"We meet again." the boy looked at Xopil disdainfully. "This is my playground, you're not welcome here."

"Who are you?" Xopil asked, ignoring the boy's claims.

"Just me." the boy retorted and waved his hand towards Xopil, "You can go now."

"Yeah, I'm not going anywhere." Xopil stated, as he stood unaffected, "You caught me off guard before. Though, to be honest, I didn't expect to see you again so soon."

"You have control over the limiter? This won't do." the boy frowned and launched himself towards Xopil with insane speed. The boy materialized a sword with an invisible blade in his hand.

Xopil appeared to be dancing as he dodged and evaded the boy's sword swings. The boy smirked slightly and increased his speed until he became a blur. Xopil continued to seemingly evade effortlessly. After some time of the one-sided assault, Xopil raised his arm and caught the blade in his hand. Closing his hand into a tight fist, the invisible blade shattered. The boy cocked an eyebrow at that.

"...Who are you?" the boy asked.

"I asked you first," Xopil examined his hand.

"I'm simply the creation of a bored god."

"Which one?" Xopil asked. "As for me, well I'm... the gods' janitor."

"The what?" the boy couldn't help laughing, "And what does it matter which one? It's not like you can do anything about it regardless of which one it is."

Xopil looked coldly at the boy as he waved his hand. The boy dispersed into countless particles and they were scattered with the wind.

Xopil lay in bed tossing and turning in his sleep, his body drenched from a cold sweat. He woke with a start, and immediately held the side of his head. His breathing ragged and uneven, he lay still while trying to calm himself.

"What a whiplash... it seems I just used something beyond my means." Xopil stated, "So... that means what I used wasn't part of the gift. How do I know how to use it then?" Xopil frowned as he realised the simple truth of the matter.

Xopil forced himself to sit up. He threw his legs over the edge of the bed and sat there in thought for a few minutes before finally getting out of bed. He walked out of the room as his sleeping clothes turned into particles and a fresh set of royal robes appeared in their place. Xopil shook his head at this convenience.

Xopil walked into the main room of the inn, finding everyone was already present and waiting for him. He nodded in approval at them all. "Good morning, now let's get going." With a wave of his hand, they all vanished together.

"This is...?" Felicyta asked.

"This is where I first met Boris in this world. The first 'puzzle' I solved was here as well." Xopil cast a glance at Xiara as he remembered the solution. She blushed and grinned.

"What are we doing here then?" asked Calypso.

"I'm looking for... actually, I'm not sure what I'm looking for exactly. There's a being in the future controlling the past." Xopil stated as his eyes lost focus. "So I'm looking for that influence, whatever it may be, it should look foreign to everything else."

Xopil waved his hands as he manipulated the fabric of magic in his vision. "A needle in a haystack would be easier to find."

Boris and Xiara looked at eachother and shrugged. Their eyes also lost focus as they looked at the fabric of magic to aid Xopil.

Xopil waved his hands sending waves rippling through the fabric. There was a spot that was seemingly anchored in place, right at the center of the town square. "Well, that's subtle..." Xopil shook his head. He lead them all to the center of town, his eyes adjusting in color as he tried to identify what he was looking at.

"Here?" Xiara asked as she viewed the magical spectrum around her, she gasped in shock. "We are supposed to do something about this?!"

"You know what this is then?" Xopil asked.

"Only... a god... could put this here." Xiara spoke in disbelief. "It's a god's will."

Xopil's hand clenched into a tight fist as he listened to her. "People are not playthings of the gods." he said angrily. Then, his eyes turned into pure crystal as he looked at it again. A giant pillar appeared in his vision, seemingly binding everything together.

"We... we can't touch that, there's nothing we can do." Xiara spoke haltingly as their powerlessness before the gods presented itself in full fury.

"No... you're wrong about that." Xopil replied with a wink, "I'm the janitor of the gods. That means I clean up after them, doesn't it? After all, there needs to be something that balances with the gods."

"..." the small entourage watched in silence as Xopil launched himself towards the town center. His body turned into a pulsating kaleidoscope of crystal and vanished from their sight.

"I can't see him?" Boris asked in disbelief.

"He's in a higher realm now." Xiara stated a bit smugly, That's my man.

Xopil merged with the god's will. He traced it back to it's origin, back to when it first appeared in this location. He followed the thread of time, observing the area as he travelled through time. The town was gradually growing larger as time rewound. So at the point Xopil entered the picture, the town was already a shadow of its former self. Xopil left the time stream when he felt the oppressive will vanish. He observed the town.

