Test Summoning: Apocalypse

"Is this the best place to set up?" Lia asked as she peered around the courtyard in a quiet section of the slums. We had to move early to avoid curious bystanders wondering why we were moving a large hand cart with a weird device into a section of apartments used by drug addicts.

"It is. No one is around to see us," I said. I then pointed up toward the dead branches above. "Plus, we can see it coming from here. Most of the people in the wealthier districts can't see it. They'll feel its opening and won't know what's coming until the monsters start raining down from above."

Void was looking around the courtyard with a critical eye. "It's a good place to defend with only the one entry."

"It would have been easier if there was something to make a wall with," Tizek said as he looked around the barren courtyard.

"Nothing goes to waste out here," Lia replied. "We can use the cart after I get the MASER unloaded."

"It'll be something," I said. While the cart was sturdy, I doubted it would prove much an obstacle to more than the weakest of the monsters invading in a few minutes. After the MASER was set on the ground, Lia and Tizek got to work blocking the courtyard entrance. I spent the time until zero hour fussing over the device and aiming it at the right spot in the sky.

"It's almost time," I announced. I knew from the positions of the clouds when the portal was coming. I had only seen it thousands of times. When the cloud looking like a tap dancing octopus in a top hat appeared, the portal would open. It was a terrible joke the universe played on me, showing a happy image before imposing horror.

The others set up a guard around me, facing the entry to the courtyard. "One of you needs to watch the sky in case a monster falls in here." Tizek adjusted his position to look upward.

I watched the happy octopus form in the sky from gentle wisps of vapor. Then, without warning or fanfare, a deep rumble rolled through the world. It wasn't a sound or a physical force. It was something you felt deep in your soul. It was a terror worming its way into the depths of your being as your instincts cried out danger. That's when the green rip appeared in the sky.

I immediately flicked on the MASER. The long seconds it took for the magical energy to build inside the control crystal felt like an eternity. I knew we had time before the rupture expanded enough to let the shadow creatures through. It didn't help my heart was pounding so fast it felt like it was about to burst out of my chest like an H.R. Giger creation.

In my creation of the MASER, I failed to put an indicator in it to signify if it was working or not. All I could do is wave the aiming reticle across the edge of the portal. Then I saw the portal waver. A second, slower pass severed the edge of the crack and it vanished. "It's working!" I shouted.

I tired cutting off a larger segment of the portal and found the MASER wasn't strong enough. I had to work on cutting it down in small pieces. Based on my progress, I knew I'd have plenty of time to spare. It was working.

I systematically cut the size of the portal down over the next few minutes. With each swipe, my happiness and optimism grew. It was spreading to the others. Lia looked at the sky with a big grin while I could see tears of relief flowing from Void's eyes. Tizek continued standing guard like a consummate professional knight, though his body language became more confident.

Progress was going well now that I figured out the biggest chunk I could destabilize. Then I felt another thrum in my soul. "No," I whispered. It was too soon. What is happening? This is different. With the thrum, the rip began to expand. I kept sweeping my MASER across it yet it was failing to keep up with the expansion.

"I thought we had more time!" Void shouted as she pulled her sword and prepared.

"We should. This has never happened before," I growled as I worked.

Then the worst happened. The portal tore open. Instead of ripping apart and revealing the swarm of monsters, I saw one of the monster's massive tentacles punch through the rip. A second and then a third tentacle squirmed through the borders and began pulling the tear open. I kept my futile effort of closing the portal. I closed a portion with every sweep and ten additional lengths grew in its wake.

I slumped when I saw the portal fully tear open. The MASER wasn't powerful enough to disrupt that. Instead of a swarm of monsters, I saw the massive face. Lia and Tizek both shuddered and fell to the ground. Void froze as she stared at the creature in the sky. At Advancement 1, Void was barely strong enough with her rating to resist total collapse from seeing the invader.

"I failed," I whispered. "It's going to happen again. I'm sorry."

Void turned to say something when another new event occurred. A deep, oily voice speaking in three different tones echoed in my head. "You are the one who has been interfering."

"Did you hear that?" I asked Void.

She shook her head. "Your narration?"

"No, it's different. Something is talking to me," I said.

"Your efforts are futile. We are inevitable."

Terror grew in my chest as I peered toward the sky. The creature's head was visible, long before its usual time. It was staring right at me. "Resetting time won't save you forever. My master has decreed this reality become his own. We will wear your resolve."

"Shit," I whispered.

Void was kneeling next to the unconscious Lia and trying to revive her. "What? What is it?"

"That thing. It knows. It knows I've been looping time," I said. This wasn't good. It knew time was looping, just not who. I made a mistake on my last loop when I taunted it.

"We will find a way to break your spell. You, slave to time, cannot hope to defeat He Who is Eternal." I saw it begin to disgorge shadow monsters into the city. Based on the pattern, they were concentrating in our area.

