A fireball. The size of a damn truck.
Barreling straight for him.
Move.
No thought—just instinct.
Nate lunged for the fire escape—a rusted skeleton clinging to the building, three stories up.
[Magnetic Shift]—Activated.
Pulled—HARD.
The metal didn’t come to him.
He went to it.
A violent yank—airborne.
“Shit—!”
Wind roared past his ears. His heart slammed.
The metal railing rushed toward him—too fast.
He reached—fingers brushed steel—MISSED.
He cleared the ledge by inches—
Then—
BOOM!
A shockwave.
A wall of air—hot, violent—slammed into him.
It ripped through his balance, twisted him mid-air.
His stomach plummeted.
Up—higher—falling—spinning.
Sky.
Ground.
Sky.
Ground.
Shit!
Wind snatched his breath away. His limbs flailed—no control—
He was going to crash—
Focus.
Nate gritted his teeth.
Spotted a metal fixture—a railing—two buildings away.
Reach. Pull.
His body lurched sideways.
Momentum slammed into him—his shoulder took the brunt.
He hit the rooftop hard.
Skidded. Rolled.
Friction burned. His ribs screamed.
He tumbled—fast—toward the edge.
Too fast.
Desperation kicked in.
Reach—grab—
Fingers snatched concrete.
A rough stop.
His legs dangled over open air.
Silence.
For a moment—just a moment—he hung there, gasping.
Then—
A laugh.
Breathless. Shaky.
Disbelief. Relief. Adrenaline.
A grin pulled at his lips.
He hauled himself up, flopped onto his back.
Looked up at the sky, chest heaving.
“Now that… was fun.”
Close. Too close. But he’d managed.
The drumming in his ears eased.
Replaced by—sirens. Screams. The crackle of fire.
Nate exhaled hard, forcing himself up. A sharp pang shot through his joints.
He staggered to the edge.
Looked down.
Fire. Everywhere.
The café—gone. Josh’s lover—gone.
Three more buildings beside it—burning.
Packed with people. Dead. Dying. Screaming.
“What am I dealing wi—”
BOOM!
The rooftop shook. A shockwave rattled through Nate’s bones.
His breath hitched.
He spun—eyes locking onto a ball of fire tearing through the skyline, two blocks away. Flames swallowed everything, black smoke curling into the air.
More screams. More sirens.
“What the fuck…” His voice barely cut through the noise.
He ran to the edge, scanning the streets—looking for the Villain.
Nothing.
CRACK—CRUMBLE!
To his left, across the street, a twenty-story building shuddered. Then—
It fell.
Concrete buckled. Steel snapped. The whole damn thing tilted, crashing into the two buildings beside it—dragging them down in a chain reaction.
The ground trembled. A dust cloud erupted, swallowing the streets. People ran. Screams tore through the air.
Then came the fire.
Flames slithered across the wreckage, spreading fast.
Nate ran across the edge. Scanning. Searching.
Still no Villain.
His gut twisted.
“Fuck the Villain,” he muttered, eyes darting around. “Where the hell are the heroes?”
First responders. Emergency teams. Anyone.
No one.
Just the fire. The screams. The distant wails of sirens—too far. Too late.
Something was wrong.
Suddenly—
The wind picked up.
A sharp howl tore through the streets.
Flames lurched, stretching, twisting—spreading. Faster. Wilder. Building after building. The fire didn’t just burn anymore. It consumed.
Nate’s pulse spiked.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“No, no, no!” His fists clenched. Muscles tensed. Ready to move.
But—then what?
There was no Villain to stop. No clear enemy.
Put out the fire? For what? It would just happen again.
CRUMBLE—
Another building.
Nate spun—eyes wide—as the third tower to his right shook violently.
Then—it collapsed.
A tidal wave of steel and concrete rushed downward, crashing onto the street below.
“No!”
Nate moved.
He sprinted—leapt from the rooftop’s edge—too far.
He threw out a hand—grasping at nothing—until his fingers scraped metal.
A buried rebar, wedged deep inside the roof.
Nate gritted his teeth, yanked.
It held.
The sudden force yanked him forward—fast.
He crashed—his shoulder taking the full impact. Pain exploded down his arm. He rolled with it, forced himself up.
No time.
He ran. Again.
Jumped—caught another buried rebar—momentum flinging him across—crashed again. Hard.
Didn’t matter.
One last push—
He thrust out his good hand—reached for the steel bones of the collapsing structure.
A surge—
He pulled.
Harder.
The entire metal framework of the building groaned under his command.
For a second—a heartbeat—the collapse slowed.
Then—reality hit.
The weight.
Too much.
More than he could handle.
It wrenched his arm down. Muscles locked—nerves screamed.
His bones felt like they’d snap.
And then—his grip failed.
The building plunged.
Straight onto them.
The survivors—running, screaming—gone in an instant.
Cries cut off.
Bones shattered.
The road buckled, the impact thundering through the city.
A wave of dust exploded outward, swallowing everything.
“No!”
Nate’s voice broke. He reached—as if he could still save them.
But there was nothing left to save.
Just ruin.
Just—bodies buried beneath stone and steel.
His breath hitched. His fingers curled into a trembling fist.
“Fuck!”
He slammed his knuckles into the rooftop.
Once.
Again.
Again.
Until his skin split. Until the pain in his hand matched the one in his chest.
Until it didn’t matter anymore.
Nate fell against the ledge.
Chest heaving. Hands shaking.
He squeezed his eyes shut.
Told himself—None of it is real. None of it.
But the screams still echoed. The bones still crunched. The dust still clung to his skin.
Ignoring it? Ignoring death?
