Twilight of the Gods part 2

“Now that we no longer need to worry about that creature, our next order of business is to rediscuss our plans for that woman.” Law readjusted his stack of papers as he addressed the other five.

A massive hole in the wall displayed a black void filled with stars.

“There’s nothing more to discuss.” War impatiently stretched his fingers.

“We didn’t directly fight the creature or the person it brought here the last time. Now that the creature is gone and would no longer be able to help her out, we should be able to solve the problem by using the heroes who defeated its champion last time.”

“That will be difficult and time consuming.” Magic said.

“We could have them summon another hero or more heroes to keep her distracted.”

“I believe it’s worth a try.” Magic agreed with Law.

“She just barely got to this world and has already killed one of our champions who aided the exact same heroes you are talking about. We can’t take any risks with her.” Strife sneered.

“We should have just killed the last one rather than summoning heroes to defeat her. It would have saved us a lot of trouble.” War swung his poleaxe.

“So it’s a stalemate then.” Law looked over at Communication. “What are your thoughts?”

Communication shook his head. “I will continue to abstain.”

“What about you, Mik…” Law cleared his throat. “Death, what are your thoughts?”

A metallic sheen could be seen beneath death’s hood. 

“Death?” Magic tried to get it to respond.

“I’m sure Death would vote the same way it did last time so lets just be done with this farce already.” Strife spat.

The floor began to feel fuzzy. The chairs and table soon followed. Law was the first to jump out of his seat and Strife followed suit.

“Some beasts you need to slay.” War used his free hand to draw a large spear with four blades protecting its shaft.

“Did you actually erase it, Death?” Law asked.

“It… should be… dead.” Mercury began to drip upwards from Death’s now metallic, skeletal fingertips. “I… never… fail.” It looked at its hands.

Fur grew from every object in the room. Fleshy tentacles constructed from an assortment of welded body parts erupted from the ground. Eyes sprouted from the tentacles and opened in unison. Whenever an eye blinked it shrank back into the tentacle only for another eye to appear elsewhere.

Death watched as the drip of mercury turned into a flood.

War swung his spear at a tentacle, cutting it in half.

Magical beams of energy danced out of Magic’s staff, piercing the tentacles.

Law's gavel sunk into the fleshy mass of a tentacle.

Strife sneaked behind war, hoping he would be ignored by the tentacles.

Communication flickered towards the wall as a TV screen sucked him in then disappeared.

“COWARD!” War yelled as he stabbed a tentacle through one of its many, hairy eyes.

Millions of screams echoed from every non-mouth orifice.

A tentacle wriggled out from a chair and wrapped itself around Law, lifting him into the air as a pool of offal began to rise up from the floor.

“You think this will slow me down.” War cleaved another tentacle in two.

The tentacle’s grasp didn't feel slimy or fleshy, instead felt the same as staring into an unending abyss.

“Magic, get this thing to release me.”

Strife dangled helplessly from a tentacle. “Help me first.”

“I’m trying, just give me a momeeeeeeent.”

A tentacle stretched out of mid-air and tore Magic’s staff away from her while another tentacle grabbed Magic and swung her around.

War tried to swing his poleaxe.

One of the felled tentacles made a wrapping motion as an invisible force clung to his poleaxe.

“What’s going on?”

The first tentacle he cut in half seemingly wrapped itself around air. Something lifted War into the air. He looked around at all the felled tentacles. They were still moving, acting and manipulating objects as though they were never cut in the first place.

Waves of necrosis and emptiness pulsed through one of the tentacles as it strangled Death who stared upward as a steady stream of Mercury flowed from its face.

“If it’s attacking you, it should be dead. How is it still doing anything?” War flexed as a failed attempt to break the tentacle’s hold on him.

Death looked forward, snapping out of whatever trance it was in. The mercury continued to flow, but the pulses of necrosis were now stronger and more frequent. Each pulse erased more of the tentacle, though it still remained glued to Death.

“This is one hell of a death knell.” War squirmed about.

“We can renegotiate if you desire.” Law pleaded while attempting to maintain a semblance of power.

Death’s red glare could be seen once again as the stream of mercury disappeared followed by the tentacle strangling it. The pool of offal followed when death fell through it and clattered onto the table, which returned to its marble state. It stepped onto the ground. Fur and tentacles were erased in an ever expanding ring the moment death’s foot touched the ground.

The others fell only when the final tentacle disappeared.

“What was that!?” Law brushed himself off, exasperated.

“Whatever it was, something tells me it isn’t gone.” War glanced around the room, visibly on edge.

