Die. Respawn. Repeat.

Chapter 122: Book 2: Loop 15.1 (1)

Vahrkos is in the most danger. Whatever that general does to him in the fight I foresaw, it's enough to damage his Firmament, and it's the kind of damage that sticks across loops. I don't know if subloops created by Once More Into the Fray count in the same way, but I have to assume that they do; the only thing it's allowing me to bypass is the enforced rule of permanent death. That triggers at the end of the official, Trial-enforced loop, not within the subloops.

Or so Inspect tells me, anyway.

That doesn't mean I don't have a problem. If the information Guardian of Fate gave me is correct, then Vahrkos, Wander, and Tarin are all about to die at basically around the same time. No matter how fast I am—and even if I could use Warpstep to jump between one fight and the next—I'm not going to be there in time to help all of them in a single loop.

Not unless I use a function embedded in Temporal Link that I haven't used for a while. That ability to create temporal clones of myself, echoing the movement of a past loop? It's the only chance I'm going to have to keep all of them alive.

And that's not even taking into account whatever might have happened to Miktik.

Temporal Link is stronger now. I'm not sure what that means for the copies I can call from it—if it means they're going to be stronger in any significant way, or if they're still limited in scope and power. The last time I experimented with that aspect of the skill, I could summon fragments of my past loops to fight for me. I was using it as a means of active combat. It's been a while since I've used it the way I assume it's supposed to be used.

Here goes nothing.

I should act with the assumption that the copies can copy anything I do, mostly because holding back in a situation like this is going to get me killed. Besides, they don't really seem based in anything physical; their entire existence is about replicating what I was doing, when I was doing it. Unless they're knocked off their temporal track by a powerful attack that didn't happen the first time, they move at the exact same speeds and with the exact same strength I do, regardless of whether they activate a skill to do it.

So...

I need to conserve my Firmament. Warpstep is out of the question for the moment with what I've learned about how it can drain me if there's any spatial interference in the way. I still don't know anything about the monsters this particular Raid is going to inflict Isthanok with, so I need to be prepared for anything and everything—

Premonition triggers. I leap out of the way just before a meteorite slams into the ground in front of me, shattering the glass and creating a crater.

And then, for the first time since getting the raid notification, I look up.

It's not immediately visible. Isthanok's nature of a city with dozens of floating citadels makes the sky look a bit like a fractured mirror; it's beautiful, but it blocks out the streaks of light that have begun to rain down onto the city. I see glimpses of them at first, images refracted through the glass and painting distorted trails of fire into the night.

Then a citadel fractures. The sound hits me a moment later, a boom followed by shattering glass. The entire building dips, like the force that's been keeping it held up is dissipating. It hasn't instantly fallen, thankfully, but...

"I'm not going to be able to save everyone here, am I?" I say.

It's like the city is just as stunned as I am. There's a silence so complete that my words echo into the streets, carrying much further than I intended. Everyone around me hears my words.

Then the screams begin.

I don't have a choice. I go back to running, blasting as much Firmament into Accelerate as I feel I safely can. Ahkelios clings to my shoulder, but I can feel him trying to be reassuring, in a way—I can feel his sympathy through the link.

"It's always something like this," Ahkelios says. "That's why no one has been able to pass this Trial."

"I don't need to hear that now," I snap, trying to keep the tension out of my voice. Ahkelios doesn't flinch, but he does grip on to my shoulder a little tighter.

"They're unfolding," he says.

"What?"

"The meteorites." He's looking behind me, I think. I can't spare a glance—it's taking everything I have to dodge around all the buildings and people, not to mention the meteorites that keep striking the ground in front of me. It's almost like they're targeting me. "They're unfolding. Into monsters."

I let out a sharp curse. Of course they are. A raid isn't complete without monsters. Of course they aren't just meteorites. I risk a glance behind myself, though I nearly slam into a pole as a result. The street is filled with creatures staggering to their feet, their bodies made out of a combination of earth and fire. Cracks of heated Firmament run through their bodies.

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Amplification Gauntlet. Crystallized Strength. The next meteorite that tries to crash into me I just punch, using all my accumulated speed and momentum amplified by the gauntlet that coalesces around my fist. I can't spare the time to save everyone, but if I just get rid of these threats instead of running past them—

—except instead of shattering like I expected, there's a sound like the ringing of a bell. There's a shockwave. The gauntlet around my fist reverberates, and I feel the structure of the Firmament within almost shatter. It takes effort for me to maintain it. I have to force more Firmament into the skill, pour every ounce of Firmament Control I have into keeping it formed and stable. Even through its protection, I can feel the sheer heat of the living meteorite threatening to burn my skin.

Around us, things are breaking. The shockwave seems to disrupt the Firmament of everything it touches. The silverwisps nearby flicker and stumble, some of them nearly going out; there are entire sections of buildings that disappear, some of them coming back in a moment and others appearing to be gone for good. Every street light within range dies.

