Master of the Loop

Chapter 6

  Search for the Boy

Sylas had a plan—it wasn’t a terribly complex or even intuitive plan, but it was still a plan. He was going to slither away from his post right after Tebek leaves him there and he was going to rush toward the old man’s room and steal the whatever-talisman that behaves like a bomb detonator. And then, he would return to the watchtower, wait for just before the Ghouls show up, ring the bell—hopefully not deafening himself entirely in the process—and then run around the castle, identifying every single boy there.

At that point, he’ll latch onto one and follow him—if the message about the task’s failure pops up, it would mean it wasn’t that boy. Then, he’ll happily, and with a grin on his face, run into the army of the Ghouls and kill himself to start all over again, but this time with a different boy.

It was a great plan, actually. And it was foolproof… all the way until the very first night when he was to identify all the boys. There was, however, a slight problem: there were… well… no boys. He was actually shocked how it took him so long to realize this. Even if he never ventured too deeply into the castle, he was still there. Yet, he missed it. Then again, he blindly trusted the window that told him to look for the boy. If he was to look for the boy, there ought to be several boys, no? So that he could look for the boy.

Semantics aside, Sylas found himself in a strange position as he watched the guards desperately battling the ghouls. They were actually doing better than he anticipated, having already survived nearly five hours from the point of invasion without surrendering the walls. He also spotted Tebek running around like a headless chicken, a panicked expression on his face, too tunnel-visioned to even notice him.

He thought and thought but couldn’t think of anything. So, he began walking up to anyone and everyone asking them about ‘the boy’. A few punches and a lot of stinky, ‘why is a grown man looking for a boy’ looks later, he confirmed it: there were no boys.

"You mean Boy, our main librarian? Yes, he is here. You can find him in the Spire of Knowledge. It's that big tower over there near the main building."

“…”

Sylas returned to ‘his’ watchtower and climbed the railing. Under the distant shouts of the guards begging him not to do it, he heaved himself over and died in deep agony. It didn’t help much, however, since the agony was still there a few moments later when he, once again, heard the rousing shout of Tebek: “On your feet, maggot!”

He rose to his feet, mechanically, though; a good chunk of him still felt shame and despair, and he wasn’t ready to search for Boy just yet. Instead, he went back to the watchtower and perused around his shameful thoughts for a single loop before being woken up by Tebek’s voice once again: “On your feet, maggot!”

Feeling somewhat better, he played out the scenario yet again: let Tebek escort him to the watchtower, wait until the old man moved on, and then sneak into the inner castle. He didn’t bother stealing the talisman since he knew he’d restart the damn thing all over again. This go-around, he only wanted to confirm who Boy is and exactly how he dies so that he may devise a plan to help him. If it is to fight a Ghoul, Sylas was suspect; he couldn’t even stand his own against the fellow man, so what business did he have straight-up fighting a zombie? No business is what business. As such, he was hoping that Boy wasn’t mauled by the Ghouls but that he fell and tripped over a wire and smashed his head into the stone or something. Even if far-fetched, he was hoping.

The castle's library didn't really live up to the mystique; after asking around for a little while, he learned that it was just one, slightly larger room where a man in his early twenties spent his days perusing the books and writing the reports and whatever else the librarians did in this world—Sylas didn’t really care. Since the main castle consisted of four interlocked buildings, Sylas had to enter through the main doors despite the fact that the ‘library’ was situated in the leftmost wing of the castle.

Luckily, nobody seemed to pay him any mind and he easily found his way over to the ‘library’; truly, it was… pathetic. There weren’t even any doors to shield the poor lad inside from the passersby. And he truly, desperately needed those doors. After all, whoever passed by, would shout obscenities at the man. The worst were the middle-aged maids, and Sylas once again confirmed his self-imposed bias that middle-aged women are actually hornier than teenage boys. By a lot.

