against such a force, and now it listens."

She pointed her hand towards Michael, "Now let's do an experiment. Will this kill you?"

Unyielding power sprung from her hand and collided with an invisible barrier around Michael. The runes making up his antlers began to grow bright red as sparks began to litter the air at the edge of the antler's effects.

Then a crack echoed outward as one of the runes of antler shattered.

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Earlier that morning.

Michael had stood in the infinite IKEA and placed a small black ring on the table in front of him, "This is what I wanted you to appraise."

The manager rose up from the spores she'd still been rolling in and carefully took the ring.

She held it up and nearly recoiled upon studying it more closely, "This thing is horrible. My advice is for you to just throw it away and forget about it."

"Well, what's it do?"

"What it does isn't important. It has two very bad curses on it. The curse of bloodletting and the curse of Weight."

She slid the ring back towards Michael, "If you decide to use it you won't be able to take it off until all the blood in your body's been expelled. Secondly, it will perpetually weigh just below what your body can handle."

Michael scratched his beard in thought, "Okay, that sucks, but that's just the curses. What does it actually do?"

"Well…"

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The jet black ring sitting upon Michael's finger responded to his will and quickly began to spread up his arm.

It moved in segments that spread one after another and quickly stretched over his entire body. It avoided covering his crown entirely, but it did cover the rest of his head in a sort of helmet. Red lines intersected all throughout the armor and let blood freely flow from his body and down onto the floor below.

Its weight was astounding, and it took everything Michael had to remain standing. The ground couldn't handle the sudden increase in pressure being put upon it and cracks spread outward from where Michael stood.

With some effort he lifted his head towards the witch and grinned beneath the helmet. Blood flowed freely from his body in a slow dribble that quickly turned into a stream.

The quicker the blood left his body the less of a burden the armor became. It was a rule of the armor, and an exploit that he fully intended to take advantage of.

He stood straighter as his blood left his body, he felt it empower him, and the blood pooling beneath his feet slowly lifted off the ground and coalesced against his armor. It slowly entered through the crevices of the armor and went back into Michael's body where it would once again be expelled in a perpetual loop.

He took a step forward and cracks spread out beneath him.

He smiled, "Let's see you kill me now."

He sprinted forward as blood left and re-entered his body at a faster and faster rate. It was a torrent, and as the speed increased, so to did the strength the armor gifted.

Michael's heart beat harder in his chest, and he moved faster than he ever had before. He couldn't even see the witch moving, she simply stood firmly in place.

And Michael's weapons slammed into her faster than the monster could perceive. Weight and speed carried the weapons forward, and when they finally collided with the witch her body crumbled.

Bones broke, needles shattered and blood assaulted her body. Michael didn't cease, and each swing of his weapons led to another.

She tried to heal herself, to will magic to fix her body. Yet it refused to mend, and she bled evermore.

Michael didn't relent as his blood left and entered his body at a faster and faster rate. Strength entered his body as he continued and his heart continued to beat faster and faster. Until the witch's body was no more.

A small pile of flesh and metal lay beneath Michael's feet and he took a second to catch his breath before expelling all the blood from his body.

Almost immediately the armor began to retract into the ring, and once it did he let the blood flow back into him.

Keith chucked at his side, "Well, one down, two to go."