《Past Life Hero (stubbed)》


 Intro by BC

    *Edited as of ch 19 being out


    Hi folks.


    Past Life Hero is going to be my first webserial story since 2016 when I began writing Delvers LLC.


    Since I''m jumping into this pond again, I''m a little nervous about it!


    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    This series will be at least 3 books long. Chapter releases on M/W/F.


    Past Life Hero has elements of


    Post Apoc


    Reincarnation


    Dungeon Diving


    School Life


    Sword Magic


    Dueling


    Summoning


    Dark Fantasy


    I hope you have fun!


    -BC


    Cover help by ThinkTwice here on RR!

 Chapter 1

    Max sat glumly, staring at the bill on the table. He sighed, the sound like a leaky balloon, leaned back, and ran his fingers through his short, unkempt hair. I''m not going to be able to do this, he thought. This just isn''t working. He contemplated what to do, knowing he had to find a solution.


    Out loud he said, "It''s tough, dude. This is messed up. Am I doing something wrong?¡±


    The concept of student loan debt had seemed simple at first, but Max had obviously underestimated the future problem he¡¯d be facing. Now he had a rather simple problem with a simple solution, but that was easier said than fixed. He needed more money.


    Even though he had graduated from college almost two years ago with a decent degree in business administration, Max still couldn''t find a better job than his starter gig. He was super overqualified for his current job¡­just like most of his fellow employees.


    Every position out there required years of experience, and even then, job security was often uncertain. Several bills were laid out on the table, but the one causing the most stress was the student loan bill. If only I could just erase this debt and start over, he wished. Life would be so much easier.


    Max had to be careful with his thoughts, though. He knew that if he dwelled on them too much, he might not be able to handle it. Besides, he¡¯d already started over once before. This was not his first life.


    It was fortunate that his parents had thought he was just being imaginative when they overheard him talking about his past life as a child. Max stood up and went to his room, which was basically half of his small, old, slightly smelly apartment. He had a few possessions: a guitar, a collection of books, and his car outside in the parking lot. Back when he was 18 years old, he had learned how to be quiet and unassuming. In his apartment building, he was hesitant to make noise. The neighbors upstairs and downstairs, who were the loudest, were also the meanest and least willing to tolerate anyone else''s noise. It was funny how that worked.


    Even though Max had combat memories and skills from past lives, in this modern world ruled by Google and Walmart, standing up for himself, especially physically, would likely cause more trouble than it was worth.


    He plucked a few experimental notes on the guitar and thought about his old world. His past life hadn''t always been good, but it had shaped him. In fact, there were times when his experiences made him uncomfortable¡­since many ¡°fantasy¡± books, stories, and movies in this new world had plots similar to his first life.


    The first time he¡¯d realized this, he¡¯d been eight years old and already reading for fun. Then his memories had all come back at once. He could remember being murdered. Max had died and been reborn. From about age 9 to 12, he had seriously wondered if he was crazy. The constant stress had occupied his thoughts of what felt like every waking moment and likely eroded his stomach lining. To finally prove to himself whether he was insane or really the soul of the Hero of Albion, he¡¯d pursued hobbies or activities that he should already know how to do or have advantages at.


    As it turned out, after trying martial arts and boxing, his old skills had come back in a way that meant he never doubted his identity ever again. The old memories made his emotions roil.


    Max grimaced, but the expression softened as soft notes filled his room. His guitar produced simple but pleasing music as his fingers wandered over the strings. The instrument wasn''t exactly what he had learned to play back in Albion, but it was close enough, and it was comforting.


    He glanced up at the bookshelf on the wall where he kept some of his favorite books he''d read while trying to make sense of his memories. The books had definitely helped. Even though they were considered fiction, they had helped him adjust to this world of bills, contracts, and credit. "I need a break," he said out loud.


    Just then, a meme started playing¨Chis ring tone. He had a call from his mom. She knew that he had Monday off, actually the only day of the week that he actually had off. He figured it wasn''t worth answering, but he picked up the phone anyway.


    Max had decided a long time ago not to ignore his parents or take them for granted.


    The one good thing about Max''s new life in this world had been his parents. They were simple, hard-working people who hadn''t been given a lot at birth, just like him. And they had done an admirable job with his brother and sister, too. Of course, Max, having remembered his past life at about seven or eight years old, hadn''t really required a whole lot of parenting. In fact, around that time he''d gotten really quiet.


    Max had excelled in school, in part because he got such an advantage over other students, in knowledge and maturity. But he¡¯d also been fascinated by this world. In fact, Max had found new skill and satisfaction in several things he¡¯d tried. The problem was that his only real consistent motivation in life was a nebulous desire to have¡­more. With more money, more resources, he could help his parents out and not have to constantly worry about bills anymore. So far, that effort had not been going very well.


    It seemed that everything he was truly exemplary at either didn¡¯t make money right off the bat, or would be too weird or suspicious if he got famous with it. There was also always a low lying fear that others from Albion had also reincarnated to earth. He¡¯d had many friends in his past life, but also plenty of enemies. And if he ever discovered that his murderers on Albion lived right down the street now¡­


    Maybe I should have gone to Medical School instead, he thought. But then he thought about an even larger mountain of student loan debt and shuddered.


    Not for the first time, he felt a certain amount of self-loathing. The fact was, he¡¯d tried to keep his debt lower by going with a safe, widely applicable bachelor degree, thinking that he¡¯d get a decent job immediately. Unfortunately, things in general just kept getting harder. There were no mana monsters in this world, but any fight took courage. Struggling from the bottom was always a fight.


    He just wished he¡¯d understood how hard this world could be little earlier.


    Max thought about the pieces of paper on his kitchen table in the next room. He shook his head as he considered the rent, the gas he needed to get to work, the meager food he ate, a cushion for discretionary spending, his internet and phone bills¨Cwhich were all but required in this world¨Cand the tiny bit he tried to squirrel away. He also saved a tiny bit every month in a different account to help his parents in case they needed something.


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    When his mom had gotten sick his first year of college, he¡¯d helped her a lot.


    Now he was completely tapped out. That meant that at the rate he was going, paying off his student loan would take about forever. He frowned.  Maybe actually forever if I only pay the minimum owed and the damn interest keeps beating me up. For someone who had lived 200 years in a past life and achieved the highest heights of power, prestige, and wealth, the last 20 years on Earth had been a very humbling experience.


    Maybe I should go back to school, he thought. Even more debt. Yay.


    He kept thinking about all these things while talking to his mom. When he¡¯d first picked up the phone, she hadn¡¯t had anything specific to talk about. She just wanted to see how he was doing, as usual. Now that he was living a couple of hours away, he didn''t get to see his parents as often as he used to. But when they called, the same recurring questions got the same answers.


    Yes, he was doing okay. No, he didn''t have a girlfriend. Yes, he could pay all the bills. No, he hadn''t heard from his siblings either; they had their own lives. Yes, he still talked to his dad, who had divorced from his mom during high school or college and now lived in a different state.


    His parents were not perfect people, but he loved them. His supernaturally advanced maturity allowed him to understand why they¡¯d done what they¡¯d done, and recognized their love and overall decency.


    Despite his memories of riches on Albion, one thing he¡¯d never had was a family who loved him. He felt grateful that now he knew what that felt like.


    And he knew that even though he didn''t get much out of these regular check-up phone calls from his mom, they helped her. So he put up with it in a way that he knew his siblings couldn¡¯t quite do. It was kind of ironic, but probably fitting that after his parents had split up, he ended up being both of their best friends. His secret desire that one day they could work out their problems and get back together was less a perspective of a son and more of a mildly irritated, logical friend.


    The conversation with his mom didn''t last long because, despite his emotional control, his current situation was frustrating enough that some of it could end up seeping through his tone. Max didn''t want to worry his mom. She had enough on her plate.


    Max knew he had to make a plan in order to feel better about his problems. So after hanging up, he forced himself to get up and go back to his kitchen and stare at his bills. He had a job selling phones, which he''d gotten through a temp agency. Ironically, he made more since he¡¯d gotten the gig through the temp agency than he would have if he¡¯d been hired directly. He was obligated to keep that fact a secret from his coworkers via contract.


    Scummy.


    But even though he had the risk of losing his job at any time and had no real advancement opportunities with this gig, it still paid better than many of the other ¡°starter¡± jobs in his area. Of course, he wasn''t getting any help from his family, either, but lots of people didn¡¯t. And he was still 21. None of this would be quite as big of a deal if not..


    ¡­If not for the damned student loans.


    At least he didn¡¯t have to worry about his health. That was one advantage he had over his coworkers.


    Even though this world didn''t have real mana, and Max wasn''t able to reclaim any of his power or abilities from his last life, there was still enough low-lying energy in the atmosphere to keep himself healthy and continuously nourish his body, to heal himself. It wasn¡¯t enough to build a real first star mana body until he was like fifty, but he felt grateful even for that. Most people in this world didn''t have anything like it - skills and knowledge. And it was a huge advantage that Max didn''t really need to worry about his hospital bills.


    Not for the first time, he wished there was a way for him to teach this world''s people how to keep themselves healthy, but it was impossible. Without real mana being in the atmosphere or the earth, there was no way to teach people how to feel mana, much less how to use it. The fact that he could do anything he was able to do was because he had been a master in mana arts.


    Max busied himself around the kitchen, trying to figure out a solution to his problem. His face soured as he realized that he wasn¡¯t actually doing much thinking anymore. Now he was just cursing fate and student loans.


    Ultimately, he had basically already made up his mind that for the time being, he needed another job or some other gig. The problem was that even though he''d grown up in this world, he still wasn''t particularly great at technology. Max had to admit he didn¡¯t have a knack for it. Some of his friends could make money by selling things on social media, or they created their own shop where they would make, trade, or sell things. But that just wasn''t something Max was any good at or felt he could do long-term.


    No use crying. Time to brainstorm.


    Max got a notebook from his kitchen''s junk drawer, which it seems everybody in this world had. He opened it up to a fresh page, tapped the pencil against his forehead, and tried to think about what he was good at. Ironically, commerce, in general, was something that he had quite a bit of knowledge of, so it was one of the reasons why he decided to try working his way into a corporate workplace. If he had the capital, he was sure he could build an empire.


    Getting that capital was the problem since his family had no assets, he had no assets, and nobody in his entire family had good credit. Right now, he was just a fresh college graduate with an entry-level job and a mountain of debt. He needed to acquire some sort of backing to get going. And despite his wealth of knowledge, explaining how he had come by any of it was hard enough, but finding anybody who would trust him with any sort of resources was the real challenge.


    Ultimately, his list of skills that might even somewhat be applicable in this world came down to one thing and one thing only: fighting. He looked at the word he had written down, ¡°fighting,¡± and underlined it several times. He didn''t have much of a plan but a glimmer of an idea came to mind. Maybe, just maybe, he could make it work. He wrote down his schedule in the notebook and identified a few times a week when he would have extra time to squeeze out. It wasn''t a lot, but he thought maybe it would do.


    Then he looked through his out-of-date phone book and did an internet search for local martial arts dojos. He had a nebulous idea now of striking up some sort of business relationship with one of the local martial studio owners, and maybe being an assistant instructor or something. But now he needed a more refined plan on how to actually make this happen.


    He tapped the pencil against his lip and wondered how he could get them to think he was worth their time. Slowly and with a heavy heart, he wrote "LIE" in his notebook and circled it.


    After doing a few more internet searches he figured out what the fabricated story would be. He would tell whoever he dealt with about his martial arts skills, but he¡¯d need a name and an origin. But¡­nobody would be able to recognize his techniques, so he could call it whatever he wanted. His skills were real; the name wouldn¡¯t be. Then he stopped himself. If nobody would recognize his martial art or the name, why not call it what it actually was? That made him smile.


    He stopped doing internet searches for an elaborate lie and resigned himself to just tell the truth, at least the name of his style. But Albion-do was going to be from Myanmar or something.


    Max grabbed his backpack and left his apartment. He had a new mission now, and he was hopeful this might turn into a side hustle that would help his parents within the next ten years. If his past life had taught him one thing, it was that time and life are both precious. Max locked the apartment door behind him and actually hummed a tune. It felt nice to have a mission, but he was under no delusions here. This was a long shot.

 Chapter 2

    Max decided to start with the martial arts studio that was farthest away from where he lived. He figured that the way the universe worked, if he was going to find any success, it would be with the farthest, least convenient location. When he got into his car and started it up, he stared at the dash for a while, trying to fight a sudden wave of depression. He thought he''d had a half tank of gas, but it was actually only a quarter full. Gas and food prices just kept going up, which meant the amount of money he could put on his student loans was decreasing.


    Shit.


    Recentering himself, he murmured, "Future Sight, Future Focused. Don''t spend too much time on the past." This had been his mantra for the last ten years, basically after accepting his past life and moving on with the present. Saying it out loud actually made him feel better. And he rolled his car out of his apartment parking lot with a newly-confirmed sense of purpose.


    Driving gave him extra time to put energy into thinking more positively. He''d been called the hero, the savior of Albion, and had faced down demons whose mere presence could break the minds of lesser warriors. It couldn''t be that hard to get a part-time job, could it?


    The decision had already been made.


    He wasn''t too proud to get another regular job, maybe something close by with low hourly wages, but he was really hoping to do something that would at least stimulate his brain a bit or maybe help him meet new people. It¡¯d be nice to know more local people.


    Over the last few years he''d tried joining clubs, taking classes, and even working at an ice cream parlor. But none of them had resulted in anything more than friendly acquaintances. College hadn¡¯t been great for meeting people, at least not for Max. All of the actual friends he''d made in high school had moved away. Being broke was bad enough, but being broke and lonely was even worse.


    He was way too busy for a girlfriend, at least if he wanted to treat her right. And Max was too wise now to try half-assing a relationship.


    As he drove, Max admitted this to himself for the first time and hoped that in the next few weeks he could kill at least two birds with one stone. Now that he''d identified the problem, it was time to solve it. After all, after admitting there was a problem, not solving it was a form of acceptance. He refused to wallow in his own bad luck.


    In fact, despite being born into poverty twice in two lifetimes, this time around he¡¯d definitely been much better off. At least he¡¯d had a real family.


    The first martial arts studio was a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu place, and the big man up front was pleasant but a little distant. After Max introduced himself and described what he was there for, the man''s veneer of interest crumbled quickly. "I''m sorry," he said, "but we already have instructors at this facility."


    Max frowned and in his best persuasive tone of voice said, "There''s no way I can change your mind? I mean, I''d even be willing to work on the basis of the house gets a certain percentage of what I make and I just use the facilities while nobody else is here. Like¡­it doesn''t seem like anybody else is here right now." He pointed to the empty space behind the man in the gi, which was conspicuously empty.


    The worn mats were clean and didn''t even seem to have any dimples in them that might speak to recent use. Now that Max thought about it, the dojo itself was in a rather poor part of town in a shopping mall with two vacant stores. Maybe this place wasn''t doing so well lately and they just weren''t willing to take on any risk or deal with anybody new.


    As the man at the counter began giving another series of polite refusals, Max interrupted, "Look, this place looks like it could use some more patrons and I''m pretty sure I could bring some in. So if there''s any extra time, it wouldn''t cost your dojo anything. Are you the owner?"


    The man cautiously held out his hand and said, "My name is Ethan. I''m the owner''s brother, and one of the head instructors here."


    "Okay, Ethan. Again, I''m Max. How about this? How about you think about it, talk to your brother, and I''ll come back or give you a call. And I''m telling you, there''s no risk to you. I''ll bring my own clients." He thought quickly, "And I will even give you a demonstration of the martial arts I know."


    "We actually never did discuss that," said Ethan. "I had just assumed that you were a Jiu-Jitsu practitioner since this is a Jiu-Jitsu dojo. Did you want to teach something else?"


    "Well, I do know some of that," said Max. "But to be honest, my focus is on weapons."


    "What kind of weapons?" asked Ethan.


    "Swords, spears, staves, that sort of thing." He thought quickly and remembered the research he did online. "What I do is pretty much mostly WMA, Western Martial Arts, like stuff based on European medieval martial arts but also mixed martial arts from Korea, Japan, etc. The actual art I practice is Albion Western Wind Style."


    Ethan gave Max a highly skeptical look. "Okay," he said slowly. "Alright, let us think about it."


    "Fair enough," said Max. "Can I take a business card?"


    "Sure, go ahead.¡±


    Max nodded and grabbed a business card off the counter from its utilitarian holder, then did an about-face before walking out the door, shoulders square. He was about ninety-nine percent sure that conversation had gone nowhere. Okay, let''s try the next place, he thought.


    He sighed.


    Max was young-looking for his age to begin with and had even graduated college at twenty-one years old. He knew that his age and looks weren''t going to help in his martial arts instructor quest. Even introducing himself as a college graduate probably wouldn¡¯t help. Martial artists were taken more seriously if they were grizzled and older. In this space, nobody gave a crap about anyone¡¯s formal education outside of martial arts. His build might be working against him too.


    Although he knew for a fact that he was objectively stronger than the average man on this world due to his tedious efforts with mana, the way he was building strength didn''t add any bulk. Max hadn''t been to a gym since high school. So, for somebody claiming to know martial arts well enough to teach, he didn''t look old enough or fit enough to really look the part. It was going to be a tough sell for sure


    The next two places he planned to visit were both generic MMA style dojos, the kind that cast a wide net, claiming to be a mash-up of all the best parts of like seven martial arts. Max thought that they both were more likely to actually accept somebody like him with no real certifications. Ed''s Dojo was the name of the second location he went to. As soon as he stepped inside, he knew it was probably going to be a bust. "Oh, it''s one of these places," he thought.


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    Inside, there were no racks of weapons and groups of hopeful noobs or aggressive, muscular-looking people one might imagine. Instead there was just a line of kids in white gi¡¯s in brightly colored belts awkwardly doing basic punches at the air. Suburban, beaming parents sat in chairs, making comments about little Tyler or Jeffrey being so focused lately.


    This is a belt mill, thought Max. No, this is a parent''s 4-H show for their six-to-ten-year-old. Focus, Max, focus, he thought. Can''t be too proud to teach at a place like this.


    But even though he said this to himself, he was also revising the things that he would teach. After all, quite a bit of what Max knew was not appropriate to be teaching eight-year-olds. Self-defense was all fine and good, but teaching a child how to kill didn''t sit right with him unless times were different. And despite how difficult it was to have a good life on this world called Earth, where he lived, it largely was fairly peaceful. That line of thought made him wonder if a contingency plan might be teaching some rich people''s son or daughter serious martial arts, like as a tutor. But that didn''t sit right with him either, for several reasons.


    He walked up to the counter, began his spiel, and got shot down in no time flat. This time, Max didn''t even bother upping the ante or giving a new sales pitch. This was not a place where people actually learned martial arts; it was for parents who thought their kids looked cute in a gi. Max respected any parents who truly wanted to help their children learn self defense, but this was not that sort of place. It was a photo op with monthly payments. He left and didn''t feel particularly disappointed about how this lead had turned out.


    Before he got in his car, he went to the nearby grocery store and checked the very back where they would sometimes put discount food. Usually, deals like this would be offered right before an item was supposed to expire or sometimes even the day after.


    "Score," said Max. Today there were some pastries out that were marked fifty percent off.


    Even though he had struck out at the first two martial arts schools he had visited, finding discount food like this barely made the trip worth the gas. He picked up one box of pastries to eat and cleared out the rest of them to take home, too. After all, even though he wasn''t going to eat them right away, throwing a pastry in the freezer meant that it would last for months. Of course, after visiting some of his friends, he knew that it wasn''t really viable for normal people who actually had things in their freezer. Max on the other hand had plenty of room, empty shelves, even. Discount pastries were a go.


    He got in his car, the best sensible, bang-for-his-buck used car he had been able to afford in his second year of college, and drove to the last potential new workplace on his list. It was in kind of a weird place in the city. The first two places had been right between the city and the suburbs, which was where most martial arts dojos usually seemed to exist in the United States. But this last place was downtown, in a relatively unmarked building. Max had to drive around the block a few times looking for a place to park and eventually sighed in resignation before using a parking garage.


    According to the sign, if he parked for less than an hour, it wouldn''t be too bad. But it still galled him that he would have to basically pay the price for a gallon of gas just to park for a few minutes. It already put him in a bad mood.


    He recentered himself with a reminder that it could be worse. After all, at least he didn¡¯t have to pay to park just to work every day like some of the poor bastards in this area.


    To prepare for his job search quest, he had dressed in some fairly athletic clothing: a t-shirt, gym pants, and comfortable shoes. So as he walked to the front of the building, which ended up being much larger than he had originally assumed, he fit right in with two other guys that were entering at the same time.


    They all cordially nodded to each other, a slight uplift of the chin, universal guy language. That was one thing, thankfully, that Max hadn''t had to learn or relearn from his past life. It seemed that subtle non-verbal communication between men might be the same on every world and every universe, at least among humans.


    Once inside the building, Max''s eyebrows raised. He couldn''t see most of the facilities, but what he saw made him vastly recalibrate his expectations. This place has money, he thought, serious money. Not only was this location a martial arts facility, it seemed to also have a full modern gym. The interior was either granite or faux granite. Max could have figured it out if he cared, but he didn''t. Either option was far ritzier than any other martial arts dojo he had ever seen.


    The person behind the counter, a big burly man with no neck, wore a uniform. His shirt said ¡°Tom.¡± Another uniformed employee was inside the gym cleaning a piece of equipment. Jake couldn''t see into the dojo area; there were double-sided mirrors blocking his sight. He waited for the customers who came in with him to check in and go their own way before approaching the counter. Then the uniformed man, Tom, looked up, cocked an eyebrow at him, and said nothing.


    Without missing a beat, Max gave his spiel for the third time that day. Tom, if that was his real name, listened impassively, never blinking. He didn''t say anything for another few seconds after Jake was done talking, but then he smiled. Max took that as a good sign. Everybody else had frowned at him today.


    "So your name is Max, huh?" said Tom.


    "That''s right, and I''m assuming your name is Tom, right?" said Max. He pointed at the other man''s shirt.


    "Yep," Tom said. "Wait here a minute. Let me go talk to my manager and we''ll see if we can figure something out."


    ¡°Okay, great!" said Max. He was surprised but wasn''t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. After all, this was progressing far faster than he could have imagined, and he felt a momentary sense of elation. If he could go home today knowing that he had another income stream, he would feel so much better.


    He had to wait for almost ten minutes before Tom came back. In the meantime, another employee, this one''s name was ¡°Subin,¡± covered down on the front desk and gave Jake a polite but disinterested nod. When Tom finally came back, he said, "Okay Max, here''s the deal. In order to teach here, you have to prove that you have what it takes."


    "You mean show you my martial arts?" asked Max.


    "Yeah. So we don''t usually let non-members into the dojo area, but we''re going to make an exception. But I''m sure you understand the legalities and insurance and whatnot. So I need you to fill this out." He handed over a clipboard with what looked like a book worth of paper on top.


    "What is this?" asked Max.


    "Oh, just waivers, liability forms, stuff like that. Saying that if you slip and fall, we''re not going to have to pay your medical bills, that sort of thing." Tom smiled. But this time, Max was getting a prickly feeling in the back of his neck. Even without the premonitions, a few things hadn''t quite added up, but he still mentally shrugged and started going through the paperwork.


    Tom was trying to hide it, but gave telltale signs of being annoyed when Max actually read the forms before signing them. It all really was what Tom had said, if a bit heavy-handed. Basically, the forms stated that if Max got hurt on the facilities, it was nobody''s fault but his own, and Imperial MMA, the name of the dojo, would not be held responsible. What was also interesting was a portion that outlined how all spars basically had the same overall rules that Max was signing off on. In fact, the lack of accountability went for all parties in any spar. Before Max saw that, he was thinking about not signing and walking out, but then decided it worked in his favor after all.


    When he finished signing everything, Tom looked it over before nodding. He turned as if to lead Max away, but Max held out a hand and apologetically said, "Excuse me, could I get a copy of that after you sign it?"


    "I don''t usually need to give out a copy," said Tom with a hint of annoyance.


    "Yeah, but I''d like one anyway. If you can¡¯t sign, I¡¯d like a fully executed copy after whoever can sign, does.¡±


    The man barely caught himself from rolling his eyes.


    The cracks are starting to show, huh? Max thought. But he waited patiently while Tom signed everything on his end, threw the sheet of papers into the copy machine behind the desk, and rattled off a copy for Max. When he handed it over, Max muttered his thanks, folded it up, and shoved the paperwork down the back of his pants.


    "Okay, this way,¡± said Tom, and headed toward the mirrored doors.

 Chapter 3

    Max followed along, wondering what was going to happen. If everybody involved continued to be polite and play nice, so would he. But he''d lived a long time and even without his current financial worries, had a very short tolerance for nonsense. For Imperial Dojo''s sake, he hoped they were bringing him inside for kind and honorable reasons.


    The dojo itself was the nicest that Max had ever seen on earth. There were another double set of doors after the first before entering one large central room, four open rooms off of it. All the auxiliary rooms were for different things, with different equipment. One of the four side rooms had weapons on three walls and was large enough for anybody to to practice with the weapons. There was probably room for three people with spears to do forms.


    Overhead lighting was artfully clear and consistent. The back wall had an office and a door leading to the men''s and women''s bathroom, and presumably showers.


    At least three boxing rings were spaced around the dojo, maybe more. Cushions in strategic places suggested there was a way to add poles and ropes in the middle of the floor to create an official sized boxing ring.


    Everything was clean, there were even flush TV screens in some of the walls. Two screens were being used as Max walked in. At one, a student was practicing a weapons form while watching video instruction. The other was being used by two students watching a replay of a slow spar they''d just done.


    Wow, thought Max. I don''t even want to think about what a place like this costs per month.


    As soon as Max walked in the door, everyone''s heads snapped up. He counted thirteen other people in the dojo. And the facilities were large enough, it still seemed empty. There were eleven men and two women, and they all looked tough as nails. All of the men were of various builds and ages, but they all had a certain aura that Max was familiar with. Despite that, he kept holding on hope that everybody here was going to be cool.


    A man walked over, smiled at Tom and Max, and then asked, "Is your name Max, right?"


    "Uh-huh," nodded Max. "I was hoping I could get a part-time job teaching here."


    "Nice," said the man. "My name is Larry. Larry Elmore. I''m the owner and manager of the dojo area of Imperial Gym."


    Max said, "Cool. So¡­Imperial Dojo?. He couldn¡¯t remember the exact name of the place after his quick internet search and just assumed that the martial arts area would have a separate name from the gym. And since it was close to another business he knew about, he hadn¡¯t needed to plug the name into his phone for directions, either. He¡¯d only skimmed the name back in his apartment.


    Larry laughed like Max just made the funniest joke in the world. But he kept his face blank. The situation felt really awkward and he wasn''t really getting great vibes.


    "So we might be able to work something out with you," said Larry. "But we have a reputation to uphold."


    Embarrassingly late, Max realized how he¡¯d messed up. After all, this was a job interview of sorts, and walking into a job interview without knowing anything about where you supposedly wanted to work¨Clike its name¨Cwas never a good look. He schooled his expression but noticed when Larry''s eyes tightened.


    "So that was a good question," said Larry.


    No, it wasn''t, he thought to himself.


    Larry continued, "It seems like MMA studios are springing up like weeds lately. You know what MMA stands for, right?"


    "Mixed martial arts," Max said, knowing that it was kind of an insulting question but feeling like he might have deserved a little bit for the one he just asked.


    Larry nodded like a passive-aggressive insult hadn''t just been delivered and said, "That''s right. It''s really trendy for any school these days to call themselves mixed martial arts and throw a few random things together and tell students that they''re the next best thing since sliced bread. After all, every martial art in the world were all highly segregated or geographically separated, and merely combining your peanut butter and your jelly makes for a better combo, right?" His tone was obviously sarcastic.


    Max nodded.


    "And we all know there is some truth to that but at the same time even though peanut butter and jelly is a good combo, peanut butter and mustard probably isn''t. It takes a high degree of mastery of multiple martial arts to truly know what works well together. And on top of that, we have plenty of combative sports now that have proven how effective or ineffective some martial arts can be in the real world. However, at Imperial, we approach all this from the philosophy that there are two types of ¡®MMA.¡¯ There''s the MMA that people watch on TV, the kind with rules. And then there''s the MMA for actual self-defense where your goal is to incapacitate your opponent by any means necessary."


    Max nodded again, feeling a mix of emotions. He could see where this was going, and it aligned with his own beliefs. In fact, if he had continued his sales pitch from earlier, he honestly might have said something similar. However, Max didn''t think Larry''s perspective on real-world combatives was quite the same as his, considering Max had fought and killed hand-to-hand for centuries.


    Larry said, "Our dojo has extremely high standards and a first class reputation. We do get occasional people like yourself who would like to teach here, not only because they can make money, but also for the prestige."


    "Uh-huh," Max replied. Even though what Larry was saying hadn¡¯t occurred to Max before, as soon as the words were out the other man¡¯s mouth, he knew it probably wasn¡¯t a lie. This was a very ritzy facility, and based on some of the customers he¡¯d seen on the gym side, there was definitely an affluent group of people who came here. He didn''t understand it himself, but there were always people out there who wanted to try to rub shoulders with the rich, as if they thought money was contagious or something.


    "So here''s the deal," said Larry, smiling in a way that didn''t seem so friendly. Max noticed that some of the others in the gym or dojo had moved closer to hear the conversation. "How about this? You put on pads and spar with us. We see how you do, and if you impress us, you can teach. But if you lose, maybe you can become a member here." He grinned. "That seems fair, huh?"


    Max scratched his nose and gave him a blank expression. Now that the gig was up, he realized that his suspicion hadn''t been too far off the mark. Although Larry was doing a good job appearing friendly, a glance around at the others in the dojo showed him the truth. He saw ugly expectation and disdain. Max didn''t know if it was for him personally, or if it was true that there were others who had tried to come and teach before. Probably the latter. But he could imagine what some of the students watching were thinking.


    Here he was, some arrogant stranger with an average body, popping up out of nowhere, barging in during business hours, asking to teach at their prestigious, expensive facility. From that perspective, their less than friendly attitudes made sense.


    A side of himself that Max didn''t love¡ªan ugly side, but one that had served him well over his life¡ªbegan to growl at the back of his mind. At this point he should just leave. Ultimately, all of this was fairly petty, but he had nothing else to do, and it might not hurt to blow off some steam.


    Max smiled like he was clueless and agreed.


    Only a few minutes later, he walked out of the locker room attached to the men''s restroom and surveyed how the center room was laid out now. He had half expected there to be a boxing ring set up, but there wasn''t. Instead, everybody who had been in the dojo before was standing in the four open rooms off the main room to watch but be out of the way. In the middle of the main room was one of the Max had seen before, one of the guys watching footage of a previous spar.


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    He was a big guy, probably two hundred and fifty pounds of muscle, and he grinned at Max. The grin was friendly, the eyes were predatory.


    Max had taken his time stretching in the locker room, asking himself how he wanted to play this. None of the people in this dojo had been actually evil so far. After all, they''d even supplied him with a cup and some extra padding if he''d wanted to use it. However, Max still didn''t know exactly how all of this was going to play out. But he definitely hadn¡¯t signed up for this little exhibition to be somebody else''s punching bag.


    He¡¯d come out of the locker room with head padding, a mouth guard, and some basic martial arts grappling gloves. After scanning the room he¡¯d noticed that his opponent was basically outfitted the same exact way. Max walked up to the center and Larry stood to one side. The dojo manager said, "You''re brave, Max. I''ll give you that. I know it can''t be easy to walk into a dojo like this and challenge it."


    Mx spit his mouth guard into his hand and said, "Challenge it?"


    "Of course," said Larry. "Isn''t that what you''re doing? If you walk in here asking to teach, that means that you think you''re at least as good as the instructors here, if not better."


    He almost said something gracious, but then that inner snarling beast in the back of his brain made him reconsider. So all he responded with was, "That''s right."


    A few of the students around him muttered. But Larry didn''t bat an eye, just smiled widely again. "Well let me introduce you to Jefferson here." He pointed at the big looming man with gloves on. "Jefferson is an assistant instructor at Imperial. And even though he isn''t one of the best at our dojo, he''s still more than good enough to teach here."


    Jefferson nodded with a stony face and a frown like he was at a weigh in at a pay-per-view match.


    "Cool. My name is Max." He gave the introduction with an absolute deadpan tone and felt gratified when one of the students began to chuckle before getting elbowed in the gut by one of the other students.


    "Fair enough," said Larry with another one of his fake smiles. "So, the rules are simple. There are no rules. Do your best not to cause lasting harm, and Jefferson will too. Don''t be afraid to tap out if things get scary, or hairy, or painful. But other than that, this is going to be by our combat MMA rules, which is¨C," he said and held up a hand.


    "There are no rules!" chorused all of the surrounding students.


    Max thought about all the paperwork he¡¯d signed before and the rolled up copy he had in the back of his pants. He saw sly smirks among some of the students.


    "Do you agree to this?" asked Larry. ¡°You can always quit now if you¡¯re scared or have any regrets.¡±


    After making a show of thinking it over, Max snapped his fingers and said, "Sure, sounds fun."


    "All right." Larry moved into one of the four rooms and the others back up as well. "Begin whenever you''re ready. Go ahead and touch gloves."


    Max shrugged and walked over to Jefferson, who had his glove up, giving him a light tap. A split second later, the man took a heavy step forward and delivered a savage kick aimed at the side of the leg. He decided to give the man the benefit of the doubt and assume the strike wasn¡¯t actually intended for his knee. But with such a powerful kick from a big man, it could still cause serious damage to someone untrained.


    Sometimes, intention mattered a lot. The same things holding Max back from easily getting a teaching job in martial arts also provided context for this first exchange. He had no doubt that after Jefferson¡¯s kick, he was planning a cross to the chin with all his weight behind it to knock Max out.


    In the locker room, when he had been trying to decide how he wanted to play this, he¡¯d wondered if he should spar more like people on this world did, or drag it out, or if he should be serious. Max already definitely decided not to be serious because that would have ended up with a dead opponent and lots more problems in his life that he just didn''t need. Not only that, it wasn''t worth killing somebody just for some hurt pride or petty gaff.


    Ultimately, he¡¯d decided to go easy if his sparring partner was polite and not trying to go too hard. But if his opponent used strikes or power that could really hurt a normal person¨Cwhich these people obviously thought he was¨Che was going to react by fighting a bit unconventionally. He¡¯d respond in a way that not many people, if anybody else on this world, even could.


    With the skill of over one hundred years of experience, Max dipped down, moved his weight forward, and caught Jefferson''s shin directly on his knee. Instead of a clean kick to the side of the leg that the other man had been expecting, all of his force was concentrated on the one bony spot on Max¡¯s knee. The people watching might assume that Max had fared even worse. Blocking a kick like that with a knee was a great way to wind up in the hospital. Except Max¡¯s stats were different. His body was strengthened with mana, which not only made him stronger, but also more durable.


    Jefferson grunted in pain and fell back, studying Max. The man was obviously hurting. Meanwhile, Max felt right as rain. But he decided not to move. In fact, he didn''t even drop into any kind of ready stance. He just stood there.


    Max could tell Jefferson wasn''t quite sure what to do or what to make of what had just happened. By all accounts, Max should have been in more pain than Jefferson right now. Eventually, maybe because of the weighty looks of his fellow students, the big man moved in, trying to set up a simple combo on Max. One, two, three punches in lightning quick succession: his gut, head, and one last elbow at his jaw or temple are.


    How rude, he thought. It was the last strike that actually pissed him off and made him decide to truly stop playing nice.


    If that blow had connected and he were a normal person, he absolutely could have wound up in the hospital, maybe even worse. Whether intentional or not, this spar had moved past being a little mean into overkill. He didn¡¯t know if Jefferson actually meant to do that. It could be that he trained so often a certain way, when he got stressed, he just defaulted to more serious, dangerous martial arts. Max saw the other man¡¯s eyes widen a little bit even as he threw the strike, so there might have been some truth to this theory. But what was done was done.


    Max blocked all three strikes easily, the last one by raising his left hand up over his head and letting Jefferon¡¯s elbow strike his arm. Then he counterattacked.


    The two of them were extremely close so he stepped on his opponent¡¯s leg above his ankle, directing force from behind. He didn''t hear a snap, but he wasn''t trying to break the bone. Jefferson¡¯s leg buckled as he intended it to. Then with explosive power, he rotated and planted a blow right on the sweet spot of the jaw, using his fist as a hammer.


    Jefferson was out cold before he hit the mat.


    Silence fell in the dojo. The spell was broken when one student ran to the unconscious Jefferson and another angrily stomped towards Max. At this point, his irritation was actually still pretty high, so he looked dead at the big, angry guy approaching him and said, "This was a spar. Chill out."


    ¡°Ken, that''s enough," said Larry. He made a gesture at the advancing man who stopped but didn''t retreat. Ken continued to glare daggers at Max.


    Thankfully, Jefferson was starting to wake up, but he was definitely not ready to stand on his own. His friend helped pick him up, and Jefferson winced as he tried to put weight on his ankle. Another student examined Jefferson''s leg and ankle and sighed in relief.


    "It''s not broken, Sifu," the student said to Larry.


    Larry nodded and gave Max a considering look. "Some might say that was a surprise attack or a sucker shot," he said.


    "If ¡®some¡¯ might say that, then those some would be completely full of shit," he said. ¡°Maybe special needs. How the hell can there be a surprise attack or even a cheap shot in an ¡®anything goes¡¯ spar?¡± Now that what was done was done, I didn''t see much more value in pretending to be humble. "If he hadn''t thrown that last elbow, I wouldn''t have dropped him like that."


    Now, some of the other students were muttering. He could see three of them near the first guy who had started forward, and they were developing that creepy aura people can get sometimes before they become a mob. I wasn''t particularly worried. And Max thought more than anything else, his confidence was both holding them off and pissing off Larry. The man definitely meant what he said about his dojo''s reputation. Or at least that was his perception of it.


    Larry said, "You seem to truly have some skill, Max. Respect.¡± He turned. ¡°Right? Right everyone?" He ran his eyes over the surrounding students. "Respect, right?"


    "Respect," they muttered. The handful that looked like they wanted to jump me only moved their lips though. Larry smiled again, and now I knew for sure better than to trust it. He said, "Tell you what, Max, how about double or nothing?"


    "What do you mean?" Max asked.


    "How about this: You''ve already won your first spar fair and square. We all admit it, right?" The surrounding students reluctantly nodded, at least most of them. "But we can make it more interesting. How about... You already have the right to teach here, but... What if... We have another deal. You lose, you become a student, just like I mentioned before. But for at least a year. And have you ever, actually, wait. It looks like you''re younger than twenty-five, right?¡±


    After Max nodded, Larry continued, ¡°You could be a very interesting participant in local MMA tournaments fighting for us. In some of them, young ages draw interest, too. But if you win this spar, we''ll give you one thousand dollars today."


    Bastard, thought Max. Asshole obviously thinks I can¡¯t win, and he knows I need money. Out loud he said, "So if I lose, I need to fight for you and be your student. And if I win, I get some cash?"


    "Exactly."


    Max crossed his arms. "Show me the cash first. But I¡¯m interested."

 Book 2, Ch 1

    Max had been expecting to feel odd once he got back to Earth, or maybe have some sort of discombobulation. Instead, he¡¯d just experienced a wave of relief that had been replaced with determination.


    After borrowing a cell phone, Max had signed into his email and confirmed that all of his family was alive. Apparently they¡¯d tried to call, tried to text, and then moved to email. He had dozens of emails from his mom alone.


    They¡¯re alive.  He felt like some weight had been lifted from his shoulder. Especially as he saw the destroyed city around him, he was grateful for the news. But he knew that he had to leave this world again soon and a lot could happen between now and when he got back. The best he could do was get as strong as he could before returning.


    So after reading all the frantic emails from his family, he¡¯d sent a series of simple replies and put the phone away. He¡¯d been tempted to check current events, but there were currently more pressing matters.


    No use adding even more stress on top of what he was already working with.


    His new Path he¡¯d received was still settling, his body, mind, and spirit absorbing it. He mostly ignored the part of his mind that was tied up working on that. Instead, his senses probed the Mana Vault he¡¯d gotten from Morrigan. If he concentrated, he could actually feel it sucking in the ambient mana. The artifact was most likely his ticket to growing in power as a Blade Sorcerer. For now he was content to let it just keep doing what it was doing.


    Max looked up and began paying attention to his surroundings again.


    The local militia group his friend Blake was in moved down the street at a cautious clip. The destroyed city around them was theoretically clear of monsters between this point and their destination, but nobody was taking chances.


    After Max''s display of some of his power earlier, he had been placed in one of the vehicles that carried more powerful combatants. Luckily, this group also included Blake. Max rode in the back of a pickup truck at the front of the convoy with his friend and two others.


    Everyone was on edge and Max was pleased, but not entirely surprised, that the survivors were taking the group''s safety seriously. After all, if they were oblivious people, they might already be dead by now. Moreover, they certainly wouldn''t have joined a militia after a monster apocalypse to try saving their fellow man.


    In fact, as the group continued down the road, Max reflected that everyone in this convoy was likely a very brave or civic-minded person.


    One of the two other people in the back of the pickup truck with Max and Blake was the young woman who had spoken to Max before, Heather. Her crossbow sat on the floor beside her. The last person was an unfamiliar blonde man who seemed nervous. He kept fidgeting. Being nervous was understandable, they were going to fight monsters, after all. But this man looked even more twitchy than others he could see in the rest of the convoy. Max found this somewhat odd since the man had volunteered to being in this militia in the first place, and was also in the truck that only super-powered fighters occupied. This should mean he had advantages that vanilla humans didn¡¯t.


    He briefly opened his third eye, examining the man.


    Tyler Addison


    Challenger


    Voracious Spirit Path


    Suddenly, the man made a face and looked up, meeting Max¡¯s gaze. "What? You want to take a picture?" he asked.


    "Excuse me?"


    "Well, you''re staring at me. I don''t know why you''re so calm. We''re going to go fight monsters and the others might not know, but we know what the real deal is," the man said.


    "What are you talking about?" Max asked. To one side, Blake watched silently.


    The man chuckled, the sound betraying his nervousness. "There are a few who graduated from the Quartets. But not many, and I haven''t met any in the U.S. yet. Odds are, you''re just like me, somebody who died in a Quartet dungeon. That means we know how easy it is to die, even with more power. And I need to kill the fucking monsters to get my power back. Maybe you do too. Otherwise why would you be here?" He chuckled.


    Max could tell he didn¡¯t like this guy. ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡±


    ¡°Tyler.¡±


    Max sighed. After all the problems he¡¯d had in the Quartet, he really wasn¡¯t trying to pick a fight with more Challengers. He did find it interesting that the man hadn¡¯t commented on Max¡¯s outfit, which was directly from his Quartet, not something most people on Earth would wear. Of course, it¡¯d seen better days now. He probably looked like a hobo. Max said, ¡°I think we¡¯ll be fine. In fact, I¡¯ll take point. Don¡¯t worry.¡±


    The man studied Max with an expression betraying a mix of emotions. ¡°I still need to kill monsters, though.¡±


    ¡°Well, maybe you can do it when it¡¯s a little safer, then? As I understand it, there are trapped people we¡¯re going to save. Maybe this isn¡¯t the best time to push it.¡±


    ¡°Are you actually a Quartet graduate? Why are you so confident?¡±


    ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter.¡± Max shook his head ruefully. ¡°If I¡¯m wrong, I¡¯m dead, right?¡±


    ¡°I guess,¡± said Tyler. ¡°Whatever.¡±


    Blake got his attention and mouthed, ¡°Are you okay?¡± Max nodded in return and gave a thumb up.


    ***


    The apartments were not just one building as Max had expected. Instead, it looked like there were at least three buildings, maybe more, all four stories high. It was an apartment complex. Around it, there were cops with flashing lights, but they didn¡¯t have sirens on and there were only three cars. As they got closer, he noticed that some of the cops were not even wearing full uniforms.


    "Blake," Max asked, "why are some officers not in full uniform?"


    Blake replied, "Some officers have been killed over the last week. The police department has been accepting volunteers on a case-by-case basis. I guess they have more equipment than they have bodies. But even so, there just aren''t enough of them to go around. And there are vigilante groups like us, but I think usually the police try to be at the areas where serious stuff is going down at least to supervise or something. They¡¯re trying."


    Heather chimed in. "Yeah, Max might not know this. At first when everything happened, when the monsters appeared, cops went in guns blazing. The problem is, not all monsters can be killed with guns, or at least not killed fast enough. It''s like¡­a grizzly bear. Sure, guns might kill the thing, but if it gets close enough to chop him up, that''s one more officer down." Blake soberly nodded in agreement.


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    The militia pulled up to the curb and Max got his first glimpse of the monsters, some of which were looking through a window. He recognized them. Kobolds, he thought. He could only see their heads, but it was enough. They were vaguely reptilian, but with a crest of fur running from their dog-like noses up their snout, over their heads, and down their backs. Their ears were furry and floppy.


    Max used his third eye, bolstered by The Hidden Twilight Eye around his neck. Over the heads of the monsters, he saw the same thing for each:


    Gssrell Kobold, Uplands Tribe


    To one side, two police officers were staring at the kobolds. The monsters stared right back through the glass. Max got the impression they were lookouts. He¡¯d bet they had some way to alert the other kobolds if they were being attacked.


    Meanwhile, the rest of the kobolds could do whatever they wanted.


    Further into the apartment complex, Max could hear screams. At first, he couldn¡¯t understand why the officers were not using their firearms to kill the scouts, but then he remembered that shooting into apartments during potential hostage situations was probably not a great idea. In fact, this entire situation was pretty much a nightmare for the emergency personnel. They had no good options. Running in to save people right now could just end up with all the cops dead and the apartment dwellers without any help at all.


    Emergency workers in the city had to be hanging onto civilization with their fingernails.


    "Boy, are we glad to see you," said one of the police officers. He was wearing an equipment belt and cargo pants. Instead of a real police uniform, he had on a dark shirt. Max noticed that in addition to the Glock on his hip, he also had what looked like a short sword tucked through his equipment belt.


    "So who''s in charge?" asked one of the militia members, an older man.


    ¡°Oh my god, I can hear people screaming from here!¡± said Heather. ¡°We gotta help them!¡±


    Blake pointed at Max. ¡°He should be in charge. He¡¯s a Returner.¡±


    Tyler scoffed, "A returner. Right."


    Meanwhile, the cop in the dark shirt openly showed surprise and respect. ¡°Are you a returner?¡±


    "Something like that," said Max. "But I''m not in charge. In fact, the longer we wait here, the more people are going to get hurt. So I''m just going in."


    "But wait, don''t we need a plan or something?" asked a militia member, a younger guy with glasses. Max ignored him and ran toward the nearest building. Lavinia, he thought. His ectoplasm armor sprang up, making his form glow.


    He was heading directly to the top floor, but changed his mind before reaching the building. Instead, he headed directly for the kobolds in the window. Some of the people behind him cursed and started yelling. Max mentally moved more of his armor to cover his face and head before diving through the front of the window.


    There were a total of three. One hadn¡¯t been in the window.


    The kobolds were so surprised by the sudden attack, they didn''t even have time to respond. Max was immediately behind them. His sword practically flew out of its scabbard. He cut left, cut right, stabbed, kicked, and savagely knocked one of the creatures aside with his forearm. In two seconds, all three were dead. He mentally asked Lavinia to do a quick check of the apartment with her spirits, ensuring there were no other monsters or living people. In only a few seconds, the sad answer came back. No more monsters, but no surviving humans, either.


    Max tisked. "I fucking hate monsters.¡±


    After a second of hesitation, Max climbed out of the window and bounded back to the militia group. The cops and even some of the militia flinched back from him as he approached. The last vehicles of the militia had finally fully stopped and those fighters began to disembark.


    Tyler¡¯s eyes were huge.


    To Blake and to the police he said, "You guys should all follow up behind me. I might not get all of them, but I should get most. Either way just be careful. But what I really need you guys to do is find the survivors and get them the hell out of here. Or at least the ones that want to go or need medical attention." He didn''t wait for them to reply. Max turned. Using a combination of ectoplasmic rope and the repulsion effect under his feet that he borrowed from Slick, he easily bound up to the fourth floor of the apartment complex.


    Then, using Lavinia as his Intel manager, he went down the hallway, going into the apartments he needed to. It was pretty easy to tell which ones had been ransacked by monsters since the doors were broken in. But he wasn''t taking any chances. Whenever he came to an apartment that still had monsters inside, Max grimly entered and destroyed them all. It was bloody work that was made exponentially faster with the help of his spirits.


    Some of the kobolds tried waiting behind corners or inside of closets for him, but his spirits weren¡¯t fooled, and neither was Max.


    When he was done with the first building, Max bound over to the second and actually caught some of the kobolds skulking around in the bushes outside. Like all of their kin, they carried crude weapons made of badly forged iron. Their tools were basically just a step above what goblins usually carried. Even so, Max knew from experience that in numbers kobolds could still be very dangerous. Although they were slightly shorter than the average human woman, they were still all around the same strength as a man.


    Max¡¯s first star mana body strength would have been sufficient on its own, but his Summoner abilities took all of the guesswork out of hunting down the kobolds.


    He sunk into something like a trance, finding and killing the monsters. They¡¯d done a lot of damage. He didn¡¯t focus on the dead bodies, and he ignored when survivors took pictures or videos of him. In fact, he tuned out pretty much everything but the job at hand: killing monsters.


    Like his previous life, the greatest comedy in the universe was the fact he¡¯d been called ¡°Hero¡± when his calling had always been destruction. The healers were at least as valuable as anything he did, but they¡¯d never get recognition for it. The universe was truly unfair.


    After he¡¯d cleared the entire apartment complex and his thoughts turned to something other than just single-minded killing again, Max realized that even as a single star mana body Blade Sorcerer, he had to be much stronger than most of the locals. That was a disturbing realization. Some of the monsters he¡¯d seen before being whisked to the Quartet had definitely been beyond his ability to deal with back then.


    He headed back to the militia caravan and the cop cars, still flashing blue lights. Max was covered in blood, and as the people in the caravan rushed past to help the wounded civilians, most recoiled from him.


    When he finally made it back to Blake, his friend gave him a concerned look, searching his eyes. Everyone else gave them a respectful amount of space. Blake finally said, ¡°Good job. You¡¯re okay, right?¡±


    ¡°Yeah. Kobolds are basically smaller than humans and have no real training or skill. Just some cunning. Not much of a problem.¡±


    ¡°I see.¡± Blake called out to the cops. ¡°You got this, officers?¡± They nodded in return.


    Now that the mission was done, Max¡¯s energy started to fade and he felt hollow. The fight really hadn¡¯t been much of a challenge. He focused on a gourney leaving the apartment complex, surrounded by medics. The wounded woman had been bitten badly. Makeshift bandages were already soaked through with blood.


    His actions had definitely saved people. But Max¡¯s experiences as the Hero of Albion gave him a different perspective. Max had helped some people in this apartment complex, but the crisis was world-wide. And he was only going to be on earth for less than two days.


    How could he best use his time?


