"Clones?"
"How many are we talking about?"
"And where are they?"
Gaus smiled without answering any of the questions, which attracted a few suspicious glares from the two girls, and just take them out of the school compound.
"Just two," Gaus finally said as they approached the state library. "And even if there are more, we'll only be looking for two. I can already sense their longevity so finding them isn't going to be difficult."
"You can sense their longevity?" Antelina said. "Do you have an affinity for time magic?"
"That's not a useful question," Gaus said. "You should be asking about what you'll be getting out of all this? Do you want exp or just the taste of combat? I can guarantee both."
"I like the sound of exp. How much are we talking about?" Gatan asked.
"Hundreds of thousands for each one of us," Gaus said.
Gatan stopped mid-step and faced him seriously. "Hundreds of thousands?"
Antelina and Raya stared at him as well.
"Yeah," Gaus said. "I believe every clone will be a huge reservoir for exp."
Gaus didn't know exactly how much exp they would get by killing the clones but he had confidence in his assumption, especially considering the nature of the clones.
"I like exp as well but let's face it," Antelina said. "We can only get exp by killing them, which will be a problem. I mean, the clones must be someone else's, right?"
"Not someone else's," Gaus corrected. "The clones belong to the marines."
He had wanted to tell them that the clones belonged to someone less intimidating, someone who wasn't even in the loop, so he wouldn't frighten them, but he couldn't bring himself to do that. They should know what they were getting themselves into.
"The marines?" The three of them said together in panic.
Gaus sighed. "Yes, the marines. I don't know how they put them together or what they are using them for, but it's them."
They sat by the roadside and talked about it. Antelina wanted them to go back right away while Gatan wanted to keep going. If nothing else, the young man was pumped up about fighting the marines. Raya was undecided. Eventually, they persuaded Antelina to follow suit.
Gaus walked them out of town and asked them if they were ready. They all nodded though Antelina was still hesitant.
"At my one o'clock, about a mile away," Gaus said, pointing to the general area and giving them a hand sketching. "They will look like this. I will stay here until you reach them."
They took the picture and studied it before leaving. Antelina didn't follow them immediately and decided to stay with Gaus. The girl didn't seem to be as trusting as the redhead or as fearless as Gatan, which mostly made her borderline paranoid. Gaus asked them to go ahead because the clones would move away when he moved, always staying a mile or two away from him. But he couldn't explain that to them to avoid unnecessary questions. So he just ignored her and kept monitoring Gatan and Raya until they reached the clones. He waited for a minute to make sure the clone wouldn't move away as soon as he started moving and then followed them. Antelina stayed behind him.
When they arrived, the clone was already down on the ground. Gatan was pressing his foot on its back to immobile it.
"Rep?" Gatan said. "I can get this thing in my sleep. You don't have anything stronger, do you?"
Gaus silently looked at the clone. It looked exactly like the one Tyren had caught in a previous restart. Had it always been this weak? Admiral Red accused him of diverting the clones and obstructing their mission, did that mean Gaus was weakening them? Because of all the things surrounding the clones, he'd expected them to be at least stronger than this. Why would anyone go to such lengths to create something so weak?
"What's your name?" Gaus asked the clone, walking closer to it. He didn't expect the thing to answer him since Tyren had claimed it didn't have a tongue. But just asking wouldn't hurt.
"My name is XM099," the clone said.
Gaus and the two women retreated. While Gatan pushed him to the ground harder.
"XM099?" Gaus said with knitted brows. Only the people in LA were called XM, were the clones also created by The Master?
"Yes," the clone said with a mechanical voice. The sound came from the direction of its face while its mouth remained closed. Whoever created the clones had given them the ability to speak, which showed they were either intelligent or they were given tasks that required them to speak.
From their past interactions, it was obvious the clones didn't respond to Tyren or answer any of his questions. Why answer to him? Was it also about his affinity for time magic?
"XM099... Huh?" Gaus suddenly realized the naming was a little different from the one he was used to. There was a missing digit. Was he given a chance to find out about the loop? He stared at the clone. It didn't matter if he was given a chance or not. He would know how the clones were created, how they worked, and who powered them. "XM099, I understand you are on a mission in the city. Tell me, what is your mission?"
