With no weapon in hand, Dean started to walk. Elle stepped backwards, clearly intimidated by the confidence of the soldier. Arthur followed him as they continued to walk away. In contrast, the Lieutenant General walked to his right, towards the many other chairs and tables which had been arranged in the room.

  Elle jumped onto the bed and crouched down, gun still pointed at the enemy, “Tell me what you did to them, or I’ll shoot!”

  “Oh, go on. Shoot if you please.”

  Dean Farland walked to one of the dressers and bent down as he opened the drawers one by one. The first, then the second, then the third. The entire time, all the Arthurs could do was watch. There was something about the man that made them go still. They did not even want to take the chance of attacking him, only to be hit with a deadly counter. Skills were limited. There was no point in using them recklessly.

  While he was turned, Elle pulled out a vial from his blazer and handed it to Arthur. It was blue in colour this time around. The variant mouthed ‘cooldown reset’ before he put the gun back up.

  Dean finally stood up and turned with a fan in his hand. It looked like it was one of those folding fans, but it was completely stretched open. Alongside that, it was also completely made out of steel and looked like it had a very sharp edge. The shining lights of the candles betrayed that.

  “This is a special gift.” The soldier said, “It is very important to me for various reasons. The first time I…entered another universe, it was as a measly Private. Unfortunately, we underestimated the people living there and got completely decimated. Every single soldier other than me died. I had to drag their bodies out of the portal; blood all over my body.”

  He flicked the fan once, and the edges of the fan lit up in a faint blue. Wriggling and curling around, whatever microscopic creature was providing that light was clearly bioluminescent. He sat back down, but on a different chair this time. Bringing the fan really close, he covered half of his face with it.

  “This was the gift I got for myself, though.” He explained, “When every single one of those bastards who ambushed was dead, I took this from one of them. Clever girl, that one. Very strong. Turns out, they had had their first contact a long, long time ago. The aliens, they…enhanced their weapons for them in return for a trade relation. These weapons were spread across the world, and then there was a nuclear apocalypse, and they were gathered again. Long, long story.”

  Dean flicked the fan once more, and it finally activated. The blue lifeform on the edge of the fan started to move out. Slowly, but surely, it enlarged the fan along its original shape, until it was almost five times its original size. While it was almost comical in its size, it was now both a very large cleaver and a very capable shield. As soon as the lifeform was done expanding, they settled down, and the entire blue extension turned into solid steel.

  For anyone who had not seen the transformation, there was no proof of the existence of another lifeform left.

  “They had so many of these. Sixteen or so unique weapons from all around the world that were specially modified to be better in combat.” Dean stood up and sighed, “We eventually went and got them all, obviously. Some of them, like this one, I keep in my surroundings at all times. And some…are back home. It is a shame you did not shoot me until now, because it is going to be impossible from now on.”

  “I don’t want to shoot you. I’m not a fucking monster like you are. Just tell me what you did, and then tell me how I can undo it.”

  “Oh, I will not entertain you that far. But I can clarify that second doubt. The answer is that you cannot. It is impossible to turn them into who they used to be. This is the dice that was rolled for them, and it is the result that they will have to accept.”

  “They didn’t have a choice, you fuck!” Elle screamed and pulled the lock. As it clicked into its ready position, the variant gulped and started shaking, “I’ll shoot. I’ll…kill you.”

  “No, you won’t. You might. You might…try…to kill me. But you won’t do it, because that is impossible for someone like you.” Dean stood up and waved the entire fan. A strong gust of wind blew towards them out of nowhere, making them shake a little as some of the dust in the carpets blew up. Farland stood ready, holding the fan’s blade away from his body as he waited for them to move.

  Nobody made the first move. Arthur waited for the other two to move, and he guessed that they were thinking the exact same thing. A single attack would mean that they would destroy any chance at negotiation. They were already past reconciliation, so he wasn’t even thinking of it. The best thing they could do was apologize and leave. But nothing about Elle suggested that he was going to do that.

  It was understandable. He had known them for a long time. If Celia called him Uncle Elle and was so shocked at his apparent death, there was a reason for that. There was history to that. Dean and the CAIB had come in and somehow aged them up by fourteen years for their own ends. Elle was definitely going to attack. It was just a question of when. Arthur braced himself for it and switched to Time Reversal just to be safe.

  Raising his katana into a position that would make it easy for him to switch to both attack and defence, he waited.

