First world

Northern hemisphere

Headquarters of the marines

The day Gaus came to the Multiverse...

***

A middle-aged man sat on a chair with both his feet resting on the table in front of him, one foot on top of the other. The table was wide, its top was black and shiny. The room was also painted black from the ceiling to the floor. It seemed like someone had gone to a great length of making the room black.

The man's eyes were the black color, from the sclera to the iris. His shoes were as black as the table. His clothes were even darker than the table, with not a speck of dirt on them. All in all, the only thing not black in the room was the man's skin. He was so pale that people would assume he'd white-colored blood in his veins.

This man stared at the wall in front of him in silence. He looked composed and majestic. Like a carefully curved sculpture.

As he sat there in silence, he heard a knock at the door.

"Come in," said the man. His voice was calm as if he were talking to someone sitting next to him.

Slowly the door opened and a young lady entered. She had black eyes just like him. She bowed in greetings.

"Admiral, the class is ready," she said.

He looked at his watch and took a gentle breath. On his face, there was boredom as if he was tired of life.

After a moment of silence, he straightened up and left without saying a word. And the girl followed behind him.

Within few minutes they reached the door of the classroom. The girl hurried in to the classroom and placed the papers in her hand on the table in front of the classroom.

Seeing the arrival of the secretary to the admiral, the ten people in the class fell silent, each braced themselves in their seat. Just like the secretary, everyone in the class had black eyes.

When the Admiral came in, everyone stood up in awe.

"Good morning, Admiral," they said together.

"Morning," said the Admiral. His voice was like a whisper that they had to focus on it to hear what he was saying.

He picked up black chalk on the bench and went to the whiteboard in front of the classroom and started writing. When he finished, he asked the class to read it to him.

"Chronomancy as a weapon," they read loudly and together.

The Admiral squinted his eyes a little as if awakened from his slumber.

"How long have you been in the loop?" He asked without showing who he was asking. As a result, the ten people in the class started looking at each other. They were strangers to each other and everyone wanted to hear the answer of the person sitting next to them.

"One loop year," said a young man from the front.

"Ten loop months," said another.

"Eighteen loop months," said another.

One by one, everyone said their age in the time loop.

"Does any of you know why we invited you into the loop?" The admiral said after they were done.

"To protect the marine headquarters."

"To defend the first world."

"To defend the palace."

In the same way, each one of them mentioned what they thought was right. After they finished, the Admiral sighed with a shake of his head.

"That's not correct," he said. "All of your answers are wrong. The MIA defends the first world. The Admirals defend the marine headquarters. And the palace does not need protection." He was silent as he watched them like a lion watching rats. "We have invited you only because of your tribe."

The ten people looked at the admiral in amazement. Some of them felt good about his answer, and some were visibly sad.

"We fought when the loop was created," the admiral continued. "And, rightfully, we won the battle. Now there isn't a worthy opponent left. The war has been won. Our enemies are dead. The survivors are working for us. You have nothing to do now but watch. We'll teach you magic so you can go and stand watch over your respective Houses. That's all. Is there any question?"

A woman raised her hand.

"Admiral, if there are no more enemies then why are the Qatalans always ready for war? And why is the loop still not over?"

The admiral smiled for the first time since entering the classroom.

"To be complete," the admiral said. "We won the battle even before X, we won in X, and we won in M, do you think there is anything that will stop us from winning again? Or do we, the magi of Old who fought in X and M, need help from you?"

"But Admiral..." The admiral frowned, which made the woman hesitated and chose her words carefully. "There are enemies in LA who still hate us. Do you think we are still not needed?"

The Admiral closed his eyes with a sigh.

"Well," he shrugged. "It seems it will take some time before you can understand. Just remember that if the army is so strong, you would find that they are complete. Only a weak army needs more to close the gap. And we are strong and complete."

The class members looked down. All their enthusiasm and joy were gone. They kept thinking: what good was the lesson if they couldn't join the MIA or the marines.

"Maybe," said the Admiral. "In the next hundred years, you will replace some of the warriors we have in the lower worlds. In that time what you learn today will be useful."

"I'll wait a thousand years to join the Qatalans," said the woman.

"I will as well," said another.

The Admiral smiled. He wasn't sure if they would need the youngsters by then but their courage was impressive. He always wanted to tell newcomers the truth so that they wouldn't live their lives chasing a hopeless dream.

