The night drive to Charleston was tense. Amadeus had taken the first shift but retired to the back of the car once they’d come across the first of the major roadblocks. Victor took over for him and off-roaded the vehicle through the rest of the way.

That had the effect of not letting Amadeus catch any more sleep. Instead, he lay his head in between the driver and passenger’s seat, looking towards the road they traversed. Victor had a white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel and any attempt at conversation bounced off of the man.

“We’ll find them alive and well, Vic,” Lillie said, grabbing his shoulder and giving it a squeeze. He nodded slightly at her provocation, but his eyes were still plastered to the road in front of him.

That road ended near the beginning of the port city, and the city began proper. Victor’s mouth was agape seeing it again. The golden structures that had dotted the ruins of Charleston were no more, and the buildings weren’t as dilapidated.

He couldn’t see his own house from far away, but the sight of it gave him enough confidence to speed up. There was nary a sight in the city apart from a few Vintarics that gave up their chase of their car soon enough. Once they passed into the centre of the town, Victor took a series of sharp turns that threw Amadeus against the sides of the car.

Lillie clasped her hand around the grab handles and another under the seat she was on. Victor didn’t notice.

He steered right into the middle of the town and slammed on the brakes so hard the tires screeched.

There it was again. He jumped out of the car and kicked down the doors.

“Victor, wait!” Amadeus shouted for him, but he was in a trance.

Victor ran through his apartment all the way to the lounge. And then his legs turned to jelly.

Bile filled his mouth and terror his heart. Victor felt his strength leave him, like every boost to his powers was nothing more than an illusion. It was a sickeningly familiar sight. The large boulder through the centre of the room. His family crushed underneath. Only this time they still had flesh on their bones and the blood on the carpet looked fresher.

There was nothing different. He’d come a decade earlier to watch a more vivid image of his family’s corpses. Victor went to his knees. He spat bile onto the floor ahead of him. a hand clasped his back and tried to pull him away but he slapped it aside.

His entire body shook after each exhalation. What do I do? He asked himself.

His worst nightmare had come true. He was alone again. There lay the last vestiges of his family. And a sure thought grabbed Victor. Had he come the exact moment it had happened, it still would not have been enough.

The rooves of the houses outside confirmed it for him. They had similar holes through them, and presumably boulders of their own. As soon as the Road to Hell opened on the cost of the city, his family died.

H-how do I save them? He searched through his menus, his Seeds and their possible abilities. There was nothing there to help him. Nothing he could immediately see that would ever let him save their lives.

All the power in the world, and he was powerless to use it in the one way he wanted to.

“What a joke…” Victor scratched deep into the floorboards with his metallic nails.

“Vic…”

“Don’t even try… I don’t want to hear it.”

“You need to, Vic. You have to get up. It’s not safe here,” Amadeus told him.

“And why? They’re dead, Am. I can’t bring them back.”

“I know…” Amadeus replied in a rueful tone. “But you can’t give up now. Because what if… what if you can go back even further?”

Victor looked up from his sorrowful state and shook his head. His eyes were red from tears shed.

“It’s not possible.”

“How do you know? Do you know the extent of your own abilities?”

“No, bu-”

“Then what if you could go back another ten years. Before the first Gate even opened. Warn people beforehand,” Amadeus told him.

“Am… I can’t even figure out how to make the Seed progress. How am I going to double how far back I go?”

“Well, take your time. Same as fixing this whole mess,” Amadeus waved a hand all around him.

It didn’t sink in for him until then. Victor glanced back at the bodies. He’d hoped to find them and eke out an existence in every loop. Then he’d handle the threat of the Gates. But it seemed the world had chosen for him already.

He wouldn’t be able to save his family until the world was saved beforehand. He’d need to find someone who knew more about his Seed and learn from them. Experiment himself. Survive the Fall till he was powerful enough to prevent this tragedy.

And that meant he needed time.

He’s right. I’ve got all the time in the world.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

[Ability Unlocked: Slowdown]

“Huh?”

“What, did something happen?” Amadeus asked.

Victor wiped the tears off on his sleeves and stood up straight.

“You’re right, Am. I’m sorry I didn’t listen before,” Victor smiled.

It was quickly broken when they both heard the chittering of wings outside along with the bang of something that sounded like a cannon.

Victor and Amadeus both dashed out of the lounge and back outside, where Lillie was holding fast against a small group of Vintarics. A half-dome of light was between the car and the Vintarics, but it was cracked and breaking.

She shot them a glare and nothing more as she nudged her head towards the enemies.

“Victor, did you…?” she asked in a more worried tone when he came out empty-handed.

“Later, Lil. Let’s handle them first,” Victor said.

He held his guns akimbo and took a deep breath to steady himself. The metals of his pistols took his mind off of what had happened inside.

At the head of the Stolkatan Vintarics was an Adult who was black-bodied and angry looking. The living weapon cursed him in an unrecognizable tongue before shooting off a blast straight into the air that sounded like an old navy ship’s cannon.

The Vintaric then took to the air and lunged towards Victor. Lillie opened a hole in her shields and fired lightning through them. the Adolescents were scorched in an instant.

Victor shot into the Vintaric’s body but it barely even flinched at the attacks. It came down and slashed with its claws. Victor rolled out of the way and fired another blast into its mouth.

