Adam stared at the empty spot Willow had been sitting in, frozen in complete disbelief.

  “Connect me to her again.”

  [I cannot.]

  Fuck! What the fuck just happened!?

  Adam took a deep breath.

  It’s just a misunderstanding.

  I’ll get someone else to explain that to her.

  Oh, I know. Lenard should be able to help.

  I’ve just gotta make sure I don’t screw up the introduction again.

  Adam tried to think of a way to strike up a conversation with Lenard.

  “Show me Lenard Schulz.”

  [The Player you are searching for has perished.]

  Adam slammed his hands on the table in frustration. “Fuck!”

  The barrier had stopped spinning and the saw-toothed edge he’d been working on was gone, leaving just a flat disc behind.

  Wait, maybe my sister survived!

  He was getting desperate all of a sudden.

  “Show me Helena Fischer!”

  [The Player you are searching for has perished.]

  Adam clenched his teeth.

  “Show me Christian Fischer.”

  A man appeared some seats down. He had golden-brown hair, a thick beard, and pale-green eyes.

  Adam almost called out to him, but then he saw the look on his brother-in-law’s face. It was the look of someone who’d resigned themselves to defeat. In front of him were several empty bottles of whiskey. Despite that, he didn’t look inebriated at all.

  He’s probably discovered that Helena and their daughter are dead…

  I can’t just leave him like this.

  They hadn’t exactly been best friends, but for a car salesman he was actually a surprisingly-good guy, and he’d always been an attentive and caring father.

  “Christian,” Adam said.

  He slowly turned to face him. Then his hologram flickered and appeared directly opposite Adam.

  “You okay?”

  Christian stared at him.

  “You’re alive,” he muttered. “Everyone else is gone, man. My parents. Helena…” He swallowed, as though holding back a panicked sob. “Even Laura. Fuck, Adam. They took my little girl. They took everything.”

  Adam took a deep breath to steady himself. He’d never seen the guy like this before and it was affecting him more than he’d expected.

  “Listen. We can get them back. All of them.”

  “How?” Christian asked. “They told me that they’re all gone. I barely made it out of that forest. One of the monsters ate my hand, but then I took a bite of an apple and it was back again… Adam, what the fuck is going on??”

  “We have to keep fighting,” Adam told him. “When we win, everyone will be saved.”

  Christian let out a shuddering breath. “I need some fresh air. That giant ant keeps looking at me.”

  “When you come back here, tell the cube you want to talk to me. Just give them my full name, it’ll work.”

  “Yeah, okay. See you later, Adam.”

  “Don’t stay out too late,” he told Christian as he got up and his hologram vanished.

  Fucking hell…

  Adam leaned back in his reclining chair. Just then Charlie came over with his croissants and milkshake.

  “Thank you,” he said, grateful for the distraction.

  He grabbed one of the pastries and bit off half in a single bite. Then he washed it down with the milkshake, before placing it in the cupholder.

  Adam let out a sigh.

  He started spinning the barrier around on its three axes in the air and trying to maintain the saw-toothed edge, while thinking about who else he could ask for help with Willow.

  I doubt Ilya would help me. Also need to find out if I’ll have to fight him in Stage Five again…

  Maybe I could ask Mori, although I’m not sure how to start up a conversation with him.

  If I knew Kate’s full name, she’d be someone I’d ask for sure, since she seemed very easy-going and approachable.

  “Shitbox,” Adam said. “Let me know if Willow unblocks me.”

  [I cannot.]

  He frowned.

  Maybe there’s a different way to phrase the command?

  “How about this: send her a connection request every 20 seconds and let me know if it goes through.”

  [Understood.]

  Maybe the issue is that I asked it to alert me. Although that can’t be it, since it can alert me to when my cooldowns and potions are ready.

  Perhaps it has something to do with it not knowing what is happening in other Players’ dimensions and thus it can’t alert me of what it does not know.

  Though that makes no sense, since the System told me that it’s the same tesseract that all Players see. But maybe all those clones do not have a way to communicate? Like as safety precaution? Like, perhaps the System realised that such a hive-mind would be difficult to control?

  “Adam?” asked an unfamiliar female voice.

  He nearly fell out of his recliner in surprise, but managed to catch himself on the edge of the table.

  His head swivelled around, looking for the woman who’d spoken to him.

  Then she appeared directly opposite him.

  Ah shit…

  The eyes immediately gave her away.

  It’s another fucking time-looper!

  Adam swallowed.

  “Do I know you?” he asked, looking across at the woman. He tried to not let it show that he knew what she was.

