3001 Paths to Death - A Lite litRPG Looper

My trusty bow brought comfort as I resolved myself for the battle ahead. I covered my body in black ice, compacted my domain—creating a dense pocket of power around me, and stepped into the warzone of mana, where mages fought.

The powerful cultivators' auras ripped into my domain. I repelled and cycled the power as much as I could. When I reached my breaking point, two hundred yards shy of the battle, I condensed my domain to the point where it was only an arm's width away. Though it barely projected from me, it was rich in power. My concentrated aura of power allowed me to sift through the malevolent energy and push further.

Water absorbed fire, darkness, and death. It blocked razor currents of air and cut through the entangling earth. Fortunately, I wasn't the focus of the mages. Unfortunately, the mages were realms higher than I was in power. It didn't matter if I was their focus or not. Every step forward pushed my domain past its breaking point.

The atmosphere threatened to crush me. It was hot, suffocating, and dense. Each step was like walking through a swamp with the sole purpose of destruction. My domain required a constant supply of mana. I trudged another fifty yards, making it to the outskirts of battle and barely holding onto my life.

I had one purpose. It was the same purpose—the same promise I made to myself at the beginning of this journey. The same promise I made to my friends. The very promise I intended to keep.

My friends were battling for their lives just over a hundred yards away. They had one focus as they fought a couple of the unknown mercenaries with the fire sword emblems. Lana looked like a musician with Light's Edge. The blade sang as she cut through attacks and dispelled attacks. It harmonized the elf's mana, extending light and golden energy waves. Light emanated with each attack.

Flint looked entirely different. The only way I could tell it was him was his close proximity to Lana and their coordinated fighting style. He had shed at least eighty pounds, was clean-cut, and no longer wore his woodsman garb. Instead, he was dressed in a neat battle uniform seen on a high-ranked guard. Like Lana, Flint was covered in light. He fired pistols and threw mana runes into the fray.

Rocky stayed close to Lana and Flint. He supported the squad with dense pockets of air and bolts of lightning.

Lana deflected an arrow with a light shield. She increased the brightness of her barrier. Her attacker looked away. At the last second, he blocked the fireball hurled at his chest, lowering his guard in time for Flint's mana pistol to land a barrage of shots at the attacker's head. Flint fired into the exposed side of the second attacker, sword fighting Lana. The attacker winced in pain for a split second. It was a fatal opening. Lana's blade struck fast, cutting him down.

Another orb of light deflected a barrage of ice and fire. The squad found the new attacker and pressed forward to the center of the battle, where a lifeless body was staked.

I pushed forward into the dangerous energy, gritting my teeth and straining my spirit. My channels and core had never been tested so intensely. My mind and will keep me in the fight. I could decipher the energies attacking my domain and counter them appropriately. Each second was a battle against a dozen domains, and the attacks increased in intensity with every step.

One hundred yards was all that remained between me and my friends. My domain was in shreds, forcing me to use scraps to protect myself.

The flayens and mysterious Fire Blade mercenaries dwindled in numbers as the battle raged. A powerful earth mage animated five bloodwoods and commanded them to fight. For a second, it looked like the battle would shift as the towering red golems hurled boulders and slashed at the twelve mages of the empire. My squad and a couple flayens got caught in the crossfire.

An Alderi mage erupted into flames, took to the sky, and hunted for the attacking trees. His pillar of fire soaked the trees in a hungry flame that burned deep. The air filled with smoke and the distressed smell of burning greenery. As the fire consumed the golems, their thick bodies groaned and cracked. The orange energy dripped to the ground, burning holes and melting stone. Giants collapsed. The world shook, and the sky thundered.

My domain shattered fifty yards away from my battling friends. It was so shredded that I couldn't keep what remained in a cohesive barrier. My body nearly imploded, and it took all of my will to resist annihilation. I tried to force out more mana to create a new domain. Darkness restricted my energy. In the distance, a sleeper weaved a massive silencing spell.

I suffered various attacks without protection. Lacerations cut deep into my armor, some cutting through my skin. I couldn't endure much more, but I refused to turn back. This life would not be wasted if I could see my friends.

I took another step. One of my pauldrons was cut off. It fell to the ground and blood covered my shoulder. A segment of my greaves was next to fall. My helm broke on the next step. A force of wind punched me in the gut. I felt like I'd been spiked once more. I doubled over. Each breath was painful and filled with smoke. I could barely see the fight ahead.

"Keep going," I told myself, pushing my right leg through the thickness of power and pulling my left behind.

A wall of mana slammed into me, knocking me down and ripping me apart. Blood poured from a cut on my brow, and I winced as it dripped down my face. It was so hard to breathe. My muscles screamed in pain, echoing the cries of my soul.

"Get up." I pulled myself forward, regaining some momentum.

"One more step." I grabbed Snowpiercer, not recalling when I dropped it.

