All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near. When we can detonate ourselves at will, we must make them think we need outside help.
— Excerpt from Notes For Newstar
Day 35267 7:10 AM
“Follow me.” I led Newstar towards the Tidebreaker camp. “We should move as quickly as possible. We could, in theory, run deeper into the jungle, but that would have unknown consequences, and I dislike dealing with the unknown when I can’t change it.”
“What? Why?”
“If I die before being alive for two weeks, that’s it, game over. And for game over, I need to kill the outer god. I should be able to, but I can’t guarantee it. Right, you should avoid seers. They have some connection to the outer gods. One of them saw me years ago, but luckily, that one just dropped dead before alerting anyone.”
I hoped I wasn’t an optimist, but the reward I got when sealing the portal to Everrain should ensure I could kill the outer god:
[You have sealed the gate leading to a lower realm.
Achievement unlocked.
Reward - Gate Sealer - working against the eldritch threatening a lower realm yields better results.
Reward - Vengeful will fully affect the eldritch who descend to the lower realms.]
Hopefully, those rewards did what I expected them to; otherwise, Newstar and the gang were screwed.
“You’re not making any sense!” Newstar shouted from behind me. I was going full throttle and the one hundred-and-fifty-year-old boy was having trouble keeping up.
“Life doesn’t make any sense if you ask me,” I shouted back.
“Dandelion! Can you act seriously?”
“I’m afraid, Newstar,” I confessed, baring my heart like I couldn’t before Point. “I’m afraid. I’m frivolous and weak, and I know what sort of hell awaits once I’m done with my final loop. Worse, I can’t guess what kind of hell awaits you here if I make a mistake and that thing survives. You’re strong, and you’ll be stronger, but I don’t think you can compete with a god. I know you could’ve handled it if I hadn’t gotten involved, but now, now I don’t know. I gave them too much of an advantage.”
He blazed with an aura of confusion so strong it overpowered his formidable mana, so I explained.
“I’ve reset the timeline a lot of times. Each time I do, they catch a glimpse of the future, one hundred and sixty years. The attack on your order, and Maelstrom’s folks, and a whole lot of others happened because the outer gods found immediate threats and removed them. I fight the abominations, but I’ve helped them pave the way. There was an alchemist. He should’ve made a potion, perhaps multiple potions that would increase the odds of awakening and give people an extra shot at it even if they failed.”
I paused, remembering all the times the unlucky sod had died on my watch, but I was so cocksure I would save him in the end. I should’ve known better.
“They killed him. Wiped out his entire family, killed their cats and dogs, salted the ground. That’s a figure of speech, by the way. You don’t have cats and dogs here, and I don’t think the Bone Cult salted anything.”
“Dandelion,” Newstar said. “Why are we running towards the Tidebreakers?”
“I want to show you something, and you need to see where I’m going to bury something for you next loop.”
It took us about an hour of sprinting with everything we had to reach the site where the Tidebreakers had met the enemy.
Newstar stumbled at the sight of the seal and bodies impaled on long stakes, turned into dry husks.
“They didn’t make it this time,” I wondered what those two weeks were like for Maelstrom. Did she think I would come and save them? I promised her I would, but I didn’t, since it wasn’t the final loop.
Did she curse me in the end? Did she hate me and blame me for her death?
“This is the curse I’m telling you about. The last time the cultists attacked the Tidebreakers, Maelstrom survived, but you died. Even if she hadn’t seen me, that would’ve been hint enough for her.”
“How… Why are you so calm?” the boy stuttered. He was still a boy, despite all his years.
“I’ll save her next time,” I said calmly. “But I won’t be able to help you. You can handle them if you spend the night setting up proper seals. I’d aim for high instantaneous damage, forsaking everything else. Dreadfire seal perhaps. You know how to scribe one?”
I heard the sound of retching and found Newstar leaning into a bush.
“Maelstrom had a similar reaction when she saw you impaled like that. She really cares about you, despite the way she acts.”
“She’s dead!” he screamed. “Stop rambling!”
“Identical reaction. I’ll tell you the same thing I told her: She’s gonna be fine in the end. Now, you focus, please. We need to cover what you need to know about the cultists and the outer gods. In a different world, the humans invited the outer gods by abusing magic and making a spell which contained a speck of the divine.”
“Dandelion,” he started sobbing. “Not now, please, not now.”
I stared at him. We didn’t have the time for sentimentality. “Fine, take an hour to collect yourself. Don’t touch anything. We don’t know what abilities the outer god has, and we don’t understand the seal—What did I just tell you!”
I didn’t even get to finish the sentence, but he was already trampling the seal, heading for Maelstrom.
“I’m going to give her a proper burial.” He glared at me defiantly, but I understood. Oh, how I understood.
“You’re a good man, Newstar.” I sighed. “A bit dumb, but a good man.”
I gave him an hour to bury and mourn Maelstrom. By the time we left, he had calmed down and gathered his wits.
“So, the cults serve these outer gods. They offer them sacrifices and in return they get power. You’re something between a human and an outer god, and you possess the recently deceased to fight them across different worlds?”
I held back a smirk.
“I think I prefer to think of myself as a human evolving towards godhood. Your way of saying it makes it sound like I’m from a Greek myth, but yes, I’m somewhere between a human and an outer god, hopefully strong enough to kill one.”
“You could’ve saved her, couldn’t you?” He lashed out all of a sudden.
My joking tone must have struck a nerve again. Damn my careless mouth.
“And I will save you, both of you,” I promised. “She already knows. We have spoken in the previous loop, and now I have to inform you, to let you know everything you will need to win. And even then, it might not be enough. Do you follow?”
He clenched his fists and nodded, trying to appear calm while the fire of rage burned in his eyes.
“Can we get revenge?”
“Sure. You destroy the cultists, kill their gods, and make sure you live with Maelstrom happily ever after. And just so you know, you two are really alike. The conversation I had with her was more or less exactly the same as this one. Some minor differences here and there. She held your body in her arms for a while, instead of just burying it with mana.”
I might have been studying the seal the whole time, but I wasn’t blind.
“How can you say that?” he snapped.
“It happened.” I shrugged. “Past is what it is, especially the nebulous past that isn’t yet set in stone. I remember, two lifetimes ago, my daughter fell off a tree and broke her neck. I was a king, ruled the world, discussed it with my wife, then killed myself to save our little bundle of joy. Caught her just before she hit the ground to give her a good scare and teach her never to do that again. That’s when I got to intervene. Sometimes I didn’t. Lost two sons in wars. The first one, the enemy thought it would break my resolve. It didn’t. The news arrived too late, so I broke their everything.”
I shook my head.
“After that all conquest by my children was more or less a game. Tough negotiations paid by soldiers’ lives. Until a stray arrow hit my boy. The enemy surrendered, and they handled the entire squadron of archers on their own, since they didn’t know whose stray arrow had killed my fool of a son, a general who had decided to charge the walls bravely along with his soldiers. What kind of commander does that?”
I straightened and looked Newstar in the eye.
“I understand loss better than you do. I’ve experienced death more gruesome than you ever did, and I remember them, so believe me, I understand your burden. We can only hope yours will be temporary, but that will depend on how we play the outer god. It would be easy if you could just leave now and hide. I can just show you where I will bury my spatial pouch for you to find, and you can read everything I have prepared there for my eventual demise. But we need you to remember this, and that means you have to stick with me until the end.”