After second breakfast, we had two hours before the next mandatory class. Sarah wanted to explore the campus. Luna disappeared to "check on temporal anomalies," whatever that meant.
I needed to be alone.
Not to brood—though Selene would probably say otherwise—but to think. To plan. To process everything that was already different about Loop 128.
I found myself walking toward the Eastern Archives, a building most students avoided. It housed the academy's historical records, old battle reports, and the kind of dusty tomes that made people sneeze just looking at them.
Perfect.
The archivist—an elderly woman named Matilda who'd been here in every single loop—barely glanced up as I entered.
"Second floor, restricted section," she said without prompting.
I blinked. "How did you—"
"You've got that look. The look of someone who wants to know things they shouldn't." She went back to her cataloging. "Don't damage anything. And if you die from forbidden knowledge, clean up your corpse before you go. I'm too old to be scrubbing bloodstains."
"Has that happened before?"
"Twice last year. Very inconsiderate."
I climbed the stairs to the restricted section, past wards that should have stopped me but didn't—127 loops of magical experience had taught me how to slip past basic security.
The restricted section held the real history. The parts they didn't teach in classes.
I pulled out several volumes, spreading them across a table:
**"The Demonic Incursions: A Complete History"**
**"Mana Theory and Practical Applications, Volume XII"**
**"The Economic Structure of the Aethermoor Empire"**
**"The Ruined Cities of the Eastern Wastes"**
Time for a refresher course. Even after 127 loops, it helped to review the fundamentals.
---
**THE DEMON WARS**
The first volume opened with a map I'd memorized decades ago across multiple timelines.
The world was called Aethermoor—named after the Empire that controlled most of the known continents. But "controlled" was a generous term.
The Empire proper consisted of three continents:
**Valtera** - The central continent where Valenhall sat. Civilized, industrialized, the beating heart of human civilization. Population: roughly 50 million. Ruled by the Royal Family for 800 years.
**Nordholm** - The northern continent. Colder, harsher, filled with mining cities and industrial complexes. Famous for their weapons and their stubborn refusal to bow completely to the Empire. Population: 23 million.
**Solvaris** - The southern continent. Tropical, agricultural, home to the Merchant Guilds that controlled most trade. Population: 31 million.
Beyond these civilized lands lay the danger zones:
**The Eastern Wastes** - A massive territory of ruined cities, corrupted forests, and demon-infested territories. Once home to the Kingdom of Ashmar, before the First Demon War destroyed it 400 years ago.
**The Forsaken Isles** - A chain of volcanic islands where reality was thin and demons could cross over more easily. No permanent human settlements. Only military outposts and suicidal explorers.
**The Void Sea** - An ocean to the far west where the water itself was corrupted by demonic energy. Ships that sailed too far out never returned.
The book detailed the four major Demon Wars:
**First War (400 years ago)** - The Kingdom of Ashmar fell. Population: 15 million. Survivors: roughly 100,000. The demons had poured through a rift opened by a mad king trying to achieve immortality. It took fifty years to close the rift. The Eastern Wastes were the result.
**Second War (267 years ago)** - Demons attacked Nordholm, trying to establish a permanent foothold. Casualties: 3 million. The war lasted twelve years. The Empire nearly bankrupted itself funding the defense.
**Third War (134 years ago)** - Multiple simultaneous attacks across all three continents. This was when the Celestial Academy was founded—to train the next generation of fighters before the demons could attack again. Casualties: 7 million. War duration: eight years.
**Fourth War (19 years ago)** - The most recent war. Demon Lord Azkaros appeared for the first time, leading a coordinated assault that nearly broke the Empire. Casualties: 2 million. War duration: three years. Ended when Hero Marcus Vale—my future self from Loop 96—defeated Azkaros in single combat.
Or so the official records claimed.
The truth was more complicated.
In Loop 96, I'd killed Azkaros. But I'd died doing it. The Empire had spun it as a heroic sacrifice, built monuments, created a legend.
They conveniently left out that Azkaros was already planning to return. That his death was temporary. That defeating a Demon Lord didn't actually kill them—just sent them back to their home dimension to regenerate.
The book estimated Azkaros would return in approximately twelve years from the end of the Fourth War.
Which would be 12 years from now, in the normal timeline.
But Luna had said he was ahead of schedule. Building his army early. Planning something bigger.
Which meant instead of 12 years, I had maybe seven
Maybe less.
"Fuck," I muttered, closing the book.
---
**MANA AND POWER SYSTEMS**
The second volume was more technical.
Mana was the fundamental energy of the universe. It existed everywhere—in the air, the earth, living creatures, even in objects if you looked hard enough.
Every living being had a mana core located at their solar plexus. This core was like a battery—it stored mana, processed it, and allowed the user to manipulate it into spells, physical enhancement, or various techniques.
