"You’re insane. You’ve become utterly deranged…"

Caine couldn’t stop himself from gawking as he looked at the humanoid figure, the buzzing and creaking chuckle rumbling all around him. It was perhaps a bit strange to say that Azuras was insane, that was basically a common fact to him at this point.

But, but Azuras always had a method to his madness, a red thread tying his insanity together. While he was insane in the loops, everything he did was for the sake of scorching the world and the loop. When they last met and fought, creating the contract, everything he did was for the sake of ensuring his own descent into oblivion.

But this? Gathering souls from the loops and squeezing them all into a single body to let them decide who would get to control it? He even shoved in parts Caine and Abigail’s own souls, even his own soul was partly in that body. In the best case, it would lead to a second Caine or Abigail being born, just in a different body. Depending on which turn in the loop they came from they would be a great help. In the worst case it would just lead to Azuras being born again and they would be back at step one.

And the most likely case was that it would just birth a fractured human. A person constantly torn between different sets of memories and personalities, forever unable to bear the weight of all those souls. A broken life so to speak. The best-case scenario would be helpful to them all, even to Azuras’ goal of oblivion. But the odds of that best-case scenario? One in around one billion? It wasn’t even worth betting on, much less worth expecting anything from. So what the hell was Azuras trying to achieve by doing this?

"Oh no no no, Caine, I’m as sane as I’ve always been."

The circular rows of teeth stretched out as the creaking laughter got louder, each one lingering on Azuras’ ‘face’ like crescent moons. Caine, oh, Caine, he still didn’t understand the true nature of their relationship.

"In fact, I’d say I’m feeling better than ever, fantastic even. I’ve been on cloud nine ever since we made our deal, it’s why I went ahead and decided to be nice to all those miserable souls. I even decided to go above and beyond and do something special for you and your princess just to show my gratitude. Call it… One last gift before I greet oblivion."

Caine felt a shiver run down his spine, the creaking from all around gnawing at his mind. Azuras… The ‘gifts’ he gave were never something you would want. And that came from someone who signed a contract with him to finally put an end to this endless loop.

"There’s a special one mixed in with all those souls, a lone soul whose misery actually wasn’t caused by us. No, that thing got to suffer all on its own where it came from. I really was happy when I saw that thing, you know? At least this universe is fair enough to not focus all the suffering and misery on just one world. Even in a completely different world there will be people suffering similar fates, miserable little lives that would be better off ending. Ah, beautiful justice."

Tentacles wriggled and rose as the crescent moons on Azuras’ body moved without rhyme or reason. Ecstatic. Caine could feel that emotion even if Azuras lacked the face to express it. The only other times he had ever felt Azuras be this ecstatic was when the world burned and when he agreed to help Azuras fall into oblivion.

"Azuras… What did you throw into the pot?"

The ritual of Gu, throwing poisonous bugs into a pot and closing it up until only one remained, the most poisonous and cursed bug. Azuras’ body was the pot, Gabriel was the pot. What the hell did Azuras throw into the pot to make him that ecstatic?

"I wonder, Caine, I wonder. I look forward to seeing how you and the princess react when you find out. There’s a one in a billion chance they come out on top, isn’t that good enough, Caine?"

The creaking got worse, Azuras’ entire body seemingly quivering slightly. Caine could feel it. The darkness around them was receding, flowing back into the tattoo. Azuras was cutting the connection.

"Azuras, this wasn’t part of the deal! What the hell are you trying to pull?!"

He was starting to lose his cool. The contract. The contract was the best hope for ending this blasted loop and finally cut it all short. They wanted an end and Azuras wanted oblivion, it was the perfect end for all of this. So why the hell was he changing things now?

"But it’s not against the deal either, Caine, is it? And me? I’m not pulling anything, it has always been you. Just ask yourself, what came first? Was it the loops, or was it Azuras?"

The creaking figure started to sink into the darkness, buzzing tentacles becoming oil that slithered up Caine’s body. He was frozen in place as everything reversed, his fingers twitching as he tried to raise his arms. But he couldn’t stop Azuras from sinking away, a pair of crescent moon jaws the last to fade with a creaking chuckle.

"Don’t forget, Caine. Your losses didn’t start here. Not yours, not your princesses, none of your losses started here."

The last of the black tar flowed in reverse and returned to the mark on Caine’s neck, he was once again back in the chair in his room. The book he had been reading had fallen to the floor, the palm of his hand covered in cold sweat as a light tremble ran through all of his fingers.

