Die. Respawn. Repeat.

Chapter 37: End of a Rope

I'm running through a number of plans in my head, discarding most of them as quickly as they come. Mental Acceleration helps me and gives me more time; the robot isn't moving particularly fast, so the full second it takes gives me what feels like a minute to think.

Barrier and Crystallized Barrier are both useless here. Crystallized Strength is probably useful, but also unlikely to be enough against something like this the robot looks heavy even before putting its Firmament into account. I suspect it'll be able to resist anything I do and more.

Mental Acceleration and Intuitive Analysis are both useful, but they're both mental skills. Great for giving me time to think and adapt; not useful in the now.

Triplestep and Firestep might help me get away if I can get past it, but I felt how fast it was moving I don't think running is the best option, here. Hiding, maybe, but it was able to track me down somehow. The skills can act as force multipliers to any attack, but that presumes I have an attack that's strong enough to begin with. Robot or not, this thing feels like it's at least as strong as Naru, and an attack combining all my speed skills and Crystallized Strength didn't even make him step back.

Tough Body and Second Wind. Good for survivability if I need it, not useful right now.

Firmament Manipulation. The robot is practically emanating Firmament; its entire core is nothing but Firmament. I could try to twist it to my will, but I suspect doing that will be like trying to manipulate someone else's Firmament. Intuitive Analysis tells me that pits our relative Firmament strengths and willpowers directly against one another, and losing that battle might shatter my Firmament base. I don't know what that means, but it sounds dangerous.

Temporal Fragment and Color Drain.

Ahkelios might succeed in distracting it. Other temporal clones are out of the question; the only echo I have here is the one that entered the Fracture in my fifth loop. It never got this far in. Color Drain might be useful, if I can sap its strength and speed out of it, but the primary thing that I want to drain is weight. I don't know what color that is yet, and I don't know if it's possible.

I could ask Ahkelios and see if he miraculously remembers.

An Inspiration might help. The Eye can help me combine any two skills, and with the Mirror I can pull out other temporal clones from different moments in my life; an Anger fragment, combined with my own efforts, would probably at least triple my effective strength. But that had only been enough to throw Mari off-balance, and Naru is stronger than her still...

No matter how I think about it, I just don't have enough raw power. I grit my teeth. I don't want to end the loop here not if I can survive. I want to get back to Mari, show her the stone and the skill shard; I want to check the Hotspot again and see if Naru has left.

There's too much to do this loop to lose it to a robot that came out of nowhere.

The robot's hand is halfway across the room now, closing in on me. Mental Acceleration continues to stretch out the seconds, buying me precious time. I race through my options, trying to find something that will help; maybe some combination of Inspirations and a new skill, like a Temporal Fragment combined with Crystallized Strength

There's an electric tingle of Firmament in the air, the exact same sensation that led to the first blast. This time, it's strong enough that I can feel it even through the stone.

And that puts something new on the table. If I can push it just a little bit off balance if I can just shove it into the upcoming Firmament blast, and disorient it enough that I can run, or kill it outright...

That's a better plan than anything else I've got. If I can't muster the strength myself, why not use my environment to do it for me?

Now I just need to time everything right.

I milk every second I can get from Mental Acceleration. I twist away just a fraction of a second before the robot-thing's hand brushes over my shirt, elongated fingers leaving a heavy crackle of Firmament that lashes against mine. Triplestep takes me to the farthest corner of the room I can manage.

"You are fighting," the robot thing says. It's a statement, not a question, and it sounds puzzled, as if it doesn't understand why. "Please do not resist."

"Not really an option for me," I say dryly. "Maybe you stop trying to capture me instead?"

"My directives do not allow me to." Its answer is simple, though strangely worded but before I can think on it, it twists its way into the room, contorting its body to fit through the doorway. The rock crumbles and cracks as the robot forces itself through, and the golem still off in its corner makes a distressed sort of grumble as the stacked rocks teeter and fall apart.

I don't have the attention to spare for it. Firmament crackles across the metallic plates, like it's preparing for an attack, and it's pure instinct that makes me call up a Crystallized Barrier

A blazing shield of crystalline Firmament forms in front of me, and only just in time. Electricity blasts into it, yellow energy skating off each facet of the barrier and scorching into the walls and floor. The barrier cracks, but somehow holds.

