A large, mildly deep sparkling pond was in the middle of a thick purple forest, as Apricus floated on the surface of the glimmering pond. His decently long but straight blood red hair covered most of his face but through the gaps killing intent shone on the surface of his hellfire like, dark red eyes.
He was contemplating quite a few different things when a glimmering object flew through the sky, its trajectory aimed right at Apricus. However the pond suddenly exploded, as water was sent flying everywhere Apricus was sent flying towards the glimmering object.
The glimmering object was a beast made out of glass and crystals. It was quite large with a big crystal spike protruding from its uneven back. Instead of hands it had small glass like but sharp scythes. Its body was covered in small cracks and crystals, however it had no mouth or nose, only a horizontal rectangular head with sharp spikes on the two ends and red circular eyes on the glass surface of the rectangle.
They met in the sky, exchanged blows before the creature was once again sent flying into the forest, the fight continued as Apricus gained the upper hand even though the creature had mainly relied on long distance crystal attacks, to counter Apricus had relied on explosive power and speed, shortening the distance and almost managing to close the curtains on the fight.
However the mysterious purple eyes once again managed to kill Apricus by cutting him vertically in half along with the glass creature Apricus had fought for so long. And once more the world exploded in light where everything repeated once again.
He found himself floating on the glimmering pond, meeting the creature in the air, fighting and almost managing to beat it, and then getting killed by the purple eyes. before the world exploded in light, however some times he was killed earlier on, sometimes by the glass creature, other times by purple eyes, and in some cases by other factors but once he did the world exploded in light and the loop restarted. Furthermore every single time without fail the reindeer had appeared, taken a sip of the pond, staggering, and then dying a terrifying death.
Sometimes this process took longer, other times it took a literal mere second for the reindeer to go through the process, and without knowing it depended on how long Apricus would live for that loop. However, Apricus was oblivious not even gaining a hint of suspicion, to him it was all for the first time.
He was even more clueless to the fact that everytime he died the physical and mental pain would increase by two fold even if he died the same way before the physical pain would increase, while the mental pain would continue to build and build, gathering for when it was time to strike.
So he died again and again clueless about his previous deaths, in some cases the pain would be so agonizing he would die instantly, even something like a scratch felt like being stabbed repeatedly.
Apricus floated on the pond, then he died a few minutes later. He floated on the pond once more and died once again. This time he stood on the pond observing the clear blue sky and then died exactly seventeen seconds later. He swam in it and then died again.
Then he died again by a crystal shot from the glass creature.
He died once more by being pierced through the head.
He died again by falling from great height.
He died some more after getting sliced by the glass creature.
He drowned after the creature landed on him in the pond.
Purple eyes threw a mountain at him for the fun of it, crushing him to death.
Then was his first death from having a tree thrown at him.
After he was poisoned.
Then purple eyes got so angry he tortured Apricus in the forest to death.
Later, Apricus was crushed to death by the glass creature.
After that he was beaten to death.
Other times the pain from a mere scratch would kill him.
Then he died in more various ways, each time the pain doubling.
However, Apricus was not the only one facing death. The reindeer had died every cycle but unlike Apricus it died in the exact same way every time. Strangely the water itself posed no threat to life so it was simply just dying. This continued for what felt like an eternity yet for Apricus it was his first life every time. Even though his longest loop lasted an hour, time only repeated in the loop, so the area outside of the loop remained unaffected, and so for the rest of the world multiple hours had already passed.
Finally an anomaly appeared, a singular red leaf in a forest filled with purple trees landed on the water near Apricus's head. Fortunately Apricus was no ignoramus instead he was quite adroit in the cognitive compartment, and so he instantly realized something was wrong.
'Huh, this leaf has a hint of foreign soul, not only that but it's red. I think the soul seems like it's from a human but I don't sense anyone around.'
But before he could think of solutions, he was once again battered by the glass creature and killed by purple eyes. In the next life the red leaf did not come back. Albeit Apricus still had some recollection of it landing near his head which put Apricus in a mental turmoil.
'Why do I keep remembering a red leaf all of a sudden. It's frustratingly been on my mind the entire fight, it's become a pestilential distraction now.'
Then he was beheaded at light speed the next moment. Unfortunately the image of the leaf become more and more blurry after every death and even though Apricus couldn't remember his previous deaths he became more and more confused of the blurry image of the leaf before it finally faded from his memory around thirteen deaths later, putting him back where he started, on square one.
After a couple dozen more deaths he defeated the glass creature for the fourth time before managing to land a hit on purple eyes for the first, even though it did not even create a scratch on the eyes.
'Tch I guess you're stronger than you look, stupid eyes.'
Apricus stood in front of purple eyes from around ten feet away staring at him with a twisted smile. Even though purple eyes was still covered in darkness, both of their bodies were still being reflected on a nearby puddle of water. Yet in the next moment the eyes moved toward Apricus stabbing him in the heart before he could even blink. Purple eye's shadow and reflection could not keep up with the physical body so they stood at his former spot, detached from the body ten feet away from Apricus, Then the world turned into light.
At this point he had died 1,108 times, and he was simply unaware of the fact. His ignorance pushed him towards mental exhaustion even though he did not remember all those deaths, the mental exhaustion had reached its breaking point so he eventually started passing out and drowning before attempting to resurface from the water, once he finally got out from the puddle, he would instantly die without having time to fight back. So he started dying within a minute or two, sometimes even less when his mind refused to wake up. After resurfacing from the pond he had even questioned his tiredness a couple of times before he was crushed by the glass creature.
'Wh-why do I feel so tired all of a sudden, I just wanna sleep but I can't, not yet.'
Just as the thought passed his mind, an outsider had finally arrived.
'What, what is this nauseating aura, it's so suffocating I might pass out.'
Apricus staggered near the pond, looking up for the source of this terrifying aura. Even though it was clearly projected by a human, he would have mistaken it for an Unholy Creature if he did not concentrate on it.
Just then a glimmering object appeared in the sky, and just like every other time its trajectory was aimed for Apricus.