The pages of the Grimoire of Marisa felt familiar between my fingers. I knew the book like the back of my hand—every spell, every incantation, every quirk of the author's notes. It was as if the library itself whispered the contents to me, but still, I found myself drawn to it. There was something comforting about rereading it, a kind of calm I couldn't explain.

Cleo was sprawled across the table in front of me, a book resting on her face as she lazily blew at the edges, clearly bored. She had been like that for the better part of an hour, completely unmotivated. Across the room, Michaelagio was moving slowly, clutching two books tightly to his chest, his usual briskness replaced by a strange, deliberate pace. He was... different. Tense. Off.

"You notice Old Mackie's been acting weird these past few days?" Cleo muttered, lifting the book just enough to peer at me. "All of this is starting to break the bastard."

I glanced at her, then back at Michaelagio. He looked like he was cradling those books as if they were his lifeline. Maybe Cleo had a point. "He's strong-willed. He'll bounce back," I replied, though my tone lacked conviction. "Those cookbooks are probably keeping him together."

Cleo sat up, stretching her arms lazily before tossing the book aside. "I dunno. Jeremiah used to say that getting obsessed with a certain book is like a gateway drug. It breaks your mind down and cracks the so-called 'perfect hold' that the library has on us. Bit like that book you've been keeping by your side ever since you found it."

I smiled to myself, my fingers running over the cover of the Grimoire of Marisa again. "It's just... nice. I don't know; it keeps me grounded. Reminds me of why I'm here."

Cleo raised an eyebrow. "Don't see what the big deal is about that book, really don't."

I didn't answer at first; I just stared at the title, feeling a strange warmth spread through me. "I can't quite put my finger on it," I said, the words coming out softer than I intended. "I just feel... connected, like I understand the author. You can really feel who she is through the knowledge she shares. It's personal."

Cleo's lips curled into a sly grin. "Aww, does little Marcus have a crush on the author of that book?"

I blinked, confused. "What's a crush?"

She snickered, sitting up fully and throwing the book off her face. "Clueless dolt," she teased, then held out her hand. "Lemme see that book."

I hesitated for a moment before passing it over. Cleo flipped through the pages with a speed that always unnerved me, her eyes darting over the text faster than anyone should be able to read. After a few seconds, she tossed it back like it was nothing. "Marisa Kirisame, huh? I've got a way with words, and I'll give her that. However, it sounds pretty like the jealous gal. With all the power she's got, what's there to be jealous of?"

I shrugged, catching the book just before it hit the ground. "Maybe that's the point. Power doesn't always mean happiness."

Cleo hummed noncommittally, grabbing another random book from the pile. "If you say so."

"I'm gonna go check on Michaelagio," I said, standing up and tucking the *Grimoire* under my arm. "Just to make sure he's alright."

Cleo waved me off without looking up. "Yeah, yeah. You do that. Oh, and if you bump into Noah on the way, tell him I was working hard, alright?"

I couldn't help but smirk. "Sure, it's a promise."

As I turned toward the hallway, my fingers brushed against the spine of a book I hadn't seen before. Something about it made me pause, my hand stopping mid-motion. I pulled it from the shelf, and my breath caught in my throat. Gensokyo Chronicle.

"No way..." I whispered, my heart racing with excitement. Another book on Gensokyo? I didn't think there were more left. The library was vast, sure, but I had searched everywhere.

I gripped the book tightly, my curiosity skyrocketing. I had to take it with me.

But as I turned the corner, everything changed.

I froze in place, the new book slipping from my hands and hitting the floor with a soft thud. My vision blurred, and the world around me seemed to distort. I barely managed to keep hold of the Grimoire of Marisa, clinging to it by the very corner as the room swayed around me.

What... what the hell was I looking at?

I couldn't move. I couldn't speak. My heart pounded in my chest as the overwhelming sense of something... wrong washed over me. The library had never felt like this before.

"Michalegio?"

We were blasted out of the sky so fast that the world became a blur of colours and sound. My body tensed as we plummeted towards the frozen lake below, the icy surface growing closer with each passing second. But no matter how far we fell, we never reached it. The lake, like the sky, like us, was stuck—frozen in time.

The fall felt endless—no ground, no impact, just... falling.

Marisa stopped herself mid-fall, suddenly hovering in the air as if gravity had finally remembered who she was. She reached for me, grabbing hold and steadying us both. I was dazed, hair singed from the explosion, still reeling from the blast. The world still felt like it was spinning.

