Time [Monday 1/7]

John was sitting at the entrance of his home, just eagerly waiting for the Fateweaver to arrive. He had four days, just four more days. He had done what Lydia advised, he had eaten until he was full, he had slept (surprisingly well given the situation, he had the inkling that his Wisdom was finally kicking in again) and then he had breakfast. Now he was just staring at the door.

Aclysia at his side shifted uncomfortably. She had done that whenever she had nothing to do. Only in the moments when she had something to do she seemed able to take her mind of something. “Are you angry at me, master?” She suddenly blurted out, both in his mind and in the real world. “What?” John asked and turned to her, “Why ever should I be angry at you?!”

Aclysia looked like he had slapped her, despite his attempt to sound calming his brash tone echoed in his own ears. “Sorry.” He mumbled and hesitated, holding his breath before releasing it as a big sigh. “It’s just…. yes, yes I am angry at you.” He realized as he thought about it and the words just blurted out afterward, “I hate what you did to me. Do you have any idea what I would be now if I couldn’t try and save Jane? I would be just a broken man without a purpose.”

“But broken things can be mended.” Aclysia justified her actions, “What would I be without you, master? Nothing. I would disappear. And that is the end.” “I know.” John admitted, “Being sad for months or even years is preferable to ****, but this is the day just afterward. I am angry at you Aclysia, but I am also angry at myself. For going there, at Jane for staying behind like that, at Thana for being what she is. All of these are irrational, I did what I think is right, Jane did what she thought was right and maybe Thana has her reasons for what she does too.” He stared at his hands and clenched his teeth, “But I honestly don’t care right now.”

Before he could ask himself anything along the lines of ‘what the fuck?’ John’s house vanished, and he fell half a metre downwards into a plain green field. He was still recollecting from the fall when he noticed the figure in front of him, which once again proved to him that the Abyss was a truly weird place, full of terrifying things and eccentric figures.

The man was of lanky build, long extremities in a black, English butler like suit, complete with white gloves and green bow tie that contrasted the white buttoned up shirt he wore under the small jacket. The particularly outstanding parts of his outfit were the oaken cane and his almost comedically big top hat sitting on a wrinkly head. The weirdest part was his face though. He wore some kind of parody of a plague doctor mask, those traditionally looked like a bird, but if John had to describe the one of the Fateweaver, it would have sounded more like a raptor.

When he spoke, his metallic voice made John instantly think about the Adeptus Mechanicum, the humans who turned themselves into machines in the 40k universe. “Greetings, John Newman a.k.a. the Gamer a.k.a. Jeehan. I am Magoi Magus a.k.a. High Fateweaver 7 a.k.a. Anathema.” He bowed the hand holding the cane front, the other one empty crossing over his back. “Ehm, hi.” John was very perplexed. “Lydia Augusta blabla, sent me.” Magoi said, “I am here to give you time and all the enemies you could ever need, also….” He snapped, and a desk with a laptop on top just appeared out of thin air. “If you need to buy or sell anything please use this device. I have followed your economic career with interest and with this 10% of the sales go to me. This is in my contract with Lydia. Do you want a copy?”

10% was a lot, so yes, he absolutely wanted a copy. Magoi took off his top hat and pulled out the document. John flew over the contract, the thing looked absolutely okay, but he had no way to be sure if the elegantly swung signature at the bottom was truly from that princess he was now indebted too. “Why though?” “To get some of the money back that she spends on me, whatever I earn from you she gets refunded.” He explained, leaving John wondering. “How costly is this service exactly?” “It is a discount so only 100 Billion Dollars.”

John only just now realized how deep in the shit mire he sunk this time. Sure, saving Rave was worth any price, but that number still made him gulp. “And how much time does that buy me?” “700 percent, in other words, the four days you have me will be turned into four weeks.”

A whole month. If he did nothing but train a whole month would he be able to beat Thana? He remembered her movements, how she jumped at the ceiling and at Victoria within two seconds, crossing the whole hall, how she just ripped Igor out of the grasp of Undine and Gnome. All of that was before she activated this ‘Bloodburn’ thing.

Well, he had to try. Not like he had the funds to lengthen this. “Well, I get that’s what needs to be done to get top-level results, huh?” He mumbled. “Top-level? Hardly, my maximum dilation is 10000 percent. I can even speed time up, but that is harder.” Magoi laughed it off.

John was confused but time was of the essence. He had a lot of questions. How Magoi could be this old for instance or how he could just create things out of thin air like that, but he could approximate the answers for all of that, so he instead asked about the important stuff. “How am I going to train?” “Ah, the interesting question: Let me explain. This is an intermediary barrier, a space under my control away from reality but not quite an Illusion Barrier. The bad thing about these is that they are not particularly long lived, the second I leave this thing it goes "poof" and is gone but the good thing is that you can open Illusion Barriers inside this Illusion Barrier. Wonderful, right?”

“Right?” John answered in an unsure tone. “I will be staying here and killing time gaming or something as well as keeping the barrier stable. I will have an eye on you so I can pull you out if you are close to dying but I’d rather you tried not to, I will charge extra for that. Got everything?”

“Yes,” John said and nodded. So basically, he was now grinding with money loss on ****. “How much by the way?” “A million dollars, still a discount because I find you fascinating.” That wasn’t too bad; he could pay that himself. Or at least he should be able to pay that himself once he got a bit better at farming.

Well, he ended with Street Elementals so he should probably farm that fourth wave until he was feeling confident to get to the fifth or had enough to get in there once and still get pulled out if he fucked up. He extended his hand to the sky, “OH NO, DON’T DO IT LIKE THAT!” Magoi stopped him, “Sorry, forgot that you were a complete rookie for a moment.”

Magoi snapped with a finger, and rows of doors appeared. Okay, ‘doors’ was perhaps not the correct description, more like rectangles of pale light. “Walk through one of these while thinking about the enemies you want to fight.” Magoi instructed, “I will port all of your loot back here.” He pointed at a nondescript point that suddenly turned into a giant basin with different segments. “Sorted by rarity, of course.”

All of this was incredibly convenient. All he had to get to this point was almost get killed by a crazed Blood Mage/Soviet War experiment, be in a state of mindless sadness for about two hours, find out his girlfriend was still alive and then try to save her by getting stronger than said crazed Blood Mage by getting indebted to a German princess. This was actually not convenient at all; he’d much rather travel back two days in time and deal with the Bloodfallen all over again.

Hindsight is always 20/20 and all that, he concluded his thoughts as he stepped into the first door of light.