It was a bit weird being on my own again after spending so many months with the party.

I could go at a much faster pace. I didn’t have to worry about [Teleporting] whenever it was off cooldown. And I didn’t have to answer a multitude of questions from the world’s most inquisitive [Hero].

… And I belatedly realized that I kinda missed that last one.

Get a grip. I told myself with a shake of my head. She’s going to kill you. You’ve literally drawn up the plans for it so that she goes home, and you get a new body. Everyone wins.

The fact that they were my plans meant that I was sure they would be derailed soon enough. Fortunately, I didn’t have long to spend on that depressing thought because I finally arrived on the outskirts of the time wastes.

System: Zone entered, The Time Wastes. Faction - #ERROR

“That’s… concerning,” I stated to thin air. The first reason was the obvious faction bug that made my head hurt looking at it. The second was that I was pretty sure the entire time wastes hadn’t been its own zone before.

If it’s a zone and it’s growing, that could be kinda bad. I thought. Oh well, just have to get this stuff done. I have some boots to get… and some plans to reclaim.

As I stepped forward, I felt something. The best that I could describe it would be a light, swirly breeze… but made out of time.

System: Warning, you have entered a zone of fractured time. Proceed at your own risk

The warning’s also new. I thought.

I pulled out Singularity and slowed to a walk. I wanted to get all my SP back and also be ready for anything.

After the first half hour or so of nothing happening, I realized that I was kinda dumb.

“This zone is… how many miles across?” I asked. I dearly wished I had a map perk of my own so that I could see how far from the center I was, but I had to make do with what I could remember.

The reports said… more than a 100-mile radius, right? So, if I’m walking at only a few miles an hour…

I reluctantly picked up the pace to a jog. I didn’t want to spend literal days just walking.

I wonder if I can speed this up a bit by [Teleporting]? I asked myself. I started to prepare the spell, just to see what would happen, but was interrupted by the sound of skittering.

I spun around and was greeted by a horde of translucent spiders.

Well, should have expected that. I thought. I dropped my cast of [Teleport] and went with a different spell instead.

“[Hell Blaze]!” I cast. The black fire shot out from my staff and promptly vanished.

“What the frick?” I muttered aloud. My confusion was only slightly abated when the spell reappeared two dozen feet away, still headed toward its target. However, my confusion doubled when the spell disappeared again, exploded at the target, and then reappeared about a dozen feet away from me while moving backward.

Looks like spells are affected pretty harshly by time shenanigans. I thought. However, despite the… odd… nature of the cast, it did its job well enough.

The only issue was that about half of the spiders were still remaining, and my [Hell Blaze] was on cooldown.

“Good thing I brought an extra,” I muttered. I began casting as the spiders closed in. “[Fireball]!” I finished and cast at my feet.

There was just one problem. As I finished casting the spell, I suddenly remembered the [Fireball] going off at my feet several seconds ago… which I’m pretty sure I would have noticed.

“What the actual frick?” I asked, looking at my staff as if it would somehow house the secrets to the time shenanigans going on around me.

However, there was no more time for spell casting. The first of the now-teleporting spiders were on me.

I stowed my staff and [Fire Strike] punched the lead spider. It immediately disintegrated, so I wondered if that was a touch overkill since I had limited stamina.

That’s why I met the second spider with only a simple backhand instead. That still killed it ouright… but thanks to my curse, it was staggering back upright as a zombie in just a few seconds.

Out of curiosity, I shot a quick [Identify] over at it.

Said spell took several seconds longer than normal to resolve. When it finally did, it told me I had created a level 5 “zombie time spider.”

They’re a bit higher level than I thought they would be. I thought as I dodged another pair of jumping spiders and squished a third under my boot.

The main group finally reached me, and about a dozen spiders jumped at once. I simply [Flash Stepped] away, said silent thanks that my skills didn’t seem to have problems in the zone, and then reset myself to face them.

“Well, at least spiders are a little different from the usual,” I stated as I pulled out Insurance. “I mean, could you just imagine if it had been-“

My contemplation was cut off by the sound of Placeholder’s most generic enemy, though the howls were distorted a good deal.

“Come on!” I complained as I cleaved a spider in half. “I didn’t even say it!”

I continued killing spiders as their canine reinforcements loped and teleported onto the scene. Then, since I decided I would use my brain for once, I snapped a quick [Disrupt] on my [Monster Magnet] perk.

No point in dying to a bunch of random mobs. I thought as I shot another [Identify] out. Level 5 temporal wolf. Hmm. That’s the same level as an alpha but… I cleaved through the over-eager lead wolf with a single swing. Not nearly as strong. I get that they can teleport, but what’s with the inflated level rating for these things?

I didn’t feel the least bit threatened, especially since I had nearly all of my armor equipped. That was probably why I accidentally let one of the spiders leap onto my back and…

I discovered the reason for their increased level.

I felt a brief pain as it bit me, and everything shifted.

There led to two simultaneous realizations. First, the mobs here could forcefully yeet me around through time. Second, my armor did not resist whatever damage type they were doing.

