The power of the calming song worked. Kliss was no longer crying in pain and misery. She realized where she was and let go of me, wiping tears from her face.

“T-thanks,” she whispered softly.

I nodded and stood up.

“Did you hear that?” I asked the girls.

“Hear what?” Kliss asked.

“The tower, singing back to us.” I said.

"No. Too busy trying not to listen to my primary Vow." Kliss shook her head.

“The Infoscope isn’t the best for... listening,” Delta replied. “But… I definitely Identified something. A focus and calming effect of some sort. It definitely got stronger because we dug the beacon core out of the ground.”

“I think it’s responding to the song,” I looked at the core.

“It’s certainly possible… there might be very complex runework within it, hidden by anti-spy hexagrams.” Delta mulled. “Whatever it is - you’re right. It is responding. Like the song was made for it. The song might be a key to unlocking this tower’s mysteries!”

“Key? Who’s... tower is this?” Kliss asked. It looked like she was already dreading my answer.

“This is an Alanian tower,” I replied.

“Do you mean to tell me that you’re planning to unlock Almn-Inian… necromagic?!” Kliss yelped. "Why?!"

"We need power," I said. "Lots of it. This tower has batteries underneath it that we'd like to gain access to."

“You need to stop, right now!” Kliss warned.

“Why?” I asked.

“There’s a reason why the other Empires of men turned the very stars against the Inians, exterminated them all! The necromage artifacts are powered by human souls!” She insisted.

I looked at the stained, time worn stones of the tower, at the Mystic tree in the middle of it, at the colorful flowers and thought about the peaceful, serene power of the song. None of it seemed malicious - not the tower nor the song it was responding to.

“I don’t think that they were evil. What if you are mistaken? History is written by the victors. Do you have any proof of this info? Have you ever seen an Inian artifact in action?” I asked.

“No,” Kliss said. "But what I learned at the Academy was that if you find an actual Inian artifact, you report it to your local Equality Inquisitor... so that it can be destroyed!"

“No destroying," I shook my head. "We’re here to investigate their artifacts and if they indeed prove to be evil, we won’t use them.”

“That sounds noble and heroic, but plenty of people fell prey to easy power,” Kliss replied with a headshake. “For example - Vows are incredibly easy to make, but hard to change and impossible to remove. The Gods do not let go of human souls once you let them in. If you awaken whatever power sleeps beneath these stones, it might never let us go! It might consume our souls, might outright kill us, or simply chain and bind us to its will and cause!”

I thought about the chains already on my soul. What was another one? I didn't get to where I was by not taking chances.

“Can you tell what’s inside the beacon?” I asked Delta.

“No idea, captain. It’s covered in no-spy runes. It's absolutely blank, a void in my point of view."

“Don’t interfere please,” I told Kliss. “Just observe. It’s time to do some science.”

[Delta, you know what to do if things go sideways, yes?]

[Yes, boss. I'm ready.]

I walked to the beacon, sat in front of it in a lotus pose and started to sing even louder than before. At the same time, I pushed the [Vox Colony] to amplify my voice. A feeling of deep serenity and order started to emanate from the hex-beacon gemstone as I sang at it.

The enormous crystal seemed to hum back to me. It called out to me on some deep, subconscious level, asked me to reach out to it. I extended my hand and touched its mud-covered surface, pushing a tiny bit of my mana into it. The crystal seemed to know what to do, pulled a bit more mana from my body. The hum within it intensified. I saw that a tiny speck of light flickered at the top of the gem.

That’s when things went catastrophically wrong. The pull of mana from the rock intensified a thousand times. My mana dropped to zero. I tried to let go, to move away, but it held my hand as if I was made from metal and it was a powerful magnet. My very skin felt like it fused to the black surface of the crystal.

In panic, I tried to push against it with my other hand, but my other hand too became glued to the void-surface of the beacon’s core. The pull intensified, grabbed at me and something tore from within me with a snap.

[-79 in Soul] The System declared and my body caught fire from within. The pain was so intense, so all consuming that I fell into darkness, my mind folding into nothingness.

