The Lore Won

They rapidly accelerated. Lagging behind their tendril, Lore flew across the arena. Rhy’fel’s staff had barely left their hand and was travelling towards Lore’s past. The present caught up though. Lore stopped themselves in mid-air, centimetres from Rhy’fel’s ear. They wrapped their tendril around their neck.
“I am not your enemy here. And I will not fight you.” Their grip loosened. “Allow me to explain myself.” The energy snaked from their neck and along their sideburns to their temple. The same light poured from both of their eyes.
“What have you done to me?” The world around them was perfect white. Lore was removing their shoe and emptying it of the sand it had accumulated.
“Oh yeah… Just an illusion.” They hopped until both of their shoes were back in place. “We’ve not moved. I just really don’t like the sand. Get comfy, it’s lecture time.” Lore tossed an energy disk towards Rhy’fel. They created their own. After watching Lore sit, they followed suit. “Time is an interesting beast. Change the smallest thing and everything goes with it. You showed up late then you had to go and change something else too. Two changes, now that’s playing with fire.” Lore spoke with an unearned authority given that they had taken this information from Char and Piper. “To keep as many of your troops alive, measures had to be taken.”
“Like giving our enemy access to super weapons?”
“Like telling our enemy that those extremely dangerous, borderline suicidal super weapons are meant to replace rifles.”
“Suicidal?”
“As with all Rejuvenator weapons, they deplete the natural energy all Quatarrians generate. Unlike their standard weapons though, these cannons have had their restrictors removed; Char uses a much more powerful energy source for hers so she doesn’t need one. The cannons take five times more energy to fire than the rifles they’re used to. Two shots and they’re done for the day.”
“And the suicidal part?” Rhy’fel leant forwards.
“Every shot after those two carries the increased risk of death. Something our opposition have likely learnt by now and something our opposition is likely trying to kill my family for not informing them about.” Lore seemed oddly cheery given the sentiment.
“You intentionally gave them defective weaponry? Have you not read any of the articles of ethical warfare?”
“Ethical warfare? By including more than yourself in the timeloops control system, you committed a grade three war crime. Day two and you’re already a criminal. I know that isn’t justification but someone had to set time straight. What happens in the loop, stays in the loop.” Lore shrugged. They checked their Breacher. “Three, two, one.” Two angelic figures descended from the sky.
“Lecture time?” Char leant in for a kiss. The energy that shrouded her dissipated, feeding their clean white surroundings.
“Lecture time.” Lore embraced her. “Just explaining what we did.” Piper sulked.
“That’s mum’s job though.” They nodded in agreement.
“Would you like to do your bit or should I do that too?” Lore joked. Piper dashed toward Rhy’fel.
“Here’s a little context to our actions. This is what would have happened if we hadn’t intervened.”
Rhy’fel was back on the battlefield, pistol in their hand. They recognised their position as the one they had favoured on day ten. They ducked below the wall. They checked their Breacher. “Impossible.” It was indeed still day ten but rather than nine years, nearly fourty five had passed. Their mind felt slowed, older mentally while physically unchanged. Their Breacher also indicated the day was almost over yet the suns were still burning in the sky. The sound of gunfire slowly rescinded. Sooner than usual. The suns seemed to rise sooner than usual too. Rhy’fel looked back to the sky. The blue of Quatarr’s upper atmosphere was burning away, the space beyond it no longer existed. The fires destroying reality engulfed them but the barrier of the timeloop kept them safe.
“All of reality gone. This battlefield the only remnant of your universe.” Lore appeared next to them. The only light now came from the barrier; its ethereal blue glow attempted to play the role of suns and atmosphere but fell short of both. “I’m sorry.”
Rhy’fel fell to their knees. The ghosts of a future changed followed suit. “Would it have worked though?”
“The war would have ended… But I think you’re missing the bigger picture, the universe is gone, and while your looper has enough power in it to remain in use indefinitely, this reality is on a collision course with another universe. You’ve saved them though. There’s not enough mass here to destroy anything anymore. You could have taken solace in that.” Lore hesitated. “I’m sorry. It’s no excuse but being back here, I just can’t shake the mindset of ending the war by any means necessary. I shouldn’t take that out on you.”
“I understand now, I think. So what’s the plan now?” The illusion was broken… partially. Lore and Rhy’fel returned to the white arena.
“We win.” Lore and Piper both smiled. “Together.” Char cringed.
“How many more days though?” Seeing a future avoided had given Rhy’fel more hope than they had felt in a while.
“I say we could do it in two now. Two seems about right?” Char smiled then looked to Piper.
“If you say so mum.” Piper winked.
“Here’s the plan. In our universe, we developed this technology that harnessed the same energy the Rejuvenator weapons use to merge two or more consciousnesses in a custom matrix to form a more powerful entity. We called it The Reaper.” Char started.
“You have The Reaper matrix embedded in your DNA, like us. We all merge together and you won’t need an army, theoretically with four people, we should be able to cover at least a quarter of the oppositions half of the battlefield a day.” Lore reattached their arm. “You wouldn’t happen to have a ring that looks like this would you?”
Rhy’fel extended their sickly branch of an arm and wiggled the twigs at its end. Shrunk to fit his skeletal fingers, the ring was in position and ready for action.
“Right then, first joining can be a little weird. You’ll feel a little nauseous, bit dizzy. Nothing to worry about. We’ll do a few practice merges before the grand finale.” Lore’s tone had done a complete one eighty harsh, thawed to soft in an instant. Moments Long Awaited.