Die. Respawn. Repeat.

Ghost had no idea how he would feel when he saw his old friends again. A small part of him was worried about it, but a greater part of him was mostly excited. To think Bimar and He-Who-Wanders were still alive after all this time! Sure, they wouldn't remember him, but that was fine. That was how it worked every loop. He knew how to befriend them quickly by now.

He wasn't expecting the chaos that greeted him when he made his way through the city gates, though. Nor was he expecting the dozens of copies of what looked like another one of his kind, except a little more... crude?

Ghost had no idea how to put it. By his people's standards, the guy was basically naked. He wouldn't comment, though. It wasn't like it mattered. Besides, there was something off about the Firmament in each of those replicated bodies—almost like the true consciousness of his fellow coremind wasn't here.

In fact—was there a different intelligence in charge of those bodies? The Firmament didn't seem to match... Ghost frowned and approached one of the proxies.

"Excuse me," he said politely. "Do you think you could direct me to the source of the anomaly? It appears you may require assistance."

"Wha—" The proxy he was talking to stopped mid-step and turned to stare at him, scrutinizing him for a long moment. "Who are you? You look just like Guard."

"I am a coremind," Ghost explained, mentally filing away the oddity of that particular response. "As are you."

"What?" The proxy blinked at him, then shook her head. "No, no. This isn't even my real body. I mean... I don't have a real body. I'm borrowing Guard's."

"And he allowed this?" Ghost asked curiously, trying to wrap his mind around the situation. "What are you, if not a coremind?"

"My name's Aris," she said. "I don't know what I am, actually. I guess I'm sentient code? I'm an artificial intelligence with Firmament and a soul. But this body belongs to He-Who-Guards, I'm just helping him with all this."

Aris frowned to herself. "He owes me, frankly. He didn't tell me things were going to get this chaotic."

"I am curious," Ghost said. "But I believe there may be more pressing matters at the moment. There are anomalies within Isthanok, are there not?"

"Oh yeah. So many anomalies." Aris winced as she thought about it. "We're doing our best to hold them off, but it's like they're multiplying. You're saying you can help us?"

"Entities local to a loop will have difficulty disrupting temporal anomalies," Ghost said. "I am external to the loop. I will be able to close them."

Aris stared at him. "You're—wait, are you with Ethan?"

"Yes." Ghost tilted his head curiously. "You know of him?"

"Do I know—" Aris cut herself off with a groan. "Of course you know him. You know what, it doesn't matter. Follow me, I'll lead you to the closest Tear."

With that, the proxy began leading him through the streets. Ghost followed closely, making a quick note of all the inefficiencies he saw in the mechanical body. If his analysis was correct, this was a lesser version of what would be the 'main' coremind—the person Aris was referring to as He-Who-Guards.

What a strange but useful adaptation of a coremind and its capabilities. Ghost saved the data for later perusal and submission to the Upper Database.

"There it is," Aris said. Ghost looked up from his analysis, then nearly took a step back, startled.

The Tear was large. It cut into several buildings and appeared like a literal tear in space, a jagged spacetime wound that bled static. It wasn't a neat dome like he'd been expecting from what Ethan had told him.

They really were getting worse.

At the edges of the Tear, tendrils of Firmament lashed out, anchoring themselves into their crystalline surroundings as if they were trying to force the Tear to open even wider. And in the middle of it all?

A glimpse into an Isthanok that wasn't nearly so damaged. Citadels hung in the sky, fully intact and without the scars they now bore. It might have seemed a miraculous window into a better world if not for the near-apocalyptic fight he could see happening within it—two figures throwing monstrous amounts of Firmament at one another.

None of the citadels had been damaged yet, but... it was only a matter of time. He'd experienced that exact event more than once.

Near the base of the Tear were a number of silverwisps and other citizens of Isthanok trying to figure out what to do. The immediate vicinity had been evacuated, but they couldn't stop the Tear from expanding, no matter what they tried. Ghost saw a number of strange devices that looked like clamps clinging on to the edges of the portal, sparking with Firmament; a crow was standing nearby, muttering to herself and desperately analyzing calculations on a small display.

