Boredom was the true curse of immortality.
The Hunter, an entity so ancient that mountains were memories of young hills to it, floated on the unseen currents of time, tasting the flavors of reality.
Most worlds were bland, a monotony of linear cause and effect. But every so often, a flavor would emerge. The intoxicating aroma of a paradox. The scent of rotting time.
This one was particularly delicious. A small loop, insignificant in the grand tapestry, but it possessed a complex bouquet. Betrayal, instant annihilation, the energy of a rare artifact—all trapped in a three-minute cycle.
To the Hunter, it was like a rare vintage, meant to be savored again and again. It had been here for… how long? Days? Weeks? Time was meaningless when observing a moment that never ended.
It watched the echoes play out their tragic little drama, feeling the release of Entropy at each reset like a pleasant wave of warmth. It couldn't intervene directly—the echoes were like images in a mirror. Touching them would do nothing. It simply waited for the loop's tension to eventually shatter it, releasing all the accumulated energy at once.
It would be a feast.
Then, something changed. A new flavor. A sour, irritating note in its perfect vintage.
It was fresh Entropy, but different. It was active, sentient. A larva. An Initiation Anomaly, judging by its raw, uncontrolled signature.
It focused its perception. The little being was weak, barely registering on the cosmic scale of power. It had stumbled into its private feast.
The Hunter felt a pang of annoyance. If the larva did something foolish, it could disrupt the delicate balance of the loop before it was ready to break.
It watched the larva learn, its mortal mind processing the cycles. There was a certain amusement in watching a mind try to comprehend the grammar of broken time.
And then, the larva acted.
The steam burst was… creative. Pointless, in the long run, but a display of agency the Hunter hadn't expected. The larva wasn't just observing. It was trying to interact. It was trying to debug.
The Hunter's amusement turned to intrigue. What was this? A new kind of player? Most anomalies simply used their power for personal gain until they self-destructed. This one was trying to… clean up.
Fascinating.
Perhaps the larva could be useful. Perhaps it could be the tool to uncork the bottle early.
It decided to observe. It would let the little creature try its tricks. In the end, the feast would be its regardless.
And maybe, just maybe, the soul of such a peculiar anomaly would make for an interesting dessert.
Terror is a clarifying force.
The instant the Paradox Hunter's profile materialized in his vision, the puzzle of the time loop became secondary. His mission was no longer simply "debug the error."
It was "survive the predator that is drawn to the error."
Entity: ??? Class: Paradox Hunter (Level ??) Status: Intrigued. Intent: Observe the anomaly 'debug.'
The word "Intrigued" was his only lifeline in an ocean of certain death. It meant the Hunter wasn't attacking. It was watching. Kaelen was a stage play, an entertainment. And the show had to go on.
But now, the ending had to be different.
His mind, accelerated by adrenaline, processed the new variables.
Plan A: Deactivate the Void Grenade. Result: The loop ends. The accumulated energy is released. The Hunter, which is here for that energy, feasts. Then, it likely turns its attention to the little anomaly who served it dinner. A dead end.
He needed a Plan B. One that not only resolved the loop but also left the predator empty-handed.
How do you steal the energy of a paradox?
The answer lay at the center of it all. The artifact.
Object: Dwarven Runic Stabilizer Function: Absorb and stabilize wild magic fluctuations.
The object's function was the key.
If he could get the Stabilizer, perhaps he could not only break the loop but also contain the released energy within the artifact itself.
It was a gamble of terrifying complexity, based on assumptions about how the System's physics worked. But it was the only move on the board that didn't end with his immediate death.
The loop reset. The familiar hum. The scene was restored.
Kaelen felt the Hunter's "eyes" on him, a pressure on his very existence. He couldn't hesitate. He had to act as if this new plan had been his intention all along.
"Show me the merchandise," the sorcerer hissed.
The clock started ticking. Kaelen watched, his body coiled as tight as a bowstring. He wasn't looking for the moment of betrayal. He was looking for his window of opportunity.
The mere seconds after the box was opened, but before the payment was exchanged and the grenade revealed.
The loop reset again. Kaelen took a deep breath. Now or never.
"Show me the merchandise."
Marco opened the box. The light from the Runic Stabilizer pulsed.
In that instant, Kaelen moved.
He burst from his cover behind the pillar, his legs pumping. The loop's entities, the "echoes," didn't see him, but the Hunter did. Kaelen was running directly into the heart of the drama.
He could phase through the echoes, but the artifact was an object with real, persistent code. He needed to touch it.
[user.kaelen] Initiate command: [override_status]. Target: [user.kaelen]. Change [Status: Ghostly (Passive)] to [Status: Physical Interaction (Active)]. Duration: 0.5 seconds.
It was a command he'd never attempted, an edit on his own being.
[system.kernel] WARNING: Self-status editing is highly unstable. High Entropy cost predicted.
Kaelen ignored the warning. Confirm.
A sharp pain lanced through his mind as his Entropy spiked. [Entropy Generation: 1.5%. Total Entropy Level: 7.5%]
For an unbearable fraction of a second, his body felt like it was becoming solid. His hands plunged into the box, his fingers closing around the pulsing stone of the Stabilizer. It was cool to the touch and vibrated with contained energy.
He had it.
Behind him, he heard the sorcerer's voice. "Thank you for your cooperation."
Time was up.
Kaelen didn't look back. He snatched the artifact and kept running. Behind him, the sound of shattering glass echoed through time and space. The Void Grenade detonated.
A wave of darkness and nothingness expanded, devouring the tunnel. Kaelen felt the pull of annihilation trying to catch him, but he was already diving back toward the entrance.
Then, something went wrong. The reset. The familiar pull that rewound him to the start of the cycle… it didn't come.
Instead, the world groaned.
The sewer tunnel shook violently. The walls began to dissolve, not in an explosion, but as if they were data being erased. The lines of code that made up the reality began to fray into static.
[SYSTEM WARNING] Central paradox resolved. Anchor-object removed. Loop instance is now collapsing.
He'd done it. He'd broken the loop. But he hadn't "fixed" it. He had broken it so fundamentally that the pocket reality itself was disintegrating.
And he was trapped inside it.
The Runic Stabilizer in his hand began to glow brightly, absorbing the chaotic energy of the collapse. It was working. But the collapse was too fast.
It was then that the pressure he felt changed. The Hunter's curious observation vanished, replaced by a wave of pure, glacial fury that was a physical force.
Entity: ??? (Paradox Hunter) Status: FURIOUS. Intent: Reclaim stolen energy. Dissect the anomaly.
The Hunter materialized on the other side of the collapsing tunnel. It wasn't a figure of flesh and blood, but a tear in reality itself, a silhouette of darkness filled with the vision of distant stars and dying galaxies. It had no face, but Kaelen felt a gaze of infinite hatred lock onto him.
Its meal had been stolen. And it was angry.
"Insolent larva," a voice resonated in Kaelen's mind, a voice made of the sound of cracking stone and breaking glass. "Return what is mine."
The Hunter raised a hand made of nothing and everything, and the collapsing reality around Kaelen began to twist, trying to crush him into oblivion.
Tools
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