"It's like a golden age compared to the present." Xopil mused as he examined the city that seemed to stretch completely around the world. He observed the people living their lives and noticed the important thing. They were alive on the inside. They had a will of their own. They had dreams and desires.

"And... here it comes." Xopil watched the town center as the will of the god appeared and started anchoring itself. "It's quite small now, so what... this will drained everything it needed turning this city into a dried up husk in the future?"

"No longer." Xopil stated as he drove his hand into the god's will and released the limiter, destroying the will completely.

Xiara and Boris felt it immediately when the pressure from the will vanished. The town burst into life, buildings sprouted up as though they were plants suddenly given everything they needed to prosper. The city expanded in every direction as history snapped back to its true path, and the present reflected those changes explosively. At the same time as the city restored itself Beda, Felicyta, Calypso, Winter and Lexi simultaneously vanished. "The will was hindering the town?" Xiara asked in disbelief, "What god would be so malicious?"

"You think the gods are benevolent?" Boris countered, "You should know better. Xopil isn't benevolent either, for that matter."

"His current self is." Xiara corrected.

"Only temporarily." Boris retorted, "You've sensed it too. He's slipping into his true self. I'm not sure what all transpired but in granting him some needed abilities, it seems he's broken the seal on his memories. And they are gradually seeping into his mind, warping him."

"It's just a matter of time before this 'Xopil' is lost." Boris continued.

"Talk about a buzz kill." Xopil said as he appeared next to Boris, "And I was just feeling pretty good about myself... uh, where'd the others go?"

"Are you really asking that right now? You changed history, so of course the inhabitants of this world would be affected. Without the outside influence of a god, they obviously never met you in this era, and so wouldn't be here waiting for you to return." Xiara explained.

"Oh right..." Xopil scratched his head awkwardly. "I'll miss them."

"As will I," Xiara admitted then added, "but we really shouldn't interfere with their lives any more than we have already."

"If they never met us, we never interefered with them in the first place." Xopil wittily remarked.

"Which also implies we shouldn't go looking for them." Xiara clarified, "They should be allowed to live their lives without external influences. Which you've just proven by destroying that god's will."

"Fair point. You think there are any more of those around?" Xopil asked.

"We'll have to go looking, but I'd be surprised if there was only one." Boris interjected, "And whoever owned that will is probably incredibly pissed off right about now."

"You said it." a little boy materialized in front of them.

"Hello again half-pint." Xopil smirked as he turned to face the boy.

"Half-pint?" the boy asked. Xopil leapt at the boy.

"Well, you never gave me your name did you?" Xopil asked as he raised his hand at the boy and slapped him hard across his face.

Caught off-guard, the boy was sent flying away from the town with Xopil, Xiara and Boris following behind.

"Cheap shot." the boy ridiculed as he spat out a tooth and a bit of blood.

"Courtesy and fairness aren't things you show to an enemy, half-pint." Xopil flew at the boy again.

"Typhan." the boy muttered as he raised his hands in a defensive posture.

"Can't say I'm pleased to meet you." stated Xopil as he stood in front of the boy.

"Likewise," retorted Typhan as he eyed Xopil warily. He summoned a sword with a crystal blade.

"Well, that's different." Xopil muttered to himself as he watched Typhan.

"What are you talking about?" Typhan asked as he lunged at Xopil, his sword turning into a blur as he swung it repeatedly.

Xopil dodged and evaded the sword easily, which irritated Typhan to no end. He piled on an extra burst of speed, making the blur almost look like a solid blade all around Xopil.

"Wow! That's impressive." Xopil whistled in admiration, and backed away from Typhan as some of his hair was cut. Typhan also backed off to catch his breath.

Typhan had observed Xopil throughout that little exchange. There were no wasted movements, and any 'mistakes' seemed to be deliberate. Typhan shouted three words and launched himself at Xopil, "Don't mock me!"

Xopil materialized a cutlass and exchanged heavy blows with Typhan. Xopil smirked as he repeatedly swung his blade and Typhan did his best to deflect it in time.

"You seem to have lost some strength and speed from when we fought before." Xopil commented as he knocked the blade out of Typhan's hand.

"We've never met before, how could we fight?" Typhan asked seriously as he rubbed his hand.

"My bad..." Xopil scratched his chin. "That was a fight we had in the future. But that seems like it won't happen now."

"How many more god's wills are there warping the timeline?" Xopil asked.

Typhan didn't respond, just looked at Xopil sourly.

