.

“Do not be afraid,” the angel said. Its voice was booming, and resonated painfully in Zorian’s ears and chest. “I have come to help.”

“What.. where is everyone?” Zach asked in confusion.

“They should not hear this,” the angel responded.

“So you just.. shunted us off to some private space?” Zach frowned. “Also, can’t you talk a little more quietly?”

“My time here is limited,” the angel cautioned. It made no attempt to lower its voice for them. It was still uncomfortably loud and resonant, and Zorian thought he could faintly hear additional voices repeating its words whenever it spoke. “You must not waste time.”

Zorian supposed the angel had a point there. Even though it had taken all their mana, a spirit of this level probably couldn’t stay manifested on the material plan for very long. They had to make the most of it.

“Did Zach enter into a contract with you?” Zorian asked.

“Yes,” the angel immediately confirmed.

Zorian waited for a second, but the angel seemed disinclined to clarify more than that.

Ugh.

“My enemies made me completely forget about that,” Zach said with a frown.

“They did not,” the angel countered.

Zach made a strange face.

“Yes they did,” he said, laughing in a frustrated manner. “Why would I lie about it to you of all people?”

“They did not make you forget because you never even knew you had made a contract with us,” the angel said. “If they do know that you have made a contract with us, it is because they have guessed correctly.”

“Zach.. never knew he’d made a contract with you?” Zorian asked incredulously. “How would that work?”

“We went through a great deal of effort to mask our involvement,” the angel said. “Our current interference.. is already overstepping certain boundaries that we would rather not cross. It would have been best for everyone if nobody had realized our involvement.”

“But how would I make a contract with you without realizing it?” Zach insisted. “That doesn’t make any sense!”

“We contacted you through a dream,” the angel told him. “You had no idea who was making the offer when you accepted the contract.”

Zach’s face went through several different expressions as he processed that.

Zorian just buried his face into his palms and took a deep breath.

Zach..

“That’s.. that’s slander!” Zach protested. “I’d never do something stupid like that! Even I know it’s dumb as hell to accept spiritual contracts from mysterious people that contact you in your dreams!”

“You being foolish enough to take the offer was one of the reasons we chose you as our champion,” the angel told him bluntly.

“Well, uh..” Zach fumbled. “You know what? Forget it. Even if what you say it’s true, I still ended up mind wiped of critical information inside the time loop. I didn’t even know how to return to the real world! You included so many thing in this.. contract I made with you, so why didn’t you include some basic information like that in there as well?”

“We did,” the angel responded. “You simply never satisfied the conditions necessary to access the information.”

What?

“What?” demanded Zach. “What do you mean by that?”

“You had a goal, did you not?” the angel challenged. “You had to stop the invasion without informing anyone about the time loop. Had you ever succeeded at that, the contract would have given you information about the time loop and how to leave it.”

“You never explained to him how the time loop worked to begin with,” Zorian realized. “Giving him the exit method right from the start would mean he could leave at any point he wished, even before he was capable of stopping Panaxeth’s release the way you wanted him to.”

“The hearts of men are weak and fall easily to temptation,” the angel confirmed. “If he could not handle the relentless weathering of time and become the savior we need, it would have been better for him to never emerge from the Sovereign Gate at all.”

“You..” Zach began.

“You chose this,” the angel reminded him, completely unrepentant. “And with that in mind, I would like an explanation. What happened in there?”

“You don’t know?” Zorian asked curiously.

“Would I be asking if I did?” the angel asked rhetorically. “The inner workings of the Sovereign Gate are opaque to us. Much like the Black Rooms you are familiar with, the Sovereign Gate is completely isolated from the rest of the world once activated. We have inferred some things, but we would like an unambiguous answer.”

