They decided to use this loop to form a plan for the next—which hopefully would be the last.
Keill led them deeper into the meadow—the spot where they'd first met hadn't been her real camp. The actual site was closer to the loop's border, where a tent had been set up amid a cluster of strange devices Elion didn't recognize.
One of them looked vaguely like a computer, a tangle of black wires branching out into antennas planted all around the area. A metallic cradle, clearly built to hold the plasma tank, caught Elion's eye. He suspected this was the device that let her send notes through time.
"Welcome to my humble abode!" Keill announced as she struck a grandiose pose.
The crushing despair of being trapped here for over a thousand years had faded from her face, but shadows still clung to her expression.
"I built it before Lord Chronos used the divine spell to trap this place," she explained.
"So this is where you've been living all that time," Lumos said.
"Well, for me, it's only been a day since I entered."
While the rest of the group settled in for the three days they would spend here, Farha was already studying the computer-like machine with rapt attention.
Keill led Lumos and Elion inside the tent. Despite its ragged exterior, it was surprisingly well-furnished. A small bed, a library, and shelves full of alien-looking artifacts and weapons gave the interior a strange, curated chaos.
"You two are the ones who can remember," she said, pulling out a thin black disc. "So I'm going to cram every bit of knowledge I've gathered into your noggins. Get ready for the best history class of your life!"
She tapped the disc twice. A realistic hologram of the terrain flickered to life in midair, annotated with notes and glowing symbols.
"This is what we're working with."
Two major landmarks were marked. One was labeled Earth God. The other, Bastards of the Sun.
She really doesn't like the Sun Army, huh?
To him, the names should have been reversed—after what the Dwellers of the Depths had done to him.
The Sun God's camp was the one they had seen multiple times while climbing the mountain. The Earth God's base was where Elion had been imprisoned and tortured during the last loop. A dome of advanced runes cloaked it, hiding the base from both the naked eye and most detection systems.
"The Dwellers of the Depths will strike the Sun God's camp soon, after weakening their supply lines. That'll prompt Yarhim to bring out a full war cruiser to lay siege to the Earth God's base," Keill said.
Yarhim—the Sun God's name?
"Our objective," she continued, "is to either stop the Dwellers' attack or convince the Sun bastards to cancel the siege."
Her face darkened.
"But even after a thousand years, I've managed to do neither," she muttered, brushing off her suit and straightening it with mechanical precision. Then her eyes met theirs. "But now I'm not alone."
Lumos smiled politely. Elion, however, still looked comically bitter. He wasn't thrilled about giving up on his revenge.
"So, what's the plan, Lady Keill?" the sorcerer asked, still visibly infatuated with her eccentric flair.
Yay. A love story!
He shot Lumos a mischievous smile. The sorcerer glanced away awkwardly.
Elion figured a distraction from revenge was probably for the best—and watching these two flirt might be entertaining enough.
"Our best shot is convincing the Sun God's army. We simply don't have the strength to take on the Earth God's hidden base."
Lumos nodded slowly, either mulling over how to negotiate with a notoriously hot-headed deity—or how to win over the odd woman in front of him.
"Do you know how to get past the High Lord?" Elion asked. Every attempt he'd made had ended in death. It was like she was in multiple places at once.
"She's a tough nut to crack," Keill said. "But I've found a gap."
She pointed to a spot on the hologram near the human camp.
"Three and a half hours after the loop starts, this area is briefly left unguarded by any of her clones."
Clones, huh? That would explain a lot.
Elion had likely met her real self once—the one who tortured him had radiated a far more potent and dangerous aura.
"Once we're in the human camp, we'll need to convince the commander to retreat. If they stay, they'll be slaughtered by the Dwellers of the Depths."
"Won't that just make the High Lord slaughter them instead?" Elion asked.
"Normally, yes. But I may have a way to stop that," the eccentric woman said, her lips curling into a sly smile.
They continued hashing out the plan. Keill told Elion exactly what to say—and what not to say—to the camp's general. He committed it all to memory. The man would be a tough one to convince.
The eccentric woman had never managed it. But this time, she had a contingency in place to ensure success.
By the time the young cook left the tent, it was night. The others sat around the fire with tired expressions. Lumos had stayed behind with Keill 'to chat'—a claim he didn't quite buy.
Elion sat apart from them, gnawing on a piece of dried meat in the cold, away from the firelight. His jacket did little to keep the chill at bay.
The moon shone brightly overhead—beautiful, even though he knew it wasn't real. This whole place was but a fragment of space. Everything beyond was just an illusion.
Even the warship that heralded the siege wasn't truly present until it entered the loop's boundary.
Back when the God of Memory and Time cast the spell, the ship was likely declared lost—vanished from radars, severed from all communication.
It remained in limbo, waiting to play its part in this broken performance.
Just like the fallen. Their souls remained frozen until the loop rewrote itself again.
But the mind forgets. The soul does not.
That thought sent a shiver down Elion's spine—or maybe it was the cold.
He gazed at the fire, dark figures were sitting around it, chatting and having fun, though the atmosphere was still gloomy. Joart's unfortunate demise still bore its mark, especially on the sharp bastard's former group.
Elion stood, brushing off his clothes.
I should go talk to her…
He didn't know how to approach her, but he knew he couldn't keep avoiding it. He needed clarity.
Right… just… need to be myself.
That was easier said than done.
"Who am I?" he muttered, suddenly realizing that it was quite hard to figure out.
Even before being chosen by the Voice of God, Elion had hidden behind masks and forced smiles. His true self had been buried for so long it was almost forgotten. His damaged psyche had driven the last nail in the coffin, really cementing the blur surrounding his self.
Just go. Worst case, I die and the universe explodes, right?
He approached Farha. She was sitting near the fire, listening to Eshrod and Leonard, occasionally she chimed in.
"Hey… uh, can I talk to you?" he asked, placing a hand on her shoulder.
She looked at him, raising an eyebrow.
"Sure…" she said softly.
They walked into the shadows, sitting beneath the illusion of a moonlit sky. Elion sat silently, unsure of how to begin.
The silence stretched too long, awkwardly so.
Fuck it. Just send it.
"Were you… scared of me?" he asked, still not meeting her eyes. "Of what I am now, I mean."
Farha didn't respond right away. She stared at the sky, unreadable.
"I… no. The way you executed Joart—so ruthless, without a second thought…" she fidgeted. "It reminded me of someone I'd rather forget."
Well, there you have it. She wasn't exactly scared of him—but close enough.
But Elion caught the hypocrisy in her words.
"You talk about ruthlessness, but to me, you're just the same," he said.
Farha's face darkened.
"I'm not the same," she muttered. "You don't understand."
"Then explain. Is this tied to the Uru family?"
She raised an eyebrow, her expression turning slightly wary.
"Don't dig into the matter. If something concerns you, I'll tell you. Trust me."
"Come on! You dragged me into a therapy session and made me spill everything. Why am I the only one in the dark?"
"Elion, please stop," she said, rising to her feet.
"Farha—"
"No, I'm not afraid of you. That answers your question." She sighed. "But… I don't know if I like what you've become. I know it's not your fault, but… I can't help seeing someone else when I look at you now."
Her words hit him like a train.
Farha lingered a moment longer. She looked like she wanted to say more but held it back. Then, without another word, the Mute Demon turned and returned to the fire.
Well… that could've gone worse.