    ¡°Hey Blake.¡±


    ¡°Yeah?¡±


    ¡°We haven¡¯t had tons of time to talk yet, but some of the other students I was teaching also have powers, right?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°I need to talk to them. And you. Like, everyone all at once.¡±


    ¡°That shouldn¡¯t be a problem,¡± said Blake. ¡°We¡¯ve actually kind of all been crashing together, for protection. Also, that way we can go out and do what we need to quicker, I guess.¡± He scratched his head, hiding embarrassment.


    Max nodded. ¡°Can you do me a favor and bring me to everyone?¡±


    ¡°Now?¡±


    ¡°Yeah. Maybe let everyone know I¡¯m coming.¡±


    ¡°That shouldn¡¯t be a problem. Everyone in this apartment complex is good to go now. The Gate that the monsters came from is gone. I heard some of the residents took video of you. They¡¯re calling you a hero.¡±


    ¡°Please don¡¯t say that,¡± Max muttered.


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°Nothing.¡± He sighed. ¡°Anyway, can we go? Time is kind of important.¡±


    ¡°Oh yeah, sure thing. And¡­¡± Blake hesitated. ¡°Dude, I¡¯ll be honest. I want to hear what you have to say. I¡¯m pretty chill and even I have a lot of questions.¡±


    ¡°Yeah. I can figure.¡±


    ¡°Alright, let me clear borrowing a car. Be right back.¡±


    Max sat on the curb, ignoring all the stares. He wasn¡¯t sure what his homecoming on Earth would be like, but he hadn¡¯t expected to feel so¡­depressed. All this misery, all over earth, all over the universe. Why?


    He was lost in his thoughts until he got into a jeep with Blake. His friend seemed to sense his mood and let him sit in silence for a while.

 Book 2, ch 2

    The Jeep¡¯s engine was a welcome hum as Max stayed lost in thought for a few minutes. He didn¡¯t allow himself to brood too long, though.


    In some ways, the time limit he was under was serving as a great motivator not to get too lost in thought.


    He stared out the window, thinking about the fight with the kobolds. It¡¯d been easy for him, and he¡¯s saved a lot of people. Part of him felt like he should be happy about that, but he just felt hollow. The fact he couldn¡¯t figure out why was bothering him.


    There was enough difficult, damn near impossible shit waiting for him in the Quartet. Why couldn¡¯t he just enjoy the wins?


    Suddenly, his mind, his full processing power, became his own again as the part that had been tied up with his new Path finished absorbing the most important details. A torrent of information flooded Max¡¯s mind. Even though he knew most of what he needed to know about being a Bead Sorcerer now, he would still need to meditate on it later and unravel more secrets.


    He looked up and realized he knew where Blake was taking him. This part of town had been where he¡¯d started to change his life before the whole world went to hell.


    Max was not entirely surprised by the fact that his friends¡¯ base was most likely the dojo. He recognized the area long before arriving, and noticed Blake trying to watch him for a reaction. Max stayed stony faced. He didn¡¯t give his friend the satisfaction of an exclamation of surprise.


    The area had been turned into a field-expedient, post apocalypse fortress. All the entrances to the parking lot had been blocked off and there was fencing around the entire lot.


    "What''s all this?" asked Max. He pointed at the fence and the blocked access.


    "Oh, you know," said Blake. "We put it up on the fourth day after the attack. Some of the smaller monsters just bypassed the area entirely with it there. Too much trouble, I guess. Even the bigger ones still have to climb over, and that would give us more time to deal with them. But we haven''t had a direct attack here for a while. Now it''s kind of helpful too because there are human looters and troublemakers around but this kind of declares that this place is occupied. Tell them it''s probably not a good idea to mess with us." Max nodded in reply.


    They approached one of the entrances and Blake honked the horn. People pushed the car that was blocking the entrance out of the way. As Blake pulled in, Max observed how two men he was unfamiliar with were starting to push the car back, using the parking brake to keep it in place once it was where they wanted it. He thought, A stop-gap measure, in this case literally.


    He¡¯d half-expected Lavinia to comment on the thought since he hadn¡¯t shielded it, but she stayed silent.


    "Who are those guys?" he asked.


    "Ramon and George," said Blake, "They''re two guys from the family that own the Mexican restaurant in the complex. They''re friends of ours and they help us keep this place safe. We actually have a few families living in some of the stores now." Max nodded. Now that his memory had been jogged, he recognized them.


    The Jeep pulled into the end of the parking lot against the wall where all the other vehicles were. Max was amazed to see how the area had been transformed. What was once a strip mall, and a slightly seedy one at that, now looked something like a cross between a military compound and an apartment complex. The parking lot had been transformed into an open-air courtyard of sorts. Ladders leaned against the roof, and armored defensive emplacements had been erected with the high ground advantage. To one side there were barbecues lined up, some of which were currently smoking. On the other side of the compound, there were a couple of port-a-potties in the corner.


    Max pointed at the porta-potties and looked a question at Blake. His friend shrugged., "We stole those." He didn''t say anything more. Max didn''t pry further.


    He studied the portapotties, wondering why the survivors had gone through the trouble of getting them. All of the shops in the strip mall had restrooms. But then he answered his own question when he realized his friends probably weren''t relying on the water lasting forever. If they continued to have running water, everything would be fine. But if the running water stopped, this little community would continue to function a little bit easier than some others might.


    Blake parked the Jeep and they both got out. Max was pleased and a little excited when he spotted more of his students coming out of the dojo to meet them. It took a few seconds for the first to recognize him, but after that, it was like a chain reaction of surprised yells, people calling his name, and folks running up to hug him and pat him on the back.


    Everyone did their best to keep their eyes dry, and everyone mostly succeeded.


    The last to join the little group was Ethan and Max looked into the man''s world-weary eyes as they shook hands. Ethan had never looked so old or frayed, which was probably appropriate given the circumstances.


    "I think I speak for all of us when I say I''m glad you''re back," said Ethan. "Now then, since you''re here and you''re alive, would you mind coming into the dojo? I¡¯d love to just have a mid-apocalypse party, but it has to wait. We all have some questions for you."


    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Max nodded solemnly and followed the group inside. He wasn''t going to tell them everything, but he did probably owe them some answers and some further guidance at this point.


    ***


    Max sat on the floor in front of the mirror that ran along one side of the dojo. All of the sleeping bags and other belongings that his students had brought, at least the ones that were living there, had been pushed against one wall to clear the space. All of his old students sat on the floor facing him.


    Max scratched his cheek and said, "I''m not one hundred percent sure where to start."


    "Why don''t you start from the beginning?" asked Chad. Ethan¡¯s brother looked as serious as usual, and had obviously lost weight.


    Max chuckled, "No, that would take too long, I think. Also¡­context is needed."


    "Well, how about you just get to the point where you tell us why we''re all superheroes now?" said Chad.


    "Oh, that. Yeah. Okay." Max leaned his head back and crossed his arms. "The martial art I taught you before is why you have superhuman abilities now. Which I''m sure you have probably figured out, at least to some extent.¡±


    "I knew it!" said Toby, one of the other students. He smacked his open hand with a palm. "I told you it was the martial arts!"


    Max grinned. "And now, to answer the question that you haven''t asked me yet. Yes, I am human. And yes, I am from this world." Some of the students in the room chuckled nervously, but others had serious expressions, and their eyes didn''t flicker. Max noticed that Blake was actually one of them.


    He continued, "Before I met you, I mastered a martial art from another world, a world of mana and magic. How I know this martial art is not important, at least not right now. If we survive all of this, I¡¯ll tell you later. Maybe. What is important is that even with no mana, it was an effective, profound system which I think all of you would agree on. However, once the monsters attacked, and mana came back to earth, this martial art became something else.


    ¡°No, I did not know the monsters were going to attack. It was a complete surprise to me I was actually at my dayjob when it happened. When I was getting ready to leave work, shit went down. I killed a few small monsters before trying to get some coworkers out of the worst of it. Come to think of it, I have no idea where my car is right now.¡±


    Ethan quirked a smile. Everyone around him nodded as they digested what he¡¯d said.


    Max continued, ¡°So the reason you have all developed powers is because after you used your Albion Western Wind Style, after the earth was full of mana, you basically began harnessing mana into your body and infusing it into your bones. This will make you all stronger over time, even at rest, and when you fight¨Cuse your martial arts, you can pull in mana around you, use it like a battery. All of you will develop your own techniques over time, too. Don¡¯t be afraid to experiment.


    ¡°Now you¡¯ll be stronger, faster, and harness mana while you fight. You might have heard of this, but in the universe, there are Paths. If you¡¯re on a Path, you¡¯re considered a Challenger. All of you are currently on the Mana Swordsman Path.¡±


    ¡°Is that what you are too?¡± asked Blake.


    ¡°No. I¡¯m on a different Path. More than one.¡±


    ¡°Can we learn other paths?¡± said Chad.


    Max grinned without humor. ¡°Master one first. Then we can talk about it.¡±


    "So you''re not going to tell us how you know, or how you knew Albion Western Wind Style in the first place?" asked Blake.


    Max shook his head. "No, I''m sorry. There are some secrets I''m not willing to share yet. But again, I¡¯ll say again: I am human. I was born on earth. You are all my friends, my students.¡± He paused. ¡°However, I need to ask you all to never teach Albion Western Wind Style to anyone else without my permission. Actually, it¡¯s not a request. That is a hard and fast rule. I¡¯m sorry to be a hardass about it, but if I ever find out you did, we will be enemies."


    There was a moment of silence.


    "So where have you been?" asked Ethan.


    "He¡¯s a returner, I think?" said Blake.


    Max pondered how to answer the question without spending a few hours trying to explain how the universe worked¡­especially when he himself wasn''t entirely sure yet. What he eventually said was, "I was given a prompt to get stronger, a choice. When I chose Yes, I was sent to Quartet training. But the truth is that I''m not actually done with my training in the Quartet. I have a special set of circumstances that allowed me to return for around two days before I go back. It¡¯s kind of a unique thing. Just to be safe, all of you please keep this stuff to yourself. After I go back to the Quartet from here, I don¡¯t know when I¡¯ll be back again, actually be a Returner. But next time should be for good."


    Silence greeted this until Blake nodded slowly and said, "Yeah, I haven''t heard of any other returners coming back with weird, dirty clothes unless they looked like that beforehand. You should have appeared in your work clothes, right?¡±


    Max nodded. ¡°Yup. And I would probably have my cell phone.¡± He pointed at his sword. ¡°Returners can¡¯t come back with items or weapons unless they pay a shit ton of money for it, too. But to be honest, I¡¯m still not 100% sure how all that works yet.¡±


    "So what''s the Quartet like?" asked Ethan. ¡°We have heard a little bit about it. News stations are going nuts trying to interview the handful of Quartet graduate Returners. Most of them are in other countries so far, though.¡±


    "I don''t even know how to answer that question." Max chuckled. He shook his head and said, "It''s kind of like military training and college and summer camp all mixed together. But it''s not all good.


    "How many other returners are there that you know of?" asked Max.


    Chad answered, "It seems like most of the people who are back failed in some way. A lot of them won¡¯t talk about it. And most of them have powers now, but not tons of it. Like, most of us are stronger than they are. People are calling people who developed power on Earth Local Hunters, or just Hunters. Anyway, there are a few people that are real Returners and graduated from their Quartet schools. They¡¯re strong as hell. But I don''t think there are any around here, at least not yet."


    "Yeah," said Ethan. "One thing I have heard consistently is that the Returners say there''s going to be more of them coming back eventually."


    "That''s true," said Max. "I don''t know when though so don''t ask me. Just like I don''t know when I''ll officially Return either."


    "So what powers do you have?" asked Ethan.


    To one side, Blake smiled. He said, "You guys have got to see this. Max, do the armor thing!¡±


    Max grinned. ¡°Alright, but after that, we need to talk business and about the near future.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    Max made eye contact with Ethan and Chad. ¡°You guys need to form a guild while I¡¯m gone.¡±

 Book 2, ch 3

    Max''s mouth was dry. A while back he¡¯d held an impromptu martial arts class for his students, one more piece of the puzzle that might take them to the next level. They¡¯d asked if they could ever have power like him, and Max had needed to explain Paths to them. It¡¯s been necessary to explain how they had no hope of being a Blade Sorcerer¨Cit was several orders of magnitude more complex than the Path they were on.


    Now he felt like he had been talking nonstop for ages about the Quartet, what to expect with the apocalypse, and what sort of Paths existed. The Path information was important so everyone had a heads up about what kind of power Returners might demonstrate once they were back on Earth. Chad, in particular, seemed fascinated by the sheer variety of Paths. Max truly enjoyed talking to his friends.


    He received a mild shock when he checked the countdown timer on his screen. It was good to be back on Earth, but he wasn''t okay with just hanging around. His time could be spent more wisely.


    At this point, everybody had already taken a nap or was still sleeping. It was more or less morning, so almost everybody awake and not on guard was eating their breakfast. Max took the opportunity to slip away, thinking about what he could do in his last few hours on earth¨Cwhat he should prioritize.


    As he sat on a plastic chair in the parking lot and pondered, Blake found him. The other man was eating a plate full of scrambled eggs. Max had been amused earlier to discover that not one, but two of his students actually raised chickens right outside of city limits. As a result, the group had a regular supply of eggs and went in teams to take care of the chickens and recover more food every couple days.


    There was safety in numbers, so currently everybody was calling the dojo compound home while treating the houses with chickens as satellite farms.


    Blake pulled up another cheap plastic chair without a word and sat facing Max. He munched on his eggs for a while before asking, "Running out of time, right? Are you going to go see any of your family?"


    Max shook his head. "I don''t think so. On top of the danger, I''d have to basically only choose one of them because there wouldn''t be time to see the others. My mom is probably closest, but she''d also freak out the most and be the hardest to get away from. And she¡¯d probably be the most upset if I was still there when I disappeared. I doubt that she is going to be flexible enough to understand things like magic and teleportation yet."


    If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    "Good point," said Blake. He''d actually met Max''s mom before. "Too bad phones are down, right?" Then he amended, "Well, they''re usually down, but it''s kind of not worth the effort to try unless you have a landline. And almost none of us have that."


    Max shrugged. "I don''t know. At least I was able to send emails. Infrastructure should be back in a few months I would imagine, maybe a few weeks but by then it would be too late for me. But honestly, I also kind of don''t want to spend the next few hours just repeating myself over and over to family when I''ve already explained what''s going on to them in emails. I mean, yeah, it would be nice to give them a hug. My mom would definitely like to hear my voice in person, but it''s enough for me to know she''s still alive. Just knowing they¡¯re not dead took a huge weight off my shoulders. And I got you all to promise¨C"


    Blake cut Max off. "--Of course, we''re going to look out for your family and probably even bring them here once we get a chance."


    Max nodded. Blake said, "It¡¯s good your problems are sort of solved, but ours are still looming.¡±


    ¡°What problems?¡±


    ¡°Resource problems. These eggs have been really helpful over the last week since some of the other survivors out there lost their damn minds, either bought everything out in grocery stores or started breaking in and stealing stuff they didn''t need. It''s crazy out there. At least so many of us have superpowers. I know for a fact that at least Ethan is bulletproof.¡±


    ¡°Had some problems with humans, huh?"


    "Yeah," said Blake. His face fell. "None of us really like to talk about it."


    "I can imagine," said Max. He gestured around the perimeter of the compound. "So I take it that the fence and the show of force isn''t only for the benefit of protecting everybody from monsters."


    "That''s right," said Blake. "But like I said, we have other problems too. Resources. I mean, right now, around the world, a lot of people are kind of just taking what they need. Some steal, but we¡¯re trying to be ethical. We always make notes of what we take to settle up with the store later because that''s the right thing to do. But like you said, infrastructure is going to return. And even though the world will never be the same again¨Cand who the hell knows, maybe the world will end¨CI have a hard time believing that businesses will just disappear in the long run. And when the day comes that everybody has to pay for things again, we''re going to need money. Lots of money. There are a lot of mouths to feed."


    Max nodded slowly and his eyes suddenly lit up. Something had just clicked and he realized what the most valuable use for his remaining time on Earth would be. "Hey buddy, can you do me a favor and get everybody together? I have something I want to say and we all need to get to work."


    ¡°That¡¯s sudden. You serious?¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡±


    Blake smiled. "I recognize that expression. Alright." He stood up and retrieved his empty paper plate. "Let me go round everybody up."


    "Thanks man," said Max. After Blake was gone, he grinned. He had a goal now and a direction. No specifics yet, but he believed that with his friends¡¯ help, before he left, he could help ensure that both his family, and his comrades would be taken care of.

 New Story on RR set in the PLH universe

    Maybe this could help tide some of your over until I maybe post chapter of PLH 3.


    Yes, I know that''s a tease, but I''m sorry, I can''t give you anything more definite right now.


    Anyyyyyway... I''m not trolling, I promise.


    So today I just launched Reincarnator Raised By Dragons. As I just said, this story is set in the same larger universe as


    Apocalypse Cultivation


    Sponsored Apocalypse


    Past Life Hero


    and


    Reincarnator Raised by Dragons


    I''ve been kind of playing around with calling the full group of books the Besieged Worlds Universe. What do you think? Is it catchy? Cringe? Already done?


    Anyhoo, if you''d give it a shot, I''d appreciate it. The way RR discoverability works is similar to Amazon. If more people read or check out a story when it''s first out, it''ll get more traction on the site. Basically, success if rewarded with success.


    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    This new story is very different from anything else I''ve ever done, and as I mention in my foreward, I was inspired by Frieren. I am really thinking about coining a subgenre called "Exploration Fantasy." I think it fits the new vibe well.


    So, yeah. I think most other relevant things about the new story can be explained in the blurb and foreword, so I''ll just thank you here for checking it out.


    If you read the chapters I have up right now on Reincarnator, I''d appreciate a good review if you like what''s up so far (because review # and rating help, too).


    And now that I have all the youtuber-type stuff out of the way...just thank you for being here. Writing and reading are my passions. It fills me with pride and humility to even be here in the first place.


    BC


    (the link to the new story is below)

 Quick FYI about the story going forward and Book 3

    Hey everyone! I''ve pretty much made up my mind now that I will be posting book 3 of Past Life Hero on RR after I stub book one. I have about 50% of the chapters for book 3 up on Patreon right now.


    I almost went the other way (not posting book 3 on RR, ever) when I grew annoyed that someone (who liked the story) gave me a bad review on this story because I wasn''t releasing the next book fast enough. For free. Seriously.


    When it happened, I eventually reminded myself that one or two complete idiots do not represent thousands of people. It''s also partly my own issues being triggered. RR used to be a much more...wild place. It''s actually pretty chill these days, but when I get hit with some online crazy or entitlement (this was the latter), it can be a bit triggering and bring back that feeling of drama.


    Drama-free is good! It''s why I wasn''t on RR for years after leaving. lol. Coming back has been a ton of fun overall, not least in part because Kana and the rest of the RR staff have made this place much less toxic for authors to exist in.


    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    Anyway...yeah. I''m not sure when the first book will be published, but whenever it is, that''s when I''ll start releasing chapters on here. There will be a release announcement too, so if you are subbed (and if you a reading this, you probably are), you''ll know.


    One last thing:


    Reincarnator Raised by Dragons is doing well. It''s on Rising Stars right now, but the site is super, super competitive!


    This story is set in the same universe as Past Life Hero. It''s a little bit more chill, a little more focused on adventure and exploration than intrigue and fighting against the system, but I think there should still be a lot of Venn overlap in readership.


    If you''re interested in checking out that story, the link will be in the author note below.


    :)


    -BC

 Stubbing today. Book 1 going live on Amazon tomorrow!

    Hi everyone!


    I''m about to start stubbing this story.


    Thank you, all of your for your support until now!


    I''m sorry I haven''t posted any more chapters.  I was planning on it this month, but I got sick after Dragoncon, and then...the weather came.


    Over the last week or so, multiple US states have been in a state of disaster.  I''m in one of them.  I have not had power or water for days.


    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    I''m writing this right now using my phone as a hot spot and after charging my laptop on my generator.


    Yay!  Without current tech, I''d be 100% screwed!


    ...but I still haven''t managed to get much work done this month.  Sorry about that.


    Anyway, I will put away the tiny violin and just tell you straight that new chapters will be up soon, the first book will be live on Amazon tomorrow, and I will drop another post tomorrow with a link.


    Till then...


    -BC

 Past Life Hero is live on Amazon

    Hey all!  The first book of this series is live!  If you can support me by picking it up or even just reviewing it if you liked it, it would be a huge help.


    Either way, thanks for being here.  This has been a super fun adventure so far.


    I''m kind of hoping that this series explodes so I can focus on it for an entire year or two.  Wouldn''t that be cool?


    -BC


    PS - the audio book is live, too


    If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    PPS - I didn''t meet the minimum chapter length here, so I''m going to give everyone an update on my life situation right now.


    Businesses around where I live are starting to get power again, so I''m drinking a McDonalds coffee while I write this.  The first couple days, my wife and I had to make coffee with a camp stove, which is fine, but takes forever.


    Every time I''ve ever cooked with fire, it has reminded me that most of our ancestors probably smelled terrible most of the time.  lol


    Okay, that''s probably enough words.  I''m hitting the button again.

 Stubbing and adding chapters tonight.

    Book 2 comes out on Amazon in hours.


    So that means I need to stub book 2 here on RR, and put chapters up for book 3 (I said I would!)  ;)


    See?  Naysayers?  Told ya!


    Anyway, it''s going to be a decent chunk of chapters when I put them all up at once.  Book 3 is almost done on Patreon, and I''ll be starting book 4 later this month.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    -BC


    PS  - If you support me on Amazon, bless you.  And for Delvers LLC fans, this series is doing well enough, I might finally be able to finish Delvers LLC this year.

 Book 2 recap

    After having returned temporarily to Earth after spending time in a mysterious Quartet school that exists in another dimension, Max is reunited with his friend Blake.  It hasn¡¯t been very long since the Earth was attacked by monsters, but society is already in a shambles.  He travels with Blake and a band of motley fighters that hunt monsters and try to save others in trouble.  At an apartment complex, Max wipes out a group of Gssrell Kobolds.


    With the kobolds dead, located with the use of Max¡¯s spirits, he travels to where Blake has been staying¨Cthe dojo that Max used to teach at.  There, he is reunited with his students¨Cthose he was teaching martial arts on Earth before the world changed.


    Because of what he taught them, all of his students have exhibited supernatural powers.


    Max quickly decides that since he only has a short amount of time to stay on Earth before returning to the Quartet, he needs to help his friends and give himself a foundation to return to after he eventually comes back to Earth for good.  He accomplishes this by forming a guild, ¡°Trifecta.¡±  With the help of his friends, he attacks and clears a dungeon portal.  Before doing so, he¡¯d invited reporters there to see the entire thing go down.


    Loot from the dungeon helps to outfit his new guild.


    Once he returns to his point of origin, the dungeon he¡¯d been trapped in from the Quartet, he continues wiping out the monsters inside.  He acquires a powerful new spirit, Saliron, an entity obsessed with bones. Max finishes clearing the dungeon.


    The rewards were presented to him and he had to choose three.  He chose:


    Bracelet of Bloody Arrows


    Flask of Unending Water


    Weight Reduction Adventurer Pack, Mk 4


    Back in the Quartet, he is not ambushed by a group of students like he¡¯d expected, but instead is attacked by a single man.  The man is overwhelmingly powerful and defeats Max, but is shocked by Max¡¯s skill and power.  Max¡¯s opponent is revealed to be Territ Mond, the Headmaster of the Mystic Spear Path Academy.


    Mong Hao Han, the Headmaster of the Summoner academy is also present.  The two headmasters recognize Max as a three Path Challenger.


    They had already uncovered the plot to kill Max, and had shown up in case he could survive the dungeon.  After coming back alive, their interest in him is very high.  The two of them cut a deal with Max.  Due to inter-Quartet politics, they desperately need a talented fighter for their own Quartet to compete against other Quartets at the end of the year.


    Max is bribed with two vouchers for gear, as well as mana stones to participate and to do well in the Quartet competition.  The large number of mana stones gave him plenty of buffer for his constantly-dwilindly supply, all of which he needs to improve his mana body.


    He demands to execute the worker who had sent him to his presumed death.  The two headmasters reluctantly agree.


    At first his spirit Lavinia is concerned that the deal he made with the headmasters might have impacted their Summoner contract, but Max explains that by winning the Quartet competition, it will force other Paths to see Summoners as serious competitors.  It could also help him get closer to solving some of the mysteries of the Quartet.


    Taking classes again is necessary, but Max doesn¡¯t have to take as many anymore.  He shows up to group combat class and spars with the top of the class.  His capabilities had improved so much during his time in the dungeon, none of the junior students are anywhere close to his equal anymore.


    He continued to teach his martial arts class, helping his students grow stronger with the use of Western Wind Style.  Some of the students had formed contracts with new spirits, becoming more powerful.  Max begins planning to find new weapons for his students to use.


    Lavinia and Max continue working together to streamline and improve on her magical research she¡¯d begun while she¡¯d been alive.  They make great strides.  Saliron helps Max store items inside a pocket dimension made with the help of a bone doorway.


    Max begins deepening his friendship with Momo, who he verifies is interested in him romantically.  He learns more about her own doomed world.


    Communication with the sponsoring Headmasters is mostly done through letters.  This slows down the back-and-forth.


    Lavinia alerts Max one night that Wiley, the traitor who led Max and Lance to being assaulted in an alley by Mystic Spear Path students in an alley, was trying to escape through the woods to another academy.  Max finds him, punishes him harshly, tauts Prince Regal who is on the other side of a barrier, and returns to the academy.


    If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    He plans an outing to the central area for a shopping trip.


    In order to appear more casual, he goes to the central area on a double date.  Max, Momo, Lance, and his new girlfriend Belle head out to shop and try new food.  However, Max¡¯s main goal is to collect equipment and weapons for himself and friends.


    The group meets Amy, Max¡¯s shopkeeper friend.  She acts strangely.  Max makes a note of this.


    On the way back to the Summoner Academy, the group is attacked by Mystic Spear students.  Guard golems that had been following Max intervene, protecting the group.  Nobody is harmed, and in frustration, Max watches the attacking students run away.  With the help of Saliron, he tags them with some of Saliron¡¯s spirits so he will recognize them later despite their face coverings.


    Back at the Summoner Academy, he gifts his students who were lacking decent weapons with new ones.  Lance receives the most powerful and expensive weapon that had been sold in the central area,  the Shadow Sun Rising, sword of the Battleborne.  Max also gives him enough mana units to tie the weapon to his soul, ensuring that Lance can take it with him to earth. Max asks his friend to begin training in martial arts during Max¡¯s classes he holds in the forest.


    He also takes inventory of his purchases, which includes a new sword for himself, the Blackmist Inciden of Actus, and a pill furnace.  With the help of the pill furnace, he further improves the efficiency of refining his mana body using  mana stones, and also uses the tiny bit of excess to make mana pills for himself and his friends.  This allows his friends to start slowly saturating their own bodies with mana as well, despite the lack of ambient mana in their Quartet.


    Max is prompted to meet with all the headmasters of his quartet in the middle of the night.  This is in response to his request that Territ Mond and Mong Hao Han get the other headmasters on board with their cabal.


    In the forest, Max meets all four headmasters, including Winno Smith of the Replicator Academy, and Bojana Gala Tassy A¡¯Mind of the Elemental Shifter Academy.  Bojana is the most antagonistic, and requires that Max proves his credentials at the mid-year Quartet competition before she is fully committed to the cabal, backing Max for the big competition at the end of the year.


    Max requires the headmasters to pay him more mana stones, using the situation to increase his stipend.  They reluctantly concede to his demands and he ultimately agrees to the deal.


    While he is still digesting this new reality of being secretly sponsored by the Quartet¡¯s headmasters, all for hidden reasons of their own, he is approached by Lavinia about something important.  She explains remnant spirits to him, and tells him that one of her friends, a remnant spirit, wants to meet Max.


    Remnant spirits are unique existences that have been mostly removed from the Quartet, and any mention of them has been scoured from all the records.  Max meets Tom, a remnant spirit who forms a contract with Max.  The process destroys Tom, and Lavinia mourns.


    Due to the contract with Tom, Max gets a stronger soul, mind, and spirit.  He also experiences dreams that are Tom¡¯s memories.  In his dreams, he learns of Ancilla, also known as Scorn the Ruiner, a legendary, extremely powerful Summoner who was at odds with the Quartet system, and whose existence is nowhere to be found in any of the Quartet records.  From one of the visions, Max recognizes a much younger version of Bojana Gala Tassy A¡¯Mind, the headmaster of the Elemental Shifter academy.  Tom shares with Max that there is another secret he wants to tell, but can¡¯t¨Call he can say is it is another thing the Quarter system is intentionally hiding.


    Amy openly shows interest in Max.  He meets up with her to learn more about the workers of the central area.  However, the meeting goes so well, he begins a romantic relationship with her.


    Max begins to learn about the competition at the end of the semester that he must participate in to maintain his sponsorship.  He also continues to work with Lavinia on understanding and perfecting her old research from when she was alive.  She shows him her old lab, a hidden location that is still functional to this day.


    Momo has a conversation with Max about what she wants after the Quartet training.  She requests that he find a way to bring her to his world.  Max develops necklaces to give to his friends¨Ccreated to help him analyze and memorize the unique characteristics of their souls.  This is done in case he can locate and summon them later.


    He takes the initiative to develop disaster and contingency plans with his martial arts students.  The information about Ancilla¡¯s existence and how he¡¯d been killed helped open Max¡¯s eyes to even more hidden dangers of the Quartet.


    Amy discovers that Max is planning to participate in the end of year competition for the Quartet.  She is greatly disturbed by this, since the competition coincides with many students leaving the Quartet.  The two of them end their relationship.


    After a great amount of effort, Max finally achieves a three star mana body.


    He is approached by a new remnant spirit, Dura, in the form of a wolf.  Dura has another spirit with him, a friend.   Max forms a contract with the remnant spirit, Dura.  This grants Max the concept of ¡°disruption.¡±  The spirit Trill that Max also contracts with is specialized in hiding.  She can create a bubble that dulls the sense of anyone looking inside.  Her other power is to block the sight of other spirits.


    After this, Max has contracts with:


    Lavinia


    Slick


    Saliron


    Trill


    And two remnants:


    Tom


    Dura


    During the mid-year competition, his friends did very well.  Then it was Max¡¯s turn to prove himself.  He wins handily, also calling out and defeating a number of Mystic Spear students that he recognizes as people who attacked him and his friends in the central area before.


    His last opponent is Lim Jezzen, the talented Mystic Spear student who blasted his body apart some time ago when Max was terrorizing the Mystic Spear campus.


    During the exhibition, Adjudicator Ni Na Long Swan presides over the matches.  Later that night, after Max had won, she shows up at his room with Professor Munka.  She bids Max to follow them through a portal that Munka creates.


    On the other side of the portal, Swan murders Munka and attacks Max.  He barely succeeds in killing her.  She was a champion of Demeter, a Champion of a god just like Max.  The power of Trill¡¯s barrier and Dura¡¯s concept of disruption had allowed him to break free of Swan¡¯s control and move.


    Swan had had a white dagger, a black dagger, a purple dagger, a blue dagger, and a red dagger.  Max recognized two of the dagger colors from his visions of Ancilla.


    Max gathers his friends and tells them all that something terrible has happened and he needs to leave.  He invites them to also leave the Quartet.  Only Momo, Lance, and Gantry take him up on his offer.  He kills their current body with the white dagger he looted from Adjudicator Swan to eject them from the Quartet.


    To allow himself to escape, Max takes a risk.  He uses Lavinia¡¯s chair that killed her and turned her into a spirit hundreds of years ago to instead transfer himself to Earth.  The gamble is a partial success.  He finds himself back on Earth, permanently in his Quartet body.


    He gets the current date from a newspaper on the ground.


    The purple dagger he¡¯d taken from Swan talks to him, claiming it houses the remnant spirit of a god, a ¡°divine remnant.¡± He leaves the alley he¡¯d appeared in to get food.


    After he¡¯s gone from the alley, Lavinia looks at the newspaper again that Max got the date from.  The headline on the other side reads, ¡°Future Uncertain for Disgraced Trifecta Guild.¡±

 Book 3, ch 1

    Max walked into the first restaurant he had been able to find, and his mouth salivated at the delicious smells assaulting his senses. He read the menu; it wasn''t a type of food he was super familiar with. In fact, he had never had it before and had only heard about it in a movie. But at the moment, he was so hungry he could eat anything.


    However, after walking to the counter in a daze, he realized there was a very serious problem. Since he had come to Earth in all of the same equipment that he had had on in the quartet and had not switched out to his old body, he had no earth money on him. The realization made him stop moving and just stand still, staring at the sign with pictures of delicious sandwiches and plates with chicken and rice.


    The man behind the counter seemed a little too old and too well-dressed to be working at a register, but Max shook his head and realized judging was dumb, especially in a newly changed Earth. The man eyed Max up and down.


    "Excuse me, sir," he said in an accent. "Are you homeless?"


    "No, I don''t think so," said Max. He was amused that to people on Earth, his Quartet clothing was so strange he looked homeless.  Then he smirked and shook his head. "Actually, you know what? I''m not really sure. I just got back to Earth."


    The man behind the counter stared in surprise. "You¡¯re a returner?" He looked Max up and down again. "I''ve never seen a returner that looks like you, though."


    After thinking quickly, Max said, "Well, you asked if I was homeless, and I was homeless before I went.."


    "Oh, that makes sense," said the man. Then he chuckled and nodded. "So you were at a quartet?"


    "That''s right," said Max. "I graduated." He lied.


    "Really?" said the man, but then his expression grew shrewd. "Not that I want to doubt you, but can you prove it? That you are back from a Quartet?"


    Max thought for a moment and realized with a sinking feeling that most of his abilities didn''t really have any flashy ways to show off, at least not the way Max used them. They were highly suited to killing, not for demonstrations. At least this man didn¡¯t know that most returners had a tablet, which Max would never wear again now that he was back on Earth.  Finally, he just shrugged and thought, "Slick, can you come out, please?"


    The little spirit responded with an excited affirmative, and as Max held his hand up flat at chest height, suddenly Slick was standing there, looking at the man behind the counter. Since Slick had manifested to the senses of everybody in the vicinity, the stranger was able to see the spirit nonchalantly standing on Max''s hand. The man¡¯s eyes looked like they were going to bug out of his head.


    "Is that a monster?" he stammered.


    "No, it''s a spirit," said Max. Then, with a suggestion and a nudge to Slick, the spirit vanished.


    Then he silently asked Lavinia to have her spirits manifest as an ectoplasmic golem, and it did exactly what Max had suggested before vanishing. Now the man truly looked like he had about hit his limit.


    "Apologies for doubting you. I just wanted to make sure," he said.


    "Don''t worry about it," said Max. He waved his hand dismissively. "I''ve had a very long day."


    The man peered deeply into Max¡¯s tired eyes.   "It seems like you have. Well, I was going to ask if you would maybe consider doing a promo for my store. Times are hard, you know, with everything, and I''ve somehow hung on to the place even though almost all my employees have left. I just have one cook left."


    "So you''re the owner?" said Max.


    "Yes. I''ve had this place for eight years now, ever since getting my green card in America."


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    "Well, congratulations," said Max.


    The man chuckled. "Thank you for saying that, but like I said, times are hard, and a lot of people have moved away, going to the larger cities. There aren''t as many people left anymore either."


    Max nodded. Although he didn''t have any first-hand experience of the man''s words, he could definitely imagine how such a thing would be the case.


    "I''m Alfonso," said the man.


    "Max." The two shook hands over the counter, and Max pretended not to notice when the man stealthily got a pump of hand sanitizer to clean his hands before touching anything again.


    "Tell you what," said Alfonso. "If you give me a little bit of promotion, anything at all, I''ll give you a free meal today."


    Max chuckled. "How will you know whether I do it or not?"


    "Honor system," said Alfonso.


    Max smiled easily.  ¡°Alright. "Absolutely, I''ll make sure to repay your kindness."


    "Okay, what would you like?"


    "Whatever you suggest. I''m so hungry I could eat anything right now."


    Alfonso chuckled. "I will have the cook make you  two of our house specials?"


    "You''re an angel," said Max.


    Without further discussion, Alfonso set out a white styrofoam cup, and dutifully, Max moved to the drink machines. He poured himself a large cup of sweet tea and sipped with a blissful expression on his face. The food in the Quartet hadn''t been bad, but there was nothing quite like American sweet tea. Granted, not every state did it justice, and not even every restaurant did it justice, but this was a good batch.


    He ambled over to one of the booths and sat down, then quietly drummed his fingertips against the table, lost in thought. It was a pain in the ass that he hadn''t come back to his original body, the one with a smartphone in his pocket. From what he understood, everything he had been holding that day was now completely lost for all time. He had resources currently with him but no way to access them until making another bone gate with Celerian''s help. That was definitely going to have to wait until after he ate.


    Eventually, Alfonso approached him with two plates. Even though Max had been in the store for a while now, he was still the only customer. Alfonso set the plates down, and Max almost drooled on himself.


    "This here is our chicken shawarma, and on the other plate, we have our beef sandwich. And since you said you''re hungry, I also added some veggies and rice on that plate too."


    "Thank you so much," said Max, feeling touched. It felt like there hadn''t been very many people in the Quartet who were truly kind, and Max was actively avoiding thinking about how he might have screwed them over with his actions and disappearance. It was nice to be back on Earth and encountering genuine decency in the first person he met.


    "Indeed," Alfonso chuckled. "As a returner with real power, I''m sure you''re going to be worth many times more than what I will ever be very soon. But you know what? It''s you and your people that are going to help us actually keep living on this planet instead of going extinct. So if a little bit of beef and chicken is going to help fight? Well, here it is."


    Then Alfonso smiled awkwardly, seeming to feel he had said too much or maybe not said enough, and he walked back to man the counter again.


    Max tucked into his food like a dying wolf. He barely inhaled as he sucked the delicious sustenance into his mouth. After the first plate was done, he burped and looked up, finally satiated enough to be more curious about what shawarma actually was.


    There were several wheels of meat behind the counter that all had heat lamps or some sort of heat on them, looking like they were cooking as they turned. He was confused because it looked like the meat was turning almost like a rotisserie chicken or something, but it wasn''t a carcass; it was a cheese wheel made of meat. He decided that despite his confusion over what shawarma actually was or how it was made, he didn''t care. From this point on, he was a true believer in shawarma. There would be no shawarma offered that he would turn down.


    Then he began eating the sandwich. By the time he was done, he patted his belly and felt many times better than he had before. Unfortunately, now that the immediate concern of fuel was out of the way, he started to worry about his friends. There were definitely different time dilations for every world and every dimension. Maybe. He had a sense of urgency about summoning his friends that had wanted to be summoned, if he even could. At the moment, he believed he could do it, but there were still a few pieces of the puzzle that he was missing.


    "Speaking of puzzles," he muttered.


    Taking advantage of the fact nobody else was in the store, he wandered up to the counter again and began pumping the good-natured Alfonso for information. What he found out did not make him happy. In fact, it was so grim, at times he had to clench his teeth and put effort into relaxing so Alfonso couldn''t see the effect the information was having on him. Luckily, either Max was a good actor or Alfonso wasn''t paying attention because the man didn''t seem fazed.


    It was a long conversation, and Max noticed, with a bit of sadness, that no other customers had come in during the entire time he had been in the restaurant. It made him feel awkward, but he reminded himself that there were probably many Alfonzos in the world who had an even worse situation. This part of town looked like it hadn''t actually suffered much destruction or seen much violence while Max had been gone. On top of that, although the store was slowly financially sinking, at least Alfonso had the place and obviously had food to eat. Max doubted everybody else in the world had it quite so good, especially after Alfonso had explained the overall situation.


    He filled up his cup with iced tea again and excused himself, leaving the restaurant. The moment he was back outside, Max felt an incredible wave of weariness wash over him. He probably could have cycled his mana or used a mental technique to fight through it, but he really didn''t want to. After the kind of day he just had, and after hearing about the state of the world from Alfonso, he just really wanted nothing else other than to sleep at this point. Maybe when he woke up, he''d have a better idea of what to do, or everything he learned wouldn''t be so dismaying.


    The Trifecta guild is almost in ruins, he thought, and shook his head sadly. "Jackals and thieves are truly in every world."


    He sighed and decided that was something he could deal with tomorrow. In fact, because of how monster incursions, portals, and the like worked, he would have to travel to a different city tomorrow just to find his friends. He didn''t have any money and highly doubted that sweet-talking somebody at the front desk of a hotel would work unless the hotel was completely bombed out or something, but he really didn''t want to be hit with more grim realities after newly returning to his world.


    For the first time in his life on Earth, Max found himself a quiet alley that was under an overhang, relatively clean and dry, and just curled up to go to sleep. He barely remembered to politely ask his spirits to watch over him while he was sleeping before he went out. The last thing he heard was Lavinia''s voice audibly say, "Don''t worry about it, Max. I''m sure everything will work out."


    He mumbled, "I sure as hell hope so." Then he was out.

 Book 3, ch 2

    Max was woken up by something tugging on his foot. His eyes flew open, and at the same time, he heard an urgent "Max" in his ear from Lavinia. His hand went to his sword, only to remember it wasn¡¯t there.  He grimaced and wondered why in the hell he hadn''t worn any weapons. Wearing one probably wouldn¡¯t have been a social gaff in this new world.   After all, it had been almost five years since the Earth had been attacked by monsters. He was sure that some of the challengers on the planet had to carry weapons on them.


    After jumping up, blood pumping, no attack came.  He was still fuzzy-headed, though.  With a simple effort of will, he sent a surge of mana through his body, instantly clearing his head and dissipating the fog in his mind. That''s when he realized that what had woken him up was when a running person, maybe a homeless person, had bumping into him while running past.  The man was all the way at the end of the alley now and turning a corner, not looking back.


    ¡°I saw that man running and wasn¡¯t sure what was happening.  I was ready to intervene with my spirits but it wasn¡¯t necessary.¡±


    A moment later, Max heard a crash and sounds of violence from a couple of streets over.  If he had to make a bet, he''d bet that the man had been running from whatever was making all the noise.


    ¡°What''s going on over there, Lavinia?" he asked.


    "One moment," she replied. About half a minute later, Lavinia said, "A portal has manifested.  It looks like monsters are coming out of it to establish a beachhead.  It must be new but they¡¯ve already done a lot of damage."


    "Got it," said Max. He mentally imagined the streets between him and where the sound was coming from.  ¡°Damn.¡±  While not perfectly in the way, Alfonso''s restaurant was nearby. Any man who makes good food and is willing to spot a stranger didn''t deserve to have his business destroyed by monsters.


    He took a few quick steps, and Lavinia asked, "Are you getting involved?"


    "Sure am," said Max.


    The ghost girl paused before she briefly appeared visually, nodded, and said, "Got it."


    "What kind of monsters are we working with?"


    "Golems."


    "Oh, shit. I hate golems," Max paused and frowned. "On that note, maybe I shouldn''t just run out there without taking a second to get my sword.  Beads might do the trick, but destroying more shit than the monsters wouldn¡¯t be a good look.¡±


    He reached into his pocket and withdrew a bone bead. "Are you ready, Saliron?" he asked. The spirit mentally pinged his readiness, but Max got the impression that Saliron was completely focused on the bone bead, barely paying attention to Max''s words at all.


    A few moments later, he''d opened the portal to his storage space and withdrawn Blackmist Incident. He put the miniaturized sword on his hip, closed the portal, and strode forward. When he exited the alley, he saw another handful of people running by, panicked, escaping the sounds of violence. Max turned in the direction they''d come from, rounded one more corner, and found himself in the middle of a small war zone.


    Each golem stood nine feet tall, and although they didn''t move very quickly, they were monstrously powerful. Max saw one casually pick up a car and shove it into the front of a building. The flickering portal was further down the street, and it looked like not many golems had left so far. He wondered what the odds were of a portal popping up right near where he had returned to Earth and decided that was something he could think about later. He didn''t have the time right now.


    Max sprinted forward directly at the nearest golem. It didn''t become aware of his presence until he was almost on top of it. Golems were tough, but now Max was a three-star mana body Blade Sorcerer. On top of that, it felt absolutely wonderful to be back in a world as full of mana as the Earth was now. It felt like every breath he took, he was breathing in oceans of mana. Blade Sorcerers didn''t exactly channel mana from the atmosphere like some other Paths did, but it definitely didn''t hurt to have mana around.


    And it also helped that Max was intimately familiar with how to deal with golems.


    The low level golem, a big clay construct, took a swing at him.  In a flash, Max decided how to deal with the situation and decided to stretch his muscles a bit.  Max dropped to one knee, engaging a Slick slide beneath the huge arm. He spun on the other side, used his mana senses to pinpoint where the golem''s core was, and then, in one smooth motion, drew Blackmist Incident, enlarged the blade, and cleaved into the golem.  The blow cleanly shattered the core. Then he kicked forward off of the construct''s back, turning his forward motion into a front handspring that transitioned into a sprint at the next golem.


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    When he reached his second enemy, the fight went almost like the first.  The second golem¡¯s core was shattered at the same time as he heard the first golem¡¯s body falling to pieces to the asphalt behind him.


    And this time, Max decided to use the fight as a way to test some of his new abilities. The third golem would be his test subject.  Max let the monster lumber towards him.  The golem was painfully slow to his eyes, and he had to remind himself it was moving as fast as most adult humans could run.


    He channeled mana into Black Mist Incident, but also, with an effort of will as he gritted his teeth, he manifested a bit of the concept of disruption, courtesy of Dura. Black sparks trailed from Black Mist Incident as it arced forward in a collision course with the golem''s descending arm. When the weapon made contact, it didn''t cut; instead, the golem''s arm was blown off in a spray of clay and sand. Max blinked in surprise; his strike hadn''t even been that powerful. The mechanics of his slash had been awkward, too.  He''d been ducking just in case the strike had been ineffective.


    Max spun and took a swing at the golem''s leg next. The power of disruption was still manifested, so his strike almost removed the trunk-like limb.


    Now Max was seriously impressed.


    The golem legless staggered and began to fall over.  The power of disruption had almost slipped from Max¡¯s grasp anyway, so he let it go.  Then, concentrating on his blade for maximum cutting power, he located the golem''s core¨Cin its hip this time¨Cand destroyed it in one smooth, precise strike. This golem froze and began to fall apart like the first two.


    Max darted forward and destroyed the last two golems on the street the same way he had the three before. The portal was about thirty yards ahead of him. It was reasonable to expect that with a portal popping up in the middle of a small city like this, authorities or other Challengers would have been called. Max was tempted to jump in the portal, but he restrained himself. None of his friends on Earth knew that he was back yet.


    If he hadn''t heard about the problems the Trifecta Guild was having, he wouldn''t feel a need to be cautious. However, it could be that an element of surprise would be powerful depending on how future situations shook out. He was fairly certain that he would be able to solo whatever dungeon these third-rate golems had come out of.  Doing so would definitely get a lot of attention, though.


    He tsked and went to each golem body, collecting the crystals that had dropped from their shattered cores. As he waited to verify that no more golems would come out of the portal, he pocketed all of the loot. Then, sure enough, about ten minutes later, a group of people sped to the scene in a couple of blacked-out, expensive-looking SUVs. When they got out, Max counted seven of them. They glanced at the pile of sandy debris, all that was left of the golems, and stared at Max. He stared right back.


    "Did you do this?" one of them asked, a middle-aged woman.


    "Sure did. It¡¯s been a while,¡± Max replied.  He gave the destroyed surroundings a significant look.  ¡°Nice of you guys to finally show up.¡±


    All of the new group scowled, and Max took the opportunity to examine them. At first, he thought that none of them matched, uniform-wise, but when he looked more closely, they all had on some similar colored equipment that united them as a team.


    "Who are you?" demanded the middle-aged woman.


    "My name''s Max," he said. "I just returned to Earth from the Quartet hours ago. What about you all?"


    "Oh, he''s a new Returner," said one of the men in the group, a tall, thin guy with spiky hair. Some of the others nodded at that, and much of the hostility they''d been radiating evaporated.  "We are with the Dark Lancer''s Guild. We got the call that there was a portal break here, and we came as quick as we could.


    ¡°Took a while,¡± grumbled Max.


    ¡°Yeah, whatever,¡± shot back the middle aged woman.  ¡°This was faster than police used to be a few years ago before monsters came.  Also, this area is portal-prone, so it''s mostly uninhabited now. The majority of people who still live here are hardliners, stubborn people that won''t give up their businesses or their homes. Also, it''s not a real nice way to say it, but there are other places that are much higher priority for us to get to. Places with more people and importance.  Challengers who are responding to portal breaks in this area are just slower to get here sometimes."


    "Oh," said Max. He turned to look behind him at the portal. "So are you guys going to deal with this thing now?"


    "Right now?  Hell no," said another one of the men, a middle-aged guy with dark skin. He shook his head. "It''s way too dangerous to just jump into an unknown portal. No, the way these things usually work is we secure the area, have a specialized team come in to evaluate the portal beyond, and then based on what they say, the our guild leaders or the National Guild Suppression Agency will decide what sort of group will take it.  Either way, the rights might be handed out after a bid."


    Max blinked, trying to make sense of everything he''d just heard. Very slowly, he said, "If I''m understanding this correctly, you''re telling me that dealing with dungeons has basically become corporate."


    Another one of the Dark Lancers, a young woman with sandy hair, made an awkward face. "I guess that''s kind of true," she agreed.


    Max frowned. "I see. Well, I don''t think there''s anything more for me to do here then. Unless somebody''s going to try to take away the stuff I got from killing these golems."


    "After the rubble, I thought it was clay men.  They were golems?" said the middle-aged woman in surprise.


    Max nodded and folded his arms. He noted where they were looking as they examined him.  He got the impression none of them recognized the miniaturized Black Mist Incident on his waist as a serious weapon.


    "Well, if you could deal with golems by yourself, it''s probably even more important that you go to an office for the National Portal Suppression Agency and get your Challenger identification," she suggested.


    Max had no idea what any of that meant, but he could decipher some of it through context, so he merely nodded. "Alright, thanks for the knowledge," he said. "Sorry if I messed up any of the SOP with how these things are dealt with now. But I saw a bunch of scared people running away from monsters and figured that, you know, I should kill the monsters. Not wait on paperwork first."


    A few of the Dark Lancers frowned at Max''s words and tone, but the middle-aged woman merely nodded. "I can imagine how some of this would look after you just got back. But trust me, it''s what''s working for right now. With what you just picked up, if you go directly to one of the branch offices for the Agency, or even any guilds, you should be able to exchange it for money. I''m sorry that you had to deal with this kind of stuff right after getting back from the Quartet, but trust me, this area is not what the entire world looks like right now." She gave him a half-hearted smile. "We already told you that we''re the Dark Lancers. I''m the leader of this group. My name''s Nancy Smith. If you see me around, say hi."


