Epilogue - The Darkest Timeline
[Sam]
Sam awoke to blood-red skies. His heart was pounding, and he felt at his chest, wincing slightly. Gideon’s claws had dug into him, leaving deep, bloody rents in his chest. He must have been out a long time because the blood had crusted over, and the wound was trying and failing to heal itself. Sam fished a health potion out of his void sack and chugged it. Before he could orient himself, a quest notification filled his vision.
Quest:
Looper’s Insanity
Quest Tier:
Ancient
Quest Sponsor:
Chronos, the Time Weaver
Objective:
Kill the Dark Storm or Escape Looper’s Insanity. Every death rewinds the sands of time. Bear witness to the destruction of the world a thousand times over. Let suffering etch its painful lessons into your very soul. Learn, grow, escape, or give in to the insanity of endless suffering.
Reward:
Looper’s Lucidity
Failure:
The Dark Storm escapes Looper’s Insanity
He stared blankly at the quest notification, then something truly strange happened. As though there was a glitch in the system, the quest objective began to flicker, dimming slightly with each flash. Then it disappeared entirely. That was odd, he thought as the quest disappeared. He started to pull it back up, but a loud crash of thunder shook the world, drawing his attention back to his surroundings.
Sam pushed himself off the ground and this time gave his surroundings an uninterrupted inspection. The sky was red, peppered with black clouds and ominous thunder raging in all directions. At first, he didn’t recognize where he was. Everything was reduced to a state of rubble. There was one thing that stuck out to him.
A few gargantuan pillars of Roman design stood strong in defiance of the destruction. The wall that bridged them was nothing more than a pile of shattered stone as large as a mountain, and several of the pillars were cracked, if not outright destroyed. Still, it was obvious what it once was: the Colosseum on the third floor. At least that's what it looked like.
Sam stepped over the polished marble stone and granite, choosing a direction at random. He let his senses bleed out to the world, but there were no signs of any life. No signs of anything, really, except for the growing storm on the horizon. His search went on for hours, ending almost where he started. He found the waypoint on which he initially arrived. The large, circular portal held its shape but was shattered, with a hundred deep cracks running all across it. Sam bent down and ran his fingers across the stone, then he stood on it. No notification to travel to a different floor. His eyes followed the cracks that ran through it to its epicenter.
A dagger stood like a sword plunged into stone.
Someone shattered the waypoint with a dagger? Impressive, Sam thought.
He walked towards the dagger for a closer inspection. It was a simple design, a large buck knife with a black leather handle. He squinted at it. It didn’t look magical in the slightest, not even triggering an item notification.
That’s odd, Sam thought. First the quest glitches out, now I’m not getting an item description. On a hunch, he pulled his sword out of his void sack and gave it an inspection. Nothing appeared. Next, he pulled up his stat page.
Nothing.
Initially, he was excited about the prospect of being stuck in a time loop. He had read countless stories about them and fantasized a thousand times over about what he would do if he was caught in a loop. That had been foolish of him, and he chastised himself for the thoughts. This wasn’t some fantasy story where he was the hero. This was real life. And now, he didn’t have access to his system. He felt naked.
He glanced back down at the knife that seemed to have destroyed the waypoint and felt out with his senses. No mana was radiating from the dagger, which set off another alarm in the back of his brain. Could he still use mana?
He closed his eyes and focused on his core. It was still there. He pulled at the bright blue magic that radiated inside and let it flood his channels, forming a small blue orb at the center of his palm. He let loose a breath and allowed the small ball of mana to dissipate. He still had mana, but there was a problem. It felt more difficult to control than it had been originally. With a new fear in his heart, he tried to cast one of his abilities: a simple arcane missile. The spell fell apart before he could fully form it. He frowned deeply and tried again, concentrating harder.
It worked the second time. A diamond shape built out of his blue chrono magic formed in front of him then shot forward into a pile of rubble. It worked, but felt lackluster. Is this what it feels like casting without the assistance of the system? he wondered.
“Sorry about that. Kinda my fault the system doesn’t work anymore.”
Sam launched backwards through his timeline, sword drawn and leveled at the source of the noise. That time, it wasn’t hard to use his spells. His training from Kilgor had paid off somewhat, and despite the lack of system, he still managed to use his magic reflexively.