I squished the spider on my back, but multiple enemies were ready to take its place. I dodged a spider from in front, one from the side, but the one enemy I didn’t dodge was a temporal wolf that latched onto my leg.

It was the same deal as before, except I took a bit more damage this time.

Honestly, there was a decent chance that I would have been ping-ponged around through time until I hit Envy form or died if not for the fact that [Hell Blaze] was off cooldown.

A quick cast of that at my feet was enough to get rid of all but a few stragglers… though, it exploded in the past once again, and there seemed to be a bit of lag before everything died.

Well, that was almost a disaster. I thought as I looked at my health bar and saw it was down to about three-quarters. These are the trash mobs of this zone, so I’m going to need better countermeasures for when I fight the alpha equivalent.

Fortunately, one of the zombie spiders had survived the final [Hell Blaze]. That gave me an idea, so I walked over and scooped it up in a single hand.

It kept trying to bite me or teleport, but I kept a firm grip on it, and it didn’t seem to be able to do much.

“Alright,” I said. “Time to science the ship out of this zone.”

----

It turned out that sciencing the time wastes was harder than I imagined.

The first problem to tackle was the attacks that the monsters did. To ensure they weren’t just doing obscene amounts of damage, I tried getting bit while not having my armor on to remove that variable. When I took the same damage as I did when wearing the full set, I could immediately rule that it was some BS time damage or something.

However, that was the easy part. The harder part was figuring out what the extra effects of the attacks were actually doing to me.

After getting bit a lot and trying several different things to record data, I finally learned that there were two options for what they could do to me.

The first was straightforward. It catapulted me a few seconds forward in time. I tested that one by simply dropping something and then having my unwilling “pet” bite me. Whenever that one happened, the stick or rock or dave would be sitting on the ground without me seeing it actually land. So, that was pretty simple.

The second one was more confusing. I figured that if the monsters could send me forward in time, that must mean that the second version was sending me back in time, right?

Well, spoiler alert, it was, but not in the exact same way as it did when it sent me to the future. After dozens of experiments, several tossed and teleported daves, and a minor headache, I finally determined that when it sent me to the “past,” it just sent me back to where I was however many seconds ago.

Curiosity led me to test whether that process would take away the memories of someone, or something, that didn’t have [Memory Protection]. So, that was quickly sussed out by having my pet zombie time spider bite daves right after I gave them an order. I had my answer when they continued following through with the order even after their jaunt through time.

I also discovered that time travel to the past didn’t quite work as expected. Given that my spells seemed to enjoy detonating at random points in time before or after I cast them, I quickly found out that things got a bit wonky whenever they decided to happen before I cast.

To sum it up, while the spell could hit a monster based on where they were a few seconds ago, the damage was consistently applied in the present or shortly afterward.

Together, those experiments made me a bit alarmed about whether or not the time magic ritual would be effective. I quashed those by reminding myself that it was a ritual with orders of magnitude more mana than what the zone and monsters were using.

Speaking of mana, I tried to make good use of my own by tinkering around with [Temporus] magic. My main goal was to make something helpful in fighting the strange enemies that I was encountering, and after a lot of trial and error, I finally created my first defensive time spell.

[Temporal Anchor].

The idea was pretty simple. If the primary way that my enemies were causing problems for me was throwing me back and forth in time, I just had to make that harder.

And the name wasn’t just to be poetic. I had initially pictured chucking out a giant anchor made of time so that I couldn’t be moved around with the flow.

That picture ended up causing me several problems, though. I forgot that I still wanted to keep moving forward in time at the same rate, and my first several casts essentially just wasted mana as they anchored me to a single point of time until the spell expired.

When I finally got a working version that kept me going forward at a nice rate of 1 second per second, it worked even better than I expected. Not only did it save me from those annoying moves through time, but it also gave me a bit of damage resistance against the time monsters.

However, it took a couple of weeks, at least relatively, and once my anchor was up, I realized that the zone had been moving me around in time more than I thought it had.

[Get Date] didn’t work in the zone, and neither did [Message], so I had no way of knowing how much time I had lost… or gained.

Since I hadn’t progressed very far in the zone, I decided I might as well head back outside and check up on things.

I was sure that Erica was worried about me too.

However, I should have known that it wouldn’t be that easy.

-------

I was having a nice relaxed jog toward the outside of the zone. I had my [Monster Magnet] disabled, [Temporal Anchor] active, and I hadn’t seen a monster in hours.

Things are also looking more normal. I should be back out of the zone here-

My thoughts were cut off as I suddenly ran into an invisible wall.

“Ow, what the frick?” I asked from the ground as I rubbed my head.

Fortunately, the ordinarily taciturn System seemed to be in a good mood.

System: Are you sure you want to leave special instance, The Time Wastes? If you leave, you will not be able to return

“What the frick is a special instance?” I groaned to myself as I stood up.

It was honestly not a hard debate. Not only were my boots somewhere in that mess, I had time ritual plans to retrieve. Leaving without those was simply not an option.

