"WHY!!! TELL ME WHY!!! AREN'T WE ON THE SAME SIDE!!! ANSWER ME!!!" The silver-haired man exclaimed. His mouth bleeding a pseudo-golden liquid; as he shouted in anger and confusion at the two hooded beings, levitating in front of him.

"You don't get it, do you?" Said one of the beings in front of him; it was female-voiced and with a marble of light formed on her index finger of her right hand. "If you're so smart, why don't you figure it out yourself?"

"Nggnnn..." Moaned the silver-haired man from the pain; climbing out of the mountain wall where he was embedded; with his right arm completely broken, directing his left hand to the sheath at his waist. "If you wish to be killed, go ahead. Anyways, this must just be another one of The Architect's hateful tests, none of this is real, right?"

From the sheath, the silver-haired man pulled out the hilt of a sword, silver in color, wrapped in black ribbons for a better grip. From the hilt emerged a liquid metal that slowly formed the blade of the sword.

"Don't even think about it; you forgot who forged that sword didn't you?" Said the other hooded man; with a masculine deep voice; pointing to the sword with the index finger of his left hand."

The sword, whose formation was almost complete in the hands of the silver-haired man, began to deform, returning to its liquid state.

"It is not only your will that affects the Tronium your sword is made of" The eminent voiced hooded man exclaimed. "We forged your weapon before you even existed; our will is imbued in this one, obeying our will is priority to it."

"Shit... they're serious. If this keeps up, I'm going to... going to...” The silver-haired man exclaimed, clenching his left fist as hard as he could; trying with all his will to materialize at least a bit of his sword. "No, NO!!! I REFUSE TO DIE!

With tremendous force, the silver-haired man lashed out at the hooded men; so fast that only his silhouette was perceptible; so hard that the earth cracked, the ground shook; his battle cry echoed throughout the forest where they were fighting.

"Cosmos, stop him!" The hooded woman shouted to his companion. "Aye-aye my lady!" The hooded man flew towards the silver-haired man with the same magnitude of power as he did. Colliding in midair as a sonorous bang followed the impact.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

The roar echoed throughout the region as the two clashed in the sky. Both swift as lightning and powerful as thunder, they managed to dodge or block each other's attacks.

"Come back to you, Cosmos! This is not who you are! You’ve been brainwashed! Don't you remember all the time we spent together!!! COME BACK TO YOU!" The silver-haired man exclaimed, as he continued to block and dodge the hooded man's attacks.

"I'm not in the mood for this talk, little brother. Much less for this kind of dialogue that seems to be straight out of a cheesy light novel." The hooded man exclaimed, blocking and dodging as his opponent did the same. "Perish at once."

The hooded man's attack pattern abruptly changed, his attacks did not connect, they were fake attacks that did not cause any damage. The silver-haired man realized this, but it was almost impossible to tell which were real attacks and which were feints.

"Stop this, if you can." the hooded man told him.

The hooded man in a new move, propelled his right leg towards the face of the silver-haired man, what appeared to be a direct hit. The silver-haired man raised his guard all the way up, a fateful mistake.

"You fell for it, little brother" The hooded man's kick was a feint, an illusion when, in reality, the kick was going towards the silver-haired man's genitals. You could feel the pain of it just by looking at him.

But the silver-haired man, however, he did not flinch.

"You even forgot your own rules, brother. Always hide your genitals in battle." He said to the hooded man, taunting him.

"And you forgot the first one; never let your guard down." The hooded man disappeared from the silver-haired man's field of vision in less than a second, and with his heel struck the silver-haired man's head with a mammoth force. Crashing it into the ground; forming a crater with the impact.

The hooded man descended slowly, until he reached the ground, clapping his hands slowly on his way down.

"Five minutes ahead of schedule. You owe me five mitrons, Nova." Said the hooded man in a playful tone, looking at the hooded woman. "Don't even think about saying -I'll give it to you next time-"

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"Ugh.... Fiiineee" The hooded woman tossed the seven mitron coins to the hooded man. "Finally, we got what we were looking for, did you warn the Architect yet?"

"I'm on it," the hooded man replied. "You're lucky he falls for the same trick after so many centuries.”

"He's still the same ignoramus as before," the hooded woman exclaimed. "Do you think with this... Artemis can come back to life?".

"That should be enough" The hooded man replied to him.

Unexpectedly, out of the crater crawled the silver-haired man, trembling. His legs were pulverized, his chest crushed, and only his left arm was responsive.

"I'M NOT DONE! YOU HAVEN'T GIVEN ME THE ANSWERS I WANT!". The silver-haired man shouted at them, trying to pull himself up with the bits of limbs that could still serve as such.