"Are you okay?" Marisa's voice broke through my haze, her arms holding me tight. She looked concerned, eyes scanning me over for any signs of serious injury.

I nodded, my head pounding. "Too close for comfort. Are *you* alright?"

"Just a graze, nothing unusual." She gave me a slight grin, though her usual confidence was tinged with unease. "Seems we were stuck in that loop for a moment. That was careless of us... again."

"Seems we have a knack for laughing at death's door."

She laughed, but it was more forced than usual. "Ha! We most certainly do."

Marisa moved to continue toward the mansion, still holding me, but the moment we left the small window of space where the blast first hit, we were thrown back into the time loop. The explosion went off again, and we fell, tumbling back into the endless drop. No time passed, no forward momentum—just the same, over and over.

Marisa quickly halted her descent, grabbing onto me as I landed awkwardly on her broom, coughing and disoriented. "What the hell just happened?"

Marisa frowned, scanning the area. "It's this pocket of space. We're stuck in a loop. If we try to leave, it just sends us right back to the moment of the explosion. But if we stay within this tiny area, we can freeze the loop. The problem is... we can't go anywhere."

"So, we're just stuck here? Repeating the same attack over and over again?"

"This screams Sakuya," Marisa muttered. "She's the head maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Messing with time is her speciality. She's probably stopping any outside forces from reaching the mansion."

"Why?" I asked, confused. "What's she protecting?"

"Could be the mansion, could be something else. But she's never been *this* powerful." Marisa's frown deepened.

I shifted slightly, trying to steady myself, but the motion sent me back into the loop. The explosion hit, my hair got scorched again, and I found myself falling once more—only to be caught by Marisa's arms.

"More of your hair's singed," she muttered, examining me closely.

I winced, feeling the sting. "Damn, that hurts... Wait a second, that doesn't make sense." I looked around, confusion washing over me. "If we're in a time loop, nothing should change, right?"

Marisa's eyes widened, realization hitting her. "Everything should stay exactly the same... which means—"

"This isn't a time loop," I finished. "This is something else entirely."

Marisa bit her lip, thinking. "Sakuya... she's activated a spell card."

I raised an eyebrow. "I know of spell cards, but not enough to really get what they do."

Marisa sighed, clearly realizing I was still new to all of this. "Spell cards are a set of rules everyone follows in Gensokyo. It's a way to prevent youkai from destroying everything or wiping out humans. The rules are simple: when someone declares a spell card, you duel within those rules. Every duel has to have meaning, and no one—no one—can kill a human, even if they win. It keeps the balance."

"So, they're like structured duels with a purpose?"

"Exactly. And the only way to break a spell card is by either attacking with meaning or by waiting out the time limit." She smirked, pulling out her Mini Hakkero. "But waiting isn't really my style, now is it?"

I chuckled. "No, it isn't. So, what's the plan?"

Marisa's grin widened. "We blast our way out. Simple as that."

She raised her Mini Hakkero, energy crackling around it as she prepared to unleash a powerful attack.

Love Sign: Master Spark

Suddenly, a brilliant flash, a beam of pure energy shot forth, ripping through the air and shattering the looping barrier around us. The explosion disappeared, the falling stopped, and the time-warping space around us dissolved into nothing.

We were free.

Marisa blew the smoke from her Hakkero with a satisfied smirk. "Alright, we're out. Now, let's go see what the hell's going on at the mansion. Hold on tight, okay?"

I tightened my grip as we shot toward the Scarlet Devil Mansion, the air thick with tension. Whatever was waiting for us there, it wasn't going to be easy.

The moment we broke through into the Scarlet Devil Mansion, I knew something was wrong. The place felt off like the air was thick with something unnatural. The moment we stepped inside, a wave of pain hit me like a hammer. It wasn't just a headache; it was far worse. My vision blurred, and the world around me faded, leaving only the agonizing throbbing in my skull. The weight of the book I'd been carrying all this time—it was like the damn thing had finally woken up, and it wanted to tear me apart.

I hit the ground, my knees slamming into the floor as my hands clutched my head. Everything hurt. It was like thousands of voices were screaming in my ears, each one clawing at my mind, demanding something. The pain made me feel like I was being torn apart from the inside out.

"Marcus!" Marisa was by my side in an instant, her voice laced with panic as she tried to help me. But I could feel her hesitation, her uncertainty. She wasn't equipped for this. She wasn't equipped to fight whatever was gnawing at me from inside.

