Elena

8.3 YEARS.

Parasites scattered as alarms blared. Chris stood atop a looted food cart, his pulse pistol smoking. "Yi's gone rogue! A hundred years to whoever brings me his—"

Jake's blade met Chris's pistol.

The gun didn't break—it aged. Polished metal rotted to dust in milliseconds, leaving Chris clutching rust. The Vorpal Edge continued its arc, carving a hairline fracture across Chris's designer jacket. The fabric unraveled, threads disintegrating until Chris stood shirtless and seething.

"You're dead, Yi!"

"Tried that." Jake slammed the blade's pommel into Chris's jaw. Bone cracked, but Chris laughed through bloodied teeth.

"Think you're special?" Chris spat a molar. "Elena's waiting. She'll peel that toy from your corpse."

The name ignited something primal. Jake's blade hovered at Chris's throat, its edge thirsting—

7.9 YEARS.

Laney's scream snapped him back. Three enforcers had her pinned, a shock collar snapping around her neck. Jake swung the blade in a wide arc, its tip grazing concrete.

The floor unfolded.

A jagged chasm split the garage, walls groaning as foundation layers peeled apart like an onion. Enforcers plummeted into the abyss, their screams fading through dimensions. Laney scrambled back as the shock collar rusted to powder.

"The blade's killing you," she gasped, eyeing Jake's decaying arm.

"Faster than starving." Jake hauled her up. Parasites were stampeding toward sealed exits, trampling each other in the panic. "Storage room—now."

"Why? What's there?"

"Chrono-Wheels."

Memories guided him—past life's knowledge flickering like a frayed film reel. The Syndicate's vaults. Rows of Chrono-Wheels hums.

A plasma bolt grazed Jake's shoulder. He spun, blade cleaving the air. The bolt reversed trajectory, punching through the shooter's chest. Time debt? No—the Vorpal Edge had bent causality.

"There!" Laney pointed.

North corridor blast doors loomed, reinforced with fractal-patterned steel. Six enforcers barred the path, their armor glowing with blue-tier shields. Behind them, the vault wheeled—a mammoth structure of spinning gears and prismatic light.

Jake's blade pulsed hungrily.

7.5 YEARS.

"Now we go through." Jake raised the Vorpal Edge—and plunged it into his own chest.

Laney screamed. No pain—just ice spreading through his veins as the blade drank deeper. 6.8 YEARS. The blade's gold veins lit up like a supernova.

Reality screamed.

A portal ripped open, not in space—in concept. The enforcers' shields flared, then dimmed as the blade's edge cut through the very idea of "barriers." Jake charged, phased through the blast doors.

They're in the storage room.

Rows of Chrono-Wheels lined the vaulted chamber—white, green, blue—their holographic tiers casting jagged shadows on walls lined with glass cases. 

WHITE (1 year) | GREEN (10 years) | BLUE (100 years) | Purple (100 years) | Orange (1,000 years)

Laney gagged. "So many…"

A white-tier wheel hummed to their left, fractal light glinting off its emerald surface. Jake didn't hesitate.

SPIN.

[VITALITY DEDUCTED: 1 Year]

The wheel blurred.

[1. WHISPERING SHROUD (Common) ]

[2. DEATH MOTH SWARM (Negative: Enemy Mobs) ]

[3. RUSTED LOCKET (Trash) ]

[4. Plasma Handgun (Uncommon) ]

[5. 10-YEAR LIFESPAN (Uncommon) ]

#5.

Golden light erupted. A vial hit his palm. Jake drank it. 

[ LIFESPAN INCREASED: +10 YEARS ]

[ CURRENT VITALITY: 15 YEARS, 130 DAYS ]

"Another jackpot?" Laney stared. "How?"

A clang reverberated through the vault. Syndicate enforcers were cutting through with plasma torches.

Jake lunged to the next green wheel.

SPIN.

[VITALITY DEDUCTED: 10 Years]

[1. BROKEN MIRROR (TRAP) ]

[2. VOID NECKLACE (INSTANT DEATH) ]

[3. 30-YEAR LIFESPAN (Uncommon) ]

[4. RAT KING'S CROWN (CURSE, Debuff) ]

[5. GLITCHED WHEEL (REROLL) ]

#3. 

The vial seared his hand.

[ +30 YEARS ]

[ CURRENT VITALITY: 30 YEARS, 62 DAYS ]

"Faster," Laney urged, watching the doors groan.