"Azuras…"

He really wanted to curse. If he could he would want to shout a nice big loud curse and break a table just to vent. But he couldn’t do that here, too many ears, too many eyes. So he swept a trembling hand through his hair, his scalp as moist with sweat as his hand.

"Contract… So that’s how you’ll play it, huh?"

Not against the contract… Yeah, what he was doing technically wasn’t going against their deal. Caine on the other hand… His hands were a bit more tied by the contract.

The contents of it were simple, for both parties.

1. Azuras would send Caine back to one of the earliest loops with all his memories intact and a connection should they need to talk.

2. Azuras would influence his own body so that it wouldn’t follow the same path as it did in the past and make it easier for Caine and Abigail to protect the world.

3. Azuras would do everything in his power to slow down his approach from outside the loop so that they had more time than usual to set things right and prepare if things went a bit wrong.

4. Azuras would not interfere further in the loop by guiding his past body or by showing unrelated people memories they shouldn’t have yet.

Of the four points, Azuras wasn’t technically breaching any one of them. He had sent Caine back, he had influenced his own body by abandoning it and leaving it to a conglomerate of miserable souls, he was stopping his own approach so that the loop would last longer, and he wasn’t guiding his past body or other people with memories. Sure, that last one was a bit iffy, but he wasn’t actually showing unrelated people memories that they shouldn’t have. Sure, Gabriel seemed to know a lot of things he shouldn’t, seeing as he had poached Teresa already. But Gabriel… technically wasn’t unrelated, he was in Azuras’ body.

So Gabriel’s existence wasn’t technically breaking the contract. He also seemed to be lacking the same restrictions that Abigail and he usually had within the starting years of the loop. Was it because of the special soul Azuras brought in, or was it just because he was a gathering of just too many souls?

Comparatively, Caine was a lot more restricted thanks to the contract.

1. Caine is not allowed to inform others about his deal with Azuras.

2. Caine cannot approach this loop’s Azuras and inform him about his future, past, abilities, or nature.

3. Caine cannot advocate for the killing of Azuras and must try to convince Abigail to seek a peaceful solution.

4. Caine cannot stop this loop’s Azuras should he try to do anything with his own life, assuming that it won’t harm the empire.

5. Caine cannot inform others about the loop ahead of the natural seeping point.

6. Caine is not allowed to let the gods search his memories.

7. Caine is not allowed to inform Abigail about this loop’s Azuras before the presence obscuring magic fades naturally after 9 years.

8: Caine is not allowed to inform others about loops they have not experienced themselves.

Caine’s side of the contract had a few more points than Azuras’, but it was something he was willing to accept to finally end things. He was too tired, Abigail was too tired. But she kept fighting, she kept looping until she started to break in each loop. He couldn’t stand to watch it any longer, they had to find a different ending.

Besides, none of the stipulations were too heavy, even in the normal loops they were rather restricted within the first 10 to 15 years after all. And with Azuras influencing his original body to make things easier for them he was willing to accept it.

"Idiot, fucking idiot."

He cursed in a quiet voice, rapping his own forehead. Some of the stipulations, at first glance it seemed like they were just there so that Caine didn’t accidentally turn Azuras back to his usual path. But now that he knew this Azuras was a conglomerate of souls, one that was apparently special to him, they took on a new light.

He could not approach Gabriel and inform him about his nature, he could not tell him anything about the loops for another 4-6 years, maybe even faster if the loop started to crack ahead of time. He couldn’t tell Abigail anything about this Azuras, who would likely act very differently compared to what they were used to. The magic was supposed to fade after 9 years, so there should only be 1 or 2 years left of that. But whether or not he would be able to tell her afterwards without mentioning the deal… That would remain to be seen.

Azuras, as one last act before he embraced oblivion, had tricked Caine into something. As for why… He had an inkling but no concrete proof. After all, the three of them had been fighting each other for far too many years already, they probably would have kept going for many more if they weren’t so damn tired. There were thousands of grudges on either side, picking exactly which one was relevant would be hard.

But there was that line amongst the last things he said… What came first, Azuras or the loops? He couldn’t quite make heads or tails of it, the existence of Azuras was the reason they started the loops in the first place.

He wanted to keep pondering the questions, a but a loud shout came from the floors below him at that time, a few screams mixed in with them. He had no choice but to grab his sword and bolt out the door, palms still covered in cold sweat.