Sam honed in on someone leaning against what might have been a wall to a building. He wore blue jeans and a flower-print shirt. A cigarette was hanging loosely from his lips, and he was giving Sam a sympathetic smile.
Jack.
“Jack? What are you doing here? How did you get inside?” Sam was immediately suspicious, but also somewhat relieved and somehow disappointed.
If Jack was here, that meant he was going to get sucked into his story once again and be reduced to nothing but the idiot sidekick.
“Oh, I’ve been waiting for you, Sammy boy,” Jack said, pushing himself off the wall and taking a puff of his cigarette. He started coughing violently, then tried to take another puff before having a second coughing attack. He stared at the cigarette angrily and went in for a third puff, but Sam jumped forward and snatched the cigarette away from him.
“Stop that,” he said, throwing it on the ground and putting it out with his boot. He leveled his gaze back at Jack, who seemed wholly unbothered by anything. “What’s going on? What do you mean waiting for me?”
“I mean,” Jack started, raising his hand. “You have something I need.”
Sam felt something pressing against his stomach. He looked down to see Jack’s hand resting on stomach. When did he do that? How did he move so fast? Sam panicked and tried to back away, but suddenly his feet refused to work. His eyes went wide as something inside him started moving towards Jack’s hand still resting on his upper stomach. It was his core.
Sam doubled down on his focus, slapping Jack’s hand and stumbling backwards. “What are you doing, Jack? What’s going on?”
“It’ll be easier if you don’t run. Every time you run, you die. You survive this sometimes if you don’t run,” Jack answered with a slow step closer to Sam.
“Stop!” Sam screamed, lashing out with his sword. It went through Jack like a cloud, and he continued his lazy march forward. He bent down to Sam’s level, reaching out once more, his eyes glued to Sam’s core. Sam tried to move, but something pulsed off of Jack, and Sam was instantly crippled by pure dread, unable to move.
Jack’s fingers once more pressed against his stomach. Then his eyes shifted, looking up past Sam. He gave an annoyed tsk and pulled his hand back.
“Every damn time,” he groaned, standing up, black tendrils of electricity biting at the air around him.
Sam was still paralyzed by fear and could barely turn his head one way or another. A whistling noise sailed past the two of them, an arrow appearing buried in the ground just behind Jack. It was a light blue arrow and exploded like a water balloon. The black lightning lashed out at the blue waters and left behind sizzles of vapor as the two energies clashed. The pressure he was feeling seemed to lessen as Jack became more focused on something else.
Sam forced himself to move, rolling over onto his side to get a look at whatever Jack was focused on.
Dozens upon dozens of large, blue orbs were floating in the crimson sky above. They each exploded simultaneously, and a hundred thousand arrows flooded the sky, crashing down in a titanic wave on their position.
Jack turned into a streak of black lightning and took to the skies, meeting the volley head-on. Sam was mesmerized by the display of power. Jack swam through the sea of arrows, a centipede of black lightning devouring everything it came into contact with. Violent explosions rang out as he made contact with the arrows, but it didn’t slow him down in the slightest. If anything, he seemed to be moving faster, urged on by the chaos.
A singular arrow shot past the chaos straight towards Sam. He felt his heart drop, unable to move, unable to do anything to avoid taking an arrow to the skull.
Jack appeared once again, grabbing the arrow with a pained grimace as the watery arrow spun violently in his hand, trying to break free and drill a hole through his head. Jack’s veins were bulging in his arm as he pulled back on the arrow that refused to stop. With a loud roar of defiance, he pulled the arrow away and sent it sailing a hundred yards away. It exploded on impact, showering them both in a mountain of rubble. Once again, Jack shielded him from the brunt of the explosion.
Is he trying to kill me or not? Sam wondered, staring at Jack. The man’s lazy grin returned.
“Close!” he shouted. “Almost didn’t see that last arrow. Very sneaky.” Jack fished out another cigarette, lighting it with a spark of lightning and taking a long pull from it. This time, he didn’t cough a single bit, as though he had been smoking his entire life. Sam followed his gaze, his eyes widening in surprise.
A woman with long, blonde hair flowing over her shoulders crested one of the mountains of rubble.
“Hannah,” Sam said with a relieved smile as he watched her approach. He squinted at her slightly. She was wearing a stola of light blue, belted at the waist with a pair of bracers. She looked like a Greek goddess, taking elegant steps across the debris. He loved Hannah, but had never seen her look so… refined? It was odd.
