As before, Gaet didn’t appear to move, but this time Alex had their whole move down pat. To Yas and Zareth, it looked like Alex was dodging thin air, as there was no visible strikes being thrown his way. Until they heard a clang as Alex intercepted the final blow in the chain with one of his BucklAxes. Pushing the punch wide, Alex unleashed a vicious counter swipe with his other hand at where he knew Gaet was going to be. The whole back and forth had taken less than the time between blinks, and had left Alex already having to catch his breath. The sheer speed that Gaet had thrown the assault out, combined with a level of power Alex had no way of comparing to anything else he had experienced so far had left him reeling, but at least he was still on his feet this time. Gaet still hadn’t appeared to have moved, but a little slice could be seen on their chest now, evidence that Alex had managed to actually land a hit.

Gaet was enraged, wiping away the small trickle of blood from the shallow cut. “You! Worthless! FUCK! There is no way you could have managed that, what trickery are you employing?”

Breathing heavily and trying his best not to show how much the blocked hit had still hurt him, Alex flashed a shit eating grin. “Trickey? Me? How about you, masking your true power to everyone and using it as a crutch to land cheap shots? Fuck you and whatever bullshit you’re pulling here. You want some more?”

Now aware that Alex was onto them, Gaet went at him full bore. Alex resigned himself to a world of hurt as he again had to endure the multiple beatings it took to study and remember the sequence of hits Gaet laid out. Even from his place outside of the timestream observing the fight, Alex still felt echoes the echoes of every hit. He felt the phantom of his ribs breaking, his skull shattering and at one point, his stomach literally exploding from a blow to the gut. Alex took a look at his health bar and saw that although no tithe was being made, he still had a block building up at the end of his HP bar. Every injury he took added a little more. He realised that even though he was essentially preventing each injury every time he reset the fight, the echoes he felt were carrying across some of their potential. He needed to end this soon otherwise the cumulative damage was still going to end him.

Alex had currently gotten about 90% of the fight telegraphed when a thought hit him. Surely if the echoes went against him, they could work for him as well. If, instead of rewinding the entire fight every time he allowed the battle to progress a little bit each time he blocked a salvo, maybe he could queue up his own blows in this time-altered state and have them all hit Gaet in one go? With nothing to lose, Alex put this idea to work. He slowly allowed to fight to progress, and made a retaliation every time he triggered his time powers.

To Gaet, it was like Alex had suddenly become impossible to hit. He seemed to know exactly how to weave around blows that Gaet was sure were going to land just moments before. It was infuriating, as apart from their siblings, nobody in centuries had been able to match their power. And the fact that a lowly level 35 was managing it? Unthinkable. Slowly, hits started to pile up in Alex’s favour, and Gaet found themselves on the back foot, having to actually give ground to this lesser being. With a roar Gaet launched themself away from Alex, “How… HOW? We were assured that nothing would be our equal when we made the deal!” Gaet turned to flee the room and found impossibly, Alex was already there.

Alex watched as Gaet made their escape the first time and pulled time back to just before they fled. He triggered Jump Charge, and rocketed around to behind Gaet as they turned. Alex used his signature spin to add more momentum to his blow, also increasing the mass of the bucker to more than 10x its normal weight. He didn’t want to kill Gaet, not yet at least. He wanted answers without alerting the rest of the Council, and restraining the enigmatic councillor was the only way that would happen. Putting his all into the strike, Alex watched as the look of surprise with jut a dash of fear flitted across Gaet’s face in the moments before his Buckler made full contact. Alex felt his arm break from the force of hitting what felt like a steel wall, but Gaet flew backwards away from the door, eyes crossed. They hit the wall opposite like a freight train and crumpled to the ground as Alex did the same on his spot. Alex contemplated doing the move again and activating Avenging Strike to try and use the healing provided to keep his arm from breaking, but found that when he went to pull from Chronos the connection felt like syrup.

I am impressed Alex, you managed the seemingly impossible. Congratulations. However, your body is barely holding together from the accumulated damage of being mercilessly beaten hundreds of times. For now I am placing the restrictions back on my realm, but once you have healed up and I have had time to assess just how much freedom I am to allow you, the connection will open again. Now it would probably be best if you restrained the dear Councillor before they awake.

