Alex watched String closely as she returned her spinning chain whip to her side, annoyance at her weapon and the light rain filling Alex.

‘Chain whip. She just had to have a chain whip.’ Alex let out an annoyed sigh, ‘I fucking hate these things.’

Alex’s eyes drifted from String and to her weapon, easily tracking what he knew was probably a blur to its user.

‘What other reason would you attach something as noticeable as a cloth to your dart?’

Alex allowed for his eyes to drift back to String’s face and began reading it. Though her eyes were covered by her shades, Alex figured through the way String’s mouth moved and twisted to the side that she was currently analyzing him like he was her.

‘Let’s see,’ Alex mused to himself, ‘Reasonable to assume that she is a good tactician and strategist. Most definitely a trained warrior, but lacking in actual combat experience. Mid-Ranged combatant but I do think its reasonable to assume that her weapon can probably fit both close-quarters and long-range needs. Gift will be problematic but nothing I can’t handle.’ Alex inclined his head upwards to the dark clouds overhead, ‘That lightning will definitely make this battle hell and the rain will probably get progressively worse as we fight.’

Alex looked back down and at String before using his right hand to zip his jacket up and put on his hood. Returning his hand to its position above his opposing shoulder, Alex took a deep breath and let it out.

‘I have the advantage in combat experience and reflexes. She has the advantage in range and power. We should be equal in speed and while I’m pretty sure I’m more intelligent you can never be too sure.’

With their comparative strength now gauged, Alex formed a plan of attack in his mind not too soon after and was just about ready to enact it when an interruption occurred.

“Hold up!” Norwe called out from all around, “I have something to tell you two.”

Alex felt terror well up within him as he felt the Maker manifest himself upon the back of String, the clouds parting around the two allowing for starlight to beam down on their small area. Outside of this illuminated area, the rain appeared to triple in speed.

‘Please don’t be here for what I think you’re here for.’ Alex mentally pleaded, watching as String’s mouth opened in surprise then twisted shut in anger came as Norwe the Sloth peeked his head over her shoulder with a lazy smile on his face.

“Guess why I’m here?!”

String grabbed the Sloth Maker by his head and flung him forward with an angry shout. String followed this up by swinging her weapon overhead and swiftly launching its weighted dart into the back of the falling Maker.

“DON’T TOUCH ME YOU PIECE OF SHIT!” String shouted as she returned her chain whip to its spinning position on the right side of her body.

Alex felt a wave of shock overcome him at String’s action which was quickly followed by a wave of grave fear. Looking up from the fallen Maker and to String with terror written all over his face, Alex shouted at String.

“What the fuck is wrong with you!?”

CRAAAAK!

A bolt of red lightning shot down from the part of the sky still clouded and curved towards Norwe’s to strike him, leaving a small crater in the ground that had the skeleton of a sloth within its epicenter.

Alex thought little of the irregular lightning behavior, and instead began furiously tapping his nose before pinching his neck and shouting at String, “You must be as suicidal as Ashbrain!”

“Fuck off Alex! I don’t need shit from you of all people right now!” String shouted back, her stance becoming exceedingly hostile as she growled at him.

“Screw you Jojo rip-off!”

“Who the hell is Jojo!?”

Before another retort could leave either of them, Norwe’s skeleton began to speak.

“HEY!” Norwe’s skeleton shouted, “I love the Herah and Alex dynamic you two got going on right now, buuuut I did come here to say something and I need you to listen.”

“FUCK YOU NORWE!” String shouted causing Alex to groan at her stupidity, “I don’t want to hear shit else from you unless it’s the words “I’m leaving you the fuck alone.”””

“Bound Star.”

Alex flinched and felt his breath quicken as Norwe’s calmly spoken words and Presence weighed upon both himself and String, the Keijo in question taking the weighing much worse than the human. Immediately following Norwe’s words, she had dropped her weapon and fallen to her knees with her breath now coming in raggedly as her body seemed to become choked of air.

After a few moments of relative silence, the only sounds heard being the distant clashes of Moon and Herah and the heavy breathing of the two leaders, Norwe lessened his Presence to its normal level and began to speak once again.

“I really do love your willingness to defy me, it honestly fills me with such joy. Especially since my good ol’ Soothsayer seems incapable of such actions.”

Even with the very clear insult towards him, Alex found himself incapable of directing any emotion that wasn’t fear or a close relative to it towards the Maker. After another small pause, Norwe’s skeleton opened its mouth and let out what sounded like a disappointed sigh.

“Anyway, as much as I love your hate boner for me, I came here to give you a bit more incentive in your battle with each other.” Norwe moved one of his skeletal limbs to point towards himself, “It is for my entertainment after all.”

Alex felt his fear increase at his Maker’s words, his immediate thoughts being that he would be forced under the same conditions that Max, Herah, and Moon had been when they fought each other.

“What? Are you going to threaten to erase someone we both care about if we don’t reach an arbitrary number on some bullshit measuring stick that quantifies your satisfaction with us!?” String said while still on her knees, a strong bite to her words.

Still tapping his nose and pinching at his neck, Alex briefly wondered if Norwe would think it funny if he just said that String smelled like she was rotting. Norwe’s skeleton chuckled and said,

“I would think it hilarious, Soothsayer.” Norwe said with a jolly tone before suddenly whipping his skull towards Alex and changing his voice so that it maintained its jolliness but became more threating , “I would also fell cheated of a great fight.”

Alex found that train of thought quickly abandoned.

“And to answer your question String,” Norwe swiveled his skull towards her, “That is not what I was going to say. Good guess though.”

Alex’s eyes widened in surprise before he paused in his tapping and pinching.

“What?”

“What?”

Norwe’s skeleton began to chuckle, a disturbing clacking sound filling the area as he opened his jaw and his top row of teeth began hopping out and smacking into his bottom teeth before returning to their original positions and repeating this.

“I’d have no reason to do that for you two, since you both already want each other dead and will do your best to entertain me during your fight.”

“Then, if I may ask, why would we need more incentive for our fight?” Alex asked, his mind racing to find an answer.

“Simply because I feel like it.”

Alex lowered both of his hands to his side and began to say something before deciding against it and just shaking his head.

“So would you mind just telling us what it is you have to incentivize us and piss off already.”

Alex gave String a death glare which she returned in kind, if the way her lips drew tightly together were any indication.

“Well I have two prizes for whichever of you win your fight.”

“And what would that be?” String asked while scrying the ground around her for (if Alex’s guess was correct) her chain whip.

“Well if you win Bound Star, I’ll not only give you back all the Oni that you lost in this battle and Max’s bombing but I’ll return to you your father and grandfather.”

String paused in her searching to look at Norwe’s skeleton in a brief moment of surprise before her lips stretched out into a frown.

“Are you- Are you being serious?” String asked, shifting uncomfortably as she spoke.

“I’m nothing if not a Maker of my word.” Norwe replied, sounding rather pleased at String’s response.

“What do I get if I win?” Alex asked with his own feelings of wariness on display.

“A list and I’d also return something of yours that was lost long ago”

“A list of what?”

“A list of your opponents and their gifts for the trial after this one.”

Hearing this, Alex instantly knew that he was being offered what would no doubt be a boon of great benefit.

“And what will you return?” Alex asked.

“Now that’s a surprise. With that said, why don’t you two get back into your positions and I’ll let you know when you should begin to fight. By the way, this entire conversation took place within a tiny sphere of slowed down time, if you didn’t notice.”

String (having found her weapon) rose to her feet and began spinning it once again as Alex resumed his stance and immersed himself within his orb of Principle.

‘Principles, fundamental truths that care not for your emotions or beliefs.’ Alex’s mind became purely analytical as he went over the information previously gathered once again, with one new bit of data added. ‘It’s only fair that this orb deadens my emotions and leaves only a machine.’

Alex’s eyes drifted back to String’s weapon.

‘Chain whip can turn whatever it strikes with its dart into lightning rods. Has a three-second delay before strikes occur.’

Alex began formulating a plan as the opening in the clouds began to close, and rain began striking him once again. Just as the last bit of starlight was once again covered up by the black, stormy clouds that loomed overhead and Alex finished finalizing his plan, Norwe spoke.

“OPEN THE GATES!”

An orb of light appeared before String and exploded in a flash before she could even react.

“You’re blind!” Alex shouted as he charged forward through the muddy ground. Alex managed to get just in front of String and began slashing at her head before a sudden and powerful updraft yanked him into the air and above the treetops. Flipping head over heel as he shot upwards, Alex waved his hand through the air and spoke.

“I can control the wind.”

Alex felt a mental link form within his mind as he began to feel the surrounding air gain a sense of familiarity. Alex used this familiarity and called for the wind that wasn’t under String’s control. Controlling this wind, Alex wrapped himself up in a downwards draft that carried him out of String’s upward draft and dropped him a reasonable distance behind her. Before Alex even touched the ground, String turned around and sent out a miniature tornado that Alex rid himself of with a casual wave of his hand. Alex followed up this dismissal by creating a dome of rapidly rotating wind around String that began to fling mud everywhere.

“Fuuuuck!” String groaned out as she fell to a knee and began gasping for her rapidly depleting air.

Alex decided to make String’s condition worse by slowly shrinking her dome around her and increasing its rotating speed. By this point, String was on her hands and knees still struggling to take in air.

‘Come on String,’ Alex thought, ‘Don’t tap out so early on me.’

Though unlikely she heard his thoughts, String made it clear she wasn’t down for the count yet by summoning a pillar of wind from the sky and slamming it down into Alex’s wind dome. The dome broke apart with a massive burst of wind that launched chunks of mud everywhere, including onto Alex’s face. Wiping away the sodden dirt as fast as possible, Alex found that String had gotten into swinging distance with her chain whip and was now spinning through the air while dragging the dart end towards his head. Alex sidestepped this attack and closed the distance between himself and String before cutting at her throat. String leaped back from this and dragged her chain whip back before spinning it in front of herself.

Alex made to step forward but the sudden buzzing of Nike and Tara as well as the feeling of his hair beginning to rise halted his advances. String stepped forward as her weapon began to buzz and hair began to rise as well, seemingly uncaring of the incoming lightning strike.

‘Dammit, I’m gonna have to move back.’

Then another thought popped into Alex’s head and he knew just what to do after that. Alex leaped back as far as possible and kept going as String leaped forward into his original position and stopped. Just as Alex’s weapons stopped buzzing and his hair went flat, String launched the end of her weapon into the air.

CRAAAAK!

“I have cells in front of you.”

CRACK!

Within the span of two seconds, Alex saw several things occur. During the first second, Alex appeared before String just after the red bolt of lightning struck her chain, and then attempted to gouge out one of her shade-covered eyes with his dagger. Within the next half second, String yanked her chained back down, dodged around Alex, and kicked him in the bottom of his back. Within that final half-second, Alex was launched forward nearly 30 feet before striking the ground.

“GAAAAHH!”, Alex shouted in pain as his body struck the ground and bounced a few times, covering him from head to toe in mud. After finally skidding to a stop, Alex let out a pained groaned and reached towards where String had struck him. Groaning at the pain that was felt from his back and the lack of feeling from his waist down, Alex redrew Tara and stabbed himself. Sighing in physical relief, Alex did his best to clear his face of mud and rose to his feet while shivering and letting out a few visible breaths.

‘Wait a second?’ Alex thought as he exhaled a few more times, his breaths still coming out in visible spurts, ‘When did it get colder?’

“I see you’ve noticed that the temperature is lowering.”

Alex looked up at String and found the chieftain casually walking towards him, looking down on him with a satisfied smirk. Narrowing his eyes at the Keijo, Alex said,

“Lowering the temperature can’t be all you wanted to do, what more is there to this?”

String let out a low, cruel chuckle.

“This.”

She then raised her left hand towards Alex and pushed towards him. From behind her, a wave of black and muddy snow came rushing forward and around her towards Alex. Just before the wave of snow reached him, Alex forced it apart with two diverging gales that left his sides surrounded with a flood of snow.

‘She must be using the water from the mud all around to create this snow.’ Alex thought to himself as he slid Tara and Nike into his jacket pockets and pulled out his box of matches. Getting low to the ground and taking a match from the box, Alex struck it before quickly shoving the box back into his pocket and using one of his hands to cover the flame. Alex looked down to the tiny flame that he was currently protecting and shook his match very slightly, before saying,

“I can create and control fire.”

