When Scepter came to their mall, the children ran. Some of the adults too. And Victor wouldn’t be surprised as to the reason why. He’d brought a demon to their front yard with the promise it would only bite at others of its kind.

“Why would you bring a Vintaric inside of our base?” Audrey looked at him like he was a madman. Which he was, considering what he was thinking of doing.

“None of us are going to be able to live well with the Hive running around. The Angelos are trouble, but at least they’re small in number,” Victor told her. He hoped the reasoning would be enough to stir the old woman’s stalwart heart. It’d been enough in the last loop at least.

Audrey kept darting her eyes between his group and the giant blue Vintaric that sat so stilly inside of the room. Scepter moved as little as possible, whether it was to not scare away Audrey or for lack of care, Victor didn’t know.

“We’ve come to an agrrrreement in that regard. When I kill Altar and take hissss place for my own, I will not asssssault your people, and will instead assist you against the Angelossss,” she hissed at Audrey in an inhuman voice that sounded like the slithering of snakes.

The old woman raised a finger towards the giant Vintaric and scowled.

“I don’t care what you do as long as you stay outside. You’re scaring the children,” Audrey told her.

The other leaders had agreed in that regard, and Scepter was kept on the roof of the mall instead for the next few days while they planned out their assault of Grandsmith. She took her meals there too, which were the only rifles they could scrounge up and spare for the Vintaric.

Scepter regained some of her meatiness from that, and all the better for it. Victor would need her in her best shape if he had any hope of taking down the hive.

Chekhtana and her were usually together there, and would have a constant visitor in Professor Cooper. He ran a thousand tests and asked them a thousand more questions about the Fall, yet their answers were unsatisfactory.

“Do you know what caused the Fall?” Professor Cooper asked the both of them.

“No,” the Vintarics replied in unison.

“Then do you know who was behind it?” Cooper followed up.

“No,” once more. It seemed the entire thing was just an opportunity to them. Vintarics weren’t much appreciated at the best of times, so they were left out of grander talks that the other monsters had. At least that was what the Professor had gathered after pelting them for hours with his questions.

Victor joined in with some of his own, and watching the fray, so did the rest of his friends, despite how annoying it became.

“Do you guys… poop?” Amadeus asked. One of the smaller kids, Tiffany, was in his lap and stroking Chekhtana like he was a dog.

“No.”

Another time, Victor was trying to draw the map of what lied beyond the Gate in Grandsmith Towers and was stumped. It wasn’t helped by the fact that all of the Levine family orphans were on the roof and hanging around Scepter like she was a playground ride.

“Alright, one more time, from the top. What does the exterior look like?” Victor questioned Chekhtana. And one more time, he came away with a sketch that looked more like children’s drawings.

He threw it over his shoulders and started on another, only for the paper to come back and hit him on the head.

“You draw bad,” another kid, Samantha told him. she was wearing a frilly little dress and kept staring over at Amadeus from time to time.

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“Let’s see you try any better,” Victor scoffed.

The kid took it as a challenge though, and grabbed the pencils right out of his hand. right in front of him, she drew a caricature of Chekhtana that was eerily accurate to the real thing.

“I don’t have brown or I would’ve drawn him brown,” Samantha complained, before handing the notebook back to Victor.

With shame, the Timewalker stopped her from leaving.

“Wait, I could use your help for a bit,” He admitted.

Chekhtana would dictate the location on the other side to her and she’d draw it out. Maps, interesting points and anything else the little Vintaric would name. by the end of it, Victor had a good idea of the layout of the place, though he wasn’t sure of the scale.

He accepted the drawings in return for a favour he never intended to fulfil.

Sometimes it pays to have everyone forget in the end, Victor chuckled to himself as he let the little girl leave.

****

“Her iridescent shell truly is amazing, Victor. Do you realize what makes it that way?” Professor Cooper asked. It was a rhetorical question of course, as he launched into a tirade without Victor’s prompting.