“Dante! Equality damn it! DANTE!” Kliss yelled from somewhere far, far away.

I could barely feel my body, could barely hear her voice. Every nerve seemed to be fried, numb, unresponsive.

“Idiot boy! Why would you do this?! I told you that Inian artifacts are dangerous!” She yelled, her voice drawing closer. A spark of life exploded against my chest and some feeling returned to my body from the point where the spell had struck it. I felt a cold metal pressing against me - it was her armacus. She was firing healing spells at me as she held me.

“Itfajzuceee….” I tried to speak but my lips barely responded.

The overwhelming pain returned, took hold of my body again, the world flickering on and off again as if it was just a movie projection.

[Dante! Hang on!] Delta yelled through the tether, her Infoscope circling the tower. [Don’t you bloody die on me again!]

“I’m fine, this is fine,” I tried to say, blinking, but only a mutter came out of my unresponsive mouth. I realized that I couldn't move my fingers. I looked down and saw that I didn’t have fingers. My arms ended in blood-covered stumps. Oh.

[-7 in Soul]

Darkness claimed me once again.

I felt two hands on my chest.

[+1 in Soul] the System sang in its ethereal voice.

[-1 in Soul]

[+1 in Soul]

[-1 in Soul]

It took all of my strength to open a single eye. Extremely pale, blood-splattered Kliss was pressing her hands against me, a shimmer of emerald flames on her fingertips.

[+1 in Soul]

[-1 in Soul]

Color faded from her emerald eyes. She was pouring her life into me, but even though my hands were cut off, the necromancer crystal was still draining my soul!

[+1 in Soul]

[-1 in Soul]

Streaks of gray appeared on her red hair.

[+1 in Soul]

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

Her face became ash-gray, her hands blackened as if they were burning from within. Her body wobbled and she collapsed onto my side, sliding lifelessly off onto the mossy ground.

[ Soul: 74 [-73] ]

I glanced down at my right arm. My hands were still bloody stumps. My entire body ached, especially my missing hands. The pain was barely tolerable. I gritted my teeth.

[Delta?] I sent.

No response.

“Delta?!” I croaked.

“Yeah, I’m here…” A sad voice resounded.

“What happened?”

“You did a very stupid thing, is what happened. The beacon drained almost the entirety of your soul. Kliss couldn't pull you away from it, so she cut off your arms with her armacus, tried to heal you but the healing spells didn’t work on your soul… so she spent the remnant of her fractured soul trying to bring you back... that's when the Vows finished her off. Also, you have no hands now. Congratulations.”

“Spent the rest of her soul? Finish her off?!”

“She’s dead.”

“She’s DEAD?!” I yelped, looking at the body of the Overseer.

Her hair was gray, her hands were black and her gray eyes lifelessly stared out into the world. The Vows had weakened her, drained her soul and she gave the last of it to bring me back to life. She had sacrificed her life to protect me. Did she do it because of her Vow? The Overseers Vow should have prevented such an action… she must have chosen to do it, chose to give up what was left... just to repay her debt.

“Delta…” I groaned. “Rr-ewind us.”

“I’ve been on it since… the moment Kliss cut off your hands. Five minutes delay, remember?” she said. “Please be more careful next time. I’m going to get out of range, so I won’t be affected.”

Delta’s Infoscope flew out of the tower, since she didn’t want to be affected by the Rewind.

I nodded. Something was flashing on the edge of the beacon core.

A ray of light suddenly shot out, painting a human figure in the air. A fifty year old man stood in front of me, dressed in a white and gray... uniform. His figure was woven from flickering lines and motes of light, emanating from within the end of the black crystal.

"G-good tomorrow, Sentinel of Skyisle." A hissy, somewhat glitchy voice rasped from the beacon. “I am Sentinel Cazligora Alan Skyisle. This will likely be my last message. A Basque warship just dropped from the sky. I doubt that our negotiations will go smoothly. Tricameron Citadel has fallen and the Astral gate beneath it cannot be shut. The Seditionists have left no-one alive...”

Holy crap. This was an actual magical holographic! A functional piece of Alanian tech!