Alex scowled as another wave of agony radiated up from his arm, along with an overwhelming feeling of being thrown down a cliff as his whole body seemed to pulsate varying levels of pain. He looked up to see Yas and Zareth both just stood staring at him, eyes wide and jaws on the floor. “I’m pretty wiped right now, could you two deal with restraining that prick before they wake up? We have questions that need answers.”

The pair quickly looked around at the pile of Gaet against the far wall and slowly made their way towards them. Alex watched as Zareth grabbed a couple of weapons from the crate nearby and hold them together between their hands. Before his eyes he watched as the weapons shrunk and warped, slowly changing into a thick pair of manacles with multiple chains linking them. These were then gingerly put on Gaet’s wrists. Yas did the same with a set for their legs, but also created a chain linked to the floor in the corner, seamlessly fused to the ground. All done, the pair quickly returned to where Alex was still sprawled on the floor exhausted.

“Alex… What just happened here? There should have been no way for you to physically compete at that sort of level with Gaet. By rights they should have torn you apart! Yas exclaimed, before gingerly adding, “No offense…”

Alex let out a little laugh before groaning at the motion. “Yas, Gaet did rip me apart. At least a hundred times in fact.”

Sharing a confused glance at the other to see if either knew what Alex meant, Zareth spoke up. “Er… Alex, you completely obliterated Gaet without really taking a single blow, your arm notwithstanding.”

Wincing at the mention of his now limp arm, Alex looked Yas in the eye. “Yas, remember when i did that little time training thing in the base, and we had planned to use it to boost my levels before the attack?”

Yas’ eyes glazed over for a moment as they searched their mind for what he was referring to. With a start they looked back at him. “There is no way? The sheer toll on your body would have killed you, especially with the tithe to Chronos…?”

“Chronos visited me when Gaet was killing me the first time. They offered their temporary blessing to see if I was smart enough to survive this fight and provide some entertainment. No tithe, and the HP drain was equalled out by my boosted passive regen. I have probably just spent over an hour watching myself get mutilated and killed in various ways so that I could learn to dodge and block their hits.” Alex let out a bone weary sigh.

Unsure of how to respond to this new revelation, Yas instead grabbed Alex’s broken arm and without warning pulled it straight, eliciting a fresh scream from him. They then made a metal sleeve and fit it around the limb before fusing it shut, the end result essentially being a tight metal cast that forced the bone straight. “Sorry about that Alex, but with your passive healing I didn’t want that to set and heal wrong. Are you injured anywhere else?”

Blinking away the tears of pain, Alex slowly tested to make sure the rest of him was whole. Feeling no major injuries, he moved his body suit out of the way to reveal a patchwork of fading bruises across his torso and ribs. “I think that was it, the rest of these I think are the echoes of the injuries I took on those cancelled timelines, and I’ve pretty much healed these already by the looks. Your bedside manner was a little lacking, but thanks for looking out for me Yas, rebreaking the arm would have probably sucked more.” He gave Yas a weak smile before laying his head back on the cold floor.

A short while later, the trio watched as Gaet began to awaken in the corner of the room. Alex still ached, but during the little period of downtime his innate regeneration had fixed him right up. Waving the other two back, Alex cautiously made his approach. As Gaet fully awoke they lunged straight at him, only to be pulled short by the chain. Snarling, Gaet began to try and pull free of their bindings.

“Gaet, you’re trapped there. I already beat you once, so you’re gonna answer my questions or I’m gonna keep beating you until you do.” Alex stated calmly at the now suspiciously quiet figure. Curious, Alex brought up Gaet’s info and left it visible to monitor. “First, where did you take my friends? Second, what is the plan you and the other councillors have? Why are you interfering in my universe, against the treaty? Third, how are you suppressing your real level, and why?”

Eyeing him coldly, Gaet made no move to speak. Alex stepped closer, voice dropping to a whisper. “I think I have some ideas as to what's happened here. You aren’t really Gaet, are you? You and the other councillors are all imposters. Come on, you can tell me, surely you want to tell me all about how your grand scheme cannot be stopped?” Alex goaded the figure, trying to get a rise. To emphasise his point, he slapped Gaet across the face before stepping back again and crossing his arms. That had actually hurt his hand.

