Atzi stood in the street just outside the bat artist's home, panicking over Jih and the evil book. She thought about running back inside, running away, and screaming for everyone to help.

  She snapped back when she saw Park run up. Must have followed us. Atzi pointed her to the house and said, "It's there. Be careful, though."

  Park nodded. She entered the home, ducking down under the doorway, and Atzi following after. Park's eye drew down in worry upon seeing the bloody symbol on the wall. She thumped up the stairs.

  Atzi motioned for her to wait a moment, then listened at the door Jih and the bat woman were in for any signs of strange chanting or maniacal laughing.

  Hearing only soft groans, she opened the door.

  Park immediately strode in, no hesitation as she scooped up the injured bat woman off the floor, carrying her in both arms.

  "Good," Jih said. "Let's move her."

  "What a mess..." Park shook her head sadly.

  Atzi watched intently from a distance, nervously waiting for something horrible to happen.

  "No, no no no no! Put me back! Back!" the bat woman shouted. "I need to need to- need to!"

  "We'll get you somewhere safe and get your wounds dressed," Park said.

  "Let me go!" The bat woman reached out a claw and sunk it into Park's arm. She drew it down, rending flesh. Park bled.

  Park merely looked down at her with a solemn expression.

  The bat woman screamed and cried.

  "Reminds me of a fussier Xathy," Park said.

  "I don't think Xathy would claw anyone like that..." Atzi commented.

  "How do you know Xathy?" Park glared at Atzi.

  Atzi shrank. "I... I explained it to Jih..."

  Jih shook her head. "We'll figure it out later. Let's go."

  "No! No, I need to!" the bat woman gibbered. She ripped her claw out of Park's arm-

  -and plunged it into her own stomach.

  "Get back! Let go of her!" Atzi shouted.

  Park grabbed the bat woman's wing. With seemingly no effort, she pulled it back, the bat woman's claw removed from her stomach.

  The artist cried and screamed as blood leaked out her new wound.

  It splashed to the floor with a wet noise.

  Then the blood began to writhe, as though alive, expanding outward.

  Atzi stared in horror.

  It reminded her of Cory's magic.

  Jih hit her staff against the wall that divided the room from the hall. The stone of it rippled, before spraying sand forward in a jet. As soon as it hit the blood, a hissing noise sounded. The blood stopped moving, collapsing into a puddle.

  "Let me! Let me!" The bat woman cried out.

  "No." Park kept a firm grip on the bat woman's wing.

  "Water..." Atzi murmured. "I think we messed up what was gonna happen. I... I got here fast enough."

  "Park, take her to get healed and I'll contact others." Then her eye flicked to Atzi. The colors in it swirled. "And you."

  "Yes?" Atzi answered meekly.

  "You might have been telling the truth. Maybe." It was clear Jih was still skeptical. "At the very least, I don't think you think you're intentionally lying. Stay at Park's, and we'll resolve this later."

  Things had gone so badly wrong that Atzi was unable to tell if there was any hope in this future. Maybe I saved the empire. The thought was hollow. "Sure."

  ===

  Atzi awoke some time later in one of the public house's beds. She wondered how Hemm was doing. She hoped she was okay.

  She wasn't sure what time it was, so she headed downstairs. There, Park was seated on a stool, leaning against the wall, snoring. Her arm was bandaged.

  Atzi considered waking her, but felt it would be rude. So instead she went out towards the cafeteria she remembered from last time.

  -

  As always, there was a line.

  "What in the underworld is a lizard doing here?" someone asked behind her.

  Atzi turned around. She saw the bat woman who had thrown rocks at her, last loop. Her face was twisted in disgust as she regarded Atzi.

  Atzi, for her part, just gave a tired sigh. "What's it matter to you?"

  "The fact that maybe you're an empire spy?" The bat woman growled. "Real gutsy coming here during the war."

  "Yeah, I'm gonna tell the Saintess all about what grubs you eat. C'mon."

  The bat woman ducked down, using a claw to pick up a handful of dirt. Then she flung it at Atzi.

  Atzi stepped to the side quickly, and the dust hit the person just ahead of her in line.

  They turned around, a large cyclops man with one arm. "Hey…"

  "She threw it," Atzi said, pointing at the bat woman.

  "It's all her fault!" The mean bat woman pointed back at her.

