A bizarre choreography plays out in front of me. I shoot the Enemy, and the Enemy Rewinds before firing back, so I also Rewind-

To put it simply, we are stuck in a stalemate. I don't know how much Rewound time has passed, but I'm certain that less than two seconds of 'real' time actually passed.

"This isn't getting us anywhere," I say to the Enemy, and it replies with a bullet to my face.

At least I know that it also has my great talent at diplomacy.

I sigh as I Rewind and shoot him before he can kill me, but the world goes gray as soon as a bullet leaves the muzzle of my weapon. It almost feels like we're in a turn-based game, I shoot, he Rewinds and shoots back before I repeat the cycle.

This battle is going to take a while.

However, I cannot back down no matter what. This fight will decide my future, and the future of Earth too. I can't give up no matter what, no matter how much I'm shot... Or rather how much I'm not shot.

I decide to switch strategies and create a Portal Gun in my other hand, I jump to the side and fire a portal beneath me, causing me to appear above the Enemy. I make the two weapons disappear and replace them with a shotgun filled with MH Shells. The gun roars and almost sent me flying as the volley of beams of soul energy crashes into the Enemy.

The world goes gray and backward, just before the beams touched the Enemy.

I click my tongue, we both know that soul damage carries over the Rewinds, so a couple of hits it all it would take to end this seemingly endless fight.

"How clever." The voice says before cracking its neck and making its weapons disappear before replacing them with a thin, pen-like device.

I immediately Rewind since I could recognize that thing everywhere; it's the laser pointer used for the Hammer!

"Stop this nonsense!" I shout as I try to reason with the Enemy. "Our continuous battle is only going to weaken our soul!"

"It's a price I'm willing to pay to get rid of your side's flaws." The Enemy declares with a snarl.

My flaws? I'm the one who brought us here, I'm the one who created all the weapons we are using, and I'm the one who turned a small cult of fanatics into a... bigger cult of even more fanatical cultists!

Somehow, I feel like I did a bad thing.

I Rewind just in time to avoid a Carter Bomb being dropped right in front of me and rack my brain to find a way out of this. We can't keep fighting like that, or our soul is going to weaken to the point of nothingness. I don't know what will happen when our reckless battle consumes the last drop of our soul, but something tells me that it isn't going to be pleasant.

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"Why can't you see that we need every drop of strength we can muster? The Empire is one thing, but we also have to worry about the Oracle!" I shout, and mentioning the woman seems to affect the Enemy slightly.

Even Phase 3 was not enough to put any wounds on her, so we have to go through the "Phases" until we reach a point where we can damage her.

Of course, it could also be a fool's errand since the minimal threshold for the Phases increases significantly with each stage, and the consumption of soul strength is also scaling with how advanced I am in the Phases.

With my luck, Phase 4 is going to require so much that I could only activate it for a few seconds at best.

"Prometheus will not fall!" the Enemy shouts before a bullet almost smashes into my skull.

I'm all for roleplaying as an invincible deity, but it seems like the Enemy actually believes that we are Prometheus.

The strength of the Order's propaganda is quite fearsome.

I sigh and teleport away from the Enemy. Distance has always been my friend in battle, so I need to take advantage of the long range of my attacks. I'm a great marksman thanks to all my Rewinds, and my gun is impossibly powerful so I should be able to shoot the Enemy from a distance.

My heightened senses allow me to make out a barely visible silhouette in the horizon, so I adjust my aim and fire.

A sudden shockwave almost sends me flying when a loud crash echoes into the air, and a small explosion happens between us. I look at the source of the blast because it doesn't resemble anything we have at our disposal.

Did the Enemy make a new weapon on the fly? I'm in serious trouble if he can do that. What would happen if he invented a miniature Hammer penetrator going at the speed of light and shot it at me?

My jaw drops when I realize that two bullets colliding with each other have caused the explosion.

But I don't have time to be surprised, so I shoot another volley towards the Enemy.

I click my tongue as all the bullets explode in the air, a sign that our projectiles canceled each other.

This outcome isn't too surprising since we are, for the most part, the same person. But still, it's going to make things more complicated than it needs to be.

The Enemy shoots at me, and my body reacts before my mind can, and I shoot down his bullets with my own. I can't say that I'm not impressed, but now isn't the time for such considerations.

Instead, I focus on the Enemy facing me, his angry scowl barely visible on his jet black face.

I recall all the battles which happened in my Soul World. The Spirit, the weird ghost trapped at the bottom of the mine...

The same thing happened each time. I endured the attacks while the enemy expected me to die, and I ate their souls.

...The more I think about it, the more I think that I'm actually the bad guy. A soul-eating, divinity-impersonating, cult-leading time traveling maniac who is currently fighting himself doesn't sound like the most family-friendly guy to ever exist.

On the other hand, my enemies are an oppressive Empire, a bunch of petty nobles who are so out of touch with reality it's almost comical, and a godlike being whose favorite pastime is making my life miserable. There's also a bunch of quantum computer powered brainwashed teens who want me dead, which makes me think that I'll have to find a way to deal with them at a later date.

A bullet whizzing past my head takes me out of my thoughts, and I focus on the Enemy. That thing still wants me dead, and I have to find a way to get rid of it.

I cannot use my usual strategy here, because a few hits will be more than enough to take either of us down. I could attempt to spam Hammer strikes, but it would waste too much soul strength. The Enemy doesn't seem to care about that, but it looks like I'm the more long-term oriented one.

An idea suddenly pops in my head, and a grin creeps on my face. The Enemy wants me to fragment, right?

Then I'll show him that an army of thousands of copies of me might not be the best opponents.

I aim the gun towards my chest and take a deep breath; this is going to hurt like a bitch.

The weapon fires and my vision dims as I explode into a thousand pieces, the only thing I see before losing consciousness is the shocked face of the black silhouette so hellbent in making me explode.

I bet that bastard didn't expect me to explode of my own volition!

..."John's" PoV...

Oh boy, it's been a long time.

I look around and see thousands of my brothers, who all look as haggard as me.

The opponent stands in front of us, and I feel a certain wrongness just by looking at it. No wonder that Original decided to give us the reigns on that one.

I look around and take a deep breath; I have to make one of the most important decisions of my short and temporary life.

I turn towards the copies, who are now looking at me as I raise my hands in the air, "Welcome, my dear Fragments, to the first edition of the Assembly of Super Special Fighters Against Cuntish Enforcers!"

The noise of thousands of facepalms at once marks my triumphant entrance into the battlefield!