Victor woke up once more on the couch, with a coke in his hand and the channel on the TV. Only this time, he felt much more tired than he had before. He dropped the can of coke and stained his couch.
It wasn’t a weariness in his bones or muscles that had carried over from the previous loop. It was something weighing on his mind, preventing him from even taking a single step.
With his head in his hands, the young Timewalker wondered what to do next. Usually, the first thing he’d do after getting an ability is check it out, but he couldn’t muster up the effort.
Victor found himself lacking this time around. He forgot to call up Amadeus and get the park shut down in the evening. That meant he had to go there himself with his Mustang and get him and Loki back.
That would cut into his time, but Victor didn’t care. What was another wasted loop, or another hundred really? ‘Be faster next time,’ what a joke.
He sped way over the speed limit without getting caught just to reach the amusement park Amadeus worked at. While he did, he pulled up another screen with his stats and new ability.
[
NAME: Victor Amadi
AGE: 26
SEEDS: [[Timewalker’s Origin]]
[[ ]]
[[ ]]
[[ ]]
[[ ]]
STATS:
STRENGTH: 40
SPEED: 20
SENSES: 17
RECOVERY: 25
SENSE OF TIME: 51
ABILITIES:
(Timewalker’s Origin): [Unlock Sense of Time] [Anchor Placement] [Carryover Bestiary] [Carryover Item Compendium] [Sense of Time Boost x 7] [Strength Boost x 4] [Speed Boost] [Recovery Boost] [Senses Boost] [Slowdown] [Speedup]
]
[[Speedup]: (Requirement: Understand quick and clean work) By touching a single creature, you change how it moves in time. that creature moves and thinks faster. The degree of this change is dependent on your Sense of Time.]
Understand quick and clean work. That was the requirement. Victor clenched the wheel tighter. Maybe he’d have better luck saving the damn world if the screens just gave him the abilities instead of pussyfooting around!
[[Carryover Seed Information]: (Requirement: Sense of Time above 50) Information recorded about a Seed’s progression requirements and abilities are carried over between Resets.]
The second ability was just more information for him to keep. Victor grumbled, but at least it was something he could use in the future.
He turned his attention back to the road and opened the valve that led to his Timewalker’s Origin. The power poured out from it and entered into the car, speeding it up quickly. Victor felt it lurch forward as it rode down the straight and narrow road to Amadeus.
****
When he reached the park, Victor felt a bit tired. He’d used his Timewalker powers too much on the ride there and it drained him. Though the Seed itself didn’t feel like it had cracked or been injured, he still wanted to be careful. It was his one ticket back, and no matter how much he resented it, he couldn’t let it go.
Amadeus and the rest of the survivors in the park were struggling to scramble and defend the place from the invasion of the Stolkatan Vintarics. Somewhere in those skies was Altar’s heir, and he’d come around to Oakland sometime later.
Victor ran lazily into the park and took care of the monsters that came his way. His enhanced strength made it an easy task, though he broke a few bats and sticks along the way. Some stands fell over and the survivors cluttered around Victor.
He lazily gave some orders and set to finding the people he actually cared about. It wasn’t hard to scrounge up Isabelle, Amadeus and Loki after, though he did find it annoying how many questions they asked.
He ignored them all and just guided them along the way outside while trying to keep them alive. All the while, he searched the park for the Seeds he needed. He found Loki’s easily enough among a Vintaric corpse, but the Crystallized Lightning posed a bit of a challenge.
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“When are we getting out of here!” Amadeus asked him from behind. The man was scared out of his wits, but Victor was tired of that act.
“We’ll get out when we get out!”
As soon as he did find the Seed, Victor flicked it over to Amadeus and told him to absorb it. The Vintarics were getting a bit more aggressive so he set the new Wielder to work immediately with little guidance.
Amadeus was strong, he knew that. He’d figure the Seed out in no time. Loki and the other survivors were also helping to ward off the Hive. Now, he only needed to leave an-
A shout from behind turned Victor around immediately. Amadeus was on the ground with a claw through his chest. A Vintaric was over him and stabbed a second right into his ribcage.
What…
Victor’s mind came back into focus. He truly heard the carnage around him for the first time this loop. Saw the terror and manic expressions of the survivors and even Loki. Saw the… inexperience of Amadeus.
What have I done. Victor rushed over and kicked the Vintaric off of his friend’s chest.
“Is anyone here a medic!?” Victor shouted but none of the survivors were.
“U-ugh… It hurts…” Amadeus said weakly.
“I-I’ll get you to a doctor. Come on, stay with me!” Victor shouted at him.
He rushed out of the park faster than ever. Avoiding fights, just running until the gate came into sight and Victor knocked it open. He placed Amadeus into the back of his car and Isabelle jumped in from the other side. She placed a hand over Amadeus’ wound and tried to staunch the bleeding to no effect.
