A huge column of white light emerges from the ground once the timer hits zero. I can see the surprise and astonishment on the face of the Dragonewt a second before he gets pulverized. The massive pressure that stopped me from breathing disappears just in time for the blast of the explosion to send me crashing into a wall.

My spine is shattered and my broken ribs pierced my lungs, but I laugh. I laugh even if I can’t hear or see anything. The blinding light is burning my retinas each time they heal while the deafening noise ruptures my eardrums. But my happiness is too great and pushes the pain away.

I’ll always remember the arrogant lizard’s shift in expression. The way he went from smug and self-righteous to complete panic in the span of a second makes me giggle like an idiot.

My laugh is inaudible since the maelstrom of mana I created is still roiling, but that doesn’t stop me from expressing my joy.

I try to take a look at the explosion, but a burning sensation in my retina and temporary blindness tell me that’s it’s still too early to open my eyes.

I hope it won’t take too much time since I don’t want to stay here for hours…

The light that passes through my closed eyelids finally dims, so I open my eyes again. The spectacle displayed in front of me is breathtaking. Hundreds of different shades of pink are clashing and fusing inside the column that's now bigger than my three-story house. I can feel an aura from the wild mana, but it’s different from the one released by the lizard.

This one is soothing and calming instead of pressuring me to the ground.

I smile like an idiot and pull my phone out to take a picture of the mana flame before it disappears and send it to Riley.

Two seconds pass before a veritable contingent of Werewolves emerges from the shadows in my backyard.

“HOLY SHIT!” a familiar voice shouts, and Riley emerges in front of me before shaking me.

“HOW?! I leave you alone for a couple of days and this happens?! We can see it from the other side of the town!" I raise my thumb, causing my friend to sigh and lower his head.

I glance over his shoulder and see a group of robed Werewolves raising their hands in the air. A massive engraved circle made of yellow light appears on top of the flame and descend, causing the pillar of energy to slowly recede into the ground.

“Holy shit, this is awesome!” Steve yells with stars in his eyes as he teleports around and takes countless photos of the pink flame.

We both sigh at the same time; a single glance is enough to send us both into a fit of laughter.

“Man, it’s been a while…” he says once we calm down.

"Yeah, it's-"

A cold hand on my shoulder freezes me in place, and the cheery atmosphere disappears.

“So you’re the John Thomson that’s been giving me so much trouble…” a stern and mature voice says. I slowly turn around and see a black-haired woman with rimless glasses staring straight at me. Her cold demeanor and expression, as well as her three-piece suit, give her an air of a secret agent.

I stare into the eyes of the woman and almost get lost in the grey swirls of her irises. But a sudden pressure takes me out of my stupor, and I barely notice the gem on my mental protection ring shining brightly.

“Mom, stop.” Riley reprimands her mother and the pressure vanishes.

I jump back and reach for my pistol, but a gloved hand holds firmly grips my wrist.

“If I were you I wouldn’t do that.” another feminine voice whispers in my ear. I nod while cold sweat drips from my back, the presence then disappears into my shadow in an instant.

The woman, who is apparently Riley’s mom, smiles at me and make me shudder.

This is not the smile of a person to another, but the smile of a predator seeing a prey.

Every one of my muscles tenses up, and I simulate the possible outcomes if I were to shoot the woman in the face.

Yes, I know she’s Riley’s mom. But the way she looks at me is fucking terrifying, and I feel like she’s waiting for an opportunity to rip me apart.

“Mom, control your power. Remember that he’s an Outsider.”

Her mouth forms an “o” and the pressure suddenly vanishes, I release the breath I never knew I held and my muscles relax.

“I’m sorry about that,” she says in a very cold but slightly embarrassed tone. “My name is Alice Wolfheart, and I’m the leader of this Family as well as the mother of those two troublemakers,” she says, pointing at Steve and Riley.

“…I think you already know who I am, but I’m John Thomson.”

Even without her aura, something feels off about her, so I keep my distance.

The awkward silence last for a couple seconds before Riley breaks the heavy atmosphere, "So John, I think I speak for everyone. What the hell did you do?"

"Well, a group of Dragonewt assassins came to kill me. I think we all know who hired them."

The two’s expression gets dark as they nod.

“But thanks to invaluable help from the people who put me in this situation, I managed to fend them off.” The sarcastic words flowed out of my mouth before I could even think, and the pressure from before is back tenfold.

However, the memories of everything I endured because of the Wolfheart resurfaced: the fights against the necromancer, the years spent in isolation to prepare for an unfair and rigged trial, all the pain I endured…

When I think about it, the campus is supposed to be a part of their territory. So why was I the one who had to intervene during the attack? And why was I punished for it? And now she had the gall to invade my home and act like she owned it?

