Are you ready for another Unfolding? the Spirit of Time asked in a gentle voice.

Xavier nodded meekly, coming out of his reverie. I’m ready.

This unfolding would be different to the last. This time, when he faced the Fetid Forest Troll, the second version of himself would have experienced what he had just experienced.

Another strange thing to wrap his head around.

This spell is powerful, he thought to himself. Incredibly powerful. He knew that the cooldown was a long one, and—according to Rhaalir—it was a locked cooldown.

Xavier had never had a spell with a locked cooldown before, but it meant that it couldn’t be influenced by a level up, or a spell, or an imbued ability. There was no way to alter how long it took to regenerate. He would be able to cast Summon Otherworldly Spirit again, but he wouldn’t be able to bring forth the Spirit of Time.

Not for another six months.

To him, it seemed like a hell of a long time, but he knew that in the grand scheme of things it really wasn’t very long. The problem was for his purposes, pushing forward as fast as he was… well, he figured he would need to use it again before most Denizens.

Xavier released a breath as he split his mind in two once more.

~

Five times, Xavier watched himself fail.

The second version of himself that he watched had come into the battle with equal parts confidence and caution. He had seen how much damage he could do to this beast with Soul Strike, and so he had led with that attack, hitting the beast while the spirits from the Otherworld and the soul puppets were still in play, and his Time Alteration spell hadn’t yet been used.

But it wasn’t enough—the beast hadn’t suffered enough physical injuries.

The second version of him hadn’t taken as many risks as the first one had. Clearly, he was still reeling from watching his own death. Observer Xavier couldn’t blame him—he was still feeling the same thing.

Except it hadn’t done him any good. He had been too cautious, to the point of being timid. The Fetid Forest Troll had used a spell that it hadn’t shown the first time. Something that had trapped Xavier to the ground, making it impossible for him to move. He couldn’t dodge. He couldn’t run. And the enemy was too close for him to use Time Alteration without getting it inside the time dilation field with him.

Once again, Xavier had had to watch himself die.

Twice, as an E Grade, he had gone up against the weakest C Grade on the entire floor, and twice… he had been killed.

After that, Xavier had seriously considered walking away. The Spirit of Time had given him a sympathetic look, though she had not offered her opinion on what had just taken place, nor had she deigned to offer him any advice.

He wondered how many things like this the woman had seen in her role as the Spirit of Time. How many Denizens had summoned her and watched themselves, or those they loved, die in different alternate realities and different, diverging time streams?

He’d shaken away those thoughts, and moved on with the spell, watching yet another Xavier go against the Fetid Forest Troll, equipped with the updated knowledge.

This Xavier hadn’t won, but he had escaped. As he’d ran away, he’d vowed to come back and finish the job. To persevere, to remain E Grade, until he was able to crack this.

Xavier admired the perseverance, but hoped he wouldn’t have to go through that himself.

The fourth version of him to go up against the Fetid Forest Troll was the one to finally triumph—but it was a close shave. He lay on the ground after the fight, his flesh rotting, whispering that his health was at 1 percent.

He had survived, but doing so had almost cost him his life.

So, Xavier had used the spell one more time. The Spirit of Time had told him that was the last time that she could do this, and Xavier had thought he might as well move forward with it. Though he had seen every action that had amounted to the win, that didn’t mean he would be able to move exactly as the other version of himself had. He couldn’t see his own thoughts. There was a possibility that he might take a misstep. That the 1 percent health he’d been left in would actually become 0.

He couldn’t afford to let that happen. He’d felt what it was like to die now—twice—and it wasn’t something he was ever going to let himself experience for real.

And he was glad that he’d made that decision—the final battle had been spectacular.

Now he just had to make sure he could do it again.

Still frozen in time, with that beautiful woman from the Otherworld, Xavier looked over at her. He hadn’t seen the titles he would gain from winning this fight, all he had seen was himself winning. He was eager to discover what he would gain.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Thank you, Xavier thought to her. I would not have been able to do this without you.

You aim to achieve the incredible, Xavier Collins. The Spirit of Time gave him a wry look. That is something at which I excel at helping people produce. I do look forward to next time you call upon me. I imagine whatever situation you find yourself in will be interesting to observe. Fight well, young Denizen.

The Spirit of Time drifted away, returning to the Otherworld. Slowly, and then all at once, time began to move forward again.

Xavier’s mind raced with everything that he would need to do. His memory of his actions was complete, and all he needed to do was reenact them. It was a strange way in which to fight, lacking some of the excitement he was used to, but he had more than enough excitement at the prospect of defeating a C Grade beast.

He didn’t need any more than that.

Xavier took a deep breath, then released it. The spirits from the Otherworld and the soul puppets were still in play, even if they weren’t doing much damage to this thing.

He didn’t dawdle. Xavier threw himself forward, sprinting straight at the Fetid Forest Troll.

It was time to kill himself a C Grade.