  Waited, until Elle finally did it. With a scream, he started shooting. One. Two. Three. Four. All of the bullets rushed towards Dean, who brought the fan in front of them, but right as they were about to hit it, he pushed them backwards with a wave. Hitting the steel fan, two of them got crushed, while the other two rebounded and hit the floor.

  Before they could come back at them, Arthur pushed Elle away, and he fell off the bed. He struggled to get up in his anger, so the teacher took the chance to create an opening. He ran forward with the katana ready, and the moment he got close, Dean flicked the fan downwards, and it immediately retracted into its smaller form.

  He brought the small fan towards his katana, and sparks went flying as the two met. Dean gritted his teeth and pushed the sword away. In return, Arthur went for his stomach. Met with another block, he switched his target and kept going. Elle stood up behind him and aimed the gun once more.

  “Duck!”

  He didn’t give a very long warning, but Arthur kept up and went down. Dean did not move. Using his shorter fan, he redirected the bullet once more with a flick. It went to the balcony door, and the glass in the middle shattered into pieces. Arthur attacked once more. This time, the knees.

  Dean knew that he did not have time to bring the fan down. Even if he did, Elle would shoot. So, he pulled his leg up and stopped the sword with that. The boots were thick, but not thick enough. Arthur got on his knees and pushed it further in as the blade got stuck in the sole. Elle shot once more, and this time it was redirected towards the bed frame. It broke, and one corner of the canopy fell down, crushing the soft mattress.

  Arthur pushed further, hoping to cut through. The moment he finally did, Dean groaned and pulled his feet out of it in an instant. Holding a katana with a shoe stuck on it, the puzzled Arthur looked up, but couldn’t get out in time before the Lieutenant General’s foot came in and clocked him on the head.

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  Sent flying away, he crashed into one of the chairs on his back. Elle shouted and shot three more bullets. As Arthur got up, he heard all three of them being sent across the room. In an instant, pots and wooden furniture around the room burst open or broke into pieces. Arthur pulled the shoe off the sword and threw it at Dean, using it as a distraction as he ran behind it.

  For a second, it worked. The soldier pushed the shoe away, and Arthur appeared in an instant. He swung for the neck, but got stuck on a hand instead. Trying his best to swing through, it just sliced away, and he jumped back before Dean could attack. Instead, the soldier looked at the wound on his hand and then at Arthur.

  “Not bad, Cross. Not bad at all. The two of you are quite alike.”

  Arthur did not know if he realized that that didn’t narrow it down at all, but he had no time to fool around right now. He stood up beside Elle and looked at the heaving man. The suited variant turned to him and kept breathing loudly.

  “I’ve got one, Sy. Just one.”

  Arthur leaned in and whispered something in his ear. As he pulled back, he nodded and added, “Just be confident. Calm down. You’re being reckless.”

  “Yeah, yeah. I know. I’m sorry.”

  He took another deep breath and stopped shaking. Gun pointed, he waited for Arthur to make his move.

  The teacher ran forward and switched to Time Reversal. Closing his eyes, he moved in and swung. If he was the one attacking, he didn’t need to worry about the position of the dodge. Swing after swing, he moved as fast as he could, and the seconds counted down.

  Skill Activation

  Time Reversal

  He took a breath as Dean stopped moving by choice. Arthur stepped back and waited as the Lieutenant General went through everything he had done once more. The swings of the fan, the retraction (which was now an extension), and moving back to the drawer from which he had removed it. As the seconds counted down, Arthur knew he had more than enough time.

  Elle kept his gun ready, and as soon as Dean put the fan back into the drawer and stood up, he shot. The bullet travelled as if it were in slow motion. Arthur moved aside, and it pierced through the soldier’s left leg. As soon as it did, though, something unexpected followed.

  The blood flew out, but did not stay for long as it started to swirl at high speed. As it moved, Dean stopped. Arthur noticed the skill cooldown on his HUD reset even though he hadn’t stopped it, and there was a sudden blast. Originating from the wound on Dean’s leg, a white energy burst outwards and pushed both Elle and Arthur backwards.

  Through the collapsed bed and the many shattered pieces of pottery and wood splinters, they hit the wall at the other end of the room. By the time Arthur could process what had happened, Dean fell down too and started crawling to the drawer to retrieve the fan with the blood pouring out of his leg. The teacher could not understand what had happened, but he wiped the blood from his own mouth and stood up.