No.
He could never.
Even if it wasn’t real.
“This is all but a fraction of what they would do to get you.” Vega’s voice cut through Nate’s spiraling thoughts—calm. Steady.
“You’ll need to be a lot stronger than that to have your chance, Nathan.”
Chance.
Nate scoffed, opening his eyes. Staring at the sky—burning orange.
More cries. More blasts. More death.
“I don’t have a chance…” His voice was hollow. “I don’t think I ever did.”
These skills… they were supposed to be his chance.
For once, he thought they would work. Thought he would finally have his revenge.
But at what cost?
They were powerful, sure. On paper.
To evolve them. To reach their true potential. It would take time—too much time.
Time he would spend putting out fires.
Time he would fail.
Because he was just one guy.
One.
And the Heroes? The Villains? There were thousands.
He would fix one thing. They would destroy two.
Fix two. They would wreck four. Five. Six.
He would never keep up. Never control all of them.
And the bodies—they would pile up.
Thousands. Hundreds of thousands. Maybe millions.
Because of him.
And yet, he had made a promise. Every single one. He would save them all.
Once he had the power.
He had it now.
And it wasn’t enough.
He wasn’t enough.
“Vega,” Nate said. Sighed.
“Shut this sandbox.”
He stared at the wreckage. The flames. The bodies.
“Go find another host.”
His fists clenched. His throat tightened.
“I can’t do this.”
Vega sighed. Loud.
“You haven't even tried, and you’re afraid of your failures already?” she said.
No edge. No mockery. Just facts.
Nate didn’t answer. Because yes, he was afraid. These failures, they didn’t come cheap.
“Oh well, to each their own,” she chuckled.
Then—her tone shifted. Cold. Sharp.
“But then—”
She paused. Let the silence stretch.
“Why did you move the pieces, Nathan?”
Nate blinked. Pieces?
“Why did you give your parents, Ell, Triss, hope? Why did you call down the heroes, the villains, the Gods? Why did you endanger a whole city?”
His stomach twisted. Where was she going with this?
“Why did you gamble, when you knew you’d be afraid of the cost?”
Her voice turned to a snarl.
Nate flinched.
“You should have done better. You should have thought some more, Nathan. Because there is no stopping the pieces anymore.”
A pause. A slow inhale.
“The Association. Monolith. They won’t stop—until they’ve dismantled your whole world to pieces.”
Another pause. A beat.
“And that wouldn’t be millions of deaths.”
Silence. Weighted. Suffocating.
Then—
“That would be billions.”
Nate’s breath caught.
His pulse slammed in his ears. His fingers curled into fists.
She was wrong. She had to be wrong.
But deep down, he knew she wasn’t.
Vega’s voice dropped lower. Steady. Unyielding.
“And I wouldn’t stop either,” she said.
Her words slithered around his ribs, tight, crushing.
“Because there is no other host, Nathan. No backup plan. No second choice. Just you.”
Nate swallowed hard.
“So, it’s either fighting alongside you…” A pause. A breath.
“…or I watch the world burn with you.”
The weight of her words settled over him like a noose tightening around his throat.
“Your call.”
.
.
.
Nate inhaled—deep, steady. Held it.
Kept it locked inside, like he could trap the panic, the guilt, the weight of it all.
Then, finally, he let go.
He did it again.
And again.
Until the tremble in his hands faded.
Until his chest stopped constricting.
Until his mind was his own again.
My call?
Yes. It was. It always had been.
He had set everything into motion.
The heroes. The villains. The Gods.
The ones who still believed. The ones who still suffered.
Their hopes. Their fears.
And now, when it mattered most—he was ready to run?
Nate gritted his teeth.
Coward. That’s what he was. He had put lives on the line. He had made this war happen. How could he even think of walking away?
But even if he took responsibility. Even if he evolved his skills. Even if he fought with everything he had—
Would it be enough?
How many would still die?
No, he wouldn’t be able to save them all.
He had thrown them into the fire, and he wouldn’t be fast enough, strong enough, to pull them all out.
And that truth—it made him sick.
Nate exhaled sharply, running a hand down his face.
“…Just what do you want me to do?”
A pause. Too long. Too heavy.
Then—Vega answered.
“Treat the people as a cost.”
Nate’s fingers twitched.
“Treat their lives as tools.”
His jaw clenched.
“Tools you will use to bring upon the change.”
The words landed like lead.
“Be strong enough.”
The air felt thin.
“End the ruling of the Heroes, the Villains, the Gods.”
A slow exhale. His pulse hammered behind his eyes.
“Restore balance.”
“End their suffering.”
The final blow.
Vega didn’t hold back. She never did.
And she wasn’t wrong either.
That was the worst part.
Nate’s fists clenched. His breath came sharp.
Smoke twisted through the ruins, the stench of charred flesh thick in the air.
This wasn’t his fault.
This was theirs.
The Heroes. The Villains. The Gods.
They built this world. The kind that crushed people underfoot and called it balance.
The kind that demanded suffering and named it fate.
The kind that forced people to choose between survival and sacrifice.
He wanted them gone. Every last one.
But then—his gaze dropped.
Through the wreckage. Past the flames.
The bodies.
Not just the dead. The ones still alive.
Screaming. Crawling. Crying.
His gut twisted.
He had sworn he’d end this nightmare. He had sworn he’d make them pay.
Both things couldn’t be true.
And yet—
He exhaled.
He wasn’t stopping.
Not now. Not ever.
His eyes lifted to the burning sky.
His grip tightened.
Finally, he spoke.
“…I’m finishing this.”
Really, what have I been doing. Is this it?
