One final battle.

It was the unconscious agreement between the two groups once war had reached its precipice. It had ravaged both of the settlements and dried the will of its people. Victor had tried to stave off the anger of the people but it had only worked so far.

The worsening condition of the world had compounded with that, making them all the more eager to accept their fates.

Jeffords had launched the first of the attacks, coinciding with a suspicious outbreak of Angelos in the city. Victor was already at the field by that time, though he winced looking back at the bastion of survival that he’d raised.

The buildings of Los Angeles were being destroyed by the Angelos as he spoke. The sooner he could get the fight with Jeffords over with, the sooner he could go back to save the city. Ahead of him rushed the entire might of Jeffords’ army.

It was a diminished shadow of its former self. There wasn’t a single person on either side with no scars, be they physical or of the mind, to show for it. Cars hummed low ahead of them, some of them amalgamated through magic powers.

The soldiers wore torn clothing and ragged expressions as they flung magic lightning, fire, water, and other more esoteric elements ahead of them. one of the soldiers fought with glowing fists of steel, caving in chests and punching holes through another man’s chest.

The light around his hands changed colours and he sped up, landing a square blow on Victor’s arms. A decade ago he’d have broken both those arms and cried out in pain. But now, with his shields and Seeds, it was nothing but a glancing blow that Victor turned aside easily.

His blades popped from his body and slashed across the man’s body. He cut a million spinning cuts before pulling out his ignistone pistol. With that, Victor took aim and fired into the man’s face, ending him.

He was hounded immediately after by another soldier. He tried tackling Victor but the Timewalker popped a blade from the side of his chest, impaling him. he pulled back the blade and let the body drop, only for more enemies to come at him.

Victor knew he was being targeted, and he grew surer when the ground around him began to form glyphs and runes. Ones that he remembered all too well.

Get everyone out of here! he Whispered the order to a thousand soldiers all across the battlefield.

Shadow creatures materialized out of nowhere in its darkness. The size of the field was so large it felt as if half the army was caught in its midst. The Wielders on his side were slashed, stabbed and beaten by the knights while their opposition was left alone.

“Victor!” Amadeus shouted for him.

Lightning fell from a cloud onto the shadow soldiers, dispersing them for a while. Through the smoke ran Amadeus, a scruff on his chin and years in his eyes.

“It’s the same ability I told you about! We need to find Jeffords!” Victor told the man. without a word, Amadeus nodded and started carving a path.

Lightning fell ahead of them and they ran with their full might. All around them soldiers fell and shadow knights rose to stop them. they were grasping at the two of them, but no single magic knight could match their abilities.

Victor blasted them away with shots from his guns, then popped blades the width of a corner store that cleaved through dozens of them at once. They fell into dust but formed again a moment later.

But the path was open, and Victor rushed through before it filled with more enemies. He and Amadeus caught a glimpse of the man at the centre of it all.

Jeffords’ face was aged, and his Seeds could not hide that fact. His hair was a stark white and more wrinkles covered his face and drooping eyes. But despite that, he still moved as if we he were young and spry. Around him were what seemed like a hundred soldiers, magic knights and humans alike. They shielded him from the faintest breeze that might come his way.

Mei Li was ahead of him, spears of ice hovering around her in a circular formation. She skewered his soldiers on them before wiping away the blood and continuing.

When Victor and Jeffords’ eyes met, the world stopped. The increasing screams from outside, the sounds of magic impacting the ground or other Wielders, it all drowned out in between two of them. He had a clear shot, in between the plate armour of his soldiers and the ice witch that guarded him.

Victor gritted his teeth, aimed his gun and fired. The bullet hit the President in the chest. And pinged off as if it were barely an inconvenience.

“Form up tighter, Amadi’s here!” Mei Li shouted.

Lightning arced between the closely knit formation. Ice bloomed in between Victor and Am, separating them.

Mei Li threw her spears at them but Victor grabbed one out of the air. He snapped it over his legs and threw the pieces aside. Then he shot two of the other spears out of the air before they could reach him.

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Mei Li shielded her eyes against the shattering ice while Jeffords soldiers advanced. Amadeus dragged their attention away, but the numbers of their magic tried to overwhelm him.

“Am, run away!” Victor shouted for him. He was quick enough and could manage it.

But he didn’t. He gave Victor one of those looks that indicated he wasn’t about to listen, and kept batting the enemy forces with his lightning. Whenever one of them split off to catch Victor, he’d scorch them to a crisp.

Victor tried to run after him, but a knight dashed past him.

“I’ll save Am. You go for Jeffords!” shouted Jared.

Victor struggled to recognize him sometimes. With his billowing cape and shining armour, he looked like something out of a renaissance fair instead of a Wielder.

A great bow materialized in front of Jared’s gauntleted hands that he stuck into the ground. He pulled back the ether-like string with ease and launched a spectral arrow into the midst of the crowd.

The arrow exploded on impact and drew away the attention from the crowd. The soldiers split their attention between Am and Jared, and that gave Victor enough time to face the main threat.

Ice bloomed under him but he touched it and shrunk it to the size of a fingernail.

“You’re the reason behind all this madness, Victor,” Mei Li told him with a rage-filled expression.