The Vintaric spat out flaming spittle. Red lightning erupted from above Victor’s head, travelling through its entire body. The monster was sapped of strength but still moved quickly. It leapt out of the way of Victor and landed on a low rooftop.

There it opened its mouth and fired again. The shot landed where Victor had been, cracking the pavement. The Vintaric kept its mouth open and fired more blasts as Victor took off in a run. The monster was quick with its blasts, keeping Victor on the backfoot.

But Vintarics were his specialty, and he knew their weakness.

More red lightning paralyzed the Adult Vintaric as Victor fired another shot into its mouth. He used his frigustone pistol that frosted over the monster’s mouth. It tried to close it but failed. Instead it leapt again, this time at Amadeus.

Victor gave chase to the monster, firing off more blasts on its back. It didn’t even acknowledge Victor as it slashed down at Amadeus. A barrier of light appeared in its path preventing him from hurting the man. then Amadeus pointed upwards, where a thunderstorm gathered and blasted the creature.

Victor jumped on its back and jammed his guns into the holes along its body. Then he pulled the trigger, burning and freezing him from the inside out on either side. The Vintaric started to jitter like a bug near death’s door. But Victor didn’t leave. He focused on his Timewalker’s Origin and let out a blast of Slowdown.

The creature’s movements were slower, but only by a bit. Be it the size of the monster or it’s strength, it still had enough power to resist.

It clawed at its back to get him off but he stayed on. Amadeus grabbed the monster by the head and hiked his legs onto its chest. He let loose a shock that caused the bug to sizzle violently. And just as quickly as it had all started, the Vintaric adult went limp.

Its gunmetal body fell to the ground shaking. Little motes of movement escaped the corpse after that, but Victor knew the monster was done for.

Victor hadn’t even broken a sweat. The scratches would be a pain but he would heal. He took a look around the battleground, where Lillie had dealt with the rest of them.

“Sorry for leaving you out here by yourself, Lil,” Amadeus said.

“No, it’s fine.”

She then turned to Victor as her eyebrows twisted into worry.

“You didn’t find them, did you?”

“No, not like I wanted to find them.”

“Oh, Vic, I’m so sorry,” she offered her sympathies and hugged him.

“It’s fine, Lil. I should’ve known,” Victor told her, caressing her hair.

Lillie let him go and Victor took one last look at his home. I guess there’s nothing more for me to do here…

But then a thought came to him. Where’s everybody else?

“Let’s explore around a bit, there might be resources around,” Victor told them.

It was an excuse he knew, since Victor wanted to check out some specific places. Ones he hadn’t been able to the last time. Lillie took his house first, better so since he didn’t want to go back inside. Amadeus searched down the street while Victor chose one particular house.

It belonged to an old friend. Ken was the one who became the centre of the group once Victor left. He just hoped he’d been smart enough to flee at the first sign of trouble.

Victor entered through the doors without bothering to ring. Not that the bell worked anymore, but they’d been close enough to drop in unannounced. He looked around the rooms, in Ken’s bedroom, only to find it had been converted into a Craft room. There were papers hung by tape filled with children’s drawings.

Did he… get another little sibling?

He turned away from the room and left. In the kitchen there were supposed to be canned goods. Ken’s mother stacked those in case of a flood. Instead, the shelves were empty. A good sign.

He must’ve taken them when he left.

In his search, Victor remembered something. Ah right, the new ability.

He’d been so caught up he’d almost forgotten that his TImewalker’s Origin finally bore fruit. Victor looked up the description of the ability immediately.

[[Slowdown]: (Requirement: Learn how to do things without rushing) By touching a single creature, you change how it moves in time. that creature moves and thinks slower. The degree of this change is dependent on your Sense of Time stat.]

And the same feeling of unease came over Victor. Again, the description had no fluff to it. What made the Timewalker’s Origin so special, that it was treated with such respect?

Victor wondered that as he flipped a spoon around in his hands. He held it out and channelled his new power into the spoon until it was full. Then Victor let go of the spoon.

It fell in slow motion, like it was lighter than it really was. The spoon hit the ground and rebounded still in slow motion. Once it finally went still and Victor’s Slowdown faded, he picked it up again.

Victor infused it again with Slowdown, this time waving it around in the air. But it felt like a normal spoon, albeit with a bit more resistance. The effect was something he couldn’t explain. He wasn’t some kind of physicist after all.

Instead, he threw the spoon back onto the counter and continued his search.

No wonder there aren’t any other Time Seeds. Hella confusing.

Victor left the room to find the other two hadn’t returned yet.

“I’m heading a bit further down!” he announced to the both of them before turning down the street.

If he remembered the street right… There! Crossing over the junction led him straight to the cul-de-sac where Reggie had lived. He smiled at the swing set where he’d eaten dirt time and time again and the little sandpit they’d play around in as kids.

Passing them by led him to Reggie’s house, where he stopped himself from knocking on the door.

There were sounds coming from the inside. Of metal clinking and things being knocked over. Victor took out one of his pistols and placed his hand on the doorknob gently. He held his breath and twisted the knob, peeking inside at the room.

Nothing there. The sounds were coming from deeper within. If he’d had to guess, it was the living room.

Victor moved with slow and quiet steps right up until he reached the precipice of the room. Then he jumped out and pointed his gun at the monster. Or monster it would have been, had he not recognized the curly hair and dark complexion of his old friend.

“Cory?” Victor asked suddenly.

“Vic?”