Chapter 4: The Great Escape.

“FUCK!”

 

“More tea? Another blend.”

 

“Yes please but let me just do something real quick,” I reply to Chronos. “Excuse me.”

 

I rush to the arcade cabinet. There is something I must buy. It’s not about the experience I just lived through. Died through. Doesn’t matter. It’s for the future. I am absolutely certain that what I just went through is nothing compared to what can happen to me in future loops. I will not subject myself to this if I can help it, and I suspect there is a solution. Clicking feverishly, I try to sort by another category, and I do. It’s as if the UI is helping me along. It probably does.

 

Time-exclusive powers, by tiers:

 

• 0 Reset
• 1 Atemporal Hypercognition
• 1 Self Stasis
• 2 Haste
• 2 Projectile hyperacceleration
• 2 Rewind self
• 3 Temporal whirlpool:
• 3 Branching awareness
• 4 Oracle
• 4 Banishment

Reset. Reset is what I need. I click on it and confirm that it forces a loop reset without me having to die or lose. Moreover, it’s cheap. I suspect this is one of Chronos’ mercies.

 

I shoot them a glance. Both of them pretend to notice and look up which I find… quaint. But one question remains: if my mind cannot be broken, then would more qualia not be beneficial? Even the really fucked up experiences? Giving me this power feels like it would go against their goals. It feels like a kindness.

 

I’m not sure what to believe at this point. It doesn’t matter for now. There is still so much I don’t know anyway.

 

You have purchased: Forced Loop Reset for 50 points.

 

There. No extended torture sessions for me. I breathe a sigh of relief as even the muted emotions here were a bit too much. Out of curiosity, I check the price of the next skill on the list: 500. Damn. Those look uniquely useful though.

 

‘Atemporal Hypercognition [Avatar of Time limited and may not be learned outside of skill purchase] [Augmentation] [Tier 1], cost: 500. Additional requirements: none (soul awakening completed).

 

Augmentations change you on a fundamental level, regardless of when.

 

Atemporal Hypercognition accelerates your brain functions to an impossible speed, allowing you to feel as if time has frozen for anything but your mind. You may not move during the effect. Long or repeated uses will cause your brain to overheat. Usage improves with physical and soul awakening.’

 

So this is one of the very few skills I can’t learn by myself and only I may learn. It’s Steve-exclusive, so to speak. I check the next one. The beginning of the description is the same down to the requirements, but the effect is different.

 

‘Self-stasis removes you from the flow of time while maintaining you in relative space, meaning that you will not tear holes in the station. Duration must be decided before the effect takes place. The possible duration increases with body and soul awakening. Extended or repeated use will cause your brain to overheat.’

 

Those feel very useful, if niche. I can see self-stasis helping me survive an explosion or a bullet, while hypercognition would help me stop and calm down in a situation of intense stress. They have drawbacks though. Nothing is preventing someone from waiting until stasis runs out to punch me in the face, for example. I still think I should grab them soon. They’re just safe ways to use my points. Right.

 

I walk back to the chair, Chronos and Morag quietly waiting.

 

“Thank you for your patience,” I begin.

 

Chronos and I both smile. Silly time jokes, haha.

 

I wish I could forget what every piece of my skin and my lungs freezing and frying at the same time feels like.

 

“I will have that tea now, please.”

 

We wait in quiet contemplation while Morag takes her time moving her nightmare feelers around the delicate teapot. She’s really good at this.

 

“Thank you very much.”

 

As usual, the tea is delicious. Pu’er, this time. I find the earthy taste comforting.

 

“May I ask more questions?”

 

“Of course!” Chronos replies with a pleasant smile.

 

“So I kind of prayed to you when I was desperate. I suppose I can only talk to you here?”

 

He tilts his head ever so slightly.

 

“Hmmm, I believe it is common knowledge that a god may only be communed with at one of their temples, by the uninitiated.”

 

“But I’m your champion?”

 

“That doesn’t make you ‘initiated’, and besides, I can no longer provide any help. Feel free to drop by for a conversation though!”

 

That also means that I need to save my questions for, well, my deaths. At least at first since he’s basically the only person I can talk to.

 

“You have a clergy?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“They won’t help me?”

 

“Not directly. You might be able to trade for assistance.”

 

I simmer a bit, more a theatrical reaction than anything since I still can’t feel annoyed. That sounds, I don’t know, unfair.

 

“They would find the champion of their god and leave him on the curb? Really?”

 

“As I said, they cannot help you for free, even those who would recognize you.”

 

That gives me pause.

 

“How do people recognize champions?”

 

“Only the strongest soul awakened may gaze upon a soul and recognize the mark of a god upon their champion. You will find that many gods allowed their churches to announce the coming of their champion, and to recognize them. Some champions were known to the people before they were even selected!”

 

“But not me,” I grumble.

 

“My resources were better spent granting you the power of language learning. You will find that there are more uses than you currently suspect. Besides, my church is fairly small compared to, say, war or commerce or even luck. Many pray for success. Few pray for more time.”

