...“John’s” PoV…

“This isn’t quite like what I had in mind, but I guess it’ll do.”

So what am I supposed to do now?! This thing is crushing us from all sides, and even our regeneration has trouble keeping up with the tremendous amount of damage we’re taking!

“Isn’t it obvious?! Blast this bastard with everything we got, don’t stop firing until this thing is dead.” The John who proposed this plan rubs his hands together.

Got it, then here we-

A massive blast of white burns our retinas, but our body’s vision quickly comes back.

"I can see the damage here! Keep going Current, if it bleeds we can kill it!”

“This isn’t the moment for quoting movies!”

“There’s never a wrong moment for quoting movies!”

For crying out loud, will you stop arguing?! I know we all got different parts of Original’s personality, but please keep the bickering to a minimum, I need to focus!

Consecutive blasts caused by the MH Shells tear through the deformed internal organs of the chimera, which gurgles on its own blood as we fire what remains of our stock of MH Shells.

Can you guys feel this?! This atrocity has fallen on one knee, so we’re doing quite a lot of damage. I’m out of MH Shells, so I’ll try to do something with the Field Pistol!

Our arm reaches for our trusty modified pistol and we pull the trigger as fast as we can until the magazine is empty. Most of the bullets barely penetrate the pulsating flesh, but those who do are making quite a mess. Each shard of metal spreads like unstoppable cancer and tears everything apart. Then they explode once they reach a certain size, and the process begins again but this time with even more shards!

“Man, seeing the Exploding Growth Bullets in action from the inside is quite… humbling.” one John say.

“This is so fucking terrifying, I’m almost glad our body doesn’t contain a trace of mana.”

A heavy silence fell on all of the fragments of John's soul as they observed the enchanted metal shards tearing the howling creature apart until its flesh could no longer contain our body.

We fall on the blood-soaked mud, and we look up just in time to see the remains of the demon being turned into very fine paste by the shards.

“D-Did we win?” a copy asks with a trembling voice.

I don’t know, but you have no idea how much I appreciate this moment of calm…

“We understand. Forcing ourselves inside a demon probably isn't as pleasant as it sounds-"

“Great, another one who inherited the humor of Original…”A few copies groan.

“Don’t pay attention to this guy. Current, how’s the situation?”

Well, it isn't the best if I'm being honest… We are covered in blood and guts-

“John!” two voices make our ears tremble and we are almost tackled by large furry creatures.

“So it’s those guys again, they really need to learn to be less…enthusiastic.”

I agree. I think I felt a rib crack.

One John sits down and claps his hand, “So I think that about wrap it up. We somehow defeated Beelzebub, so now we need to properly recombine to-”

HOLY SHIT!

Looking through our body’s eyes makes up fall into despair while our Werewolf friends are growling at the pile of trembling flesh that was once a chimera.

"Tch... Not, bad, not bad! I'll admit that this great one somewhat underestimated you!” the voice of the demon echoes in our ears.”But this is far from enough to silence me!”

Beelzebub shouts and we are sent crashing into a wall of the Scalebound residence, turning our body into a mix of gravel and minced meat.

“And we fragmented again…” the ex-Current says with a somber face. The other Johns barely pay attention to him since they are too busy calming down all the feral copies that appeared because of the last fragmentation.

“Can’t we Rewind?!” someone asks.

I would avoid it, there’s no way we can avoid this attack in one try. And from the state of our soul, it's what we have left…

A heavy silence falls onto the dark void, and every fragment focuses on what they can see through John’s body.

It looks like the Werewolves survived, and one of them teleported us all to safety before they fainted.

“We need to get out of here as soon as possible, otherwise the demon will come here and they might get caught in the fight.” a fragment say.

We teleport to an empty area of the Scalebound’s immense property and the Primeval Demon faces us a few seconds later. His body is unlike anything we have ever seen before: A skeleton of dark energy maintains the remains of the demon where they should be. Seeing chunks of flesh floating around an energy skeleton isn’t exactly inspiring confidence.

Fuck, we’re out of MH Shells-

A swift kick to the gut silences Current and cracks of white light appear in the dark void that's already compressing.

“FUCK! We’re recombining! Quick, everyone suppresses their memories before-”

…John’s PoV…

My head hurts…

I regain consciousness in a pile of rubble, and the first thing I see is a giant skeleton surrounded by floating chunks of mangled flesh.

I’ll be honest; it isn’t the best thing to wake up to.