Magic tripped over her robe multiple times when retrieving her staff and continued to do so until she started to float around again. She could tell something was off.

“Magic, do you sense anything?” Law finished straightening his suit.

“The magical energy in the room is erratic but stabilizing. I’ll work on getting it back under control.”

“Death, what happened to you back there? We need to know so we can prevent it from happening again.” Law went to reorganize his papers.

“Something… wrong… don’t know… what”

One by one, the pages melded together forming a ball. The ink shifted on its surface.

“Get away from that!” Magic shouted.

Law jumped backwards as an inky face formed on the glob of papers. Its mouth opened further and further until it disappeared with a wave of darkness and a deafening bang.

When the five looked, the table and chairs had been reduced to a pile of small, marble cubes covered in mercury.

They could feel the floor beat beneath them as though they stood over someone’s heart. Its marble surface felt oddly flesh-like as warmth radiated from it.

“How many times are we going to have to kill you before you finally disappear?” Strife spat. His feet were consumed by the fleshy marble. He could feel the warmth of flesh and the chill of stone. Then, unable to feel his feet at all, he fell over. The moment his body hit the floor, it began turning to marble while sinking. “Stop it! Make it stop! I’ll do anything to make it stop! Just tell me what you want!” Every cell turned to stone elicited an intense wave of pain throughout his entire body.

Death froze.

Law watched in horror.

A multitude of colors flew from Magic’s staff as she tried to cast spell after spell only for the magic to dissipate before it came anywhere near Strife.

War reached his hand forward.

“Don’t touch him, we have no idea if it will spread or not and we can’t lose both of you!” Law commanded then looked towards magic. “Lift us off the ground before it starts happening to us as well.”

“But if I do I may lose our chance to—”

“If you don’t you may lose your chance to save the rest of us.”

Blue flowed out of Magic’s staff and surrounded Law, War, and Death, lifting them into the air.

“What will you all do without me?”

“They’ll be better off without you.” A booming yet almost silent voice caused the entire room to undulate.

Each of them searched for the voice’s source.

The now visibly flesh-like pillars moved back and forth while rotating around the room like carousel poles. Eyes painted themselves across every surface; Drops of mercury floated upwards from them in time with their blinking. The stars above were now blocked by a mercurial lake.

“Death please do some… thing…” Magic looked over at Death who melted upward into the pool of Mercury.

“Gahhhh!” Strife’s body barely peaked out of the floor; The marble ready to finish consuming his head. “You can’t… survive… without me. What will… the world do without strife… without… conflict.”

Droplets of mercury chewed themselves out of the remains of his now marble form. “Strife and conflict can and will continue to exist without you.” The lake above them rippled with each word. Some ripples spun, while others split off and slowed down or snaked their way toward the lake’s edges. Each wave found its way down the wall regardless of direction.

“What do we, Law?”

“I believe all we can do is wait.”

The three watched with downtrodden expressions and tearful eyes of resignation as the mercury coalesced into the shape of a fox with enough tails to blanket any world. The pristine, gleaming metal gurgled into muscles, sinew, and flesh followed by an explosion of reddish-orange fur. The room and everything in it returned to its original state as the fox-creature coughed up a fully conscious, yet willingly immobile Strife.

“So, about that renegotiation?”

“Tell us what happened to Death first.” War demanded.

“Tell us what happened to Mikhai first.” Magic and Law said in unison.

“Look I tried not to but I shouldn’t need to spell it out for you, you’re all adults.” The creature pushed Strife over with its foot. “Strife is dead too. He’s back to just being Ronny again.”

“How did you—”

“I’m not here to answer questions. You know what I want.”

“You have my word that we will stay out of your business going forward.”

“Ritsu, Elizabeth. Don’t make the same mistakes the others did. This time we can all keep it a fair match.”

The creature walked towards the hole in the wall only to be stopped by a sword in its face. It looked at War.

“Do you think I’m just going to let you walk away after what you did?”

“No, I just know you aren’t able to.” A single piece of fur tapped the blade, causing it to shatter into a fine, gleaming dust. “If you really want to fight, then you should find someone who you can fight.” The creature moved as though it were walking forward as its body sank through the table and eventually the floor.

War went to draw another weapon.

“Just let it go and help me get Ronny someplace safer Ludlow.”

War didn’t respond. Elizabeth looked at Ritsu.

“Will you help me get Ronny someplace safe War?” Ritsu asked.

War walked over and picked up Ronny. “I’ll take him back to his place.” His mind seemed to be elsewhere.

An open door appeared on the wall. Elizabeth floated through it. Ritsu and War followed on foot.