"Wha… What did you just… Captain! Captain!" Rou shouts pressing on Cole's crumpled body. "Aqua do something… Captain is… Aqua?"

"Tell me, Minerva. Do you believe in a god?"

"I..."

"Have you made peace with your god? Are you prepared?"

"Mirna wants to kill her! Slice into pieces, nobody hurts Captain."

"Captain's not hurt. He's gone. This bitch punctured his mana with silver. There's no coming back from that and she knows it. But I can do much worse than that. Don't think you will get an easy treatment simply because you finished it quickly. You will die a slow and painful death. Alice restrain her."

"Please wait a moment. He is not gone." Minerva says offering no resistance to Alice's rough handling.

"Don't spout lies. It will only make this harder for you."

"It is not a lie. He is alive."

"Triff can I borrow your material disintegrator? It seems ideal."

"Triff?"

"This blade. It's a magic tool."

"That's right she took it from inside her desk. So what?"

"I can't figure out its purpose but its extremely complex. How many combinations of magics does this use? Twelve, fourteen?"

"Forty eight. I suggest you read the letter on my desk. You see I only did what I had to. I only did what Damien asked me to do."

~ ~

Where am I?

What's this familiar feeling?

Ah, serious deja vu.

A beach again.

Again spotless.

I don't get a stone? No, rather what's happening? Is this that teleporting the lab rat was talking about? No, she said it was short range. This beach was not within range of the Summit grounds.

What happened. I remember she appeared behind me and stabbed me with something. I remember the pain overwhelming me and thats it. She said something at the end but it made no sense so it was likely just my mind attempting to connect dots.

I guess take stock for now.

I am all here. No atoms lost in transport it seems. I need to hurry back. I imagine a huge fuss is being thrown over my absence.

"..."

Oh? There is someone here.

"Sorry bout that, didn't mean to scare you. Uhm strange question, but can I ask where exactly I am?"

The girl hiding her body in the waves says nothing in return. Just staring at me with blushing cheeks.

"Oh sorry your nak… Oh wait, nevermind It's just you Kapi. Why are you acting so embarrassed?"

"Kapi?" She asks curiously standing while still holding her body carefully. "I am Kaphiwyn Dark-Maple? For what reason are you here? Speak!"

"Kaphiwy… You... Ah. I see."

"Well? Speak your purpose already? Do you mean us harm?"

"No, I… I don't mean you harm."

"Then…?"

"My name is Damien, I am here to warn you about an incoming attack from the elves."

~ ~

*Letter to be opened in the event of Exodus.*

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 "What the hell is this supposed to mean?"

"This is all a part of Exodus. Triff moving a hundred thousand people is outside your ability yes?"

"Yes. That is true."

"Mhm, so Cole had me work on it for the past thousand years. And here I thought it was just some stupid hobby."

"Then you..."

"Hey I'm back good work." a tall man in a black robe says suddenly appearing in the center of the room. "Ooh that's good, I was worried this room was somewhere else. It would have sucked to show up halfway in the floor."

"Who are… what? Where?"

"Ah, sorry." The man slides the ring off his finger returning to a more familiar form.

"Cole? But you..." Aqua asks looking down at the crumbling body.

"Mhm, sorry I couldn't come back faster but all of my mana needed to vanish from this place. Otherwise, I'd explode or something, harmonic mana coalescence and all that."

"Its the adverse reaction from two bound mana streams, it causes a..."

"Yeah, yeah. We can get to that later." Cole turns to the girls who still were unable to understand what had just happened.  "I missed you all so much! How long has it been?!"

"What? It's been like two minutes..."

"How long has it been for you though Damien? Or do you prefer Cole?"

"Around fourteen hundred years I think? And I do prefer Cole. It felt weird to go by my middle name for so long."

"So… But… How?"

"It's a whole mass of paradoxes. It's hard to explain."

"You are both Damien and Cole?"

"Mm, I went back in time to set up the world for my eventual appearance."

"The infinite Loop theory has been disproven," Minerva says with a smirk as she takes a few notes on a pad of paper.

"Infinite Loop?"

"Mhm, we wondered for awhile if it was actually possible for me to return. Would the world just cease to exist once the loop had been completed? We went on and on about it for months. But it seems everything still exists. It's just how I left it."

"Yep, it seems to have been a perfect success. I must admit I nearly forgot about all that though."

"Oh, I noticed. I almost gave you a stern talking to once we met again but I realized it wasn't really fair."

"Can't punish me for future mistakes."

"I know… Well, let's get going, we have a lot of work to do. And I should probably start explaining myself to everyone."

"They won't forgive you easily you know."

"I know."