"My mission is to watch certain buildings in Fydeba," the clone said.
Gaus and Gatan looked at each other and then at the clone in confusion. Gatan raised his foot a little to allow it some breathing space, not that it needed any of course.
"Buildings?" Gaus said.
The clone nodded.
"Why buildings?" Gaus was confused. Was the clone confusing people with buildings? But all men looked different from buildings, right? Or maybe they were designed to interpret it as such, like some altered mental faculty specific to them.
"So the buildings do not go away," the clone said.
"So," Gaus bent down a little and stared at the clone, "a building in the city is expected to disappear?"
The clone nodded. "332 Henwi estates, police headquarters grand hall, slave auction hall, and Wislon cinema are the buildings that are expected to go missing before the end of today."
Gaus memorized the names and then proceeded to ask more questions. "What will make the buildings disappear and to where?"
"I don't know," the clone said.
So there were things it wasn't authorized to know.
"Who put you in charge of guarding these buildings?"
"Master Spear," it said.
"Who's Master Spear? Are they working for the marines or The Master?"
"I don't know," the clone said.
Gaus looked away in thought. The sentinels must be doing something in Fydeba, that much he knew. At first, he thought what they were doing had something to do with arresting Minorita - after all, in a previous restart, the woman was accused by the police of destroying the police headquarters - but now the sentinel was talking about the disappearance of other buildings together with the police headquarters. How could a whole building go away? And if the buildings disappeared, where would they go to? What would happen to the people inside the buildings? He had once visited the auction hall, one of the buildings expected to disappear before the end of the day, and it was packed with at least a thousand people. Would all those people disappear or be thrown out of the hall before the building disappeared? Was there something grand going on underground that he didn't know about? He suddenly realized another route for investigating the loop had opened to him. Why didn't he hunt the clones down sooner?
"What will happen if the buildings disappear, and what are your instructions if that happens?"
"If the buildings disappear, the enemy will attack so I will call the Armored Sentinels in or tell master Spear directly. If the buildings remained intact, I'm to kill myself at 2:59 a.m. tonight."
"Gaus," Antelina said. "What's going on here, what enemies?"
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Gaus ignored the skeptical girl and focused on the next question in his mind.
"What do you know about the parallel timeli...?"
He was interrupted by something falling from the sky. It was big, sharp, and fast. Gatan was the first to jump sideways and avoid it. Then Gaus and the girls.
A massive ax fell just an inch away from the clone. A second ax came at them even faster than the first. A woman stood on it with her arms outstretched like she was welcoming them to hug her. The ax gracefully landed on the ground and the woman came forward. Another sentinel wearing black armor from head to toe walked behind her. It looked different from the one they were just interrogating. Its skin was much darker and it had long, reddish-brown rods buried in its face where eyes should be.
"So you're the ones diverting my scouts?" Said the woman. Her rough voice and sturdy body look like a man.
"And who might you be?" Gatan said casually.
"I'm Spear and I'm war," she said arrogantly. "Who are you? How did you catch my scout? He should be stronger than a thousand you?"
"I'm Gatan and I'm the one who caught this... scout of yours." He gestured toward the clone beneath his feet.
Antelina and Raya looked at Gaus for an answer.
"Hmm..." The woman stared at Gatan for a few seconds before bursting out laughing. The laughter was coupled with a wicked grin that just showed how much she cared. "The fact that you're here shows you're in the loop already. Since you're not with us then you're with LA... Did he send you to catch my scout?"
Now even Gatan turned to look at Gaus.
"Either you speak or I order my Armored Sentinel to judge you. Who sent you here?"
"Oh? Sorry I didn't introduce myself." Gaus stepped forward, standing between the woman and the others. "I'm Gaus, miss Spear. I'm here to confirm what the people are saying about your sentinels." The woman frowned immediately. It was a lie, of course, but a clever lie to get her attention. "Why don't you take them back to your base since you've won already?"
Spear stared at him silently for a while before she shrugged. "So you're from LA but you haven't been sent by him?" She paused to think before shaking her head. "You are related to the parallel timeline." She nodded, fully satisfied with her assumption. "Then you deserve to be judged. In the name of the First Qatalan, the one true Black and King of the timelines, I sentence you to die. Armored Sentinel!"
