PART 1

Normally this would've been the time I took a look at the situation and waxed poetic about the trials and tribulations of my life, but I had no time to do that, because my sixth sense was already screaming at me the moment I arrived. Even though I came here in a hurry, I wasn't so out of it that I would show up in the open, yet in less than a second, I was discovered and had one of those wave motion arrows fired at my position.

"Crap, crap, crap…!"

Silently cursing under my breath, I Phased away, but even though I was doing short-range teleports, I kept being shot at. Ducking into cover was out of the question, as Bel of the Abyss wouldn't do anything of the sort, which meant I was stuck with one other option; I Phased over to the arch-mage duo at the other end of the playground, currently peppered with injured people and small craters.

How was Lord Taika hiding all this? Was she even able to do that? And if not, then where was the police? Not that I wanted them to show up, but I still kind of expected them to. More importantly though, a few seconds after I appeared, Lord Gulliver finally noticed me and tapped the other man on the shoulder.

"Ambrose? We have a problem."

The two of them were taking shelter under a half-dome made of smaller but thicker semi-transparent hexagonal plates, while the bearded arch-mage was still in the process of casting a really big and complicated spell. He still had the leeway to look up and glance at me, at which point a string of profanities escaped his mouth that I gracious omit for now.

"… and piss off! Wait for your turn!" he concluded, and I shrugged.

"I'm just looking around, don’t mind—"

Before I could finish, another huge magical arrow impacted the shield over our head, and Lord Gulliver started chanting in a hurry to replace the broken panels.

"Argh! He drew her attention to us!" Lord Ambrose accused me, followed by another string of curses, but I couldn't really muster up the mental resources to parse them, as I was struck dumbfounded by the sight in the air.

Because of all the warnings and beam-attacks and whatnot, I didn't have a chance to take a good look, but following the trace of the latest strike, my eyes were glued to the girl floating high over our heads. The air around her was positively shimmering with the colourless light of magic, and her three pairs of wings, while tattered from her fight with the arch-mages, were spread wide and seemed to cover the whole sky. Their golden flames gave off a dazzling radiance that illuminated the whole field and the nearby buildings in sharp yellow hues, yet they paled in comparison to the enlarged halo floating over her, burning so bright it hurt to look at it.

Until now, I thought I've had the fragments of Polemos embedded in my psyche well and fully under control, yet just a single glance at her threw my mind into complete chaos, and if not for Judy yelling in my ear through my communicator, I might've remained rooted to the ground and staring like a slack-jawed idiot for who knew how long.

"{Chief! Angeline seems to be focused on you now! You need to distract her while Duncan and the Squires pull the incapacitated and critically injured combatants out of the battlefield, over!}"

Before I could respond, Angie let out an ear-piercing bellow that made the air around me resonate like I was standing on top of a giant speaker at a concert, and she readied another arrow.

"Beeel!"

"Well, that's my cue!"

I tried to sound chipper, but it was bloody difficult to keep up the Bel persona under these circumstances. I had to try though, so I Phased over to the middle of the ruined playground. It wasn't in as bad of a shape as the version I'd seen in the Purple Zone, but it was uncomfortably similar. Trying to find a spot without too many people around, I settled on appearing next to a twisted and broken jungle gym.

This time, I kept my eyes on Angie, and the moment I moved, she immediately pivoted in the air and aimed her bow at me again. She was tracking me, that was for sure, though I had no idea how she did it. Maybe it was a Deus-thing?

There was no time to ponder the question though, as the moment she stopped, she let loose her arrow and it flew right at my center of mass. I say arrow, but it was more like one of those wave motion cannon beam attacks you'd see in a mecha anime. I didn't need my danger sense's warning to tell me getting hit by that would've been bad news, but I stood my ground and extended my hand, along with my phantom limbs, in the direction of the blast.

Doing this could stop a dragon's breath attack, so it should work against something like this too, right? I mean, a beam is a beam is a beam, by any other name, right? I sure as hell hoped so, and let out a breath of relief when, upon contact, I was met with the familiar sensation of pushing back against a stream of water on my combined phantom limbs. It only lasted for a second at best, and then the ray of golden light dissipated, leaving me and my environment none the worse for wear.

"One account of collateral damage, successfully averted," I whispered under my breath and let my hand down. Only then did I realize that, not too far from where I was standing, Lord Taika was taking shelter behind an overturned car, along with a few other squires and Duncan. They were all staring at me like they were seeing a ghost, so I inadvertently blurted out, "What are you looking aaat…?"

The last bit got drawn out because it was only at this point that I noticed something really, really bloody alarming.

"What the heck happened to you, big guy?" I asked as I pointed at Duncan, whose right arm was reduced to a charred stump. We were too far away for him to respond, so Judy answered in his stead.

"{Sir Duncan took an arrow from Angeline to defend Mrs. Talvipäivänseisaus. I told him to protect her, because if she goes down, this incident will blow the masquerade wide open.}"

Judy's voice was unusually shaky, and I didn't need to be a genius with an EQ of 200 to tell that she was distressed by what happened. Potentially even feeling guilty over calling the shots that landed Duncan in hot water like that. However, the therapy session had to wait, because the threat still wasn't fully resolved. Case in point…

"You dare to show yourself in front of me again, treacherous cur?!" Angie/Deus roared overhead. "Did you think I wouldn't recognize you, just because you conceal your face!? You can run, but you can't hide from me!"

What to do, what to do? I wasn't seeing much evacuation happening at the moment, but Judy said it was happening, and I had no choice but to trust her. As such, since I landed myself in this hot mess, it was my responsibility to make the best of the situation and act as a distraction. So… time to initiate Operation: Bel Is Being Annoying!

"Hey, Deus! Old pal!" I exclaimed and waved at her like I'd just noticed she was there. "Long time no see! It's been ages! Literally!" I've got a couple of arrows flying at my face in return, but that was good. I mean, not getting shot at; that's never a good thing, but the fact they were just small projectiles I could avoid just by flailing around a bit. Now that I had her full attention, I just had to make sure I kept it, so I snapped into a straight pose and theatrically rubbed my chin. "You look different than the last time we met."

"And whose fault do you think that is?!" she yelled at me so hard, I was afraid she'd have a sore throat the next day. On second thought, maybe I shouldn't think so far ahead right now. First, let's just focus on the next five minutes. And the five after that. Baby steps.

Anyhow, while she was talking, she wasn't shooting at me (or anyone else, for that matter) so I was dedicated to keeping up the conversation by abruptly snapping my finger and pointing my index at her.

"I've got it! You changed your hair, didn't you? Looks good, by the way. Gives off a nice 'girl next door' kind of impression, if you know what I mean."

"How dare you ridicule me?!"

"I'm not though. I swear." For emphasis, I drew an X over my chest. "Cross my heart."

