Nyarlathotep smashed into the next universe, tearing a path of emptiness open in her wake. She had no plans of letting curiosity distract her this time. She didn’t pay attention to the bright light that filled the universe, or the faint outlines of screaming figures in the light. All her focus was in the swing of her sword as she cut through reality.

She only halted when one of the outlines solidified into a person. Nyarlathotep stopped dead in place, too shocked to continue. Her mouth hung open as she looked at the figure, and she whispered, “Miles?”

Miles had indeed in the air before her. His clothes were gone, and his face was locked in an expression of pain, but all signs of the gunshots that had killed him were gone.

“But…” Nyarlathotep said. “You… you’re supposed to be dead….”

Miles’ fist swung out, striking Nyarlathotep in the jaw and launching her back. His body changed, his clothes becoming a black cloak and his face morphing into an ivory gas mask.

A monotone voice came from behind Nyarlathotep. “It was unwise of you to come to the Archangel’s realm after he has been given the opportunity to embrace so many souls.”

Nyarlathotep turned around and saw five humans standing together, all with EAT’s usual blank expression. “We had hoped that the other Fears would provide more of a delay before your arrival.” EAT continued. “Even so, this is still within acceptable parameters. Your arrival here shall result in your final defeat.”

Nyarlathotep sprang at EAT, ready to bring her sword down on its closest body. Before the strike hit, the Archangel grabbed her arm and pulled her back. She punched its gas mask with her free arm, forcing it to release her, and shifted her attack toward it. She swung her sword, but the Archangel dodged by flying straight into the air. Nyarlathotep glared at the rising figure, but had no intention of letting it escape. Gravity… it was just another physical law, wasn’t it? And why should such laws constrain her?

With a dramatic motion, she kicked off the ground, and rocketed into the air after the Archangel. It must not have been expecting the pursuit, as it only scarcely dodged her swing, and immediately began flying away. Nyarlathotep continued her chase, staying just on the Archangel’s tail, but never getting close enough to attack. As she tried gaining ground, a thought occurred to her. Gravity need not affect her. But there was no reason it shouldn’t influence other beings.

She waved a hand, and the Archangel suddenly plummeted down, striking the shining ground hard. Even after such a fall, the Archangel quickly stood back up. Nyarlathotep snarled at the sight of it getting back to its feet. She was focusing roughly 200 times of what Earth’s gravity would be on that one spot, and apart from the initial fall, the Archangel didn’t seem fazed by it at all. But with that running away nonsense done with, perhaps it would finally stay still for the five fucking seconds needed to stab it.

Again, she flew at the Archangel, ready to strike. But before she reached her target, hundreds of the outlines within the light solidified into people. Rows of screaming, naked humans floated around Nyarlathotep, eyes pleading for some rescue from their torment. Nyarlathotep tried pushing past them to reach the Archangel, but the Fear had vanished from her sight. She spun around, eyes scanning for a hint of the Archangel’s mask amongst the faces. For a moment, she caught a glimpse of it, but it vanished before she could lunge forward. A few moments later, she saw it for another second, then it was gone. Then another glimpse….

One of the women next to her began to change shape, a gas mask growing over his face and a black robe appearing on its body. The Archangel pointed at Nyarlathotep, and she felt herself being struck by an unseen force. She recovered quickly and began to swing her sword. A moment before the attack hit, the Archangel’s form reverted back to that of the woman. Nyarlathotep tried to stop mid swing, but instead spun around in the air as she redirected her sword away from anyone. When she stopped spinning, the Archangel was in front of her. The force hit her in the face with the force of a train, knocking her out of the air.

As she fell, Nyarlathotep tried calculating the necessary transfer of energy to avoid any injury upon impact. At such a speed, it wouldn’t be difficult for her. She had just about finished the math when the Archangel appeared directly behind her. It waved its hand, and suddenly she began to fall much faster. Too fast for her to manipulate energy or physics. At the speed she hit the ground, it was like rotten fruit being dropped off a building. Black inky shadows splattered all over the shining floor, leaving barely any trace of her body. The Archangel didn’t let up, and with another wave of its hand lightning came down and struck where Nyarlathotep had landed.

It still wasn’t enough. The shadows crawled across the ground, coming back together. They wrapped around each other, forming into the shapes of arms, legs, a head. Skin and clothes grew back over the shadows, slowly regaining a human look. The Archangel sent down another bolt of lightning, but a partially formed hand rose from the mass of darkness and turned the lightning aside. Nyarlathotep rose once again from the shadows, appearing completely unharmed. She lifted her burning sword, and pointed it toward the Archangel.

The Fear quickly concealed itself in the crowd of human bodies. But at that point, Nyarlathotep’s patience for searching was gone. Without any hesitation, she swung her sword through the crowd. The fire cut through the bodies easily, erasing all it touched from reality. Her victims screamed in pain as they vanished, crying for mercy. Nyarlathotep ignored them, and shouted wordlessly as she tried to drown out the sound of their calls. She cut again and again, tearing apart dozens with each swing. For a split second she saw the Archangel before it vanished again amongst the bodies, and her attacks grew wilder and less controlled as she tried cutting towards it. She lost her grip on her sword and it flew out of her hand, but instead of stopping, she turned her arms into black blades and kept attacking. She didn’t pause until everyone was gone, save her and the Archangel.

