“The following concepts are not eligible for magical operations:

Time: The flow of time is irreversible and cannot be affected.

Creation: A mage cannot create an object, an event, an element or a living creature from scratch; it is only possible to copy/multiply/summon/animate a thing or a substance.

Mind: A mage cannot enter the consciousness and/or the unconscious mind of another person and they cannot construct illusions.

Life: A person cannot be resurrected if their life is terminated.”

—Textbook by Yuki Omnious, “Magic: The Basic Level.”

April 14, 2018

“Oi, sleepyhead!”

The first thing Viktor saw after coming back from his quick nap was the gray metal of a military aircraft and the second—a round freckled face right in front of him.

“The wind’s howling, the propeller’s rumbling, the war’s escalating!” this face declared in an amused female voice. “How can you doze off in such a hubbub?”

“It’s called a rotor, you dummy,” Viktor corrected. “How many times should I tell you this, Cruz?”

“Whatevs! Landing in two minutes, get ready.”

“Yeah, gotcha.”

There was no one in the helicopter except the pilot, Viktor, and his energetic partner, a healer who he had been fighting side by side with for several years. She was more or less the same age as the Amber, but her short ponytails made her look like a schoolgirl.

“Сome down out of the clouds, will you? Oh my, what a pun…”

This all seemed pretty much surreal to Viktor. He was well aware that at this moment they were flying over the south of the Old World. But something ominous was in the air. Or time. Or both.

“Oh come on, no spacing out!” Cruz gave him a friendly nudge on his shoulder. “This isn't exactly what you’d call a spa resort. Just remember that our country needs us alive. Go, go!”

“Alive…”

Viktor went cold. He knew for sure that she would die that day. Or had already died.

Which one was correct?

“Okay, see you down there!” Cruz exclaimed and jumped out of the helicopter.

“No, dummy, wait!!!”

He bolted after her, the chilling airflow scratching his face. His fall lasted only a couple of seconds. A brief but painful drop of pressure, a moment of darkness in his head—and Viktor was seated on the bench of a military aircraft again. The wind was howling, the rotor was rumbling… and the war was still there somewhere below him.

Cruz was next to the Amber, peering at him with her big grayish-green eyes. “Oi, sleepyhead!”

“Ummmm…”

“The wind’s howling, the propeller’s rumbling, the war’s escalating! How can you doze off in such a hubbub?”

“It’s called… ah well, never mind.”

“Landing in two minutes, get ready.”

“Um…”

The sudden reminiscence of the terrible events felt like a hammer strike to his head. Viktor was one of the strong ones, but even he couldn’t endure the horror that usurped his mind.

Two minutes later they would jump right into the heat of warfare. There would be some Southern Elementalist causing havoc, a specialist in earth and sand magic—and only the two of them could stop him. But…

“Сome down out of the clouds, will you? Oh my, what a pun…”

A cold sweat struck Viktor, but Cruz either didn’t notice his anxiety, or attributed it to simple jitters. She nudged him. “This isn’t exactly what you’d call a spa resort. Just remember that our country needs us alive. Go, go!”

“Cruz, listen to me…”

“Okay, see you down there!” with these words she jumped out again.

“No, dummy, wait!!!”

So swift, this Cruz.

Viktor rushed after his teammate into the open air, but the blood pressure scrambled his mind for an instant, and the mage found himself in the helicopter—again.

“Oi, sleepyhead!”

“If only…”

No, he wasn’t dreaming at all. This had all happened a few years before. Thanks to the solid knowledge obtained from science fiction, Viktor could safely assume he was trapped in a time loop.