Name: Axton Abanish


    Oddity: Ouroboros Rebirth


    Secondary Oddities: Death Sense


    "These look..." Ax muttered to himself as he raised his right hand, wincing immediately.


    "Shit, my arm—it''s still broken," he reminded himself.


    "Ouroboros... Rebirth... Oddity?" Ax read the text under his name. He raised his left hand and tapped the text. Another, smaller window appeared in front of his eyes.


    "Is this some cheap webtoon or video game? What is this?" Ax complained to himself at how ridiculous this looks.


    Oddities: mutations and powers given to and unlocked by some current and potential ''summit seekers.". Supernatural powers that give the users an edge in combat and/or quality of life.


    Secondary Oddities—Secondary supernatural powers awakened in moments of great stress, emotional distress, and/or very near-death experiences. Always related to Primary Oddity, it merely adds to the usefulness and combat potential of base oddity.


    "So... my oddity is... this thing?" Ax continued talking to himself as he read the texts.


    Oddity: Ouroboros Rebirth.


    Description: Death for most is the end. For you, however, death is merely a checkpoint. Come back to life immediately after each death; all damage other than poison is reversed. No matter how severe.


    "All damage other than poison is reversed..." Ax read to himself.


    "I had my suspicions, but..." Ax looked at his gun once more, then at his arm.


    Ax sighed deeply once more as he raised his gun to his head. His heart racing, beating profusely, sweat mixed with blood dripped down his temple.


    Shatter


    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Ax woke up, his body lying dead with its brain and blood painting the grass red. Ax''s new body is untouched, undamaged... uninjured. Ax was desensitized to his death, having seen much... much worse happen to himself.


    The black screen vanished. "Where did it..." The black screen appeared once again. It seems the screen followed the same principle as the doors.


    Ax''s eyes drifted to his ''Secondary Oddity,'' his curiosity making him tap it.


    Secondary Oddity: Death Sense


    Description: A secondary awakening; you can sense with absolute certainty how close someone is to true death.


    "That... explains why I could tell Ace didn''t die... I hope he''s back home," Ax continued, his voice low with concern.


    Ax looked back down at where Ace was resting, a pool of blood where he was sitting, glistening with red. Ax crouched down and touched it.


    "Cold," he muttered to himself.


    Ax put pressure on the painted grass with his palm, painting it red. Ax then stood up and marked the tree with his red handprint. Grabbed his dagger and carved the words, ''Presence Was Here.''.


    The red handprint reaching for the sky was their band''s logo.


    Ax summoned the blue door to him. Reached out for the knob and-


    "It turned..." Ax turned the knob... he could finally go back to Nexus... but without Ace, it felt empty; they had been working on it together for over a month.


    Ax summoned the black door instead and went back home. A red mark was left on the doorknob. Ax took a deep breath as he was back home.


    He was relieved... But—


    "I need a shower..." Before Ax went to his shower, he noticed something odd. Ace''s laptop, his clothes, and even the books he bought weren''t there anymore.


    "Did he... leave?" Ax asked himself, wondering if he left early or not, still having doubts on if he''s alive or not.


    ***


    Ax took a long and deep shower, cleaning himself, and now he was tired. Hungry but tired, too tired to eat even.


    "I''ll just eat later," he dismissed his hunger and crashed onto his bed once more. Sleeping it off.


    Ax slept till the afternoon, abruptly woken up by the doorbell. Ax jolted up, "Wuhu—uh?!" He mumbled to himself, his eyes widened. Ax jumped off of the bed and ran to the door, slipping a few times on the way there.


    Ax stopped right before the door and opened it as fast as he could; in the door frame stood Ace... holding a bag of books.


    "Yo, what''s up?", Ace asked Ax casually, who''s mouth was left agape.


    "You good? Good morning, I guess... You look like you''ve just seen a ghost," Ace said sarcastically, but his voice showed a tinge of concern.


    "Oh, uh. Nothing, come in." Ax snapped back, asking Ace to come in; he wanted to ask him some questions.


    "Speaking of ghosts... and supernatural apparitions... I brought the books you asked me to buy," Ace casually mentioned.


    "Asked... You?" Ax was confused; he didn''t remember ever asking him to buy anything for him.


    "Also, want to play some video games? I brought my controller this time, since your spare controller has a shitty battery." Ace added


    "Uh, you have to run that by me one more time. What?" Ax asked, genuinely confused as to what the hell Ace was even saying.


    "Dude, I know marathoning video games is not good for your health, but—" Ace continued to talk, and Ax continued to be more and more confused.


    "Huh?"


    Ace was talking as if he didn''t remember anything.


    ***


    After a long talk with Ace, Ace kept talking about the games they played and generally the excuses the both of them gave their friends when they were fighting monsters.


    Ax avoided talking about Nexus and everything else related to it.


    "So? Are we finally going to get back to playing?" Ace asked once more. Eager to spend time with his best friend.


    "You know what, yeah." Ax caved in.


    He booted up his dusty console.


    The both of them spent the entire day playing video games, something that Ax had missed.