“Do you have anything for bandages?” Isabelle shouted at him.
“No!”
Victor hopped in and Loki took the passenger side of his car. he put the car into reverse and pulled out of the parking quicker than any other person there. he applied Speedup on the Wheel and the whole car seemed to lurch forward as Loki and Isabelle braced themselves.
“Agh!” Amadeus let out a shout and Victor placed his hand on him.
He applied Slowdown on Amadeus and his screams turned into low and heavy moans instead. Neither of the other two passengers asked him about what he’d done, only that it had helped.
Victor then drove to the closest hospital he could find. He drove and he drove, taking turns that knocked him into the walls of the car as Isabelle shouted at him to slow down.
But he couldn’t make himself. Amadeus was the first friend he’d made in the godforsaken loop. He had to get the man help at all costs.
When they got to the hospital, the windows were blown out and there were monsters crawling all around it. Victor had to fight through the Vintarics without any guns, staining his arms green up to his elbow as he dispatched them. And after he was done, he raided the cabinets for drugs and gauze to patch Amadeus up.
None of them had any expertise on medicine. So, they had to do the best job they could while Amadeus let out moans of pain. No matter what they did with him though, Amadeus wouldn’t get better.
Victor spent a long time with him like that before realizing he needed something better than medicine. He needed Dean Wilson.
“Load him back in with the car,” Victor ordered them.
Loki and Isabelle did as asked and he turned the car around to reach the gun shop back in Oakland. He had an idea in mind for it and that needed the Weaponsmith Heart.
Once they were there, he harvested the Seed quickly while finding Isabelle one of her own. Then they turned around one last time and made for Los Angeles.
[Seed Integrated: Weaponsmith Heart]
****
The ride there was quiet apart from Amadeus’ cries of pain. He turned and twisted in a half-sleep that looked horrible to be in.
At least he won’t remember, a part of him said, before Victor shut it up. He wouldn’t accept that Amadeus was already done for the entire loop.
Instead, Victor put his foot on the pedal and sped down the desert road that led to Los Angeles.
The tragedy of it was, that despite how much power Victor wrung from his Seed to save the man, and how quickly they travelled, it wasn’t enough. They’d even stopped along the way to find more supplies to help the man, an effort to save his worsening condition, but even that had proven fruitless.
A Seed popped up over Amadeus’ lifeless chest when they were hours from the city.
Victor and Loki got out of the car to carry his body. He wasn’t breathing anymore, and there was no pulse to be checked. Victor had figured it out the moment Isabelle had gone silent. She wasn’t as strong as Ashley in that regard, so he didn’t make her help with the work.
While the world was ending and he was to hurry, Victor instead spent the time digging a grave for his friend. Loki helped without a word of opposition, something Victor was immensely grateful for.
They buried him there and Isabelle came out of the car to take one final look. She slowly handed his Crystallized Lightning to Victor, letting him bear the burden of the Seed.
The Timewalker rolled it over his fingers the entire drive into the city and Angel Heights. While Audrey greeted Loki and Isabelle, he sat quietly, turning it over in his hands.
Daphne, Lillie and the rest had already gone on their expedition. A few days passed and Daphne had come back injured. She too died not long after. Lots of people visited her before the end, last of all Lillie.
She came out of the old woman’s room with tears in her eyes. When Victor met them, she stared for a long moment before turning away and heading down the floors.
One mistake, and look where it got me. Victor scoffed. Amadeus was gone and so was Daphme. That was two he should’ve saved. He’d ruined the loop already, so why not just give up and wait it out?
Because it’d be an insult. Victor realized. Not just to him, but to the people who’d lost their lives.
It’d be an insult to everyone who’s been forgotten by time, while you remember it. He’d be letting those bastards from the other world win again, one more time. He remembered the face of Mara, the four-bodied king who’d scoured his base last time.
He hated the monster. Wanted to see him fall from where he was and die instead. Even if it didn’t mean anything when the world turned back, even if it cost him his very body.
But I’m nowhere near his strength. It was a power that couldn’t be matched by him alone. But what if I wasn’t alone?
Victor had seen plenty of Seeds over his years, analysed even more and had a catalogue of them in his item compendium. Maybe he could use that. There was no limit to the number of enhancements a person could get at a time. the only thing holding him back was how long he’d last afterwards.
It was lucky for Victor that he had a few bodies to spare, then. He just needed to tweak some of his earlier plans and come up with a way to get as many of those enhancements as possible. And he’d need Professor Cooper’s help in doing it.
The first step of that began right then, Victor decided as he took a look down back at the Crystallized Lightning. Then he let it sink into his skin and let the electricity course through his body.
[Seed Integrated: Crystallized Lightning]
[Ability Unlocked: Unlock Electroreception]
[Ability Unlocked: Charge]
[Ability Unlocked: Lightning Bolt]
[Ability Unlocked: Paralyzing Lightning]