Chapter 62
Michael approached the town with Calder following close behind him. It was quiet, and at first the monsters didn't acknowledge their approach, but that didn't last long.
Creatures of flesh sprung up from almost everywhere imaginable. Tearing through the side paneling of houses, crawling up from the soil or simply walking out from the houses.
They watched Michael quizzically, and he spread his arms in greeting.
"Are you just going to leave your big brother out here all alone? No greetings for your family? How rude."
Several seconds passed before one being of flesh sauntered towards the front of the crowd. It paused several feet away from Michael and spoke in a raspy decrepit voice.
"I don't have any kin, yet you are undoubtedly… similar? What are you?"
Michael chuckled, "Well look who decided to talk. Just think of me as a better version of you."
The creature examined Michael closely. Its bones clicked and flesh strained as it examined him from every angle before seemingly coming to a conclusion.
"You're not better than me."
Michael tsked and wagged his finger, "Is that any way to speak to your older brother?"
"You're not my brother."
"Oh, but I am, and I'm rather disappointed in you."
The flesh flinched under Michael's gaze, "How could you even be disappointed in a perfect organism?"
Michael rolled his eyes, "Well for one, you're far from perfect."
"You can say that again", remarked Keith.
"Just another monster", stated Calder with a bored expression.
The monsters that surrounded them twitched in annoyance before the one standing before them spoke once again, "You dare mock me? I don't care if you claim to be my ki–"
Michael's mace struck the being of flesh in the right shoulder and carried downward through the rest of his body. Vaporizing the majority of its remains in the resulting explosion.
Michael flicked the lingering specks of blood from the mace and addressed the rest of the abominations gathered around, "A fucking murderer's all you are. Also--", Michael's eyes narrowed as he stared towards the monsters, "--don't think that I can't feel what you're doing underground."
Concern made its way onto many of the monsters faces.
"Yeah, he probably didn't want you knowing about that", Keith sneered.
Michael gripped his warhammer in his other hand and grinned, "Now, I've killed you before. Back when I was weaker and you were stronger, and now the situation's reversed, how do you think you'll fare?"
Every fleshy creature capable of speech spoke at once towards Michael with raspy guttural voices, "I don't even know who you are!"
Michael simply grinned and let his face morph into an amalgamation of spores as the surrounding monsters looked on speechlessly.
Then Michael took a step towards the creatures of flesh with his weapon held at the ready, "I'm you, you fucking idiot. Just better."
All at once the monsters rushed towards Michael, who proceeded to move through their attacks without a single one actually landing on him.
They took hundreds of forms. From blobs of flesh made from the bodies of a hundred animals, to snake-like creatures made from the flesh and bones of the elderly, to goliaths that towered over the surrounding buildings.
It didn't matter. One by one they fell.
Calder watched from the sideline with a blank expression as Michael tore through the monsters one at a time, before a slight grin made its way onto his face.
He muttered under his breath, "So this is one of your kind, huh? How different."
Calder's eyes shifted from abomination to abomination before he sighed, "I think I get your point, it's no wonder you wanted to show me this."
A monster began to reach for Calder before erupting into blue flame, and with that Calder finally jumped into the battle.
Or lack thereof. Because within the next twenty seconds all the monsters in the small village were killed by the duo.
Blood dripped down the two demigods as Michael quickly gestured for Calder to follow him.
A short distance away Michael pointed towards the ground beneath their feet with a grin on his face, "How good are you at digging?"
Calder scoffed, "Better than most I would reckon."
With that he cracked his neck and stretched his arms as he took up a stance with his sword. Blue magic covered his body, and he recalled the way the world had structured the magic meant to erase the space he'd existed in.
He had no intention of communicating with such an entity, but stealing knowledge from it?"
Calder grinned, that he could do. He'd lost count of how many techniques he'd stolen over the years. How much magic he'd mastered from long dead monsters.
This was no different.
One piece at a time it was constructed before him. It was endlessly complex and yet so simple, and in the next instant he swung his sword.
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Foundation staff watched from above from drones and were more than a little surprised when the village housing the flesh that hates virus had suddenly ceased to exist.
The ground that the village had stood on had simply been there one moment, and disappeared the next. And in its center stood SCP-9376, the living crown and the anomalous swordsman that had been accompanying him. Runic antlers had spread outward from his head, and the small patch of the gravel road beneath their feet was the only piece of the village that still existed.