I stop looking at the ground and glare at the woman, who raises an eyebrow and increase the pressure on me. My knees nearly buckle under the weight and I heard some ominous cracking, but my regeneration allows me to hold on.

Something rattles in the back of my head and I take a step towards her.

The pressure and the rattling increase again, but I feel absolutely nothing despite the worrying sounds coming from my bones.

The world doesn’t seem real for some reason. Everything around me is frozen, and I haven’t moved at all despite walking forward. And I can’t feel anything…

Another step, now the smallest bones in my legs shatter as soon as they are regenerated.

The pressure increases again, I nearly fall on my knees but stop at the last second. Something tells me that I shouldn’t submit no matter what.

More pressure and rattling, now my eardrums had ruptured and I can feel the blood flowing from my ears.

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More rattling again, it becomes a cacophony that I can somehow hear despite having no hearing.

My kneecaps explode but they regenerate before I fall down, walking is getting difficult.

I feel a thick liquid pouring from my eyes. The metallic smell of blood invades my nostrils but I still advance.

An inaudible whisper begins to form in the rattling noises while I take another step forward. Now my feet are sinking into the dirt and I can feel nasty cracks spreading in my bones, but the regeneration stops my skeleton from shattering.

Another step forward and an eyeball explode under the pressure, but there's still no pain so I continue forward.

The other eyeball explodes, now my vision is intermittent and only last for a second before they pop again.

More rattling, now I can discern some of the words.

We…-not...Sto-…

The words seem to be familiar, but I can’t remember when I heard them.

Now the pressure shatters my shoulder and rips out my right arm, it grows back so I hold it in place with the other.

I take another step forward.

…Alice’s PoV…

This is not normal.

I trapped the Outsider in a simple illusion spell to teach him to respect his betters. He should experience a tiny bit of pain and come out once he submits.

Usually, they come out after a couple of seconds since the increase is exponential, but…

It’s been a minute now.

Even I couldn’t endure that much during my first training sessions to resist torture.

“What are you doing?” Riley says with an accusatory glance, “He stopped moving and just stares at nothing.”

I can’t tell him the truth or he'll never trust me again. I'll admit that using a spell meant for Werewolves on a human was too rash. But he's part of the Hidden World now, so he has to understand how things work.

My son glares at me as I swat his probing mana away, guilt is eating me away as I connect to the illusion. I shudder when I see the mangled ball of flesh and bone inching forward, each time he takes a step forward his form is getting less and less human.

H-How is this possible?!

The mangled ball of flesh turns towards me and… No that’s impossible. There’s no way that he can see me in there.

But the mangled tendril shaped like a hand with the middle finger raised pointed towards me proves otherwise.

I can even hear vague insults coming from the remains of his mouth.

I don’t know if I should be furious or afraid… Wait.

I’m the Wolfheart Matriarch, how can I be afraid of a powerless human?

Something shakes me and stops my train of thoughts while breaking my hold on the spell, releasing us both from the illusion.

…John’s PoV…

I open my eyes and see that the world has regained its color and movement. I move my fingers around; it’s weird to feel things again.

Something vibrates on my finger and a quick look at my now cracked ring of mental protection tells me everything I need to know.

This woman probably used some sort of psychic spell on me, I don’t know why though… At least I hope she got the message.

I think I never insulted someone so much before.

“John, are you alright?” Riley’s worried question takes me out of my thoughts, and I stop glaring at his bitch of a mother to nod at him.

“Good!” he says with an enthusiastic voice while glaring at his mother with a reprimanding glance. She sighs and looks at the floor, not bothering to hide her guilt.

She suddenly raises her head while holding her hand against her ear; she nods a couple of time before staring at me.

“Now you’re going to tell me what happened here, without omitting a single detail.”

“What happened?” Riley sensed her change of attitude and his gaze alternates between his mother and me.

“Well, I just want to know how your friend managed to kill more than half of the Black Claws.”

My friend’s jaw drops and he looks at me with wide eyes.

“…So let me get this straight, they landed here and that mana explosion appeared out of thin air.”

I nod, “Yeah, that’s pretty much what happened.”

Of course, most of the story I told them was a complete lie. I never talked about the Rewinder or why I had nearly a hundred unstable artifacts in my possession.

“Once again, I’m sorry that I bothered your view because of the squad of enemy assassins that were roaming in your own territory.”

Damn, again. I don’t know what I have today. I can’t help but hammer home how much everything that happened here is her entire fault. I guess I hold more grudges than I let on…

She takes a deep breath and ignores the insult before forcing a smile.

“I’m sorry about all of this, we’ll compensate you for the damages and we’ll reinforce the patrols around the area.”

Whoa, you Werewolves are incredible! I can almost taste the empty promises from here.

