Londyn stepped through the ILS’s Main HQ, coming to a particular room. The automated doors opened up, revealing a comfortable office with an attached rest facility.

"I'm going to get you. I'm going to get you, if it's the last thing I do!"

Inside Arachnalich was pacing, her robotic eye flickering constantly, her hands clutching at the empty air.

Londyn just heaved a sigh. The spider girl then noticed her presence and quickly stood up straight, trying to make an elegant pose.

“Oh my, i-if it isn’t the Director…”

“I already saw.”

Arachnalich froze.

“And…there’s cameras here, you know?”

Arachnalich fell on the floor. Londyn just heaved another sigh. She stepped forward and extended a hand.

“Bob?”

Arachnalich slowly nodded as she grabbed Londyn's hand and rose back to her feet.

“Bob.”

Londyn crossed her arms.

“Look, at the moment we’ve got an official reason to hunt for him too. Had him in our sights in fact, before someone made a mess of things.”

“I-I had him! You messed with me!”

“Did you at any point actually have eyes on him?”

“I-I was just about to!”

“Because we did…before a giant spider blocked him from our view.”

Arachnalich just looked away.

“Oh, and the leader of the AVS personally interfering with an active ILS operation is NOT going to help you in the negotiations.”

Arachnalich froze again.

“The…negotiations?”

Londyn raised an eyebrow.

“Yes? The ongoing negotiations with the United Nations? The critical talks that are going to determine the fate of your entire organization and all the beings it represents? Everything you’ve been working towards recently?”

Arachnalich kept averting her gaze, sweat dripping from her brow.

“Y-Yes…those negotiations…of course…right…”

“You had a plan for that when you went after Bob, right?”

“O-Of course…”

Londyn just held her forehead and sighed.

“Ok, look. You’ve made a real mess of it, but I have a solution.”

Arachnalich turned to her with hope in her eyes.

“R-Really? What is it?!”

“A joint operation. We work together to hunt down Bob. In fact, I’ll state for the record that you’ve been assisting us from the start. So instead of being criticized for fighting with the ILS, we can use this as leverage in your favor.”

“That sounds perfect!”

Londyn extended her hand.

“IF…you follow my lead from now on.”

Arachnalich paused for a moment, then sighed and grabbed Londyn’s hand.

“I guess I don’t have much choice now. Just promise me I’ll get to dump a mountain of paperwork on Bob’s desk.”

A dangerous glint shone in Londyn’s eye.

“I like the sound of that.”

The two shook on it.

“You can use this office for the time being. I’ve already contacted the AVS to let them know you’re here.”

Arachnalich froze once again.

“You…told them…I’m here? As in…they’re coming here?”

Londyn raised an eyebrow.

“Yes? You…did tell them before you ran off after Bob, right? Made arrangements to ensure everything would keep running…right?”

Arachnalich just started to tremble, her skin growing even paler than normal.

----------------------------------------

Meanwhile Chris and the other minions were loading entire boxes full of papers into the trunk of a limousine. Linda was cackling as she oversaw the work.

“I’m coming for you, Mistress. I hope you had a nice, completely unplanned break. Because you’re going to need it. Oh, you're going to need it. Muahahahahahaha!”

The others avoided looking her in the eye.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

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Bob stretched his back as he met back up with Nemesis. Being trapped inside a cramped interior of a mecha-spider was not a pleasant experience.

He could only hope it was worth it.

The group ran up to him the moment they saw him.

“Bob-sama!”

“Relieved Statement: Commander Bob, I am happy to see you’re all right.”

Kiyosuke just crossed his arms and smirked.

“Heh, I told you all not to worry. He wouldn’t go down that easily.”

Saydaa grinned and poked his side.

“Says the guy who couldn’t stop pacing until you arrived.”

Kiyosuke just averted his gaze.

Arvid chuckled and then made a serious look.

“So, everything went well on your end?”

Bob nodded.

“Yes, how about you?”

“Affirmative Answer: This unit located the source of the disturbance and likely target. The Mester Stoor Worm Fang previously stored in ILS Vault was missing. This unit’s sensors indicate time disturbance was centered around its prior location.”

Bob began to grunt and rub his chin at that.

The Mester Stoor Worm Fang? What would a potential time traveler want with that? Admittedly there were any number of uses for such a powerful repository of mystical energy, but there were easier ways to acquire magic fuel than breaking into the ILS Vault.

