Learning to Love Time Loops Without Going Insane

It had been half a lifetime since he had visited Bolt’s realm. She had clearly been hard at work during the last loop. The stars in the sky glowed brightly in hundreds of different colors. To Cal, it looked like she had been painting the sky. It was beautiful.

“Hey Bolt, I don’t know where you are or if you can hear me, but don’t stop your work on my account. I’m going to take in the sights for now. Just find me when you are free. I want to see what we can do to firm up our bond.” Cal yelled into the air.

There was a path now that led from the cracks. It was five colored lines on the surface of the ground. Cal leaned down and felt the ground, curious about what it was made of. It felt similar to dirt. He dug just a bit with his fingers, and about an inch below it was a silvery rock that pulsated with electricity.

“Huh, interesting, the land is literally electric here. I suppose that makes sense.” Cal looked at the different colored paths again. Red, orange, yellow, green, and blue lines ran across the ground in front of him. Red veered off to his left and blue to his right, but the other three continued forward as far as he could see them. He decided to follow them in order from left to right.

The red path brought him to a small cabin with a pond behind it. Cal looked into the pond, and several eels looked back at him. One of them fired off a charge. Bolt had stocked her pond with electric eels. Cal thought it was great to see her sticking to the theme.

He knocked on the door. There was no answer. Not wanting to possibly intrude on her privacy, he made his way back to the start of the paths and chose orange this time. This one ran parallel with yellow and green for several minutes before it turned left.

Cal followed and found himself standing in a small orchard. At least, he assumed that was what it was. The fruit looked like apples, but they were all bright yellow and lightly glowing. Never being one for caution, he looked for a low-hanging branch and plucked a fruit.

He took a bite. The tastes danced across his tongue. The flavor moved like electricity, but it didn’t hurt at all. It was some of the best fruit he had ever tasted. He felt more alive with every bite. He also felt something move inside him. His core was feeding on this just as much as he was.

He finished the fruit, and for a moment, his vision changed. He saw lines of vibration connecting everything around him. He could see how the different speeds and intensities of the vibrations produced different colors, how they moved through the ground and sky, all building into the stars far above.

His vision returned to normal. Was that how Bolt saw the world? He intended to ask her the next time he saw her. There were a dozen trees, all full of the same fruit. He wondered how much was safe to eat and decided to wait on Bolt before anymore. He didn’t want to prematurely end this loop after so many others had been.

He returned to the yellow and green paths and picked the next in line, yellow. This one took him somewhere he had been before, but it was much further away than it had been when the world first took shape. He stood at the edge of the small world, looking into the stars.

One of them caught his eye. It had to be the void star Bolt had slowly cultivated. Once she finished linking the realms together, direct travel between the two would be possible. He believed something was likely to happen with his core. He had felt the void and electricity portions starting to grow together but was unsure what that would do for him once it was done.

“Hello, Barron. Can you hear me?” Cal yelled into the sky. He waited a few minutes to see if there was a response. He received none. It was time for the green path.

This also led him to a familiar feature. It was the small spirit pool that had just formed the proto-spirits. He saw several of them swimming deep in the waters that had grown to the size of a small lake. They moved about like playfully gliding under the water. Occasionally, one of them would glow a random hue, and the others would give chase. Cal suspected it was some kind of tag game. He found the experience incredibly peaceful.

It took him nearly two hours to decide to move on to the final path. The blue path took a small stone hill. The silvery material grew from the ground into a rocky structure that resembled a small mountain. Cal touched it and felt a small jolt of electricity pass through him.

“Weird, wonder what this thing does,” Cal said aloud.

“Oh, that’s the future path to Grannus. We need to clear their realm first before I can truly start the harmonizing, but I figured I’d at least do some proper city planning.” Bolt’s unexpected voice made Cal jump slightly.

“Sorry, Cal, I didn’t mean to scare you.” Her apology sounded sincere.

“It’s alright, Bolt, not your fault. I’m surprised I didn’t see you fly up. The world is beautiful. You’re doing a great job.” He gave her a large smile to back up her affirmation.

“Thanks, I’ve really been trying. I think if this loop lasts the entire cycle, I can fully integrate with Barron.”

“What happens then?”

“We grow into our next stage of life. It should deepen our connection with you as well.”

“Nice, I need that. So I tried a piece of fruit. Is that normally how you see the world?”

“Yep, that’s what happens when a bonded mortal eats a spirit fruit. Their perceptions open up to their magical sources. Which in this world is me.”

“Is it safe to eat more? I feel like it did something to my core.”

“I would guess it’s safe to eat one per week at your current strength but to get the full benefits, though, you need to start training your magic after every meal.”

“I can do that. I was actually planning to spend the whole loop in here with you, trying to boost my lightning magic as much as I possibly could.”

“Really, that’s great. I built you a cabin and everything. “ She started whizzing around the air, changing colors every second.

“Yep. Is it safe for me to just start shooting off lightning as I learn?”

“Absolutely, the rock below the dirt will help channel it safely. The pond near the cabin should help you recharge your core faster. I strongly recommend you empty it daily as often as you can. It will help you grow more resilient to fatigue. It should also help you gain a sense of control over how much mana to pour into something. A key to magic is being able to shape the energy in any way you see fit using as little or as much mana as you want.”

“I’ve noticed Ethel and Ralth do things very differently than me when it comes to magic. I’m guessing that’s why their classes look different on the R.I.S.”

“Likely, yes, I was born of your exposure and potential, so I only know how the energy interacts with you. You had a deep desire to be a wizard, and that potential gave me form. Ethel loves plants and animals, so she is able to awaken their hidden strengths and help them grow into their own. Ralth is harder to say. So many of his abilities come from universes where the physical rules differ from our own that I have a tough time reading the energy flows inside of him.”

“Yeah, he thinks we can grow much more powerful than him with native magic sources.”

“I would agree. It has to be easier to shape magic when you aren’t also fighting the physical laws that govern your current reality.”

“So, where should I start.”

In response to Cal’s question, Bolt rose a large chunk of rock from the ground and cast it into the air. It hung in place without falling.

“I think your goal for this loop should be learning to fly, well, at least enough to get safely to the top of this floating rock and back down.”

“Huh, you think I can do that?”

“Charged particles can do anything. Good luck, Cal.” She flew away, leaving him staring at the rock.

“Time to get to work.”