“T-thank you,” the black-cloaked girl in front of me breathed out, gulping from the offered cup of water.

She had slid up her white mask, revealing dark, grey-tinted skin beneath. I let her finish the drink before I proceeded with my interrogation.

“I’m our Master’s eighth high-cendai. Name’s Juni,” I smiled

“I’m… Eunissi mon-wai,” the girl replied. “I’m Gattaca.”

“You’re not a high-cendai?” I blinked.

“No,” Gattaca shook her head. “I have failed to impress my master, failed to make a shield. I was always terrified of the Astral Phantoms. Eunisii fused my soul into this human body using her power. Two hundred and ninety four years ago I went to study in Nemendias. I never graduated, never left this place.”

“Where’s your chimera body?” I asked, brushing back my ruby gemstone mane.

“I do not know,” she shook her head with a deep frown. “I think… Master destroyed it. I do not need it. I cannot die.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” I said softly. “What is your human name?”

“Sestina Dar Affoss,” the girl muttered. “It doesn't matter anymore. Nobody’s called me that in a very long time.”

“Which name would you prefer I use?” I asked.

“Whatever you want, my cendai,” she shrugged. “I am below you in rank.”

“I’ll call you Gatty,” I said. “Here, have a crepe with some fruit.”

I handed Gattaca a tinfoil wrapped lunch. She bit into it and then devoured the whole thing in a flash.

“This is… so yummy. I haven’t eaten in so long,” she murmured. “Thank you.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I smiled. “We’re both working for our Master. Want another one?”

Gattaca nodded. I handed her another takeout crepe.

As she ate much slower this time, I stared at her in the Astral.

There was a large hexagram wrapped around the core of her soul. It pulsated angrily within her. I just needed to observe the girl long enough to define the choker that bound her. As long as I defined it, I could destroy it with Endy and could free the poor girl from Eunice's choker. I focused on doing just that.

“Your tool controls time, yea?” I asked casually.

Gattaca nodded.

I lifted my knife up. “My tool’s name is Infi. ”

“Zero,” Gattaca tapped the watch. “Her name is Zero.”

“Does she talk to you?” I inquired.

“She does not speak,” Gattaca shook her head.

“Then how?”

“I simply know her name,” Gattaca said. “Just like I know that she won’t let me encounter myself.”

“How does your artifact work?” I continued my interrogation. “Does it actually affect causality across the entire world?”

“It does not,” Gattaca shook her head. “It only affects the things I mentally visualize fully."

“What?” I blinked.

“For seven years I studied in Nemendias, memorized, mapped out every single hallway, librarium, bathroom, classroom, brick and stone,” Gattaca said. “The changes I make here impact, modify only a single place - Nemendias. I use Nemendias like an anchor to move back and forward in time."

“Ahhh, I get it,” I smiled. “Endy works the same way! I have to define a single concept to affect it. You must have a truly excellent memory. How did you memorize all of Nemendias?”

“Yeah,” Gattaca sighed. “It was a pain, but I wrote the information into my soul using Intelligence modifiers.”

“So, umm… if you leap backwards in time and destroy a rock there, does it stop existing?” I asked. “What if an Emperor tripped on that specific rock two hundred years ago and met their one true love? Does your destruction of the rock unravel the future? How do you avoid catastrophic changes? Is time linear?”

"Time is a loop made from loops bound into themselves," Gattaca said simply.

She finished her second crepe and I saw that sparks of tears were rolling down her cheeks.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I… failed,” she uttered. “I’ve always been a failure. I’ve been at my task for so long and yet I… messed things up.”

“It’s going to be alright,” I reassured the distraught girl. “I’ll help you.”

“You will?” The half-masked head turned to me.

“Absolutely,” I nodded. “I am here to help you.”

“T-thank you, my cendai,” Gattaca's masked head bowed.

“Can you remove her negative number?” I turned to the Keeper of Keys who stood beside us, her arms crossed.

“Maybe,” Nemendias squinted at me. “It’s a rather big number.”

“Are you kidding me right now?” Her expression stated. “We just got her tagged! I am not freeing her!”

“Gatty,” I looked at the masked girl. “Will you obey me?”

“I will, my cendai,” She nodded. “As long as you assist me in my mission.”

“Yeah, about that… your mission to take over the ward is over,” I said.

“What?” Gattaca froze.

“I control the ward of Nemendias,” I said. “You jumped three hundred years into the future from the day you studied as a student here. Eunice wasn’t going to wait for you forever. Nemendias already answers to us.”