Which admittedly Bob just did and might in fact be quite easy for a time traveler but that's besides the point.

Well in any case, the next step was fairly simple.

“Elise, Saydaa, can either of you track down the fang?”

“Affirmative, this unit has already scanned and determined a location.”

Bob smiled at that. Elise already had the genetic information of the fang that they acquired during the Kaiju attacks, and all of the data the ILS had gathered on it as well. She had multiple angles with which she could track the fang, some of which would not be blocked by mystical seals.

“Warning: This unit is reading matching energy signature in the Himalayas. Speculation: Commander Bob, it seems the fang has been unsealed and is emitting its full power.”

Bob swore.

That meant whoever stole it was no longer trying to hide.

Which meant he was running out of time.

No time to determine the opponent’s goals.

No time to infiltrate the opponent’s organization.

No time to come up with a plan.

No time to wait for Xiong Huang to respond to his messages.

No time to convince Londyn.

He would just have to take what he had and dive right in, hoping they could come up with a solution on the spot.

Bob groaned.

Time travelers really are annoying.

“Nothing for it then. Get ready team, looks like we’re out of time. We’ll have to go in blind on this one.”

Bob took a deep breath as the team made their way to the jet.

He had a bad feeling about this.

----------------------------------------

Bob and Nemesis dropped from the grav-jet on the target location, Bob wearing his combat suit once again. He didn’t have any more elixirs to power the cultivation furnace this time, but the suit’s base performance was still enough to contend with a normal super. He had to hope that that would be enough this time.

It was better than nothing, at the least.

They arrived in the Himalayas, at the site of his battle with Captain Sildeth. Most of the mountains in the area had suffered varying degrees of damage, leaving a clearing in the center of the mountain range surrounded by jagged, crumbling spires, the remains of once imposing mountain peaks.

And across the clearing was a massive ritual formation of some sort formed of glowing light, with characters and letters of hundreds of different languages spread about it. Countless artifacts and cauldrons were set at different points, all glowing.

At its center was the Mester Stoor Worm Fang. It was covered in a combination of glowing letters and wires, all running to a heavily modified Vophae Dimensional Projector.

And a man with his hand placed upon it, his eyes closed.

A man Bob knew, in fact.

Bob and his team landed at the center of the formation.

“Director’s Assistant Wilson, huh?”

Wilson opened his eyes and began to laugh.

“Amazing, absolutely amazing. Even after all that, after I finally found a way to stop you, turned the entire world against you, and yet here you are. You truly are my greatest adversary.”

His face curled into a grin.

“But you’re too late this time.”

The Mester Stoor Worm Fang grew too bright to see. The light traveled along the glowing letters and wires to the Dimensional Projector, which activated and fired. It shot a beam of sickly green light that seemed to tear through the very air itself. Cracks of white light, tinged with green, rippled across the air. Bob heard the sound of glass shattering as a vortex of white light formed in the air. Then the entire formation began to glow bright.

A huge torrent of green light began to pour from the vortex, condensing down as it struck Wilson’s torso.

“What…is this?”

“Salvation.”

Wilson spread his hands.

“I have explored the entire timeline, Bob, from the dawn of time to its end. I have seen all of existence. And I found it all so…meaningless.”

He frowned.

“All of human existence is barely a blip in the grand scope of reality. All our achievements, all of our struggle, but for a moment. Everything we do crumbles and fades in the end. If we rule the Earth, the Earth eventually dies. If we take to the stars, those stars one day go out. Even if we overcome the heavens and gain immortality, we still cannot escape the end of the universe itself. Nothing we do will ever matter, time will take us all.”

Bob focused on Wilson while Nemesis spread out. Elise focused on the beam, her robotic eye flickering. Arvid and Kiyosuke gripped their swords. Saydaa began to form magic circles in the air while Nana unrolled dozens of scrolls, quickly writing new seals upon them. But Wilson seemed to simply ignore them.

“But I say no. I will not go quietly into the night. I will achieve something of significance, something enduring, something real! I will become a god, escape this doomed reality, and form one of my own!”

He turned to Bob and smiled.

“I have to thank you, for making it possible. As well as despise you, for making it difficult beyond all reason. You see, at this particular moment in time, on this particular spot on this particular planet, the boundaries of the universe reach their weakest point since their inception. For years all the heroes and villains of this planet have wreaked havoc upon the laws of physics. Singularities tossed around willy nilly. Swords cutting through space. Time itself being twisted at the whims of a teenage girl. Energies and powers beyond comprehension colliding with one another over and over. Star destroying energy beams firing, stopping, tracing back across the same path. And then of course, the moment the walls of reality were shattered entirely. The walls of our dimension are at their breaking point.”

