Chapter Text
Once again, you wake up to find yourself lying in the meadow south of Dormont. It is almost noon, you just had a nap, and tomorrow’s the day you, Mira, Isa, Odile, and Bonnie are going to save Vaugarde. Attempt number… at least more than 30. The House’s traps and Sadnesses haven’t been so kind to everyone. Especially the Sadnesses. That hit from Accablement still stung.
As always, you got up from the spot and crossed the intact bridge. Enter Mirabelle; ‘Hey Mira, have you thought about doing a sleepover tonight’; say what makes her happy; Exit Mirabelle, enter Dormont. Pray at the Change God’s statue for… well, speed of course!
You imagine Isabeau would wish for strength, because of course he would, and Odile would wish for protection, because she’d rather stay alive than hit hard, and you respect that outlook of hers on battles, even if you don’t share it. And Mirabelle… you are not really sure what she would wish for…
Exit Dormont, Enter Favor Tree and Isabeau. Say the same things, repeat the same joke, watch his hand almost fall on your shoulder and then back off to his side. Wave him goodbye as he goes back to the same spot north of the town. Approach the tree.
“Heya, stardust!” Loop greets you with the same phrase and same emotion as always. You wonder if they were sticking to some script of their own. “… Hmm, I couldn’t help but notice that you’re having a lot of trouble with those Sadnesses.”
Oh, really? How could they tell? With their magic vision that allowed them to see into the House but not as far as the King for some reason? No way! “Yeah. It’s fine, I just gotta get stronger.”
“… But is it really fine?” You frown and stare at them, “Oh, don’t give me that look. I know you are capable of defeating all those Sadnesses, teehee~!” They looked to the side, scratching their… chin? Is that still a chin if they don’t have a mouth and their head is a star? “But still… I wonder… Maybe…”
Loop smiled as they faced you, “How about I teach you a special Craft Skill to make your fights easier?”
A Craft Skill to make fights easier? “What kind of Craft Skill would make fights easier? Can’t I just get more experience and learn how to Craft more powerful Skills?”
They rolled their eyes at your very reasonable suggestion, “Yes, but that is boooooriiiiing! All this grinding and hoarding – do you really want to do that for, what, 30-40 more loops, stardust? Just to beat those two? Imagine how quickly you would defeat them – defeat The King if you learned it!”
Loop squinted mischievously, “And this Skill is so special, there’s a secret hand shape just for it.” Oh? That piqued your interest. “Yes, stardust. A fifth hand shape. So you can beat the big Sadnesses in your way. Are you interested?”
A fifth hand shape… wait a minute, haven’t you heard something like this before? “Wait a second, is it gonna be like last time?”
Loop still smiled. “What? I don’t know what you mean!” They very well knew what you meant. Reluctantly, you agree to be taught Loop’s Secret Fifth Hand Shape, “Okay, so: take your hand and make a fist.” All seemed to be going well, “Then, raise your thumb—” Uh-oh, they are tricking you again! “—and index finger.” Or maybe not.
You do just as they said, making an unusual hand shape. “And, keeping your hand in that shape, you simply need to point your finger at the Sadness and say, “BANG!!!” —” The yell shook some tree leaves, “—THAT’S the secret hand shape of that Craft Skill. In other words…”
[You’ve learned Gun Craft! This powerful Skill will quickly eliminate all those pesky Sadnesses standing in your way!]
Huh. That’s a rather peculiar Skill. Requiring a whole another hand shape just to Craft it… You wonder if this Skill worked just as advertised. Still keeping the hand in that shape, you look around to find a suitable target. And you indeed find one. “… Oh?” The target responded by making the same shape, “Don’t forget who taught you this Skill, stardust~!”
Chuckling each to themselves, you both lowered the hands. “Alright! Now that you’re here, though…” Loop crossed one leg over the other, as they always did, “How can I help you on this wonderful new loop?”
