The main courtyard was chaos.
Students scattered like startled birds. Professors emerged from buildings, some preparing defensive magic, others frozen in shock. The air shimmered with heat as Solaris hovered fifty feet above the ground, his form barely humanoid—more concept than flesh, pure flame given shape and terrible purpose.
"MARCUS VALE. THIRTY SECONDS."
I walked into the center of the courtyard, looking up at the burning figure. Around me, people backed away, creating a circle of fearful distance.
"I'm here," I called out. "No need to threaten innocents. Your problem is with me."
"FINALLY. THE HERETIC SHOWS HIMSELF."
"I prefer 'truth-teller.' It has a nicer ring to it."
The flames intensified. "YOU DESECRATED MY SACRED GROUND. INSULTED MY DIVINITY. CLAIMED I AM FALSE BEFORE WITNESSES."
"I claimed you're a conman. There's a subtle difference."
"BLASPHEMY."
"Accuracy." I released the first seal. Power flooded through me—127 loops of accumulated strength, purple-black energy crackling around my body. "But if you want to discuss my claims, let's do it properly. Not with you hovering up there like a coward, threatening children. Face me. Actually face me."
The temperature spiked. Students cried out, some collapsing from heat exhaustion. Professors erected barriers, protecting the crowd.
"YOU DARE CALL A GOD A COWARD?"
"I dare call a fraud a fraud." I bent my knees slightly, gathering power. "And I dare do this."
I launched myself upward.
Not jumping. Flying.
True flight was SS-rank ability. Most people never achieved it—the mana control required was immense, the concentration absolute. You had to manipulate air and gravity simultaneously while maintaining enough power to propel yourself and defend against attacks.
I'd learned it in Loop 56. Perfected it in Loop 78. Used it in Loop 96 to reach Azkaros when he'd taken to the sky.
The crowd gasped as I rose, purple-black energy trailing behind me like wings. I stopped twenty feet from Solaris, hovering in mid-air, meeting his burning gaze.
"Better?" I asked. "Or do you need to go higher to feel superior?"
"IMPOSSIBLE. FLIGHT IS—"
"Reserved for gods and SS-rank beings, yes. Funny how a 'mere student' can do it." I smiled without humor. "It's almost like your claims of divinity aren't as exclusive as you pretend."
Solaris's form rippled with rage. "WHO ARE YOU?"
"Someone who's seen your truth, Solaris. Someone who knows what you really are." I began ascending slowly, forcing him to follow or lose the confrontation. "Someone who's been to your other churches. In Nordholm. In Solvaris. In the Eastern Territories where you think no one pays attention."
"WHAT ARE YOU—"
"The experiments," I said, rising higher. We were above the academy now, high enough that people below looked like ants. "The 'faithful' who volunteered for your blessing and were never seen again. The ones you used to test dangerous magical procedures. Fire-aspected rituals that burned people from the inside out. All in the name of 'divine research.'"
"LIES."
"The Church of Flame's Hidden in Nordholm. Basement level three. Seventeen bodies in preservation jars, marked as 'failed ascensions.'" I kept rising, pulling him further from witnesses. "The Solarian Temple in Solvaris. Records room, locked archives. Documents detailing how much gold you collected from followers—thirty million last year—and how little actually went to charity. Most of it? Funding your personal cultivation. Your quest for true godhood."
"SLANDER."
"Documentation. There's a difference." We were in the clouds now, the academy a distant shape below. Perfect. "You're not divine, Solaris. You're a conman who reached SS-rank and decided worship was easier than actual work. You take money from people who can't afford it. You promise miracles you can't deliver. You experiment on the faithful and dispose of the failures."
His flames burned white-hot with fury. "AND YOU THINK EXPOSING THIS WILL CHANGE ANYTHING? THE PEOPLE NEED GODS. THEY NEED SOMETHING TO BELIEVE IN."
"They need truth. Not comfortable lies."
"TRUTH IS TERRIFYING. TRUTH IS THAT THE WORLD IS RANDOM AND CRUEL AND NO ONE IS COMING TO SAVE THEM. I GIVE THEM HOPE. PURPOSE. STRUCTURE." The fire intensified. "YOU WOULD TAKE THAT AWAY? FOR WHAT? YOUR PETTY DESIRE FOR ACCURACY?"
"For the people you've killed. For the families you've bankrupted. For the trust you've exploited." I released the second seal. More power, more strain on my teenage body, but necessary. "And because in seven years, Azkaros is coming back. And when he does, you'll run. Like you did last time. Like all the gods did. Leaving millions to die while you preserved yourself."
"YOU KNOW NOTHING OF—"
"I know everything. I watched you abandon your followers in Loop 96. Watched you flee to the Eastern Wastes while your priests died defending temples you'd already evacuated. Watched you come back after the war ended, pretending you'd been 'gathering divine power' when really you'd been hiding like a coward."