Feeling the same feeling he had felt earlier when establishing his bond with the wind, Alex crushed the match in his hand and created a much stronger flame that engulfed him in a shroud of fire. The flames burnt away at the mud that caked his clothing and skin while also warming him up to a comfortable degree. With his counter prepared, Alex briefly unimmersed himself from his orb of Principle.

‘This is going to be a fucking drag,’ Alex grimaced slightly, ‘I hope at least that Herah is having it worse than me.’

HALT

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

It had been over a minute since Herah and Moon had begun to fight, the pair having clashed and separated many times with a loud boom and explosion of force occurring at each meeting. Every time the two met, a furious exchange of blows would occur for but a moment before they broke away from each other. Their battle had taken them out of their original clearing and all over the east side of the battlefield. Numerous craters now dotted the forest floor and countless trees had been destroyed in their wake.

Now, Herah (still cloaked in flames) was flying up and around one of the trees with Moon following closely behind. By this point in their fight, Herah’s clothing was filled with multiple holes and the few bruises gained in the last clash with Moon were being healed. Looking back at the pursuing priest, Herah took note of the rapidly healing cuts and slashes that had been her return for his attacks. Her eyes then went down to his left arm, confusion and weariness filling her as one of her hands went up to rub its accompanying ear. Herah then looked past Moon and towards the ground where a few of the Oni corpses which had been there were now gone, and replaced with a single tendril having yet to fully assimilate to the priest.

‘I need to put some distance between us and remove at least some of his supply. And also get rid of that stupid arm of his, or at least figure out how it’s causing me pain in this state.’ Herah thought to herself before suddenly flipping upside down and using the claws on her hands to stab into the tree beneath her. As Herah’s ascent slowed, the youngling also gathered fire in her mouth causing her cheeks to puff up. Moon was upon Herah in an instant, his left hand darting out and waving just before her face causing Herah to wince at the sharp pain that assaulted her ears. Moon then attempted to follow this up by spearing Herah with his right hand, the limb having taken the form of a spearhead. The youngling counteracted this by suddenly firing a blast of green fire from her mouth that took the form of a massive hand and shoved Moon down and towards the ground. Herah then flipped back around and launched herself up high above the treetops stopping just below a cloud.

Looking back down to the forest, Herah thought the trees were akin to ants from her current height. Even with the great distance between them and the numerous leaves that hid him away, Herah was able to locate Moon with little issue before initiating the next phase of her attack. Herah inhaled deeply before puffing up her cheeks as the fire shroud around her changed from blue to green. After a short moment of gathering and stoking the flames within her cheeks, Herah exhaled a ball of blue flames that was twice as large as the clearing with the Donneur de Frêne. Despite its size, the fireball struck the ground in nearly an instant.

BOOM!

And just like that, an explosion of blue flames that reached higher than the treetops and engulfed what Herah figured to be just over 800 acres worth of forest.

BOOM!

The sound barrier broke as Herah launched herself into the flames and slammed into the ground. Herah’s impact kicked up a cloud of ash that was batted away with a single flap of her wings, which also cleared away most of the surrounding flames. With the air now cleared, Herah began searching for Moon.

The youngling now stood within a substantial crater. The entirety of it was just filled with fires of varying sizes and ash. The youngling paid little attention to the large plumes of smoke that filled the air, her eyes trying and failing to find any sign of her opponent.

Using Réunir on her nose, Herah let out a tiny huff of satisfaction as the smell of ash, smoke, and fire filled it. Returning her attention back to the situation, Herah crouched down to the ground and began looking down at it and running her hands through it while licking and smelling at the air. Two seconds of observation later, Herah let out a huff of dissatisfaction and began to expand her area of view.

‘All I could find were some dead blood cells and tissue. Where the ash did you go Moon?’

WHIRRR!

What sounded like a minigun barrel spinning from a fair distance away was all Herah had as warning before having to dash out of the way of a storm of bullets. Ash and dirt was kicked up as Herah continued to outrun the rain of ammunition that bared down on her. While running, the youngling began searching for Moon near the rims of the destroyed area and found him within mere moments. The priest was crouched just where the destruction ended with his right arm transformed into a miniature minigun with tendrils of black connecting his arm to several of the nearby trees. With the priest now in sight, Herah reached towards her back and redrew her sketchpad and a pencil. Herah began to change her direction so that she would be in the center of the crater by the time her attack connected. Quickly drawing out a rod with intricate designs covering it and a lantern at the end of it while she did this, Herah used her gift to bring the picture into reality. The taste of paint filled her mouth as one of the fangs in the back of it turned into the oilily liquid. Disregarding this taste, Herah shoved both her sketch pad and pencil back into her backpack before aiming the lantern end of her rod towards Moon and shouting,

“Accepter une offre du Ventre de la flamme!”

From within the lantern, a small fire came to life. Blue light then began to gather and condense at the tip of it before a beam of blue light was fired out.

SZZZZASSSK!

The beam shot cleanly through Moon’s brain, stunning him for merely an instant. Before even 4 hundredths of a second could pass, the youngling appeared before Moon and lopped off his left arm. This was then followed up with Herah hitting the priest with a barrage of claw jabs, a new fist-sized hole filling the priest with each strike. Every attack was immediately cauterized due to flame shroud that covered Herah and they came so fast that Moon was unable to heal most if any wounds suffered. Herah’s barrage ended once the youngling, with a single swipe of her hand, chopped off Moon’s head and allowed for the shroud that surrounded her to flare indigo for just a brief enough moment that every piece of his body was turned into ash. Herah’s shroud quickly turned yellow as Herah began to breathe a bit harder than before.

‘Shit! Not the best idea and that cut my time down to a minute.’ Herah looked towards the trees that Moon had connected himself to and noticed that parts of them were beginning to turn into (what the youngling could only assume to be) him. Herah took in another breath before breathing out a stream of yellow flames that set all the nearby trees alit. ‘And now I need to find Moon again, that couldn’t have been his only body.’

WHOOSH!

“What the- SHIT!”

BOOM!

With a flap of her wings and another sonic boom, Herah launched herself back and away from a tree that had come crashing down from the sky. Before the youngling could attempt to catch her breath, the tree exploded into what had to be thousands of black rods. Folding her wings in for protection, Herah dodged around and deflected all the rods heading towards her. Once done with that, Herah unfurled her wings and, with another sonic boom, launched herself into the air.

“MOON! ARE YOU THROWING FUCKING EXPLODING TREES AT ME!?

3 more exploding trees were the only response received.

Weaving through the thousands upon thousands of black rods that filled the air, Herah quickly tracked the trees to their origin and found Moon ripping another tree out of the ground. Angling herself towards the priest, Herah flapped her wings and launched herself towards him with yet another explosion of sound.

WHOOSH!

Twirling around a newly thrown tree, Herah hit the ground with a roll and came up to Moon waving a hole filled hand before her face.

“AAAAHHH!” Herah shouted as pain filled her ears before Moon slammed a fist into her face and her head into the ground, a crater forming at her impact. Moon’s fist began to break apart and cover the entirety of Herah’s head. The youngling struggled under the pressure of Moon’s strength, flaring her shroud green and grabbing at his arm to rip it off her face as her airways were beginning to clog up.

CRACK!

Moon’s arm shattered under Herah’s grip and his arm began to burn away. Herah’s vision cleared up just long enough for her to see several tendrils sprout out from Moon and into the nearby trees. Herah’s vision was then blotted out once again, as even more tendrils than before began to cover her head and the pressure from Moon remained in full force.

“Herah please, don’t make this any harder than it has to be.” Moon begged Herah as the feeling of her face being broken down set her into a frenzy, her shroud flaring blue to little avail. Just as Herah felt her first scale completely break down, the image of a helpless and flailing ashling entered her mind.

WOOSH!

SHLUK!

WHAM!

Herah flared her shroud once again, burning away what covered her face and setting Moon’s now detached arm aflame. Ripping the burning limb off her and making sure to burn away whatever of Moon remained on and in her, Herah leaped to her feet as Jeffery lazily floated next to her.

“What took you so long!?” Herah asked while looking towards a line of broken trees that the youngling could only assume went on for at least 2 miles.

Jeffery’s response was an image of a racing line followed by numerous flashing images of celestial bodies and finally of both themselves and Norwe floating in space with a sign reading start floating not too far in front of them.

“Were-were you racing Norwe through space this entire time?!” Herah asked with a furious shout while also noting that her flame shroud had now turned orange.

Jeffery’s response was the image of a thumbs up.

“When did you even decide to actually head over here?!”

Herah received a third person image of both herself and Moon, showing her just beginning to turn her shroud blue before Jeffery entered the image and smacked Moon away.

“Are you telling me you waited until the very last moment to head my way!?” Herah screamed, fire flaring from her mouth and nose.

Jeffery just sent Herah an image of herself followed by the image of a dunce cap.

“FUCK YOU TOO!”

WHAM!

Herah didn’t even wince when Jeffery struck her head, instead choosing to just grumble for him to give her control. With their only reply being an image of Herah rolling her eyes, Jeffery floated into Herah’s hands and handed control over to her.

Just as Herah wrapped her fingers around Jeffery, the youngling found herself using them to deflect a punch from Moon downwards. This action caused a resounding boom to fill the air and for another crater to dig into the ground beneath them. Herah slammed her knee into Moon’s chest before bisecting him with Jeffery and spearing him through his torso. Before Herah could do any more, Moon waved his hand before her face once again causing her to falter just long enough for the priest to shove and elongated claw into her left eye. Herah barely reacted to the loss of half of her vision and instead just slammed Moon’s top half into the ground and let out a torrent of yellow flame upon him. Herah, with a single flap of her wings and accompanying boom, shot into the air and did a repeat of her earlier aerial strike with an orange fireball.

BOOM!

This time the explosion was only a third of the size of the original and there were a few things still burning in the wreckage. Herah landed on the ground and checked with Jeffery to confirm that Moon had been caught in the blast and turned to ash. Ripping her companion from the ground, Herah gave Jeffery a small twirl and rested them over her shoulder just as her body exited Renaissance à son Sommet.

“Uuuhh.” Herah groaned out as the fatigue hit her and her footing became unstable. Falling to her knees, the youngling began speaking to herself, “I’m gonna need to recharge before I do anything el-” Herah’s nose wrinkled as several replicant scents began to approach her at a high-speed, “SHIT!”

‘Herah!’ Owen’s voice suddenly rung through her head, ‘Moon’s signature just multiplied like crazy!’

Herah let out a growl of frustration before raising her left hand to her amulet and responding to Owen.

‘I noticed.’ Herah said, sounding and feeling slightly annoyed, ‘How many are there in total? I noticed ten are heading towards me now.’

‘There are fifty Moons in total.’

‘WHAT?!’

Just as the thought left Herah, two Moon’s stopped before her, two other’s landed behind, two landed on either side of her, and four floated above with their newly grown black-dove like wings.

“Herah,” They all called out at once, “We both know that in your current state and my own, you will not win another battle with me. Please just stand down and have Owen put away his hat.”

‘Herah?’ Owen asked, sounding rather worried.

‘What Owen?’ Herah responded sounding not as frustrated as she felt she should have, ‘I’m not in the best situation to be talking with you right now.’

‘Activate that bracelet I gave you.’

Herah’s eyes turned to look at the bracelet that hung around her right wrist with the purple gem sticking out of it.

‘How?’

‘Crush the amethyst and it should activate.’

Herah took her hand from her amulet, raised it to her bracelet, and crushed the gem that was placed into it. Once her hand moved away, the bracelet began to quiver and shake before being overtaken by a glow and shattering. Before Herah could even think to begin cursing Owen’s name, the fragments that had been her bracelet began to float and glow before bathing her entire body in a flash of white light.

Before the blindness even left her, Herah felt a cool, tight latex-like substance cover her entire body. Even her wings now had whatever it was covering the rest of the youngling’s body. This feeling soon disappeared and was replaced by the feeling of absolutely nothing covering her body, though Herah didn’t gain any feeling of herself being exposed to the elements in any way. Once her blindness disappeared, Herah began checking herself over.

‘Is this black latex?’ Herah thought to herself while looking up and down her body. Whatever covered her was much more metallic than glossy in its look, though the way it held tightly to Herah’s body and moved with little sound or issue made the youngling think that latex was the more probable material for her new apparel. Upon a closer study, Herah found her assumption to be incorrect and that whatever covered her was something that the youngling had never seen before. Elongating one of her talons and raking it along her chest, Herah watched in fascination as the material hardened under her ministrations before quickly returning to their less rigid state.

