Alistair Reed clung to a branch high in the trees. The canopy was thick and dense here, but as high as he was, he could see over it. The tower stood in the centre of the base. Even from this distance, he could make out the man inside.

Xavier Collins.

That bastard had ruined several of Alistair’s plans. He was far stronger than he ever imagined he could be, and there didn’t appear to be a way for Alistair to catch up to him.

But he wouldn’t have to catch up if the man ended up dead.

And Alistair still had a plan. It was the same plan as before—use himself as bait. Lure the man into a trap. Die. Then Alistair and Xavier Collins would both be transported to another world. Alistair would be reborn, and rewarded for bringing Xavier into that world.

A world where they would be prepared to take the True Progenitor down. Or contract him to their service. Truly, Alistair didn’t care as long as the man was gone.

The man who’d gotten him these supplies, Commander Flinders, had told him to halt the plan. That things had changed. Something about a council being destroyed. The commander had been forced to leave Earth, but he had given Alistair a Communication Stone. The two of them were still in touch.

And Commander Flinders was close to convincing whoever he needed to that the plan should still be in play.

That’s why Alistair had been up in this tree for the last two days, waiting, watching. This was the first time Xavier had actually been in the base. The man ventured all over the world, and it was always difficult to know where he would be.

[He’s here, Flinders. I’m ready. Tell me you are too.]

There was a long pause.

[Flinders? You’re not ignoring me, are you?]

Alistair was completely aware of the fact that he wasn’t able to frighten or intimidate Commander Flinders now that the man was off world, safely away from him. In fact, something told him he’d never been able to do that to the man, even after killing so many of his men when they’d first been… acquainted.

Flinders had far more powerful people in his life he needed to worry about, even if Alistair could make him just as dead as they could.

[Flinders!]

[I was in a meeting,] the response finally came. [The prince has agreed to your plan.] There was a pause. Alistair wondered what that conversation had been like. Wondered who this prince might be. [He says if anything goes wrong, it will be our heads.]

[I wouldn’t have expected anything less.]

Alistair dropped down from the tree, landing gracefully on the ground in a catlike crouch. He didn’t make a sound as he moved through the forest toward the base—a base that had only grown larger since Alistair had first located it. There were more buildings, more citizens.

More defences.

That’s why Alistair was proud of the third item he’d been given. Something that offered him the ability to disguise not only what people saw when they scanned him, but his appearance, too.

He needed to get a meeting with Xavier, and the only way he figured he wouldn’t be killed on sight by the man was if he looked like someone else.

Alistair Reed approached the gates.

~

Xavier watched as Adranial left. The woman was a strange one. Someone he was still trying to wrap his head around.

The offer had been real.

That had hit him hard in the gut. He’d turned down something that could have protected his world, but he stood by what he’d said. A part of him wondered if it was selfish, wise, or perhaps a little bit of both. He didn’t know. But he didn’t want to hand his own fate over to someone else without having any idea of what might happen next.

I’m important to the most powerful person in the Greater Universe. Adranial’s ancestor. The first True Progenitor from the first planet to ever be integrated into the System.

That didn’t seem like it should possible. He was still coming to grips with it. Maybe he always would be. But he did know that he, and Earth, had to stand on their own two feet.

Still, his decision made him feel a profound amount of guilt. The weight of the world had been put on his shoulders almost by accident. He had never intended to be a True Progenitor. He’d simply found himself in that position by good luck or dumb luck or providence, whatever one wanted to call it. And as the most powerful person on Earth, its welfare had become his responsibility simply because he wasn’t the type of person to abandon it.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Now, he had chosen the weight. Chosen the responsibility.

Something profound happened in that moment as he considered what he’d done. The guilt he felt… drifted away. The responsibility he felt toward the world? That stopped feeling like a burden and started feeling like an honour.

This was his world. His fight. The power that had been handed to him, that he’d obtained, was what gave him this responsibility, but now he’d chosen it.

Taken hold of his future.

He smiled. Something in his gut untwisted. He breathed deeply, exhaled slowly, and he knew—he could face anything that came up against him.

As long as he had enough time to prepare.

A shout sounded from the gates. He walked over to the window, hands clasped behind his back, and looked out. Someone was waiting at the gates. The alarm hadn’t sounded. It wasn’t necessary. Guardian would already be there. The construct was enough to protect this place while Xavier and the other members of his party were away.

But he was curious to find out what this could be.

He left his chambers, closing the door behind him, and headed toward the main gate into his base.