Gaet’s face slowly broke into a grin that was slightly too large for their face. “Foolish little Nexian, think you’ve got it all figured out? You have no idea what is happening, not just here, but everywhere! All realms, all of the so called ‘Deities’ who command their power, will fall. We will crack your universe like a nut, and use your starved flesh as hosts for our war against the Veil. It will suffer eternally at our hands for what it and the Apex did to our kind!” As Gaet was speaking, Alex watched as the nameplate and info swapped rapidly between both of the versions he had witnessed earlier. The level 105 version, and the level 380 version. Each time the switch happened, Gaet’s body seemed to distort a little more. Their eyes now far too large and bulging, the mouth pulling back even further into a horrific shark-mawed visage. The not-Gaet began to bulge and grow larger. “Your friends will make for fantastic vessels. They are actually only just down the hall, but you are already far toO LATE! RRRRHHHHHHAAAAAAAAGGGGGH!” The thing let out a horrific roar as it finished mocking Alex and began to strain against the chains binding it.

A wave of negative emotions flushed through Alex. Rage, fear, hopelessness all vied to make him break down. Embracing the one that would at least allow him to keep the other two in the room safe, Alex let the rage guide his actions. He backed up a couple of steps to give himself some room, then faster than ever before he launched himself at the monstrosity before him. Hands no longer his own, he savagely tore into the thing’s flesh with a strength he hadn’t known he possessed. He manipulated his skills in ways he hadn’t even thought of, forcing all of his Rockflesh into making his weapons larger, he began to eat away at the creatures huge health bar, chunk by viscous chunk. He poured elemental heat into the rock, slowly covering his weapons in scalding magma that sizzled away flesh and made the room smell vile. All thoughts of defense had left him as he pushed every iota of his power into destroying the creature in front of him. He vaguely heard someone calling his name after some time, but ignored it, solely focused on destruction.

He eventually found himself stood on the remnants of the thing that had been wearing a Gaet suit, chest heaving and eyes wildly searching for his next target. He felt a sharp pain across his cheek, and spun towards the attacker, weapons raised to strike. He saw Yas there, pure fear in their eyes, with Zareth cowering by the door. The rage left him like a plug had been pulled, and all of the aches from earlier flared back into existence.

“Alex… please stop, it’s been dead for a while now…” Yas spoke quietly, fear evident, along with something Alex could guess was disgust.

And now he was back, he was disgusted at himself. How had he let himself go like that? Sure, the thing needed dealing with before it hurt him or anyone else, but this was too far! Unbidden, a notification came into view.

Mental influence (Unbridled rage) effect ended.

Alex, don’t beat yourself up. That wasn’t you. Had to take the rewards for killing it away as payment for stopping the effect ~Veil

The roar, the roar had been the creature's way of making sure he ended it before it could ask more questions. It had riled him up with the taunts and then fed into that with a status effect. Fuck… that could make things more complicated for sure… At least he knew to look out for it now at least. The Veil coming through clutch again in ways it shouldn’t.

“Sorry Yas, it infliucted me with some kind of rage effect and I couldn’t stop myself until The Veil stepped in. I won’t harm you, either of you. On my connection.” He added the last bit to make sure they knew he was genuine, and felt the wave of power flow as the Veil registered the oath.

Yas shifted uncomfortably for a second before giving a small nod and walking back towards Zareth. Alex knew it was going to take a little while for them to see him in a good light again after that grizzly spectacle.

“Zar, do you know if what this thing was talking about could be true? Are there rooms near this one that could be used to hold captives?” Alex questioned, desperate to find their friends after what he had been told.

“Sure, we are just above the compound dungeons. The way down is just up the hall.” And with that, Zareth spun and opened the door into the hallway. It was blessedly empty, but based on how much noise they had just made it probably wouldn’t remain so for long. They hurried down the hallway until Zareth stopped at a large door that was ajar. “It should be down here, but this door is always closed. This could be a trap.”

“Still going in. You don’t need to follow me. I know this isn’t something either of you are comfortable with, and I’m sure that there will be more fights very shortly.” Alex gave his two friends a way out if they wanted it, not wanting to assume either of them wanted to follow him to what could be certain death.

Yas simply snorted and shook their head. “Idiot, they’ve been my friends far longer than they’ve been yours. I’m here to help rescue them, now let's go!”