‘What is this?’ Herah asked Owen, her talon now touching her amulet which had not been covered in the weird substance.

‘What’s covering your body is a special metal named after Gaashbenirium. It has the special property of absorbing and storing energy, though it is normally unable to release this energy. I treated the Gasshbenirium that covers your body to be transparent through the interior, more flexible, and to release the energy that I stored into it when your flame is low.’

‘How does that help me?’ Herah asked while raising a talon to tap at her eyes, finding that the substance really did cover her entire face.

‘Herah,’ Owen began, sounding as if the answer to his question was already known by himself, ‘It wouldn’t be wrong to assume that ingesting fire can increase the strength of the flame in your chest, would it?’

‘No.’ Herah thought back, exactly sure as to the reason of Owen’s question.

‘Good because when you say the trigger phrase to activate your suit, it will begin to fill your pores with fire. The armor you’re wearing also has another purpose to it.’

‘What?’, Herah asked while returning her attention to all the Moons that surrounded her, all of them now tensed for battle but still not moving.

‘It’ll double your physical and mental capabilities by forcing your body to go beyond its limits.’

Herah blinked at these words before a grin came to her face.

‘What’s the trigger phrase?’

‘Before I tell it to you Herah, you need to know that the armor you’re wearing is not invulnerable. Even with it releasing the flames into you, it can still be overwhelmed causing it to explode. And once that occurs your body will most likely collapse from overstraining itself, so be careful.’

‘Yeah, yeah.’ Herah thought somewhat impatiently, ‘Trigger phrase Owen.’

‘Farande Woverak.’

‘Thank you, and when I’m fully charged I’m gonna need you help to locate all the different Moons if I want to get him out of this battle.’

‘Yeah, I’ll be here when you need me. But first, I need to inform Alex of something. Owen out.’

Now giving all the gathered Moon’s her full attention, Herah allowed for her grin to turn into a frown and said,

“I told you not to underestimate me Moon, that sounds exactly like what you’re doing right now.”

All of the Moon’s frowned at Herah before saying,

“I mean no disrespect Herah, but that armor your wearing will do little to make up for your drop in speed and strength.”

“We’ll see about that.”

All but two of the Moons morphed their arms into various states. The two that didn’t were in the air, with their arms now filled with holes.

“I apologize for what I will do to you next.”

Herah’s frowned deepened into a snarl.

“Farande Woverak!”

ONI

CRAAKK!

‘Three more bolts to go then I won’t have to deal with this shit anymore.’ String thought to herself as she returned her chain whip to its spinning position and used winds to pick up and compress some snow into a sizeable ball before using these same winds to catapult it into ball of fire that Alex had thrown at her.

The chieftain was currently sailing atop a wave of snow through the nearby forest with Alex following closely behind her, riding on a gust of wind with a shroud of fire around him while sending blades of wind and fireballs her way with every chance he got.

“I’m not sure whether I should feel respected or annoyed at the very clear killshots your aiming at me!” String shouted at Alex as she wiped away the rain that covered her shades and used her muddy snow to sail up a tree

“You think these are killshots!?” Alex shouted back, his tone dead and serious as he went around the tree and cut it in half with another blade of wind, “A killshot would be creating a blade of wind just in front of your neck and waiting for you to run into it decapitating yourself!”

String, thinking quickly, leaped from the now falling tree and used a current of wind to launch her upside-down self away from Alex while using her chain whip to strike one of the trees she passed by. Flipping herself upright, String once again called a wave of snow to her feet and began riding atop it once more.

CRAAKK!

A bolt of red lightning struck the tree String had hit, causing it to launch burning shards of wood everywhere and for whatever wasn’t launched to be reduced to ash.

“A killshot would be me simply igniting the air around you with a thought!”, Alex shouted as he dodged around the flaming shards with ease and even took control of a few and launched them towards String. The chieftain crouched down and allowed for some snow to flow over her and take the attacks. Pushing the snow from above her to her sides, String abruptly stopped and flung herself into the air with a strong updraft.

Once just above the trees, String flipped herself upside-down once again and began spinning with her chain whip striking all the nearby trees. Once done, String quickly switched the wind currents to carry herself along and above the trees while also diverging her attention to create a massive wave of muddy snow that immediately began to rush towards herself and Alex. As the first bolt of lightning struck, String continued to spin upside-down while hitting each tree she passed with the dart end of her chain. Alex followed from beneath the trees, just staying ahead of the wave of snow, lightning that came down and the flaming pieces of wood launched at each strike.

FWOOSH!

String’s eyes widened in shock as she paused before a wall of fire that had shot up from the ground to block her path.

“A killshot would be me simply telling you that you’re going to die!” Alex shouted as he shot up into the air and swiped at String’s feet. String simply let go of the winds holding her up and went into a freefall looking up Alex as he followed closely behind. String swung her weapon at her pursuer, but the human managed to lean just out of the way of her dart-end before grabbing the chain part and disarming String with a sharp pull. Throwing the chieftain’s weapon higher into the air, Alex fired a ball of flames at String that she blocked by calling the snow from the ground and around her to form a thick dome shield. Steam filled the air as String opened up the bottom of her dome and called for another draft a wind to carry her out of the way of the falling sphere of snow.

Landing with a graceful roll, String came up and raised a hand into the air as a current of wind carried her chain whip back into her grasp. The now abandoned dome of snow and Alex hit the ground with a cloud of steam following shortly after their impact. String used this steam to her advantage, rolling forward and whipping her chain towards Alex’s chest.

CLANG!

Sparks flew as Alex was forced to use Nike to deflect String’s attack. As String reeled her weapon back in, she spun to side as Alex’s dagger flew past her and into a nearby tree. Spinning towards Alex, String tried for an overhead swipe with her weapon and only hit air.

“ACK!” String gasped out with Alex having closed the distance between the two and slammed his right fist into her stomach. He then followed this up by creating a blade of wind with his other hand and swiping at the side of String’s head with it.

SHIRK!

CRAAKK!

“SON OF A BITCH!” String screamed as Alex spun around her and used some wind to diverge the flaming wood shards that flew towards himself and String to get to his dagger. The chieftain felt warm blood rushing down the right side of her face, the liquid gushing from where Alex had cut off her ear. Pulling her weapon back in towards herself and spinning it at her side, String used her left hand to put pressure on the wound as she turned to face Alex.

“As of now in our fight, not yet have I come at you with the intent to kill.” Alex said lacking in any real sense of emotion, a blank look on his face, “If you truly think that anything that I’ve done up to this point was anything less than attempts in inconveniencing you, then you’re both dumb and suicidal.”

Before any more words could be said, String’s wave of snow finally reached the pair and came crashing down. With a snarl on her face and a light blush on her cheeks, String dropped the temperature in the area drastically as she took all the rain and air moisture within a fifty-meter radius, turned it into snow, then added it to the wave she currently had bearing down on herself and Alex. String knew that (just like herself) Alex was using wind to keep the snow from coming down on him, so she concentrated on the wind that Alex had surrounded himself with and for a single second dispersed it.

“Fu-” But before Alex could finish his sentence, he was swept up by the waves of snow.

String hopped on her own wave and followed after Alex as she directed her wave of snow high into the air, above the trees and towards Owen’s hat. Within half a minute, String and her wave of snow had arrived back onto the cleared out path that Alex had created. Looking towards the massive hat, String assumed she was a little over a mile away from her target. Just as she came to this assumption, String was forced to halt herself and her snow as a pillar of fire appeared in her path.

Alex sat in the middle of this pillar of flame, looking remarkably dry (despite the copious amounts of rainfall) and emotionless. Rising to his feet, Alex thrust out a hand and created a wave of flame that rushed towards String reducing all the snow in his path to steam. Just as the fire reached her, String created a powerful updraft of wind that shot it into the sky. Dispersing this fire and wind, String began to breathe heavily as she returned to applying pressure to the right side of her head with her left hand.

“Well that was annoying.” Alex said dispassionately as he dispersed his shroud of fire. “I haven’t hated snow this much since I fought and killed Khione.”

“Who the hell is Khione?”

“She was a goddess of snow,” Alex did a quick tilt of his head, “Now she is dead.”

String adjusted her stance to stand taller, while maintaining a glare on Alex. Alex only gave String a blank look as he asked her a question of his own.

“How the hell are you able to see me by the way? I know for damn sure you should be blind right now.”

“I am.”

Alex’s expression showed no visible change, though he began tapping his nose directly following her statement. As Alex studied String closely, she did the same to him with a single thought going through her mind.

‘Glad my assumption that you don’t know the full extent of Forecast was confirmed. That makes this much easier.’

Still watching Alex closely, String allowed for a tiny bit of her focus to be taken away from her fight to concentrate on everywhere else her storm covered. With the storm’s center having reached Owen’s hat, String was now aware of the entire battlefield. Owen was sitting before a map that showed everyone on the battlefield, Max was napping against a tree with tears streaming down her face and her strange shoulder pad glowing as if charged with energy, Moon was using multiple bodies to just decimate a latex-wearing Herah, and-

‘What the hell? I thought Alex killed all of you?’

-a newly born Keijo was sprinting towards the general area that Herah and Moon fought.

‘You can thank me for this one’s survival.’ String growled at the sudden intrusion of Norwe into her mind, ‘What he has planned is just too interesting to have ended because of a little thing such as well thought out attacks.’

‘Fuck off, you piece of shit!’

‘Just answering questions and telling you that your fight is getting sorta stale.’

‘Yeah yeah, I noticed! I’m waiting for something to be done before I do anything else.’

‘I know, just informing you of how I feel.’

Now alone in her mind once again, String directed her smidgen of focus towards a small area at the very edge of her storm that she had a gentle breeze going through. Within this area, C.C. appeared to be giving directions to a small group of Oni, some archers and the rest technicians for the catapults that were still being set in position.

String returned her full attention to Alex, the human having only placed his empty hand on his amulet in the five seconds that she had spent observing all the others. Studying him closely while also keeping the pressure on her still bleeding wound, String called out to Alex.

“Why are you so afraid of Norwe?”

Alex didn’t even seem startled by this question, though his eyes did narrow at String before he dropped the hand that was tapping his nose and aimed it towards her. Summoning a ball of flames to his hand, Alex asked String his own question.

“Why the fuck do you care?”

String prepared herself for an incoming attack from Alex before saying,

“I thought it strange how you seem to harbor no hate towards him. He told me himself that all you ever feel when in his presence is fear, nothing but fear. I was curious as to why this might be.”

Alex snuffed out the flame in his hand and returned to tapping his nose. For a few brief moments, nothing was said between the two until Alex snapped his fingers and said,

“I’ll answer if you answer a question of mine.”

String appeared to ponder this for a moment before nodding yes. Seeing this, Alex let out a sigh and looked down at his hand lighting it with fire once again.

“Because control is something I value deeply,” Alex held out his hand towards String, the fire within it taking the form of a marionettist controlling a marionette, “Being in control of my situation and of the outcome of it is one of the few things that bring me joy in life. And Norwe, well he is able to take away all of that control,” Strings of fire sprouted from the marionettist and into a large hand of fire above them, “Without a single thought.”

As Alex dispersed his flame, String felt her glare lessen as she thought over his words. But before String could really delve into them, Alex asked his question.

“Why are you doing this?”

String’s brow scrunched up as she blinked at Alex a few times.

“Doing what?”

“Fighting me, attempting to destroy that tree, anything really.” Alex tilted his head to the side once again, “Your expression throughout most of our fight really tells me that you’d rather be anywhere but here.”

“”We elect you, String, to be the leader of our people!”” String quoted, looking down towards the ground as she spoke.

“What?”

“That was what I was told after I killed my father to complete my trial.” String looked up towards the sky, not at all irritated by the downpour that caused her clothing to cling to her body, “My people chose me to lead them to salvation. My father asked me, if chosen, to accept, just like he did when my grandfather died.” String looked down and towards Alex, “I do this merely out of obligation. To be honest, I’d love to just laze about and help keep the weather good for my people until my dying days. That would be a satisfying life for me to lead, in my opinion.”

“Hmmm.” Alex allowed for a smile to come to his face, as his voice loss its lifelessness and gained a tone of a honest pleasantness, “That does sound like something I’d be happy with myself. It’s too bad that this sense of obligation far outweighs your own desires.”