    "Alright. Thanks," said Max. Then he turned and walked away, rounding a corner until he found the shawarma restaurant. The restaurant had an apartment upstairs and he was hoping for someone to be inside.  He knocked on the window, and sure enough, Alfonso was there. The man was wearing his pajamas, looking absolutely terrified. He opened the door for Max and whispered, "I saw some of it. You dealt with the monsters. You are not weak at all!"


    "Thanks for the vote of confidence," said Max. "I''m kind of done with sleeping in alleys. Do you mind if I crash on the floor?"


    "Absolutely, go ahead!" said Alfonso. He shook Max''s hand. "I''m so glad that I gave you food. By the time those other Challengers had gotten here, my restaurant might have been destroyed. Thank you!"


    "Anytime," said Max. "But if you really want to thank me, in the morning before I leave, let me have a little bit more shawarma."

 Book 3, ch 3

    When he woke up in the morning, Max did his best to clean himself in the bathroom of the restaurant. There was no way he could intrude further or ask for a shower.  As it turns out, a shower was offered, but Max turned it down.  He bid goodbye at the door to a somewhat emotional Alfonso. Then outside in the daylight, the first thing he noticed was the caution tape and the off-limits area around the distant portal. The people guarding it looked like security or police officers. He didn''t peg them as Challengers like himself.


    So that''s what mundane security does in a magical world with monsters, he thought. Then he walked in the opposite direction for a while, just getting the lay of the land.


    It turned out that the Dark Lancers had not lied to him. Most of the area looked abandoned. Since nobody was using the buildings anyway, and Max needed some privacy to think, he helped himself to an abandoned apartment above a boutique store. He easily unlocked the door with the help of Lavinia¡¯s spirits and scoped the place out before taking a seat on the dusty couch. If he found any other people in what otherwise looked like an empty apartment, he was going to apologize and leave. After all, it''s not like there weren''t others to take.


    "Okay, everyone, we need to have a talk," he said. Then, visually, all of his spirits manifested: Lavinia, Saliron, Slick, and Shrill. Slick and Shrill stood together on the coffee table in front of him. Saliron lurked in the corner at the rear of the room, and Lavinia paced for a few seconds before sitting on the coffee table opposite Max.


    "Okay, gang, here''s what''s on my mind," he said. "You all heard when the weird dagger talked to me yesterday. I haven''t tried to talk to it again since, but if it was telling the truth, then the implications are pretty amazing, disturbing, and mind-blowing.


    ¡°Divine remnants.  Did any of you know about this?¡±  None of his spirits spoke so he continued.  ¡°The fact remnants exist was definitely expunged from all the Summoner Academy records, much less remnants of gods. But speaking of daggers, I also need to find out what all the daggers that I am in possession of now actually do. My understanding is that the white one sends a person from the Quartet back to their planet.


    "However, all of this is based on second-hand information and assumptions. The fact is, I don''t really know one hundred percent for sure if the white daggers do what I believe they do. It''s possible that after I killed Gantry, Lance, and Momo back in the Quartet, they just died there and eventually respawned the same way I had before. So, pretty high on my priority list is verifying that the white dagger did what I thought it did."


    "How are you going to do that?" asked Lavinia.  Slick also stood and made a questioning arm motion..


    "Simple," said Max. "Lance is from Earth, too, so if the white dagger worked on him and if I didn''t get here before him, he should be on Earth right now."


    "That''s a lot of ''ifs'' and ''shoulds''," said Lavinia. She paused to consider, "But it''s true, and that would answer your question."


    Max nodded. "Yeah, not only that, even though I don''t know the rules of when people get back to their worlds, and even though there supposedly aren''t any rules, I have a feeling that Lance got here before me."


    "Why?" asked Lavinia.


    "Because he''s so much weaker than me. According to everything I read in the library back in the Quartet, it''s much more common for weaker Summoners to appear back on their worlds before the more powerful Summoners. I''m here almost five years after the initial attack. I bet it would have been longer if I had achieved a more advanced mana body."


    "But you don''t know that," said Lavinia.


    "That''s true," conceded Max. "I don''t know that for sure. All I can do is guess. But since I need information, I''m going to approach all this by guessing and then either verifying or disproving my assumptions."


    "Very wise, Contractor," said Saliron from the corner.  Then there was a snap as one of the bones that Max had placed on the floor in a plastic bag before calling out his spirts was shattered.


    "I''m glad he''s feeling better now," said Lavinia conversationally.


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    Max whipped his head up to regard the impassive, dark specter in the corner.  "He was feeling bad? He didn''t say anything to me."


    "Oh, he hasn¡¯t said much about it," said Lavinia, "but he''s been skulking ever since your fight with the golems.¡±


    ¡°Why?!¡±


    Probably because there were no bones to break, and his powers ended up kind of useless in that fight."


    "My powers are never useless," denied Salirin. "I empower and strengthen the contractor''s bones."


    Max was tempted to play peacekeeper and tell the spirit that he was right, that Max was always thankful for the dark spirit''s help, but he decided not to. Now that he''d been living with all of his spirits in his head for a while, he knew that this was not the correct course of action to take with Saliron. Instead, he said, "I am sure that the next enemy will have many bones for you to break and devour."


    "Oh yes, such sweet words," drawled Salirin. "I will look forward to it."


    Lavinia rolled her eyes and asked, "So what about the National Portal Suppression Agency, or whatever it was called?"


    "I think that was the name, yes" said Max. He drummed his fingers on one knee and slowly said, "Going to get tested at the Agency, getting my credentials as a Challenger might be able to solve two birds with one stone. At least, I can think of two problems it may solve.  However, we''re back on Earth now, not in the Quartet. And a three-star mana body isn''t bad, but I''ll be a lot more comfortable dealing with anything that comes my way if I''m at least a four-star mana body. Now that I''m back on Earth and surrounded by this much mana, it should go a lot faster."


    "So are you going to delay going to the Agency?" asked Lavinia.


    "I''m still not sure yet," admitted Max. "Part of it kind of depends on whether I can get stronger or get any loot from closing portals on my own. According to Alfonso and the newspaper I read this morning, in North America, Canada is basically a no man''s land. So maybe if I ever need to kill a bunch of monsters, I can head north. It¡¯s just an idea right now."


    Lavinia nodded at that. "It sounds like there are a few areas on your world that have been heavily settled by monsters and effectively became their territory."


    "That''s what it sounds like," agreed Max. "If the Trifecta Guild were strong and I could just head there and see Chad, all these decisions would be a lot easier, but I don''t know what the hell is going on right now.  I need information more than anything. But I think I also need more power, and I really don''t need anybody''s help to get it now that we''re back on Earth."


    "You need money," pointed out Lavinia. Trill and Slick both nodded emphatically at that.


    Max gave little Trill a strange look. Just like Slick, she didn''t talk much, and he was starting to suspect that she was an odd one too. When he first met Lavinia, he never would have thought that she would end up being his least eccentric spirit.


    ¡°There¡¯s also the issue of summoning Gantry and Momo,¡± said Max.  ¡°If they got to their world earlier than I got here, who knows how long it¡¯s been?  So I need to first figure out if they¡¯re even back from the Quartet, then figure out how to get them here.  I don¡¯t even have a complete plan yet, but I suspect it will take a hell of a lot of power.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s putting it mildly,¡± said Lavinia.


    Max thoughtfully tapped his fingertips on one arm as he pondered his next move. Then he said, "I think that I''m going to head towards the big city, the one Trifecta is actually based out of, but I''m going to take my time heading there. Maybe if I work hard, I can hit a four-star mana body before arriving.  Then I think that while I''m there, I will take the test with the Agency and get officially recognized as a Returner and a Challenger.  But before that, I definitely do need to talk to somebody who can answer my questions, so I probably need to find another Challenger. Regular people won''t know all the ins and outs of the stuff Challengers need to know, I suspect.


    ¡°I need to find and visit my family, too.  Maybe I should try calling them today, especially my mom.¡±  Max made a face. "I also need to spend more time working with my abilities."


    "What do you mean?" asked Lavinia.


    "Well, using the power of disruption with a Blade Sorcerer attack earlier was both powerful but also unfocused. I am sure that I''m not using it to its utmost potential, but I also need to figure out how I can pair that concept with all of your powers. After all, it was borrowing Trill''s power that allowed me to kill Adjudicator Swan."


    Trill had been seated again, and the little spirit stood and took a bow to an imaginary audience. Max smiled in spite of himself.


    "What are you going to do for money?" asked Lavinia.


    "That''s a good question," said Max, "but I don''t even know what kind of money anybody''s using right now. Maybe still dollars?  At the end of the day, I am superhuman, so if I can set my morals aside for a little bit, it shouldn''t be too difficult to get at least a few hundred bucks. But, I also suspect that, like every other market hat has ever existed in the world, there is probably an unofficial way to sell them if there¡¯s enough demand in the official channels."


    "You mean like a black market?" asked Lavinia.


    "Something like that," said Max, "but it probably doesn''t even need to be that cloak-and-dagger. I mean, think about it, if there''s a group of Challengers that goes into a portal and closes it, if they could buy monster parts for half the going rate from somebody else on their way to the Agency, they''d be able to make quite a bit of profit with no extra risk. I don''t care how long it''s been since the first portal attacks, and I don''t care what kind of technology humanity has right now, I would bet everything I own that there''s no way for the Agency or the guilds to truly know for a fact what happens inside the portals."


    Lavinia nodded slowly. "I suppose that''s true. But you haven¡¯t answered the question.  What are you going to do now?"


    "First, I think I need to secure some transportation.¡±


    ¡°Didn''t Alfonso say that a whole bunch of cars have been scrapped or scavenged to make war machines or other alien tech?"


    Max nodded. "Yeah, but I bet bicycles are still around and still work."


    "Bicycles?" asked Lavinia in disbelief. "Can''t you just run that fast?"


    "Faster," said Max. "But I don''t feel like it. And not only that, if my goal is to stay under the radar until I meet up with my friends again.  Running around in a flashy way everywhere is probably not a good way to do it."


    "Oh yeah, right."


    "So the first thing I''m going to do," said Max, "is get a bicycle and then find somewhere or someone who can fill in the gaps about the world and what the hell is going on." He stood up. "All right, everybody. Back in the soul."


    All of his spirits disappeared from his eyesight, and he felt a fullness that he otherwise couldn''t explain in words. He talked a big game to Lavinia and the rest of his spirits, but he knew that the reality was, in order to get another Challenger to help him that was actually accurate and trustworthy, if he remained an unknown, it might cost a little bit of money. Maybe more than he could generate just selling a few golem parts.   And that meant he was going to keep his eyes out for a way to make some money as one of his higher priorities as well.

 Past Life Hero 2 is live on Amazon!

    As you can see, the book is live.


    Here is the blurb:


    Reclaiming some Blade Sorcerer power from his past life, and also training in a new style of magic, bonding with and utilizing spirits, has led to some very interesting synergies. He¡¯d even managed to make some unlikely friends.


    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    However, overshadowing everything is the very real fact that while students in the Quartet train, their home worlds suffer. This includes Max. Earth is still in danger, still desperately needing its Challengers to return.


    Unfortunately, the more Max has learned about the Quartet system, the more rot he has discovered. And certain individuals in his Quartet already scheme against him.


    But Max is playing a different game than everyone else. He will also learn a few very dangerous secrets. Also, an unprecedented opportunity to return to Earth for a quick visit may yield some interesting opportunities as well.


    But with new opportunities comes new dangers, new enemies. Maintaining his freedom while following the rules will become even more difficult, and the Quartet is still the best place for Max to continue growing in power.


    ¡­Right?

 Book 3, ch 4

    Finding a bicycle turned out to be easy enough. Max went to an apartment complex and scoped out some of the abandoned rooms. His reasoning was that after the area had been abandoned, any bikes left outside were probably already taken or needed work to get working again.


    He wasn''t expecting to find what he was looking for so quickly but likely got lucky due to focusing his search on first-floor apartments. The apartment complex he was at, Shady Oaks Community Lane, was relatively close to a college, which had also raised the possibility of finding a bicycle inside one of the units.


    The bike he found was actually a pretty good one. After all this time, the tires weren''t ready to go anymore, but luckily none of the rubber treads had rotted.


    Judging from the state of the apartment itself and especially the inside of the units, it looked like these buildings had been empty for around three years, best max could judge. It was long enough for a lot of stuff to age out of usefulness, but not everything. He¡¯d gone through a decent number of units before finding the bike and poked around.


    He¡¯d looked for anything he wanted to take and found a few handy things. It looked like most of the units had been opened and ransacked over the years, but not all of them. And based on what he could observe, it looked like most of the looters had only been looking for valuables or maybe food. Probably also weapons. A surprising number of useful items had been left behind, like lighters, pots and pans, even camping goods. It made Max feel like he was treading a moral gray area by effectively stealing the stuff he had gathered, but after a few years of abandonment, and with this area basically being off-limits to most people anymore, he figured it was fair game.


    Either way, he still opened a portal using a bead and threw in several armfuls of stuff. After finding the bike, it was a good point to leave, too. There was a limit to the kinds of things he could probably find in an abandoned apartment near a university. It was why he¡¯d taken his time to search, and why he never asked Lavinia¡¯s spirits to search for him.


    Walking among the ghosts of other people¡¯s abandoned lives had almost helped affirmed Max¡¯s humanity, at least in some strange way.


    It didn''t take him long to switch out the inner tubes of the tires with spare tubes he found stored next to where the bicycle had been hung against the wall. There was a little hand pump to inflate the tires that he put to good use and then threw in the backpack that he found in another unit. It sat on top of the golem parts he¡¯d moved into it.


    Once his new bike was fixed, Max took one last look around before setting off on the first leg of his journey to reunite with his friends. On the way out of what had been his home city, he rode back through the area near where Alfonso''s restaurant was located. Now that he had a better understanding of the situation, Max truly felt bad for the man and he also understood why Alfonso was staying.


    Seeing it all in the fading daylight, Max noticed several buildings, including Alfonso''s, that had solar panels rigged up in a smaller grid for people who had stayed behind. For somebody like Alfonso, living in a restaurant with large freezers, it actually made sense to stay in the condemned area of the city. As long as he didn''t get killed or his restaurant wasn''t destroyed, he¡¯d be able to live just by sourcing food. After all, Max highly doubted anybody who was still staying in this city was paying property taxes or rent anymore. This was all basically a squatter area now.


    Maybe Alfonso actually did a decent amount of business for being in an abandoned city. It was an interesting thing to think about.


    Max still planned to make good on his promise to Alfonso to promote his restaurant. He briefly wondered about shawarma again and keenly felt the absence of a smartphone. He still had not quite gotten used to not being able to look up any random knowledge he felt like. "Okay, added to the high priority list, get a new phone," he muttered to himself.


    At one point, Max rode his bike by the dojo he¡¯d fought a challenge match in before meeting Ethan and Chad. There were no cars on the street. The windows of the businesses had been broken out, whether by monsters or looters, he wasn¡¯t sure.


    Riding through the empty city was depressing. So depressing, in fact, that he almost didn''t return to his old apartment. His plan was to at least retrieve his guitar and maybe a few other items of sentimental value once he got there¡­if they were still there. However, when he arrived, he found that half the building had been burned down, including his old unit. There was no way to know when the destruction had occurred, or even whether it had been ransacked or looted before then. Zero effort had been made to restore the area, so it must have happened either right before or after the area had begun being evacuated.


    "Damn," he muttered.


    Lavinia softly said, "I''m sorry, Max."


    That''s right, he thought to himself. Lavinia has my memory, so she knows the significance of this building. Out loud, he said, "Thanks," and then began biking his way out of the city again, on a mission to find someone who could give him a crash course on the current state of the world.


    Expert or not, it was going to be a lot easier to look for a specific kind of person outside of a ghost town like this one.


    Max was about to take his bike onto the on-ramp towards a highway when he heard some commotion in the distance. Curious, he turned and headed towards the sounds that had gotten his attention. Even from this far away, it sounded like violence. Max rode down the side street past abandoned office buildings and textile companies until he passed a warehouse building on his left and saw what was happening. Four cars were parked in the parking lot haphazardly, two of them still with their engines running. And near one of the loading docks, seven men were beating another man as two others held onto a smaller young man who was crying out in anger, frustration, and fear.


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    "Stop! You''re going to kill him! Fuck! You fuckers already killed Antonio!"


    Max glanced over and, sure enough, there was a man lying in a pool of blood. At this point he was pretty sure it was a body. The man wasn¡¯t moving and the damage looked severe.


    He did another quick count to verify his numbers. That two men were holding the smaller guy who was yelling. Seven were taking turns chuckling and beating a man curled into a fetal position on the ground. Now Max could spot another man behind them all, holding a pistol nonchalantly in his hand as he smoked.


    ¡°Stop!¡± Screamed the restrained man. Tears of frustration ran down his cheeks. ¡°Just let us go. I won¡¯t say shit.¡±


    ¡°What a crying bitch,¡± said one of the attackers. He spit on the man who was getting kicked by one of his surrounding friends. ¡°His friend¡¯s getting killed and he just keeps running his mouth like a pussy.¡±


    ¡°Don''t worry," chuckled one of the men holding the restrained man. "You''ll get your turn after him, puta."


    Max was almost within spitting distance of one of the cars before any of them noticed he was there.


    The man with the gun turned and exclaimed, "Whoa, what the fuck? Who is this?" His gun came up, and he fixed Max with a steely gaze.


    This guy''s definitely pulled the trigger before, Max thought to himself. He stopped his bike, held his hands up, and got off his bike with a clatter. By now, all of the attackers had turned to stare at Max with open-mouthed astonishment.


    "Who the fuck is this guy?" said one of them.


    "Is he trying to stop us? Who does this asshole think he is? I didn''t know there were still Boy Scouts around here," said one, and a few of them laughed. The relatively undamaged victim didn''t say anything. He seemed to be warning Max away with his eyes. But at the same time, perhaps hoping for help.


    Max was living his second life and was not nearly naive enough to immediately assume that the guys getting a beatdown were saints. It was even possible they deserved what they were getting. For all he knew, they were drug-dealing child killers. It could be that everybody involved in this scene was equally awful. However, he knew what he was witnessing probably wasn''t right. Even though everyone involved looked similar and around the same age, there were a whole host of reasons he suspected that the larger group was probably harder, less moral. Some of it was just his gut.


    He was aware of his own hypocrisy. After all, he was willing to kill somebody in an extremely one-sided duel, or kill many in war. Even if he were to fight a group like this one, even by himself, the large power differential suggested that he was the same as this attacking group¨Cat least in some way. But the warrior in Max, the honorable part of him, couldn''t help but feel revulsion when he saw a group beating or attacking an otherwise helpless person. He doubted they¡¯d been given any kind of choice, or received any warning at all.


    "You guys are really tough," he drawled. "Let me guess, you all have been looking for these three guys. Some of you were patrolling or riding around and saw them, stopped them with a gun, called all your buddies in, and started having a good ol'' human pi?ata brotherhood bonding time, huh?"


    "Yo, was he watching?" one of the men started to say, but another elbowed him in the ribs.


    "Shut up, motherfucker, let George handle it."


    The man with the gun, presumably Geroge, relaxed his posture and indolently propped an elbow on top of the car¡¯s mirror. "I don''t know who you are, man, but you seem to have gone to the wrong place at the wrong time. School must have been out at Good Boy Ranch or something." Most of attacking men laughed, and their mirth was punctuated by an agonizing groan from the moving man on the ground. The other man in the pool of blood still hadn''t twitched.


    Max paused for a moment and gave all of the people involved a closer look. Now he could see that the three victims definitely had rougher and cheaper clothing than the men who were attacking them. He saw plenty of jewelry on George the car guy too. It didn''t take a genius to assume that this was some sort of criminal thing and that if Max hadn''t come along, all three of the victims would have likely been beaten to death and maybe not even found for weeks.


    Maybe monsters would spawn, eat the bodies, and they¡¯d never be found.


    Max sucked in air through his teeth, reminding himself that everybody involved might be a piece of shit, and none of this concerned him. However, if there was one thing he had learned in centuries of living, it was that people just surviving on the fringes of society often knew a surprising amount about the world around them. They did not have the luxury of ignoring what was going on or being ignorant of current events.


    Since he was here already, maybe he could cross out one of the items on his to-do list.


    "Hey guys," he pointed at the small man who was being restrained and only had a bloody nose so far. "How about I take that guy off your hands, ask him some questions for a while, and I''ll even give him back to you if you give me a good reason for why he should be beaten to death. But I''m kind of in a hurry, and I need to go find some of my friends. It¡¯s going to be a bit of a trip. You guys look busy, and you also don''t look like you''d be really keen on just having a chat, so I¡¯ll just leave you to do your thing instead of having a chat with any of you. Just that instead. How¡¯s that sound?"


    Absolute silence reigned in the parking lot other than the scrape of clothes against asphalt and the low moans of the man who had been in mid-beating when Max had shown up. One of the men, a guy in a flannel, blinked and said, ¡°Is he seriously crazy? Did he escape from a hospital?¡±


    George narrowed his eyes and began raising his weapon again. Max held up and empy palm and said, "Look, I¡¯m going to level with you. I know the most efficient thing would be for me to let you guys do something real stupid and then rip you all apart in self-defense. But I really don''t want to get blood on my clothes. They¡¯re nothing special and I just looted them from an apartment, but believe it or not, they¡¯re not too bad. Also, I''m really not here to play the hero right now or try to trick you. To be blunt, I''ve just got way more important shit to do. So let¡¯s just make a deal, yeah?"


    He held up a finger as he thought of something. "Actually, I just realized I¡¯m sorta making a lot of assumptions here. Let me confirm something. Hey, dude who''s being held, the guy they haven''t killed yet, did you guys do anything to deserve this?"


    "Hell no," the man yelled. He jerked his head at one of the the attackers. "That asshole''s ex-girlfriend started dating my friend, and they killed him for it! And they probably killed my other friend, and they''re going to do me next!"


    With a sudden snarl of pure hatred, he glared again at one of the men who''d been hitting his friend, one with a green bandana. "It wasn¡¯t our fault Homeboy here has a small dick and likes to hit women because he''s such a pussy and can''t get any respect with dudes. Can¡¯t fucking fight without all his piece of shit friends helping him, either. Real brave piece of shit."


    A predictable hail of punches landed on the man who''d just spoken.


    "Whoa, whoa, whoa," Max yelled. "Everybody needs to stop."


    However, the man in the green bandana who was yelling and punching didn''t stop, and now the man with the gun had his weapon fully trained on Max again.


    "You know what, buddy?" he asked. "I think we might just have to teach a fourth bitch who can¡¯t keep his mouth shut a lesson today."


    Max rolled his eyes. "Like I was saying, I''m not trying to live any cliches here. So your name is George, right? I''m going to tell you very bluntly that I''m a Returner, and I can absolutely rip you a new asshole whenever I feel like it. None of you guys can do shit to me. I''m going to say one more time¨Cvery clearly¨Cthat I want that guy that is currently getting hit to answer my questions. And if you don''t call your boy off of him on the count of three, I''m going to kill him, and then I''m going to kill all of you. Because I know you¡¯ll attack me after killing him, and I also know that once violence starts, leaving any of you alive would just probably cause more problems in the future."


    The men who were not actively hitting their prisoner either looked absolutely dumbfounded, even more so than before. Only one or two had the beginnings of a fear shadow. However, George, the leader with the pistol¨CMax noted it was a Glock¨Cgave Max a critical once-over. He looked at Max¡¯s shabby clothing, his dusty sneakers that he''d also liberated from one of the apartments he''d raided, and the age-stained backpack he was wearing. His gaze finally settled on the bicycle that Max had been riding.


    "A Returner? Yeah, sure you are. You just stay right there until we kill you. Unless you want me to shoot you first."


    "Is that your final answer?" Max said.


    "Yeah," the man smirked and spat. "I think it is."


    "All right," Max shrugged and then said, "Lavinia, armor please."

 Book 3, ch 5

    Almost instantly, ectoplasmic armor formed on Max, covering him from head to waist on the front of his body. Full coverage. Even though he was pretty sure his body was now pistol-bulletproof, even at a close range like this, taking any chances before he could attain a four star mana body would just be silly.


    As George, the leader, blinked in surprise and began shooting, Max flashed forward. He had been telling the truth about wanting to keep blood off his clothes. So instead of using Blackmist Incident, or punching, or actually ripping George apart, he merely grabbed George''s wrist in one steel-crushing grip, put his other hand against the man''s chest, walked him forward a few steps, and pushed him with all his strength through the car behind him.  The push launched the gang leader right through the window, his head slamming against the frame.  The trajectory made his head hit several solid parts of the car and his body actually snapped on of the seat back before it crashed through a second window.  The broken glass did some damage, but most of it was blunt force trauma.


    It turned out a human body speeding through a car at the speed of a past pitch baseball wasn¡¯t good for the person doing the  traveling.


    Max had managed to hang on to the Glock, which he dropped on the ground for now.  Then he surged forward, using all his inhuman speed to target the man who had been beating the standing victim.


    Similar to what he''d done with George, he spun the attacker and shoved him towards the loading dock of the nearby building. There was a sick crunch as the man''s head rebounded off a concrete corner near a loading gate.


    Max barely avoided getting hit by blood splatter.  He frowned in irritation.


    At this point, some of the other men rushed Max, even a couple of them opening up knives in their hands. Three ran away. Max wasn''t particularly worried about any of it. He directed Saliron to attach spirits to the bones of the three fleeing men, and then he very easily protected himself from the clumsy attacks of the five gang members trying to punch or stab him.


    "He''s got a fucking shield, man!" one of them yelled, fear underlying his voice.  He started running in the opposite direction as the first three. Saliron tagged him with a spirit too.


    Max conversationally said, "I don''t really enjoy this sort of thing. It feels a bit like seal clubbing. But if I have to kill you all anyway, I might as well get something out of it.  Training time, I guess." Then he slapped one of the men''s legs while instructing Saliron to use his bone-breaking power. Every inch of the man''s femur suddenly shattered, and he fell to the ground with a scream. Max moved on, destroying another attacker¡¯s leg bone before breaking one of his arms, jerking the knife out of his hand, and throwing it into another man¡¯s chest about ten feet away.


    Whether he was going to run away like the first four, now nobody would ever know.


    He he darted in, hammering aside a punch from the last attacker with his forearm so hard that he broke it without even using Saliron''s power. With an open palm, he slapped the man''s chest and tried calling on the power of disruption. This was a new attempt at using the mysterious power of disruption.


    What he had been attempting to do was rip the man''s insides apart, but his effort was a failure. Instead, he succeeded at stopping the man''s heart. The would-be murderer dropped like a stone.


    "Well, that''s interesting," Max sad. The remaining two men, both incapacitated on the ground, just screamed.


    Max idly plucked an explosive bead off his bracelet, judged the distance to the solo running man¨Cabout seventy yards¨Cand threw it at the man''s feet. There was a sudden concussion and a mist of blood¨Cit looked like the man had stepped on a landmine in the middle of the parking lot. He collapsed to the ground without even screaming. Max wasn''t sure if he was truly dead or just in shock. So he threw another bead to savage the runaway¡¯s upper body for good measure.


    The two men on the ground were screaming even louder now, staring at Max with wild, fear-stricken eyes. One of them held a knife, pointed at Max as if it were a magical talisman that would keep him away. Max turned to look at the only one the three of this group¡¯s victims that could still talk, where he was plastered against the wall, staring in wide-eyed horror.


    "Hey, small guy," said Max. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m talking to you."


    "Uh, yeah?¡± He swallowed.


    ¡°What''s your name?"


    "It''s Dan."


    "Okay, Danny. Here''s the deal. I need to go chase down three of them. Honestly, what those three did was probably the most rational thing to do, so it''s a shame that I need to go kill maybe the three smartest guys in this group of idiots.


    ¡°What to do about these two, though?¡±  He gestured at the two screaming men with shattered legs.  ¡°See, I still don''t want to get blood on my clothes, and I kind of don''t want to blow these guys up and waste my ammunition. Actually, they probably would have tried using it by now, but they don''t have guns, do they?"


    Dan shook his head. "No, they took them all off and left them in their cars when they started hitting us. Didn''t want any of us to get lucky and grab one."


    Max lifted his eyebrows. "Wow, that was a surprisingly smart thing for a group like this, huh?   Well, if you want, you can get one of those guns and kill these guys.¡±  Max noticed he¡¯d already killed the man in the green bandana who¡¯d been hitting Dan.  ¡°Or I suppose you could hop in one of the cars and just drive over them.¡±  He had a sudden thought.  ¡°Actually, I take that back."


    This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    Max looked at the man appraisingly. "Dan, I really do just want to ask you some questions, but I just realized you might do something stupid like try to run away. Because of that¨C¡±  His voice trailed off, and he pointed at the man. "I''ve just tagged you. There''s no way you can get it off. I will be able to find you and track you down to the ends of the earth. So you stay right there. You can kill these guys if you want. And definitely do so if they start pulling themselves towards the car. Actually, goddammit. If you let them get to the guns, they might kill you instead."


    He walked over to the Glock that had dropped on the ground in his struggle with George and picked it up. Then, from about fifteen yards away, he shot both screaming men twice, center mass. They stopped screaming. He approached the first of the undamaged cars and laid a hand on the hood. He was about to channel the power of disruption into the engine before realizing that if he did, he might be screwing himself over too. Riding the bicycle was fine, but driving would be a lot better, at least in the short term. These cars might be stolen, so he didn''t want to stay in one for very long, though.


    "Okay, Dan," he said, "I want you to listen to me very carefully." The bloody, battered man nodded his head. "Do not get in one of these cars and drive away. In fact, if you stay and make my life easier so I don''t have to track you down, I will even give you some money later today or tomorrow."


    "How much?" said Dan. And Max was quietly impressed by the sheer balls, or maybe just desperation.


    "Enough to set you up for at least a few months," said Max. He pointed at the backpack over his shoulder. "I got some stuff to sell to a Challenger, or adventuring guild."


    Dan¡¯s expression changed as he must have remembered that Max had just proved he was a Challenger, and then must have come to the conclusion that what Max was saying was very reasonably true.


    "All right," he said. "But can I call an ambulance for my friends?"


    "Yeah, of course. These assholes hitting you probably already fucked up your phones, so use a phone from one of the guys I just killed¡ªsorry if it''s a little bloody. Anyway, I gotta go track these runners down.  But first¡­"


    Max grimly walked to the man on the ground who hadn''t moved and gently but firmly put his fingers to his carotid artery, managing to do so without getting blood on his hand. He shook his head as he stood. "I''m pretty sure your friend is dead," he said.


    Dan responded, "I already knew that."


    "Sorry," said Max. ¡°I¡¯ll be right back.¡±  Then he turned and began walking away.


    Lavinia whispered, "Shouldn''t you have confirmed that before you started killing a bunch of vanilla humans?"


    "No," said Max quietly, "and I''m not sorry about that either. They stated their intentions to kill me pretty clearly. And even if they didn''t kill the guy who was down, he wouldn''t have been much longer for this world. You''ve got to remember where I come from, Lavinia. And I know that you were born on Albion, but still lived in a different time. And you never actually graduated from the Summoner Academy. I''m actually kind of glad about that. I don''t know if you ever killed anybody in the academy, but that was more like a game, there. Death wasn''t permanent there. And it might sound edgy or cringy for me to say this, but I''m glad you never had to get used stuff like this, like me." Lavinia didn''t respond and lapsed into silence.


    Then Max began running. He didn''t even need to run at full speed to catch each one of the three men before they¡¯d even made it back to the main road. He didn''t know what Dan and his friends had been doing so deep in an industrial complex, but he figured it had something to do with theft, and they hadn''t wanted to be seen. Their enemies hadn''t wanted to be seen either when they were beating them for whatever their perceived transgressions were.


    Once Max was done killing all of the remaining gang members, he returned to Dan. The man hadn''t moved from his place against the wall. Max unceremoniously picked up the Glock from where he had dropped it on the ground again and threw it in the back seat of the car¡ªone that was idling and wasn''t currently decorated with George''s blood and brains. He made sure it was unlocked and said, "Get in." Dan obeyed with jerky, stilted movements.


    Max looked at the man beside him.  "There''s not much else you can do for your friends at this point.  I take it you already called the authorities?"


    "Yeah.  But because of where we are, it might take a while for them to get here."


    "Well, did you call and tell them that ten people just got killed?"


    "Well, no. I said there had been a fight and my friends were down and needed medical help."


    Max rolled his eyes. "What''s the name of this area?" Dan told him, and then, after Max held out a hand, he gave him the acquired phone that he used. Max almost told Dan to get another phone for him, but he decided he could wait until he could properly buy one for himself.


    Then he unlocked the screen and rolled his eyes. "Dude didn''t have any kind of lock, and I bet his text messages are just all sorts of colorful evidence. Whatever." He called 911, and as soon as the operator answered, Max said, "Look, a whole bunch of people are dead, and if you fuckers don''t get out here, their bodies are going to start stinking. On top of that, there are some people down that could probably have their lives saved if you all would get off your asses and get out here slower than a terminal cancer patient on a unicycle. So go ahead, put this at the top of your queue because I know you can probably do that, or tell your officers to step on it. Oh yeah, and we''re located at¡ª" Max rattled off the information that Dan had just told him. When the operator on the other end tried to calmly and professionally keep him on the line, Max just said, "Hurry the fuck up, the bodies are getting cold," and then he hung up. He handed the phone to Dan.  "That''s how you do it. Now if they''re late, it''s not on us.  They¡¯re too fucked up for us to help with basic first aid, too."


    That¡¯s cold, said Lavinia in his head.


    I know.


    He eyed the bicycle before sighing in regret. Max had briefly thought about trying to bring it with them, but there was nowhere to actually put it  since it couldn''t fit in the car or the trunk. The bike had served him well. ¡°All that wasted effort to pump up the tires," he muttered, and then he drove.  It didn¡¯t take him long to get on the freeway. It was starting to get dark.


    "Where are we going?" said Dan.


    "Next city over, I guess," said Max. "That one''s not quarantined or off-limits, right?"


    "No," said Dan. He fidgeted. "I haven''t been there in a long time, though."


    "That''s fine. Like I said, we''re going to have a chat, and I''m going to help you out. And then, if you''re smart, you''re going to stay out of whatever bullshit just got one of your friends killed, one of them probably almost killed, and you almost killed, too. Because I believe you that the one dead asshole was using the excuse of the woman to kill you, but if it wasn''t them punching your ticket, it would have been something else."


    The two of them didn''t speak anymore as Max continued driving. He figured it wasn''t the greatest time to be interrogating the guy after seeing his friend beaten to death. And despite his harsh words, Max did feel some sympathy. After all, in his first life, his existence had been far more pitiful than Dan''s. But he didn''t want to show any kindness at all.  Someone like Dan was not likely to react to sympathy with any appreciation.


    Not only that, In this sort of situation, Max needed answers, not friendship. He hadn''t been bluffing about the tracking, either. He had already gotten back the spirits that Saliron put on the gang members, but there was one attached to Dan''s bones. So he''d be able to find him anytime, anywhere.


    It was night by the time Max got into the next city. He ditched the car, threw a couple of guns in his backpack, and tried handing one to Dan before the smaller man shook his head and held his palms outwards in the universal gesture of no.


    "All right, suit yourself," said Max. "I know it''s dark, but I think we still have about an hour until a lot of places close. I''m really sorry about everything that happened to you today, but now you need to work with me so that I can get some money so we can both get a hotel room."


    "Hotel room?" asked Dan.


    "Yes. You''re working. I told you I''d help you, and that''s true. But you''re working for me as a consultant for at least the next couple of days. And if you think about it, it''s probably good for your health if you do. Because the guys I killed might have friends that come after you. And if I''m around, they can''t do shit."


    Dan slowly nodded as a light of hope returned to his eyes. And not for the first time in his life, Max wondered if he was actually a good guy or just a bad guy with some decent goals.  In what had also become a habit after raising this subject with himself, he decided that if the end results were the same, and the overall outcome was good, it didn¡¯t matter.


    People who made history, people that others called ¡°heroes¡± were often pragmatic enough to get the job done and cut out the unnecessary parts.  They were remembered for the outcomes of their lives, their great deeds.  Meanwhile, the types who prioritized feelings or righteous ideals over unfortunate reality usually wound up dead.  People with good intentions and an unwillingness to get their hands dirty more often let the truly evil motherfuckers win.


    Dead people couldn¡¯t save anyone.  Giving bad people grace or the benefit of the doubt was like arming them with more information before having another chance to stab you in the back.


    Max¡¯s mood fell as he remembered how he¡¯d been betrayed and murdered in his first life.  Sometimes it was hard to tell who the bad people were, at least when they were close to you.  He reaffirmed his vow to pay better attention in this life to the people around him, not just to protect himself,but to better recognize those who were deserving of his loyalty.

 Book 3, ch 6

    Dan led Max downtown. Max wished for about the hundredth time for a smart phone. He¡¯d gotten used to the convenience of Earth technology. He also knew he had to call his mom. However, she¡¯d waited a few years, she could wait another day or two.


    He looked around at the part of the city they were at, a place that would have been fairly run down even before the world had changed. Now it looked¡­worse. "So, what are we looking for?"


    Dan replied, "Specifically, we''re looking for a pawn shop that''s really shitty-looking but also has some muscle standing around. It should have security systems better than what you might expect at a rundown pawn shop. Or, I don''t know, I''ll know it when I see it."


    Max nodded, and the two of them walked in silence for a while until Dan pointed at a pawn shop next to a strip club across the street. "I think that one will work.¡±.


    "All right, let''s check it out." The two of them crossed the street and approached the pawn shop. Max noticed a beefy guy standing in the shop, just loitering, and also sensed the energy of someone else who was hidden. They weren''t strong enough for him to worry about, and they weren''t doing anything antagonistic or violent, so he ignored it.


    Inside the shop, it was truly a dive. He had seen a few security cameras outside. The level and cost of the security definitely didn''t match what it was supposedly actually selling¨Cmostly just old rusted tools and some ancient-looking cordless tool batteries. The woman at the counter was not smiling or making much of any expression. She had a half-eaten bowl of macaroni in front of her.


    "Hi," said Max. He sidled up closer to the counter and quietly said, "I have something special to sell. Something that you can only get in dungeons or from monsters."


    The woman''s expression didn''t change, and she just looked him up and down. "Prove it," she spat.


    Max took a small piece of magic-infused rock from his backpack and set it on the counter. The woman became very still for a while before she slowly nodded. "You are lucky today.¡±


    "How so?" .


    "Well, I''m not always in the market for merchandise like this. There has to be a demand for it. I need to have the money to pay for it, and it needs to be at a time and place where my ''spidey senses'' aren''t tingling about narcs or cops or worse¡­Agency employees. Guild, too."


    "Oh really?" said Max. "And what makes you think that I''m not a guild or Agency employee?"


    She laughed. "It''s super obvious to people that deal with guildies and the fringes of society. Trust me, I know. Besides, you look like shit. There¡¯s no way an Agency employee would come in here looking like that. Even the undercover types have polished shoes."


    Max eyeballed the two men loitering around the store. Another had appeared. He watched their body language carefully. Neither seemed to be spoiling for a fight or ready to attack, so he relaxed minutely.


    "So let me level with you," he said. "I am a newly returned Challenger. A Returner, I guess. I happened to kill some monsters on the way here, and I''m trying to get some cash so I can start my life. You might be wondering why I''m telling you this, since I''m basically letting you know I don''t know anything right now, including what the stuff on the counter is worth." He pointed a finger at Dan. "And you might be wondering who he is too. No need to wonder. Instead, I will give you a very simple reason why I just told you my life story."


    He noticed the woman''s eyes narrowing slightly as she focused on what he was saying, and Max continued, "You don''t know what power level I am. I just got back, and on top of that, I suspect that the way people categorize monsters, the golems I killed for these rocks were not low-ranking. So I''m going to leave it up to you to decide how much money you can make off of this without me later realize that I got mega-screwed."


    "What happens if you decide you got screwed?"


    He smiled without humor. "Well, I know where this building is. But if you help me, hell, I might even have a warm place in my heart for this pawn shop for the rest of my life. In fact, I might even return to do a lot more business." He left it at that.


    The woman narrowed her eyes at him further. The creases and her expression didnt do anything for her looks, but even upon this first meeting, Max knew she wouldn¡¯t care at all. After a few more moments of silently thinking, she quoted him a figure that sounded right¨Cabout twice what an average mortgage would be. To one side, Dan gave an almost imperceptible nod.


    "Sounds good," said Max. "I''ll take it."


    Stolen novel; please report.


    "Good. It was a slow day until you came in," said the woman. "This was a good deal, and I''m glad you stopped by, but I don''t hope you take offense when I say that I also hope I never see you again."


    "Why is that?" asked Max, genuinely curious.


    "There''s something about you that makes me nervous as hell."


    The men around the store, the barely disguised muscle, perked up at her words. Max ran a gaze over all of them. They went back to pretending to inspect the barely functional cordless drill batteries.


    Max didn''t say anything further. He pocketed the money that the woman put on the counter without counting it and left the store with Dan in tow.


    ***


    About a half mile from the pawn shop, Max was getting closer to a hotel in the distance, the one he¡¯d chosen to stay at for the night. He pulled the money out of his pocket and examined it under a street light. "So this is the new currency, huh?"


    "Yep, that''s it," said Dan.


    Max thought the new dollar bills looked like fake money used in a game¨Cfunny money. Dan had given him a heads up about the new money before going to the pawn shop. Now, each bill had fine amounts of gold interwoven into the fibers, making each one valuable on its own and much harder to fake. Production of this replacement currency, similar with variations for every country around the world, had been sped up through the help of Challengers that had powers that enhanced production. They were even able to convert old dollars into this new currency, given enough gold to implant it with.


    While Max had talked to Dan about the subject, he''d learned that in the first year, after the initial monster attacks, and when the world was struggling to get back on its feet, the United States had issued a recall for physical dollars. Trading the old dollars in at government centers hadn''t resulted in much of the new currency, also called dollars, but people had gotten some cash in return.


    People had still gone in droves to trade their money in, not least of which because some banks had just imploded with all the loss of life, and the old currency had ceased being relevant almost immediately.


    The first few months had been rough. Money hadn¡¯t had any value at all¨Cjust food, weapons, and other items needed for survival.


    Max regarded the strangely heavy paper bills and frowned. "There''s other currency than this though, right?" he asked.


    "What do you mean?"


    He pointed at the small collection of bills in his hand. "This is definitely enough for me to do what I need to do tonight, but if we''re talking about buying artifacts, or buildings, or things that actually cost a ton of money, how do people handle that?"


    "Oh, now I know what you mean. Banks are affiliated with most of the large Challenger guilds.¡±


    ¡°And that''s not a conflict of interest?"


    "Well, some might think it is, and plenty of people have been petitioning for more power to be given to more banks to open that aren¡¯t directly connected to Challengers, but the truth is, I think the world is still figuring out how in the hell to function."


    "I can imagine," said Max, "like police, right?"


    "Yes, like police," said Dan. "The average cop with a gun can only stop maybe half of the Challengers that are back, and some of the most powerful would require an entire army to take down. So when people have that kind of power, how do you make them follow the law?"


    "I''m guessing you don''t," said Max.


    Dan laughed nervously. "People talk about how it''s a good thing that the most powerful Challengers can make the most money and have the best lives by not murdering everybody around them¡­otherwise we''d be in real trouble. Like¡­we thought the monsters were bad. Imagine if one of the strongest Challengers just went just and took out a city."


    "I''m sure other Challengers wouldn¡¯t just sit around and watch it happen. I¡¯m guessing that¡¯s what happens with all the crime that Challengers do. Maybe others are told about it from the cops.¡±


    Dan gave him a searching look. "That¡¯s true, but did you really not know any of this stuff before you killed, you know, everybody in the parking lot?"


    ¡°Not really, but I could intuit most of it. Not only that, I was legitimately being threatened so I¡¯m pretty confident about the fact I acted in self defense.¡±


    "Well, like I said, you were right. If somebody acts up, like really bad, Challengers team up to take them down. But they''re busy enough and all in cahoots with each other, so somebody has to do something really bad; otherwise, the main thing stopping them from being assholes, at least publicly, are all of the business deals they''ll lose."


    "Business deals?" Max facepalmed. "Please don''t tell me that a bunch of Challengers are influencers now."


    "You guessed it, man! Challengers are the new celebrities. Some of the old school celebrities have been marrying, or at least dating some of the powerful Challengers around the world. People joke on the internet that fame used tobe highest at movie stats, but the new elvels are like, Challenger, movie star, rock star, and then everybody else. Maybe politicians are last?


    ¡°Politicians still have power?" Max asked.


    "Yeah, at least some do. It kind of depends on the country. But some Challengers are still patriotic and signed contracts with their country to officially work for them, usually for a while."


    Max was impressed but slightly suspicious too. He''d deliberately chosen somebody who would likely be able to tell him about the lay of the land, but he was becoming surprised by how much Dan actually knew.


    "How do you know all this stuff?"


    "Didn''t I tell you? Challengers are influencers now. You can''t get on the internet without seeing Challengers everywhere, and some of them love to talk about themselves."


    "Great," sighed Max. He was about to walk in the front door of the lobby to the chain hotel he''d selected. "I''m about to get us both a room. I''ll comp you a meal for the night too. If you run away, you don''t get your money. And if you run away and try to find somebody to find me, I will find you."


    Dan held his hands up in surrender. "I get it. I get it. You''re very scary. I saw it, remember? I''m going to hit the bathroom. I''ll go to the room you get. But don''t blame me if I get shit-faced tonight after I just watched two of my friends probably die."


    His veneer of being calm and in control cracked for a second, and Max saw the grief underneath. "Do whatever you gotta do, man," he said.


    As Dan walked off to the clearly labeled restroom on one side of the reception area, Max attempted to pay for two rooms with cash. Since the hotel was a chain, apparently they still demanded ID before renting a room out.


    "Shit," he cursed under his breath. Not having an ID was seriously becoming a pain in the ass. He moved ¡°getting a new ID¡± to the top of his to-do list. Eventually, he''d have to get another driver''s license, too, since his was probably space dust somewhere in the universe by now. Getting a Challenger card would probably be the quickest way to solve most of his immediate identity problems. He wished he didn''t have to wait an entire night before going to do so.


    When Dan came out of the bathroom, they had an awkward exchange where Dan had to use his ID in order to get the rooms for the both of them. Luckily, that man had one of his own, even after everything he¡¯d been through.


    Upstairs, on the floor with their rooms, Dan disappeared behind his door and didn''t come back out at any point to eat, at least not that Max knew of.


    For himself, he didn''t need to sleep much. So with Lavinia invisibly looking over his shoulder, Max went to the complimentary office area of the hotel and did his best to look everything up on the internet that he could think of, everything that was important, before heading to bed after midnight.


    Before he went to sleep, he sat on his bed and said out loud, "I can''t believe what that bastard Lance did."


    He was frowning, but a smile kept trying to tug on one side of his lips.


    "He certainly is a character," Lavinia agreed out loud. ¡°At least now you know he already made it back to Earth.¡±


    Max snorted, laid down, and was immediately asleep.

 Book 3, ch 7

    When he woke up, it took him a moment to remember where he was. The problem was solved after he ran mana through his body, instantly waking him up again. Even so, he stayed in bed for a few minutes, just staring at the ceiling, mentally parsing everything he''d been through in a relatively short amount of time.


    Even though he''d stayed busy when he''d been in the Quartet, there had been a sort of¡­stability. More importantly, he''d had a decent home base of sorts. It was strange for him to think of his dorm like that now, but it really had been a nice place to call his own, even though he''d been there for less than a year. It hadn¡¯t been real, though.  The entire experience was transitional by design¨Che just ended up leaving quicker than most.  And it hadn¡¯t exactly been peaceful, either.  He¡¯d definitely made quite a few enemies as well.


    Some were sure to come for him on earth, given enough time.  He knew there was very little chance they¡¯d just leave him be.


    Without quite understanding where exactly he was going with his thoughts or feelings and not finding any real closure, he got up to get ready for the day.


    The night before, he had bought himself a little travel pouch of toiletries, and he put them to good use again before stowing it in his backpack. He thought it was funny that his backpack now was like the kind of bag a homeless person would keep all their worldly possessions in. Then he actually laughed out loud when he realized he really was a homeless person, and the backpack really did have all of his worldly possessions in it.


    Well, minus his dimensional storage.


    He briefly thought about putting the backpack and its contents in his bone gate but decided against it. It was helpful to have certain things easily available. And he didn''t want to reveal to the world that he had anything like the storage, yet. There were all sorts of people that would be interested in that. Maybe after he deemed he was strong enough, he''d stop caring. But until other Challengers could still be dangerous to him, including in great numbers, overplaying his hand would be dumb.


    The memories of Ancilla he¡¯d relived in dreams were still vivid.


    He left his hotel and walked to the door of the room that Dan was staying in. On his second knock, the man opened the door, obviously ready to go.


    "How far away is the testing facility?" Max asked.


    "Probably about an hour''s walk.  Good thing we''re up early ¡®cause I wanna  get paid.¡± He gave Max a nervous smile.  "Nothing personal, you know. I just, it hasn''t been a good couple of days for me."


    "Well, that''s probably putting it mildly," said Max.


    "Yeah.¡±  The word carried volumes.


    The two of them set off, leaving the hotel behind before most businesses were even open. Nobody paid either of them any mind at first as they walked through the city. This area was drastically different from the abandoned, condemned city that Max had been biking around the day before. His current surroundings didn''t have exactly the same energy that he remembered from before the monsters attacking, but he''d changed as well.


    Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    In some ways he¡¯d regressed a bit to who he¡¯d been as Chasa de Milo, but he¡¯d also grown in some ways.  He definitely felt wiser now.


    When he''d first set out for the day, he had assumed that he and Dan would be all but invisible to other people. But as they walked and he witnessed a few people cross to the other side of the road to avoid passing them on the sidewalk, he grinned ruefully to himself. The strangers likely thought he looked dangerous or stinky, he didn''t know which.  Either way, he vowed to get a wardrobe change as soon as he could. Nobody was going to take him seriously wearing the clothing he currently had on, at least unless he was famous, and he wasn''t ready for that yet.


    Max was a realist. He understood that if he was going to be a high-profile member of the guild he started, much less the guild leader, or if he was able to right any wrongs that had caused the Trifecta Guild to fall where it was today, his actions were going to make waves. He accepted this.  But the only thing worse than being famous was being poor and famous.


    Before making any moves, he needed money


    When he saw the Agency building, Max realized that it used to be a convention center. Now, there were obvious signs everywhere for its new purpose. The parking lot outside had quite a few cars, even at this early hour, and Max hoped that there wouldn''t be too long of a wait for anything he needed to do.


    As he walked in the front of the building with Dan, they definitely received a few looks for their shabby clothing, but nothing past a pointed look. Max wondered about the kind of clientele or visitors the place would get, for people that looked like him and Dan to not elicit more than a  curious glance from security.


    Security itself seemed pretty tight. There were a number of people in suits and formal clothing walking around with an earpiece. None of them seemed to be carrying guns, concealed or otherwise. It was easy to logically conclude that all of them were Challengers. A few in particular gave Max the feeling that they would be tough customers¨Che could sense it. How in the world the Agency was able to employ so many Challengers as guards, Max had no idea, but he wanted to find out later. Even minor curiosities like this could sometimes turn up very interesting information, especially while walking into a situation blind like he was now.