"We'll see then," he said.

The class regained some of its colors. Some of the students had determined looks and others were just happy to be sitting in the same room as the admiral. And the lesson started.

Then it happened. It was sudden and unexpected. The world turned black and he couldn't see anything. It was as if someone had forced him to close his eyes. When he regained his vision a moment later, he saw a very familiar albeit slightly different message from the system.

Magiwatch has saved 5 seconds.

At first, the admiral saw it as a joke. He stood there dumbstruck, silently staring down at the floor.

"Admiral?" One of the students called out to him seeing he had stayed quiet for so long. But the admiral didn't answer.

"Admiral?"

"Admiral?"

Seeing that the teacher still didn't answer, the class began to get agitated. Why was he silent? Did they say something wrong?

For his part, the Admiral was immersed in thought. He was the only one with Rewind. All the people he had invited into the loop and the people they had invited could not turn time back. Only he could do that. But he just saw a rewind. The world had turned back for 5 seconds. Was it a glitch?

But then it happened again.

Magiwatch has saved 40 seconds.

He turned and walked out of the classroom without giving the lesson. There was no longer any calm or arrogance on his face as he left.

"Admiral? What happened?" Zulia, his secretary, asked him.

The Admiral didn't stop or even respond to her in any way. He ran to his office. Once inside, he pulled out the drawer in the central table and removed some papers and books. At the bottom of all the documents was a diary that had already collected dust.

He picked up the book and wiped the dust off with his hands. Zulia wanted to dust the book for him but he wouldn't let her.

She had never seen the admiral acting this way. It was unnerving, to say the least. For a long moment, he opened the book and read the text inside.

"Quickly invite Porasak of the Old World," he said.

"Ok... okay," Zulia said, stuttering. She ran out of the office.

A couple of minutes later, the secretary brought back an old woman. After they entered, Zulia stepped back and left the two alone.

"Red," said Advisor Porasak. "What happened?" She looked at her watch. "You should be in class by now."

"Sit down," he said. It was a command, so she sat down without complaining. "There's another Rewind user."

Porasak looked at him silently, waiting for him to tell her he was joking.

"Another Rewind user?" She asked, unsure if she heard him right.

Red nodded. Then he explained everything to her, including the Rewinds he had seen.

The two were immediately thrown into a reverie. For ten minutes none of them said a word.

"I thought it was over," Porasak said. "I thought we were done with the enemy. No matter, we'll win just like in the old times. Have you identified where the Rewind was used?"

Red shook his head. "No, not yet. But I can sense it between the sixth and the seventh world."

Porasak frowned in confusion. Despite the distance, Red should be able to pinpoint the exact location of the user. Unless if...

"I sense him," Red said. "But he is very weak. I can't tell exactly where he is. It's like his mana is not even tamed."

Porasak frowned at the statement. A weak Rewind user? Just what did that even mean?

"What should we do now?" She said.

Admiral Red took a deep breath. He thought that when violence came he would get a job, which would make him happy because he was tired of sitting idly, but he didn't think the violence would come to him in that form.

"The King and the other Admirals will need a report on this. What shall we tell the...?" Porasak said.

"Do you think the parallel timeline is still affecting us?" Red interrupted.

Porasak frowned at the question and then shook her head. "No, Red, we are done with the parallel timeline. Everything was sorted out. You have the Rewind created in this timeline and the duplicate Rewind that appeared in the parallel timeline was sorted out and destroyed. You and I both know how it happened. We shouldn't even talk about the parallel timeline anymore."

"But how can anyone get the Rewind if not from there?" Said the admiral. "There is no Rewind other than the one we have. And no one can create anything like it."

Porasak was silent. There was some truth in his words. But it just couldn't have come from the parallel timeline. There had to be some other explanation.

"Don't let anyone know about this," admiral Red Rider said. "Go, I'll inform you of my decision in a few days."

Loops later...

Admiral Red and Porasak sat in an ordinary chariot. The inside was dark because the curtain hanging on the doors and windows was made in a way that stopped people from seeing the insides of the chariot.

"I can smell his mana here," said the admiral.

Porasak sighed and closed her eyes. Earlier, they followed the mana coming from the Rewind and it brought them to Fydeba. But when they came they realized the mana was attached to the world essence. And since the world essence was ubiquitous and connected to the wind they could not determine the origin of the source. They have been roaming around Fydeba since 3 am but had not yet identified the Rewind user.

