Paradox in progress.

  The message taunted the pair of recently deceased Starborn. It was a reminder that they had failed, and were right back to where they started. Fire burned in their eyes as they stared at the message, but neither moved. They were just overwhelmed by the fact that they had come back.

  Arden leaned into Vera.

  “I thought I lost you again…”

  “I’m still here, Arden. Or here again,” She replied, relieved to feel his warmth again. “What happened?”

  “I don’t know,” he sighed. “But whatever that beetle did, we got caught up in it.”

  Arden pulled the picture of the white rhinoceros beetle from his inventory and stared into its visage. He didn’t know why it reacted when Lodi looked into it, but he knew that it didn’t affect him or his party. He’d passed the picture around the night before, and none of them turned into a kill-crazy reaper. Vera dismissed her notification and looked into the picture as well, hoping that it would reveal some of its secrets.

  Their hateful staring at the superbug frozen on the slip of laminated paper was interrupted by the sudden appearance of Sya and Kepler. Sya was going to give them a hug, but stopped upon seeing the picture of their newest enemy. Arden dismissed the image back into his inventory and looked at his reunited crew.

  They were both pale and covered in sweat. To him, it looked like neither of them expected death like that, and had even less expectation to be returned from its gruesome clutches minutes before it took place. Not everyone was accustomed to their own demise like Arden was, it seemed.

  Kepler fell to her knees and started throwing up, thankful not on the fire. Sya knelt down next to her and rubbed her back as she continued heaving. No one looked down on Kepler for falling to her knees and evacuating the contents of her stomach. The only reason why the rest weren’t doing the same was because they were somewhat experienced in stuff like this.

  After everything had been emptied out of her, Kepler took off her glasses stained with her tears and looked at everyone with nervous fear.

  “W-what happened? D-did I j-just die?”

  No one said anything for a moment. All eyes were transfixed on the fire. Eventually, Arden nodded his head and spoke.

  “We all did.”

  There was melancholy in his words, as was expected. What wasn't expected were the tears that followed. It wasn't much, but it was still enough to unsettle Kepler, who believed that Arden was the unflappable warrior guy. As his tears fell, Arden continued.

  “I thought I lost you all forever,” he muttered. “I didn't want our time to end. After everything that's happened so far, I thought it was bullshit for it to end like that. After everything we were able to do, we were killed like dogs. But somehow, we’re back.”

  “E-everything you've done?” Kepler repeated.

  Arden wiped the tears from his eyes and drew a cleansing breath, then looked at the team's latest addition.

  “You know that one of my targets was the dark matter beetle, right?”

  Kepler shook just at the Celestial's name. She nodded.

  “I-I know.”

  “Did you get the Status notification?”

  Again, she nodded.

  “...yes. It said paradox in progress.”

  Sya looked at Kepler with a guilt-stricken face. She couldn't bring herself to meet the anxiety-ridden alchemist's eyes.

  “...you really do fit in with the rest of us,” she muttered.

  “W-what do you mean?”

  Arden and Sya glanced at Vera. She knew what they wanted, and she wasn't going to stop it. Someone had gotten tied up in their insanity. It was only right for Kepler to learn the truth. Vera reached into her inventory and pulled out a small device, then threw it down to the ground, and a translucent haze appeared around the group.

  “Sensory veil?” Kepler asked.

  “Yeah,” Vera said. “This stuff is stuff that no one can ever learn about. No one. Ever.”

  “I-its that big of a secret?”

  “I'll do it,” Arden said, answering the unasked question of who would explain. He pointed at Vera, then at Sya. “She is a protostar with two cores, and two unique powersets. Sya is an ex-Blight Walker. The multiverse exists. Gods exist. Most of them are dicks. I'm kind of one of them. Conditionally.”

  Sya noted Kepler’s rapidly paling form and the shivers started to begin again, so she tried to lighten the mood.

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  “A god, or a dick?”

  “I think you'll find that they aren't mutually exclusive.”

  “G-gods?” Kepler asked. “Gods exist?”

  “Deity-like bullshit entities,” Arden said. “They are actually called Archons. And as I said, kind of dicks.”

  Kepler looked at him strangely. He could tell that she didn’t believe it. He couldn’t really blame her. It was a lot to take in.

  “How did you learn about them?”

  “Well, it's a long story, but the quick version is that a parallel universe me showed up to take a relic of one of them that happened to be with me, called a legacy. Cut to a few days later and the doppelganger was gone after his patron god abandoned him.”

  “Uh-huh,” Kepler said. “Arden, is there an Archon with us now?”

  “He’s telling the truth,” Sya said. At her command, the whites of her eyes turned black and her iris glowed a shining silver, just like the taint flowing through her black hair. “One of them crawled down my throat and it left me as a Starborn.”

  “The bottom line,” Vera said, looking into Kepler’s shaking eyes. “Is that everything that happened to us back then was because of a message Arden got on his Status. Paradox in progress. The impossible happened back then, and now it's happening again. Whether you believe in the existence of Archons right now doesn't matter. What does matter is that another paradox is happening, and again, we are at the center of it.”