  She had shoulder-length and wild platinum-blonde hair. Her skin was pale with a slight golden tinge to it, like the whisper of a tan. She wore a red fuzzy sweater over a black sports bra that was partially visible, though the only thing Adam really noticed were her eyes.

  “I’m Emelia,” she said.

  She’s gotta be the one Mórrígan was talking about. But… If she’s got the spiral eyes, that means she’s the one who found the Self-devouring Eye in this universe.

  “I wanted to ask how you discovered the Secret Boss,” she said. Her accent was French, and her voice was soft and kind.

  Adam immediately noticed something.

  She doesn’t seem quite sure of herself and even if I didn’t know she was a time-looper based on the eyes, that comment definitely would’ve given her away…

  It’s almost like this is her first time looping. As though she hasn’t figured out what the power does yet.

  “I also wanted to know why you picked Warder, normally you— I mean, usually people would pick something like Warrior.”

  Nice… She almost just said ‘normally you pick Warrior’.

  Adam looked her straight in the eyes. “How do you know about the Secret Boss?”

  “This may be hard to believe, but I’ve done this before. I’m a time-traveller.”

  Adam blinked and almost burst out laughing at how easily she’d given that up.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Why the hell would she just tell me that!?

  She gave him a confused look. “You don’t seem very surprised.”

  “I’m just wondering why you’d tell me something like that. Shouldn’t you keep that to yourself?”

  “I am trying to save everyone,” she replied. “No one will trust me if I don’t tell them the truth.”

  That finally broke him and he started laughing.

  “What’s so funny about that!?” she asked, sounding offended. “The Trials are a serious threat to humanity and I’m trying to save everyone!”

  “No, no, it’s just…”

  I’m so relieved someone like this exists. Someone who isn’t warped and twisted by the Divine Relic’s power.

  “Wait, what’s that on your chair?” she suddenly asked.

  In his laughing fit Adam had leaned forward and exposed Gram to her. He wasn’t sure when it’d happened, but the stone sword was hanging over the back of the recliner.

  Emelia paused, looking at the spell-tome that his left hand was resting on and the sword behind him. Her eyes then ran along the chair, with its cupholder and the half-finished milkshake inside.

  “Wait a moment,” she said. “You’re a time-traveller too! That’s why you didn’t say anything about my eyes!”

  Ah, fuck.

  Adam contemplated cutting the connection.

  No, wait. This is a golden opportunity.

  So much for secrets, I guess.

  “That’s right,” he told her.

  “But how!? There’s only one Self-devouring Eye!”

  I knew it.

  Man, this girl is just letting all the secrets out though.

  “Really? Which Stage did you get it in? How can you be sure there aren’t others?”

  Emelia paused, then narrowed her eyes.

  “What happens in Stage Five?” she asked.

  “You mean the Forbidden Altar?”

  “What about Stage Eight?” she continued.

  Adam paused just long enough for her to say, “You don’t know.”

  She didn’t stop. “What about Seven? Six?”

  He frowned.

  Okay, not as dumb as she first came off, I guess.

  “What does the Void in Stage Five do?” she then asked.

  No idea what that is.

  “You haven’t even beaten Stage Five??” she realised by his lack of answer. “How the hell do you have Second Sheath and Gram!? And the Rusted Crown too!”

  Oh, woops, forgot I was wearing that still. I suppose that’s like a neon sign for any observant time-loopers…

  “Do you even know what the crown is for??” she asked, clearly upset about his ability to time-loop without knowing as much as her. Mórrígan had also been upset about that.

  I guess it makes sense. If the Self-devouring Eye is only available in a super late Stage, then it’s a challenge to always get there to unlock it. To them, I must seem like someone who found an exploit to cheat the System.

  Which, err… would be correct, I suppose.

  “It’s for triggering the Secret Boss in Stage Two,” he replied, taking a wild shot in the dark.

  Emelia didn’t look convinced. “And what’s the reward for beating the Hobgoblin Lord?”

  Thanks for the confirmation.

  So that’s what the Secret Boss is? I just have to give the crown to the Hobgoblin? That seems pretty easy. Although I guess it does require triggering and beating Stage One’s hidden boss first. I hope they’re not all linked together like that…

  Adam threw in the towel and shrugged. There was no point trying to bullshit her when he didn’t know the answer.

  Mórrígan’s words popped into his head: This run is already unsalvageable.

  Willow blocked me and I’ve already caught the attention of a time-looper.

  Good fucking job, Adam, you big stupid idiot.

