What was a protagonist supposed to do then? Change the course of events by executing something out of the pattern?

Cruz pouted. “Сome down out of the clouds, will you? Oh my—”

“What a pun,” the Battle Mage finished her sentence. “And yes, I don’t think it’s a spa resort.”

The Celestial gazed at him in awe. Viktor had never been attracted to this girl in a romantic way, but this war had made them truly close. The unbeatable gang: a bullet-proof tank and a talented healer. They could eliminate the whole world together while bantering and tasting all the booze available on the way. Yet they lost everything... one day.

“Okay, see you down there!”

Viktor grabbed the girl’s hand just before her leap.

“The fuck you’re doing?!” She tried hard to shout over the wind.

“Oi!” he cried. “Stay back! This is a trap, we are stuck in a time loop!”

“Stop shitting me, Viktor! We are on mission, you dumbass! You’ll get our people killed!”

“I just want us to be safe!”

“If you’re scared shitless, that’s your problem! I’m out!” Cruz kicked her partner, amplifying the impact with a couple of self-buffs. An ordinary man would fly and hit the opposite wall, but Viktor just staggered a bit. However, he loosened his grip, so the healer had her chance to free herself and flee. With a loud groan, Viktor followed her outside.

Two seconds, three… a blackout—and he was woken up in the helicopter once more, out of his breath.

“Oi, sleepyhead!”

“Cruz, listen to me!” Viktor grabbed her shoulders so that the dumbfounded healer wouldn’t escape too early. “You will tell me that I’m scared shitless, but it’s not the case. We have about two minutes, so please hear me out. You mustn’t land there. It’s a trap. We are stuck in a time loop. To break out of this shit, we need to do something else. Whatever we hadn’t done before. That means no jumping. That’s the only way we can change the course of events.”

“Are you… shitting me?”

“I’m telling you! If you go there, you… you will die.”

“Huh?”

Cruz stared at the Amber with her eyes wide-open. Drops of sweat were streaming from his forehead, mixing with what used to be camouflage paint, and the degree of his dejection was so extreme it seemed almost impossible to endure: they had seen a lot together, but Viktor had never lost his control to such an extent. A vision of a sandstorm stood before his eyes, and a cry repeated in his ears.

“Don’t go after me! Run!”

“How would you know?” Cruz uttered.

“I… I’ve seen it. I was there. I know what would be. And… I don’t want it to happen again. You hear me? I DON’T WANT IT! I must save you at all costs!”

“Quit being a drama queen!” the pilot shouted. “Get outta here now! It’s a war, not a TV show!”

“Shut up, you fucker!”

“Viktor, listen… he’s right,” the healer was speaking in the most comforting voice possible. “I know what you feel—stress and stuff like that. That happens. But there are our people down there. They need our help. If we step back, thousands of lives might be lost. They don’t deserve it.”

“Cruz…”

“If you want, you may stay here…” she got up and raised her hands before her. “And I’ll go help whoever I can. Alright?”

“Oh, Cruz…” groaned Viktor, watching her backing toward the exit.

“Don’t go after me. Your breakdown will lead us to no good. I’ll tell the Major General you don’t feel well. Everything will be alright. I promise.”

Shaken to his very core, the Battle Mage could do nothing but watch her next leap into the void.

What a dummy. She had no idea what kind of death awaited her there—more cruel than she could imagine.

The death he tried so hard to forget. He was ready to beg her to stay a hundred times, if only the hundred and first would work. But the mage was captivated by the conviction that she would never betray those who were fighting below. She was so selfless, this Cruz.

Don’t go after me. Viktor remembered her words. Could this be a way out?

If it wasn’t possible to persuade her to stay with him and thereby change the course of events, maybe he himself would be able to take control of the situation by simply doing nothing? In reality, he indeed landed alongside Cruz. But once he had done nothing already…

Viktor stared at the open exit with a look of a wistful dog. The pilot was muttering something to a dispatcher, who answered him in a rough hissing. The helicopter was rocking smoothly like a cradle, and all the surrounding sounds were dying away bit by bit while Viktor’s head was spinning around from a neverending echo.

Don’t go after me. Don’t go after me. Don’t go after me.

That time he didn’t. And that was the very thing he tried to forget.

Seemed like he tried to save someone.

Why? Who were they?

There was barely a moment’s warning before the helicopter crashed into something, and the world around him disappeared completely.