Victor fought against three Vices at the same time. all three of them transformed their bodies into exotic shapes to avoid getting done in by his hands. He fired lightning and breathed fire, but that only melted the buildings and tore up the streets.

  Mara was fighting him with his full powers now. Using his skills to change Victor’s perception, force him to miss or hear something behind him that wasn’t there. And it wasn’t how his Daughters did it.

  Those Victor could’ve easily dealt with. But Mara’s powers were on a completely different level, and the Vice was using them exceptionally. Victor got in a few hits on the bodies, before his Seeds would suddenly stop, forcing him to reapply his buffs. Already, they were straining, and he could feel cracks forming in the Crystallized Lightning.

  The Seed Overclock and Power Unlocker had given him the power to boost his Voltaic Form, and he was a living mass of lightning out for revenge. Each hit he landed on Mara brought him closer to the end of the fight, after which he could go close the Gate himself.

  But each hit meant that Mara played safer, ran away quicker and tried his best to distract Victor. It was working. Sooner or later one of them would win, and Victor needed that to be him.

  Victor caught a blow on his chest that shattered his ribs. The shards cut through his lungs and he spat out blood.

  As the other bodies closed in, Victor released a shockwave of lightning. That bought him moments to recover, and Victor searched for the remnants of his goldblood for healing. But the pouch he kept it in was nowhere to be found.

  “It doesn’t do well to keep liabilities on yourself at our level,” Mara taunted. It had an enchanted bottle in its hand, containing the goldblood Victor had produced through his Bloody Tear. It was the best healing he could get in a battle, and Mara had taken it away from him.

  “You’re quick, I’ll give you that. And you took one of me out. But that mean anything once my army overwhelms your Wielders,” Mara told him. He was using that body of his that wore a purple suit patterned with concentric circles. Far as he could tell, it was the one that could put him to sleep. The least useful.

  Victor had to think quick if he wanted the goldblood back. His body was hurting even more now, and the healing effects were the only thing keeping him alive.

  “Though they are putting up quite a good fight,” Mara lamented once he saw the state of the Gate.

  It was shrinking, but Victor didn’t think it was fast enough. Many of their Wielders hadn’t even joined the fight, having instead used their abilities on Victor. He was the reason they were having such a tough time.

  Which was exactly why he needed to beat Mara.

  Speedup.

  Victor fired a lightning bolt at the bottle. Mara didn’t expect the attack and flew back into the air. Victor lunged and swallowed up the goldblood before it fell to the ground.

  The healing began immediately. Victor jumped towards Mara and slashed a claw through the air. Ice spread from his hands and created frosted slash marks behind Mara. The Vice jerked at the pain before shifting his form.

  He constricted Victor so tight it could shatter bone. Victor smiled in response and released another shockwave, spreading the second body across the entire city.

  Two down. Two to go. But the last two were the most dangerous. Two figures floated down towards Victor with hatred clear on their faces.

  “Oh, was that yours? Sorry about that,” Victor told him. “I’ll have my workers clean up what’s left and send it to you by tomorrow, that alright?”

  “I’m going to paint the city with your blood, Wielder.”

  “I have a name. And it’s Victor, you disgusting Vice.”

  A fleshy tendril extended from Mara to impale, Victor. He jumped from the building just before it collapsed under its impact. Before he landed, the ground beneath him gave way, and suddenly Victor felt like he was miles away from the ground.

  “Your tricks won’t work on me anymore, Mara!” Victor shouted. He sniffed out the remaining bodies and lunged towards them. He could feel his heart racing, his rage building at the Vice.

  He slashed at him and let loose lightning at the first body. Mara dodged and stabbed clawed fingers into Victor’s side. He ignored the pain and kept slashing at Mara. but he was growing slower, the fingers creeping further and wrecking Victor’s body from the inside. Victor screamed in rage and his blows became dulled and slow.

  He was trying so hard to hit Mara, and he was failing. Why? He was so close to winning, so why was it not working now?

  And then Victor realized it. His emotions. Mara’s touch had already turned his mind. He was angry, unreasonably so, even for him. the Vice was trying to distract him while he slowly killed Victor.

  He steeled his mind, pulled out Mara’s hands before they could crawl any deeper into his body and threw him to the roads. Mara tried again to muddy his perception, but even dulled, Victor’s sense of smell was too strong. He found Mara on the ground and slammed his fists down onto him.

  The street around him cracked apart and buildings fell as their foundation was laid to waste.

  Victor kept slamming his fists till the body was too broken to reform itself. His teeth glowed white hot and a flame exploded out from them. the flame covered the entire street, rising high into the sky before Victor finally closed his mouth.

  ****

  Lillie had lost an arm. She was lying on the ground holding a bleeding stump. But her will never faltered. Leo and Ashley were at their limits, but they still kept fighting. The Daughters were done away with, a small force left that tried to batter at their defences without fail.