I tried to stand and even used my bow as support. The pressure in the air was too immense. It was like clouds had descended with significant weight and mass. Not only did I battle the air, the ground refused to let me go. I couldn't stand. Let alone take another step forward. Even crawling felt like a monumental task. Still, I tried, only to be halted once more. Another push forward meant death. The mana was too powerful.

Ao's Bloody Pits. I was so close. My head felt so heavy, and breathing was a chore. Another step forward would put me at the mercy of the elements.

My fist pounded the ground. I shouted into the tumultuous battle. My feeble battlecry was as insignificant as my presence and got lost in the terrible void.

LIVE. The promise echoed in my soul. I would not die here. Not like this… Not without seeing my friends.

One, I counted in my head. It was an old exercise I learned in the marines. It was a method to face difficult things. I solidified my will and took a deep, painful breath—calming my nerves. This couldn't be my limit. I wouldn't be stopped here. There had to be a way forward. I was so close. I refused to be stopped.

Two. I searched for any power I had—more strength to stand, mana to boost myself—anything. My legs were too weak, and the mana cycling through me was restricted. However, four steps behind me I felt tendrils of water mana. The lingering cyan energy was the remains of my shattered domain and broken armor. I couldn't expel my internal mana but could still connect to external mana.

I reached out and connected to the tendrils. With a hold on the cyan energy, I brought the fragments of my armor and domain to me. I closed my fist, shattering the fragments into shards of ice. All of my focus went into connecting to the ice shards. My clenched fist became a focal point to which I refused to let go.

One by one, I weaved the shards into a connection. The strain was immense. My fingernails dug into my palm. Time crawled, and the world around me seemed to pause. I wasn't in my mindscape, but I was close. A hundred shards floated around me—each connected to my soul. Sweat turned into blood as I pushed past my mental limits. I needed more. One fifty. Two hundred. My head nearly hit the ground before I came back to my senses.

It still wasn't enough. My head screamed. My soul bled. Every new connection felt like a dagger in my heart. I embraced the pain and reached out for more ice. Blood covered my clenched fist. Snowpiercer groaned. The world was gray, and my vision was dark when I made the last connection. With the last of my strength, I refused to die. I forced my eyes open just as I breathed my last.

Chaos. How could anyone survive this? The battle was utter chaos. Alright. I nodded my head. My bloody fist opened. Three hundred blades of ice spun around me in a fast vortex, each commanded by my threads.

Three. Time to move.

Cut, I commanded my shards. The ice carved through the thick mana walls, tearing through smoke, fire, and darkness, paving a way forward. I took another deep breath. Using Snowpiercer as support, I struggled to my feet and pressed forward, battling the elements every step.

My storm of ice cut through boulders and fireballs. Darkness dispelled. Skeletons created from death energy were erased before my eyes. I was on the toes of my feet, plowing through a wall of power I had no business passing through.

I wouldn't be stopped.

Twenty-five yards. Through the thick haze of smoke, I saw my friends pushing back the two Alderi mages. I didn't have much time. Rocky was already dead. Lana's bright light waned.

A probe of mental energy shot through my mind. I winced in pain. For a second, I lost focus of my blades, and my body took a beating. I barely regained my defenses in time to repel the violent mana. As I took another step forward, I noticed an ominous presence in my mind. I couldn't enter my mindscape to deal with the threat. My head ached and my eyes burned with a fearful intensity.

Just ahead, a flayen had taken notice of me and attacked. I endured hundreds of mental attacks in less than a second. It felt like a lifetime.

Your defenses are holding, but the flayen is throwing all his power at you, Cal said. I will do what I can to ward off his attacks. Take him down as soon as you can. Zaltur is a much stronger mind-mage than me.

The burning pain in my mind dampened. I could tell it would return in full force in a couple of seconds. Cal had bought me some time. I raised Snowpeircer, created an arrow from ten shards, drew, and fired. The arrow spun through the air whistling. Zaltur's head flew back as he dropped to the ground. The pain in my head dispersed.

Before the flayen next to the downed Zaltur could notice me, I sacrificed ten more shards and fired another arrow. My aim was true.

A sharp blast of air ripped into me, pushing me back several feet. One of the fire-branded mercs noticed me. Fortunately, my ice storm intercepted the worst of the mage's attacks. The mage created a crescent blade of wind in the palm of his hand. The power was so immense that I could feel it pulling and cutting even ten yards away. The puffer smiled. We both knew his attack was overkill. Before sending his attack, he was forced to raise an aegis to counter the fireball hurled at him by the Alderi smoker.

In a battle against mages, losing focus on the larger threats was dangerous. The puffer paid for his lapse in judgment and weathered a barrage of fire before he could strike back at the opposing smoker with his crescent air blade intended for me.

I timed his counterattack and fired when he was the most exposed. Wind tried to knock my arrow aside to no avail. We were too close, and my ice arrow was still connected to my will, which empowered my command to kill.

Several things happened in a split second. A wind blade met a fire meteor, creating a massive explosion just above the puffer's head; a thread of darkness connected to the enemy merc, and my arrow struck his neck as his defenses faltered. He fell to the ground, covered in fire and holding his neck.