She ignored that and descended a bit, probably so that we wouldn't need to yell at each other to be heard.

"Tell me, Scion of the Tenebrous Flames! Tell me how you survived! What secrets did you keep from me, you vermin!?"

"Oh, my dear Deus. You wound me." I nonchalantly yet pointedly straightened the lapels of my tailcoat, and then opened my arms wide. "I'm an upstanding kind of guy, you know? I haven't told a falsehood in my life."

"Liar!"

She was getting ready to draw her bowstring again, so I hastily raised my palms.

"Oh, fine! 'In my life' might've been overstating it a bit. It's more like… ten seconds?" I shrugged. "Compared to the age of the universe, it's not that big of a difference, really."

"Stop playing word games with me, and—!"

We were just about to slide into a nice back-and-forth here, and I was convinced that I could buy a couple of minutes this way, but of course, something had to come up.

"Angie! Come back to your senses!"

Josh, ever the master of picking the worst bloody time to act out his heroic instincts approached us from the left. To my surprise, his Magiformer was off, and instead he was wearing the same full Celestial transformation outfit as Angie's, just with the asymmetric bits and bobs mirrored. He also had his transparent wings out, even though he wasn't flying. All six of them. And they were even smouldering with the same kind of thick yellow radiance as Angie's flames.

"How dare you show your face in front of me, thief!" she glared at him, but her bow was still trained on me, and she only averted her eyes from me for a second. "Was this part of your ploy, you vile daemon?"

"Please, stop!" Josh continued to plead with her while inching closer, and he was also paying lots of attention to me. "He's dangerous!"

"Silence! I am Deus, Father of Elysium! I will not back down from a fight, and…" For the first time since my arrival, her expression changed, with just a hint of uncertainty creeping in. "And where is Polemos at a time like this?!"

"I would also like to know," I chimed in to keep her attention on me, and started casually walking in a wide circle around her, to make sure she would have to divide her attention between me and Josh. "I wanted to talk to the kid, but we apparently missed each other."

"You wouldn't dare to speak of him so casually, were Polemos here," Angie/Deus hissed at me, and I shrugged again.

"Do you want to bet?"

"S-Shut up!" Josh tried to interject, but despite being influenced by his absorbed Deus-ness, his voice lacked strength when he was talking to me. "Don't change the subject!"

"What is the subject, then?" I glanced back to Angie. "Do you know?"

"Your destruction!"

"No! It's that you have to stop this at once!" the guy roared in frustration, drawing Angie's attention to him again, and in that split-second, I suddenly felt all the hairs on my body stand on ends. However, it wasn't because of her.

There was a wave, like a stone being dropped into a pond, followed by a deafening, high-pitched noise. Then, the whole world turned blue; a harsh, cold kind of colour originating from a streak of light piercing through the heavens and blowing a hole in the clouds hanging over the night sky. It all lasted for a split second, and then Angie suddenly plummeted to the ground.

"Got her! Wooo!"

Even as Lord Ambrose's ecstatic yells filled the silence left in the wake of… whatever the hell that was, my brain was doing its best to understand what exactly happened here. Josh was faster than me this time, and he was already rushing to catch the falling girl, her wings cleanly sheared off on her left side. She must've used them to defend against Lord Ambrose's attack, and even as she was falling, her wounded stumps (as much as that applied to ethereal wings like that) were spewing golden flames that were trying to take their original shape.

For a moment, it looked like Josh was about to catch her in his arms, but then she abruptly beat her still-present wings and turned in the air, tackling him onto the ground instead. She lost her bow in the process, and it tumbled away before coming to a stop right in front of me. I gave it a good kick in the opposite direction, for good measure, and got ready to Phase over to the duo's side in case there was an emergency.

"Angie! Please!" Josh pleaded with tears in his eyes, lying on his back as his girlfriend straddled his stomach, one hand on his throat. "Come back to me!"

"Silence!"

"Please! You need to remember!" He tried his best to speak, despite his windpipe being squeezed, with his hands clasped around Angie's forearms. "You are not being yourself right now! Remember what you told me, about how to resist mind control! You need to focus on your emotions, and snap out of it!"

"I said silence! Don't try to confound me, you thief!"

"I don't! I only want to help you! I love you!"

I was just about to move, but seeing the hesitation in Angie's eyes, I held back. This was a pretty template development of the dramatic emotional climax variety, so I held my breath back. Interrupting this could've had unforeseen consequences, so for the moment I decided to wait and see what the Narrative was cooking.

"You… want to help me?" she asked, looking conflicted. Seeing a glimmer of hope, Josh immediately nodded, even though his face was turning red from the pressure on his throat. "Then…"

She finally withdrew her hand and glanced at me, but the cold light in her eyes sent shivers down my spine. Then, without warning, she let out a series of discordant notes and straightened her fingers, summoning the same kind of hand-blade that Josh was using as of late, and she raised it over her head.

"Then give me back what you stole from me!"

Shit! That wasn't good! Josh wasn't even trying to protect himself, and she obviously wasn't just trying to scare him. With my heart in my throat, I Phased to their side, yet to my momentary shock, someone was even faster.

"Stooop!"

Before Angie could swing her magical arm-blade, a blonde blur passed by me and tackled her off Josh. She let out a startled yelp, but the two of them quickly rose to their feet, with the princess squaring off against her, arms raised in a defensive posture. More importantly…

"{Chief, what are you doing!? Why did you freeze up like that!?}"

"I thought they were doing a thing! Power of love and stuff!" I complained loudly, and fortunately, nobody was paying any attention to it.

"{Go help Elly!}"

She didn't need to say that twice, and I quickly Phased between the two, just as Angie was about to strike at my girlfriend. My danger sense told me that the magical arm-blade was bad news, but by wrapping my forearm and hand in my phantom limbs, I managed to successfully deflect it.

We exchanged a couple of blows like that, though it would've been more accurate to say I took hers as best as I could. Because of the height difference, and her attacking low, I was forced to backpedal a bit to avoid the sweeps and stabs aimed at my legs, and maybe because I was too focused on her magical weapon, I paid too little attention to her other hand.

It happened when I ducked under an overhead sweep of her flaming wings. I had no idea if they could cause any damage or not, but since my sixth sense gave me a warning, I wasn't going to disagree. However, at the same time, she was aiming to stab my thigh, and because I was in an awkward pose, I couldn't really get out of the way in time. As such, I Phased away… but didn't realize that something touched my face. Sure, I didn't receive a danger-sense heads-up about it, and I was admittedly completely exhausted by this point, but it was a mistake I wouldn't have normally made.

At first, nothing seemed out of place when I reappeared just a step behind where I stood a moment ago. However, the thing that immediately caught my attention was that Elly, who was in the process of helping Josh up from the ground, froze mid-motion and stared at me with wide-open eyes. Then, I saw that there was something white in Angie's free hand, and…

"No way… This cannot be…" she muttered as she looked at the mask in her palm. "Polemos… No, it can't be! You! How dare you wear his face!?" With fury that completely distorted her face, and a sickening crunch, she crushed my Bel mask and bellowed, "Unacceptable!"

