"Gatan?"

"Yes."

"Let me handle the talk. Don't say anything."

Gatan looked at him curiously for a moment but he nodded. "What's waiting for us inside?"

"The woman we saw outside, the same woman who killed all the marines guarding the entrance," Gaus said.

"That bad?"

Gaus nodded. Gatan put his hand on his sword which attracted a frown from the other man. "For protection," he mouthed.

A small corridor took them to the next room. Big chairs surrounded the room. And Rachel sat cross-legged on the central chair, staring at them like she'd been waiting for them to arrive. It was exactly as the future he saw.

Gaus and Tyren stood at the entrance, making sure there was enough distance between them and the furious woman. Again, why was she frowning at them? No idea.

"You don't look surprised," Rachel said. She didn't sound angry but her face was more convincing. "Were you following me?"

"No, we weren't." Gaus shook his head. "But we saw you outside from a distance. We have to thank you for taking care of those annoying guards for us."

"They didn't wake up when you came in?" She asked rhetorically. Gaus frowned. He thought the guards were dead. She must have just knocked them out to avoid attracting unwanted attention to herself. That way, they would be ashamed of calling for help when they woke up and it would be too late by the time someone heard about it. "You must have run after me then. Maybe you even waited to see me enter that specific tunnel."

"No, we didn't. Granted, this is not my first visit here. But I haven't gone past the archers until today."

Rachel narrowed her eyes at the revelation. She looked more disgusted than surprised, and Gaus got the feeling she was wondering why he couldn't defeat the archers until today. As if defeating them was easy. "The way you release your mana and saturate the world essence, were you trying to get my attention?"

Damn. If she knew about that then she knew they were hiding on the tree outside and she knew they weren't following her. All the questions had been needless. Unless she was looking for something else.

Gaus took a deep breath. "You may not believe it, but I don't even know how I'm doing that. Something about mana-essence equilibrium."

"Why won't I believe you," she said. "Your affinity for time essence is over fifty percent and you don't seem trained at all."

"I don't think there is any way I can get the training I need, is there?" Gaus said sarcastically. She was the damn teacher that trained him on it and she didn't teach him how to do it. Who was to blame for it?

Rachel shrugged. "You've been trying to get my veins ever since you came in through that door. I don't think you can ever be trained to defy the world essence."

That hurt. It was silly. But it still hurt. In retrospect, what he just did was stupid. He shouldn't have tried to look into the woman's longevity cord, no matter how subtle he would be. He wouldn't put it past her to attack him in return.

Gaus smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry, I meant no harm. It has somehow become a habit to me ever since someone taught me how to block people's mana. People don't seem to notice it anyway so I keep using it to train."

She looked at him for a long moment before she looked away. "No need to apologize. You're going to do something for me in return." She turned to Gatan who was still holding his sword. "Who is he? Your protector?"

"No, he's my friend," Gaus said quickly before Gatan could do anything stupid. "He helped me kill the archers in the corridor."

"He's your bodyguard then," Rachel said. "Apart from the sword, can he do anything?"

Gaus bit his tongue. He didn't want Gatan to speak. "Er... just assume my friend is not here. Tell me what you want and I can see what I can do?"

"Brutes won't help where we are going," she said. She was tempting them but they'd have to control themselves. They must, actually, else they would die a miserable death. He knew what the woman could do. And no probable future held a victory against her. "He should be discarded if he's not useful."

"Okay," Gatan said. He was fed up with her arrogant tone. "Just who do you think you are...?"

"No problem here," Gaus cut him off with a sharp tone and a meaningful glare. "I told you he is my friend. We are only here to get exp."

Rachel stood. "There is no room for error. I'll put your bodyguard to sleep. Something tells me you will focus more on doing what I want if you're alone."

Gatan reached and slashed with all his strength. The red flash from his sword cut through the woman's neck before she could even blink.

"I'm sorry, Gaus," Gatan said. "I just don't like arrogant women."

Gaus shook his head in frustration. Rachel's neck was just fine. There was no wound, and she didn't look affected by it. She raised her hand and pointed at Gatan.

"Wait," Gaus said. He stood between them. "Whatever you want I'll do it, but just leave him be..."

He was interrupted by a crash. He turned around and saw Gatan lying on the ground unconscious.

"What have you done?"

"She cut off his Common Madarate vein which gives mana to his brain," said a voice from the right. "He's dead, at least his brain is."

Gaus turned in the direction of the voice. A man too short not to be a dwarf stared at him with a calm face. Was the man there when they entered? Gaus didn't see him.