  Atzi growled back, showing off her sharp teeth. "I'm just here to get food! You threw it at me and missed!"

  "I wouldn't have missed it if you just took it head on! So it's your fault he got dirty!"

  "You wouldn't have missed if you hadn't missed? You must be the smartest bitch alive."

  Suddenly, the food server shouted, "No fussing or I'll make you wait until the line's empty!"

  "I won't... please can I have food…" Atzi pleaded. At the same time, the bat woman crossed her wings and grumbled out, "Yes, ma'am..."

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  -

  Atzi managed to eat in peace. Even if it was just mushroom based foods - same as the last loop - she was absolutely famished enough to clean her plate.

  When she was done, she looked over towards the table the mean bat woman was sitting at.

  She was sitting with the blue-furred bat woman wearing a nice dress, though it was a different dress this time, an orange weave.

  Damn, bats can look good. Perhaps a future here isn't so bad. Atzi drooled. The poison mixed within had no effect on her stone plate.

  The mean bat woman looked at her and wrinkled her nose.

  Atzi looked away. She considered what to do while she waited on Jih to contact her. She didn't have anyone she could hang out with except the cool Atlantean, Qun-

  -except she couldn't even go up to her, because what was she supposed to say? Hey, I bribed you and we hung out but I died and you forgot it?

  So instead, Atzi spent the rest of the day wandering around, taking in the sights of the city that would be her new home for who knows how long. She returned to the inn only when she saw people clearing out from the streets. A sign to her that it was the Cthy version of night, though she couldn't tell how everyone else seemed to know.

  That she hadn't seen any sign of Jih was killing what little faith in authority she had left. They always take forever! And then they fuck up and die and almost get me killed.

  When she returned to Park's, the public house owner was still out, but Jih was waiting for her. Atzi raised a claw and greeted her casually, "Hey."

  "I have good news," Jih said.

  Atzi was surprised. "What's the good news?"

  "The war is over." Jih smiled. "Sostra is no more."

  Atzi silently processed the earth reader's words.

  Then she collapsed to her knees. "N-no! B-but I stopped her!" She grabbed onto Jih's robes. "I got here in time! I stopped her! I did everything right!"

  Jih tried to gently brush Atzi's claws away.

  Atzi let go. "Why? Why did it still happen? What happened?"

  "I do not know any details, only that the city was destroyed and now the dead walk the earth. Though we will need to look out for such forces, for now they seem to be avoiding our caves entirely."

  "What about that artist? What happened with her?"

  "She has been placed on sedatives while she sleeps and heals," Jih reported.

  "So. So." Atzi struggled with her words. "A-and the book wasn't even found?"

  "No."

  "It was just.... what, a coincidence?"

  "I do not know."

  Atzi's tail curled. "... You said the good news. Is there even worse news than that?"

  Jih looked down on her. "It is good news. For us. The war is over. We need only deal with the remaining army."

  "Yeah." Atzi gave a pathetic laugh. "Just like last time... great."

  "We won't push you out. You helped save a life. If you choose to stay here, you'll have a home like anyone else."

  Atzi barely heard her. "...is there any way of telling if anyone made it out alright? There's... has there been anyone else showing up at the city?"

  Jih shook her head. "We already recalled our scouts."

  Atzi hung her head. "No-one else is coming, then. I... I told her to flee the city before today..."

  "It seems you have your own troubles," Jih stated plainly.

  "Yeah, I do! I thought... I came here to try and stop everyone I've ever known getting killed, and even trying to do that, I barely made it out the city alive, and I don't even... I don't even manage it! It turned out it was just nothing! The whole idea was stupid, and now... what, I wait to die again?"

  Jih considered Atzi's words. Then she asked, "Humoring you, but do you need to save Sostra?"

  "I live there!" Then reality hit her. "... I guess not anymore."

  "And now you could live here. Sostra was a terrible empire, constantly causing bloodshed and warfare for its own ends. Its people did not know how to live in peace, its leaders did not know how to keep peace, its gods never knew peace," Jih lectured. "Even if the story you have told me is true, why save Sostra? Why not just take the people you care about, bring them here, and let Sostra die?"

  "It's... not as easy as that. I mean, there's people who wouldn't ever listen to me."

  "Maybe. I can't answer your problems, especially not one as heady as this. In any case, I appreciate your help in saving at least one life. You have my thanks."

