While I only spent a dozen loops fighting against domains, I spent months inside my mindscape refining my skill. My domain started with creating an anchor in my core that connected to all the mana around me. The process involved exerting my soul outward. It was an odd concept and almost the exact opposite of creating armor. After I pushed out with my soul, it was a matter of claiming what resided within my reach. The further I pushed my soul, the less command I held. Will played the third part of the process. I needed the utmost confidence that my soul had the right to command the ambient water mana.

Trial and error built my confidence on a solid foundation. Although my domain was quite different than I expected, all the practice I did with my water razor technique still applied. I just had a lot more ropes, and it took less focus to command the energy. I could create hundreds of razors at a time, freeze an entire space, or flood it with water waves. Finally, I could hold blocks of ice in the air that were stable enough to support my body weight. An entire month was lost practicing what I called frost stepping. I couldn't fly, but I could take several steps in the air.

The testing periods were always the most challenging part of training. I'd wade back into the battling mages and see how far and long I could make it. The closest I could get was a hundred yards in without being noticed. One step further, and it was no longer a battle against my domain. I became an intruder and was dealt with immediately by both sides. I was content to sit on the edge and watch the battle.

From my viewpoint, I figured there were four different parties. There were the ten Alderi mages—including the Emperor—twenty soldiers of the unknown mercenary band, twelve flayens, and five adventurers. My squad, the five adventurers, was already dead before I got through the forest.

Watching the battle in person and through my mind several times helped me piece together parts of the fight I'd forgotten.

It started early in the morning; I'd just served breakfast to the squad and was beginning on clean-up. My clone had just returned and reported a significant mana disturbance to the north of us. Our mission was to find a den of confrontational spirit beasts, so we headed north to inspect.

As we got closer, it became evident that the mana was not from beasts but cultivators; it was too fine and controlled. Sasha prodded us to inspect. We trusted her instincts and continued forward. I took up the role of scout and marched ahead.

Memories returned like vivid paintings depicting a scene…

I left my clone with the squad and silently walked through the trees. As I read the signs left behind, I clutched Snowpiecer. A large squad recently walked through the path; at least twenty of them. Their steps were spread out and destructive. They were traveling with a purpose—a fast purpose. I followed their path, sending reports to my clone and telling my friends to wait.

As I got closer I discovered the party of twenty were not alone. They were meeting with the flayens… it was a peaceful negotiation and couldn't sense any ill will between them.

Just as Cal had said, he stood behind the flayen leader, Balthazar, who wore an exquisite wooden crown helm. Balt, the flayen leader, held his arms behind his hands tucked into his loose sleeves. The flayens looked out of place, not just because they were foreign but also because they stood anxiously, sharing glances. Cal seemed extremely nervous as he slowly shuffled closer to his leader.

The memory felt so real. I remember bracing the tree I stood behind as I watched the two parties negotiate. The rising fear built in my stomach as the ground trembled. I thought I'd been discovered. Then, as if descending from the heavens, the Alderi Emperor and his guards landed in the middle of the group.

It became clear upon their arrival the Alderians were not invited.

I turned to lead my squad away. Out of nowhere, Sasha sprinted toward the conspiring group. I reached to grab her but missed. She was too fast. I chased after, foolishly hoping to catch her. She was already screaming obscenities at the Emperor, calling him a murderer. I couldn't retreat… I'd already been spotted, and I couldn't stop Sasha.

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I blocked the first spear aimed at Sasha with a block of ice. The explosion of ice, however, knocked my squadmate to the ground. I covered her with a quick barrier and pushed forward, knowing full well I was walking toward my grave. I'd hoped I could create a distraction for her to flee.

The group had already turned violent; the mercs had assaulted the Alderians, and the flayens sided with the mercs. The ten should have gone down quickly. However, a dark mage casted a silencing spell. The mercs tried to counter. Fire was unleashed as the two sides fought. The Emperor gripped the surrounding trees with his aura and ripped them apart...

I needed to escape these monsters, but the ground had gripped my feet. "Run." I sent the message through my clone seconds before a tree shard impaled me, skewering me to the ground just as my feet were released from the entangling root. Another shard shattered my shell around Sasha. She was impaled next.

My hand hovered over my chest where I'd been stabbed. The pain was embedded deeply into my mind.

I was in a miserable state and passed out immediately. When I woke up, I was still on the spike. The battle was over. I breathed two terrible breaths and died.

To my horror, I woke up on the same pike, in the same place, and died after another short couple of breaths. I was so confused. Was I dying or just passing out. The answer was more confusing as I repeated the process several times, each time waking up a little earlier and breathing longer. After three dozen iterations of this life, I no longer passed once the pike had skewered me. In fact, the loop started seconds after Sasha was killed. I would die and wake up to witness the battle anew.

I watched the battle play out from my spike several times, getting a larger picture of the fight each time.

Balthazar was struck shortly after I was; as a death mage absorbed the body, Cal scrambled to run away. He died around the same time as Sasha. A boulder cracked his back. The peculiar part was that he initially fell further away from my body. With each loop, he crawled closer to me.

The worst part was watching Lana, Rocky, and Flint try to intervene. They looked just like I did when I entered the domains, though they somehow managed to get to the center of the battle before getting slaughtered by the warring powers.

Lana looked upon me in sadness as she burned. She didn't scream, yet I could see the hurt she felt through her eyes. The same doe eyes that looked into mine so intensely the night before locked onto me as Lana died. She muttered some words, a detail I didn't recall before, and her finger pointed toward me. In her last moments of life, she was still trying to save me.

The battle surged into a chaotic disaster after my squad was killed. The flayens had been killed, and all that remained were the Alderi and the mercs. The mercs finally broke free of the silencing spell and fought back with their own powers. As desperate as the mercs fought, the ten Alderians were too powerful and countered every attack with their own. One by one, the mercs were picked off until none were left.

The Alderians didn't even bother to check the dead after the battle. They turned their backs on the destroyed forest and walked away. Had they cared, they would've noticed two beings still breathing.

I'd seen this play out more than a hundred times. The memory was never as vivid as it was now. I worked through the memories forward and backward several times more, looking for any information I missed. Although I didn't gain new insight, my timeframe of events became clear.

My spiking happened at the very beginning of the battle. I was the first casualty of the opening volley. Balthazar died next, followed by Calypso, who was crushed seconds later just as Sasha died. This was when the loop for me started, and if I had to guess, this was when Cal activated the Monarch Stone. Four minutes later, the rest of my squad showed up, only to die shortly after. The battle lasted for twelve more minutes after that.

I wouldn't be able to save my squad during the battle, not for a long time, but if I could soul transfer to my clone quick enough, I could stop them from ever entering Sogg's forsaken abyss.

Hope burned brighter. I was getting closer. I was going to save them—maybe not now. It might take several more years before I could soul-transfer fast enough, but I now knew I had a chance, and it wasn't just hope.

Live for them… I would do more than that. Much more.