There were some milder ones Sylas picked up within just an hour, but quite a few that he decided to immediately forget. It was sexual harassment of the highest order, but nobody seemed to really care. Except for Boy. His cheeks remained permanently flushed in red and his body would visibly cringe and shudder whenever one of them middle-aged ladies walked by with the big, flapping lips and words that would scar even the most deformed and morally corrupt connoisseurs of deviant arts back on Earth.

At one point, even Sylas began feeling bad for the boy, nearly stepping out into his defense. However, he held back; not only would Boy forget his heroics, but he didn’t want to draw those lips and those eyes onto himself. Pretty boys, like Boy, make the ultimate sacrifice so that the rest of men never have to experience women in ways that men aren’t meant to experience women.

In such actions, hours passed and, soon enough, Sylas heard the bell ring. Soon after, shouts and screams could be heard from the outside as the inner castle began emptying. Inevitably, even Boy grew curious and braved his handsome face to leave the ‘library’. He first peaked out like a scared rat, holding tightly onto the frame where the door once hung (it was also around here that Sylas realized that the doors were likely literally yanked off by those horny women), and glancing left and right for a long while before stepping out.

By then, however, a whole hour had passed—though those ladies had issues, Boy had issues of his own, Sylas mused. Beyond that, during the hour, the castle fell completely—and the Ghouls reached even here. In fairness, Sylas’ wish did come true—Boy did not, in fact, die by the hands of the Ghouls. When he saw one, he stiffened, keeled over and… well, died. Of something. Probably a heart attack. Possibly due to that phenomenon, 'scared to death'.

Sylas followed him right after, tossing himself into the welcoming arms of the paled invader. The death was quick, though not quite painless.

“On your feet, maggot!”

By now, a plan had begun to form inside Sylas' mind—not a fetching plan, but one that encompassed the whole picture. There were four key points to consider: first, obviously, being the wall. He could prevent that by simply stealing the talisman. Secondly, he suspected that even with that, the castle might just fall anyway. Unfortunately, he didn’t have a solution for that one. Thirdly, saving Boy—another point in which he lucked out since he can just step in at any point during that godforsaken wait and just lead the young man away by force if necessary. And four… figuring out what comes after all of this.

Judging by the system’s messages, he wasn’t being taken back to Earth after this crisis is over and he is very much stuck here, somewhere, alone and unprepared. Even if he was immortal, technically speaking, it did little to ease his mind. As such, he did what he does best—ignore the ever-loving hell out of it and focus on the things he could control.

Before anything, he actually wanted to talk to Boy—namely to figure out the man's personality, quirks, and easy points of access for manipulation, but also to ask some non-Boy-related questions. He was a librarian, after all—and even if Sylas' questions might sound stupid, his personality taken into the account, Boy might just answer Sylas' stupid questions. And that was a far larger treasure trove of answers than the corrupt captain. Perchance, Boy might even have a solution for the invasion, one he was incapable of seeing through by himself, but one that Sylas could help him with.

Following every other step as before, he found himself in front of the library again but, this time around, he actually stepped out during one of the most brutal onslaughts of objectification that Sylas had ever heard in his life. He stepped out to defend the young man, hoping he'll score a few pity and sympathy points that would buy him no-questions-asked answers to some of the dumber questions he might have.

“Shoo, shoo, you rabid dogs!” he hollered the moment he stepped out of darkness, tearing away ladies’ attention from Boy and onto himself. “Would you be drooling like a cavewoman if that was your son?! Shame! Shame on you! May God above smite your unholy hearts! Shame! God will never forgive! He’s unforgivable—no, wait, He’s unforgiving! Shoo, you filthy dogs!”

Chop.

“On your feet, maggot!”

“ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?! DID THAT BITCH SERIOUSLY JUST CHOP MY FUCKING HEAD OFF?! OOOH, OOOH, IT’S ON! IT’S SO-FUCKIN’-ON YOU CUM-EATING WHORE!”

Chop. Alright, yea, I deserved that one.

“On your feet, maggot!”