Omar gasped as Kahli zoomed closer and closer towards him, her fist charged up with power as her big rock propelled her forward with its awesome power. Froufrou watched in glee as he balked.

"Just kidding!" said Omar, his look of shock suddenly contorting into a sinister smile. "I saw you fighting that alien! You think I forgot how many crotch shots you landed against him?" With that, Omar raised his flaming arm and slammed it right into Kahli's face.

[Critical hit]

[Kahli is stunned]

Kahli groaned, lightly calling out Froufrou's name as she dropped out of the air.

"Damn, she's dropping like a fly," said Omar, a little bit of solemnity in his voice.

But Froufrou wasn't having this. She felt a renewed vigor in understanding fully that, for some version of herself, this timeline was the end all be all, irregardless of whether she chose it or not. With that, Froufrou immediately let loose a powerful green blast of [Putrefy]. It exploded all over Omar, caking him in green goo that somewhat capped off the flatulent flame power he was using to hover in the air. As Omar began a slow, jagged descent, he groaned and dropped Froufrou, sending her tumbling much like Kahli had when she was stunned.

As Froufrou fell through the air, she tried to get a visual on her [paired] companion, but she couldn't rightly do it as the handbag was flipping over and over. She squelched with frustration at this.

"Froufrou!"

Froufrou's many mucus membranes - for Froufrou had no heart, indeed - were pulsating with glee as she heard Kahli's voice and soon felt a breath of relief as her purse stopped in its descent.

"I am so glad I woke up from being stunned before I hit the ground! That could've been nasty, Froufrou," said Kahli with a sigh. "Of course we've still got Omar to worry about, but now at least we're together. Go ahead and hop on my face - something tells me it's going to take a combined effort for us to defeat him. Please go easy on him, though - I don't want to straight up kill him if we can manage."

Froufrou squelched with a hazy acceptance as she slopped onto Kahli's face and prepared for battle. From her perspective, Omar was just making things worse and worse. Why did Kahli keep wanting to protect him, in some way, from herself? Froufrou figured this said a lot about Kahli as a person, but she wasn't entirely certain what all it said, either. She chalked most of it up, in her mind, to a bit of a sunk cost fallacy.

"Unhand that pesky doom-bringer!" shouted Omar as he swooped down towards Kahli and Froufrou, flaming arm outstretched. He was prepared for a real fight - it was clear [Putrefy] had all but worn off.

Omar slashed his arm forth, but Froufrou parried each and every swipe with expert efficiency. With a slash and a slash, nothing happened, other than for Omar to lose his [STM].

"Argh! How is this not at least setting your tendrils on fire?!"

But of course Froufrou now had her [Tendrils of Fury] [skill], and with that it was as if her tendrils were but encased in wrought iron. As Omar reeled from failed attack after failed attack, Froufrou quickly shifted gears and started spinning her tendrils in a fierce, pinwheel-like fashion.

[Combo]

[6 hits]

Omar balked and thrashed as Froufrou hit him with her spinning tendrils. Thankfully, this seemed to barely use any of her [STM] - doubtlessly due to her [Tendrils of Fury].

[9 hits]

[Omar is stunned]

Froufrou and Kahli watched as Omar fell through the air.

"Well," said Kahli with a deep breath. "Now we have to decide whether we're going to save him."

[End scenario]

Froufrou squelched with satisfaction at the end of the first timeline.

"Wow," said Kahli. "That was definitely not in step with how first timelines usually go for me. It must've had something to do with the nested [checkpoint] of it all, because pretty much every time - except once or twice - I end up dying in the first scenario. Of course I recently theorized that planning out scenarios could alter that, however, last time I planned one out it was a total disaster, so..."

"No need to explain that to me, silly," said the alternative Supreme Time Protector.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Kahli frowned. She felt a little weird about the alternative Supreme Time Protector calling her silly, especially considering it was an awfully lighthearted thing for someone who had just decapitated an alternative version of themself to say, but she didn't think too much further about it. With that, she looked down at her big left foot at the second scenario.

[Now viewing scenario 2]

"You know what, Omar?" said Kahli. "Go ahead, take Froufrou, see if I care."

Froufrou had a feeling Kahli had a trick up her sleeve, but indeed hearing this still made her feel incredibly uneasy.

"What?" Omar lowered for a moment his flaming arm. "Are you saying that you don't care that I'm about to kill your pet?"

"Yea.. go ahead, end her. See if I care, Omar." Kahli crossed her arms proudly and frowned.

Froufrou squelched with sorrow. Clearly, Kahli was trying to use her [Tale Teller] [skill] - however, it was seriously hurting Froufrou's feelings to be talked about this way by her [paired] companion. In fact, it was actually incredibly obvious to Froufrou that Kahli was not being honest here - she kept winking almost painfully obviously at her, and even threw in a couple of cheesy head nods, and truly Omar must've either been enthralled by her [skill] or the biggest imbecile ever born not to notice as such. Still, despite all this, the words were still said. And they burned in Froufrou's pulsating membranes far hotter than Omar's flaming arm ever could.