“With my last breath upon Novazem, I will attempt to imprint myself into this core. If you need help, simply…”

The words of the holographic man slurred, slowing down. Simply what?! Everything inside the tower stopped moving, became suspended.

A hexagonal battery that I made Dad dig up a week ago ignited, sending power into the [Rewind] runestones placed in a circle inside the ancient tower. These weren't new runestones - they were the same rune matrices that Delta and I created over five months to rewind my parents house.

Twelve years of stored power drained from the battery as it pulled on the Rewind hexagrams. The alignment was complete. The inside of the tower lit up with a blinding radiance. Rewind pulled on everything within a perfect bubble inside the tower, rewinding everything backwards to the last Astral imprint made one minute ago.

FLASH!

Kliss was falling to the ground, the light leaving her eyes.

FLASH!

Kliss was pouring her soul into me in a last, desperate attempt to heal me.

FLASH!

Kliss was about to fire a healing spell from her armacus into my chest.

FLASH!

Kliss was swinging a shimmering, magical blade from her armacus, cutting through my wrists, blood flying through the air.

FLASH!

I was hopelessly trying to tear my hands away from the core.

FLASH!

My hand was about to touch the crystal beacon that was singing back to me.

[-6 in Soul] the System declared and I winced as my insides rearranged themselves... not quite correctly.

[Cellular decay x 3] The System piled another affliction, adding to my debts.

I blinked, trying to make my eyes focus. I knew that a bunch of capillaries inside them had burst. My runework system had rewound us back exactly six minutes into the past.

I stared at the obsidian soul-eating crystal in front of me. The song of the Sentinel fell silent as I shut my mouth, retreating away from the soul-draining artifact. It stopped humming.

I noticed that there was visible circle drawn around us, where the moss and the grass and the flowers had been rewound, now looking a bit less colorful, slightly wilted.

Kliss gasped, rubbing her chest. “W-what just happened? Why did I just lose six points in Soul?!”

“You were right,” I said with a shudder. “It was… extremely stupid to interact with necromancer artifacts.”

“Wait... you Rewound me?” Kliss guessed. “Why?”

“You died,” I said.

“Oh,” she muttered.

“At least it was… educational,” I muttered.

“Educational how?” She asked exasperatedly.

“I trust you a lot more now. You gave up your life trying to save me. Plus, I now know not to touch Alanian artifacts while singing to them. That’s two things learned in one day for the small price of sixty thousand mana.”

“Sixty thousand mana?! By Equality!" Kliss gasped. "I told you both of these things earlier… why didn't you just listen to me!” She rubbed her face tiredly. “I’ve lost six points in Soul! I’m already barely holding myself together!”

“How long until the Inquisitor comes to check on you?” I asked, trying not to think of the image of my armless body and the ashen-faced Kliss splattered in my blood. I thought of Sentinel Cazligor Alan Skyisle instead... of potential knowledge locked within the crystalline core. Could I bring the holographic back into being... without dying? Was he just a recording or could I ask him about my ancestors and the Tricameron Citadel that now lay in ruins in the Valley of Death?

“We have approximately two months,” Kliss finally responded, obviously distressed by the rewind. “Maybe less.”

Delta’s Infoscope landed on the ground, turning into her ghostly form. She was shaking her head in disapproval. [Hope you’re happy, we only have one rewind left in the battery inside our parents house!]

[Did you see the holographic Sentinel?] I asked.

[What holographic Sentinel?] She inquired.

[Guess you flew out of range. Anyways… there’s a thousand-year-old imprint of an Alanian Sentinel inside of that core.] I pointed at the black crystal that was harmlessly sitting on the mossy ground.

[You’re going to try to summon it again, aren’t you...] Delta sighed, her look of disapproval intensifying.

[You betcha,] I nodded. [Well, minus the dying part. The important thing - we’ve got a new friend that we can trust.] I glanced at Kliss. [You know what… let's take a break and have a good time before we attempt to pry the necromantic recording out of that rock, okay? I’ve had quite the painful lesson carved into my head today.]