"Hey, did you know this?" Dominic asked Ulrich.

"Yeah." Ulrich replied. "It was a pretty big rumour, and he told me and made me promise not to tell anyone.”

"Yeah, I’m dating Bart.” Gene replied casually.

"Hey man, it's cool." Dominic replied with a thumbs-up. "We got one of those here."

"Sup." Lainey waved, before focusing her attention on whatever Vivian was doing.

"This…wasn't supposed to happen." She wept softly. "We were supposed to be together, Douglas."

"Douglas? Who's Douglas?" Dominic asked. "Hey Ulrich, know any Douglas's?"

"Don't think so." Ulrich replied, just as confused as him.

"He's Douglas!" Vivian screamed, pointing to Gene. "He…he came back."

"I…my name's Gene. Gene Eric Bennet."

Bartholomew stood in front of him, letting the white energy flow over his hands.

"You can't be! We're supposed to be together again! I went through hell! Alone for five hundred years!" She fell to her knees, crying.

"I…feel the need to clear this up." Halford said calmly, picking her up. "She was one of my best fighters in the war five hundred years ago, so I kept her around after the truce."

"Okay?" Ulrich asked. "What does this have to do with this Douglas guy?"

"A former lover, who died in the conflict. And Gene here is quite the lookalike, if I remember correctly."

"I…wrote the prophecy." Vivian started in between the tears. "To make him seem as important as he is. Make him the hero I know he could be. And then I could mold him, back into Douglas."

"And this Douglas guy. He could stop time too, right?" Ayana asked.

"Well, no." Halford replied. "He was able to make light portals."

Vivian stopped for a second. "Wait…he was. Let me down."

"But-"

"Let me down, Halford!" She screamed. Halford did as she asked, and she stood up. "Halford, please tell me. How did I get Douglas powers?"

"You…inherited his spirit. I told you this."

"But that temple, with the fireplace and the green tubes…no. No no no. Am I Douglas!?"

"His soul is a part of your shell." Halford nodded.

"And my healing…Lian?"

"My three greatest." Halford nodded.

"You…you…made me into my friends?"

"Well, they were dead."

Vivian stood clutching her head for a few seconds.

"I suppose all I can say is…thank you." Vivian smiled. It seemed genuine, even if tears were streaming through her face.

"Thank you?" Sapphire asked, seeming annoyed. "Do you not know what this man did to you?"

"Saving countless people? Claiming this timeline and basking it in glory? Don't give in to mere emotion, Sapphire. Sacrifices have to be made, I thought you of all people would know that." She calmly walked over to her, arms outstretched.

"Want a hug?"

Sapphire stepped back. She was used to this kind of forced kindness from creepy men, but this was the first time the got the same sense from a woman.

"I'm good, thanks."

"That's fine." She beamed, the tears seeming to have fully stopped. "Halford?"

"Certainly."

She turned her back on the group, embracing Halford. They saw him accept her in what seemed to be a warm embrace, with Vivian reaching to his back to squeeze him more, like a divine teddy bear.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Or at least it seemed like that, until Halford opened his eyes.

Vivian let go, watching with the rest of them as Halford began spitting blood, and Ulrich caught a glimpse of red through his shirt.

"Vivian. You…traitorous…"

Vivian didn't even wait for him to finish. She sharpened the ice around her hand and plunged it into his chest, watching with glee as he fell to the ground, dead.

A small orb, about the size of a marble, appeared from the body of Halford. Vivian grabbed it with a manic smile on her face, and inserted it into her chest. The impact from it briefly lifted her hair up, and she faced the rest of them with a villainous smile.

"Hey, demon lady." Dominic cried out. "What's happening, exactly?"

"She's become a god." Zeb replied, her voice trying not to let panic escape.

Vivian swept her hair, showing the burn mark Ulrich gave her, as her skin slowly regenerated back to its flawless state. She then disappeared, and reappeared in front of Gene, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt, before the two of them disappeared once again. The two reappeared a few meters away from them, Gene looking terrified while Vivian clutched his hand, brushing her face against it.

Ulrich took a step forward to try to reach out, but a spike of ice appeared in front of him.

"Shoot. So close!" Vivian yelled with glee, while ice erupted out of the ground. Ulrich saw more spikes appear around him, blocking the view of the others.

Dominic brought Ayana close to him while the ice spurted from the ground, separating them from the others. Sapphire dodged out of the way when she sensed an icicle come out from below her, blasting Lainey away as the ice separated them. She looked behind her, and she was quickly separated from Bartholomew.