Ghost's heart leapt. "Bimar!" he called joyfully.

The crow in question looked up at him. Her expression went from agitated to confused, then to agitated again. "Who is this?" she demanded, ignoring Ghost and turning to Aris. "We said no civilians here. Why does he look like—"

"He's with Ethan," Aris interrupted. Bimar frowned.

"The Trialgoer you told me about?" she asked skeptically. "I don't see any bipedal mammals around. And how did he know my name?"

"I am like Ethan," Ghost said. "I, too, was once trapped within the causal nexus that is Hestia's Trial, and I have pledged to help Ethan undo it once and for all."

"And that's how you know my name?" Bimar rolled her eyes. "More like you found it in some database. Look, we don't have time for this. If you're here, I'm assuming you think you can help. So help."

"Ah, you are as much of an old owl as I remember," Ghost said happily. Bimar stared at him as he walked up to the Tear, examining its edges. The odd thing about being a product of Ethan's Temporal Link was that it gave him a better sense for temporal anomalies than he'd ever had as a full Trialgoer. "Yes. I can close this. But there is something strange about it." He frowned.

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"Did you... did you just call me an owl?" Bimar asked, her voice strangled. Ghost nodded.

"Yes! You told me it would get your attention if I do so." He paused. "I think there is an extra step I am forgetting. It has been a while. I believe it had to do with your romantic attraction to a coworker? We have always become best friends after I do this, but I do not remember her name. It may have been M—"

"Nope!" Bimar slapped a wing over his face—it didn't do anything to stop him from talking, but as always, he politely shut himself up—and dragged him away. "No, alright? I believe you. Don't say that name. Please."

Ghost eyed her for a moment, and when he spoke again, his voice was softer. "Are you all right?"

"I am going to be, but not for a long time." Bimar took a shuddering breath. "You're telling me I trusted you enough to tell you that?"

"Oh, no. I simply found your diary," Ghost explained.

"And you read it?" Bimar stared at him.

"It was a book. I like reading books." Ghost was quite matter-of-fact about this. If a book appeared in front of him, he would read it, regardless of its contents. Bimar looked like she didn't know whether she wanted to laugh or to slap him, which was an expression he was quite familiar with.

"Okay. You know what? Fine. We're friends now." She took a deep breath. "You can fix this. You're sure?"

"I would not make such claims without being certain." Ghost had, in fact, been running computations on the nature of the Tear throughout their entire conversation. He only needed a few more seconds to confirm what he'd detected.

There was a fragment of a crossover event here. Another remnant of the last moments of another Trialgoer. It was only one loop away from a prime loop, and Ghost was technically a manifestation of Temporal Link. With the right computations, perhaps he could—

"Watch out!" someone near the Tear called, and Ghost jumped back as a Firmament tendril lashed out toward him. He pulled Bimar with him, almost surprising himself with how much time he'd had to respond to the whole thing. The tendril crushed the stone beneath them what felt like a long moment later.

And then Ghost realized how much farther back he'd moved with that one jump. He blinked. He hadn't really tested his speed or reflexes before. Was his Temporal Link with Ethan improving him in some way?

Experimentally, Ghost tapped on the ground, using about a third of his strength. It wouldn't normally do anything—Isthanok, for all its faults, was a well-reinforced city.

But it cracked.

Ghost grinned, then stood up and stretched, tilting his head in an imitation of an organic creature cracking their neck. He played the popping sound just to really sell it, though he had no joints to pop, really.

"I will have to disable this Tear before I can perform the tests required," Ghost announced. "Bimar, do not allow others to come within 45.7 meters of the Tear's vicinity."

"I don't have a—" Bimar began, but Ghost had already launched himself through the Tear.

She was resourceful. She'd find a way.