“But… but I had to give a signal… to light up the central tower with the logo of our Goddess… I…” Gatty muttered.

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“You said it yourself - you failed,” I shrugged. “Your job to take over the ward is done.”

“But… but…” Gattaca trembled.

“You know of the Truth hexagrams?” I asked.

“I do,” Gattaca nodded. “I studied them long ago.”

“Nemendias, give me six truth hexagrams please,” I said. “Make them as visible as you can. Put one on every wall.

Enormous truth hexagrams manifested on the floor, the walls and the ceiling of the office of the Keeper of Keys.

“Thanks to my efforts, Nemendias is now working with the arch-cendai,” I declared. The hexagram beneath me ignited with green brilliance, confirming my words.

“N-no… I… I…” Gatty choked out. “I…”

“It’s going to be okay,” I said, offering her my hand. “You can work with me!"

The girl nodded, offered me her gloved, trembling hand. I had finished defining the choker on her soul. I just needed to get closer her, to slash across her waist with Endy to shatter it.

When our hands connected in an embrace, something went wrong.

With a flash, the office of the Keeper of Keys was gone.

I yelped as I spun backwards through the air. I fell with a scream. My scream didn’t last longer than a few seconds.

I smashed and rolled sideways, trying to reduce the impact. Several segments of my bone armor shattered, a sharp something carved right through my cheek.

In just a few moments, I came to.

My nightcrawler armor had protected me from most of the damage, but I felt quite banged up nevertheless. My left hand felt broken, ached terribly. My shoulder was dislocated and a few of my ribs were definitely broken.

I stared up at the cavernous ceiling covered in stalactites across which rolled chasm-borne clouds. There was a large hole at the top. A scorched, truly gargantuan hole.

I lowered my eyes to discover the ruins of Undertown. I also discovered that was lying on a pile, no… an entire mountain of corpses.

“Hrm,” I heard the voice of Gattaca. “Impressive landing. You didn’t break your neck.”

The girl in the white mask was standing high above me on a decrepit, desolate favela that had been cleaved in half by a large stone. She was holding Endy! She must have taken, grabbed my knife from my sheath as she dropped me.

I noticed that corpses all around me were covered with black mold. I tried not to breathe in, but I knew that it was too late for me. I knew exactly where I was - in Illatius of the future that had been destroyed by the war, the doomed timeline in which humanity became infected and perished.

“Why?” I hissed out at the girl in the mask.

“You went against my Goddess,” she said simply. “While I ate the food you offered, I defined you, memorized you completely so that I could affect you with Zero.”

I gulped.

“You were a problem for us. Just like the rest of our problems, I brought you to the future, took you out of the equation. You have about five to ten minutes left. Feel free to cry and beg for mercy. Everyone breaks down here. Nobody survives the plague bred by Novazem necromagi.”

“What?” I gasped.

“Those bodies around you belong to the most influential archmages of Illatius,” Gattaca said, her voice jubilant. “The brightest, wisest, most powerful mages that had lived. Many of them saw themselves as invincible, all-mighty. They all perished here. This is your end of line as well, Juni.”

“You…” I choked. “You KNOW about this awful future and yet you do nothing to prevent it?! What is wrong with you?!”

“It is not my job to prevent it,” Gattaca shook her head. “So I simply take advantage of it.”

“You control time itself!” I barked. "This is bullshit!"

“Shout all you like," the masked girl shrugged. "You're stuck here, embrace it."

I gritted my teeth. The shy, beat-down persona of Gattaca was replaced with something else. Something dark, cold and malicious.

"Everything on Andross dies one way or another. The war with Novazem is inevitable. The winter that comes after lasts for a thousand years,” Gattaca shook her head. “When Eunice gave me the watch, I went into the future and witnessed the end of Illatius. My Master knows this is the end of this game, the total reset of all life on Andross. She became a goddess and used doomed humanity to escape this inevitability, to live on as an Astral being free of the boundaries of the fragile flesh."

"Why?!" I howled. "Why let winter come? Could she not build a better future instead?! Are her followers worth nothing to her?"

"Desperation and fear of inevitable death create the most potent sacrifice possible. Even those that opposed Eunisii started to pray to our Goddess to save them on the day the Novazem plague spread its wings across the world," Gattaca said.

I gasped at her declaration.

“This is the perfect place to take my Master’s enemies to. Nobody can escape from here. Not even a level seven hundred archmage Numor Okosh, the personal advisor of Emperor Bolsh could endure this place. He broke down in four and a half minutes, wept like a child and died in agony as the plague took hold of his flesh. It was just as easy to trick him as it was to deceive you. Nobody can resist a little, cute me. All I had to do to bring him here was shake his hand.”

