"You've just got to keep trying, you know, if you give up that easily you're almost saying you were never determined to do it in the first place. How much of a shame would that be after you've put this much time into it?" -- a wise philosopher

After looking for a good five minutes, Alex still hadn't found the lever his father had been referring to.

Alex approaches his father and gets prepared to shake him awake.

'I really didn't want to do this, and he's definitely going to be a pain, but…'

'Wait, couldn't I just try again next cycle?'

Alex gets a grin on his face, thinking of how all he had done and would do would be impermanent, be fixable.

Then Alex comes back to his senses.

'No. I've tried to ignore it till now, but each time I die, something is changing. There were definitely other servants around the house when I first started 'cycling,' but now?'

Alex looks around the desolate cellar and thinks back on how quiet it had been on his walk to it.

'Something is definitely up here, and I don't want to test it any more than I already have.'

Alex sighs and then shakes his father awake, "Father, father, are you awake now."

"starry rainbows, huh, what?" his father mumbles while flailing his arms, and subsequently hitting his son in his drowsiness.

"Father, behind which wine stack in the cellar is the lever," Alex asks his deranged father.

"Who's asking," his father's speech still half slurred.

"You're son," Alex deciding to be truthful.

"Then third to the right, dear fuzzy buffalo," Walter says before returning to his previous unconscious state.

'maybe I hit his head on my way down?'

Alex then looks behind the third wine stack to the right, to see a small block of discolored stone.

'I thought it was a lever?'

Alex pushes the button to hear a click, and suddenly a lever appears on the floor behind the wine stack.

'What the… Wait, was that illusion magic? I heard it costs a fortune to enchant things with it from Reynold, Grandpa sure does have expensive tastes.'

Alex then pulls the lever, to hear a creaking sound and, and a portion of the walls slowly opened into itself to reveal.

'Wait, why is there rubble blocking it?'

At that moment, Albi enters, carrying a brown leather bag, "Sir, weirdly enough, the medical personnel were not stationed where they should be, but I was able to find this bag. Now, if you would so kindly help me move your father so that I may begin his check-up."

"Albi, why is this tunnel closed off," Alex says while experiencing a sinking feeling of dread.

Albi thinks for a moment and nods, "Oh, now that I think about it, the work being done on the old building experienced some delays due to the collapse earlier this year, maybe it was that? Why does it matter sir, could I ask for you to help me with your father?"

Alex slaps his hands onto his face and starts scratching furiously.

"Um… sir? Are you okay?"

Alex groans in frustration.

'How can I have been so stupid, why did I never check? I spent all this work, all this time getting here, and now I fail? I would have died even if I did what my father said, is there even a way out of this… I'm pretty sure the point I keep waking up at is after they've encircled us…'

Albi approaches closer to Alex and touches his arm, "Sir, if you don't stop, you're going to hurt yourself. Why don't you come and help me with the duke, and we can discuss what you're so upset about after."

'His last words to me, over and over again, have been to live, but I don't even think I can save myself, much less anyone else.'

Alex looks at Albi, "What's the point?"

Albi looks at Alex questioningly.

"None of it matters, Albi, no matter how many times I do this, I'm always going to die, aren't I?"

"I very much doubt that Alex."

Alex surprised by the change in how he was addressed and Albi's response to his statement, is temporarily shocked from his maddened defeatism.

"We all have free will Alex, just like your father tried to sacrifice himself for you, you too are clearly trying to save him. From what, I do not know, but the sentiment is still the same." Albi takes glares at Alex, "If you stop trying, give up, let the madness of the world swallow you up, then you are a weaker man than I thought you were."

"Now, tell me what is it that you are so scared of that you'd be willing to challenge your father to a duel and drag him down here to that broken escape tunnel," Albi's glare only grows in intensity at Alex's silence.

'Should I just tell him…'

"The western duchy, they're attacking. The army, they defected, the servants too I believe. We don't have much time, I think they'll attack in minutes. The situation is hopeless."

"Maybe it would be to your father, but not to you." Alex's ears perk up, "As someone with sine magicae and the blood of this province, you should be able to wake the divine beast."

Alex starts walking towards Albi, "but doesn't that require an insane amount of magic? The kind that I have none of…"

"That would be usually true, and even now it is, but with your unique constitution, you should be able to channel the magic from these medical stones into completing the task," Albi says while holding up the bag. "They're the leftovers from Ivona's visit, I thought I might need them for the duke. Just in case." Each one contains at least three thousand charges, so if used all it once, they might just be enough."

"If we are going to do this, Alex, we'll need to get to its resting place, it should be beneath the garden shed. If what you say is true, we'll need to fight through them. Are you ready?"

'I should have just told them from the beginning, that way maybe I wouldn't have had to… No. Focus.'

Alex nods.

"Well, let's wake your father up and get going," Albi says before taking out a blue stone. He starts clenching it tightly before it starts glowing brightly. He starts mumbling some words and then speaks.

Let there be chill

A bluish cocoon starts forming around the duke before it sinks into his skin, and his eyes shoot open.

"Wait, what happened, where am I?" Walter says, still getting his bearings.

"Sir, it's plan c variation 14 as seen in the old master's books."

"Has it really come to that?" Walter says while standing up, seeing the rubble-filled passageway, "So that's what caused the delays," and starts chuckling. "Well, let's get going then. Shall we, Alex, Albi?"