"What's this parallel timeline?" Gaus asked.

"Oh?" Minorita said, "I understand why the term will be confusing to you. My friends and I believed this world is just one timeline. So for convenience, we named the other timeline as the parallel timeline. I'm sure the people over there would have a different name for it. You will have a different name for it."

Okay, but something still didn't make any sense.

"You said the deceiver created the Multiverse by joining the two timelines. So why is the parallel timeline still in existence?" He asked.

"That's what we've been trying to find out," she said. "You still didn't answer my question. Are you from the parallel timeline?"

He didn't know if coming from the parallel timeline was a good or a bad thing.

"I'm not from the parallel timeline."

"Then where did you come from? Why aren't you on any register?" She asked.

Sooner or later someone was going to ask him that question. He'd thought about how to answer it and the best way would be to avoid answering the question altogether. He didn't even know if there were other earthlings in the Multiverse. How uncommon would it be for him to come from another world? How would the inhabitants of the Multiverse react?

"Why are you so interested in my origin?" He asked.

"I just want to make sure we aren't enemies," she said.

"That's it?"

"Yes, that's it."

There was more to it than just 'making sure they weren't enemies'. She was curious. He could see it in her eyes. Perhaps, he could turn her curiosity to his advantage.

"Hey, " Gaus said. "I'll tell you where I came from and you'll tell me about London. What do you say?"

"London?" Her eyes went wide. She was confused. Why would a stranger be interested in London? "You know what? I don't care about where you came from. Let's just keep this professional: you'll carry my memory package and I'll give you the skills you need."

Uh-oh, she saw through it. Well, it was an obvious trap and he didn't really think she would fall for it.

"So, what will you be teaching me today?" He asked.

"Choose a topic," she said.

Time magic was his favorite. He had this high affinity for it and the first time he tried it he got two skills almost effortlessly. It would be nice to start with something he enjoyed doing.

"Let's start with cord shedding. I already have cord pulling and longevity sense."

"Cord pulling, huh? Why don't you pull my cord?"

He looked at her questioningly, wondering if he heard her right.

"Just do it," she said.

He created a pair of hands from world essence and grabbed her cord with it, or at least he thought he did until the cord disappeared just before he touched it.

Startled, he turned to her for answers.

"You can't see it, can you?" She asked.

He nodded. "Is this cord shedding?" He asked.

"No," she said. "This is called invisible cord. It just makes the cord invisible. The simplest way to bypass it is to attach world essence to it."

But how could he attach world essence if he couldn't even see it?

"It's simple," she said. "Just create a big balloon of world essence and surround my body with it."

He turned the world essence around her into a balloon. For him, controlling world essence had always been easy, almost trivial. He considered it to be normal since nobody seemed to react to it.

"Compress it," she said.

With a simple mental command, the balloon began to shrink. The cord became prominent. At first, it was translucent but it slowly became solid. He could see it now.

"I can see it!" He said.

"That's fast," she said.

Congratulations, you've learned longevity color.

As a practitioner of time magic, your ability to identify the cord is invaluable. That's why you need longevity sense. But what if the cord suddenly turned invisible and you can't see it even with longevity sense? Longevity color will make it visible.

Cost: 10 MP per minute.

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

Congratulations, you have learned invisible cord.

Your cord is now invisible. If they can't see it, they can't touch it.

Cost: 10 MP per second

"Now that you can see it let's move to the next exercise. Grab it."

Instead of its usual opacity, the cord was now steam. It started moving as well. He reached for it but it dodged. He tried to grab it from the opposite side but it dodged just as easily as the first time. He created another pair of hands and tried again. When that didn't work, he created another pair making a total of six. He took several minutes but he finally grabbed it.

Congratulations, you have learned mobile cord.

Rank: common

Your cord is now mobile. Although they can see it they can't catch it.

Cost: 10 MP per second

"You're doing better than I expected. You can even create six hands from world essence. Wonderful."

He just grabbed and pulled her cord and she didn't even notice it. Ariwen almost died from the same thing. Was she resistant?

As if answering his question, the cord slipped through his hands.

"I have activated another defensive skill called immaterial cord," she said. "Let's see if you can grab it now."

