Victor glared at the armored figure as he walked forward.

“Victor, what are you doing. Don’t - “

Levi’s words of caution were cut off as Victor took out his knives - now altered from the time in the treasury.

Instead of an ordinary handle, at the bottom of each one was a small purple quasi-sphere - the same that had kept the table floating. Only this time, inside them was a small red gem. In addition to that, there was an accompanying red gem on a glove - one with each finger.

Each shiv flew forwards at blistering speeds towards the knightly being, which proceeded to catch one between its fingers.

“That trick isn’t going to work anymore you empty bastard”, spat Victor.

Two of the other knives immediately sunk themselves into the eye sockets of the helmet and twist. The one that had been caught slipped from between the Abyss Lord’s fingers and slashed at the small gap between the helmet’s bottom and the cuirass once more.

“Cease this at once. “

The gauntlets flexed and attempted to remove the knives, only for a blast of pellets to bounce off the helmet and make the enemy step back.

“Yeh ain’t gonna kill us that easily”, growled Henry.

The metal assailant remained silent before falling to one leg as Levi appeared from the shadows behind it, hacking at the joint behind the leg and forcing it to kneel.

Chains of diamond courtesy of Bundo formed around each limb, restraining it and bolting the being to the ground.

Victor pulled out four more knives to a total of seven and manipulated their flight towards the thing’s wound. They lodged in the void shielded by the armor and pierced it slowly, seeming to cause actual pain to it.

Silk’s body rose up, her left eye looking on in hatred as she hobbled over.

“Any last words?”, she asked as she took out the liquid sword.

At once, the chains shattered and Henry was knocked back with a massive force. The knight had broken free and was holding its arm outstretched, seemingly having punched the old man across the room.

Levi attempted to backstab it before her cleavers seemingly hit a circle of space and hit someone else’s flank - accompanying a searing pain behind her.

She fell forward, two gashes along the rear part of her shoulders becoming apparent. She had somehow missed the Abyss lord and instead been injured by her very hand.

The shadowy robed silhouette slid forwards, its right sleeve raised.

“Impressive. Ferrimus has not been wounded for over ten thousand rotations around this blasted star. That is a truly commendable achievement.”

It shifted and gestured for its injured colleague to return alongside the four unharmed rulers of Abzu.

A dust cloud appeared where Ferrimus had been kneeling as it took its previous position.

A figure swathed in scraps of fabric whispered something that Silk couldn’t quite here as Bundo collapsed on the ground.

Desperately, Victor looked around and saw a patch of wall that wasn’t morphed into stone bricks. On it was a complex slab, covered in buttons and labelled in two of the few Omnic words he understood - DISTRESS BEACON.

A knife wrapped around it as Ferrimus dashed forwards in an attempt to stop him.

Bracing himself for impact and death, Victor looked in shock as the expected wound never reached him.

In front of him stood Henry, his torso impaled by the cruel metal gauntlet.

He coughed.

“Ye go and get help from that terminal over there. Probably connects to whoever sealed these beasties in here. I’ll hold them off.”

“Are you truly ready to die, mortal? To sacrifice your life for a chance at summoning a sage most likely dead? To meet a painful end rather than a swift and clean one?“, said Ferrimus.

Henry laughed as the blood stained his clothes.

“What’s so funny?”, said Ferrimus.

“Yeh don’t get it, do yeh? For over twenty years, I had been sitting on that island alone and bitter wallowing in drink and agony. I’ve been dead for twenty seven years. Today? Today is the day I truly live.”

Readying his weapon, the old man winked at Victor.

The shadowy figure looked at the knight.

“Finish him off and let us complete the ritual of coalesence.”, it said.

“Consider it done.”

Dashing forward, the knight tried to punch him again, this time at his head.

To its surprise, a blast of metal shrapnel countered the hand.

Henry’s only possession leaked smoke out of the front and sparked a bit.

From the brim of his hat, a single bloodshot eye looked at the Abyss Lord not with fear, but with pure determination.

No longer did a drunken man stand before Ferrimus. For a moment, there stood Smokin’ Henry, the most feared pirate on the entirety of the Misty Seas. A man who had slain armies on his lonesome and ransacked temples without breaking a sweat.

Henry’s right hand grabbed the neck of the construct and slammed the helmet towards his head, before another blast from his double-barrel spinner sent scraps of iron into the shoulder wound.

Wisps of distilled void flared out as it bled inky smoke.

Again, with blinding speed, as Henry tried to knee it, a single leg went out and did an axe kick.

Henry’s left arm flopped onto the floor, lifeless and dead.

Still he stood, wordlessly.

Taking his right arm, still holding it, he screamed as he took it and kicked Ferrimus to the ground and leapt into the air.

As he landed on the thing’s chest he headbutted it once more and jammed the barrel of the weapon into the visor of the armor and pulled the trigger and was sent flying back.

Staggering to its feet, Ferrimus dashed forward and chopped once more, only to have its fist countered yet again by a blast of the ancient weapon.

Growling and clanking, the other hand grasped the weapon and shattered it in a burst of light and sparks. With another chop of the left hand, Henry’s right arm flew to the ground in a spray of crimson gore.

The old man still refused to yield. With his last breaths and vision going dark, he stumbled forward and tackled the opponent. He kicked and headbutted in a fury as Ferrimus blocked each attack, until the suit of plate armor found an opening and took it.

“Enough. Though valiant, I tire of you. This ends here.”

With those words and a whirl of steel, the back of the Abyss Lords right hand flashed once more and slammed the dismembered henry into a wall, knocking his head against the stone bricks..

Falling off the wall, in his last breaths, Henry smiled. True to his words, he had finally lived once more. He had protected a new gang of bandits who might actually save this cruel world, and he wouldn’t have had it any other way.

The last thing he saw before everything went black was a cloaked figure appear from the gates.