The first monster to reach Michael was a snake-like beast forged from flesh and blood, it fell quickly with a single strike.

The eighth monster was a man of bones and sinew, formed into a beast that shattered with a one swing.

The five hundredth was a cultist screaming for the glory of Ion, uncaring of his own safety or life. He lost his head as a torrent of blood sliced it from his body.

At some point Michael lost count and stopped caring to notice their finer details. He struck them down all the same.

The last of the unrelenting hoard was the boy that the flesh that hates had chosen to be his primary host. He shook in fear as Michael stood above him with his blood flowing throughout his armor like a raging river that lacerated any monster that so much as approached him.

He crouched next to the monster and spoke to it once more, “You lost kid. Not that you ever really had a chance of winning. You’ve been running on instinct, spreading and killing indiscriminately like some kind of wild beast. I can’t just leave something like you be in my world.”

The boy began to laugh nervously as Michael finished speaking, “You have my body. You should know just how hard it would be to kill me. You don't have the capability.”

Michael frowned, and with a sigh placed his hand upon the boy's head, “Were you not listening to me? I’ve already killed you before. Why wouldn’t I be able to do it again?”

The boy shakily tried to drag himself away from Michael with indignation plain on his face.

“How? I’m immortal, the great plague, a conqueror. How did I ever fall to you?”

Michael took a step towards the flesh that hates, and the boy's body morphed in an instant. His flesh bubbled and twisted, and he lunged towards Michael just as quickly.

It didn’t get far.

Blood sliced through the air around Michael. It was far sharper than any blade, and rended the monster’s limbs from its body. But Michael didn’t stop there.

Blade after blade crafted from blood flew tore into the flesh that hates, destroying the individual spores making up its body one by one.

It screamed and Michael gripped onto its forehead before shoving it down onto the ground. Michael’s armor then receded, and his blood rapidly flowed back into his body. 

There was a chance what he was about to do would've worked on one of the drones, but it was unlikely. This bastard would’ve simply cut his connection to them before any real damage could be done.

Reaching it like this was necessary.

Michael smiled towards the monster, “Wanna know a secret. You could have killed me back in that other world. It would have been so, so easy for you. But you got greedy, complacent. You stopped thinking, stopped being careful. If you had ever been careful to begin with. That’s why you lost, and that’s why you’re losing now.”

“What?”

With that Michael pulled the writhing mass of flesh towards him as his body began to morph and merge with the creature.

It quickly realized what was happening and clawed at Michael as it tried to push him away. But Michael’s grip was like iron, and no matter how it rebelled it couldn’t escape.

Until all it could see was darkness, and an unceasing hunger descending down upon him.

And with that, it ceased to be.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Michael laid sprawled out on his back as Calder walked over to him. His clothes were practically rags at this point, but that didn’t matter to him much as he reluctantly sat up rubbing his temple.

“God, I hate doing that. The amount of information that comes in all at once is really disorienting.”

Calder just nodded, “I’d imagine it would be.”

“How long was I fighting for?”

“Two hours”, remarked Keith.

Michael slowly stood up and brushed stray bits of flesh off his body.

“I thought it’d take less time if I’m being honest.”

Calder shook his head, “You just fought an army, that takes time.”

“I guess.”

“So, what now”, asked Keith?

Michael scratched his beard for a second before sighing, “That monster threw every able-bodied creature in this place at me. Everything left in this place is either functioning strictly off my will or is far too disjointed to be put back together.”

Michael cursed softly under his breath, “Which sucks, I’d wanted to save some of these people.”

“Not everyone can be saved”, Calder said in a calm tone before his blind eyes shot towards the ceiling. He watched it for a moment before speaking, “Something just flew over us. They dropped something.”

Michael sighed in annoyance, “Looks like the somebody's had just about enough of us.”

“Are they trying to bomb us? Gods they’re idiots”, Keith scoffed.

Michael slowly stood up and gripped his warhammer with both hands, “I’ll handle this.”

Keith made a motion similar to rolling his eyes, “Or we could just leave.”

“Well yeah, we could, but where’s the fun in that”, Michael lifted the warhammer over his head.