The cord didn't dodge like the last time, but he couldn't touch it. It would slip through his hands like it wasn't even there. One desperate attempt after another. He lost count.

"Why can't I touch it?" He asked.

"Alright, lemme give you a hint. Make the hands thicker by pumping more world essence into them and then try again."

He put more energy making the hands bigger but to no avail. No matter how much world essence he used he just couldn't touch the cord.

"Oh, please, put your heart in it. I believe you can do it."

He tried for one hour straight.

"Alright, you can stop now," she said. "It appears even you can't do it. I couldn't do it either. I thought you are different."

Gaus glared at her. She was the same mean library receptionist.

"Most people will run out of luck if they face an enemy with immaterial cord," she said. "You have invisible cord and motile cord, you only need immaterial cord to learn cord shedding. Let me ask you a question, out of the three branches of the dark arts, which one do you think is the most useful in battle?"

"Mind magic?" He said. "You can knock your opponent unconscious and it won't matter how powerful they are."

"But you can knock someone unconscious with cord pulling or any other soul attack as well," she said.

"But mind mages can affect people's thoughts," he said. "They can create illusions and read memories and control humans remotely."

"I don't deny mind mages are wonderful in many fields," she said. "But you are missing the point. I asked you which skill is the most useful in battle."

"I... don't know," he said.

"What if I told you there's a skill that can stop every other skill? A skill that can stop mana?" She asked.

Was that even possible?

"I'm listening," he said.

"When someone activated immaterial cord, the only way you can defeat them is to target their mana veins. The cord can't be pulled but the veins are still there and you can affect them."

"What are the veins?" He said. "I have never seen them."

"You won't see them until you level up longevity color to level 10," she said.

If that was meant to discourage him then it failed. He had the experience from his last visit to the old dungeon.

Longevity color has reached level 10.

Mana veins will be 10x more visible.

The cost has reduced to 9 MP per minute.

"It's done," he said. "What's next... Huh?"

Minorita's cord suddenly looked different. It was no longer just a unit. There were at least twenty veins in it. Each vein was divided into several hundreds of smaller veins as it entered the body.

"You can see it now, can't you?" She said. "Each vein represented a pathway to a skill. Mana passes through the veins to the skills. If you can stop the mana before it reaches the skill then the skill won't activate."

Gaus was getting excited.

She created a bolt of lightning on her left palm.

"A normal bolt won't take more than 2 MP," she said, "I'm feeding 9.3 MP to this bolt to make the veins that supply it more prominent. I want you to identify and block them. To do that, you need to follow each major vein from the cord and check them out one by one."

He started at five minutes past two o'clock in the morning. At 2:48 am, he was still tracking the tributaries of a single vein. He still didn't know how many veins were in every major vein. His mana was almost gone, drained from using invisible cord.

"It's 2:51 am," Gaus said. "I think we should call it a day."

"Yeah," she said with a sigh. "I still can't believe it." She looked around the cave curiously, probably hoping to see some signs that the world was coming to an end.

Gaus laughed. There wouldn't be any signs. "You will get used to it." He whispered to himself.

***

Magiwatch has saved twenty-four hours.

Thirty minutes was how long he took to get back to the forest.

"I changed my mind," Minorita said. "I think I'll take your offer."

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Gaus was startled for a moment. He then realized what she was talking about.

"You want to tell me about London?" He asked.

"Yes," she said. "But you'll have to tell about yourself too. Where you came from and why you aren't on any register."

It appeared she fell for his trap after all.

"Go on. Tell me about London."

It was such a good question.

Minorita turned to the woman behind her. "Lilat?"

"Yes, ma'am," Lilat said.

"Please give us the room," Minorita said.

Lilat nodded and walked outside. She took the two guards outside with her and closed the door behind.

What could be so important?

"London is a city from a place called Earth. It's very far away from here and I won't be surprised if you have never heard about it before. I was born there."

He was right about her.

"Are you ready for my question?" She asked.

Gaus nodded. He knew what she wanted already but it didn't matter now.

"Why aren't you on any register? Where did you come from?" She asked.

"Earth," he said. "Just like you."

"Please," she said, "be a gentleman. If you are from Earth then why aren't you in any register?"

