Fate Weaver's Legacy [LitRPG with stream chat]

I retched for the millionth time in the past few hours, and for once, I didn't immediately run out of the alleyway to plot another angle of attack.

Instead, I kept kneeling there above my vomit and tilted my head just enough to see the red door still chilling in the alleyway.

I just… I…

I didn't want to die again.

I've had enough.

A flutter of wings above me triggered an immediate Pavlovian response in me and all muscles in my body tensed.

"Ah… I guess I went a bit too hard last time…?"

I was done. I was so done. How many times had I died to him already? Had to be dozen of times at least. To think I'd thought only an insane person would willingly keep dying over and over for this shitty Limit Break…

"...Nana? Are you giving up…?"

Should I give up? I knew the concept of sunk cost fallacy, but I still just didn't want to throw it all away… Though part of me wanted nothing more than to enter that enticing red door.

Instead of giving in to the temptation, I sat down against the half-wrecked wall and closed my eyes while idly cleaning my mouth with hydrokinesis again.

"You met the future me," I said as an odd thought wiggled its way into my mind.

"That's right…?"

"A future me, who… probably went into one of those… rifts."

He hummed, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

"But… these rifts are locked until I pass the Limit Break."

Another hum.

"Meaning… that… in order to preserve the timeline, it's inevitable that I clear this. It's literally impossible that I fail," I declared as I opened my eyes and calmly looked up at my foe.

He gave me a sad smile.

"Ah… The Fate Weaver had told me that you might come to this conclusion." My mouth twitched at the mention of that fucker. "But no, actually. The timeline… will self-correct itself if you fail this… is what people say, but really, I think the Fate Weaver will just shuffle things around to preserve the timeline. Don't know the details personally, obviously."

I stared at him.

"But in short: no. You aren't guaranteed to pass this Limit Break just because I know the future you."

I closed my eyes again and let out a shuddering sigh.

I wasn't sure what to feel about that.

On one hand: Yay! I still had free will!

On the other hand… no plot armor for me. Not that I'd expected any, but still.

"...You're tier three, aren't you? Or higher." I asked with lidded eyes, which prompted him to raise his eyebrows. "I had a lot of time to think about it. There's no way you're tier two with how strong you are and… It's why you have so many racial skills, isn't it? Maybe you… you fought me in your Limit Break and you got my racial skill as a reward."

Which gave me a headache just trying to think of a coherent timeline where both of us met each other's past selves, but I couldn't discount the possibility.

"Ah... yes. I was tier three when I'd died, you're right about that. Though, the Fate Weaver reverted all of my skills to tier two for this, so that you might have some kind of chance. And, well…" He shook his head. "No, my final trial in the first Limit Break wasn't you. It was a griffin." He wobbled his wings.

I twitched when to seeing his wings move, subconsciously anticipating an attack, but forced myself to stay calm.

Then my eyes narrowed as I took in what he'd just said.

In other words… Feathers of Narnia was a griffin racial skill and he'd gotten it from the Limit Break, right? And at some later point, he'd gotten mine as well through some unknown means. Presumably the second Limit Break? But then wouldn't he be tier four?

Anyway, following that train of logic, I was going to get one of his racial skills if I beat this stupid trial. Probably the demon one, Eversion.

"I see," I replied. "Is that not a spoiler?"

"Ah… Technically…?" He chuckled. "But the exact rewards of the first two Limit Breaks were fairly common knowledge in my time, so it's not like this is some forbidden information."

I hummed.

I refrained asking why the rewards from the third Limit Break weren't widely known, but I refrained.

"...So? Are you giving up?"

I grimaced.

"I… Why aren't you attacking me right now?" I asked despite myself.

He paused, tilted his head, narrowed his eyes… and then pointed at me.

I reacted instantly by rolling out of the way of the lightning strike. In the same movement, I whipped out my gun to fire off a water bullet, then dismissed it and slapped the ground where my roll ended to create a barrier of crystals.

Said barrier promptly exploded but it still gave me enough time to reorient myself and react just in time to duck under another bolt of black lightning.

By now, this song and dance had become a familiar routine. I hated to admit it, but this trial alone had improved my combat skills more than all the dungeons I'd beaten combined. Pain sure was a powerful motivator.

He lobbed a black fireball as me, I spat a ball of water to counter it. He flew down at me, arms covered in solid black fire ready to cut me to pieces. I shot three Rends, one straight at him and the other two in the directions I predicted he would dodge.