“No,” I replied to the System as I turned around. “Hardcore[1] mode on. I guess,” I muttered.

The next several days were not much to speak of. I just had to kill some time spiders and wolves and keep my anchor up.

The next thing I ran into wasn’t much more of a threat either.

“Is that a time dave?” I asked as I looked at the translucent ball of slime that hopped toward me and occasionally warped through time.

“Dave, I choose you!” I called out as I pointed my staff at my new foe. “[Summon Dave]!”

The slime ball appeared and flopped to the ground 3 seconds after I cast. Then, I made my command.

“Attack!” I called out.

It was the battle of the ages. The slimes hopped, jumped, and then finally latched onto each other… and that was it. They held on for 5 seconds, and then both died.

“Well, that was a thing,” I chuckled as I walked over to the body of the temporal dave. I stabbed it with Insurance, looted it, and then noted that it dropped “temporal dave jelly.”

I wonder if these drops are actually worth collecting?

It wasn’t like I was hurting for inventory room with [Pack Mule], but I was more curious about whether or not I could find a use for all the temporal versions of the mob drops that I had been finding.

My internal debate was cut off as dozens of translucent blobs appeared in the distance, and all started hopping toward me.

Right. Time to turn off [Monster Magnet] again.

With my newfound curiosity about their drops, I decided to defeat all the monsters with Insurance, and then I moved on.

I encountered many different types of mobs during the next week or two. They were all temporal versions of familiar foes. Alpha wolves. Bears. There were even some time versions of foes from the Below that showed up, though they weren’t quite as scary out in the open where they didn’t have any walls to cling onto or flank with.

Nothing else happened until I finally reached my destination, the capital city. It had seen better days if I based it on the fact that the walls were still being built… or they were crumbling from age… or they were perfectly fine.

“Probably a good idea to go through a gate then,” I stated as I watched the walls continue to flux through time.

I made my way through the northern gate. Then, I froze right as I entered it.

Something’s off. I thought as I looked around on high alert.

It took me several seconds to realize that the thing that was “off” was that I could no longer feel time magic swirling around me. The entire area was stabilized.

I relaxed my guard for all of a second before realizing that was probably the scariest thing I had come across in the entire zone.

I inched through the zone, ready to pull out my sword or staff as needed.

Stay alert. Watch out for anything that’s-

“[Halt]!” a voice called out to me.

I spun to face it in confusion, and a translucent member of the Dryadal watch confronted me.

“What the frick?” I asked, but the specter didn’t seem to care about my response.

“You don’t belong here!” it stated. “Turn around and leave the way you came!”

Before I had time to respond, there was a flow of magic… and I found myself back at the gate.

I blinked in confusion.

“Oookay?” I muttered. That went straight through my [Temporal Anchor]. I realized. Maybe it would be best if I didn’t pick a fight..

This time, I entered [Sneak] and went down the same route. I won’t pick a fight against the time ghost this time. I’ll just [Sneak] right past and-

“[Halt]!” the same voice called out to me.

I stayed in [Sneak], hoping it was a bluff.

It was not.

“You don’t belong here!” it stated once more. “Turn around and leave the way you came!”

There was a similar flow of magic, but I struck out at it with a quick [Disrupt]. That bought me enough time to turn around, start running and… still get teleported back out to the gate.

“Well, fine,” I grumbled. “I’ll just try a different street.”

The first side street I tried was a dead end, but the second one led back onto the main street just a bit past where the ghost had confronted me.

Alright, home free. Now I’ve just got to-

“[Halt]!”

I groaned.

“You don’t belong here!” a different ghost stated.

I was getting annoyed, so I cast a [Hell Blaze] at it. It didn’t have any effect.

“Turn around and leave the way you came!” it finished.

Once again, I found myself back at the start.

I took a quick seat to get my thoughts in order.

First, this area is the capital city. Second, time is stabilized. Third, the city seems like it has been rearranged with streets going nowhere. Fourth, and most importantly, there are wandering ghosts that don’t seem to be monsters that are capable of teleporting me back to the entrance whenever they spot me.

I chuckled. “It’s almost like a stealth mission.”

Then my eyes widened. “Holy carp… it is a stealth mission. Which means…” I looked up at the city with an entirely different eye. “The entire thing is the dungeon.”

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

The good news was that I could kill two birds with one stone. The bad news was that I couldn’t be sure that any of the time magic plans had survived the entire capital city being converted into a dungeon.

Only one way to find out. I nodded to myself. First up, beating this stealth mission.

That… took longer than I would like to admit.

The ghostly watchmen that guarded the place seemed practically all-seeing. If they caught even a hint of a scrap of my armor or clothing, they would call the [Halt] and then repeat the same line over and over again.

By the 10th time I was caught, I was repeating it along with them in a mocking tone.

By the 50th time, I no longer even cared to do that.

“It’s just that last spot,” I mumbled to myself. “No other way to go, so I have to get past that guard.”

I sat down at the last free spot before my nemesis.