“Which gives me a unique opportunity. I can shatter the walls of reality once more, access that nascent universe those psychic slimes use as a mere prison. With the power of the Mester Stoor Worm to decay, I can break down that universe and take all its power into myself. What’s more, I can leverage this break in reality to start a chain reaction, spreading across this universe as well. And with the full power of two whole universes, I will ascend to godhood, and make reality anew.”

Yeah.

Bob had heard enough.

He nodded to the team.

Arvid threw his blade at Wilson…

A blast of green light knocked the sword away.

Kiyosuke swung his blade, arcs of white light that cut through space slashing through the Dimensional Projector. The machine fell to pieces.

But the hole in reality remained, the beam continuing to stream into Wilson.

Saydaa cast dozens of spells. Mind attacks on Wilson. Blasts of fire and wind. Trying to drain away the power to fuel her own spells. Twisting reality itself to tear his body apart.

Every spell she cast dissolved into red light that joined the stream flowing into the man.

Elise opened fire with every weapon and power in her arsenal. Bullets and missiles, some made of enchanted metals. Beams of light, flamethrowers, poison gases. Elemental blasts, barrages of crystal, shockwaves, telekinetic powers, necromancy spells.

Nothing managed to pierce through the flows of energy.

Nana activated her seals. Every seal she had learned from the USB Drive of Demonic binding activated, wrapping around Wilson, the torrent of energy, and the hole in reality. She tried to banish them, to bind them, to seal them away.

But the raw amount of power simply burst through whatever seals she could create.

Wilson shook his head, chuckling.

“Please Bob, how many times do you think I’ve tried this already? Let me tell you. Fourteen million nine thousand and four, before this one. I said it already, didn’t I? You are my greatest adversary. The first time I tried the ILS simply came and interrupted before I got my ritual off. The next time it was the Mistress of the Eternal Night Sect. Next was your little Nemesis bunch. Or a random supervillain would accidentally disrupt the ritual with their superweapon. Or a mystical being of legend would arrive to confront me. Over and over and over. Why, at first I thought it was the universe itself! Some sort of self-defense mechanism trying to protect itself!”

“But as I analyzed the situation, I started to realize another possibility. That there was someone behind it all, pulling the strings. Yet, I couldn’t find one. I looked all over the records, the histories, all that would follow. Yet no one had recorded anything about someone like you. It was then I realized that I need to live through this period myself, see things with my own eyes. And still, it took me decades to piece it all together!”

Wilson grinned.

“And even after I found you, you kept finding ways to stop me! You truly were annoying! If I killed you, the Mistress of the Eternal Night would inevitably arrive to take revenge! If I trapped you in the future or past, you found a way to contact someone in this time! Several times you even destroyed the world when you couldn’t stop me otherwise! Do you know what I’ve gone through to get this far? To get my ritual to the point of no return, where you couldn’t stop it no matter what you could do? I had to blanket the entire system in an isolation field just to stop you from contacting Xiong Huang and even then she would somehow know anytime I truly harmed you! I had to come up with a way to get the entire world on your case, just to buy a little bit of time! I had to do every step manually that I could to keep you from tracking my Chrono-Shifter!”

Bob’s mind was racing, going through every power, every combination of powers, every resource he had at his disposal. Anything he could do to stop the ritual in progress. Arvid had already turned to the magic circle, trying to damage the formation and its catalysts, but the ritual had its own momentum at this point. Saydaa, Kiyosuke, and Nana were trying to disrupt the torrent of energy with magic, seals, and tears through space, but everything they did was just a drop in the ocean. Elise was running simulations of her own, trying to come up with a solution.

“I’ve calculated everything you can do. I’ve accounted for every resource and ally you have at your disposal. It is too late. There is nothing you can do anymore, Bob. But be grateful. Your meaningless lives will now contribute to a real achievement. The only achievement that will ever matter.”

Bob’s mind raced but the readings from his suit were clear. The reaction was reaching the critical point. Xiong Huang wasn’t here. He didn’t have many options.

He didn’t have enough time.

There was nothing he could do.

He had lost.

And the entire universe had lost with him.