***
The door to the House closed behind the party as everyone entered. What good are the orbs anyway if the door closes right behind you? You all went through this whole adventure just to open these blinding doors, and they close as soon as you walk in? That’s some good House design.
Your thoughts continue to circle around this topic as you zone out of the tutorial. But just as Mirabelle has been given all the reminders she needed, you remember. The new Craft Skill! Of course! You still haven’t used it since Loop told you about it yesterday!
Luckily, there just so happened to be a very suitable target to test his new Skill on. A basic weak Sadness. Comparatively weak. Not as weak as the ones you encountered mere days ago. Being the first one to act, you recall the instructions and form the secret hand shape, to the utter confusion of your allies. Blocking most of the Sadness with your thumb, you say, “Bang—”
The ringing in you ears won’t stop. It was painful, painful, so painful. It’s drilling into you head and piercing though your skull and squeezing your brains out with a spoon. You lay on the ground, weak, unable to get up even an inch above the floor.
Finally, someone’s hands slip under your unmoving body and pull you to your feet—no, just enough to sit down, “Sif! Sif, are you alright?” Isabeau’s voice barely gets to you through the horrible noise.
You can’t answer. As you opened your mouth, only labored breaths come out. It was cold and hot at the same time, like if you walked out of a hot shower into snowfall. “Siffrin! I think there’s something…” Mirabelle carefully lifts your cloak, trying not to touch you. “Oh—AH! Oh Change!!”
Her sudden yell made you turn your head to the right. Whatever the Housemaiden looked at was obscured by your own cloak. You try to lift your hand—
And immediately scream in pain. The shock went through your entire arm and didn’t stop when you let your arm down. In fact, any motion you try with the arm sends a pain of a thousand needles though your hand. “No! Stop! Don’t move your arm, I’ll—I’m sure we have something for this!”
Bringing the left arm around, you finally manage to lift the cloth and properly look at the cause of the pain. Your gloves apparently burned away, leaving the knuckles of your hand singed, but other than that, it looked totally fine. Albeit, the wrist hanged limply.
Wait. Singed? But how had it not…
You try to move the fingers on your right hand.
…
“Isa.” You needed a distraction. Right now. Anything to make you look away from your arm and stop thinking about it. The most distracting thing at the moment was the lack of a large brim that should’ve been obstructing your vision. “Isa, w-where… where’s… my hat?”
Isabeau was a bit shocked to hear that this was the first concern you had, “Uh, your hat… I think it just, sorta, flew away? We didn’t see where it went – everything went bright when you… did. That thing. What was that, anyway?”
Great. Now you have to worry not just about that thing, but also about not having your hat that you conveniently hide your face beneath. “The Sadness…” Dodging the question, you raise your head and look around the room. The first striking feature you see is a big burning indent in the floor where the enemy stood. As for the enemy itself…
Well, the Skill proved that it could eliminate.
Looking up, you notice Odile standing behind Isabeau, gently holding Bonnie. They did not look at you. “Siffrin. What in the Gems was that?” Her words cut through the air sharper than the diminishing ringing. “Whatever you did was incredibly dangerous. And you managed to hurt yourself in the process. Could you explain to us what that was?”
She looked at you with such intensity that her eyes could bore through your head. Stars. “Yes, Siffrin.” What were you even thinking? Loop said it was powerful, of course you needed to be more careful! “This… this Craft almost killed you!” What kind of person would strike the weakest enemy with the strongest Craft? Overkill much?
“Sif.” And now everyone’s asking you. They would’ve begun asking anyway if you tried to use this Skill on the bigger Sadnesses. And how could that situation be any better than now? “Sif?” You’d still be left with a broken and burned hand, except halfway through the House! Wonderful, isn’t it? Everyone’s staring at you.
“Frin?” Everyone’s staring at you and you don’t know what to say. They all expect an explanation right now, and you need to give it or else they’ll think you’re creepy, having learned a Craft that can effortlessly kill anyone. “… That was scary.” And what would you tell them anyway? ‘A magic star person under a tree told me about a secret hand shape that can blinding explode you’?