The steps spiralled downwards for a long time until the trio finally reached the bottom. They found themselves stood in a surprisingly well lit corridor that was not what Alex had expected when he heard ‘Dungeon’. Taking point, Alex led the way down the hallway until they got to the first door. Made from the same steely ice as much of the rest of the structures, the door had a barred window set at the top. Peering in, Alex tried to make out what lay within. At the back of the cell, because thats what it undoubtably was, there was a tall glass tank filled with liquid. Suspended in the liquid was Whittaker, with their eyes shut and… Something attached to their mouth. Alex pulled hard on the ground under their feet and brought a solid spike of compacted earth up into the gap between the door and frame. He saw the lock finally give under the pressure and wrenched the door open. He rushed in and went straight for the tank, hitting it with a solid blow and causing cracks to spiderweb. He kept up his blows, each one causing more and more fractures to riddle the tank, until it eventually gave way and the fluid bowled him over.

Quickly regaining his feet he hurried over to Whittaker’s prone body that was laying face down on the floor and flipped them. He immediately noticed that the… thing… covering Whitt’s nose and mouth was pulsating and examined it.

Neth Fridigian Parasite lvl 360 (weakened)... 77%

Unsure what the 77% referred to for sure, Alex took a guess that it was how far through the process of possessing his friend it was. Lacking a better idea, he grabbed ahold of the slimy black-pearlescent Neth and attempted to pull it away. As soon as he began to pull, Whittaker began to convulse violently. Alex stopped and cursed. “Fuck… how are we going to get this off of them Yas? I can’t pull it away without it hurting Whitt…”

Yas came over and knelt to take a look. “Alex, can you do that magma thing with your hands again, then try and pull it away? Maybe it's like a normal parasite and will come away if damaged by fire? It certainly seemed to burn whatever was inside of Gaet back up there…” Yas shuddered slightly before backing up to let Alex get near.

Repeating the process, Alex coated his hands in molten rock and then grabbed the Neth again. This time is seemed to recoil and shrink a little bit, and when Alex pulled the percentage number began to rapidly decrease. With a sickening slurping squelch, the Parasite came free from Whittaker’s mouth and crumbled away to dust. Whittaker sat bolt upright and projectile vomited black sludge all over Alex. Retching, Alex stood and tried to wipe the substance off of himself as Whittaker coughed violently.

“What.. Where am I… Alex? Yas?” Whittaker sputtered in between fits of coughing.

“Yeah, it’s us pal. Do you remember anything that happened? Are the others down here with you?” Alex tried to gently get Whittaker to confirm.

“It’s all pretty blurry, but the others should be down here. I was the last to go into the vat with… Wait, where did it go??” Whittaker began to frantically look around.

“It’s gone bud, disintegrated after I pulled it out of you. If the others are down here I have to get them quick. If you were the last they may already have been infested!” Alex rushed out of the door and along to the next one down the hall. Inside was Eira, same as Whitt had been.

Alex broke the door and ran in, already swinging his weapons at the tank. A few seconds later he broke it rushed to check on the Parasite.

Neth Fridigian Parasite lvl 346 (weakened)... 84%

Shit, this one was further along. Doing the same as before, Alex pulled the parasite out of Eira before shouting for Yas and Zerath to come check on them whilst he found the other 2. Alex bolted out of the door and along the corridor again. The next couple of rooms didn’t contain his friends, but did have a tank at the back with a parasite floating within. Making sure he remembered the rooms, he would come back to destroy these later. Reaching the end of the corridor, Alex still hadn’t located Nieve or Iclyn, but before him stood a solid door that was different to the cell doors. Opening it carefully, Alex realised it opened into what looked like an operating theatre. There in front of him laying on 2 ‘beds’ were his other 2 friends. Checking to make sure the room was unoccupied, he rushed over. There was no visible parasite on Iclyns face and only a tiny portion of the black could be seen protruding from Nieve’s mouth. Alex quickly checked its progress.

Neth Fridigian Parasite lvl 402 (weakened)... 96%

Seeing how close it was, Alex quickly did his best to grab ahold of the thing without burning Nieve in the process. He eventually grabbed hold and wrenched the thing free. This one didn’t immediately crumble away, and Alex was treated to a view that would probably give him some choice nightmares forever more. The thing had no visible eyes, and the entire front of it was made of gyrating teeth-like nodules that seemed to be how it pulled itself into the host. There was some bloody mucus hanging from it that made the thing even more grotesque. Alex realised this must have been Nieve’s, and he bent over to check their airway. Nieve wasn’t breathing, so Alex did the only thing he could think of. He activated Avenging Strike and hit the Parasite still held in his hand with this other weapon. The healing energy rushed through him and into Nieve, causing them to sit up the same way the others had. Luckily Alex stepped back to avoid the torrent of black crap. Satisfied Nieve was out of harm's way for now, Alex stepped over to Iclyn and peered down their throat. Just visible at the very back was the tail end of the parasite.

