Yukir was grateful. Even as he floated in the air, bleeding and broken, he was glad for his life.

“You could always work for me. What can those Tetni even give you anymore now that you’re fully formed?” Cecilian asked him.

He was winded, but not nearly as Yukir. He had experience and power behind him. Yukir was talented, but that couldn’t bridge the gap. Not yet.

Still, he clenched his fists and faced the other Angelo. He was honourless, a pathetic man who couldn’t stand without crushing others. Anyone like that didn’t deserve to be called a real Angelo.

“You have to stand by those who supported you,” Yukir told him.

Cecilian scoffed. “You really were formed yesterday.”

Cecilian blasted Yukir with smoke so thick he could feel the pushback. The embers burnt him, and they seemed to want to crawl inside his body and fester.

The dragon on his back helped. In a way only Yukir understood, it let him push past and punch Cecilian across the face. The other Angelo blew a smokescreen, but Yukir’s wings dispersed it. He landed an axe kick and knocked Cecilian closer to the ground.

Cecilian blocked with his hands, then grabbed Yukir’s legs. He spun the Angelo around and threw him away. Like that, their battle continued, powers mixed with hand-to-hand combat. Then the bullet hit.

As the lightning took effect, Yukir felt dirty about the fight. That human, Victor, had helped him. but there was a way to things. And fighting was something you did honourably. Still, he couldn’t refuse the help.

****

Victor stood up and brushed himself off. the Voltaic Form was still on and he needed to make every minute of it count.

“Leo, blast me towards the ground,” Victor asked.

Leo looked at him like he was a madman. Then he relented. He was learning at least. For this loop, Victor thought.

He raised a platform of stone and used it to catapult Victor across. He soared through the skies before landing on Cecilian’s back. Lightning coloured light grey scoured the Angelo’s back before he clawed Victor off of him.

He landed on the ground beside Yukir. Next to him, he looked like the size of a cat.

“You too?!” Cecilian screamed in indignation.

He blasted smoke across the earth, so strong it carved up stone and earth both. Flames were set alight across the battlefield that warded away intruders. Cecilian tried to skewer Victor with his wings and the Timewalker barely dodged.

He shot frost bullets into that wing. It sizzled against the heat of Cecilian’s feathers before dissipating. On instinct, Victor tried to Infuse his attacks, only to ache at the Weaponsmith Heart’s absence.

Still, he fired more bullets as Yukir fought up close. The younger Angelo was losing steam in the battle, taking more hits before being able to retaliate. It didn’t help how bull-headed he was, taking hits on the chin instead of dodging them.

Victor grumbled but he played his part. His clothes sizzled and burnt, and so he had to take off his jacket in the middle. He fired more bullets into Cecilian, but none pierced him the way his best shot had.

Still, he kept refreshing the Slowdown by slapping Cecilian on the back or hitting him with more grey lightning. Then, the Mob boss grew more annoyed and slapped away Yukir. He turned to Victor and slashed his wings across the dirt.

Victor was carried into the sky and he struggled. A blast of smoke formed in Cecilian’s hands before he hit Victor with it.

Yukir tried to defend him with his wings, but the blast carved a hole through them. Victor was knocked across the ground and fell teary-eyed. He was coughing on the ground while Cecilian fought against Yukir.

The younger Angelo’s dragon tattoo flickered with power. It was losing steam. Victor had to stand up. He had to go and help.

But when he tried to move his arms, they didn’t budge. They spasmed wildly, so Victor placed his other arm onto it.

This is a bad idea. He blasted his own arm with a weak lightning bolt. the muscles on his arm flexed again and again before finally giving him back control.

[Ability Unlocked: Electroreception Boost]

[Ability Unlocked: Voltaic Form Level 2]

[Ability Unlocked: Thunderstorm]

He should’ve been glad for the new abilities, but his Crystallized Lightning was already cracking. He’d already let his Weaponsmith Heart go, but Victor wasn’t willing to compromise on Amadeus’ Seed. Not on this run.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Victor stood up pained and cradled that arm for a bit before letting it hang. Yukir was barely hanging on, just like him. It was a grim realization to Victor that he didn’t have much of a choice on whether to use his new powers.

He reached deep into his Crystallized Lightning. The boost had made it sturdier, but that only went so far when he was using his strongest abilities.

Victor didn’t bother reading the abilities before he activated them. He’d seen them in action through Amadeus. Clouds formed overhead when Victor activated the thunderstorm, cracking and booming.

Sparks of light escaped through the clouds and caught Cecilian’s attention. Victor raised a hand to guide the stored potential along. Then he let it fall, right on top of himself.

A second before the lightning hit Victor, he reached into his Crystallized Lightning once more, praying it wouldn’t crack.

Voltaic Form Level 2.

Victor exploded with light once more. Hair-thin lines formed along his skin filled with yellow luminescence and the sight of him made enemies around falter. He looked more like a Demigod then, with an aura of power circling him from every side.

Cecilian and Yukir stopped only for a moment to observe Victor’s new form. The lightning he’d absorbed from the thunderstorm fed him, empowered him, and in what seemed like the blink of an eye, he zipped towards Cecilian.