“He’s on patrol, and he stops at a spot where he doesn’t have vision on the path, but…” I trailed off and scratched my head. “Ugh. They have frickin’ 360-degree panopticon vision. If I see him, he sees me. So, do I have to guess?”

I really did not want that to be the answer. Every failure meant a repeat of that same phrase and being sent back to the very beginning of the dungeon to do it all over again.

“I wish I could just look at the spot and tell when he’s going to be there,” I grumbled.

Then I paused, checked my spell list, and facepalmed. “Yeah… I can do that.” I looked at [Foresight] and sighed. “If I can deal with the headache you’ll bring me...” I sighed. “Well, I might need more than just a second head’s up, so let’s throw some more mana towards it.”

I got into a position where I could see the watchman’s blind spot. Thankfully, he wasn’t already there, or I would have had to restart once again.

Then, I pulled out my staff, [Overchannelled], and cast. “[Foresight]!” I chanted.

I don’t quite understand what happened, but my best guess would be some kind of BS related to shoving a bunch of extra mana into a [Temporus] spell while in the time wastes. I saw the area in front of me, but not as it would be in a few seconds… or even a few minutes.

Is that… I asked in fear. In my overlaid vision, I saw someone I never thought I would lay eyes on again. Admin. He seemed even larger and angrier than when I had last met him, and I didn’t know either of those things was possible.

He crushed through the reinforced dungeon buildings with his great club as if they were made of paper. As for why he would do that, I finally noticed that he was chasing down a tiny- well, tiny in comparison- beastborn man holding the Hero’s Sword.

[Foresight] didn’t exactly give sound, but I could still tell that the much smaller [Hero] was taunting the Demon King/administrator.

More guts than I’d ever have. I thought as I blinked, and that vision slowly faded. I was back to looking at the much more near future… at least, I thought.

Okay, how many seconds ahead am I? I asked. There was no way to tell. The scenery didn’t exactly change.

I need an outside marker. I guess I could-

My thought derailed as my hand suddenly raised in my vision.

I cocked my head in confusion, and then suddenly, the hand vanished out of sight. Wait, wait, wait. I was about to raise my hand, but then I stopped because I saw it. That means… whatever I see in [Foresight] can be changed? At least, as long as I act on what I already see?

My head was starting to hurt for reasons besides what seeing two pairs of overlaid timelines together was doing. Mercifully any further introspection was cut off as the guard appeared in the one blind spot of his patrol. That meant he would be there in what I had just determined was a few seconds in the future.

Go, go, go! I screamed internally, having long since learned that making noise almost guaranteed the guards would catch me.

It was a decent distance, but with a max range [Flash Step], I managed to make it past my nemesis… and I finally learned where the dungeon had been funneling me.

“Hello, Dryadal castle,” I muttered. It was the site of the catastrophe. The site of the worst single act I had ever committed in Placeholder. And hopefully, it would be the site where I finally put the final pieces of my plan to fix all of that together.

“Let’s wait a bit and get some mana back,” I muttered.

The area right outside the castle seemed clear of the watchmen, so I had an uneventful wait. From there, I proceeded into the castle cautiously.

Not because I was afraid of any possible monsters but because I was worried that the watchman gimmick wasn’t done and that I would be teleported back outside.

To my surprise, I didn’t see a soul until I heard footsteps coming down one of the halls opposite me.

“I feel like I’ve been walkin’ fer ages!” the voice called.

Is that? I asked myself as I entered [Sneak] and peaked around the corner.

“This here dungeon doohicky better be done soon, or I’m gonna be mighty annoyed,” my least favorite [Berserker] in the world stated as she kicked open one of the double doors and strode into the next room.

Gertrude. Have you been here all this time? I asked. If so, why haven’t you cleared it yet? I mean…

“I feel like I’ve been walkin’ fer ages!” Gertrude called out, in the exact same way, from the exact same spot down the hallway.

Oh. I thought as she continued to repeat her second line verbatim. Stuck in a time loop, looks like. Something is doing it right on the other side of the door.

That gave me time to debate what to do. I could try to [Sneak] past her and leave her behind. I could approach her as any number of different personas with [Disguise Self]. Even fighting her right then and there was on the table, but lowest down on my list.

Let’s not fight the crazy level 25 battle maniac if I don’t have to. I thought to myself. So, [Sneak] past, or recruit?

In the end, I chose “recruit.” I wasn’t quite sure what an enhanced dungeon would look like for this zone, but I had the distinct feeling that I was in for a doozy. That meant the only thing I had left to decide was how I wanted to recruit her.

I debated several different disguises and methods since I had nothing but time as she continued looping endlessly. I could have pretended to be someone else from Gert. I could have claimed to be the [Hero]. I even had the option of pretending to be someone much weaker that needed her protection.

That would never work if I was male. I realized. But if I approached her while crying and pretending I lost my party…

That idea had some merit, but in the end, I figured it would probably just make her suspicious. So, I decided to go as myself… or at least, Titania, [Mentor] of the [Hero] and part of the [Hero’s] party.

I waited until she had just restarted her loop. Then, I backed up and rounded the corner just as she did.