    The last hour had provided some fruitful question and answer sessions with Dan, but it was still good that the two were probably about to part ways.  There was a limit to how much more information Max thought he''d probably get from the other man.


    In the the front of the building through the entryway, there was an office of sorts labeled


    ¡°Information.¡±  There were also other nearby signs with information and directions written in block letters.  Other signs hung at regular intervals with large, easy-to-understand arrows pointing in different directions.  It looks similar to the directions and arrows found at any public airport, but scaled smaller.


    Max walked up to the help counter, and a man with a name tag that said ¡°Lewis¡± gave him a pleasant, professional, empty smile. "How can I help you today, sir?"


    "I would like to sell some monster parts. Can I do that here?"  Max reached inside and retrieved one of the pieces of ore that he''d gotten after killing the golems.


    Lewis smiled again and pointed to a clipboard to one side. "You sure can. All you need to do is fill out the information and give me your Challenger ID card for my records."


    "I don''t have a Challenger ID card yet."


    "You don''t?" The man raised his eyebrows. "But you¡¯ve killed monsters?  Are you by chance a Returner?"


    "That''s right," said Max.


    "Oh, well, if that''s the case, then you need to get assessed and receive an identification card. Do you know where to go to do that?"


    Max nodded and pointed behind him. "I saw the signs. So you guys won''t let anybody sell monster stuff unless we have an identification card, huh?"


    "I''m afraid not.  There are plenty of reasons for that, as you can probably guess. One of the biggest is it prevents theft of monster parts since, although they are not technically controlled, having records of when and when they are sold provides information for any detectives looking into stolen property."


    "I understand," said Max. He nodded and left.


    Dan was leaning against the back wall by one of the trash cans. As Max approached, he said, "I heard. I guess I have a little bit longer of a wait, huh?"


    "That''s right," Max nodded. "If you run away now, I''m not going to chase you.  Just being honest. But yeah, if you want to get paid, hang around."


    "Got it," the man sighed.  He turned to head for one of the benches where a few other people were sitting, probably waiting on someone themselves.


    Max tapped him on the shoulder and handed him some money. "It''s going to be a while, so why don''t you go get some food or whatever? I mean, a deal''s a deal, but I feel bad if you''re out here waiting, and this way I can take the time I need without feeling guilty about it."


    Dan nodded mutely, took the money, and headed for one of the gift shops. Max watched him go, wondering if he was doing the right thing by helping.  He eventually shrugged before following the signs to the testing location.

 Book 3, ch 8

    The portion of the large building where testing was done was on the opposite side from where Max initially entered.  Along the way, there were informational posters and plaques, so Max was able to learn that retesting to raise one''s rank was done at a different location. That''s good to know, he thought. He wasn''t really in a huge hurry to be ranked higher, but it probably would help to have a higher rank in the future to be taken seriously.


    Max was quietly impressed by the Agency¡¯s layout and effort to make their processes easy to understand.  He was sure the last few years, especially the first, had been a trial to rebuild the world.  It was a bit surprising to him that other than abandoned cities and such, some areas like this almost felt like pre-monsters Earth.


    The informational materials on the walls helped him organize his thoughts as he walked.


    He was still going back and forth on how much of his power he wanted to reveal and how high of a Challenger rank he actually needed for the moment. Luckily, before he reached the actual testing location, he reminded himself that this was Earth, not the Quartet. Nobody here really knew anything about him. In fact, if anyone knew anything from the Quartet, other than a Summoner, all they¡¯d know was that he was student in the Summoner Academy.


    It was confirmed now that Lance was back on Earth, but there were very few Summoners, and only a tiny handful from Earth in the first place. Maybe only Max and Lance.  Now that Max was thinking about it, he''d never put much effort into finding out whether there were other people from Earth at the Academy. Oops, he thought. But still, only the instructors and maybe some of his friends had actually known that he was also a Blade Sorcerer.


    He was fairly sure he didn''t want to reveal in his test that he was a three-Path Challenger. That information was eventually going to come out one way or another, since Max strongly suspected that representatives of the Quartet system were going to be tracking him down sooner or later. In any kind of serious fight against serious enemies, he''d have to use every tool at his disposal. This meant that revealing everything to the world was a matter of ¡°when,¡± not ¡°if,¡± but for the moment, it made sense to keep some of it secret.


    Max reasoned he¡¯d probably have to reveal that he was a Summoner because that was the Quartet school he''d been in, and he didn''t know if the Agency could verify that or not. Let''s just assume they can, he mused. If they could, that meant he could also declare that he was either a Bead Sorcerer or a Blade Sorcerer as well.


    Being recognized as dual-Path meant less hiding, more options, and a higher rank.


    He was definitely a much stronger Blade Sorcerer than a Bead Sorcerer. That might be a good reason not to let everyone know that he was as skilled of a close-quarters combatant. In fact, the way nobody he''d met so far had recognized the little knife on his hip as being a full-sized sword in another form was swaying his decision on this. It would be good to have the best trump card he could.  If he was going to declare his skills to the world, making them think that he was less powerful was probably the way to go.


    Not only that, he could still use his physicality from having a three star mana body, use martial arts, and claim that his physical enhancements were from spirits.


    The signs read he was almost to the testing site.


    Okay, I think that¡¯s the play.  I will just tell them I am a Summoner and a Bead Sorcerer.  He briefly second-guessed himself, wondering if he shouldn¡¯t even declare himself a two-path Challenger, but decided to go through with it.  He wasn''t too shabby as a Summoner, but he hadn''t collected enough spirits to truly be a well-rounded Challenger with only that Path yet. Not least of which because he''d only spent half a year in the Quartet, and everything he''d done so far was to bolster his Blade Sorcerer abilities.


    If he limited himself to only using Summoner abilities, his ruse would probably be found out too quickly.


    He''d made up his mind. Whether it was the best decisions, he decided it didn''t matter past this point. He''d settled on a direction and now he was going to take it. This was how he''d been in two lifetimes now¨Cbeing decisive was one of his strengths he didn''t want to break.


    The beginning of the Path validation and testing point ended up looking somewhat like the DMV.


    Overhead lights were neon and soulless.  The entire area just had that strange, overwhelming feeling of bureaucracy mixed with the waiting area of a doctor''s office. There were service windows against the far wall and distant chairs facing the area, but luckily there weren''t very many people waiting to be processed.


    There was a help desk to one side of the service area.


    Against one of the side walls was a sign that read, "All Returners, please take a ticket and wait your turn." A sign on the opposite wall read, "All natural or spontaneous Challengers, please take a ticket here and wait your turn." Max felt like that was pretty self-explanatory. Rather than walking up to the help desk, he took a ticket from the Returner side and sat down. The digital display on the wall read that there was one other person ahead of him.


    Luckily, Max didn''t have to sit very long before his number was called. He noticed that another man''s number was called at the same time, and the two of them were ushered through doors into a more sterile, or at least more durable-looking area. The busy-looking woman who''d called him disappeared through a side door, and a man in some sort of uniform that Max hadn''t seen before appeared before them. He was middle-aged with a hooked nose, wings of gray in the hair above his ears, and his stern expression also betrayed a twinkle in his eyes. He seemed like somebody who really enjoyed what he did for work.


    "Welcome!  My name is Ashaj.  Here at the National Guild Suppression Agency, we know you¡¯re busy, and wasting time is the last thing we want to do.  Before you ask, yes, we are all aware that the National Guild Suppression Agency was named poorly and sounds like we¡¯re suppressing the guilds instead, but it was translated from another language in to English and I don¡¯t have any control over that.¡±  He smiled.  ¡°Since you¡¯re here to get a Challenger ID card, the first thing we will need to do is verify you are actually Challengers."


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    The other Returner man next to Max began to speak, but the uniformed man, Ashaj, smiled and cut him off. "I bet you''re wondering how we can tell if you¡¯re a Challenger. The easiest way is just to have you give a demonstration of your power. We know that not everyone can easily give a demonstration in an environment like this, but so far we''ve figured out ways to accommodate almost everybody¡­even those that have suggestion powers! It''s still better to verify everybody that everyone is what they say they are first instead of wasting time and money testing people who are just here for fun, or out of delusion."


    Max nodded at the explanation. It made sense to him.


    "If you two will follow me, please." Max and the other Challenger to be tested, a tan-skinned man who looked about thirty years old, went to another room. There were rooms with thick walls at the other end, both of which were about twenty meters by twenty meters. They almost looked like pressure chambers.Each enclosed room had what looked like extremely thick glass portholes¨Cprobably bulletproof, too.  A casual glance at the ceiling of each chamber showed multiple diagnostic instruments.


    "If you both could take one room each, and while inside, turn to face me so the cameras can do their thing.  After that, please state your name and what school you attended in your respective Quartet."


    The instruction was simple and aligned with what Max was expecting, so he complied, moving into his own chamber. Then he turned and introduced himself, "Max Cunningham, Summoner Academy."


    He braced himself to hear chuckling or maybe a snide remark from the man in the next chamber, but none came. Instead, he actually sounded sullen when he said, "Amun Patel. Blue Wizardry."


    Blue Wizardry? thought Max. He had never heard of that before.


    Ashaj said, "Your responses have been recorded. From this point on, sound will be cut off to anywhere outside of your own respective room." True to what the man had said, the speakers that were allowing Max to hear outside of his chamber stopped working. But then a new voice came through the speaker, a woman''s voice.


    "Hello, Max. We''re going to go over a few questions with you after you demonstrate your abilities. Do you need any props or any extra devices to show what you can do? We can use dummies, or objects or, as the director explained, we can even bring in animals or other people if it''s necessary. For instance, you are a Summoner, and we are aware that some summoners use their spirits to confuse or frighten enemies. If you need an opponent that won''t be harmed or terrified, we can actually invite another Challenger to face you."


    "That won''t be necessary," said Max. "This is just to prove that I actually have power before you waste more time on me, right?"


    The woman laughed through the speaker. "That''s basically correct.¡±


    ¡°Okay, fine. I''m also assuming that you''d prefer some physical proof that you can validate instead of something else that might be considered an illusion."


    "Well, illusions are fine, actually," said the woman, "but in your case, since you are a Summoner, it would probably be better if you can demonstrate something that an illusionist would not be able to do.  If you have more than one spirit, that should be possible, right?"


    "It¡¯s possible, but you really wouldn''t somebody prefer to be an illusionist than a Summoner?" He remembered how he''d expected people to react negatively when he admitted his path. But contrary to his expectations, the woman''s voice came through speaking faster and with a bit of emotion.


    "Are you kidding? Summoners? The Summoner Path? Like Lance Fraser? There are people all over the world who wish they could awaken as a Summoner!"


    Oh, that''s right. I forgot about Lance, Max thought. He quirked a wry smile as he thought about all the reports he''d read and even the interview he''d watched with Lance. The world didn''t know that most of Lance''s observable power was because of the sword that he''d taken back from the Quartet with him, the Shadow Sun Rising.  He''d also lied and claimed that he had graduated from the Summoner academy. Normally, at first when returners came back to Earth from the Quartet, whether they''d graduated or not had been a big deal. But over time, people had stopped caring, not least of which because all of the challengers that failed out returned in the first year. Lance had returned in the second year.


    Being sent back early by Max had an effect on when he appeared on earth, or maybe his sword had something to do with it.  Max could only speculate.


    "Okay," Max said out loud, "I just need a rock, a stick, a ball, or anything physical that you''d like me to manipulate since I figure you''d prefer I don''t use my own backpack."


    "That''s correct," said the woman. A few seconds later, a small door near the floor opened, and a basketball rolled out. The door closed behind it. Max mentally asked Lavinia to form some of her spirits into their strange, gangly transportation forms. A second later, there was a bipedal construct made of ectoplasm carrying the ball around the small room.


    "Is that enough?" he asked.


    "Yes, that''s enough," said the woman. The ectoplasmic figure dropped the ball and disappeared. Then the woman began asking Max a series of questions, like his birthplace, his age, and other basic biography questions. He answered them all until she said, "If you could put your driver''s license on the floor near the door where the ball had come out, we would appreciate it."


    Max frowned. "Why am I still in this room instead of just filling out a form? And also, I don''t have a license."


    There was a few seconds of silence before the woman''s voice came back on the intercom. "We prefer to have Challengers stay in the safe room after demonstrating their abilities in the real world because sometimes effects can linger, like with poison or conjurations. We actually have a fan silently scrubbing the room and disinfecting everything in it as well. It''s not invasive, but in order to make the process comfortable for everybody involved, it takes some time. As for the second part, it''s highly unfortunate you don''t have your license. It''s not unheard of, but tying your credentials to your driver''s license is part of how this process works."


    Max cocked an eyebrow. "Well, I still remember my license number, and I was a resident of this state. Can''t you guys look it up and just do whatever it is you do on the back end?"


    "If you can remember the license number, that would actually speed things up quite a bit, yes." Max rattled off his license number and then waited a couple of minutes in silence.


    The woman''s voice came back on the intercom and said, "It looks like we have everything we need from you now. Thank you. The license number definitely helped. Before we¡ª"


    Max cut her off and said, "Should I tell you now if I''m a dual Path Challenger?"


    "Oh! You have two paths? Yes, we definitely would like to know that!"


    Max wasn''t sure how the process worked, but he could imagine that this small demonstration of his power wouldn''t be enough of a demonstration for any kind of ranking.  If he had to actually fight or show any of his abilities later, he already planned to use two Paths. It would probably be better to just tell them now.


    "What''s your second Path?" said the woman.


    "I''m a Bead Sorcerer."


    "Bead sorcerer," she said slowly. "That''s actually a new one. Hold on, I need to enter this into the system." There were another few moments of silence before she came back and said, "Would you mind providing an explanation of what bead sorcerers can do?"


    "I''d prefer not," said Max.


    "Come again?" she asked.


    Max responded, "I prefer not to. I don''t want to share the particulars of my Path."


    "All right," said the woman slowly. "Do you need anything special to demonstrate your Bead Sorcerer abilities?"


    "No," said Max. "This room is a bit small for explosions. So, I''m going to just make a smoke cloud. That should be different enough from anything I can do with spirits to prove it.  And can you turn up the fan after I demonstrate this so the room won''t stay smoky for too long?"


    "Absolutely.  You can start whenever you¡¯re ready."


    Max removed one smoke bomb bead from his wrist and tossed it to the other side of the room. With the mental command he gave, the bead billowed out into huge, thick, white peals of smoke. Almost immediately, a fan above him whirred fast enough for him to actually hear it, and the smoke rapidly was sucked out of the room. It still took some time, though, because the bead had been quite potent.


    After the smoke was all gone, the woman''s voice came over the speaker and said, "Thank you for the demonstrations. I have noted that you do not consent to give us a more information on Bead Sorcerer abilities or powers. If you exit the door that will open after I finish speaking, you will join your fellow testees and proceed to the second stage of the process."


    "Alright, thanks," said Max. Sure enough, a door popped open behind him that had been seamless in the wall before this. He exited, and to one side, Amun, the man in the chamber next to him, was leaving at exactly the same time. He nodded his head at Max, much more friendly than before he knew that Max was a Summoner.


    "That took a bit of time," he said. "I was actually waiting on you.¡±


    ¡°They wanted both of us to leave at the same time, huh?"


    "Yes.  They usually have groups all do this at once for efficiency and also because part of the testing is for teamwork."


    Max¡¯s eyes widened in surprise. He realized that he hadn''t spent much time the night before looking up much about this test. That was kind of dumb,  he thought.  Now he could recognize how tired he¡¯d been, and how much time he¡¯d spent trying to look up his old friends and the Trifecta guild.


    Oh well.  Not knowing will make this test more interesting.

 Book 3, ch 9

    ¡°Your practical test will be very simple," a smartly dressed man explained. There were several other Agency employees standing around, and Max caught glimpses of still others that were in the distance or standing in corners, likely guards.


    No matter how good the guards were, he couldn''t imagine that they truly believed they could protect the other Agency employees completely, though.  In reality, an organization like the Agency probably just has to trust in the sanity, better natures, or just greed of the Challengers who came to do business with them. Besides, it did stand to reason that even the most evil or psychotic individuals who came to get a Challenger ID card would avoid issues out of self interest.


    Max glanced around at the other four testing participants.  They were all giving the Agency representative their complete, undivided attention. He smirked. It seemed like he was the only one who was salty and cynical enough to be thinking about Agency security in the middle of their testing explanations.


    The man kept droning on and Max tuned him out again. He''d already gotten the most important information¨Call of the testees were eventually going to step inside some golden circles inlaid into the concrete ahead of them. Once that happened, they would all fight in what was basically an arcane virtual space. It was actually an arcane illusion, but the result would be the same.


    Now the Agency manager was coming back to the actual point, so Max started listening again.


    "Once you are inside the testing area, the place that we call ''The Wall,'' you will all be fighting together at first. The first half of your assessment is a group-based challenge. There will be waves of enemies¨Call different kinds of monsters¨Cand you must protect the wall and your comrades. If you kill any of the other testing candidates, you will immediately be disqualified.


    ¡°There are different criteria for how you will be scored during the trial, so don''t worry if your powers lend more to healing or support. Just try to find opportunities to use them and show off what you can do. For instance, if your power is to heal, but somehow nobody actually gets hurt during the trial for you to heal, as long as we know what your power set is, the circumstances will be taken into consideration."


    One of testees, a blonde women raised her hand and then said, "That''s easy for you to say, but we didn''t get to show much of what we can do when we proved we¡¯re Challengers a few minutes ago.  If we can''t display what we can do, how can you accurately make an assessment?"


    She ended her question by crossing her arms across her chest, and Max noticed another of the testees nodding too¡ªa black man wearing bright clothing.


    "You would have a point, except..." The Agency man looked like he was hesitating but then continued, "The Wall will unfold in such a way that, regardless of what group challenges it, you will be pressured. To that end, there is no time limit. The first phase is over once the techs running the tests believe we''ve gotten good results."


    This time Max raised his hand. With a nod, the man gave him permission to speak.


    He said, ¡°I take that to mean that killing our fellow testees disqualifies us, but dying doesn''t, am I right?''"


    "Correct," said the man with a nod. "Since your trial will be virtual, it''s a bit similar to your experience in the Quartet, except that you won''t have to wait any sort of time to come back to life. Instead, if you die during the first half of the testing process, you will immediately find yourself starting the second, which I will explain shortly"


    Max nodded in understanding. The other applicants were a bit slower to catch up, but eventually, the blonde woman who asked the question about healing firmed her lips and showed signs of steely resolve.  She must have just figured out that the testers were basically saying that there was very little, if not zero, chance that the testees would have an easy time.  The woman might look like a college student in her early 20¡¯s, but she was presumably a Quartet graduate.  She had to be at least a few years older than she looked and had endured unknown trials before coming back to to Earth.


    The Agency man continued explaining, "The first part of your test, like I said, is a group exercise where monsters will run at the wall you are guarding, and your job is to stay alive and keep them from going over the wall. The second test will be individual in nature.  You will be back on a wall, but it will be your own individual wall.  Then instead of large waves of monsters, there will be monsters tailored to test you, and each mini wave will get progressively more difficult to beat. If you can last until the end of that event, you will get full marks for it. The individual monster waves may also start at a more difficult level after observing your group trial, so as not to turn it into a trial of endurance. We want to see your potential, not necessarily your staying power."


    Max raised his hand again. "Yes?" asked the smartly-dressed Agency man.


    "If there''s an end, then does that mean that there is an upper limit of how high anybody can achieve on this test?"


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    "That is correct¡­but it is largely irrelevant.  We cannot initially promote anyone over a specific rank, and the end of the test definitely would be far above it.  After all, most Challengers getting a Challenger card are Returners who are just back to Earth. Combat abilities are only one small part of being a professional Challenger now on our planet. There''s also business acumen, guild contacts, and actually working together as a team in a portal... The highest rank that we can give when somebody gets their first Challenger card is C rank."


    Max nodded more slowly this time.


    There were a few more questions from the other testees, and the Agency rep talked a bit more, maybe even putting in a little bit of effort to settle some nerves that any of the Challengers might have, but Max had tuned it all out again. He was silently giving himself a go, no-go list on his powers; that way, he wouldn''t need to think about what he should or shouldn¡¯t do while he was fighting.


    All of his Blade Sorcerer powers were a no-go, but he still had plenty of strength and could fight with his fists and hands, too. Using his fulls strength wasn¡¯t in the cards, but that still left him quite superhuman.  More importantly, he had his spirits and his beads. Now that he knew that this was an illusion-based challenge, and it sounded like everybody started the test with whatever they had on them, he was thankful for all the beads that he''d stowed on his wrists and ankles.


    Finally, the Agency rep confirmed Max¡¯s assumption, saying "For this test, you may bring any equipment into the illusion world that you''d like. You have to be wearing it at the time you step in the circle. Does anybody need for one of their friends or family to bring them any gear?"


    Everybody shook their head except for the first man Max had seen standing in the testing area, waiting to step into a circle. He was tall with red hair, and after a few moments, another man¡ªthis one dark-haired and burly, not a testee¡ªapproached him with a box. Inside the box was an impressive-looking longsword. After that, the red haired man nodded and said, "I''m ready."


    All the applicants stepped forward, including Max, until he had both feet inside of his circle. After that, blue sparks erupted from the gold band embedded in the concrete, and with seemingly no transition, Max immediately found himself standing atop a high stone wall in the middle of a valley. The valley wasn''t very wide, with extremely steep cliffs on both sides. The four other participants were arrayed around him on the wall, which was about twenty meters high and maybe fifteen feet wide. There was plenty of room to maneuver on top. Max could feel vibrations in his feet as if something was running towards them in the distance.


    "I think they''re coming from that direction," said the blonde woman, pointing directly ahead of them.


    "Yeah, no shit," said the red haired man.


    Amun Patel, with a tone of disapproval said, "Let''s focus on the task at hand, yeah?"


    "I agree," chimed in Max.


    The red-haired man frowned but didn''t respond. Instead, his fingers started pulsing in rhythm on his sword as all five of them peered forward into the valley, staring at the bend where it disappeared around a distant cliff. They didn''t have to wait too much longer until they saw their enemy, the first wave.


    The blonde woman hissed, and Max understood why.


    "Vermin," said the black man.


    "Looks like rodents of unusual size," Max agreed.


    This time the blonde woman glanced at him and gave a nervous laugh. "I never thought I''d hear ''Princess Bride'' quotes in the middle of my Challenger ID test."


    Max shrugged and lifted a single eyebrow at her.  "Perhaps next time you might consider the possibility that you will be testing with another Challenger and irrefutable culture."


    The woman laughed again and even Amun chuckled. The black man on the end of their line ignored him, and so did the red-haired guy.


    Max focused.  He ran through his available powers one more time and silently questioned his spirits if they were ready too. Every one of them gave him a subvocal acknowledgment; some of them seemed a bit more excited than others. Curiously, in addition to Saliron, Slick seemed the most eager to actually fight. Trill and Lavinia felt more resolute, resigned.


    With a thought, Max asked Lavinia to activate her spirits.


    Immediately, ectoplasmic armor covered his body. Then, using the same combination of Slick¡¯s and Lavinia''s power that he had in the Fawn caves, Max leapt as high as he could into the air, this time over twice what he was capable of before achieving a three-star mana body.  Lavinia''s spirits immediately morphed into a large glowing wing on his back, allowing Max to glide forward. A few of the other testing participants yelled, but Max ignored them. The highest rank he could achieve was C, but he''d be damned if he got anything lower. On top of that, it would be easier to showcase his abilities if he fought alone.


    It probably wasn¡¯t the best teamwork, but if none of his teammates were ever in any danger, that was a kind of teamwork, right?


    When he was over the first wave of furry monsters, he began dropping beads. These explosive beads were much more powerful than he''d been able to manage before. Part of the enhanced effect was because he just had more power available now, and he was actually supercharging each bead a bit before dropping them, injecting just a bit more mana into each one. It was easy to do because their function lattice and triggering mechanisms were already in place.


    Max also had a better understanding in general of Bead Sorcery too. He wasn''t 100% sure how that affected his beads, but he could definitely feel that it did.


    Giant rodents below detonated in violent, bloody geysers of innards and broken bones. Inside Max''s head, Saliron was taking it all in with laser-like focus. He wasn''t making any noise in the physical world or in Max''s mind, but his entire aura was similar to a dog at a table staring at scraps.


    Max managed to wipe out almost the entire wave of rodent monsters from the air with beads before he was forced to touch down on the ground. As soon as he did, the ectoplasmic wing immediately flowed over his body, returning into armor. Max sprinted forward and punted one of the remaining rat-things, a monstrous creature the size of a mastiff dog, in the side. It was a move like he was trying to kick a giant football. Bones snapped, and the huge rodent was launched into the air, twisting into a slow circle with rivulets of blood being thrown out by centrifugal force.


    Another rodent jumped at Max from behind.  He spun, avoiding the spikes jutting out of the thing¡¯s body to deftly deliver a savage hook to the side of the monster''s temple. Its skull caved in, and this time, Saliron got to flex his power too. Max had already told the dark spirit to run wild while Max was fighting this first wave, to do everything and anything he wanted to do to the enemy. So as Max''s fist crushed the monster''s skull, the rest of its skull and even the top half of its spine disintegrated. The creature collapsed in a rolling, boneless heap.


    The last remaining rodent lunged at Max directly in front of him. But even without his sword, Max was a three-star mana body. He delivered a downward slap to the top of the thing¡¯s snout and a powerful palm strike to its shoulder, diverting the creature''s force. Both blows carried remnants of Saliron¡¯s power, so more bones crumpled and flaked, cutting the monster up from the inside. It rolled into a pitiful, shrieking, screaming ball. And Max didn''t bother to end it. This was all an illusion anyway.  If he left the crying rat in the field, maybe it would slow down the next group of monsters.


    Max surveyed the battlefield before running back to the wall and easily hopping up to the top using a combination of his natural strength and Slick¡¯s power. The other four challengers were staring at him.


    "Are you going to do that every time?" asked Amun.


    "I¡¯m not sure," Max replied honestly.


    "One of you is lively!  So be it," said the red-haired man. He smiled, and the expression wasn''t particularly friendly, but it was genuine. "This test is a bit more interesting now. I can''t say I''m bothered by it."

 Book 3, ch 10

    The group portion of the test proceeded smoothly. After the third wave, Max stayed on the wall with everybody else and didn''t showboat anymore. During the second wave, when he actually saw his teammates'' powers and abilities, he realized that his first action had probably been largely unnecessary.


    During the lull after the third wave, Max quietly asked Amun, "So what rank are you shooting for?" With a fixed three-minute break between waves, by Max''s calculations, everybody still had a minute and a half left before the monsters even began coming.


    "What?"


    Max repeated, "When you get done with all this testing, what rank are you hoping to get? Like adventurer rank for your ID card? Challenger rank?"


    "Oh!" The Blue Wizardry Challenger thought about it for a couple of seconds before hesitantly saying, "I''m hoping for D-rank. One of my friends got D, but he''s a little bit stronger than I am, so I''m not sure. I know for sure I won''t get an F though.¡±


    Max almost asked if there was an E-rank, but quickly remembered himself. He had looked up the ranks the night before, so he was aware that on Earth there was actually an E-rank. He reminded him that F rank was the lowest of the low and meant that somebody was only a step or two away from being kicked out of participating in Challenger activities altogether. It could also be used as a disciplinary action. Getting kicked out of the system would be bad.  For a Challenger not to be in the system anymore, even if they continued to hunt monsters, it would cost them a great deal of money, something Max was all too intimately aware of after his earlier trip to the pawn shop.


    Max nodded and said, "I think you''ll get it."


    "Really? Thanks. Hey, what do you think you''re going to get?"


    "Oh, I don''t know," said Max. "I''d be happy with just an E."


    The man laughed. "To be honest, I was kind of just being polite. I think it''s pretty obvious that you''re going to get a C."


    Max made a noncommittal noise and then stared into the distance again. The other man joined him soon afterward, and only seconds later a noise sounded that signaled the start of the next wave. Max wasn''t sure how many waves there were going to be, but now he definitely confirmed that it wasn''t necessary for him to go all out, even without using any of his powers as a Blade Sorcerer.


    The next wave ended up being some sort of man-sized flying monster, something shaggy with big teeth and veiny wings. Making a show of throwing one of his explosive beads, Max intentionally missed the monster some distance away before hamming up being irritated and throwing another bead that solidly hit one. After that, he didn''t throw any more and contented himself with watching over the other four Challengers as they used a myriad of abilities to bring down the flying monsters or kill them outright in the air.


    Max ended up killing one more monster that lost a wing and still mindlessly ran forward, even climbing their wall. A solid, straight-legged kick¨Cheel first¨Cto the thing''s face, knocked it back over the wall, and when it hit the ground, it lay still.


    The blond woman healed a few wounds as did the black man, but they could hold their own with offensive abilities as well.


    As he stopped paying as much attention to what was going on around him, Max thought about the rankings on Earth. He''d assumed that a C would be pretty strong. After all, an A rank was only two ranks higher, and A rank challengers were known to be quite strong indeed. Each rank on earth was almost exponentially fewer than the rank lower by the power of three. But there hadn''t been anything like a rank system in his Quartet, and he assumed that it had been the same in the other Quartets as well. That meant that the ranking system on earth was unique to earth.  This also meant the power curve would be much lower than he¡¯s assumed.


    With this thought in mind, after the new wave was over, he casually asked Amun, "Hey, you know you heard that I''m a Summoner.  I know that Lance Fraser is a summoner too. He¡¯s something else, huh?¡±  In his mind, Lavinia snorted.


    Amun nodded seriously.  ¡°To be honest, I¡¯d even wished that I was a Summoner after I got back to Earth.  It''s amazing watching any clips of him fighting. The way his spirits help him become such an overwhelming swordsman, it¡¯s...inspirational. "


    Max made a face, trying not to laugh, but the man misunderstood.


    "Hey, it''s okay, man, no need to be embarrassed. I know you''re strong and all, and I know that you probably look up to Lance. I can''t even imagine how powerful and popular he was in your Quartet!  But don''t compare yourself to him right away. There''s still time to learn and grow, you know?" The man nodded slowly like he was taking his own words under consideration, and Max put his top teeth on his bottom lip, keeping his face otherwise blank.  But in his head, both Saliron and Lavinia laughed. Even Slick sent a mental text message to Max, a simple "LMFAO."


    Max carefully nodded and said, "Yeah, I knew of him in the Quartet but I haven¡¯t seen him in a while.  It''s been a while since I''ve read about Lance. I can''t believe I forgot this, but could you tell me what rank he is right now?"


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    "You mean in the unofficial rankings, right? He''s been S-ranked for a long time now. But I don''t think he''s in the unofficial rankings quite yet. In the unofficial ranks it''s mostly Chinese, Japanese, and Russians right now. There are a few Americans and some others, but no Canadians like Lance yet. Everybody thinks he''s probably going to break in this year, though.  Then he¡¯ll be the only ranked Canadian!"


    "Excellent," said Max, trying to keep his tone light. "It''ll be nice to have more top-tier Challengers in North America."


    The man beamed until the sound for the next wave came. This wave¡¯s monsters were a couple of dozen spiky rhinoceros-things that could spit fire. Most of them were dead before they even reached the wall, mostly courtesy of the red haired man with the longsword.


    Max had plenty of time to think. If Amun believed that Max was at at least a C level of power, that meant the Agency reps might think so too. Max didn''t mind even being rated as an A-rank, but actually getting it on his card was impossible.  And he needed not to garner too much attention too fast, at least not right now. He decided that every two or three waves, he would do something a little bit creative or powerful, but otherwise ride out this group portion of the test, just taking the opportunity to show good teamwork and protecting his comrades.


    Two waves later, he stopped keeping count of the waves and just followed his teammates for cues on how to act. He very carefully made himself look just a bit less tired than they were towards the end, but privately he was amazed that all of his fellow earthlings seemed so weak.


    ***


    The individual portion turned out to be just as straightforward as the group test. The Agency representative had not lied. What was strange, however, was the lack of transition again. One moment, Max was standing on the wall with four others, including the redhead guy who kept getting more and more aggressive and destructive. The next, he found himself standing by himself on a far narrower wall and valley. Other than the size, it looked identical to the group testing area. Max didn''t need an explanation for what had happened, which was good because he didn''t receive one.


    Soon enough, a single monster came running around the bend in the distance, moving fairly quickly. It was some sort of feline creature with thick armor on its elbows and back, almost like a tortoise shell.


    This one looks delicious, said Saliron in his head, for a non-humanoid, that is. And for an illusion.  But like a daydream, an illusion of beautiful bones can still be pleasant.  Max decided not to ignore Saliron¡¯s prompting, and he hopped down to the ground again, just like he''d done for the first round of the group phase. Then he ran forward, directly at the monster.


    The truth was, he was physically capable of more than he''d shown. In order to tone it down now but still go some distance, he decided to showcase strength instead of speed. Upon closing with the monster, when it clawed at his face, he pummeled the top of its arm, making it narrowly miss the strike. And then, as the monster cat''s fangs closed in, Max grabbed the scruff of its neck, or at least tried to. There were armor plates in the way.  He improvised and got a good grip on one end of the armor plate before flinging the monster away. The creature probably weighed about three hundred pounds, but Max''s toss sent it sailing at least ten feet.


    Then he jogged forward, and before the creature had completely reoriented after springing to its feet, he decked it in the face. The blow wasn''t elegant and wasn''t meant to be. He was trying to connect with more force than was necessary, and he also let Saliron run wild with the strike.


    The results were predictable. With a screech, the monster dropped but began clawing around in the air wildly, trying to get lucky and snag Max, even though it didn''t have eyes or a face anymore. Max just walked around to the rear of the thing and punched it in the back, letting Saliron do what Saliron liked to do again. The monster''s back snapped, and it stopped moving. It was already bleeding out of the face, so Max gave it one last kick, as much for showmanship as any sort of mercy, and then headed back to the wall.


    A light flashed over the landscape, signifying that the wave was done before he was back. Okay, good, it''s dead, he thought to himself. Then he got back on top of the wall and readied himself for the next wave, which ended up being five smaller, insectoid monsters that had a gleam of venom on their claws.


    This time, Max dealt with them using only explosive beads. Since he had already used explosive beads, he wanted to only use them if possible.  He was trying not to disclose the other weapons he could employ using Bead Sorcery. His poison gas beads, for instance, could be a real pain for someone who was not expecting them in the future, and Max didn¡¯t know how secret these tests were.  If at all.


    The third wave was a single monster, and it looked stronger than the first one.  Instead of a feline, this one was ursine.


    Max got down to close with the enemy again, and Celerian''s power made short work of its bones before Max crushed its skull with a powerful elbow strike. He returned to his wall, and when the next wave came, it was ten large rat creatures similar to the first wave of monsters he''d experienced with the group. This individual portion of the test seemed to follow a pattern: he was going to get increasingly stronger waves of a single monster followed by a group of monsters in alternating order, either until they killed him or the test was over.


    He¡¯d seen the other four testees fight during his group test. Based on that, he decided that he''d aim to do about as well as he could imagine the red-haired man and Amun doing together if this were a duo event. That would be a good stopping point.


    It was several waves later when he felt like he''d reached that limit. During a group attack by large stony monsters, Max deliberately chose one of his weakest explosive beads to throw among them. Predictably, it had very little effect other than making them angry. Then Max jumped down and ran forward to fight them with his fists.


    The reality was that Saliron¡¯s power would have made short work of these creatures, like it had all the others. But Max instructed the dark spirit not to join in, and instead, he began a losing battle. He hit the monsters hard enough to break some of the rock on their backs but started to acquire wounds in return as well. It was the first time during the entire trial that he''d taken any injuries. Max paced himself, allowing the monsters to inflict realistic wounds until he slowed down further, taking even larger wounds, and then eventually fell.


    It didn¡¯t take long for the creatures to maul him to death as he stopped resisting.


    He saw a sudden flash.


    Just like moving from the group test to the individual test, there was no feeling of transition, and Max was instantly standing in his own body inside the magic circle again. He realized he had made a mistake when he looked around and noticed that he was the only testee left in the circles, and the others looked like they had been sitting down against the wall for some time.


    He stepped out of the circle. At the same time, several Agency employees rushed over to him. One of them, an overenthusiastic man Max hadn¡¯t seen before, shook his hand and said, "A pleasure to watch your test, sir. Your name''s Max, right? It was a pleasure to watch."


    From his new vantage point, Max could spot video screens in an alcove that he hadn''t been able to see before. All of the screens were currently showing a paused third-person view of Max''s body getting torn apart by the monsters. "Uh, thanks," said Max. "So what rank am I going to get?"


    Another Agency employee, a young woman, smiled brightly and said, "We''ve already sent the command to the printers for you to have a C-Rank ID to start with. Nobody even had to confer about it. I think we can pretty unanimously say you likely even deserve to be B-rank." She smiled again, and the other agency people looked just as happy.


    Based on Max''s understanding of the Challenger ranks on Earth, it didn''t make sense for the Agency employees to be making this big of a fuss for him being a potential B-rank unless he was missing something. If I were going to stay completely low profile, I think I messed up, he mentally sent to Lavinia.


    Her response was a drawl, Maybe.  But how about getting some information before jumping to conclusions before you jump to even more conclusions.  That was your original plan, after all.


    Point taken.

 Book 3, ch 11

    Max examined his new Challenger ID card and his new driver¡¯s license.  Both had the picture the Agency had taken about fifteen minutes ago.


    ¡°Are you sure you won¡¯t consider it?¡± asked Joseph Grint, the last Agency manager to take a stab at recruiting him.


    ¡°No thanks.  I have some things to do.¡±


    ¡°Well, alright.¡±  The older, mustachioed man bowed his head, defeated.  ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll see the flyers in the main waiting area if you haven¡¯t already, but there is a guild recruiting event hosted here in four more days.¡±


    Max was shocked¨Che hadn¡¯t seen any such thing¨Cbut he kept it off of his face.  ¡°Thank you.¡±


    The other man just nodded and walked away without looking back.  Max took the obvious dismissal in stride and left the individual waiting room where he¡¯d been enduring scouting attempts for the last half hour.


    The Agency must be hurting for Challengers, said Lavinia in his mind.


    Max responded, Well, even without much to compare to I could tell they had shitty contracts.  Not only do they pay like shit, it sounds like if you work for the Agency, you don¡¯t actually raid portals or kill monsters very often.  It¡¯s mostly security or law enforcement.  The only people taking their offer must be cowards.


    Maybe.  Lavinia¡¯s reply was neutral.


    There was a long, obvious hallway back to the main waiting area.  Max walked slowly, mentally organizing everything he¡¯d learned.


    The most surprising fact¨Cat first¨Chad been why most Challengers tested lower than their potential while getting a Challenger ID.  If Max had spent more time thinking about it, he liked to  believe he would have figured it out himself.


    But deep down, honestly compelled him to admit he might not have.  That was the root of why he¡¯d been so confused at first.


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    Most Challengers in the Quartets avoided danger¨Cthey didn¡¯t court it like Max.  The average Returner from the Quartets, even if they graduated, only went to a Quartet dungeon a few times, max.  And most of them went with a large group for safety.


    So the average Returner had years to build their power in the Quartet, but had very little actual experience fighting or using their abilities.  As a result, many Returners, maybe most, grew in ability over the first year or two they were back to Earth.


    Max was shaking his head when he got to the waiting area. He walked across the large room and sure enough, there were flyers and pamphlets for the upcoming Challenger guild fair.  Sure enough, it was scheduled four days from now.  He was only mildly curious about it until he read the names of the participating guilds and saw, ¡°Trifecta.¡±


    His eyebrows practically climbed into his hairline.  Now this, he decided, is interesting.


    Then he started reading the signs around him, looking for directions to the monster parts processing area of the Agency.  It was not really surprising that all the turn ins happened in an annex building.


    Max hurried out the door.  He had some golem parts to sell.  Now that he had his Challenger ID card, doing so wouldn¡¯t be a problem anymore.


    ***


    Max found Dan right where the man had been waiting.  He hadn¡¯t moved. When he saw Max approaching, he got a complicated expression that seemed equal parts greed, worry, sadness, and excitement.


    It was kind of funny to Max that the wiley fence he¡¯d dealt with the day before at the pawn shop had really rode the line of taking advantage and actually screwing him.  He¡¯d gotten roughly two average mortgage payments for the core he¡¯d sold at the pawn shop.  From the Agency, he¡¯d gotten about 50% more.


    Now that he¡¯d sold the last three cores that he¡¯d recovered, he had a decent amount of money.


    Without dragging out the moment, he gave Dan a bag full of money, worth about what two cores had brought in.  It was close to half of what a new car cost before the monsters attacked Earth.  Max had no idea what things were worth anymore, though.


    Dan looked inside as a big, goofy smile bloomed on his face.  When he glanced up, his eyes were still haunted, betraying an aura of grief and trauma from what had happened to him.  But now there was a glint of optimism.  ¡°Thank you,¡± he said.


    ¡°Just fulfilling my end of the bargain.¡±  Max shrugged.  ¡°Anyway, good job answering my questions.¡±


    Dan nodded jerkily and turned before walking away.  Max didn¡¯t know where he was going, but hoped for his sake he¡¯d stay out of trouble.  Next time, he probably wouldn¡¯t have anyone to save him.


    Once his temporary helper was gone, Max left the building with one of the guild faire flyers.  He found a nearby restaurant to relax in and mull over his next steps.  Going to the faire was probably not a bad idea, so he decided to hang around town and do exactly that.  This gave him a couple days to work with.


    In that time he hoped to build his mana body a bit more¨Csomething he hadn¡¯t had much time to do since he¡¯d been back to earth.  He also needed to get a phone.


    But most importantly, he needed some privacy and quiet to have a serious chat with his talking dagger.  He definitely hadn¡¯t forgotten about it, not least of which because it¡¯d continued pulsing within his dimensional storage space.


    After he ate, Max went directly to the nearest wireless store he could find.  Having a phone again was going to feel nice.

 Book 3, ch 12

    Max felt like a kid on Christmas. He had returned to his hotel room after eating lunch and already started playing with his new smartphone. Despite the world still being under attack by monsters and some countries no longer existing, cell phone technology had still progressed quite a bit. Now Max could reap those benefits.


    Of course, he had paid for the jump with lost time.


    Most Returners spent quite a bit more time in the Quartet than the time that they missed on earth before coming back.  For most, it was two or three times as much. In Max''s case, it was the exact opposite by an extreme amount. He hadn''t even spent a year in the Quartet, but several years had passed on Earth since the first monster attack.


    Once he was back in his room, and now that he had a smartphone with appropriate apps to maintain privacy, he began doing the internet searches that he hadn''t had time for, or hadn¡¯t wanted to do on a hotel computer.


    Most of the general news he saw was more of the same, but he was able to learn more specific information, especially about Challengers in general. It turned out he had been right about most Challengers effectively being above the law¡­to a point.  He¡¯d also been right about inevitable friction between Challengers and regular people. The friction helped explain why some Challengers took it upon themselves to pursue vigilante justice against other Challengers. After all, plenty of people, despite any new power, still had a strong moral code, and still others found it extremely important how the public viewed them and Challengers as a whole¨Cwhether for personal or professional reasons.


    Some of the biggest new celebrities among Returners were those who had engaged the most in retribution against Challenger criminals.  A few of them became internet streaming, super-powered bounty hunters.


    Max drank a soda while he spent time researching events over the last few years, time he was gone from Earth.  It was all interesting, but eventually, he couldn''t put off his filial obligations any longer. The truth was, he was a bit scared too. If his parents had died while he was away, he knew he wouldn''t realistically be able to avoid feelings of guilt, no matter how illogical they were. But luckily, when he checked his email for the first time since he''d been back on Earth, he saw email after email from his mother over the years, sometimes more than one a month. The last time she had emailed him had been a week ago. Max grinned and responded. A mischievous streak almost led him to send his mother a joke email about how he was dead or caught in limbo or something, but better sense prevailed. He just sent her a simple message that he was back on Earth and asking her to keep his return secret for the time being.  Max also explained he had a new phone and asked for her number.


    Less than half an hour later, he got a return email without any words, just a phone number. Max''s heart stuttered a bit as he dialed the number on his new phone.


    ***


    Max made a horrified face and blinked in shock as he slowly lowered his phone. He had just ended, no, endured, an hour-long call with his mother.  The happiness he would have felt while talking to her again after so long had been torched in the face of a series of rapid-fire questions between otherwise terse and emotion-laden back and forth.  What was meant to be a conversation had been more of a confrontation.


    But thank God he hadn¡¯t fumbled that email.


    There were several things Max had done in his life, or not done, when viewed in hindsight, he had emphatically thanked himself for not being stupid or doing something for some short-term amusement he would have regretted. This was definitely one of those times. If he had been dumb enough to send a joke email to his mom, the conversation he just had with her would undoubtedly have been even more uncomfortable.


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    It had been uncomfortable enough already.


    He shook his head and realized how foolish his expectations had been.  After all, he had just been pondering phone technology an hour ago, about how the years had marched by on Earth. To Max, not that much time had actually passed.  But for his mother, years had passed, years where she hardly heard from him at all, years where she feared he might not ever come back.  And the years had not been kind to his family.


    It turned out his sister had another child right before his brother-in-law was killed in an accident, and Max''s brother had awakened as a new Challenger but was still wrestling with whether he should actually work as one. Of course, Max''s mother was entirely against it but feared that Max''s brother was going to join a guild despite her wishes. The raw emotion from the guilt she felt, knowing that if he fought monsters, part of his decision would be to help her and the rest of the family, had come through loud and clear on the line. Max felt the distinct feeling that at least part of his mother resented him now, and part of her hated herself for that. It was a complicated situation.


    Max had already felt like he was under the gun to solve some of the problems on Earth because, in the grand scheme of things, his most important, highest priority goal was to get stronger. If he didn''t, when the Quartet adjudicators or whoever else came for him eventually¨C and he had no illusions that they would¨C would kill him. What''s worse, if they still used the same scorched earth tactics as they had back in Ancilla''s day, there was a high possibility that they might just destroy this planet as well.


    But now he¡¯d moved, ¡°get rich,¡± much higher on his list.  He needed to help his family ASAP.


    The eventual arrival of outside, murderous forces was still the biggest problem and always would be, though.  Max went back and forth, wondering if he should inform the world about it, but there were two problems with that. First of all, nobody was going to listen to him right now as a low-level Challenger who didn''t even officially have a guild. In order for more people to take him seriously, he would need to have a certain amount of fame. Unfortunately, with fame came danger, and it might also actually hasten the appearance of his enemies. But even if he had the credibility, all the Challengers were already trying to get stronger, faster, to the best of their abilities. Telling everyone they needed to get stronger might not have much of an effect.


    The other option he had, to take immediate steps to fortify the Earth, would mean taking responsibility to teach a massive number of people Albion Western Wind style.  But that wouldn''t help either. Every warrior had inherent talent for different paths, and the Mana Swordsman Path had several walls that practitioners had to overcome. To repel invaders or overzealous bureaucrats, the Earth needed quality, not just quantity.


    Max knew he wasn''t strong enough yet. He was desperately hoping that the Earth''s S-Rank Challengers were stronger than he was envisioning right now, but he had a bad feeling about it. With that in mind, he settled himself on the floor and began breathing easily, but concisely as he started working on his mana body. The experience of handling mana was like night and day compared to the Quartet.


    In the Quartet, he¡¯d felt like a man catching a single drop of water on his tongue from a ceiling every few minutes to try slaking his thirst. But now on Earth, it was like he was floating in a pool of the clearest, cleanest water imaginable. Even though he was constantly thirsty, the sheer volume of easily available, drinkable water meant there was never any discomfort in the process.


    Max stayed absolutely still, just manipulating mana like this for hours until he finally broke out of his trance and stood up. This had been his first chance since his reincarnation to actually try building his mana body again in a mana-rich environment. He had experimented a little bit the first time he had come back to Earth, but he had been on such a time crunch back then that the idea of spending a few hours just sitting on the floor working on his mana body was laughable.


    "This is fantastic," he muttered out loud. At this rate, if he could get a few really good, long sessions in, he could actually even imagine himself ascending to a four-star mana body in a week or two. It was far faster than he had hoped for, and the realization helped offset some of the queasy stomach he had gotten from talking to his mom.


    One of the biggest sticking points with her, and one of the biggest reasons she¡¯d stayed angry at him, was his insistence that she not tell any other family members that he had returned. Of course, the reason he asked was for their protection. If Max started making waves, the less his family knew about him, the better. It was only going to be a few weeks until he either fixed some of the problems he had to address on Earth or died trying. Of course, it was that latter part that his mother intuited and was the most angry about.


    With frustrated steps, Max made his way to his hotel room¡¯s bathroom and splashed water on his face, practically and ceremonially cleaning himself to stop worrying about things outside of his control. There was already plenty of stuff he had control over to worry about.  And with that thought, he prepared to open the Bone Gate in his room and finally have a discussion with his strange talking dagger.

 Book 3, ch 13

    [I was beginning to wonder if you were going to talk to me again.]  The dagger¡¯s mental ¡°voice¡± sounded a little frustrated.  [There were plenty of opportunities to chat with me and it¡¯s not every day a divine remnant is willing to form a contract.]


    ¡°Sorry about that,¡± said Max without any real sincerity.  ¡°So you were able to watch me from inside the gate?¡±


    [Of course.  For me, it wasn¡¯t very difficult.]


    Max frowned and steepled his fingers before resting his chin on his hands.  His cheap hotel chair squeaked as he leaned forward to stare at the dagger where it was lying on the bed.  ¡°Have you always been this chatty with everyone?  Like Adjudicator Swan too?  Or am I just lucky.¡±


    [Part of it is luck, but a lot of it is that you¡¯re a Summoner.]


    And suddenly, with that one bit of information, a number of mysteries were solved and matters from the Quartet that never made sense, did.  ¡°Do all the¡­teleport daggers have remnant spirits like you?¡±


    [I can tell you¡¯ve already figured some of this out.  It¡¯s one reason why I¡¯m willing to work with you in the first place.  The will to resist the greatest powers, the means to strike back, and a mind to ask questions are all rare, even more rare to all exist in on person.  The answer to your question is yes and no.  The real name for the ¡°transportation daggers¡± is  ¡°transfer athames,¡± or ¡°ral¡¯tek.¡±  How they¡¯re actually made will be over your head, but a good summary would be that gods were killed a long, long time ago, cut into little pieces, and the pieces were used to power the ral¡¯tek.  I can still remember all of it.  It¡¯s not exactly the kind of thing I¡¯d want to fixate on while making love or eating ice cream.  And no, not all of my parts can talk¨CI am dead after all!  In fact, being dead, I usually don¡¯t talk at all.  Funny, that.  But sometimes circumstance can wake a bit of me up, like¡­ shocking a severed hand with electricity to make it move.]


    ¡°That works in real life?  The electricity thing?¡±


    [I don¡¯t know.  I saw it on the TV last night while you were asleep in the hotel room.  It might be fun to try, though.  Oh, that was ballsy by the way, playing movies while you¡¯re helpless.  Won¡¯t the TV being on make it harder to hear an attack?]


