Learning to Love Time Loops Without Going Insane

Loop 24 - Part 5

Cal had been walking down the path for a few minutes when the grade of the tunnel floor became steeper than he could easily keep a foothold on. He pushed some of his energy out through his feet into the ground to help him keep his balance as he walked. It worked well for a few steps when suddenly his powers stopped. He couldn’t feel his connection to the spirits at all, and to make matters worse, he was now on his ass sliding down the tunnel, quickly gaining speed.

“Fuuuuuck.” He screamed out in panic. In the distance, he saw a sharp turn in the path. He knew he was about to crash into the wall. He pushed as deep as he could into the mana core and forced out every bit of energy he had left. His slide slowed. He crashed into the wall slowly enough that he only had a few bruises but no breaks. He was utterly exhausted again. His mana core had been entirely drained twice in the last few hours. It was a feeling he was not enjoying.

Cal stumbled around until he found some Martian moss to sit in. He had no idea if it was moss or some other Martian danger, but his brain was too tired to care. He laid back down and again fell into a deep slumber.

*

“Earth creature, perceive me!” Cal heard a rumbling, deep voice.

“Yes, hello, is someone there? I’m sorry, I’m just so tired I need to lay back down.” Cal was having trouble focusing. His reality felt hazy.

“You have not awoken. I am reaching out to you through your dreams. Know that it is imperative that you wake. You have fallen into an area where I can provide you no direct aid, and the abyssal beasts have returned.” The voice continued

“I’m sorry, I don’t think I can.” Cal tried lifting and moving his body with no success.

“If you just stay there asleep, they will consume your core. Then, they will hunt down the rest of your companions, and finally, they will come for me and take the inheritance I have made for the cosmos. I need you to get up and find me!” The voice ordered. Its tone had shifted from a more friendly grandfather to a stern elder. “RAISE NOW!”

Cal’s eyes shut open. He was awake. The dream started fading, but he tried to hold it in his active thoughts. There had been a voice. It had asked for help, and it said something else as well. Cal thought hard, and it came to him: abyssal beasts. Panic shot through Cal again. He was deeply tired of new horrors in caves. “Dammit,” He muttered, looking around. He spotted them slowly moving closer at the end of the passage. It was the smaller condorpions that had fled earlier.

Cal forced himself to his feet, once more reaching deep into his core. There was nothing to be found. He was running on empty. He had to win a fight with monsters without any weapons or magic. He grabbed a rock from the ground, realizing he wasn’t totally without weapons. He threw it as hard as he could muster at the closest one. It hit, and to his great relief, the creature made a squishing sound as it was crushed below the rock. It looked like these smaller ones had nowhere near the staying power as their big brother.

Cal grabbed a few more stones and started throwing. Several more fell to his newfound rock-throwing skills. His luck turned sour as he ran out of rocks before he ran out of monsters. Three of them still stood, advancing towards him. Their pincers clicked with every step.

Cal took the only action he thought he had left. He charged in and kicked his left foot into the lead condorpion. It splattered against the wall. He caught the second one as it leaped at his face by the creature’s tail. He swung it into the third one, knocking it into the wall. It didn’t get back up. The one in his hands stopped moving as well. Cal made a mental note that these things didn’t handle blunt force very well. He wondered if lightning had been a mistake in his first fight.

Cal stumbled forward past the corpses of the monsters. “Hey, weird old voice thing, can you hear me? Can anyone hear me?” He called through the tunnel. He remembered his radio and pulled it out. It had taken the brunt of the impact, and he couldn’t get any signal.

“Great, I’m in more trouble than the people I wanted to save.” He continued speaking to the air in front of him. He still wasn’t thinking clearly, but the haze had vanished enough for him to notice his lack of mental clarity. He considered that a small victory and pressed on.

“Hello, cave wall. You look just like every other cave I keep seeing. No, wait, you’re slightly different. You have one of those glowing vines.” Cal reached up and petted the vine. The vine lowered itself as he touched it. He felt a small spark pass from it to himself. The spark entered his core. It didn’t do much toward refilling it, but he no longer felt the deep craving emptiness.

Cal stood up straighter and looked all around the cavern he was in. Again, there were several of the plants, mainly grouped around a single entrance. So far, the plants seemed to be helping him, so he decided the best course of action was to follow them.

The vines ran along the walls next to him as he walked, still slower than he liked. He had gotten used to using little bits of magic to accelerate every step, but he was back to typical human Cal. He preferred wizard Cal.

The vine's glow was becoming stronger the further he followed them. He walked for hours. His brain went back and forth between this weird, endless cavern journey and whether the others hadn’t found their way back to the base. Before any more space trips, he was determined to increase his bond with the spirits. He was sure they could make it nowhere else if they barely made it to Mars. It was time to pick Ralth’s brain for everything he knew about magic, the universe, and whatever was hiding there.

He rounded another bend into something out of a fantasy movie. Lush trees and plants of all kinds covered the most immense cavern he had seen so far. In the center of it was a large pool. Floating above that pool was a dark red figure. It almost looked like Grannus but much more prominent, giving off this feeling of ancientness. Cal was sure he was in the presence of a being whose age dwarfed his own.

It turned and looked at him in the eyes. He felt a presence bore deep into himself. It felt as if it was learning everything there was to know about his being. After what seemed like hours, it finally spoke in the same deep voice from his dreams. “Hello. I’m glad you’ve found me. We must talk.”