Chapter 74 – When You’re Not Around
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Delving into the second room of the clock tower…

Squeak!

Huh? The all too familiar sound of Liz’s rats pokes out of the back of my mind, but…I came here alone? Argh! My head pounds and aches like something is trying to break it open and force its way in–

And it succeeds. As my eyes are shut, I see it…a rat. In my mind. And with it, memories I’ve never had…or memories of a different time? I take a step further and flinch, swatting away the…vines…? Wait, wait! No, that’s right! This…this is a time loop! But…Vivian…and Liz! They were taken away somehow…and my arm…oh Goddess, my arm is…entirely mechanical now?! Some kind of scrap skeleton of the fuzzy cat arm that used to be there, seemingly functional, but so, so cold…! Shit, no. No, I don’t have time for this!

The railing isn’t as crowded this time…which feels weird to say, when I feel like it’s the first time I’ve been down here, even if I know it’s not. Regardless, I have more space to go on the offensive as the tower rumbles and quakes, the robots in the walls and clinging to the railings come to life, but a single strong swing with one arm smashes them apart…making me recall the memory of my arm falling to pieces before my eyes. Thinking about it…these robots must be what happens to people who are completely lost to the entropy of Janus’ time loop…all of them souls worn to the point of only being able to repeat the memories that now make up their bodies…it’s horrifying, absolutely monstrous, but I can’t let her continue this perpetuity.

Leaping up onto the handrail itself, I heat up my paws and begin grinding down the tower, leaping further down when I come to a split railing, being sure to stab down at anything reaching for me as I land. It’s not long before I’m plummeting into the depths of the foggy tower, falling and falling on and on until I’m thrown right out the other end into the misty white void of scrap rain, a Liz-shaped robot and a Vivian-shaped machine awaiting me. I have to make quick work of them…and these things are close enough to ghosts…

Immediately, I begin painting with fire, using much broader strokes wielding my spear with one arm, feeling my burning passion extend into the flames with each heavy swing until my piece is complete.

“Let’s harvest our friends, Thanatos!”

A deathly wail screeches from behind me, my reaper shroud in dark flames coming to my aid as I charge forward, having to dodge and weave about the scrap missiles being launched my way, leaping high and off the fiery rabbits and frogs by my side before plummeting down upon the robots, the Vivian-bot contesting the downwards strike with its blade, allowing Thanatos to rise from the mist with an upwards slash, cutting the machine clean in half. Thankfully for us, the Liz-bot doesn’t seem capable of summoning rats, allowing me to focus on blocking her barrage of bat strikes, watching her reel back for one big attack that gives us the chance to dive in quick, my spear slashing one way and Thanatos’ scythe cleaving the other, splitting the robot into pieces.

All that leaves is…

Bzzz.

 

Huh? Wait, my phone…it buzzed last loop, didn’t it? But that was way earlier in the loop, so, what…wait, my phone…that’s it! Shit, okay, no time to check who just yet, I have to keep pushing forward, prying open the gate for Goddess knows what time, finding Janus’ hourglass still frozen.

“Too fast. Too early.”

The hourglass rises and the ice within melts and whirls, in which I can see two small icy figurines floating about. That must be them…

“We’ve figured you out, Janus. Give my friends back and give up. It’ll make things much easier for the both of us.”

A chattering hiss cackles from within their glass like ice clattering and shattering, their legs and hands crystalizing and snapping off the floor furiously.

“You will NOT. TAKE. ANYTHING FROM ME,” they shout, their voice echoed all throughout the void of memories. “I. EARNED. THIS. I. DESERVE. THIS.”

I shake my head, planting the base of my spear onto the ground–

Fast forward.

–footpaw flying towards the timekeeper, the vault from my spear giving it some extra oomph as I sear his glass, sending the timekeeper hurtling back.

“Expecting a dance? Sorry, I’m in such a rush!!”

“YOU. ARE ON. MY NERVES. I WILL BE RID OF YOU.”

Landing on my feet, I keep a close eye on Janus’ colour, watching his entirety blink slowly brighter, using the down time to swipe long strokes of flame between me and them. Seeing me set up, he circles icicles around me and raises pillars of ice from beneath me, the former shooting towards me and the latter jutting up to displace me. Thankfully, this long stroke style of fighting allows me to both paint and defend myself, slashing through the icicles and melting the icy pillars before Janus is off cooldown.

“You lack the control you believe yourself to have,” Janus groans, coming closer and closer, a tension and stiffness washing over my robotic arm, as though it’s rusting and ripe to crumble. “Allow me to demonstrate control.”

Just before I can finish my piece, my arm seizes up, and I feel it shudder and clank, rattling painfully as it remembers–

Squeak!