The staff member watched as Michael, the living crown, verbally berated the anomalous sword wielding entity who didn't seem at all bothered by the insults being thrown his way.
Then Michael proceeded to sigh and jump into the hole in front of him and the anomalous swordsman followed soon afterwards.
The drone pilot watched closely and flinched upon feeling a hand rest on his shoulder. His head swiveled around to find a man wearing a badge that signified his great importance in the foundation.
The man spoke through gritted teeth, "Tell me where that drone is, right now."
The pilot spoke with a tinge of nervousness in his voice, "It's in Russia at the quarantine site of the flesh that hates."
"Give me the goddamn coordinates."
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The walls of dirt surrounding Michael and Calder were speckled with small pieces of flesh that pulsed periodically.
They weren't exactly sentient. Instead, they were more of a drone like being with the sole purpose of terraforming the world above.
Honestly not a bad idea, Michael admitted to himself, but at the same time it was a huge waste of resources. Being in a comfortable environment should come second to actually spreading the infection. At least it should have in the eyes of this monster, and yet it didn't. Which meant it was either overconfident or foolish, probably both.
It didn't matter, Michael motioned for Calder to stop moving and gestured towards a side wall.
"Well, hello there."
Michael then pivoted towards the dirt wall with a sly grin on his face, "Do you think I can't see you?"
He lifted his mace high, and brought it down upon the wall in a thundering explosion that shot dirt and debris into the space on the other side.
A veritable wave of spores came through the opening and washed over the two men, and Michael couldn't help but chuckle as he stepped through the opening.
Several cultists dressed in red robes stared towards Michael with confusion on their faces. He didn't waste time and took advantage of their hesitation as he threw several shards of blood across the room that embedded themselves into their bodies.
They collapsed almost immediately and Michael proceeded deeper into the compound with Calder following close behind.
The howls of monsters echoed throughout the hallway and the narrow passage soon opened up into a great cavern where the dirt walls gave way to flesh and monsters.
Michael ignored them all and walked forwards, only stopping once he reached the rooms center, where he then took a seat.
He eyes the monsters for a moment before speaking in a booming voice, "So you've decided to hide? You're a coward, but I'd already figured that you were. Creatures like you tend to be when confronting overwhelming strength. And don't get me wrong, that's exactly what you're facing. So let me ask you a question, do you know why you're still alive?"
Michael waited a moment, but no response rang out.
He sighed, "You're still alive, because I want you to be aware of two things before I kill you."
Michael held up two fingers, "I want you to know just how big a gap in strength we have, --" Michael lowered a finger." – and that I built that gap, piece by piece, as a human. No villages massacred, no innocents slaughtered and no following crazy flesh gods."
Michael smiled brightly towards the monster slowly gathering around him, "I'm better than you in every single way, and I've kept morals that I doubt you've ever even had."
A child of flesh showed itself amongst the army of monsters with a deep scowl on his face, "You talk like a human. It's pathetic."
"And yet I'm about to whoop your ass. What a world. Calder do me a favor and sit this one out please."
With that Michael stood up and readied his weapons as armor spread out from his jet-black ring and covered his body. Blood trickled down the channels of the armor and pooled onto the floor before climbing up the sides of his armor and back into his body.
Cracks spread outward from the ground beneath Michael's feet as he pointed his mace towards the boy.
"I overthrew your empire. You'd won, conquered the world, and all it took for you to lose it all was eight hours and a fat guy."
The boy scoffed, "It seems the monster wearing my body only knows how to throw insults."
Michael grinned beneath his helmet, "Let's see you keep up that attitude."
The hoard of monsters descended all at once, and Michael took a step forward as all hell broke loose.
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A single chain held tightly to a behemoth hidden deep beneath the earth. At the tip of the chain was a hook buried deep into its flesh. Eight similar hooks stuck from its back, but the chains that should have been fastened to them hung loose and broken from the ceiling.
The last remaining chain was corroded and covered in rust, but still held, if only just. Up above the creature several fools performed a ritual they'd devised to ease the tensions of their colleagues. He would escape regardless, eventually. Their ritual wouldn't work in the slightest, nor would it solve their problem.
The behemoth barely managed to grin as its muscles loosened up ever so slightly. The world was changing. More chaos permeated the air. He could taste it, and it was seeping into the last remaining chain.
He relaxed his face. Soon he'd be free, soon.