"I..." I couldn't speak at first, my breath coming in ragged gasps. But I fought through it, forced myself to breathe, forced myself to focus. "There's so much pain here... so much left unsaid... It's eating away at me..."

"That's it," Marisa said, her tone firm. "You're going back. There's nothing you can do here." She trailed off, her words dying in her throat as we both looked toward the front entrance. What was once the way out had morphed, stretching out into a long, winding corridor that definitely hadn't been there before.

"No way..." Marisa whispered, her face draining of colour. "Alright, get on. We're blasting a way out of here. Not asking Reimu was a dumb idea, one I won't fall for again."

I barely had time to react before she hoisted me onto her broomstick. We shot forward through the mansion, but every time we made progress, the walls around us twisted and changed, turning corridors into dead ends and rooms into mazes. It was like the mansion itself was alive, constantly shifting to trap us. I could hear the frustration in Marisa's muttered curses as she struggled to navigate.

"Damn it," she whispered under her breath. "We're just going in circles... This is just like when Reimu was under its control..."

Her words struck me. The tomes could warp reality and bend it to their will. If this mansion could do that, then why couldn't I? I had the power. I could do it.

Before Marisa could react, I slid off her broom and summoned the two tomes I had—Wealth and Wishes. The moment they appeared in my hands, the familiar weight of their knowledge pressed down on me, but this time I welcomed it. I let the forbidden knowledge seep into me, guiding me and showing me how to push back against the twisted reality that held us captive.

The power bled over me, my vision sharpening as I concentrated. Slowly, reality began to bend in my favour, the twisting corridors untangling themselves, revealing the true path. The way was clearer now.

I motioned to Marisa, my voice calm despite the chaos. "Stay behind me. Keep close."

She didn't argue, staying on her broom as we ventured deeper into the mansion. As we moved forward, the sounds of distant fighting grew louder, echoing through the halls like thunder. We followed the noise until we came to a large, elegant ballroom. It looked like it hadn't seen any use in years, dust settling on the ornate fixtures.

In the centre of the room, Flandre was locked in combat, her tiny body battered and bruised but still fighting with that manic intensity she always had. She held a flaming sword-like needle, the energy radiating from it like wildfire. Three clones surrounded her, each one reflecting her movements as they fought in unison.

Across from her, floating with an air of deadly calm, was a woman with white hair, red eyes, and a Victorian-style coat lined with daggers. Her movements were precise and calculated.

"Flandre!" I shouted, but my voice barely reached her over the clash of blades and magic.

Marisa's voice was grim. "That's her. That's Sakuya."

"Where's my sister?!" Flandre screamed, launching neverending blasts of bullets. But Sakuya avoided every attack, slipping through them with ease. Then, without warning, everyone except for Sakuya froze in place. It was as if time itself had stopped at her command.

Sakuya floated above Flandre, her eyes glowing with an eerie light as she spoke with a venomous edge to her voice. "Immortality... such a vile concept. It's good for nothing. It takes away everything that makes us who we are. It keeps you trapped in an endless tomb. Allow me to set you free."

Before I could even blink, Sakuya struck Flandre down with a flurry of knives, moving faster than I could track. She appeared in front of Flandre, strangling her with one hand. I could see Flandre's body changing—she was growing, ageing, little by little, as if Sakuya was accelerating her time.

I couldn't stand by and watch.

"Stop!" I launched a barrage of bullets at Sakuya, but she moved like a ghost, slipping through every attack. In a blink, she was behind us. She knocked Marisa back and pinned me against the wall with one hand, her grip like iron. I could feel my own time speeding up, life flashing before my eyes.

But I wasn't done. With everything I had, I drew on the power of the tomes and *rejected* her influence, pushing her back.

Sakuya staggered, covering one of her glowing eyes with her hand. "You, too, have been burdened with immortality," she muttered. "Just like all of us. But I can set you free. I can set everyone free."

It was then she revealed the tome that had consumed her: Forbidden Knowledge Vol. 2 – Mortality.

Before I could react, the world around us fizzled away, the walls of the ballroom disintegrating into an empty void. We were caught in her time stop again, everything dissolving into nothingness.

I felt myself falling into the abyss. My eyes widened in terror as I realized there was no ground beneath us, no sky above us—only endless darkness.

Then, time resumed, and we all plummeted into the void.