The smell of burnt sugar hits your throat. “Siffrin, can you hear us?” Get real. They won’t think of you the same after this. After seeing what you did. Because who’s to say you haven’t been hiding more secrets under this cloak of yours that you don’t even know where it came from? “Siffrin?” Siffrin is dangerous, he knows Crafts we don’t. Siffrin is creepy, he doesn’t talk at all. No one should be around Siffrin. And when this adventure ends, they—
Suddenly,
you feel
a tug
on your stomach.
Loop 37
Once again, you wake up to find yourself lying in the meadow south of Dormont. It is almost noon, you just had a nap, and tomorrow’s the day you, Mira, Isa, Odile, and Bonnie are going to save Vaugarde.
But first, a visit. You run to the Favor Tree, quickly saying your lines to Mira and Isa to get them off your back. You approach the tree. “Heya, stard—”
“What in the name of the UNIVERSE was that?!” You barely hold yourself from fully crashing out on Loop. They are quite surprised to see you this mad.
“… Oh, that. Yes. You… may have noticed that this Skill is just a slight little bit unstable.” They pinched their fingers on thin air. Wow, thanks for the timely news! Maybe it was worth to mention that beforehand??? “Perhaps. I didn’t think you’d use it on the first Sadness you see! Overkill much?”
Haha, very funny and original, stealing from someone else’s thoughts to roast them later. “So when I was supposed to use it? And wouldn’t it tear off my hand anyway?”
“Not if you use it properly.” You glare at them with suspicion. “What! I only taught you the hand shape, I don’t know how to use this Craft myself!”
So you have to figure out how to use this Craft properly before actually employing it against any enemy. What a rip-off. “Nah, I’d like my money back. This wasn’t worth it.” You cross your arms, pouting.
“Sure! Just let me get the coins…” Loop dug around somewhere between the roots. Eventually he pulled out something, and you were almost excited to see if they really will commit to the bit… “Here!” But their open palm was empty. “Hope you have a nice loop, stardust~!”
Welp, t’was a good try. Nothing left to do but learn to live with this Skill in the back of your mind. Who knows, maybe if you actually learn how to not break your fingers from it, it’ll come in handy…
[You got a MEMORY of RECOIL! Lowers the HP cost of Gun Craft by 1 per loop.]
***
A lot of time passed for you since that mistake. Well, a lot of time for you. Your allies still aren’t aware of the timeloop as always. For them that would’ve happened somewhere in the ballpark of… a couple of hours ago.
There’s been a lot of progress since then. You’ve already managed to level up quite past the rest of your party, and this loop you actually took time to prepare and get more experience for everyone! Their new Skills are quite useful, as you’ve learned firsthand after getting frozen in battle. Brr. It’s like touching a Tear, but actually feeling the Time Craft freeze you still.
The first battle with King taught you there’s a lot more than you’ve learned throughout all your loops in the House. You were still investigating that thing about Crafting shields, but right now you had a different plan.
The party approached The King. You tune out as always, but eventually he calls out to you. “Bright One… Do you remember?” And for some reason, you wish you could remember. It sounds stupid but you genuinely do. The ____________ inside of you calls out for you to remember. The call echoes in the emptiness.
“Do you?” You try that quip again, maybe he’ll say something different. But he doesn’t: he laughs at your attempt to get the answer out of him. Maybe he doesn’t know you’re looping. Or maybe he does, and he’s mocking you by pretending not to.
There’s no time to waste. As everyone draws their weapons, you ready the hand in the Gun position, whatever that word even means. Striking first, you swiftly throw the hand up from underneath your cloak, holding your wrist tight with the other hand. “Bang!”
Having learned from unsuccessful loops, you draw the arm back before the shockwave can shatter your bones. A darkless beam shoots from your finger, momentarily puncturing The King’s arm. He cries out in pain, holding it up with the other hand as something the shade of his armor starts to drip from it. You hope Bonnie doesn’t see it.