“The Seeds she has. Her stone manipulation, the Seed that lets her create her weaponry and some others the Vintaric won’t tell me of. They mutate her body to this form.”

“What’s the point?” Victor asked.

“That I haven’t figured out yet. It’s like… they’re taking on properties of the Seed itself.”

“Taxonomy must be impossible with them, then,” Victor noted.

The Professor nodded. He’d said it as a joke, but he actually got to writing them all down and figuring out a system for identifying and naming the monsters. Victor didn’t see the need for it when the bestiary already existed, but the Professor’s whims were his own.

He left him to his own devices while he worked with the leaders to come up with a plan.

“The Vintarics are growing more aggressive by the day. We’ve barely any Wielders to spare for the defences,” Audrey told him.

It was the middle of the night when the Wielders came home battered and tired. Amadeus helped one of them onto his shoulders as he walked to the infirmary where Dean worked.

When he spotted Victor and Audrey speaking, he looked up with a smile.

“Hey, Vic, we’re having a little party to cool off tonight. You should come,” he offered the invite.

“Not now, Am. We’ve got planning to do,” Victor replied. He was a bit annoyed they could think of celebration when Altar and his Vintarics were still at large, but he didn’t blame Amadeus for it.

He didn’t know the carnage they’d caused last time. and would cause if he let them roam free.

“Grandsmith Tower is bigger over there than it is here. But Scepter tells me there’s a weak point in the entire system,” Victor told Audrey.

“That is only a last resort, Wielder,” Scepter reminded him from behind.

“Why so?” Audrey asked.

“Because it’ll bring down the whole tower with it. And we’re using it if Altar’s too powerful to take down by himself,” Victor explained.

Having that foothold in the other world would be a boon not just for the Vintarics but for him as well. He could check on the conditions of the Angelos and prepare for attacks ahead of time. That was if they could actually save it.

“Tell me about Altar’s powers. What does he have and what can we do to counter him,” Victor asked.

“Altar’ssss Seed itself is nothing sssspecial. He developed one that would let him control weaponrrrry around him,” Scepter explained.

“Then what makes him so powerful he made you run away?” Victor asked.

“The weaponry itself. His firearrrms come from all over the world, from Wayland the gunsssmith to even ancient Mythics and Dietiessss. Those weaponsss alone let him handle even Titans, but inssside of Grandsmith Towerrrr he has access to the turrrrrets as well. He can direct them towards his enemiessssss and leave them as a ssstain on the earth.”

“And we’re going to be walking right into the middle of it all?” Victor asked.

“Altar won’t be lured out so eassssily. Not even with that Seed you possesssss,” Scepter told him.

Victor felt at the Weaponsmith Heart one more time.

“He is cunning. He already hasss something better than the Heart,” Scepter said. “the Altar of Weaponry.”

Which meant they needed to be quick and smart if they wanted to take him out. It was looking all the more likely to Victor then that they would have to sacrifice the Hive to truly destroy Altar, but Scepter wouldn’t budge on the matter until and unless their lives were on the line.

Some part of him wondered if he could get his own Altar of Weaponry, the Seed Altar himself possessed, but Scepter assured him it was impossible. If he just had the resources to find where those Seeds originated, it would’ve made his life much easier.

Their plans were finished for the night. Victor had his team, with a few of his top soldiers left behind to protect the mall. Loki was again left behind, and the man was more than miffed. Victor wondered what had gone wrong this time to make the man so eager to prove himself?

“I am one of the best, Victor. I could help you take down this Altar,” Loki told him.

“I’m not doubting that, Loki. I’m just worried what’s going to happen if we all storm at the same time. Who’s going to be left behind to protect the kids, the old people?” Victor asked.

“They will not know we are gone. Is that not enough?”

A flash of memory swept past Victor’s mind.

“No. And that’s final. You’re staying right here,” Victor stood up and left.