Gaus frowned. Why would he be in any register? Did the multiverse keep a record of every earthling that came to their world?

"Why would I lie?" He asked.

She looked at him questioningly as if expecting him to turn back on his words and say he was lying.

"Earth is a distant place," she said. "The only way for the people over there to come here is through transmigration. You'll need a new body here when you come. Therefore, you will be identified in the registers."

She paused and stared at him as if that was all the explanation he needed.

"Whose body is that?" She asked, pointing at him.

Gaus blinked in confusion. This was his real body. What was she talking about?

"Are you saying...?"

"Yes," she cut him off, "I'm saying your real body couldn't have crossed over to this universe and remain in one piece. Only a soul can safely cross over."

So he came differently.

"I'm telling you this is my real body," he said. "It's your choice to believe it or not."

"Tell me five places in America; towns, cities, anything," she said.

"Really? Vermont, Florida, Los Angeles, New York, Massachusetts, Chicago, Texas, Pa... Do I need to go on?"

Unconvinced, she wrote something on a paper and gave it to him.

"Read this and I'll believe you," she said.

It was written in English.

"I'll tell you what this means but I'll ask the next question. Do you understand?" He said.

She nodded in agreement.

"Okay. This is English. It says Rachel from America was here. I believe I saw something like this in the old dungeon."

"You did?" She said. "I didn't expect to see anyone any time soon."

To his utmost disbelief, she spent the next minute 'inspecting' his body. She pinched and rubbed every part of his body she deemed appropriate for examination.

"You are an earthling!?" She said.

"Yes, I am. Look, it's my turn to ask the questions. Did you leave the writing in the old dungeon?"

"Yes, why?"

"What do you mean why?" He said, frowning. "You told me you are Cinder. So what is it? Cinder or Rachel?"

"No, I'm Rachel. Cinder is just a nickname from my favorite movie - Cinderella."

So she was Rachel from America and she left the writings in the old dungeon. But something still wasn't clear.

"Why London? You are an American. You could have used any other city but you choose London and William Wilberforce. Is there something else I should know about?"

"I died in London," she said. "As for William Wilberforce, it wasn't my doing. Another earthling was here before me."

Another earthling? Now he wanted to know how many earthlings were in the Multiverse.

"How long have you been here?" She asked.

"About three months now," he said. "You?"

"I was here 21 years ago," she said.

"Twenty-one years?" Gaus said. "What have you been doing all this time?"

"Fighting the slavers, living my life, making friends, and many more other things." She shrugged. "So, you were thrown into the loop as soon as you came?"

"Yes," he said. "Anyway, how many of us are here?"

"Just you and I," she said. "I haven't seen anybody else since I came here. Long before me, there was Silvia from England. Before her, there was Hinditri from India. They all died in London so the name had become somewhat of a code for me. I believe you've also come from London."

"No," he said. "I have never been to London."

She frowned in confusion.

"You are redefining everything we know about transmigration," she said, "first, we have believed the human body can't cross over and yet you did. We've also believed our transmigration is directly related to London (since that was where we've all died) and you have never even been to London. We have also believed our transmigration has something to do with this body," she pointed at herself, "apparently not."

She paced around the room, murmuring to herself.

"I understand why you would relate everything to London, but why your body? Is there anything special about it?" He asked.

"I guess there's no reason to hide it from you now," she said. "This is not my body and I'm not the first earthling to have it. The other two that came before me all used it."

What the hell...?

"The first to come was Silvia Javier from England. After she died, Hinditri Helsinbird from India inherited the body. And then there was me - Rachel Salesal. The body originally belonged to Minorita. Very few people know the truth about this and most people call me all the four names."

Holy shit. So all of them shared the same body. Rachel would be forced to live with the choices made by her predecessors. He was lucky to have his body.

"By the way, was it helpful?" She asked.

"What? Oh, it was," he said. "I wouldn't have survived the staircase without it."

"That's good to hear," she said. "I was planning to help the next person that will inherit my body, assuming they will come from an English-speaking country. I have left a couple more in the lower levels."

Gaus hadn't thought of helping 'the next person that would come after him'. He didn't even know there were others.

"Thank you," he said. "I'll be sure to repay your kindness."