"My name is Kulu, but you can call me Thorn Head," the dwarf said. He extended his hand to greet Gaus.

Gaus ignored the man's unsized hand and turned to Rachel. "You killed him."

"I don't have time to waste here," she said. "Thorn, put some shackles on him and bring him with you."

Gaus frowned. He needed to see what the woman was doing in the tunnels. The last restart she told him she was just hiding from the marines, but she was lying. There was more to the tunnels than just hiding. He could see it now.

"I will go on my own and I don't need any cuffs..." he paused as he felt steel on his skin. Neither the dwarf nor the woman moved from their spots. So when did it happen? Did any of them move through time and put the chains on him? He couldn't even Rewind like this.

"Come on," said Thorn.

Gaus ground his teeth but did as he was told. They left Gatan there lying on the floor, dead.

The next corridor was long but he could see a wall at the end of it. There was no exit door or even a window anywhere, but his captors showed no sign of stopping.

When they reached the wall, he realized there were two walls. The first one extended from the right and then deviated by just a few degrees backward. And just in front of it was another wall extending from the other side and stopping at the intersection. The two walls aligned themselves to each other to create a small passage between them.

Rachel walked between the two walls while Thorn pushed Gaus inside and he followed behind.

The next room was small with one door at the end. All the rooms had no light source but were also well lit. Something Gaus failed to understand. He'd even tried to use reverse compression on the walls to see if there was a rune buried there, but the skill showed nothing despite feeding it a lot of mana. Either there was no rune, or it was beyond his comprehension.

Rachel strode into the room. She seemed to be getting impatient by the second. Gaus followed behind with Thorn making sure he didn't slow them down.

The next room wasn't empty. Nine people wearing face masks stood in a circle around three familiar tunnels. The tunnels were arranged across the room at equal distance from one another.

The masked figures fell to their knees. "Welcome, commander."

Rachel nodded. "We should hurry." She walked to the first tunnel from the right and looked inside. Gaus couldn't see much inside the tunnel but she could. She put her hand inside as if feeling the nothingness before she turned to the others. "This will do it. I'll be waiting for you on the other side."

"Commander," one masked figure said. It was a woman's voice. "Everything has been planned accordingly. Do you want us to involve him in the plan? He's some favorable stats but he may also slow us down." She gestured toward Gaus.

Rachel turned to look at Gaus with knitted brows. "He may be of help, but don't stress yourself. Either you teach him how to use mana block or unleash his power and use it for the cause."

"Unleash my power and use it?" Gaus said. His face flushed with anger.

Without answering him, Rachel fell into the tunnel. Thorn grabbed Gaus and jumped into the same tunnel.

He thought they would be falling like he did when he came through the tunnel outside, but they didn't. Something pulled him gently and the next time he opened his eyes he was in a desert. A vast expanse of dry sand with no end. The sand felt unnaturally cold despite it being a sunny day. Gaus wanted to take a sample in his hand but the chains prevented it.

He looked away toward a big city not too far from him. The city was surrounded by iron walls resembling the walls used by the archers in the corridor. Thorn and the masked figures were busy checking their armor to enjoy any of it. Just what could be so important inside the city to warrant such protection?

"Welcome to Dekar - the kingdom of slaves," Thorn said. Gaus got the feeling he was talking to him despite not looking at him. "I'm going to help the commander. Hurry up. We'll meet on the other side."

The masked men nodded at Thorn. The man flew away like a bird, leaving him in the desert with the masked figures.

"What's your name?" A voice asked. It was the same feminine voice that spoke earlier. Her tone was bland and Gaus wished he could see her face just to relate.

"Gaus. You?"

"Hira," she said. She pointed to the others behind her. "These are my brothers and sisters."

Gaus glanced at them and couldn't see any woman among them. Perhaps it was the mask and the armor hiding their anatomical peculiarities, or maybe he misinterpreted the word 'sisters'.

She pointed at the city in the distance. "There are at least one hundred thousand people in that town. Our job is to save them."

One hundred thousand? Gaus squinted to take in the imposing city walls that seemed to pierce the skies. How did they build a city so big this deep under the ground?

"The Qatalans have locked them up and are channeling their mana," she said. "Our job is to break the mana link so the Qatalans can't take their mana anymore."

"A hundred thousand people? That's a lot of mana. Keeping the moral and legal issues aside, what are they doing with so much mana?" Gaus asked.

