"Oh they've done it this time," I clench my fist in anger.

Ever since that night, I've never liked those who act as if they're so self-righteous, but I never really cared for this whole system up until today. It's all over the news, the almighty hero, Grandis, raided a suspected corrupt business.

"There has always been something suspicious about this business, sadly, I didn't get to meet the boss," Grandis said on the news. With that, I left the scene.

I barge into the supervillain headquarters and fill up my gears. Never having trained in the magic sector, I'm well-versed when it comes to physical fights.

"Never thought these nullifiers would come in use," I mumble to myself as I load them in.

Before leaving, I went to the archive and pull out a map under the sector "Grandis." It's a map of his whole headquarter. I take a picture of it and upload it into my watch.

"Ey, where are ya goin Dolofonos?" a fellow colleague asks as I head out.

"Grandis's headquarters," I answer shortly before leaving. I heard that same colleague trying to stop me, but by that point, the door was already closed and I have gone into the shadows.

I never take myself seriously and will mess up on purpose, but this time, I don't have any room to be my usual playful self that messes up in missions.

​

Slipping into the headquarters, I take out a janitor and change into his uniform. I scan his face with my watch and replace mine with his, that way, no one will suspect me. I push the now out-of-it janitor's tools and act natural, it will only be a matter of time until someone finds his body or until he wakes up, until then I need to create chaos.

Suddenly, everything becomes a big commotion and staffs gets busy...ah yes, it should be about time when Grandis walks into the headquarters. I quickly bring myself upstairs and using the janitor's card I made through most of the security. Once I've gotten far enough, I abandon the tools and change back into my assassin uniform. While all of this happen, a commotion suddenly erupted in the floor below.

"Geez," I roll my eyes, putting up my mask. I look into the hallway, which is the one that can get me into Grandis's office. Just as I thought, CCTVs and motion detectors, but I don't see any traps surprisingly.

"Quite the confident hero," I tell myself as I shoot a bug into the CCTVs, causing it to malfunction long enough for me to get through.

Hacking my way through the door isn't all that difficult and once it's opened, I made my presence known.

"Well hello there," I say nonchalantly, playing around with my hand gun.

I saw one of the staff try to call the emergency button but I shot at his hand, causing him to move his hand back. I saw another one reaching for a gun then proceed to point it at me. I look at her with and shot her using a non-lethal bullet twice on the shoulder and on the head, causing her to pass out.

Then one by one, the staffs gather their weapons and point them at me.

"I was going to ask you all to just leave, but it seems like you decide to do this the hard way."

​

"Grandis, you have another patrol in three hours but until then, please rest up in your office," the manager say as she looks at her tablet.

"Got it, I'll see you later then," Grandis waves goodbye to his manager. "These damned supervillains, causing so much trouble for heroes, bah."

Opening his office's door, he sees an unwelcomed guest.

"Why hello there, I don't remember inviting a supervillain into my office," Grandis nonchalantly says, "nor do I remember my staffs all passed out when I left."

By that point, I have finished knocking out his staffs. Normally, they would be killed but I don't have a grudge against them, it's Grandis.

"Well perhaps you should've attach more security to avoid getting uninvited guests," I twirl my dagger around, not even giving Grandis a glance.

After a short period of it, I end up looking at him, who by the way is glaring at me. I sigh and slid my dagger back into it's socket.

"Okay, I get it, you want to know why I'm here, yes?" I give him a cold look, "Long story short, you decided to raid my business and injure my innocent employees. I may be a villain, but I care about them."

"Aha! So you admit that the business is indeed corrupted," Grandis points out.

"Just because a supervillain owns it, doesn't mean it's corrupted," I sigh, "you heroes are so annoying sometimes."

Grandis hears just about enough and tries to power up, but at that moment, I raise my tranquilizer at him and shoots a nullifier, hitting him at the right spot. With that, his magic dies down.

"Wh- what...." Grandis looks at his hands confused of what just happened. I take this chance and leap across the room to smack him in the face and kick him down.

Now Grandis might be quite dependent on his magic, but he's still physically strong. Easily throwing me off, he charges at me. Although....his big and muscular body does make it easy for me to predict his movement which allows me to easily tackle him to the ground.

"You're powerless against me, Grandis," I mock him, "you're too dependent on magic that when it's taken away from you, you become pathetic."

That enrages Grandis and he gets back up to try and push me to the ground. I got out of the way and pull the trigger, causing live-ammo to pass right through his right thigh. I then proceed to pin him down and inject a paralyzer.

"I hope this becomes a lesson you'll remember Grandis," I lean down to whisper to him, "don't fuck around other people's business without launching a proper investigation."