His form became less stable, flames flickering with fury and something else—fear?
"WHO ARE YOU?" he demanded again. "NO STUDENT SHOULD KNOW THESE THINGS. NO CHILD SHOULD HAVE THIS POWER."
"I'm someone who's died 127 times and stopped caring about secrets. Someone who's tired of watching frauds play god while real people suffer." I summoned my twin swords. "And someone who's killed three of your kind across different timelines."
The air went still.
"You're the Hero," Solaris breathed. "From the memorial. But that's impossible. He died nineteen years ago. You're sixteen."
"Time is complicated. Death is temporary. Gods are frauds. Welcome to my world—it only gets weirder."
"THEN I'LL KILL YOU. PROPERLY THIS TIME."
He attacked.
Not fire. Pure solar energy—compressed starlight that could vaporize mountains. He'd been holding back before, playing with me.
Now he was serious.
I dodged, barely. The energy blast tore through clouds, super-heating air until it screamed. My swords came up, blocking the follow-up strike. The impact rattled my bones.
We fought in the sky, fire and death energy clashing, creating explosions that painted the clouds in orange and purple. He was stronger than me—SS-rank for decades, fully cultivated, no teenager limitations.
But I had experience.
127 loops of combat knowledge. Every trick, every exploit, every weakness of fire-based fighters.
I feinted left, struck right, catching him off-guard. My sword carved through his flame-body, and for a moment, I saw what was underneath—not a god, not divine light, just a man. Scared and angry and desperate to maintain his illusion.
"You're bleeding," I observed. "Gods don't bleed."
"SILENCE."
He unleashed everything—a solar flare that would have leveled the academy if we weren't miles above it. I had to release the third seal just to survive.
My body screamed. Too much power, too young, pushing limits that would take years to safely achieve. Blood ran from my nose, my ears. Bones cracked under the strain.
But I was still flying. Still fighting. Still proving that gods could be challenged.
The fight raged for what felt like hours but was probably minutes. We traded blows, neither able to land a killing strike. Evenly matched, or close enough.
Then I made my move.
Not attacking harder. Attacking smarter.
I drove him upward, higher and higher, where the air thinned and flight became exponentially harder. Where even SS-rank beings had to spend more energy maintaining altitude.
And when he was focused on staying airborne, on maintaining his divine aspect, on trying to kill me—
I called my knights.
Mordain materialized behind Solaris, seven feet of tactical precision. His greatsword came down, not to kill, but to disable. The blade caught Solaris's right arm, disrupting his energy control.
Selene appeared on the left, daggers finding weak points in his flame-body. Not lethal, but painful. Disorienting.
Azrael rose from below, hands crackling with destructive power. He didn't attack—just created a field of null-energy that dampened Solaris's flames.
Three sides. Three knights. Three fragments of my accumulated power, each one individually S-rank, working in perfect coordination.
Solaris's divine aspect flickered. Destabilized. The flames dimmed, revealing more of the man underneath.
"Surrender," I said, hovering in front of him while my knights maintained position. "Or we continue this and one of us dies. Probably you."
"YOU WOULD KILL A GOD?"
"I've done it three times. What's a fourth?" I met his eyes—now visible through the weakened flames. "But I'm not here to kill you, Solaris. I'm here to make you an offer."
"WHAT OFFER?"
"Azkaros is coming. In seven years. And when he comes, he'll kill every god he can find. You know this. You remember nineteen years ago when he tore through the divine ranks like they were paper."
"HE WAS STOPPED—"
"By a human. Not by gods. By someone who died stopping him because none of you would step up." I gestured to my knights. "I'm gathering power. Building a force that can actually fight him. I'm offering you a choice: join us, or run when the time comes and die alone."
"YOU WANT ME TO SERVE YOU?"
"I want you to fight beside us. Not as a god. As what you really are—a powerful mage who's smart enough to see the threat coming." I lowered my swords slightly. "Keep your church. Keep your followers. Hell, keep pretending to be divine if it makes you feel better. But when Azkaros comes, you stand with us. You actually protect the people who've been funding your lifestyle for decades."
The flames flickered lower. I could see his face clearly now—middle-aged, scarred from old battles, tired from maintaining his divine aspect.
"And if I refuse?"
"Then my knights let you go, you fly back to your church, and we continue our respective preparations. But know this: when Azkaros comes, when he starts killing gods again, you'll be alone. And he'll remember that you ran last time. He won't make that mistake twice."
"You're offering alliance."
"I'm offering survival. There's a difference."
He looked at Mordain, then Selene, then Azrael. Three soul fragments surrounding him, ready to strike if ordered.
"They're bound to you completely," he observed. "Soul-slaves. Fragments of your power given form."
