We never got to see him using all those tricks and secrets people taught him to quickly rally his allies because he got that temp marker. This here, and more.

"I knew the academy couldn't teach you that well" Said Xvim, looking smug again. "Rather than working hard at improving your skill, you ran to the angels to get a magical cheat power. The lengths students will go nowadays to avoid working surprises even me."

Xvim and Alanic stood together, one an average height man of dark hair, another a short bald monk, conversing and swapping stories of his strange nature. Alanic had brought a pair of bulky muscled men, no doubt some church mages, along with Lukav. They'd cast soul shielding spells on everyone, along with several privacy spells to ensure that no one would see them as they spied from behind a hedge.

Taiven and several students she had called up stood lounging by a wall, staring at the ostentatious walls of the mansion. She was tapping her foot. She looked nervous.

This was what he had. Not enough people, but it was all he could summon up on short notice.

His plan was coming together. He needed Xvim. The loss of his spells meant he couldn't crack wards, and the Noveda mansion had a fierce ward. He knew enough details to guide Xvim, and Xvim's could fight amazingly as well.

Alanic was needed for soul magic and deadly fire magic. No doubt several magical cultists would be there, and without him they wouldn't stand much chance. Actual experienced mages with huge mana reserves helped a lot as well, and Zorian had no time to recruit mercenaries.

Taiven and her friends could take out weaker mages, and Taiven had a special purpose beyond that. He could have tried to tell teachers, tell others, but he knew from long experience that that took days.

Zorian polished his gun, using his shaping alteration skills to subtly alter it, adding a magical grenade launcher. Subtle magic flowed through it as he restored it from being a simple gun to the powerful weapon that he had made through the time loop. Most of his spell formulas and golem modifications had been erased, but he had enough skill to adapt something good on the fly.

He stood before the group, and started to speak, when a flash came from the mansion, a burst of powerful magic that he could feel.

"Necromancy" Said Alanic, a frown on his face. "I can feel the tug of it. Someone just died. We need to head in."

Xvim spoke up. "This is no place for children. I will teleport back and get other teachers."

Zorian stepped forward. " " He said quickly. "The angels told me that was of importance to you, a proof that I am truly unique?" That was the code that Xvim had given him to verify time travel. From the look on his face, he was pretty shocked to hear it. "How did you-" Zorian cut him off. "Angels" Xvim shook his head and Zorian continued. "You must trust me. The Angels have given me a very precise order of commands to save Cyoria and we children are vital."

Taiven spoke up. "If Roach can do this, I can."

Zorian gestured at her.

"See? We're good."

Xvim frowned, and then shook his head.

"I don't trust angels. I have heard enough stories of them directing poor fools into impossible battles."

Alanic waved his hand, indicating it was so so. "They don't have our best interests at heart always- but they're not cruel. There's always a good purpose in their actions, one that benefits the world. They don't coddle people, but they don't send people into a fight they can't win. They have excellent powers of prophesy."

Xvim shook his head again, muttering.

Zorian spoke again.

"The key thing first is getting inside the wards."

Xvim waved his hand dismissively. "The wards were sloppily made and cheaply maintained. I will have questions later as to why they went with the lowest bidding contractor. If I had an hour I could walk us in, and even now I can break us in with a microgate."

Zorian nodded. "We have a brief window. They don't have enough souls with soul sight since you Alanic and you Lukav survived, and I doubt any here other than Red Robe" The evil necromancer time looper. "Can teleport to new soul sight people. He will likely send some of his simulcrums away to gather more souls soon. He can't afford to drain that much mana fighting, so he'll need to send them out with mages."

As Zorian said this, two men in Red Robes and four cultists walked out of the mansion, all of them splattered in blood. Zorian quickly suppressed a smug look. Taiven looked sickened, and Alanic looked very angry. They weren't quite as used to death as him. Alanic stepped forward, as though to attack, and Zorian quickly went and grabbed his arm.

"Not now." He whispered. "They're extremely skilled mages. They'd survive, and finish the ritual."

Alanic nodded slowly. "I will remember their faces for later." Reluctantly, he stepped back.

Once the two groups were outside the teleport wards where they could teleport cheaply and not drain mana from the ritual, the two simulcrums and their mage allies teleported away.

Zorian finished his modifications of his rifle, and loaded the special grenade round. "Now."

Xvim spoke. "It's done."

The group charged forward, the wards ignoring them as the ward breaking bubble Xvim had gated in expanded to let them through.

Zorian and Taiven diverted away from the rest going in through a side door, one for servants. The door was locked but Zorian touched it and it quickly unlocked it by manually manipulating the tumblers inside. There was a spell to prevent locking spells, but they weren't made to handle raw shaping.

