The shift came soon after he'd sent a distress call to a neighboring facility. Assuming some of the staff had escaped, they’d probably already done so, but it's better to be safe than sorry. After he sent the distress call Michael had the mask describe somewhere far away from the facility so he could leave before he had to deal with any foundation members showing up.

He was pleasantly surprised to find that it hadn’t screwed him over, and several hours later space wrapped around him and his soldiers, of which nine remained, and pulled them back to his world.

When the shift had ended Michael found himself back in his room, the porcelain mask tied firmly to his hip. Although it was rather inconvenient since a constant trickle of acid dripped down from the thing.

He’d already complained to the mask, and it could apparently only slow down the output and potency of the acid, but not stop it completely.

Michael quickly came up with a solution, which was to craft a baggy out of his blood to carry the mask around in. So long as it was attached to him, the effects of the jade ring should spread to it and negate the acid.

One he’d finished that, Michael glanced around his room and found that the cameras had been removed and several more accommodations had been made. Including several new game consoles and a pool table.

He sighed, if they were still fixing up his room then it probably meant he wasn’t getting his own house anytime soon. Not that he really cared, he’d mostly just wanted to get rid of the cameras. They were the only major problem he had with living in this place.

It's not like they could really keep him from visiting anywhere he wanted anymore.

With a flash Michael blinked from existence and reappeared in Hearthgrieve’s office. The surprised doctor nearly jumping out of his skin.

“Jesus Michael, don’t do that. You nearly gave me a heart attack.”

Michael laughed, “Sorry, I just got this power and I wanted to use it. Anyways I’m back.”

“Either way it's a good thing you’re back. We’re having a little emergency right now, and I’ve been ordered to send you out as soon as you got back..”

“What the emergency?”

“Well SCP-1179 was accidentally woken up and it’s kinda pissed about it. We’ve already sent in four mobile task units and we haven't heard back from any of them.”

“Uh, which SCP is this one again? I only really memorized the dangerous ones.”

“Well it wasn’t dangerous until yesterday, when a bunch of idiots accidentally caused a series of explosions to go off next to it while burning trash. But I digress, yesterday it was simply a thirty meter tall statue depicting a demon-like figure deep within a mineshaft, but after the explosion occurred, it became active and is most certainly not made of stone anymore.”

“How dangerous is it?”

“Hard to say for sure, it doesn’t seem to be very intelligent, but it has a giant flaming whip and sword, and it’s putting off a lot of heat and poisonous gas. And I mean a lot of heat and poisonous gas. It’s so bad we may have to evacuate the town above it’s mine if we can’t deal with it. ”

“Alright, alright. Just describe the place to me and I’ll teleport on down there.”

“Thanks, you’re a lifesaver.”

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

Michael appeared in the area described by Hearthgrieve with a flash of light.

There was no staff nearby, but it was obvious where he was supposed to go.

If nobody was nearby he figured he’d use this alone time to ask his mask and heart some questions.

“Wake up hearty, this thing’s clearly a demon. Don’t you got anything to say about it?”

It remained quiet, probably asleep.

“Allright, so the asshole who only wakes up for food isn’t helping. What about you, mask?”

“That’s obviously a sliver of greed. They’re tons of them sprinkled throughout the world, stationed next to resources they deem to have value. They all stem from a single demon who split himself into many, many copies. They’re strong, but easier to kill than most of their kind.”

“Really?”

“Well...most demons can take on armies. Soooooo~”

“You know I’ve already killed a demon prince before right?”

…

“I don’t believe you. How did you kill it? Did you actually see its corpse?”

“Well there was a big ol explosion, after that I couldn’t find it.”

“Then it's probably still alive. You better hope you don’t come across it again, what sin did it rule over?”

“Well it called itself the demon prince of pride.”

“Ugh, you met that guy? You’ll probably be fine then, he’s far too prideful to ever admit he actually lost a battle.”

“Well that’s good. By the way, you wouldn’t happen to know anything about Order would you?”

“Of course I do, but I’m not gonna tell you. He’s liable to kill me if I do, considering I’m a god and all.”

“Wait, you’re a god?”

Michael studied the mask for a moment.

“They uh, they really lowered the standard to be a god huh.”

The mask scoffed, “I lost my body, I do not wish to discuss it.”

“Well alright then. Anyways, do you have a name? Just calling you mask is kinda annoying.”

It scoffed again, “My name was lost to time centuries ago, and even if it wasn’t it’d still take you decades to pronounce correctly.”

…

“I’m just gonna call you Keith.”

“Wait, what?”

“Yep it’s decided, your name's Keith now.”

Keith proceeded to fling insults at Michael for the next five or so minutes.

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

Michael ignored Keith and walked over to the mineshaft. He still couldn’t see any foundation members nearby, but they were probably stationed some ways away considering the poisonous gas that continuously spewed from the mineshaft.

He could feel the heat emanating out from the tunnels. It was honestly surprising just how potent it was. It felt refreshing, like all the muscles in his body were losing up.

Thinking back, he remembered that the original flesh that hates had been terraforming it’s world to be hotter. This was probably why, hell he almost wanted to just sit here and bask in the heat like a lizard beneath a heat lamp.

Nevertheless he was going in. He wouldn’t let this thing poison a town just because it got blown up a teeny little bit.

So he descended through the mine, his soldiers trailing close behind him. The gas became more annoying to wade through as he descended and the heat had slowly gone from pleasant to uncomfortable.

After some time the mineshaft eventually opened up into a wide cavern where a giant wrapped in flames sat.

It had the same horns pride had, although the color of these ones seemed to be heavily dulled in comparison.

Its body also looked to be somewhat damaged, likely due to the task forces they’d sent in. Sadly most of the damage seemed to be superficial though.

Keith scoffed, “Yep that’s a sliver of greed alright.”

Michael walked towards the giant as the heat began to really become unpleasant. He ordered his soldiers to prepare to provide covering fire.

“Come on big guy, we can’t have you throwing a tantrum like this.”

“LEAVE NOW!”

A flaming whip cracked through the air, forcing Michael to dodge to the side.

“I thought it couldn’t talk?”

Keith scoffed, “You’re part demon because of your heart. Of course you can understand them.”

“Good to know.”

Michael lifted his warhammer, he wasn’t really able to get a read on the creature. It didn’t have flesh or blood, and outputted immense heat.

Its death would be good for the world, but if he could talk to it he might as well try to negotiate.

“Would you be willing to make a deal?”

“DIE!”

Well that answered that. A flaming sword quickly came crashing down towards Michael. It was ginormous, easily twenty meters in length.

It wasn’t something anybody could dodge normally, but he could teleport couldn’t he?

Michael attempted to teleport behind the giant, but to his surprise it wouldn’t activate and he instinctively knew why.

It was too hot. This was probably why the Yule Man lived in colder climates.

“Shit.”

Now his only option was to block the blow, and his hammer met the sword. The demon was incredibly strong, nearly making Michael lose his footing. Seconds after the weapons met, boiling red liquid shot from the giant's body and began to fall towards Michael.

Apparently that’s what counted as blood for the creature.

A half second later blood shot from Michael’s body, and he hastily formed it into something to cover him from the descending liquid.

It didn’t matter though. The demon’s blood tore through Michael’s blood with ease as it fell upon him.

It scorched his flesh and he felt pain akin to when he’d merged with the demon heart, and just like back then he couldn’t dampen his sense of pain.

Michael screamed as his flesh began to burn.