Time stopped in that instant. Inches from his eyes, the blade halted in its path. Victor’s mouth was open, the world around him paused like a show.
[Your end is not here, Prospect Amadi. Not when the lives of billions depend on you.]
He wouldn’t hear those words, of course. But they sounded throughout the universe despite that.
And then a burst of light came from Victor’s eyes. Golden and gleaming, it shot through the air, piercing the skies and reaching into space. It was the only thing moving, the only thing alive in the stopped time. That gleaming beam of light coalesced into the shape of two hand clocks, shortening and condensing into pure power beyond the reaches of this universe.
The clock hands spun backwards, becoming an unnoticeable shape of light that passed over and through Victor instantly.
Then it was all gone, and Victor was back home. He had his legs kicked up on his table, a coke in his hand and the news playing on the TV.
“A yellow beam of light has been spotted appearing over the Atlantic Ocean. Now, so far we don’t know what it means, but we’ll be reporting in every second so stay tuned! Charlie, take us closer!” the newscaster reported.
The first thing Victor felt was the headache coming on. He turned off the news and put his coke back on the table.
“What… the hell…”
[Seed Integrated: Timewalker’s Origin]
[Ability Unlocked: Unlock Sense of Time]
[Ability Unlocked: Anchor Placement]
[Ability Unlocked: Carryover Bestiary]
[Ability Unlocked: Carryover Item Compendium]
He never got the chance to think it a nightmare. The screens in front of him were clear as day, and even if he looked away, a woman’s voice alerted him to his new abiltiies. No, it couldn’t be a nightmare, not when it had felt so real. Not when ten whole years of his life had been spent in that hellhole.
Victor looked back up at the TV, and then outside, where he knew the monsters would be arriving. No, this wasn’t a nightmare, this was a second chance.
But how he’d received it, and who had given it to him? that he would find out immediately. The Timewalker’s Origin, whatever it was, ticked inside of Victor’s heart. He could close his eyes and find it right there amidst blackness, a mobius strip of clock hands that never stopped. Something about it felt stronger than the Weaponsmith Heart, but Victor couldn’t place the feeling. It was… as if it was pinned deeper into the universe.
Unconsciously, Victor brought up the item compendium and the Seed he’d gotten within.
[[Timewalker’s Origin]:
A Seed that provides its user the ability to move through and manipulate time.]
That’s it? No, something’s wrong here! Every item, every monster and every ability he’d seen so far sounded like it came from someone’s view. that someone had written it down specifically. This? This was the most cold and clinical description he’d gotten yet.
And the strangeness didn’t cease there. Victor took a look at his newly unlocked abilities as well.
[[Carryover Bestiary]: (Requirement: Complete a Single Loop) Information recorded in your Bestiary is carried over between Resets.]
[[Carryover Item Compendium]: (Requirement: Complete a Single Loop) Information recorded in your Item Compendium is carried over between Resets.]
A single loop? Did that mean he had to go through all of that again, multiple times? The sheer thought of it made him buckle under his feet. But those thoughts could wait later. He needed to get the full picture.
[[Unlock Sense of Time]: (Requirement: Complete a Single Loop) Lets you sense the flow of time and changes that happen within the timeline. The more this grows, the more you become aware about the sense of time and other users’ manipulation of it. You can slow down your perception of time or speed it up as well.]
That explained the new stat as well. But it beggared a question. Were there any others with the same powers?
He’d seen a fair share of powerful Wielders, those who’d lucked out with Seeds synergistic that rose them to heights above anyone else. Could it have been premonition instead of luck after all? There was only one ability left for Victor to see, and he could feel the importance of it.
[[Anchor Placement]: (Requirement: None) This is a single-use ability that automatically places an anchor in time when you first receive this Seed. You can reset to this anchor in time upon your death.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Returning by death can only be done after ten years have been passed in the timeline so as to recharge it.]
And once again, just a plain explanation. But Victor wasn’t satisfied with just that. He wanted to know more, and so he looked at a feature he’d unlocked long ago.
The layers of his abilities spread out before him like a tree. Some of them were self-explanatory, such as Slowdown or Speedup, but others like Carryover Spirit and Slice of Time confused him. and worst of all was the fact he couldn’t view them beyond their names. It annoyed him to no end, but he had no time for a tantrum.
If he could trust the words of the ability, and his own mind to not be playing tricks on him, it was going to be amazing!
He had started pacing around his house without even knowing why. That meant he was really back to 2028. He could right the wrongs of what happened in Los Angelas. He could get to his parents faster, save Amadeus’ family and prevent any other disasters along the way.
The way the monsters’ army had looked, he’d need to too.
The time limit on the ability unnerved him. It meant he couldn’t rest on his laurels just because he could return back. His anchor was moments after the news of the Gate opening had broken through. He’d have to remember that for the future.
Ten whole years. That’s how long I’ve got… Shit, Amadeus!
