Victor spent the next few days training Amadeus’ Seed. He’d already seen the man practice often enough with it, but doing it himself was a new experience.

[[Unlock Electroreception]: (Requirement: None) You gain a sense for electricity and electric devices around you. This manifests as another one of your senses and lets you observe sources of electricity nearby. This technology of yours is something akin to a magic, though far weaker, obviously.]

He laid out a bunch of smartphones in front of him and closed his eyes.

“And what do I have to do?” Loki asked.

“One of those is charged. The others aren’t. just shuffle them around,” Victor asked.

He heard the shuffling happen but kept his eyes shut.

“I’m done,” Loki announced.

Victor then took a deep breath. For him, the Electroreception manifested as scent. He could smell the static in the air and follow it back to the source. He hovered his hands above the phones and picked up the first. When he took a closer whiff, it felt off, so he placed it back on the ground.

Then, Victor picked up the phone on the right of the previous one and held it up.

He opened his eyes and the phone screen came to life in front of him.

“Impressive,” Loki told him.

They repeated it for a few more rounds afterwards. Victor’s senses grew stronger as he did, and by the end of the day he’d earned himself a boost.

[Ability Unlocked: Electroreception Boost]

[[Electroreception Boost]: Stackable. Increases Electroreception permanently by 5. Feel the heart of the city.]

The next ability he needed to train was simpler than the first. And he was lucky so many people were there to volunteer for it.

The residents of Angel Heights offered their devices to be charged. Their laptops, phones and tablets were all free for Victor’s training. A little too much, he thought, since they all lined up in the halls of the second floor for him.

Victor grabbed the first of the tablets and double-checked with his status screen before continuing.

[[Charge]: (Requirement: None) You gain the ability to charge electronic devices through touch. The strength of this ability depends on your Electroreception. Seeds of this nature didn’t obtain an ability like this until very recently. Another example of the way our destinies are inexplicably linked.]

Our destinies? Victor just shrugged it off. more things for the Professor to think about. Instead, Victor charged the device till it was done and then handed it back to Umer. That was enough to tire him a bit, and when Victor looked back at the forming line, he knew it’d be a tough day.

For the first time, he truly felt how tired Amadeus had gotten charging their vehicles and taking them all over the place. He himself couldn’t manage to do even half of the line of devices before getting tired. His enhanced physique helped alleviate some of the strain, but it wasn’t ever fully gone.

Still, it was what the man had done to get stronger, so Victor considered it a part of the training. And that too gave him a boost.

[Ability Unlocked: Electroreception Boost]

The last of his new abilities was the simplest by far. Amadeus’ Lightning bolt.

[[Lightning Bolt]: (Requirement: None) You gain the ability to shoot lightning bolts from your body and control them. The strength and speed of this ability depends on your Electroreception. Never as quick as real lightning, and not half as strong. But a substitute of magic can accomplish whatever is required.]

Aiming the bolts was harder than he would’ve thought, but his experience with firearms came in handy. He just had to think of his hand as the pistol itself. Finger guns helped him get in the right mindset, though the others found it weird.

“Where did you learn to aim like that?” Lillie asked him.

“Practice,” Victor replied.

Vintarics fell in front of him and he wanted to search through their bodies, but something compelled him otherwise. He looked back at Lillie. The girl was in poor condition, and looked like she could use somebody to talk to.

“What about you? Adjusting to your new Seed well?” he asked.

“They’re a bit hard to control…” Lillie replied as she moved a pane of light in front of him.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

She’d been lucky enough to find the Half-light Pane again. While she struggled to move around the panes at first, Victor gave her some tips he’d known from the previous time around.

Even with his help, Lillie was progressing slower than him. Or Loki, for that matter.

“You’re both prodigies at this. Makes me a bit jealous,” she said once while they were on the roof waiting for more Vintarics.

“You’ll get the hang of it soon enough, Lil. Just give it time,” he replied.

“You’re spending every free second working with your powers. How do you not get tired?” Lillie asked.

Because I’ve had mine for years. But Victor couldn’t tell her that. He wanted to, really, he did, but it just didn’t feel right without Amadeus around. He’d accepted Victor in every loop, without barely any opposition. Lillie wasn’t like that. She’d be an ally sometimes and distant other times.

He wanted to know why that was, but she kept her own secrets like him.

“I do. I just can’t afford to let it affect me,” Victor told her.

****

Panes of light flew around in the air. Victor shot lightning but the target darted away. Then the pane was cut in half by a flying slash.

“That’s four to two, Victor,” Ashley announced. “I’m up after you.”

“If I lose!” Victor announced. Another pane took the place of the last one and Victor shot it again. He was quicker on the draw than Loki but the shot missed once again. But instead of letting it go; Victor wrenched the controls of the bolt and made it turn around. It hit the pane from behind and exploded it into little motes of light.