He leapt smoothly up to the battlements. The guards on the wall didn’t so much as bat an eye at how swiftly he moved or how high he could jump. Most of his citizens had become used to seeing what he could do.

John happened to be manning the wall that day. Xavier had told him he no longer needed to partake in guard duty, but the man was often found walking the walls, talking to those standing on watch. There was something of a leader in him, and now that he was gaining levels, he was growing into the position well.

John nodded down at someone standing outside the walls. “He claims to be from another group. He’s proposing an alliance. He wants to have a chat with you.”

Xavier stepped over to the edge of the battlements and looked over the parapet. The man standing outside the gates tipped his head back and stared directly at Xavier, locking eyes with him. He had a small smirk that twisted the sides of his lips.

There was something familiar about the man, though it was nothing that Xavier could place. Searching his memory, he found he didn’t recognise him. The man had grey hair, a weathered face, and wrinkles that showed his age better than his hair did. He stood with impeccable posture and wore light leather armour.

A quick scan showed him to be Level 35. Admirable, for someone on Earth.

This man wasn’t the first to come to him here. There was no point in keeping the base’s location a secret. No one on Earth could be a threat to the base with Guardian here to protect it, and Xavier able to return at a moment’s notice through a portal.

Still, Xavier knew that while the base itself might not be vulnerable, many of the people inside of it were. He trusted himself to be able to move fast enough to stop any harm from coming to his people, but he tended not to have meetings with strangers inside the base as a precaution. There could be items that he wasn’t aware of. Items that could make someone explode faster than he could stop them, and he wouldn’t be able to do a thing about it. He was reminded of the conversation he’d just had with Adranial—that anyone coming to this world to do damage would be on a suicide mission.

Maybe he was being paranoid, but the security of his people was his responsibility, so he wasn’t going to take any risks.

That was why he vaulted over the side of the parapet and landed smoothly on the other side, outside the base, to meet with the man.

Hopefully, he was wrong, and this really was someone from another group looking to ally themselves with Xavier and his people. It was the smart play for anyone on Earth right now.

“Xavier Collins,” the man said.

Xavier blinked. It was still strange when people he’d never met knew his name. He supposed it was something he would get used to, considering people on the other side of the universe knew who he was.

A mindboggling fact.

The man extended a hand. Xavier extended his own. They shook.

The man smiled. A sinister smile. His eyes were still locked on Xavier and there was something empty about them. Something he didn’t like the look of at all. If Xavier wasn’t Xavier Collins, True Progenitor of Earth, that look in the man’s eye might have made him afraid. Might have made him pull back from the handshake and step away.

But there wasn’t anything on this world that could intimidate him.

“It’s so good to see you again,” the man said, still shaking Xavier’s hand.

Then, suddenly, the blood drained from the man’s face. His eyes went back in his head. He’d looked a little pale when Xavier had stared down at him from the battlement, but now he looked positively bloodless.

“What the hell?” Xavier caught the man as he fell to the ground.

The man was still breathing, but not for long. Xavier had no idea what was happening. Had the man been poisoned? Was he suffering some sort of adverse, damage-over-time status effect? He couldn’t think of any other explanation for why the man would have just fallen unconscious like that.

Was someone sending him a message, by killing this man at his doorstep?

With his free hand, Xavier summoned a health potion out from his Storage Ring and was about to tip it down the man’s throat when he heard the man’s heart stop beating.

Xavier was no medic, but something told him the man wouldn’t be able to swallow with his heart stopped.

“I need a healer!” Xavier called out.

But it was too late. The man died. And in that moment, a light engulfed them both.

As the white light surrounded him Xavier recalled the man’s words.

It’s so good to see you again.

And that’s when he realised why the smile had been so familiar. He’d seen that smile before. Seen it twist the lips of a different man, one he would have killed on sight if he ever saw him again.

Alistair Reed.

But what the hell was going on here? Why would Alistair come here just to die? If that really was Alistair, and Xavier had no doubt at this point, he must have used a powerful item to hide his true self. And that smile on his face, as though he were enjoying himself, as though this were some sort of victory…

As the white light washed over every inch of Xavier’s vision, making his surrounding impossible to see, he felt its tug at him. The tug of a teleportation.

His eyes widened. A Death Trap. This was almost exactly what had happened to Justin.

Xavier gritted his teeth. It was as though the world around him was moving in slow motion. And perhaps, in a way, it was, considering how fast he could move and think. He supposed this was how the Flash must feel.

He didn’t know where this Death Trap was going to take him. Didn’t know who Alistair Reed had allied with to get his hands on items like this.

But he did know he wasn’t just going to stand there and let it happen.