“Who are you?” Gertrude yelled from across the hall while pulling out her axe.

“I could ask you the same,” I replied while readying my staff.

She approached me cautiously but then stopped. “Red eyes,” she practically growled. She readied herself for a dash, but I just sighed in response.

“I take it you know my brother, then,” I replied.

“Yer brother?”

“Red eyes. Horns. [Demon Lord] of Placeholder,” I answered. “Real piece of work. Caused all this mess.” I gestured around.

Her stance relaxed slightly. “Just one minute. Let me git my liar rock.”

She pulled a truth stone out of her inventory and held it in my direction.

“Now, start talkin’! And if I catch even one lie, you best bet yer gonna meet the business end of this axe!”

“Sure,” I replied dryly. I made sure to make my next statements with plenty of time in between them. “My name is Titania. It is… complicated… but the most accurate way to state my relationship to Titus biologically is twin sister. I am on a quest for the [Hero’s] party to clear this dungeon. I left them behind because I didn’t think they could handle whatever this zone does to time.”

She nodded slowly as each of those proved true.

“I didn’t even know that Titus had a sister,” she said.

“To be fair, neither did he,” I replied.

She nodded. “One last question for ya. Ya ain’t gonna double-cross me for that no good coward, are ya?”

I shook my head. “No, it looks like we’re both trying to clear the dungeon, and as long as you are helping with the quest, I have no reason to fight you.”

When that was verified, she nodded and stowed the truth stone. “Alrighty then. A pleasure workin’ with ya, Miss-” she held out her hand to me and trailed off her statement into a question.

“Titania,” I replied. After half a beat, I realized that “Titania” had never met Gertrude. “And you are?”

“Gertrude,” she replied. “Now, let’s git a move on. I ain’t got all day to waste in here.”

----

The rest of the dungeon clear was anticlimactic with the both of us there. We partied up and had to fight through several rooms of temporal suits of armor that came to life and attacked us.

Then, we had time-based puzzles where Gertrude was basically useless, and I was stuck trying to figure everything out. The worst of which happened in the old throne room. It had been greatly expanded in space, and there were pressure plates, levers, and switches everywhere that extended bridges of light over chasms that fell… I don’t want to know how far.

However, that was a walk in the park compared to what was left. And the only thing that was left was the courtyard where I had made that ritual so long ago… that was also the boss room.

-----

System: You have entered a dungeon boss room! You will be unable to leave by any means until the dungeon boss is defeated.

System: Special dungeon boss detected. Resolving conflict with enhanced dungeon mode…

That’s odd. The last ones didn’t have that…

System: Resolved. Continuing with 1-time special dungeon boss in place of enhanced dungeon boss.

I didn’t have too long to wallow in my confusion. The boss health bar appeared.

It’s title? Undead shard of time, Illastrous.

Never heard of a named boss before. I thought to myself as I scanned the room. I didn’t see anything of note, but that changed when the boss made its grand entrance shortly after.

“Hello, father,” stated a voice that ranged from young to old and everything in between.

As that statement rang throughout the courtyard, the boss appeared in the middle of it. Or at least… as much as he could appear. He was nothing more than an empty black cloak that billowed in a non-existent wind.

After it appeared, it took a seat in mid-air and then appeared to stare in my direction.

“I don’t know who you’re talking to,” I stated. “There aren’t any guys here.”

“I know well who you are, Titus, [Demon Lord] of Placeholder,” the voice stated again.

“I knew it!” Gertrude shouted as she readied to charge me.

“Hold, [Berserk Queen],” the voice stated calmly. “Even with my help, this is not a fight you can currently win.”

“Says you!” she shouted back. She sprinted in my direction.

“[Clock Stop],” the boss stated as the arm of its cloak moved in the direction of the now-frozen [Berserker]. “Now, before we begin, there are some things that you should know, father.”

“Why do you keep calling me-“

“Because I am the child of your failed time magic ritual and the curse that Cameron the lich cast upon you,” it stated in the same eerie voice. “I am the result of a piece of time itself being slain and then being brought back to cursed unlife. I am a monument to your gravest sins and an abomination of magic that should have never existed.“

“I’d be more than happy to kill you again,” I replied as I continued slowly circling the boss, partially to gain distance from Gertrude. “I’ve gotten pretty good at re-killing undead.”

“And you would be successful,” it replied. “Unlike the dungeon, most of my powers will have little impact on you due to your discovery of [Temporal Anchor]. Should we come directly to blows, I do not doubt that you shall easily defeat me.”

“Then, what’s the purpose of all this?” I asked. “I have to defeat you to reclaim what is mine. And I can’t leave until you’re defeated. What are you hoping to gain by telling me all this?”

The boss laughed an eerie laugh. “Merely enough time to finish bringing in someone who could.”

My eyes shot open wide, and I charged the boss. I hadn’t noticed the magical buildup until just then, and I realized I had fallen for my own trick.

“[Summon Future Nemesis: Guardian of Placeholder],” the boss intoned.

