[

NAME: Victor Amadi

AGE: 36

SEEDS: [[Timewalker’s Origin]]

[[Bloody Tear]]

[[Crystallized Lightning]]

[[Lycan’s Tooth]]

[[Burnt Life]]

STATS:

STRENGTH: 2674

SPEED: 1922

SENSES: 2172

RECOVERY: 1452

SENSE OF TIME: 61

ELECTRORECEPTION: 2463

LIFE SENSE: 879

ACTIVE EFFECTS:

Lycan Form

Speedup

Voltaic Form Level 5

Life-Power Exchange

Flaming Aura

Tundra Claws

Muscle Multiplier

Perception Booster

Metal Hide

Mind Shield

Super Senses

Seed Stabilizer

Seed Overclock

Power Unlocker

Ultimate Regeneration-

Victor stopped reading there. Anyone who’d scrolled that far down his screen could tell he had a lot of power coursing through his veins. He didn’t need to get into the gritty details, especially when his body was falling apart further every second. There was a thousand different abilities applied to him, from a thousand different Wielders. All carefully chosen not to overlap with each other, lest he waste them.

He was the final point of defence for Angel Heights. Their nuclear option when Mara arrived.

Victor pressed his foot down further onto the Vice’s chest. The other bodies would arrive soon, and so he had to work quick. He stomped his foot onto the roof and the building burst apart. While they fell, Victor applied Slowdown onto the Vice.

The ability poured out of his Timewalker’s Origin and into Mara, dulling his reaction speed. Then Victor grabbed him with a single enlarged hand and slammed him further into the concrete.

Cracks broke apart the entire street around them. Mara’s body spat blood, and Victor smiled, having gone a little mad.

After all those loops of being weak, having the upper hand felt good.

But then the body turned its head, and Victor felt his Seeds coming undone. They yearned to be free from his body, the complete opposite of the feeling when he usually touched a Seed. He had to fight to keep his abilities going, all except for his Timewalker powers. That one remained firmly in his soul, not moving a single inch.

He pulled them back with his force of will, giving his opponent an opportunity. Mara’s shape slithered and changed, flowing like a Metamorphs. The Vice slipped out of his grasp and ended up behind him.

Victor slashed at where the body formed, but it did little. Mara kicked Victor and he flew backwards into a jewellery store. He went straight through the building and ended up on the opposite street covered in pearls, gems and bangles.

Mara came through as well, and chuckled when it saw him.

“What are you laughing at?” Victor snarled. His voice was alien even to him.

“So in need of power you turned yourself into something less than human. I’m just laughing at the irony,” Mara said.

“Shut up, demon,” Victor snapped.

“Oh? I don’t look human to you?” Mara asked him.

“You couldn’t pass for one if you tried,” Victor said.

Victor cut into his own arm. Blood poured out and formed into clones of him beside the original. They were near matches for Victor, except some minor details here and there.

Every one of them loosened lightning on Mara. the Vice changed its body, forming holes, twisting and shifting around so fast Victor could barely land a few hits.

“Again, trying so hard in the face of failure. What makes you think you can win?” Mara asked him.

“I’ve got time on my side.”

Victor reapplied Speedup and used more of his own blood to boost his speed. He grew faster and finally caught Mara with a freezing slash. the claws raked through the Vice’s body and froze over his chest.

Stolen novel; please report.

It locked him into that form, and Victor grabbed him with his other hand. He slammed the Lord of the Senses into the ground and started running. They tore up the ground at extreme speeds, before Victor opened his mouth and turned the road to lava.

Mara lay injured and beaten beneath him. Victor got ready to fire another blast of lightning, but the body disappeared from under him.

He snapped his eyes around to look where Mara had gone but couldn’t find anything. Then he felt a fist connect with his chin. Victor’s jaw crunched and he was launched into the air.

Victor spun in the air, gaining his senses back at the last moment. For a few seconds he grew alarmed. There was a new Gate in the middle of the city. Hadn’t he closed them all?