**The Power Hierarchy:**
**Mortal Tier (F-Rank through D-Rank)**
- **F-Rank**: Barely any mana. Average civilian. Mana core the size of a pebble. Could maybe light a candle with concentration.
- **E-Rank**: Basic training. Soldiers, lower-level mages. Core the size of a walnut. Could cast simple spells, enhance strength slightly.
- **D-Rank**: Competent fighters. Academy graduates typically reached this level. Core the size of a fist. Could cast multiple spells in combat, fight enhanced creatures.
**Adept Tier (C-Rank through B-Rank)**
- **C-Rank**: Professional level. Military officers, established adventurers. Core the size of a grapefruit. Could fight demons of lower circles, handle serious threats.
- **B-Rank**: Elite level. Senior professors, high-ranking military. Core the size of a coconut. Could take on multiple C-ranks simultaneously.
**Master Tier (A-Rank through S-Rank)**
- **A-Rank**: National-level fighters. The headmaster was A-rank. Royal guards. Core the size of a basketball. Could level buildings, fight demon generals.
- **S-Rank**: Continental-level threats. Maybe fifty people alive at this level. Hero Marcus from Loop 96 was S-rank when he died. Core the size of a beach ball. Could fight Demon Lords, destroy cities.
**Transcendent Tier (SS-Rank and beyond)**
- **SS-Rank**: Theoretical. Only three confirmed in recorded history. Dragons, ancient demons, mythical heroes. Core the size of their entire torso. Could reshape reality, destroy nations.
- **Divine Tier**: Gods, Demon Emperors, entities beyond mortal comprehension. No confirmed living examples. Core merged with entire body and soul.
The book went into extensive detail about cultivation methods, but I skimmed it. I'd mastered most of these techniques across multiple loops.
My current body was sixteen years old. Physically, I should be E-rank, maybe D-rank if I trained hard.
But my mana core was different.
127 deaths. 127 regressions. Each one had compressed my core, added layers, created something that shouldn't exist.
If I released all my seals, I was easily SS-rank. Maybe higher.
But using that power in this young body would destroy me. The pain was excruciating. My teenage muscles and bones couldn't handle the strain.
That's why I'd created the knights—Mordain, Selene, and Azrael. They were external manifestations of my power. By storing portions of my strength in them, I kept myself from literally exploding from excess energy.
Even so, I had to be careful. One seal released made me roughly A-rank. Two seals: S-rank. Three seals: SS-rank and my body started breaking down.
And that was without summoning the knights themselves, each of whom was S-rank independently.
"How are you not insane?" I'd once asked myself in Loop 103.
"Who says I'm not?" I'd answered.
Good point, past me.
---
**THE ECONOMY**
The third volume was surprisingly interesting.
The Empire ran on a gold-based currency system:
**1 Copper Coin** = Basic unit. A loaf of bread cost 2 copper.
**100 Copper = 1 Silver Coin**. A decent meal cost 5-10 silver.
**100 Silver = 1 Gold Coin**. A month's rent in the Middle District cost 2-3 gold.
**1000 Gold = 1 Platinum Coin**. Rare. Usually only used for large transactions.
My mother made about 30 silver per day at the factory—on a good day. That was 9 gold per month, working six days a week, twelve-hour shifts.
Our rent was 2 gold. Food was another 3 gold. Utilities, clothes, medicine—it added up fast.
That academy scholarship that gave me 500 gold per month? That was more than my mother made in three years.
It was an obscene amount of money.
The average academy student came from families making 50-100 gold per month. Noble families made thousands. The Royal Family's annual budget was measured in millions.
And that fifty thousand gold that someone had paid Damien to kill me? That was enough to buy a mansion in the Upper District. Or fund a small military campaign.
Someone with serious money wanted me dead.
The question was: who?
And more importantly: why now? What was different about Loop 128 that made me a target before classes even started?
---
**THE RUINED CITIES**
The final volume was the darkest.
It contained maps and descriptions of the Eastern Wastes—the territory where demons still roamed freely.
Forty-seven ruined cities. Once home to millions. Now graveyards.
**Ashmar City** - The former capital. Population before: 2 million. Current population: zero. Status: Demon Lord's territory. Do not enter under any circumstances.
**Velkris** - A mining city. Population before: 500,000. Current population: approximately 3,000 demons of various circles. Adventurers occasionally raided for resources. Mortality rate: 73%.
**Thornhaven** - A merchant hub. Population before: 800,000. Current population: unknown. Strange reports. Survivors claim the city is "alive." Investigation teams never returned.
The book went on. City after city. Each one a monument to the First War's devastation.
But demons didn't just stay in the ruined cities.
They lived in the Corrupted Forests—territories where demonic energy had warped nature itself. Trees that moved. Rivers that flowed with black water. Creatures that had once been normal animals, twisted into monsters.