Oh shit. Oh shit, oh shit, OH SHIT! I was standing there, right in the open, with all eyes focused on me, and not wearing my Bel mask.

I messed up. I messed up big time.

If this gets out, everything will get turned on its head. The Draconic Federation, the Ordo Draconis, the Directorate… Fuck, even my relatively amicable relationship with the Magi will be completely screwed, along with my school life, my personal connections, and everything else.

Fuck! Just two more weeks! In two weeks' time, I could've finally put the plan to retire Bel into action, but now everything is bloody ruined! I can't talk my way out of this! There's no amount of refuge in audacity in the world that can fix this! I would… I…

"This is a bad idea…" I whispered, but I couldn't think of anything else.

I had to act now. The quicker I do, the less likely it was that things would go catastrophically wrong. I just needed to… retcon this. Not a big one; just a tiny retcon. Just the last ten… no, make it twenty seconds. Yes. Just retcon the last twenty… Thirty seconds. Just to be safe. A minute at most. Just make it so that Angie didn't grab my Bel mask, and everything will work out.

Was this a good idea? Like hell it was, but I had no time to hesitate, or ask for a second opinion. Each passing second made it more and more difficult, so I had to bite the bullet, and get it done now, or face the consequences.

This was my Rubicon, and I cast the die. With a single thought, all of my phantom limbs rushed out and simultaneously plunged into the body, or rather, the concept of the girl in front of me, pulling my consciousness through a tunnel that made me feel like a golf ball being sucked through a garden hose, until I reached Angie's core. What I saw there, gave me pause. And blanked out my mind. And if I had a back, it would've given me the chills too. Among other things.

"Wait… Where's… Where's Angie?"

My muttered words caused the space around me to tremble like an ocean during a storm, and that was also the best way to describe how my mind felt at the moment.

I've seen Angie's 'soul' before; her metaphysical yarn-ball was a mixture of dull, colourless threads mixed with more vibrant filaments on top. Yet, at the moment, I couldn't see the latter at all. Here and there, the different strands blended together, something I'd seen before, but the balance was overwhelmingly in the dull ones' favour, and even without touching them, I could tell that they all belonged to Deus.

It was at this point that the cold yet inevitable realization began to sink in. I… messed up. I completely messed up. I focused on the assassins and Percival, because I considered them the bigger problem, while I should've done this from the very start. I should've checked the status of Angie's soul much sooner, but because I've wasted so much time elsewhere, it allowed Deus's consciousness and personality to completely encroach on her. Hell, there was practically no 'Angie' left here, which meant… it meant…

"Is… she dead?"

This time, my helpless words only caused tiny waves, and I watched as they gently rocked the countless tightly woven threads in front of my nonexistent eyes. All the day's mental exhaustion cascaded down on my mind like an avalanche, burying me under a sense of utter powerlessness I'd never felt before.

I must be mistaken, right? There's no way the Simulacrum and the Narrative would allow something like this to happen to a main character, right? Not just that, but Josh's chosen heroine! Unless it was a bad ending, or one of those fake-outs where time gets reversed, or it's shown to be just a vision of the future, or some other plot device to enable a shock death without consequences.

But wait… The Simulacrum explicitly didn't allow time travel. Or resurrection, for that matter. Both of those were among the hard-coded rules of the world, acknowledged even in-universe by the Magi and everything. Which meant that, if Angie was truly dead…

"I can't do anything about it…?"

This time, my voice caused no waves. Everything was silent. Even the ever-moving threads of her soul remained stock-still as I floated in the non-Euclidian space-between-spaces, my mind's eye firmly closed. That was it. There was nothing for me to do here. I had no choice, but to accept the truth in front of my eyes, and move o—

"Fuck the truth!"

The words erupted from the bottom of my heart with a primal roar, shaking the space around me so hard I wouldn't have been surprised if it all fell apart. It didn't though, so I grit my currently non-existent teeth and anchored myself into the world before extending a single phantom limb into the yarn-ball of dull threads in front of me. Even though I knew that this was a terrible idea with unfathomable and terrifying consequences that could absolutely ruin everything I have worked so hard to achieve and the world wouldneverbethesameagainsoIshoudlstoppleasestopbefore—

"And fuck you too!" I yelled at the asshole corner of my mind and plunged the phantom limb into the core of Angie's soul. And when I did… everything exploded.

The threads, the yarn ball, and even the space around me fractured and twisted as uncountable branches of an immeasurable fractal tree appeared in front of me. It was time to break the rules. It was time for a not-so-small retcon, and damn the consequences.

PART 2

Okay, so maybe I went in there a bit too hard.

This, and many other considerations ran through my mind as I was buffeted by the fractal oceans of Angies raging around me, shifting from branches to trees to waves to kaleidoscopic abstract forms before snapping back to branching shapes and silent colours to start the process all over again. Retconning something (even the simpler, temporal variety) was a complex affair I more often than not winged through intuition, but this… this was something else entirely.

The experience was, for lack of better words, mind-melting. Infinite waters of potential Angies churned and thundered around me, solidifying for momentary aeons before turning and twisting into impossible shapes and possibilities and then popping like giant soap bubbles, each one creating more and more recursive fractal vortexes spiralling out into infinitude before collapsing as another unimaginably huge wave of similar formless probabilities swallowed them whole.

I said I would damn the consequences, but it wasn't an option. Not really. We weren't talking about a mug, or a wrench, or a pen here. This was a living, breathing person, with all the countless infinities contained within them. A careless move could've caused magnitudes greater damage to her, and by proxy, everyone and everything in the Simulacrum than the one I was trying to mitigate. I had to be careful, but I had no idea where to even begin, and even though I had firmly anchored myself into the non-Euclidian space enveloping my disembodied consciousness, I felt like a paper boat in a hurricane.

Yet, that wasn't the real problem. It was little more than a mild discomfort, really. No, the true issue lay in the thing I already mentioned: I had no idea where to even begin changing the fate of the girl whose literally countless iterations were forming a small, infinitely recusing universe around me. Actually, that was the thing that sent me on a loop: infinity.

When I was doing this to an inanimate object, the potential variations were, while technically infinite, practically comprehensible. A mug is a mug is a mug, and there's a limit to how much the concept can be stretched before it would no longer be itself. But what about a person? Is the child the same as the teenager the same as the adult? Every minute change would open and close an immeasurable number of paths, echoing into the future, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. Unlike a simple item, she had a soul.