"Let's walk into the city," said the admiral. "If we get closer to them I can figure out where they are."

There was a reason why they didn't walk into the city in the first place. Fydeba was a city they left behind long ago. When the people saw them walking around in broad daylight it would become an issue.

But in their case, they weren't worried about any gossip, not anymore. They put on ordinary robes and turbans around their heads to disguise themselves and entered the city.

They walked around the city, activating their senses to the fullest. Arriving at Niama, the admiral pointed to the restaurant from a distance. "The mana concentration is greater there."

"Do you think he's there?" Porasak asked.

The admiral shook his head. "No, it looks like he just passed by, or he's been there today. But there is no pacifist in the restaurant now."

Porasak frowned. Even though they were close, they still found it difficult to cope with the ubiquitous world essence.

Magiwatch has saved 15 seconds.

The admiral turned and headed south with big strides. Porasak followed him behind. She had been with him long enough to know better than to interrupt him at times like this.

Arriving at the city market, the admiral stopped.

"I just sensed another mana disturbance here," said the admiral, looking around.

"Can we look around the market?" Porasak said.

The admiral was silent looking at a casino from a distance. After a while, he shook his head. "The mana's fill the whole market. And I feel it outside as well. Either they are aware we're tailing them and are trying to shake us off, or they are like fish, never staying in one place."

"Now what do we do?" Said Porasak.

Without answering, the admiral turned and walked out of the market. Along the way, they arrived at a hotel called Crisstar. The admiral stopped and stared at the hotel for a long moment.

"Porasak?" He said. "I think I understand the technique our enemy uses. They continuously push their mana into the surrounding world essence all the time. So finding them through mana sense will be difficult, if at all possible."

Porasak knitted her eyebrows in confusion. How much mana did a person have to push into the world essence to create such effect? And since they had no idea who the enemy was and didn't have their soul signature, mana sense was the only way they could find them. But if their mana was connected to the world essence, and the world essence was connected to air, then there was no way for them to know exactly where they were. A bit downside of using the Rewind was having your mana being broadcast to your enemies. But this person had it all under control.

"Book us a room there," said admiral Red, pointing to Crisstar. "Make sure it's on the highest ground."

Porasak nodded and hurried into the hotel. She soon returned with the key to room four hundred and three.

He picked up the key and sent the old woman downtown to look for mana rods.

"I'll be inside when you return," he said.

At half-past two in the morning, the admiral and Porasak sat in the rented room, cross-legged and on the cold floor. They were surrounded by five large rods of mana, each measuring ten cubits long. Similar but smaller rods sat in front of the admiral.

After sitting there for a few minutes, the admiral turned the crown of his watch until it was six minutes and fifty-five seconds back. Then he closed his eyes and opened his senses for mana.

Porasak was beside him, pushing her mana into the big rods.

They took ten minutes to complete the formation and admiral Red opened his eyes.

"Quickly check out these places: the arena, Bol street, Sizea hotel, Adnex street, and the main library downtown."

Porasak nodded and clapped her hands together in a gesture to disappear. The Admiral continued to turn his watch in an attempt to find out exactly where the man using Rewind was.

Magiwatch has saved 3 seconds.

You have Rewound for 3 seconds, effectively erasing everything in the said period. Only you will remember.

Magiwatch has saved 8 seconds.

You have Rewound for 8 seconds, effectively erasing everything in the said period. Only you will remember.

Magiwatch has saved 8 seconds.

You have Rewound for 8 seconds, effectively erasing everything in the said period. Only you will remember.

The two men spent the day searching but in the end, they couldn't find the culprit. The next morning they continued from where they had stopped yesterday. It went on like this for several days.

One day, they felt the power of the Rewind suddenly surged in the arena. They hurried there and quickly found a seat among the crowd to disguise themselves. The jinzidal competition, in which the nations competed for slaves, was underway.

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"That's him," said the admiral with thinly-veiled excitement, pointing to Tyren as the young man battled Nazára in the quarter-finals. "He's using my Rewind. I can smell it on him."

"But..." Porasak was silent, choosing her words carefully so as not to interrupt her master's excitement and hope. "He is not strong enough to push so much mana into the world essence that it prevents us from seeing him. And he's from LA, I can sense that man's energy in him."

