Michael could feel wires beneath his skin. They moved with determination and didn't care for what they damaged. They dug into flesh, and by the time he'd composed himself it had fully stretched throughout his body.

Laughter emanated from his own lips as Death used his body to speak.

"I will travel to countless worlds, and each one will burn. I'll personally eliminate the plague that is life, and you shall be my vessel; my carriage to these universes!"

Michael struggled to move his limbs as the wires within his body tried to restrict him. It was to a level that was difficult, but not undoable. He had long transcended humanity and something of this level wouldn't be able to fully impede his movements.

So after a moment of consideration and some light swearing, Michael held out his hand, stared at it for a moment, and plunged it into his chest.

"Oh, you think you can free yourself from me so easily?"

Michael ignored the monster and grabbed onto it before he began to pull. Flesh moved aside to aid the process, but the section of wires gave way and his hand shot from his chest clutching onto a small handful of the wires.

"Death is not something that can be evaded or escaped from. It's simply an inevitability. You will never free yourself from me."

"Oh shut up already."

No Apostle of Order had shown up to help. Which meant several things. This creature wasn't Death, it wasn't a god, but it was certainly a monster.

And a monster could be killed.

"You think you're so fucking unique. You all do from what I can tell. A monster that transcends them all, but answer me something. What makes you see yourself that way? Is it because you're strong? Because you are, I won't deny you that."

The blood in Michael's body tore into Death. It wasn't quite capable of killing him, but it would certainly hurt it.

"No, the reason you act the way you do is because it's simply your nature to do so. It holds you back and controls you. It's a cage that seems to be around all of you. You're not alive in a way that truly matters."

Michael's blood boiled inside him as he began to walk through the forest. He was angry, furious with something that could barely hold a meaningful conversation. His hand brushed against a tree as he walked past, and the bark simply flaked off. Every other plant would be the same; standing dead in a forest where nothing would ever grow again.

Michael breathed in deeply, and something inside him finally clicked.

"Death, I hate you, and I hate everything you stand for. If I could, I'd make your death more painful, but this will have to do."

Glowing runes began to float atop Michael's head, taking the shape of antlers that reached up towards the sky.

He breathed it all in once more, deep and long; all the death, the loss, the decimation of a planet, and forced that into himself, and then into the parasite hiding within him.

It screamed, and then tried to tear its way out of his body. He didn't let it, and his blood wrapped around it like chains as the runes floating over Michael's head began to glow even brighter.

It panicked as the energy was funneled into it and its body began to rot. It clawed away at Michael's insides in an attempt to get away. It was weakening quickly, but it's claws still pierced through Michael's chest as it lunged outwards and onto the forest floor.

Its lower half was gone, and the rest of it looked old and fragile. It clawed at the ground in an attempt to get away as Michael placed his boot upon its back.

It squirmed and screamed, "I am Death! You can't do this to me. The natural order is for me to be eternal. It's for you to die!"

Michael reached down and lifted its obsidian head to eye level as the torn flesh in his chest knitted itself back together.

"You're not Death. You're just good at killing, a much less impressive feat."

He gripped its head between his hands and began to apply pressure.

"Stop this, I command you!"

Cracks began to form across its face as Michael antlers glowed brighter and brighter, Death screamed, and then with a thunderous crack its head splintered in Michael's hands as its body went limp.

Michael stood there a silent for a moment, looking down at the corpse of the monster he'd just killed. Then the runic antlers flickered from existence and he collapsed to the ground unconscious.

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

'Michael!"

"Michael, wake up!", screamed Keith.

Slowly Michael's eyes opened and he found himself falling into an abyss. He looked around frantically before finding Keith screaming at his side.

"We're back in the shadow kid's world and ol' scarface is dragging you down into the abyss again."

Michael looked over his shoulder and the scarred man was there gripping onto him. He immediately tried to elbow him but his body contorted like a snake to dodge the attack.

Michael took a short moment to glance upwards and couldn't even make out the ceiling high above.

He turned his attention back to the shadow guy gripping onto him and sighed.

"Are we really going to do this again?"

It didn't respond, instead somehow increasing the speed of their dissent into the void.

Michael took a deep breath, "Here we g–"

Fingers tore into Michael's eyes as the creature on his back let out an eldritch scream.

Michael panicked and grabbed onto its arms, pulling them free from his eyes. Keith laughed at his side.

"You fucking bastard!", Michael screamed.

He pulled the golden knife from its sheath and slashed it towards the creature who shifted its head to mitigate the damage to just a small scratch. Then Michael came to a realization. He was no longer emitting light; probably because he'd fallen unconscious.

So with a small mental prod Michael's skin began to shine like a fire, and the creature immediately lunged off his back with a hiss and retreated back into the depths of the abyss.

He watched it soar off for a moment before sighing as wings of flesh sprung from his back and slowed his dissent.

"Keith, how long was I out for?"

"Oh, give me just one second. We got a one, carry the two, divide by the square root of pie."

The mask grinned, "Three days."

"I've been falling for three days?"

"Eh, give or take. It's hard to keep track of time down here. You know, cause of the endless void."

Michael sighed, "Fair enough, how long was he on me for?"

"Well let's see, carry the fou–"

"Just answer the question!"

"Oh, the entire time."

With a sigh Michael rubbed the bridge of his nose in annoyance and noticed something further down into the void.

There was flesh down there, and a lot of it.

His eyes cut through the darkness of the abyss, and far at the bottom he could see a single man sat atop a field of dead monsters staring up towards him. Its voice was like thunder and reached him with ease.

"I only ever see flyers anymore. That and the wendigo corpses that came raining down from the sky a while back. I presume that was you?"

He stood from his spot atop the head of a scaled beast, and Michael could see him fully. He looked very similar to the creature hiding in the shadows of this abyss, except for the fact his hair was long a matted with blood, and that he wore the poorly stitched together remains of the monsters around him as clothes. Besides that he was nearly identical with the shadow creature.

In his hand was a sword that seemed to have been carved from bone, and he fluidly lifted it over his shoulder.

Michael's eyes widened, "Shit."

It sounded like a cannon being shot as the sword soared through the abyss, impacting Michael's left wing within a fraction of a second and sending him spiraling downwards towards the ground.

The ensuing fall brought him closer to the man, and Michael could see he was just as scarred and blind as the shadow creature was.

He could hear the scarred man muttering under his breath as he fell, "Soon hell will be empty, and I'll finally be free."

Michael didn't wait to figure out what that meant and focused for a short moment before disappearing with a flash and repairing in the wendigo's old hideout where the two men still sat playing their card game.