Die. Respawn. Repeat.

Chapter 14: New Feature Unlocked

We're on a timer.

I know this because the Lament's neck hasn't healed from the Firmament infusion. She's still bleeding, and bleeding profusely I suspect it's some combination of Firmament and pure willpower that's keeping her conscious right now. Her neck is ruined, so my hope is that we don't have to worry about the song.

We just need to outlast her. That's the key. Survive until she bleeds out.

The Lament if that's what she still is doesn't open with her song this time. She glowers down at us, a certain purity of hatred gleaming in her eyes

She flickers.

Mental Acceleration screams.

Barrier!

I try to step out of the way even as shimmering blue flickers to life around me. Firestep and Triplestep still swirl around my feet, so when I dodge it's with an impossible speed, and yet the Lament smashes into me with a force that sends me spinning. It's only the Second Wind Firmament still running through me that keeps me intact and conscious. It gives me a certain metaphysical weight, and that weight throws off Lament just slightly, forcing a portion of her own strike to rebound against her.

For a moment, she wavers. For a moment, she seems stunned that I'm not dead, shredded into little pieces of gore on her claws. She stares at me in something like disbelief.

I activate Temporal Fragment.

Whatever resonance the skill has with the Lament still isn't quite responding to me, but the center of the town is filled with a fragment of me from the previous loop some of the spars I had with Tarin and the first battle against the Laments both took place here. It's the perfect place for me to spring a trap, and the upgrade from Echo to Fragment seems to let me call forth not one but two copies of myself a fact I immediately exploit.

From one side of the Lament, an echo bursts to life, fragmented blue collapsing into a visible copy of my body. It swings a fist towards the Lament, roaring in impotent anger. I know for a fact the echo won't quite reach the harpy; it's improperly placed, and the harpy isn't standing in the exact same spot as before.

That's not important, though. It's a distraction for the echo that flares to life behind her.

Just like before, with Tarin.

I don't need either echo to kill her I don't expect that to happen in the first place. I wasn't nearly powerful enough to even hurt this version of the Lament last loop. But the game we're playing is one to keep her stalled, and in that way, both of my echoes serve perfectly.

The first echo is blasted back by a swipe of her wing; the force of the wind it generates blows that fragment of myself into the air, and I wince at the mental snap that accompanies the generated paradox. The one behind her startles her, taking advantage of her inability to sense Firmament; it barrels into her with force. Not enough to bowl her over, maybe, but enough for her to spin around and react in pure instinct, kicking into the echo's body with enough strength to cave its chest in.

I wince a bit at the sight. It's astoundingly real. It's not just a ghost of me that evaporates as soon as it's struck I get to watch as it collapses, bright blue blood oozing out of it, ribs clearly broken and heart crushed.

Then it fades away. After it makes sure to properly traumatize me.

Not that I have the luxury of thinking about the nightmares that sight will give me.

Tarin and Mari are both staying back, eyeing the Lament warily; they've both heard what I said about what it can do, and they know not to rush in blindly. There's no doubt they see the same thing I do, though it can't use its song with its throat so thoroughly destroyed. Mari can't defend against any of its strikes, which means it's up to Tarin's more speed-focused Firmament to distract the Lament.

I'd rather not involve either of them if I can help it, but I have to be careful about how I play this, too. I'm already feeling the strain of using Firmament as freely as I have been the numerous skills I've been using are undoubtedly easier to stack than slamming Second Wind three times as I did a couple loops ago, but it's still not advisable.

And at the end of the day, if I die, it's over for all the crows. Tarin and Mari aren't disposable, but they know the stakes as well as I do, and I see the glint of hardened determination in their eyes.

It parallels the hatred in the harpy's.

She seems to know what the stakes are, too or maybe I'm projecting. Where all the harpies before have focused on the crows over me, this time, she targets me and me alone. Mari's attempt to get in her way doesn't even faze her, and Tarin can't do a thing to stop her; both crows are blown back as the Lament flickers again towards me, legs outstretched in a flying kick.

Temporal Fragment.

It's morbid, but a copy of me appears in front of me, made of Firmament emulating flesh and bone. The harpy tears it apart in a second, but it bleeds her momentum better than a Barrier can, even if the paradox-backlash is worse for me.

Better a headache than death, I think. By the time the blue-tinted gore has faded away, I'm out of her sight, running to lure her into the path of another fragment; Firestep and Triplestep are fading, and I'm hesitant to refresh them just yet.

What I have is enough. Just barely. She's beginning to flag, I think her skin is paler than before, and her lungs pull in air through her ruined throat in ragged gasps. She gives me a harsh, bloody smile, and I don't have time to think about why I throw myself out of the way just as she flickers again.

