[You have died. +37 Strength credits. +46 Durability credits. +57 Reflex credits. +39 Speed credits. +25 Firmament credits.]

I stare at the death message hovering in front of me for a moment. I can afford to do that now that the Broken Horror doesn't try to stab me to death at the start of every loop. It's... disconcerting, the way it's announcing my death as if it's all part of some game.

Though that's exactly what it is to the Integrators, isn't it?

"Do you think you're taking dying a little too lightly?" Ahkelios asks, hopping down from his perch atop my head. He doesn't sound judgmental, just curious.

I give the question a moment of consideration before answering. "I don't enjoy dying," I say. "But I'm probably a little more okay with it than I should be. It's just that we're constantly up against people that are way more powerful than I am, and I need to use every advantage I can get."

"Including the fact that you can reset time by dying," Ahkelios says.

"Well, yeah."

"Can't say I'd be doing any different," he admits. He sits cross-legged on the ground. "What're we doing next? We can't beat her."

"We need to improve on the design of the Firmament sink," I say with a sigh. "Get a better stone from Mari, if she can lend one to us, and if not, we can see if Virin lets us make something better. And I want to see if we can free Rotar with the upgraded Temporal Link."

"Do we need to deal with Whisper?"

The question gives me pause. It's been an option in the back of my mind, but not one I've allowed myself to linger on for long. A little bit because dealing with Whisper feels like a sunk cost at this point, I suppose, but also because there's so much I still don't know about what's going on with Guard and Isthanok, and a part of me wants to find out.

I have to prioritize what's happening on Earth, to my fellow Trialgoers. Does dealing with Whisper help me do that? I feel responsible for what's happened to Rotar and Ikaara, but I've got Temporal Link now, and along with that a decent chance of getting them out myself...

Then again. I wince, thinking back to the fight deep within the Fracture. As strong as I've gotten, Guard is stronger. He can deal with the creatures down there: I can't. Not yet.

Though I do want to practice on the Guilty Chimeras. They aren't quite like the Rank A threats encountered that deep within the Fracture, but they presented enough of a challenge when I first fought them — especially as a group.

"I think we do," I answer finally. "We don't exactly need Guard's help, but it'll be a lot easier with him around. I still don't have enough credits to contact Ghaara again. We want access to the Integrator salvage yard Miktik mentioned she knows about. Isthanok is our best way to get all of those done."

"Yeah, that makes sense." Ahkelios glances away, and I sense his thoughts wandering. I glance at him.

"Something on your mind?"

"Kind of," he admits. The little mantis sits back onto the dirt, his expression contemplative and a lot of his usual cheer fading away. For a moment, he just looks tired... not unlike the version of himself I first met. The looper who had been through too much to keep going. "I'm just thinking about how I never saw all this. I don't have all my memories of the loops, but everything I do remember... There was a lot of fighting. A lot of monsters. I didn't have friends. I didn't discover the Great Cities."

"Does that bother you?" I ask.

"A bit." Ahkelios sighs. "It feels strange, thinking back on it. I don't know what I was thinking. I should have explored more. I should have been a little more like you."

"I don't know if I'm necessarily a good role model," I say dryly.

"But you're determined," Ahkelios says. "You have all these goals and plans, and you're not perfect, but you're making progress. You're getting stronger faster than any Trialgoer here has before — did you hear what Whisper said?"

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"She asked if it took me fifty loops to get to where I am, yes," I say. It's been on the back of my mind. "I'm on the fifteenth loop."

"And you're already taking on Rank Bs," Ahkelios says. "A few more loops, and you'll be able to take on Rank As."

"The gap between each rank gets wider and wider, though," I point out. "I've never fought a Rank S yet, and I doubt I'm anywhere close to being able to handle one."

"Knowing you, you'll get there faster than either of us expect." Ahkelios laughs a little, though that laughter isn't without a small tinge of bitterness.

"...You don't seem okay."

"I'll be fine." Ahkelios's response is a little too quick, and when I don't respond, he curls in on himself slightly. "I will be. Don't worry. It's just... I don't know, I guess it makes me feel a little disappointed in myself."