Jake spun again.

And again.

Each wheel bled years into his dwindling counter, the Vorpal Edge's decay biting deeper even as he fed it stolen time:

[ +30 YEARS ]

[ +30 YEARS ]

[ +30 YEARS ]

The Syndicate's hounds swarmed—gen-modified beasts with fractal fangs. The Vorpal Edge howled as Jake carved through them, their corpses decaying mid-leap.

"The Blue tier!" Laney ducked a sniper round. "Before you bleed out!"

113 YEARS. 112. 111.

Jake sprinted toward the central dais where the Blue-tier wheel thrummed, its options etched in sapphire:

1. 100-YEAR LIFESPAN (LEGENDARY)

2. ELYSIUM'S WRATH (SYSTEM Overload)

…

8. DIMENSIONAL BREACH: ABYSSAL HIVE (Negative: Tier-3 Enemy Mobs)

His dagger shrieked—a sound that liquefied two enforcers' eardrums.

One spin. All or nothing.

The console demanded 100 YEARS. Jake's finger hovered—

"Drop your blade." A familiar voice ripped through his skull.

Elena hadn't aged a day. Black silk robes hugged her figure, hair coiled in a knife-sharp bun. Gold lenses covered her eyes—the same ones Jake had designed for their late-night lab sessions. Now they glowed with stolen fractal code.

Syndicate enforcers fanned out behind her, rifles raised. Chris emerged from the pack, face still bleeding from their earlier fight. 

"Drop. The. Blade."

Her voice was a velvet whip.

The Vorpal Edge clattered to the floor, its hunger silenced.

[ WARNING: VORPAL EDGE INACTIVE ]

[ LIFESPAN DRAIN HALTED ]

Her power. The Voice.

Elena smiled. "Still respond to my voice codes, I see."

Jake's throat tightened. Memories detonated—her lips on his in the lab's supply closet, hands sliding the neural restraint chip into his neck. "For safety," she'd said.

"You…stole the formula." Jake rasped.

"You did not deserve it." Elena wrinkled her nose. "You want charity for parasites. I saved us."

Laney edged toward the blue-tier wheel.

Elena's lenses flashed. A pulse rifle barked.

BANG.

Laney collapsed, clutching her stomach. Blood pooled between her fingers.

"Laney!" Jake caught her as she fell.

Elena tutted. "Still collecting strays." She snapped her fingers. A dozen rifle sights lit Jake's chest. "Where's the fun in killing you? I'll spin your corpse. Milk every second."

Jake's hand crept toward the Blue-tier console.

"Still." Elena's Voice cracked his ribs.

Laney coughed blood onto his shirt. "Jake…the wheel…"

Elena rolled her eyes. "Execute her."

Crack.

Laney's head snapped back, a hole blossoming between her eyes.

Jake's roar blended with the Edge's resurgence as his bleeding palm slapped the Blue-tier lever.

The wheel spun.

[ 100 YEARS DEDUCTED ]

Elena's Voice tore at him. "STOP—"

Too late.

The hologram landed on #8 as Jake's mind screamed: ABYSSAL HIVE.

The vault shook. 

A portal tore open above them, oozing black ichor. From its depths poured a swarm of chitinous horrors—six-legged abominations with serrated mandibles and stingers dripping temporal venom.

"Retreat!" Elena's composure shattered.

Chaos erupted. A beetle the size of a hovercar snapped an enforcer in half. Acid sprayed, melting gold and marble alike. Jake grabbed the dormant Vorpal Edge and ran, Elena's screams trailing behind him.

[ VORPAL EDGE ACTIVATED ]

[ LIFESPAN DRAIN RESUMED: -1 YEAR/MINUTE ]

[ CURRENT VITALITY: 11 YEARS, 2 DAYS ]

The blade's corruption reignited, eating another year as Jake carved a path through panicking elites. The Abyssal Hive's shrieks shook the vault, their stingers erasing chunks of time from those they struck. A guard aged to dust mid-scream.

Jake reached a service elevator, its doors already closing. He jammed the dagger into the mechanism, reality rippling. The doors shuddered—and opened to a nightmare.

The lower garage was overrun. Parasites fought enforcers amidst the swarm. Chris stood atop a burning food cart, blasting beetles with a stolen plasma cannon. His gaze met Jake's.

"Yi!"

Jake ignored him, slicing the elevator cables. The car plummeted into darkness.