Stolen novel; please report.

"I have to end this," I said with a high pitched panic in my voice.

"What? End it how?" Void replied, equally terrified.

I pulled out my Heartstop dagger belt. "These."

Void watched me in shock as I took one and plunged it into Lia's chest. I watched as her breathing slowed and then ceased. She had quickly and painlessly died. "What are you doing!?" Void shrieked.

I choked back my own tears at what I was doing. "I have to. What's about to come is far worse. I'm sorry I failed." I plunged the second into Tizek and he, too, perished.

"Why are you doing this?" Void stuttered. I could hear the monsters approaching from the street outside the courtyard. From the sounds, it was a pack of shadow dogs with four segmented limbs.

My tears were flowing faster now. "Because what is coming is far worse," I repeated. I held a dagger out. "Please, take this way out."

"Why not just end yourself?" Void asked, her voice panicking at the prospects of dying.

"I don't know if my death triggers the loop or something else. I don't want you to experience your skin melting off your body," I said with a rapid, pressured speech.

I could hear screams rising from the street. Void looked in the direction of the din and back at me. I could see her resolve. "Promise me you won't give up."

I nodded. I couldn't speak because saying the words would have made it a lie. I didn't want to make a liar of myself to Void in our last moments together. I knew deep in my soul this was our best option of success. It had the implied endorsement of whatever it is saddled me with Mulligan and it still failed. The thing invading the world was just a minion of an even bigger threat and the Grand Creator could do nothing to eject it. What could I, a random professor from Florida, do?

The screams, howls and snarls came closer. I could hear the distinct sounds of the addicts in the buildings getting torn apart. Bones snapping, fearful cries for help and panic sounded all around. Void sheathed her rapier and approached for an embrace. I complied and pulled her in tight. We kissed deeply.

"Are you ready?" I asked through a strained voice.

She nodded. "Yes. Don't let this destroy you."

"I love you." I couldn't make that promise. I heard her gasp when the Heartstop dagger slid into her side in my embrace. I watched her pupils dilate and her features go still. Her breath, the funky morning breath I so loved, ceased.

Deep down, I knew I had to use the last dagger on myself. If I didn't, I gave the squid an opportunity to find a way to make this outcome permanent if it was my death that triggered the loop. As I slipped the last dagger into my gut while I held onto the limp body of the love of my life, I realized I now had less time to solve the problem. I couldn't risk allowing it to come through again.

I found myself falling backwards and landing hard on my ass. The stone floor beneath me hurt. My right hand instinctively held onto a precious cargo. I looked over and saw I was holding an ice-cold pint of beer in a glass mug. In times past, I looked forward to this moment. I could sip my favorite brew which I hadn't enjoyed in three months.

Now? It felt empty. I was broken inside. I just watched Void die again. It's been 91 times now. Each time worse than the last.

Some may think being stuck in a time loop is a blessing. Like the fellow in the groundhog movie, I could keep going until I find some perfect outcome. That I could manipulate events over and over until everything came out in my favor. Know the reality, oh fake audience in my head? It doesn't work that way. Void, Lia and Tizek are dead and gone. Sure, Lia is currently a maid in the castle, Tizek is getting off the boat at the docks and Void is out cold snoring in her room.

The problem? They're not the same people. They don't know me from Adam. All the experiences and growth we went through? Gone. Lia's confidence, the breakthrough with Tizek and all the time spent with Void? Those people were dead, replaced with a homunculus wearing their faces. I can't mechanically go through the motions and direct them to a desired end. I can't do it once, let alone thousands or millions of times.

"Do you not feel well, hero?" The voice cut me out of my reflection. It was King Ormond talking to the group of newly summoned heroes.

My mind spun. Why couldn't this fool of a king listen to me when I warned him of the future instead of executing me as a fraud? Why was I picked for this ability? I didn't have special knowledge. I didn't know how to craft a weapon greater than anything this world could produce. All I knew was how to work with photons, a skill entirely useless in this world of magic.

The only one who believed me with any power was an underworld criminal. Not that it mattered. Even if we got an entire army together, we couldn't hope to defeat the monster in the sky. No one can stab away caustic gas and a thing capable of ripping a hole across dimensions won't flinch in the face of a fireball. I've seen it eat powerful spells without so much as a mild yelp of pain.

Even if I could convince the entire kingdom to band together, we couldn't hope to build a bigger, more powerful MASER. We couldn't collect those resources or build that kind of extensive infrastructure. I'd have to recreate centuries of development from my home in a meager three months. That's an impossible ask.

I was spinning my wheels in futility against a cosmic horror.

I went through the pain of my body connecting to the world's magic once more before screaming to the ceiling. "What do you want from me? What kind of Grand Creator are you?"

