Die. Respawn. Repeat.

The worst part about the loops, Naru reflected, was the fact that he had no idea when a reset would happen. For all his desperation to get into them, now that he was actually here, he'd realized one painful truth:

Time loops were boring.

He'd made countless plans for what he'd do if he ever managed to make his way into the loops, and he'd tried most of them. The problem was that nothing he did ever stuck, and without the control over the loops that Ethan had, he was limited to waiting for Ethan to reset time whenever he screwed something up. Which was more often than he wanted to admit.

He could spend his time clearing the monsters around the Great Cities, but half the time, that wasn't a challenge for him. The other half of the time found him running for his life. There was, it turned out, a fairly limited range of monsters that were both strong enough to challenge him without outright destroying him yet weak enough that it wouldn't turn into a one-sided stomp, and he spent more time looking for those monsters than he did actually fighting them.

Naru grumbled to himself. At least he'd gotten some good fights in there. Some of the best opponents had been, to his surprise, the people that were waiting outside his city. When he'd announced an opportunity to non-lethally duel him for entrance to the city, he'd...

Well, he'd earned himself a pretty hard look from both Tarin and Mari, actually. It took about half an hour of explaining before he managed to get them to calm down, and even then they watched him closely to make sure he wasn't just beating them up for fun.

It would've hurt his feelings, but even Naru had to admit to himself that that was probably fair.

The truth was a little bit different. Carusath wouldn't be able to handle the influx of people if he let them in all at once, but what he could do was start getting supplies shipped to the area. It worked well as an excuse to get food and shelter out to everyone outside the city without making all his guards question his sudden change of heart—all he had to do was say that he wanted them at their best when he dueled them.

Better than risking a rebellion. Not that he'd have any problems crushing a rebellion, but he was starting to realize there were consequences to his actions. He didn't even necessarily know that this was the right thing to do—maybe he could just force his guards to listen to him, as he always had—but the loop meant he could test different strategies to see what worked best.

His first few attempts to force things had gone... more poorly than he'd expected. So he was trying something different.

To his credit, Tarin had looked a little proud of him when he explained his reasoning. Suspicious, but proud.

He was careful to hold back in his fights, too. It helped that he had a skill that could prevent fatal blows, though he'd never used it before now. When he picked it, he'd been under the impression that it was a destructive, powerful skill. What else would Endless Battle mean?

Naru had been disgusted when it turned out to be a skill that prevented a battle from ending by preventing either participant from dealing too much damage. If the threshold was about to be crossed, it would drain his Firmament instead, creating a shield for the person in question.

With that, they devised a system: Whenever the shield was activated, a point was given to the attacker. Naru would take a moment to rest and recover his Firmament, and the battle would continue until someone had acquired three points.

This form of battle didn't give him very many credits—none, really, until he triggered a the Interface rewards by killing a monster—but it was a lot more fun than trying to hunt down monsters all across the continent. Plus, he was learning a lot about the people that wanted to get into Carusath.

So far, three participants had impressed him, and one had beaten him.

One of them was a kobold, of all things. He wasn't sure what the little guy's name was—it was either Thys or Thaht; frankly, he couldn't tell which brother was which—but the two of them somehow managed to lug an enormous automaton all the way to Carusath. From Isthanok, of all places.

He hadn't thought much of them, but whatever alloy they were using for the exterior of that thing was damn near indestructible. He had to use an Inspiration just to break through it, and apparently they'd done something with its shields so that anyone trying to penetrate the outer armor got electrocuted.

Naru shuddered at the memory. He'd won, but it was a close thing, and he'd given them their passes to get into the city anyway. That was what he did for pretty much any duel, actually. Word about that was starting to spread, just like he'd intended.

There was also a tree-like sylvan who focused on precision strikes with her vines, each one delivering a small dose of paralyzing toxin; again, that win had been a close thing for him. He'd only won because he was stubborn enough to launch himself at her like a rocket for a series of headbutts.

The one that won was a white-feathered crow he didn't recognize. She didn't seem to recognize him, either, nor was she interested in any sort of conversation; she simply blitzed him with her speed in a way that reminded him of how his father liked to fight.

He'd given his father a few suspicious looks after that, but all Tarin did was look at him innocently.

Not that he minded even if his father had taken up teaching everyone here to fight. He enjoyed the challenge. It would help him earn credits, even if it wasn't a monumental number of them. Even then, it was more than he ever earned outside the loops.

More importantly, he was learning about his own city. His own people.

He'd never really considered them in his time as the "leader" of Carusath. Why would he? What threat could anyone without the Interface pose against someone who had its advantages?

A significant one, apparently.

Sure, he hadn't used his most destructive skills—those were more for widespread destruction than they were for one-on-one duels—but he hadn't exactly been holding back, either. He'd underestimated what non-Interface users were capable of.

On some level, that excited him. Give them the right resources and the right kind of training, and there was every chance they'd grow strong enough to challenge even Trialgoers. Maybe not the Integrators themselves, but if he'd been wrong about them in the first place, then maybe he didn't know what the limits were—

Naru's thoughts were interrupted when massive, thunderous crack echoed through his soul.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

He believed, for a moment, that he'd been struck. Or that something had gone wrong with the soul surgery Ethan had performed, even if it had been several days since the incident. The searing pain in his core seemed to indicate as much.

Then he realized that everyone around him had staggered, too. Most of the civilians had fallen to the ground, and barely half of them were conscious. A scattered few remained standing: the two kobolds, who hadn't yet entered the city; Tarin and Mari; two of his guards; and a full five others he didn't recognize but immediately made note of.

They were all looking at the sky. Naru blinked, still trying to gather his thoughts. He followed their gaze and then just...

Stopped. Stared. He didn't know how to react.

