'It has been so much…' Tyel began to drift in his mind as the countless scenes of his companions getting killed were played.
'At first I couldn't save them…' Tyel began to remember that before he decided to kill himself to prevent his friends from dying, 'after that I ended up dying... how many times?' Tyel began to remember that after the try in the prison, with his group he had tried countless of them.
'After that… we tried to go again from the exit in the sanctuary… but Vane got too loud and Ashikunz spotted us,' this was the first try the group had tried after the failed loop in the prison, but with the beginning of this try, Tyel's mind had started to change.
'I can't let them die…' thought Tyel, while in front of him Lily was about to get decapitated. He grabbed the knife and pierced his own throat.
'After that we tried another try in the prison…' Tyel with the others ordered Vane, Lily, Orechin, and Catripple to go and kill Corvinus before he could warn Ashikunz. But not only did the guard warn the emperor… Catripple didn't even make it out alive.
'At least that was one of the few tries I couldn't kill myself to prevent the others from dying…' Tyel began to hold his chest while biting his lower lip.
'After that we tried once again to go from the exit in the secret laboratories… it was… tiring…' Tyel couldn't prevent the others from looking around and discovering the things he had already seen in the previous loop, so he had to fake being interested and surprised in what they were seeing, even if he already knew everything.
'And even if we came out with Liro's illusion, and Lily sent one of her roots to distract Ashikunz from the other side…' Tyel remembered that in this try Lily had used her roots, and she sent them to make some movements in the desert, so that the group could pass without having the worry that Ashikunz could spot them.
'But that didn't work either… even with the slightest movement he was able to spot us… with that I began to understand that passing without making him see us is impossible and totally out of the question…'
As the loop continued, Tyel's condition worsened too, and not only mentally. After every loop his soul was always in a worse condition, and while the others tried to ask Tyel to stop using his power and to not focus so much, he simply shook his head and always tried to reassure them.
But the tone shifted after every loop. Tyel's way of speaking became more tired, his group didn't know anymore what to think, and when Tyel felt the urge to talk about his power, he always resisted, 'I don't want my friends to realize what we've been through… but maybe I should?' Every time Tyel walked with the others to reach the exit, he had this thought, but he never found the chance to do it.
'I was scared… why should I say it now? What would they say to me? They would see that I've always lied to them… they will be angry… I couldn't allow myself to ruin this mission… so we just kept going with the other loops.'
Tyel remembered that in the latest tries, he tried to fight Ashikunz head-on, using everything he had learned in his previous loops, with the only purpose to make Ashikunz tired and actually damage his armor.
'In some tries we've actually been able to do it… some scratches appeared thanks to Vane's claws or Lily's roots… but that was it.' Tyel remembered the scene and how his companions were in the worst possible situation ever, 'That is why they would be angry… I lied to them… they were probably waiting for instructions thanks to my power… they were uncoordinated…'
'The latest try…' Tyel began to remember the latest try, this one being the one in which he couldn't hold it anymore.
'Move please…' Tyel ordered his hands to move and grab the knife in his pockets, but he couldn't do it; his whole body was shaking too much.
'Please, this is one of the latest tries… move…' Tyel couldn't resist anymore and he broke down in tears while in front of him his friends were slowly losing once again against Ashikunz.
"Vane!!" shouted Lily while in front of her Vane was about to get pierced by Ashikunz's spear in his stomach.
Vane turned at the last moment into an eagle and tried to fly up, 'I'll gain some sp—' Vane couldn't even finish his thought before Ashikunz, dodging Lily's roots that had appeared to block his legs, jumped and kicked Vane with a lot of strength.
Vane, unable to maintain his animal form, while he was flying returned to his human form and landed directly on top of Lily. Both of them, unable to resist the force of the attack, were sent flying away for several meters.
"AHH!!" shouted Martheel. "Water, fill him up!!" Suddenly a huge tsunami appeared on top of Ashikunz and the water, after it was able to hit him, entered his armor through the holes.