“Think again, buddy,” Jack said with a look of disgust as Hannah approached.
She stopped maybe fifty feet away, water pouring out of her palms and materializing into a large bow. Sam squinted at her, confused. Hannah didn’t have access to water mana. Then he realized what he was missing. Her blonde hair wasn’t fully blonde. Streaks of brown were running through it. It was Hannah’s body, but the face was all wrong. He felt his heart stop.
“Sarah?” he tried, unsure what he was looking at.
“Bingo,” Jack said from behind.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Sarah looked at him with a forlorn look, then turned to Sam. “Samuel, I’m sorry.”
Sam squinted at her, confused. Then she raised her bow and fired off another volley of arrows at him.
Jack intercepted them once again then launched at Sarah. He stopped halfway, turning his head to look towards the horizon.
“Not again,” he growled. “How does he always fucking know?” All humor was gone from Jack’s voice as he stared off into the horizon.
“You would think you’d be used to this by now, Jack,” Sarah chastised, staring off in the same direction.
Sam tried to see what they were looking at, but there was nothing. If anything, it looked like things had calmed down. Jack looked back at him, then back to the horizon once more.
“Alright, first we deal with him, then you and me duke it out over Sammy. Deal?”
“No deal. You fight him if you want.” Sarah looked at Sam once more, giving him a small, sympathetic smile. “I hope you grow strong, Samuel. Strong enough to stop this all. Strong enough to stop him,” she finished, her eyes flashing fury at Jack. She turned and left in the same direction she came.
“Alright, Sammy boy, you stay put and I’ll—”
Before Jack could finish his sentence, the world exploded once more. Everything that existed around him was suddenly cut in half. Jack screamed, black blood erupting out of the front of his chest.
“You asked for it, asshole,” he screamed in defiance at the unknown attacker. He threw his hands to the side, and two black bolts of jagged lightning erupted out, roughly the size of daggers. Jack gripped them both and disappeared in a flash of speed. Sam couldn’t follow the fight in the slightest, but he could see signs of it.
Violent explosions came in the dozens from every angle. As soon as he turned to look at one, another three happened right behind him. It sounded as though metal were clashing with lightning.
Jack reappeared, holding his two daggers of black lightning in a cross, fending off a blade that was trying to bisect him. Sam looked at Jack’s opponent. He wore a dusty gray kimono that was tattered and frayed. Bandages were wrapped around every inch of his body. The katana he brought down at Jack was chipped and rustic, as though it had been through a thousand battles without repair or upkeep to the edge. Most curious was the helmet that encased his head. No eye sockets, no mouth, just a metal helmet polished to a mirror shine. Sam stared at his reflection in the mirror, and his heart skipped a beat when the reflection spoke to him.
Runawayrunawayrunaway, a voice not his own whispered to him like an echo in his head.
Jack broke the stalemate, and the two disappeared once more in a fury of blows that exploded all around. Sam looked around for a way to escape, but he didn’t see a path out of the fight. A white sword whizzed past him and floated in the air. Sam narrowed his eyes at the blade. He recognized it.
He pushed himself off the ground and ran after the blade, which expertly led him through the chaos of the battle. Soon, the clashing of swords and striking of lightning was a distant memory behind him.
The sword he was chasing after refused to slow down. As Sam followed the sword, he tried to make sense of everything that was going on. First Jack was trying to steal his core? Then Sarah was trying to kill him? Then Jack was trying to save him? How was Sarah even alive, and why did she look like Hannah?
He did realize who the samurai was. Kilgor had talked about him before: a man who had received a cursed blade that robbed him of his senses. The Silent Sword. Kilgor had said he was dead, but obviously that wasn’t the case. At least not here, wherever here was supposed to be.
Sam continued after the flying white sword, which only increased its pace, despite the fact that nothing seemed to be chasing after them. It rounded yet another pile of rubble, and Sam came to a halt when he spotted the sword floating lazily around a man in a long, white coat.
His blond hair was slicked back, and he had a well-trimmed beard that shaped his square jaw. Underneath his white coat was a nondescript uniform of black. His hand rested on the handle of a blade peering out from beneath his coat.
“Samuel.” Devin smiled at him.
“Devin,” Sam started, almost wanting to cry. Every familiar face had tried to kill him so far, and he wasn’t sure he could handle it happening again.