Admiral Red seemed to consider her words. What she said was right, but he still smelled the Rewind in the arena, and most of it was coming from Tyren's body.

"Or maybe he dealt with the culprit not long ago and that's why the energy is on him," said Porasak.

"If so, "the admiral said. "How do I smell the Rewind in the arena?"

At that moment, Tyren tripped and he paid for it with his arm. Just to prove his point, admiral Red turned his watch back.

Magiwatch has saved 20 seconds.

You have Rewound for 20 seconds, effectively erasing everything in the said period. Only you will remember.

Instead of repeating what he had done in the past, Tyren simply changed his actions to save his arm.

Seeing this, Porasak and the admiral shared a concerned look. They had finally caught the thief, but some things just weren't adding up.

Like patient vultures, the two waited in the crowd until the end of the race, and they followed Tyren to a secure alleyway.

Tyren

Today was exactly eighteen days before The Master removed him from the loop. He didn't complete the task assigned to him by The Master, which was to reach the final round of the jinzidal competition, so he was deemed expendable. But Tyren had no intention of apologizing or leaving the loop like the rest of the dread. Either way, he would use his skills to stay in the loop until the very end. Just as the marines and The Master had joined the loop, he would also find a way. If his plan didn't work out, there was always Mr. Lake to extort.

As he thought of ways to achieve his dream, the chariot suddenly stopped, throwing him off balance to hit the chair in front of him.

He opened his mouth to complain but he heard the driver shouting at someone outside, probably children crossing the road inappropriately.

"Hey, keep an eye on where you are going," said the driver, Kredic Linson. "Move or I'll move you?"

Tyren peered out the window in front of him. A man stood in front of the chariot watching them, with no sign of moving out of the way anytime soon.

The man's face was covered with a turban, but from his gait and complexion, he looked somewhat like a noble.

"Aren't you moving out of the way?" Kredic yelled at him again. Seeing that he didn't move, the driver released the horse's muzzle.

The horses neighed and jumped forward. They almost ran over the man when they abruptly stopped and stood obediently in front of him. Kredic whipped them to move, but they refused, ignoring him completely.

"Come out," said the man. His voice commanding like he was talking to his slaves.

Tyren frowned. He marveled at people's arrogance. The nobility thought they were better than everyone else. They thought everyone existed just to serve them. But what they didn't realize was the loop had changed the rules. Any person who thought they had it all in the past, now would have nothing. But people would never realize it until the loop was over and the world had returned to normal. Then the powerful would realize they had nothing left to be proud of.

However, this didn't preclude one from being taught a lesson now and then.

"I'll do it," Tyren told Kredic.

Lazily he got out of the chariot and walked to the arrogant man.

"Move out of the road, mister," said Tyren, standing in front of the man. He waited for the man's answer so he could judge him based on the level of his arrogance.

The man opened his eyes. A black, ominous hole appeared where the eyes should be.

Tyren jumped back, his body trembling. "Q... Qatalan? You are Qatalan!"

"Since you now know who we are, XM0911," the man said in a low voice. "I want to know, are you Tyren Ayurvada Onis of Thaha, or Tyren Ayurvada Onis of Taha."

"I'm Thaha, my lord," said Tyren politely.

An old woman next to the man, whom Tyren had just seen, opened a large book in her hand and flipped through it.

After a minute of reading the book, she nodded. "He's on the Register."

The black-eyed man nodded to her and turned to Tyren. "Let me see your magiwatch."

Tyren looked at the Qatalan and then at his watch. He could run and hope to get lucky, and he could stop and just show them the watch. He didn't know what they were looking for but there wasn't anything in his watch that would attract Qatalan to him. And if he ran, they would follow him in the next loop. It was clear they knew who he was.

"Here," Tyren said. He handed them his watch hand.

The Qatalan held the watch and stared at it for ten minutes straight. Although he was sweating, Tyren withstood the burning sensation in him as the Qatalan ran his mana through him. Once he let him go, Tyren jumped further away from him, gasping for breath. He seemed to have fallen ill all of a sudden.

The Qatalan turned to the old woman and shook his head. The woman in turn took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

"You should have lost your right arm while fighting Nazára," the Qatalan said to him. "How did you survive it?"