  *****

  A few minutes had passed since the sensory veil went up, and a few of the other participants looked at it with equal measures of confusion and worry. Everyone had some level of knowledge about sensory veils, but they also knew that the people inside must have been dealing with something incredibly mysterious.

  Volis stood a few feet away from it, looking at the translucent haze while flanked by his two permanent team members. He too believed that there was something going on with the people inside of the sensory veil that required secrecy.

  Just a few minutes ago, he and Kralis were eating with Arden and Vera when both of them went through what could only be described as a major personality shift. One moment, they were making idle conversation, the next Vera pounced on Arde and refused to let go. Arden looked as shocked as Volis, but it didn’t look like he was shocked by the affectionate attack, but rather by Vera herself.

  “What do you think they’re talking about in there?” the ever bulky Torvis asked, using his flame creation powers to light up a joint.

  “Does it matter?” Liva asked. “If they were so focused on keeping whatever they're talking about a secret to the point that they’d use a sensory veil, then there’s no way in hell they’d tell just because we’re curious.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Volis said. “Everyone has secrets. There are no Starborn without backstories.”

  “Then why did you call us over?” Torvis asked, holding the joint between his fingers.

  “Honestly, I’m worried.”

  “About what they’re planning?”

  “No, just about them. You guys weren’t there a few minutes ago. They looked like they lost their souls for a moment.”

  “They don’t look like that now,” Liva said. “The veil’s coming down.”

  Liva was right. Not just about the veil coming down, but about the emotions present on their faces. They didn't carry expressions of dread anymore, but they did look a bit worried, especially Kepler, but that was to be expected. Arden stopped moving as soon as he realized that his group was under intense scrutiny from several observers.

  “Is it really that weird to deploy a sensory veil?” He said aloud. “Aren’t they a Starborn device used by a lot of them? Why do you guys look so weirded out?”

  A few of the observers noted Arden’s casual attitude and turned away, realizing that they weren’t going to get any useful information out of him. The majority of them thought that they must've just been talking about personal information, not important information. In a few short seconds, the only people sticking around were Volis’ troupe and Lodi.

  “You alright?” Volis asked.

  “I’m fine,” Arden lied. “Why do you ask?”

  Volis didn’t reply. He just looked at everyone else in the party wearing similar masks of fake indifference. Again, except for Kepler. Volis recognized it for what it was, but he didn’t inquire further. They weren’t close enough to do so.

  “No reason,” he sighed. “We’ll be turning in for the night. Good luck on the hemorrhage hornet.”

  Volis turned away and left with his team. Soon enough, the only observer was Lodi, who seemed to be maintaining her distance. Arden shot her a glance. He didn’t know why she was so interested in them, but given that she wasn’t being forced to play host for a Celestial parasite, he was willing to let it go.

  The party started walking to each of their own tents, which were right next to each other, when Lodi called out to them.

  “Hold on a minute, participant Arden.”

  Arden turned around and his words failed him. Lodi was waving around a polaroid pictures in between her fingers. Vera’s eyes went wide as well, while Sya and Kepler hadn't noticed what Lodi held.

  “You dropped this,” Lodi said.

  Naturally, the picture in Lodi’s possession was the picture of the dark matter beetle that should have been in Arden’s inventory. Arden and Vera launched forward towards Lodi who had yet to be converted this time.

  “Put it down!” Arden yelled.

  But it was too late. Silver light glowed from the depths of Lodi’s eyes.

  Arden and Vera didn’t see her transformation in their previous life, but this time they did. A portion of Lodi’s face swirled around as it was painted with agony but no sound. Tears fell from her eyes as the swirl expanded outward and burst, spraying out white liquid that was definitely different from Blight Essence.

  Lodi grasped her face and shook, but when she removed her hands from her face, she showed off the same horrifying proportions as last time. One large eye that took up most of her face with a white rhinoceros beetle sticking out of the eye.

  Arden and Vera were too slow. They had failed to stop Lodi’s transformation.

  “Run!” Arden called out.

  Realizing that he was in prime position to be attacked first, he attempted the final maneuver of his previous life. He tried to summon all of his biomass that he had left to create a rudimentary shell of biotic armor. The moment before the wires dug into him, he realized that he was bottomed out. He had carried over his lack of biomass from his previous life.

  ‘Shit!’

  Vera was unable to bail him out this time. Time slowed down for him as the wires wrapped themselves around every part of him. He cast a glance back at everyone. Vera and Sya tried desperately to reach out to him, but he knew it was too late.

  He squandered his second life.

  As the wires were pulled tight, Arden was engulfed with pain for a single moment, but he felt everything in that moment. All of his pain condensed into a single long moment. He only felt the blinding pain when everything went black.

  “What are your Celestials?” Volis asked.

  Arden’s hand clasped tightly around his own mouth to prevent the swear from leaking out. He let loose a long exhale through his nostrils. His hand slowly fell away and a malicious grin appeared in its place, like he was challenging reality to give him its best shot.

  Vera pounced on him again, just like last time. Again, a Status notification appeared in front of Arden and Vera.

  Paradox in progress.

  “You alright?” Volis asked the pair.

  “...Shit,” Arden muttered.

  ‘That wasn't a second chance regression. We’re stuck in a time loop.’