Chapter 23: A Deadline

  “You’re finally showing some progress.” I heard Chronos’ voice as I woke up.

  My surroundings came into focus as I sat up. I was in an open space with a smooth wooden floor marked by strange white lines arranged in patterns I couldn’t understand. Elevated hoops with woven nets hanging below them were positioned at either end of the room. I was near one of them, and not far from me stood Chronos, an orange ball in his hands.

  He bounced it against the floor once, the sound echoing through the empty space around us. Then again. And again.

  The rhythmic thuds made my already aching head throb worse as memories of Kaelstrife reanimating and obliterating me and Yana with a single attack came flooding back.

  Chronos stopped bouncing the ball and, with a flick of his wrist, launched it toward the hoop. It struck the rim and ricocheted to the side, but before it could hit the ground, Chronos raised his hand. The ball reversed its trajectory, retracing its path, hitting the rim again before landing neatly back in his hands.

  I stared at him, not sure what to feel, think, or what he was even talking about. Progress? What progress?

  “What…what?” was the only thing I managed to say, frustrated and irritated.

  Chronos didn’t answer right away. He tossed the ball once in the air first and caught it with ease. “You’re upset,” he said, not looking at me. “Understandable.”

  The audacity…

  “Upset?” I echoed, my voice rising as I scrambled to my feet. “You put my entire existence on the line - erasure from existence - and now you want to talk about progress?”

  Chronos shrugged, angering me further. “It’s not that big of a deal. If you fail to defeat Erebus, you’ll cease to exist anyway.”

  His words hit me like a punch, dragging me back to why all this had started. “Sure, but at least against Erebus, I didn’t have a deadline hanging over my head. Now, I’m only forty-nine loops away from being erased.”

  “Well, that’s not entirely true.” Chronos replied matter-of-factly. “There’s a deadline against Erebus too. I just didn’t tell you before because I didn’t want to add more pressure.”

  I felt like my blood turned cold. “What? How long were you planning to keep this a secret?”

  “For as long as I thought necessary.” He said flatly. “You didn’t need to know. Besides, you were progressing well enough - until Goren started farming you.”

  I stared at him in disbelief, slowly realizing how grave my situation was. “How…how much time do I have?”

  “Against Erebus? 66th run will be your last.” Chronos replied, his expression serious. Then, his lips curved into a smile. “But if you finish him before that, you won’t have to face a certain someone, if you know what I mean…”

  My mind quickly connected the dots. There was loophole – one in our favor?

  “Don’t tell me you thought about this before agreeing to the deal with Dolos…”

  “You clearly underestimate the young master, Mr. Dar.” Balthor’s voice was loud.

  “You need to trust him more. He knows what he’s doing!” Pix’s high-pitched voice chimed in.

  Chronos chuckled, tossing the ball into the air and catching it on his index finger, spinning it lazily. “Of course I thought about it. Dolos has no idea how many loops the Déjà vu System allows each millenia since the setting changes every time. I assume fifty was a wild guess on his part, not knowing that in total it’s fairly close to this cycle’s maximum.”

  “Wait, wait, wait.” I blurted out, struggling to keep up. “Why 66? Is it even possible for me to get strong enough to defeat Erebus in such a short timeframe?”

  “It’s not short.” Chronos fired back, displeasure visible on his face. “The system determines the maximal number of runs needed for the task. Now, that doesn’t guarantee success within those runs, but at the same time, it also doesn’t mean you’ll actually need all of them. In the past, I had champions who completed their task thirty, sometimes even forty runs early.” He paused before continuing. “As for strength, it’s true that one can overpower Erebus after enough loops, but this is not the only way to beat him. The champions I mentioned, those who managed to complete the task earlier than predicted, managed to do it thanks to their wits.”

  I took a deep breath. It was reassuring. The only good news in a while…

  “So you’re saying I could end this nightmare before the 64th run and avoid the fight with Goren altogether…?”

  “That’s exactly what I’m saying.” Chronos replied, clearly satisfied with himself. “Though I expect Dolos to intervene somehow – within the rules, of course. He wouldn’t be the God of Deception if he didn’t, but for now, I’d say we have the upper hand.”

  Things slowly started making more sense, but I was still afraid. “And you think 66 runs is enough for me? I’m already a quarter in with nothing to show for it.”

  Chronos shook his head. “No, no. You’re fine. You reached the right place this run. You won’t remember that you did when you wake up, but I trust you’ll get back there again on your own. You just need to get past Kaelstrife. Whatever he’s guarding in that room will get you closer to achieving our goal.”

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  My heart raced at his suggestion. “If you know that, can’t you just tell me what’s in there?”

  Chronos frowned. “Sadly, no. I told you from the start - I can’t intervene in what you do. And now, after the godly pact with Dolos, my hands are even more tied. You’ll have to take out Kaelstrife to find out.”

  I laughed bitterly. “Right. Just get past him. Like that’s so easy. Did you miss the part where he reanimated and killed us with one attack?”

  Chronos nodded. “Erebus’ direct intervention. Because of Yana.”

  “W-What?”

  “You remember she’s marked, right?” Chronos raised a rhetorical question. “Being marked by Erebus means constant surveillance. When she helped you defeat Kaelstrife, Erebus intervened to stop her. You were just collateral damage.”