Zach and Zorian gave the angel a quick summary of what had occurred inside the time loop, taking pains to emphasize Panaxeth’s interference with the normal operation of the time loop and how Red Robe’s and Silverlake’s presence in the real world made the entire task of stopping the invasion very difficult. Finally, they explained Zorian’s situation and how his presence made the idea of eliminating all knowledge of the time loop outside of Zach basically impossible.

“A disappointing result,” the angel concluded. “The task we gave you was not that difficult. Why did you allow things to get so complicated?”

“Not that difficult!?” Zach repeated incredulously. “Do you know how difficult it is to stop an army on your lonesome, without being able to explain to people where your skills come from or how you know things?”

“Even though we initiated the Sovereign Gate prematurely, you still had hundreds of chances to get things right,” the angel said. “I suspect you have a skewed perspective on the difficulty of the problem. In the original scenario, you would have been tackling an unaware force oblivious to your shifting schemes. Even with our restrictions, it should not have been difficult to figure out a solution when you have infinite attempts and your enemy never learns from your mistakes. Instead, you have been competing against a rival time looper. Regardless of how it happened, that is your own failing. Not ours.”

Zach looked like he was about to start yelling at the angel, but eventually restrained himself. He scoffed disdainfully at the spirit, and then folded his hands over his chest in silence.

They didn’t actually know how Red Robe got included as a time looper, so it was difficult to counter the angel’s claims there.

“So you deliberately activated the Sovereign Gate a month before the invasion,” Zorian noted. “You could tell what was going to happen a month in advance?”

“The future is hazy and constantly changing, but some things are more certain than others,” the angel said. “Unless something was done, Panaxeth’s release was practically set in stone.”

“Why not just inform the Triumvirate Church and let them handle it?” Zorian asked.

“Strange as this may sound to you, that would have been far worse than what we ended up doing,” the angel responded. “We are not supposed to meddle in mortal conflicts.”

“Why me?” Zach suddenly asked. “If you have such an accurate way of predicting the future, surely you knew I wasn’t a good choice.”

“On the contrary,” the angel disagreed. “You were thebest choice. That is why we settled on you in the end.”

“Best how?” Zach asked suspiciously.

“It is a secret,” the angel responded. “There were considerable restrictions in regards to candidates. They had to begin the month in Cyoria. They needed to have a certain potential and mentality. They needed to have considerable freedom of movement and association. They needed to satisfy the ethical guidelines. And so much more. I cannot tell you the details.”

“If Zorian began the month in Cyoria, would be also be a candidate?” Zach asked.

Zorian gave him a strange look. Why would he ask that?

“Heavens no,” the angel said. “He fails just about every criteria, especially in regards to mentality. I am surprised he was even willing to risk his life in this manner, based on his previous actions and attitudes.”

Annoyingly, Zach seemed really pleased to hear that response.

Zorian folded his arms over his chest in dissatisfaction. Jerks, the both of them.

“What is my status at the moment, then?” Zorian asked. “I defied the laws of the time loop and got out into the real world, but I notice you are not making a move against me. Are you fine with my presence, then?”

The angel’s burning eyes focused on him more closely, studying him in great detail for a couple of seconds. Zorian squirmed uncomfortably under its gaze, but stood his ground and stubbornly kept staring back at the angel without flinching.

“You are a forbidden existence, and you have committed grave sins to be where you are right now,” the angel judged. “However, we are not without mercy and understanding. So long as the primordial’s release is stopped in the end, we are willing to overlook some things.”

“So.. I’m safe from your wrath?” Zorian summarized.

“If the primordial remains chained by the end of the month,” the angel stressed. “If not, then we will be forced to directly intervene in the material world. At that point, it costs us nothing to be extra thorough and eliminate all possible complications. You understand, yes?”

“Of course,” Zorian confirmed.

Even though he had made no contract with the angels, his life also depended on the outcome of the invasion. If he and Zach failed to stop Red Robe and Silverlake from releasing Panaxeth, the angels would take care of him all the same.

