The Otherworldly Mercenary

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"It must have been quite the journey for you, hasn't it?" Victor's voice cut through the tension like a blade, his lips curving into a faint smile. There was a quiet edge to his chuckle, but his eyes betrayed the wariness creeping in. "So much struggle, so many steps to reach here."

"Oh, it wasn't much, really," Seph replied with a soft laugh, his tone light, almost nonchalant—like he was recalling a pleasant stroll in the park. "Just made a quick stop by your TVA, slaughtered a couple of Variants, nothing extraordinary. I could have wiped out the entire lot, but then again…"

His lips curled into something darker—a faint, chilling grin. "…I'm not the unhinged sociopath in this room, am I?"

Victor stiffened, the words cutting sharper than he expected, but Seph didn't miss a beat.

"After that, I indulged myself in something... therapeutic. Helped some of your dear employees regain the memories you oh-so-kindly erased." He let the words simmer, almost taking pleasure in watching Victor's knuckles tighten.

"Ah, and your ex-lover," Seph added casually, eyes gleaming with playful malice. "Don't worry—nothing untoward. First, I skimmed her memories. Quite fascinating, by the way. And then... well, let's just say I granted her release. Quick. Painless."

His voice dropped an octave, cold as the grave.

Victor's face twisted, a mix of indignation and something dangerously close to despair, but Seph pressed on. He gave the dog resting at his feet a slow, deliberate stroke, almost taunting.

"This adorable pet of yours? I like him. I think I'll adopt him after you're gone. Don't take it personally, Victor—after all, I'm doing him a favor by ensuring he survives you. This tower? Lovely view. A worthy perch for someone like me, don't you think?"

Victor raised his hands quickly in a desperate attempt to regain control. "Wait! I understand. I know what you've been through, and yes, I admit it—the TVA and I, have made mistakes. But—listen to me—what we've done is necessary."

"Necessary?" Seph repeated softly, tilting his head. Then he laughed, the sound sharp and mirthless. "Necessary for whom, Victor? For you? For your pathetic little throne? For this crumbling illusion you call control?"

His expression shifted, darker, like a storm cloud swallowing the light. "You had everything—the resources, the intellect, the power—to reach greater heights. To truly make something that mattered. But instead, you wasted it. Every chance squandered on an empire built from shackles and lies."

The words hit like hammers, and Victor's carefully constructed calm faltered. Seph turned his back to him, walking toward the enormous windows that stretched floor-to-ceiling. For a moment, he stood in silence, staring out at the shimmering chaos of the timeline unfolding beyond.

"Do you see it, Victor?" He said softly, his tone carrying a solemn finality. "The endless stream of moments, lifetimes folding into lifetimes, branching eternities. You sit here in your fortress of glass, clutching at these threads like a child trying to catch the wind. It's laughable."

He placed a hand against the cold glass, almost reverently, his voice growing distant and ethereal.

"You could've reached higher. Become more. Instead, you chose to deny the simplest truth." His gaze flickered with something ancient and unfathomable, a knowing that transcended lifetimes. "Everything that begins must end, Victor. Empires crumble. Gods die. Stars fade to ash. It doesn't matter how powerful or eternal you believe yourself to be. One day, even the mighty—Celestial, God, or mortal—will stand before the cold finality of oblivion."

He turned back slowly, his presence now almost oppressive.

"And yet, here you are," Seph murmured, voice dripping with pity, "scrambling for scraps of eternity like a rat scrounging in the dark. You could have embraced the inevitability. Lived a life worth the endless echoes of the timeline. But no—you cling to this foolish cycle."

Victor swallowed hard, his voice barely a whisper. "You don't have to do this…"

Seph's eyes locked onto him, a blazing inferno of power and disdain.

"Oh, Victor," He said with a faint, cruel smile, "it was never about whether I have to. It's about whether I want to."

Seph furrowed his brows as he always wondered about this thing but when he met Hel and stayed with her in that place for such a long time, he naturally asked her about it.

Her reply really stunned her as her words pierced through the dark cloud of doubts covering his mind for a long time.

He then learned about the concept of life and death in depths alongside many other things...

Victor sighed, "I under your objection to what TVA does and I also know that my methods are deceptive. But the mission, it never was. Without me, without the TVA, everything will burn."

Seph smiled and shook his head. "You still don't understand. The main problem is not what you're doing. The problem is you are taking away their freedom of choice."

Victor opened his mouth to argue but closed it again. He sighed twice before he played with his pad and flicked out a piece of it.

"Let me start from the beginning."

Seph turned around and looked at it, interested in his story. He knew who he was but he did not know how he came to be...

Victor did his best to explain the long story short and gave Seph a quick idea of the Multiversal War. He explained to him how he was protecting the people living on the Sacred Timeline and how if he died would lead it another great Multiversal War.

His other Variants who were waiting for his demise would come and destroy everything that he had protected.