As soon as he did, the air around him whipped into a frenzy that pushed me back. Above the boss, 30 feet into the air, a translucent portal appeared.

Out of the portal came… well, an angel.

He was 7 feet tall, ripped, dressed in white robes… oh, and had giant white wings and a golden halo.

“Where… no, when am I?” he asked in a voice like thunder as he gently touched down next to the specter.

“Before the calamity, at the crossroads of time,” the boss stated. The arm of the boss’s cloak shifted in my direction. “Should you stop Titus here, the day of calamity will be averted.”

“You have committed a grievous sin in bringing me here,” the angel stated as a broadsword appeared in his hands. “However, your judgment will wait until Titus is dealt with.”

His sword lit on fire with white flame as he turned to me.

“Titus! I am Mishael, archangel of Placeholder! And for your sins, past, present, and future, you face judgment!”

He flew at me while the boss cast two spells back to back.

“[Resume]. [Temporal Haste].”

Gertrude’s yells, which sounded slightly sped up, told me all I needed to know about both.

What do you do when you have a temporally sped up archangel of Placeholder and queen of [Berserkers] both charging you at once?

The pessimistic, or maybe realistic, part of me just thought, “guess I die.”

Fortunately, that wasn’t the part of me that was in charge at the moment. No, the only thing in charge of me at that exact moment was panic.

DODGE! I screamed internally as I [Flash Stepped] backward and barely got out of the way.

The archangel recovered quickly, but Gertrude stumbled just a step.

I survived the first attack, but I knew as well as anyone that I wouldn’t win unless I started dealing some damage.

“[Hell Blaze]!” I cast through my staff. My target? Gertrude. I wanted to take out the weaker target first, and I had a gut feeling that Gertrude was somehow the weakest person here.

Mishael surprised me by stepping into the path of my cast. His wings furled in front of him and took the black flame head-on. It impacted but then dissipated harmlessly.

“Gerrout my way, featherbrain!” Gertrude shouted as she shoved him to the side and charged me.

He recovered and flew around me, and that was the last of the openings I had for a while.

I dodged Gertrude’s first reckless swing and then parried her second one downward with my staff. Meanwhile, I pulled out Insurance and tried to block Mishael’s swing that came from behind me.

I blocked it… at least, for a given sense of the word.

His sword crashed into mine with such force that my teeth rattled, and Insurance was nearly wrenched out of my hand.

To make matters worse, that was just the first blow.

The archangel recovered impossibly fast and followed it up with a thrust directly into my chest.

The stab wound hurt, but nowhere near as bad as the flames did. I wasn’t sure how something could hurt worse than people healing me, but lo and behold, the angel managed to find a way.

I stowed Insurance, snapped a [Disrupt] on the flames, and then managed to use the sword that was impaling me as leverage to maneuver the angel into Gertrude’s path.

Gertrude’s axe slashing into his back was enough to surprise the archangel, and that let me dislodge the sword by [Air Strike] kicking him, and subsequently Gertrude, back away from me.

Meanwhile, I dove to make space.

I’m no match for him. I need to end this now.

A plan formed, and I began casting.

“Lightning, become my radiant blade that will pierce the darkened heavens,” I moved Singularity in the requisite motion as I chanted as fast as possible and emptied my mana and stamina bars with [Overchannel].

“Stay behind me,” Mishael called to Gertrude.

A slight smirk must have come over my face because the archangel’s eyes widened, and he moved even before I revealed my play.

“[Lightning Spear]!” I called out as I pivoted and aimed at the boss.

I had been hoping to take it down with that single blow and that it would somehow send the archangel back to his own time.

Unfortunately, my blow didn’t even land. Mishael got into place between us before my cast even finished, and he thrust his sword through the lightning bolt.

The lightning arced around him, and twin bolts crashed into the castle off in the distance.

“Oh well,” I laughed through the pain of the backlash. “That was just plan A.”

“No,” Mishael said with a tinge of despair.

System: Critical HP Detected. Sufficient Level Detected. Demon Lord Form detected. Auto-activating Demon Lord Form.

System: Attempting to activate Envy Form

“Stop him!” Mishael shouted as he rushed towards me and his sword bounced off harmlessly.

System: Envy Form Activated

Demon Lord form. The other part of my plan, and the thing that would save my bacon. Because while I stood little chance against the archangel of Placeholder-

“How would you like to fight yourself?” I asked Mishael as I shapeshifted into him.

… Well him, but with some differences. Everything about him that was white and glowing was replaced with black and sinister on me, and it was enough to make him recoil.

“Vile fiend, you won’t win simply with that mockery of my form!” he called out.

“We’ll see,” I laughed. Then, because I was tired of the two-pronged fight, I took to the air.

We both flew into the air, and our swords crashed together in a slew of vicious strikes.

To my chagrin, Gertrude was not wholly out of the fight, as she was still capable of chucking hand axes up at me.

The good news was that they were equal-opportunity weapons, so Mishael had to deal with them just like I did.

After watching him for a few attacks, I quickly discovered that our wings were more than enough to block the wayward projectiles.

