To protect your world, you must find this crack and seal it. I understand it’s simple to just write it on a piece of paper, but you must understand, you, your loved ones, and the entirety of the world you live in depends on removing this threat.

  — Excerpt from Notes For Newstar

  Day 1072, 8:45 AM

  I stared at the man before me, unable to form a coherent thought.

  “Die?” I managed.

  “Yes, perish,” his eyes did the dissecting thing. “You didn’t divine that?”

  “No,” I said dumbly, “No, I didn’t.”

  Otherwise, I wouldn’t have played a game with you. Wait, he left eleven and a half days ago. We have three and a half days to find Newt, and then I can redo and we can save him, and all will be well.

  I clenched my jaw. “You have to search for him, Sir. I’ll do what I can. No matter what happens, remember, you have to come back and tell me.”

  His look turned into a glare. “You’re still not lying.”

  He was silent for a moment. “Very well, I’ll trust you.”

  “Remember, Sir,” I said before he could disappear. “No matter how irreversible the situation seems, no matter how final, you have to come and tell me.”

  He nodded gravely, then vanished.

  All right, what can I do? We have two logical options. One is - Newt is dead and can’t be found; the other is he’s alive and we haven’t found him yet.

  For now, I will assume the latter. Since we’ve searched the entire jungle west of where his ship had landed, that must mean he is east.

  With no better plan, and a great desire to just run east, I went to the eastern city wall, climbed it, and sat, staring at the horizon. If I had just run off, how was the exalt supposed to find me? Being impulsive would’ve just made matters worse.

  With half a mind, I switched from element to element, having them dance in minute displays of mana. Like Newstar, I could use two elements at the same time, but three was beyond my reach. Didn’t stop me from trying.

  But hours of cycling through them left nothing but failures. I wasn’t discouraged. Perhaps what I was doing was impossible, perhaps it needed a different approach. The simplest I could see was merging multiple types of mana and forming things like lava and mist, and then by wielding two elements, you’re actually using four.

  But that was again just using two blends and failing at what I wanted to do. Darkness found me sitting on the wall, as did daybreak. On the dawn of the second day, I focused on the horizon, staring as if I could see Newt dying.

  What do I do? Should I redo and have the exalt go straight to Newt’s airship? That would buy us more time. Yes, if I limit the area to sixteen to twenty thousand miles from the border, he should find the crash site much sooner, and we would have more time to search for Newt.

  Yes, let’s do that, but there’s still two days left before that deadline. Who knows, maybe something comes up and the whole thing resolves itself. Maybe the exalt finds Newstar, and we can have a happily ever after.

  Noon came, and when the sun had reached its zenith, something flashed far in the east.

  That can’t be Newstar, right? It looks like a nuke going off two states over.

  On the other hand, considering Newstar was destined to become a god-slaying demigod once he fully grew into his potential, leaving the stage in a nuclear explosion seemed appropriate.

  The flash lasted around ten seconds, then it was over. It was far away, faint enough for non-mages not to even notice it even if they stared straight at it.

  Even mages had to be looking at the sky and in the right direction to catch it. A distant thunder arrived, something broke the speed of sound a great distance away, and I had a fairly good idea what it was.

  I guess that was Newstar, and all I can do now is wait. At least I know he’s towards the east and probably outside the jungle, or close to its edge.

  Suddenly I realized something. Did he go to his clanhold? I checked the mental map of the region I had, and Hailstown was some four thousand miles away, around two of my years at the pace we were going. The irony of it hit me like a truck.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  Because I played for my own safety, or the safety of my cover story, We wasted two weeks. Had we just continued doing what we were doing, we would’ve found him in time.

  I felt some regret about my mistake, but not much guilt.

  I can fix it. The thought made me think of Manny, and how I tried to fix things, but they spiraled out of control because I was seeking perfection.

  Hours passed, sun set, but I remained seated on the wall, just staring into the distance, thinking about all my fallacies, and what I didn’t want Newstar’s life to turn into, and mine by association.

  This isn’t bad, being in a city, living there for a year or two, not really knowing anyone, but doing a bunch of different things. The only problem is I’m feeding the outer gods a bunch of information and allowing them to perfect their evil plans.