Tyren blinked his eyes in confusion.

"I don't understand," he said. "What arm?"

The Qatalan just stared at him. After a while, he pulled out a card from his pocket and handed it to Tyren.

"This card has the address of the Council of Loop Masters on the first world. You can go there whenever you have any information on the loop that you think the Qatalan will need. And, of course, I don't have to tell you that this meeting should be kept a secret."

With that, the Qatalan and the old woman turned and left.

Tyren took a deep breath and wiped the sweat off his face.

"That was close."

He walked back into the chariot. Inside he met Kredic in the driver's seat, unconscious.

***

After admiral Red and advisor Porasak confirmed that Tyren wasn't the thief they were looking for, they continued to search. They spent ten consecutive loops searching but found close to nothing.

Eventually, they went to LA and sought a meeting with The Master.

A welcome party consisting of three temporary loopers took them to a large private room. After waiting for an hour, a young woman entered the room. She went ahead and sat in The Master's seat.

"Nostalgia," Porasak said with a frown. "What's the meaning of this? We're waiting for your father."

"Be patient," said Nostalgia in a rough, male voice. "My dad is in the middle of something. He doesn't want to keep you waiting for too long. That's why he sent me. Whatever you want to tell him, you can tell me."

Admiral Red looked at Nostalgia with an indifferent face. A girl who was no more than twenty years old with a beautiful face and unnaturally long black hair that touched the ground whenever she sat. She was wearing a white long-sleeved shirt and white pants that seemed too informal for a meeting with a Qatalan.

"We want you to interrupt the world essence of this city for an hour," said the admiral.

"Eh?" Nostalgia frowned for the first time. "Why should we do that?"

"Because we said so," the admiral said.

Nostalgia silently watched him for a few seconds before she shook her head. "Only The Master can do that, and we both know he won't do it unless he hears a reason."

"Do you want to defy the first world?" Admiral Red said calmly.

"Girl," Porasak said with disdain. "Everything you are proud of has been given to you by the first world. If you turn your back on us we will turn our backs on you."

Nostalgia burst out laughing. "Advisor Porasak of the Old World, please stop saying that. If someone hears, they would think you are serious. The Master alone built his empire; you didn't help him."

Porasak clenched her fist, her face red with anger.

Having had enough of the conversation, the admiral Red stood up and headed for the door. As he put his hand on the doorknob, he turned to look at Nostalgia.

"I will stay in town until tomorrow. If you change your mind you know where to find me." With that, he turned and left. Porasak followed him behind after a short staring contest between the old and the young women.

After they left, Nostalgia's face changed. She got up from her chair and paced back and forth in the office.

"Asal?" She called her assistant who was at the door waiting for her.

A girl under the age of ten came in.

"Long may you live, your highness, what can I do?" said the girl.

"Please invite the ranks of XM9990 up to XM9999. Tell them there is an urgent meeting in my office."

"I will, your highness." Asal turned to leave but Nostalgia stopped her.

"Do we have anything important this week?"

"There is a visit to the spirit realm for the initiates in five days," Asal said.

"Cancel it," said Nostalgia. "Which of the teachers will be leading the outing?"

"Badwin," Asal said.

"Hmm." Nostalgia sighed. "That man is difficult to deal with. Look, if he complains, tell him there is a security problem but I will give him a chance in twenty days if everything is okay."

"I will, your highness," Asal said. "Anything else I can do?"

"Stop any schedule I have for the next two weeks," said Nostalgia. "I'm going into town to make sure everything is okay. Anything that will make the Qatalans come is not a good sign, let alone ask us to stop the world essence for the entire city. They don't want us to know what's going on, which makes it even more suspicious." She fell silent for a while before she added, "the predators should be told to keep an eye on any change in town. They are to tell me everything directly."

"Yes, your highness."

On the first world

Several loops later

"Red," Porasak said, standing in front of his office. "I'm here."

"Come in," the admiral said. He was no longer resting his legs on the table as he used to, an indication of how serious the situation was.

After she was seated, the admiral looked at her with a grave expression. "I would like you to do something for me, Por. I think our enemies are getting clever."

She narrowed her eyes in confusion.

"Yes," the admiral insisted. "They are. We do have an understanding with LA, don't we? That they will stop their people from getting out of Fydeba in the evening."