Neth Fridigian Parasite lvl 360 (weak)... 99.9%

Oh shit, how was he going to get it out in time? He looked around for any sort of implement that could go down there and grasp the thing whilst he heated it up. There was nothing around that fit the bill. A hand grabbed his arm, and Alex turned to look.

“Alex, I can feel it in my head. It’s erasing… me.” Iclyn had a wild look on their face, and the hand gripping his arm started to squeeze harder. “I’m having to fight it just to keep control of my arm… Kill me! I don’t want to become this thing’s puppet. I don’t want to hurt anyone. PLEASE!”

Alex pulled his arm free before the growing pressure broke this one as well. He raised his weapon but found he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t kill his friend, even with their permission.

“QuicKLY! DO IT!” Iclyn was begging now, but Alex still was unable to force his arms to follow through with what he knew needed to be done. He was shaken from earlier and just couldn’t do it. Nieve reached for one of his weapons and stood beside him. With a cry, Nieve grabbed the weapon with both hands and swung with full force. “Thank you…” Iclyn closed their eyes as the blow connected and cleaved their head from their body.

Nieve dropped the weapon and turned to vomit heavily. Alex stood lamely, unsure of what to do or say, for a few minutes until the others caught up and entered the room. Seeing Iclyn’s head on the floor and Alex’s weapon covered in blood, Whittaker let out a cry and Jump Charged straight at him. Alex made no attempt to dodge the attack, and simply let Whitt’s charge take him off his feet. Whittaker punched blow after blow into Alex’s face until Nieve grabbed them from behind the with a little help from the others pulled them apart.

“Whittaker, stop! It wasn’t Alex, it was me! Iclyn’s body had been fully integrated with the thing and it took all their strength to stop themself from attacking us both! Iclyn asked to be killed before they became a puppet. I swear on my connection!” Nieve yelled at Whitt, forcing them to hear the words. Whittaker broke down into tears on Nieve’s shoulder.

Alex, his HP dangerously low after the beating, spat out a couple of broken teeth and slowly stood. “I’m so sorry Whitt. I should have been faster to get here, faster to save you…” Alex shed tears of his own, feeling like this could have all been avoided if he had just gotten here sooner. He tried to activate his time powers, but found that Chronos still hadn’t removed the block. Fucking asshole, this wasn’t a game for their amusement!

Zareth spoke up now, neck on a swivel trying to keep an eye on all of the different doors leading to the room. “I hate to say this, but we NEED to get out of here. We could be found at any moment, and none of us are in any shape to fight anyone right now. Alex!” Zareth tried to get Alex’s attention. “Alex, snap out of it, we need you RIGHT NOW!”

Alex looked up bleary-eyed. “What can I do? We are trapped here…”

“No we aren’t! The block only stops exterior entry, it doesn’t stop anyone from using it to leave! Yas says you can tunnel, so let's get outside, and you tunnel us back out!” Zareth exclaimed.

“That’s all well and good, but how are we all going to escape without someone seeing us?” Alex rebutted, still feeling the clutch of despair at having been unable to do anything about their friend.

“However we need to! Let's get back to Gaet’s chamber and get everyone equipped with what I brought at least.”

So the group slowly made their way back through the corridors, expecting at any time for the alarm to be raised. They made it back to Gaet’s room and found it exactly as they had left it. Looking around at the destruction, Nieve asked what was on all of the rescued friend’s minds. “What the fuck happened here?”

Yas answered, flashing Alex a look when he didn’t immediately volunteer the information. “Alex killed Gaet, or whatever was wearing Gaet like a suit. There is a serious amount you’ll need catching up on, but let’s just say that Alex managed to take out a level 380 by himself.”

Nieve, Whittaker and Eira all turned to look at Alex. He shuffled uneasily, not wanting their attention. Eira spoke first. “Alex, you did what? And you’re still trying to say you could have done more to rescue us? By all rights we should all be puppet-slaves now, but because you did the unthinkable, again, we are all here. I certainly don’t hold Iclyn’s death against you! Anyone here that does?” Eira looked around the group, receiving shaken heads or “No” from everyone. “So, lets park that pity until later when we can drink to Iclyn as they would have wanted. We need to retreat to fight again at full strength another day.”

Alex nodded, and the group set about gearing themselves up and working out how they were going to make it out of the compound alive.