String could only nod as she allowed for a bit of her attention to drift towards C.C. and the others, with their weapons at the ready. Finding this, String quickly scrawled out the coordinates of their position in the dirt in front of C.C. with wind before giving her full attention back to Alex. The human had started nodding to himself in the brief moment String had taken to message C.C., and before String could ask another question she found her eyes actually looking at Alex. A quiet gasp and a few silent, surprised blinks left String before she then heard Alex say,

“Judging by your slightly agape mouth and that gasp, I assume that your vision has returned. This means my wind and fire manipulation will disappear soon enough. I’m also guessing that your archers and catapults are ready to add steel and earth to this rain.” String flinched at Alex’s words, getting a smirk in return, “I knew you were stalling for time, and I allowed it due to my need for stalling since I needed a bit of info from my sister.”

This set String on edge almost instantly, causing her to ask,

“What did she tell you?”

“You’ll find out soon enough.”

String let out a low growl.

“Don’t worry, it’ll be real soon. Speaking of real soon,” Alex’s voice and expression once again loss all sense of life, “Our fight is about to end, so its about time that we both get serious. Wouldn’t you agree?”

String removed her hand from the side of her head and entered a battle stance, just as Alex reached down to the ground and punched it.

“I can control the ground.”

The ground around Alex began to break apart as rocks shot out of it and began to form a half dome of dirt over his head, just as String started to create more snow and begun to create several small tornados around herself while also generating strong wind currents to speed of all the projectiles that were heading her way. Once again, String’s chain whip began to buzz as her hair started to rise. Launching the dart end of her weapon into the sky just as the lighting stuck, String felt the energy course through her as she acknowledged that only two strikes were left.

“I agree.”

ONI

What Moon considered his central body was currently sitting cross-legged within the first hole he had drilled when going under Max’s diamond wall. Very little of his focus was actually on this body, instead, it was currently being split in between the fifty-one bodies that were on the battlefield.

One of Moon’s bodies slammed Herah into the ground with a hypersonic punch, creating a crater that went deeper than the trees were tall. This was then followed up with another of his bodies falling atop Herah with all of its limbs transformed into drills that only dug her deeper into the ground. This body was moved to allow for a giant claw to enclose around Herah and whip her out of her hole and into the sky above the clouds. With the Cendruex now in the air, Moon sent four of his flying bodies after her. The first to arrive had their arms transformed into massive, spiked maces, which it preceded to use to slam Herah higher into the air. This one was then followed by two more bodies, both having their arms filled with holes to strike Herah in her front and back as many times as possible. The barrage of attacks were without mercy, though each punch only let out the tiniest of sounds and vibrations on contact. By the point these bodies were pulled back, they and Herah were surrounded by the black void of space with the planet of Bizarre now in full view below them. Herah’s momentum away from the planet was only slowed once the final body shot past and behind her before using his leg to catch her by the chest. Once that happened, this final body reared back his right hand and struck Herah full force in the stomach with a punch.

BOOM!

Just before 3 seconds went by, Herah struck the center of the first crater she had created. At her impact, a huge cloud of dirt and ash was kicked up into the stormy sky. Moon had the 46 bodies he was currently using to attack surrounding the edges of the crater before morphing two of their heads into giant fans and waving away the dust and ash cloud. Once cleared, all that Moon could see with his collective bodies was a hole in the center of the crater that was visibly very deep. A second later, Herah flew out of the hole and landed right next to it. The youngling angled her head towards one of Moon’s bodies before respectively calling out,

“You manage to punch me an entire kilometer into the ground, good for you.” Herah’s voice took on a more cocky undertone, “Too bad that didn’t actually do anything to me.”

Moon could only sigh at this while also focusing on Herah’s new look. Whatever she was wearing seemed to just absorb most of the force that she was supposed to suffer, while the amount left over seemed to just move her about.

‘This armor of hers is proving to be a problem.’ Moon thought to himself, ‘And Jeffery is doing his best to make my plan to combat it not come to fruition.’

Moon set his bodies back to work attacking Herah as his focus shifted towards 4 other bodies he had doing something at the very moment. 3 of them were darting around ripping as many trees as possible out of the ground and throwing them towards the final one who was floating in the air with a massive ball of black, shifting mass held above his head that only grew larger and larger with each added tree. The problem this group was facing was the near endless barrage of attacks that Jeffery would lay upon all of them, mostly the stationary body that was forced to use large chunks of the mass gathered to constantly heal itself.

“Father Jashin.”

The eyes of Moon’s main body snapped open as the sound of an Oni calling came to him. Keeping just enough of his focus on his other bodies to maintain proper control, Moon created a small tendril with an eye on the end of it to peak out of his hole and peer at a plain looking female Oni. She had grey skin and was on the short side, with her white hair short, messy, and dirty. She was dressed in a skirt of leaves and a bark shirt covered in moss.

“How may I help you my child?”

“I’m in need of a confessional, your holiness.”

Moon, for but a moment, showed a hint of surprise before quickly retracting his eye and telling the lady to sit before the hole and began her confession.

“In the name of the Log, and of the Seed, and the Leaf. This is my first confession.”

Moon heard the Oni let out a sigh.

“My name is Baka,” Moon blinked confusingly, “And I am ashamed to admit that I’ve lost faith in our lord. I have also been faking this faith since the loss of my mother. To be honest, I actually hate the Log. They’ve taken so much from me, they haven’t ever helped me, and at times I feel that they want me to suffer. I’ve come to question why I should even attempt to follow them, attempt to show them love, when I don’t feel like they’ve given me anything like that. Especially when my mother loved them so much, she idolized our creator. She would hear nothing bad about them. And most especially she loved them. Yet, she’s gone now and all I have left of her is a single photo. I question how could someone so dedicated and passionate towards the Log, be forced to suffer such a terrible fate. And sometimes I wonder if my mother loved me less than the Log, and wish, oh so terribly, that she loved me more. I am sorry for these and all the sins of my past.”

Moon felt tears run down his face as he listened to the Oni speak. She spoke with such shame and self-hate for the way she felt, it honestly just reminded Moon of himself. In fact, much of what she said hit an uncomfortably close distance to home.

Moon rubbed his eyes and gave a few sniffles before taking a deep breath and beginning his side of the confessional.

“To atone for your sins,” Moon couldn’t help but feel hollow as he said his words, “You shall-” Moon had to pause as he tried to find an answer he believed would help. After a brief moment of thought, Moon began speaking again. “You shall first drop these pretenses of faith, dishonesty of this magnitude with others is unacceptable. Next, you should do some self-reflection. This will surely help in the settling of your emotions and how you feel. After that, you should pray to the Log personally, to not just ask for forgiveness but to also lay your problems out in the air. This should help alleviate any remaining guilt and leave you bare enough to be an effective tool for our Maker. Once all of this is done (if we still remain), come back to me or whoever becomes priest in my stead and tell them you’re ready for your true atonement to begin.”

Now done, Moon let out a tired sigh as he waited for Baka to end her confessional.

“Aaahh False Priest, so you already know how to solve your problems.” The Log’s voice suddenly called out in place of Baka’s, causing Moon to leap up in surprise and for his eyes to widen as he sent an eye tendril back up and found the Log floating there, judgingly.

“Log-sama? Why do you manifest before me, if I might so humbly ask?”

“You know,” The Log began sounding rather happy, “I always find your shriveling before me far more entertaining than the Soothsayer’s. After all,” The Log’s voice took on a taunting tone, “I’ve always been able to feel the underlying hatred you hold towards me.”

Moon broke his main body down into black tendrils and then slithered out of his hole and before The Log before reforming.

“Why do you manifest before me?” Moon asked once again, sounding just a tad strained in his speech.

The Log shook with laughter before replying to Moon’s question.

“Because you might be dead by the end of this, and I figured I might as well finally talk to you about your problems with me.”

For a few moments, Moon could only stare at Norwe in stupefied awe. But once these moments passed, the priest felt just a miniscule fraction of the anger that he held for the Log finally slip.

“After all these years of me begging and begging for your reasons, for an answer, only now are you ready to provide such?” Moon asked, anger seeping into his voice, “Only now, when we stand at the edge of oblivion, do you wish to ANSWER ME!”

Moon at this point was glaring down at The Log who had stopped their shaking and now hung still in the air before the furious priest. After a few moments of silence, The Log gave a reply that Moon found frustratingly simple.

“Yup.”

CRACK!

Moon looked down to the wooden smithereens that remained of The Log, his expression having transformed into a furious snarl.

“IS THAT ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY! AFTER ALL THE BULLSHIT YOU PUT ME THROUGH, EVERYTHING YOU’VE TAKEN FROM ME! AFTER MAKING ME KILL M-Y MY-MY-”

Moon fell to his knees as tears began to pour down the sides of his face, grief filling him as he cried before the now reassembling pieces of The Log.

“Ah breakdowns, still I have yet to lose interest in them.” The Log said with a surprising lack of joy.

CRACK!

“TELL ME WHY YOU HAD ME KILL HIM!” Moon shouted with his eyes to the ground, his left hand buried in the already wrecked floor of the cathedral.

“Because just as he loved me, I loved him.”

Moon’s could only look at the ground in shock, The Logs words ringing through his head as his eyes slowly widened and his tears stopped pouring. And then a slight quiver ran through the priest’s body. This was then followed up by another.

Then another.

And another.

And another.

Until Moon was just quaking before The Log with his fist balled up and his tears gone with only their tracks left in place. And when Moon lifted his head to look upon The Log, all that could be found within his eyes were 1,594 years worth of rage.

“DON’T LIE TO ME!” He shouted, as The Log finalized their reassemblage before his eyes.

“You anger is understandable, but I’m being completely truthful when I say that I did love him.” The Log replied, an uncharacteristically seriousness carried in his tone.

Before even a second could pass, Moon morphed his left hand into a large mallet-like head and smashed The Log so hard that their entire being was pulverized into sawdust. Transforming his hand back into its normal state, Moon began to cry even harder than before as he shoved the same hand he used to crush The Log into his mouth and bit down.

CRUNCH!

Blood spewed into the air as every digit, excluding Moon’s thumb, was bit off and chewed a few times. The blood spray had managed to paint Moon’s face and mix with the downpour that came from his eyes, making it look as if he was weeping blood and tears. Moon swallowed his fingers before looking down at the ground and shouting in rage once again, this time at himself.

“DAMMMIT! WHY CAN’T YOU JUST LOVE THEM LIKE HE DID?! WHY CAN’T YOU BELIEVE IN THEM LIKE HE DID?!” Moon focused his eyes on the bloody droplets that were beginning to pool below his head, memories of Diavolo’s bloody tears before his own death coming to the forefront of his mind.

“Because it’s kinda hard for any being to love someone who hurt them so unapologetically, especially in the way I hurt you.”

Moon slowly lifted his head to look back up at The Log, with another shout on the cusp of his lips.

“WHY DO-”

But he found himself at a lost for words when he saw that what greeted his eyes were not the form of The Log, but that of Norwe the Maker. The entity sat before Moon with his legs crossed and his two bottom pairs of arms laying atop of them, while his top pair were crossed before his chest. The black holes that Norwe used as eyes stared at Moon with an intensity that lacked any sort of joy or glee that was expected by the priest.

“Moon, I appear before you to put some demons of your to rest. So, calm down and ask away.”

Moon could only gape at the Maker before him, disbelief replacing his rage at the thought of what Norwe was offering. Cupping his hands (the fingers having grown back on the one he bit off) and dropping his head into them, Moon began a rhythm of steady, deep breaths. With each intake of air and subsequent release, Moon felt his anger drop and drop until it was just a simmer. Absorbing the blood that covered his face back into his body, Moon lifted his head and gave Norwe a hard stare.

“Why?”

“Why what?” Norwe asked, somewhat tauntingly.

“Why did you have me kill Diavolo? What is the full reason?” Moon asked, staring even harder at Norwe.

Norwe pat the ground before him and said,

“You should sit down, this isn’t a short explanation.”

Moon sat down before his Maker, not exactly sure of what to expect from them.

“So?”

“Tell me what goal did Diavolo pursue throughout his entire tenure as priest of your people, if you remember of course?”

Moon nodded without a single thought, “Of course I do. He sought to one day rest within the Palo Santo.”

“You’re both wrong and right in your statement.” Moon gave Norwe a confused stare, “You said what Diavolo told you, but not what he meant.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s not that Diavolo sought to go to Palo Santo, it’s that he sought to “Rest Within The Palo Santo.””

“What does that even mean?”

“It means to rise above your own mortal values and submit yourself entirely to me.”

