Blessed by Night

As Kendrick watched Malachi double over while clutching his head, he raised a brow in confusion.

His powers certainly didn't have any way to effect Avatars due to their abnormal body condition.

The energy that made them tick was so insanely complex and profound that he couldn't hope to understand it yet, making Malachi something like his natural enemy.

He'd already learned his lesson about fighting blessed like this after his challenge against Arias had gone horribly awry.

So why did he look like he was in pain?

Suddenly, Malachi looked up at Kendrick and he felt a weird force flowing off of him.

This one was unlike anything he had ever felt before and even felt a bit alien in origin.

"You've got a lot more ticks than that other guy, don't you..? I wonder why that is."

However, Malachi did not answer Kendrick's question no matter what, leaving him to wonder just what had changed and what exactly Mal was.

-

As Bianca and Anna continued their competition, both girls had arrived at a staggering 3-3 record.

The last to make a save was Bianca, who was admittedly taking this competition more seriously than her opponent.

"I'm so close! Just one more!" She said aggressively.

"We're running out of enemies here, B. Just give it up for the day."

"Never! I want that position!"

"Your turn is coming up tomorrow anyway, why can't you just wait?"

"I want to be greedy!"

Anna rolled her eyes as she tried to stop herself from smiling.

'Really, should I just let her win at this point?' She wondered.

As she considered this, she felt a cold feeling in the back of her mind that stemmed from one of her connections.

Confused about why this could possibly be happening, she turned to Bianca for answers only to find her standing around motionlessly, a petrified look on her face.

"B?"

"W-We have to get to Malachi… like right now..!"

"This is him? What's going on?"

"It's like inside the last gate, he's slipping again!"

Both girls immediately put their competition on hold as they started running through the battlefield at an inhumane speed.

Along the way, they slung aside any enemies without a care as they drew closer to his position.

"Girls!"

Both girls suddenly looked up and found Sei floating in the sky; keeping pace with the girls as they ran.

"What's happened??"

"We don't know, we've been separated this whole time!"

"He ran off with Aubrey earlier!"

As the three girls crossed the rubble of the ruined naval base, they found themselves staring at Malachi's back in his true appearance, with Aubrey and a man in a dark suit standing opposite him making a somewhat lazy expression.

"Babe!"

"What's wrong?!"

As the three girls landed around Malachi, Kendrick finally noticed their presence.

"Oh, newbies? I can hear your heartbeats so I know you're not like him… You're all really hot though. Kid is a lucky bastard I'll give him that."

Kendrick casually slicked his hair back as he tried to make a favorable impression.

At that moment, the last bit of sanity that Mal had been holding on to was yanked into the darkness; and he immediately lunged at the unlucky adversary.

"It was just a compliment? Don't be tender."

BOOMM!!

Kendrick tapped his foot on the ground once again and manipulated the rubble to create a wall of spikes that stood in the way of himself and Malachi.

He waited and waited for the sound of some sort of collision to take place, but nothing of that sort ever came.

He raised a brow in confusion before he felt something stirring underneath him, and felt something grab his ankle a second later.

As soon as he looked down, he saw that the ground had turned completely black like it was dyed by ink.

A single black hand with stars and nebulas embedded within was sticking up from the abyss, and holding on to him tight enough to break the joints.

"Fu-"

A hard yank sent Kendrick tumbling into the void beneath him, alarming everyone nearby.

"T-The first lieutenant is gone!"

"H-He's actually been taken!"

"Fall back, now!"

As the remenants of the new day began to panic, Bianca, Anna, and Sei ran towards the sea of dark shadows in the ground that was quickly starting to close up.

"Where are you guys going?!" Aubrey cried.

"We need to calm your brother down before he loses his mind and eats that guy!" Bianca explained.

"What?!"

"No time to explain!"

"Make the time please!"

Aubrey started to run behind the girls and followed them as they dove into the dwindling pool of darkness.

Once inside, they fell into an endless abyss of shadows that they had no idea how to navigate.

They simply fell freely through the air as if they were skydiving.

"T-This place is a lot weirder than the last time I came here!" Anna yelled.

"You've been down here before?!" Aubrey asked.

"Y-Yea, I thought it would be romantic if we… you know!"

Bianca: "Was it?"

Sei: "I am also curious about that!"

"Why are you all so fucking horny!?" Aubrey was on the verge of tearing her perfect curly hair out.

"""We can't help it if we have needs!!!"""

"Bullshit you can't!"

Finally, the girls saw a few stars appear out of nowhere.

Or atleast they believed them to be starts at first.

Upon closer inspection, the group realized that they were portals.

Billions upon billions of portals that all reflected different parts of the world where shadows were present.

"H-How are we supposed to find the one my brother went through?!" Aubrey asked.

Focusing on the connection the girls shared with Malachi, they were able to come to a conclusion rather quickly.

"Hold on to me!" Anna yelled.

Once the girls grabbed on to the tattooed young woman, she sprouted a familiar pair of red wings and started to maneuver around the shadowy domain, searching for a specific portal.

'Hold on, babe, just keep your head! Your girls are coming for you!'

-

On Morgan Creed's private island, Malachi and Kendrick came tumbling out of the shadow domain while throwing blows at one another.

The two of them hit the ground and caused an explosive collision in the dirt.

When they were separated, Kendrick picked himself up from the ground and wiped off his black suit that was now covered in dirt.

"What a fucking mess… this is Armani you kno-"

"GROOOOOOAAAAAAAA!!!!"

A blood curdling roar shook all of the trees and terrified every living thing on the island.

Even Kendrick was no longer aloof as his dull gold eyes tried to process what he was seeing in front of him.

Malachi was growing pitch black flesh out of thin air, and was steadily growing into a monstrous entity.

Dark black skin, claws the size of knives, and four massive tails that ended with snake heads and seemed to have minds of their own.

A single mouth filled with crooked and dangerously sharp teeth opened wide, and let out something that sounded like an unholy laugh.

Unsurprisingly, Kendrick forgot all about his dirty suit.

"Funny… I guess I've got bigger problems."