Vivian appeared in front of Gene again, freezing the air around him into a cage, which she warped into.

"What are you doing?" Gene cried.

"I'm making a new game for us." Vivian replied, trying to make a warm smile. "Either you agree to be with me, or everyone else dies. Which are you picking?"

"I-I'll marry you! Whatever you want! Just let them live!" He screamed.

Her smile faded into a depressive look. "You don't mean that. As long as the others are still alive, you'll just fall for one of them. I…really don't want to do this."

"Then don't!" Gene screamed, but Vivian was gone before he finished the sentence.

Dominic found Gene's sword on the ground next to him and reached to pick it up.

"Hey, Dominic." Ayana started. "Maybe that sword is something only he can use. It might kill you."

"Pretty sure we're getting killed regardless, so I'm getting the sword."

He picked up the sword, and luckily for him, wasn't vaporized or drained. He felt pretty much the same, and began hacking away at the icicles, until he heard Ayana scream behind him. Dominic turned around, and saw Vivian, with a mocking grin on her face. Dominic jumped in front of Ayana, sword in hand, the sweat dripping around him freezing up. Vivian casually pointed to him, firing a beam of ice that hit the sword, which Dominic barely managed to cling to. Dominic ran towards Vivian, trying to make a decisive slash to her neck. He closed his eyes and moved forward, and felt the sword hit against…something. He opened his eyes and inspected the sword, and there was a trail of blood across it's edge. He turned around, as the slash on Vivian's neck healed effortlessly, and she gave him a nice smile.

"Nice hit!" She beamed. "You've survived this round!" And the last thing Dominic saw was an ice wall, as Ayana looked at him with all ideas of survival drained from her eyes.

"Well, blood girl. Anything you can do?"

Ayana quickly rummaged through her bag, finding a vial of blood and chugging it down, not even checking the label, and hoping it wasn't lizard blood. Vivian charged up a shot, and fired an ice beam towards her, which she managed to avoid. She jumped back, clinging to the wall. Cat blood, good to know. She got out of way of another beam, readying her knife. She ran towards her, an icy mist hurting her, as she could make out Vivian's hand becoming sharper. As she approached, she shut her eyes and thrust her knife outward. She forced herself to open her eyes, her sweat hardening in the cold, and it was plunged directly into Vivian's right eye.

"Our next round two candidate, congratulations!" Vivian yelled, pushing her away. She shattered the wall hiding Dominic, who embraced her.

"Well then, see you in about ten minutes!" Vivian shouted cheerily, before quickly warping away.

Sapphire put all her energy into a wind attack that she hoped would shatter the wall of ice in front of her, and nothing happened. She felt some heat behind her, and turned around in fear, wind energy across her arm, which she retracted when it was just Ulrich and Zeb, with Zeb clutching her head

"Have you found the others?" She asked.

"Nope. Found Zeb, but she seems out of commission for a few minutes. You?"

"Stuck in this ice cage. Lainey is on the other side of this if I remember correctly. But she hasn't said anything."

"Oh, shit." Ulrich said. "LAINEY!" He and Sapphire kept yelling over the wall, as Ulrich charged up a fire shot.

On the other end of the wall was Lainey, standing in front of Vivian. She couldn't hear anything, all she knew was that when Sapphire blew her away, her powers activated, and now she couldn't hear. But outside of that, and the hole in one of her lungs, this fight was going pretty well. Vivian sent out an ice shot, which she sent a sound wave to deflect, sending it into the wall next to her. Vivian tried gloating, but it fell on deaf ears. Vivian got visibly annoyed and sent another icicle her way, which Oni blocked. Or tried to, as he shattered before the iceberg fully hit him, collapsing into tiny indigo particles. But she could faintly hear that, which was good. Vivian said something, and she still couldn't hear her. She disappeared for a second, coming back up close to her.

"You are very persistent. Were you ever told that?"

"Can't say I was." Lainey sighed, putting a mask over her fear. She very briefly heard "Lainey!" from two voices. Sapphire and Ulrich. She heard Vivian mutter something but couldn't make it out, and then touched her forehead.

Then she felt cold.

And then heard Sapphire screaming her name, extremely clearly.

And then felt icicles piercing from out of her skin. Then two. Then three. There were so many that she stopped trying to count after that. She lost the ability to stand, her legs in agonising pain. She felt Sapphire's hands, and she tried to say something to her, but she didn't know if the words came out. And then Sapphire's touch faded, as did everything else around her. She tried to fight it off, desperately trying to hear Sapphire's voice. But existance slowly faded around her. and eventually, she was forced to close her eyes…