My brows furrow slightly. I lean down to my friend, extending a finger toward him — as much as he's grown in size, he's still small enough that this is the best I can offer him in terms of a hug.

"You had your own priorities, I'm sure," I say. "We don't have the full picture yet. And honestly, I don't know where I'd be without you."

"I'm sure you'd have made it just as far."

I snort. "Wouldn't have gotten access to the Empty City without you," I point out. "Probably wouldn't have figured out Hotspots or been able to get to the Phantom Roots in time. I would have died to the first Guilty Chimera we fought if you didn't boost my Amplification Gauntlet. Even against Whisper and Naru, you distracted them long enough for me to be able to act." I nudge his fist with my finger in a tiny version of a fist bump, which is enough to cheer him up a little. He seems to like the practice.

"Thanks," Ahkelios says. He stands up, patting nonexistent dust off his chitin. "Do you think we'll find any more fragments of... well, you know, me? I'm still missing a lot of myself."

"I hope so," I say. "Actually... hop up here for a moment. I want to try something."

I hold my hand out to my mantis companion and he hops up onto my palm, giving me a curious look. "What exactly do you want to try?"

"Every stage of the Temporal Echo skill has had new functionality to it," I say with a shrug. "I want to see if Temporal Link lets us figure out where all your other fragments are."

Inspect doesn't tell me as much as I'd like it to about the new stage of the skill. It just tells me that my connection with asynchronous fragments will be deeper, which covers everything from Rotar to the Time Flies to the monsters that seem to be constructed from the traumas of various past loopers. That's a lot of functionality I need to discover, and a lot of potential to unlock — as long as I can figure out how to actually use it.

I focus on the connection between Ahkelios and I.

His nature as a familiar and a so-called 'helper' is a fundamental part of the skill — something built into the base layers of it. I can feel those layers even now, wrapped around the Firmament that calls itself Ahkelios and guiding it ever-so-slightly in ways to serve the best interests of the Interface. It's not nearly as all-consuming as it was in the beginning; my encouragement of Ahkelios's independence along with the growth of his Firmament has allowed him to partially strangle the hold the Interface has on him.

It doesn't look healthy, exactly. My Firmament sense shows me places where his Firmament has been rubbed raw, for lack of a better word. Layers of Firmament scraped off to accommodate the Interface's intrusive presence.

I don't really consider what I do next. It's more instinct than anything else. Firmament Control extends a small portion of my own Firmament and offers it to Ahkelios. Not as borrowed power, not as a way to extend the strength of the skill, not even as a means of boosting Ahkelios's presence against the Interface. I offer it to him as a gift unthinkingly, a permanent transfer of power.

A small one, yes, but a gift nonetheless. I feel Ahkelios's shock as he receives it and it settles into the core of his Firmament, forming a seed of independence. A tiny core of Firmament that isn't rooted in the Interface — where the Integrators hold no power.

Are you sure? Ahkelios's voice is uncertain. Whatever I just did, it's created a stronger link between the two of us; I can hear his voice in my mind, now, as clearly as I can hear him speak. I simply reach out with my other hand and gently nudge him, one finger pressing against his shoulder.

Yes.

It's not even just about needing allies. It just feels like the right thing to do.

None of this is what I really came here to do, anyway. I push deeper into my Firmament sense and into the new intricacies of Temporal Link, searching for something new, something I couldn't sense before — something that might guide me to the remaining fragments. Almost immediately, a vague sense lights up in my senses. Five threads spool out from Ahkelios, gossamer-thin, stretching off into the distance...

I can't see where they lead. At least one of them appears to be in the direction of the Fracture, but the others are scattered, and extend far beyond what I've explored of Hestia so far.

It's a start, at least.

"Well, we know where to find the rest of you," I say, smiling down at Ahkelios. "We'll look for it as soon as we can, alright?"

Ahkelios nods. "Let's make sure your people are okay first," he tells me, his expression surprisingly serious. "And Rotar. And Ikaara."

"And Guard," I mutter, half under my breath and half to Ahkelios. I'm not completely certain what Guard's story is, but from the bits and pieces I've been able to gather, he might just be another victim in all this.

I just need to find out how.