"Yes..." She answered hesitantly. "We do. But they also refused our recent request to shut down the city. Did something happened?"

"Check it out for me, will you?" He said. "Let me know if you find any clever attempt from them."

"I will," she said. "Red, regarding the matter of the Rewind... What should we do now? We can't keep hiding it from the others."

"We do know our enemy is in Fydeba, don't we?" He said. "Well, I have informed the King about it. The crown wants to settle it in their way."

She trembled at the mention of the crown. "The crown? But..."

He nodded. "Of course they will find and eliminate whoever is using the Rewind first, but the crown wants to remind our enemies who the boss is. In the meantime, we are asked to focus on the sentinels. If they are being diverted then we have to do something about it before the judgment."

"The... judgment? Did the crown call it that?"

"Yes," he nodded, "the crown used that same line to describe it. The MIA has been complaining about how we allow our enemies to get so strong. They will be in the city shortly. It's going to be just like in the Old World - swift and complete. There will be no one left to complain."

"The wrath of the first world..." She murmured, breathing heavily.

The admiral shrugged. "We let them have Fydeba. They established LA and we let them. But the Rewind is off-limits. We warned them several times about it. But they refused to listen. The crown feels obligated to do this." He then looked at her with concern. "I'll allow you to save one person. I know your brother lives in the city. Make sure you do it before the judgment comes."

Porasak looked at the ground in silence. After a while, she inhaled deeply and shook her head. "I won't save him, or anyone. That will be undermining the crown. Let the Rewind thief burn, let everyone die with him, and the crown comes out victorious."

The admiral stared at her for a long moment. He sighed softly. "The MIA will get them, I'm sure of it."

She nodded and left.

After she left, the admiral opened the diary in his hands and began writing.

The end has finally come... our victory is certain, but even I don't know how long our enemies will last. It's hard to say since they have grown quite a bit in the last few centuries. But if all our enemies are gone, will the crown requires our services then? Of course, the Qatalans will remain but what about the others? The empire has become so big that only the crown seems to know how far it extends. Hmm. We'll see about it after the judgment.

The present day

Somewhere in Fydeba

Nadin

Tyren sat in a parlor. Next to him was his assistant, Nadin. She sat there in silence, continuously stroking her red hair. In front of them were three women dancing. They all had dark-red hair that was unusually long and bright. One of them had eyebrows and eyelashes that were both red. There was no music in the background but these women danced rhythmically and with great expertise. They must have been carefully selected for the role.

For the next hour, Tyren enjoyed himself. He didn't smile or show it in any way, but Nadin could see it. Whenever he was happy, his eyebrows would knit slightly and his pupils would be dilated. For a man that didn't usually smile, that was the usual way to ascertain his mood.

After another hour, Tyren waved his hand dismissively. The women that had been dancing turned and left the room.

Nadin got up from her chair. She slowly stepped forward and stood in front of him. In her hand was a long piece of paper with a handwritten note.

"My lord," Nadin said respectfully. "I congratulate you on your victory. First, The Master kicked us out of the Academy. He thought we had no luck or future. But we won over him. Then we met Gaus, the man who had the opportunity to put us back in the loop, but he refused to do so. Instead, he ran to the Academy thinking he was safe from us.

"But, my lord, that does not discourage you. You soulbond him despite the dangers associated with the process. At that time, even I, your most trusted advisor, was shaken. I saw no success. But you overcame it. You won.

"Instead of Gaus to accept his fate and submit, he asked for help. He went to the marines, but you turned the tides against him and won. Then he went to Minorita, the eldest she-devil of this era, but still, you won.

"Now your success is not restricted to the twenty-four loop. No, your success gives you a week-long loop, which can now be extended to a month or two.

"This is not luck, my lord, it is not because of prayer, and it is not a coincidence. Your success comes from your strength. You deserve it and that's why you have it.

"I am asking for forgiveness for my previous statements against soulbond. I made the mistake of not believing in you. In the future, I will be obedient and accept whatever you say."

She knelt on the floor.

Seeing her submission, Tyren smiled. Everything she had said was true. He won the battle. Nothing could change his success. Now he had the opportunity to do whatever he wants in the loop. And even The Master couldn't kill him.

"Get up, Nadin," he said.

Nadin stood up and faced him.

"Of course this is my victory, but you have made a significant contribution. I will reward you for it."