    ¡°No, I have spirits that keep watch for me that never sleep.  And after being back to Earth, the sound of traffic makes it hard to sleep now.  I learned the TV-being-on trick a long time ago when I was a kid¡­ But we are getting off topic.  So if a part of you in one of these¡­ral¡¯tek¡­wakes up, you can talk from the dagger that¡­your part is in?¡±


    [Not necessarily, and I know you¡¯ve already figured this out, or at least suspect the truth.  Yes, Max, Summoners are the only Path that can easily or naturally communicate with divine remnants.  And yes, it is one of the reasons why your Path has been suppressed.]


    That did confirm what Max had suspected.  ¡°You¡¯re using my name so casually, but you haven¡¯t even told me yours.¡±


    [Ah.  That¡¯s true.  It is past time that I introduce myself.  I have been known as Anansi.  Now I am sure you are suitably shocked and humbled.  Please hold the applause.  However, I do take tips.  Sexual favors to show appreciation are either accepted or rejected on a case-by-case basis.  I¡¯ll just tell you that it is not an option for you right now, though.  You won¡¯t get far with me if you go that direction.  I¡¯m open to a contract but I am not interested in your rock hard man-abs.  Sorry.]


    ¡°Anansi?  Aren¡¯t you a spider or something?¡±  Max barely remembered a special he¡¯d seen on TV about African gods.


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    [That¡¯s so dismissive.  ¡°A spider?¡±  Rude.  Shallow.  But yes, I am¡­among other things.  Whatever I feel like.]


    ¡°Like a spider man?¡±


    [I am the original spider man.  And I look quite dapper in that form, if I might say so myself.]


    ¡°You just did.¡±


    [I suppose I did.  Anyway, that is who I am.]  The remnant sniffed.


    Max frowned.  Why am I always meeting weirdos?  Out loud he said, ¡°So I guess I will ask the obvious questions now.  I apologize if these are rude but I don¡¯t know any other way to ask without wasting too much time.¡±


    [Go ahead. I appreciate the attempt at proper decorum, but it¡¯s probably too late now.  You¡¯ve been too casual and I have admitted that you have very impressive abs.]


    ¡°Uh, alright.  What do I get out of a contract with you, and what will you get out of it?  Why won¡¯t you fade away like a normal divine spirit?


    [What you get out of it will vary on a number of things. Some of it will be your compatibility with my domain or areas of authority.  It will also depend on your talent.  But one advantage of my divine nature means you will not have to be taught or really practice any of my abilities you manifest¨Cother than just how to use them or when.  Especially since you are a Summoner, you already have experience utilizing the power of another, channeling it.  Also, new abilities through our bond can manifest the longer we work together.]


    ¡°What are your areas of authority? I know a little about you, but not much.¡±


    [Ahem, it is perhaps a bit undignified to call myself such, but I have been known as a ¡°trickster god.¡±  Of course, you already know that I have an affinity with spiders. Shapeshifting is a specialty of mine, as well as a fairly unique form of magic that I am quite proud of.  Escaping is something I have a knack for.  Webs, webbing, well, you get the idea.]


    ¡°I think I do.  So what do you get from this, though?  Remnants pass things on and feel they¡¯re ready to leave this existence.  For them, it¡¯s like¡­an inheritance.  But that doesn¡¯t sound like your situation at all.¡±


    [That¡¯s true.  I very much want to be alive again. By contracting with you, I will ensure I won¡¯t lose consciousness again.  It means I will be stuck with this ¡°part¡± of me being the only piece that can be conscious while I¡¯m contracted, but it can¡¯t be helped now since I am so limited.  The tradeoff is worth it, though.  The longer I am awake, the more time and effort I can put into rebuilding myself using this portion of myself as a seed.]


    That all answered his questions and even sounded plausible.  Max had never questioned the explanations any spirits had given him before, and he wondered if Anansi being a trickster god was making him judge the situation unfairly.


    ¡°If I have a contract with you, can I form a contract with another divine remnant?  What about regular spirits, too?  Will it affect that?¡±


    [So many questions!  Ha!  I approve!  You should always go into every deal knowing as much as possible!  But you¡¯re concerned about other possibilities with divine remnants!?  Like we are just lying around on the street!?  Hilarious!  You didn¡¯t even know divine remnants existed until I spoke to you.  However, to answer your question, no you are not limited to only one divine remnant contract as long as the divine remnants agree to coexist in the very limited real estate of your mortal soul.  Of course, having a divine remnant contract will make you a target for the Quartet administration too, but you already are.]


    ¡°Yes.  That true.  It¡¯s only a matter of time until they track me down.¡±


    [Even so, I don¡¯t risk anything by working with you.  Either I can put my pieces back together again after forming a contract with you, or they stuff this piece of me back into the ral¡¯tek.  It¡¯s not like my situation can become worse.  As for you, the more power you get, the better.


    On that note, our relationship won¡¯t affect your ability to contract with other spirits.  However, I am a bit picky. I would like for you to only contract with spirit I think are worthy if you are my contractor.]


    ¡°Really?  I have a spirit now, a Warlord-level spirit who doesn¡¯t want me to contract with spirits lower level than he is.  Are you going to be like that too?  Then I¡¯ll never get another contract¡±


    [That is not what I meant.  In fact, if you were my contractor, I would speak to this spirit of yours and perhaps help you find a compromise.  For a Summoner to be limited to only contracts with Warlord or higher spirits can be a disadvantage.]


    Max sat back to think about what Anansi had said.  Suddenly, something occurred to him.  Why haven¡¯t my spirits been talking to me this entire time?  He mentally called out to his spirit, Are you all there?


    He got pings back from his spirits, but none of them spoke at first.  Finally, Saliron spoke in his mind, saying, The dead god let us know he would prefer a private interview without us interjecting unless we felt he was lying. I would rather talk about bones anyway.


    We are being respectful, said Lavinia.  This is the first time I have actually heard a divine spirit speak.  I am¡­awed.


    Oh, replied Max.  He rubbed his nose as he thought, and finally said, ¡°Alright, I think I will accept a contract with you.¡±


    [What a life I¡¯ve led.  Now I am asking Summoners to form a contract with me and almost being rejected.  Ha!  Still, I am glad that we can work together.  It will be a mutually beneficial relationship.  I accept, too.]


    Suddenly, a window popped up in Max¡¯s vision.  It was pretty simple as contract windows went.


    Do you want to form a contract with Anansi, a divine remnant?


    *Note: The contract style is ¡°default¡±


    Max chose ¡°yes.¡±


    Then Anansi said, [I chose yes as well.  Now our contract is complete, and¨C]  His voice trailed off.  [Hey wait a second, you never said you were already a Champion! Ridiculous. Part of your conversation with the Adjudicator was censored, but I thought it was Quartet-business. The system still messes with me after all this time! I cannot believe this!]


    The divine remnant''s words devolved into passionate and inventive cursing.

 Book 3, ch 14

    Max walked down a series of alleys, trying to find some private space. Even though the city was almost as populated as it had been before the monsters attacked years ago, the current population was only because people had moved together for security.  Big cities more or less retained their size, but a lot of people had moved out of the suburbs.


    The commercial areas in this city were more sparsely populated than before, too. Humanity had adapted to the constant monster threat, and one way they had done so was by avoiding working alone at night or in small groups in isolated buildings. After all, the more people around and the more eyes there were keeping watch for anything strange, the higher the chance that a new portal would be spotted before anybody could get hurt.


    After Max had gotten his Challenger ID card, he''d actually pondered whether he should go back to his hometown and try some more of Alfonso''s shwarma. After all, to earn some quick money, it was likely that he could happen upon a monster or two there in a relatively short amount of time. If monsters came out of a portal right away, they usually didn''t move far from it, since part of their job was to protect the beachhead, so to speak.


    But Max had decided not to risk traveling. The Challenger Fair was his highest priority in the next few days.  Alfonso''s food was good, but there were certain things he could only do in a populated city, like getting a new cell phone. However, if he were sleeping at Alfonso''s place right now, it¡¯s true that his current situation would be far less annoying.


    Finding some privacy in an abandoned city would be easy.


    It took him over half an hour to find a truly secluded alley where he felt he wouldn''t be interrupted or seen. "Okay, this is it," he said out loud. Suddenly, a big brown spider with startlingly large eyes, blurred up from his hip onto his shoulder. Even after seeing this form of Anansi several times, it still startled Max. The manifested divine remnant said, "I thought you weren''t afraid of spiders."


    "I''m not, but you don''t exactly look like a regular spider, and I would probably be startled or at least notice if anything scuttled up my body onto my shoulder like that."


    "Do you have to use the word ''scuttle''?" said Anansi. "You know that''s kind of an offensive word."


    "Only if you''re a spider," said Max.


    "Exactly," Anansi huffed. "I swear, you say you want a working relationship, but then you keep using nasty language like that."


    Max rolled his eyes. "Uh-huh. Who are you supposed to be now, Annie Wilkes?  And am I just supposed to forget that you didn''t tell me you were planning to make me your challenger by default after forming a contract with me?"


    Anansi grumbled, "Yes, well, it would have benefited you."


    "Maybe, but that would be for me to decide. You didn¡¯t fully explain what  ¡®standard,¡¯ contract was.  And not only that, in my actual Champion contract, I got gifts and other things in return for becoming a contractor.  You didn¡¯t give me anything for that even though you were intending it to happen."


    "You wound me," said Anansi. "Is it so hard to believe that I had your best interests at heart and I fully planned to give you remuneration?"


    "Yes," said Max flatly. "We''re partners now, but I am under no illusions that we are friends after I just met you."


    "I suppose that''s fair. In fact, I''ll tell you what, as a token of good faith, let me tell you what I''ve been doing over the last hour since you started trying to find a quiet, dark place to spend time in."


    "Do you have to put it that way?"


    "Yes, it''s the most apt description. Anyway, Saliron, would you be a dear and come out?"


    A moment later, dark, oily smoke rose from the ground, eventually forming the tall, gaunt figure that Celeron most often manifested as.


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    "I am here.¡±


    ¡°Would you please tell Max what you decided after our conversation?" The divine remnant asked sweetly.


    Saliron¡¯s floating form turned minutely to address Max. The powerful spirit did not sound happy.  "I have spoken at length to the spider god. He has convinced me, barely, that by adjusting my original limitations on you and how you acquire new spirits, I would likely benefit in the long run.  The logic he suggested is that the more things you kill, the more bones I can touch and nibble on. Is this true?"


    Max gave himself a couple of seconds to really think through his answer, and then seriously responded, "I suppose that''s true, yes."


    "I believe the same," said Saliron. "It does not fill me with joy to modify an existing contract, but I must admit there is logic in it. Doing or saying things that keep me from meeting more delightful bones is not logical; therefore, I would like to formally amend our original contract. Instead of a blanket requirement of rank, instead, any new spirit you form a contract with must first have my approval¨C"


    "And me," added Anansi.


    "Yes, and the spider god," Saliron drawled.


    Anansi didn¡¯t try to hide his goating tone.  "You see, after we formed our contract, and I was able to read your memories, I brought up to dear little Saliron that he has already made an exception for Trill. Since he already set the precedent that exceptions were possible, it didn''t make any sense not to amend the contract to reflect this."


    "Thank you, Saliron," said Max. "I promise you that I will deliver more bones in the near future and as long as I live."


    "Of course, I would expect nothing less. However, do not wait too long. The bones call me.  It has been a while since I''ve had a good lick and tickle." With that, the large, imposing spirit vanished.


    "I do appreciate it, Saliron.  Max turned from where Saliron had manifested and looked directly down at the bizarre spider sitting on his shoulder. At least now he didn''t have a human face. The first time Anansi had manifested physically like this, Max had firmly rejected the look and told him to modify it.


    "Actually," said Max, "my spirits are usually incorporeal. Why is it that ever since we formed our contract, you''ve maintained a physical form like this?"


    "Having a physical form gives me more weight in the world when I don''t have other power to give me that weight on its own," Anansi replied. "The ability to create this form and hold on to it is why it was beneficial for me to form a contract with you in the first place."


    Max lifted an eyebrow.  "Yeah, and the fact that you would have auto-included me as a Champion.  Then if I did anything big and flashy, it would have automatically given you more power or influence.  I know how this stuff works."


    "Yes, well," the spider god coughed, "how about we let bygones be bygones, and in exchange, I will help you more efficiently learn what you can do with my power now?"


    "How can you do that?" asked Max. He knew his tone was suspicious, but he didn''t particularly care. So far, Anansi had been living up to his reputation as a trickster god.


    "Well, how about this? Just begin practicing how you normally fight for a while, and I will watch and simultaneously feel what you are doing through your eyes and your body, then give you nudges to let you know where you might be able to improve."


    Max thought about Anansi''s proposal before shrugging. Then, without warning, he fell into mock combat, fighting imaginary opponents using all of his abilities at low power and low speed. He even tossed a few special beads that had no effect other than to return immediately after hitting the ground. He¡¯d devised this method, which he called dummy beads, to practice working them into his regular combat flow for practice. As he spun and kicked, threw beads and instructed his spirits, he began to feel something other than words, more like a pressure in the back of his mind.


    Lightning flashed in his mind.  It suddenly occurred to him that he could use Lavinia''s power a bit differently now. Taking hold of an ectoplasmic rope, he flipped it above him to the alley wall. When it hit the wall, it stuck fast. Max pulled hard, rocketing himself up into the air. He manifested some ectoplasm on his hand and slapped it against the wall while he was at the peak of his jump. Then he easily clung to the wall that way.


    Okay, so I can make ectoplasm sticky now, he thought. Then he easily fell back to the ground in the alley before concentrating on more ectoplasm in his hand. Then, linking with Lavinia, and imbuing his own power into the ectoplasm, Max threw it at the wall in front of him. The ball immediately sprang open into a large, beautiful spiderweb shape that smacked into the wall and stayed there with strong, sticky power.


    "Okay," said Max, a bit of enthusiasm. He continued to practice using his abilities and discovered several other ways he could use Anansi''s power.  Similar to how he used his Mana Vault, he could surge his mana body, but instead of more power, it gave him more¡­depth.  The added mana didn¡¯t affect his physical abilities but let him draw on more power for his other abilities.


    Lavinia¡¯s spirits, after turning into ectoplasm, could be grown and divided¡­as long as they took the shape of spiders.  It was like the spirit only had to create the ectoplasm and the rest was handled through Anansi¡¯s power and influence.  Max wasn¡¯t sure exactly how this could help him yet, but he was able to greatly increase the sheer volume of ghostly matter that Lavian¡¯s spirits could produce as well as the number of individual manifestations.


    He could also summon illusionary spiders, about a dozen of them, and up to the size of a cat.  ¡°Weird,¡± he said.  In both lives, he¡¯d never been able to create illusions and he¡¯d hated when others tried to trick him.  He was sure there were plenty of ways to use it, but he¡¯d need to think about it, move his mind in a different direction.


    Finally, Max came to a stop, minimized [Black Mist Incident] before putting the sword away, and leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, lost in thought. Anansi ran up from his leg¨Cfrom wherever he went when he was out of the way. Max suspected that the divine remnant actually lived in the small shadows his clothing made.


    [That''s not bad for your first time, Max. Can I call you Max?] the spider queried.


    "You''re a god; call me anything you want."


    [What about ¡°shithead¡± or ¡°motherfucker?¡±  What about ¡°diseased sheep vagina?¡±]


    "I would prefer ''Max.''"


    [That wasn''t bad for your first time, Max. In fact, I''m feeling a bit more optimistic about this whole thing now. I''d already known that you were a three-path Challenger before.  Three-path Challengers are rare enough.  But now that you have also formed a contract with me, I think you''re one of the only four-path Challengers to ever exist in the universe."


    Max didn''t say anything for a few seconds until the divine remnant''s words finally registered. "Wait, a what? Four-path?"


    "Yes. Now that you''ve used my power, I believe the system should register at any moment now."


    Sure enough, a window popped up in Max¡¯s vision.  His eyes widened as he read, [Direct Conduit Cleric Path].  "What in the hell!?"

 Book 3, ch 15

    On the way to the convention center with the Challenger career fair, Max pulled up the notification window he¡¯d gotten about his new Path.


    [Direct Conduit Cleric Path]


    You not only merely channel divine energy, a divine entity lives in you or with you.  There is no delay, no necessary permission to use your sponsor¡¯s divine power.


    Max shook his head.  His world view had changed.  Abruptly.  He¡¯d thought a three-Path Challenger was the most that was possible, that he was already as big a freak of nature as possible.  He was wrong.


    Of course, the reason he was now a four-Path challenger was less about himself and more because Anansi was using him as an incubator, or halfway-house.  It was more based on circumstances than any skill or talent that Max had.


    He shook his head.


    Now he had even more abilities to play with and somehow tie together.  He desperately needed serious training time.  The Quartet hadn¡¯t exactly been fun, but at least he¡¯d had time to train his body, mana, and mind.


    He slowed as he got closer to his destination.  The convention center was a circus.


    Streams of people walked down both sides of the road.  The surrounding parking lots were full, and still, streams of cars crawled down the street bumper to bumper. At first, Max was highly confused. Even though the Challenger job fair only happened once or twice a year in this city, he still wouldn''t have predicted that the venue would be so packed.


    Hey, Lavinia, he said mentally.


    It turned out she seemed to be thinking the same thing he was. There are a lot more people here than we expected, huh?


    For sure. Do you think that you and your spirits can figure out why?


    Maybe. Probably. It¡¯ll take my concentration but we''ll just go eavesdrop on some conversations for a few minutes. With that, her presence in his mind vanished.


    In order to not be too passive and let his spirits do all the information gathering, Max walked up to a group of people nearby¡ªa middle-aged couple and two kids. The man was fussing at one of the kids while Max wondered up.  He was saying, ¡°It''s the Champion job fair. Of course, it''s packed.  The man scoffed.


    Then the woman gave her son his full attention and said, "Why didn''t you tell us that..."


    Looks like a family argument.  Max turned and kept walking.


    Luckily, he found a stranger who looked a bit more likely to answer some questions as he got closer to the convention building. A young man, or maybe a teen boy, dressed in bright colors was looking at something on his phone while walking slowly..


    "Excuse me," Max said.


    "Oh hey, what''s up?" The young man had red hair and friendly eyes.


    "I was just wondering why this venue is so crowded. I know that it''s the Champion job fair, but I thought it would be kind of a low-key thing, you know?"


    The man¡¯s eyes lit up in sudden delight.  "Are you a Champion?"


    "Yes, I am," said Max.


    "Oh, cool! Well, I guess you might not know about all this if you''re a Returner, right?"


    Stolen story; please report.


    "Yeah, I didn''t get back very long ago."


    "Oh, that''s super rad." He extended his hand. "Name''s Andy. It''s awesome to meet a returner in person."


    "Uh, Max."


    They shook hands, and then Andy said, "Well, it''s kind of simple when you think about the fact that Champions are basically the world''s greatest entertainment now, or at least the world''s biggest celebrities. Not all Champions have streams or do promotions or sponsorships, but a lot do. So for a lot of people, this place is like a fan convention. On top of that, it''s sort of open to the public."


    "What do you mean by ''sort of''?" asked Max.


    "All the Challengers get name tags inside the buildings, like lanyards, and one of the the biggest rooms in the building are converted to sort of like the recruitment tables. A lot of people like to watch. And over the past three years, since so many people come, now the other ballrooms have people selling merch and things like that. Dealer rooms.  So the people owning the venue, I guess, make more money from it."


    Max was shocked. "So the recruiting event really is basically a full-blown convention?"


    "Basically," said Andy. "And it''s just really cool to see all the Challengers, you know? Not only that, Challengers are superhumans, like super heroes, and there will be a lot of them here, even from the guilds.  That means for today, here, nobody really has to worry about monsters or security stuff. A bunch of Challengers are bulletproof. Can you imagine some dumbass pulling a knife or something?" He laughed. "What''s your rank, Max?"


    Max scratched the back of his head, suddenly feeling a little awkward.  He said, "I just tested a few days ago, and they gave me C-Rank."


    Andy''s eyes lit up even more than before. "C-Rank, right out of the Agency facility? Oh wow, you must be a real up-and-comerQ"


    At that moment, Max recognized that there was definitely a new culture on the planet built around Challenger fascination. He had a feeling that if he didn''t get away now, Andy was going to stick to him like glue.


    "Thanks for all the answers," Max said. Then he turned and lept away farther and faster than any normal person could before speed walking away. A handful of people saw, but like in most crowds, people in general could be very oblivious when they were trying to get somewhere. Those who had seen him didn''t get a chance to catch up or even point him out because he was already lost in the crowd.


    A minute later, Lavinia showed up in his head again. I left one of my spirits with you, so I¡¯m caught up already.  It sounds like you already got a pretty good idea of why this place has so many people. But what you might not know is that these sorts of job fairs are kind of like dick-measuring contests for the different challenger guilds too.


    "What do you mean?"


    Well, historically, some have given press conferences during job fairs like this, or publicly talked shit or even issued challenges to each other. Apparently, a lot of the big guilds do their business at functions like this too.


    How many of these freaking things are there in a year? Max asked.


    Not super sure, but apparently kind of like the convention circuit back when you were on Earth, just a few more of them. Like each general area of the United States has one or two a year.


    Max slowly nodded. Okay, well, thanks for finding these answers. I guess we''re about to find out first hand what this is all about then.


    Once he got in the building, Max joined a very short line that was clearly labeled ''Challengers Only''. As soon as he stepped into the line, it felt like all the people around him turned to stare at his retreating back in curiosity.


    Once Max made it to the front, reaching a desk, a bored-looking woman, who was wearing scrubs for some reason, held out a hand and said, "Let me see your agency ID, please."


    Max handed it over, and she scrutinized it carefully¨Cher eyes glowed for a second. Then she handed it back as she chewed gum and gave Max a lanyard. Next, she gave him a sticker that she pulled from a sheet.


    "Go ahead and put this on your lanyard,darling," she said.


    Max read it. It had his name and his rank. ¡°Where did you get this information?¡±


    ¡°The local Agency office gave us a list of new Returners since we figure most of them will come here.¡±


    "Isn''t this a violation of privacy?" he asked. Nobody had told him that they were going to print his name off or that he would be wearing his real name and rank like this.


    The woman shrugged. "If you don''t like it, just don''t put your sticker on the badge. Just keep it in your pocket in case security or staff wants to see it."


    Max almost asked why he would need to do that when he already had his agency ID, but he sucked up his irritation, nodded, and left the line.


    In the interior of the building, after walking down a hallway and following signs, he found himself in a large open room that had been converted to a convention floor of sorts. But instead of rows of tables down the middle like he expected, like the dealer room would likely look like down the hall, there were fewer tables situated in clumps, mostly in the corners, but also in a few places against the wall.


    Just like outside the building, there were two different lines; a large line and a much smaller line that said, ¡°Challengers here!¡±


    The moment he walked in with his badge showing, a man in a suit approached. As the brightly-badged man got closer, Max glanced around, verifying that the people in the other line were the general public, all of whom had paid at the door.  Basically just looky-loos.


    However, the well-dressed people with a ¡°staff¡± badges seemed to be welcoming the actual Challengers like Max.


    The staff member nodded in greeting when he was close enough to speak.  "Hello, Challenger. Have you been to a Challenger job fair before?"


    "No," said Max.


    "Well, I think you''re going to enjoy it. As you can see, there are tables all around the room where all the different guilds that wanted to attend are represented. As you can imagine, they would all like new Challengers to visit them. So in order to incentivize that, every time you visit a table and show the name tag that you got before entering, they will write your name on a list, give you a monetary gift, and enter your name into a raffle for a powerful piece of armor or a weapon."


    "They¡¯ll pay me?  How much?"


    "It varies per table. And, for the larger guilds, it also can vary per rank. For instance, a D rank Challenger might get a gift that is enough for a nice meal, but a B or an A rank might get enough for a car.  Circumstances can affect the gift, too."


    "Interesting," said Max. "But the raffle is the same for everybody, right?"


    "That''s correct."


    He glanced around the room again and thought that the system was pretty ingenious. "That''s okay, I mainly came here to see the booth or table for a specific guild though."


    "Which one?" asked the man.


    "Trifecta."


    The man in the suit carefully schooled his expression. "May I ask why?"


    "No, not really. They''re my own reasons."


    "Ah, I understand. Well, if you''re looking for Trifecta, they''re in the back corner," he said.


    Max nodded, turned, and began walking deeper into the room. The man in the suit briefly watched him leave before turning and finding another new challenger to give his spiel.

 Book 3, ch 16

    The room was full, but not as bad as it could have been.


    Now that Max was actually in the job fair, situated, and could relax a bit, he took the opportunity to examine the people around him¨Cboth the Challengers and the regular people who had come to watch. He thought it was interesting how the non-Challengers respectfully kept their distance for the most part, unless they got an opportunity to ask for a picture or an autograph. It was very different from how Max remembered people acting around celebrities before he had gone to the Quartet.


    He had a few theories as to why this change had occurred.


    Another interesting observation was how most of the regular people who were attending and who didn''t already have a purse or satchel carried backpacks. Meanwhile, the Challengers, for the most part, did not carry a backpack and wore a weapon. Max thought that the difference between the people he was seeing became more obvious the more he watched.


    He made his way slowly around the edges of the room, checking out the booths. His first inclination had been to head straight for the Trifecta Guild booth at the far side of the room and ignore the others. However, he decided not to because that would probably be more likely to stand out, and there was no reason to say no to free money.


    Free money was good.


    Max methodically worked his way around the room, greeting the person behind the counter at every booth, and accepting an envelope full of cash in return for hearing their pitch about their guild. All of them were eager to chat after finding out he was C-ranked.  He was able to learn quite a bit just by doing this and was glad he had made the decision to visit the different guilds.


    As a result, by the time he finally made his way around the room and had spoken to most of the other guild representatives, he knew that some of the amenities the guilds were offering were all-expenses-paid health care, room and board, and a decent weapon as a signing bonus.


    Although Max didn''t know what rates were competitive or exactly what was industry-standard, it seemed like almost anybody who was at his rank or higher had the potential to become rich.


    As he¡¯d moved around the room, the guild representatives asked if he was a brand new Returner. He hadn''t lied about it, or the fact he had been back on earth for less than a month.  Now he was aware of the fact that several people were staring at him from across the room. He had no doubt that a few of the guild representatives were going to make him a more aggressive offer soon. That would be troublesome and would probably make his presence more notable.


    Max could feel pressure between his shoulder blades.  The time he had to mess around was running out.


    When he finally made his way to the Trifecta table, there were actually one or two more guilds that he didn''t get a chance to visit. Oh well, he thought, no need to push this any further.


    The young man behind the Trifecta Guild table, in front of a banner that read, ¡°Trifecta Guild, Join Today!¡± was a stranger. When Max walked up, the man looked up with mild startlement. Max could understand why. During the entire time he was visiting the other tables, not a single person had gone to the Trifecta Guild table.


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    "Uh, hello, Challenger," said the man. "My name is Timothy Charles. May I ask your name?"


    "It''s Max."


    Without being asked to, he handed over his challenger ID card. Obvious surprise crossed Timothy''s face before he met Max¡¯s eyes again.


    "This says you''re a C-Rank," he said.


    Max thought it was quite unnecessary to say so since it was very obviously written on the card.  "That''s right.¡±


    "Well then, um, what would you like to know about Trifecta?"


    What the hell? thought Max. He had listened to almost two dozen guild pitches by now, and this was by far the worst.


    "Do I get any money for talking to you?" he asked.


    "Uh, yes, here you go." Timothy handed Max an envelope and wrote his name on a lined piece of paper. Curious, Max opened the envelope and looked at the money inside.


    Wow, he thought. What he could see in the envelope was less than a fourth as much money compared to the otherwise lowest de facto bribe he had gotten from any of the other tables.


    When Timothy was done writing Max''s name down, he much more smoothly transitioned into a pitch for the guild.  He began listing signing bonuses and otherwise trying to make the Trifecta Guild sound like a good choice. He failed miserably. Max didn''t know exactly how good of a deal he had been offered by the other guilds, but everything Timothy was pitching paled in comparison.


    Now I know why nobody else is coming over here, Max thought. Even for the little bit of money they got for coming to the table, they probably didn''t want to even talk to the Trifecta Guild.


    A handful of regular people had approached the Trifecta table, but only to take pictures in front of it.  None had seemed too interested past that.


    Once Timothy was done explaining what a new recruit could generally expect for signing with the Trifecta Guild, he passed over a pamphlet about the guild.  Then, obviously expecting Max to walk away, said, "Thank you for visiting with us. Please keep us in mind."


    Max smirked. The expression came from a place of irritation more than amusement, though.


    What in the hell happened to this guild I started? His original plan had been to sign up for the guild, get some money, and then head to wherever it was headquartered before making contact with some of his old friends. But now that he saw how far Trifecta had fallen, he thought that he might fast-track his original plan a little bit.  His decision was made as much out of impatience as recognition of an opportunity.


    "Timothy, here''s the deal. I''m actually interested in the Trifecta Guild, and I''m willing to sign an NDA or whatever it is I need in order to speak with somebody who can make me a rookie deal.  In person."


    Timothy blinked in surprise and said, "Well, I am the recruiter here. I can definitely make you a rookie deal."


    Max shook his head. "No offense, but nobody else is really coming over here to your talbe, and I''m a C-Rank. It''s possible that the Trifecta Guild won''t make me a better deal than what you just described, but I have a feeling they will, especially since I tested at least at a B-rank level for my challenger ID test. I''ve only been back on Earth for a few days, less than a month."


    Now he truly had Timothy''s undivided attention. Glancing left and right and lowering his voice, the young Trifecta Guild member whispered, "Did you participate in any Quartet competitions?"


    Now it was Max''s turn to be surprised. But when he thought about it, Quartet competition participation would definitely be a shorthand for more powerful challengers during their time in the quartet. And the vast majority of Returners would have been participants instead.


    Whispering back, Max replied, "Yes."


    Timothy somehow looked more shocked than he already had before. His voice was strangled as he asked, "Why are you interested in Trifecta then?"


    Now Max''s expression turned cold. "That''s my business. Now, are you going to provide me with transportation to your guild headquarters so I can talk to somebody higher up the food chain, or not?"


    "Hold on, let me make a phone call," Timothy said. Then, almost running, he left the table and disappeared through a door.


    Max didn''t have to wait long. Timothy was back in about a minute, his expression a combination of excitement and trepidation.


    "I just got word back. Challenger Max, you have been officially invited to visit the Trifecta Guild. If you hang around here, I''ll make sure you get a room in my hotel, and we''ll leave first thing in the morning."


    "Sounds good," said Max.  He exchanged numbers with Timothy, and the other man told him to watch for texts. Timothy was already booking Max a room in his hotel.  ¡°I¡¯m going to get some food and come back,¡± said Max.  Sound good?¡±


    ¡°Definitely.  Good to go.¡±


    Max walked away, leaving Timothy typing out an email on his phone.


    As he left the convention center to look for some food, he wondered if any of his old students had heard his name when Timothy called. Was Max going to be visiting the Trifecta Guild as a promising, currently C-Rank challenger, maybe new blood for a dying guild? Would he be greeted by his friends? The harried Timothy didn''t seem to act differently after he had made his phone call, so it was unlikely he''d spoken to anyone knew Max personally.


    He figured he would find out for sure the next day.

 Book 3, ch 17

    "So, speaking of the guild, what''s the difference between all the stuff that has been in the news versus reality?" asked Max. Next to him, Timothy pursed his lips in thought. Allowing the man time to think, Max looked out the window at the passing countryside. They were driving across state lines to Las Vegas. After the previous night and over about an hour of driving now, Max had gotten to know Timothy a lot better than he would have suspected.


    The man wasn¡¯t stupid, it¡¯d just been a long time since anyone of any real talent had been interested in Trifecta.  Now he¡¯d adjusted to Max being interested in his guild.


    When they''d met last night for dinner, Timothy had been like a different man¡ªmuch more assertive. It turned out Timothy was a C-rank as well, but as an earlier Returner, he had been back on Earth for about three years now.


    Timothy was a Zeni Parasite Path Summoner, which was new to Max. He had the ability to bond with a worm-like parasite that would normally kill a person, but in his unique body, the parasite became a symbiote that  slowly made him superhuman. It seemed that the Zeni Parasite Path Challengers, in addition to learning to fight with their superpowers, also had to deepen their bond with their parasite.


    All of it sounded extremely strange to Max, completely alien from any other Paths he''d ever known of.  This Path hadn¡¯t been in any of the books in his Quartet.


    Timothy had said the reason his rank was C even after all this time, and even after ranking up, from E, where he¡¯d¡¯ originally been placed, was because he just didn''t have the raw power that many other Paths did. He was stronger and faster than a normal human, but that was about it when it came to his offensive abilities. However, what he prided himself on was durability. Timothy had told Max over drinks the night before, very confidently, that he could take a beating with the best of them.


    Max couldn¡¯t sense that he¡¯d learned Western Wind Style, a fact he made note of.


    The rest of Timothy¡¯s history was fairly interesting, too.  He''d also been in business school when he''d gone to the Quartet, so after joining the Trifecta Guild over two years ago, he had easily fit into the part of the guild that focused on office work and public relations.


    As Max waited for Timothy to formulate a response to his earlier question, he mused aloud, "At least we''re going fast. I don''t think I''ve ever driven this fast on the highway before, at least not for this long."


    Timothy grinned and added a little bit more speed to the car. They were consistently traveling over one hundred miles an hour on the highway. There weren''t as many cars on the road as Max remembered before his time in the Quartet, and it seemed like slow traffic kept to the right side of the road without exception.


    "These days," Timothy said, "being a Challenger is sort of like being a cop¡­on steroids. Even though this is a rental car, I put a magnet on the back to note the Trifecta Guild. The guild''s fallen, but it''s still one of the larger guilds in North America."


    "So you can speed if you''re in a guild?" asked Max. "Actually, does everybody else still have a speed limit?"


    Timothy nodded seriously. "Yes, there''s still a speed limit on the roads, but Challenger guild members get a pass.¡±


    ¡°Why?  I mean besides the fact most cops can¡¯t even arrest most Challengers if they don¡¯t want to go.¡±


    ¡°Good point, but it¡¯s because unless we''re flying or maybe even running there ourselves, sometimes we take cars to portals or to go somewhere to fight monsters. We use our own vehicles to get to emergencies pretty often.  Unless the police want to do our job for us, they need to get out of the way when we''re driving."


    Max nodded sagely at that. "So, anyway, Vegas is really the place to be now, huh?"


    "Sort of," said Timothy. "Some cities are abandoned now. Some cities have more people. The guilds across America have unofficially chosen a few cities to gather in, among other things, for how central they are to get to other places in the country. Challengers need to get to monster subjugations or portals. But another reason is that  not many Challengers in the world have teleportation powers. And wherever those people live, the major guilds will often move closer to be near the teleporter."


    "Really?"


    "Yes, especially for conferences and things like that. Traveling by plane, even fast planes, can take an entire day, just for travel. A teleporter, depending on what type they are, can make a meeting across the world, in person, can be like any other meeting. But of course, that sort of service can''t even be bought with money; it''s usually a courtesy for something major. The Trifecta Guild never had a teleporter, but the Scorpion Guild is based out of Vegas. The Scorpion Guild had a teleporter.  Now quite a few guilds on the west of the United States are also located in Vegas.¡±


    If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    ¡°So it¡¯s for the teleporter and central location?¡±


    ¡°Yes, but not only that, flat open areas are harder for monsters to hide in. So over the last few years, guilds and people who can afford to tend to move or live in flat, empty areas. Mountains and dense forests are some of the most dangerous places in the world."


    Max thought about that for a few seconds. "So does that mean that there are guilds located in Utah and Texas too?"


    "Utah, yes. Texas, there isn''t a large concentration of guilds in any area like there is in Vegas. But there are a lot of smaller groups and smaller guilds in Texas."


    "I think I got it," said Max.


    The two of them lapsed into a comfortable silence for a while as Max patiently waited for Timothy to answer his question about the Trifecta guild¡¯s current problems. Over the last few days, Max had taken the opportunity to look up news stories about the Trifecta Guild, but he wanted to hear what Timothy would say about it. Finally, the man said, "As you probably have read, about Trifecta¨C¡±  He trailed off and started again.  About two years ago, two of the highest-ranked members of the guild left. And when they left, they took a lot of other members with them. Those two were Toby and Sam Lynch. Both S-ranked challengers. Ever since then, the guild just hasn''t been the same."


    Max nodded slowly. He knew there was more to it than that. The Lynch brothers had also reportedly stolen from the Trifecta Guild, and some of the Trifecta leadership, including Chad, had tried to sue them using official channels, but nothing had come from it. Max waited patiently until Timothy said, "I''m sure you''ve seen the news stories about bad blood too. That''s actually true. And it doesn''t help that the Lynch Brothers'' new guild, Victory, is in Vegas as well."


    Max nodded thoughtfully at this. He knew that Victory Guild belonged to the Lynch brothers and had even seen one of their reps at the challenger job fair, but he didn''t know that they''d established their guild headquarters in the same city as the Trifecta Guild.


    "Okay, so how does that differ from what really happened?" asked Max.


    Timothy didn''t say anything for a minute, and then he finally broke the silence again, speaking slowly and thoughtfully. "In order to answer that question, I need to ask you one first. Why are you really trying to negotiate to join Trifecta? Nobody with your credentials has for a long time. At first, I thought it was just because you believed you''d get a better deal with a guild that''s on a decline like Trifecta is. And maybe that''s true. I don''t know. But over the last day of talking to you, I haven''t gotten the impression that you''re really a money-motivated person. And then you''re asking these questions about what happened to Trifecta from my perspective. And I gotta be honest, I''m a little suspicious now."


    "Suspicious? How?" asked Max.


    "Well, reporting on guild dirty laundry is a good career for some reporters, and getting inside information is worth money too. But you are a C-rank challenger, same as me. And unlike me plateauing at C, you''re probably going to be B very soon. Shoot, maybe even A. So I doubt money is really that much of a concern for you, even if that''s what drove you. I just don''t understand, Max. I don''t understand what you''re doing, or why I''m taking you to the Trifecta Guild."


    "It''s really simple," said Max.


    "It is?"


    "Yes, I just want to join the Trifecta Guild."


    Timothy briefly took his eyes from the road to look incredulously at Max before he turned back and chuckled. "It''s just that simple, huh?"


    "Yes, it''s just that simple.¡¯


    ¡°Well, I''m not even going to pretend anymore to understand, but to answer your question, what those bastard Lynch brothers did almost destroyed the guild, and the guild leadership has been hanging on with their fingernails. Now, somehow, the Trifecta Guild still exists. I and many others are optimistic that we can eventually bounce back. But the last two years have been rough, very rough."


    "I understand," said Max. He lapsed into silence again and looked out the window at the passing scenery that flashed by at around one hundred and twenty miles an hour, now. Even though most challengers had superhuman abilities and tough bodies, he doubted that many would survive a crash at this speed. It was a strange thing to think about. But as he watched Timothy flash past the other cars like they were practically standing still, it drove home that the Challengers were a special class of people in this new world.


    It hadn''t even been a decade since the monsters attacked, so people were still adjusting to what that actually meant. He frowned, ignoring the distractions with a bit of willpower and thought about what Timothy had said.


    Max still hadn''t seen any specifics about what exactly the Lynch brothers did when they left the Trifecta Guild, but he had a feeling that when he got the full story from his friends, he wasn''t going to like it.


    Timothy drove the two of them straight to Vegas with only a couple of stops along the way for a rest break and to eat. Finally, after driving down most of the Vegas strip, they pulled into the parking lot of a large building that looked like it used to be some sort of hotel.


    "This is Trifecta?" asked Max.


    "Yep. We were originally in a different building before, but after everything that happened two years ago, we had to move."


    "Is this cheaper?" asked Max.


    "Exactly," Timothy parked the rental car and said, "Let''s go ahead and check in at the front counter before we get you a room. Everybody in Trifecta has their own room in the guild in case we have to pull all-nighters or it''s more convenient to stay there. We have guards at all times. And a vault too, in case you want to leave any weapons here."


    "Got it," said Max.


    As they walked across the parking lot, a group of people left the front doors at the same time and walked out. Some of them were wearing expensive suits, and others had on the anachronistic armor or otherworldly gear that Max was getting used to seeing challengers wear on Earth. Suddenly, Max recognized one of the people in the group. He immediately smiled in excitement, waved a hand, and shouted, "Chad!"


    Everybody in the group ahead stopped and looked at him incredulously.  To his side, Timothy hissed and tried elbowing Max in the arm to get his attention. Max ignored him.


    "Chad!" he yelled again.


    One of the members of the group of seven, a young man in battle armor, frowned and took a step as if he was going to move himself in front of Chad. However, Chad, with shock written all over his face, grabbed the man''s shoulder and prevented him from walking out any further.


    "Max, is that you?" In that moment, Max verified that none of his friends knew that he was back on Earth yet. Whoever had told Timothy to take him to guild headquarters must have just been another PR person or a manager. Chad really hadn¡¯t known that  Max was back,  there was no way he could act this well.


    Max gave his best shit-eating grin and folded his arms. "Happy to see me? Well, whether you are or not, wanna go somewhere we can talk?"

 Book 3, ch 18

    Max pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration, his eyes closed. He thought about what he had just heard over the last half hour while quietly listening to Chad. Of course, that had been after a short car ride from the parking lot they¡¯d met in, to this much larger, nicer building.


    Finally, Max opened his eyes again but didn''t focus on his friend. Instead, he let his gaze wander while he continued thinking, organizing his thoughts, all while seated in an overstuffed leather recliner.


    Several other expensive recliners were arrayed in the magnificent room, all around a huge table.  An unlit fireplace clad in marble graced one wall, while the opposite wall boasted a full bar, large enough for one or two people to work behind. A total of eight recliners were currently placed the room, but Max could tell there was space to easily handle twice this number.  The room was about the size of a hotel lobby. Signs of wealth were everywhere.


    Getting here had been interesting.  Chad had almost seemed to be in a panic.


    After they¡¯d first met, with a thunderous expression, he¡¯d grabbed Max by the arm and practically dragged him to a car.  He¡¯d put a finger over his lips with pleading in his eyes while nobody was watching, and Max had kept his silence throughout the entire car ride.  He¡¯d also played along once the car stopped when Chad hurried him up to this floor, along with his confused security detail and the people who had been accompanying him before. However, past a certain point, all of his entourage had stopped, except for the security detail. Now, the two of them were seated across from each other at the table in what had to be a high level meeting room, and Max was feeling a little sick to his stomach. Everything he''d assumed had happened within Trifecta had been either slightly off the mark, or the reality was worse.


    He directly studied Chad, and his big friend''s heart looked like it was breaking within his eyes. Max had learned a number of things in a very short amount of time, and one of them was how much this guild meant to most of his friends, especially to Chad. Within the Trifecta Guild, all of his students were called the Originators, and the Originators were part of a slightly larger group called the Inner Circle.


    Max very deliberately laid his hands on his lap before he decided not to spend so much energy appearing calm.  Instead, he rested his elbows on the table in front of him and steepled his fingers.


    ¡°Chad," he said evenly.


    "Yes?"  The last few years had not been good for the man.  Although he had the body of an olympic athlete, deep lines crossed his face.


    "I am going to repeat back what I understand this situation to be, and I want you to tell me whether I have everything right or not."


    Chad nodded once. "Got it."


    Max sighed. "So, what you told me that would be public information, or public misinformation, matches up with everything I read online. This official story is that Trifecta used to be one of the most powerful American guilds. It has fallen on hard times, but it is mostly dying now.  This is largely true, but is not the full story.


    ¡°Trifecta was truly one of the most powerful guilds about two years ago.  And one of the reasons for that is because Trifecta is one of the only guilds in the world that has ever been able to consistently confer a new Path for a high percentage of Challengers. Challengers who could learn and utilize Western Wind style had a solid chance of developing a new Path. And this fact was not exactly common knowledge, but a lot of Challengers were still able to figure it out when some of the other members developed abilities similar to the Originators. Everyone who has ever learned Western Wind Style at this guild has signed binding contracts to ensure loyalty and secrecy.  If they betrayed us, or if they left us within twenty years, they agreed to forfeit their lives.  Am I right so far?"


    "Yes," said Chad.


    "Okay. Everything was good at first.  But then, as the guild grew more powerful, and more powerful Returners began coming back to Earth, Trifecta started actively recruiting some of the more powerful Challengers in the world. Because," Max paused, "none of the Originators have ever actually made it to S rank."


    "That''s right," said Chad softly.


    "All A rank or lower!? What the fuck have you all been doing all this time?" almost slipped out of Max''s mouth. He held his tongue, though. Verbally attacking his friend was not going to make the situation better. Not everyone had what it took to even make A rank, lease of all S-rank.  Not only that, he had to be honest with himself that the only reason most of his friends had become Challengers in the first place, much less gotten as strong as they were now, was because he''d started them on their Path so early.


    They¡¯d been passively absorbing mana all this time.


    All they¡¯d really gained from Max was basic Western Wind style. On Albion, there were several levels of Western Wind Style.  At its basic level, it was a martial art that was passed down to guards and trusted vassals of Max''s old family. There was a limit of how far a warrior could take basic Western Wind Style by itself unless they were extremely talented or they were instructed further by someone like Max. And Max hadn''t been there.


    A slow, poisonous feeling of guilt began making its way up from his stomach, but he battered it down with logic as cold as deep space. There was nothing he could have done about the situation. And that, more than anything, was probably what was pissing him off most.


    Max breathed deeply and said, "The Guild recruited a few powerful Challengers, and the ones that were able to learn Western Wind Style and pick up a new Path signed contracts and stayed long term. But after more than a year, they realized there was a limit to how far the Path could take them, and rumors got around, so it became harder to entice top talent. But on top of that, after more time passed, there were other people in the world who offered to teach methods to help someone find another Path."


    Chad interrupted for the first time. "Yeah, but they were all mostly bullshit. Even the ones that work are super rare, and some of them even hurt people who tried."


    Max shook his head.  "I don''t need to go over the minutiae. I''m just trying to understand the overall situation."


    "Got it."


    "Okay, so Trifecta was the most consistent way, the most sure way for a challenger to pick up another Path. What''s more, it''s one of the only paths that anybody is claiming they can teach in the world with any degree of success that confers physical abilities in a passive way. And it also synergizes with other Paths that use mana."


    "Correct," said Chad.


    Max continued. "So, to make a long story short, the rest of the world currently doesn''t widely know that the remaining Trifecta leadership is not S-Rank.  And if everybody knew, the guild¡¯s reputation would immediately completely fall the rest of the way.  And all of the most powerful members of the guild already left to follow these two asshole brothers, Toby and Sam Lynch, who planned this whole coup. And on top of that, the handful of powerful guild members who were outside of the Originators, in the Inner Circle that was left, were threatened or pressured by these asshole brothers to take an indefinite break from adventuring. This was all planned so the Trifecta guild would be so weak that we, and by we I mean you all, could not tell the world what was really going on even as Sam and Toby¡¯s new guild basically extorted Trifecta and stole resources.  They have been draining this guild dry after taking advantage, all while also eating up the remaining contracts that you have been holding onto by not telling the world the full truth."


    Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    "That''s about the gist of it, yes," said Chad. His face was ashen.


    "Oh, but there''s more," Max''s voice dripped with venom, but it was not directed at Chad. "All of these assholes that left the guild and are currently attacking it made oaths and signed contracts like the ones I recommended before I left Earth. So not only did they break their oaths by leaving the guild, they also broke their oaths no to betray it, and even worse, by training their new guild members, at least some of them, in the Western Wind style. Is that correct?"


    Chad looked up now with worry and something else in his eyes, something haunted. "That''s basically correct, too," he admitted.


    "And lastly," said Max, irritation at the entire situation making him tap a finger on the table, "the situation is so bad right now that there are actually spies in the guild which we are currently hoping have not seen me or realized who I really am since my last name is not exactly uncommon. And on top of that, you don''t think I should make contact with the rest of the Originators, because they might absolutely lose their shit and do something stupid to let our enemies know I¡¯m back, or get upset with me when I don''t immediately set everything right. Is that correct?"


    "Yes."


    "Okay, Chad. I''m going to believe everything you told me. I''m going to just roll with it without questioning because you''ve been here and I haven''t. Not only that, I just don¡¯t have time to dick around doing due diligence if even half of this stuff is correct.  It is extremely irritating that I just got here and I can''t say hello to my other friends, but I understand that all of you have been through a lot. And after reviewing the videos I¡¯ve seen of S-Rank challengers in this world, it would be stupid for me to fight them right now, at least right away.¡± Max believed that he could probably take any one of them one-on-one, but only if he used all of his abilities. And conveniently fighting his enemies one-on-one was a pretty silly thing to gamble his life on.


    Chad coughed and said, "Actually, it''s been slow because we''ve had to use slow and discrete channels, but we''ve been doing our best to sue Toby and Sam."


    Max glared.  His voice was savage as he demanded, "Sue!? The goddamn world is being attacked by monsters. Cops can''t do shit anymore. The average cop couldn''t arrest a D-rank challenger, much less keep them incarcerated, much less S-ranks, and that''s if they didn''t have any friends!"


    "Well, I''ve reached out to some vigilantes too," said Chad. He looked like he was about to cry as he admitted all of the dirt from the last few years. "I even met with some privately to see if they would kill the brothers at least.¡±


    ¡°So assassins?¡±


    ¡°Some of the vigilantes will do that sort of thing if you can convince them the Challenger you want dead is bad. Anyway, none would take the job. They wouldn''t tell me all the reasons why, but it was probably a combination of the fact that my enemies are too powerful, and also that from an outsider''s perspective, all they''d done was violate a work contract. After all, there are some Challengers in this world who are mass murdering people or keeping armies of slaves, or other sick stuff. Things that are obviously evil, things that if vigilantes stop, they get much better press coverage and rewards.  After all, they need to make a living too."  He grinned sardonically.


    Max gave him a flat look. "Well, that just means we, and by we I mean me, need to kill these motherfuckers."


    "But wouldn''t that be murder?" said Chad hesitantly.


    "Maybe," said Max, "but you literally just told me that you looked into assassinating these pieces of shit. How is that any different? If somebody else''s hand is doing it, it doesn''t mean you are clean."


    "What about the law? Or PR?"


    "Fuck the law," said Max. "Some things the law still has sway over, but when it comes to whether we teach Western Wind style and people signing contracts dedicating their life to it, that''s another matter entirely. This is the world at stake.  It¡¯s bigger than what some person in a suit decides how the rest of the world should act.


    ¡°As for PR and the rest, I''ll take care of that. Even though I''ve been gone for a long time, I''m sure that some people still remember that first broadcast for our guild. I''m hoping not too many people remember because otherwise somebody might have recognized me in the lobby."


    Max suddenly paused and looked around the office. "This place is pretty nice. Why is it when I first met you, you were outside a place that was at least several levels lower?"