“N-No!! That’s not…your memory, you prick!!”

The memory Janus attempts to awaken freezes, beginning to melt as I remember my own fate, clenching my mechanical fist and locking everything in place as it should be. Though my fire disperses from the disruption, I reach through the fleeting flames and grab the timekeeper’s face, my metal claw digging into her glass–

F-FAST FORWARD.

–standing firm, sinking each digit in and watching their glass crack, ready to shatter.

“And what’ll you do with your tricks all but spent?” I sneer, the timekeeper becoming flustered and agitated as the water in their lower half rages on, even more so as I pull them up and smash them down against the ground, once testing the limits of their regenerating glass, twice shattering a hole upon impact.

“Y-YOU ARE CHEATING. LET. GO,” Janus squeals before I throw them to the floor once more, watching them bounce off the ice and spin into the air, water spilling out along with one of the icy figurines.

“MAKE ME,” I screech, the memories circling and storming through the void distorting before fading,

 

Chapter 75 - I’M SICK OF YOUR GAMES

 

With her figurine free, I watch time stop momentarily, the icy doll shattering before she’s put right back where she was before she had been stolen away, though the exhaustion of being pulled from time takes its toll, the goo girl falling forward and onto the ground.

Unfortunately, the timekeeper returns to the fight moments later, freezing in place to stop the spinning before recuperating and regenerating, their water seeming more still as they switch to their second face.

PAUSE.

The time-seizing gears appear above and below me, just as I remember, knowing I have just enough time to hurl my spear like a javelin, burying its blade into Janus’ glass as I compose myself and remain still, my world going white and returning the moment after. Upon returning, I find an increasingly pissed off timekeeper holding an icicle hand over where the spear had pierced, having only just recovered.

“I. DESPISE. YOU,” she hisses, raising her palm upwards as walls of ice rise around me, encasing me in a cold cubical. “YOUR PLIGHT. IS. FOLLY. BE GONE.”

“I’VE GOT NEWS FOR YOU,” I screech back, anger and fire fueling me as I reel my fist back and shatter the enclosing chamber. “Y’AIN’T THE ONLY ONE FILLED WITH RAGE RIGHT NOW.”

With a good deal of energy spent on that useless cage, I pounce once again, enduring the scrapes and bruises left by vagrant icicles floating around the timekeeper, sinking my claws into one of their floating legs and pulling it back. SMASH!! Batting the leg into the other, both shatter into diamond dust, allowing me to more safely grab at the base of his hourglass and start spinning, disorienting Janus while building up momentum.

PAUSE!!

A snarl creeps up the side of my face as the gears appear once more, but I keep on spinning, holding on tight to Janus, knowing that even as time stops around me, he’ll be stuck in my frozen grasp, and the moment I’m unfrozen, I retain all of that built up speed. Upon releasing the timekeeper, he’s sent flying into the ceiling, icicles fruitlessly trying to catch her as she bounces from top to bottom again and again until I dash in, catch her in the air, and drive her straight into the floor. Once more, they shatter, releasing the second icy figurine, time and memory distorting around us once more.

“YOU CANNOT. WIN. TIME IS. UNDER. MY. CONTROL.”

“Would you SHUT THE FUCK UP–

 

Chapter 76 - YOU’RE OUT OF TIME

 

Liz’s figurine shatters, and she’s returned as well, passing out immediately just as Vivian had, leaving me with only one more loose end to tie up. With one paw, I pull Janus up from the crater in the floor, and with the…well, what was once a paw, I reach into my pocket, grasping at my phone and remembering what Niamh had told me. Behind me, my tail flicks, sparks flying off of its tip like paint off a brush before it draws a circle of fire in the air, a sudden breath of fresh air billowing out of the portal to the Radiant World.

“WH-WHAT…?!”

Janus struggles to muster enough power to free themselves from my paw reeling back to toss them in, and I shake my head.

“It’s too late for questions, Janus. You’ve had more than enough chances. And you’ve taken far more than that.”

Too late…?

TOO LATE?

HA. HA.

“THE ONLY ONE TOO LATE. IS YOU." the timekeeper cackles pitifully, their icicles too weak to even grasp at me, yet they seem completely convinced of their victory.

“TIME. IS. UP–”

 

Shlck.

 

Out from the portal, a writhing, oozing black tendril shoots out and seizes Janus, yanking her from my grasp. Eyes wide with fear, I turn to see what exactly I had just opened up a portal to, watching the timekeeper become consumed by a ceaseless void and knowing the only thing that could be the owner of such darkness.

“Talk about one hell of a data plan.”

“Shut the hell up.”

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