Ghost was familiar with this particular battle. He'd fought in it a dozen times himself, usually on the side of She-Who-Whispers, though not because he supported her reign. Many of the organics he'd come to appreciate lived in Isthanok, though, and the other Trialgoer that always attacked late into the loop was quite clearly the aggressor.

The Trialgoer in question was someone named Avegoth. Unpredictable, fiery, and all in all something like a more dangerous version of Naru. His skill all revolved around the control of a discrete series of auras that he could expand and contract at will, devastating everything around him.

It was rare for him to personally visit another Great City like this. From what Ghost understood of the conflict, this occurrence was a result of one of Teluwat's manipulations—he'd subverted a number of Whisper's agents and sent them after Avegoth's civilians.

And Avegoth, who was perhaps one of the better leaders among the Hestian Trialgoers, had one specific weakness: a temper and an absolute refusal to see reason once he decided he knew what had happened.

In past battles, Ghost had always needed to kill him as quickly as possible. He didn't have the power he needed to take a more peaceful approach and try to talk him down. Now, with Ethan's power giving him a boost...

He let himself rise through the air, noting with a detached sort of curiosity that the lingering traces of Avegoth's auras did nothing to him. There was a time where his plating would begin to burn or melt or rust; now the Firmament simply glanced off of him. Part of that was because so much of him was made of Firmament, of course, but it was more than that.

"Must be that Aspect of the Body," Ghost commented, reviewing what Ethan had told him.

Then he noticed the battle had stopped. He looked up to see both Whisper and Avegoth staring at him warily, Firmament gathering in their cores as they prepared to unleash their skills. He considered them for a moment, then turned to Whisper.

"I am here to help," he said plainly. "You are interested in analyzing a coremind body, yes? I will allow your analysis if you allow me to participate."

Whisper froze. Avegoth narrowed his eyes and roared with frustration.

"I am here to help you as well," Ghost said. "But historically, you do not listen. I think perhaps—"

Ghost knew Avegoth's patterns well. He would start by interrupting him with a blinding aura of light, then follow up with fire. Ghost shielded his optical sensors, waited two cycles, then spun up a water-attuned barrier; that wasn't a skill so much as a basic projection he'd learned to do using his projection systems.

The fire that followed washed past him harmlessly. Ghost watched in surprise—in the past, it would have begun to boil his barrier and then his metal.

"Aspect of Energy?" he mused.

Whisper would follow with one of her Whispers, commanding Avegoth to stop, and Avegoth would grit his teeth and follow with an aura of decay. That one was more difficult to counter—he didn't have any attunements that could handle decay.

He activated Timeskip instead.

Decay was an exhausting aura for Avegoth to use. It would injure Whisper, and normally if he allowed the battle to go this far, it was over for him; he could fight for a few more moments, but Timeskip didn't completely negate the damage that aura could do. He would rust into nothing before long.

This time, though, Ghost only noticed a few spots of rust.

Avegoth stared at him. Ghost deflected the next three auras—the longest he'd ever survived this battle—with quick attunements that shunted the effects they should have had on him.

"I believe we should talk," Ghost offered.

Avegoth just nodded numbly.

Interesting. Ghost made a note on this to himself. It seemed Avegoth lost the will to fight rather quickly if his attacks didn't seem to have any effect on his opponent.

In the meantime, he carefully ran an analysis on an oddity he had discovered during that Timeskip.

It was, technically, one loop before Ethan would enter his next prime loop. But during that Timeskip, Ghost had noticed something strange—an oddity in the way that his skill interacted with the Tear. It was the same oddity he'd noticed before he entered it, but magnified.

There was a chance, he thought, that he could create a crossover event early. Maybe even a chance he could anchor a new link himself.

"Ethan," he sent, even as he began to explain what he'd learned about Teluwat's manipulations to Avegoth and extract information he'd be able to pass on to Ethan for their next conversation. "I would like to borrow your relic. I believe I may be able to secure another ally for us even before the next prime loop."