He got up from his chair and came forward. He held her hand in his. Gradually, they danced and turned around in rhythm. They had defeated their opponent. It was now time to celebrate.

For hours, the celebration went on.

"My lord," Nadin said. "We have confirmed that Gaus is using the same Rewind as the marines. The young man has surprised us in many ways, and maybe he's an ace up his sleeve, but what about the marines? Aren't they coming for it? I'm still surprised that the marines don't know about the second time loop since it's the same skill they are using."

"There are still things we don't understand," Tyren admitted. "But I think I know why the marines aren't aware of the second loop. It could be one of the two: either whatever Gaus is using to send us back in time for the second loop doesn't rewind time, not in the same way as the Rewind, or it's the same Rewind but a specialization skill that the marines doesn't have."

"I suspect the latter," Nadin said in thought. "For it's easier to believe that Gaus and whoever has the other Rewind among the marines will not choose the same specialization skills every time they specialize. Besides, the former option will indicate that Gaus is strong enough to create his form of time travel, which I don't think so."

Tyren frowned at her last statement. "You should know better than to underestimate him by now."

Nadin didn't underestimate Gaus. She just felt that time traveling was beyond the scope of a normal human. Once maybe, but several times was just above her threshold.

"I understand, my lord," she said. "By the way, what will be the schedule for this loop if Mr. Lake behaves?"

"That will depend on whether the marines are serious about taking the Rewind from us," he said.

"Us?" Nadin asked, confused. They might be using Gaus but the Rewind still belonged to him.

"Of course," Tyren said. "The Rewind now belongs to both Gaus and me. Do you think our little second loop will be possible without it? My dear Nadin, I have many contingencies to stay alive."

Gaus

The only way to escape the prison was to study it.

Gaus sat on his bed with his legs crossed, thinking the recent events over. Of the four things he discussed with Rachel that could trigger the time loop, Gaus chose the first one - Rewind. Rewind should be the cause because only then could Rewind copy (save) what happened. In other words, if the twenty-four-hour loop wasn't caused by the Rewind, then Gaus wouldn't be receiving 'magiwatch has saved 24 hours' every day.

The question here was: which rewind was causing the time loop? Was it his, or the marines', or was it an entirely different Rewind, a third one? After much deliberation, he decided there was another Rewind besides his and the marines'. He just recently came into the loop, so it obviously couldn't be him. And The Master had been in the loop before the marines, so it couldn't be them either since the loop had been around long before them. Which left the possibility of a third Rewind.

The marines might have received their Rewind from someone else, someone who was repeating the day before the marines arrived. Later on, the marines picked it up and continued the loop. However, Gaus felt that this wasn't the case. If the marines were repeating the day, then why didn't they ever alter the span of the loop, depending on what happened in the loop, to favor their cause?

So he chose the third option. A third Rewind which had been repeating the day secretly. However, that would open the door for a third person to join the conflict room that was already crowded.

Hmm.

The next thing was the purpose of creating the loop. All of Rachel's research failed to find out why the loop was created. No fighting stakes at the end of the day, no earthquakes, no pestilences, no nothing... Gaus thought it would be easier for him to determine the purpose if something very important (terrible) was going on at the end of each day.

But still, something had to be happening because there was a reason why the loop was created; no way someone would create something so great for no reason.

Another thing that puzzled him was how the loop differentiated Rewind users from Academy students invited by The Master. The loop recognized the soul, the longevity, the magiwatch, and the mind of every person in the Academy. But only recognized the skill aspect of the magiwatch of Rewind users like Gaus. Did that mean the loop was intelligent?

What happened when Gaus left the Academy? Anything in his biodata, including his bank savings and reputation, would be gone. His physique would be gone as well, fortunately, he didn't have any progress in that aspect ever since entering the Academy. He would lose the map they gave him, which often helped in locating places in the city, and the interface he used to communicate with others. What he would not lose was Rewind and the save library and his skill book, as well as any other skill stored in his skill book.

Gaus took a deep breath and closed his eyes. The biggest problem was still Tyren. Asking for help didn't work. Now the only thing left was to either kill the guy and make sure he stayed dead or to learn how to summon the soul-pillars by himself. Gaus preferred the former.

The first time Tyren used the soulbond, the very first iteration of the second loop when Gaus first fell in love with the red-haired girl in class, Tyren came to the Academy. Gaus was assassinated in his room shortly after he told Linc about Tyren being a former temporary looper.