"You have to hook me up with an angelic contract, I want to do that too." Taiven looked greedy for his power.

Zorian shook his head. "I could do that before I got upgraded."

Taiven glanced at him. "There's a lot I don't know about you."

A sudden shake rippled through the house. The cabinet he was next to ripped open, spewing out forks and knives all over the wooden floor. Zorian righted himself and moved on. The fight had begun.

"I promise I'll tell you later. Got an evil necromancer to stop now." They headed onwards, grabbing at expensive furniture which Zorian recognized as from far off lands with magical woods while explosions and blasts of magic rippled through the house. They had an ambush to plan.

They arrived at an ornate door. Zorian could see an alarm spell on the door. It was a good, solid spell, hastily thrown up. He grabbed the spell, and twisted it with his raw shaping skills to continually send happy signals back through.

He looked back at Taiven. "Trust me, I've got this handled. When I say your name come through, and not till then."

"Sure, Roach? You're got basically no mana."

Zorian nodded. "I'm sure. Stay hidden." She stepped behind the door, sighing, and waited.

Zach was floating inside, unconscious, trails of mana holding him. An incredibly complicated set of geometric figures floated around him, eyes and lines and circles and semicircles, orbiting his body. All together it made a massive spherical shape, each side hexagonal, lines connecting many of the corners. At the centre of each of the 32 faces floated the soul of someone with soul sight. 30 of them had been filled already.

Red Robes stood at the centre of it, chanting, casting the complicated ritual spell. Tendrils of magic as thick as his thumb flew out, adding to the lines and the spell structure. It was a pretty shoddily done job. It was all shiny and pretty, but that was because the spell boundaries on the spell were loose and thick. He could have done a far better job.

They were in the Noveda family ritual room, there for spells. There were desks filled with spell components, training dummies, draws of spell items, and a lot of very ornate and not useful things all around.

Zorian spread his feet to better take the kickback, pulled the rifle up to his shoulder, one hand resting on the trigger another on the stock. Pressing his cheek to the rifle to get a better angle, he breathed out, and fired.

The bullet exploded out making his ear ring. Before he could see what had happened he quickly pulled the slide bolt to eject the spent casing, let the gun come down and fired again. The gun felt hot enough to scorch his hand now. He gently moved his mana through it, directing the heat away. He let the butt nestle against his shoulder again, pulled the slide bolt, and fired a third shot.

This was the first of his surprises. Red Robe had a specialized anti bullet shield, specialized to stop bullets. The problem with specialized shields was they were terrible at blocking anything outside what they were designed to block. He had etched a very small dispelling spell on the bullets, giving them enough of a kick to shatter the shield.

He channelled away the heat, pulled the slide bolt back again, ejecting another casing, and fired again. His finger stung and burnt from the rapid pulls. Every time he started again he had this issue, since the time loop removed any calluses or toughness. His baby soft hands were not used to the roughness of a gun.

He kept firing. Five bullets ripped through Jornak. He didn't seem especially hurt. No doubt he had some necromantic blood magic of inhuman toughness. He was more shocked.

"You shot me, again!" With a casual gesture, not even stopping the ritual, he tossed the gun out of Zorian's hand. Then he flung his hand at Zorian- actually ripping it away from his own body- his hand growing and twisting to be the size of a large dog, pinning him down to the floor. Wet fangs dripped above his head.

That looked like what the Primordial could do. Fluid shapeshifting.

"This bargain isn't going to end out well for you." Zorian said. The creature above him, that looked like a twisted hybrid of a dog, an insect, and fungi, pinned him down easily. It's breath smelled of decay and death.

"Necessity drives a hard bargain. I didn't know who the gods would send. Panaxeth said that the Lich might be coming, or Zach. I am glad it was you. I'll get to kill you properly. You and the two soul mages you brought with you."

Red Robe then shuddered, and coughed up blood. Zorian grinned.

The monster on top of him pressed Zorian down, making his bones creak like they were about to break, and cracking several ribs. "What did you do to me?"

His second surprise. He had seen that Red Robe wasn't that concerned about being shot. He suspected some blood magic that let him anchor his soul to his body better, so physical damage didn't matter. If he really wanted to he could have shielded himself better, but why bother when he was facing Zorian, with just a gun and a few spells?

That had been an idiot attitude before in him, and was idiotic now. Zorian had loaded up the bullets with a very potent poison he had stolen to add some extra kick.

"Do you really think I'll tell you? Your ritual will fail. You are going to die."