"I know you're connected with them, you only showed up after I destroyed one. And you are weaker because of it." Xopil said.

"I could just search your mind for what I want to know, but you'd end up a vegetable when I'm done." Xopil bluffed.

"Nice try, but there's no way to read minds." Typhan scoffed, "Not even the gods can."

"And you only know that because you are a god yourself." Xopil stated flatly.

Typhan fell silent so as not to reveal anything else.

"Here's what I think," Xopil began, "You saw a glimpse of the future where you are destroyed by me, and you tried to change that outcome by injecting your will into the timeline to prevent us from meeting, and also should something go wrong, to get a power boost from it."

Typhan sighed as he cursed inwardly.

"I'll take that as I'm right. So here's how we'll end this peacefully. You can stop forcing your will into the timeline, and allow all the parallel timelines to return to how they should be, a single timeline. Do so, and I'll not pursue this matter any further. Keep in mind, I could just kill you and all this will happen anyway."

"Are you really the universe's custodian?" Typhan asked. "He wouldn't make such an offer."

"I'm an incarnation of him, yes." Xopil replied. "I'm not as strictly bound to keeping balance."

"And when you return to your true self?" Typhan asked.

"My memory will be transferred, the deal on this matter will stand. However, if it is deemed you need to die to maintain balance on anything unrelated to this deal, I can't gaurantee anything." Xopil replied matter-of-factly.

"I still find it hard to believe you can kill gods so easily, yet we can't touch you." Typhan stated.

"There's nothing easy about taking a life." Xopil stated, "Well, maybe my true self is numb to it since it's his job."

"Well which is it?" Xopil asked, "I don't want to kill you but that won't stop me in the end."

"If it was your fate to die, would you stamp 'DEAD' on your forehead and let it happen?" Typhan asked as his eyes lost their color.

"I have died many times, always to be reborn. No one is exempt from the cycle of death and rebirth. My curse is remembering it all. You on the other hand think you're on your first life. What I wouldn't give to not remember my previous lives." Xopil stated.

"What? I've been reborn?" Typhan asked.

"I've killed your incarnations..." Xopil paused as he searched through the memories of his true self, "Just from the memories that have leaked so far, at least 1258 times. The true count is undoubtedly higher."

"So do I add another tally to your death count?" Xopil asked as he changed the blade on his cutlass into a glowing purple crystal, "If you had your previous life memories, you'd know this is the sword that's stolen your life every time."

Typhan felt a shiver as he looked upon the sword. Was that fear? He tore his eyes off the sword, and attempted to stop his body from trembling.

"Time is up," Xopil stated flatly. "At this point your choices are to die by my hand or by my true self some time in the future... and that won't be for the last time. Proving that those who don't know their history are doomed to repeat it."

Typhan's body dissolved into particles and he scattered to the wind in an attempt to flee.

Xopil just shook his head as a whirlwind with a black core appeared before him. The core turned gold in color, and Xopil watched the image of Typhan in the center of it. He traced it back through time, towards Typhan's point of origin in this life. He stabbed his purple bladed crystal sword into the center of the core, destroying Typhan and all the harm he'd caused in this lifetime in one simple motion.

Xopil felt a jarring sensation as free will and all the possibilities that goes along with it truly returned to the people. The number of parallel timelines exploded exponentially, truly giving birth to an infinite number of possible futures, and every single one of them flashed through Xopil's eyes. He collapsed on the ground, a lighthearted smile on his face as he made a small utterance, "Free at last."

Not far away, Xiara had watched Xopil stab his sword forward and then moments later she watched him fall to the ground. She rushed to him, leaning over him. She saw the smile on his face and realized she worried over nothing. "Oh Xopil, you can't scare me like that."

"I did it, Xiara. I did it. Now I just need all these images to stop before my brain explodes from overload."

"You did good Xopil." Xiara praised as she waved her hand over his head putting him into a mild sleep. She waved her hand again extracting something from his body.

Boris watched on and shook his head, but he wore a smile knowing full well what she was doing.

"Boris." Xiara called.

"Hm?" Boris replied.

"I don't envy his true self... could you imagine maintaining balance now?" Xiara asked.

"It's what he does, he'll manage. And besides, that's why he has us isn't it?" Boris assured her. After a pause he asked, "Are you sure about this one?"

"I have high hopes this one can." Xiara responded as she held the light blue cloud she pulled from Xopil's body in her hand. "Rest well Xopil." she blew a kiss at the cloud and scattered it to the wind. "You're going to have a big job ahead of you when, not if, you pull yourself back together."