I need a plan. A better plan than this, relying on instinct and Mental Acceleration to let me dodge out of the way; I'm barely keeping up as it is. I feel like the answer has to be in Temporal Fragment, in the strange resonance I feel between the skill and the Lament, but focusing on that skill needs time

Barrier!

and the Lament, rather predictably, isn't giving me that time.

A trio of Barriers form in front of me as I layer the skill on top of itself, and Firmament Manipulation on top of it concentrates their defensive power into a single plane rather than a wraparound shield; the Lament hasn't shown the ability to circle around mid-charge, and I'm trying to conserve my limited Firmament. The headache is starting to form in earnest, now, and that along with of the lack of time I have to focus, along with the need to optimize myself defensively

The Lament slams into my barriers, using her wings to stay afloat; her first kick cracks the first barrier, but she doesn't stop there. The second kick shatters the first barrier and breaks the second, all in one go, pushing me back.

I have a realization.

I'm playing this too safe. I don't need to optimize myself defensively; that's pushing me closer and closer to getting killed. What I need to do is avoid dying. That ends the raid. Anything short of death I can handle. Have handled. Seven loops haven't made me completely immune to the thought of pain or death, but they've certainly helped.

The third kick breaks the last barrier

Crystallized Strength

and I grab her by the leg.

Even with Mental Acceleration, I barely manage it the impact shatters the bones of my arm, Second Wind having long since faded away, and I have to bite back the scream of pain that follows. I pull up, rotating her just enough that her wings fail to keep her afloat, and as she crashes into the ground I step forward and crush my intact fist into her already-broken nose.

She flails wildly, battle-instinct replaced with the need to get away from the source of pain, and I take a moment to focus on my skill.

Temporal Fragment.

This time, whatever piece of the harpy that resonates with the skill responds, and the world fades away.

Let this give me enough time. I just need to survive until she bleeds out.

"A-are you okay, sis?"

It's the voice of a little girl. I see her waddling into view, tiny wings flaring out and throwing her off-balance, forcing her to course-correct. She's very determinedly wandering over to...

...oh. Oh no.

Right at my feet or metaphorical feet, seeing as I don't have a body in whatever dream-state I'm in is an older harpy, maybe nineteen years old to the little girl's five. She's collapsed on the ground in a pool of blood, and one of her arms is torn off.

"S-sis?"

This is the harpy I've been fighting. Not the older woman lying on the ground, but the younger one, the little girl staring with wide eyes at her older sister. I see the tears starting to gather in her eyes. She's not quite old enough to understand not entirely but she knows this is bad. This is the first time her older sister hasn't responded to her immediately.

Above them both, a figure scoffs. I can't make it out in the vision. It's shadowed, almost like it's censored, or maybe irrelevant to the memory. I do see the way the figure smiles, and I feel an unfamiliar rage boil through me.

It's not my own, for once, though I feel my own anger rise in sympathy, and for a moment, I understand.

And then the fragment fades.

I don't know what I just did. The harpy beneath me is staring up at me with wide, glossy eyes, and it takes me a moment to realize that she's dead; the fragment caught both of us up within it, and she bled out in the time that memory took to play. It's almost... anticlimactic, though I let the relief pour through me as I notice the words in the air.

[ You have defeated the Grief of a Lost Sister (Rank C)! +20 Strength credits. +17 Durability credits. +31 Reflex credits. +40 Speed credits. +20 Firmament credits. ]

[ You have defeated the raid Lost Harpies (Rank E)! Bonus +40 Firmament credits awarded based on performance. ]

"We did it," I say, a little numbly.

It's a victory, I know it is. But my mind is spinning, and I'm suddenly aware that that use of Temporal Fragment whatever it was tore out the rest of my Firmament and wrung me dry. I'm empty, and without my Firmament, my body is falling apart.

It's not like I took no injuries in that fight. There's no part of my body that isn't bruised. My left arm is shattered. I have internal injury upon internal injury, most likely, though I can't say what exactly is bleeding.

All I know is that without Firmament, both Tough Body and Mental Acceleration aren't working, and everything feels... slow. My body feels like it's falling apart, probably because it is. I can't help but wonder where Tarin and Mari are.

To my right, I hear quiet sobbing.

No.

I try to turn my head. It takes monumental effort, and a small, stupid part of me tries to activate Second Wind, but nothing happens; I'm entirely drained. Instead I have to turn my head as slowly as I can, even as I feel my body disintegrating beneath me.

Mari's kneeling down, holding Tarin's body, and quietly crying over it. She seems to sense my gaze, somehow, and I don't know how, but the crow somehow musters the energy to look at me and say thank you for everything.

I don't understand how she can say that, when she's holding her own dead husband. She even looks like she wants to come over to me and comfort me. That's... kind of her. That's almost unbearably kind of her.

I hope, with every fiber of my being, that Tarin will be okay when time resets.

[ You have died. ]

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