What the hell just happened? The only thing I remember is the demon landing near me, then-

A sharp pain in my head makes me fall to my knee and tears of blood flow out of my eyes. A flood of unknown memories invade my head, just how many are there?! The memories replay for what feels like hundreds of years, and I'm so absorbed in it that I barely notice my trembling hand constantly pressing the quick Rewind button, effectively freezing time.

…I remember everything now.

The centuries wasted fighting impossible odds, the amount of abuse my body had to endure, the fight in that internal wasteland… And my soul fragmenting and arguing with itself. Not to mention that thing that took control of me during all those fights. I refuse to believe that it's part of me, even if all the evidence points towards it.

I glance at my open palms: Just what am I? How old am I?

But the worse is yet to come, reliving hundreds of death at once breaks something in me, and I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

The constant loop ends and I get up, causing the demon to raise an eyebrow.

“This great demon praise your resilience, but-”

I ignore the creature and strain my mind to remember the coordinates of a crate of Magicite lying around my house. Once again, I block the timeline in a constant loop to make sure that I’m not disturbed. The loop ends when a pile of those peculiar crystals appears in front of me, and I grab a handful before teleporting away.

My body acts on its own and my hand grips the crystals so hard that the edges of the rocks start to dig into my palm, but I don’t feel anything and wait until the demon jumps in front of me.

I aim my Field Pistol towards the pile of crystals in my hand and pull the trigger. A massive cancerous metal urchin appears in m hand as soon as the bullet enters the magical rocks. The sudden appearance of the spikes propels me upward and I once again freeze time midair until a familiar metal plate and rod appear in my hands.

This is the Spirit summoning plate! But what can-

My body acts on its own again since I freeze time again, this time I teleport a metal plate and…my engraving tool?

I engrave some simple runes at a speed that I never thought I was capable of. And from the constantly repairing damage on my wrist, I'm not supposed to go that fast in the first place. The enchanting process goes over smoothly and I press the absorption rune before throwing it behind me.

Cracks appear on the small metal plate and a sizeable explosion occurs inches away from me. My Glove endures all the damage, but not without expending another entire magazine. I reload the artifact and realize with consternation that the shockwave changed my direction, and now I’m heading straight into the demon’s ribcage!

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Just what is happening?!

I want to say something, stop this insanity… but I’m only a helpless spectator trapped into his own body.

Time freeze again, and I’m apparently learning how to activate the Spirit plate. This takes a large number of Rewinds, but it doesn't seem to bother whatever is controlling me. In the meantime, I tried to feel for anything out of the ordinary in my body, but I found nothing.

Time resumes its course and I activate the plate just as I am about to collide with the demon. The Spirit begins to form, but it collides with the ethereal skeleton of the demon, who screams in pain as the two constructs struggle for supremacy.

I fall through the demon and land on the blood-soaked soil, just in time to see some sort of singularity forming at the core of the creature.

It looks like the Spirit is losing the battle…

A grin creeps on my face and one of those iron speed loaders appears in my hand after a few Rewinds. I then teleport next to the struggling demon and make another Spirit appear. This pushes the plate over its limits, and the intricate circuitry engraved on it shatters into the wind.

I don’t care; I could’ve never really mastered this anyway since it’s too incompatible with my fighting style.

My attention is now focused on the screeching demon that seems to be sucked into the amalgamation of energy forming into his torso.

“How dare you?! You worm, you’ll regret ever-”

The remains of the demon disappear with an audible pop, and now there’s silence.

We CaNnoT Be sToPpEd…

A distorted voice echoes in the back of my head before fading away. I’m a bit shocked by how calm I am considering what just happened; I thought I would be rolling on the ground while frothing at the mouth. Instead, I just accepted this without making a fuss about it. I’m a bit worried about the piece of my mind that I apparently lost when my soul recombined, so I hope it wasn’t anything too important…

I guess I always knew that this happened, and just repressed the memories… But now the cat’s out of the bag.

I dust myself off, and check my equipment: The magical cases on my phones are a bit scratched, but the phones aren’t damaged and seem to be functioning. But it’s a different story for my armor since it was almost completely obliterated by the battle. The few bits and pieces that are still holding onto my body are slowly regenerating, and from what I can tell it should only take a couple of hours before it’s back to its pristine condition.

A squelching noise catches my attention, and turning around shows a row of soldiers looking at me with what I assume is respect… Who am I kidding; it’s obvious they are afraid of me.

I wonder why. After all, I just single-handedly exterminated something that could’ve easily destroyed this planet.

Good, I’m glad that my sarcasm is intact.