Moon blinked at Norwe in shock, before frowning at the Maker.

“That sounds like Diavolo through and through already.” Moon gained a confuddled expression, “Why would he pursue something that he had already achieved?”

Norwe shook his head and said,

“Because while he had mostly the mindset for his dream, he ultimately failed to complete the steps required to achieve it.”

Moon began to rub his head in frustration. “What were these steps and why couldn’t he complete them?”

Norwe’s eyes began to sparkle with the stars that had fallen into them as the Maker answered Moon’s question.

“Well, Diavolo was able to complete all but one of the four steps required to “Rest Within the Palo Santo”. One, be barren enough to receive my word. Two, kill your predecessor in my name. Thr-”

“WAIT!” Moon looked upon Norwe with an astonished expression, “Diavolo would never kill Frozen Light, unless you willed it. Are you telling me that he was actually the reason that his master died?”

“Nope. Frozen Light died before Diavolo ever learned of that step.” Norwe said, throwing a hand out dismissively.

“Thank the Log,” Moon whispered to himself.

“You’re welcome,” Norwe replied, quickly shifting in and out of his Log state.

Moon blinked at his Maker a few times, before just shaking his head and saying,

“What were the other two steps then?”

“Three, decry you hold no ill will towards me and mean it. And four, you’ll know when it happens.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean it’s the only step that you can’t fail no matter what, and you’ll know what it is when it happens.”

“So are you not going to tell me then?”

“Yep.”

Moon looked back at Norwe with his mouth slightly agape, mild disbelief filling him at the Maker’s unwillingness to speak which quickly turned into grudging acceptance. Closing his mouth and taking a quick gulp of air, Moon blinked a view times and gave Norwe a long stare.

“Earlier you said you had me kill Diavolo because you loved him, but you just told me that he wasn’t able to complete his dream before death. Why would you have his life ended before he could complete his dream?”

Norwe leaned back and looked towards the ceiling before beginning their reply.

“The main catalyst has to do with how much faith Diavolo held in you.”

Moon pointed to himself, with his face crinkling up as he shook his head.

“What do I have to do with Diavolo’s dream?”

Norwe looked back towards Moon and a few more stars fell into his eyes and began to twinkle.

“Why the only reason that he died peacefully was because he figured that you would attain it for him.”

Moon’s expression became even more confused before he replied,

“But you’re only telling me this now! And, let me be honest with you, step three is currently not a possibility for me.”

“Oh I know,” Norwe said, the stars in his eyes twinkling brighter than before, “But I have an easy solution to it.”

“What would that be?” Moon asked with caution, trepidation filling him at Norwe’s words.

The stars in Norwe’s eyes began to twinkle even brighter.

“I’m about to let you talk with him.”

“What do-” But before Moon could finish his question, he saw Norwe disappear and felt a new presence within the cathedral. A familiar presence at that.

“Moon my child,” A matured and calming masculine voice called out from behind him, causing Moon to freeze at the familiarity of the voice and words, “Turn around and look at me. By your current look, I already know it’s been some time since I died.”

Taking a gulp of air, Moon slowly and stiffly turned to face the one speaking to him. As soon as his eyes landed on the figure, Moon felt tears well up as a hand went up to his mouth which began gnawing on his fingers.

Standing near the doors to the cathedral was a Keijo who stood just a bit taller than Moon, being 6,11 with green skin and a slim but muscular physique. Unlike Moon and String, this Keijo had long sharp ears that framed his head and a set of orange spiky hair that stood right up. Atop his forehead was a clover-like design and his pupiless eyes were a distinctly bright, blood-red color. The Keijo’s expression was one of acceptance and pleasantness, his eyes showing a distinctly jolly stare and his mouth was morphed into a smile that just radiated satisfaction.

“Di- Di- Diavolo?”

Moon watched Diavolo’s image visibly warp and bend before the stopping before him with a single one of his hands now grasping Moon’s damaged one.

“I always did hate this nervous habit of yours,” Diavolo said, gently taking Moon’s hand from his mouth and looking down at it. Moon had already bitten his digits to the point that they were bloody and that bone was clearly visible. Diavolo frowned at this and gently placed his other hand atop of Moon’s chewed one. Green tendrils began to emerge from the appendage, seeping into Moon’s wounds and fixing the damage wrought on them. Within a second, all that remained of Moon’s biting was the green skin that had grown in to replace Moon’s own.

“Now,” Diavolo raised his face to smile at Moon, “Why don’t we- Hmph!”

Moon wrapped his arms around Diavolo tightly, before beginning to sob into the Keijo’s shoulder. Diavolo’s smiled deepened as he wrapped his arms around Moon and said nothing while the sound of his student crying filled the cathedral.

It was ten minutes before Moon’s crying had pittered out to the point of sniffles.

“I’m so happy to see you.” Moon said with a teary smile, after his last few sniffles left him.

“Same,” Diavolo said with a beaming smile of his own.

Backing away from Diavolo, Moon felt more tears began pouring from his face as he began to just let out everything he wanted to talk about.

“I’vebeensoconvusedsinceyoudied,sinceIcouldn’tfindagoodreasonastowhyithappened.I’vemadesomanymistakes,likegettingsomeofmyappprenticeskilled,tryingtofightMaxandHerahsoastoavoidaconfrontationlateron,butinsteadnearlygettingyouerasedandgettingabombdroppedonus-”

“Moon,” Diavolo caught the frantic priest by the shoulder, “Speak slowly, it wouldn’t do to exhaust yourself so quickly after we’ve reunited.”

Moon took a few deep breaths before smiling thankfully at Diavolo. The previous priest then sat them both down on the ground, with Moon sitting with his knees close to his chest and Diavolo with his legs underneath his body and his knees to the floor.

“Before you go any further, I want to know just how long its been since I’ve died.”

“1 century, 594 years, 15 months, 13 weeks, 57 days, 15 hours, 13 minutes, and seven seconds.” Moon said with no hesitation or struggle, his expression blank.

Diavolo let out a huff and began rubbing his chin, before dryly chuckling to himself and saying,

“Norwe-sama really does not have any sense of agency.”

“What do you mean?” Moon asked with a slightly confused look.

“I asked our wonderful Maker to let me speak to you after my death because I knew that you wouldn’t be in the best places afterwards and figured some words from me would help you out. I also had a request of you, but we can move onto that later.”

“Norwe already told me what you want of me and I-” Moon looked down and away from Diavolo, “I don’t think it’s possible for me to do such a thing. I’m sorry.”

“Hmm,” Moon felt Diavolo’s hand grasp his chin and lift it until their eyes were level with each other, the previous priest nodding his head with a small smile on his face, “I know you think you can’t, but I’m pretty sure I can help you get past that. Of course,” Moon watched Diavolo let go of his chin and look away from him with a small frown on his face,

“That’s only if you want to do it after you learn exactly why I asked Norwe-sama to have you kill me.”

Moon’s eyes widened at these words, the shock of Diavolo’s words running through him. Tears began to prick his eyes as feelings of rage and denial began to fill him. As fresh tears began to leave his eyes, Moon began to furiously shake his head.

“What do you mean, you asked Norwe to have me kill you?” Moon asked, heavy sounding words rapidly shifting to a more frantic tone. “Why would you- Why would you- WHY WOULD YOU-” A sob left Moon as he shoved his other hand into his mouth.

CRUNCH!

Another spray of blood filled the air as Moon bit off more of his fingers and began crying harder. Stopping his head shaking, Moon took his wrecked hand from his mouth and rose to his feet before he began to shout at Diavolo.

“WHY WOULD YOU EVER WISH SUCH AGONY AND PAIN ON ME!?”

Moon shoved an unsurprised Diavolo (he having jumped up shortly falling Moon), the prior priest being launched off his feet and across the entire cathedral towards the door. Flipping his body upright, Diavolo slammed his feet into the already wrecked floor, adding another pair of gorges to it and slowing to a stop just before the entrance.

“WHY LEAVE ME TO DO WHAT YOU DID SO MUCH BETTER THAN I EVER COULD!?”

Diavolo’s image once again distorted and warped before stopping just in front of Moon, the furious priest slapping away Diavolo’s attempt to rest a hand on his shoulder.

“WHY WOULD YOU BE SO CRUEL!?”

Moon made to shove Diavolo again, but missed and stumbled as his predecessor stepped out of the way of the shove.

“WHY WOULD YOU LEAVE ME SO CONFUSED AND SO LOST!?”

Moon regained his footing and furiously swiveled to face Diavolo, one of his hands rising to point towards himself.

“DID I NOT MATTER TO YOU ENOUGH!?”

Moon pointed towards the stained glass windows depicting The Log.

“DID YOU LOVE NORWE MORE THAN YOU DID ME! OR-

Moon abruptly halted in all of his movements, tears now blinding his vision as he felt all of his anger and fury bleed out of him, leaving only despair as he fell back into his previous sitting position and shook his head.

“-Did you ever care about me in the first place?”

“Of course I care about you Moon,” Diavolo looked down and away from the weeping priest, “But I did ask Norwe to have you kill me for a reason.”

“Why?! WHY!? WHY!?” Moon begged, looking down and balling both of his fists up before smashing them into his knees until they were bloody paste on the ground.

“Because I’m selfish.”

Moon paused in his actions to look back up at Diavolo who had stuck out his hand to the point that it stopped just before Moon’s face. The appendage broke apart into green tendrils that began to repair Moon’s fingers and legs. Once done, the Keijo lifted his newly repaired hand and watched as his now green digits flexed a few times. Moon’s eyes drifted to his knee as his hands parted his robes slightly to allow for his now green kneecaps to be seen. Looking at all of this, Moon allowed himself a few breaths to calm down. Moon then looked back up to Diavolo and said,

“Explain.”

Diavolo let out a sigh before returning to his own seated position and resting his unhealing hand on its matching knee.

“My selfishness is something that shows itself in two ways.” Diavolo’s voice was quiet and somber, “The first has to do with me finally learning how to achieve my dream and realizing that I could not bring myself to do it.”

“To do what?” Moon asked, confusion ripe within his tone.

“That reason is very much connected to the second way by which my selfishness manifest, so I’ll tell you that when I get there.” Diavolo took a deep breath before renewing his speech, “When I realized I would be unable to ever complete my dream, I lost much of my reason to live.”

“What about your dream was so important that life wasn’t worth living!? Why does Resting Within the Palo Santo matter so much to you?!” Moon shouted, anger and frustration flowing throughout his voice.

“Because I know that achieving that state is the greatest insurance the Oni could ever have.” Diavolo answered, his expression now stern and serious. Moon gained a look of surprise at the deep stare that Diavolo now gave him.

“What do you mean?” Moon asked, his brows crinkling in frustration.

“To Rest Within Palo Santo is to submit your entirety to Norwe-sama, bare and unprotected.” Diavolo looked towards where Norwe had previously floated, Moon looking towards the same spot in response, “This is considered the greatest show of faith imaginable, which is why when doing such a thing Norwe-sama awards you by making you his avatar.”

“What does that entail?” Moon asked, a bit miffed by the continued increase in questions.

“It entails you the ability to manifest Norwe-sama’s one true power. To be an expression of what Norwe-sama is all about.” Diavolo turned back to face Moon, his seriousness still in full effect, “It entails you to CHAOS. With it, the world would contort and change from your mere Presence.” Diavolo let out a sigh and turned his eyes downward, “Being unwilling to ensure such a boon for us hurt me very deeply. It made me feel as if I wasn’t giving all that I could.”

CRACK!

“Bullshit!” Moon shouted, burying his fist into the floor before redrawing it and pointing accusingly towards Diavolo, “Your entire time as priest you gave all that you could for our people and Norwe. You helped lead and protect our people through two of our trials, helped to create an entirely new batch of followers in The Log, and helped to keep the morale of our people at its highest! You gave so much to everyone!”

“But that was not everything I could give,” Diavolo quietly stated, his voice filled with a gentle sadness, “Earlier I said one of my reasons were because I couldn’t achieve my dream. That was not the best way to state my point. What I should’ve said was that one of the reasons was because I felt I would be unable to rest peacefully and soundly if I didn’t somehow ensure the achievement of my dream.”

“If this was truly such a big thing,” Moon began still not fully understanding Diavolo, “Then why could you not carry it out? Why could you not complete what you worked your whole life to achieve?”

Diavolo let out another sigh before raising a hand and resting it on Moon’s shoulder. The prior priest closed his eyes for a moment and when they reopened Moon found them to be filled with a strange mix of love and disappointment.