"Wow," said Omar. "Those are some incredibly hurtful things you've just said. You must really not give a fuck about this thing?"

"Not at all," said Kahli. It was clear to Froufrou that she could scarcely keep from bursting out laughing.

"Okay great," said Omar. "Well, I'm still going to burn her, seeing as she's the Harbinger of Doom or whatever."

"What?"

Omar lifted up his flaming arm and lit the purse on fire. Froufrou watched as flames engulfed her, and soon she was covered in the searing pain of burning alive.

[Froufrou died]

"FROUFROU! NOOOOOOOO!" screamed Kahli. She kicked her rock over close to Omar, trying to fight him, but she soon found the wind out of her proverbial sails, and Omar struck her again and again with his flaming arm.

[Critical hit]

[You've caught fire]

Kahli screamed as she was engulfed, and soon after, began to herself burn alive.

[End scenario]

"Well, that was quite engaging, now wasn't it?" asked the alternative Supreme Time Protector with a lighthearted giggle. "Looks like you didn't necessarily do a great job of following my advice, now did you? Of course I knew it was going to pan out that way, and-"

"Why don't you shut the hell up already?" spat Kahli with fury. "Theseosus' pincers, you're as bad as the big jellyfish, you know!"

"Of course I know, my [CLA] is so high that my [Foresight] can double as [Hindsight], and-"

"See, that's what I'm talking about. Literally nobody wants to hear someone just drone on and on about how powerful they are! By the grace of Theseosus, I would sooner disable my [skill] forever than listen to you talk about how great you are for another instant! You really are the most obnoxious version of yourself I've ever met."

"Oh really?" said the alternative Supreme Time Protector. "Well, you haven't even seen me as a teenager. Now that was a time when I was really arrogant. If you want, I can-"

"Let me just look at my third scenario already!"

"I knew you'd say that."

Kahli huffed and looked down at her big left foot. No use in talking to the alternative Supreme Time Protector further, they'd just continue to be obnoxious if so.

"I knew you'd stop talking to-"

[Now viewing scenario 3]

"You know what, Omar?" asked Kahli as she floated in the air.

"What?!" spat Omar with frustration as he jostled Froufrou around cruelly. "You don't think I'll kill this fucking thing?"

There it was again. Thing. Froufrou didn't like being a called a thing, she decided.

"Don't call Froufrou a thing!" yelled Kahli. "And now, I do think you'll try to kill her. But I don't think you can."

"WHAT?!" Omar suddenly zoomed up very close to Kahli, the fire sparking out of his rump charging up in a stinky burst. "What do you mean?"

"I mean to say that's she rightly too powerful for you to kill."

Omar looked in the purse at Froufrou. "That's... obviously bullshit, Kahli."

"Is it, Omar?" Kahli smirked. She was using [Tale Teller], after all, and she knew that if only she persisted, Omar would soon be caught under her influence. "Because I don't think it's any kind of shit at all. I think it's legit." Kahli knew Theseosus would pardon her.

Froufrou squelched in a reserved tone. She was happy to hear Kahli taking a different direction with her [Tale Teller] [skill] this time - one that didn't hinge on hurting her feelings so much, lie or otherwise. She just hoped that it might have better results than last time, too.

"Oh really? Well then, what exactly is so intimidating about this low level... gods, what even is it, if I'm not supposed to say thing?"

"She's simply a tendril clad individual," said Kahli. "But you can call her the Harbinger of Doom. Might I remind you of that prophetic scroll you activated, wherein it discussed said Harbinger of Doom?"

"Yes, yes, whatever. I don't see how that's relevant," replied Omar.

"Well, then please, allow me to enlighten you," Kahli said with a smile. "You see, and I feel like I've went over some of this before, but Froufrou is a gifted system obfuscator, just like I am. And so what you may see when you glance at her system is indeed barely even the tip of the spearhead as far as her abilities. Why, she's..." Kahli racked her brain for a semblance of a [skill] so powerful that it was befitting a Harbinger of Doom. "She's able to explode heads with her mind! And if you aren't careful, she's liable to do it to you, too! Hell, I know she was already considering it. She was powering up the attack earlier, before you stopped threatening her to come over and listen to me. Really, I'm protecting you, Omar."

Omar raised an eyebrow in suspicion. "Oh really? Well then, let's see how much time she has to focus when-"

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

The mega bone dragon swooped down from the air, teeth gnashing and talons raised. Harbinger of Doom, you say?

"You've been eavesdropping on us?" asked Kahli incredulously.

Indeed, thought spoke the dragon. And I've got some important information for your little Harbinger of Doom.