"You can't possibly know how many times we've been through this. How many times our timeline has repeated..."

The knight spun in place, rolling with the attack towards his hand. He backhanded Draou with his sword hand, knocking him backwards.

"Only I remember. I assumed it was because I exist outside of the time-space continuum, trapped in this dark Hell for my failures to save others."

The knight swung his sword horizontally, Draou leapt over it and counterattacked with his staff. The blow hit the knight on his inner shoulder, the large man dropped his shield from the pain.

"Nggh! However... you're different altogether. You can tap into the same power as me, but it doesn't control you. You can free me, maybe then I'll be released from this never ending nightmare. These constant resets."

The knight shot out a boot in a standing kick towards Draou, who barely had time to circle away and stab him in the knee with his staff. The knight buckled to the floor.

"Do you even know what kind of torment it is to live the same day over and over again? Cursed to infinite repeats while you're trapped in a body you can't even control?! I'D RATHER DIE. I'VE KILLED YOU COUNTLESS TIMES ONLY BECAUSE YOU REFUSE TO RELEASE ME INTO THE SWEET EMBRACE OF DEATH!!"

The massive armada of monsters around her all collapsed into twitching piles of decaying flesh. She was barely conscious, and her body felt like it had just ripped itself in two, but she could vaguely see someone walking towards her, they were humanoid... and they were heading right into the poison cloud alone.

Magnus' swung a mighty arc and cleaved most of the monsters away. His strength clearly superior to the beasts that surrounded him. The remaining creatures hissed and ran into the darkness.

Frank dodged a swipe from the large beast, his body spinning as he swung a lazy yet firm strike for the monster's jaw. His punch collided knocking the thing's head upward. It swiped again, and again, and again. Each attack Frank barely dodging out of the way. Each attack followed by a swift counterattack. Frank's gloves glowed brightly as they charged for a super powerful strike towards the monster who's back was against the outer wall.

Virachne's legs tore through the air towards Draou, who created a portal directly in front of himself. A sharp pain slammed into Vi's back as she felt her own legs slam into her. She pulled her legs back through the portal but before she could retaliate further she was surrounded by the dark portals. Draou suddenly tossed his staff like a javelin, sending the weapon through a separate portal. The stick shot through the portal to Virachne's left, the speed of the throw enhanced by the portal somehow. She fell backwards onto a single hand, doding the attack. However the staff went into the portal on her opposite side and shot out of another. The attack continued like this with her desperately dodging, but before long one of the strikes landed. The spiderwoman staggered from the blow, only to be hit again, and again, and again. Suddenly the smaller portals disappeared and a single massive portal opened above her. Nearly a dozen copies of his staff came flying out of it like bullets.

The blue energy disappeared from around Theman's limbs. At the same time his eyes stopped glowing behind his sunglasses.

"Others? From what I've seen this place is crawling with surprises. Let's go."

Theman hopped in the back of the truck.

"I'll give you a high-five later kid! I promise!"

[A spark of indignation lit Meredith's heart with anger.
Reaching out she slapped the knight as hard as she could. She held her head down, masking her tears with the unyielding rain.
"You failed...so what?! You were consumed, SO WHAT?! All you're doing is moping down here now because you think its won!"

Standing, up Meredith grabbed the knight by his shoulders, shaking him desperately.

"Fight back god dammit! You're supposed to be a Hero right?! Heroes never give up, even when they've already lost!"

Pulling his chin up, she tried to stare into his eyes, "As long as its still you in there, it's not over yet!"]

Draou backs up a few steps, balancing on his quarterstaff slightly once he is out of the knight's reach, "A loop you say...?" Draou thinks for a moment, something about the way the man said it bothering him deeply.

He suddenly bites his tongue, slamming away his current doubt of the situation, "If anything happens to this version of "me", tell the one on the next day the number 1034. "He'll" understand..."

I can't just kill him... No, I definitely can't do that. If only I could remember the last stanza... d@mmit.

"Fine, I'll do my best to help you, but is this the first time you have told "me" of this?" While a bit shocked, Draou grips the top of his quarterstaff tightly, ready to pull it back up into a combat stance.

I'll start by breaking your bones...

[video]https://youtu.be/NQdlQi-7Hp8?t=50[/video]
Rest in pieces... good sir. I'm sorry, I couldn't resist.

Animation by Crazy Boris.

The knight's eyes look deeply into Meredith's, his gaze searching for something.

"You remind me of someone that I lost... long ago... Fine. I'll fight... but only if you help me... I'm not sure I can do it alone anymore."

"No... I've told you countless times. However my control over this body is waning, as it does every time... Good luck friend... Maybe this will be the time you succeed."

The Knight's eyes turned completely black as his face twisted into a grotesque grin. Black tentacles began sliding out from beneath his armor around his right shoulder.
"LeTs mAkE it FuN!" the "man" yelled in an unearthly voice. It then charged at Draou with uncanny speed.

As the being approached she could definitely tell it was male. Their skin was a dark gray. They slowly approached her and knelt down near her. They wrapped their arms around her and lifted her, carrying her to a vehicle outside of the poison cloud. The vehicle was an armored truck and she could see several others inside.

Frank waited for his moment, the monster hissing at him as it regained its balance. It suddenly charged forward, and Frank barely dodged out of the way. His gauntlets surged as his fist soared upwards towards the thing's jaw. The blow connected and the thing was launched skyward, slamming into the ceiling and echoing out a sickening crack as its neck snapped.

Virachne's speed helped her dodge as attacks rained down from above her. Portals started appearing beneath her as the staff shot upwards out of the ground as well. Attacks came from every direction but still she pushed on. Every time the staff made contact with her it felt like a bullet was tearing into her body, but she ignored the pain and shoved towards the being controlling the portals. Finally Draou was in front of her, and he was too focused on controlling the portals to dodge in time.

The trip to the emerald cloud was short using the vehicle, and about a block away the group could see an armored truck driving out of the noxious cloud at high speeds towards the location of Helm and Sword.