  “Lil, you can stop now…” Leo told her. But she couldn’t hear him.

  All she knew was her name, and her task. She was to defend the Gate so that it could be closed. She had to defend it till her dying breath, whenever that would be.

  So, when the beacon of light finally shut, that’s when she let go. Her task was done, and she could finally rest.

  ****

  The last body of Mara was standing not too far from him. And though he was leaking blood, breathing through cut lungs and standing on unsteady feet, he felt he could win. The Gate had closed behind Mara, leaving him no escape.

  Mara had only one trick left, and it didn’t work. He tried to pull again at Victor’s Seeds, but they refused to listen. They were firmly under his command. He would not give up.

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  When Mara realized it wouldn’t work, he fled. Victor jumped and landed in front of the Vice with a shockwave. that knocked the last remaining buildings in the city down and knocked Victor back into a small fast food joint.

  The Vice was shaking. There was a fog of dust and debris that clouded Victor and his glowing form had faded. All Mara could see were two globes of amber, almost gold, staring at him through the haze.

  “What are you? And why did you try to kill us?” Victor asked.

  “Will you spare me if I tell you?”

  “No.”

  “Hah,” Mara tried to chuckle despite his fear. “Maybe this is what you find pleasurable. Slaughtering us…. Vices. That’s what your scientist friend called us, wasn’t it?” Mara said.

  “Answer me,” Victor commanded, as sparks came to life around his body.

  “I am Mara. If you don’t know what I want, read a book on Buddhism,” Mara scolded him.

  Mara could see the wheels turning in the dull Wielder’s brain.

  “You’re… trying to prevent our ascension.”

  “I’m trying to fulfil your desires. Humanity’s greatest desire. That of death,” Mara told him.

  “If we really wanted that, Mara, why would we be fighting?”

  “Children resist medicine. It’s the same for you,” Mara reasoned.

  “And who’s that rainbow figure leading you?” Victor asked.

  “Oh, full of questions, aren’t you? You’re as stubborn as Arthur. No, I won’t tell you that, you’ll see it for yourself soon enough,” Mara said.

  “Tell me now. How to stop it, how I can kill it,” Victor stepped forward and grabbed the Vice by the collar of his suit.

  “You can’t kill the planet, idiot,” Mara replied.

  Victor sighed, dismissing his anger. Instead, he opened his mouth for the final time and lightning built up in the back of his throat. His fur glowed golden, and he assumed the full power of his Voltaic Form.

  Wielders appeared behind Victor, wounded but standing. They raised their hands and power fed into him, making him glow even brighter and stronger. His fur stood on its end, his eyes like shining suns.

  Mara didn’t resist.

  A blast of lightning ripped through his body, out of the restaurant and through the city. Wielders and Vices clutched their ears at the sound of thunder resounding across the entirety of Los Angeles.

  When the blast finally stopped, carnage was left in its wake. Carnage on a level that Victor had only seen Vices do, never himself. The establishment he had been in was no more, and nothing for miles was left standing in front of him.

  He dropped what remained of Mara onto the ground, only for something to trigger in his mind. It was a memory, and not one of his.

  ****

  Mara was winning. At least he thought so. He was beginning to overwhelm Nirvana with his four bodies. Shapeshifting was a hard thing to grasp, but Mara was a master of it. He writhed and crept around Nirvana’s blasts while making sure to get in his own hits.

  He found the perfect opening, struck at Nirvana’s weak spot, and almost had him!

  And then Nirvana popped out of existence. Mara turned around, and in an instant, it had dispatched his other bodies. In total shock, the Lord of the Senses just stared.

  He reformed into his original shape, clenching its fists so tight they shook.

  “Were you… holding back this entire time?” Mara asked it.

  Nirvana had grown less talkative over the years. Less able to convince Mara. Until it had finally given up and started fighting silently from then on. He much preferred it to the proselytizing, even if it gave him less chance to distract it.

  “Yes, I was. In hopes to convince you, I suppose. But that was then, and this is now,” Nirvana told him.

  “Now, what? Are you finally going to give in and kill me?” Mara asked. He did fear death then, but he was sure Nirvana wouldn’t.

  “Maybe.”

  That was a change. And a drastic one at that. Something was wrong.

  “You don’t sound very enlightened now,” Mara said.

  “I think…. Enlightenment was too hard a task for humanity. For anyone but a few,” Nirvana floated down onto a mountain peak.

  There were flowers there, and birds flying up high. Nirvana produced seeds from its hand and fed it to the birds before letting them fly away.

  Mara lowered himself next to Nirvana, carefully and slowly.

  “So, you finally came around to my side?”

  “I think I did. Humans are going to keep hurting themselves until the end of time. and they won’t die out, never. We… have to save them from that suffering. It’s our duty,” Nirvana said. It sounded like it was trying to convince itself just as much as it was trying to convince Mara.

