Quote Originally Posted by Iscah View Post
There is no "first loop" in a story like this. No rewriting. There is just the causal loop that has always happened.

There never needs to be a version of events where the Hotgo group successfully summoned Alexander, just one where Mide thinks they did. Alexander is never overwriting time; it is manipulating events to ensure that a particular sequence plays out.
Causal loops still do have an origin point (ie a first loop), just not one that can be observed. Basically, a first loop where A and B caused C still exists, but all other loops will from there work off of C to cause the chain of events we've experienced.

Personally, I like Cleretic's hypothetical version the best where Alex was summoned and just immediately calculated its best possible path of existence and enacted it. It keeps things pretty clean and it has a good vibe to it.