Ahkelios's form wavers, but he manages to keep himself together. "Ethan!" he shouts. "It—"

"Yeah, I know!" I shout back. Whatever this thing is just converted all the kinetic energy of my punch into a massive area-of-effect Dispel. It hovers in the air against my fist in a complete defiance of physics.

But it's at its limit. With all the time I've spent working with imbuement, with trying to understand Firmament and how it works, with what Gheraa has shown me about skills and even the process of deconstructing one—I can feel the Firmament structure this thing is using to cause this effect. It has its hands full handling just a single punch from me.

Luckily, I have a second arm.

Amplification Gauntlet. Crystallized Strength. Concentrated Power.

The second hit still doesn't kill it, but the ground beneath my feet does crack, and the shockwave this time is one of pure force, not a Dispel. It shoots back into the sky, away from Isthanok, and I immediately set my focus back to running.

One minute before the time indicated by Guardian of Fate. One minute to get to Vahrkos and help him in the fight against Whisper's general.

"Whisper has to know about this," I say as I run. "Why isn't she doing anything? She can't be okay with a raid on her city."

Even as I say the words, though, it strikes me that she might not. She's in the lab with Tarin, if the vision I had holds true. If she's focused on Guard at the moment and has turned off all her typical forms of surveillance, she might not even know her city's under attack.

Though that doesn't sound like something Whisper would do.

"Maybe she's already doing something," Ahkelios says. "It's not like she can be everywhere at once—whoa!"

Ahkelios's words turn into a yelp when I leap over the next incoming meteorite. Quicken Mind accelerates my perception just enough that I'm able to use it as a stepping stone, and the intrinsic kinetic absorption it seems to have allows me to kick off of it without stopping. I send it off course, just slightly, so that it slams into the sidewalk instead of into a civilian.

Apparently it's a little less efficient at kinetic absorption when the blow isn't quite as hard. Some sort of reactive effect, maybe. The harder the blow, the more it absorbs, up to a certain limit...

...no time to think about it.

Some of the meteorites are headed toward Isthanok's military base. It makes sense: if they're going to raid a city, they should start by taking out whatever defenses that city might have. I have no doubt that there are similar clusters headed toward every guardpost and station that houses the bodies for He-Who-Guards, along with any other soldiers Whisper might have.

But this is convenient. The meteorites don't follow normal, physical paths toward the ground—they're aiming themselves toward the high-priority targets. The few remaining that are aimed at me, apparently deciding I'm too much trouble to deal with, have changed their target toward the nearby base.

And they're moving faster than Accelerate can on its own.

Flashstep.

The extra burst of speed allows me to land directly on one of these meteorites. I hiss in pain almost immediately; contact with it is enough to immediately start to burn at my skin and clothing, and I have to coat myself in a layer of Firmament to protect myself. Ahkelios is just staring incredulously.

"...Seriously, Ethan?" he asks.

"It's faster this way," I say.

Forty seconds left. Accelerate would have gotten me there in thirty. With the meteorite's help, I get there in fifteen. Before it can slam into the wall of the base, I leap off of it, charging my legs with Firmament and clearing the top of that wall.

I'm greeted by chaos.

Most of the meteorites at the moment seem focused on bringing down the walls of the base, so the people inside said base don't seem to have realized that they or the city are under attack. I can't fault them for it, considering they're in the middle of facing off against Vahrkos. He's taking them down one after the other with so much speed and efficiency I can barely tell what's happening.

It's not the speed I can't keep up with. It's the efficiency. There's no wasted movement, not a single iota of energy spent on an unnecessary flourish. He doesn't even hit harder than he needs to. Small, quick movements disarm one morphling and dislocates his arm; he goes down with a scream of pain. A quick jab behind him causes an entire silverwisp's form to flicker, and she doubles over before collapsing, unable to stay upright.

"I... wow." Ahkelios is staring. "Are you sure he needs our help?"

"It's not them he needs help with." I can already sense the base's general approaching. His presence feels like a well of overpowering Firmament. He doesn't control it nearly as well as a Trialgoer might; in fact, the only reason I can sense him so strongly is because he's letting most of his power leak freely. He's Vahrkos's opposite, in that sense. A ton of power, and no efficiency.

Unfortunately, the gulf between their respective levels of Firmament is too large for Vahrkos to overcome with efficiency alone.

"Vahrkos!" I call out. I'm already falling toward the ground, and Accelerate makes me drop even faster. The general's attention doesn't waver from his target—he doesn't seem to care that I'm here. Does he not consider me a threat?

That's going to bite him.

A wave of near-solid Firmament rolls out from the general just as I touch the ground. Vahrkos's head jerks toward the sound of my voice, but I can sense him preparing to defend. It won't be enough.

No choice.

I Warpstep toward him and slam up every shield and barrier I have.

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