“Siffrin!” Mirabelle rushes to you seconds after witnessing your attack. Her healing spell on the ready, she carefully inspects your hand, and you do too. The wrist hurts only a bit. The tip of your finger caught a small fire, which you quickly extinguish. “What… did you…”
You’ve never seen more tears flow from The King’s eyes. “Oooh, ooooooh! You are stronger than I anticipated, Travelers…! Perhaps I was foolish to think there is truly no one stronger than me…” He turned towards everyone. You could see half of his face, filled with fury. “But that will soon become truth again.”
Suddenly changing his hand, King attacked you. The damage done to you and Mirabelle was minimal, but Isabeau and Odile almost fell down. You could see that the Fighter would not be able to withstand the next one, and the Researcher wouldn’t withstand the one after. But still, this attack meant he was changing it up, having one less hand in battle. You changed the script.
You became very, very scared of what can happen now that you’ve changed the script. What if he keeps attacking? You never saw him do anything but the first attack that defeats all of you. Perhaps he will return to that and will wipe you out with a flick of the wrist. You couldn’t allow that.
So you pick up the pen and continue writing your scene.
“Bang!” You perform the Skill with the same hand, still trying to master the art of Gun Craft safety. Thankfully, your arm doesn’t suffer any more injuries. The same couldn’t be said for The King, who now was bleeding out of both his arms.
The King shuddered, unable to move his hands, and thus, unable to Craft. “Oooooh…! Pure strength wasn’t enough to wear you down, Heroes…” He spoke in between pained breaths, still trying to bring his arms closer to himself. “I see the futility of battling you… I… surrender…”
“We… won…?” You hear Bonnie whisper behind you. “We won? We… WE WON!!! CRAB YEEEEAAAAH!!” They jump towards everyone, but Odile quickly grabs ahold of them and shields them with her own body. It was true that they defeated him, but this is The King. And The King still had something to say.
“No… you haven’t won… none of you did.” His words perplexed the party. “You, Bright One.” He faced you. A shiver went down your spine as you felt the gaze of his eyes land on you. For a moment, you wonder if the rumors of people being frozen just by coming into King’s eyesight were true. “Come closer.”
Hesitantly, you do so, maintaining a distance between him and yourself. “You have defeated me with your own efforts… I cannot say that I am happy for you, but I respect… your resourcefulness.” The King stirred. The crown on his head tilted to the side. “Still, there is one nuance about your… Skills, Bright One…”
“You cheated.”
The King lunged forward, bringing his hands together on your body. You scream from pain, and he screams too. “YOU ARE NO CHAMPION!! TO THINK SOMEONE LIKE YOU WOULD HAVE THE HUBRIS TO ATTEMPT TO DEFEAT ME WITH SUCH CRUDE CRAFT…!! A MOCKERY OF MY POWER!! OF MY WISH!!”
You scream for help, and your allies scream back. “But there is a lesson to be learned from this… After Vaugarde falls, I will venture out and seek adventurers. Adventurers like you. Adventurers who think so high of themselves, that they forget the ground… I will bring them down and even below, just like you.”
His hand started to move over your head. “And I will teach everyone a lesson. That my power cannot be overcome by trickery. And you, Bright One, will the first. Your friends will watch you die, and for the few seconds they’re still moving, they will know that even you cannot defeat me.”
The hand closed over your head, enclosing you in complete darkness. For a moment, you thought you saw something. A speck in the void. But before you could remember what the speck was called, you felt something push in your neck. No matter how hard you tried to resist, eventually
you
were
torn
apart.
Loop 53
Once again, you wake up to find yourself lying in the meadow south of Dormont. It is almost noon, you just had a nap, and tomorrow’s the day you, Mirabelle, Isabeau, Odile, and Bonnie are going to save Vaugarde.
[You got a MEMORY of BLOWBACK! Increases ATK by 1 for each Sadness defeated with Gun Craft.]
But maybe not right now. Right now, you need a break.