On many occasions after this, Tyren had located him with ease. It was the same thing even the last time when Tyren brought admiral Red Rider and his two friends to kill Rachel. Did Tyren see him through the soulbond? Or did he have spies at the Academy who told him about Gaus?

Gaus must find out about it. If not, then anywhere he was and whatever he did, Tyren would know about it.

Tyren said he would increase the span of the loop from seven days to three or four weeks but only if Gaus stopped trying to break the soulbond. Gaus didn't like it for many reasons. Say, Tyren was telling the truth, what happened when he won? And even if there was no hidden agenda, every restart cost Gaus 5 MP. If he didn't look for a solution then Tyren would use up his mana to increase his strength while he lost everything.

So Gaus must continue to look for ways to break the soulbond or just kill the bastard. However, instead of asking for help from others, as he did with Rachel and Fredrick, he would now do it by himself. If he could do it in secret so that Tyren wouldn't know, then he would. If not, then he would take his chances. As a positive to him, Tyren didn't know he was losing 5MP every restart, and he would be sure to use that to his advantage. When Tyren put his knife back in its sheath, thinking he had won, Gaus would then seize the opportunity to break the soulbond.

The first thing to do was to make sure Tyren didn't have spies at the school. He had a way of finding out about that and tomorrow he would give it a try.

He would also return to Linc to continue his training. At present, the teacher knew very little about him. He didn't even sign the mentor-mentee program yet, so he didn't know Gaus had advanced levitation, or mana armament, or any of the skills he had taught him. To him, Gaus was just your above-average class rep who put in the necessary effort. Gaus would know how to convince him this time around.

In the same way, the enchantment teacher didn't know about him. They didn't even have their first private session yet. He would return to her as a new student who had an interest in enchantment. That being said, he'd already decided to take alteration as his next course.

He opened the enchantment tab that was offered to him earlier.

There are seven basic skills to enchantment: runic writing, mana insignia, runic tongue, compression, advanced compression, reverse compression, and decompression. You have learned them all.

The system has recognized your talent in enchantment.

You can specialize in any of the following branches:

1. Skill formulas? Y/N?

2. Enhancement? Y/N?

3. Elemental magic? Y/N?

4. Alterations? Y/N?

Any choice made is irreversible.

Alteration selected.

Congratulations, you have unlocked a sub-specialization skill under enchantment with a value of K = 20

Alteration allows you to enhance, modify, mutate, and erase runes. That is, of course, to say you can now increase the quantity of a rune or some part of it, you can reduce it, you affect its quality and type as well, and you can just delete it.

Rank: common

The description wasn't so clear and he didn't even know what 'K=20' meant. But that was why they had mentors and teachers.

That done, he returned his attention to his classification. If he wanted to move from level 1 to level 2, then he must have enough loop knowledge, loop power, and guild. Only when each category had reached 100% would he level up his classification. He had no problem with the first two, but the third one, the guild, was his problem.

Finding and conquering a dungeon like Calif would be difficult, if at all possible. And no matter how much loop knowledge and loop power he had, his classification would not level up if his guild was zero. And if he didn't level up his classification, leveling the Rewind above level 50 would be close to impossible because of the exp requirement. But he was a long way from level 50, and he had the time loop on his side to figure things out.

He still didn't know if Rachel was related to the loop or not. She had been in the Multiverse for 21 years before the loop began. And the others - Silvia of England and Hinditri of India - who used the same body as her had all come before her, so they also shouldn't know about the loop. For her part, she felt as if someone who knew her had used her name without her knowledge. But Gaus suspected she had been in the loop at some point in the past and she just couldn't remember it. The question here was: if she was impersonated, then by whom? And if she was in the loop before, then who removed her from it? Also, if she was impersonated, would she be able to remember any of it even if she was informed about it? The loop destroyed all evidence. Just like how it destroyed what happened in the last restart.

No matter, there was a certain Minorita in the history of the loop, which meant either Rachel or someone who used her body before her had been in the loop. The mechanism by which this occurred was unknown to him. Just like how nobody knew what happened in the era called X, and the era before that.

Gaus took a deep breath and looked at his watch. Three minutes to restart the day. The next morning would come and he would initiate his plans to defeat his enemies.