Hira shrugged. "A lot of things ranging from strengthening their army to building weapons. There's an admiral in the city and thousands of marines put in place to ensure everything is going well. The commander will protect us from their evil." She paused to look at Gaus as if wondering why he wasn't frightened by the mention of an admiral. "When counting from the right side of the longevity cord," she went on to describe the job in detail, and his supposed role in it. "Nasren vein is the third mana vein. It has a branch that goes through the heart to the brain called the common branch. Once we interrupt the common branch of the Nasren vein, the connection between the Qatalans and the slaves will be cut. That's what I want you to help me with. You'll practice it on me. If you are unsuccessful after your second attempt, I will just channel your mana and use your affinity for time essence to strengthen my brothers. It will be the end for you, of course. I hope you'll forgive me for choosing the life of one hundred slaves over yours. Are you ready?"

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Gaus could just run away or fight them all, but then the information he came looking for would be gone. What was so important that the marines would station an admiral this deep under the ground? Was it related to the loop?

"I'm waiting, Gaus."

Gaus looked at her longevity cord. She had twenty-two great veins like any other person, but the smaller veins weren't visible. To block a person's mana, you needed to target the active vein that supplied the skill being used. Hira wasn't using any of her skills at the moment - at least, not any that he could see - and so the veins were all invisible. And the only thing he could do was to target the twenty-two great veins.

Promana block activated.

He pushed world essence into the 22 great veins and blocked them all at the same time. Rachel had never seen the promana block before. So maybe Hira didn't know about it either. If she didn't know what was used on her then she might take it for a weak mana block.

"That's pathetic," said Hira. "You've one attempt left."

"Hey, I have to see the vein to block it. And you have to use it for me to see it," Gaus said.

Hira shrugged. "I'm using my Madarate vein right now. It's done like this so people like you can't see it. Before you learn mana block, you have to memorize where each vein goes and what it does. Then go down to where the vein is and use world essence to color it. Or else you color them all if you have enough mana and world essence."

Gaus narrowed his eyes in understanding. Most skills required increasingly less mana as you leveled them up. If such skills were leveled too high, the mana they required to function would be too small for the veins to react. A mage would use a skill but the veins responsible for it wouldn't react or change color in any way. Just like now with Hira. Maybe that was why he couldn't learn the skill yet. If only he could memorize all the tributaries and what they did or better color them all to pick the right one...

"But coloring all the veins will take a lot of mana even if you have the affinity," Gaus said. "It's the same principle used in longevity color and invisible cord. But the cost won't be small."

"That's why you need to memorize every tributary and know what it does," Hira countered. "That way you can narrow it down depending on what you want to do."

He'd photographic memory so that shouldn't scare him.

"Your last chance," Hira said.

Gaus closed his eyes and focused on the tributaries beyond the great veins. He saw nothing but utter darkness. It couldn't be done, not like that anyway. But he would still give it his all if it meant going into that city.

"Your time is up," she said. Gaus suddenly felt weak. "Brothers and sisters, come closer."

The eight figures approached her and put their hands on her back. Gaus reached out for his gun, but he struggled to open his eyes. The last things he saw were the veins in his body. Hundreds of thousands of small veins coming together to form a large vein. The large vein followed its tributary and joined other large veins to form an even bigger vein. It went on like that until the twenty-two great veins that formed the longevity cord were formed.

Hira extended her cord and bind it to his. Eight smaller veins came out of the connection cord and joined the cords of the eight people touching her. His mana and the world essence around him passed through his cord into Hira's cord, and she shared it with the others.

He fell to the ground unconscious.

***

Magiwatch has saved twenty-four hours.

He thought he was going to have a headache or dizziness or something when he woke up, but there was nothing. Whatever skill they used on him didn't injure his longevity. It would have carried over to the next loop because of his attachment to the academy.

Now, the recent events weren't funny. He and Gatan entered the old dungeon to hunt down some exp. They met Rachel and she killed Gatan - the man that impressed Gaus with a rare sword - without breaking any sweat. A woman with a mask channeled all his mana and knocked him out. Again, why did Rachel lie to him about what she was doing underground? He asked her about it and she told him she was just hiding from the marines, but that was not the case. And he would find out about it one way or another.

The whistling sound of a sword cutting through the air pulled him out of his thoughts. An old man wearing a marine uniform was trying to cut him in half. Simultaneously three more men shot arrows at him from different directions.

Advanced levitation activated.