“If you’re fine with Zorian, does that mean that my contract can be renegotiated now?” Zach asked hopefully. “Because the way things are now..”

“We cannot renegotiate the contract,” the angel said. “It simply cannot be done.”

“But you’re the one who made it,” Zach protested. “Why wouldn’t you be able to change it?”

“It is divine magic,” the angel pointed out. “We obviously didn’t make it.”

Of course. No one could cast divine magic in the current age, not even the angels. Only the gods themselves were capable of that. Everyone else, including their spiritual servants, were just tapping into artifacts and resources left behind when the gods went silent.

“How about just removing it?” Zorian tried.

“Also not possible,” the angel responded. “It is deliberately designed to be next to impossible to remove once placed. I am afraid there is nothing we can do about it.”

“But the way things are going, I’ll die at the end of the month, even if I stop the primordial from getting out,” Zach pointed out. “Isn’t that just a little unfair? It’s obvious the situation has changed from the time I agreed to the contract.. and even you admitted the way you got me to agree to it was kind of dodgy and inappropriate.”

“We cannot absolve you of fulfilling your part of the bargain,” the angel stubbornly said. “It simply is not within our power to do so. The only thing I can promise you is that if you find the way to remove or evade the contract in some fashion, we will not seek to punish you for it.”

Zach’s eyes widened at the statement.

“You will not seek to.. you’re saying if I found a way to trick the contract on my own, you would have gone after me for it?” he asked incredulously.

“We are not the primordials,” the angel told him. “Though our actions are restricted, we are far from powerless in regards to the material world. Even if you could trick the spell left by the gods, it would do you no good if we were also not willing to look the other way and accept this outcome. You made a solemn pact with us, and we have done our side of the bargain. We have every right to be harsh and demand that you fulfill your obligation to the letter.. but as I said to your friend, we are not without mercy and understanding. So long as the primordial’s release is stopped in the end, we are willing to overlook some things.”

“So I still have to do the impossible,” complained Zach. “It’s just that, if I succeed at that, you won’t come after me in response.”

“You can view it that way, I suppose,” the angel responded. The spirit froze for a moment, its eyes staring off somewhere into the distance, as if listening to some distant words that neither Zach nor Zorian could hear. “My time here grows short. If you have anything else you need of me, say it quickly.”

“Give me the actual contents of the contract Zach signed with you,” Zorian demanded. “Zach can’t tell me what it says and I need to know.”

For a while, the angel said nothing. Then, it’s branches swayed on unseen winds for a few seconds, and a ray of burning orange light erupted from without warning and struck Zach in the chest. Rather than harming him, however, the ray harmlessly sank into his chest and was absorbed without a trace.

Before either Zach or Zorian could ask what the hell that was about, a series of burning letters started materializing in the air in front of Zach.

And kept going..historical

..and going..

..and going.

Pages and pages of text, going on and on and on about what was expected of Zach. Zorian expected the contract to be a couple of concise sentences, since that was what a geas spell would look like.. but apparently he was wrong. The contract instead consisted of a massive legal document, complete with that peculiar legal word choice that made official documents hard to understand even if you speak the language.

It was good that he could flawlessly memorize everything he could see, because there was no way he could understand this thing without a few hours to pore over it. And possibly some actual legal help.

“For heaven’s sake, Zach..” Zorian sighed. “How the hell could you agree to this? There is no way you actually read all this and understood its implications.”

“I don’t remember any of it!” Zach protested. “It was my stupid younger self, okay? Gods know your younger self was just as stupid in his own way!”

Well, he got him there.. but still. This was something else.