“Follow me. Tien can’t buy us much time, and we have to get out of here.” He turned and walked away without a word. Sam reluctantly followed, unsure who to trust anymore, but left with little choice as he looked around. They were still on the third floor. They had left the Colosseum proper and were now in the surrounding forest.
Sam followed as Devin weaved through the trees, stopping and staring at a tree trunk every once in a while. Sam tried to see what he was looking at, but nothing looked out of place as he stared at the same trees.
“Hidden directions,” Devin called out with a wry chuckle. “Although, a bit too well hidden. Can hardly read the things myself.” He stopped at a small forest in the clearing, the ground covered in a pile of leaves several inches thick.
“The signs are hidden, but he made the location look too obvious,” Devin said with an annoyed sigh, staring down at the pile of leaves. Sam looked at the leaves. They did look like they were covering something up.
Devin waved his hand over the pile, and a gust of wind blasted away the leaves, revealing a large stone circle. Another waypoint, albeit much smaller.
Devin looked back at Sam. “Let’s go.”
He stepped onto the stone circle and disappeared.
Sam stared at the waypoint for a long moment then followed after Devin.
No options appeared for him to select where he wanted to go. The world went black then reappeared moments later.
Blue skies, sunshine, and a gentle breeze greeted him this time. He stepped off the platform and looked around. They were in a large field with tall, luscious grass gently swaying in the wind. Snowcapped mountains surrounded them on every side, with small forests lining the mountain bases. Devin was already halfway across the field, walking down a well-worn dirt path that led towards a single cottage in the middle of the field. Sam chased after him.
“Where are we? Still in the Tower or is this a subspace?” he asked.
“Still in the Tower,” Devin said, more focused on the cottage ahead.
“What floor is this?”
“Complicated,” Devin said. He came to a stop at the cottage door then turned to look at Sam.
“How far have you gotten in your timeline? What floor?”
“The third,” Sam said, latching on to the question. Timeline? Sam thought to himself. Is this an alternate timeline where everybody sucks? He wasn’t sure if that explained everything or nothing at all. Already, Looper’s Insanity seemed more complicated than he had initially realized.
“Third floor,” Devin said with an accepting nod. “What happened on your first floor? How did it end?”
“End? What do you mean?”
“I mean the fight against Xinnolath. How did it play out?”
“Jack killed him.”
“Good. Very good. It’s been a while since we got a version of you from one of the better timelines,” he said with a smile.
Sam felt his heart beating faster, unsure what to make of that statement. “I’ve been here before?”
Devin fixed him with a sympathetic smile and placed a hand on his shoulder, letting out a small sigh. “Your life is about to get a lot more difficult, Samuel.”
Sam went wide-eyed, and he tried to pull back, but Devin’s grip was a vise on his shoulder.
“Samuel, I swear on my soul that I mean you no harm, and I will do everything in my power to protect and to help you.”
Sam opened his mouth to say something, his confusion only growing, but Devin continued on.
“This next part is always the hardest. But you must trust me. This is the only way to escape. You are the key to saving us all, but first you must go through hell,” he finished.
“Devin, what’s going on? What are you talking about?”
“Go inside,” he said with a small nod toward the cottage door. “Hear what he has to say. I’ll be out here to talk once you’re done.”
“Hear what who has to say?” Sam asked, but Devin didn’t answer. He walked over towards a campfire and took a seat on a stump that surrounded it, staring into the flames.
Sam swallowed hard, pulling out his sword and pushing against the cottage door with a shaky hand. He tightened his grip on his sword and let his mana bleed behind him, creating a timeline he could use to escape.
The inside of the cottage was much bigger than it appeared on the outside. Back on Earth, he had done a mission in Colorado, and Hannah had rented out a cabin in the mountains to run operations out of. Large, two-story ceilings with exposed beams supported a rustic chandelier, and large rugs lined the floor. A colossal stone fireplace stretching the length of the wall had a roaring fire crackling inside. Plush leather armchairs and hand-carved wooden furniture made the place was both cozy and luxurious. He bit back a small smile at the memory of Jack almost burning the place to the ground when he tried to make s’mores.
The inside of the cottage reminded him of that.
A man was sitting at the table, playing cards. Solitaire, if he had to guess. The man turned to look at him with a pair of pitch-black eyes. Sam felt his heart stop as the black eyes slowly receded, revealing a pair of dead gray eyes.