"They're me. Parts of myself I separated to maintain functionality. Not slaves—extensions."
"That's forbidden magic. Soul-splitting. It drives practitioners insane."
"I've died 127 times. Insanity is just my baseline state at this point."
Despite everything, he almost smiled. "You're either the bravest person I've met or the most suicidal."
"Can't it be both?"
He was quiet for a long moment, flames dimming to barely visible. Below us, miles down, the academy waited. Watching. Wondering what would happen when a student challenged a god.
"Seven years," Solaris said finally. "You're certain?"
"I've lived through it. Multiple times. Azkaros always comes. Always destroys. Always wins unless someone stops him." I met his eyes. "Last time, one person tried to stop him alone. It worked, barely. This time, I'm not making that mistake. I'm gathering everyone I can—students, mages, fraudulent gods who are smart enough to fight instead of run."
"And if we all fight together, we might win."
"We might survive. There's a difference."
He laughed—short and bitter. "You're pragmatic. I like that. Most heroes are idealistic fools."
"I'm not a hero. I'm a survivor with a deadline."
His flames extinguished completely. Now he was just a man, hovering through pure mana control, looking tired and very old despite the SS-rank power keeping him alive.
"I accept your alliance," he said. "With conditions."
"Which are?"
"You don't expose my... less savory activities. The experiments, the gold, all of it. My followers need to believe. If that belief shatters—"
"The Church loses funding and you lose power. I get it." I dismissed my knights. They faded back into my soul. "I won't expose you. But the experiments stop. The deaths stop. You find less lethal ways to test your theories."
"Agreed. And your condition?"
"When the time comes, you fight. Actually fight. No running. No hiding. No 'gathering divine power' bullshit. You stand on the front line with everyone else."
He extended his hand. "Deal."
I shook it. His grip was firm, callused from decades of combat before he'd achieved godhood.
"The others won't like this," he warned. "The other gods. When they learn I've allied with you—"
"Tell them the alternative is dying alone when Azkaros comes. That tends to focus priorities."
"You're assuming they'll believe you."
"I'm assuming they remember nineteen years ago and aren't stupid enough to ignore pattern data."
We descended slowly, the tension gone from the air. Below, the academy had gathered in the courtyard—hundreds of students and staff watching two figures falling from the sky.
"This is going to cause political complications," Solaris observed.
"My existence is a political complication. What's one more?"
We landed together—me on my feet, him in a dramatic burst of flame that was probably excessive but very on-brand.
The crowd backed away, creating space.
Headmaster Aldric stepped forward, face pale. "Lord Solaris, I apologize for any—"
"The academy is blameless," Solaris interrupted. "Mr. Vale and I have reached an... understanding. No punishment is necessary."
"But he challenged your divinity—"
"And I have chosen to interpret his challenge as theological debate rather than heresy. The Church of the Sacred Flame supports academic inquiry." He looked at me with an expression that said we'd both pay for this later. "In fact, I'm appointing Mr. Vale as a special consultant to the Church. His unique perspectives will be... valuable."
Translation: I'm keeping him close so he doesn't expose me, and he's keeping me close so I don't kill him later.
Politics. Even with gods.
"That's very gracious, my lord," Aldric managed.
"I am nothing if not gracious." Solaris turned to the assembled crowd. "Let this be a lesson to all students: faith and reason need not be enemies. Questions strengthen belief. Debate strengthens truth. And any god who fears questions is no god at all."
Nice save. Turning a potential PR disaster into a teaching moment.
He vanished in a pillar of flame, leaving me standing alone in the courtyard with hundreds of eyes staring.
"Well," I said to no one in particular. "That went better than expected."
"YOU FLEW," someone shouted from the crowd. "HOW DID YOU FLY?"
"YOU FOUGHT A GOD!"
"WERE THOSE... WERE THOSE SOUL FRAGMENTS?"
"Okay, everyone calm down," I said, backing toward the dormitories. "It's not that impressive. Lots of people can fly. And those weren't soul fragments, they were... advanced projections. Very normal. Happens all the time."
I was lying through my teeth, and everyone knew it.
"Mr. Vale," Aldric said, his voice cold. "My office. Now."
"Can it wait? I'm bleeding from several orifices and probably need medical attention."
"Now."
"Right. Office. Medical attention later. Got it."
The crowd parted as I walked toward the administrative building, leaving whispers and shocked stares in my wake.
Behind me, I felt Luna's presence—invisible to others but tangible to me.
"That was either brilliant or the stupidest thing you've ever done," she murmured.
"Can't it be both?"
"With you? Usually is."
I climbed the steps to face whatever consequences came from publicly challenging a god, making an alliance, and revealing way too much power in front of witnesses.
Loop 128 was twenty-four hours without Sarah, and I'd already started a religious incident.
New record.
Even for me