Instead of dodging, he instantly switched to white mode and he tanked the direct shot before continuing his charge. I responded by spitting a fireball at him while readying my axe self.

He charged right through the fire, black ice guarding his body. I slashed at him with my axe, but he easily dodged my bulky weapon and swung his makeshift weapons at me. I slowed down time just enough to dodge the first jab, while letting go of my axe. His second arm came swinging next and I caught his arm with my tentacle, stopping it in its tracks. At the same time, I took remote control of my axe and attempted to decapitate him while grabbing my Intra and strengthening my mental defenses in anticipation.

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Just in time for me to start feeling like the music needed to take a hike and the nebula folders were too dry.

I took direct control of my own Intra and forced the invading one out, dispelling the confusion.

Unfortunately, the momentary distraction had still been enough for my foe to sever my poor tentacle and back away before my axe could hit him.

I glowered at him.

He smiled.

"You're getting better at this."

"Thanks," I bit out.

"But it's still not enough."

"No shit."

No matter what I'd done, no matter how clever I'd felt my plans and strategies were, it had always ended the same. This guy was stronger, more experienced, and more versatile than me.

Even after I'd begun pushing the boundaries of what my skills should be capable of, it still wasn't enough. Even after I'd begun combining various skills in ways I hadn't before, I still couldn't reach him.

How was I supposed to defeat someone who knew how my future self fought?

No matter what I brought to bear, he would always have the perfect counter to it. The only way to catch him by surprise would be… using something my future self wouldn't or couldn't use.

In a nearby still intact building, a gust of wind sent a stack of papers to the floor.

My hands slipped into my pockets and came out holding several of the tsunami grenades I'd gotten from the water park dungeon rerun.

"This again? How many do you even have?"

"...They come back every time you kill me." Just like getting healed and getting back my Ether and Intra, all consumables I would use during these fights would magically reappear in my pockets on respawn.

"Ah... makes sense."

I tossed grenades at my feet and immediately used my hydrokinesis to direct the sudden flood to gently envelop me while snaking toward my foe. Then I Aquaported and followed up by jabbing my hand at him, Soul Strike combined with Armor Break permeating my fingers.

Moments before my hit landed, a layer of black ice sprung into existence, blocking it. A split second later, I felt a presence appear behind me in the quickly vanishing water.

I smashed the grenades in my other hand against the ground to produce more water and immediately Aquaported behind him right before he slashed through the space I'd stood in. I followed that up feigning horizontally at slashing him with my axe and as soon as he teleported behind me again, I kept the momentum going, spun around, and continued the slash behind me as well.

He dodged that too, unfortunately.

I glared at him as the water receded again, while idly preparing for the coup de grace.

A single sheet of paper slipped from a table somewhere. Before hitting the ground, the paper split in two. The cut was uneven.

My foe shifted and I strengthened my mental defenses moments before the rainbow bird left a corkscrew unattended–

I used Self-destruct to push away the demon and his crackling black ice on his arm. I grit my teeth at the burning pain of my own attack but didn't falter. Once the fire cleared enough for me to see, a glacier of black ice surrounded me on all sides.

Shit.

Without even looking, I got out my gun self, aimed it upwards, and spewed black fire above me. As my black fire collided with his, I spewed water in front of myself, grabbed it with hydrokinesis, and formed a loose bubble around me. I then combined my hydrokinesis with my boosted underwater mobility and my enhanced jump, and leaped out of my prison. Unfortunately the black fire that flooded the area still managed to clip my foot.

I grit my teeth as I landed and glared at my opponent flying in the air – in his black form now – aiming his finger at me. A jerk of my head to the side dodged his lightning.

I imitated his motion, shoving my index and middle finger in his direction, and drew on the ability of one of the items I'd fused into my axe self.

A bolt of lightning shot out and hit him square in his chest. It barely affected him.

I brandished my gun self and fired off several heat-seeking rockets at him. Already used to this song and dance, he lobbed a ball of black fired at me and dropped down to the ground and began sidestepping the rockets raining down on him.

I dodged out of the way and reoriented myself just as he finished his graceful dance among the explosions and turned back to me.

There was a moment of silence.

"Not attacking anymore?"

"I'm thinking."

"Hmm. You'll need to get close, you know?"

"I know."

