I turned away from the left and right paths, my gaze fixed on the corridor that stretched before me, its end obscured by a haze of shimmering distortion. The echoes of my past selves faded, their ghostly forms dissolving back into the fractured reality of this place.

'They're wrong,' I thought, a cold certainty settling in my gut. 'Those echoes… their memories are incomplete. Or maybe… they're just insane.'

The ten shimmering figures, frozen in time, their actions a ghostly replay of past attempts - they supported Raymond Ten's claim that he was the first to enter the second stratum. But the Empire's reaction - isolating this entire area, sending those overpowered guards into what were clearly completely loops, twisting time itself - it all screamed of a deeper, more disturbing truth.

Raymond One. He had to have been the first. There was no other explanation for the drastic measures they'd taken. But if that was true- what had happened to him? And why were his memories, along with the memories of the first nine Raymonds, missing from the blood-stained book and the corridor?

A shiver ran down my spine as I stepped into the center corridor. The walls hummed with a faint vibration, the stone subtly shifting as if breathing. Torches flickered erratically, casting long, distorted shadows that danced and twisted with every subtle tremor. An unsettling clicking sound, like the ticking of a giant, unseen clock, echoed through the corridor, growing louder with each step I took.

I ignored the unsettling sensations, focusing on the path ahead. The broken reality of this place was just another obstacle, another challenge to overcome.

'Whatever happened to them,' I thought, my grip tightening on the hilt of my sword, 'I won't let it happen to me.'

The second confinement layer awaited. And I was going to find out what secrets it held, no matter the cost.

----------------------------------------

General Bears Varus slammed his fist down on his desk, sending a stack of reports scattering across the polished mahogany surface.

"What in the Hells do you think you're doing, barging in here like a wild boar?!” he roared, his voice a thunderclap that shook the walls of his office.

The aide, his face pale and his uniform askew, stammered, "General, sir! Urgent report from facilities 254 and 255, sir! A… a temporal anomaly, sir! They need immediate assistance!"

Varus surged to his feet, his crimson armor clinking ominously. "A temporal anomaly? Explain yourself, soldier, before I have you flogged for interrupting my work!"

"Sir, there's… a distortion, sir! Reality is… unraveling, sir! If we don’t contain it, it could spread and—"

Varus didn't wait for the aide to finish. He was already out the door, his heavy boots pounding down the corridor, his mind racing. A temporal anomaly. At one of the human lord summoning facilities. This was not good. Not good at all.

Within minutes, he was speeding towards the affected facilities in a heavily armed jeep, its engine roaring, its tires spitting gravel as it careened through the desolate landscape. As he approached, he saw it - a shimmering barrier of energy, pulsing with an unnatural green light, surrounding both facilities 254 and 255.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

The barrier crackled and sputtered, reality itself seeming to warp and distort around its edges. He could see glimpses of twisted landscapes, of buildings that defied the laws of physics, of creatures that seemed to exist outside the boundaries of natural law.

"Damn it," Varus growled, his grip tightening on the hilt of his sword. "This is worse than I thought."

----------------------------------------

General Bears Varus stared at the report in front of him, his brow furrowed in concentration. It was a mess of conflicting data and nonsensical observations, compiled by the panicked Magi-scientists stationed at Facility 255.

'Temporal distortions… reality breaches… localized paradoxes… ' he thought, his mind struggling to make sense of it all. 'What in the Hells is going on?'

An aide stumbled into his office, his face pale, his uniform stained with a strange, luminescent green fluid. He gasped for breath, his words a jumbled mess.

"Sir… Facility 255… lost contact… reality… unraveling…"

Before Varus could demand an explanation, a wave of emerald green light engulfed the aide, his body contorting and twisting as if caught in a whirlwind. The air crackled with energy, the room filled with a sickening, metallic stench.

Then, silence.

The aide was gone, replaced by a pulsating mass of flesh and bone that writhed and pulsed on the floor, its form shifting and changing, as if struggling to coalesce into something… else.

----------------------------------------

General Bears Varus lowered his binoculars, his gaze fixed on the shimmering barrier that encased Facility 255. The air around the facility crackled with a malevolent energy, distorting the landscape, bending light, creating a surreal and unsettling tableau.

"Any progress?" he growled, his voice rough with frustration.

A Magi-scientist, his face pale and drawn, shook his head. "None, sir. The barrier is… impenetrable. And anyone who goes inside they're changed. Mutated. Into… abominations."

Varus clenched his jaw, his frustration mounting. "We can't just stand here and watch this thing spread," he said, his voice low and dangerous. "We have to—"

A crack, like a thunderclap, split the barrier. A wave of emerald green light surged outward, engulfing the nearest guards, their screams cut short as their bodies contorted and twisted into grotesque parodies of human form.

"What in the—"

----------------------------------------

General Bears Varus stared at the notification that had blinked into existence before his eyes, a sudden and unexpected interruption to his work.

Loop Resistance (Mind/Perception/Error) is now level 1.

"Loop Resistance?" he muttered, his brow furrowing in confusion. "What in the Hells is that?"

It had been centuries since he'd gained a new skill. Centuries since he'd felt the surge of power, the expansion of his consciousness, that accompanied such an event.

'Strange,' he thought, dismissing the notification with a mental shrug. He had more pressing matters to attend to.

----------------------------------------

A phrase, nonsensical and yet strangely familiar, echoed in General Bears Varus's mind.

“It bears repeating.”

He shook his head, as if trying to dislodge a stray thought.

'What was that?' he wondered, a flicker of unease passing through him. 'Why did I think…?'

He couldn't quite grasp it, the memory elusive, like a wisp of smoke in the wind.

'It bears repeating,' he thought again, the phrase repeating itself in his mind, unbidden and unwelcome.

He pushed it aside, returning his focus to the reports that lay scattered across his desk. There was work to be done. A world to conquer. And a temporal anomaly to contain.

“What?”