Alexia

I die twice more to the Quantum Architect, using those attempts to learn more about his fighting style. How he attacks. How he defends. How he dodges. Everything I can while also taking in what he does in the other two trials.

Honestly, if I could, I’d just attack him in those two trials. But it’s obviously split into three trials, with each trial having different goals.

So most likely I’d end up failing one of the first trials and wasting a shot at the third trial if I tried attacking him during them.

Not worth it for the tiny, miniscule chance it may actually work when I personally don’t think it would. Not when taking the chance would mean one less life.

And I need every life I can get.

I take a deep breath at the end of the Architect’s battle with the Corruptor on my sixth try before letting it out. Then my sixth attempt fighting against him begins.

And it starts very differently from the last five tries.

Because this time I start it off by using a new power I haven’t used before.

I stab my hand straight into my scythe before yanking it out with pure quantum energy of my own special affinity. That of the Quantum Reaper.

Energy meant to bring targets to their last slumber.

Then I spread both arms out with my scythe in one before purple and blue lightning stretches between my hands. Along with glitched clouds of more lightning appearing in the skies above us.

The Architect narrows his eyes, not having started attacking yet himself. Clearly finding my current actions worth some wariness.

And right when I begin my assault, making glitched purple and blue lightning strike from both my hands and the skies down towards him. Lightning fueled by the energy around us that’s filtered through my scythe. The man finally does something surprising to me.

He ditches the entire first phase of the battle and coats himself in his armor after teleporting his location elsewhere.

Then he just turns towards me as one panel after another appears to block my bolts of lightning, only letting some of them through that he teleports away from.

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My eyes narrow before I teleport forwards while sweeping my scythe, still striking lightning at him at the same time.

He blocks my scythe with half a dozen panels layered on top of each other, only for the man to be struck by my lightning while distracted. And I take advantage of that to teleport to the other side of him and swipe my scythe at him again. But he blocks it again, and once more, takes a lightning bolt to the back.

The man proceeds to revert the damage from the strikes before teleporting behind me and slamming his fist into my side, knocking me flying a few meters until I teleport behind him and slam my scythe into him with the momentum from his very strike. Then I revert the damage done to my body while he does the same to his.

Just for a lightning bolt to strike him while he’s doing that.

We continue doing this over and over again for several minutes, the two of us trading one blow after another. One lightning bolt shocking him after another. And one panel and armor coated punch slamming into me after another.

With both of us continuously reverting the damage.

But over time, I begin to grow tired. I slip up. And I end up taking more hits than I deal out.

Slowly the damage begins to build up as my soul decreases possibly faster than his.

It’s rather hard to tell though, since I can’t see his soul.

What I can tell, though, is that we’re both beginning to heal at slower paces than we were originally. Before reverting the damage, of course.

Proving that we’re both starting to run low on soul.

Right when I’m beginning to think I may actually have a chance at winning this time, though, he does something else completely unexpected.

He freezes reality around us, making me have to push to shatter the layers around me. Then he does… something. He swipes his hand across the screen and declares, “Shatter.”

Making everything around us shatter, with glitched particles appearing all around us in the air as every bit of reality disconnects from each other. Leaving glitchy voids everywhere in between the shattered parts of reality.

I look around with more than a little concern, only to turn my focus on him as I send more bolts of lightning and try to build up my finisher attack that I figured out earlier.

But it ends up taking too long as before I can do anything, he sends every last bit of shattered reality straight at me.

Killing me in an instant without giving me even a second to revert any damage. Not even finishing up the last of my soul in the process or letting me hear his signature countdown.

And just like all of my other failed attempts, I find myself back at the first trial.

I grit my teeth feeling genuine anger as I wonder just how much time has passed by now.

Actually, is time even passing? Am I returning to the past with each trial? Or maybe time doesn’t pass in these trials?

Or it does pass and I’m wasting time with each failure.

How does time even work in the quantum realm?

And how the hell am I supposed to judge time when there isn’t anything to judge it by?

When I tried to look at my phone to see the time all I saw was a jumbled up mess.

My eyes flare as I get more and more irritated. The pure irritation and beginnings of anger starting to flash past my usual apathy.

Fuck this is getting annoying.

And dangerous.

Just four more tries left.

But…

I turn to look at the Quantum Architect as he begins his initialization process of the galaxy.

…that was the closest I’ve come to victory.

Now I just have to turn it into a real victory.

And deal with that finishing move of his.