“He did not actually read the contract,” the angel added in helpfully. “Still, we had summarized the relevant parts to him. He has to stop the invasion of Cyoria from achieving its goal or he will die at the end of the month. He cannot let anyone know about the existence of the time loop or he’ll die at the end of the month. He cannot kill a ruler of any nation, or otherwise directly cause a nation to collapse into anarchy or he’ll die at the end of the month. Restrictions were placed on what kind of mind and soul magic he can learn, because the ethical committee would not approve the project otherwise. He is also completely forbidden from talking about the specifics of the contract he signed. Anyone who forcibly sees the contents of the contract, such as through a deep memory scan, must be neutralized in whatever manner is practical. Finally, the contract is completely dissolved at the end of the month, allowing him to live him life freely from that point afterwards.”

“Can you tell me how you defined ‘knows about the time loop’?” Zorian asked.

“It is all in the contract,” the angel responded, one of its branches casually waving towards Zach. “I know you memorized it.”

The angel once again stilled for a moment, seemingly listening to something in the distance.

“I must go,” it said. “You have one more question.”

“If the primordial becomes free, is it the end of the world as we know it?” Zach immediately asked, giving no chance for Zorian to think about this last chance to question the spirit.

“Probably not,” the angel admitted. “Nevertheless, you still would not want this to happen.. and not just because of the dire consequences for you personally. The Highest Ones had placed a great many.. triggers.. into the core that governs this world. If conditions satisfying a trigger are detected, automatic countermeasures are initiated. A primordial gaining access to the material plane would activate several of them. You do not want that to happen. No one wants that to happen. Much of our duties involve making sure none of the triggers can be activated, for the sake of both the spirit world and the material one. Most of the triggers look out for things the Highest Ones had considered existential threats.. and they had a very ‘scorched earth’ policy when dealing with existential threats.”

Having said that, the angel suddenly swooped down towards the ground, and one of its branches lightly reached towards the stone floor beneath them. Even though its branches looked thin and fragile, they scooped out a chunk of stone out of the floor like it was nothing but wet clay.. and then started shaping it just as easily.

Black branches twisted and tapped the stone like hundreds of tiny fingers, chipping off pieces in a flurry of rapid movement. In less than three seconds, the chunk of rock became a smooth, glossy cube that was then thrust directly into Zorian’s hands.

It was the weirdest thing, because it didn’t look like magic – instead it looked as if the angel physically shaped the chunk of stone through a combination of inhuman strength, speed, and precision.

“Take this,” the angel said. “Use it to summon me for the final battle.”

“How do you know there will be a final battle?” asked Zorian.

“The future is hazy and constantly changing, but some things are more certain than others,” the angel said, echoing one of its earlier statements.

And then it was gone, and the temple hall was once again loud and full of people. Alanic, Xvim, Batak, Kylae, and the other priests quickly surrounded them, demanding to know what had occurred. From their perspective they just suddenly disappeared for a while and now they were mysterious back.

Zach and Zorian ignored them for a moment, focusing on the cube in Zorian’s hands.

It wasn’t as smooth as Zorian originally thought it was. It was densely covered with strange writing; the same kind of writing that covered the silver ring that floated behind the angel. There was nothing obviously magical about it, but the cube had a strange sheen to it when the light hit it just right and the characters did seem to have some kind of pattern to them..

In the end he carefully pocketed the cube and put it out of his mind for the moment. Before he dived into the specifics of Zach’s contract and studied the cube, they had one more meeting to go through.

Red Robe had invited them for a talk..

* * *

As Red Robe had noted in his brief letting to them, Zach and Zorian already knew how to contact him with information about the meeting. Their simulacrums clashed all the time, and it was no problem to just throw a letter on the ground during one of those confrontations and then just walk away.

Using that method, Zach and Zorian eventually arranged for a meeting with Red Robe on the roof of one of the academy buildings. It was a sufficiently public location that neither side could really prepare a trap for the other there. Plus, the academy wards were actually pretty good now that Zach and Zorian covertly talked them into changing their ward keys. Even Zach and Zorian had to be a little careful around them, since the new security voided their knowledge as much as it did Red Robe’s.