I wave my hand at them, causing a few nervous soldiers to reach for the sword on their hip.

GoOd, CoMe aT Us iF yOu DaRe…

Great, so now I have a murderous voice in my head. The day couldn’t be fucking better.

“So, what took you so long?” I say with a grin once the group of soldiers led by Alice Wolfheart arrives next to me.

“I…I have no words.” The cold woman says with her shoulders slumped.

“What a coincidence, I have a few things to say to you, and I hope it will reach the Council’s ears," I say, the spite and contempt I hold for the Enforcers drip from each of my words. “First of all, who thought it was a good idea to keep something that would bring something like Beelzebub back?!”

"We didn't know, and I'm certain that Erdis also didn't. Otherwise, he would've-"

“I don’t want to hear your excuses. What I want is for you Enforcer fucks to actually be responsible for once in your goddamn lives. So you’ll instate one of your Rules that you are so fond of, and any old relic of dubious origin that could be used to resurrect some ancient evil must be destroyed.” I declare while narrowing my eyes.

“You dare?!” an old bearded man with bloodshot eyes waves his hand in the air, but he’s stopped at the last second by the Werewolf woman.

“We...We’ll see about that. Now, should we-” she says while gritting her teeth.

“I’m not finished.” I interrupt again. The glare she shoots towards me should be enough to terrify me, but I don’t feel anything but contempt for her and her minions. “You’ll also promise that I, John Thomson, will not be punished for anything that happened here, and I must not be put under any form of investigation. Furthermore, I want my property and its surroundings to be an independent zone under my own governance, and free from Enforcer intervention.”

“What?! Who do you think you are?! Matriarch, we shouldn’t listen to the inane rants of this transgressor, and-”

ShOoT hiM…

No, bad murderous voice! We can't shoot people just because… Well, we can. I shoot the bearded man and immediately Rewind to undo my action.

I don’t want to agree with the voices in my head, but shooting this guy was really relaxing…

“Now, I think your side isn’t really in a position for negotiating.” I interrupt the fuming dwarf. “Or should I remind you who killed Beelzebub while you were cowering behind your barrier?”

The dwarf clenches his fist and growl,” The Stonecrushers will not forget this insult!”

I cross my arms, “Oh, I’m sure you will not. You Enforcers seem to be fond of throwing the lives of your men away for the tiniest little thing, so please do come at me. I’ll be fucking waiting!”

My last quip seems to have created some discontent in the ranks, and a smile creeps on my face while the dwarf turns around and disciplines his soldiers.

“So, should we go and remove what remains of the Scalebound?” I say to Riley’s mom, who clenches her massive fists. “You don’t even want to hear my answer?” she asks while growling.

I pull out my pistol and check the magazine, “I don’t need an answer since what I said wasn’t a question. I just said what was going to happen. Of course, you’re free to contest this decision, but you’ll have to understand that your Enforcer status doesn’t mean you can do as you please without consequences.”

M-Maybe I should be more fearful of the Wolfheart, especially after the bombardment they displayed earlier?

CoMe At uS…

I think this voice in my head is starting to influence my decisions. Who knew that having a murderous voice in your head wasn’t a good thing?

The two Wolfheart brothers arrive next to me while I teleport a box of shotgun shells in my hand. I don't have any more MH Shells so those are regular shells, but the Enforcers don't know that and stay at a reasonable distance.

“That was quite the impressive display…” Riley says while eyeing the shotgun in my hands.

“Impressive?! You’re kidding, it was awesome!”Steve taps me on the back, thus almost triggering my shield.

“You think so?” I chuckle and open the box of ammunition.

“Yeah, you look awesome on pretty much all of the recordings, so-”

Oh yeah, I almost forgot about those.

I take a deep breath… This is not good. Now I’m bound to attract too much attention.

At this point a spell jammer is a requirement; if any flashy battle gets the attention of news networks then I’ll need something to block their sight.

“So… What’s the secret behind your shotgun?” Steve asks with a raised eyebrow.

I chuckle, “You know I can’t tell you. But let's just say that I went World-Hopping, and it has been eye-opening.”

“Man, I always wanted to go World-Hopping. It sounds like a fun thing to do, but we never have the time!” Riley says with a dejected face.

“Yeah, I’m with you on that one, we’ve been so busy lately…” Steve adds.

“Well, we’re going to be very busy in a few moments. After all, we still need to clean up this mansion.” I say while cracking my knuckles.

“You know that someone rising against a Family is breaking all kinds of Rules-” the glare I send towards Riley is enough to silence him.