Not now. Need to survive.

He landed on the other side of the city in a roll. Running his tongue over his sharp teeth revealed he’d cracked some of them.

Doesn’t matter. It’ll heal as long as I can beat the Vice.

“That was a good showing, I’ll admit,” Mara told him.

Victor turned where the voice came from but found nothing.

“But you won’t get another chance on the stage,” Mara continued, from a completely different direction.

“How would you like to die, then?” Mara asked him, again from somewhere Victor couldn’t see.

He’s not invisible. I could see through that. And he’s the father of those other Vices, so…

Victor’s senses were being messed with. At least some of them. He closed his eyes and ears, searching with his nose instead.

A sharpened blade struck out from his side. Victor parried with his claws. Then another, trying to distract him. but the Timewalker kept his eyes closed. His Seeds were messing up again, but he still didn’t open his eyes.

He found four scents nearby. All from the same person, but with some differences among them. Victor sniffed out the one he’d been fighting before. The one that had stopped him from using his Seeds. That body was already injured.

Without opening his eyes, he lowered himself into a sprint.

“Running like a dog, are you?” Mara taunted.

He didn’t see Victor jumping into the air and snapping his jaws into the Vice.

“Aaggh!” Mara screamed in pain.

Victor crunched down harder, sparks of electricity escaping his jaws. Then he let go and ripped apart the body with his claws.

Shreds of the Vice’s body remained, and the rest of them were stunned into inaction for a few moments.

“Now. Now, I can finally go all out,” Victor snarled, facing the last three Vices, who had made themselves visible. He could see fear emerging on Mara’s faces. That was all the opening Victor needed to win.

Voltaic Form Level 10.

****

Lillie’s shields were being battered. The Imperials were hurling their magic onto it so hard she could barely resist. But she had to bear the pain. Near her, another Imperial was imprisoned in a shrinking cage of light.

Lillie had to maintain her grip on both. She was stuck in the middle of a junction trying to survive. The Gate had already been opened, and more Vices were pouring out of it. More Imperials, Daughters and even a Titan or two.

She was about to fall any second now. Lillie prayed Victor would come for her. But that hope was growing dimmer by the second.

Suddenly, the ground opened up beneath Lillie. She thought she’d suffocate when it swallowed her up, but it instead began to move her away. Her little fortification crumbled and the Imperial locked inside died.

Lillie was moved away from the scene of the battle and spat out in an alley nearby.

“Sorry for the rough travel,” Leo told her as he helped her up.

The dirt barely mattered. She could kiss the man right then and there. But he hadn’t been the one she’d been expecting.

“Where’s Loki?” Lillie asked.

Her question was answered when a building crashed near the Gate. The black armour of the Wetajha Vintaric was leaking blood everywhere. Loki stood atop the dead creature, shouting at his enemies to approach.

He began to cut down every Vice nearby. Lillie and Leo joined in, helping to clear out the area near the Gate.

Loki was badly hurt, so Lillie protected him with her light barriers. She blocked attacks from the Imperials. Leo dragged them to the ground. Ashley arrived soon after like a flaming comet. She burnt away the Vices, paving a path for the other Wielders.

More came to their assistance every moment. Lillie wondered how if Mara was on the battlefield. A golden pillar of light in the distance was her answer. She smiled.

Victor.

The pillar of light renewed the Wielders’ energy. They fought thrice as hard, Victor’s arrival signalling the end of the Vice’s victory.

They cut down the Imperials where they stood, brought down a skyscraper onto the Titans and reached the centre of the incursion.

“Where is the Gate closer!” Loki shouted over the sounds of battle. Lillie carried the woman forward on panes of light and brought her before the Gate.

“I-it’s too big! I can’t work on this!” She cried.

“Do your best!” Loki told her. And then he dove into the Gate.

“Loki, wait!” Lillie screamed.

He was already gone inside.

