The Magicians: Battle The Beast

"11 times." The Dean responded.

"Wait, you mean to tell me I have died 11 times now?" I asked in disbelief.

"That's right and unless you defeat The Beast, the loop will continue to reset." He paused, giving it time to sink in.

Jane Chatwin had created a time loop years ago, in order to defeat The Beast, who had taken over Fillory and wanted to destroy all magicians. If we failed to stop it, the loop will go on endlessly and if he somehow managed to undo it, every magician would be at his mercy.

"Every time the loop resets, she changes small things, hoping that altering events will produce a different outcome." He explained.

"What changed this time?"

"This conversation, it never happened before. This time, she decided to let you in on it."

I looked down at the carpet, thinking how I was supposed to defeat a monster that had killed me eleven times already. If I didn't have a chance then, I don't have one now.

"That's it! I know how we can finally defeat him." I exclaimed.

"And how's that?"

"Dean, I need you to tell me what has changed every single time and how we have fought The Beast. By knowing what I have done before, I can make sure to not repeat it. We have to make sure that this time, we fight him differently."

"Well, I can't give you exact details of the fight, since I have never been there. But I can tell you everything before you have gone to Fillory and the changes." He replied.

"That's good enough."

Henry started listing each reset, naming the differences, the preparation leading to the fight and the people involved.

We have never been prepared enough, the institution didn't teach us what we needed to kill it.

"Dean, have I ever learned magic that wasn't taught by the university?" I wondered.

"Not that I know of."

"We have found our answer then. If we really want to defeat The Beast, I have to learn magic from outside."

"That won't do. Brakebills recollects spells from around the world. We basically have all of the magic you could ever want here." He paused in realization, "Except..."

"Except...?"

"There are certain mages that exclude themselves from the world. Magicians that have created new and exotic types of spells but were only passed down in their family. We have tried recruiting them to join the school long ago but it didn't work."

"Well, who are they? We can try again." I urged.

"They were the Zaveries." He answered.

"Wait, the Zaveries? That family has been dead for over forty years, they just vanished. The case was never solved." I remembered.

"Actually it was, we just kept it a secret. They created a door to Fillory and The Beast came through it. It killed the few who presented a danger to it. The Beast knew that their magic was too powerful."

"So it killed them before they had a chance to harm it."

"Exactly. Unfortunately, their magic wasn't written down, it was only passed down by teaching it from father to son. We have lost that knowledge forever."

If only we could have learned that magic before it killed them, we could have had a chance.

"This is going to sound ridicules, but at this point nothing surprises me anymore; is it possible to go back in time, before they were killed? Just like Jane did in the books." I asked.