All my analogies of yarn balls and threads stretching out into infinity? As limited as a visualization it was, it wasn't strictly inaccurate; each such thread was connected to other souls, affecting them either directly or indirectly. Altering just one thing would be no different than trying to change the image on a tapestry without disturbing the rest of the strands in the process. Not completely impossible, but prohibitively time-consuming to the point one might as well just make a different tapestry from scratch.

Of course, that wasn't an option here, and I had to work with what I had. But… how?

Where to begin? That was the million Jen question here, and I would've loved to ask someone, but I was all alone. Despite my expectations, the usually quite loud and insistent part of my mind, the one that was much more informed than I was, fell completely dead silent the moment I entered this fractal sea of boundless trees made of waves encompassing infinite potential Angies. I could try calling out to it, like the last time I attempted something like this, but I somehow felt that it would be meaningless. Because I was alone, with all the metaphysical weight that word could contain.

There was no alternative. I had to figure this out on my own. I'd come this far, and trying to back out at this point was… not implausible. I could do it, but I wouldn't. Because that would've meant I was admitting defeat, and I wasn't just going to do that. Not without exhausting all possibilities first.

Speaking of which, to find those possibilities, I had to start somewhere, and I still had no idea how to do that. Or where. But I wasn't deterred. I just needed time to figure that out, and if I knew one thing, it was that the concept of time had little meaning here.

First, I had to conceptualize a beginning. Like a zero on a number line. There were infinite positive and negative numbers, but once the number zero was designated, they could be visually represented on the line by their distance from this 'zero point'. In my case, that was the 'current' Angie, as much as that concept applied here, and it took me quite an effort to find her. Unlike with the mug, or the wrench, the fractal sea didn't branch out from one point; instead, she was just a single iteration of endless varieties represented in front of me. Yet, without this 'zero Angie' on my imaginary number line, I couldn't move either forward or backwards.

This first step was already quite time-consuming, from a certain point of view. Since time had no meaning, the hours of the days of the years of the centuries spent on this task were just as long as a blink of an eye, leaving me with just a strange sense that what I instantly did was also long and arduous. Fortunately, thanks to my regular interactions with enchantments, during which I worked in non-spaces that operated under very similar rules and principles, I was already used to these incongruous sensations.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

Anyhow, once that infinite yet short task was complete, came an even more infinite task: I had to find the right Angie to replace the current one. One that wasn't completely subsumed by Deus. And to do that, I didn't have to look to the present, but to the past.

How should I put this? So, let's start with a previous instance: I took a fractaled potential mug saying 'I Heart Tea', and overlaid it on my ironic 'I Heart Coffee' mug. That made it so that my mug always said 'I Heart Tea' in the past. It was a fairly simple and straightforward operation, where I didn't take any of the ramifications it would have on the past and future into account. Or more accurately, I was completely unaware of such ramifications, but let's not split hairs over this.

In any case, this time I was doing something entirely different. To stay with the mathematical analogies, changing the mug was taking an equation in a textbook, and changing the numbers. It originally said, 'two plus two equals four', and I changed it to 'two plus three equals five'. Both equations were entirely correct, and changing them is mostly meaningless, because I wasn't invested in either the changed number or the result of the equation.

What I was doing right now would be closer to multivariable calculus, where I had an equation with multiple unknown numbers, and I had to figure out how to get the result I wanted on the other side of the equation mark. Which brought me to the next issue: what was the result I wanted to achieve?

'An Angie who wasn't overtaken by Deus' was the simplest answer, but needless to say, it wasn't that straightforward, because there were literally countless variations of that concept in here. Was it an Angie who wasn't the reincarnation of Deus at all? One who was only temporarily possessed? One who was still in control? One who merged with Deus? To what degree? Where did I draw the line?

That was the next thing to figure out, and to do so, I had to work backwards. It was almost like pruning a ridiculously complex overgrown tree. First, I discarded all the potential results that didn't fit the initial criteria. Then, I started limiting the scope, by eliminating all potential answers that would've required me to reach back too far in the timeline. For example, fully removing Deus from the equation would have resulted in obscenely enormous changes in the past, and therefore the present. If Angie wasn't Deus, then she wouldn't have acted out when they were kidnapped, I wouldn't have realized she and Josh were taken, the directors wouldn't have shifted their attention to her, she wouldn't have forced them to let her come back to Timaeus, and then none of today's events would've happened. That wasn't just a butterfly effect, that was the whole bloody monarch migration!

So yeah, something like that was obviously out of the question. In conclusion, the retcon had to start as recently as possible and make small yet effective changes that wouldn't cause any unforeseen mixups in the future. That was a tall order, because it meant I had to look into the immediate prospects of my machinations, which was insanely time-consuming due to the whole iteration-explosion aspect that came with these kinds of things. Still, time remained as meaningless as before, and I continued my work in what felt like eternal silence.

Take a potential past. Check its pre-requisites. Does it mess up the past? If it does, snip it. If it doesn't, does it result in a desirable outcome in the present? If it doesn't, snip it. If it does, what kind of potential ramifications does it have? Do the bad outcomes outweigh the good ones? Snip. Snip. Snip.

This process was repeated thousands, millions, billions of times. My perception narrowed, and my mind grew hazy as I became little more than a machine. A sorting algorithm dedicated to this single task, going through the motions over and over again, without the need to rest or even pause. All for the sake of the perfect equation, where all the variables were just right, and the result was flawless.

With time, the potential options slowly narrowed down into more manageable lines. While they were still infinite, courtesy of the way these things worked, it was at least an infinite variation of a tightly detailed set of variables, resulting in an even tighter distribution of final results. How should I put it…? It was like trying to look for a green T-shirt in an endless warehouse full of clothes. When I started out, I would find skirts and jeans and winter coats and shoes, all of which had to be thrown aside. Then, as options became more limited, I would encounter green socks, white shirts, and black T-shirts. Closer to what I wanted, but still no cigar.

By this point, I was shifting through T-shirts only. All of them in different shades of green, from mint to feldgrau, and in different styles, from polo necks to cap sleeves. They still had effectively infinite variations, but all of them fell within a tight band of potential outcomes. I just had to find the perfect one. It had to be perfect.

Or so I thought for the first million or so iterations. Or was it a trillion? Maybe seven. Just like time, repetition also lost its meaning after a while, and I looked at the latest 'equation' I solved. It was entirely satisfactory. Great, even. But I could do better. It was only a question of time and effort, but I had both of those in spades. Yet… would I think the same if I found something better than this? And what about after that? The scary thing about 'infinity' is that there was always more of it out there. I could repeat this process eternally, and keep finding more and more ideal results, but… would it matter?

Sometimes, good enough was good enough, and this was one of those times. Or so I felt at the moment. Maybe I was just getting impatient, or homesick after spending several eternities on this task. Not that I could remember any of it; even as I grabbed the 'good enough Angie' with my phantom limbs, everything I've experienced, including the endless repetition, crumbled away from my memories like a building made of dust. It was sort of like a defence mechanism. Human minds weren't meant to experience such time scales, and at the end of the day, I was also human… right?