“I found that the only other way to Rest Within Palo Santo was to kill you.”

Moon’s eyes widened in shock at these words, a gasp coming to his lips. Diavolo tightened his grip on Moon’s shoulder before he continued speaking.

“I found that replacing Frozen Light with you was a perfectly acceptable condition since they both accomplish the same task.”

“What- What would that be?” Moon asked, already sure of the answer.

“To be rid of the one that might most stand in the way of Norwe-sama’s will. It’s an exchange afterall, so why not trade the one who has the most sway on you?”

“But you love Norwe,” Moon asked in disbelief, “Why would you allow me to ever stop you from achieving what you so vehemently wanted?”

At this point, Moon saw tears began to creep out of the corner of Diavolo’s eyes as the previous priest gave Moon a wide smile filled with ambivalence, the two emotions being sadness and happiness.

“Because as much as I love Norwe-sama, I love you more.”

“What?”, Quiet shock filled Moon’s voice as he gave Diavolo a bewildered stare.

“I helped you grow for over a thousand years Moon, and during that time I came to view you as my child.” Tears began pouring from Diavolo’s eyes “And I’m not as carefree as Norwe-sama or as selfless as Stardust, so I knew I could never “Rest Within Palo Santo.”

“You really think of me as your own?” Moon asked, fresh teardrops springing anew from his eyes as a smile appeared on his face.

“That’s the main reason why I’m asking you to carry out my dream,” Diavolo said, his head tilted to the side as tears now poured sideways down his face, “So now it’s all out, and I want to know how you feel.”

“It makes me feel abandoned,” Moon started with a stark sharpness to his voice, a small sniffle coming from him, “It makes me feel betrayed. But,” Moon’s voice lost a bit of its edge, as tears increased even more in their downpour, “I understand, I can forgive you, but I can’t simply forget what Norwe has done so quickly.”

“Will you try?” Diavolo asked, a bit of worry creeping into his voice.

“Of course.” Moon answered nodding his head yes.

“That’s all I need.” Diavolo said with the widest of smiles on his face.

Moon and Diavolo then embraced each other while still sitting and cried tears of joy into each other’s arms. For a good long while, the pair just wept together enjoying each others company. But eventually, both of their tears dried and the pair separated with the widest of grins on their faces.

Rising to his feet, Diavolo let out a saddened sigh as he looked around him.

“I’ve missed this place, even if it does look like a wreck.” Diavolo looked back at Moon who had risen to his feet, “I hate that I’m going to have to leave it and you once again.”

The edges of Moon’s grin tilted downward slightly at these words as tears once again began to well up in his eyes.

“How much longer do you have?”

“Hmmm.” Diavolo rubbed his chin for a second before shaking his head, “I don’t know for sure, just not long.”

“I’m sorry that you have to go so soon-” Diavolo interrupted Moon in his apology by setting his hand on the priest’s shoulder.

“You shouldn’t apologize for what’s out of your control. In fact,” Diavolo flicked Moon on the head, “You should stop being so regretful for what you do. You’ll never find any semblance of personal peace if you don’t.” Diavolo gave Moon a stern look, “Do you understand?”

Moon just nodded, thinking over Diavolo’s words and attempting to take them to heart. Diavolo then embraced Moon once again, and this time the pair hugged each other in silence.

Then, with no further warning, Moon no longer felt the embrace of Diavolo.

He only felt painfully empty air.

Letting out a sigh as fresh tears ran anew, Moon shook his head as he felt Norwe reappear behind him.

“Thank you,” Moon said, his voice quiet and low, “For letting me see him again.”

“No problem.” Norwe said, before floating through Moon and stopping with their back to the priest. Quickly turning to face Moon, Norwe asked, “So is that third step still impossible for you?”

Moon gave Norwe a glare, though the priest knew that it had lost much of its strength after his talk with Diavolo.

“No, but it’ll still be a challenge.”

“Great,” Norwe clapped all six of their hands together, ” That’s all I need. Are you ready to get back to your battle?”

Moon’s eyes widened as he returned more of his focus back to his bodies and found the most puzzling of sites.

“Nani!?”

All of his bodies, no the entire world alongside them seemed to be going much slower than before.

“You can thank me for that,” Moon returned his attention back to his body that was dealing with Norwe, and returned to the sight of Norwe with his black holes twinkling again, “I sped up time within the cathedral instead of slowing it everywhere else because Alex would undoubtedly be annoying me by constantly speeding it back up, and I just don’t want to deal with that right now.”

Ignoring most of what Norwe was saying, Moon redirected a good chunk of his attention to the only other body he had that was currently not in combat with Herah or Jeffery and found that it was almost at its destination.

“I can’t wait to see how that’s going to go,” Moon once again directed his attention back to his central body finding Norwe’s eyes twinkling even more than before and their tone overtly joyful, “You mind giving a message to Owen when you see him?”

Moon gave Norwe an unsure look, before shrugging his shoulders and saying,

“Sure. What do you want me to say?”

HALT

Owen was currently seated, being forced to multitask as he watched over both Herah’s and Alex’s dots, the pair jerking around sporadically within their separate battlefields, Jeffery who was darting across the entire projected map at such speeds that it gave Owen a slight headache, String who seemed to be partially tracking Alex, and the numerous bodies that Moon was running across the entire forest.

RIZZZZ!

“What the-”

Just as a completely new dot representing Moon appeared on his projected map, the ground a few feet behind Owen burst open as a Moon shot out of it with his left arm transformed into a massive drill. Flying a few feet into the air, Moon quickly morphed his arm back into its normal state before landing in front of a very surprised Owen.

‘Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!’ Owen thought, scrambling to his feet as Moon morphed his other arm into an axe and began to walk towards the gnome. For some strange reason, Owen immediately noticed the tears tracks on Moon’s face with the saddened expression he wore being the second thing Owen noticed.

With greats amounts of fear and terror filling Owen, the gnome held his left arm down to his side as his hand opened wide and a purple square with yellow runes of celestian filling it. Before Owen could make another move, Moon spoke.

“Norwe told me to tell you that the moon has completed its phases.”

Owen felt a fleeting sense of worry at Moon’s words.

‘He is a part of this too?’ Owen asked himself before shaking his head and calling upon magic from the Goddess Reese to fill the spell he was prepping. ‘If I can convert his kinetic energy into potential I should be able to halt him until I can signal someone to hel-‘

Owen found his thoughts cut short by Moon’s axe hand appearing in front of his face before he could react. Moon lowered his blade until it was under Owen’s chin and used it to tilt Owen’s head up to look at his own.

Owen’s breath began to come in rapid, short bursts as his pupils dilated and fear filled his entire being. His body quivered as tears began to drip from his eyes at the thought of what was most likely to happen to him.

‘Is he going to kill me?’ Owen frantically thought, as he barely noted the strange feeling of his left ring finger heating up, ‘Oh Lady Grey, let this not be my end.’

Owen watched unable to move from his own fear as Moon moved his other hand to his mouth and bit down on his left pinky.

CRUNCH!

Owen’s eyes widened further as he slowly watched blood fly into the air and splatter partly on Moon’s face. Before Owen could even think another thought, Moon flicked a single drop of blood onto his face.

As soon as the blood drop touched his cheek, Owen’s body froze and his mind halted any and all thoughts to just focus on the speck of blood that now tainted his face.

‘Blood. Blood. Blood. Blood. Blood. Blood. Blood. BLood. BLood. BLood. BLood. BLood. BLood. BLOod. BLOod. BLOod. BLOod. BLOod. BLOOd. BLOOd. BLOOd. BLOOd. BLOOD. BLOOD. BLOOD. BLOOD! BLOOD!-

BLOOD!‘

Owen could think of nothing else as Moon walked past him while saying,

“I’m sor-” There was a brief pause, “No. I need to stop apologizing for what I do. This is for myself and my people.”

Owen paid little mind to Moon’s words, his body paralyzed and all of his attention still being held by the tiny droplet of blood that now ran down his face. He did not move when Moon’s footsteps stopped, or when he heard the priest shift his feet around as he readied the strike that would end the battle in the favor of his people, nor did he move when the smell of smoke greeted his nose.

It was only when Moon swung at the tree that Owen moved, though not willingly. Before he even realized it, Owen’s left hand shot up and forcibly turned his body to face Moon. Mid-turn, a bunch of smoke began to billow from Owen’s left ring finger just before a sharp click was heard, quickly followed by one phrase.

“La Gloutonnerie.”

VRRRMMM!

By the time Owen’s brain had caught up with his body, Moon was completely gone from the clearing and a soft burp came from his finger.

“Dix minutes avant que ma nourriture soit digérée.”

Owen looked down to his finger and towards what Herah had handed him right before leaving for battle in shock.

It was a ring.

More accurately, it was a small dragon that was made of jade and had multiple joints covering it. Its entire tail wrapped around a third of his finger starting at the base of the digit, while the rest of its body covered his finger with its four legs slightly wrapped around his finger and its wings folded-in laying atop its back. The dragon’s head sat atop the top of Owen’s fingernail and was just a bit larger than it. There were also wisps of smoke pouring from the dragon’s mouth, nearly making Owen cough when it flew into his mouth and nose.

‘This ring saved us all.’ Owen thought to himself before shaking his head and reaching for his amulet.

‘Herah!’

‘Owen!’ Herah mentally shouted back sounding a tad happy, ‘Glad you checked in when you did, I’m about to begin my counterattack and I still need your help locating each of the Moons. Especially because half of them are now somewhere not attacking me.’

‘Before any of that, I have to say thank you.’

There was a brief silence on Herah’s end before she responded.

‘While I will never need a reason for someone thanking me since I’m just so fucking great,’ Herah’s slightly pompous tone switched to a more modest one, ‘It would be nice to know exactly what I’m being thanked for.’

Owen quickly wiped away the blood on his face doing his best not to think about it.

‘Your dragon ring saved us all.’ Owen thought, sounding immensely grateful, ‘Moon had appeared and almost destroyed the tree. He was only stopped thanks to your ring.’

‘It’s a Cendre ring, I don’t know what a dragon is,’ Herah said sounding a bit confused before shifting to a more cheery voice, “But I’m glad both you and the tree are safe.’

‘Anyway, I need to get Max over here with me real quick before I check back in with you. Let me know when you need me.’

‘Okay then, Herah out.’

As soon as Owen felt Herah leave his mind, the gnome gained an expression of shame and disappointment, as he thought about what had just occurred. A single tear sliding down the side of Owen’s face, as he voiced a thought that bothered him down to his core.

“It’s only thanks to Herah that he was stopped.”

ONI

“This isn’t looking good,” Moon said to himself as his central body let out a grunt of irritation at what had just occurred. Just before the body could destroy the Donneur de Frêne, it got swallowed into what amounted into a void and had been flayed to the point of non-existence. He had only gotten past Owen’s surveillance system by digging around and just out of its thirty-kilometer radius until close enough to get in with little issue. The sudden loss of one of his bodies had also caused for Moon to redraw 23 of his bodies attacking Herah and to immediately send them towards Owen and his hat. That was until he lost the 23 he had still attacking Herah before half a second could pass, which was then followed up with who Moon only assumed to be Herah completely shredding his 23 other bodies before half a second more could go by as well. Jeffery had also had a drastic increase in speed, ridding the world of his 3 bodies gathering extra mass before completely blitzing the ball of mass that Moon had worked so hard to create.

Seeing all of this, Moon sent a finger to his mouth and bit it off. Right after chewing it for a bit and swallowing the end of his digit, Moon let out a sigh and said,

“I didn’t want to do this, but it seems I’ll have to draw on my last resort if I want to win this.”

Moon then raised the same hand he had just bit off of and waited for his finger to regrow. Once done, Moon initiated his last resort with a single action.

SNAP!

ONI

“FUCK YOU ALEX! I THOUGHT WE HAD SOMETHING FOR A MOMENT THERE!”

BOOM!

String, now fuming in rage, directed the snow wave she was surfing on just out of the way of another falling tree as she also shouted her head off at Alex. The Keijo had spent the last four minutes dodging around the copious amounts of trees that had been falling from the sky.

Each and every single one of them courtesy of Alex and Max of course.

The rain that blanketed the battlefield had drastically increased in its fall to the point that String could no longer visibly see anything more than a foot in front of her. Muddy craters, huge chunks of the trees that had previously been floating in the sky strewn across the ground, broken and unbroken arrows, and muddy snow now covered much of the battlefield. Several tornados were still moving across the ground in an intricate pattern that had nearly caught Alex several times, and arrows and trees would regularly fall from the sky, though String found that the tree she had just dodged had been the last of those.