The meeting was arranged at midnight, and everyone arrived exactly on time. One side consisted of Zach, Zorian, Xvim, and Alanic. The other had Red Robe, Silverlake, and Quatach-Ichl.

Red Robe was wearing his usual red robe as a disguise, his face hidden in a patch of darkness behind the hood. Silverlake was as Zorian last saw her – a young, attractive woman wearing a form-fitting dress. She seemed very happy and pleased with herself, grinning from ear to ear as she looked at them.. a fact that made Zach obviously fume at her. It just made her grin wider.

And then there was Quatach-Ichl. He was not in his skeletal form for this meeting, opting to come in his human guise instead. He looked calm, composed, and confident. He greeted them politely with a small bow before turning silent and just observing things.

Zorian sighed inwardly. He knew it was a futile dream, but he had been hoping Red Robe and Silverlake hadn’t initiated the old lich into their deep secrets. This made everything so much harder..

“Ha ha!” Silverlake cackled. “See, I told you they would bring those two with them and none other. Pay up!”

“We never actually agreed to any bets,” Red Robe protested.

“Bah! You’re supposed to play along for appearances sake!” Silverlake said, scowling at him. “Whatever. Zorian, did you reconsider my offer? It still stands, you know?”

“Shut up,” Red Robe snapped at her. “Everyone, I’d like to apologize for her actions recently. I know you probably think I sent her to sow dissent into your group, but that was entirely her own idea. She seems to think there is a genuine chance of convincing mister Kazinski to join us in freeing the primordial, but we all know that is just a fantasy.”

Yeah, as if Zorian was going to believe that. He fully believed that Silverlake being there was an attempt to make Zorian and Zach fight amongst each other. He also suspected it was an attempt by Red Robe and Silverlake to reduce the number of enemies lined up against them, since Zorian was far less likely to keep telling people about the time loop if he knew that would get Zach killed. Which was what ended up happening in the end.

One thing he didn’t believe for a moment was the idea that Silverlake actually made an honest offer for him to join her. Her natural instinct was to exploit others, not work with them.

“As if your plan is any better,” Silverlake complained. “Why do you think–”

“I thought we agreed I’ll be doing the talking?” Red Robe protested with a sigh.

Silverlake clacked her tongue dismissively and then conjured herself a chair to sit on.

Quatach-Ichl did not react at all to his companion’s antics, opting to study Zorian and his group instead.

A short and very uncomfortably silence descended on the scene. Everyone involved was tense and seemed to be ready to attack at a moment’s notice. Even Silverlake, who was sitting on a conjured chair and tried to give off an impression of being bored and inattentive, was clearly twitching whenever someone made an unexpected move.

“What is this all about?” Zach finally asked. “You’re the one who invited us here, so why are you silent all of a sudden? Don’t waste our time.”

“Ah.. even after all this time, you still haven’t changed. Still so impatient..” Red Robe said softly, as if reminiscing about something.

Zach frowned at him, clearly considering the merits of just starting a battle here and now.

“I see you came here unmasked,” Red Robe commented.

“You already know who we are,” Zach shrugged. “Is there any point in hiding our faces?”

“True,” Red Robe nodded. “Well, I guess there’s no point in hiding my identity any longer, either.”

He pulled his hood down, and the path of darkness that hid his face suddenly disappeared.

It was Veyers. The same face, the same blonde hair, the same orange, slitted eyes. The main difference was that his hair was well-groomed, his eyes lacked some of that ferocity and violence he had seen in Veyers recently, and his entire attitude was calm and more assured.

“I’m guessing this isn’t much of a surprise to you,” Red Robe said. Without the voice masking spells embedded into the hood of his robe, even his voice was recognizably that of Veyers. Just calmer and quieter. “Still, I hope you take this gesture of good will as just that. I’m not a monster you think I am, and I really thing we can come to a sort of agreement here.”

Zorian studied the boy in front of him for a few seconds before shaking his head.

