Learning to Love Time Loops Without Going Insane

“Hey, Grannus, where are you hiding at? Bug and I here to give purification another attempt, and I even brought my dad along as Excalibur thinks he may be able to help make sure it lasts time,” Cal called out into the dark stone passageway in front of them.

“I’m here. I started to think you had forgotten about me,” Grannus answered glumly.

“Nah, it’s just been a hectic time. I’m really sorry we haven’t been able to visit you nearly as much, but it’s time to bring you out of this exile permanently. How does that sound?” Cal asked one of his first mana spirits, the one whose powers he had manifested first.

“If you can do it, but it’s really hard to put a lot of faith in that changing anymore. It feels like I’ve been trapped with these weird invaders forever,” Grannus answered.

Bug walked past Cal and sat down next to the rocky mana spirit. “So I learned a trick to dealing with things that don’t belong,” Bug started, causing Grannus to jump into the air and rapidly move their head, trying to find the source of the voice. “Oh, sorry, forgot it’s hard for these places to fully see me until I let them, but that’s part of how I learned to deal with them. So before I work on purifying the realm, I want you to concentrate on how much this place belongs to you, Grannus. This is your home, and you will not allow anyone in here with your say-so, got it?”

“Yeah, I can do that,” Grannus answered.

“Perfect, I knew you could do it. Okay, Dad, could you stab Excalibur into the wall and stay here while these two work on their parts? Cal, we are going to need to go deeper into the tunnels and find the source of the infestation,” Bug instructed. Stan nodded back at Bug’s orders, and Cal walked behind her as they both disappeared into the darkness.

“So what’s the plan Bug? How do we clean out the infestation for good?” Cal asked as they walked deeper into the realm’s cave structures.

“First, we find where the tear is, and I think one of the big problems is that Grannus hasn’t been able to see it before. So, no matter how many times you tried to help them, it just wasn’t enough to really stop it. Excalibur is forcing all the passageways open to us right now. Once we find that, you get to kill a bunch of weird Gryalth-mutated abyssal beasts while I try to patch up the wound. Once that’s done, I think Grannus will finally be able to visit the void house and work on linking up the realm,” Bug explained. “Also, it’s nice to be an adventure together again, it feels like it’s been forever.”

“Yeah, it sure does, doesn’t it? I was planning for us to take a nice vacation after the Pluto and Under Library trips, but the Agency decided to make our lives hell before we get to that, apparently,” Cal replied, still furious at their actions.

“Oh, that would be great. We really are gonna need one once this whole mess is done, though Ethel can come, right? She’s going to need a long rest to get over what they are putting her through,” Bug asked frantically.

“Of course, I think everyone will be invited,” Cal smiled at the idea of a pleasant loop for once.

“How did Sleek get to go with Mother Scrump anyway? I thought she had to stick with you,” Bug asked as they continued their descent further and further into the darkness.

“Since Sleek hasn’t formed her realm here yet, she was able to make a smaller secondary bond with Scrump. She will need to return to me every few days, but it will let her travel with Scrump out of the void house for a limited time. I don’t know if it will last once our bond becomes even stronger, but we’ll see,” Cal explained.

Bug froze in place, causing Cal to almost trip over her. “The tear is dead ahead. I can feel it. Get ready for a fight, bro,” Bug whispered quietly.

“Just say when, I’m ready,” Cal replied, pushing some extra electrical mana into his waiting hands.

“Go now!” Bug yelled as a blue aura of light sprung up all around her.

Cal did as she asked and ran past her into the massing armor of tentacle bear monsters he hadn’t seen in so many loops. He shot two blasts of lighting into dozens of them. They dropped without even a chance to fight back. He had absolutely no problem stemming the tide of creatures as poured from the tear. If nothing else, the fight had made Cal realize just how far they had come from the first time they had encountered one of these.

Soon, Cal watched as the tear sealed itself, slowly turning into a black gash in the rock face. Before he had a chance to ask Bug what was next, everything disappeared in a flash, and he was standing back in the center of the void realm with his father, Excalibur, Bug, and Grannus. It had worked. The mana spirit had a smile on its face, which Cal had never seen before.

“So buddy, ready for getting your realm attached to the void house?” Cal asked the small spirit.

“Absolutely, I’m going to go ask Fulginanis right now where the best spot would be to do it, but I think a mountain behind the house would be pretty nice myself. You could even build some rooms into it. What do you think?” Grannus asked, distracting themselves from their original plan.

“Works for me. Just make sure Fulginanis helps get it laid out right; this is their realm,” Cal replied, watching Grannus instantly leap into the void in search of the other mana spirit.

“Man, it feels good just to do something right for once, no complications,” Stan said, rubbing his hand through Cal’s hair.

“Yeah, it really does. I hope Harold is having just as easy a time, but in the meantime, let’s go see what we can scrounge up for a meal,” Cal said, looking at the family that he had started this loop with and once vowing in his head the rescue the rest.