“You sound as bout as hurt as you look String,” Alex responded with his unlively voice, “This isn’t looking too good for you at the moment.

String’s current state of wear could not disagree with Alex’s words, with her clothes being filled with rips and tears from several near collisions with the falling trees and some very well timed rock shots from Alex. Blood and bruises also now covered her body, with much of the bleeding being non-threatening on its own but a serious danger altogether with the bruises being much of the same case. This didn’t even account for String’s very much still detached ear.

The only good thing to occur to String so far was another electrical charge being gained.

Alex was currently riding atop a mound of unstable shifting mud and dirt, with a makeshift suit of rock covering much of his body that had quite a few arrows and bits of the wooden debris from the now wrecked trees stabbed into it. Most of the arrows had struck weak points within the gear that Alex was wearing and only a few had actually drawn blood from the human, the most damaging being one that had cut a gash into his cheek. Arrows were all Alex was attacked with now, since boulders had proven to be more fuel than weapons against in regards to Alex.

Speaking of which, String sensed an incoming hail and began preparing herself for her attack. Just as the sky darkened even more, Alex raised a single hand and pushed towards the arrows. A large chunk of the ground condensed itself into a massive boulder and was launched towards raining steel. String made this a futile effort, however, by creating several drafts of air that diverged all the arrows in seemingly random directions before setting them all on a crash course with Alex. The human immediately flipped off of the ground he rode and hunkered down before throwing both his arms out and clapping them over his head, creating a dome of rocks around himself. String ended up making this a moot point as well though, by creating several drafts of winds that worked as pressurized drills that easily tore into Alex’s dome. This, however, didn’t do String any good since Alex had burrowed underground at this point, the arrows only striking the area he had originally stood.

“Dammit,” String grunted out, her eyes but more her mind scrying the ground in search of any shifts or movements that would betray Alex’s position. “Where the hell are yo-”

The ground beneath the snow that String surfed upon exploded as Alex shot out of it and through String’s snow until right next to her. With Nike in hand, Alex made for swipe to String’s head but the chieftain leaned just out of the way of his attack and struck him with her own weapon right on the tail end of one of the arrows that had just lightly stabbed Alex’s left shoulder. String then followed this up by slamming Alex towards the ground with a heavy down current of wind.

“That was impatient of you Alex!”

Before impact could even occur the ground beneath opened up to swallow Alex, so String hit Alex with a gale of wind going sideways that launched him towards one of the nearby tornados String had created. Before Alex could reach the tornado, he raised one of his hands to his shoulder, used some of the rock covering him to cut off the end of the arrow String had hit, and fired it out of the draft pushing him.

CRAAAK!

A bolt of lightning struck the area between the battling duo just as Alex was caught by the tornado String had launched him into. This tornado just so happened to be filled with hundreds of arrows and wooden shards. String watched as more and more arrows and wooden shards began to chip at and stab into Alex’s protection. Alex, in his turbulent spinning, managed to stick one hand out and make a gesture upwards. A gigantic hand of mud and earth emerged from the ground and wrapped around Alex before pulling him towards its origin. String cut this short with several mini-tornados being created and sent through the base of the rocky hand. With the hand of land now destabilized, String created heavy downwards and upwards draft that slammed into each other with the hand caught in between the two. The hand began to flatten under the pressure of both currents but just before it got to a surely fatal point for Alex, the ground once again shifted as two more massive hands of land came up and (somehow) gently wrapped around the mass of dirt that Alex was held within.

“Oh no you don’t!” String shouted before increasing the pressure of her currents tenfold, causing the hands to lose their stability and to flatten the dirt and mud that Alex was trapped within.

When no immediate response to String’s last attack came, the chieftain found herself instantly on edge. Making sure to not stop her snowy mount and placing a large amount of her focus on the ground beneath her, String used several drafts of wind to rip the gigantic dirt/mud clump apart.

As the Keijo ripped away at the mud and dirt, she noticed that it got steadily redder and redder until-

“Oh shit!” String said, as her eyes widened at what she found in the dead center of the clump.

Alex’s very, very damaged corpse.

The first thing that String really noticed was just how flat Alex looked. He couldn’t have been more than an inch or so thick, with much of his body soaked in his own blood and several of his organs having exploded out of several very visible holes. The next thing that drew String’s attention was the fact that his eyes seemed to have exploded with only a bloody grisly mess being left in his now much tinier but wider sockets. The last thing that really captured String’s attention was how even in death, Alex’s flattened head held no real expression.

String let Alex’s body fall gently to the ground as she took herself down and allowed for the snow she rode to stop in its movements. Walking over to Alex’s corpse with the tiniest bits of trepidation filling her, String made sure to never stop in the spinning of her chain whip. After reaching his body and giving it a few nudges with her feet, String backed up and struck it with her whip. The next three seconds were completely uneventful, with the only thing that really happened being a decrease in the downpour around String.

CRAAAK!

The bolt of lightning struck Alex’s corpse incinerating what remained and leaving only ashes that were quickly diluted by the rain. Looking around, String found both Nike and Tara a few feet away on either side of Alex’s body.

“I- I won.” String let out a small chuckle, that rapidly divulged into full out joyful laughter, “I fucking won!” String’s left hand went up to cover her shade-covered left eye as she leaned over laughing even harder, “I took the bastard down!”

After a few more moments of laughing, String got herself back together and scrawled a quick message before C.C. of the good news. Letting out a breath, String dismissed the several tornados she still had going while also prepping for her advancement towards the Donneur de Frêne.

“One down, two more to worry about.” String said to herself as she took a single step, “Hopefully I can just get in and take out the tree without running into either.”

cri-CRACK!

SHLUK!

A very much alive Alex shot out of the ground in front of String with Nike slashing upwards, cutting a deep gash into the left side of String’s face that went right through her shades and left eye.

“GAHH!” String shouted in pain as she stumbled back just a bit, though not too far so as to save herself. The chieftain then used a strong current of wind to slow Alex’s ascent and flip him over causing him to unwillingly cut at her face again. However, a slight miscalculation had been made by String so that instead of Alex just lightly nipping her on the right cheek he ended up cutting a twin gash to his earlier on String’s right side. Unlike before, String held in her shout and instead created a draft of wind that slammed into Alex’s chest with such force that he was shot away like a bullet with blood spittle being all that he left behind.

Sailing over 50 feet away before bouncing off the muddy ground a few times, Alex finally stopped after an ungraceful slide through the mud. Rising to his feet with a bit of effort and standing on unsteady and uncertain footing, Alex quickly shed his rocky armor, redrew Tara, and stabbed himself with it before putting it back where it came from. After the subsequent reversal of damage occurred, Alex stood up straight and firm with his arm raised towards String with Nike tight in his grip. Crimson liquid dripped from the blades edge, causing String to mentally bemoan the fact that it was hers.

“How-” String, now physically blinded in both eyes, wiped away the blood pouring from her face, as her breaths came in much harder and her mind began to fog up, “Did you, puff, pull that one, puff, off?”

“When the pair of hands wrapped around me, I immediately descended into the ground leaving behind a muddy look-alike of myself that I used my gift to make into a carbon copy of me. After that, I used my connection with the earth to sense your movements and waited for you to start heading towards Owen and the tree before making my attack.” Alex said this all while looking completely expressionless, before reaching for his nose and tapping it a few times and asking, “By the way, you purposely made me cut you twice with Nike. Do you know what she does?”

“That dagger, puff, decreases the luck of, puff, whoever you cut with it, puff, by an extreme degree, puff, until you cut them with, puff, it again.”

“Hmmm,” Alex paused in the tapping of his nose, before saying, “It’s kinda unfair just how much knowledge Norwe gave you on us, though it probably balances out with how much more powerful my group is in comparison to yours.”

Hearing this, String couldn’t help but to scoff as thoughts ran rampant in her head.

‘Shit! That might’ve not have killed me, but that last attack of his sure as hell did some major damage.’ String looked towards the sky, a buzzing sound now coming from her weapon and her hair rising to stand on end. ‘At least I gonna get my final charge, though I’ll need Alex within two-meters if I want to hit him.’ String returned her focus back to Alex, ‘He’s a fair distance out of range.’

String threw the end of her weapon into the air.

CRAAAK!

Just as all the previous times, a bolt of red lightning came down from the sky and disappeared into the wooden hilt of String’s chain before a feeling of energy began to course through her. Unlike before, String gained a purple shroud of energy and her eyes (even being the mess that they were) turned green with visible yellow arcs of electricity coursing across her body. String also felt her pain bleed away and her mind uncloud.

Alex took one look at String and said,

“You better hope that whatever you get from that new look of yours isn’t stopped time, because if it is I’m going to brutalize you.” Alex did a quick twirl with Nike, “Nothing against you personally, it’s just that stopping time is a crime against nature I will always willingly punish,” Alex did a quick tilt of his head, “Unless it’s Max, I’ll just punch her.”

“Why would you even think that was what I could do?” String asked, giving Alex a bemused stare.

“Don’t worry about it,” Alex responded, “Though something tells me that your range is two meters with whatever you can do, so I’ll just be staying out of range of you until I see the perfect opportunity to take you down, which should be in about 10 minutes. If your wounds are anything to go by.”

String flinched at Alex’s words, the question leaving her mouth without a thought.

“How did you know about my abilities range?”

“Max likes comics and media surrounding them,” Alex pointed towards himself, “I like manga and the media surrounding it.”

“What?”

Alex just shook his head and began to back away from String.

“Don’t worry about i-”

BOOM!

“The hell!” String shouted in surprise as Alex and a significant amount of area around him was suddenly engulfed within an explosion that launched a wave of snow and mud twice as tall as String towards her. Just as the wave reached her, the Keijo crouched down to the ground and quickly shoved her arms in a diving gesture towards the ground with the back of her hands together and spread them apart. This caused the incoming wave to split in halve and around String, with the work being done by twin diverging gales. Just as the mud passed by her, a thought came to String’s mind as to what had just happened.

‘Moon must’ve done that pollen shit of his.’ String’s eye-sockets widened, ‘Which means that I should be able to close the distance between us without issue now.’

String, using just the smallest bits of the energy that now flowed through her, quickly rushed forward, with the smoke clearing just as she made it to the 60 foot deep crater that Alex now laid in, a smell that was both pungent and pleasant emerging from him.

Sliding down a bit until she was just a meter away from Alex, String looked down at her opponent. What she saw was Alex’s entire body covered head to toe in burns. Starting at the top of his head, all of his hair had been burnt off and his scalp was black and charred. Moving down to his face, the right side of it was a mishmash of pink and red while the left was entirely blackened with his eye sealed shut while the right one was burnt away. Moving down to his torso and arms, Alex’s left arm, elbow down, had been blown away with a blackened stump being the only indication of any previous extensions. His right arm was burnt to the point that the skin covering most of it was gone with only bits of skin covering burning bone. Alex’s torso was shown to be a colorful array of red, pale, pink, white, tan, and black, his shirt and jacket having been burnt away entirely. Though String did notice that the amulet Alex wore remained with little issue. Moving down to Alex’s legs, his pants and underwear (if he had any) were reduced to ash as well, with his right leg much like his left arm and his left leg much like his right arm.

“Ooh,” String said, wincing at the condition of Alex’s crotch, which was completely blackened, “That must hurt like a bitch.”

“No shit Joseph.”

String flinched when she heard Alex’s croaky voice respond to her.

‘If his lungs still work he can use Enlightenment, I’m gonna need to hit him quick and hard.’ String took a deep breath before beginning to spin her chain high above her head and thinking, ‘Alex, it’s your time to die.’

“Tachiagaru!”

HALT

‘The fact that I can tell that the power of that explosion was just over 2 tons, really says too much about how often this has happened to me.’

This thought passed through Alex’s mind alongside the (what many would consider anyway) to be mind-numbing pain that he felt throughout much of his body. Alex was unable to see anything at the very moment, with one of his eyes unwilling to open and the other not showing anything even when he was sure he opened it.

‘I’m more worried about the numb areas than anything else really,” Alex thought to himself as he relinquished the grip his Principles orb had over his mind and whispered, “I’m aware of the area around me.”

Suddenly, Alex’s mind filled with a complete 360 few of everything within five feet of him and of his own body.

‘Well I look like shit.’