Phew, at least this time I confined it to my thoughts. It’s very likely that I would’ve been stabbed if I said that one out loud. At least she sent Riley away before starting the discussion; otherwise, I would have two angry Werewolves instead of one.

She claps her hands and the Werewolves disappear as fast as they came, leaving me alone next to the big hole in my backyard.

…Erdis’ PoV…

“HOW IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE?!” I throw my cane into the wall, causing splinters of wood to scatter around the room. A single glance at the report from our trackers following the Black Claws’ movement during their last mission is enough to send me into another fit of rage.

“HOW?!” I shout as loudly as I can.

The report is disastrous; only Zarand, Usgia and Hosond survived. The rest was killed by John Thomson and it's not even sure that they’ll survive much longer. The three survivors are under the intensive care of our healers and their injuries are beyond anything I ever saw.

My daughter, and now my elite squad… Just who is this guy?!

I glance around my office, a luxurious room decorated with various baubles and trinkets I collected during my youth. The walls are covered with a red material that feels like cloth to the touch, except it’s a stone from a far-away universe. A single pound of this stone is worth enough Credits to buy half of the country, and that's not even the most expensive stuff in the room…

So why do I feel like I have nothing despite having everything?

The answer to that question is obvious. No matter how much power I have at my fingertips, and how big my influence is…

It doesn’t change the fact that my daughter is dying.

The healers don’t say it, but I can read them like an open book. She doesn’t have a lot of time left before her soul leaves her body. The repeated surgeries and the forced coma are only delaying the inevitable.

And it’s my fault. Really, how could I have been so blind? A mysterious Outsider that nobody ever heard off is dragged in front of the Council, and then the Wolfheart conveniently propose a trial by combat against this harmless opponent.

The trap was too obvious.

I let my ego decide and offered my daughter as an opponent, a proposition that the Council eagerly accepted. This all played right into Alice’s hands, if her agent won then I would lose my daughter and my family will take a severe blow. And the cost of losing was just a paltry amount of money along with the life of a worthless pawn…

I smash my ancient mahogany desk while smoke comes out of my nostrils, anger courses through every fiber of my being.

So far our conflict with the Wolfheart stayed in the shadows, but this is going to end. I don’t care about the cost, or how many will die. I will bring the head of the bastards to my daughter so she can leave for the afterlife with a smile on her face, knowing that she’s avenged.

I will stop at nothing to avenge her, even if I have to burn the entire world.

…John’s PoV…

It’s been so long since I enjoyed a cold beer… I don’t really have time to relax these days.

The Black Claw incident is probably one of the worst things that ever happened to me, but I somehow survived the squad of assassins. If I read the Matriarch’s expression correctly when she mentioned them, then they are considered strong. So it’s a plus for me since I shouldn’t expect my next opponents to be so hard to kill. And by then I should have finished my shield and my other device, so it’ll be a piece of cake…

Let’s stop the delusions here.

Winning against the squad was an incredible stroke of luck and I would’ve died even if I had a modicum of skill in enchanting. The situation back then was truly a close one. I would’ve seriously considered turning off the Timed Rewinds if the explosion didn’t work as well as it did.

But now I’m here, sipping a beer while staring at the big crater in my backyard. I look at the blue sky and take a deep breath before closing my eyes. I never knew that not knowing what happens next could be so relaxing.

For once I don’t die horribly until I squeeze out another second of life from this cruel world, and I’m not forced to enter the horrible cycle again.

Some people are anxious about the uncertain future, but they would change their mind if knowledge came at the price of incessant death and incommensurable pain.

Memories are flashing in front of my eyes and my hand starts to tremble, but a quick sip of beer takes care of that problem and buries the nefarious thoughts away. My problems are obvious, but I don’t want to deal with them now, and I doubt I ever will.

I know that my psyche is changing. I’m so much more used to death and gore, the Rewinder also completely shattered my attachment to life and people in general. I have no way of knowing if I’m going to keep the current timeline, so why bother talking to anyone?

I guess I can also understand the trope of the bored immortal now. Why care about anything if you can’t die? Things are doomed to repeat and you will still be there no matter what happens.

In fact, I’m not even sure if I can actually die anymore. I never really paid attention to it, but I never went to the toilet once since I created the Rewinder. My beard also never grew past its stubbly form despite not having shaved for weeks.

It feels like my body is locked into a certain state, and it reverts back to it no matter what happens. Of course, I can still die if the damage kills me before the regeneration kicks in, but the delay of activation is getting shorter and shorter.

A simple hole in the stomach took close to a minute to heal back at Jason's house, but now I can regenerate entire limbs in a second.

I can heal instantly and I also have a limited control over the flow of time, something that even the most powerful mages of the Hidden World can’t dream of accomplishing.

So it begs the question: Am I still a human being… or am I becoming something else?