Brick by brick, a new digital wall wrapped its way around the crumbling seal, trapping Seth in the lower levels. He couldn’t hope to dash up partially manifested walls or anticipate the appearance of gravity defying constructs. There was nowhere to run. This time the squad captain would not escape the fight that he knew was coming.

Light shone down onto the arena. The dashing of fleeting shadows streaked across the floor as a constant reminder of the Hunter’s pursuit. He heard nothing from the battle above. Astral didn’t scream or grunt. She didn’t fuel her attacks with the raw emotional adrenaline, rage, or fear. The beast fought as stealthy as a reaper. It was unnatural. Even their environment betrayed no sound as they cut through the false digitize version of reality.

Rusted red doors manifested into existence every five feet within Seth’s crumbling confines. Walls grew higher, arching inward as it aimed to block the light and bar the Hunter’s access to him. It made no sense to block her access to Seth. It wanted her dead, didn’t it? Or had it decided that the situation didn’t merit Seth’s talents? He glanced at the weapon in his hands then to the sky. Maybe it wasn’t the demon who was trying to help him, but then why order him to kill the Hunter? There were two conflicting powers at play, and one of them intended to kill him. First he needed to see to his survival, then he’d deal with the mixed messages.

Seth concentrated on his heartbeat, slowing the steady thump in his ear, calming his breath as he tried to anticipate which door would open first. Which door would lead William? Could he rescue the boy? Would Astral say that William was a lost cause? Seth hated to admit that he felt that going after the nuisance wouldn’t be productive, especially with the number of constructs that had tried to kill him since he entered the program.

Though Astral’s goal was clear, did that that mean she would abandon her friends once she finished? He couldn’t guess at what she’d do next.

The doors burst open, unleashing a torrent of the long dead in various states of decomposition. It was wrong to refer to the former students as zombies. They moved in a way that reminded Seth of a puppeteer dragging his toys along the ground by their invisible strings. Could he cut them down? Could he free them?

Seth stepped backwards into the shrinking light, desperate to keep the growing darkness from reaching him. He peered into the darkness searching for near invisible strings. He held his sword between himself and the encroaching dead, baring it before him like a threat he didn’t want to use. ‘Astral wouldn’t hesitate,’ he told himself. ‘She take them out before they became a problem. She take them out while she had the advantage.’ They were students. They were in training. They wanted to survive. They were looking for any way to beat the odds. They were like him. Desperate.

‘Look at what that got them! Stuck, for God knows how long, in the space between the real world and someone’s distorted version of reality. They are without identity, without a soul. Little more than an extension to the demon who tricked them into serving him.’ The voice in the back of his mind snarled at him, a voice that wasn’t him thinking in Astral’s snide reprimanding tone. It was his own voice, grounded for the first time in a long time. His voice, his thoughts; it felt good.

“Incoming!” Astral shouted from the sky. A large black mass thundered into the ground, a few feet away from Seth. Its darkness was like sheets of silk pulling away from the ruined ground as it rose seconds later, ready for the Hunter’s next attack. It peered up at the Hunter, nodding as though approving of its pursuer. Seth got the overwhelming sense that this thing was at peace.

The shrinking light trapped Seth with Astral’s prey while the long dead started with false lunges, snapping and grabbing, unable to breach the protective seal. “Videl?” Seth said.

The shadowy mass turned toward him. The captain had no idea how he knew, but he could tell that it was looking at them. “She’s not wrong,” the demon whispered into his mind, “everything she told you is exactly what you have to do. You’re not wrong either. You need training. I can’t help you anymore. This is all I could do. For you. For her. For them. I don’t think I was wrong. But I regret what I did. Please forgive me.”

As Astral crash down through the rapid digital construction of the ceiling, the demon launched at Seth, enveloping the squad captain in an icy cold silk darkness. For a moment in eternity, he was nowhere and yet everywhere. Time stretched out before him in a way that he found strange, yet expected. Memories like twinkling stars shaped his world, near and distant. This was Videl. This was his life, his memories, his hopes and dreams. There were so very few left as the darkness ate away at everything that Videl was.

“What if I told you, I’ve seen the end of the world?” a distant voice echoed, louder than any of the millions of voices that populated Videl’s thoughts and memories. Seth was sure he could isolate the memory.

The voice was familiar, like the one he had heard every time he fell asleep. It was the same voice that said: “I’m sorry, but I need your help. I can’t do this alone.” The same voice he had mistaken for Astral’s, but it couldn’t be hers. The ancient Hunter was passed his prime when he trapped the demon, hundreds of years ago. It was impossible for that voice to belong to her.

“What if I told you that you were one of many key factors that determine how our world ends? Which side would you choose?” Her voice continued.

As Videl, Seth sat across from a shadowed figure, fire burning between them. The image of the specter twitched in and out of existence like a poorly received transmission. As Videl, Seth knew that this entity had been solid, present, and real. The demon ate at his memory, corrupting the information Videl knew to be true. Videl had held onto this memory for as long as he could.

“I need you to go back to the point of origin,” the flickering image of the specter instructed. It held out a hand to the fire. “I will implant the tools you require and unlock the necessary talents needed to perform your duties. You are not incorruptible, Guardian, therefore you must recall that your time, however it is extended, is limited. Find a replacement if you must, but your purpose serves a higher power, and by extension whomever you choose will serve the higher power.”

Videl prodded the fire while taking in her words. The end of the world? Did he want to know? This world so fucked up, he’d believe anything at this point. Was it worth saving? If it wasn’t, why was he fighting so damn hard? His reasons had to be more than just survival. Why survive if he had no hope of a better tomorrow? He nodded to the flickering specter. He knew that he didn’t understand the full weight of what she was asking of him, but he trusted that in time, he would.

“My master is a demon,” he tried the words not for the first time, offering them to the world as though testing its truth.

“One of many,” the specter acknowledged. “Do you accept the burden, Guardian?”

Videl sighed. “I have to go back and put that fucker down. He’s been feeding on us this whole time. I’ll do whatever it takes. Yes, I’m yours command. Use me like your weapon. Choose me as an extension of yourself.”

Videl hadn’t realized just how tall the creature before him was. He thought she had been standing, but when she rose to her feet, he realized just how wrong he was. “I grant thee the title of Warden, keeper of the arch demon Nathaniel.” There was a pause, as though giving the Guardian time to take in the underwhelming power of the demon’s name. “This is his sigil.” The sigil burned into Videl’s chest and down his arms, never to be forgotten. “You are his keeper. You are bound to him, until the day you find another, or until he is destroyed which ever comes first. With his death will come yours. Do you understand?” Videl nodded taking in shallow breaths through gritted teeth, enduring the pain. “That seal has more power than you realize.” She tapped at her chest.

“Should we meet again, I will not recognize you, but I will end your torment.” After a pause laced with sorrow and compassion, “it is the least I can do. I promise you salvation in exchange for your sacrifice.” She walked away from the fire, the shadow flickering out of existence.

“Everything I know is yours now,” an older Videl said, standing next to Seth who had assumed the form of the middle-aged Guardian. “All things considered, it’s not much. I’m more demon now than Guardian. But I think this is what she wanted; this is what she intended.” Videl’s dark wrinkled brow stared up at his twinkling memories. A twitch of the smile touched his lips as he nodded to no one at all.