    "Isn''t that obvious?" asked Chad. "We''re almost out of money, Max. In fact, we''re up to our eyeballs in debt. If we don''t keep paying the Sam and Toby hush money, they''ll go public with all of our secrets, but we''re also getting fewer and fewer contracts because we can''t take the jobs that actually require a large enough, powerful enough force. If you hadn''t shown up now, we probably would have been moving out of this building and heading to the one you saw me at within two months. We¡¯ve been preparing.  Had to hold on.  After all, I couldn''t let the guild die because we knew that you were coming back eventually¨Cor at least we wanted to believe it.  But there was no way that in a year''s time we would still own this building."


    Max grew quiet for a while as the threads of guilt moved up from his stomach again. This time, instead of batting them down, he transformed them into icy rage. "Well, lucky for all of us, I have a plan," said Max.


    "A plan?" asked Chad.


    "Yes. What about the portals. I¡¯ve heard that the guilds around here are here because of teleporters.¡±


    Chad¡¯s eyes fell. ¡°Movement abilities cost too much or require favors.  Or prestige.  We don¡¯t have enough money or clout anymore.¡±


    ¡°Then do you have a jet?"


    ¡°A jet?¡±


    ¡°Yes. A private jet.  An airplane.¡±


    "I used to. We had to sell it. But I can get a charter."


    "Do that. We''re going to Canada."


    "Canada? ¡°Why Canada? And do you mean right now?"


    "As soon as possible," said Max. "Within the hour, if possible.  I''m going to go see an old friend who owes me a lot more than you could even imagine."


    Chad looked at him in confusion, and Max facepalmed. "Look, Chad, I don''t want to yell at you. I know you''ve been through a lot, but time is ticking. There are other things going on in the world that you don''t know about right now. So I need you to execute on this. Fast.  Again, I know you''re tired. I know you''re stressed. But I can promise you that if things work out anywhere near how I think they will, everything will be okay soon. But you''re going to need to trust me on this¨Con everything."


    "So we''re visiting another guild?" asked Chad.


    "That''s right. Actually, quick question: if you were to make any sweeping changes to the guild, money-wise or structure-wwise, would you need your brother or anybody else to also sign off on it?"


    Chad shook his head. "No. A few years back, the Originators all voted to just give me executive power so they wouldn''t have to keep bothering with it. I honestly think it''s one of the only reasons some of them are still hanging in there after everything that''s happened. They don''t need to constantly be dealing with the day-to-day. Otherwise they¡¯d be too depressed."


    Max got up from his chair, walked around the table, and put his hand on Chad''s back. "I''m really glad you hung in here all this time, buddy," he said. "Thank you for maintaining the guild.  Now it''s my turn to fix everything. But to do that, I don''t have the contacts or the necessary type of power right now, so I''m going to need you to get out of that comfortable recliner and move your ass."


    Chad suddenly sprang out of his chair. He glared at Max, but there was also a bit of relief and hope in his eyes now. Different expressions crossed his face all within the span of a second, but eventually, he stood straight and with some fire in his voice said, "I''m on it. We''ll have a plane within an hour."


    "Good," said Max. "Come get me or send one of your people here when we''re ready."


    With that, he leaned back in his recliner, looked at the ceiling, and started thinking about everything he still had on his plate. It was frustrating as hell that he still needed to figure out how he was going to get Momo to Earth when he kept getting interrupted by everything else after coming back.

 Book 3, ch 19

    Max sat on a private airplane that Chad had rented. The two of them were almost to Vancouver. Throughout the flight, Chad had been working furiously, using his laptop and speaking softly into his Bluetooth earbud. While Chad did what was necessary for a last-minute meeting in Canada, Max read years of news stories online, filling in his knowledge gaps. Now that he knew what really happened in the Trifecta Guild, it was easier to parse the truth behind other public stories about other guilds as well. He decided that the state of the US, and the rest of the world, was not looking good.


    Even in the fact of looming global annihilation, people were still being greedy and shortsights.


    In fact, when he''d first gotten back to Earth, he''d felt skeptical about the Agency because the idea of some government entity running anything involving Challengers seemed weird to him. During his life on Earth, most world governments weren''t exactly the most efficiently-run organizations, and the world had been half destroyed already.


    But humanity was still hanging on, still maintaining the front lines against the monsters.  And it seemed like the entire world had the individual Agencies of every country to thank for helping with coordination and organization.


    That got Max doing more research on the Agency itself.


    It was strange, but he still couldn''t find out exactly who had started the National Guild Suppression Agency, or who had proposed or solidified how each country¡¯s Agency actually worked. Max had put some real effort into it until he also realized that he couldn''t be the first person to have looked into this. After a quick search on the subject, he found thread after thread on the internet by other people who were intrigued by the mystery of how the Agency was built out of practically nowhere.  It seemed like most people in the world eventually just gave up on the mystery, deciding that every country''s Agency was doing a good job and without them, everybody would be worse off.


    The general consensus was also that whoever had actually started the agency, or whoever was behind it, was a hero for discovering more of how the universe worked.


    But Max knew a little more than the average bear about how the universe actually worked.  Now he was suspicious whether the agency had even actually been a human invention. It was a terrible feeling, and he hoped he was wrong, but after everything he''d been through, suspecting a conspiracy at a galaxy, or universal, or maybe even cross-dimensional scale, was actually becoming his go-to.


    The plane was currently flying relatively close to the west coast of the United States. Something else that Max had been studying was how much of the world had been overtaken by monsters. At this point, it was quite a bit.  The line representing the front line of the war in the US went from just inside Montana, curving inward, to the Carolinas.


    Most of Canada was gone, only the westernmost part of Canada, barely connecting the US to Alaska, was still under human control. Most of Alaska was gone too. The only reason the sliver of Alaska remained was that it was being used as a staging area for other countries, and the combined might helped humanity keep that tenuous strip of land.


    One of the many problems that humanity faced with the monster invasion was how many of them were completely comfortable in environments that were absolutely inhospitable to humans. Whole areas of the planet were much more likely to be owned by monsters now. Deserts and the north and south poles, all extreme environments.  The seas and oceans were all infested now. Even in what would otherwise be considered human territory, lakes and rivers were considered some of the most dangerous areas that anyone could frequent.


    Fishing was no longer a relaxing past time anymore.  Alligators were the least dangerous thing populating the waters in Florida.


    People knew a lot more about how portals can work now. If a portal was not shut in time, it would disgorge monsters, but the number was usually finite. This was the most common type of portal that still spawned on the planet. They could appear in human-controlled areas, but not as often. And most of them near cities were usually addressed and conquered right away. But the portals that opened on the other side of the country, for instance, like in New York, had nobody to challenge them. This meant that it was inevitable for the portal to break and monsters to spill out. Portal bread were basically how all the invading monsters were getting reinforcements.


    The only reason humanity hadn''t been wiped out was because of human weapons effective on some monsters, Challengers, Returners, and the fact that most different types of monsters didn''t work together well, if at all. In fact, sometimes monsters fought. So it was actually more accurate to say that about half of the United States right now had been taken over and carved up by about six individual different monster nations. What was fascinating about this was that each monster nation still sometimes got portals in their territory for other, enemy monsters.  But monsters couldn''t actually enter a portal. As a result, the monsters holding land had to allocate some of their forces to surround portal breaks in their own territory to kill their enemies.


    From a certain point of view, the entire world right now was humanity versus about one hundred different unified groups of monsters, some of whom were more intelligent than others. It was grim.


    Perhaps equally grim was how when Returners from monster-controlled areas came back to hearth, they often found themselves in enemy territory, and had to seek out survivors. The way humanity had dealt with this over the last several years was to send extremely dangerous flights into enemy airspace to drop leaflets and packages containing information about the state of the world, as well as directions on where to go.


    Max could only imagine what it would be like to come back to his hometown in the middle of monster territory and find out that he had to cross the entire country before finding other people again. A semi-abandoned city in human territory, like he¡¯d returned to, would be far different from one under monster control.  It wasn''t a surprise that many Returners had died, but fortunately, a surprising number had made the trip.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    Regular people had died in droves within the first few months after the monster attacks, but after that, humanity somewhat got its act together and began a mass exodus of people. If it weren''t for all the various Challengers on the planet now, many more people probably would have died from mundane causes, if not monster attacks. Food and water would be incredibly scarce after losing half the country and not having regular shipping. On top of that, the only types of airplanes that dared cross monster-infested territory were those that flew high enough to be out of reach of most flying monsters.


    "What a mess," Max grunted.


    At some point, Chad had ambled over. "It really is," the big man said with a sigh. He sat back in his seat, letting his muscles go limp like a boneless rag doll. "I don''t know what you have up your sleeve or why we''re doing this, but I''m going to trust you."


    "You''ve already said that."


    "That''s true, but I needed to say it again for my own sanity. Anyway, you will have your meeting very quickly after we touch down in Vancouver."


    "Who did you talk to?¡±.


    "A handler," Chad grimaced. "I didn''t get a chance to deliver your message at all, so I don''t know what we''re walking into."


    "Oh well, doesn''t matter," said Max. "How much longer do we have until we touch down?"


    "About half an hour."


    "All right. I was thinking about taking a nap¨C¡± Suddenly Max''s attention was jerked to one side as if his eyeballs had turned to steel and the most powerful magnet in the world was on the other side of the plane''s passenger area. He didn''t have to be told what this was. Now he could actually feel all of his spirits half-manifested behind him¨Cwhat he was feeling had caught all of their attention as well.


    ¡°This has not happened in a long time," he muttered, his words trailing off.


    Lavinia''s voice whispered in his ear, "Not since you met me. Strong resonance."


    Max absently nodded, and he was eternally thankful that showing uncommonly good sense, Anansi had kept quiet the entire time Max had been dealing with Chad, and the divine remnant was still staying silent. This moment, especially now that Max was a stronger and more sophisticated Summoner, he could feel how special this situation truly was.


    Just like with Lavinia, he was experiencing a spontaneous meeting with a spirit due to shared attributes, goals, personality, or some other similarities strong enough to interact with each other naturally.


    On the other side of the plane, standing on one of the seats was a softly glowing, translucent praying mantis.  It was beautiful, its colors pinks, greens, and whites, all slightly washed out by its translucency. Max did a quick rundown of all of his spirits, making sure they were present and paying attention.  They all were.


    They all understood the importance of this moment.  Since Lavinia, his first contract ever, this was the first spirit that he truly met naturally like this, without any outside influences, or violence, or deals, or magic circles, or tests or a remnant dragging them along, or other extenuating circumstances.


    Quietly, Max said, "Chad, I need you to trust me and do me a favor."


    "What?"


    "I need you to leave the cabin."


    "And go where? Outside?  I can''t go up to the pilot''s compartment, either."


    Max spared his friend one quick glance to demonstrate through his expression how serious he was. He did feel a little bit sorry for him that he was a guild master and kept getting jerked around like this in one day. Now poor Chad was getting kicked out of the cabin of the plane he¡¯d rented.  But Max didn''t want this opportunity to go to waste. In his heart, he somehow could tell that the spirit he could see right now was shy and wouldn''t like an audience.


    "Okay, fine," Chad grumbled.  "I¡¯m sensing that this is magic or Challenger stuff.  Fine.  If you need me, I will be in the restroom for twenty minutes. But that''s as long as I''ll lock myself in there."


    "That should be good," said Max. ¡°Thank you.¡±  He nodded in appreciation. Chad muttered to himself the entire way to the back of the plane before locking himself in the lavatory.


    After that, Max''s full attention was on the spirit that had manifested by itself in the cabin.  The mantis cocked its head at him.  "Hello," he said softly. "My name is Max Cunningham. It''s a pleasure to meet you."


    The spirit twisted its head to the other side, but Max couldn''t hear anything. Suddenly he saw a chat window from Slick.


    [Good thing I''ve been saving my power, boss, because I can translate.]


    "You can? That¡¯s great, Slick! Can anybody else communicate with this spirit?" he asked out loud. All of his other spirits indicated that no, they could not. Even Saliron, the dark, bone-obsessed entity, was quietly watching as well. He seemed to be as fascinated by this moment as Max and the rest of his spirits.


    This really doesn''t happen very often, said Lavinia mentally.  Her mental tone was full of wonder.  It¡¯s fortunate that Slick can translate so you can communicate better.


    Suddenly, a voice Max hadn''t wanted to hear echoed through the cabin. Anansi wasn''t speaking as loud as he could, but his voice still carried as he said, "I really hate praying mantises. Don''t you think you could maybe tell her to go away and just wait for the next spirit to come along? I mean, this wouldn''t meeting might not even be possible if I hadn''t already talked to Siliron about lowering his standards a bit, at least officially, for any new stray spirits you pick up."


    Just as suddenly, Siliron''s voice came out of nowhere, as chill and dark as it always was. "Dead God, I will not disrespect you, but I will not cower either, at least not when it comes to bones. This unknown spirit has bones on the outside, and they are beautiful and exotic. I find it pleasing to behold."


    "They''re not bones, it¡¯s an exoskeleton," said Anansi.


    The whole time his spirit and remnant were bickering, Max was observing the praying mantis spirit cock her head yet again in confusion and slowly start edging towards the wall of the plane. He didn''t know how he could tell what the spirit was feeling, but he did. He growled out, "If you two don''t shut the fuck up right now, we''re going to have problems."


    "That wasn''t very polite," complained Anansi. But he stopped speaking.


    Saliron just grunted, his voice carrying through the air like oil spreading across rusted steel. "I would normally not tolerate disrespect like this, but I suppose these are rare circumstances. However, you owe me bones of placation before night falls, Contractor."


    "Saliron, you are ridiculous.  ¡®Respect?¡¯ You tried to kill me the first time we met, but whatever, you''ve got a deal," said Max. Then he drew in a shaky breath, stood up from his seat, and crouched down to eye level with the distant praying mantis spirit.


    "Let''s try this again, shall we?" He said. "My name is Max. I''m a summoner. I actually met one other spirit this way before. Her name is Lavinia." He gestured to one side and said, "Lavinia, can you show yourself?"


    The spirit manifested next to him, translucent but still sharp, very similar to the mantis. She smiled and gave a little wave. "I was his first spirit. And if I''m not mistaken, you and I are the same rank too." Lavinia turned slightly to Max and said, "She could tell that I was here before. Spirits can sense one another. But now that we''ve both manifested, maybe I can try teaching her how to speak, even while Slick continues to translate for you."


    Max locked eyes with the new spirit. "Would that be acceptable?" He asked.


    [Yes].


    Slick''s communication window hung in the air.


    Then Max said, "Before we start talking any further, may I ask your name?"


    There was a pause before another one of Slick''s windows popped into existence again.


    [I am called Daliko.]

 Book 3, ch 20

    Max could barely believe his eyes as he stared out the window of the private plane before landing. Chad seemed to understand what was on his mind even though Max hadn''t said anything. The former jiu-jitsu instructor-turned-adventuring-guild-leader sighed and leaned his head back.


    "Yes, the compound is massive," he answered the unasked question.


    "It really is like a small city, isn''t it?" said Max.


    "Yes," Chad nodded. "I''m not going to sit here and pretend that Trifecta was the biggest guild in the world, but I''m also not going to pretend that it was small or unimportant before. That said, the Patriot Guild is another animal entirely. It''s the largest guild in Canada and one of the three largest guilds both North and South America. It''s absolutely huge. Which is super interesting considering that Canada lost most of its land mass."


    "Aren''t most Canadians just packed into that small area on the west now?" said Max.


    "That''s right," Chad nodded as he tried to look through the porthole over Max. But Max ignored the other man''s efforts and continued studying the view below. After all, his friend had had the last few years to watch all of this be built. Meanwhile, it was all new to Max.


    Vancouver spread out in the distance, but nearby was the Patriot Guild compound, which really did almost look like its own city, complete with a few skyscrapers. The level of wealth was mind-boggling to Max, even when he considered how much easier construction was now that the world had magic.


    Refugees weren¡¯t living in tents pretty much anywhere in the world.


    Displaced people had been given new homes that were only one step down from a real house. Challengers that had elemental magics like earth and stone had been utilized to quickly and efficiently raise living spaces. Some of the pre-portals construction crews also utilized weaker or less specialized mages to help build faster using a hybrid of magical and traditional processes.


    One example would be a concrete crew that poured a concrete slab and then the attached mage could dry the concrete almost instantly. This ability meant that construction teams could not only get work done quicker, but they could also use new, faster construction techniques. The crews could create very weak forms for structures that they would cover the inside of with concrete, and then the attached mage could harden that concrete and build it up in layers.  Then after the exterior was done, the crew could fill up the concrete form to create the structure and include the interior rebar.  The attached mage could even ensure a strong bond between the concrete of the form and the interior.  Magic made it all possible.


    Running electricity was easy, now.  Stone mages could be given a wire that they simply inserted into the concrete like the wall was temporarily made of standing water. They bent the laws of physics.  Some stone mages or earth mages were so powerful that they could create a skyscraper in less than a week while working together.  The massive guilds like the Patriot guilds kept a small, standing army of stone mages.  They could erect a forward base to operate out of in an hour or less.  It boggled the mind.


    Max tapped a finger on his armrest while he thought about the state of the world.  He looked forward to finally getting some more down time so he could finally just¡­digest everything he¡¯d learned.  He also needed some time to get to know his new spirit Daliko better, too.  She said in a few more days, she should be able to speak directly to him.


    He kept thinking about her request, the promise he needed to fulfill for their contract, relayed by Slick.


    [Kill enough monsters. Help save this world.]


    It was simple, but profound.


    A lot had already happened today.  Max knew there was a lot more to come.


    Eventually, the plane got clearance to land, and he was unsurprised that the airfield they were using was connected to the massive guild and was not actually in Vancouver. After the plane touched down, Max and Chad disembarked and Max got his first-hand view of all of the brand new construction around him. Other people on the planet were used to seeing this sort of thing and had likely been around while it was being built. But to Max, suddenly being thrust in the middle of it, there were subtle things about the architecture surrounding him that he found different, even slightly alien.


    In fact, he realized with a start that some of the concrete reminded him of stone buildings he''d seen in the Quartet. Once he made that observation, the link was obvious. He''d never seen so many curved walls in a concrete building before. But if somebody was erecting stone walls with their magic and didn''t need to use clunky forms, just about anything was possible.


    After Max and Chad left the tarmac for the welcome area of the private airport, a man in a suit with a very business-like haircut and round glasses approached. Before he spoke, Max noticed that the man had little gold trombones on his red tie.  He also had a music note pin.


    "Hello, Guildmaster Chad Monroe of Trifecta, I presume?" he asked.  He held out a hand.


    Chad shook and responded, "That''s me."


    Then the man in the suit dropped his hand and didn''t even bother to acknowledge Max¡¯s presence.  He said, "My name is Ian Hambly. I will be your guide here in the Patriot Guild."


    Wow, he''s not even pretending to be polite, is he? thought Max. He knew why, of course.  The Patriot Guild likely thought that Chad was here to either borrow money or beg for a favor. Either way, it probably wasn''t exactly a social call.


    And how important could someone traveling with a disgraced, A-rank Champion, guild leader be?


    Max¡¯s spirits didn¡¯t have his level of chill.  He could hear Lavina softly growling in his ear, and Saliron send him a subvocal message, offering to break all the bones in the man¡¯s body.


    Settle down, everyone, Max thought to his spirits.  He had to admit it felt good, though, knowing they were irritated on his behalf.


    "This way please," said Ian. And dutifully, Max and Chad followed the man to an elevator where he pushed a button and then punched in a code before they all headed up.


    Max was trying to play it cool, but the reality was he was trying to rein in his irritation as well.  He had to admit he didn¡¯t warrant special treatment in this situation¨Cafter all, nobody here knew who he was or why he was here. But he didn''t think that anybody should be treated rudely in a professional setting unless they¡¯d earned it.  Instead of taking it personally that he wasn''t being regarded as anything more than Chad''s secretary or something, he was irked by the very simple fact that Ian was being an asshole.


    He checked his internal barometer of the situation to make sure he wasn''t accidentally getting full of himself or taking himself too seriously and decided that he wasn''t. After all, if he was working in Ian''s position, he would generally treat everybody with respect unless they were proven to be a bad actor.


    Even when Max had been working at the cell phone store before heading to the Quartet, he''d always had excellent customer service, even when dealing with old people who couldn''t hear very well and didn''t understand technology at all but pretended they did. They were some of the most challenging customers, but he always managed to keep his cool.


    If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    Ian was likely the type of person without much real power, but by being associated with a big build like Patriot, people treated him with far more deference than they usually would and he¡¯d let it go to his head.  Idiot, thought Max.


    Eventually, they all boarded a tram. This a tram.  In a guild.  It was the kind of transportation a huge airport would have.  As Ian''s back was turned, Max stared at Chad and silently mouthed, "Are you fucking kidding me right now?" The other man just shrugged helplessly.  Max saw building after building, platform after platform flash by as the tram zipped through the compound.


    He could feel his understanding about the state of the world and assumptions about other guilds getting a bit of a reorganization. Even as it happened, he felt foolish that it was necessary. He had already known that in this sort of situation, with the world being under attack, governments of countries would have very limited power anymore. After all, if cops couldn''t stop most Challengers, any military probably wouldn''t fare much better. And any country going to war with their own Challengers would be killing themselves because then they''d be helpless against monsters.


    In fact, that was one reason why North Korea had fallen so quickly, actually in the first year after the initial monster attack.


    For the Patriot Guild to be this large, this established, and have this much real estate, even with mages doing most of the building, meant it had an absolutely astronomical level of wealth and influence. Pre-portals world billionaires probably had nothing on this guild now. And it was a safe bet that the Canadian government did what the Patriot Guild told it to do, not the other way around.


    Finally, the tram stopped and Ian led them out into a waiting room. He said, "Thank you for following me here. Please be patient. The guild leader is a very busy man. But, he said that he would meet you today at some point when he has time. I will come by to check on you periodically, depending on how long it takes, in order to see if you need anything. Thank you." The man didn''t even wait for a response before he turned and left the room.


    "Real friendly guy, huh?" said Max.


    "Yeah," Chad rubbed his nose between his eyes. "I can''t say I''m surprised though. The general public might not know everything that''s going on, but guilds talk. And let''s just say that I used to be invited to a lot of parties and I''m not anymore."


    "I see," said Max. He carefully looked around the room, trying to decide whether it was bugged. It wasn''t really possible to tell. So instead, he mentally called out to Lavinia.


    Hey, do you remember seeing things about wiretaps or bugs or electronic bugs in my memories?


    A couple seconds later, the ghost girl''s voice came back and she said, Yes, are you gonna ask me if I can find any?


    That''s right.


    Okay, I''ll give it a shot, Lavinia responded.


    Max leaned back in his chair, not even a nice or comfy one. He decided that for all its wealth and style, the Patriot Guild was not as classy or friendly as the Trifecta Guild. Of course, he was aware that he hadn''t seen the entire old building of the Trifecta Guild and that his pride might be misplaced, but he decided he was going to take the wins that he could for the moment.


    A few minutes later, Lavinia mentally said, I can''t find anything, and I just had my spirits look everywhere, even inside everything they possibly could.


    Okay, thank you, said Max. Then he turned to Chad, who had raided the little mini fridge to one side and was sipping a bottle of store brand water. "I don''t think the room is bugged," he said, "but I''m still going to act like it is."


    Chad coughed and almost spit out the water that he''d been swallowing. "Is it okay to just say that out loud?" he asked.


    "Of course it is. It''s not like they treated us really nicely to begin with and we''re not here for the reason they think we are, so who cares? I mean I''m not going to talk about secrets now or anything sensitive but..." His voice trailed off and he shrugged.


    Chad laughed nervously and didn''t respond. He just sipped his water and watched the door. About an hour later, Max was starting to feel irritated again, which he knew was probably a little petulant. All the leadership of this guild probably were very busy. After all, they were effectively running the adventurers and the military and perhaps even the government of Canada.


    With the exception of a few very precious on the planet, all Max was right now was a new C-rank Returner. A talented rookie, but that was all. Come to think about it, Patriot guild probably has looked me up by now, he thought. But the more he thought about it, the less he was sure.  This group seemed to care so little about Chad that it was very possible that nobody in the entire guild was even remotely curious about who he brought with him. Maybe they thought that Max was his lawyer or something.


    It was possible.  If so, the guild was being far too arrogant and needed to work on their security in his opinion.


    Right when Max was about to get up and look outside the room, Ian entered again. The man kept his professional and obviously disinterested attitude as he said, "Thank you for waiting so patiently. Hopefully it won''t be much longer. I see that you''ve already found the refreshments on the table over there. In case you haven''t seen it yet, the restroom is behind the door to your left."


    Chad  thanked him. Ian couldn''t see it, but Max noticed the shadow of a grimace on his friend''s face. It irritated him. "Hey Ian, your name is Ian, right?"


    The man turned and raised his eyebrows at Max. "That is correct."


    "How much longer do you think it''s going to take?"


    "I''m sorry, sir, but I''m not in a position to tell you that. And I figured that you would rather I tell you the truth than just say something comforting."


    Max wasn''t sure how to respond to that. He was half tempted to pick a fight with this guy or threaten to blow up the room if somebody with some authority didn''t see them soon. But after running all of the possible outcomes of such things in his mind, he decided that as irritating as this was, waiting patiently was his best course of action. While Ian was subtly getting under his skin, the man hadn¡¯t actually done or said anything over-the-top offensive, just dismissive.  So instead of responding, Max just nodded stiffly and sat back down again with his arms crossed.


    Ian wasted no time leaving again.  He spun so fast Max was half surprised his musical tie didn¡¯t fall out, and he was gone.


    During the time he continued to wait, Max was extremely glad that he''d taken the time to buy a phone a few days ago. Otherwise he would have been stuck staring at the wall or borrowing Chad¡¯s phone.


    He used his time wisely, reading news articles, and otherwise getting caught up on world events that had happened over  the last several years. He also learned that there were several monsters that were more well-known than others and had their own little kingdoms carved out.  They were called the Monster Kings.  For the moment, humanity considered all but untouchable.


    Finally, Max glanced up when he heard a larger group of people than normal walking down the hallway. There were muted voices too. He elbowed Chad in the side and said, "Look alive." His friend had been half dozing off, but to his credit, he woke up immediately and didn''t appear at all like he had been about to drool on himself three seconds earlier.


    He is an A-rank adventurer, after all, thought Max.


    The door to their room opened and Ian walked in. He had a strange expression on his face, like his normal poker face with a hint of smugness that he''d almost completely suppressed, but not all the way. It was so faint that Max wasn''t even sure if it was really there or he was imagining it. Then another two people entered, a man and a woman, who were both wearing business attire and carried briefcases. Max could immediately tell that they were lawyers. They just gave off that lawyering vibe. On top of that, he figured most other people in this compound, at least in this area where high-level negotiations took place, would likely be either lawyers or Challengers. And the two probably-lawyers just didn''t have the look of warriors about them.


    Finally, three other people entered the room and Max understood why it was this room was as bit as it was.  This wasn''t just a waiting room, it was an audience room as well.


    The last three people consisted of two men and one woman. The woman was Asian, tall, and wore armor even in the building. She had what looked like a segmented whip wrapped around her waist. Before Portal Day on Earth, the attire probably would have looked goofy, or maybe even would be mistaken for cosplay.  But now, she looked deadly serious.  And as a seasoned warrior, Max could tell at a glance that she was not weak, not weak at all.


    The first man was smaller than she was, but exuded a very toned, trained body. His outfit looked a little bit less Quartet-like than the woman''s, but it still wasn''t exactly business casual. He wore dark clothing and soft boots with a cowled tunic. A couple of daggers rode in sheaths at his waist. The entire rogue aesthetic was only ruined by a little name tag on his chest that read, "Hi, my name is William."


    But the last man through the door got most of Max''s attention. He was busy talking to one of the lawyers as they entered and didn''t immediately look up.


    Max noticed that Chad had stiffened. It made sense. After all, Chad was only an A-rank adventurer and although still a guild leader, was the guild leader of a dying guild that was on its last legs. He¡¯d never even been to a Quartet.  Meanwhile, they were facing one of the most powerful men in the world.


    That power presented itself in how he was dressed. The dusky skinned man wore an expensive outfit, something like a male pop singer might have worn before Portal Day. His clothing was extremely high quality and seemed to fit him perfectly. It was also definitely not armor or obviously enchanted in any way. The only way to tell he was a Challenger by how he dressed was a thick leather sword belt, holding a large, magnificent sword, one that was very familiar to Max.


    The man¡¯s expression didn''t change as he glanced at Chad, but when his eyes slid over and he saw Max, his body stiffened.  Some of the blood ran out of his face. Most of the other people in the room were too slow to notice, but the Asian woman must have realized something was wrong. Her hand went to her whip, quick as a snake, and she glanced around the room trying to understand what was happening.


    That''s when Max said, "Hey Lance, it''s been a while." His friend''s mouth worked, but no words came out. He kept staring like he couldn''t believe what he was seeing. Max grinned. "If you¡¯re not too busy, I''d like to have a chat. Can we go somewhere private?"

 Book 3, ch 21

    The new meeting room was smaller, simpler, and had a heavy, secure-looking door.  Lance had led Max here alone, leaving all the others in the original conference room.


    Now Max studied his friend again across the glass table. It looked like Lance had put on a little bit of weight since the last time Max saw him in the Quartet, but not too much. In fact, he¡¯d actually gained muscle, too. However, the toll of his leadership position visibly showed on his face, the same as Chad.


    Lance spoke first, "This room is clean. It''s not bugged and I have people I trust who make sure it''s secure."


    "Well, that''s certainly helpful," said Max.


    "Why didn''t you tell me you were coming?"  Lance''s expression almost looked pained. "I feel like I just about had a heart attack back there."


    "Well," said Max, "Actually I did try to let you know I was coming. It''s kind of difficult for a no-name, brand new Challenger¨Ca new Returner, to get a hold of one of the most powerful men in the world. Go figure.  Even Chad tried.  No dice."


    Lance facepalmed. "Still, from the moment you got here, I should have known.  Someone should have told me.¡±


    ¡°It''s not like I was withholding my name, man," said Max. "Your people just didn''t give a damn because the Trifecta Guild is on its way down."


    Lance''s expression grew openly curious. "What is your relationship with the Trifecta Guild anyway?"


    "Ah, well, I wasn''t able to tell you before because it was so beyond the norm," said Max. ¡°The truth is that I actually returned to Earth before going back to the Quartet before."


    "You what?!" Lance yelled. He actually stood up from his seat, palms flat on the desk, an expression of absolute shock on his face.  ¡°When!?¡±


    ¡°During the time I went to that dungeon.  The one with giants.¡±


    ¡°Seriously?  Back to Earth!?¡±


    "Yeah, I was only back for like a couple days, but in that time, I was able to set up the Trifecta Guild, more or less."


    Lance slowly sat down and leaned his head back. "You know, I''ve actually seen the old news reports from the time period you have to be talking about. And I thought to myself, ¡®That looks exactly like Max. And on top of that, he even fights exactly like Max!¡¯ But then I reminded myself there was no way it could be you because you were in the Quartet." He lowered his head and gave Max a piercing stare. "Meanwhile, this motherfucker here had already been back to Earth, just taking joyrides around the galaxy and shit."


    Max shrugged. There wasn''t much else he could say, except for the obvious. "I''m sure you can figure out why I had to keep it to myself."


    "Yes, I guess so," Lance sighed. "In fact, I''m also figuring the only reason you''re telling me is because of what you did in the Quartet before leaving, and we''re all eventually screwed now, right?¡±


    ¡°Well, not all of us. Me for sure.  I don¡¯t think they¡¯d come for you since I just sent you back and I never actually told you any gnarly secrets.  The people from the Quartet probably wouldn¡¯t go after our world.  Hopefully.  But either way, it''s good for us to get as powerful as possible. And to also help other people get stronger too.  Whether thugs from the Quartet come or not, it¡¯s all moot if the monsters have already killed everyone."


    ¡°From that perspective, wasn¡¯t it selfish to do what we did?  Come back to earth early?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think so.  You, with that sword, can help people a lot on Earth.  I mean, you¡¯re already where you are now¨CGuild leader of the Patriot Guild.  I read a little bit that you almost held the line yourself a few times in the last two years, stopped monsters from advancing any further in Canada, Washington, and even down in Florida.  As for me, if I have the time, I can raise an entire army to fight and take back the world.  I have a lot more growing to do, too.  Eventually, it might be me holding a line solo somewhere like you have.  If we¡¯d stayed in the Quartet normally, who knows if you would have made it back.  I doubt I would have.¡±


    Lance shook his head. "It feels surreal to be talking to you after all this time, especially since I know that it was probably just like yesterday that you sent me back to Earth, right?"


    "Well, it was actually about a week or two ago," said Max. "Not long, though."


    Lance shook his head. "You know, sometimes I used to think about this day. I went back and forth between gratitude to you¡­and also resentment. Like, I''m sure you can figure out ways that a guy could feel like maybe he got screwed after seeing people who spent years and years in their Quartet, not aging¡­ When that happened, I reminded myself that I made the choice to let you send me back and I do believe it''s done a lot of good. I probably got back earlier than I otherwise would have.  Now I''ve been back on earth for a while now. I have this sword, and I was able to basically save my country." He shook his head again.


    "I thought that by the time you got back to Earth, if you got back to Earth, I would be able to impress you by how powerful I''ve become. I mean, in all this time I''ve actually doubled the number of spirits I have.  But you know what? They''re not saying anything right now. They''re all absolutely terrified of you and they''re hiding in my soul space and they won''t even tell me why.  What the hell, man!?¡±


    Lance laughed a bit shrilly and touched his sword. "For some reason, it''s reminding me, pretty hardcore, that without you and without this sword, I might not even be B-rank."


    "I don''t know about that," said Max. "If you have twice the number of spirits now, you might be crafty with how you use them, too."


    "Oh, come on," said Lance. "We both know that I''ve never been super talented at fighting. It¡¯s true I''ve gotten a lot better at it over the last few years since, you know, circumstances. But this sword," he shook his head. "There are less than five people on this entire planet who know how powerful this sword is, and two of them are guild members that I have absolute trust in.  They help me constantly shield it from anybody noticing or discovering what it actually is. If the world knew about this sword, even though the Patriot Guild is one of the largest and strongest guilds in the world, and even though monsters are all over the place¡­People would come for us.  It would be war.  I would bet everything that I have that I¡¯d get attacks and assassins regularly for this damn thing. But you know what? Without it, I wouldn''t even have a country anymore."


    Lance smiled, but there was no humor in it. "This is kind of my life now, Max. I never knew how heavy and crushing this kind of responsibility could be. You know, after I first got back to Canada, the whole country hadn''t been taken over yet. I was lucky¨CI didn''t come back, Return, deep in monster territory. But back then, it was still just one gut punch after another.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    ¡°My girlfriend was dead. My daughter, nobody knew where she was.  And I''ve been paying private investigators and divination Challengers for the last two years to try to find out. I have no closure. I don¡¯t know what happened to my baby girl!  Even with all the money and magic I have, I don¡¯t have any¡­no closure!  And now, yeah, I''m probably one of the most powerful men in my country. Maybe, actually, probably the most powerful man in my country. I am one of the richest men on the planet. I could get almost any woman I want and you know what? I have no motivation. I just keep thinking of my daughter. I keep thinking of my girlfriend, protecting her till the last, like I heard she did. It eats at me.  I feel so fucking guilty for dating in the Quartet now.  And I just don''t have any more tears left to cry. But what''s worse, I don''t have any free time either. So even if I wanted to spend time drinking or with women or whatever, I just don''t have the time. It''s not even me being selfless because if I don''t save everybody else, I''m fucked too."


    Lance rolled his eyes at himself, got up from the little table, and went to a sideboard to pour himself a shot of whiskey. He returned to his seat and threw the drink back.


    "I''m so glad you''re back, man. And it''s not just because I''m seeing a friend. And it''s not just because I probably owe you. No, actually no ¡®probably¡¯ about it.  I definitely owe you more than anyone else in this entire life. Do you know the main reason I''m so happy to see you back?"


    "No," said Max quietly.


    Lance played with the shot glass on the table, rolling it around gently. Finally, he said, "You are the guy who walked into the Quartet with your unshakable attitude and your snappy comebacks. And when anybody tried to push you into a corner, you just slammed your big magical dick on the table and murdered the fuck out of anybody who crossed you. I still don''t think you understand what kind of mythical status you were building in the Quartet. In fact, even to the end, the way you left and the amount of rumors there would probably be about it, it boggles the mind. If the Summoner Academy still exists in a couple hundred years, they''ll be talking about you until the end of days."


    "Not necessarily," said Max. He sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. "There were a lot of things I was keeping to myself before because certain knowledge is dangerous. But now that you might be on somebody''s hit list too, I''m not sure how much I should hide from you anymore. I guess I''ll leave it up to you."


    Lance blinked. "Wait a minute. You''re asking me whether I want you to tell me something I don''t know right now¡­ and I don''t even know how dangerous it would be to know."


    "That''s right," said Max. "I actually have a few things like that."


    "Oh, hell," sighed Lance. He ran his fingers through his hair and laughed. "Is one of those things why all my spirits are scared shitless right now?"


    "Well, that''s one of them," said Max.


    "Okay, I want to know, but not right now. Too much right now. Maybe you can tell me later if we survive a few months. For the moment, I need to run this giant ass pain in the ass guild. I need to make sure that the rest of my country doesn''t get destroyed, and also watch the United States so we don¡¯t get flanked.  Also, why the hell is Alaska part of the US?  That makes no sense, and now I need to watch it, too.  Even the monsters don¡¯t really seem to want it, but it¡¯s not like there are many Alaskans to defend it.


    ¡°Oh, and I need to lead my own people in other countries, teleporting there sometimes so the world doesn''t get destroyed because, again, if the entire world falls, Canada''s gonna fall too. And now that I''ve seen you again, I''ve been reminded that I''ve been slacking on my training. Because based on my spirit''s reaction right now, I think that I might have possibly even underestimated how strong you were before. And by my estimations, you were already S-rank when we left the Quartet."


    "Something like that," Max admitted. "But, I need to get stronger too. Like, fast."


    "Why ? Don''t get me wrong, I believe you will get stronger regardless, but you¡¯re already strong.  You are already going to be a major player in how we end up winning the world back, but it sounds like you want to get stronger by like, tomorrow."


    "Well, maybe not that early," said Max, "mainly because I can''t swing it that fast. But I think that my next order of business after meeting with you is going to be heading back to Vegas to destroy a guild.¡±


    ¡°A powerful one?"


    "Yes," said Max, his tone serious.


    Lance laughed and even slapped his thigh. "Man, it''s been a few years, so I forgot what it was like to be friends with you.¡±


    ¡°What''s that supposed to mean?¡±


    ¡°You''re the miracle man so you wouldn''t understand. All I can say is one of the first things you learn¨Canybody who is your friend¨Cis they need to never compare themselves to you or it¡¯s bad for their self-esteem. Some of use used to have almost like a support group back in the Quartet.  We¡¯d drink liquor and tell each other it¡¯s okay we aren¡¯t like Max."


    Max didn''t know how to respond to that so he changed the subject. "I don''t know how much time you have, but you seemed busy before. So I''ll get to the most important thing I need to talk to you about today."


    "All right, shoot," said Lance.


    "Okay, I need you to do me a favor. Actually, a few favors. First, I want you to start supporting the Trifecta Guild. You can make it public or not, I don''t care, but don''t let them fall.¡±


    ¡°Financial or other support?¡±


    ¡°Both, said Max. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it won¡¯t be an endless money pit, the guild will end up doing better in the near future. You have my word on that.¡±


    He lifted an eyebrow and Lance slowly nodded.  Max continued, ¡°Second, it took entirely too long to fly here today. With you being you and your guild being your guild, I want you to put me in touch with teleporters or the people that handle the teleporters. Full rights, whatever permissions it is you''ve got. Third, I want you to personally sponsor me. Money, influence when I need it, the works.  Eventually, it¡¯ll be up to you how public you want to make that, but keep it on the downlow for right now.  And that ties in to the last favor.  I need you to keep who I am secret or at least not announce it to the world yet. Some of the people that you employ are probably going to figure it out, especially since you''ve already been looking for me. But there''s a big difference between a handful of Patriot Guild people knowing versus you having a press conference."


    Lance was quiet for a few seconds, just looking down at his hands. "That sounds a lot more like orders than favors," he said.


    Max shrugged one shoulder. "I''m thinking of them as favors. Of course, you''d be kind of a piece of shit not to do what I¡¯ve asked after everything I''ve done for you." He smiled to show that he was not completely serious. But he knew Lance well enough to know the man would acknowledge the truth.


    "No need to be a hard ass," said Lance. "I was going to do it anyway. It''s just weird to be the leader of the Patriot Guild, constantly having people kiss your ass, but then your friend comes back and it reminds you that you''re just a dude with a really powerful sword." He laughed at himself and ran a hand down his face. "Honestly, Max, seriously¡­I don''t know if you can understand this, but it feels so good to have you back. I''m not putting myself down. I''ve done a lot of things in this position that I didn''t think I''d ever be able to do and I''ve actually accomplished some things I''m really proud of. So it''s not like I want to be a little puppy and follow you around and force you to make all the hard decisions. I understand what a burden that is. But at the same time, God, it''s good to have someone around again that I can trust and who I can lean on.  It usually just feels like everyone is leaning on me.¡±


    Now it was Max''s turn to be embarrassed. He rubbed his hair and said, "Well, you know, I''ll do what I can. Actually, speaking of  friends, I forgot another favor. I still need to figure out how to get Momo¨C¡±


    Lance cut him off. "I''ve already been working on that. Actually, I don''t exactly know how your powers work or what powers you have to begin with, but I have a few Patriot Guild members who have all sorts of weird Paths and knowledge. So, whenever you get the chance to talk to them, I''ve had them preparing for almost a year to work with you on getting our friends to Earth."


    Max''s eyes widened in surprise and appreciation. "Wow, Lance, you really have been busy. You''re kind of the MVP of the day, damn."


    "Go ahead, compliment me more," said Lance. He held up one hand as if waving to a crowd.  His other hand waved his fingers in the air in a ''come on'' gesture.


    "Don''t push it buddy," said Max. "I could still drop kick you through the wall and show everybody who taught you how to fight in the first place."


    "Yeah, yeah. ¡®There''s always a bigger fish,¡¯" said Lance. He scratched his cheek and got a distant expression. "Actually, now I feel even dumber for not believing myself that it was you in that old portal-closing video before and also not recognizing the connection to the Trifecta Guild. I mean, the Trifect Guild¨Csome of them actually fight really similar to how I do, don''t they?"


    "Well, duh," said Max. "I taught all of you guys after all."


    "Damn," said Lance. He shook his head and put his head in his hand and closed his eyes. "I missed so much.  But I guess it just shows what someone can miss when they¡¯re trying to keep the entire world from burning."

 Book 3, ch 22

    Chad walked rigidly next to Max through the heart of the Patriot Guild. Max''s conversation with Lance had taken an extra thirty minutes, where they caught up with each other as quickly as possible. They did their best to reconnect, given the time constraints. After all, Lance really was a very busy man.


    After their conversation, they¡¯d returned to the original meeting room. The same people were still there, including Chad. If the mood in the room was any indicator of how things had been since Lance left, it had been tense the entire time.  The room had been plunged into an even more awkward vibe once Max and Lance came back.


    Not long after that, Lance had issued some orders and sent Max and Chad off to the Patriot Guild teleportation room so they wouldn''t have to fly all the way back to Vegas.


    One of the lawyers was leading them¨Cthe male lawyer, and two Patriot Guild guards were following from a respectful distance. Judging by the guards'' auras, both were S-ranked Challengers. Chad was impressed. An honor guard with this much power was an extreme sign of respect from Lance and was probably meant to prevent any incidents until they were back in Vegas.


    Chad muttered, "Did you tell Lance to fire that guy, Ian?"


    Max shook his head. "Nope, I had nothing to do with that. I think that happened for the exact reason that Lance said once he came back."


    All of the various managers in the Patriot Guild, whenever they were escorting anyone to a meeting, were supposed to do a background check on every individual in the group. "Remember what he said?  Nobody looked into my background or even really really asked for my name. And it would have been easy to do so. That''s why Lance fired that guy. It wasn''t for his attitude, it''s because he wasn''t doing his job. Ironically enough, if he had done his job, he might have figured out who I was and also realized that I was the guy Lance had been looking for for so long.  Then maybe he wouldn¡¯t have been so dismissive."


    Chad shook his head. "Wild, man. Absolutely wild. I mean, I knew you have things I don¡¯t know about going on, and I knew you were in the Summoner Quartet. I knew Lance was a Summoner and I''d even seen interviews where he talked about some of his friends in the Summoner academy. He talked about how he hoped one in particular would come back to earth, someone he owed a lot to. But I just never put them all together. Too much was going on, I guess."


    Max nodded in understanding. "Lance said something similar, actually," he said. "I mean, this guild makes our guild look tiny,  but you guys are both guild leaders, and you''ve probably been busy as hell for quite a while."


    "That''s actually pretty nice of you to say," said Chad. He looked around furtively and said, "Some of the other stuff I''m sure you have to tell me still has to wait, right?"


    "That''s right," said Max. "Let''s just get back to Vegas first."


    They traveled in silence for another fifteen minutes, taking another short tram ride until they were in a portion of the Patriot Guild that was truly built like a fortress and had security practically everywhere. Now Max had a greater appreciation for why Lance had sent one of his personal lawyers and an honor guard with them.


    Eventually, after passing through several more layers of security, they wound up in a large room that would have looked sort of like a gymnasium if not for the fact it was round. In the very center of the room rose a crystal spike. A woman wearing professional makeup and business casual clothing stood to one side. The effect of how she was dressed was only ruined by the mystic looking staff she carried.


    Max noticed that the crystal ball on the end of the staff seemed to be made of the same material as the spike in the middle of the room. As he got closer, he noted that the woman had dark skin and seemed to be about thirty years old. Her eyes were hooded, like she was viewing the world past a wall. But Max could tell that before Portal Day, before she''d gone to the quartet, she must have had a different attitude.  Even though her face was set in a frown now, she still had old laugh lines at the corner of her eyes.


    The lawyer who¡¯d been leading Max and Chad sped up his walking pace to the world-weary woman to whisper something in her ear.


    She nodded, and then the lawyer approached Max. "This is where I leave you," he said. "I have been instructed by the guild leader to inform everyone that from now on, you will be treated as one of the guild executives within the Patriot Guild. That''s the highest level in the guild under the guild leader."


    "Cool," said Max.


    The lawyer''s eyebrow twitched when Max didn''t even pretend to care about the honor that he was being bestowed. Truthfully, all he really cared about right now was travel and finances, and both had already been secured. People bowing and scraping and kissing his ass weren¡¯t things he valued in the slightest. He was under no illusions that any real respect would need to be earned.  The lawyer stiffly nodded and Max still didn''t know the man''s name. Lance had said it in passing before, but Max had never formally been introduced and right now he didn''t care that much to begin with. He had other things on his mind.


    "Please approach the crystal," said the woman.


    "I take it you''re the teleporter?" asked Max.  ¡°It¡¯s kind of an obvious question, but it seems polite to ask.¡±


    "I do have a teleportation Path, that is correct. Now please approach the crystal. I will be sending you to Las Vegas once I get the clear signal."


    "Got it," said Max. Organized teleportation hadn¡¯t existed on Albion.  "This signal, is this so we don''t get teleported there and end up being merged with a cow or something?"


    The woman''s stony visage temporarily cracked as she gave him a quick, surprised smile. "Something like that," she said.


    Max and Chad didn''t have to wait very long, only about a minute, until the woman said, "You''re ready to depart¡±


    ¡°Oh, if I see you again, what is your name?¡±


    ¡°Justine.¡±


    ¡°Cool.  My name is Max. This is Chad. He''s the guild leader for the Trifecta guild, which has been getting some bad press, but we are on the up and up now."


    "Oh," said Justine, she blinked. "That''s good, I guess. Well, I hope to see you again then."


    "Likewise," said Max. He casually saluted with a couple fingers.  A second later, light pulsed from the crystal in the center of the room.  Energy washed through his body and he instinctively understood that he could fight it if he wanted to.  Knowing what it was, he didn¡¯t prevent it from pulling him away.  A second later, without even any sense of movement or discomfort, he found himself in a different room.


    This teleportation chamber was a little bit smaller than the one in the Patriot Guild and had more decorations. However, the crystal in the center of the room looked very similar and there was another woman standing with a crystal top staff. However, unlike the professional look that Justin had, this woman looked like she was about to go to the club. Her clothing was pricey and high quality, but it also didn''t cover much. When she bowed, Quartet-style, it did things to her appearance that Max would have noticed more if he¡¯d been as young as he looked¡­or maybe if he''d been less preoccupied.


    However, he''d lived long enough now that something as simple and crude as physical beauty didn''t have the same effect on him anymore. Not only that, this was a woman with real power, a teleporter, one of the most sought-after Paths in the world.


    Max has been giving himself a crash course on Paths since he was back in the Quartet.  For any Challenger to find themselves on any teleportation Path meant that they had to be extremely intelligent. So an extremely intelligent person with serious power and influence, wearing seductive clothing¡­  Max sensed that this was not a woman to be trifled with.  He suspected that her appearance was a calculated ploy to make people around her act dumber than they otherwise might.


    Stolen novel; please report.


    Of course, he could be reading into it and she just liked this style. It was entirely possible the last few days might have led him to start seeing politics where politics might not even exist.


    He needed to get the hell out of this place.


    After the woman stood from her bow, she said, "My name is Tina." Her brown eyes sparkled at Max and she grinned.


    I didn¡¯t imagine it.  This one is definitely dangerous, thought Max. Now he could see it in her eyes¨Cthe recognition that he viewed her as a formidable person, not just some pretty girl in a cute outfit. She was very obviously amused. When her gaze flicked over a bit, Max glanced at Chad and mentally face-palmed.


    His friend wasn''t staring, but he might as well have been with as many looks as he was trying to steal. Max wondered how Chad could still be so simple after working as a guild leader in this new world for as long as he had.


    He answered his own question a second later when he remembered that Chad was a family man.  He was married and his wife had still been alive back when Max first visited Earth. Chances were she was still around. And Chad had likely never been to a party or a club in his life.  Max suddenly got the feeling that living in Vegas had been an adjustment for his friend.


    "Thank you for the teleport," said Max, "or I guess I should thank you for sending the all-clear so that Justine could teleport us. I¡¯m pretty sure the paperwork is already done and everything has been paid for.  Anyway, we''ve got to go." Then he turned and headed for the doors.


    "Aren''t you going to introduce yourself?" called the woman. Her tone was playful, her amusement obvious.


    "I will when I come back," said Max. He waved a hand behind his back in goodbye, went through the double doors, and then walked past the many lines of security like he didn''t even register their existence. Chad tried to emulate the nonchalance and did okay, but still turned his head in surprise when they walked past a couple of S-rank Challengers sitting across a table from one another and playing cards. Their auras were so strong and they were putting so little effort into hiding it that it was very obvious they were very powerful guards.