Existential musings aside, the already chaotic sea of possibilities roiled even harder around me, as if my actions were kicking up a storm over the already churning waters. I vaguely understood that it was just the way my mind conceptualized the process, but it didn't make the final step of my task any less arduous.

Anchored by the rest of my Phantom Limbs, I very, very slowly shifted the desired present onto the 'zero Angie' I designated on my imaginary number line. As I pulled, it was dragging along all the past links and effects that gave birth to this particular iteration, like a spider-web stretching and deforming as I pulled on one of its strings. Thanks to my relentless efforts, the distortion was comparatively small and contained in the recent past, yet it still caused the whole fractal world to shake and buckle as all other possibilities were denied, and the sea of potentials was quickly and mercilessly sucked into the present, as if emptied by the vortex of an enormous drainage hole at the bottom.

Then, at last, the present that 'had been' got perfectly overlayed by the present that 'was', and with a deafening silence, my universe shrank into a pinpoint of light, like a single star of the night sky, before I was suddenly and violently thrown out of this space between spaces and back into my body.

Disoriented, I blinked repeatedly as the whole world was undulating around me and flashing with all kinds of strange and indescribable colours, as if I was experiencing an especially clichéd depiction of an acid trip. However, before I could fully gather my bearings, my danger sense suddenly signalled me to move, and while my addled mind was slow on the uptake, my body acted without delay and I stepped back, just in time to avoid a hand-blade slashing at my chest. However, this one had a different colour from Angie/Deus's, and when my eyes finally adjusted…

"Get away from her, you bastard!" Josh roared at me as he stood in front of his girlfriend, his right arm glowing with the aforementioned magical energy construct extending well past his fingers.

Angie, behind him, looked unsteady, yet to my surprise, while she was certainly glowing bright, it was nothing compared to her previous golden brilliance. Not only that, but her wings were intact, and her eyes were no longer burning with golden fire.

"W-Wait, you dummy!" She tried to get hold of Josh's shoulder while holding her head in her other hand. "I-I'm fine! You need to get away! Grandpa Deus says he's dangerous!"

"I know! That's why I can't leave you behind!" Even while saying that, Josh didn't take his eyes off me, and he pointed his blade at my face. Which was experiencing a familiar, sticky sensation, telling my that I was 'wearing' Pudding-kun, even though I was pretty sure I didn't bring the little shoggoth with me. Ignoring my true expression of bewilderment under the fake face of my Pudding-kun disguise, Josh heroically proclaimed, "I won't let you touch her!"

My confusion was palpable, my legs unsteady, and my headache bad enough to knock out a horse, so for the moment, I ignored the change in the childhood friend couple and glanced around to reorient myself. I could clearly remember that this place was in much, much worse shape just a few moments ago, but most of the craters were gone, and as for the rest…

"We hae th' upper haun! Push thae bastards back!" Duncan yelled in the back, the squires under his command locked in battle with a group of Celestials.

"You are our backup, so act like it!" Midriff woman argued with the leader of the first bunch of Celestials, trying to organize a common front along with armour guy.

"W-What happened?" Elly yelped in the back. "Things weren't like this just a moment ago—!" She wanted to say something else, but then a random Celestial grunt shot at her, and she let out her frustration in the form of a burst of deep red dragon fire. "Cut it out!"

"{Chief.}" Then, my dear assistant's calm yet immensely disapproving voice sounded through the communication array. "{What did you just do?}"

"I…" I wanted to tell her that I wasn't entirely sure either, because I couldn't remember much. I could recall interacting with Angie's soul, but everything after that was a blur. Something about number lines, equations, and green T-shirts? It didn't make much sense, honestly.

However, based on the context, I was pretty sure that I just retconned something. Let's organize the evidence.

Clue number one: My head was killing me. I mean, if I wasn't in the middle of a situation right now, just the headache alone would've been enough to make me lie down on the ground in the fetal position, and that was usually the result of trying to retcon stuff.

Clue number two: The situation obviously changed in a major sense that would've been hard to explain any other way.

Clue number three: While I didn't count yet, I could feel that I had a bunch of new phantom limbs, and those always multiplied whenever I mucked with the fundamental reality of the Simulacrum.

Clue number four: The only ones aware of the change were the girls and I. As for why; the incident with the mug already showed that I was immune to the mind-alteration of my own retcons, while the girls had their engagement rings.

While it wasn't their core purpose, I designed them to embed Judy's and Elly's existence into the deepest layer of the Simulacrum, to make sure they could survive, in a sense of the word, even if the upper layers with the island and magic and everything else were erased. I theorized that doing so would give them resistance to retcons as well, and by the looks of it, I was right on the money. Good job, me.

In conclusion, I have retconned Angie. That was kind of a monumental occurrence, but there was no time to ruminate over that, because we were still in the middle of a situation. Before anything else, I had to check Angie's soul again, to see if she was all right now, but Josh obviously wouldn't let me do so without a fight. Or so I thought, but then I noticed that he was standing stock still. I mean, really still, to the point I wasn't even sure he was breathing.

"A-Awawa! What's going on now!?" my draconic girlfriend yelped in the back, clearly panicked as she rapidly turned her head left and right. "Why did everyone stop?"

I also looked around, and she was right. Everyone was completely motionless, including the Celestials hanging in the air mid-flight. Even more alarmingly, the colour had drained from the world around us, with only the princess being an exception.

"{Chief?! What. Did. You. Do?!}"

"Nothing that would result in something like this!" I shouted back, but I couldn't elaborate, because without warning, I was startled by a distant yet clearly audible voice.

"Found you."

It was like a thousand chittering insects mixed with the high-pitched tone of nails on a blackboard formed into words, and when I turned to its source, the sight froze the blood in my veins. A humanoid figure. A crude facsimile formed from countless chalk-white fangs, claws, and bones. It was walking towards me at a leisurely pace, its featureless face lacking eyes and yet staring at me, unblinking.

"Leo! Look out—!"

"No! Stay ba—!"

However, before I could complete my warning, the whole world was swallowed up by an inky whiteness. It was like everything and everyone was blotted out by a flood of correction fluid until there were only two things left in the universe: me, and the man made of bones. The Predator Moon.

"What have you done!?" I yelled at him in a panic, my voice shaking the fabric of this white space, yet to my immense shock, he looked just as confused as I felt.

"I… have yet to do anything," he answered in a low voice, and his expressionless visage suddenly snapped towards the sky. "What is—?"

My eyes followed his line of sight, and while at first there didn't seem to be anything there, the next time I blinked, the sky shattered, and there was an enormous black fissure with jagged edges opening into a void filled with stars. Then, the whole white space trembled as something descended through the tear. On second thought, 'descent' might've been the wrong word. It was only a gaze, like the one I felt from the bone-man's eyeless face, except magnitudes more oppressive, and it originated from an enormous red star.