  Skill Activation

  Sin

  The wood from the drawer slowly grew. Over time, it wrapped over the Lieutenant General’s hand and trapped it in place. Arthur tried to calm himself and suppress the pain in his back. He had been thrown on it so many times by now that it had started to feel like second nature. Still, he knew that he had one last burst of energy left. This little bit of adrenaline would be all he could muster.

  His health was already down to 63, and his stamina had fallen to 52. Normally, that would have been acceptable. But with the extra twenty-five health he had gotten, it meant that he hadn’t been fighting very well. The loss in both numbers was quite substantial. Since he could not walk, Arthur held the end of the katana and got ready to throw it at the soldier.

  Elle tried to stand up, but he stumbled back to the ground. Arthur looked at him and noticed what had happened. He had been thrown directly under another clay pot, and it had crashed on his head. That also explained the blood that was not stuck on his hair. That was fine, though. Dean was still trying to claw his way out of the wood. But then, right as the soldier stopped, Arthur pulled his hand back.

  Dean closed his eyes. The teacher tried to stop himself, but his body had already stopped listening. The sword went flying. Before it got there, though, the time was up. Three seconds had passed.

  Skill Activation

  Hear Me, Ye Angels

  The wood shattered into pieces as he grabbed the fan and turned. Right as the sword got close to his face, he swung the fan, and it went clattering away, towards the balcony.

  It was ok, Arthur told himself. He had already started running forward. It had been a massive mistake to underestimate the soldier. He hadn’t even used his Module, even though he had had one for so long. He had avoided talking about it to make sure that they did not have any clue about what he even had.

  Dean stood up, slowly, clutching his leg. He flicked the fan, and the blue line appeared. As he flicked it the second time, Arthur slid over the collapsed bed and closed his eyes. The fan began to grow in size. One. Two. There was hardly any time, but he needed to move now. Arthur jumped up and pushed his legs forward. He had never dropkicked before, but it was certainly worth trying. Three.

  Skill Activation

  Object Reversal

  In an instant, before the fan could open up, the sword appeared right back where it had been before – flying through the air towards the soldier. Hitting it with his feet, Arthur smashed it forward and fell to the floor.

  “Cross!”

  The soldier croaked and then fell silent. Once the first drop of blood hit the floor, Arthur knew that it had worked. When a couple more followed, and Elle remained silent, he started to get worried. The man pushed himself up and looked at what had happened. In an instant, his heart dropped. The plan had worked, but it had worked too well.

  The sword had passed through Dean’s chest and gotten stuck in the wooden drawer behind him. Elle slowly stumbled forward and put a hand on Arthur’s shoulder. The blood from the closed wound kept dripping, but then the Lieutenant General’s mouth opened, and more blood started to roll down that.

  “What…did…”

  The man’s eyes closed.

  “Holy shit.” Arthur could not say anything else. He did not feel particularly bad, for some reason. Something about having gone through the same feeling with Johnny gave him the feeling that something was wrong. It was as if, even though he had killed him, he hadn’t. Or rather, he didn’t care at all. Johnny had been his first murder. To his mind, at least.

  “We killed him.” Elle looked at Arthur, and his partner nodded.

  “We did.”

  Arthur sat down on the floor, and Elle beside him. Both of them stared at the dead man’s body.

  “What was that you said, huh?” Elle chuckled, spitting on Dean’s body, “Try, will I? I’ll fucking try? Try dying, bitch.”

  “I mean what I say, kid.”

  His heart dropped a second time. Both of them looked to their right and saw Lieutenant General Dean Farland standing at the door. He looked completely unharmed, as if he hadn’t participated in the fight at all. There was a hole in his pants right where the bullet had pierced him, but there was no wound below it.

  Arthur turned to look at the body, but it had disappeared. All that remained was the katana lodged into the wood, but even that was clean with no blood. He stood up and ran to get it. Pulling it out of the drawer, he prepared himself to attack. Elle stood up too and threw the gun aside to take a small dagger out of his pockets.

  Before either of them could get even close, though, Dean Farland took out the completely extended fan in his hand and pressed a button on its handle. It glowed blue for a split second, and he waved it in a complete arc towards them.

  A blast of wind tougher than before hit them in the chest and sent them flying back. The entire wall facing the city of Chicago broke, and they burst through its debris. As they were thrown back and started to fall, all they saw was Dean smugly standing at the doorway with a shadowy figure right beside him.