“You say it’s a gesture of good will and you show us a fake face and identity,” Zorian told him. “How do you expect us to agree to anything when you opened the talks with such a brazen deception?”

Veyers looked honestly taken aback at the accusation.

“You’re overthinking things,” Silverlake said, rolling her eyes at him. “It’s really him. Who else could it be, really?”

“No, he’s not Veyers,” Zorian insisted. “It never made sense and still doesn’t.”

Zach sent Zorian an almost imperceptible frown. He clearly didn’t understand why Zorian was so certain, but didn’t want to call him on it.

Zorian didn’t blame him. He had long had his suspicions, but it was only when he saw the true form of Zach’s angelic contract that he became completely certain..

“Are you asking me to prove that I’m Veyers?” Red Robe said with an amused laugh. “What would even satisfy you?”

“Every student has to give their mana signature to the academy for identification purposes,” Xvim suddenly said, reaching into his jacket pocket and retrieving an inconspicuous looking ball out of it. He displayed it for everyone to see. “Proving whether or not you’re Veyers.. should be an extremely simple matter.”

Red Robe stared at the ball for a few seconds before bursting into short, barking laughter.

“Oh hell..” he said, chuckling to himself. “I can’t believe I overlooked something as simple as that..”

Silverlake gave him a shocked look.

“Feeling dumb, now?” Red Robe said, giving her a contemptuous look. “You spent all these days interacting with me and never suspected a thing, but mister Kazinski here saw though it immediately. Maybe you should have asked to join him instead.”

He then ignored her and turned to face Zorian fully.

“I guess you also know who I really am?” he asked, tilting his head to the side with a self-indulgent smile.

“You’re Jornak, Veyers’s lawyer friend,” Zorian said. “I’m guessing Veyers introduced you to Zach, and you hit it off with each other since you have both been cheated out of your inheritance and empathized with each other because of it. He didn’t realize you have ties to the Esoteric Order of the Celestial Dragon until it was too late.”

“The Cult of the Dragon is nothing to me,” Red Robe said. He still continued wearing Veyers’s face. “I was never seriously loyal to them, even before the time loop.”

“So why..” Zach asked him, looking at him with confused eyes. “If Zorian could trick the time loop into letting him leave, then you–”

“You don’t understand,” Red Robe said, shaking his head sadly. “You just wouldn’t understand, no matter how I tried to convince you. This knowledge.. this power.. it’s just begging to be used. Shutur-Tarana changed the world entirely when he left the time loop. Why can’t I? Why couldn’t we?”

Zach seemed taken aback at the question.

“Have you two ever tried to look into what our country has been doing these past few years?” Red Robe said, looking at Zorian. “I just wanted to figure out how to ensure justice for me and Zach at first. However, I couldn’t stop myself from looking.. and the more I looked, the more awful things I found. The prosperity we enjoy right now is all built atop of mountain of lies, theft, unspeakable corruption and even straight up murder. Even if I got justice for myself and Zach, it’s all just a drop in the bucket.”

“The other countries are no better,” Alanic pointed out.

“Yes! Yes, I know that!” Red Robe said, agreeing vigorously. “I’ve looked into them as well, and it was just as disgusting. And.. even if one wanted to shut their eyes and ignore all the violations, the current state of peace is just a fragile illusion. Another round of Splinter Wars will occur soon, with all the pain and suffering that entails. Something had to be done. I had to do something. But Zach wouldn’t hear any of it. He just wanted to stop the invasion, get the money his caretaker had taken from him and look away from the ugliness of the world. We had this incredible opportunity to change things for the better, and he was fine letting it slip through his fingers.”

“I hate to break it to you, but you’re trying to raze an entire city of half a million people to the ground and feed their souls to a wraith creation machine,” Zach told him. “If that’s your vision of ‘changing things for the better’, I’m not surprised my forgotten self would have none of it.”

“Things wouldn’t have been so dra-->>

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