Chapter 67

The demon prince of pride stood before Michael; his shimmering spear held over his shoulder alongside an air of arrogance that pierced through the noise of carnage happening behind him.

Pride smiled brightly and turned to face the giant, "It's no wonder you summoned me. I'd have called me too if I was in your position. How'd you even manage to find something like this?"

Michael's internal wounds stitched themselves back together at a visible rate as he spoke towards the demon, "Stop wasting time. I called you for a job, and you already know what it is. So get to it you prideful bastard."

The demon flicked his spear downwards and glanced towards Michael, "I'm well aware what you've asked me to do, and you've only provided me with the barest of instructions. Don't fret though, I'm not one to purposefully misunderstand orders. I take pride in my jobs, and my hunts."

Pride lifted the spear over his shoulder and spoke once more towards Michael, "I can tell that you see pride as a sin. You're wrong, you know. Pride is only a sin when you can't back it up."

In an instant the demon swung his arm and the spear cut through the sky like a bullet. A deafening reverberation echoed outwards the instant he let go of the weapon, and in less than a second it struck the right antler of the giant at its base, and the entire structure fractured before falling towards the ground.

Pride smiled brightly as his spear began to materialize back in his hands, "And I can very much back up my pride."

Michael scoffed, "Talk to me once we've killed the bastard."

"I work best alone. You'd just hold me back," the demon said as he began to move towards the giant.

"Oh, shut up. I'll be the one who decides that."

With that the two men shot towards the giant, and Michael quickly touched Pride's shoulder before teleporting them above the monster's head.

Same as before the air was exceedingly thin there, and the wounds inflicted by the mace had all but healed. The only damage that remained was likely little more than the effect of the broken sword necklace continuing to persist.

The giant quickly noticed their presence and tried to grab hold of the duo as they moved nimbly, avoiding his grasp.

Michael moved to strike the giant with his hammer, and the destroyer of worlds finally proclaimed, "Enough", and Michael found himself on the ground.

He barely had a moment to rationalize what had happened before a foot the size of a small town slammed into his body, and he felt his bones crack. The ground beneath him gave way in an instant and the hulking mass of scales above him pushed him deeper and deeper into the earth.

Rocks dug into Michael's body, tearing free chunks of flesh and armor from his body, and not giving it time to reattach it before he was shoved deeper and deeper into the earth. He didn't doubt the possibility that the giant's body was special. It was more damaging than it should've been and prevented him from teleporting while it was in contact with him.

But above all it was hurting a lot more than it should have.

And by the time the heat in the surrounding walls became something he was starting to really worry about, the weight on his back relented and he quickly teleported himself to the surface.

His armor was in tatters, but he could see it rebuilding itself as he passed more blood through the channels covering it, so he pushed that concern to the back of his mind.

Able was nowhere to be seen, and far up above, Michael could make out Pride flying around the giant with blood dripping from his body.

Cuts marred the giant's skin, but nowhere near enough to make a real difference, and eventually the giant was able to land a blow on the demon that sent him hurtling off into the distance.

The giant wiped the blood from his face and looked at the liquid coating his hand with disgust, "This has grown tiresome."

In an instant the giant plunged both its arms deep into the earth and the ground began to shake harshly. And Michael realized one thing very quickly.

Every single person he'd infected was experiencing the earthquake at that very moment. The people he'd infected essentially occupied every corner of the globe, and in that moment they could all feel it.

A few seconds later he felt one of his infected die as the city he'd been living in was consumed by a tsunami, and then he felt another die as the ground beneath him split open and violently slammed back together.

He felt death after death slam into his psyche, and those were just the ones he was actually connected to.

Michael's eyes widened as he quickly realized this monster's title wasn't just a boast.

It fully intended to destroy the world.

Michael disappeared with a crack and appeared above the giant where he moved to bring down his warhammer on the monster, but moments after he teleported, the deafening sound of the giant ripping its arm out from the earth echoed out, accompanied near instantly by its fist glowing red from the heat of the earth swatting him from the sky.

Michael tumbled through the air, crashing through several buildings along the way before landing in a bloody heap.

Bodies surrounded him. People unfortunate enough to have survived the sand appearing just to get torn apart by monsters.

The ground beneath Michael shook as his body slowly healed itself. Not that it would matter. This beast was above what he could handle.

Michael cursed internally. Plan C it was.

He turned towards the mask at his side who'd been uncharacteristically silent during the fight. It seemed the impending end of the world made him a bit less snarky.

Michael decided to break the silence, "Keith, am I your friend?"

"Huh, where's this coming from?"

Michael slowly shifted some of the rubble off his body, "Well, If I were to put you on, it would be a god directly attacking me. An apostle of Order would appear, and he could deal with this mess."

Keith's expression stiffened, "Don't be stupid, you'd die. No matter how I look now, I'm still a god. You're crowns only eaten dead gods; it would find me much more difficult to swallow."

Michael chuckled, "Yeah, there's a good chance one of us would die, but I don't think it's as cut and dry as you may think."

The mask had a strange expression on its face. Frantic, panicky.

"You... don't need to go this far for these people. There are ways out of this world; I know some of them. I could guide you there."

Michael lifted Keith up to eye level before speaking to him, "You don't get it do you?"

"Don't get what?"

Michael lifted himself up off the ground, littered with dead bodies as it was.

"The lives within this world have value, and I've promised to protect them. You can look into their souls, I know that. It's warped your view of them, but their desires however dark is what makes them human. Humans can overcome those desires, they become more than them as they strive to be better. It's the difference between people and monsters. They feel empathy, they learn from their mistakes. Gods don't do that, and monsters certainly don't."

Michael smiled towards the mask, "I've already decided that I want to live as a human. You should too."

Silence reigned between the two men as the sounds of faint explosions echoed off in the distance.

Michael was the one to break the silence first as he turned and looked off into the distance, "If you end up killing me, I'd like a small funeral. Nothing too grand, and… I'd like to ask that you try to be better. I truly don't believe that you're the same man you were before coming to this world. I'd like you to prove me right."

Keith's frown deepened before breaking away to a slight grin, "...and if you are to kill me, I'd like a funeral befitting a king. Make it grand, a truly great event."

After a moment of pause Keith chuckled softly, "A celebration of my life, led by someone whose soul I could never even read. I'd never have thought it would happen."

Michael brought the mask closer to his face, "So long, Keith."

Keith's smile broke, "Farewell, my friend."

Michael slowly, gingerly, placed the living mask against his face and his vision went dark.