The girl in the mask laughed. She slid Endy into her belt.

“You… you vanished the most capable mages of Illatius away, ended their lives prematurely, brought them all here?!” I waved my hand at the mountain of corpses beneath me, feeling both horrified and disgusted.

“Everyone dies given enough time,” the girl in the mask shrugged. “I simply took them to the end of this loop!”

“You... lied to me,” I uttered.

“I did not lie. I simply... didn't tell you everything. I’m a bad girl, you see,” Gattaca said. “Go on then, weep, beg for me to bring you back. Amuse me.”

I growled at Gattaca. She tricked me. I thought that I had won her heart, but the truth was that just like Georgia she had no heart, was a monster under Eunice’s control.

“You knew about me then?” I asked.

“I saw Eunice in a dream,” Gattaca nodded. “She told me to take care of you. I did. You’re no longer a problem, no longer able to affect the outcome of our game.”

I turned my head, trying to figure out which part of Undertown I was in. Then I slid down the mountain of corpses, heading to the nearest rubble filled street. I felt something taking hold of me, felt that my lungs were aching, that it was getting harder to breathe.

“Where are you running off to?” Gattaca asked. “There’s no escape from this place. I have your artifact.”

“The plague doesn’t affect you, huh?” I muttered.

“Oh it does, but I can simply rewind the infection away,” the girl shrugged.

She appeared at the top of another decayed building with a flicker, watching me in amusement.

I felt that I was slowing down, that my muscles were not responding to me anymore. The necromage-designed infection was devouring me from within, making quick work of my body. The cut on my cheek was burning as if it was on fire now.

I knew that I wasn’t going to make it. That the damned trickster with a pocket watch had trapped me in an inescapable scenario, played me just as she had played countless Illatius mages.

I also knew that if I died again, if I broke another Infinite Mirror then my soul would tear asunder. It didn’t matter how many saves I had if I couldn’t even handle the rewind!

Every breath was burning my lungs now, my eyes were watering. I could barely see where I was running anymore, stumbling, tripping over garbage and corpses beneath my feet.

My legs gave out from under me.

“Tick tock, says the clock,” Gattaca sang from atop of the ruined building. “Time waits for no one. All succumb to its cruelty. Even Nemendias was vaporized, pieces of it spread all over down here by the detonation of the bomb of the Necromagi. See? I'm still in Nemendias, leaping over her remnants, stepping on her bricks that fell down here to Undertown."

"Were you forced to do this upon Eunice's orders or are you simply a damned monster?" I choked, losing my voice as my tongue swelled and blistered.

"I had been nice once, long ago, I think," the girl said. "But after enough time... I gave up, embraced what I was doing, found entertainment in bringing our enemies here. Oh how the mighty ones fall, how they beg for mercy, cry for aid. Only here do they realize that their mountains of gold, their magic, their authority is worth nothing in the end."

I crawled forward.

There was a corpse of a mage in front of me, her once ostentatious, gold robes and shiny armacus bracelet now covered in dust, looking utterly out of place here in the ruins of Undertown. Her skull was staring at me, her teeth frozen in a grotesque smile of death. Black mold was blossoming from the cracks in her ossified skin.

“Congratulations, you’ve made it as far as archmage Dovius Malosh,” Gattaca commented snidely. "Oh how Dovius struggled, tried to run away from her fate, but she too embraced the inevitability of it all."

I crawled towards the corpse of Dovius.

“I’m going to change this, you bastard,” I hissed out. “I’m going to stop you. I’m going to undo all of this, prevent the war.”

“No, you won’t,” the masked girl said, tapping her pocket watch. “You have about thirty seconds before your body fully rots from within. Pray to Eunisii, bow to our Goddess and your soul will be rescued by her, made part of her heaven, perhaps have a chance at reincarnation in a thousand years time."

"Never," I hissed.

"Once your body decays, the Astral Phantoms inhabiting this place will devour your soul," Gattaca said. "Embrace Eunisii or be consumed."

My entire body hurt horribly, burned all over now. Before I reached the dead mage, my hands stopped responding. I had run out of air. The infection had won, destroyed my lungs, stopped my blood from flowing.

I coughed black bile as my eyes closed, my fingers curling in on themselves.

“Goodbye Juni,” the girl in the bone-white mask said. “It was fun playing with you.”