He realized only then that he’d been wasting time. Victor grabbed his jacket, haphazardly packed a bag with clothes and some money, before running out. He grabbed a knife out of his kitchen and tried Basic Strengthening as he ran down the hall. There was only a single other woman there who looked scared as he came running out of his apartment.
It took a moment for it to set in why he couldn’t use his Strengthening on the blade. Or even Infuse it, or Siphon his own strength into it. Because he no longer had the Weaponsmith Heart.
The woman stood frozen in front of the elevator and Victor grunted. He threw his knife aside and took the stairs downstairs. That was going to take some getting used to. From taking down Angelos to barely able to take on a Vintaric child again.
He’d hated the feeling of powerlessness. But in turn, he’d gotten far more power from it than he ever could. Victor ran out of his apartment complex into the streets of Oakland. People danced to music and drank coffee outside in shops. Not a single one of them knew what was to happen.
Victor felt a responsibility to shout out at them, tell them what was coming, but he knew it was a worthless effort. They’d either think him insane like the woman he’d left scared, or detain him entirely for his ramblings. And Victor couldn’t afford that when he needed to meet with someone.
He ran around until he reached his car. The second-hand red Mustang was his most prized possession, and two steps in the grave already. He’d stopped himself from taking it to work, promising himself he’d have it checked once he got back. He hadn’t intended to take 10 years to fulfil that.
Victor jumped into the car and belted himself in before stepping on the gas. He took it to the autoshop and stopped abruptly in front of one of the mechanics. They threw a curse at him and Victor muttered an apology before heading up to the main man.
“I need the wheels replaced, quick.”
The old man took an annoyingly long swig of his beer.
“Mustang? Nice choice, kid. It’ll take a few hours though, too busy servicin’ some others,” the man replied with a southern twang.
“I don’t have the time. How much do I need to pay you for a rush order?” Victor asked. On a small old-fashioned tv by a table the news was replaying the event of the Gate and repeating back things by the moment.
“Seem like you’re in a hurry. Eh, tell you what, six hundred dollars for the full install and I’ll get it done in the hour,” the man replied with another swig.
Victor didn’t care, slapping the money down in front of him along with his number. He then ran as quickly as he could to a shop.
The heat was bad enough, but the movement in his work clothes made Victor work up a sweat.
“Hella hot day for the end of the world,” he muttered to himself as he ran inside of a shop. Victor cursed upon finding out he wasn’t the first, second or even hundredth person there.
The entire convenience store was crowded with people fighting over groceries and pulling at each other’s hairs. The employees were running all over the place trying to placate the people but it seemed the crisis was only growing.
Damned as it seemed, Victor rushed over to the tools aisle and found himself five gas canisters that seemed big enough. Feeling a bit bad about the whole thing, he left some money in its place as he came running out of the store.
Not that it would matter in a few hours. He ran back immediately to the autoshop and threw the canisters inside while the people there worked on it. They looked at him like a madman but he didn’t care for the gazes as he ran back. Though he did glance at the Mustang and found the job a fourth of the way done.
Then came the hardest part, the gun store. Surprisingly, there wasn’t a big rush there. But that was because the man at the helm of the shop was holding a shotgun menacingly. He was the very picture of a redneck, bald and with a heavy beard speckled with grey. He wore a biker jacket and stared at Victor for a hard moment before speaking.
“You going to act as crazy as the others or no?” the man asked.
“Just here for a gun, man,” Victor replied as he wiped the sweat from his brow.
“You’re not getting it that fast,” the man replied, shaking his head. The hell is he on about?
“Why not?” Victor asked, slamming his hands down on the table. The man moved his shotgun slightly and Victor took them off. What a shame would it be to travel all these years back in time just to meet a gun to the face.
“People are goin’ mad out there. I like this place and I don’t want to see a shooting on the news with my pieces in the middle of it all,” the gun store owner replied.
“You don’t understand. I really need these. There’s things coming that’ll…”
Victor stopped himself. That was only going to make the man more wary of him. He straightened himself and took the mad gleam out of his eye as best as he could.
“Look, I need a piece to defend myself. Couldn’t you just sell me one? I’ll go through the whole process, whatever it takes,” Victor offered.
“The ‘entire process’ isn’t something you could do just that quick,” the owner replied.
Victor tried to cozy up to the man, laying a hand lazily on the counter.
“Look, between you and me, can’t we speed it up? I promise I’ll bring whatever you need later. But I really need this now. And I’m willing to pay you as much as you want,” Victor bribed the man.
The owner quirked an eyebrow at Victor. He smiled, as the owner lowered his shotgun down. And then picked him up to throw him to the curb. The owner looked down at him with disdain, slamming the door right in his face.
Victor tried struggling of course. But the man had a grip like iron. It was almost funny in how absurd it was. He was a Wielder, and yet he’d lost to a man with no powers at all. He would’ve laughed if he didn’t think tears would follow.