"What do you mean?" Isaac asked, his brow furrowing as he slowed his pace.
"Listen closely, because I am only going to say this once," I said, my voice low and sharp. "We are in a temporal loop. This entire conversation we're having? We've already had it. We were already at the port, and then reality snapped us back to this exact moment on the roofs."
"Hah? A loop?" Isaac stared at me, his eyes wide with confusion. It was a natural reaction; to him, the last ten minutes had only happened once. He didn't realize that every time he tried to contact his captain, the loop simply reset his memory along with the rest of the world.
"Also," Isaac added, tilting his head, "you're suddenly very talkative, Lucifer. That's how I know this is real. You don't waste words unless things are going south."
"Exactly. Now follow me and don't deviate," I commanded.
"Okay, okay, I'm with you," Isaac said, his expression hardening. "So, tell me what's actually going on."
"Listen," I began as we began to move again, this time with much more urgency. "There is something powerful—either a person or an artifact—operating at Tier 6 or higher. I don't think there's anyone of that caliber currently on this island, especially since the Pirate Kings are away. That means we're likely dealing with an Old World Artifact."
"An artifact that can reset an entire district?" Isaac whistled. "That's some heavy-duty magic. So, what's the plan?"
"We reach the port and we destroy it. Or at least, we disrupt it enough to break the cycle."
"Right," Isaac said, his hand straying to the hilt of his blade. "But if it's an artifact that important, won't it be heavily guarded?"
"Maybe," I admitted, my eyes scanning the streets below for any "glitches" in the loop. "But remember—no one else knows the loop has been breached. As far as the Admiral's men are concerned, anyone who gets caught in this trap just circles the drain forever. They won't expect an attack from two people who actually remember the previous cycles."
"So, it's a surprise attack," Isaac said, a dangerous, eager grin spreading across his face. "I like those. Let's give them a wake-up call they won't forget—or loop out of."
When we reached the port, everything appeared deceptively normal.
Dockworkers hauled crates, merchants haggled over the price of salt-crusted silk, and the salty breeze carried the usual scent of tar and fish. However, there was a glaring anomaly: every single person was subconsciously avoiding the post office. It sat at the end of the pier like a leper, a ten-foot radius of empty space surrounding its stone walls.
I paused, watching a sailor stumble toward the building's entrance. The moment his hand reached for the brass handle, he blinked, turned around, and walked back the way he came with a glazed look in his eyes—as if he'd suddenly forgotten why he existed.
How does the mechanism work? I wondered. I narrowed my eyes, deducing two possibilities. Either the artifact seamlessly stitches reality back together so observers never notice the disappearance, or it's a targeted filter. It doesn't reset the whole world—it only resets the individuals who possess "harmful intent" or the desire to seek help.
"It's just a theory, but let's test the waters," I muttered.
"Ready when you are," Isaac replied, though I could tell he didn't quite grasp the danger.
"Go to that door. Try to open it. Let's see what happens to you from my perspective."
"On it," Isaac said confidently. He marched across the empty zone and reached for the door. The second his fingers brushed the wood—zip.
He vanished into thin air. No flash of light, no sound. Just... gone.
"So, it's exactly as I thought," I whispered.
I was the only constant in this glitching reality. My mind remained anchored while the rest of the world rolled back like a film reel.
[NOTICE: Your continued stability is a direct result of the Cenatoph of Pride's Ether.]
[WARNING: As a Tier 2, your physical vessel cannot sustain this conceptual load for long.]
[URGENT: Complete the objective quickly. Prolonged use of the Cenatoph will permanently warp your personality to align with the Sin of Pride.]
Thanks, Kallisto. I'll be quick, I thought, feeling a cold, haughty chill settle in my chest. My patience for these "ants" and their little loops was already beginning to wear thin. The arrogance was starting to bleed in.
Now I had to trek back to our starting point, find Isaac, and explain the entire situation to him for the third time.