However, there was also one more issue with the plan. Mishael had been temporally hasted. I had not.

Every third attack from the archangel found its mark, and I was losing quickly.

“You are no match for me, [Demon Lord]!” the angel proclaimed.

I would be, if only I had your buffs. I snarled internally. But that gave me an idea.

I could have his buffs.

“Let us end this farce!” he yelled as he brought his sword down in a mighty two-handed swing.

That was precisely the type of attack I was waiting for.

I blocked it but pretended as if the heavy attack slammed me down into the courtyard below.

“No mere pretender will be able to defeat the forces of Heaven!”

“I am not a pretender,” I answered him out of the cloud of dust.

I loved seeing the shock on his face as the dust settled, and it was no longer an archangel facing him.

“[Clock Stop],” I stated as the arm of my cloak moved in his direction.

The archangel froze in time, but I wasn’t done yet.

“[Temporal Haste],” I cast on myself. And I could tell the boss had been holding back on the cast he gave to the other two. I didn’t and instead unleashed the full amount.

However, that wasn’t all. Not by a long shot. With time slowed to a crawl, I watched the boss slowly casting his [Resume], and I had time to shift thrice more.

To Gertrude. “[Battlefield Regen],” I stated as I activated her skill.

To myself. “Strengthen, activate,” I said as I activated the buff on my gauntlets.

And then, finally, back to Mishael.

“Now, for round 2,” I proclaimed and then pushed off from the ground to fly and meet my opponent.

… I may have underestimated [Temporal Haste] a bit.

I flew like a rocket and collided with the unsuspecting archangel who was coming out of frozen time.

I recovered and zipped behind him. I barely managed to score a hit along his leg, but I was improving my control of the odd version of [Haste] rapidly.

“How are you doing this?” Mishael asked in slow motion as I parried his thrust and then scored another slash across his chest. “How are you controlling that speed?”

I laughed. “He didn’t give you the full dose of [Temporal Haste] because you couldn’t adapt to it, but I can,” I replied as I hit him with three more slashes. “You can’t adapt to the change in time, to the rest of the world moving in slow motion, to gravity seeming to have half the hold on you, but this is nothing.”

He made a powerful swing, but I easily ducked under it.

“I have done nothing but adapt my entire life!” I shouted as I continued the assault. “I have had to deal with bouncing between levels, then with becoming a mad cripple, an idiotic brute, and even a woman!” I swiveled around him and slammed his head with the pommel of my sword. It was his turn to go careening into the courtyard, but that was no theater on his part. He slammed into the ground heavily and kicked up dust, just like I did. However, I didn’t make the rookie mistake of waiting for the dust to clear. I was on him again in a heartbeat.

“So, say your prayers, archangel, as I send you back to Heaven!” I shouted as I knocked the sword from his grasp.

I reached for the depths of the power of that form, and black flames spilled out of my sword as I prepared for the final thrust.

“[Return],” the boss stated in the same eerie voice that somehow came through at normal speed.

With that one single word, the archangel vanished without a trace.

I turned to face the boss.

“It would seem you have lost your trump card and left his form to me,” I taunted.

“[Expire],” he stated as he cast once more in my direction.

It’s an odd thing being suddenly forced out of Demon Lord form, but that is exactly what I found happened to me. I was back to being regular old Titania again with all my buffs gone… but back at full resources.

I turned and looked at the [Berserker] stalking towards me.

“Shall we finish this?” I asked as I got into a fighting stance.

“You took the words right outta my mouth,” she replied.

We charged toward each other. Her with a wordless yell activating her [Rage], and me with a quiet reactivation of my gauntlets’ strength boost.

I surprised her by meeting her heavy overhand swing with a [Fire Strike] punch. It left us both off-balance, but I was expecting it and recovered faster. I stepped in closer to make her long weapon more awkward and gave her two quick punches to the gut.

She quickly gained some space and then swung again, but I blocked and gave her pretty much a repeat of the previous time.

She had levels on me and was faster than me, but dealing with her heavy two-handed attacks with a quick punch put things in favor of me quickly.

After the 5th clash with me taking no damage and getting in some quick strikes, Gertrude had enough. She stowed her greataxe and tackled me.

“Wrong move,” I said with a sigh.

She laid into me with [Earth Strikes] and [Air Strikes], but I had my armor on. They may as well have been a light massage.

Eventually, I got tired of the attacks and hit her with an [Air Strike] elbow that popped her into the air. Then I rolled to the side, hopped to my feet, and it was my turn to tackle her and play the ground game.

I peppered her with [Earth Strikes] to stagger her and finally got her in a pin.

“Give it up, Gertrude,” I stated. “I don’t need to fight you, and you can’t even touch me because of the difference in gear.”

“Maybe so,” she said with a pained grin. “But I can sure as hail buy some time for that ugly guy over there.”

I looked over at the boss and cursed myself. It had played such a limited part in the fight that I had almost forgotten it was there.

I [Flash Stepped] towards it, felt the magic it was gathering, and tried to use [Disrupt]…

I was too late.