"Your mother promised that I'll be able to get off scot-free, so I might as well profit from it," I add with a grin. “So, are you going to help me or sit this one out?”

The two become serious, “Those scaly fucks killed my friends, so I’ll gladly help you put them into the ground where they belong!” Steve roars and Riley nods.

“I can’t believe we’re doing this…” the Werewolf standing to my side takes a deep breath while I reload my enchanted Field Pistol.

“You agreed to this, and now it's way too late to back out," I answer with a dismissive voice while loading new shells into my Shockwave before slinging the weapon on my back.

My furry friend cracks his neck and sighs, “I know, but this seems too extreme-“

“Are we seriously having this conversation right now? Those fucking lizards tried to kill me three times, and they are at war with your Family. Don’t tell me you’re having regrets?”

He shakes his head, “No, of course not. The abomination they summoned was the last straw, and I’m still amazed that you somehow killed it. But this kind of plan isn’t something I thought you would come up with, I feel like you changed a lot since you discovered the Hidden World…”

“Well, whose fault do you think that is?!” I snarl and check my Shield Glove while doing my best to ignore the memories flashing in front of my eyes.

How many times have I died in those last few weeks? How many years have I wasted by constantly Rewinding time to fight impossible battles?

Dealing with the mental scarring isn’t going to be fun, especially since my regeneration won’t even allow me to drown my sorrows in alcohol.

“I know you have disagreements with my mother, but-”

I interrupt him, “Come on Riley, even you have to admit that she let the Scalebound do as they please.”

“John isn’t wrong; this situation could’ve been avoided if she did her job.” Riley’s brother, who was leaning against a wall, chimes in.

“See? Even Steve agrees with me.”

Riley raises his hands, “All right… But you know the Council will not like what we’re about to do.”

I click my tongue, “You really think I care about what the Council wants?! I killed a giant demonic mutant alone, so they won’t dare to do anything if they ever hear about our plan…”

A wild grin creeps on my face and I pat my armored chest, “And if any of those bastard try to do anything against us, then let’s just say that there will be one less Enforcer Family after I’m done.”

Riley eyes the shotgun on my back, “I don’t doubt that… I don’t know if there’s anything on this planet that can withstand that thing. You said you discovered the way to make those shells on an unclaimed planet?” I nod and he smiles, “That planet you explored seems interesting… You must bring me with you during your next World-Hopping!”

“And me too!” Steve adds.

“Of course, I think I owe you that much!” I answer while raising my thumb.

I grab my Portal Gun and aim at the ground, “Now, are you two ready?” The two Werewolves nod in unison, so I pull the trigger and sink into the blue portal.

…Sarah’s PoV…

"So that just happened," Alex says with an astonished face while the live stream on his phone comes to an end.

Cynthia just nods in silence, and I am also silent but for different reasons.

I recognized this man who killed this massive demon… he’s the one who was carrying the box out of the Hot Spot!

“From what we’ve seen it’s pretty obvious that this guy…John Thomson, I think that’s how he called himself, is very strong. It looks like he's human and from the conversation we just heard, he's openly challenging the Enforcers.” The red-haired man says.

"And he obviously has the power to back it up," Cynthia adds.

“I think we shouldn’t mess with him.” I declare before explaining what has happened back then.

“So that’s why you looked like you were about to faint!”Cynthia says.

“Yes, but back to the topic at hand… Alex, you’re not thinking about speaking to this guy, right?” I say with a puzzled face. The horrors I saw in this man’s mind sometimes still haunts me, and I do my best to not recall those memories.

“I think we have no choice…” he says while clenching his fist. “What you saw sounds worrying, but we can’t expect someone who goes against things like Beelzebub to have a clean record. And he might be our ticket out of the purge since we don’t know if those Enforcers are still pursuing us. We’re both humans, so it’s worth a shot to try and convince him to protect us. At least until everything blows over…”

I grit my teeth, I don’t like his plan but I don’t really see any other option. We can’t run forever, and the Enforcers will catch up to us at some point.

“In fact, could you try to look into his memories-“I flinch before he finishes his sentence, but he raises his hand and continues. “I know it won’t be a pleasant experience but we need to know where he lives, not to mention you could help us understand his personality a little better. This could increase our chances of getting under his protection.”

I take a deep breath and close my eyes. Looking into those nightmares isn’t something I ever want to do again, but I don’t really see any viable alternative.

“All right,” I say before nodding. “But I’m stopping as soon as it gets too unbearable.”

I frown and focus on the sealed memories that I never wanted to see again.