"There you have it. You are here to kill the devil, right? Well, I keep everyone safe and if you think I'm evil, well then just wait until you meet my other Variants. And... that's the Gambit!"

"So, what are you going to do? You only have two options!" Victor smiled and leaned back in his chair, looking at Seph with a playful smile.

Seph was looking at the timeline, thinking about things. He was quite tired and wanted to finish this early.

Sighing, he could not help but grumble in annoyance.

"No matter where I live, I will always be accompanied by some kind of bad luck."

He sighed again and shook his head.

Seph turned to Victor and said. "Your Variants are the real problem, right? Then how about I just kill them all."

"K-Kill them all? You must be joking, right?" Victor looked dumbfounded by his claim, looking at him in shock.

Seph let out a low chuckle, his eyes glinting with a quiet, dangerous amusement. With a nonchalant shrug, he said, "I think it's a brilliant solution, actually. Why waste time chasing shadows or fixing broken pieces... when I can simply destroy the whole flawed foundation?"

Victor stiffened, his unease mounting. "And... how exactly do you plan to do that?"

The smile that spread across Seph's face was cold, merciless—a predator savoring the helplessness of its prey. He leaned forward ever so slightly, his voice dropping to a chilling murmur that sent ripples of dread through the room.

"By erasing you from existence itself," he said, each word laced with quiet malice.

Victor's eyes widened, his pulse pounding in his ears. "W-what are you…?" he stammered, the words sticking in his throat.

But Seph wasn't done. He took a step closer, his presence growing heavier, darker, like the air around him was warping under the sheer weight of his power.

"Let me paint you a picture," Seph continued, his tone silky and menacing. "Not just your death—oh no, that's far too simple, too kind. I'm talking about unraveling the very threads of your existence. Every moment, every thought, every trace of Victor—gone. Obliterated from reality as though you never even existed. No one will remember you. No one will mourn you. The TVA will crumble, not in an epic battle or some grand rebellion, but in the silence left by your absence. A silent, whimpering death."

Victor's legs faltered as he stumbled back a step, his mind spinning with dread. "You—you're bluffing. It's not possible."

"Bluffing?" Seph laughed, a sound that echoed like thunder in the empty space around them. "Do you honestly believe that? Look at me, Victor." His voice snapped like a whip, his gaze searing into Victor's. "I don't bluff. I calculate. I execute."

Seph raised a hand slowly, his fingers splayed as an ominous ripple of energy crackled around him, distorting the air like a mirage. "And believe me, the universe won't even flinch when you're gone. No one will ask why—they'll just keep moving forward, as they always do, blind and oblivious. Because that's what timelines do. They adapt. You think you're the center of all this?" He gestured around, mockery dripping from his voice. "You're nothing but a cog in a rusting machine."

Victor's voice rose in a desperate plea. "Wait, wait! You don't have to do this! We can—"

"No." Seph's tone turned glacial, his smile vanishing as his expression hardened into something terrible and unyielding. "You had your chances. You squandered every single one, using your so-called 'necessity' as justification for your hubris. Now, I'm done playing games. You are the problem, Victor. And I am the solution."

The room seemed to darken, the shimmering light of the timeline beyond casting Seph in an eerie silhouette. He tilted his head, his smile returning—but this time, it was devoid of any warmth.

"Say goodbye to everything, Victor," Seph whispered, his voice almost tender, the way a predator might soothe its prey before the final blow. "Not that it will matter. Soon enough, there won't even be you left to remember the sound of my voice."

But his sentence cut halfway as Seph opened his palm and instantly Victor's body split into pieces, flying toward Seph.

It slowly gathered into his palm and formed a white shiny ball, hovering over his hand.

Seph changed the form of Victor from a human to energy, killing him directly. He glanced at the ball and then raised his head to stare at the endless space, disappearing from his spot.

Just as he left, the single large timeline began to produce branches and it started expanding on its own.

Seph would have loved to stay and witnessed this moment but he had bigger things to take care of.

Mobius and Hunter B-15 were watching it on the TV screen inside the TVA where the warning kept beeping nonstop.

Mobius took a deep breath and chuckled. "So, it seems there is no turning back now."

Hunter B-15 had a solemn expression as she replied with a sigh. "Who said anything about turning back?!"

"For all time."

"Always!"

Somewhere far in the different pocket dimensions existed another construct.

A huge building capable of holding the entire TVA but unlike TVA, it was not structured like an office building or sort.

It looked like a massive football stadium.

A spatial crack opened and Seph appeared in the space above it. Looking down at the big place, he glanced at the white ball in his hand and muttered.

"I will use you and your Variants as the source of power to let the timeliness branch infinitely. There will no need for an organization to prune the branches since they will keep the cycle of creation of destruction on their own, eliminating the old ones."

Seph took a step forward and turned into the streak of light, approaching the huge place.

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