It cast three things simultaneously in a cacophony of voices.

“[Equipment Revert].”

“[Temporal Chains].”

“[Force Cooldown: All].”

The effect of the first one was glaringly obvious as I suddenly found myself wearing the basic green tunic and pants I had worn in my first life oh so many years ago.

The second was also evident by the translucent chains that wrapped around me and the oh-so-helpful System message.

System: You are grappled and cannot move

The third… was more of a feeling in my very being. It had forced all of my skills and spells to go onto cooldown. All of them. Until their cooldown times were up, I could use no magic or skills.

That somehow made me feel even more naked than the forced removal of my armor.

“Quickly,” the boss stated. “You must strike now while he’s vulnerable!”

“Got it!” Gertrude said as she pulled out her greataxe.

Meanwhile, my mind was going into overdrive.

I have to undo that spell. I need my skills back! But everything’s on cooldown… except a new spell!

That lightning bolt of inspiration was exactly what I needed, and I put every neuron of my brain to task trying to create the new spell.

Chant, short. Cast time, short. Spell cost… I looked at my full mana, nearly full stamina bar, and then at the crazed [Berserker] charging me. Everything. Cooldown time-

While I was rapidly putting together the spell parameters, Gertrude approached me much faster.

Whatever works! There’s no time! I have to undo this!

“[Great Cleave]!” Gertrude shouted as she leaped into the air with her axe shining.

Undo, undo! I screamed mentally as I frantically slapped [Temporus] magic together.

It was do or die, and I cast whatever I had as the axe descended toward my skull. What I had was…

“[Control Z]!” I shouted.

The words had scarcely left my lips when Gertrude’s axe cleaved through me.

.

.

.

.

.

And I breathed a sigh of relief as she toppled over backward.

“[Clock Stop],” the boss cast. I spun to face him and belatedly realized that the chains had vanished and my gear had been returned.

“You used [Reflect Attack],” the boss stated. “And you could only use that because you dismantled my [Force Cooldown] with a spell you crafted in mere seconds.”

I shrugged as I approached him. “For what it’s worth, you’re just a normal boss. I’m supposed to be the final one.”

“Indeed,” he chuckled dryly.

With the panic of my life and death scenario behind me, I finally had time to realize the strange cast he had done. I looked down at the [Berserker’s] body floating in mid-air about a foot off the ground.

“Why the [Clock Stop] on her?” I asked.

“She is dying, and she deserved better than to become a low-level zombie to your curse,” the boss stated. “Would you please?”

“Uhh, sure,” I replied. I walked over, remembered that Gertrude’s axes were enchanted with undead bane, and then gently embedded one of her discarded hand axes into her leg.

“[Resume],” the boss stated as Gertrude’s lifeless body fell to the ground. “[Temporalport].”

The [Berserker’s] body vanished, and I gave him a quizzical look.

“Her body has been returned to the nation that she loved,” he stated simply.

“Got it,” I replied. Then, I pulled out Insurance. “So, you’re an undead. Should I just get this over with? I don’t know how much HP you got, but this could take a while, and I’m feeling a bit ticked off.”

“There is no need for that,” he stated quietly. The arm of his cloak reached into the main body and pulled out a heart. It was gold and made entirely of clocks that were spinning at entirely different rates, including backward.

“A single strike to here with an undead bane weapon will end me,” he stated. “But before you do that…”

He motioned with his hand, and a chest appeared.

“This is what is rightfully yours, in addition to the boots you will reclaim,” he stated. “All of the plans for [Restart]. Every note from every [Time Wizard] that worked on it, even ones that were destroyed by the ritual itself.”

“… Thanks?” I said hesitantly as I opened the chest. I was sure that it was some kind of trick, but no. I recognized some of the information that was jotted down there, and it seemed to be exactly what he claimed.

To avoid wasting time, I simply scooped up the chest and put it into my inventory.

“But why are you helping me?” I asked.

“Because I have seen forward,” the boss sighed. “I have seen the path that you are on. The misery, the despair, and the anguish that await you.”

“Gee, thanks,” I muttered.

“But I have also seen where it can lead,” he stated with a hint of awe. “I have seen what lies past the despair and the glory that can be had. I have witnessed the dawn of a new age and the salvation of this world. I have perceived the choice that will be placed in front of you and what can come of it.”

He trailed off as he handed his heart to me.

“All that I ask, father, is that when the time comes… That you make the right choice. That you make all of this worth it.”

Without another word, I drove my sword into his heart, killing him instantly.

The health bar went to empty immediately, and the fight was over.

I had done it. I had defeated an archangel, an enhanced boss, and even the [Berserker], who was the woman of my nightmares. I had reclaimed my boots and research notes and even developed another time magic spell.

But why is it that even with all of these victories… I thought as I scooped up the remains of the broken clocks.

I still feel like I lost?

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

[1] Hardcore mode – Many games offer a “hardcore” mode and there are different meanings from game to game, but a common one is that reviving after dying is disabled so that death is permanent.