  “You haven’t even beaten the Hobgoblin Lord? So, this must be your first time beating the Slime Emperor too. Seriously… who are you? What did you do with my Adam!?”

  “Your Adam?” he replied sceptically.

  “The Adam I know always picks Warrior in the beginning. He always reconnects with his brother-in-law, but is unable to save him from killing himself after he finds out his wife and child are gone.”

  “What!? Shit, I’ve gotta stop Christian!” Adam said, almost standing up as if he could run across dimensions to find him.

  Emelia shook her head. “My Adam always blames himself for not being able to save his last bit of family. And he always dies in Stage Eight, no matter what I do to try and stop it…”

  She said the last part with a deep sadness in her voice.

  Then she pulled a marble out of nowhere and pointed it at Adam.

  “Put that shit away,” Adam told her, angry that she didn’t care about Christian at all and hadn’t even given him the opportunity to try and save the guy. “You’re not going to kill me.”

  Emelia looked at the marble in her hand and then back at him.

  “How do you know about the Challenge Stone? You haven’t beaten Stage Five, so how could you know??”

  Adam sighed.

  “I’m a time-looper,” he said. “But I’m not like you or anyone else who uses that fucking Relic. I mean, look at me. My eyes aren’t all fucked up like yours.”

  Emelia pulled back at the tone in his voice.

  “Last time, Mórrígan used that marble to kill my friend to try and get to me. Then I died to another Player she manipulated into being her hitman. She was someone like you, fucked-up eyes and that whole ‘You’re not who you’re supposed to be’ attitude!”

  “I don’t know any Mórrígan,” Emelia said, a frown on her face. For some reason, Adam’s anger seemed to hurt her. “Arturo is the one who told me about the Self-devouring Eye. He said he’d had enough of looping back in time and wanted to see what was beyond the Gate of Nihility. So he told me to take it and go back and do what he couldn’t.”

  Arturo, that’s another of the names that Mórrígan mentioned.

  I wonder if one of these people are destined to always get to the divine Relic in every universe…

  “In my last loop, Mórrígan used the marble to kill you and Arturo. As well as some guy called Haoyang.”

  Emelia gasped. “You mean Anri? Black hair and pale wrinkly skin?”

  “Yeah, that sounds like her.”

  Wonder why the hell she was called Mórrígan then?

  “She always makes it far, just like Arturo and Haoyang. Although, the Arturo I’ve met the last two loops has not been the same who told me to take the Relic…”

  So this is only her third time through?

  Christ…

  “I don’t understand, why was Anri the one who got the Relic in your last loop?” Emelia asked.

  “Because I’m not looping back to the start of the same universe. I’m going across them, somehow. And apparently landing randomly in another time-looper’s layer cake of loops.”

  After all Mórrígan had clearly looped many times and it sounds like Arturo looped a lot before Emelia got the Relic in this universe.

  If it’s something other than randomness that determines what loop layer I land in, then I don’t know what it could be.

  “How’s that possible?”

  Adam grinned. “I’ll tell you if you tell me what Stage you got the Self-devouring Eye. And explain what the hell the Gate of Nihility is.”

  Not like she can replicate it anyway, since the System said it would prevent more cases like mine from popping up.

  Emelia shook her head.

  “Guess we’ll both just be in the dark then,” he replied.

  “If you die, will my Adam return?” she asked, fiddling with the marble in her hands. “The Adam I know.”

  “I’m afraid not,” he said.

  Emelia paused, dropping the marble onto the table. It rolled across to Adam. He was able to touch it, but he couldn’t lift it, push it, or anything.

  “What do you mean?” she finally asked.

  “The price of my power is that when I die, Adam Fischer ceases to exist in that universe. A me-shaped hole is just left behind.”

  “That makes no sense.”

  “You’re telling me,” he said, taking a sip of his milkshake. “So, please don’t kill me with that fucking marble. It would really ruin my day. And it’s already been pretty shitty so far.”

  Emelia reached over and grabbed the marble from the table. She suddenly looked really sad.

  “The Adam I know is gone forever then?” she asked softly.

  “Sorry.”

  There was a long pause where Emelia just stared at the marble in her hand.

  Then Adam asked, “Did he ever, err, me, I mean I, did I… fuck, how the hell do I phrase this?? Did ‘past Adam’ tell you about Jameson’s croissants?”

  Emelia sniffled. “No.”

  He grinned. “Well, then you’re in for a treat.”

  After Emelia ordered a croissant from Jameson’s bakery and Adam ordered a chausson aux pommes per her recommendation, they sat in silence while they waited, with Adam taking a few sips of his milkshake now-and-again.