Red Robe shook his head. "No. I can sense you have lost much of your mental power. I'll rip it out of you."

Red Robe's mind lashed out at his, crude mind magic crushing his mental defences. Since he had arrived Zorian had been frantically practising his mind magic with every moment he had. There was only so much he could do though. Mind magic, like any magic, took time as your soul learned how to manipulate it's subtle powers. He had no hope of defeating Red Robe in a mental duel.

Not unless Red Robe entered his mind. He felt a painful sensation of agony as the power forced it's way into him, tearing out memories of the poison. Zorian shouted out "No!" as he clamped down his years of practise fighting hostile mind monsters and assaults with his raw shaping skills, filling the attack with static.

He wouldn't have had a chance of distracting Red Robe at his peak. Red Robe was distracted doing a ritual though, and was poisoned, and had a sudden mental assault to handle. It was enough of a distraction for his third surprise, that he had just summoned.

Taiven stepped out from behind the door, aimed her spell rod, and pushed a lot of her mana into it.

Zorian currently had 8 units of mana. At his peak he had around 40, after years in the time loop. Taiven had more like 60. It was a crude spell, quickly designed to stabilize a single massive dispelling beam. Red Robe should have seen it, but before he had evaded Red Robe with a simple soul shielding spell. Red Robe was terrible at divination, and hadn't noticed her. Red Robe's quickly thrown up shields and defences evaporated.

Zorian then shoved almost all of his remaining mana into a powerful mental blast. It was much cruder than anything he had done before, cruder than what a child Aranea could do. More like static than an actual attack. But it distracted Red Robe for a moment, as he levitated his gun up and fired the under barrel grenade launcher at Red Robe.

His fourth surprise. Soul magic was slow, hard to cast in battle. Alanic had agreed, after some persuasion about the will of the angels, to cast this for him.

As the grenade hit Red Robe the stored spell within erupted. A giant flaming scorpion emerged, grand and powerful, and stabbed it's flaming tail into Red Robe. The flames passed through him, striking straight at his soul rending apart the life force surrounding it.

Red Robe dropped to the ground, as did Zach, with a meaty thud. The hand dog monster on him reverted to being a normal human hand. The elaborate spellwork around him started to fray and collapse.

Red Robe spoke. "Next time." And touched some spell item. He teleported away.

Zorian looked up to Taiven. "Get this thing off me. I need to stabilize the ritual." She yanked the creature off him. It twitched. He glanced at it, and shook his head.

"We need to get out of here." Said Taiven.

He shook his head.

"There's too much mana in that spell. There's enough here to blow up the mansion, and everything around it.

He pointed at a corner of the spell, where positive feedback was causing self destructive bubbles to wash through the spell.

"Dispel that with the rod." He ordered her. She looked at him funny, and then that face of the spell exploded. A crimson light filled the room, and Zorian could feel his flesh burning. "Quickly!" He shouted at her.

She dispelled the corner. It collapsed, safely. Zorian used his mana sight and years of experience and pointed out another corner, and a face, and a faulty line. The captured souls were safely released from their containers, and the spell energy vented away from them. She cast ray after ray of dispelling hit, knocking out each target.

"We're almost there" Promised Zorian. "I'm out of mana-" Taiven said, gasping. She looked at him, a pleading, fearful look in her eyes. Zorian spoke. "You need to keep dispelling. Use ambient mana." Taiven drew on the toxic ambient mana around them. Immediately, lines of corruption spread through her face as The Dragon Below's Mana tried to kill her. She stabilized it, showing that she had some experience doing this, and cast another dispel.

It was a close thing. Taiven was close to collapse by the time the ritual was collapsed. But she stopped it. All the remaining mana was vented into the wards. The Noveda family wards collapsed around them.

Too long after that, Xvim, Lukav and Alanic arrived to meet up with them, Lukav in the form of an injured giant lizard. They had faced fierce resistance from the cultists within, and a pair of Simulacrums that had sought to capture them. Their focus on taking them out non lethally had likely saved them from being killed despite the simulacrum's incredible magical prowess and strength. They had to throw out all their most powerful spells to survive, and it had still been a close thing, till the simulacrums had collapsed. They'd then fought through the cultists. The two church men were injured- the simulacrum had some sort of transforming power like this one had, tossing shapeshifting limbs to poison and strangle people.

He managed to convince Alanic to claim it as a church operation, told him to give Zach soul restoring potions, and got Xvim to teleport him and Taiven and her friends away. He swore Taiven and her friends to silence in return for a heavy bribe.