The Fear stood amongst the light, no emotion reflected in its mask. Nyarlathotep took a deep breath, wiped her eyes, and resumed her battle cry. She ran forward, filled with nothing but murderous intent. The Archangel held both of its hands out, and Nyarlathotep stopped as her skin began to rot and slide off. The shadows underneath twisted and began to take on monstrous shapes, but Nyarlathotep forced them to retain their humanoid appearance. It would have been easy to let go, just become a formless monster and crush the Archangel. But Nyarlathotep inexplicably held on to her old shape. When she killed the Archangel, she wanted it to be in the form of a human.

Slowly, she regained mastery of her body. The shadows calmed, and her skin began to heal faster than the Archangel could make it rot away. She began to stride forward, cracking the ground beneath every footstep. The Archangel flung more lightning at her, to no effect. It could do nothing to stop her as she wrapped both hands around its throat and lifted it into the air. She squeezed, so hard that cracks began to spread across its neck. The Archangel changed form, again taking on Miles’ appearance. Nyarlathotep continued to strangle it. It changed again into Flint, then Virginia, Roy, Peter, Lucy… so many people that Nyarlathotep had known in her past lives. She did not waver once. Her hands squeezed until they crushed through the Archangel’s throat, leaving a hole in reality that quickly consumed its body.

With the Archangel gone, Nyarlathotep fell onto her back, panting. She was shaking, and wasn’t sure how to stop. She closed her eyes and tried taking deep breaths, with little success.

“You continue to baffle me, Nyarlathotep. Why is it that, when given the opportunity to create a body in any form you desire, you insist on making one that still has tear ducts?” A monotone voice said.

Nyarlathotep jumped upright. With the fight against the Archangel, she’d completely forgotten that EAT was there as well. Its five bodies stood around her, equally spaced apart. She snarled at them, turning around to try and keep her eyes on all five.

“That’s it? Just a growl?” EAT said. “You used to always have some sarcastic retort prepared for any of my comments. Have you really devolved so much into this monstrosity that you have forgotten how to speak?”

“Shut your fucking mouth or I’ll tear it off your face.” Nyarlathotep growled back.

“That really isn’t much of an improvement. I did not realize how much I would miss our banter. All the more reason to end this, I suppose.”

“Ha!” Nyarlathotep’s lips turned up into a sadistic smirk. “Do you realize who you’re talking to? I am the Crawling Chaos! I can remember when the stars were nothing but dust. I have killed entire pantheons, and laid waste to whole universes. You Fears are naught but insects compared to me. Children who have grown unruly without discipline. I shall crush you, just as I have crushed all the ones who came before you.”

EAT didn’t reply to the speech. “I must express my gratitude to the Archangel. Even when it became clear that he could not defeat you, he ensured that after his death you would be placed in the perfect position for my trap.”

Nyarlathotep’s eyes widened. “Your… what?”

Lines of green light appeared between EAT’s five bodies, creating a star, with Nyarlathotep at the center. Four of its bodies began reciting an inhuman sounding chant, and the ground beneath Nyarlathotep fell away, creating a pit of nothing which she began to sink into. When she tried pulling herself out, she only sank in faster.

“The fuck… what the hell did you do?”

One of EAT’s bodies spoke while the others continued their chant. “I am doing the same thing the Slender Man did all those aeons ago. I am trapping you within the Quiet. This has been the end goal which we have worked toward this entire time. We remained on the sidelines as you fought the other Fears, waiting for your human body to finally be killed, and for you to return to your original form. And now, after weakening you through your battle with the Archangel, I can finally end this war.” The star’s glow brightened, and Nyarlathotep began to sink faster. “There will be no escape this time. No human body you can smuggle yourself out in. This time, you truly will be trapped forever.” And then, for the first time in Nyarlathotep’s memory, she saw a small smile appear on EAT’s face. “Probably. After all this work, all this preparation… all my calculations keep coming to a 50% chance of either of us succeeding. Exactly 50%. No predetermined path. No statistical advantage. For the first time… I do not know how things will turn out. I must thank you for this experience. It is truly an interesting one.”

Nyarlathotep was not inclined to listen to such sentiment at the time. She was too busy looking for an escape. Pulling herself out wasn’t an option… but there had to be something… some way to break free….

She saw her sword, lying on the ground where she had dropped it, some distance behind EAT. Too far to physically reach it. But Nyarlathotep had other means at her disposal. She closed her eyes, and focused on the space around the sword. Matter… energy… gravity… just needed to modify the rules of physics a little bit, and….

The sword flew off the ground, and pierced through one of EAT’s bodies. Then it changed direction in mid-air, swinging around and cutting through another body before coming to Nyarlathotep’s hand. The green star vanished from beneath her, and she moved with blinding speed, leaping out of the emptiness and cutting down another body. Without pause, she turned her attention to the remaining two. The Archangel might have been able to withstand increased gravity, but EAT’s bodies were only human. When she magnified the gravitational pull around the two, they were crushed in an instant.

Once again, silence fell across the universe. Nyarlathotep looked down at the body at her feet. EAT was still clinging to life in it, looking down at the colorless gash across its torso with shock.

“N-no….” It said. “I can’t… not now….” It held a hand toward Nyarlathotep. “I d-don’t want to… die….”

For a moment, Nyarlathotep’s face softened, and she started to reach toward the hand. Before they could touch, she froze. A pained giggle escaped from her mouth as the light around them grew dim. Tentacles tore out of her back and she began to laugh as she brought up her sword and swung it down at EAT. The fire cut through easily, and its whole body shattered into oblivion. She continued to laugh as more tentacles ripped out from under her skin, until she heard a faint voice.

“So there really is nothing left of her in there.” EAT said. “All that remains is the monster.” The voice faded away, leaving Nyarlathotep in silence once again.