My only advantage here, I realize, is that this thing doesn't want to kill me. It wants to capture me, and so there's a limit to the amount of force it can safely use. But I have to play this safe if I threaten to kill myself, it might decide to leave a message for its next iteration to hunt me down, and I cannot threaten the fundamental safety of my loops. It'll mean I have to spend every second running, every second trying to avoid capture.

Of course, it might have left that message already. If it has, I can't do anything about it, so I don't bother considering that. I'll deal with it if it comes down to it.

"Another anomaly." It actually pauses, analyzing my shield, and I let it. Firmament is still building in the background. Every second that it wastes is precious to me.

"What's so anomalous about me?" I ask. I don't really care about the answer, but strangely, the robot-thing actually pauses, as if to think about its response.

I use the time to prepare.

I need to use the Mirror Inspiration here. I'd stack it if I could, but my Firmament is weak, and I don't want to exhaust it completely. I still need my Barriers to protect myself from the blast.

Crystallized Strength.

The skill resists me when I try to use the Mirror on it. It flows from me, but there's a gap where I would otherwise be able to apply the Inspiration like something about it is incompatible. I grit my teeth, fighting it, trying to force the two together. Firmament Inspiration, Strength skill.

For a moment, it almost seems to work. I feel the Inspiration brush against the Firmament of the skill, and it flickers into a dull red

but just as soon as I manage it, it forces itself apart again, and settles into my muscles. The crackle of Crystallized Strength fills me instead. I'm disappointed, but this isn't a failure.

Not yet.

"Anomaly: Firmament. Firmament instability exceeds expected standard deviation within species and stress markers. Further analysis required," it tells me, and then it repeats itself. "You are fighting. Please do not resist."

Firmament is still building in the background. It's stronger than it was before, now, but Intuitive Analysis tells me it's still a few seconds before the blast actually takes place.

It whips the chain it carries towards me. The end of the chain uncoils itself like a living thing, moving to wrap around me, presumably to capture me; I wonder if that's the purpose of the thing. Mental Acceleration has a hard time keeping up with it, but it just barely manages, and I Triplestep, ducking low to avoid the chain

except it curves to follow me, moving faster than I can

Color Drain.

I'm lucky that there's a crackle of yellow Firmament running down the length of the chain. I drain the speed out of it, the Firmament pooling into a useless puddle of yellow on the floor, and it slows it down just enough that the chain cracks against my ribs instead of wrapping around me.

It still hurts. I'm pretty sure it breaks a rib.

But I'm alive.

I see the robot-thing gathering Firmament to use a skill. I feel the Firmament in the background gathering even more, Intuitive Analysis telling me that the Fracture is just a second away from bursting with Firmament, even more powerful than before.

Now or never.

Color Drain. Color Drain. Color Drain.

There isn't much color I can actually drain out of it. I target every color I can red, because I know it represents strength, even though there's barely a hint of red on it; yellow, from the crackle of the Firmament beneath its plates; purple, because that's the color of its core. All three of those colors ooze onto the ground, and it reacts, but it reacts slower.

Crystallized Strength still flows through me. I Triplestep and Firestep forward, feeling flames light the ground beneath my feet; a Crystallized Barrier forms around my fist so I don't break it on the plated metal. I see it move to react, metallic plates actually shifting on its body to block the impact of my blow.

Mirror. Temporal Fragment.

A blazing red copy of me bursts forward in the same moment my punch lands. The temporal clone slams an empowered fist directly into the same spot onto the robot's stomach, Firmament overlapping briefly with my own.

Too late, I realize the chain it holds is still slack, the end of it lying on the floor behind me. Too late, I realize that as the force of my punch forces it backwards through the doorway, it's retaliating.

The chain whips towards the back of my head, even as I turn around to meet it. I don't know if he's trying to kill me in revenge or reacting out of instinct, or just trying to disable me. I do know that I don't have the time or the speed to react. Mental Acceleration gives me the time to notice it, but even though I'm trying to call up a Barrier of some sort, I'm tugging on a nearly empty pool of Firmament. A half-formed Barrier materializes and is instantly shattered again.

I can't stop it.

But the chain never hits.

There's a crunch of metal-on-rock, and I hear the sound of stone shattering; I glance behind me, only to see that the golem that was in this room has somehow stepped in front of the chain, and lost an entire arm for it. It doesn't seem to care it glares past me at the robot, which is still tipping over backwards.

And then the Firmament blast explodes outwards across the Fracture. I try to call up a Crystallized Barrier, but it fails, too.

The last thing I'm aware of is a shadow in front of me. Then the sheer energy of the blast whips away my consciousness.