He had other things he needed to do. Red Robe's powers had advanced and while there was going to be a political storm he needed every moment he had to prepare for the next fight. He would have been out of it for at least six months after that much soul damage but with whatever enhancements the primordial had given Red Robe, he couldn't be sure how long he would be-

Two months. You did a number on him, but he has extremely good regeneration and can drain others of their souls to restore his own. Spoke a voice in his head.

"Lopova?" He said.

Xvim looked at him. "The goddess of thieves?"

He looked at Xvim. He tried to speak and make some hasty excuse, but he found he couldn't speak. Xvim had a blank look on his face.

I'm no construct. My main self replicated her divine soul and sent me with you. You didn't think that after all those promises she would just send you off alone? No, I am here to make sure you live up to your promise. I know of course you would never ever think of simply stringing a god along with promises in the hopes that she would help you more. But, here I am to help. You lucky dog you. That said, I am not actually supposed to be here. No telling others till you have divine shielding or you get to the middle layers of the dungeon. I wiped his memory of the last 30 seconds and froze his perception, but I can't do that too often.

Xvim was an archmage, and had a very powerful, and disciplined mind. Even when Zorian had very powerful mind magic he couldn't just wipe his memories like that. He could never have done this. And she had just done it casually. That was bullshit.

I am a god. We are bullshit. I need to stay secret though, so no saying my name to random strangers. Xvim's mind is impressive though. I need to do a bunch of perceptual filters on his senses because he knows exactly where the ambient mana is in the room and dust particles and his mana levels, which have gone up slightly while I'm dazing him, and he is doing a weird dimensional magic that lets him know the time. Don't make me do this too often or he might figure something out. Lopova out.

Xvim's eyes stopped glazing over. He had a slightly confused look, as though he sensed something was off. Zorian quickly tried to distract him.

"The first step of the angelic plan is complete. Thank you for your aid. I can reveal more. The Mage Guild is secretly infested by an evil cult, the Dragon Below, which is working with foreigners from Ulquaan Ibasa to release a primordial at the end of this month. The dimensional alignment allows them to open his tomb, ending the world. This defeat should notably weaken them, but the fight is not over. I need you to help me. First, could you see if you can locate Red Robe from his hand with tracking spells?"

Xvim nodded. "Did the angel give you verifiable proof of this?" Zorian nodded, and began listing off members of the cult, locations where they had documents proving this, the location of the secret underground base.

"I understand that you need time to verify this. I need something from you though, while you check this out." He was on a two month timeline, and needed every moment he could get. That meant not mentioning the time loop or revealing he lied while Red Robe healed in some far off location.

"I need to do things. I need you to show me how to cast an invisibility spell, a mental shield spell, a mental shield ward, magic missile, fireball and a tracking spell that can find monsters with their body parts."

"Are you turning to crime?" Xvim asked bluntly.

"It's the end of the world. Of course I am turning to crime."

Xvim shook his head. "Going for the quick route for shaping, and the easy route for solving problems. Modern students."

Zorian spread his arms wide. "If it works, it works.

He got the spells, and Xvim did the ritual tracking spell. No luck, Red Robe must be behind anti divination wards. After that he excused himself and went to Taiven. She was quite pumped. She'd just become involved in something massive. She was also angry, and repeatedly hit him when he couldn't give her a way to get her own shaping skills. He got a promise from her to show him some of her spells later in return for a duel. She probably wanted to pound something to dust.

With the spells, he turned to a life of crime. He had no doubt that killing a lot of important members of the Mage Guild had kicked up the hive. Red Robe had pressed people quickly into service, and they'd died. The sudden vanishing of a host of church officials who had soul sight had likewise caused chaos. Things were happening, but so long as Alanic took the credit he wouldn't be blamed for them.

He robbed several stores for spell item components and alchemy components. He raided more of the invader's caches for money. He stole a high ranked library card to get him into the deeper areas of the library where there were more spells.

He tried to question his errant goddess again, but she remained silent. Of course, he would never seek to screw her over, ever, he told himself, but couldn't they value freedom? He didn't want her here, but she could at least talk to him more.

After preparing a ward and several spell items for his own protection he visited the Aranea below, and in return for an immense bribe and a promise of aid in murdering the Cranium rats managed to secure a teacher for his mind arts.

He fell into a familiar routine. He skipped classes, learned spells, went to practise sessions. He had several talks with Alanic and Xvim about the cultists. He had indeed stirred the city into fierce activity, and all sorts of important people were being questioned. Abducting a noble heir and killing hosts of members of the church was a step too far. He directed them to hurt them and keep them off balance as best he could to prevent Red Robe from organizing any effort against Zach.