“Four to three,” Ashley announced from the side.

“You want to switch out, Lillie?” Leo asked from beside her. She wiped the sweat from her face while shaking her head.

“No, I can handle this round,” she announced.

It was training, and Victor knew it was training, but still he felt something lighter in his heart this time around. The last loop he’d spent alone so long it had gotten to him, so this time around he let himself enjoy the sportsmanship of it all.

In the end, he still lost against Loki and his mastery of The Perfect Cut, but he put up a good fight.

“Finally, I get a chance!” Ashley announced.

Her strategy was more spraying fire in the general area of the panes, and she accidently lit a house on fire in the middle of it. Leo had to drop the targets he was controlling and smother the flames with dirt before they continued, and they had a little chuckle about it over Ash’s expense.

Later on, Victor led a second expedition down into the depths. Ashley had her Seed but Leo didn’t. Maybe Victor should’ve tried for something different, but he liked the versatility Leo provided with his stone manipulation and Ashley’s firepower was always welcome.

When he thought there were enough Wielders that could defend Angel Heights, and that the guidelines he’d given them would be enough, Victor prepared to leave. Even if Amadeus wasn’t around, his kids were. And they needed defending.

He’d trained his Charge a bit more and ended up finding an electric car to use. All he lacked afterwards were people to bring along.

“I’ll go,” Isabelle told him. “You’re going to go help the Levine kids, aren’t you?”

“…Yeah,” Victor said.

“Why?”

“Amadeus was an old friend. It’s the least I can do for him,” Victor replied.

“I’ve never heard him talk about you,” Isabelle said with a suspicious tone.

“We… had a falling out. I only got to see him back at the park and…”

Isabelle grew quiet alongside Victor. Neither of them wanted to reminisce.

“I’ll still go,” Isabelle told him. she crossed her arms over and waited for some defiance, but Victor hadn’t in him to disagree. He could use the help, and Isabelle had picked up a rather nice Seed.

Twisting Roots helped the woman to grow plants and manipulate them however she wished. Often, Victor caught her using the same moves she had with her thread Seed in the first loop.

I should keep an eye on her. That could be helpful.

The only difference he’d seen between those two Isabelles was the fact she had roots twisting around her fingers this time around. He’d seen a few Wielders of the Seed before, and the stronger she grew, the more those roots would spread across the surface of her whole body.

It would be a good source of safety for her, and an easy access to plants she could control, but Victor couldn’t help be a bit grossed out with it.

“It’s going to be a dangerous journey, but fine,” he told her.

After her, Loki and Lillie both showed up to accompany him.

“I can’t take both of you. Loki, you’ll have to stay behind,” Victor said.

He frowned at the order.

“Why so?”

“Lillie’s panes make for a good defence. We’re going to need it,” he explained.

“How do you know that? A quicker fight is always preferred,” Loki reasoned.

“And its messier too. We’re going to rescue children, not fight monsters.”

That was the end of the discussion, and they left Angel Heights not long after preparations were done.

Victor applied Speedup to the car’s handles as he drove it down the barren road. It helped to cut down their travel time in between the cities, though it did put both him and his passengers into an uneasy position.

Whenever the car ran out of electricity, Victor had to pull over and charge it back up again. Then he’d hop back in and drive tiredly to their next stop.

“You should hand over the wheel to me,” Lillie suggested.

“I…I’m fine,” Victor replied as he stifled a yawn.

His eyes grew heavy on the road, but he had to stay vigilant. There were abandoned vehicles beside him, and swerving around them needed his full concentration.

The real problems came when the roads were empty. It made him cocky, made him think he could close his eyes for a split second and just…. Rest.

”VICTOR!” Lillie jolted him awake.

Ahead of him and approaching quickly, was a Vintaric adolescent on the road. Victor turned the wheel aside but not in time. the bug crashed into the window.

Glass shards went flying into Victor and Lillie’s faces, and green blood followed after.

“Get away!” Isabelle shouted as the roots around her arm unravelled. The creature was still alive, if damaged. It tried to swipe at Victor and the man jerked backwards.

The roots entangled the Vintaric a moment later. Isabelle bound the monster and pushed it out of the window. The Vintaric struggled, but eventually fell by the side of the EV.

Victor drove for a long time afterwards, only stopping once it was out of sight. He kept his hands on the vehicle, acutely aware of how strong his grip was.

“We… should probably switch,” Victor told Lillie.

She took over driving the car for the next round. Isabelle took the front seat while Victor was splayed out in the back, asleep. When they reached the next stop on their ride was the point where they finally woke Victor again.

“We’re going to have to go left from here,” he told them, rubbing his eyes.

“Why? Straight through gets us to Washington faster,” Isabelle replied.

“There’s someone we have to pick up first,” the Timewalker told them.

The girls shrugged and accepted his reasoning, and Lillie took the turn left up to Utah.