  My confused expression prompted him to continue. “The marked ones are suspected of being my champions. Anything they do is monitored by Erebus and he stops them when he feels like it. If Yana wasn’t there, you would’ve died to Kaelstrife, but in the wild chance you somehow defeated him on your own, he wouldn’t have reanimated.”

  “I see…” I muttered under my breath, the pieces fitting together.

  Yana’s mark wasn’t just a curse attracting the dungeon’s monsters – it was a beacon to Erebus himself.

  The implications settled in. I needed to stay away from her as much as possible – not just for my safety, and the success of this mission, but for hers too.

  From Goren as well. Not just because he wanted to farm me, but because his progress was likely already halted by Erebus.

  “Your eyes tell me you understand now.” Chronos said, a genuine smile on his face. “I wouldn’t have agreed to Dolos’ deal if I thought the terms were against us. Noticed how I said us? Because we’re in this together. Your failure is my failure.”

  Pix chimed in again. “Master is always so kind.”

  Chronos rolled his eyes. “I’m still angry, Pix.” Then, he tossed the ball at me. “Catch.”

  I caught it, feeling its rubbery texture. An earlier question was still haunting me.

  “Will you tell me about the incident Dolos mentioned?”

  Chronos’ expression soured but he didn’t look angry like last time.

  “I will.” He replied. “But not right now.”

  It wasn’t the answer I wanted, but it seemed like we were making some progress, so I decided to let it be, turning to the second question that bothered me.

  “How does Erebus decide who to mark?”

  Chronos chuckled, his spirits visibly lifting. “Wow, this is a serious question. To answer this, I’ll need to dive into advanced physics and statistics. We don’t have enough time for this now, but maybe next time?”

  I raised an eyebrow but nodded. At least he didn’t outright refuse. “I’ll take you up on that offer.”

  Chronos smiled and pointed to the hoop beside us. “Take a shot. It’s called basketball. It’s fun.”

  I shrugged, and decided to play along, bouncing the ball a few times like he had earlier.

  “You’re a natural.” He commented, looking amused.

  I nodded, satisfied with myself. “Quick hands.”

  Chronos laughed. “You damn agility-build users.”

  I launched the ball toward the hoop. It arced gracefully, swishing through the net as everything went dark.

  ***

  [Déjà vu System: Level 7]

  [Loop Count: 16]

  [Experience Points (XP): 2 / 2500]

  I woke up with my conversation with Chronos still lingering in my mind. The important parts - the ones where we discussed my last run - were missing. But one thing was clear: I had done something right, and Chronos seemed satisfied with my progress.

  I also recalled the true meaning of Erebus’ mark on Yana and Goren. I needed to make sure I avoided Yana as much as possible. The idea of pushing her away pained me - this entire quest was supposed to be about reconnecting with her and adventuring together like we used to. But I knew there was no other choice.

  His words about the Déjà vu System stuck with me. Sixty-six runs. That was the maximum number of runs allowed for me. And yet, it was possible to defeat Erebus much earlier than that and avoid the confrontation with Goren. He also said that the key wasn’t strength. Meaning, I needed to use my brain to figure out how.

  Now, if only I could remember what I did last time…Easier said than done.

  “…inventory…” I heard an Echo and instinctively navigated to my second inventory.

  The array of items was overwhelming, and I couldn’t tell what past me was trying to warn me about - if he even was – or if he was just preparing for everything. The only clue was the Gethril Roots. I was about to close the inventory and get ready for Yana’s arrival when a sudden thought hit me.

  Of course I couldn’t learn anything new from the second inventory when it was cluttered with all these items. It was too much, and my past selves likely felt the same for gods-know-how-many runs now. But moving everything to the first inventory would just end up with the items “disappearing” for good as at the start of the loop – the moment when I wake up – they’re not there.

  Instead of going along with the loop as I likely had before, I needed to return the second inventory’s original purpose: a tool for communicating with my future selves.

  But how could I do that? Was the only way really just to move them to the first inventory and call it a day? But if I did that, how can I be sure I would pick them up in the next run? They might be useful and I’m not exactly in a position to pass on anything that could potentially help me.

  Surprisingly, my thoughts turned to Christian. Maybe the items in the second inventory were from him originally. Either way, I could always start each run restocking at our guild. I just needed to make sure that at the beginning of each loop, in the morning, I would make that a priority.

  But how, Aidan? How?! Think, damn it!

  Then, a thought crossed my mind. I glanced at the Temporal Trace skill. It showed: 1/1 marks set. That meant I had already left a mark for myself somewhere – probably in the dungeon.

  I wonder if I can…

  [Temporal Trace Lvl.1: Remove all marks?]

  [YES / NO]

  Hoping I wasn’t about to remove anything important, I selected YES.

  [Temporal Trace Lvl.1: All marks removed]

  Taking a deep breath, I walked over to the kitchen table, a place I was certain to visit at the start of each run while preparing breakfast. On the table lay several documents regarding the quest to Gaelith’s Tomb – papers Christian had passed to me to help me get ready. One of the documents was Christian’s official approval of my participation in the quest. And at the bottom of the page was his signature.

  I focused on the signature and activated Temporal Trace, leaving a glowing orb exactly on top of it.

  [Temporal Trace: A mark has been set]

  Good. Even future me wouldn’t be stupid enough to miss such a clear clue.

  As for now, I moved all the items I had in the second inventory to the first one, leaving behind only the Gethril Roots and coins.

  Then, feeling more confident than ever, I waited for Yana. Once she arrived, we headed to Christian to stock up before beginning the quest.