  “It’s their greatest desire. I will help you with this.”

  “You will be one of my Nine then, Mara. if that suits you.”

  “I don’t much like being a part of your organization, but fine,” Mara conceded.

  Those two threw aside their differences to bring death to humanity. And Victor watched every moment of the memory pass knowing it was one time he could not change.

  ****

  Abruptly, he was kicked back to his own body, where Wielders crowded around him. they healed his wounds, reversing the worst of it before moving onto lesser scratches and cuts.

  Victor didn’t pay attention to them.

  Nirvana, that was the name of his foe. As if the thought had called it, another portal appeared in the skies.

  Eight more opened behind the first, and more figures came out. Chief among them was the rainbow figure that Victor now knew the name of.

  Nirvana, he repeated again. Poison on his tongue, poison to his world. He needed to kill it if he wanted a chance of survival for humanity.

  Nirvana, he committed the name to memory, then glanced at the time remaining on his Time Anchor.

  Minutes. He had minutes left before it reset. That meant he couldn’t lose. That also meant he had to leave the other Wielders behind. They were terrified, turning to Victor to help them against the threat.

  “I’m sorr-”

  “Run!”

  He was cut off by Ashley.

  “You’re our best hope! So run!” she reiterated. The other Wielders backed up her words. The world started to break around Victor.

  He lowered himself into a run once again. As soon as he left the remains of the building, it was blown up by lightning stronger than he could conjure. All around him, chunks of the city were being raised into the air.

  Storms of fire and lightning rained down upon the city, splitting the very ground beneath Victor’s feet.

  Five minutes.

  Half of a mountain dropped in front of Victor. He stabbed through it and came out the other side, only to face Nirvana itself.

  The creature stared sideways into Victor and raised him into the air.

  “You killed him. He was the weakest of the Nine but still, you killed him,” Nirvana spoke in a voice that Victor recognized all too well.

  It was the voice of his screens.

  Victor didn’t have the time to think, he activated his Voltaic Form again as the Seed cracked. That was enough to escape the Vice’s embrace, and he started running faster.

  Somehow it kept up with him though and spoke again in that monotone female voice.

  “Please, you don’t need to suffer any longer,” Nirvana told him. In anger, Victor slashed at the Vice’s face.

  He was tired of having to run away from it every loop. To hide as Nirvana killed him and all those he loved over and over. Victor fired lightning and tried to run the Vice through with his claws.

  Nirvana moved past it all without a hint of slowing down. Victor fired grey lightning, but it simply bounced off the Vice.

  He tried ice, lightning, clones and more, but nothing seemed to make the Vice even flinch.

  One minute.

  “You can stop now,” Nirvana told him once his assault was finally finished.

  “Never.”

  “And why is that?”

  All those loops. And many more to come. He knew he wouldn’t win in the next one. Nor the one after that. Maybe not even the next hundred. The time wasn’t the worst part. It was the isolation.

  He’d spent so long. So long alone, always the only one who remembered. He’d known the same people for decades, yet every time he came back they wouldn’t recognize him. It hurt so much to be forgotten, to know that the only evidence of the past loops was his memory.

  He wasn’t all-knowing. He couldn’t recall every moment he’d spent with them. His memories would fade with time as well, and then he’d hurt even more.

  But someone had to bear that pain. Carry that weight onto the next world. Victor didn’t know why he’d been chosen for that, but he’d accept that task. He’d accept the isolation, the loss, as long as it meant he could find a way out for all of them.

  Audrey and Dean Wilson, who’d taken him into Angel Heights. Professor Cooper who helped him understand the Vices and the other world better. Aidano, Renalo and Qeeny, who’d shown him there were Vices that could be trusted. Lillie, Loki, Leo and Ashley, who’d been at his side.

  Amadeus, who he’d see again after this was all over. All of his kids, that he’d tried to raise as best as he could. Charlie, Vivian, his mom and dad both. All of them.

  They didn’t deserve the end of the world. No one did. They deserved happiness, for everything they’d done for him.

  “I can’t beat you,” Victor announced.

  “I know,” Nirvana told him. it accepted his weakness, but Victor didn’t.

  “Not now. But I will, someday,” he promised to himself more than the Vice.

  “You don’t need to. You can give up now.”

  “No!”

  Victor shouted.

  Thirty seconds.

  “I’ll beat you someday. I’ll send you back whichever hell you crawled out of and close it so it can never hurt anyone ever again!” Victor spat. He could feel his body failing.

  Nirvana was done with the argument. It raised a single lazy hand that gathered with power stronger than Victor could muster.

  “I… I WILL NEVER GIVE UP.”

  “You can rest now.”

  Anchor reset.

  The end of the world took Victor once more. And he found himself starting back over again.

  [Ability Unlocked: Carryover Spirit]