"Wait, wait, wait, slow down or use your big boy words."

Grey rubbed at his temples and was surprised to find that the feeling was very familiar. It was like his body actually was in here rather than just trapped in some odd dreamscape.

It was easy to read the intentions of the flame when it was sending out one simple idea at a time, or trying to guide him toward a simple action. But when things were like this, it was almost impossible.

He thought his sensitivity was pretty damn good, especially compared to the other people he came across. Like there was that poor dude whose Nexis Suit was damaged who had been stuck outside the Safe Room.

’I wonder what happened to him,’ Grey thought.

Regardless, Grey had been able to get into a Safe Room with a Nexis Suit that didn’t even fit him. All it had had was a little bit of compatibility and he managed to make it work.

That man had only had a single gash in his Nexis Suit and it was still an item made perfectly tailored to him, yet he still couldn’t figure it out.

Had Grey been in that situation, using his Nexis Suit would have still been as easy as breathing.

But now he was starting to understand why Prometheus might have chosen him. His sensitivity was great, but you needed that sensitivity to even understand what the hell this little guy was trying to say.

And if it went too fast, even Grey couldn’t keep up.

The flame seemed to finally get the memo, releasing a little pulse of annoyance and then disappointment, before it started going slowly.

Grey stood there in silence, focusing intently. When he did this, he practically felt like the flame was whispering to him in real words, not just pulses and symbols.

After a long while, his lip twitched.

"Okay, I get it. So a new checkpoint was needed after I entered Phase II because the old one was set in Phase I?"

The flame sent out a pulse that seemed to be a nod.

"And the only time you could take full control of me is when I am asleep, so you pulled it up yourself to set it?"

The flame nodded again.

"You could also sense some interference that suggested something was going to happen, so you had no choice but to act without me?"

Once again, the flame nodded.

"Now this last part is just unnecessary." Grey scoffed. "I know it was my fault for not checking early enough, alright? But as you can see, I’m not a robot, and I have a lot on my plate. Do you know anything about being chased down every waking moment of the day? This is probably the only place that..."

Grey’s words trailed off as he came to the realization that this was the only place the Producers couldn’t see anything. If they could get cameras in here, then it was as good as reading his mind anyway. If that was possible, he might as well just give up now.

The flame didn’t seem to pick up on Grey’s realization, or it had already realized this long ago and didn’t care that it took Grey so long to realize the same.

Instead, it was busy reacting to his question. It blazed, increasing in size by tenfold and bore down on Grey with a fury.

"Hey, hey, hey! Alright, alright, I get it, you’ve had a hard life, too."

The flame released a crackle that almost sounded like a harrumph before it settled back down to its original cute and adorable size.

"Wait, let’s go back to the ’you sensed something coming’ part. How’s that possible? Can you see the future?"

The flame began to jabber, releasing pulsing waves.

Grey was getting more used to it. Though it wasn’t going as fast as when he told it to slow down, it was definitely going much faster than before, but he found himself slowly gaining the ability to keep up like he was flexing a muscle he had always had but hadn’t used often enough.

Grey was so focused he didn’t notice that his Last Paladin Abilities were beginning to increase at the same time. Though, receiving notifications in here required a lot more intention and focus than outside where there was a literal blinking screen.

"You can sense ripples in the timeline? Pivotal points?"

The flame released a pulse.

"It is specifically things that affect me?"

The flame released a pulse of derision as though to say Grey wasn’t nearly powerful enough for that yet.

"Shit. So that means this is pretty big?"

The flame released another pulse of affirmation. Then, as though feeling that Grey was still missing the point, it started to pulse wildly again.

At first, Grey was confused, then his eyes widened.

"I get it... so it should only cost me 100 points to set a checkpoint now and 100 points to revive. The reason it cost 10,000 points is because you made a self-contained loop. The cost is higher, but the overall tax on my body for going back in time is a lot less."

This time, the flame seemed to physically nod, then it sent out a pulse as though a kindergarten teacher praising a child for knowing what two plus two equaled.

Grey chuckled and shook his head. He didn’t really care about the flame’s slight condescension. After seeing the scope of the universe, he had a feeling that for this flame to have as much control over time as it did, it had to mean that it held a power at its peak he couldn’t even fathom. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

This was pretty good, too. He had a feeling it would take a lot to deal with this creature. But... he also had very little options to work with...

Other than throwing his head against a brick wall over and over again.

"Just fantastic..."

The flame let out a pulse, seemingly having forgotten something.

"..." Grey froze. "... You know what, fuck you. Why didn’t you tell me that first?!"

It seemed that this self-contained loop wasn’t endless. He only had nine more tries to figure it out.

Otherwise, his eleventh revive would be into a burnt-out body.