“If you’d just accepted the President’s offer then, we wouldn’t have wasted so many lives!” she shouted.

“You chased me! Came to my city! Hunted me down!” Victor shouted back. A spear formed overhead, long as a street.

Victor raised an elbow in reply and fired it. The spear launched towards him at the same time. the blade would’ve been knocked aside had it not grown to twenty times its original size by the time it reached Mei Li.

It shattered against the woman’s spear and rained ice all over the dimmed battlefield, as more magic knights came to surround Victor. He extended blades far around him and cut down the knights with a single spin.

Ice walls rose from the ground and made a dome around Victor. Then spikes extended from the inside. In response, Victor shielded himself with blades along his body. Not a single one of the spikes could pierce through his armour, no matter how hard Mei Li tried.

He took an opening in between the assault and fired an enlarging blade into the walls. It carved open a hole before shrinking. Victor took the hole out before it reformed itself.

Outside, the dome broke apart and pieces flew in his direction. Victor jumped, ducked and dashed around the pieces as they flew around him. He fired ignistone pistols to break apart the larger pieces, only for them to fix themselves a moment lataer.

Annoyed, he instead took aim at Mei Li. The ignistone bullet melted another ice wall, but didn’t reach Mei Li. She had a look of concentration about her that would not be broken. Not unless Victor came up with some new plan.

You’re still Jeffords’ lapdog, aren’t you? Victor Whispered to her. She looked confused for a moment but recovered quickly.

I do as the president wishes. You’ve been a consistent thorn in our sides. If we were to let you live now, you’d come back later to seek revenge against New Columbia, she said, shifting the ice to block Victor’s escape.

That’s bull, and you know it, Victor replied as he broke apart more of her spears.

I do as the President commands. I need to, Mei Li told him.

Does that mean you need to follow him down a suicidal path? We’re barely surviving as it is, and you seem content to worsen it instead of working together, Victor argued.

How do you know the President’s path isn’t the best? Mei Li asked him.

He’s a grieving old man with no clue of the damage he’s causing. And you’re going along with it like an obedient slave! Victor shouted as he finally broke apart the last of the cubes. Mei Li would’ve slipped up eventually, and she’d finally left him a path.

He climbed atop one of the receding ice blocks as it came back towards her. Then he jumped up towards Mei Li. He caught the woman as ice threatened to creep up his arm.

“If he weren’t so obsessed with you…” she told him as the ice grew and his fingers numbed.

Victor popped blades out of his cracking skin to cut apart Mei Li’s hand.

She shouted in pain and punched him in the chest, but it did nothing. His Dragonsilver plate was still there, and Victor had no intention of letting go. He instead hugged her tightly and let loose his full power.

A thousand blades pierced out of his skin and into Mei Li’s body. They cut through and turned her into a pin cushion in but a second. And as soon as it had happened, the blades receded and the both of them started falling to the ground.

Victor landed on his feet with Mei Li still in her arms. Her eyes were unfocused, and her glasses stained with her own blood.

“He… We could’ve… done… better,” were her final words before she expired.

“Mei!” an old voice shouted for her.

The old man Jeffords looked completely broken once he realized Mei Li was in Victor’s arms. As a show of respect, Victor let her down onto the ground. Jeffords came running and took the young woman into his arms gently.

He was ready for what was to come next. A fight with the man was inevitable. And he’d seen the large magic knights he could now produce. Victor checked his condition and was glad to know he was still in top shape.

But Jeffords didn’t move. Didn’t take the first move. His Conquered field around him dispersed slowly, the smoke rising away from the glyphs and disappearing into nothing.

He was sobbing when he looked up. Nothing like the mad conqueror he had hoped to face. It sickened him.

“Now you stop?” he asked with bitterness in his voice.

He wanted to face a man he could kill. And yet all he got was a tired, old, senile fool. Jeffords continued to cry for a while but the battle didn’t end around him.

Victor wanted to move away from the scene. Focus on the people he could still save. And yet even he felt like he couldn’t move.

“She was… like a daughter to me,” Jeffords said.

Victor would’ve spat on him had he any more anger left for him.

A boom in the skies caught their attention. Victor looked up and saw a Gate forming right in front of them. One of the thickest he’d seen.

The fighting stopped in that instant as all bore witness to the being that came out of the light.

No… No, no no… Victor backed away.

He finally had a second look at the being that destroyed the world. that shifting form neither male nor female, bearing a thousand colours that boggled the mind. Those patterns on skin made of light that crackled with barely contained energy. The form of the being was different now, but all too familiar to Victor.

And behind it were nine other figures. Nine other figures whom the people beyond the Gate seldom spoke of. The ones who followed the formless figure, who obeyed its every command. The ones who heralded the destruction of the world.

“What… is that?” Jeffords asked, horrified.

“The end of the world,” Victor replied without taking his eyes off of the being.

Jeffords looked down at Victor with a new expression.

“I’m sorry, kid. I’m… so sorry.”

Victor shook his head.

“Doesn’t matter anymore. See you later, old man.”

And then came the blinding, scorching light. Blades sprouted to protect him, but Victor died almost immediately.