Victor laid a fist into the Vice’s stomach, so strong it punctured through his chest and bloodied his arm. He pulled the fist out and knocked out Cecilian’s jaw in a single hit. Victor kicked, and shattered his kneecaps. He forced the Angelo to the ground with just his fists, and then backed away to let Yukir finish.

“Let him have it,” Victor told the Angelo.

Yukir stepped up, his tattoo glowing on his back brighter than ever. He clenched his fist tightly, and then punched Cecilian’s face into the dirt. The impact knocked dirt into the air and sent a shockwave around the entire battlefield.

When Yukir raised his bloodied fist to the sky, Cecilian was no more. Victor’s Voltaic Form ran out then, and he pressed his hand to his chest to examine the Crystallized Lightning.

He smiled slightly on finding it damaged, and nothing more. When he glanced at Cecilian again, he clicked his tongue in annoyance.

“Why didn’t you take him out?” Victor asked Yukir.

“It’s not my place to take his life. He’s subjugated,” Yukir replied.

Stupid way of thinking. He lived by an honour code? When lives were on the line? What had Aidano drilled into him?

Or was he always like that? Victor wondered.

Whatever was wrong with the Angelo, Victor didn’t care. The battle dried up soon after Cecilian had falled. Aidano and the rest of the Tetni had taken to healing Victor, and they’d handed Cecilian over to him as a reward.

Victor didn’t want anything to do with the man, so as soon as he was given the Angelo, he had him executed. Aidano seemed to disapprove of the action, but he didn’t voice his thoughts. Still, the old Altesian invited Victor for a feast that night, along with all of the Wielders that had helped them.

****

Victor scratched under his bandages; despite what the healers had told him. the other Wielders were out enjoying themselves with the Altesians, even Yukir, but Victor stood back. He was glad enough to see Leo, Loki and Ashley enjoying themselves.

In what seemed like déjà vu, Aidano approached him during the party.

“You have done us a great honour, Vic-tor,” Aidano told him.

“You’re going to keep calling me that?”

“Consider it a pet name,” Aidano told him. Victor saw a mirthful look in his eyes and wondered if he was being played with this whole time.

“You’re welcome,” Victor said, taking a drink that he was loathed to admit tasted great, if a bit mossy.

“We have rewards prepared for you and yours. Once we build ourselves a better home above ground, we will send it to you,” Aidano added.

“I’ll be looking forward to it.”

Victor didn’t feel like making conversation tonight. He was still reeling from the loss of one of his best Seeds.

“Forgive me for my disbelief, but I am amazed you could take out Cecilian, with all that he had,” Aidano told him.

“Cecilian was a small-time crook who thought he was a bigshot. It doesn’t take much to take out guys like him,” Victor replied.

“Small-time?”

“Pathetic. Weak. Whatever you want to call him. Nothing but a bully hiding his own weakness,” Victor elaborated.

“Hmmm, I am not sure I agree, Vic-tor,” Aidano told him.

“You don’t agree? Aidano, he was the one who kept you under his thumb the whole time,” Victor told him.

“Do you remember what I told you? About nurturing a larva right before it pupates?” Aidano asked.

“Yeah?”

“Cecilian shares a history much the same as ours in that way. He was raised by a good family of Altesians. They tried their best with the larva they had. But… the nature of an Angelo is something that affects them through their entire life,” Aidano said.

He took a pointed look towards Yukir, who was standing stoically besides some of the other Altesians. He was struggling in the enclosed spaces of the caves, and soon enough wouldn’t be able to stand them.

“Yukir’s nature. We have some influence over it. But an Angelo is something above us. What they mature into is not always in our control,” Aidano told him.

“So what? Cecilian was a bad egg all along?” Victor asked.

“He was willing to do unsavoury things for those who raised him. Cecilian began to take on work that landed him in the spotlight of other Angelos. Work that crossed them and their territory. When he came back one day, most of his family had been killed, and a message sent to the survivors to stay away.”

“… What happened after?” Victor asked.

“He built up his crime syndicate. Became more cruel in his methods and before long, there wasn’t a single shred of honour left in him. Sometimes, I wonder… if we had ignored the warnings and stayed by his side, would Cecilian still be the kind young Angelo we raised? Or is there no place for one such as that in Angel Falls?”

Aidano looked haunted by those events. He couldn’t go back and change what had happened. Not unlike a Timewalker. Instead, he had to live with the thought he had failed, and all he could do was start over.

“So, you started over with Yukir after that?” Victor asked.

“We tried. But we made the mistake of getting in Cecilian’s gaze again. He didn’t care if I had raised him. He ignored me like he ignored the rest of the Vices, and focused only on expanding his power,” Aidano said.

And Victor had killed him in front of Aidano. He’d basically taken away Aidano’s son, estranged though they were. When he thought of it like that… it didn’t change his feelings on the matter.

“Cecilian was a monster who killed others for his own gain, Aidano,” Victor told him. “I don’t regret taking him out. But…”

Victor kneeled down next to the Altesian.

“I’m sorry I took your son from you,” he admitted. Tears were running down the old chief’s eyes.

“That’s all I can get at this point, I suppose,” the Altesian replied.

The rest of the night passed by in silence for the both of them. Victor kept the old Altesian company though it all, right up until the fire went out and it was time to sleep.