"I told you… to stop being annoying with your water!" Ashikunz shook his head so all the water went away from his armor, and with a clean rush, he sliced Martheel's body in half.
"MARTHEEL!!" shouted Catripple as she launched multiple feathers towards the distracted Ashikunz. As the feathers arrived on his back, the krukin couldn't defend itself, and as the feathers exploded, a part of his armor got charred.
"We're damaging him!" shouted Catripple. Ashikunz in anger tried to rush towards Catripple, but Orechin behind his sister made a huge red crystal appear between them.
"You won't!" The red crystal was unlike anything Orechin had ever created; in fact, with only the creation of this crystal his vision became blurry, while Catripple in front of him was only bleeding.
"Attention!" shouted Catripple as the red crystal Orechin had created exploded; with her wings she protected both herself and Orechin.
Ashikunz after the explosion got sent flying away, 'Tch… I shouldn't have followed that root girl at the start.' Since the start of this fight, Lily, with the help of Orechin, had used her vine walk and tried to make Ashikunz more tired.
Lily, now lying on the ground with her vision blurry, noticed Ashikunz flying after the explosion with his body having almost touched the ground. "You'll… not get away like this!" The moment she closed her hand, a huge root appeared on the ground and rushed directly towards Ashikunz. 'Shit, I don't have enough stamina to completely block this!' Ashikunz rotated mid-air, and right before he was about to slice the root with his spear, the object about to pierce him suddenly gained more speed.
"YOU WILL NOT RESIST THIS!" shouted Lily. As the root gained more speed, Ashikunz was caught by surprise and completely missed the thing.
The root was finally able to pierce Ashikunz, and it passed through his body. Everyone else looked at that scene and blinked in surprise, especially Tyel, who couldn't believe his eyes.
'We damaged him?' thought Tyel in surprise. 'No, no, we have damaged him already multiple times… we have pierced his body now!' Tyel's body began to shake in excitement because of the damage, but also in fear as he looked once again at his lifeless friend's body.
"There has to be something we can do!" shouted Darian as he tried everything he could to save Martheel, who was sliced in half and had already ceased to breathe.
"We can't do anything for him…" answered Liro while breathing heavily. His body had turned transparent, as he had used a lot of his magic to create baits for Ashikunz.
"Still…" Syrmax looked perfectly at the place where the armor had been pierced by the root and was slowly regenerating. "If I could use my power… I would have definitely created huge damage… we should have waited for the morning…" Syrmax looked behind and realized that the sun would finally rise in a few minutes, but it still wasn't enough for him to charge his power.
"But if you decided on this time… surely you had a plan, right, Tyel?" asked Syrmax as he turned back to his friend, who had his eyes stuck on Ashikunz. The moment the armor regenerated, Ashikunz landed on the ground and looked at the human with angry eyes.
"I must congratulate you… no one has ever been able to do this much damage after I gained this armor…" He positioned himself in an attack pose when suddenly two roots emerged from the ground and tried to hit him, but the emperor with a clean movement was able to slice them without any problem.
"I hope I have put enough poison into his body…" Lily tried to stand on her feet while Vane did the same. Syrmax and Catripple tried to stand up too, but for Catripple it was harder and she fell again to her knees.
"It was a five versus one… now it's a four versus one?" Ashikunz suddenly tilted his head towards the other humans who weren't fighting anymore. "Maybe… if all of you had fought against me… you would have had the slightest chance to make me use at least half of my stamina…"
"Don't get too distracted!" shouted Vane as he turned into an eagle and rushed once again towards Ashikunz, with his body having been turned as hard as he could make it.
'He's really moving slower…' pointed out Tyel as he realized that Ashikunz, in all the other loops, would have sliced Vane in half without any problem. 'But…' Tyel realized too that even if the others were trying their best, it was impossible.