"Don't mention it. Helsinbird and Minorita and Javier have all left a lot of things for me too. I wonder if they knew about the time loop before they died. By the way, can you tell me more about the time loop? I'm really confused about a lot of things."

"The time loop is not a safe zone," he said, "there are others in it. They are all-powerful and from what I have seen so far they have armies to back them."

He told her everything he knew about the loop. He told her about Tyren and the marines and the academy. In the end, the only thing he didn't tell her was the second time loop.

"But, what is the purpose?" She said. "There doesn't seem to be any purpose in all of these."

A purpose? He didn't consider it.

"Am I missing something?" She asked. "Is there anything happening beneath the surface?"

Rachel believed whoever (or whatever) created the time loop must have something in mind. They must have a reason for it. When he was captured by XM9999, the man told him he couldn't leave the city in the evening after 7 pm. Did that mean there was something significant going on outside the holy city?

"There's nothing out of the ordinary," Rachel said. "I have agents in many places."

"I need to go to the academy," Gaus said. "Let's continue the discussion in the evening."

***

Linc dragged him to his office as soon as the class was over.

"We can't afford to slack off," Linc said, "I have seen what you can do and I believe you can do better. You just have to try harder. Have you made any progress since yesterday?"

Gaus could barely restraint himself from rolling his eyes at the man.

"No, sir, I haven't," he said.

"It's okay," Linc said. "At least, you have tried."

No, he didn't try it, not that he was going to tell the teacher that, of course.

"I'll start by throwing stones over your left shoulder," Linc said. "Are you ready?"

The next two hours were torture. Gaus couldn't deflect the stones and he ended up with a swollen arm.

He returned to the forest hoping to continue his lessons with Minorita instead he was dragged into another question and answer session.

"So a temporary looper is at the bottom of the food chain?" She asked.

"Well, yes, if you exclude the initiates," Gaus said.

"And this temporary looper called XM0033 mentioned my name?" She asked.

"Yes," he said. "But he didn't just mention your name. He told me they killed you. Obviously, it wasn't you. By the way, I want to know if these soul-pillars of yours can stop the soulbond from activating."

"Of course," she said. "You have nothing to worry about."

He would have to wait and see. If she was right then the second loop would be gone for good.

"I would worry more about the purpose of the loop if I were you," she said. "Let's assume something terrible is happening and the time loop was created to help us stop it. What will happen if we don't stop it?"

"And don't you think we will know if something terrible is happening?" Gaus asked.

"That's not the point," she said. "The point is we have to find out what the purpose is before it's too late."

She spent the next few minutes hypothesizing the possible purpose of the loop and predicting possible outcomes. Was the loop created for or against them? In the end, there was nothing definitive.

His training was focused on identifying mana veins and how to differentiate active from inactive veins. There was a very faint, almost invisible, glow seen only in the active veins. He still wasn't anywhere close to finding the vein that supplied the lightning bolt.

The next three loops were uneventful. Minorita was eager to teach him and she didn't get angry even when he failed repeatedly. Linc, on the other hand, remained as brutal as ever. Gaus had tried to leave his tutelage several times without success. Once you signed the mentor-mentee program then you'd have to bear with it for a minimum of one month.

He was excited the restart was coming to an end. He would finally see the effect of the soul-pillars. If everything worked out then Tyren would have a little surprise.

When the final day came, he went to bed as early as he could. If he woke up in the enchantment class then the soul-pillars didn't work. At least then he would get rid of Linc.

***

At first light, Gaus woke up with a resounding scream.

It was a new loop. It worked.

Just how would Tyren feel when he woke up in the morning and he realized his plan didn't work?

Gaus stayed low for three days. Every day expecting to find himself suddenly pulled back to the beginning of the week. Nothing happened.

As the days went by, he started to relax. Linc was slowly losing interest in him which was the best thing that had happened to him in the whole week. Antelina had agreed to help him with the training.

"This is dangerous," she had said during their first session. "How about I target the wall instead and you try to deflect it? That way even if you missed it I wouldn't hurt you."

That was what Linc should have done from the beginning. But the man thought targeting him would be better.

Four days later and Gaus was rewarded with:

You've learned space levitation.

This is a variation of levitation that affects the range of targeted objects. You don't have to be close to the target anymore.