The Empire maintained a border force—the Demon Watch—to keep them contained. But containment was expensive. And the demons were patient.
Every few decades, they tested the borders. Probed for weaknesses. Waited for their lords to regain enough power to launch another invasion.
Azkaros's last attack—the one where Hero Marcus had died—had been nineteen years ago.
Which meant he'd had nineteen years to regenerate, plan, and prepare.
And now he was moving early.
Why?
What had changed?
I closed the final book, leaning back in my chair.
The pieces were all there. I just couldn't see the pattern yet.
"You look troubled," a voice said.
I didn't jump—I'd sensed her approach minutes ago.
Raven stood in the doorway, holding a book of her own. "Restricted section. My favorite place in the academy."
"How did you get past the wards?"
"I'm a curse specialist. Wards are basically just really aggressive suggestions." She sat across from me, setting down her book. "Researching demon history?"
"Refreshing my memory."
"Right. Because you've lived through it 127 times." She leaned forward, her dark eyes intense. "Can I ask you something?"
"You're going to anyway."
"When you killed Azkaros in Loop 96, how did you do it?"
I stiffened. "How do you know about that?"
"The memorial hall remembers. And I've been cross-referencing historical records with temporal anomalies. The Hero Marcus who died nineteen years ago? That was you. From a future loop that somehow left a scar on the past."
"That's not possible."
"And yet, it happened." She opened her book—filled with notes and diagrams. "You're not just regressing anymore, Marcus. You're creating paradoxes. Echoes. Your actions in future loops are bleeding backward into past timelines."
"That doesn't make sense."
"It does if you're fragmenting causality every time you die and regress. Each loop adds another layer of temporal scar tissue. Eventually, the scars become permanent. History remembers things that haven't happened yet."
My head hurt. "Can you say that in non-temporal-mechanics terms?"
"You're breaking time so badly that the past and future are starting to blur together. And if you keep dying and regressing, eventually the entire timeline will collapse into paradox soup."
"That's only slightly more helpful."
"The point is," she continued, "you need to figure out how to break your regression curse before you accidentally destroy all of reality. No pressure."
"Great. Add it to the list of apocalypses I need to prevent."
She smiled, dark and knowing. "You joke, but I'm serious. The demon lord, the attacks, the wars—those are symptoms. The real problem is you. You're the anomaly. The glitch in reality. Fix yourself, and maybe the world fixes itself too."
"And if I can't fix myself?"
"Then we all cease to exist when causality finally gives up and collapses. But hey, at least you won't have to regress anymore. Silver lining."
I stared at her. "You have a very dark sense of humor."
"I'm a curse specialist who studies death magic. What did you expect? Sunshine and rainbows?"
Despite everything, I laughed. Actually laughed.
"You're insane."
"Says the boy who split his soul into three knights and died 127 times."
"Fair point."
She stood, gathering her book. "Think about what I said. The answer to breaking your curse is probably in your past—or your future, depending on how you look at temporal mechanics. Either way, you need to figure it out before Loop 150. That's my estimate for when reality starts seriously fracturing."
"Loop 150. That's 22 loops away."
"22 lives. 22 deaths. Roughly 264 years of subjective time if you live to the usual endpoint." She paused at the door. "How much more can you take, Marcus? How many more times can you die before there's nothing left of who you were?"
She left before I could answer.
I sat there in the archives, surrounded by books about dead civilizations and theoretical magic, and wondered if she was right.
How many times could I die before I stopped being human?
How many loops before Marcus Vale was just a collection of trauma and reflexes wearing a person's face?
"You're catastrophizing again," Selene murmured.
"I'm being realistic."
"You're spiraling. There's a difference."
"Is there?"
"Yes. Realistic is acknowledging danger and making plans. Spiraling is assuming you're doomed no matter what."
"Maybe I am doomed."
"Then why keep fighting?" Mordain asked. "If you truly believe it's hopeless, why not just let the next death be permanent?"
"Because..." I stopped.
Why did I keep fighting?
For the people I'd lost? They were gone. Nothing would bring them back.
For the people I could save? They'd just die in the next loop anyway.
For myself? What self was left to save after 127 deaths?
"Because you promised," Azrael said quietly. "Elara made you promise to keep living. Aria made you promise to find happiness. You keep fighting because you're too stubborn to break a promise, even to people who don't exist in this timeline."
He was right.
Damn him, he was right.
I stood, gathering the books to return them to their shelves.
Loop 128 was different. Luna was new. Raven could see the temporal damage. The demon lord was ahead of schedule.
Maybe this time, I could actually find answers instead of just delaying the inevitable.
Maybe this time, I could break the curse.
I left the archives as the bells tolled noon, heading toward my next class.
Behind me, in the restricted section, the books on demon wars and ruined cities gathered dust, waiting for the next student to learn about horrors that most people preferred to forget.
Waiting for history to repeat itself.