“Sammy boy,” the man chuckled, giving the deck of cards in his hand a lazy shuffle. His voice came out deep and raspy, like he had been swallowing gravel. “Ready for your training?” Rodeo asked.
*****
[Gideon]
Thunder shook the heavens, and blinding blue lightning lit up the sky, revealing black clouds that conjured forth sharp winds and blankets of bone-chilling rain. Gideon held his hand up against the winds as he pushed deeper into the heart of the storm, fighting to not get swept away by the buffeting winds. As he pushed in deeper, the violent storm gradually gave way to a gentle rain, then it stopped completely.
Dead bodies covered every inch of the ground.
I’ve been here before, was Gideon’s first thought, instantly remembering a dream he had a long time ago.
He glanced around at the dead bodies in search of Sam. He knew for a fact that Sam had used the ring, and he was honestly more than a little surprised he had managed to piggyback a ride inside, but the boy was nowhere to be seen.
Just as he had done in the dream once before, he pushed forward. This time, though, he was far better equipped for what was to come next.
He approached an awaiting Jack with a smile on his face. Things played out much the same as they had in the dream, with Jack shattering the heavens and bringing war to the doorstep of the gods. The fight consumed Gideon.
He died in a storm of lightning.
Gideon’s eyes shot open. He was standing in the same spot moments before, a harsh storm raging around him, then giving way to gentle rain. The quest notification appeared once more, then flickered away. He felt a relieved, if not excited, smile crawl up his face.
This is going to be fun, he thought.
Once more, he pressed forward, this time not stopping for small talk. He unleashed his draconic fury on an unsuspecting Jack, who killed him rather quickly.
He tried again and died again, gaining barely even an inch of progress. Each time, Gideon’s soul burned brighter, his heartbeat harder, and his smile grew wider.
He threw himself at Jack a dozen times over, until the man’s dreadful power no longer scared him. Gideon found himself enjoying the beatdowns immensely. It hurt every step he took, but never before had he experienced something like this. He knew he likely couldn’t continue on like this and would have to divert his path away from Jack at some point, but he refused to stop challenging the man until he understood just how high the mountain was.
After dying twenty or so more times, he activated his eyes. He had held off using them at first. Gideon learned that precognition against higher levels worked much better once you understood their skill set a bit, learned their moves and what not. He could use it longer and it seemed like he could see further into the future in his fights if he had some degree of familiarity with who he was fighting.
He looked at Jack, and his eyes exploded.
Gideon fell to the ground, stifling a pained roar. He saw the future. A hundred futures. A thousand futures. It all played out at once and it was far too much for his ability to bear, causing his eyes to explode in tears of blood. He hadn’t expected that. Jack killed him once more.
Gideon awoke again, his spirits stronger than ever. Looper’s Domain was a training realm. He had been placed in front of a monster. If he could beat this monster, there was no telling how powerful he would end up. He had been given an impossible challenge and an unending lifetime to complete it. Completely renewed, he took a step forward towards Jack once more.
And then the world went black.
Gideon awoke again, the same scene as always playing out, a storm clearing, dead bodies, and Jack standing there. That hadn’t happened before.
Had Jack somehow killed me? Why was it different this time? Gideon wondered.
He waited until Jack was once more standing there, and moved towards him again, paying extra close attention to his movements.
And then the world went black again.
This time when he awoke, a quest was there to greet him. His heart pounded in frustration as he read through it.
Quest:
Tag Along
Quest Tier:
Ancient
Quest Sponsor:
Chronos, the Time Weaver
Objective:
Kill the Dark Storm or Escape Looper’s Insanity. Every death rewinds the sands of time for those chosen. For those who tagged along, your death is not your own, but instead linked to the bearer of the ring.
Reward:
Looper’s Lucidity
Failure:
The Dark Storm escapes Looper’s Insanity
Gideon had made a mistake. His seemingly random deaths were linked to Sam, who must be somewhere dying right now and coming back. He glanced at Jack, who still wasn’t paying him any mind. He had already died thirty or so times. How long had he really been dead, waiting patiently for Sam to die and come back so he could revive as well? That thought terrified him.
Suddenly his perfect training realm seemed like hell. He needed to find Sam, and fast.
Gideon turned to run, but this time, Jack chased him down.