Cost: 5 MP per meter.

Two days later and he was rewarded again.

You've learned weightless levitation.

This is a variation of levitation that affects the weight of the targeted objects. You are no longer restricted by how big the target is.

Cost: 5 MP per kg.

Space levitation allowed him to target the projectile as soon as it was launched, unlike before when he had to wait for it to enter his range. Whereas weightless levitation allowed him to affect bigger projectiles.

A week later, he got another one. Antelina was wonderful.

You've learned mana levitation.

This is a variation of levitation that affects mana-charged objects. You don't have to be bothered by mana-charged arrows and swords anymore.

Cost: 5 MP per second.

Linc was the worst teacher. He didn't tell him levitating mana-charged objects required a skill. The tablet Linc used during their training was charged with mana, no wonder he couldn't get it.

"Antelina?"

"Yes, Rep?"

"I want to buy you dinner in the most expensive restaurant in town," he said.

It was to show his gratitude and he could swear on everything he held dear there was nothing more to it.

"It's fine. I would understand if you don't want to go."

She had always been reserved. Not to mention the wave of rumors that Tiara would start as soon as she spotted them. He wouldn't mind if she turned him down.

"I... would like that," she said.

"Yeah?" He asked.

"Yeah," she said.

The following day came and he took her to Niama.

"I want Pasta, cherry, starfish, and a bottle of red beer," she said.

"That's about three plates, you know," Gaus said.

"Girls at my age need to eat a lot to grow," she said. "My brother told me men don't like slender women."

Huh? He didn't know she was concerned about what men would think about her.

"No, I didn't mean..." She stuttered. Her face flushed with embarrassment.

"No beer," he said. An attempt to change the topic and allow the girl to regain her composure.

"Why?" She asked.

Gaus sighed in exasperation. The girl wasn't old enough to drink. Somehow the Multiverse didn't feel it was appropriate to stop kids from taking alcoholic beverages.

"How old are you?" He asked.

"I'm sixteen," she said.

"See? You are still too young to drink."

She frowned. "What does my age have to do with drinking?"

"Age and health are closely related, " he said. "You have to be legally responsible to drink. Even then I wouldn't advise overdoing it because of the potential damage to your liver."

"What are you talking about? What's... lever?" She asked and then suddenly came to a realization. "Is the beer too expensive?"

"What? No. That's not why..."

"Hey," the man sitting on the adjacent seat chimed in. Gaus could have sworn there was nobody on the seat up until now. "Take my advice and give her what she wants."

Noble Antelina

"You heard the man," she said. "You should let me have it."

It's just one bottle.

It wasn't a big deal. Most girls in her hometown learned how to drink from a young age. But for some reason, Gaus didn't like it.

Gaus looked upset. He probably didn't like the stranger barging in.

"Noble Antelina?" The stranger said.

She had never seen him in her entire life. How did he know her name?

"Do I know you?"

"No, I'm afraid not," he said.

His voice was strange. It was... girly, totally not compatible with his muscular build.

"Then how did you know my name?" She asked.

"That's not important," he said. "What's important is I know you and I know your boyfriend."

Gaus had been silently staring at the man. Something was off.

"I'm not happy about your recent actions, Gaus," the stranger said.

She looked at Gaus and back at the stranger. They didn't like each other. Gaus was angry and frustrated. The stranger, on the other hand, gave off no feelings.

"What you did was both dishonest and cowardly," the stranger told Gaus. "I want you to cut all your ties with Minorita. You have until the end of this loop. Is that understood?"

"It's well understood, mister Ayurvada," Gaus said. "Do you have any other thing you'll like me to do for you? Perhaps, dust your shoes?"

"You don't get it, do you?" The stranger said, frowning. He looked more dangerous than he already was.

"Antelina?" He called her name. His voice thundering like the storms of her worst nightmares.

"Yes?" She answered.

"Your friend is not honest with you. Did he tell you how he joined the loop before he joined the academy? Ask him about it when you go home."

Somehow she knew he was telling the truth. But how was that even possible?

"This is just the beginning," the stranger said. "Every day you remain with Minorita is another day I'll involve one of your friends. Should I tell you who's next?"