"You're impressive, your stubbornness is the only thing that keeps you going." Said the hooded man in front of the nearly crippled silver-haired man, then turning his face in the direction of the hooded woman. "Doesn't this ring a bell by any chance, sister?".

"Sounds like generic shonen, bro" The hooded woman chuckled, trying to hide it "Pff- let me guess, this is when we seem to win, but suddenly and by magic of the script, the heroes show up and end up defeating us, that only happens in- AUCH!

Out of nowhere, the hilt of the silver-haired man's sword hit the hooded woman's head, complaining about the pain and trying to relieve herself.

"LISTEN TO ME AT ONCE!" The silver-haired man shouted at them, pointing his broken fingers at them. YOU DON'T HAVE TO- !

"No. Shut up already" The hooded woman said to the silver-haired man, pointing her right index finger at him as if it were a gun "Ivaris Replica."

From the marble on his finger, two beams of light shot out towards the arms and legs of the silver-haired man, pulverizing his limbs, leaving only his entire torso and head.

The silver-haired man's gaze looked dead, lost, empty, his mouth was not completely closed, and you could barely hear his breathing.

The hooded men lifted him from the ground, one of them held his body and head, making him look directly at the other hooded man, who positioned himself in front of him.

".... W....Wh...." The silver-haired man could no longer even formulate words, the physical trauma he had received was too much for him, but still. He did not die, rather, he could not die.

The hooded woman knelt in front of him, and very gently stroked the silver-haired man's bloody hair, and from within the shadows of her hood, a hint of her mischievous smile could be seen, escaping through the small amount of light that reflected back into it.

The silver-haired man, in his bewilderment, could only make some meaningless noises, unintelligible to any tongue. It could be observed how, slowly, some tears were leaking from inside the glasses he was wearing.

"Hmm... What's the matter, little brother? You're not so brave and strong after all, are you?" The hooded woman was still stroking his hair slowly and carefully. "Hmmm... you wanted to know so badly, I kinda feel sorry for you... I think I'll tell you."

The hooded woman stood up, and leaned over him, causing the silver-haired man to look up at her.

"Your work was always spectacular, from the first soul, we knew we were going to have an energy supplier competent enough for our demands; we weren't wrong, every one of them was perfect. But..."

The hooded woman cleared her voice after coughing a couple of times.

"You were so effective; you completed our demand much sooner than expected and we are ready for the next step." The hooded woman chuckled a little. "We can't waste any more time or resources, and the only missing piece is... You."

"........." The silver-haired man looked physically and mentally shattered, so much so that it seemed his head was empty, with no thought at all.

"Not counting the harvesting thing, you were always a pain in the ass, do you know how many timelines we had to fix thanks to you!!! How many biomes we had to alter!!! How many memories we had to change!!!; you've tried to do it more than once, you know how horrible it is to get into Synapsis."

The hooded woman snapped her fingers, and a marble of light reappeared on her index finger.

"A blessing and a curse all at once, that's what you are. Unfortunately for you, we do not require your services anymore, Codename: Spacetime. Or should I say Charly..."

The final curtain has fallen, it's the end. With his index finger pointed at the forehead of the silver-haired guy, the marble in front of him, taking the shape of a bullet, it was just a matter of pulling the trigger and ending it all.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

Out of nowhere, a blast sent the hooded men and the silver-haired man flying in opposite directions, it seems that the explosion did not cause any damage to them, only repulsion.

"Ugh... and now WHO'S butting in!" the hooded man exclaimed angrily, pounding the ground in fury.

From the undergrowth, a red-haired elf appeared, wearing adventurer's robes of green-brown and sky-blue, carrying a wooden staff of sorcery, with a trigger near the gem.

"I don't know who you are, but I like you less than the silver-haired fellow. If you want to get to him, you'll have to go over me, The Archmage of the Seventh Ring."

From another bush at full speed appeared a wolf beast of gray fur, wearing a pair of Arabian pants of the same color of reddish sand, with chains wrapped in his arms imbued with a strange aura; straight to attack the elf.

"YOU'RE OUT OF YOUR MIND IF YOU WANT TO DEFEND THAT SON OF A BITCH WHO ALMOST SUCKED MY SOUL!"

"YOU INEPT BEAST PRINCE, GET OFF ME, YOU FOUL-SMELLING SACK OF FLEAS WITH RABIES."

The hooded men looked at each other, seeing the "scene" just created out of nowhere, saying at the same time, "What's going on here?"

And I think you too, readers. You must be wondering what does this all mean? You see, this story started a long, long time ago; about two days ago.