He managed to take out some himself, with invisibility and his own combat experience too much for the slower ones, and practised his still extremely crude mind arts, driving them insane as he ripped memories out of their minds.

After losing a duel to Taiven since she had vastly more mana than him he hunted down the remaining cranium rats with her so the invaders would not have any spies within the city. She taught him a variety of wards, utility spells, attack spells, and he advanced quickly in skill.

At nights he delved into the libraries, restoring his lost magical knowledge step by step, spell by spell. His soul started to fill in the gaps the Dragon Below had torn from it, spell knowledge filling in. He learned the basics of soul protection and detection rituals from Alanic again, all the while having detailed and in depth discussions on theology that he had taught him, learned a number of powerful fire spells.

He worked with Edwin and what remained of his burnt and erased memory of golems to forge new golems to fight for him. He prepared dozens of new spell formulas to replace the ones erased.

He managed to convince Xvim to help him break into the Black Room, making the documents needed and procuring potions from Lukav to transform his own form. He spent a month in there with Xvim swapping barbs, learning spells, and practising his mind magic. He also had a long discussion with Xvim about Zach.

It was just two months. But, it was two months of very dedicated practise. Without his shaping skills he would have had no chance against a well prepared Red Robe. With them, maybe he would have a chance. He needed an edge though. Something that would utterly counter Red Robe's might.

That meant he needed to unlock Zach's hidden knowledge of how to collect the five imperial treasures. The triggering condition for that was stopping the invasion without anyone knowing of his identity as a time looper.

Red Robe was out of action. Zorian had a rare opportunity. He could gain the secrets of the angels that were meant to allow Zach to easily collect all five divine artifacts.

He got his chance near the end of the month. Zorian had been bribing Benisek to keep him up to date on class events while he had just done the bare minimum to keep access to the library. Benisek told him that Zach had staggered into class, looking very much worse for wear.

So, Zorian headed to meet up with Zach, in an alchemy class. Zach was arguing, successfully, with his teacher about obscure facts of alchemy and how to prepare potions. He patiently waited till the end of class.

Once they were outside, Zorian enacted his plan to fool the angelic contract. Zorian was chatting happily with Raynie.

Zorian grabbed Zach by his arm. Zach immediately started protesting, but Zorian ignored him.

"I'm stealing Zach, sorry."

Raynie asked.

"Why?"

Zorian shrugged.

"Time magic stuff. He told you about it right?"

She looked annoyed. "He did keep insisting he was a time traveller. Private prank?"

Zorian nodded. "Yes. Zach is such a player. See you." And he dragged Zach away

Zach spoke. "You know about-" Zorian shook his hand. "Don't say it. I've got an angelic contract like you. If you tell me about the time loop, you have to kill me. There are several of us loopers across different worlds, each seeking to find our way. I finished my loop and got dunked into yours. Talking about parallel worlds is fine though." Since that wasn't actually how the time loop worked. He had done his best to say nothing that was a lie.

Zach cheered, and hugged him. "Yes, finally. I knew we were going from parallel world to parallel world. Do you know who else can do that?"

Zorian grinned at him. "I promise to tell you everything at the end of the month. Is that ok?"

Zach shook his head. "I've used that line enough times I deserved it. Still though-"

"I can kill Red Robe.

Zach paused for a few seconds and spoke again.

"You can?"

Zorian took out Red Robe's hand from a hidden, cooled pocket.

"Yes he is. I led a raid on the ritual he was using to slay you. His name was Jornak. He was a lawyer, and a member of the cult. I damaged his shaping severely with soul magic, and I know where he wakes up in the loop."

"We can kill him! Finally. I am so up for this." Zach said, pumping his fist. "I can tell there's a catch. What do you need?

"I can't guarantee he'll stay dead. I can kill him, but the only way to do it is invasive mind magic.

Zach shook his head. "I'm not letting anyone in my mind. Never, not gonna happen again."

The angelic contract was speaking again. "I know, Zach. I have to do it. That means from you I need every bit of help you can get me. I need two weeks more of time from black rooms. I need you to help me practice combat magic. I have already had the spell cast on me which lets me do this. I need you to give me my all for this."

Zach looked at him, worried. "What did you do?"

Zorian spoke. "I got Xvim to cast a mind magic spell on me that will force me to wake up as soon as the loop begins. It will wake me up while they're all sleeping, I can get you, and together we are going to teleport straight to Red Robe, and kill him."

I wondered why Zorian never got this. It seems to me like waking up earlier could offer a whole host of nice opportunities. Now we shall see, does Red Robes have Red PJs as well.