“He’s insane!” Leo said. He raised walls around the Gate, to stop more of the Vices from getting in.

“Who cares! Just keep fighting!” Ashley told her brother.

The Gate was almost claimed, waiting only for Loki’s Wielder to close it. But Lillie knew it wouldn’t be that simple.

The Daughters were starting to circle them. some of the strongest among them could hold themselves against the strongest Wielders, and now all of them were surrounding the Gate and junction.

Lillie pushed her Seed to the extreme and formed barriers around the Gate. Other Wielders joined in to defend against the assault, but Lillie could still feel her Seed beginning to crack.

Please, just hold on a little longer, just until he wins.

****

Victor’s body shone gold. Pure energy replaced the blood flowing through his veins, and he could’ve lit up a city all by himself.

Mara opened one of his mouths to respond, but before a single syllable could reach him, a streak of light appeared next to him. He didn’t see what hit him, nor the next ten streets that he was knocked through.

Mara Devaputra tried to force sleep upon the Wielder’s body, but he was gone before the effect could take place. Pure lightning couldn’t be calmed, couldn’t be put to rest even for a moment. It yearned to move, and the Wielder was eager to obey it.

Mara was going to lose. It knew that as soon as the Wielder had activated his ability. It was the second time in his life that he was going to be humiliated by someone he hated. The first… the first had been long ago.

****

The Lord of the Senses was born from the stories that were told of it. He was a Mythic, or a Deity, whatever the humans considered it. He was borne with a single thought in mind.

Pleasure.

Mara was strong. Strong enough to take whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted it. He enjoyed the pleasures of food, flesh and fire all at once. He visited beautiful sights, and urged others towards the same revelry that it loved.

Pleasure was all Mara wanted, so when he learned of Nirvana, a rivalry bloomed.

Nirvana, the ever shifting presence. Nirvana, who Mara could never beat no matter how much it tried.

For every pleasure that Mara sought for himself and others, Nirvana urged beyond it. For humans and those of the other world. They clashed many a time over this, and Nirvana came out on top every time.

What infuriated Mara the most was how merciful Nirvana was. It would always spare him, give him advice, and then move on as if nothing had gone wrong with its day.

Despite what it claimed, Mara knew that Nirvana had to be bluffing. It was enjoying the suffering it inflicted on him, enjoying seeing him try again and again only to fail. How was it that Mara could not beat it?

There were only a few others in the world as strong as it. So why was it that Nirvana was among them? Something so compassionate and peaceful? Having that kind of power? How?

Mara tried again over eons, as the world changed and he grew in power. But every time, Mara lost. Even as technology improved and humans began to yearn for more and more, and Mara fed on those desires to grow stronger, it was not enough. Nirvana would win. It would always win.

“Why?”

“Hm?” Nirvana hummed.

Mara was tired. He could only use his words against Nirvana now.

“Why do you stop me every time? What’s wrong with enjoying the pleasures of the world?” Mara asked it.

“And what is wrong with growing beyond those pleasures?” Nirvana replied. Its voice was feminine, with a body of constantly changing rainbow colours in the vague shape of a human.

“You’re denying yourself what makes them human.”

“I’m asking them to enlighten themselves beyond their humanity. Some have already done it, why not the rest?” Nirvana asked of Mara.

“You don’t give a beggar food and ask him to suffer starvation instead.”

“And you don’t tell a thief to steal, a murderer to kill, just because it is their want,” Nirvana countered.

Mara huffed in annoyance.

“Why can’t I beat you?” he asked the question nearest to his heart.

“Because you cannot beat the world itself,” Nirvana replied. “It was nice to see you again, Mara,” Nirvan told him, before zipping away into a fold of the world.

The Lord of the Senses let into his rage, and destroyed the mountain they’d been fighting in.

That wouldn’t be the last time Mara would fight with Nirvana. They’d have many more fights in the future, and at the end of it all, they’d finally come to an agreement.