I lose track of time as the timeline is frozen. My frenetic hand keeps pressing the Quick Rewind button, and it shows no signs of stopping.

The events that lead to this point keep replaying in my head. How could I have fallen so low? I was nothing more than a beast, a ravenous creature out for blood as it killed the same helpless prisoner again and again to sate its fury.

But things have to change now. I'm lucky that I remained somewhat in control after this bloodbath, so I still have time to fix my mistakes.

I now realize that I have been too lenient with the voice and that I cannot ignore the situation any longer. The urges of the voice are growing stronger by the day, and it's finally time that I put my foot down and obliterate it. It's true that its reckless abandon has been helpful in battle, but I managed without before. And, if things keep progressing like they are, I'm less likely to join the battlefield unless it's to face a creature like the Oracle.

The voice has outlived its usefulness, and the problems it causes me are too great to ignore.

"We ArE oNe." The voice says in my mind.

I will not listen to its sweet lies anymore. This thing is not me; it's far too bloodthirsty, far too murderous to be me. I know that I'm not an angel and that a lot of people died by my hands, but their deaths were necessary.

...Or were they?

I can always come up with valid reasons for my past actions, but I'm not so sure that it came from me, or the voice.

"StOp ThIs FoOlIsHnEsS." The voice demands, and I feel compelled to obey. I grit my teeth and shake my head, its influence runs far deeper than I thought, and getting rid of it is clearly a necessity if I wish to remain sane.

Or at least somewhat sane.

"I will not yield," I shout at the voice as the timeline keeps repeating. "You are a parasite, a mere side-effect of the Rewinder!"

"YoU kNoW nOtHiNg! I aM tHe ShIeLd, ThE OnE wHo EnDuReS sO wE cAn KeEp FiGhTiNg! " It screams back.

It's true that I haven't felt as much pain as I should have, especially when I'm smashed to bits by powerful foes. But is it worth housing what might as well be a burgeoning Demon in my soul?

It isn't worth it. My unlocked memories show that all the voice first took control when I was pushed beyond a certain threshold of suffering, and that threshold kept getting lower and lower as I powered through everything that came for my head. My massive amount of Rewinds are probably at fault too, but I can't do anything about that.

The Rewinder, despite its numerous flaws, is still the best thing that has ever happened to me, so I'm not going to stop using for such minor details like time-travel-induced schizophrenia or potential soul corruption.

"I will not fall! Prometheus will not fall!" I shout to the voice.

Now is also the time to drop the veil. I kept acting like this whole Prometheus business hasn't affected me, but it couldn't be more of a lie. It's better if I fully embrace the Prometheus persona, for the Order is an asset which is too valuable to discard, not to mention that all these people would probably die if I reject them thanks to the Oath they took.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

At least the voice was right on one point, what makes a deity besides the faith of its believers? I know I'm nowhere near the godlike figure they mistook me for, but I'm trying my hardest to rise up to the Order's expectations. After all, I'm still a regular and powerless human who is facing impossible foes.

Strip me of my equipment, and I wouldn't even last a second against the most basic of Enforcers.

Of course, the Rewinder ensures that I cannot die, either by regenerating my body or by restarting the day after my untimely demise.

A faint smile creeps on my face as I close my eyes, and I'm back into an all too familiar wasteland when I open them again.

The Spirit said that it was my Soul World, and its broken and desolate nature is apparently unique.

Which is fitting considering that I am the only time traveler in the multiverse that I know of.

Of course, the fact that my idea of an ideal place is a dead world isn't reassuring, but I shouldn't bother with all those minor details.

I stand up and materialize my trusty Field Pistol in my hand. Glancing at the weapon makes me wonder about the 'Phases.' Why can I do that? Is it because I have a humongous soul like the Spirit and Beelzebub seemed to say, or is it linked to the robes that the Order gave me?

But let's stop thinking about that for a moment, and let's find my target. I look around and find nothing, so I glance at my hands.

They are flickering, alternating between my normal appearance and a dark silhouette oozing black mist.

It seems that cleaning up the mess is going to be harder than I first thought.

"Stop!" the voice shouts; its voice no longer distorted. "You are nothing without me; you will fail without me! I will always come back, we are divided yet united, two sides of the same coin-"

At least it has the same terrible taste for metaphors that I have.

"I will not listen to your lies. You are just an amalgamation of the corrupted parts of my soul that got out of control!" I shout back as I recall the time where the fragments of my soul tried and failed to suppress the 'feral ones' as they called it.

"I am the one keeping the corruption in check! I am the one who strengthens us both!" it says through my mouth.

A smirk creeps on my face. It is getting desperate; I can feel it. I take a deep breath and put a large amount of soul strength into the bullet loaded into my gun. The weapon shines like a miniature sun as I aim it towards my head.

It is a big gamble, but my soul shards seem to be very powerful in my Soul World so I might as well use it to my advantage. The gun vibrates in my hand, and I hesitate to pull the trigger. What if it doesn't work? What if it makes things even worse?

Now that I think about it, I have no idea if the soul shard will target the voice instead of me. It could erase me from existence, or it could do nothing at all. After all, I'm shooting my soul with itself, so weird fuckery is bound to happen.

Or nothing will happen, I'm so used to extraordinary phenomenons that I always expect some ancient demons to pop up everywhere.

In a way, it would be fitting if nothing happens.

But let's stop delaying the inevitable, I take one last deep breath and pull the trigger. The gun almost explodes in my hand as the soul shard grinds against my skull. As it turns out, I'm quite durable in my Soul World.

But still, it isn't enough to stop the bullet. A blue flame explodes behind the projectile, and it gains the velocity it needs to pierce my head.

It feels like I'm being torn apart from the inside, that every single cell is imploding and tearing itself apart. I fall to my knees and cough, but nothing comes out. My vision is blurry and I feel like I'm about to lose consciousness.

Which is a pretty normal occurrence for me now that I think about it.

But what worries me is the emptiness I feel in my core. It feels like I lost more than ethereal flesh with my reckless suicide attempt.

"Now you've done it." A familiar voice echoes.

I freeze when I realize that the voice isn't coming from my head, but from my ears. I raise my head and my jaw drops at the sight.

A dark figure oozing what looks like black smoke is getting up. It's two white eyes glare at me, but what catches my attention is the bright white circle on the side of its head, exactly where my bullet hit.

The uncanny clone stares at me, and I somehow feel like it's smirking.

"Are you satisfied?" the clone says. "Do you have any idea how hard is it going to recombine? I'll have to FrAgMeNt YoU a LoT."

"So you're finally showing your true nature," I say as I massage my temple.

Who would have thought that being shot in the head was so unpleasant?

But I will have time to complain later; now I need to take care of my evil clone... I refrain from giggling like an idiot and aim my gun towards the voice.

...I guess that calling it 'the voice' doesn't really work anymore since it has a body. Let's call it Enemy for now.

I don't linger on the sheer awesomeness of my naming sense and shoot the bastard.

It looks like it had the same idea as me since a bullet flies towards me at tremendous speed. I grit my teeth, one thing that I haven't taken into consideration is who controls the Rewinder, for it will decide the winner of this battle. As evil and ominous-looking as the Enemy is, he's still a copy of me.

And I know better than anyone how lacking my combat abilities are.

The world goes gray as time goes backward.

However, this time I'm also going back.

From the angry look of the Enemy, it looks like it also used the Rewinder to stop the deadly bullet from smashing into its face.

A duel between time travelers is bound to be interesting, right?