Soon enough, everyone else began to fall under the emperor's overwhelming power. The first one, who was the most vulnerable, was Catripple, and she got pierced by the spear.
Orechin tried to defend her with a red crystal, but he didn't have enough time to make it bigger, and even if the explosion created some damage on Ashikunz, the krukin was still able to pierce the woman.
Vane with the support of Lily's roots tried to pierce the emperor. "If you've been pierced by her root… you won't resist my claws!" In fact, Vane had been able to pierce Ashikunz's arm with his claws. "ARGH!!" shouted Vane as he did everything he could to actually rip off the krukin's arm, but like the emperor, he was tired too.
"It won't work," said Ashikunz as he sliced Vane in half.
"VANEEE!!" shouted Lily. Other roots appeared from the ground and pierced Ashikunz directly in his legs. The krukin, caught by surprise, couldn't help but feel the hit on his legs, and more poison started to spread through his body.
"It can't be…" whispered Tyel as he couldn't take it anymore and broke down in tears. "We… we were so close…" said he as countless tears fell from his eyes.
"So close?" asked Ashikunz as he cut Lily's roots with his spear and began to walk towards Orechin and Lily, who were both shaking.
"That's true… I don't know how you gained this information… but the more you tired me… the bigger damage you could make," answered Ashikunz as he kept walking more slowly towards the two scared humans.
"And we didn't even bring you to 50%?" asked Syrmax as he fell to his knees, realizing that after all of this, the chances of winning had become 0.
Ashikunz looked for a moment at Syrmax, and after he recognized him, he began to walk again. "I must say it was around 60%... but with your help you could have easily brought me to 50%... and if there was the help of the other?" said Ashikunz, referring to Darian. "Even 45%... still, it all depends on how you would have played it."
"But Snowy is asleep… he can't wake up for multiple days…" said Darian as he gritted his teeth.
"It doesn't matter what we do… we weren't even able to bring him into an actual critical phase…" Tyel smashed his fist on the ground as he realized everything was over.
"It…" More tears began to fall from his eyes. "It can't be… we've tried so hard… after all these loops…" he whispered. Ashikunz didn't hear him, as the voice was covered by the screams of Lily and Orechin.
"And I hoped too much in the others… I made them suffer once again…" Tyel, with his face buried in the sand, kept crying as the pain was strong.
"What are you talking about, Tyel?" asked Syrmax as he could only smile, realizing that the end was near and nothing could save them anymore.
"I failed…" said he. Syrmax shook his head. "We failed together… we tried our best, it was just an impossible matchup," said he, but Tyel kept crying non-stop.
"You… you have all simply followed my orders… I did everything I could… I'm sorry… I don't want to die again… to restart everything… I'm tired…" Tyel spoke with his mouth directly buried in the sand, so if for Syrmax it was hard to understand, for Ashikunz it was almost impossible.
"It's annoying hearing you cry." Without any hesitation, Ashikunz slashed off Tyel's head.
'And this is how I ended up like this… everything I did was useless…' Tyel, who finally couldn't hold it anymore, fell to the ground and began to cry in front of the others.
"Tyel, what is it?" asked Martheel, scared.
"We were trying to ask you what happened and why you've used your future sight so much," asked Darian, worried to see him transparent.
"What did you see?" asked Orechin, worried about the future Tyel might have seen.
'I'm tired… dying hurts me so much…' Tyel, who still couldn't hold back his tears, tried to search for the strength to speak; only small words were coming out of his mouth.
'Still, it's the last one… after this I'll reach the final stage and who knows what will await me…' Tyel, still with his face full of tears, tried to speak.
"A lie…" said he. The others looked at him, confused.
"A lie? What do you mean?" asked Syrmax, confused.
"It was all a lie… I never had this power," said Tyel as he looked at the others with his eyes full of tears. The others, who at first didn't realize what was happening, remained confused at first.
"Wh-what do you mean?"