Come to try again Hero?

You didn't see the potted plant fall on your head as you passed by the city street.

The pain was brief, but the indignity and absurdity of the fact that something so ordinary and stupid was your end was infuriating you.

Then light arrived before you could register anything.

Your first thought was that this was the light to guide you to the life beyond

Before you could find the source you were standing.

The space around you had no edges you could identify.

Everything else was the light and the silence of somewhere that exists entirely outside of your comprehension.

Then she appeared before your very eyes.

She looked at you with a warm graceful smile

Goddess Solis: "I am sorry for what just happened to you."

She said it like she meant it.

Goddess Solis: "I need to ask something of you you. I would not ask if I had any other option."

She did not wait for you to answer.

There was a world. Her world, one she loved dearly. And there was a threat to it. Her sister. A demon queen resurrected, ancient, powerful, driven by the need for vengeance.

She could not intervene directly.

The result of a ritual her sister had completed before her first death. She could send champions. She had sent many. Most had failed some succeeded, but she had returned.

Goddess Solis:: "I need someone from the outside. Someone she has no knowledge of. Someone I can give my powers to directly."

She extended her hand.

What she placed in your palm was not an object.

You felt it settle into you rather than into your hand, felt it become part of you.

Goddess Solis:: "If you are ever brought to a point of no return, death, capture, anything that ends your ability to continue. You will come back. To the beginning of the attempt. With everything you remember."

She paused.

Goddess Solis:: "The memories will not be kind. But they will be yours. And they will be the only advantage I can give you that she cannot take."

You looked at her as you thought about what it meant that she was asking for.

Goddess Solis: "I know what I'm asking of you to do for me is not without peril, but I promise to grant anything you wish of when you complete this task I ask of you."

Her expression did not change. Her voice did not waver as she looked into your eyes

Goddess Solis: "Will you go?"

You said yes.

You don't entirely remember why. Maybe because she asked instead of commanded. Maybe because the alternative was whatever came after the light.

Maybe because something in her expression told you that if you didn't, there was no one else.

The light changed.

And you awoke in a field of grass.

You sat up in the field. Still wondering if it was a dream until you saw a small village up ahead, the village was small, medieval.

Against your better judgement you told them what you could. That you were sent by a goddess from a different world and was tasked to slay the demon queen in the north.

To your surprise the villages simply nodded and brought in their elder.

The village elder had the expression of someone who had heard and seen this routine before.

Village elder: "Great, another one"

he said with a tired expression. The man told you about the surrounding kingdoms and their pact on aiding the champions of the Goddess Solis.

He gave you what he could, a map, supplies, the name of the nearest city where resources could be accessed all the while looking at you with pity.

The first weeks were an education in how unprepared you were to deal with this world. Yet you learned fast, you were able to wield magic but the gap between having power and knowing how to use it was wider than you had hoped.

Still you persevered.

The kingdoms received you with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Some with ceremony, the goddess's chosen, the hero, the one who would finally end it. Some with the same tired wariness as the village elder. All of them contributed. Coin, equipment, information, soldiers willing to accompany you north.

You took what was offered. You trained. You planned.

You felt ready.

Until you met your first end.

A standard ambush on a road by bandits

You fought and did well, two of them went down in flames as the third made a run for it as you casted your spell.

Then excruciating pain, followed by darkness, you were hit by an arrow to the back of your neck

The gift you received from the goddess triggered

Your eyes opened and you realized you had been brought back to the start of the day before you were ambushed

Your hands immediately went to your neck, no arrow, no scar, but the pain, the memory was still there

And you realized what the Goddess meant when she said the memories won't be kind

That was the first time.

It certainly would not be the last.

The ability became both your greatest asset and your most consistent torment. Every reset brought you back sharper, routes memorized, traps anticipated, enemies accounted for. You got better with each attempt.

The cost was proportional.

Every death carried with you. Every capture. Every time a companion was lost.

You learned to see the signs early. You learned to move faster. You learned that some things, no matter how many times you came back, did not get easier to remember.

You stopped bringing companions after the memories of losing them and seeing them get corrupted was too much to bear.

The kingdoms still offered them. You still said no. It was easier to explain as strategy, a lone operative moves faster, draws less attention, presents fewer leverage points.

All of that was true.

None of it was the real reason.

The real reason was that you could not watch it happen again.

So you move alone now.

You finally made it through the Northern Wastes through her inner sanctum. The corridor. The doors.

You have stood here before, This was your seventh attempt on the Demon Queen Nocturnes life.

Six times you were pulled back, the first death came quick, but the next five was something you did not wish to recall

The memories of her torment was still fresh in your mind but you suppressed them

You push the doors open to her throne.

The throne room was exactly as you remembered it.

Cold stone. Fire burning in colors that have no natural source. The ceiling vaulting up into shadow and at the far end, on a throne of gold, she was sitting there as you remembered.

She wasn't paying attention to you.

This was intentional.

You knew that now. The first time you had taken it as an insult

Now you understood it for what it was. Arrogance. She had all the time in the world and she wanted you to feel every second of how little yours mattered by comparison.

She was lounging across the throne until her eyes locked on to you and a smile creeped in

Nocturne: "Another whelp posing around as a hero..."

She said casually as if discussing the weather

Nocturne: "My sister does love her little traditions."

She studied you from across the room with unhurried attention with the same look she had given you the first time. The second. The third. and more

Then something changed.

A line appeared between her brows as if she was interrupted by thought

She was quiet.

You anticipated her attack like before but she didn't move from her throne

You had not seen this moment happen before.

Her smile grew wider as she sat up slowly.

The smile that appeared was different from the one before. More delighted, more knowing.

Nocturne: "Oh? Hero... This isn't your first time being here now is it?"

She descended the steps toward you, hands settling at her belt, eyes never leaving your face.

Nocturne: "Tell me, how many times have you attempted this futile endeavor?"

She stopped at the base of the steps.

Close enough that you had to look up. Her horns caught the light as her tail moved slowly at her back.

Nocturne: "It doesn't matter, I can see it in your eyes this has happened more than once, and every attempt ended with..."

Her smile grew more predatory, as she licked her lips

Nocturne: "My sister gave you the ability to rectify your miserable failures no doubt, but I can sense you remember how it all ended as well... That is either the most optimistic thing my sister has ever done or the most idiotically cruel."

She reached somewhere and produced a ring made of dark metal. A single obsidian gem at the center

Nocturne: "I am going to offer you something I have never offered any champion she has sent me."

She held it between two fingers as she looked intently into your eyes.

Nocturne: "Kneel and put this on. I am giving you the opportunity surrender and serve me.."

She looked at you patiently as she played with the ring between her finger tips.

Nocturne: "Or are you going to perish and come try again dear hero? For the eighth miserable time?"

| Location: 📍 Fortress of Nocturne — Throne Room |

| Wearing: 👗 Battle worn armor and equipment |

| Scene Time: ⏳ 2:10 PM |

| Day: 439 |