Chapter 631 - Endless eight

Sofia stared at the door for an instant, though she wanted to run out and search for Pareth, she stopped herself, turning to Remia again.

“So. The way out?”

“W- Well… It’s easy. Kind of, but, I mean… You…”

“Are you not going to tell me?” Sofia asked with a surprising calm.

“I… You… Could you not stay?”

Sofia shook her head, “Sorry, no, I’m afraid I can’t.”

“Please…”

“I have people and things waiting for me outside. I can’t just stay here…”

Remia’s head hung down, her long white hair covering her blurry face. “They all say that…” she lamented.

“And for a good reason… Being trapped here…”

“I know…” Remia said, her voice breaking, “It’s just… So lonely here…”

Teardrops fell to the ground one after the other.

Sofia sighed, after some hesitation, she stepped forward and hugged the crying goddess. In Sofia’s eyes, she couldn’t be a bad person, the proof of that was that she was still alone. Considering that she was likely the sole person in this world knowing the way out, and also the only one capable of using magic, there was nothing stopping her from trapping others with her, if not herself.

“I can offer to search for a way to get you out. But I can’t stay,” Sofia told her.

Remia laughed nervously in between her sobs, “The other also said that. Fiends and Dragons… I’m still here… I don’t think it’s possible…”

Even the admin couldn’t get her out, then… That’s… This might be difficult.

“I won’t lie, I don’t have the faintest idea how I would get you out. I barely understand how this fake world works in the first place,” Sofia honestly told Remia, “but! I do have something the others before me didn’t,” Sofia said, “I’m working with the Deep.”

“The what?” Remia asked, still sobbing, and visibly not understanding what the Deep was at all.

“The origin of the Queen’s blood. The strange color corrupting everything outside. What that Serdross dragon attacked us with. I’m with them. That does not make me immune to its dangers, as you’ve seen, but I am on their side. If anyone can find out more about this place and how to get you out, it will probably be me.” 

Sofia continued to reassure the trapped goddess however she could for a good three minutes, until she finally opened up, fighting through her sobs and tears, about how one could leave the fake world.

It was not really ‘easy’ as Remia had first proclaimed, but it was ‘simple’ in theory. All one had to do was to find the catalyst anchoring this realm, the queen’s crown, which was somewhere in the palace, and to place it on one’s head to have them leave. It did not work for Remia, because she no longer had a proper body to return to outside, her corrupted shell no longer able to host her essence.

The only obstacle to the crown was chancellor Izzaro, who was both the zombie-like version Sofia had seen, and the giant Dragon which had killed Pareth and Pestle in the last loop. According to Remia, he was an immortal and mindless savage beast, protecting the palace and the crown at all times.

The explanation stopped there, because someone opened the door.

Sofia barely had any time to react before she was squeezed into a warm embrace by the large arms of a tall man. 

“Hey, hey! Don’t squeeze too hard! You’re going to crush Pestle,” Sofia joked, hugging the man back. “Welcome back, Pareth. Did you miss me that much?”

Of course Pareth could not answer, so Sofia just hugged him for as long as he wanted, patting his back. “I’m happy you’re with me again. But before anything else, any news about Alith and Bookie?”

Pareth finally let go of Sofia, taking a step back, he nodded in answer.

Sofia noticed that Pareth was squeezing a piece of paper in his right hand, she recognized the note she had left to the innkeeper earlier that day.

He must have rushed here.

“Great! You’ve already met Remia, right? She just told me about the way out. We just need to find the two others and we can try to leave. Also I promised her we would try to find her a way out too, even if it takes us a while. Hope you don’t mind.”

In a quick exchange, Sofia told Pareth everything he needed to know, from the way out to where she woke up every loop, so that he would be able to find her if they died again. Sofia also learned from Remia that the loops lasted exactly eight days, which were pretty much in real time outside, so altogether this was their nineteenth day in the loops. This raised questions about how Pestle was still there when her lifetime would have long run out, but Remia had no answer. That being said, she had more to say about other things.

“You should wake up somewhere in the Palace. Serdross pulled you in there, but I cannot see inside,” the goddess explained, “anything else you want to know?”

“Weren’t you supposed to go sing now?”

“We can stay in my closed spatial loop, it’s going to be a mess outside, but they won’t find us here. I can afford to skip one show…”

“Alright then, I do have a few questions. Do you want to get some news from the outside world in exchange, maybe?” Sofia asked.

“No, thank you… I think if I know too much I will end up going crazy. I… It has been hard enough keeping myself sane for so long…” 

“As you wish… Sorry…”

Remia answered with more nervous laughter, “It’s fine, really… In fact, it might be better for me to stay here anyway… After all, it’s already been thirty thousand years, right? What’s the point of going out only to end up-”

To end up?

There was another long silence.

Ahahah… More censoring?

Sofia turned to look at Pareth, he also seemed uncomfortable.

Is the ‘censored something’ she wants to avoid something that happens every thirty thousand years?

Like… Whatever cataclysm that made the lost epoch become the lost epoch?

That’s coming again soon?

Great. Just great.

The phageid invasion just around the corner clearly wasn’t enough. Unless that’s also hat happened the last time?

I need to reach 500, and FAST.

“So what do you want to know?” Remia continued after the long silence.

“Alright so… First of all, about that spell schematic I mentioned before, I know it’s on this moon somewhere, but I have no idea where, any guesses?”

“Hmm… I think I know, yes. There’s a rather intricate ritual engraved on the back of the Queen’s throne. That could be it. The throne is broken in this world, though, so even if you managed to get past Izzaro to find it, there’s only the bottom half. I have searched for the other half for a while, but I am confident it is not here in the looping world.”

“I guess we will have to try to find it in the real world, then… Assuming the Dragon doesn’t send us right back in here. Why did it even do that?”

“That is because of Izzaro…”

“The chancellor?”

Remia was silent for a second. “The tree,” she finally clarified.

“The massive tree, the tethers?”

“That’s him. This world is his creation. His ultimate effort to save his kingdom from-”

And censored again…

Well, at least we know of one way to survive whatever is coming. Even if it isn’t especially a good one…

“How are these things related, though?” Sofia asked when she guessed Remia was probably done talking.

“Well, this is just my guess, but I believe that all the creatures outside, Serdross and my own shell included, have become some sort of an immune system for the tree… It forces intruders into submission by sending them here. If you stay here too long, your body outside will probably become like that too…” Remia explained.

“And then we would be stuck here forever.”

“As am I…”

“Wait, does that mean Serdross is somewhere here? As well? And all the smaller creatures?”

Remia nodded, “The smaller creatures, as you call them… They’re all around us. The people here, in this world, well… As for Serdross, he… He used to be here, long ago. That was before I knew that the crown was the way out. He did not leave fast enough, and then… Let us just say… He had the courage to do what I could not…”

Once again the room was plunged into a cold silence, but this time, with no censoring involved.