 

I finish my cup, then turn to Morag who pours again with great focus. I just don’t get why they’re so serious about this.

 

“Thank you, Morag. So… who set up the apartment?”

 

“A mortal who did wish for more time. Although he obeyed my desires to specification, it appears he was… less than cautious in setting it up.”

 

“But you knew this would happen,” I accuse. “If you live through all the time simultaneously!”

 

“My hands are still tied,” Chronos replies apologetically, then his smile turns predatory.

 

I believe this is the first time I see him express nothing but benevolence, and I am reminded that time is many things but it is definitely not kind. Morag shifts, the sound of her dress like a giant sail scraping a mountain. Right.

 

“But you are free to do something about it,” Chronos offers. “Remember. You are the most free person in the universe right now. In many ways.”

 

“Yes,” I reply with a measure of forced annoyance, then a second time more softly. He’s right.

 

“So about the killer, know anything?” I ask.

 

“I believe that would be a little bit too much help, but surely you can find something yourself. Perhaps in your nice, expensive flat?”

 

He winks. With a lot of exaggeration.

 

“Right. I still can’t read whatever language those squiggles are. I don’t suppose you have any material hanging around?”

 

“You may not provide any resources beyond simple things that can only exist here, such as paper and a pen or this most excellent shen pu. I will have another cup, dear. Thank you. You may still use this spot to train, although I don’t recommend it.”

 

“Why?”

 

“No ambient energy I may grant you access to. Ambient energy helps growth, and there is a lot of it where you are.”

 

“Fair enough.”

 

Then I remember the incredible view.

 

“Speaking of, where am I?”

 

Chronos leans back into his seat. His hands part, showing a blade-like crystal structure hanging in space over the blue and green surface of the planet I saw. Seriously it looks like a knife with the handle missing and a disk where the station is the thickest. Who designed this? No, more importantly, how does it not shatter on the spot just from the structural strain? I should have studied engineering.

 

“Welcome to Enderlith, seat of the Celestial Court.”

 

“… thanks.”

 

***

 

We finish the pot with a few more questions from me.

 

“Why are there humans in space?”

 

“Convergent evolution.”

 

I have to stop at that.

 

“Really?”

 

“Really. You will notice Enderlith has a well-developed train network. It turns out that trains are also spread across the galaxy because it’s a very efficient way to travel at the current technological development level.”

 

“What about crabs? Are there crab people?”

 

“Of course! Humans, for example.”

 

I frown over my cup.

 

“Opposable thumbs, full mobility, scavenger lifestyle,” Chronos lists with a mocking smile.

 

“I’m not sure if I want to debate this specific point with a god. Also, no shell?”

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“Oh? You do not love armor? Curious.”

 

“Alright alright. Next question! Is there any safe place every, what Enderlithian? That’s what they’re called?”

 

“If you wish! You are the only English speaker who knows of this place, therefore you can name it whatever you please!”

 

“Enderlithian then. Would anyone know where someone with almost no resources could get help?”

 

“Why, many places!” Chronos replies, still smiling. “Many such places. With different costs, of course.”

 

I’m not going to get a straight answer, am I?

 

“Right. Well. I want to check something and then I’ll be gone.”

 

“Of course! Take your time.”

 

I roll my eyes, which makes Chronos chuckle. The arcade cabinet awaits me. I immediately get the confirmation I was expecting.

Steve Prentiss.

 

Qualia points available: 47

 

Physical awakening: N/A

Mage tradition: none

Soul awakening: second stage

 

Avatar traits:

Perfect loop (time)

Perfect soul (time)

Avatar language acquisition (neutral)

 

“Can you tell me what the second stage of soul awakening does?” I ask Chronos.

 

“And rob you of the pleasure of experimenting? Of discovering? Never.”

 

He… is making a point. That makes me think of something else but before I ask, I check the arcade cabinet again, and search for soul-based mage traditions. If I have the perfect soul then surely it will help. And I do find several manuals with the cheapest being at 300 and requiring someone with a third stage awakening.

 

[Demetrion’s Soul Magic]

 

That would probably be a great objective in the short term. Checking, I see that other manuals exist but they require a higher stage. One requires stage 5 and costs 5000 points. Interested, I check something else: augmentations.

 

If there is an option to advance me to the first physical awakening at the start of the loop, then there might be other ways to improve, well, who I am from the start. It feels like it would provide great advantages, and it seems like it would but I hit an immediate snag.

 

Animasomatic imprint, which requires me to reach the third stage of awakening before buying, costs only 500 points but each subsequent level adds a number to the end until I don’t think I could even afford the sixth level. There are also options to make me a gifted awakened blademaster. That costs almost five thousand points. As much as an ultimate manual.

 

“One must live through and experience much of the universe before understanding it , through effort, the way a natural does,” Chronos explains.

 

“By this logic, by the time I can buy the skill, I might have just achieved a similar result through my own efforts.”

 

“Yes! Or not, if you centered your efforts on another aspect of existence. Or you might reach greater heights after having changed yourself at the most basic level! It’s not an uncommon thing to do on Enderlith.”