    Once Max and Chad left the last layer of the impressive security outside of the bunker-like teleportation room, they found themselves at the rear of a casino. At this point, Chad led the way, proving that he had been through the teleporter before. Max wasn''t particularly surprised. Part of the reason the big adventurer guilds were in Las Vegas in the first place was so proximity to the teleporters.


    As Max put his body on autopilot, just following his friend as Chad secured them a ride back to the Trifecta Guild, Max thought about some of the new things he''d learned. Foremost on his mind was the fact that all of the adventurers in the world, all of the registered Challengers anyway, were expected to fight on the front lines if they were called upon to do so. Some Challengers already worked as full-time soldiers, and although they were not treated the same as the regular army, had still adopted more of a military lifestyle as they fought the monster invasion full time.


    The adventuring guilds were the world''s answer to portals.  They were called upon to kill monsters behind friendly lines, and the reinforce the front lines when necessary. They were also at the forefront of portal R&D, efforts to find or forge better weapons and armor to outfit humanity. Even after years of portal diving, Challengers were still bringing back new magical tech or components that could be used to create new weapons and gadgets.


    Max was deep in thought so it didn''t seem long before he could see the large, main building of Trifecta Guild with Chad. He started paying attention to what was going on around him as soon as they got out of the rental car. They weren¡¯t at the guild building yet.  Max held his tongue as Chad confidently led him through alleyways, winding up at the back of the Trifecta Guild near some loading docks.


    His friend was more on the ball than Max was, helping keep their presence less obvious.


    At the back of the building, Chad took them up a service elevator and then down the hall to a main elevator that led to the top floor where they''d been before. Not long after that, Max found himself sitting in one of the oversized recliners again across the meeting table from Chad.


    "This has been a long day," he said.


    "Tell me about it," Chad sighed.  "Hold on.  One second, I''m going to order us some food."


    "Sounds good," Max leaned back in his chair. "I¡¯ve got to admit that I''m glad we didn''t have to fly back. Otherwise we''d probably be eating terrible airline food right about now."


    Chad laughed and punched something into his laptop before closing it. Then he said, "This is a secure room. Until my secretary brings us the food, you have the floor."


    "Okay," said Max. "Here''s the deal. We haven¡¯t really talked much about this, I don''t need money from you because Lance is going to pay me. I don''t know how much he''s going to give me, but I''m assuming it''s going to be substantial because he¡¯s rich as hell and if he cheaps out on me, it''d be ridiculous after everything I''ve done for him."


    "What is your history with Lance?" asked Chad.


    "Not important right now.¡±


    ¡°Fair enough.  That was kind of a dick move to hint at it then shut me down, though.¡±


    ¡°I know.¡±  Max grinned.  ¡°Anyway, the Patriot Guild is going to fund and support the Trifecta Guild. I''m going to tell Lance to look into all your debts and maybe even pay them all off depending on how much it is. I don''t know how much money he has, but we¡¯ll see.  However, just the fact that the Patriot Guild is going to be working with our guild, even if it''s not made public, is probably going to help matters a lot."


    "Yes, yes it is," said Chad. He pulled a pad of paper and a pen from somewhere and started making notes. "I need to come up with a plausible reason for why all this happened to tell everyone as long as you''re staying incognito."


    "Good idea," said Max. "That''s another point, actually. I don''t know how long it''s going to take, but I need everyone to leave me alone for a while while I''m in training. It shouldn''t take me too long now that I''m back on Earth, but I have a lot of work to do until I go find those brothers."


    "You were really serious about that, weren''t you?" asked Chad.


    "Serious as a heart attack, yes.  There''s more at play here than just the fact they stole the Western Wind style or screwed over the guild. I looked into some of the information you sent me, the contracts they signed, and some of the magically binding ones too. The fact that they haven''t suffered from breaking those is¡­very worrying to me."


    "Why is that?" asked Chad.


    "In your reports, it states nobody knows how they were able to break those contracts, but they obviously have.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s aggravating, but I just figured that they found someone with the right Path to help with that.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, no.  Probably not," said Max. "It''s just a hunch right now, so I don''t want to say it''s a fact. But it''s a possibility that the brothers are working with some real evil bastards."


    "What do you mean?"


    "It''s very simple," said Max. "The types of contracts you used, through two or three different Paths, are binding.  They cannot be broken without severe consequences, with very few exceptions. And the exceptions that would allow people to break them, most people would not use because it would be worse than keeping the contract. Far worse. If, and it¡¯s a big if, these bastards used that method, it would be because this world is new to magic and nobody knows what it means¨Cthey wouldn¡¯t think they¡¯d be caught."


    Chad''s eyes widened. "So they''re working with¡­like, magic criminals or something?"


    "Worse," said Max. "Some Paths out there are not for good people or even sane people. Some Paths are for people, or create people, that want to watch the world burn. And their motivation is often to light the world on fire so their masters would be more comfortable."


    "Oh," said Chad. His eyes widened further. "Oh.¡± He looked at Max in horror. ¡°Over the last year, some strange things have been happening on the front lines, like people winding up dead with no monster attacks. Things like that. Some people have been suspecting for a while that some Challengers might be enemies of humanity, but other than a few actual crazies, or criminals that have been killed or arrested, most Challengers have been fighting the monsters. After all, even the worst type of challenger out there wouldn''t have a world to play with anymore if the world ceased to exist."


    Max just nodded. Chad said, "It looks like you don''t think that the weird things on the front line were coincidence huh?"


    "Probably not," said Max.


    "Great," Chad looked up at the ceiling and his shoulders slumped. "It''s like you came back and solved all my biggest problems but now I have new problems that are bigger and probably harder to solve."


    "Sorry man, that''s what I''m good at."


    "That''s not all you''re good at," said Chad. "You''re also good at breaking shit, which is why I don''t think it''s utterly insane you''re going to challenge the entire Victory Guild."


    "I didn''t say I''m going to challenge the entire guild. I''m just going to kill the people that need to be killed."


    "Geeze.  I''m not going to even pretend to understand what that means."


    Max laughed and then briefly told Chad what he needed for training. Not long after that, the food came and the two of them ate, spending time together as old martial arts friends instead of a guild leader and a Returner.


    Once Max was full, he bid his friend goodbye and used a key card that Chad had given him to leave the building the same way he''d come in. Once outside, he checked his account balance on his phone and grinned. Lance had sent him more than enough money. If Max was a regular person, he could easily retire right now. Instead, unfortunately, he had a feeling he was going to end up burning through this money as fast as he had in the Quartet, just for different reasons.


    Max took his newfound wealth and got himself a room at a cheap hotel. If Chad pulled through for him, hopefully the next day he''d be able to start training.

 Book 3, ch 23

    The way Blackmist Incident collapsed to be so small was turning into a real advantage, past just convenience.  Now that he was back on earth, Max easily passed for a regular person.  Some Challengers couldn¡¯t do that anymore.


    He¡¯d been listening to morning talk radio and had learned that Challengers weren¡¯t always welcome everywhere, or by all people.  Especially people who had run afoul of bad Challengers, even the fact that Challengers were the reason humans hadn¡¯t already lost the war with the monsters wasn¡¯t enough for everyone to be a fan.


    The fact that there were actual gangs of Challengers, actual professional criminals blew his mind.  He couldn¡¯t believe that the more powerful Challengers could tolerate it.


    Maybe they¡¯re just too busy, he thought.


    Max got out of his rental car and looked at the directions on his phone again. ¡°This is it,¡± he mumbled.


    The warehouse location he was staring at definitely fit the description he''d been given. But either he got the wrong place or this was truly a case of brilliant urban camouflage.


    Max had been told via email from Chad that this satellite location belonging to the Trifecta Guild, a private gym, looked a little run down. Even with the warning he still hadn''t been prepared for the reality, which was that the warehouse looked like it hadn''t been occupied in over ten years.  Other abandoned-looking buildings and shady areas were nearby, places that normal people probably wouldn''t want to go during the day, much less at night.


    He shrugged and walked up to a small door on a corner of the warehouse. Now that he was closer to the door, he became more certain that this was actually the place. Instead of some standard industrial door, he could tell at a glance that despite the shoddy paint job, this door was several times more solid than any normal warehouse door. Max had no doubt it was bulletproof. He keyed in the code that he''d been given earlier that morning and tried the doorknob. Sure enough, the door swung open soundlessly. The fact it opened outwards was a nice touch.


    Doors that opened outwards were harder to break down.


    Once he was inside the building, small lights around the inside of the floor automatically came on, providing enough illumination that a regular person would be able to find their way around. He found the controls for the lights and fans overhead and after flicking on the huge warehouse''s full illumination, he just paused a moment to take it all in.


    Chad had told him that this place was built around three years ago.There were also several other locations like it that belonged to the Trifecta Guild. Apparently, all of the bigger guilds in the country¨Cand likely in the world¨Chad satellite training locations like this one for secrecy and to spread out their members. The goals were for convenience and paranoia. After all, if other guilds knew that any guild''s members at any time could be scattered all around the world, they would be less likely to ever launch any kind of attack at a guild''s main office. Granted, such a thing had never happened before, but after being involved in the war for Earth, all of the Challengers¡¯ mindsets had gradually changed to one of veterans.


    So far, large Challenger guilds had not truly ever gone to war with each other in any kind of serious way, but it was inevitable that it would happen one day. After all, people were people.


    It was a big building.  The actual ceiling of the warehouse was over twenty feet up. Max glanced around, examining the place more before walking further in.  The warehouse''s walls had been fully armored up to about ten feet tall. That by itself probably had cost a pretty penny. Max assumed that at one point the warehouse had garage doors or some larger opening to get the thick, heavy steel inside. Now it looked like there was more than a quarter inch of steel surrounding the entire building, higher than an average adult could reach. On top of that, the steel had been firmly secured to the floor, slightly in front of the walls. Behind it and around the entire gym, a generous amount of spray foam had been applied directly to the walls.


    When Max had walked in, he noted that the original warehouse walls already had some sort of insulation. So, all of this other foam and armor was on top of what had already been there.


    The building probably wasn''t completely soundproof, but it was likely the closest thing to it. Even the door that Max had entered through had a generous helping of foam on most of the inside. Some had been shaved away so that it could still open, but that was it. The ceiling had a decent amount of foam too, but not as much as the walls.


    In one corner of the warehouse, there was a curved steel wall that rose even higher than the steel armor around the circumference of the wall. There were sandbags stacked up over ten feet on the inside of it.


    On the opposite corner of the warehouse was exercise equipment, both machines and free weights.


    Near where Max was standing, he could see a strange, egg-shaped piece of equipment that he recognized as a deprivation chamber.  There were also several other areas clearly set aside for meditation.


    The corner opposite from where Max was standing was the office, or living space, and likely the showers.  The were was  limit to how much Max could see from where he was standing, but it looked like a combination of an indoor tiny home and spa.


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    On top of the living space and bathrooms was an area rigged up with machines and gizmos to help magic users focus and train. There was even a dedicated meditation area, a raised platform with a descending dome that could help the person inside by mimicking sensory deprivation.


    One wall of the warehouse was full of practice weapons. Another wall was full of practice firearms. And the wall closest to the shower and rest facilities had a handful of real steel weapons.


    Max was extremely impressed. The layout reminded him a little bit of the martial arts school that he¡¯d won money at with sparring before going to the Quartet.  The memory came unbidden and flashed past, like quicksilver.  Even though it hadn¡¯t been that long for him, it still felt like all of those events had happened ages ago.


    He hadn¡¯t liked the people he¡¯d dealt with back then, but their gym and dojo had been fantastic.  If those guys had had an unlimited budget and also made a living by killing monsters, he suspected that this warehouse would be something they would cook up too.


    Max walked into the rest area and set his backpack on a counter before moving to the center of the training area. He''d already come dressed in athletic clothing, so he didn''t need to change.


    He did some stretching just to get a feeling for the place before moving over to the meditation area.


    It wasn¡¯t the first time he¡¯d spent working on his mana body since he¡¯d been back to earth, but it was the first time since he¡¯d been back that he could really focus on it properly


    Now was the appropriate moment to really assess where he was at, how long it would take to achieve the next level.   It was the first time he truly decided to find the answer to this question. After about a solid half hour of meditation, in addition to swallowing one of his mana pills and still using the same ultra-efficient mana processing procedures that he had in the cortex, he found the answer. It was both exciting and frustrating.


    The answer was exciting because, with at least four hours a day working on his mana body, he should be able to reach a four star mana body in less than two weeks. All the memories of how hard he¡¯d struggled in the quartet came rushing back, and the feeling was bittersweet. It was wonderful to be in a mana-rich world again, but he definitely wished that he''d been able to even achieve a one-star mana body before originally going to the Quartet. What''s done is done, he thought


    Max stood and didn¡¯t even bother checking the time.  He still had a few things to do over the next week, but his primary focus until making his move on the Victory guild was growing his own strength.


    He slowly went through the entire practice center, checking out every single one of the training weapons on the walls. By the time he was finished, he was deeply impressed. Whoever had put this place together had not spared any expenses. For more popular types of weapons, like various styles of swords, there were multiple training options available, everything from foam, to various plastics, to unsharpened steel, and even heavy, weighted training weapons meant for strength training.


    Max moved to the center of the floor and closed his eyes, extending his senses around himself. He had saved the best for last, at least for the day, to have a discussion with his new spirit, Daliko.  As soon as he reached out to her, his eyebrows climbed as he immediately got a response.


    Sure enough, she''d spoken the truth and Slick no longer needed to translate for her. However, the way she communicated wasn''t in words like Saliron and Lavinia. Instead, it was like a wind through his mind, one tinged with the thrill of the hunt, a patience for what was necessary, and a cold, but honorable ruthlessness.


    Max just knew what she was trying to say. As a result, when he asked her what she could do to help him fight, her answer was more concise than he was initially accustomed to after getting a new spirit.


    Everything that Daliko had just shown him was more clear than his other spirits communicating what they could do in the past, but similar in not being complete.  He had a feeling that he would be able to discover new uses of her powers as they got to know each other, and possibly other ways to synergize with his other spirits'' powers. Luckily, Daliko¡¯s powers, at least some of them, were immediately obvious how they would benefit the way he currently fought.


    Based on what Daliko had just shared with him, there were two main ways that she could theoretically increase his fighting power. The first, when he first learned about it, had seemed disappointing. After all, he couldn''t really use the ability with weapons.


    It was time to experiment.


    Max assumed an empty-handed fighting stance and began a simple but powerful kata. His blocks and strikes flowed quickly, speeding up without channeling any mana. He could achieve much greater strength and speed than his current exercise with an expenditure of mana but it wouldn''t be nearly as sustainable. Max figured this was a good baseline to judge the next step of his experiment against.


    Then, from a neutral fighting stance, Max delivered a vertical chop at an imaginary opponent¡¯s clavicle.   Daliko helped with it. As his arm was already accelerating, it suddenly felt like it was getting jerked out of the socket. He felt like his hand was just under the threshold of creating a sonic boom. After the chop was delivered, Max flipped, his entire body following his arm, and he hit the ground in a thunderous roll. If he hadn''t fallen to the ground, he felt like his arm might be ripped out of his socket. "Wow," he said out loud.


    Mentally, Daliko apologized to him, explaining that her abilities were very hard on the body, which is one of the reasons why she hadn''t had any contractors in the entire time she''d been a spirit. There was no way to tell how long she¡¯d drifted, though.  She explained that because of Max''s mana body and how naturally strong and tough he was now, she had hoped that he would be able to use the full power of her assistance.


    So far, the experience hadn''t been too helpful or felt good, Max could admit that, but he wasn''t quite ready to give up on it.


    As best he could tell, Daliko, similar to Lavinia, had a number of spirits she led, except instead of being specialized to create ectoplasm and physical matter, they could create¡­forces and vectors. This meant they could individually move much faster than Lavinia''s spirits when manifesting physically, at least over short distances. That''s how Max''s arm had moved so quickly. A number of Daliko¡¯s spirits had pushed his arm.  The upper end of the explosive movement hadn''t been under his control, which was part of why it¡¯d threatened to hurt him.


    Max tapped his lips, looking around the warehouse until his eyes landed on the shooting targets against one wall and he got a sudden burst of inspiration. Then, slowly taking off one of his bracelets full of beads, he had a quick but intense conversation with Daliko. At first, she didn''t understand the new experiment he wanted to try.


    Eventually, she got the idea, though.  She wasn¡¯t totally on board yet, but was willing to try.  Max grinned. "Okay, here goes nothing," he said.

 Book 3, ch 24

    Max held one bead between his fingers, an inert bead that he hadn''t enchanted yet. He narrowed his eyes at the target, triggered Daliko¡¯s ¡°grasping limbs¡± ability, and his hand shot forward. He managed to release the bead, but it didn''t come anywhere close to hitting the target. Instead, it zipped into the floor so fast that it penetrated the rubber mats and then disintegrated against the concrete underneath.


    "Oops," said Max.


    He decided the experiment had been a success, but had some caveats.


    It definitely gave him an advantage over his normal throwing.  Max was strong and fast, but winding up for a throw telegraphed his intentions too much and there was still a limit to how fast he could throw using his previous abilities. After all, as a fighter, over two lifetimes now, Max had focused more on footwork, movement, and swinging his sword appropriately. Throwing things he could manage, but he definitely wouldn''t consider himself an expert.


    Daliko¡¯s help allowed him to throw a bead almost as fast as a pistol shot. It would probably take some time and effort to get to where he could hit anything, but he could definitely see the obvious advantage now. With this ability, if he held beads in one hand or plucked them off of his wrists, he would be able to throw them out almost as fast as if he were shooting from a gun. At least after some practice. It was an exciting new development. If he mastered throwing his beads, he might even be able to use Daliko¡¯s power on other parts of his body, like his legs for kicking.


    For the time being, this gym would be great to work on his mana body and train in other ways, but maybe it wasn¡¯t the best place to throw beads in, at least until he got it dialed in.  Once he could reliably hit the target range portion of the training area, he could use this space for bead-throwing practice, too.


    Luckily, the second ability Daliko had informed him about was much more complex and probably had the highest utility.


    ¡°Daliko, armor please," he said.


    Suddenly, his body was cloaked with a shimmering force field that quickly hardened and darkened. On his back, a cape extended. With a thought, the cape melded into the armor on Max''s back, strengthening it as it was absorbed. With another thought, the cap extended and transformed into a total of four wings, two larger up top, two smaller below, similar to an insect.


    Next to the glinting wings on his left side, Lavinia appeared to his normal sight. She was examining his new armor just as closely as Max was. "How strong is it?" she asked.


    Max poked himself in the chest rather quickly and willed the armor to stop it. He raised his eyebrows. "I think it''s actually stronger than the armor I get from your spirits.  It¡¯s at least on par."


    To her credit, Lavinia didn''t seem offended at all, only curious. She said, "What are you thinking right now?"


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    Max grinned. "What I''m thinking is, without needing to use your spirits for armor, I have a lot more utility now without sacrificing defense. Or, maybe I can even have you form your spirits into extra material for Daliko¡¯s wings to stay in the air longer. Actually, maybe you could even add your ectoplasm armor panels on top of or below Daliko¡¯s armor for more protection."


    Next to Lavinia on the floor, Daliko to Max¡¯s normal vision as well. She cocked her mantis head to one side and asked if her abilities could truly be combined with Lavinia¡¯s.


    "Only one way to find out," said Max. Then he winked. "Lavinia, armor." Almost immediately, the familiar glowing ectoplasmic armor started to form on his body. Interestingly enough, it did actually lay on top of Daliko¡¯s armor, adding another layer of protection.


    Fascinated by this, Max dismissed both sets of armor, then called for Lavinia to supply armor first. Then, once his body was armored with the ectoplasm plates, he asked for Daliko¡¯s armor.  This time, the mantis spirit¡¯s armor laid on top of Lavinia''s armor. Max wasn''t entirely sure what this meant or how it could be used yet, but he filed it away for future consideration.


    What was currently running through his mind was the fact that when he attained a four-star mana body, his body would undergo yet another qualitative change, making him much stronger and more difficult to damage. But on top of that, he also just got this new armor upgrade. Granted, if he was using Lavinia''s spirits in any kind of support capacity, he wouldn''t be able to double up his armor. But if he needed to, he could make himself extremely tanky now.


    He was absolutely thrilled by this new development.


    Max''s fighting style had always focused more on maximizing his speed and talent for evasion¨Cto not get hit. However, between his overlapping sets of armor and the excellent shield that he could manifest using Blackmist Incident, he decided that exploring some new ways to fight might be appropriate too. "This is exciting," he said out loud.


    Anansi''s voice suddenly rang out through the gym.  The divine remnant¡¯s tone was lazy as he said, "If you say so, Maxy.  It would look better if you got more legs.  However. I do admit that your new look is still much more dashing than your old one."


    Max ignored Anansi and instead continued with his experiments. He willed Lavinia''s armor to disappear off of his body. As soon as it did, Daliko¡¯s armor filled the gaps and laid down flat against his body like it would if he originally called for her to armor him first.


    Then, willing his desire to Lavinia, he cast a hand out and manifested a spiderweb of ectoplasm the way he had before while practicing. However, after that, he tried the same thing while snapping his arm forward using the help of Daliko¡¯s spirits.  The ectoplasm spider web slammed into one of the weapon racks, hitting it so hard it bounce off the wall and scattered its contents all over the floor.


    Max winced, but still crowed, ¡°It works!¡±


    Even while wearing armor, he could use Daliko¡¯s other ability.  After a quick conversation with very few words, he learned why.  It turned out that since his body was covered with her spirits already, they could still assist a quick violent movement in their armor form.


    He tried throwing another web of ectoplasm at the target range.  The projectile went the wrong way, opening as it sped across the entire warehouse until it impacted one of the heavy steel walls with a dull thud that sounded like dropping a car from thirty feet up onto a skating rink floor.


    "I think you need to improve your aim," said Anansi dryly.


    Max frowned.  "I think you''re probably right."

 Book 3, ch 25

    As Max headed out for the day, he paid more attention than he ever thought he would in Vegas, studying the buildings. He noticed that several of the big casinos and other businesses were under new management; the names had changed and, in some cases, even the decorations and color schemes were different. The Vegas strip would still be brightly lit though.


    Of course, being that the world was different now, there were other changes as well. In addition to police, Max saw a few people wearing either military gear or conspicuous-looking Challenger armor as they patrolled the area. When Max felt their auras, he shook his head. Although his control wasn''t dialed in fine enough to truly determine what local rank they were yet, he got the feeling that none of them were above a C-rank.


    However, Las Vegas now was just as busy as it had been prior to monsters attacking. In fact, if anything, it was more crowded now. At first, Max found the crowding strange, considering that so many people around the world had already died. But then when he realized that the survivors had all moved into basically half of the United States, the Vegas Strip being busy was far less surprising.


    Not only that, this area had a high concentration of American Challenger guilds.


    He was somewhat surprised that the patrols were relatively low-ranked. After all, if a high-ranking Challenger were to go berserk, it would likely be the responsibility of whoever''s business that person destroyed to fix it. Max remembered all the security around the teleportation room he''d come through before, which was actually his destination now. But after thinking about it more, he realized he would bet money that every rich business on the strip would have their own Challengers working as security, maybe even their own private bodyguards for management, too.


    Max shook his head, wondering if any of the Challengers employed in the civilian sectors would go to the front lines of the war, even if they were ordered to. The same rules, the same concept he''d thought of before, that the law now was more of a suggestion than a rule, might also apply to Challengers who were asked or ordered to fight for humanity.


    He believed it would require a decent level of delusion, cowardice, or stupidity to actively avoid helping prevent destruction and save the world. But Max was old. He''d seen a lot. And there was no level of stupidity that would really surprise him too much, especially people who were being showered with riches and indulging in hedonism.


    The taxi pulled up  to the curb and Max got out.  He took a deep breath and settled his shoulders. He felt a little irritated and there were no targets to vent his frustration on other than at himself.


    His day had started fairly early, then after some light training, he¡¯d tried walking to the casino with the teleport.  However, he¡¯d underestimated how long the walk would take, and he hadn¡¯t wanted to flaunt his abilities, so he¡¯d had to find a taxi.  The total trip had ended up taking much more time than he thought it would, and now he regretted not just getting a taxi in the first place.


    Taking a rental would have been a pain in the ass a different way.  Max absolutely hated looking for parking spots.


    His destination, the casino, was called "Den of Heroes". He had no idea what it might have been called before the world changed, but he definitely knew that it had been renamed.


    Once through the double doors, he was shadowed by a security team and not long after that, they were replaced by a Challenger security team duo that were both at least B rank. Max was impressed by the speed that whoever was running this show had just reacted to him randomly showing up.


    Nobody stopped him as he walked towards the teleporter. A few people looked up or squinted their eyes as they studied him, but nobody actually said anything or challenged his right to be there.


    A new set of high powered guards were stationed outside the teleport room where he remembered the other pair had been.  They narrowed their eyes, glanced down at their phones before studying him again, and otherwise didn¡¯t move.  Max suspected that Lance had put him on some sort of VIP list.  There was no other explanation for the fact he hadn¡¯t even been asked any questions.


    Finally, he reached the actual teleportation room and this time a different woman than he''d met before was standing there, seemingly waiting on him. She was an older Hispanic woman, and she smiled easily at Max. "Traveling, I presume?" she asked. "Unless you''ve come to stare at these less than interesting walls with me."


    Max laughed politely and said, "I''d like to go to the Patriot Guild, please."


    Suddenly, a middle aged woman wearing a pantsuit with her hair up in a tight bun rushed into the room from outside. She held a clipboard in one hand and a pen in the other. As she moved past without even looking at him, Max saw that some sort of contraption held a large phone to the clipboard. Presumably, she was using her phone as a tablet or touchpad. The business casual-dressed newcomer whispered something to the woman who was manning the teleporting room and then she left as quickly as she''d come.


    The teleporter watched the clipboard woman leave, then gave Max an amused look. "Aren''t you at all curious as to why we were able to just walk in here?"


    Max shook his head. "I figure it has something to do with my permission level via the Patriot Guild. I mean, I''m sure they''re paying for this too. But I also figured that in addition to the obvious security between here and the front of the casino, there are others that I can''t see,  including some sort of recon or sensing Paths. After all, we all know there is probably shape changers out there, so just a visual or maybe even fingerprints might not be enough to know someone is who you think they are. But it''s really hard for people to change their auras."


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    The teleporter''s eyebrow shot up as she heard Max''s explanation. "Wow. Haven''t you just been back on Earth a short time?"


    He gave her a look. "I didn''t know that my personal history was common knowledge now."


    "Oh, it''s not," she said, and shook her head. "Part of my job is just to know all the VIPs on site. As a new one, you were pretty easy to remember some details for. Not least of which, because there are so few Returners anymore. Most Returners now have a higher possibility of being special or more powerful in some way. Well, most are probably still average, but you just never know if one is going to be a new guild leader or something. So those of us that have figured out this pattern also pay extra attention to new Returners on the VIP list."


    "Oh."


    She smacked her head.  ¡°That''s right.  Here, this is my card."


    Max accepted a fancy business card from the teleporter and it was his turn to show surprise.


    Jessica Fane


    Teleporter, Deno of Heroes Casino


    Private Commission Accepted.


    "You have a side business?" He asked. "How is that even possible when you''re a teleporter, Path and probably under constant security?"


    "Look at the location on the back," she said, "bottom left of the card." Max nodded slowly. In addition to her phone and email contact information, the only physical address or location on the card¨Ceither side¨Cwas the Den of Heroes. "I live in this casino," she said conversationally.


    "So your guild gets a cut even if I use you for a private teleportation?" Asked Max.


    "That''s about right. Part of it is because you are correct that I need constant guarding. Well, I don''t think I do, but a lot of other people do. And they''re smarter than me, and I''m not stupid enough to ignore them."


    Max chuckled. "That''s a good way to explain it. I''ll have to remember that one. But why would I approach you during off hours for a teleport instead of just coming here?"


    "Actually, three reasons. One, it''s cheaper. Two, you can reach me almost any time. And three, I''m not limited to only teleporting you to another official teleportation location."


    Max blinked at that. "Isn''t it dangerous to send somebody somewhere that you haven''t verified is empty?"


    "It depends on the location and the individual.¡±  She shrugged. ¡°I can usually get a good feel of what is at my destination. On top of that, if I¡¯m sending to an unknown location, I usually teleport people about ten feet in the air, outside. That way even if I somehow got it wrong, there would be some some wiggle room."


    Max slowly nodded. "Do all teleporters run the risk of teleporting somebody into solid matter?"


    "No. Really high class teleporters or powerful mages that can also teleport don''t have that problem, but they''re also strong enough that they wouldn''t be working full time in a teleportation room like this."


    "Fair enough. So since you can see ahead to where you¡¯re ¡®sending,¡¯ does that mean you don¡¯t need to communicate with the location I''m going?"


    She winked. "Nah, I still do. Part of it is SOP and part of it is, like I said, just another way to make sure accidents won''t happen. Where are you going again  You already said so, right?"


    "Yes. Patriot Guild," said Max.


    "I¡¯m just kidding.  The truth is I had a feeling you''d say that earlier, so before you got here I actually got the all-clear already."


    Max grinned. "You know what? So far you''re my favorite teleporter, and that''s saying something because since I''ve been back on Earth, every teleporter I''ve met has made a good, solid impression." He suddenly frowned. "Actually, I''m not sure if I can say that about the first person I met here when I came through a few days ago. I mean, she left an impression, but..."


    "I think I know who you''re talking about," said Jessica, amusement in her voice. "Believe it or not, I actually heard about you first from her. It seems you left an impression on her, too."


    "Oh, goody," said Max, his voice dripping with sarcasm. The teleporter laughed again and a second later Max found himself in the familiar teleportation room within the Patriot Guild. This time, the Patriot Guild teleporter was a short, almost painfully pale young man, wearing glasses. He nodded at Max and his expression wasn''t unfriendly but somehow Max knew that this teleporter wasn''t exactly the chatty type. He waved at the man, who just gave him a nod, and then Max left the teleportation chamber.


    None of the Patriot Guild guards stopped him, but by the time he reached the hallway, a young woman with dark hair and purple makeup came running up, moving at an easy, loping superhuman speed that would have pegged her for a Challenger even if Max hadn''t been able to feel the small bit of power rolling off of her. He judged that she was probably a D-rank.


    "Max Cunningham," she panted.


    "That''s me," he said.


    "I''m Sarah Ross. I''m going to be your guide and liaison today while you''re here in the Patriot Guild."


    "Oh really?" said Max. He began walking towards a large picture window on the other side of the hallway. He was suddenly anxious and didn''t want to stay still, but knew he couldn''t take off down either side of the hallway yet because he didn''t know where he was going. After a moment of thought, pondering how much he could justify revealing during his trip, he asked, "What kind of clearance or permissions has Lance, I mean the Guild Leader, given me?"


    ¡°The very highest.  Just after him.¡± She smiled helpfully.


    "Okay, good," said Max. "There''s two places I want to go. First, Lance mentioned something about a teleportation or transference team who has been studying the magic, or theory of moving people around. I want to have a chat there.  Then I want to see if you have a range, like a gun range with pretty substantial coverage.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°I need it to be safe for me to try using an ability that is similar to a gunshot, but then I can''t quite control yet.  Like, generation direction, maybe, but no promises, sorta thing."


    "Ah, okay, teleportation theory and target practice," she said. "Sounds like a cool day. You want to get going now, or would you like to get a snack and a water first?"


    If Max only had his experiences on earth to draw from, the question might have thrown him or made him feel awkward. Instead, he felt old habits from his days as Chasa de Milo creep up.  He nodded in a businesslike manner. "No snacks for now," he said. "Business first. Let''s go to the teleportation place."


    "All right, sounds good. Follow me." Sarah began walking briskly down the hallway to the left and Max was glad that this time he had a liaison who seemed competent. In fact, Sarah was so good at her job Max genuinely couldn''t tell if she was always this bubbly or if it was just an act while she performed her role.

 Book 3, ch 26

    Max was starting to get used to the trolly rides through Lance¡¯s massive guild.


    The area of the Patriot Guild where Max was led had far tighter security than any active teleportation room he¡¯d seen. In fact, in addition to the standard Challenger-oriented security that he''d also seen outside all of the teleportation areas he''d seen, this part of the Patriot Guild also had plenty of electronic and technological security as well.


    Some of it was obvious, and some of it was probably well hidden.  But just by what he could see, there were lasers, automatic guns, cameras, and thick steel doors. The walls even had little holes that Max assumed were a way to gas the hallway. He refrained from asking any questions along the way, and his guide, Amy, didn''t volunteer any answers¨Calthough from time to time she glanced back in amusement, looking for some sort of response from Max. When there wasn''t any, it didn''t seem to bother her either.


    Finally, the last thick steel door opened, and Max walked through a wood hallway with a beautifully carved oak doorway at the end. Although the door would look like regular wood to normal eyes, Max could sense the mana in it. However, he could also tell that this doorway was not designed to keep people out, it was meant to keep energies in.


    Past the wooden doorway, he got his first look at his destination and his eyebrows rose. The room was larger than his training warehouse back in Vegas. Additionally, half of the room looked gothic, like a giant rendition of some fanciful Frankenstein laboratory. The other half of the room was so high tech and cutting edge that Max doubted most of the tech had existed on Earth even a few years ago.  He didn¡¯t have a name for some of the devices he could see.


    "Oh, our visitor is here," a voice came from Max''s right. He glanced over and in the antique-looking area of the room, a tall thin man with a ponytail wearing a lab coat that had mystic embroidery, walked over briskly to shake Max''s hand. "Hi, my name is Max," he said.  He had an accent that Max couldn¡¯t quite place.


    "My name is Max, too.¡±


    ¡°So I''ve heard! I suppose good things come in twos, huh?" The affable man grinned at Max and acted like he was elbowing him in the ribs without making any contact.


    Max wasn''t sure exactly how to respond and was still thinking about it when a heavy-set woman with purple hair walked up. She said, "Hi. My name is Rissa. You might be wondering how Max knew you were a Max, but we were briefed on you before you came. A long time ago, in fact.  The guild''s Jefe knew we¡¯d need it so we got a dossier on you.  Then we were just told you Returned."


    ¡°Uh, cool.¡±  Max noticed that the woman was wearing a lab coat similar to researcher-Max''s. It was also inscribed with runic and mystic sigils.


    Taking a quick chance based on a gut feeling, Max activated his third eye to look at the woman for half a second before turning it off. In that brief moment, he saw a number of destructive and otherwise bizarre energies woven in the wall behind her. There were plenty of magic systems embedded in the lab coat as well.


    Now that he¡¯d Seen it, he understood that every piece of clothing and equipment that the researchers wore was enchanted in some way, mostly for protection. However, during the brief moment he held his third eye open, he also caught glimpses of darker, more disturbing things deeper in the laboratory. Max was glad he¡¯d already shut his third eye¨Che didn''t need to spend much more time looking at that sort of thing. In fact, he was glad that he''d adopted an almost camera flash methodology to using his third eye, if he used it anymore.


    The lesson he¡¯d learned, back when he¡¯d Seen the Morrigan, had stuck.


    In fact, sometimes he forgot he had the ability now.  After getting psychically wounded, he¡¯d used it less, and on top of that, he hadn''t been a Summoner all that long to begin with. Max had long accepted the fact that he would probably always be a Blade Sorcerer first and use his other powers as a way to support that Path, rather than vice versa.


    His head snapped around as a third researcher walked up from behind a rack of plants on the technology side of the room. The man smiled warmly at Max and said, "Hi, I''m Matt. Nice to meet you." Then, clearly feeling awkward, he stalked forward the last couple strides to quickly and shakily pump Max''s hand before stepping back. Like researcher-Max, this man was tall and thin, but where researcher-Max was dark and had a bit of a scruff, this man had fair hair and was cleanly shaven.


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    A new woman approached from the far side of the room. Like the others, she had on a mystically embroidered lab coat, but she also wore what looked like a white, witch''s hat. She bowed and clicked a button on a device that she was wearing on her lapel before she started speaking Japanese. An energy built in  the air, and through his supernatural senses, Max could almost see, or even feel a few lights.  It felt like they were hovering around the woman in the witch hat, and  reflexively, feeling no danger, he reached out and mentally plucked them. As soon as he did, everything the woman was saying was very clear to him, although he could still hear her speaking Japanese.


    "Hello, Max-san.  My name is Fujiisawa Yukari. Like the others, I am one of the researchers here in the Patriot Guild Applied Science Department. I am actually tasked with working as the manager of this group, so it is very convenient that we developed these devices early on," she said and tapped her lapel gadget. "It only works for other Challengers though. And... They''re very expensive to produce."


    Max frowned, and in Quartet, he said, "Why don''t you just speak Quartet if you don''t have a common language with someone else on Earth?"


    The four people in lab coats exchanged glances, and it was researcher-Max who answered. "Unfortunately, not all Returners actually truly keep the Quartet language. And most who return don''t have perfect command of it. Nobody knows why most people can almost always use it to speak simply or give commands in Quartet, but for what we do here in the lab it¡¯s not deep enough.  We really need to communicate precisely. In fact, we have had to actually invent probably a thousand words in the last three years!"


    Rissa laughed. "Ain''t that the truth," she said.


    Max thought about what he¡¯d just heard.  He said,  "So it''s nice to meet all of you, of course, and I''m glad that you''re going to help me with my people-summoning problem. I don''t think it always takes a genius to recognize one, but I¡¯m glad I have a team of geniuses to help me." He let his voice trail off, and the four researchers chuckled politely.


    Matt said, "It would probably be good for my ego to accept that compliment, but along with your dossier from the guild leader, we were also told in no uncertain terms that you are a very powerful Challenger, too¨Cat least on par with the guild leader. Maybe even stronger."


    ¡°That last bit was our extrapolation,¡± said Rissa.


    Researcher-Max cracked a grin. "The memo also said to keep any theories we formed about you or your relative power to the guild leader absolutely secret. Part of me thinks it was to help you and with this project¡¯s secrecy, the other cynical part of me thinks that the longer the rest of the world believes that the guild leader is one of the strongest Challengers in the world, the better off the Patriot Guild will be."


    "You''re not supposed to say that part out loud!" said Rissa.


    Max grinned. He had a feeling that he was going to like these four researchers. He said, "Lance told me that you all have been working on teleportation, like, summoning people, for a while now.¡±


    ¡°Correct.  That project was started to assist you,¡± said Matt.


    ¡°Well, now that I''m here, what do you need me to do?"


    Fujisawa was the researcher who answered. She said, "We have actually built a detailed observation pod, and we have something very simple to ask you to do."


    Risa nodded. "One thing that''s holding us back is that we need a really good read on your energies or at least the ones at play for how you might be summoning people from another planet."


    Max nodded calmly. He still wasn''t sure exactly how much Lance had told these people but he figured that now was probably not the best time to hold too many secrets back. He replied, "Yes, I still have a pretty good snapshot of their individual souls, or energies, too."


    All the researchers nodded. Fujisawa said, "We interviewed the guild leader at length about all of his interactions with you over the last few years we''ve been employed. During that time we learned about the beads that you asked your friends to wear and we surmised what that had to have been for."


    Max made a face, showing that he was impressed. "So what else do you know about me?"


    "Well," said Rissa, "we know that you can use some sort of subspace as well and that this might be in some way linked to whatever abilities it is you might be able to use to move people here from another planet."


    Max thought about it a moment before slowly nodding and saying, "I guess that''s fair to say."


    "Okay, good," said Rissa. She grinned at him with glittering eyes. "Then I just need you to step into a box over there in my area of the lab and open this subspace gate of yours so I can watch."


    "Really? That''s it?"


    "That''s it," she said with a nod.


    The other researchers were looking strangely excited and nervous as Rissa she spoke though. "Is there some part of this you''re not telling me that I''m not going to like?" he asked..


    Matt slowly raised a hand and coughed. "The guild leader might have mentioned that you have a few interesting spirits and that if they manifest it may be a," he paused again, "an experience. We are led to believe that one of your most¡­intense spirits might be part of your subspace ability."


    Suddenly, cutting through the room like an ice-cold blade through pig flesh, Saliron¡¯s voice drolled, "I do believe they''re talking about me, contractor." The dark spirit wasn¡¯¡¯t speaking loudly, but his voice echoed off the walls, like he was death-made flesh, gracing them within a vast underground cavern.


    All of the researchers froze, stiff as a board, and Matt''s knees grew weak for a moment. He caught himself.


    "Oh my," said Rissa. Her eyes held more fear now, but still sparkled.  "That''s probably the one we heard about."

 Book 3, ch 27

    Mana swirled in the air in a vortex, so thick that if anyone were watching, they would have seen sparks in the air, visible to the naked eye.  Earth had an absolutely astonishing amount of mana now.  It took all of Max¡¯s control to move it quickly, though.  It was like trying to move an oar through honey.  The density of the mana made it thick, but his control was so precise, it was still able to easily manipulate it--it just took time.


    Max could feel that he was getting close to a breakthrough. He was excited but now, for the first time in this life, he also dreaded it a little bit.  A breakthrough into a four-star mana body would be much different than the first three levels.


    After he achieved a four-star mana body, his power was going to surpass anything he¡¯d actually seen yet among other Challengers from Earth. Maybe there was a Challenger out there with a powerful Path who had achieved that kind of ability, but Max definitely hadn''t met them yet. In fact, the only place he''d seen Challengers with the kind of power he was about to have had been in the memories of Ancilla. He also had a feeling that if he hadn''t caught Adjudicator Swan off guard, she might have been a match too.


    As usual, as Max worked on his mana body, he let his mind work as well, taking the time to organize his thoughts and think about things he needed to¨Ceven things he''d been putting off. Since it had been over two weeks now that he''d first begun working on his mana body again seriously, he felt guilty for leaving earth, for going to the Quartet.


    Leaving his family behind had been a choice.  He still rationally believed it was the best choice at the time.  But no matter how angry he got at himself for feeling a little guilty, he just couldn''t shake the feeling. A lot of it probably stemmed from not letting his family or friends know that he''d been back for a while.


    This was definitely not something that would have concerned him when he was Chasa de Milo, but he¡¯d changed.  Now he kept asking himself what his real priorities were and why.  He second guessed himself, at least in the darkness of his own mind.


    Of course, anytime he was ready to beat himself up over that, all he needed to do was think about the sword of Damocles hanging over his head in the form of Quartet adjudicators and enforcers.


    He actually welcomed this kind of insecurity in his mind.  It let him know it was there so he could savagely smash it down with logic and reality.  However, not all of his negative emotions could be dispelled this way.


    The more real, visceral reason to feel guilty was not about his relationships, but instead about his very existence on earth.  In the quiet of his mind, part of Max wondered if he even had the right to stay on the planet. After all, if he was here, then people from the Quartet would come. He felt very strongly that this was an inevitability. The only reason he hadn''t put much effort yet into trying to find a way off-world was because of two reasons.


    First of all, if he were going to leave, he needed to make some changes first so that he could fulfill his obligations or otherwise live without guilt. That largely meant giving his friends and family a better chance of survival. The best way to do that was to strengthen the Trifecta Guild, take out some enemies, leave behind teachings about the Western Wind Style,  and help out at the battlefront.


    The second reason there was no use in spending any time on the subject was because it was already being worked on.  The Patriot Guild already had their science team led by Fujisawa Yukari.  Max assumed that much of their research would also be relevant to leaving the planet, not just calling someone to it.


    He didn¡¯t like it, but if everything fell apart, he had other options, too.  Ultimately, he was pretty sure he already had the means to leave Earth in the form of the strange daggers that he''d taken off of Adjudicator Swan.


    Max had let many opportunities pass to ask Anansi what all of the daggers were and what they did. He knew that avoiding the subject was irrational, but he felt like it was such a heavy burden and such a large topic that he didn''t want to deal with it until the Trifecta Guild''s issues were taken care of.


    And of course, even though Max was about to be at least one of the most powerful Challengers on Earth, he was not arrogant enough to assume that the upcoming conflict would be easy. Whether he ended up fighting with words or weapons, it was patently obvious that the Lynch brothers¨Cwho had betrayed the Trifecta Guild¨Cwere not going to go down easily.


    Whenever Max took breaks from training, whether working on his mana body or practicing with all of his new weapons and skills, he continued to watch the news and get caught up on recent history. It was giving him a very good idea of what kind of people he was dealing with.


    Unfortunately, there were other things he was putting off too, like teaching his old students. Some of why he was waiting was for the same reason he was delaying other things; he was really hoping that after taking care of the Trifecta Guild''s issues, he would be able to summon Momo and Gantry to Earth. Then he could teach everyone together. Or maybe he could just have Gantry or Momo teach his students on Earth since they were more advanced now.


    Either way, at least he had been giving mana pills to the original Trifecta Guild members. None of them had had a breakthrough yet, but it was helping them absorb mana from the atmosphere faster.


    Suddenly, a rumble echoed through Max''s body. He could feel that the threshold for mana condensation and suppression had almost been reached. A four-star mana body was truly when Max believed that a Blade Sorcerer became a Blade Sorcerer. His opinion wasn''t exactly rare on the subject, either, or at least it hadn''t been when he was alive. On Albion, a Four-Star Blade Sorcerer had been considered a true battlefield asset. Anyone higher than four-star would be famous in the world, and armies would calculate their odds of winning wars or battles based on how many four-star Blade Sorcerers they had.


    Max reached into himself and carefully began observing the accumulated mana in his brain and a few of his other internal organs.  He needed to prepare to remove the accumulated mana from some of his organs and push all of that mana into the rest of his body, further compressing it.


    This was an extremely difficult process, and the first time he''d ever done this in his first life, he''d almost died. However, having been through it once before made the process a bit less difficult. Now he knew first-hand what to expect. He could predict the pains that would actually hurt his soul as well as his body.


    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    The secret to the evolution to 4-stars was removing all the mana from the most important systems, compressing it as far as he could, and then channeling the accumulated pressure directly back into all the organs that he cleared of mana before. This would begin a chain reaction that would start as equal parts pleasure and pain, but eventually just pain.  Terrible, terrible, soul-fraying pain.


    Becoming a four-star mana body is really what took Blade Sorcerers to the next level. During the transformation, mana would rework their entire body, and afterward, they would be a better, faster, stronger, tougher version of themselves. But more importantly, their command of mana would speed up exponentially. Additionally, they would be able to project mana outside of their own body far easier. Of course, mana projection used up a lot of power, and Max didn''t plan on throwing blades of mana around or conjuring shields if he could help it since he had other options.


    At least not until he had a five star mana body.


    Suddenly, the time was right. Slowly, carefully, meticulously, almost cell by cell, Max began removing the mana from his brain. Starting with the brain was risky.  In fact, this was quite possibly the most dangerous method to become a four-star mana body blade sorcerer, but he''d also achieved it before.  Doing so had helped him achieve the heights he had.


    Most Blade Sorcerers on Albion who reached a four-star mana body began with the lungs or the heart, since whatever organ the blade sorcerer began with would get the largest increase in power and functionality if they lived through the process. But long ago, in his first life, Max had realized that the most important weapon any warrior had was their mind.


    The work he was doing inside his body was tedious and nerve-wracking, but he didn¡¯t lose his focus.  After he finally purged the mana from his brain, which on a magical level almost felt like pulling Velcro apart cell by cell, Max controlled the mana , pushed it into the rest of his mana body in one go.  He kept pushing until it assimilated. The pressure inside him grew.


    Now the amount of mana in his heart, lungs, spleen, liver, and stomach all increased. He¡¯d already felt full of mana, now he felt like he could overload.  The feeling was going to get worse as he continued working towards the transformation.  In fact, this was one reason why some Blade Sorcerers died while attempting a breakthrough to a four-star mana body. The process meant every organ that the Blade Sorcerer cleared would make the next organ harder to deal with. On top of that, max started with his brain.  That meant he¡¯d actually weakened his brain, making it easier to pass out and also lowering his thinking and computation speed.


    Max gritted his teeth and got to work again. Part of his willpower was devoted to ignoring the passage of time.  He didn''t know how long it took, and at some point, he thought he might have died. The pain was excruciating. But with single-minded, stubborn focus, Max kept working on it until, finally, he purged the last organ, his stomach. Then, while the mana in his body was so compressed he felt like a nuclear, mana-charged bomb, the moment seemed to stretch.


    He wasn''t out of the woods yet.


    The only good thing about this process was that he didn''t need to be conscious for the duration once the transformation started.  If it knocked him out, he wouldn¡¯t die and his transformation would continue.  However, if he did lose consciousness, the mana fluctuations would probably destroy the entire block around his Trifecta workout warehouse.


    That would be bad.


    As he sat on the floor, poised to unleash his mana, he let the moment linger.  He was about to step into another world. After this, Max would not be able to justify being a passive observer when terrible things were happening around him. A four-star mana body would give him the power, theoretically at least, to have a fighting chance against almost anyone in the universe. Against exceptionally powerful Challengers, those odds still wouldn¡¯t be great, but at least they wouldn¡¯t be zero, though.


    From this point forward, skill would become far more important than raw power.


    Clenching his teeth, eyes glowing, Max thought, Oh well, not like I can stop at this point anyway.  He released the mana.


    Flashing light coursed down his entire body. He gritted his teeth so hard that his molars exploded but were reformed again as his body was reshaped by mana. Not only did the mana break his bones as it rebuilt him, but Max accidentally damaged himself, too. The pain was too great. He couldn''t stay still. The occasional flop of his body while he was under so much torment and receiving so much new power, was enough for him to accidentally flip his arm into the concrete. But compound fractures almost instantly moved bones around and reknit.  Healing was just another pain among millions that ran through his body like a herd of furious, sun-sized bison, exploding in nuclear fire.


    Max didn''t remember the process hurting so badly in his first life.  But maybe it was because the purity of his mana was higher this time. Throughout the course of his tireless effort in restoring his mana body, Max had realized that his past experience helped him pack in more power and smooth it out better than in his first life. Not only that, he''d been shocked to discover that all the work he''d done in the Quartet, a place devoid of mana, and the way he¡¯d scrounged mana together to pull into his body, resulted in some of the purest mana he''d ever seen in his life.


    All of this meant he had an absurdly strong foundation.


    He kept focusing on this fact as he gritted his teeth and his body broke and repaired itself over and over again. His clothes tore, and blood literally spurted out of his skin like a leak in the seam of a damaged boat.


    The torture felt like it lasted forever.


    One reason Max didn''t keep track of the time in any way, shape, or form was because that would have led to madness. And if not madness, it definitely would have led to mana deviance where his mana body would be abnormal or crippled.


    I need to hold on.  Don¡¯t want to lose this gym.  He was pretty sure nobody else was around the area, but he couldn¡¯t be sure of it.  Now he suddenly regretted not asking Lavina to send her spirits out and scout it out.  That had been an oversight.  But even if nobody else was around, he didn¡¯t want to blow the area up. Murdering someone during a breakthrough was completely unacceptable, though.


    He prevented himself from continuing to shatter his own teeth by holding his mouth open slightly and using isometrics, tensing his jaw.  Blood ran down his cheeks from his eyes.


    Somehow, Max made it through the entire process without ever losing consciousness. When it was done, he slowly opened his eyes, sighed, spit, and beheld the absolute travesty around him.