A massive Tear had formed above his city without warning or indication. He didn't even care that it was threatening his borders this time—the damn thing was blotting out half the sky. It wasn't as strong as its size might imply, if the Firmament levels he felt were any indication, but just the sight of a Tear that massive meant that something was deeply wrong.

His worst fears were coming true.

This wasn't the same Tear Ethan had closed, Naru knew that much. It was an entirely new one. He'd seen Tears open before, but never this quickly, and they were certainly never this large. Not without warning. The Integrators had always culled the ones that threatened their precious Trial.

Naru was guessing that they didn't get that particular benefit any longer. Not when a Tear just burst into being with enough force to shake the souls of every single person in the vicinity.

"Is everyone okay?" he asked, not taking his eyes off the Tear. A series of affirmative groans responded.

Good enough. As far as he knew, the type of soulquake he'd just experienced would hurt or incapacitate, but not kill.

He couldn't leave that Tear there, though. Who knew what it would turn into?

Naru activated Flightless Leap and jumped—

—but before he got very far, a metal hand clamped around him.

He twisted, briefly thinking he'd been betrayed, but a muffled voice yelled out through the armor and stopped him. "Sorry!" one of the kobolds yelled. "Can't let you jump in like that! Look!"

Naru looked, then tensed. The Tear was... contracting.

Anyone with less experience with Tears might have thought it was sealing itself. Naru, on the other hand, was well aware that this was what happened when a Tear expanded beyond its capacity—it was resolving. Turning into a monster that would try to wreak havoc on his city.

The shockwave that followed made Naru realize with a grimace that if the kobold hadn't stopped him, he would have been flung out of the air like a hatchling.

"Thanks," he forced himself to say. It rankled at his pride, but he had essentially just been saved, even if he hated relying on anyone else.

"You still too eager!" Tarin called up at him. Naru scowled and rolled his eyes, but he didn't have much of a defense against that.

He didn't have much time to think about it, either. The mech placed him back on the ground, and they all watched as the Tear shrank yet again, pulsing with power. Another shockwave burst out of its borders, this one an almost solid wave of Firmament. Naru cursed to himself—he didn't have any defensive skills he could use to protect the people or his city. Not against something like this. He thought rapidly.

Before he could figure something out, though, one of the few civilians still standing took a deep breath and reached out. Naru blinked and stared as a thin film of Firmament materialized in the air above her, almost instinctively wanting to yell at her to leave this to the people that could fight. What could a barrier that thin do?

To his shock, though, the Firmament film didn't shatter the moment the shockwave struck. Instead, it expanded like a bubble, somehow containing all that incoming force into a perfectly spherical...

As much as Naru wanted to give it a more dignified name, it really did just look like a bubble.

"I don't think I can do that again," the civilian said, wincing. A trickle of blood dripped from her nose.

Naru forced himself to snap out of it. Yes, all of this was surprising to him and made him question some of his most deeply-held convictions, but it wasn't like that was anything new. He could worry about how many things he'd gotten wrong later—Naru really didn't need a second public existential crisis.

"You won't have to," Naru said.

The monster coming down at them was... well, he didn't know what rank it was. It was strong, certainly. At least the equivalent of a third-layer practitioner, considering the amount of Firmament he felt coming off it.

He should have been afraid.

He wasn't.

For one thing, the strength that Ethan radiated far eclipsed what he felt from this thing. It felt almost... small, in comparison. Like he was measuring a lamp against the light of the sun.

For another, all the Firmament roiling about in the air had pushed him once again past a boundary he'd never been able to cross before. He could feel his core on the verge of the third phase shift. This was where his core was supposed to crystallize.

He'd failed to crystallize his Truth every time he'd tried before, but this time... it felt different.

Tarin placed a wing on his left shoulder. Mari took his right hand into hers.

Naru's first and second phase shifts had been made in anger and desperation. He'd given his answers and shaped his core based on a Truth he could never admit to himself. It was the reason his third shift had always failed.

When asked who he was, Naru had answered: I am a destroyer.

When asked who he would be, Naru had answered: I will be that which burns through all in my path.

Both a reflection of his Truth, and yet all the answers he'd tried for that third shift had always failed.

Now he knew why.

His Truth was different from most others. Not a statement about the nature of his existence, because it wasn't what he needed.

No, what he needed was much smaller... and much more powerful.

What is your Truth?

Naru sighed, and admitted what he'd never wanted to admit.

I want to be worthy.

He was destruction incarnate, but he'd only ever chosen that path because he wanted to be recognized. How long had he fought, in the hopes that he would be worthy?

Too long. Because it didn't matter how much the people of Carusath revered him. It didn't matter how much his guards feared him. No matter that many of them thought he was worthy, he'd never thought of himself that way.

Now...

Well. It was a work in progress.

Tarin and Mari both smiled at him, and they did something that shocked him: he felt their Firmament join with his own.

This was the ritual they'd refused him so long ago. Not the whole thing, perhaps—every crow in the village was needed for it, and right now, Tarin and Mari were the only ones with him—but it was the greatest indicator that they trusted him.

Despite the fact that they'd only known him for this loop. They'd seen him change, and they recognized it.

Something clicked into place. Naru's soul felt like it was burning and healing all at once.

He looked up at the abomination of flesh that had formed above his city.

Inspiration: Destruction. Catastrophic Alignment. Meteor Strike.

Naru emptied his core all at once. It was something he'd never do in normal circumstances—he needed to wield some of his power against the other Trialgoers in case they tried to act against him. Draining himself left him vulnerable.

But he couldn't do anything less. He shot upward, red-black Firmament tearing a jagged line through the sky into the monster above.

There was a roar. A moment of resistance. A flash of Firmament.

And for the first time, when Naru emerged covered in blood?

His people cheered.