Its crimson light streamed through the hole in the sky and painted the white world with its colour, trapping the breath in my throat as I beheld its form. Surrounding the red sun were countless, immense black tentacles, spotted with twinkling white lights like stars in the night sky, and while its radiance was the colour of blood, at its center, I could see a different light; as if under the surface, there was a smaller, yellow sun the red one devoured in the past. Or was it still in the process of devouring?

I had no idea, nor could I understand what was happening. I wasn't alone in that, as the Predator Moon seemed just as confounded, if not even more so. However, that was nothing compared to what happened next.

Without as much as making a sound, countless starry tendrils extended through the fissure. They were enormous and unyielding, yet as they stretched through the distance, they also felt thin and flexible, and the second impression was further reinforced when they were suddenly wrapped around the body of the man of bones and fangs. I say 'were wrapped around', because I couldn't see them doing so. One moment, they weren't there, and the next, he was gone under the star-speckled mass of tendrils. Yet, before I could even comprehend what just happened, the feelers moved in unison, and like the crack of a whip, they flung the Predator Moon hard enough to make the space tremble.

There was an ear-piercing noise, and then silence, with the only trace of the terrifying creature being a new, rapidly mending crack in the firmament of this white world. Then, as if satisfied with a job well done, the starry tentacles retreated through the fissure, leaving me all alone. Though not for long.

"Aaaargh!"

Once again, I was startled by the loud groan coming from my side, and when I turned to face its source, I found a familiar black hole in reality itself. The visual representation of the more knowledgeable part of my mind. And it was quaking with barely restrained rage that radiated off it like heat from a bonfire.

"Am I out of my mind?!"

Following his yell, I couldn't help but slowly nod, and then whisper, "It certainly feels so, doesn't it…?"

PART 3

"Why?! Why, why, WHY did I do that!? Everything was going fine, but then I just couldn't leave it alone! What is wrong with me!?"

"Could you pipe down?" I glared at the hole in reality and reached for my temple, only to pause when I realized there was something off. It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that Pudding-kun disappeared from my face. Once I figured that out, I let out a soft groan and massaged my forehead even harder. "This headache is killing me."

"It's my own goddamn fault!" other-me yells at me, making his contours shake and distort with every word. "Just which part of 'don't fuck with the plot' was hard to understand?!"

"Maybe if you properly explained what the 'plot' was, then I would've known what to avoid!" I argued back, and other-me huffed and puffed in return.

"How exactly is it difficult to figure something like that out on my own!? Am I seriously this dense!? I knew that the plot was revolving around Deus, Polemos, and Joshua, right?"

"Well, yeah," I admitted and finally let my hand down, but only to fold my arms. On the other hand, other-me suddenly sounded even more outraged.

"If I knew that, then why the hell did I interfere with Joshua's plot?!"

"Why did I…? Are you nuts?! Josh got shot, and Angie was practically replaced by Deus, and the Magi got involved! How was I not supposed to interfere?!"

"By doing my goddamn part! Who do I think was supposed to apprehend Percival?! Or did I think that he escaped custody by coincidence?"

"No, that whole situation was obviously mucked up by the Narrative, but—"

"If I knew that, then why the bloody hell didn't I act on it?! Why did I interfere with the parts I wasn't supposed to be involved with instead?!"

"Read my lips, asshole," I raised my voice in turn, slowly devolving into a shouting match. "Angie. Was. Being. Taken. Over. By. Deus!"

"Yes! That was the plot!"

"It's…!" I was about to yell back, but then the words registered and I was stopped in my tracks. "Wait, what?"

"The plot! That's exactly what was supposed to happen to complete the Scenario!"

"… Okay, time out. That makes no bloody sense!"

Even though he had no eyes (or face, for that matter) I could practically feel the glare other-me was sending my way on my skin.

"It does! It absolutely does! Angeline was always supposed to be taken over by Deus; it's part of the natural progression of the plot."

"No, I'm telling you it's not," I argued back, my initial vehemence giving way to flat denial. "We even had this whole thing where Josh and Angie having sex interfered with her Deus-ness and kept it in bay, and I've seen the Narrative set up contrived situations to encourage that with my own eyes."

"No! Imbecile!" other-me roared. "That's not what that was about!"

I promptly roared back, "Then what was it about, genius!?"

Groaning, other-me vibrated so hard it caused even the blank whiteness surrounding us to tremble.

"Argh! Listen up, dipshit! It's all very simple: Joshua has the ability to absorb and incorporate the records of other Actors. He absorbs Angeline's records. Then her records are overwritten by the records of Deus. This is the darkest hour, and it gives us drama. Drama causes Joshua to undergo character development. Then, we have our finale, where all the Actors play their roles to allow Joshua to reach Deus again, and after cleverly using her power against her, he gets close, kisses her, gives her back her records, which awakens Angeline, and with Joshua's support, they subdue Deus. Cue happy ending. Simple, straightforward, and obvious."

"…" I waited for him to finish, and after a silent beat that stretched for theoretical miles, I lightly cleared my throat. "Excuse me, but what the fuck? How is any of that obvious?!"

"It would've been, if I paid proper attention to the plot instead of trying to—"

"No, shut up! I'm not listening to any of this hogwash! Are you even listening to yourself? Are you seriously telling me that everything was supposed to be resolved by the power of love?! That overused trite everyone with at least two brain cells to rub together is rightfully making fun of all the time?!"

"No, I shut up!" Other-me not only yelled, but floated right up in my face. "Tropes aren't bad! They become clichés when they work, and it would've worked if someone didn't majorly screw up the entire plot!"

"Oh, right! Please excuse me for trying to do my best, working with limited information, because someone else refused to throw me a proper bone!"

"I did! I already shared as much information as I could!"

"Well, it obviously wasn't enough." Growling and glaring in equal measure, I leaned in, forcing other-me to float back away.

"Obviously," the hole in reality growled back, but after staring daggers at each other for a while (or at least I was pretty sure that's what we were doing), he gave up. "It's not like it matters. At this point, the original plot is unsalvageable."

"Good riddance. It sucked."

"Oh, shut up. I don't understand anything."

"Again, whose fault is that?" I could once again feel other-me's glare on me, but it only lasted for a second.

"Argh. It's pointless arguing with me. I'm a bloody mule."

"Took the words right out of my mouth." I waited for a second, to see if he had anything else to say, but we were both out of steam at this point, so I figured it was as good a time as any to try and make things a bit more productive. "So, what now?"

"I haven't the foggiest. The main plot is in shambles, but maybe a couple of the side plots can be reintegrated. Like Duncan's arm."

"Hold on. What was that about his arm?"