This didn't go over well with the guards in the room. I was quickly cut down by metal halberds and looped back to falling on my ass once more. I continued my rant. "I built the fucking thing. You gave me those gloves. I thought it was a sign I was on the right track. What did I do wrong?"

Stab, thud. Getting killed before being connecting to the world's magic didn't end the loop. It never did. Mulligan was with me from the beginning.

"Why did you give me this ability? Is this Hell? Did I die and now I'm being punished?"

Stab, thud.

"Fuck you, asshole. Tell me you pompous ass!"

Stab, thud.

"What kind of God are you? You can't keep that thing from invading your world."

Stab, thud.

"You're pathetic! You need me, a redneck from Earth to save your stupid creation!"

Stab, thud. I was getting angry. On my next loop, my eyes turned to the king. "You! You stupid fucker. Why did you do that?" I threw my beer at him and watched the liquid splash over his royal purple robes which were so expensive it could buy half the city.

Stab, thud, throw beer.

"You motherfucker! You dragged us here on a test! Send me back!"

Stab, thud, throw beer.

"You brought me here. You made me care about people here. Now they're gone. Dead. Again!"

Stab, thud, throw beer.

"You never listen to me! A giant monster is going to invade and you kick me out of the castle!"

Stab, thud, throw beer.

"You're King Ormond Vialina! The third princess is named Iriana and just turned 16. I know your future, believe me! The world will end!"

Stab, thud, throw beer.

I lost count of how many times I looped. I continued my rant to what I could only imagine was a confused king who got soaked by beer. I was trying to see if I could burn through the ability, cease my endless torture. It never worked. No matter how many times I died, I always returned to the castle basement with a beer in my hand and my aerosolized plastic clogs on my feet.

Eventually, I ran out of expletives to sling at the king. I didn't have a thesaurus handy, or I'd have read it and then thrown the book at the asshole sovereign. My pleas also fell on deaf ears.

My next thought was to work my frustrations out by killing the king. I tried throwing my beer to make him slip down the stairs, but it didn't work. I tried it a few dozen times before changing tactics. My next plan was to rush the king and drag him down with me. It rarely worked.

As I began to learn the guards' moves, I found out how to slip through. I grabbed the bastard royal and went tumbling down. It was unsatisfying since I died before seeing the results of my efforts. Still, I spent another few hundred loops doing this, only succeeding evading the guards maybe a dozen times in the process.

Then I found the perfect place. The balcony when King Ormond talked to me. There, he was the most vulnerable and had his guard down. I first tried to calmly explain the future, but he had none of it and had me sent down to the gallows on the spot every time. Then I decided to drag him over the edge of the balcony with me. If the stubborn shit wouldn't listen to me, I would take my frustrations out on him.

While he was commenting on my composure, I darted my hands out and gripped him by the collar. Before his guards could react, I yanked hard and took him, along with me, over the edge to the sounds of my valuable beer mug crashing on the balcony. The king screamed like a small child on the way down. I managed to flip him over on the fall and watched his head explode like a ripe watermelon on the cobblestones of the carriageway below. This was moments before I followed and looped back again.

It was satisfying. I kept yanking the king and replaying his brains painting the stone over and over again. I wanted to do it enough to solidify the memory in my mind. Seeing his miserable mind and its exploitative machinations splashed on pavers brought me twisted joy. I raged how he kicked me out every time because I wasn't convenient to his schemes. I screamed at him as we fell about his lack of respect and consideration for stealing us from our lives. I ranted about revenge for Lia and Tizek. I cried as I recounted Void's smile and warmth as we plummeted to our deaths.

I began to muse about how easy it was. Here was the nation's sovereign, King Ormond Vialina, so easily dragged to his death by a dud. It made sense, really. Why risk the Head of State to even an Advancement 0 monster to build him up? He was a politician through and through, not a warrior king. He didn't lead from the front. He sent his soldiers to war while he remained fat and happy behind his castle walls. Had he an Advancement, I wouldn't get the satisfaction of seeing him die countless times.

Eventually, I knew it was a pointless exercise. No matter how much I poured my rage and sorrow, no matter how many times I tried to reason with him about the apocalypse, everything was reset. I even tried with Willem and Illian. They always sent me for testing which took so long the world ended while I was being prodded by alchemists. Nobody with power took me seriously. The king, Willem, Illian and the others didn't remember anything. Like with the sky squid, I never made any progress. I was stuck in a video game in an old Nintendo console with a malfunctioning reset button.

Then I decided to stop. My existence was meaningless. I decided to ride it out. If I was doomed to repeat and die for eternity, so be it. I couldn't force myself to give into the eldritch horror. Even if they didn't remember me anymore, I couldn't stomach the prospects of Lia, Tizek and Void dying forever. Blissfully repeating their lives without end was better. It would be my penance for my failure to forever repeat these days and kill myself before the rupture appeared. If He really is Eternal, then I'll make him wait until the end of his days.