Harvie stood in front of the portal that led out of the mirror dungeon. The glass around them was cracked, like it had seen too many versions of too many people. Edna was behind him, still breathing hard from their last fight with the Clockwarden. Her hand reached out and held Harvie's sleeve.
"Harvie… do you feel that?" she asked quietly.
He nodded. "Yeah. Something's wrong. Time feels... off."
They stepped through the portal.
The world on the other side was quiet. Too quiet.
It looked like the guild's safe zone, but everyone was frozen. A man pouring tea stayed still mid-air. A bird hung in the sky without flapping. Even sound had died.
Then, suddenly—
> [WARNING: SYSTEM STABILITY AT CRITICAL LEVEL.] [TIME LOOP... INCOMPLETE. REBOOT FAILED.]
Harvie turned to Edna.
"I think the rewind didn't finish," he said.
Before she could reply, something sharp pierced through Harvie's chest.
A blade. Black, jagged, and glowing with time-energy.
Harvie gasped and fell to his knees.
Edna screamed. She tried to reach him, but a pulse of time magic pushed her back.
Harvie saw the attacker only for a second. A shadow in the shape of a man, with a broken clock for a face. Its voice was a whisper and a scream at the same time.
"You took too much. Now the Buried God takes you."
Harvie's vision faded.
> [YOU DIED. INITIATING UNLAMENTED REWIND—] [... ... ...] [REWIND FAILED.]
The screen stayed blank.
Harvie didn't wake up.
---
Edna knelt beside Harvie's body, hands shaking. She didn't cry. She couldn't. Her mind refused to believe he was gone.
"It's just a trick," she whispered. "He'll wake up. He always wakes up."
She stayed beside him for two days.
The world didn't rewind. People moved on. Monsters returned to the dungeons. Time marched forward.
Then, on the third morning—
Harvie gasped.
He opened his eyes, not where he died—but somewhere else.
A white room. Floating clocks ticking backwards. A strange coldness around his neck.
And then—a message appeared:
> [UNLAMENTED OVERRULED.] [??? HAS OVERWRITTEN SYSTEM PROTOCOLS.] [BACKUP SOURCE DETECTED: ORIGIN—BURIED GOD.]
Harvie sat up, coughing hard. Blood spilled from his lips. His body felt wrong, like it had been torn apart and sewn back together.
"What... happened to me?"
His hands were shaking. Not from fear—but because for the first time, death had stuck.
And something had pulled him back anyway.
---
Back in the guild base, Edna opened the door to her room and froze.
Harvie was sitting on the bed, pale, eyes tired.
"Hey," he said softly.
She dropped everything and ran to him.
"You died," she said. "You died."
"I know."
She didn't ask how he came back. She just held him.
But inside, Harvie knew something had changed.
This wasn't just his system anymore.
Something older… something angry… had reached out and saved him.
And it was watching.
---
> Skill Updated: [False Resurrection] — New effect detected. "A puppet cannot save the soul. Only delay its fall."
---
As Harvie looked at the mirror across the room, he didn't see his reflection.
He saw a burning god's eye, blinking slowly.
Watching.
Waiting.