Once again, I couldn't see it happen, but I could feel other-me roll his eyes at me.

"He was supposed to lose an arm in the battle, then Abram would bring him a replacement prosthetic made of liquid metal. The same stuff he offered to use as a replacement for my arm when I messed up the sentai subplot a while back."

"A-ha! I knew I wasn't paranoid and the sentai stuff was a thing!" I declared triumphantly, but then I remembered the current situation and toned things back a bit. "Anyhow, metal arm?"

"Yeah. It would've served as a power-up for the final battle, but that's obviously not happening… unless I do something about it."

"I'm not cutting his arm off just to fulfil some stupid Narrative design," I hissed. "Also, is this seriously your biggest concern at the moment?"

"Well, since the main plot is retroactively screwed, because someone was so attached to their alter-ego I acted like a bull in a china shop to try and preserve it, I should at least do my best to pick up the pieces and salvage whatever I can. It's not like there's anything else for me to do." When I continued to look at the black hole in front of me with all the flat incredulity of a hundred Judys combined, he soon added a confused, "What?"

"Aren't we ignoring the elephant in the room?"

For emphasis, I gestured at the white void surrounding us, as well as the star-filled crack hanging overhead. While currently distant, the red sun on the other side must've recognized that I was referring to it, as I could once again feel its attention pressing down on me.

"… I have to be more specific than that," the infuriating version of myself continued to infuriate me, and I held my head in my hand for a moment, lest we would descend into a shouting match all over again.

"For a start, where even are we?"

"In the Simulacrum, obviously." Other me shifted around, though since he was two-dimensional, it only meant his shape changed a bit to emulate turning left and right. "Oh. Do I mean the blank space?"

"Among other things."

"It's just the Simulacrum being on pause. It shouldn't affect the current Scenario. So, back to Duncan's arm—"

"No, we aren't going back to that! Explain to me what 'being on pause' means, and…" I once again gestured around. "And what happened to the bone-guy? Or what…" I looked up, and the moment I laid my eyes on the red sun, I could once again feel its presence on me. It was positively suffocating, so I barely managed to point a finger at the crack in the sky and squeeze out, "… is that?"

"Listen. I really, really shouldn't concern myself over—"

"No, I really, really should," I cut him off before he could make another excuse. "The… Predator Moon, right? He was thrown out of… the Simulacrum, I guess? But before that happened, he said he 'found me'. What did he mean by that?"

"A case of mistaken identity, and it's something I shouldn't worry about. Or know, really."

"You keep saying that, but I think I'm way too deep in this shit to just accept things and run with them. I need answers, dammit. Or at the very least, I need to know if he still poses a danger to me and the others."

"No, of course not. He never posed a danger to me, or…" Other me paused and shook. "It doesn't matter. I told you that he doesn't matter. The only thing I have to care about is the plot."

"I don't give half a shit about your plot!"

"It's not my plot! I mean, it is, but it's not in the way I think it…" Before he could finish his objection, the whole of the blank space trembled, and my eyes were immediately drawn to the red sun hanging overhead. It came closer to the crack in the sky, and while I could still feel its attention like a dump truck's worth of bricks on my shoulders, it wasn't actually aimed at me, but the black hole in the fabric of space floating next to me. "What? That's… No! That's just asking for a disaster!"

By the sound of it, other-me was communicating with… whatever the heck that was.

"Yes, of course, I know that the Scenario has to be completed to… No, I'm saying that if I'm granted free rein, I will ruin everything!"

"What are you on about?"

"Stay out of this!" other-me hissed in my direction and then turned back to continue to arguing with the red sun. "Yes, I— No, it's not about that! Listen, if I mess up the plot again, then… What? You can't be serious!"

"Okay, would you please stop putting up a one-man show, and explain to me what the heck is going on?"

Other-me turned in my direction, and I could practically feel the disparaging stare he was giving me, followed by a sigh of defeat.

"There's no need. There's a change in plans, and… Ugh… Why am I even trying to explain any of this?" All of a sudden, what until now appeared to be a small, two-dimensional black hole expanded, its edges fraying and wriggling, its shape twisting and warping. In the blink of an eye, it became nothing less than a mass of overlapping pitch-black tendrils, faintly dotted with tiny white stairs reminiscent of the ones surrounding the red sun peeking through the hole in the featureless sky. I couldn't take a better look though, as his form abruptly folded in on itself, becoming an infinitesimal distortion in space. "Be prepared to feel incredibly stupid."

Before I could get a word in, the condensed something that used to be other-me shot towards me. I couldn't even get the chance to move a muscle, and he already pierced through my chest. There was no pain though. If anything, my headache suddenly got a whole lot better, only to be replaced with a wave of nausea that nearly knocked me off my feet.

"What the…?"

Those were the only two words I could squeeze out of my mouth before my brain… well, it's kind of hard to explain. It's not like I was suddenly granted a vast amount of information, but more like… Sometimes, people forget words, right? As in, you're in the middle of a conversation, and you know exactly what you want to say, but for the love of you, you just can't recall the specific term. Then you spend what feels like ages to try and remember, and it's on the tip of your tongue, but you just can't recall it, until it just suddenly pops into your head, and you just feel this massive sense of relief all at once?

Okay, now imagine that, but instead of a single obscure term or whatever, it's everything. Well, okay, maybe not capital-E 'everything', but it sure as hell felt like that at the moment. And then, to make things even more chaotic, a bazillion phantom limbs erupted from my back. Or at least thirty. Somewhere between those two numbers, for sure, but I understandably didn't have the time to sit down and count them one by one.

Oh, and speaking of ethereal tendrils, I suddenly felt the full weight of the red sun's attention on me, and when I looked up, I saw its enormous starry appendages extending towards me. Countless strands, each as thick as planets, converged and merged together into one massive feeler aimed right at me.

My flight or flight reflexes kicked in right away, but for nought, as I was rooted in place and couldn't even look away as the incoming… something rapidly thinned as it got closer to the crack in the sky. Yet, even as it passed through and reached over me, it was still massive; easily the size of a bloody skyscraper. Then, it touched my head and…

Nothing.

What was that? Was that supposed to be an attack? Probably not. It could've easily crushed me, but it didn't. In that case… was this one of those situations where some eldritch entity made physical contact to convey a message? Maybe it was about to pour some more information into me? Or give me a power-up? That was the usual trope, wasn't it?

Yet, no matter how long I waited, nothing happened. Instead, the enormous, star-splattered feeler carefully retreated, and as it did, it unravelled into its constituent tendrils. On its way out, the countless appendages grabbed onto the jagged edges of the fissure above me, and by pulling on them, the tear in the fabric of the Simulacrum was rapidly mended.

Meanwhile, I just stood there, dumbfounded, and stared at the retreating ************. Did… did he just pat me on the head? Is that what this was about? But why would he…?