"If you mess with my employees or colleagues, you mess with me. Remember that."

"Cycle 168 has just concluded," a scientist announce out loud, "results of analyzation shows 94% similarity with that of the last cycle."

"Interesting...so it is a loop," Antoine mumbles, "is the suspect from last time still there?"

"Yes sir," the researcher confirms.

Antoine then reaches for his earpiece and speaks into it, "he's there, find him and apprehend him."

It has been confirmed that there is always a figure that would be there for the final showdown every single time. It can't be the hero's bestfriend as he's always right there with him nor can it be his love interest since she's always in the hospital, so, who else could it be? This might be the key to solving this never ending cycle, which is why scientists have colluded with mercenaries to help them capture this figure.

Normally they'd ask for help from the military, but as records suggest, they're too loud and seeing military vehicles on the site will capture attention. Mercenaries on the other hand doesn't catch as much.

A few hours later, the hired mercenaries returned with the suspect. The leader pushes the suspect to the ground and leaves after receiving payment.

"Well, seems like we finally have you in custody," Antoine approaches the figure, "are you going to say something?"

The suspect stays silent.

"Seems like we'll have to deal with you another day," Antoine clicks his tongue, "take him to confinement, we'll see what information we can extract from him tomorrow."

The suspect stayed quiet the next day as well, and the next, and the next, not even the torture methods work on him. He seems to be keen on keeping his mouth shut.

"Just speak up already, it'll be easier for all of us," Antoine tries to reason after an entire week of not being able to extract information.

"It'll be easier for me, not you," the suspect finally speaks.

"How so?" Antoine asks.

"Unfortunately, I am unable to answer that."

After that, he goes back to being silent. Giving up, Antoine finally contacts a friend he knows that has never failed to extract information from anyone, even the most stubborn of people. Thankfully, she was available for the week and immediately flies to the lab and gets interrogating.

"Hm....give me 2 days of complete silence and seclusion, I'll be able to get something out," she says after looking through the records Antoine and his team has collected in the past week.

Thankfully, two days later she did come back out with a lot of intel, one no one else could've gotten.

"He says he's the 'Keeper of Stories' or some sort. His job is to make sure each story is retold perfectly to keep the legend going. He also told me to not try and stop this loop as there will always be a way for him to keep it flowing."

"What if we kill him?" Antoine asks.

"Then a new one will be appointed, that's how it always is," the friend shrugs, "oh and he wants to talk to you."

After seeing his friend off, Antoine went into the confinement room to privately speak with the keeper.

"Finding me is your biggest mistake," is the first thing the keeper says once the door to the room has been shut, "you scientists have gotten more and more arrogant."

Antoine looks at the keeper, confused by his words. As scientists, it's his job to find out the secrets of this world and understand it, in his point of view, there's nothing wrong with wanting to know as to why the same cycle has been repeating throughout the century.

"Elaborate," Antoine demands, grabbing a chair and sitting down.

The keeper sighs, "Well, since the damage has been done, might as well go through with it."

"Long ago, when the first cycle of this story began, the hero and the keeper are friends, good friends. The hero is a brave daredevil while the keeper is wise and a genius. The keeper guided the hero to his final goal and once reached, a book appeared before him. This book has strange markings on them."

--------------------------

"I've never seen a book with such design...how exquisite..." the keeper thought to himself.

"[] come on! You're going to miss the celebration!" the hero called out to his dear friend.

"I'll be there! Just give me a moment," the keeper calls out.

Out of curiosity, the keeper opens the book and a blinding light engulfs the room and he got transported.

--------------------------

"Legend has it that he was never heard from again, of course, that is to the general point of view. To some of us who are chosen, this cycle repeats over, and over again. A new keeper will be chosen once the last hero finish their story to make sure it will repeat without fail."

"I still don't understand why it's our biggest mistake," Antoine leans on his chair.

"The story does not end there...."

--------------------------

"If anyone were to find out about you and those who will come after, everything will be reset back to zero, and the world that shall be built will be nothing but the stuff of imagination," a voice says.

"What does that mean?" the keeper asks.

"It means your existence has to be kept a secret, and it will be your duty to choose your predecessor. [ ]"

--------------------------

"Wait wait, then what?" Antoine asks with urgency.

"I'm afraid that's only something the original keeper knows," the keeper stops and looks at the clock, "it seems like our time is up. Good bye, seeker of truths."

"Wait-!"

A loud, ear splitting bang came from the keeper and everything turned white.

​

The cycle will repeat itself, over and over again until the end of time, it just happens to have ended in this timeline.