Then String appeared in all her purple glowing glory, sliding into his radius of awareness before stopping about 3.3 feet away from him.

‘I have the strange feeling that you’re not going to help me out on this, are you String?’

“Ooh, that must hurt like a bitch.”

‘Your deductive reasoning skills astound me String,” Alex thought to himself, ‘Truly only a great mind like yours could make such a conclusion.’

“No shit Joseph.”

Watching String flinch at his words would’ve brought a smile to Alex’s face, if he still had lips anyway.

‘Though, something tells me I’m about to find out just what exactly she can do with this powerup of hers, and I’m ninety-nine percent sure it’s probably fatal. I should heal myself fir-‘

“Tachiagaru!”

Alex’s perception of time slowed to its absolute limits, a third of a nanosecond, but even with him being able to perceive anything that occurred within that span of time he still wasn’t able to perceive over 10 thousand dart-sized holes filling his body until after they had all been made. 4 of these holes had been made straight in Alex‘s throat, severing his vocal cords.

‘You smart bitch!’ Alex thought to himself, as his perception of time returned to normal, ‘Guess our battle is about to reach its end a bit earlier than I expected.’

String had gotten out of Alex’s perceivable range within the first second leaving him, for the last two seconds, with his body and the crater he laid within being the only thing he knew.

CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAK!

A bolt of red lighting came down from the sky and struck Alex’s body, lasting for a total of five seconds before dispersing. Though Alex knew none of this, having lost all of his awareness within the half first second of the lighting striking him.

Alex knew not.

Alex thought not.

Alex was dead.

HALT

“So that ring Herah gave you swallowed the Moon who had tried to take out the tree?” Max asked Owen, having just teleported herself into the clearing to find Owen holding on to his amulet while looking gravelly ashamed and disappointed.

“Yeah, I was completely useless throughout the entire encounter,” Owen responded, looking away from Max as he spoke.

“Don’t be like that Owen,” Max said with care while crouching down to place her hand on his shoulder, “You’ve already done all you’ve needed to help us get through this. Hell, our survival actually hinges on these-”

BOOM!

BOOM!

Both Max and Owen were engulfed in explosions of their own, with Max’s engulfing the entire clearing while Owen’s only engulfed half of it. Before falling to the ground, Max saw that Owen had been completely incinerated by his blast with his clothing, ring, and amulet being all that remained of him. Max herself knew that her clothing had actually suffered no damage from the blast thanks to Orange’s work on them, though her body had been considerably and fatally damaged by what she knew to be Moon’s attack. Especially since there had been another much smaller explosion within her throat, this one having completely roasted her vocal cords.

‘You’ll see Owen, you saved us all in the end.’

Max and Owen knew not.

Max and Owen thought not.

Max and Owen were dead.

HALT

Herah felt drunk on power as her body and mind moved faster than they had ever done before. Combining the effects of Renaissance à son Sommet and the Gaashbenirium armor together had done exactly what Herah had wanted it to do, allowing her to completely eliminate all but one of the Moon’s bodies before even a full second could pass, with Owen keying her into the position of those who hadn’t been in her immediate vicinity.

Standing within an area completely uprooted of trees with no life around her at all, Herah looked towards Moon’s final body. Herah found that the ball of black they held above their head looked to be over 100 meters in size at this point, though it was rapidly shrinking in size thanks to her use of Jeffery.

‘It’s about time I join them up there I think,’ Herah thought to herself as her wings spread out behind her and a single flap was performed.

A sonic boom shortly followed her swift departure from the ground and towards the priest, a crater and cloud of dirt being left in her wake.

‘Let’s get this battle over with.’

But just as Herah’s claws were inches from the priest’s throat, everything went wrong.

BOOM!

BOOM!

Two explosions simultaneously went off in Herah’s ears, completely driving her deaf and stunning her to the point that she lost control of both her own movements and that of Jeffery. This was then followed up with the ball of black, shifting tendrils that Moon held above their head breaking apart and revealing thousands of Moons ready for battle. Before Herah could even get a grip of herself, all of these Moon’s descended upon her with a barrage of attacks that slammed her down into the ground much deeper and quicker than when Moon had knocked her back down from space earlier.

BOOM!

This time the hole Herah was in was five times as deep as before, but Herah focused less on this and more on this grand feeling of loss and emptiness that filled her as Max’s emotions completely disappeared from her mind. Though Herah’s attention was drawn from this feeling when something else began to fill the hole that had been dug with her body.

WHIRRR!

WHIRRR!

WHIRRR!

WHIRRR!

WHIRRR!

Hundreds of thousands of rounds of black bullets were now battering Herah even deeper into the ground. It would only take 4 seconds of relentless fire for the youngling’s armor to break, the gear exploding and dispersing as the bracelet reappeared on her arm.

“GAAHH!” Herah shouted as the agony filled her body due to the overstressing of it and the continued pelting of it with Moon’s bullets. With her mind now blank, Herah didn’t even know where anything or herself was until hearing Moon’s voice talking to her.

“Herah,” The youngling’s eyes managed to come into focus just enough that Moon’s face was just a tad blurry to her, as his left hand was wrapped around her neck with his right being positioned just over the pocket in her chest that stored her inner flame, “The battle is over.”

Herah’s response to this was just a weak shaking of her head, her mind being drawn to the feeling of Moon’s tendrils spreading throughout her body from the numerous bullet holes that filled her. This didn’t stop her from seeing the frown that came to Moon’s face as more words came from his mouth.

“Alex, Max, and Owen are dead.” Moon said, sounding surprisingly cold to Herah, though the youngling was able to detect the barest hints of regret in his voice, “And you’ll be joining them very soon. You’ve lost.”

“Phase, huhh, three, huhh, is about, huhh, to, huhh, begin.”

Herah watched as Moon’s eyes narrowed at her before the priest shook his head and softly said,

“You shouldn’t die in denial, Herah. It’s a terrible way to go.”

“I’ll be, huhh, right, huhh, back,” Herah said, a look of steel in her eyes.

Moon gained a pained expression as his hand began to push into Herah’s chest, his cold façade breaking when his next words left him.

“I’m sor-” Moon paused and shook his head before looking back at Herah with his own look of steel, “No more apologies.”

This got a chuckle from Herah and these words.

“Finally, huhh, you’re not acting, huhh, like such a, huhh, bitch.”

Moon then completely shoved his hand into Herah’s chest and wrapped it around the youngling’s flame, snuffing it out after a few seconds of burning. Herah felt her body begin to break down and return to her species namesake, before losing touch with herself and everything around her .

Herah knew not.

Herah thought not.

Herah was dead.

The Oni had claimed victory.

ONI

String, having lost her shroud and reached the edge of Alex’s crater heading towards her home, directed just a bit of her attention towards Alex’s ashes. The remains were rapidly being washed away by the rain that still beat down upon the entire battlefield, with some remorse filling String as she watched it occur.

“You know Alex, I think I would’ve liked to get to know you better. If to just answer some questions you left me with.”

String then made a half step forward before her fatigue from her wounds nearly made her fall. Halting in place, String instead decided to rest while standing and allowed for attention to drift over to Owen’s hat and found the burnt corpse of Max and the ashes of who she presumed to be Owen just resting near a remarkably undamaged Donneur de Frêne.

“Moon will handle that. Speaking of which,” String allowed for her focus to drift towards where Moon had been battling Herah and found-

“Of course you’re doing a rights thing,” String said with a groan as she found the thousands upon thousands of Moons bowing before a pile of slightly shifting ashes that had previously been Herah with a single one of the Moon’s saying some type of prayer. “Welp I’m gonna head home and tell everyone the good ne- THE HELL!?”

A massive pillar of violet fire suddenly emitted from Herah’s ashes engulfing many of the Moon’s within the area.

“What the fuck is going on-”

“I have cells in front of you.”

SHURK!

“Ack!”

Pain exploded in String’s abdomen as she hurriedly brought her focus back to her own body and found a completely restored and nude Alex standing before her with Nike buried in her gut. Making sure that her face was looking at Alex, the chieftain let out a choked sound before asking,

“How?”

Alex reached up to his amulet and tapped it.

“Within the center of this amulet previously sat a copper cross. When the one who wears the amulet dies, the cross will break and the power of the Goddess of Life from Owen’s world will resurrect them. It’s a one time deal though, so I can’t ever use that to cheat death again. Now,” Alex took his left hand and used it to tilt String’s head up before withdrawing Nike from her stomach with his right hand and placing the blade at her throat, “While your efforts were valiant, they, in the end, were ultimately-”

SHLUK!

Nike was swiftly drawn across String’s throat, blood rapidly pouring from the new wound as Alex let go of her and allowed for her to fall onto her back.

“-pointless.”

With her death rapidly approaching and her strength fleeing her, String didn’t even bother attack Alex, assuming that it would be a waste to attack someone who very much would expect such a thing. Instead, the chieftain hurriedly diverted all her attention to a single area. She used wind currents to scrawl a quick message for C.C. explaining what had just happened to her and passing on the mantle of chief onto her. Tears poured from String’s destroyed eyes at the sight of her close friend falling to her knees and crying before her message, but the Keijo dared not stop in her actions and instead quickly scrawled out another message that read: And if you fall, the sins of our forefathers shall be our last line of defense. Whatever you do, do not fall. Our species might not survive our last resort.

With that now done, String returned her attention back to her dying body. Alex hung over her, studying her very closely, not saying a word a single word. Seeing this, the chieftain raised her right hand and tried to touch Alex’s face but found the task not within her limits. Realizing this, String spat out a glob of blood that struck Alex right on his forehead.

Watching as the human reached up and rubbed away the blood, String was somewhat surprised when she heard him say,

“You’re a spiteful one aren’t you?” Alex said before twirling Nike a few times in his right hand and bringing it down.

SHULK!

And on that day, at that very moment; String Kujo, the third chieftain of the Penance seeking Oni, died at the hands of Alex, a gifted participating in Recompense.

HALT

Alex shivered slightly from the rain pouring across his nude form as he pulled Nike from String’s corpse, no real feeling towards her flowing through his mind.

Instead, Alex reached up to his amulet and got back into touch with his allies.

‘How is everyone doing?’

‘Death is terrible, I never want to do it again.’ Owen quickly replied, sounding rather stressed at the moment.

‘You’ll have to do it again eventually Owen,’ Alex responded, before quickly adding, ‘Hopefully no time soon though.’

‘Thanks,” Owen said, sounding rather ungrateful, ‘I needed that.’

Alex rolled his eyes as Max was the next to respond.

‘Not too bad to be honest. Dying has so far been the least worst part of my day. Though the break in connection and reestablishing of connection with Herah was bit jarring, especially since I’m feeling a lot of motherly fear from her right now.’

‘Glad you’re okay sis,’ Alex said, ‘Though a bit surprised by your response. Dying was an… Unsettling experience for me.’

‘Maybe I’m just more resilient than you in that way, brother,’ Was all Max said in response.

Alex felt a bit surprised by Max’s response, but chalked it down to her just being irritated at him still.

‘Death wasn’t too bad for me, since I got to talk with La Flamme for a bit.’ Herah spoke sounding on edge and worried, ‘Though one of the effects of it is really fucking with me right now.’

Alex let out a groan before asking Herah, in a severely irritated tone.

‘Will it interfere with phase 3 of our plan too much?’

‘It will interfere very much,’ Herah said, now sounding a lot more worried than before.

‘What happened Herah?’ Max asked, sounding just as worried as Herah.

HALT

Herah stood within a massive crater lined with hundreds upon hundreds of Moons that looked down on her with very surprised and confused expressions. Herah herself had all of her clothing now gone and her hair down once again. The youngling also had a little something new held to her chest. Jeffery floated protectively above her, with control having been handed back, the writing utensil on just as high alert as their creator at the moment.

“Dah, dah dah, dah, dah, dah.” A very young and blissfully ignorant voice called from with Herah’s gasp.

Herah looked down to what filled her hands, tears of joy and fear falling from her eyes at the sight that greeted her. In response to Herah looking at them, they stared back up at her with a small giggle leaving their mouth as they reached up with their stubby and short arm, pulling at a stray lock of her hair.

“Dammit!” Herah shouted at herself more than anyone else as a matching pair of slit, emerald stared into her own, “I wanted to wait way longer to complete this part of my list.”

‘What happened Herah?’ Max asked, her worried voice sounding wonderfully soothing to the youngling, who could only respond with a single sentence at the question asked.

‘I’m a mother now.’