"Oh, right." Even before the question could fully form in my head, the answer presented itself in the form of a crumb of knowledge I just remembered, and I couldn't help but stifle a groan. "Goddamit. I was right. I really do feel bloody stupid right now."

Unaware of my internal turmoil, the hole in the sky was fully patched up, and as soon as the last cracks were mended, the white ambience began to retreat from my sight. First, there was light and shadows, and it made me realize that I was in the exact same scenery as before the whole intermezzo with **************… wait, I called him Predator Moon, right? Okay, let's keep calling him that. Much easier to pronounce, and it's best to be consistent with these things.

Meanwhile, after light came texture, and the flat white colour rapidly retreated from my view. I was back in the middle of the ravaged playground, with everything and everyone stock still and in black-and-white… except for my girlfriend.

"— something is…!" She continued off right where she was interrupted by the Simulacrum getting paused in the middle of running to my side, and she stumbled as she came to a halt. "W-Wait? Where did that creature go?"

She must've meant the Predator Moon, but I had no time to properly explain what was going on, so I pointed a palm in her direction.

"Princess! Play along!"

She blinked at me in surprise but also nodded reflexively. Attagirl. In the meantime, I checked my face, and it once more had Pudding-kun on it, which was a relief. Now, I had to quickly figure out what Elly was supposed to play along with, and honestly, I was drawing a blank. There were just way too many things to take into consideration, and…

"Eh, I'll wing it," I whispered, just in time for time itself to reassert its presence, and the moment my gaze met with Angie's confused eyes, I let out a suitably corny villain laugh. "Bwahaha! I see, I see!"

Raising my voice as much as I could, I slipped into my Bel persona like it was an old, comfortable pair of socks and Phased right in front of her. Keeping up a seamless performance was more important than ever right now, and as I appeared, I leaned over to stare closely into her face.

"E-Eeek!"

The Celestial girl reeled back, and her reaction was soon followed by a strike from her boyfriend, aimed right at my neck, but my short-term temporal detection… let's just keep calling it danger sense. Anyhow, it warned me in time, and since I was now surrounded by invisible phantom limbs, it was trivial to slash Josh's magical arm blade into bits before grabbing hold of his hand and pulling him in.

"W-What are you—?!"

I had to establish a bit of menace right now, so I looked him deep in the eye and flashed a suitably carefree grin.

"So that's how it is! Deus, old chap! Part of you is in this boy, eh? Hilarious!"

"Let him go!" Angie yelled, and let loose a magical arrow at me.

It left me a bit surprised, but my reflexes were still primed, so I managed to slap it out of the air with my free hand. Funnily enough, that was a good thing, because if she didn't do that, I wouldn't have turned my head, and I might not have realized that the princess was rushing at me with her arm outstretched, as if she was going to clothesline me.

Of course, since she was just 'playing along', there was no intent to harm me or any other danger, so my sixth sense didn't throw a fuss. I tried to imagine what a blow it would've been to Bel's image if I hadn't noticed her and got hit by that, but since I did, I casually Phased out of the way. Elly anticipated that, and once I was out of the way, she stood in front of Josh, as if to guard him.

"Ah, right! You didn't lose your bow in this timeline, did you?" I asked absently, and I couldn't believe I just said something that was simultaneously factually accurate and the exact kind of bullshit I usually spouted as Bel. Ignoring the sense of incredulity, I glanced at the princess again.

"{Good job!}" I told her through the same method I used to secretly message Josh in the past, by hijacking the communication enchantment on her Magiformer. "{Quick, threaten me!}"

"I… um… If you dare lay a hand on my friends, I'll break you!" Elly exclaimed, and despite looking pretty flustered to me, the others didn't seem to see anything out of line. That was good.

Meanwhile, I straightened my lapels and let out a low chuckle.

"Feisty, aren't you? Well, I would love to play with you, but I really need to find the kid. I have all kinds of questions for him, you see? Such as why he kept something this amusing a secret from me! It was quite inconsiderate of him, I tell you." I paused, and then did a quick temperament shift, staring at Angie with a solemn expression. "As for you, my dear Deus… let's have a chat the next time we meet. Just you and me. Reminisce about the good old times. Kill each other. Have some biscuits. Not necessarily in that order."

Angie blinked at me, her expression tinged with panic, but then she squeezed out, "G-Grandpa Deus says you should… um… D-Do I really have to say that?" She drew in a sharp breath, and then she steeled herself, balled her fingers into fists, and yelled out with her eyes closed. "S-Screw off, you s-son of a…!"

She ran out of steam by the end of it, and the 'bitch' came out as a whisper, but it was still pretty surprising. Also, amusing, in a way.

"Tut, tut, old friend. How could you make a poor little girl curse like that? Shame on you!" I wagged a finger at them and then did a scraping bow. "We'll talk about that potty mouth next time, mister. Till then, stay safe, have fun, and don't forget about the biscuits!"

And with that, I immediately phased out of the battlefield and reappeared in the closed-off reception room of the underground base. Judy wasn't even startled when I showed up. Chances were, she was looking at the scene through my eyes the whole time.

In any case, she immediately turned to me and pulled her communicator glasses down to the tip of her nose.

"What exactly just happened?"

"I'll explain to you, just as soon as I fully understand it myself," I answered while already in the process of sitting down and I let out a long sigh.

While my head no longer hurt, I almost wished it had. It was now filled with waaay too much information, and while I naturally understood that it was all just knowledge I had known all along, but forgot… or maybe 'compartmentalized' was the better term? Didn't matter. The important part was, even knowing that, it would take bloody weeks to sift through all that info, and I had a strong feeling it still wasn't all I was supposed to know. Did I have more such 'compartmentalized' memories? Where? Why?

Questions for later. For the moment, I had one thing I had to do, and do it fast: I had to figure out what the 'Scenario' and 'plot' I kept telling myself about were supposed to be, and just how royally I screwed them up. Without that, I couldn't make my next move, and I also had to be on the lookout for the Narrative, and…

Wait. The Narrative? What even is…?

"Oh… Oh my god…"

"What?" my dear assistant inquired with an unamused expression, and I raised a finger to stall her.

"Shit…" I looked her in the eye, and said, "Dormouse. You might want to sit down before you hear this."

She was still eyeing me with a mixture of worry and annoyance, but she obediently sat down right next to me while I rapidly assembled the relevant bits and pieces in my mind palace.

What I found made… a scary amount of sense. I thought the Narrative was pushing my buttons out of spite, but I never even questioned how it knew what buttons to push. Nor did I ever consider that there was something more to it than just trying to annoy me. If I was right, things like Fred's sentai antics or the entire tournament-arc were tools employed by the Narrative to subtly steer my actions, and it knew how I would react to these things, because… because…

"Judy…" I tried not to sound overdramatic. I failed. "I think I'm the Narrative."