The black sentinel behind her lunged forward. But Gaus was ready for it. He waited until it was within range and stoned it with the explosive in his hand before he then blinked away to Gatan.
The stone hit the Sentinel and exploded in flames and dust. But when it all settled down, the Sentinel stood without a blemish. It jumped again and landed in front of Gatan, swiping its armored hand, which was now glowing with a black light, at Gatan. The man swung his sword and blocked the sentinel. The sword broke into two as soon as it touched the black light and the glowing hand continued its trajectory toward his neck.
Gaus teleported between them and shoot the sentinels with the already nocked arrow in his hands. The arrow split into two and the arrowheads lit up with fire. Gaus teleported Gatan away just as the arrows landed on the Sentinel and exploded. The flames and dust rolled up but when things became clear again, the Sentinel was unharmed.
This time around, the sentinel joined both hands together to form a large black ball of light and threw it at them. As the ball left its hands, it disappeared from its position and reappeared behind them where it launched another attack, trapping the four young men in the middle.
Raya joined her hands together to create a sphere of light around them.
You have been activated on a second level by another.
x2 to all skills depending on mana
x2 to strength, speed, and constitution
He didn't have time to think about it; his hand was already on his watch.
Magiwatch has saved 5 seconds.
You have Rewound for 5 seconds, effectively erasing everything in the said period. No one will remember but you.
NB: note that the mana requirement for Rewind is being halved.
The world went back to the point when he took Gatan away and the arrows landed on the sentinel. But instead of jumping back to where Antelina and Raya were, he turned to the other side. The sentinel came out of the flame unharmed and formed the black light ball just like before.
"You," Gaus called the attention of the girls, "attack him from the right flank. Gatan and I will attack from the left."
Antelina and Raya moved to the right. A huge rubber lid appeared in Antelina's hand. Whereas Raya further expanded her light sphere. As if reacting to the sphere, the rubber lid expanded and arrows came out of it and attacked the sentinel on the head.
The sentinel was fast enough to backhand the first arrow. But instead of going away, the arrow melted on its hand. The sentinel dodged the following arrows, refusing to make the same mistake of blocking them, but the first arrow that was stuck on his hand flowed like water to cover its entire arm. It tried to get it out with the other hand but it ended up spreading it to the hand. The rubber bound its fingers first and then its arms to its torso and spread to engulf most of its body, tying it up so it couldn't move.
Meanwhile, Gatan and Gaus attacked with their swords from behind it. They slashed every inch of its body not covered by the rubber. Gaus shot it with multiple arrows in different parts of its body. Only stopping after it became clear they'd won.
"Does the rubber burn?" Gaus asked Antelina.
"Light it up and see."
Gaus pushed mana into the arrows stuck in the sentinel and everything turned into flames. The sentinel was thrown several meters up in the air before it fell to the ground in flames.
The trio turned to Spear. She was next.
"XM151," Spear called out, looking at the sentinel on the ground which was about to become ashes. "Quit playing around and kill them. I want them killed in body and soul so they won't rise tomorrow."
"Done, master Spear," said the sentinel from within the flames. It stood and blew the flames away with its breath. Its whole body emitted black light similar to the one on its hands. The rubber around its body melted and evaporated.
"What the hell is that thing made up of?" Gaus said.
Antelina and Raya pulled back in panic. But Gatan just drew another sword from his inventory and attacked the sentinel head-on. It wasn't like any of them would be dead for good because of the second time loop but it would be disastrous for the remainder of the restart if Gatan or one of the girls got expelled from the academy because they were absent from being soul injured.
Gaus blinked near Gatan and pushed him aside, which put him directly in front of the Sentinel. Instead of attacking the sentinel, he focused on throwing explosives at his comrades. Five bombs, each with a five-meter blast radius, at the girls, and two bombs at Gatan.
It was a failed mission already since they couldn't take on the sentinel, so he decided to let a single day go to save the entire restart.
The sentinel reached to grab his neck but he avoided it by blinking away to Gatan. Just as the practice stones exploded with the girls, Gaus detonated some more explosives in his pocket. The sentinel, himself, Gatan, and the two girls were all caught up in it.