“Besides, I think they’re still underestimating us. I may as well fix that while we’re here.”

Michael’s muscles strained as he began to bring down the hammer. An unseen weight held tightly to the weapon, but it was nowhere close enough to stop its descent; so, with reluctance, it moved.

Flesh and blood surged throughout the room, and then throughout the entirety of the forest up above. It rapidly flowed towards Michael through the ground and walls, and then the hammer fell, and a great blade of blood soared towards the sky, a tsunami of flesh sharpened to the finest of edges.

It cut through the stone ceiling as if it weren’t even there and flew up into the sky without slowing. Its length easily eclipsed the size of the village, and in seconds it reached the bomb soaring towards the ground.

Yet despite the sharpness of the flesh, it didn’t cut into the weapon. Instead, it flowed into the metal, permeated it, and tore it apart from the inside.

And the foundation members who could, watched on in awe as the crescent blade of blood and flesh fell back to the earth.

Michael let his hammer rest at his side as he breathed with heavy breaths. His control over flesh had risen. If before he was a natural, now he could be called a genius. The prodigal talent of two monsters laid over one another.

He grinned, “Let’s get out of here

Calder nodded, ‘Let’s.”

Michael moved to teleport the group away but paused for a moment before tossing a blood red necklace over towards Calder.

Calder raised an eyebrow, “What’s this for?”

“Every now and then I shift between dimensions, which I’m sure you know at this point. If you wear that, you can come with me.”

Calder studied the necklace for a moment before looking back towards Michael, “Is this made of blood?”

Michael laughed, “Yeah, sorry about that. You need to be touching me if you want to travel between worlds and touching my blood does surprisingly count.”

Michael waved his hand dismissively, “You don’t need to wear it if you don’t want to, the worlds I go to are dangerous after all. More so than you probably know.”

Silence filled the room and Michael scratched his beard awkwardly, “But I will admit, it’d be nice to have somebody reliable like you there with me. I used to take other people with me, but they never lasted long after arriving in the other worlds. It’s been just me and Keith going to these places alone for some time now.”

“... are there monsters in these other worlds?”

Michael’s expression lit up as he smiled brightly and placed his hand on Calder’s shoulder, “There’s monsters stronger than anything you’ve ever seen before. I can promise you that.”

With that Calder slipped the necklace around his neck with a bored expression, “Then I’ll be coming with you.”

“Good, now then. Have you ever seen the ocean?”

He shook his head, “No.”

“Then you’re in for a treat.”

With that Michael and Calder disappeared with a loud crack, leaving the cavern to slowly collapse in on itself.

----------------------------------------------------------------

An hour or so later Michael laid comfortably on a sandy beach down on the coast of Hawaii. The area itself would’ve been difficult to get to if he’d been a normal human, but thanks to that it was devoid of people.

Off in the distance Calder was diving off a nearby cliff, and to Michael’s right was a mannequin that Keith had been placed onto sat watching the waves crash against the sands.

Keith was silent, the only sound he made was the sound of the acid that his body emitted burning through the plastic of the mannequin's body.

Michael ignored the sounds and smells of burning plastic as he spoke, “Keith, watch the waves, smell the air. That’s what we’re fighting for; a world where we can do stuff like this without the threat of a monster coming out from the waves.”

“What ‘we’re’ fighting for? I don’t even have a body. There’s not exactly much for me to enjoy at the end of this.”

Michael patted Keith’s mannequin on the back. “Oh don’t be like that. We’ll get you a real body and come back here one day.”

Keith scoffed, “Yeah, I’m sure you will.”

Michael's expression stiffened and he turned towards Keith, none of his usual jokiness present, “Look, when we first met, I didn't mean it when I said I'd get you a new body. Can't really blame me, you're greedy, crude and cruel among many things."

"Really laying on the compliments aren't you", Keith said dryly.

"But despite that... you’re my friend. There's more to you than just those things. I’ll help you get a new body, that’s a promise from me to you. One I intend to keep.”

Keith didn't respond for some time, and when he finally did it was no more than a whisper.

“... thanks.”