I took multiple hits with my reduced shards protecting me. My left eye took a nasty gash from stray shrapnel. Wind cut through tendons in my left arm, forcing me to switch Snowpiercer to my right hand. I couldn't fire it, but I didn't want to move on without it.

Dark mana encompassed the battlefield like a cold blanket. The silencing power of darkness caused my connection to my shards to drop. The heaviness returned, and my progress halted. Bloody Hell. I cursed the fallen world of legends and all the silent gods. I scanned the battlefield, searching for the sleeper mage.

My search was in vain. Light mana blasted back the darkness, dispelling the silencing effect of the soft mana. I connected to the shards I could and lunged forward, closing the gap and taking a beating in return.

Ragged and broken, I fell five feet away from Lana. I choked on my breath as I tried to call her name. My vision darkened as light embraced me.

"Kip." I heard Lana call. I fought to open the one eye I could. Lana stared at me, tears pooling in her reddened eyes. "This does not make sense." She looked at my corpse on the pike. Her hand rested on her heart. "My spell is not that strong." Her gaze returned to me. "The clone? No, it is you. I can feel it." She rushed to my side, catching my head before it dropped. Life energy shot through my chest, restoring some of my health.

"Hey Kip," the man next to Lana said. "Terrible scouting job." I choked on my laughter. A golden orb surrounded the three of us. It felt strangely peaceful inside the dome while mages fought. Even the attacks hitting the protective barrier were muffled.

"I told you to leave." I eyed the salt and peppered-haired elf.

"Lana could not leave you, and I did not want to leave Sasha…" The old guard smiled and winced. "And, well... Rocky always had a death wish." Lana nodded, supporting my head in her arm as she brushed my hair. Tears fell on me intermittently.

"This was a terrible idea."

"The best ones are," The old guard said, dropping his regal accent—sounding more like Flint. "It is a tough and dreary world. You can only lose so much of your heart before you grow numb, and neither of us wants a cold life. This squad was our family. We would not leave it behind. Not this time."

A thick, powerful aura radiated from the regal guard, fed the light barrier around us mana. Although it was a different energy than Flint's, it felt the same as his. He adjusted his gear and holstered his pistols, pulling out a couple runes in a sly motion. Despite his power, the heavy bags under his eyes were his most prominent feature. The man was tired and broken. Just like me… Just like Lana.

"I can buy you two a few more seconds." Flint infused the runes with his power and set them on the ground, shifting the barrier's mana supply. "I am sorry I could not save you from death's greedy hands, Princess. It was a dream to serve you." He smiled. "Kip." He dipped his head to me and walked toward the edge of the barrier.

"Wait," I called. Flint slowed his steps but didn't stop. He reached for the barrier. "This won't be our end."

"Even so, it was a good one."

"No. Stop."

I looked at Lana, who was choking on her own words. She wanted to call out, but for once, her voice faltered.

"Thank you," Lana said, barely managing a whisper. Heavy tears streamed down her face.

"We can get through this." The words were spoken in vain. It didn't matter that I was in a time loop. At least not at this moment. Flint could buy us time, but it would be short. Even if we worked together we weren't getting out of this mess alive. Still, it was hard to accept that this powerful guard would lay down his life so willingly. We had time.

No. He had given Lana and me time.

Flint created an opening and walked out of the dome, disappearing into the smoke and dust on the other side. The last I saw of him he was walking towards Sasha.

Lana helped me off the ground and wiped the blood off my face as she returned vision to my eye. She held me tight and kissed me. The timing was terrible, and we didn't care. I held her tight and kissed her back. It didn't matter that our world was at its end. Lana had run through hell for one last moment. I had lived through it.

Time crawled to a stop. Fire exploded on the shell around us. Raining boulders created spider web fractures on the dome. The wind howled, and the sky cracked. Peace and warmth filled my soul amidst the chaos. I treasured every second.

Red flames swallowed our barrier. As our walls shattered, I felt confident that the two of us could withstand the might of the heavens. Together we were indestructible. A cold and distant fire engulfed us. We held each other tighter.

"It's you and me, Bear." Lana rested her head on my shoulders.

"Against the world." We swayed in our embrace, comforted by our promise.

"Forever and always."

"Forever and always, Goldi." I lifted Lana's head gently by her chin and gave her one last kiss.

I woke up to the sound of feet trampling through the forest. A mana-enriched breeze stirred the forest. Wild energy to the north had been unveiled. The rustling noises rapidly moved away from me toward the chaotic energy.

My heart beat wildly. I grasped at the pain in my chest, hoping to dull it. Tears landed softly on the ground. I took a deep breath and then another. The pain inside grew into a wildfire. An unquenchable burning urge to see my friends again. No. To never see my friends like that again. For them, I would get stronger. For them, I would bring down the heavens.

"Lana," I whispered. "I will save you."

End of Book 1