Gaus held the arrows in the air for as long as needed to blink away. The arrows then continued to pierce the swordsman that was too slow to move out of the way. The archers ignored the screams of their comrade as they nocked more arrows. Gaus had more interest in finding out why the men were there than fighting them. So he took five blinks in quick succession to escape them.

That wasn't what he was used to. He'd been waking up in 332 Henwi avenue ever since he arrived in the Multiverse, and only a few officers were harassing him at that time of the day. So what had changed? What could bring this many soldiers out at three o'clock in the morning?

Every two or three streets, Gaus would meet a team of at least three armored men. They weren't there yesterday, or the day before that. Why today? What happened?

"Hey," an officer shouted at him. "Stay right where you are."

Gaus turned to see eleven men. Each with an arrow nocked. He couldn't stop all eleven arrows at the same time, at least not using advanced levitation anyway. So he decided to teleport away.

The area is warded. Blink cannot be activated.

Gaus frowned. If he couldn't run then he would require at least three or four Rewinds to escape the eleven men. And that would cost too much mana. His reserve had fallen below 150 MP already.

Longevity sense activated.

He checked the mana veins of his attackers to see if they were using any skill he could block, but all the veins in their bodies were inactive. He found himself remembering his inadvertent lesson with Hira about the need to memorize the position and tributaries of each vein and making them visible whenever he wanted. What if he could do that now to break the ward blocking his teleportation?

He quickly looked through his memory from yesterday to see how his veins were. He could remember seeing all of them glowing when Hira was channeling him. Twenty-two great veins in the cord. Each vein gave rise to 7 major branches which then gave rise to three common branches that entered the body organs. 22 great veins, 154 major veins, 462 common branches, and countless smaller veins that gave rise to even smaller veins called mana capillaries. He'd never targeted the 154 major veins, not collectively and not one-by-one because the major veins didn't react to individual skills just like the great veins. It was the 462 common branches or their immediate tributaries that glowed when a mage channeled mana to a skill.

Assuming everyone had the same veins as him with little to no variability, he could use longevity color to make the 462 common branches and their over one thousand tributaries glow and then pick the vein supplying the skill responsible for the warding. But that would mean using longevity color and invisible cord at least one thousand five hundred times for every one person. And there were eleven opponents. The cost aside, it was impractical during a fight.

But he could, of course, forget about finding the right vein and just do it the crude way - assume all of his opponents to have the same major veins as him and block them all with world essence. He'd never tried that before since he didn't know where the major veins were. It might not even work so he was tempted to just predict a probable future and see, but that would cost mana, and flooding his opponent with world essence wouldn't cost a thing.

He looked at the cords of his assailants and imagined the twenty-two great veins dividing into the 154 major veins. Then he willed the surrounding world essence and block them. Hira and Rachel always knew exactly what they were looking for. It was like they'd memorized all the veins and what they did. For him it was different though, he didn't know which veins to target but he had unlimited access to world essence and now he knew how to use it.

He received a notification once the world essence broke the connection between the great veins and the major veins.

The area is no longer warded.

Blink activated.

"The warding is down," one soldier shouted to the others. "Shoot him down and call the captain in. He's using black magic."

Gaus didn't hear the rest as he blinked away. He didn't sleep that night. Armored men patrolled all the streets in the city. It was like a new city altogether. He missed the mustache woman with the strange voice and also sleeping behind that dustbin.

By morning, Fydeba was packed with soldiers. Gaus didn't want to panic but it was unnerving. He'd been living through this Tuesday for so long that any change seemed to take him by surprise.

He quickly ran to LA. Instead of just the girl XM0001, XM9997 was there at the entrance.

"Class rep," the teacher said. She identified him despite his attempts to hide in the crowd. It was nothing and he certainly didn't want to look suspicious by hiding, but he also didn't want to be caught unaware. He somehow felt this... guilt like he'd done something wrong. He blamed it on the lack of sleep and his determination and plans to kill Tyren. Yes, the man must die for him to survive but he was still a breathing human. It felt bad especially when all the plans to kill the necromancer had come into place. "Your morning classes are delayed until further notice. Inform your classmates."

"Ma'am," Gaus said. He made himself visible among the crowd of students. "May I ask why?"

"Get inside." She waved at him dismissively like she didn't have a word to waste on him. "Your class master will explain it to you later in the day."

Gaus nodded and went inside with a pounding heart. The school was full of strangers. Each was armed and dangerous looking. Did The Master call all the temporary loopers back?

Gaus hurried to his room without even picking his uniform from the admin. He might have to attend the class in his jacket today.

There had been some notifications ever since his last fight, so he decided to check them on his way.