"Sigh. My life is a tragedy," I grumbled.
Just in case the artifact tried to forcibly "re-adjust" my physical body during the next transition, I flared my royal blue Ether.
"Event Horizon: Application 1. Infinity Shield."
"Let's get to work, shall we?"
I turned and sprinted back to the point where the loop always began. As expected, I found Isaac standing there, looking around with a confused expression.
"Lucifer! Where have you been?" he asked, waving me down. "I was searching for you. We need to get to the post office at the end of the island, remember? Sera and Arthur are already heading to the cathedral."
"Yes, yes," I said, my voice dripping with weary sarcasm. "This is the third time you've told me that."
"Third time? What are you—"
I didn't give him time to be confused. I quickly explained the loop, my conclusion about the artifact, and the fact that his memory was being wiped every few minutes. It took some convincing, but the cold weight of the Cenatoph's Ether radiating from me finally made him realize I wasn't joking.
For the third time, we approached the post office. This time, I stopped him well outside the reset zone.
"Isaac, you're a Hunter," I said, my eyes narrowed at the stone building. "You should have an ability related to tracking or sensing Ether signatures. Look for guards. There's no way a high-tier artifact like this is running automatically without conduits. Someone is feeding it Ether."
Isaac nodded, his expression turning sharp. He closed his eyes, channeling his Hunter pathway energy. A faint, golden ripple expanded from his feet.
"There are three of them," Isaac whispered. "One in the oak tree to the left. One at that fruit stall near the entrance. And the last one is on a small fishing sloop out in the harbor." He paused, his brow furrowing. "You're right. There are thin, dark threads of Ether coming from their heads, leading into the post office... but the main lines are heading back toward the cathedral."
"So the Devil is the power source," I deduced. "He's using these three as proxies to channel the artifact's power so he doesn't have to deal with the drawbacks himself."
"What's the move?" Isaac asked.
"I'll handle the ship and the stall. You take the one in the tree."
"Got it."
I didn't run. Instead, I reached up with both hands and gripped the empty air above me. To any observer, it looked like I was reaching for nothing, but then reality distorted. I grabbed the "surface" of the sky as if it were a hanging sheet of blue silk and pulled it downward.
The horizon warped and folded like a lens. In a blur of distorted space, I stepped into the fold and vanished.
I reappeared instantly on the deck of the fishing ship. I "unfolded" the sky, stepping out of the ripple in reality, and drew Bad News. Before the conduit could even turn around, I fired a compressed Ether round through the back of his head.
One thread down.
I didn't wait. I grabbed the sky again, pulling the backdrop of the harbor toward me and stepping through the tear. I manifested behind the stall at the entrance of the post office. The guard there was pretending to sell fruit, but his eyes were glazed over.
I flared my Event Horizon. I didn't shoot this time; I simply touched the back of his neck and collapsed the space within a three-inch radius. His head popped like a balloon under the sudden, infinite pressure.
Panic erupted. The nearby citizens, finally breaking out of their trance as the loop destabilized, began screaming and running in every direction.
"The more commotion, the better," I muttered, stepping back into the sky's fold.
I returned to our meeting point just as Isaac dropped from the tree, wiping a blood-stained blade on his trousers.
"Finished mine," Isaac said with a grim smile. "Clean decapitation."
"Good job. Now let's see what this artifact actually is."
With the three conduits dead, the dark threads began to glow with a sickly, pulsating light. They were vibrating with a terrifying amount of power. I realized now that the Devil was even more dangerous than Arthur had suspected. He was tethered to this artifact from the cathedral, using it to maintain the loop across the island while he remained safely tucked away in his lair.
"I think we need to be extremely careful," I warned Isaac. "If even a sentient Devil is using proxies to avoid the drawbacks of this thing, imagine what it would do to a human who touches it."
"Yeah," Isaac swallowed hard. "Let's hope we don't have to find out."