  Then I looked towards the east. But if their plans don’t include Newstar because he’s dead, that’s a good thing for him. It makes him safe. He was probably a problem or a potential problem, then the attack on his order solved it, and now, I’m going to kick the problem straight back into their faces.

  Still, that means I should stop looping.

  I have no idea how many times I revisited the same thoughts. On one hand, my looping was a huge advantage for me, giving me more time in a life that is really good, all things considered. Much better than the misery of Everrain, much better than the unknown waiting for my final death in this world, and collecting knowledge was my ultimate goal - preparation for a life in which I would take control of things.

  “He’s dead,” the exalt landed next to me. Towering above me, blasting rage and hatred.

  “I saw the flash. That was him, right?” My calm demeanor shocked him, because the man staggered, not expecting someone like me could just ignore his murderous intent.

  “You’re with the cults, aren’t you?” He was ready to kill me.

  “No, I’m fighting them and the outer gods with every fiber of my being.” The loop was a dud, Redo green, no reason not to speak plainly. “Newstar is a key piece. In the distant future, probably a thousand years or more, he will lead you against them and triumph. I’m not that clear on the details; I only saw a flash of it.”

  The exalt was dead silent, listening, but his emotions leaked. Little could surprise him, and I delivered a shock.

  “But he can’t do it now. He’s dead,” he said with a grave voice.

  “What was the flash? Did he release it after dying?”

  Is Newstar also Vengeful? If he was, he had a much bigger blast radius than I did.

  “Heaven’s wrath,” the exalt said. “The world destroyed him. We kept him safe during the two previous years.”

  Then his voice changed. “Why are you so calm?”

  I shrugged. “I’ll fix this. Where did he die?”

  The man gawked at me. “You wield time. Your element is time, not the other things you’re showing, but time! How does it work?”

  “Step away, young exalt.” I said, rising to my feet. “You can’t take what’s mine, nor can you learn it.”

  My voice changed. I didn’t mean it, but something deep inside me, something that was pissed off at laying low and doing things the way I was doing them flared. It wasn’t Blunt, even though it was talking through my anger.

  “Mine is the curse and the burden. The things I’m fighting can snap you like a twig. They wish to break this world and suck its marrow.” I stood straight, suddenly looming over the man who so casually loomed over me.

  I’m not human. Finally, I realized. Demigod they had called me, and demigod I was.

  “Now, tell me where he died, so we can save him. And if you try to capture me, I will die. And I will do everything in my power for you to follow me in the real history.”

  “No, don’t. I’m your ally,” the once so cool, untouchable figure stuttered.

  Foolish. He did not understand that allies were definitely not what I was seeking. Allies are comrades with shared interests. Once those interests shift, alliances crumble. No, I sought my wife, potential brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, pawns to exploit, but never cheap allies.

  “Then, my ally,” I told the pawn, “tell me where Newstar died. It would be best if we could visit the place, so I can see it in person and form a plan.”

  Interlude II

  “A million years! A million years wasted!” The amalgamation of rock and crystal and dust screeched the words in a sound of stone grating against glass.

  “You don’t need a tenth realm avatar. Our pawns have made enough sacrifices to summon a fifth realm one. It will do nicely. You can just go down there and check what’s happening with that mortal realm right now.” The waves crashed the words with all their dignity, but they came out as a nervous susurration.

  “Nothing below the seventh,” the crone glowered. “Even that is high-risk. If I descend and someone destroys the mortal coil I’m inhabiting, they will eject me from the world and damage me in the process.”

  She eyed the others. “And I have no intention of coming out here in anything but my peak state.”

  The others would eat her just as surely as they would eat the world whose barrier they were toiling to breach. In fact, consuming a peer would prove more beneficial for their growth than what little divinity the world had after it was split four ways. Especially with how large her part was.

  She saw they were nervous, ages had passed, and they kept trotting in place. The original plan was to build a tenth realm vessel and conquer the world, but time worked against them, with less than two centuries of progress lasting millions of years already. So, she pushed her luck.

  “In fact, once I descend, I will consume the world’s divinity to increase my realm and make myself strong enough to eliminate the time-hopper.”

  She expected protests, opposition, her peers telling her to employ their cults and their hidden trumps. None came. They were desperate. A big fish might notice, or worse, the world’s owner might decide to check on it and obliterate the thieves.

  As if he hadn’t noticed the fools back when they had first encroached on his pearl of life and divinity.