  "You're welcome." Atzi said without any enthusiasm. "What... do I do now? I brought some money but..."

  "Live your life. Park will help you arrange yourself in the community if need be."

  Atzi nodded. She was deflated from all the excitement and hope that came before. But what can I even do? Kill myself to try again? That's insane! I might not even wake up. Maybe... maybe I just stay here, try and figure something out.

  Atzi considered it.

  She wasn't going to save anyone. Everyone who died, they would stay dead. It didn't matter to her anymore. She just didn't want to die, herself.

  So, she gave up.

  -

  Given a mushroom home of her own, Atzi barely ventured outside except to eat. When people tried to talk to her, bothering her with questions about Sostra, she ignored them. When she was done poking at her food, she would go back home.

  Some days later, she overheard murmurs that the dead were, in fact, entering the cave.

  Not individual ones, but an entire army.

  Atzi felt growing dread, but she only knew one path out and it would lead to undead infested lands. So she quietly accepted the inevitable.

  What was there to warn anyone about?

  The end was here.

  A few more days passed. It felt like a week since she had arrived, but she couldn't be sure without the sun overhead for so long. In that time, there was no news about the undead. Just the same worried rumors that they were out there, somewhere in the caves.

  Then, as she trudged her way towards another meal, the entire cavern began to shake.

  There were screams. People trying to evacuate. No undead. Just rocks falling from the ceiling.

  Atzi looked up just in time to see the stone that crushed her to death.

  ===

  Again she was in the void. She silently floated there, eyes closed, too tired to move.

  "You seem sad," the mysterious goddess said.

  "What do I even do?" Atzi asked, opening her eyes.. "I... I had an idea and it went nowhere. It didn't save anyone, it didn't stop anything."

  "I don't know."

  "I don't even know what the cause is! All the necromancers got rounded up and arrested! I stopped that crazy bat lady. It's hopeless!"

  "It's hopeless?"

  "Yeah! I'm up against... Malus and whoever else she's working with and no matter who I talk to, or convince, or mess with, the dead are gonna appear and the empire dies." Atzi forced out a small laugh. "I can't even go hide in Cthy either! Guess this place is doomed too! Maybe I go running off to another place to die."

  The goddess was silent. Then she said, "Death is the worst. That's what you told me."

  "It is! I don't wanna die again."

  "Then why would you give up trying to prevent it?" The goddess sounded genuinely confused.

  "Because... what if I can't? At all? What if I'm stuck like this forever?"

  "What is forever?"

  "It means it never ends."

  "So what if you just died, again and again? And never stopped it?"

  "Then..." Atzi curled in the darkness, thinking about it. Then I'm doomed, so it doesn't matter what I do. It'll all be the same anyway. "It'd mean... I don't know. I could do anything?"

  "Anything?"

  "Well... normally you don't do certain things 'cause the consequences are bad. But if I'm going to die and everyone else forgets anyway, then there aren't any consequences. I could flip off Malus. She'd kill me, but so what? I was gonna die anyway! And I'll be back and she won't know a thing!"

  "I see. Is that what you want to do?"

  Atzi went silent again. "I don't know what I want. I wanted money, a nice place to live. They don't matter anymore, though. I can't even keep them for more than a week."

  "If I could do anything, first I would figure out who I am. Then" - she paused - "I don't know either. It would depend on who I was."

  "I wish I knew. What if you're some ancient evil god that got locked away for a good reason?"

  "Oh." The goddess hummed. "I don't know much about 'evil', so I don't know."

  "Maybe...." Atzi thought for a moment, a terrible idea brewing. "There's one person who does know. That I want to yell at, to her face. What can she do to me she hasn't done already?"

  "You've figured something out?"

  "Yeah. I'm going to do something really stupid," Atzi said, voice shaking, nearly on the verge of a wail even as she grinned madly.

  The goddess faded away.

  -

  "Out! Out!"

  The moment consciousness returned to Atzi, she took a deep breath and yelled, "Die in a fire, you old bag!"

  The old woman staggered backwards, before falling on her ass.

  Atzi burst out laughing. "Serves you right!" She doubled over, tears falling from her eyes.

  "Don't yell at your seniors like that! Help me up!" The old woman rocked back and forth, waving her cane.

  Atzi got up. "No!" She laughed as she strode off.

  She had some time to kill.

  Then she was going to see the Serpent.