It was over. The next thing he expected to see was the colored backstreet where he always woke up at the beginning of every loop, but instead, he was blinded by a red sky and thrown to the side. He saw the Armored Sentinel attacking him from the left. Gaus first blinked away and then turned time back for 15 seconds to the point where he threw the explosives.
You have used 1 CP to convert your memory into a book.
The memory turned into a book and everything played slowly in his head. The explosives didn't go off because the Armored Sentinel took them and threw them into the air before they exploded. That is, when Gaus pushed mana into the explosives to detonate them, the Armored Sentinel moved so fast that it took all the explosives in his pocket and the ones he threw to the girls and Gatan and threw them away. The red sky he saw earlier was caused by the explosives detonating in the sky. However, that would mean the explosives must have been thrown so high into the sky for him not to feel the heat or hear the explosion. And everything happened before Gaus could send his mana into the explosives and detonate them. The thing was playing in slow motion but in reality, the Armored Sentinel was moving at a speed ten times faster than blink.
Damn it.
Gaus still had explosives in his inventory but the Armored Sentinel could remove his head before he could use them. If he was soul-killed, he would lose 5 MP and restart everything from the beginning. But if he survived and the others died, they would remain dead for the remainder of the restart. He had managed to bring Tyren to the academy and was already trying to find the person spying on him, and if he got the chance he would kill both Tyren and the spy. If he died now, he might not be able to bring Tyren to the academy again. But death seemed all too certain now.
Armored Sentinel
Rank: XM151
Level: 50
----------------------------------------
Anamina Aviante
Alias: Spear
Level 77
Mana 290/290
Health 100%
Defeating Spear was immediately thrown out of the window. Yes, she could be level 77 and still be weaker than the Armored Sentinel at level 50. But he doubted that was the case there. The sturdy woman who had been watching everything from the side looked intimidating even while casually standing. There was no way for the marines to assign her to watch over the sentinels if she wasn't damn scary.
But an idea came to him. He pulled out an arrow and fired at the woman. The arrow split into two and each exploded before hitting the target. Using the flames as screen, Gaus fired another shot at the woman. At the same time, he used the opportunity to take Gatan and run back to the girls. Once all of them were in one place, he pulled out all the explosives in his inventory and detonated them at once.
His view of death was so skewed he barely feared it anymore. He still hated the pain and the only way he kept getting through it was Tyren. Even death became trivial once he remembered what was at stake.
This time around, Gaus was sure he would find himself in the colored backstreet, only to be thrown to the side and seen the same reddish sky as before. A couple of meters away from him, the Armored Sentinel grabbed Antelina by the neck with his left hand and Raya with his right hand. Spear was still watching from the side and Gatan laid on the ground by his side, unmoving.
"Are you ready to surrender?" Spear said.
Gaus ground his teeth. He didn't need to Rewind to understand what just happened. It was a crushing defeat. How to bridge such a gap and win? He'd no idea. But would he surrender to save the restart? Absolutely not.
"I have no intention of surrendering," Gaus said. He turned to the other man by his side. "Gatan?"
"Neither do I," said Gatan.
Spear took a deep breath with a shake of her head. "Armored?"
The Sentinel turned its head in her direction.
"Kill the redhead."
"Done, master Spear."
With this, the Sentinel lifted Raya and squeezed her neck. The girl struggled only for a few seconds and stopped moving.
Gaus immediately decided to end the restart by letting himself be killed. He lunged toward the sentinel but then something stopped him. For some unknown reason, the arm holding Raya just a moment ago was flying toward the sky, blood gushing out of the Sentinel. Gatan, who was now holding a flashy red sword in his right hand, was holding the girl with his left.
Gaus quickly turned time back to see what happened.
It was Gatan. When the Armored Sentinel squeezed the poor girl, Gatan struck him down with the red sword. But he didn't move from his position. A thin red line came out of the sword and pierced through the shoulder of the Armored Sentinel, cutting the whole arm off in a blink. But how? It didn't make any sense. Was Gatan all that strong?
"Hahaha..." Spear burst out laughing as she looked at Gatan. "I know you were hiding something. The parallel timeline won't employ weaklings, that much I know."