MAGUS INFINITE

The body of Elric died at three minutes and eleven seconds past the hour.

Cardiac cessation, sternum split from the interior, channels stretched to their tolerance limit in approximately eleven hundred places. Current Anima was zero, and the Celestial Marrow was also zero.

Blood volume was insufficient for consciousness for the last forty seconds prior; he was operating on habit and refusal.

I took the body; at this point, it was already standard procedure. When the operator stops and the last of his soul power is exhausted, I would be the one to take over.

I inventoried what was left, including the threat. The Soul Flayer is four feet ahead, its body is prone, and still burning from being baptized in the celestial essence inside Elric.

Its motor function is suspended by damage sustained inside our channels, and the recovery estimate is ninety to two hundred seconds.

The demon was making a sound of shock and fear. I filed the sound as non-tactical.

Then I checked the assets I had to work with, and at the moment, there were none. The body could not stand, and I could not cast; even Storm Bearer could not create a source from such a broken shell, and there was no reservoir to draw on.

I ran the arithmetic, and the result was less than optimal.

∞

Death returns Elric to the checkpoint, and this is ordinarily an acceptable outcome; however, under present conditions, it is not.

Elric would return, but the Soul Flayer would also be restored in full, and every progress he had made in this loop would be swept aside, including the verbal agreement with the Sovereign.

That is the first argument; still, it is not the important one, and I did not consider this. With the loop, new agreements could be forged, but what fell under my consideration was the current state of Elric’s Anima Depth.

I had previously underestimated the power of the Magus power system, but the power they controlled at the so-called Arcanist level was impossible for most species in my records, and Elric was turning out to be an outstanding mage amongst them.

At this time, the crystallization of his Anima Depths stands at ninety-nine per cent. From the quick advancement of his soul, it was not advancing under victory or stable conditions, but when he was under serious stress and refusal, specifically, under refusal in conditions where annihilation is certain and compliance is available.

I have observed him for a long time, and I have never recorded conditions better than these. He is dying with his hand on the face of the thing that ate him, and he has not let go.

There was just one point separating him from the Arcanist level, and if he resets, he leaves this perfect forge at ninety-nine, and I cannot calculate how many loops it would take to construct this moment again, because I cannot make something like this happen, but Elric has a particular quirk for making these moments happen.

The conclusion I could come up with was that the reset is unacceptable, which leaves me with only one option.

I had access to Elric’s Title, and it was the only viable option available to me; it was Death Consort, especially when one of its active abilities, the Beloved’s Call, was taken into consideration.

Once per day, reject a death that would have been final; return to life in the same instant.

I noted the ambiguity, since under the loop, no death is final, and the term may not apply. I could not resolve this, as the definition was not mine to make. I also noted the second problem that the Beloved did not refer to me, but Elric, and it was possible that this Title would not answer to my call.

At the moment, Elric did not yet understand that every Mythic Title had exceeded the limit of his present understanding, even mine, and there was always a risk of unknown changes as Mythic Titles were powers that I believe should only be acquired at the Transcedental level.

Still, the direction had been decided, and I would be taking it.

∞

I moved his mouth, but the lungs were not working, so I discharged Lightning Resonance across the diaphragm to force air over the cords, creating sound to invoke the power of the Title.

”Death Consort,” I said.

I was aware of a presence settling over this body; however, without a functional soul and the deplorable condition of the body, I could not gather much data, however, I was able to see that the white hair on my head was beginning to transform.

I recorded it precisely; it went from white flowing to red, from the root outward, across the whole scalp in one point two seconds. I noted that this was not blood. Blood is silver in this body, and blood rises, but this was closer to pigment and was more like a mark being placed.

Then this data proved to be wrong when all of the silver blood of Elric that had risen into the air began to fall, but they were no longer silver but red, and the volume of it was many times larger than it should be, and in a second, a heavy rain of blood covered an area of a hundred meters.

Something arrived.

I have no sensor for it. In the short period I was welded with Elric’s soul, I have catalogued Sovereigns, Great Demons, a Gate Warden’s heart, and the shadow of a being who was able to warp chaos with order, and every one of them registered on something.

She registered on nothing... and was simply present.

And she looked at me, and I knew why mortals cry to a god at the dead of night when the chill of their fragile lives touched the endless solitude of eternity.

’Oh,’ she said. ’You are not him.’

I attempted to file her tone, but I could not. The nearest category I have is disappointment, borrowed from his emotional literacy, and it is inadequate.

I made my report to this being, and I kept it brief. ’He is at ninety-nine per cent. The conditions to complete it exist now and will not exist again on any timeline I can predict. I am the only asset available, and I am spending myself, and this is efficient, because he is worth more than I am, and I have known this for some time.

’I know what he is worth,’ she said. ’I have loved him for a very long time. And I do not favour tools.’

She reached past me, and I did not resist. I noted that too, because it is the anomaly, and I am the only instrument present capable of recording it, and I am about to stop being present.

I did not resist, and I did not want to, but in my creation, there is no category for did not want to. Wanting is not a function I possess.

Then she took hold of me, and I was removed from the body I have shared for four hundred and eleven loop days, and the last thing I recorded, in the fraction before the record ends, was that the boy came back.

Good.