For reasons I didn't want to think about, trying to use Soul Strike at range was a capital B Bad idea. I had only tried it once, cobbling it together with Rend and shooting it out of my gun self, but the excrutiating pain I'd felt somehow exceeded every gruesome death I'd experienced in this trial so far combined.

Messing with my own soul could be painful, who would have thought?

Point being, I needed to get close to him to properly use Soul Strike.

A single sheet of paper flew out from the middle of a paper stack, bounced around between currents of air, and then split into two perfectly even parts.

Okay.

Good enough.

…Or, I fucking hoped it would be good enough.

I clenched my fists, he tensed, and the fight was back on.

I spat fireball at him. He began preparing a layer of black ice on his body to block it, but instead of letting my own attack land, I whipped out my gun self and shot water into it, causing an explosion of steam.

Then I kept the steam from dissipating using his own air skill. I intentionally hadn't used this skill much against him in the last few lives, hoping he would think I'd forgotten about it. It would be the key to my victory.

I dashed into the scalding steam, ducking low to preempt any counter attacks. But by the time my Abyssal Domain range reached him, he still stood there motionlessly, perhaps waiting for me to come close.

Smug bastard.

I grit my teeth and used Aquaport, because steam was just gaseous water.

I stumbled when I reappeared behind him due to the unconventional use but managed to hold keep myself from faceplanting completely. Just long enough to jab at him with my hand covered in black fire.

As expected, he somehow felt me coming and spun out of the way of my strike, barely avoiding it.

Then I moved the air near his foot, knocking it out from under him.

He yelped but somehow didn't fall. Further nudging his foot with air revealed that it was firmly fixed to the ground.

Didn't matter. It distracted him long enough for me to follow up on my jab. I used the momentum from it to bend down, push against the ground with my hands, and swing my foot at him.

My Soul Strike-empowered foot landed on his chest and he let out a gasp.

Finally.

But I knew it wasn't over yet. I needed to capitalize on the first real hit I'd gotten off on him since Skill Snatch.

My axe self appeared in mid air before I even righted myself and immediately slashed down at my foe, intending to crack his skull.

He moved, making my attack sever his arm instead.

His scream of pain only invigorated me to keep my assault up. I fired off Rend empowered by Mind Breaker and Armor Break and dashed forward.

He seemed to have unstuck his foot to dodge my mental attack, but that only meant that I could now shove him back into it with my stolen air skill.

The mental attack when in his black form proved to be too much and he finally toppled to the ground, allowing me to tackle him like a hungry jackal, pin his arms and legs to the ground with crystals, and then rear back in preparation for punching his soul out of his body.

Before I could do that though, my vision blacked out and my world turned into pain.

I screamed but still forced myself to slam down with my fist.

Straight into a layer of black ice.

Motherfucker.

I felt my skin melting in the wave of black fire but I couldn't falter. Not now. Not when I could smell victory.

I used my own black fire to coat my body, hoping it would protect me from his assault, held my hands together, and then smashed them into the demon's face.

I could feel his soul jostle, but it held firmer than Echo's fragile soul.

I raised my hands again.

Then I found myself covered in black ice, unable to move.

I snarled and remembered getting sapphired in the crater dungeon. With a flex of my will I wrenched his control of the ice and turned it into pure Ether in my left hand using Fusion. With my free hand, I punched his jaw.

His soul bruised and several of the strands holding it together snapped but it still wasn't over yet.

Through the disappearing steam that I'd stopped keeping in place to focus on my assault, I saw his colors change in a way he they hadn't before. His entire body began flowing between white and black. It reminded me of a puddle of petrol but monochrome and constantly shifting.

Before I could understand what jived with my hairdo, an alpha tree watered the moon's gesticulation–

I forced the invading Intra out of my body and instinctivelly bent my body to the side moments before a surge of black lightning roared and took off my right arm.

The pain nearly made me falter, but I pushed through.

I didn't have a free arm anymore, so I gripped the still-unused ball of Ether, and shoved it inside my foe, fusing it with him.

His body jerked as he glowed for a brief moment. But before I could finish the Fusion, he forced it out of himself, causing our surroundings to be filled with black ice again.

It hadn't covered me, however, and I was free to wind up my punch again and slam it into his face.

Finally, finally, the last threads holding his soul together snapped and his soul shattered.

The last thing I saw before passing out from all the pain was the demon giving me a proud smile.