While the Fetid Forest Troll was still distracted by the spirits and the soul puppets, Xavier moved in. He flanked the beast and then came around at it from behind. This cost the lives of many of the soul puppets, and Xavier knew that in a moment from now, the troll would use its knockback spell.

Before it did, Xavier struck it with two spells at once—as he slashed down at the back of its head, mid-leap, with his claws, he cast Enhanced Telekinetic Strike and Spirit Break simultaneously. The pain this caused was enough for the beast to whirl around and pin him with its gaze.

A roar sounded and it slammed its fist into its chest.

Xavier was knocked back. The Fetid Forest Troll raised its club, about to cast a stream of rot that would slam into Xavier and infect him.

But Xavier wasn’t going to let that happen.

He cast Soul Strike. He didn’t use every single soul at his disposal. Instead, he used two thousand of them. It had been difficult to discern how many souls the other version of him had used. Fortunately, the other version of Xavier had been kind enough to say it aloud.

The two-thousand-infused Soul Strike burst forth from Xavier’s fists. Bolts of pure white lightning shot forth, forking through the sky as countless soul apparitions came into being, bearing down on the Fetid Forest Troll as its eyes widened at the sudden attack.

The Soul Strike interrupted the Fetid Forest Troll’s rotting beam spell and made it stumble back a few steps. It wasn’t enough to knock it down, but it didn’t need to be—all it needed to do was hurt.

This was different to how the first few versions of Xavier had used the spell. They had cast the entire thing, as the cooldown on the spell was too long to use twice in a fight.

That is, unless one was willing to use Time Alteration to quicken the rate of the cooldown, and the version of Xavier that had last fought this beast? He’d been ballsy enough to do so.

The area was deserted, after all.

And so Xavier did just that—he cast Time Alteration, making the time dilation field large enough to encompass himself and the C Grade beast. The spirits from the Otherworld and his soul puppets were trapped outside the bubble.

But that was by design.

The spirits and soul puppets would see the time dilation field and to them it would look as though Xavier and the beast were frozen in time.

Xavier had theorised different ways of working with his time dilation field, coupled with either a soul puppet or an enemy controlled with Willpower Infusion.

Considering he had the ability to throw part of his consciousness into those he controlled, as he could split his mind into multiple parts, he wondered if he would ever be able to see what was happening—in real time—outside of a time dilation field that he was within.

But that wasn’t something he’d tried experimenting with yet, and he wasn’t about to try it in the middle of a fight like this.

Now that the time dilation field was up, his Soul Strike spell re-upped its cooldown in what amounted to an instant from his perspective. The Fetid Forest Troll didn’t even seem to be aware of what was happening.

Xavier didn’t activate Soul Strike for a second time—not yet. Instead, he hit his enemy with a steady stream of Spirit Breaks and Soul Shatters. The Soul Strike had been enough to make the thing unsteady, and the stream of weaker spells was keeping it that way.

Once Xavier knew it had strained its mental defences, he next hit the beast with Core Burn.

When he saw the spell doing its work, he smiled.

Almost there.

Soul Strike!

Thousands of bolts of white lightning came into being as soul apparitions appeared before him and launched themselves at his enemy.

It wasn’t just him doing damage to the Fetid Forest Troll, either. The spirits outside the time dilation field who possessed ranged attacks were flinging those attacks at the beast as often as they could. He had used that same technique when he had been fighting with other Champions. Though those spells had stopped coming in less than a second to Xavier’s perspective, as the spirits disappeared back to the Otherworld, their time on this plane already up.

As the second Soul Strike hit his enemy, Xavier moved in, using Willpower Infusion as he closed the gap between himself and the Fetid Forest Troll. He didn’t deactivate the time dilation field. Instead, he reversed the flow of time, making sure the beast wouldn’t be able to reach the end of any of its own cooldowns.

Not that that would matter, as Willpower Infusion took hold of the beast.

No matter how injured the beast currently was, it still had a strong mind. Xavier had managed to effectively blast his way through the beast’s mental wall, but that didn’t mean he would be able to control it forever. In fact, he could already feel that control slipping.

That didn’t matter. He only needed to control it enough time to stop it from casting the spell that turned its entire body into an oozing black mess.

Xavier released a loud roar, a bestial battle cry, as he slashed his claws into the Fetid Forest Troll’s skin, piercing through its odd, wooden armour. The Fetid Forest Troll took countless dozens of hits in the span of a few seconds. With each strike, Xavier felt his control over the beast slipping further and further away. Soon, it would once more be in control of itself.

Xavier attacked, right up until that moment, then he stopped as the beast came back to full awareness.

And he cast Fear Dominion. The spell worked, as Xavier knew it would. Fear lit up the troll’s eyes as Xavier delivered his final strike.

His claws pierced the beast’s eye, dealing the last little bit of damage he needed to take this thing down.

The Fetid Forest Troll fell to the dirt. Xavier stood a few feet away, looking down at it.

He hadn’t taken a single strike, and the C Grade beast lay dead before him.

Now, it was time to see just how many titles he would gain from this.