  Occasionally, Emelia would turn her head to speak to someone that Adam couldn’t see, but from trying to read her lips he was fairly sure she was talking to other Players and telling them what to do. Almost like a coach advising someone what their best move was.

  If you know the odds for everyone, then you can give some pretty specific advice, but there’s no way she knows all that after just two loops.

  When their orders arrived, Emelia seemed surprised by the croissant.

  “I had no idea they made them this good outside of France!”

  Adam had never tried a chausson aux pommes before. It was a crispy and flaky pastry shaped like a half-moon with apple sauce inside it. He had to admit it was pretty good.

  “So, what’s your plan?” Adam asked after he finished the last bits of the pastry.

  Emelia put down the coffee she’d also ordered and looked at him, her violet spiralling eyes boring into his. “I’m going to save as many people as I can.”

  “How? By telling them what to do?”

  “I’m picking people I know are helping others, and I am giving them information about Stage Two.”

  “Like what?”

  “How to easily kill a goblin, the importance of harvesting their right ears for Points, what to expect from each Wave, and the necessity of watching out for the boss’ ability to survive a fatal strike. I am also telling them about the Secrets and the Flawless achievement.”

  She’s really going all in.

  “You’re not mentioning the Speedrun and the Secret Boss achievements? And shouldn’t you tell them about future Stages too so they know what to expect and can plan accordingly?”

  “No. I did that last time and it got more people killed. Clearing a Stage fast for Points is too much risk for little reward. If they are careful, they get a lot of Points from the Flawless achievement. Even if they can’t get that, the ear collectibles will help a lot of them buy better upgrades. The problem with telling people about future Stages is that they prepare too far ahead or get focused on a problem that isn’t relevant to their immediate survival, which makes them not pay proper attention.”

  “How exactly are you picking people?” he wondered.

  “I choose from amongst those who survived Stage Five in my past loops. That way I can be sure they will not die quickly and can keep spreading my Stage guides.”

  That’s a pretty efficient but grim way to pick, but I suppose it gives replicable results.

  “Do you know who I go up against in Stage Five?”

  “Yes. You always win, so it’s not an issue. And no, I’m not telling you who they are. It’s better that you don’t obsess about them. There is no way to change who you go up against and there’s no way to save them, Arturo told me that and he would know.”

  Adam wasn’t so sure. The Trials were clearly set up with the idea that Players had to defy its rules and design somehow. It would be odd if such an integral Stage didn’t have a way to be defied.

  “What about Stage Eight, why do I die in that Stage?”

  “I don’t know, but your whole group is wiped out. Since no one survives it, I have no idea who was in the group, which makes it impossible to change their fates and save you.”

  So there really are group Stages then… That sounds like it’ll be a mess.

  “What happens in Stage Eight?”

  Emelia shook her head. “I’ll tell you after Seven. Right now you’ve just got to focus on what’s in front of you. Especially if you plan to take on the Hobgoblin Lord for the first time. That’s a very difficult fight.”

  Adam sighed. “Fine.”

  “By the way, there’s something I need your help with,” he added.

  “What?”

  “There’s this woman I have been friends with in past loops, but this time she blocked me because of a misunderstanding.”

  “And you want me to reach out to her and sort it out?” she asked, sounding exasperated that he’d ask something like that of her. Adam was starting to realise that when she’d said ‘her Adam’, she meant that they’d had some kind of intimate relationship in the past. So, from her perspective, the request was probably quite frustrating.

  “Please?”

  She frowned, before letting out a small sigh. “What’s her name?”

  “Willow Martin,” he said.

  Emelia paused, then shook her head. “I can’t help you with that.”

  Fuck.

  “Can you at least just help her out like you’ve been helping others? With advice and such?”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  Her hologram flickered out and vanished.

  “What the fuck!?”

  Adam looked to the tesseract. “Did she just block me??”

  [No. It appears the conversation was intentionally disconnected on her end.]

  So she’s avoiding me because of that request…

  I’m back to square one then. I’ll have to find some new people who can help me.

  But first I need some fresh air… Seeing Christian like that was rough.

  And if she was right…

  “Show me Christian Fischer,” he said, bracing himself.

  [The Player you are searching for has perished.]

  Adam gritted his teeth. But he refused to let the System feed off of his emotions. He would not give in to the despair.

  Idiot… Goddamn it, Christian…

  I’ll save you, Laura, and Helena. Fucking watch me!

  He picked up the last croissant on his plate and left the Tavern, heading for the Garden before the sun had fully set.

  I never did find out what weapon Emelia has, or what her last name is…