You have learned premana block

Rank:?

When a mage channels mana to activate a skill, their mana veins will glow depending on the capacity of the mana used. You have memorized the anatomy of the major veins and learned how to identify active veins and block them. You have been granted the ability to block mana but only in the major veins.

Note that even if you block the major veins, the common branches and other smaller veins will grow tributaries and take mana from the great veins. In other words, you can't block someone from activating a skill completely. You can only weaken them.

Cost: up to 5 MP (increase with level up)

Gaus had to squint to make sure it wasn't another promana block. It all came down to mana variants. Promana was the first. It would be converted to premana and then possibly to mana. Blocking the great veins granted him promana block, and now blocking the subsequent major veins granted him premana block. But both skills couldn't block a mage from channeling mana completely. They did, however, suppress them. It seemed his journey to the underground wasn't completely wasted.

Another notification was from someone stupid enough to call himself One Man Army.

One Man Army: about the killing of Tyren... Mr. Lake has asked me to join forces with you. The killing takes place in three days. We should meet and plan it. I want to make everything looks like suicide.

Hell, you do.

Gaus didn't have time to reply to his underling. He needed to know exactly what was going on that changed the loop like this.

He went into his room and lay on the bed. He would first check out the class interface group. Someone among his classmates should know something about it. Maybe that Tiara girl.

Tila: what? That's broken, Tiara. A two-meter tall spider? How can that be?

Tiara: it's your problem if you don't believe it. I saw what I saw. Large spiders that are taller than humans. Blizzards, trolls, and temporal wolves roaming around the city unchecked.

John: Stop, Tiara... Temporal wolves are just fairy tales. They really don't exist.

Antelina: I saw one as well.

Raya: me too. Anyone who went to the city yesterday after eight o'clock saw what they saw. There was an army of demons everywhere. The city was burning.

....

....

Gaus sat upright. What exactly happened while he was dead? Was the holy city invaded? But by who? The marines? The parallel timeline? Unseen enemies?

"Gaus?" He heard Gatan's voice in his head. The man had entered the room some time ago and he didn't even notice him.

"I knocked and you didn't answer. What the hell happened yesterday?"

Gaus had forgotten to lock the door, but he didn't hear any knock.

"You died, that's what happened," Gaus said through his teeth. "I told you not to say anything. But you went ahead and get your ass handed over to you."

Gatan smiled apologetically. He must have thought he could take on the arrogant woman.

"I'm sorry, okay?" Gatan said. "But I want to know what happened after I died."

Gaus told him everything and the two men shared an uneasy look.

"A city under the ground?"

Gaus nodded. "And it was big."

"Do you think the invasion has something to do with it?" Gatan asked.

"Invasion? Is that what you call it? Just what exactly happened yesterday?" Gaus was becoming impatient. Just how could anyone attack the holy city under the watch of the marines and The Master?

Gatan took a deep breath with a shake of his head. "I also haven't seen it since I was dead. Fydeba was attacked by demons. The city was conquered in just four hours."

"Demons?"

Gatan nodded. "Yeah. Big spiders and temporal wolves and trolls and elementals... I asked a temporary looper who has been in the loop for four years and he told me something like that has never happened before. Are we... responsible?

Gaus chuckled. "No, of course not. They killed you and channeled my mana. We couldn't have done anything while we were dead."

"But that's my point," Gatan retorted. "They used your mana. We have to consider it a possibility."

"Please, just stop going in that direction. Not everything has to do with you, my friend. Things that have no relation to you happen all the time. To think otherwise is narcissistic."

Gatan shrugged. "The marines were channeling mana from some slaves in the underground city. Your mana must have helped our killers free the slaves. Then the marines had to stop whatever project they were doing using that mana, and that might have given the invaders a chance. Don't you think it makes sense?"

The clones? Gaus clenched his fist. The more Gatan talked about it, the more sense it made to him. Badwin told him that the mana needed by the wood clones to function was too much. Too much that it was considered impossible by everyone. But the marines could do it if they had a city full of people serving as mana batteries. 100,000 people hidden in a city underground used to produce mana continuously for the clones. It's a damn well of mana. But still...

"That's not plausible. We can't be the cause of an apocalypse-level invasion."

"But I think you are, my friend." Gatan patted him on the shoulder. "I think you're the only thing preventing demons from invading our dear realm. Or rather, it's you not being on the wrong side of the war that's preventing the invasion. With your mana, they can free the people in the underground city and invade."

Damn!