    He was surrounded by bodily fluids, including vomit, and even little pieces of his skin on the ground. In his first life, the sight had made his gorge rise. Mixed in with all the disgusting stuff that had spewed from his broken body was also the last of the impurities that he¡¯d had as a mortal. Calling a Blade Sorcerer an immortal after they were four-star or higher was an affection since they weren''t truly immortal, but it was still a more accurate description than considering them completely human anymore.


    Max shakily stood and glanced around himself again. All of his spirits were completely silent, all in shock at what they''d just witnessed. He sensed that Lavinia in particular, being from Albion, felt like she was having an almost religious experience. Max ignored her and tried to decide if he should clean up the gym before taking a shower.


    "Screw it," he said out loud, and he trudged over to the living quarters area. He was going to shower, come back clean, and shower again, and then maybe shower again after that. Max was tired, beat up, and still sore, but he knew intellectually that most of that was in his head right now. Physically, this was the most powerful he had ever been in this life, and he almost couldn''t believe that he¡¯d made it this far.  After all, he could still vividly remember sitting at a table in his apartment, staring at student loan debts and wondering what the hell he was going to do about bills.


    "I wish it didn''t hurt so much, though," he muttered to himself. When he finally stepped under the water of the shower, it felt like bliss.

 Book 3, ch 28

    Several days after Max''s breakthrough, he found himself back at the Trifecta guild. This time, instead of going up the back way like he had before, he decided to enter through the lobby. It still wasn¡¯t exactly the most prudent thing to do, but with his plans for the day, prudent wasn¡¯t really on the menu.


    Might as well kick everything off by starting bold and just roll with it.


    Blackmist Incident as minimized on his waist, but a casual observer could still tell that he was a Challenger. He wore a backpack, but not a normal backpack today.  This time, he was wearing the Weight Reduction Adventurer Pack, MK 4.  He¡¯d found a function to ¡°deflate¡± it, and it was lying comfortably flat against his back.


    He had on some basic armor, more for the look than functionality. Additionally, he carried a dagger against his lower back, and  Bracelets of Bloody Arrows, an artifact from the dungeon in the Quartet just like his backpack.


    Now that he was a four-star mana body, he had spent time reacquainting himself with his four-star Blade Sorcerer power and perfecting his weapons. He had also made a decent number of new beads for himself using his greater mana limit and efficiency.


    As the guards approached, Max held up his Challenger ID.  One of the guards looked at a tablet and raised his eyebrows upon seeing Max''s permissions in the Trifecta Guild. The guard''s mouth moved as if he was about to say something, but Max quietly said, "Don''t say a thing. Keep your mouth shut for one day about this." The guard''s mouth closed with a click, and the other guard wisely chose not to say anything, either.


    Walking through the lobby to the elevators, Max glanced around but didn''t recognize anyone. The handful of people he saw were either low-level Trifecta Guild adventurers or support staff. He could identify the latter from the complete lack of any kind of supernatural threat he felt. Of course, he wasn''t going to completely rely on his abilities to detect danger, and kept his guard up throughout the building.


    Right before he got on the elevator, he actually spotted someone he knew. Blake looked older now, maybe even a little tired.  Max¡¯s friend had a scar on his face now, too.  He was wearing armor, and had a big sword on his back.


    Blake did a double take, and a number of emotions flickered across his face, but the elevator doors closed before he could call out Max''s name.


    Well, I guess it''s going to get out one way or another now, Max thought to himself. Good thing I''m not hiding anymore."


    He felt like a dick for not talking to Blake, but he didn¡¯t have time now.  In his experience, if the day might end with bloodshed, it was better not to let anything shake his resolve on the way.


    Max made it up to the level of Chad''s office and knocked on the door.


    ¡°Come in,¡± said Chad.


    The moment Max walked in, Chad nodded and moved to the side door leading to a private meeting room.  This was a familiar ritual for Max now.  The only thing different than before was how now the Trifecta guild leader was wearing athletic gear instead of formal clothes.


    Once they were in the meeting room, Chad plunked down a laptop on the table, sat, and steepled his fingers. "So, you''re really going to do this today, huh?"


    "Sure am."


    "Okay, so be it."


    Max sat and tapped the table with his index finger in thought. "Did you do everything I asked?"


    "That''s right."


    "Then why did you ask me if I was really going through with it?"


    Chad snorted. "Because I''d rather risk pissing some people off and ruining my own reputation than watching you possibly die."


    Max smiled, but it was more of a grimace. "I really don''t think you have to worry about that."


    "So sure.." muttered Chad under his breath. Then he tsked and started reading items from his laptop. "I''ve alerted the press. They should be there soon. Law enforcement has been alerted as well. You should have police, fire department, and even paramedics on site. Patriot Guild is on the move.  They will not be interfering, but they will join the cops to make sure that nobody comes in to interrupt.  And they will make sure the cops don¡¯t do anything stupid, either.


    The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    ¡°I have the email you sent me, and I''ll forward it to your mom as soon as everything kicks off.  I messaged the American military command with the message you wanted me to pass on. I also did the handful of other things you asked, including wiring some money to your family."


    "Good," said Max. "And thank you. Oh, I''m pretty sure Blake saw me downstairs, so I''m not going back down the way I came up.  I ignored him once, I¡¯m not going to do it again.  Gotta avoid it."


    "Why did you come here in the first place?" asked Chad. "Couldn''t you have just called me?"


    Max gave him a grimace smile again and said, "It is true that I might not walk away from this.  Granted, I don¡¯t think it¡¯s likely, but you just never know.  So if it all goes south, I wanted to talk in person.  Otherwise I thought you would feel even more guilty about it."


    "Well, yeah, among other things." Chad shut his laptop and grunted. Then he closed the door to the meeting room, revealing that he had a full set of gear stashed away in the corner, previously hidden by the door. He began putting on his armor while still talking to Max. "Also, are you sure about putting the message out to the guild?"


    "Yes," said Max. "They should know.  But same as the police, they shouldn¡¯t be joining in.  The easiest way to make sure that happens is to give them a heads up and tell them to stay the hell out of it."


    "Yeah, I know," said Chad.


    ¡°So you got the press keyed up, too?¡±


    "Yes.  We also got those extra Senders and Recon Paths from the Patriot Guild, and they''ll be joining our folks as soon as I send the message out.  They¡¯re traveling with the enforcers."


    "Good," said Max with a satisfied nod. That particular order had been for Chad to ensure that recordings¡ªboth mundane via drones and supernatural using sensory Gifts through reconnaissance specialized Challengers¡ªwould capture what happened and send it to the rest of the world.  Chad was helping Max do the same thing as years ago on earth¨Ctelling the media there was about to be a show.


    Once Chad was dressed and armed, he picked up his last few pieces of gear, all defensive in nature. After all, even though he wasn''t going to be doing any fighting himself, it was prudent to prepare for some stray or intentional shots.


    "So I can finally tell my brother what is going on now, right?¡±


    ¡°Of course.  The entire guild is going to know soon, too.¡±


    ¡°And are you sure you don''t want me to alert the Agency?" asked Chad.


    "I''m sure.¡±  Max had decided not to get in bed with the Agency until he knew more about it.  He stood and asked, ¡°Are you ready?"


    "Yeah, I guess. I can''t believe we''re doing this."


    "Oh, wait! You forgot something," said Max.


    "What?"


    "A hard copy of those contracts that you had people sign to learn Western Wind Style and the sworn statements by the Challengers that handled the metaphysical side of that."


    "Oh yeah." Chad went to the wall, to a safe. He opened it, reached in, grabbed an envelope, and closed the safe again. Max got a bit of a glimpse inside and also felt some interesting energies from inside but chose not to ask any questions. Instead, he merely nodded his head and accepted the envelope before tucking it into his clothing somewhere safe.


    "Okay, and you have all the mana pills stowed away too?"


    "Yes," said Chad. "And that crappy martial arts manual you gave me, drawn on notebook paper. That thing seriously sucks, okay? So you can''t die."


    Max grinned and patted his friend on the shoulder. "Don''t worry about it.  Seriously.  I¡¯ll be fine.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve been spending the last few days basically preparing for if you die.  Alone.  And I couldn¡¯t even talk to anyone about it.¡±


    ¡°Need to be strong to be the guild leader!  But seriously, it would be irresponsible of me not to take precautions just in case the worst happens.  Careful. Believe it or not, that''s always been my personality."


    "I guess I can see that.  Sorta.  Nah.  I think you¡¯re full of shit," said Chad. He made a face. "I hope you''re ready for the fallout though. Your friends and family. If you do survive this, it''s going to be rough.  They¡¯re going to be pissed.  I would be."


    Max quietly admitted, I know. Believe me, I know. In fact, there''s plenty of other things I''d like to do before this, and plenty of other things I would have liked to do before doing any of this. But if I don''t take the steps to make the world a better place and our species ends up getting wiped out, everything else is meaningless. So certain things take priority."


    "I think I understand," said Chad. He held out his hand, and Max shook it. "From this point on, I''ll stick to the script. I''m going to head there right now. Are you sure you''re not coming with me?"


    "No, I''m fine," said Max. He moved to Chad''s windows and fiddled with the only one that opened from the inside. It was barely enough to squeeze through, but Max did, most of his body hanging outside, before he said, "I''ll be on a building nearby and come down once you get there. Take a couple of bodyguards, minimum, please.  Once you¡¯re there you can also send the message out of the guild.  I¡¯d prefer they watch what goes down on TV instead of in person.  I''ll see you there."


    Then Max jumped out the window before sending silent commands to Lavinia and Daliko. Almost immediately, his body was covered in alien-looking armor with four long wings that allowed him to effortlessly glide away, losing almost no altitude in the process. Behind him, he heard Chad mutter, "I can''t believe this is happening," before Max was too far away to catch his friend saying anything else.


    The power inside of him seethed, begging to be used.


    He¡¯d put up a confident front in front of Chad, but the reality was he was bracing himself for a hell of a fight.  If everyone was lucky, the day would end by talking it out, but Max has a bad feeling it wouldn¡¯t be that simple.


    The Lynch brothers really shouldn¡¯t have been able to break their contracts, the magical versions.  There were several ways they might have done so, and none of them were really good.


    He would prefer not to fight, but if he had to, he was going to see this thing through.

 Book 3, ch 29

    Max watched from a rooftop, waiting for the moment to act. The building below, which used to be a hotel, was now occupied by the Victory Guild.


    One interesting thing about the post-apocalypse world was that lots of buildings that had previously been hotels had been converted into apartments or even guild buildings like this one.  Fewer people traveled, and there were fewer people anymore at all.  Hotels had largely stopped being relevant in the new world for several reasons.  In fact, now that mages could manufacture housing quickly and easily, the highest demand for places like this one was its location.


    Max studied the Victory Guild headquarters.  There were hints that it had been a hotel in the past, but now the entire building was branded for its new purpose. Max thought the effect was like something out of a superhero cartoon.


    He was currently standing on top of an office building that was still being used as such. Max suspected that different companies were using the place now than before he went to the Quartet, but maybe not. A surprising number of large businesses had survived the collapse. Some of them had proven to be as tenacious as cockroaches.


    Max saw the Trifecta Guild member and others arriving below. They trickled in slowly at first, then so quickly it looked like people going to an event.  In no time flat, there was a line of police and members of the Patriot Guild mulling around, getting ready to form a line. Max had instructed them not to actually create a barrier until he made his appearance. By this point, if anybody inside the Victory Guild was paying attention, they had to know that something was going to happen.


    After Max gave one more glance below, making sure that all the necessary players were present, he paused for a couple more minutes. Sure enough, in that brief time frame, several small, buzzing constructs and tech-based drones joined him.


    The number of the reporters below were steadily increasing.


    Max grinned, the expression savage.  Chad had definitely done his job well. As soon as everything kicked off, there would be wide media coverage.  Quite a few people that Max had been keeping in the dark were going to find out that he was back on Earth. Some of them probably weren''t going to be happy with him. With that cheery thought, he stepped off the roof and summoned ectoplasmic wings to glide down to the street below.


    Challengers flying wasn''t exactly forbidden everywhere, but it was definitely frowned upon for safety reasons, with emergencies being an exception. But enough challengers could fly that it wasn''t shocking.  It still drew attention, though. A number of people pointed upwards, and a decent number of eyes were on Max before he even landed in front of the Victory Guild.


    Standing out in front of the guild were three big men wearing suits. They were obviously working as some sort of security, and Max could feel that they had decent power. He suspected that they were somewhere around a B-Rank adventurers. One of them, a guy with a fair complexion and cauliflower ears, said, "Nice wings.  If you don''t have business with the Victory Guild, move along."


    If the three men were nervous about the massive crowd ringing the building, they were hiding it well.


    People behind Max in the crowd tried to get a good view of what was happening. The reporters had been clued in ahead of time, so even more cameras and magical recording devices appeared. The police officers, supported by Patriot Guild members, quickly and professionally created a barrier around the building. Onlookers, including members of the Trifecta Guild, goggled as they tried to make sense of what was happening.


    Suddenly, Chad shouted, "Justice for the Trifecta Guild!" His face looked like he had just sucked on a lemon, and Max knew that his friend was incredibly embarrassed to be making a scene like this, especially in a way where he could be potentially seen as weak.


    But the shouting really helped set the stage.


    With a flourish, Max removed the documents that he''d brought, holding them aloft, and shouted,  "My name is Max Cunningham. I created the Trifecta Guild! Chad, over there, has been serving as the guild leader while I was gone and doing an admirable job. I do not plan to replace him. However, I am here to address some disturbing events, and oath-breaking.¡±  Max turned to the three guards and shouted, ¡°I demand to speak to the guild leaders of the Victory Guild to settle this matter in a way that I find satisfactory!"


    He''d put mana into his lungs and throat, so his voice echoed like a bullhorn. The milling crowd behind him had become silent, and phones made clicking noises as people took pictures with their cameras.  Even those who hadn''t gotten a heads-up for what was about to take place could tell that something big was going down. In the midst of the silence, somewhere behind him, he could hear Blake call out, "Max? Max, is that really you!?"


    Max didn¡¯t turn.  He tuned out Blake as well as anybody else who might call out to get his attention. His heart was pounding, less in fear than excitement. He knew that if things went badly from this point on, he might die. But this was something he had to do, and even though putting everything on the line could be terrifying, it was exhilarating sometimes as well.


    The three hired thugs in front of the building goggled at Max. He knew that they were not prepared for this. More than likely, they''d been sent out to make sure that nobody entered the building without permission and also to communicate what was going on to those inside. Theyd probably just suspected that the reporters were going to try for some sort of aggressive line of questioning.


    Using his enhanced voice again, Max held up the documents and said, "A significant number of Victory Guild members, including the current guild leaders, came from my Trifecta Guild. What''s more, they have stolen the techniques I developed! I have the right¨Cmorally, magically, and legally, to demand justice for the betrayal that has occurred!" Max held the documents up for everybody to see. Pulling out an extra copy that he had rolled up, he threw it to the nearest group of reporters, using a bit of mana to prevent it from flapping around or being damaged on the way.


    If anybody present had been a Blade Sorcerer from Albion, that casual display of mana control would have been terrifying. Inside Max''s soul space, Lavinia shook as she witnessed what Max had just done. However, nobody else present understood what he¡¯d just demonstrated. The reporters caught the documents and then began pouring over them like hungry hyenas, using their cameras and other recording devices to get quick scans of every page of the contract.


    Max raised his voice again. "I demand to speak to the Lynch Brothers right now. If I am rebuffed or denied, I will take it as a declaration of war by the Victory Guild!"


    Like startled rabbits, the crowd stared at Max. There was another deep silence from the watching crowd. As far as Max knew, this was the first time they''d heard anybody announce a potential, out-in-the-open war between guilds. Plenty of headlines over the years had used the word ¡°war,¡± but nobody in leadership positions of any guild had actually publicly announced anything like it for obvious reasons.


    Max knew that dozens, if not hundreds, of people behind him were probably furiously trying to fact-check who he was and whether he really was the creator of the Trifecta Guild. But a handful of people who were a bit more clever or maybe a bit smarter just glanced at the group of Trifecta Guild members led by Chad. The Trifect guild leader, clad in armor and prepared for battle, merely gave one single nod. For those paying attention, that was enough.


    The thugs at the door were not stupid and not easily cowed. Two of them glared at Max, still blocking his access, while the third whispered something into a lapel mic. While they were doing so, Max kept his momentum, shouting, "I demand justice for the Trifecta Guild! How dare these Challengers promise loyalty in exchange for my techniques, for a new Path, and then leave to create their own guild!? I have been wronged, and so has my guild. I demand an explanation. And more, I demand remuneration. Our Trifecta guild demands justice!"


    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    The thug who had been whispering into his mic stopped his conversation, cleared his throat, and using an ability similar to Max''s to project his voice.  ¡°One moment, please, sir," said the goon. "Someone is coming to speak to you." He paused and then added, "One of the guild leaders."


    Max nodded. The goon continued, "Max Cunningham, the guild leader is asking for some identification before he gets here."


    Max held up his Challenger ID card, knowing that with all the technology and Challengers present, there were probably plenty of people who could clearly read it. He said, "My name is Max Cunningham, rank C challenger. I am the founder of the Trifecta Guild. This is reflected not only in the registration papers of the Trifecta Guild but also in historical documents in the form of television news stories during the early days of the outbreak. The Trifecta Guild''s first portal attack was documented by news crews before we were even officially a recognized guild. As the founding member and the originator of the techniques that imparted a second Path to personnel who left the Guild with Toby and Sam Lynch, it is my right to demand answers and satisfaction."


    The murmuring in the crowd outside grew louder. A handful of people from the Trifecta Guild who recognized Max were trying to push through the line of police officers and Patriot Guild members to get closer. They called his name, but Max continued to ignore them. Amongst the others who were murmuring or even just speaking out loud, he could already predict what some of them were probably saying. The fact that he was only a C-Rank was no doubt being discussed.


    Max wasn¡¯t worried about any of the reporters losing interest because of his revealed rank.


    Some of the reporters who had shown up said they would start recording live immediately. Max had no idea what kind of audience this altercation had now, but he knew that before everything was over, it was going to grow.


    Are you ready, Anansi? Max thought-projected.


    I''m ready, boss.


    Good.


    A few minutes later, Max''s acute hearing picked up approaching footsteps inside the building. The entire time he''d been standing out front, Lavinia had been quietly updating him with the number of Victory members inside. The speed at which they''d been building defensive emplacements within had slowed after Max announced his rank, but none of the alerted Guild members had left.


    It probably wasn''t every day that an unknown Challenger started shouting and making public accusations on the front steps of a powerful guild, after all.


    Finally, the doors opened, and two more people stepped out. One was a man with a floating television screen behind him. He wore formal, but comfortable-looking clothing. The other was a woman in a suit whose eyes glittered as she said, "Max Cunningham, I presume? My name is Elena Smith. I am one of the Victory Guild attorneys. This is Joss Henderson. He is one of our audio-visual Challengers."


    The man inclined his head, and the TV that was floating behind him moved around so that Max and all the people watching from the street could see it. Max could feel the energies of Western Wind Style on Joss, the TV guy.


    Max projected, Anansi, I need to know about that guy.


    The Divine Spirit''s mental voice came back immediately. He''s been compromised, boss.  This place is infected for sure.


    Shit, thought Max. This whole altercation could have gone down several different ways. In fact, he''d been hoping to reabsorb the Victory Guild members who''d learned Western Wind Style back into the Trifecta guild. However, Anansi had just verified Max''s worst hunch.


    Demonic energy, huh? asked Max.


    Yup.


    Shit, he repeated.


    Suddenly, the TV screen flickered to life, and a man''s face came into high-definition existence. He said, "Hello everyone, I''m Sam Lynch."


    Max narrowed his eyes as he got his first look at one of the two brothers who''d fractured his guild. Sam Lynch was of ambiguous ethnicity. He was bald with a beard and had a small tattoo at the corner of his eye that looked like a scorpion. His forehead had a number of deep lines, and Max couldn''t quite put his finger on how old he was. The man could be thirty or fifty.


    With a patronizing voice, Sam said, "Max. Can I call you Max? Normally, I wouldn''t take the time to meet with some random C-rank person who shows up on my steps demanding to talk. Not only am I a busy man, but there''s also my safety to worry about."


    "Safety? Aren''t you an S-rank Challenger?" interrupted Max. "What are you worried about?"


    There were more murmurs in the crowd behind him.  Sam Lunch forced a smile. "Perhaps. However, I don''t believe you''ve fought on the front line yet, but maybe after you do, you might understand. There are dangers in this world far more challenging than anything we might have seen in the Quartet."


    Nice, thought Max. Good, subtle threat there. This guy is good. I¡¯m kind of impressed.


    Lavinia didn''t agree, though. She mentally said, I hate this guy already. Everything he''s doing right now is calculated to be as disrespectful as possible, isn''t it?


    Pretty much.  If he didn''t reply to any of my accusations or show up at all, it would be a bigger news story, so this whole thing is just damage control."


    I thought so, sent Lavinia. Anyway, I don''t see any more defenders arriving. I haven''t seen or heard of any new people moving into the lobby in front of you. There''s about ten right now, though.


    Got it. Thank you.


    Sam continued, "I''m sure it must be very confusing and frustrating to come back to Earth and find out that the guild you started is falling on hard times.  But although the world is in danger, we still have law.  We still have emails.  None of this was necessary."


    Suddenly, the woman who had come out, the lawyer, Elena, cocked her head and said, "Excuse me, sir, can I ask Max a question?"


    "Of course, go ahead, Elena. We are totally transparent here. That''s why we''re having this meeting in front of all these good people."


    The lawyer fixed Max with a sharp eye and asked, "If you just returned from the Quartet, how is it possible that you started the Trifecta Guild after everyone had already been transported to the Quartet? Wouldn¡¯t you have been in the Quartet at that time?  You only just returned to Earth a short time ago, right?"


    Sam Lunch¡¯s expression changed. He obviously believed that Elena had just caught Max in a lie. "That is a good question, Elena.  Max, care to explain to all these people how all that happened?"


    Max nodded and slightly turned to address everybody. He said, "It''s actually pretty simple. I just came back to Earth for a few days before I went back to the Quartet."


    "Oh, I see," said Sam, nodding indulgently. Then he narrowed his eyes.  "What?"


    "You heard me," said Max. "I took a brief trip back from the Quartet, met up with my friends, killed some monsters, taught my friends some things, and then I went back to the Quartet."


    Being intentionally vague to imply that he taught Western Wind Style to his friends during this time, he knew that none of the original Trifecta members had ever disclosed how they knew Western Wind Style. All the reporters in the crowd behind him were taking furious notes as Sam scowled and said, "That''s impossible."


    Max smirked. "Supposedly impossible or not, I would bet money that I''ve got more than a dozen truth seekers or Paths that can detect lies focused on me right now. Probably more. I am sure that some of them even use divinations, so whether I believe something is truth or not is irrelevant.  And I can also predict that none of them have found a single lie in my words so far."


    The Victory guild leader stared at him, and before he could say anything more, Max said, "Look, Sam, I don''t like you. I think you''re a piece of shit. You broke the contract that you signed in multiple ways with the Trifecta Guild. You''ve stolen my techniques and profited immensely from it. On top of that, you suppressed the Trifecta Guild in a vindictive and somewhat cowardly way. I demand that you and your equally piece of shit brother disband your guild and that every member of the Victory Guild who is on the Mana Swordsman Path join the American military and help full-time with the front line against the monsters, or... or there will be consequences."


    "What kind of consequences?" asked Sam with amusement in his voice.


    "Whichever kind I decide," said Max. He enunciated clearly, raising the volume of his voice with mana. "If you do not adhere to my demands or return with a compromise that I find acceptable, then we will be at an impasse, and I will have no choice but to declare war on the Victory Guild."


    "Is that so?" said Sam. Then he laughed. He looked beyond Max and said, "For all the people watching today, including people at home, I hope you have seen this and understand that we are dealing with a crazy person. I think I have shown great patience already in dealing with this individual, but I am a busy man, and I don''t have time for any more theatrics."


    Max held up a finger.  "If you leave, I am going to take that as your answer.  That will mean you will accept any and all consequences for your refusal to make this right."


    Sam laughed again. He said, "This has been an interesting break from the monotony of my normal work, Max." He said Max''s name with a mocking tone. "Thank you. However, I truly don''t have time for you today. Please get help. But before you do, get off of my property.¡±  Then he turned slightly, presumably looking at a different camera. ¡°Guards, get this troubled man off of our doorstep.  Chad, I know you¡¯re out there in the crowd.  You need to control your disturbed guild members better."


    Then, the TV screen cut out. Noise erupted from the crowd behind him, and the three thugs began moving towards Max even as the lawyer and the TV guy quickly moved through the double doors back into the lobby, away from what they no doubt assumed would be Max''s beatdown.


    Instead of retreating, Max sent one simple message to all of his spirits: It¡¯s go time.

 Book 3, ch 30

    Several things went through Max''s mind at once. Through multiple lives now, he''d always had the same feeling before fighting seriously. It was an acknowledgment of the fact he was making a decision, committing himself to see something through or die trying.  In this case, the fight was not a duel; it was effectively a war. Over the last few days, he''d given it a great deal of thought and accepted that he would deal with the consequences when the time came. After confirming that there were demonic forces at play, now he had even less hesitation about his intended course of action.


    After all, when Max had been the Hero of Albion, Chasa de Milo, he might not have known about the Quartet system or other greater matters in the universe, but he''d been very familiar with demonic corruption. He doubted many people other people on Earth were¨Cprobably why the Lynch brothers weren¡¯t even trying to hide it. Luckily, he''d already planned ahead for several possibilities, and this was one of them.


    Now he¡¯d just need to survive and win this fight to see any of it through.


    Max drew Blackmist Incident and slashed the guard heading for him while simultaneously charging his sword and his body with mana. At the same time, he manifested Black Mist Incident''s buckler in his other hand even as he triggered Bracelet of Bloody arrows.  Pain bloomed in his forearm as the magic device carved furrows in his flesh, drawing ribbons of blood to orbit his wrist.


    The other two Victory Guild members paused, and were caught off guard as Max triggered a push of raw mana.


    Meanwhile, Max¡¯s sword strike was true.  In fact, the amount of power he''d used was maybe even a little overkill. Blackmist Incident cleaved all the way through the suit-wearing man''s collarbone down to his waist, bisecting the enemy Challenger''s body. As the strike penetrated, magical armor had started to form on the man¡¯s body, but it hadn''t done him much good.


    Even as the first man died, the other two men were blown backward by Max¡¯s mana blast, one careening off the side of the building and the other smashing through the glass into the lobby beyond.


    Blood continued to siphon up into dense little arrows that orbited his wrist.


    Max glanced down at the body of the man he just killed and triggered his third eye briefly, just long enough to verify that lingering demonic energies still permeated the body. "Good enough," he thought. Then, he slashed Black Mist Incident in a horizontal strike, triggering a wave of destructive mana that smashed the remaining glass and demolished the doors at the front of the building.


    The arc of energy, although not sharpened through Max''s will, was still a battering ram of raw power that turned one weak Challenger inside the doors into nothing but bloody spray and chunks of flesh. Max didn¡¯t even get a good look at what the person had looked like before they were misted.  Dozens of people inside were bowled over, some wounded, some not. Gunshots ricocheted wildly off the walls.


    By now, Max was clad in his new armor, courtesy of Daliko.  A few bullets bounced of his armor.  Five arrows made of dense, crystallized blood circled his wrist now.  His body was already regenerating the blood he¡¯d lost to the Bracelet of Bloody Arrows.  Max leveled his hand and snapped off three blood projectiles, and each of them found their target.  One hit a man in the throat.  Another punched through a rifle-wielding woman¡¯s chest.  The last slammed into the center of a man¡¯s face as he braced against the whirlwind of pressure and damage from Max¡¯s mana wave.


    New gashes opened up on Max¡¯s arm and fresh streams of blood began to flow, building replacement projectiles above his wrist.  A burst of fire flashed past Max¡¯s shoulder, but he wasn¡¯t too worried.  He¡¯d caught the Victory guild completely unprepared.  They obviously hadn¡¯t expected anything like this reaction.


    They wouldn¡¯t stay unorganized and shocked forever, though.  A few beads tossed in the corners immediately started fires.  They weren¡¯t huge threats on their own, but they¡¯d probably help buy a little bit of extra time.


    Time for the next phase.  He made one quick look around the large room past the double doors before flying straight up the side of the building.


    Are you sure you want to do this? Lavinia murmured.  I mean, it¡¯s too late to go back now, but I mean, do you want to do it the way you¡¯re planning?


    Yes, thought Max. This isn''t a duel. This is war and extermination.  If I didn¡¯t have you and the other spirits, I might not have a choice, though.  You can identify everyone with demonic energies, right?


    For the sixth time, that''s right, she said. It''s easy for us, easy for a spirit.  The rest of my spirits won¡¯t have a problem, either.  Don¡¯t worry.


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    Cool.


    Max turned sideways, flying directly into the building with his shield held in front of him. He crashed through the window.


    What had been a hotel room was now being used as some sort of office space. Two people gaped at him in astonishment: one a middle-aged woman, the other a young man. They might have been surprised, but they were still Challengers.


    Both enemies began to circulate mana through their bodies, powering up and providing defense to themselves as Mana Swordsmen. Max could clearly see the movement of mana and how it was being utilized in familiar ways.  However, both Challengers obviously had another Path as well.  The woman raised her hand and a torrent of fire launched at Max, while at the same time, the man gestured and a filing cabinet flew across the room towards him.


    He could sense that neither one of them was very powerful, so Max just braced himself.  As the flames from the woman splashed harmlessly off his armor and mana barrier, his hands snapped forward twice using a bit of Daliko¡¯s power. Each choppy throw delivered a special bead at bullet speeds that he had created for this exact purpose. The enchanted projectiles were small, but the moment they hit an enemy, they expanded to the size of a golfball and increased in density for a split second. Both changes were temporary and didn¡¯t last long, but existed long enough to open up terrible gaping holes in both enemies'' chests. They collapsed with a look of shock on their faces.


    Max ran forward, kicking the door open to the hallway and tossing several explosive beads down both sides. He ducked back into the room before the explosions actually went off. As the first screams and yells warbled through the building, echoing strangely through the billows of smoke, he threw another handful of beads that detonated into clouds of poisonous vapor.


    Many of the doors and windows throughout the floor had already been destroyed, so the poison spread throughout the building quickly. Max quickly ate a bead that would give him several minutes of immunity to the poison. Then, he sprinted down the hallway to one of the stairwells.  The door had already been blown off its hinges.


    ¡°Lavinia, showtime," he said softly.


    "Got it."


    Then, one at a time, Max dropped explosive beads.  Each was caught before it hit the ground by a sudden manifestation of a spider made of ectoplasm. The spiders, Lavinia¡¯s spirits being shaped by Anansi¡¯s will, were nightmarishly large, twice the size of a dinner plate. They scuttled up the walls and down the stairs with their payload of explosive beads. The spiders were fast, and almost all of Lavinia''s spirits had already either gone up or down the building with their bead cargo before Lavinia whispered, "One of my spirits was just temporarily destroyed."


    "Got it."


    With an effort of will, Max snapped, and each one of his beads being carried by a spider detonated. Not only did the beads blow up through their own power, but each of them had been designed to also use ectoplasm as a catalyst. The stairwells were destroyed in thunderous explosions. Any door to the stairwell that had already been opened, the spiders had scuttled inside, too.  If they''d had time, had placed themselves near groups of Victory guild members or any other targets that looked juicy.


    Immediately after the explosions rocked the building, Max repeated the process, but this time, instead of explosive beads, he dropped poisonous gas beads as well as a smokescreen bead. Then, just like before, Lavinia¡¯s spirits in the shapes of spiders went up and down the walls, acting like wall-crawling smart bombs.


    The destruction and smoke from the previous explosions helped hide them and even served as camouflage since the smoke was very similar in color to the spiders¡¯ ectoplasm.


    Max silently counted to fifteen in his head, only a few seconds after the last of Lavinia''s spirits had left with their payload before he snapped and detonated gas and smoke beads all throughout one side of the building. Smoke and poison billowed up and down the stairwell and open hallways.


    Max tuned out the yelling, screaming, and attempts at order throughout the building.


    Okay, next phase, he thought. Max jumped up to a random floor and threw several more explosive beads down the open hallway. After that, he hit several more floors, both above and below, before returning to one of the floors he''d just attacked.   He ran through the heavy smoke in the open doorway, pounding down the hallway.  There was a body plastered against the wall.  To make sure they were dead, Max skewered the body with Blackmist Incident.


    Then he skidded through a relatively intact doorway into what had been a hotel room in the past.  He was ready for combat, but nobody was inside, and the space itself looked like some sort of mundane break room.


    Perfect, he thought. Then he rolled his way under a table and mentally said, Phase three, now. You ready, Lavinia?


    Yes.


    A moment later, Lavinia and a few of her spirits left the room to take positions around the entire building and on the outside. Max was tense. Slick and his other spirits were standing guard out in the hallway, ready to let him know if any Victory Guild searches were coming. Max knew that the element of surprise would only last another minute or two longer, maximum.  He was trying to accomplish as much as he possibly could in that time frame. Luckily, Lavinia and her spirits were fast.


    Only seconds later, through his link with the former Summoner, he could hear Lavinia''s voice and sense what she was saying through their link as well.


    Outside the building, her voice rang out through the vibration of her spirits¡¯ artificial mouths.


    ¡°This war does not include the Trifecta guild.  It is a war between Max Cunningham, the originator of the Mana Swordsman Path, and the Victory guild who broke their oaths and have acted without honor.


    ¡°However, Max wishes to minimize the loss of life.  Ultimately, his complaint is with the Victory guild leaders.  If you are a member of the Victory guild and value your life, leave the building, lay down your arms, and kneel.


    ¡°Otherwise, you will die.¡±

 Book 3, ch 31

    After Lavinia stopped talking outside, Max almost immediately heard her voice in his ear. "It''s done. Are you ready for the next phase?"


    "Yes," said Max. "For now, prioritize targeting the people that have mana fluctuations somewhat like mine, the mana swordsmen, and the people that are compromised with demonic energy."


    "Got it," Lavinia''s voice was grim.


    A moment later, a bead that Max had placed on the ground in one pile was picked up. He¡¯d developed this particular bead to be an explosive that used a pseudo-mana body as a catalyst. If it were thrown or detonated normally, it would be about the same power as one of his old explosive beads. But if it made contact with someone that had a pseudo-mana body, like, for instance, a person on the Mana Swordsman Path, the explosion would be far more deadly.


    Once the bead was picked up, an ectoplasmic spider solidified around it. Max heard Lavinia''s voice again. "This is the pile that kills people who stole your technique, right?"


    That''s right. Max sent back mentally. The other pile is for the demonic cultivators.


    "Got it."


    A second later, Max saw one of the beads that he''d placed in the second pile lift up, and a spider formed around it too. Quietly, Max said, "Prioritize the demonic-infected people."


    Lavinia gave him a wordless acknowledgment, and for the next thirty seconds or so, spiders made of ectoplasm picked up beads and scuttled out the door. For someone with arachnophobia, it would have been absolutely horrifying.


    Meanwhile, on Max''s shoulder, Anansi had materialized. The spider god remnant didn''t say anything, but on his humanoid face, a smirk had formed that just kept growing deeper. He''s really enjoying this, thought Max.


    Lavinia had left one spirit outside the building to keep watch over what was taking place, and she gave him regular updates. Once all the spiders left with their deadly payloads, Max didn''t have anything to do other than hide. So, over the course of several minutes, that''s exactly what he did. Every few seconds after the first minute, he heard or felt explosions throughout the building and also picked up sounds of grief and fury.


    The Victory Guild was full of Challengers too, after all. So there was crashing throughout the building as Victory Guild members searched for Max or tried destroying the spiders. However, stopping them wasn''t so easy. The diameter of one of Lavinia''s spirit spiders was about the size of a dinner plate, like the spider that had materialized in the hallways earlier. However, they did not have to be that size, and could change to be even as small as a real-life wolf spider. This meant they could travel through vents and under doors. There were very few places in the entire building that Lavinia''s spirits couldn''t reach. On top of that, in their smaller size, they moved slower, but were harder to see.


    For the Victory Guild, trying to find Max had immediately become much more complicated due to the threat of Kamikaze spiders.


    Lavinia''s spirit posted outside reported that nobody had left the building to take advantage of Max''s amnesty. He shook his head sadly. Shame. He didn''t know whether it was because the threat wasn''t effective enough or if everybody in the Victory Guild truly was compromised by demonic energies. It had occurred to him, even before confirming the presence of demonic energy, that one reason the war for Earth was not going well could be because of demonic influence. It made a sort of sense, too. If the regular state of the universe was planets being threatened by monster invasion, then demonic entities, which were sort of like spiritual vultures, would find plenty of opportunity in such situations.


    As yet another one of Lavinia''s spirits manifested in front of him, picking up yet another bead to carry off, Lavinia suddenly whispered urgently in his ear, "Max, something''s happening. Lots of people are starting to come from outside."


    "What do you mean?" he asked.


    "It looks like it''s Victory Guild members. There''s a lot of them. Quite a few are coming from the same direction as the teleporter."


    Max nodded, and his calm state of mind wasn''t shaken. He''d pretty much predicted this. The police outside and the press and the Patriot Guild members had instructions to let any Victory Guild personnel pass. After all, if his prey came to him, it made his hunting easier.


    Lavinia''s spirit continued to pulse out fluctuations that hid Max''s presence.


    After a couple more minutes, as she tracked the newcomers, she asked, "What do you want me to do?¡±


    "Just keep attacking," said Max.


    The ghost girl subvocally sent acknowledgement, and the ectoplasm spiders resumed their deadly activities. Suddenly, Lavinia said, "A lot of the poison smoke and the other smoke is starting to clear up. It looks like there are groups organizing to comb the building now, looking for you. On top of that, fewer of my spirits are actually getting close enough to do any damage with your beads anymore.  The groups that split up in the building have people dedicated to watching for them."


    Max calmly nodded. He had predicted this, too. After all, the Victory Guild may be rotten to the core, but they were still a powerful Challenger guild. He could hear fewer and fewer explosions throughout the building now, almost like listening to the tail end of a batch of popcorn popping.


    Finally, he told Lavinia, "All of your spirits that still have a bead, have them find a good target, blow up, and then just return.  Keep them on standby." He scooped up the beads on the floor. "It''s time to wait now."


    "Got it. Do you want me to start phase D?"


    "Not quite yet," said Max. "But prepare for it."


    "I already am," she whispered. "There''s a corpse staged in the bushes outside where nobody can see. My spirit pushed it out a window a few minutes ago. They were distracted outside at the time and I don¡¯t think anyone saw it fall."


    Perfect, thought Max. If this had been the world before professional monster hunters and worldwide war became a thing, he had no doubt that the reaction for what was taking place right now would be vastly different.  But the fact the world was constantly in danger, or experience erupting violence, plus the fact the Patriot guild was outside, some of whom were no doubt very powerful, and the media was already present, all drastically changed things.


    So far, his best cover to prevent being found by the Victory guild had been causing such a ruckus and then actively attacking.  It was hard for the Victory guild to kick in doors and search for him when they were either dodging explosions or watching others be attacked.  He had no doubt that quite a few of them were trying to save lives or heal their guild members.  It was a mess for sure.  He could hear the continued chaos all throughout the huge, former hotel.


    With all of this going on, there were bodies lying all over the place throughout the building.


    And of course, the poison smoke and initial attack that made it difficult to locate Max, also made it easier for Lavinia to steal a body.


    Stolen novel; please report.


    Lavinia gave him a regular status report. "Max, it looks like there are people teleporting to the roof. Dozens at least."


    That must be more of the Victory the guild members, thought Max. "What''s going on outside?"


    "There are a number of people I don¡¯t know and disaster relief worker civilians who have tried breaking through the circle of people outside, but the multiple barriers you set up are blocking them. Law Enforcement and the Patriot guild are still letting through Victory Guild members though."


    "Perfect," said Max. "Okay, go ahead and start plan D."


    "On it."


    A moment later, Lavina appeared outside the build, manifesting for everyone to see.  Max could hear what she was saying, both faintly outside, and through one of her spirits left near his ear.


    She thundered, ¡°Attention! Some of you might be skeptical about our claims that the Victory Guild is rotten and needs purging! However, let me remind you that the Utah front line, which is the portion that the Victory Guild most often serves at and is sometimes even in charge of, has had little to no improvement and has actually been pushed back! Some of you may point out that this is hardly unique and that plenty of other guilds have had similar lack of success. However, the Victory Guild has been compromised, or at verified traces of demonic energy. For those of you who do not know, any Challenger with supernatural power may be approached by or coerced by those who serve the dark to represent evil or chaotic interests in exchange for riches or power! To prove, many of you might be rightfully skeptical of an unknown spirit making accusations like this. So to prove it, to quell any suspicion you might have, please examine this body."


    Max couldn''t see what was happening, but he knew what the onlookers would currently be witnessing. A few of Lavinia''s slow-moving ectoplasmic golems were carrying the body of one of the dead Victory Guild Challengers that had lingering demonic energy. The golems set the body down near the perimeter around the Victory Guild.  The spot was pre-planned.  It was near a handful of Patriot Guild challengers that could help, but also plenty of other police and fire department representatives.


    Lavinia said, "If our expectations are correct, Victory Guild members will come out immediately to reclaim the body, while you are all shocked, before anyone can inspect it.  They will probably¨C" her words were cut off by a tremendous crash.


    A window on the third floor exploded, and a big man jumped out of the building, rushing to the dead guild member. Without wasting a single motion, he bent down and scooped up the corpse, easily demolishing the burden-carrying forms of Lavinia''s spirits. Then, running back towards the building, he leaped and made it neatly back into the window.


    Max heard the crash and the sound from outside, but Lavinia quietly relayed everything that she was seeing. Even outside the building, she continued, "As you can see, the Victory Guild cannot afford to have anybody examine those types of bodies too closely. Even the most skeptical of you must acknowledge that what we just saw was suspicious, to say the least. Now, I implore all of you¡ª"


    Lavinia''s voice was cut off as a huge shout shattered more of the windows from the upper floors of the building. "Enough!" The voice projected with enough force to set off nearby car alarms.


    "Who is it?" thought Max to Lavinia.


    "I think it''s Toby Lynch."


    Max narrowed his eyes. He was not expecting Toby Lynch or Sam Lynch to actually make an appearance anytime soon. "Well, I guess I should go outside too."


    "What if it''s a trap?" said Lavinia.


    "It''s always a trap," Max responded. "But I wasn''t scared of these guys to begin with, and if one of the leaders is coming out now, it means that we probably don''t have any hope of saving any of the people who might not have been directly involved with them."


    "I don''t think any members of the Victory Guild are not directly involved with them," said Lavinia. "A bunch might have been innocent at first, but now..." She let her words trail off. She knew about demonically influenced fighters as well. It was possible to save them, but only if they wanted to save themselves. Max wasn''t willing to die a second time because of misplaced pity for people he didn''t even know¡ªpeople who might have been doing awful things and, at the very least, had probably been sabotaging the human war effort.


    Max got up and left his hiding place, moving towards the front side of the building. As he did, he heard Toby Lynch speaking in mid-air. The man was obviously using some sort of mana amplification as he shouted, "You know, originally I was going to play all this off as a terrorist attack. And after I killed the little bastard that just blew up half my building, I was going to use it for sympathy to grow the power and influence of my guild. But I guess the gig is up now." He chuckled. "My brother is in there doing what he needs to do. So I''m sorry that he can''t make an appearance. But you will soon discover what he''s up to¡ªwhat my whole guild has been up to for quite some time actually. You see, again, I wasn''t planning on doing this now; it''s quite premature. But sometimes you have to make an omelet when some eggs are already broken."


    After Max found a window that had already been busted out, using a simple application of his four-star mana body, he spread his wings and allowed himself to float upwards from the opening. Down below, he could see that the majority of onlookers were absolutely shocked. All of the reporters, drones, and magical constructs rigged up with cameras zoomed all over the place, all trying to get the best shot or the best angle of what was happening. He was sure that the reporters were already crafting attention-getting headlines in their heads about the incredible story they were witnessing, the footage they were capturing.


    The reporters filming live were whispering into their mics.


    Max knew from his research that nothing quite like this had happened before. He''d also done plenty of research on Toby Lynch and Sam Lynch, which was how he knew the moment he laid eyes on the man that Lavinia had been correct when she named him.


    Toby was pale with blonde hair. He had a big bushy beard and wore thick armor. The man had no weapons in his hands, but his baleful aura was so strong that one of the windows in the building nearby, which had completely shattered from his shout earlier, was trembling in its frame. His raptor gaze locked onto Max the moment he left the building.


    The big man said, "You must be the guy. You know, I sure hate you, a C-rank that comes in and destroys my guild like this. But to be honest, I haven''t wanted to be playing at this hero shit for a while now¡ªthat was all Sam, why we kept this up. So I suppose I should thank you, whatever your name is."


    "It''s Max. You knew my rank, so the idea you forgot my name is obvious bullshit.  And considering I''m the reason you were originally dual-Pathed, you should speak with a bit more respect."


    "Respect is earned, not given." The big blonde man smiled, but his eyes were flat. Intense killing intent rolled off of him in waves.


    Completely nonplussed, Max responded, "I don''t know, I came in here single-handedly and blew up half your stupid building, your dumbass guild built on broken promises and demonic stupidity, and I don''t even know how many people I''ve killed so far. If that''s not worth at least a little bit of respect, well, I hate to be your server. You''re probably one of those assholes that tip like two cents, right?  Find something wrong and have to make a self righteous point about it?"


    Toby blinked at Max a few times before laughing heartily.


    Meanwhile, Max was ready for anything.  He didn''t even have to send a reminder to Lavinia. She''d already consolidated all her spirits. Fighting directly would not be the most efficient use of their power,but the gig was up now. Part of the reason he¡¯d used them as sappers earlier was to try saving as much of the surrounding buildings and city as possible. He had a feeling that if he clashed directly with Toby, Sam, and their entire guild, it was going to cause a lot of collateral damage. But he was a realist.  Max wasn¡¯t delusional enough to think that declaring war on the Victory Guild wouldn¡¯t have some ramifications for himself, Vegas, and probably even the rest of the world. But any guilt he might have felt had disappeared after verifying that the Victory Guild had been infiltrated by demonic energies.


    Max continued to float upwards, and as a result, he got a bird''s eye view of the moment bright red runes flashed all through the city around the Victory Guild headquarters. Continuing to speak conversationally with mana amplifying his voice, Toby said, "We weren''t going to tip off the world that we have this capability now, but oh well. Sam is far more upset about it than I am."


    A second later, rather than a trickle of Victory Guild members teleporting to the top of the roof, returning to help in their guild¡¯s time of need, over one hundred of them appeared at once.  The newcomers appeared about ten feet up all around the converted hotel, most of them issuing a squawk of surprise. A few seconds later, the glowing runes changed.


    Too late, Max realized that the magic circle was far outside the ring of onlookers and law enforcement. They were inside of it.  One of the people below threw the hood of their hoodie back, and Max was shocked to recognize Lance in the crowd. He hadn''t known that his friend had even even coming.


    The runes blazed brighter, and Max shoved fuel into the mana furnace that was his body. The wings he had, courtesy of Daliko, allowed him far better acceleration and control in flight than he''d ever had in his previous life, even at higher levels of power. But before he could reach Toby Lynch, the man began cackled and launched a missile of red energy at Max.


    Max swerved to the side, dodging the attack, but at that very moment, the runes grew even brighter, and the world flared white before disappearing.

 Book 3, ch 32

    The world felt like it turned upside down several times, and Max struggled to get his bearings. When light returned, his senses reignited at the same time as he heard screaming, yelling, and other, different noises that he didn''t immediately recognize. However, his spirits weren¡¯t suffering from the same confusion or vertigo that he was fighting through.


    "Max! Just hover in the air, don''t do anything else," yelped Lavinia. At the same time, he heard a buzz in the back of his head and saw one of Daliko¡¯s text windows pop up. Interestingly enough, the current situation showed that even while Matt''s vision swam, he could still clearly read Daliko¡¯s messages. The part of his brain clinically noting this sort of thing dissolved as he read what she''d actually sent him. It had three words:


    Monsters coming. Lots.


    A few seconds later, Matt''s vision returned, allowing him to see the absolute chaos in his surroundings. It took a while to understand what he was seeing at first. A heavy rain of sand fell from the sky; it was already deep enough that it was burying some of the people who were sprawled out on the ground, most of them nowhere close to regaining their faculties yet. The other people he could see that seemed to have their wits about them as well, ironically, were mostly reporters. They¡¯d been on the outside of the circle around the Victory guild, and seemed to have been spared some of the magical shock.  In fact, the circle of reporters and law enforcement on the ground helped Max understand what had happened.


    Although everything from Vegas, even the asphalt, had been plopped down somewhere else, clues around the area showed they were still on Earth, though. The road sign over the highway was green and in English, offering directions to Salt Lake City. We''re still in America, he thought to himself.


    A moment later, Lavinia screamed a warning, but Max had already felt the danger. He spun in place, twisting his insectile wings and delivering a blast of mana to push himself out of the way,  like a strong gust of wind. A torrent of stone spikes slashed down through the space he''d just been standing in. They were the same color as most of the falling sand. He looked up and saw two men floating in the air above him. One of them hadn''t quite regained all his faculties yet, but the other, Toby Lynch, grinned sardonically.


    "That''s too bad," he said. "I was really hoping that would take you out."


    "Yeah, well, nice shot, asshole," Matt turned to the side and spit. When his spittle landed on one of the recovering Victory Guild members marked with demonic energy, his satisfaction was petty but genuine.


    Some of the reporters on the ground were up now, and more importantly, their cameras were working. Speaking more to the cameras than to the Lynch brothers, Max said, "So I take it you teleported the entire city block or two over here to Utah, where you''re buddy-buddies with the monster king or the monsters who rule this place.  We are all probably too far outside the front line to get any human help. And I''m figuring that this was your escape plan before, but you had to use it too early.¡±  Max grinned.  ¡°Sorry for that.¡±  Max frowned.  ¡°The only thing I don''t understand is all the falling sand. The only thing that makes sense to me is that it is the demolished buildings¡­like all the buildings around us aren¡¯t there anymore, just the rebar and foundations and junk.  But if you prepared this teleportation, why would you destroy your own guild building?"


    Annoyance flickered across Toby face before he laughed and casually said, "You know, I have to hand it to you. I hate your guts, and you''re going to die in a terrible way. In fact, I''m going to do everything I can to make sure that your soul is tortured for the next hundred years, if not forever. But I have to give credit where credit is due. Not only do you have some big brass balls, you have some style.¡± The man ruefully shook his head. ¡°Coming into my guild, killing people with barely any warning. Telling the world my secrets. Having lots of eyewitnesses so there was nothing I could do about it. Oh, I really wanted to make all this go away, but I couldn''t foresee any way that the Victory Guild was going to recover from this, even if we killed you immediately after you tried showing everyone that body.  This teleportation, this offering, is premature. But I have to admit, it''s going to feel good to finally work directly against humanity."


    Matt shook his head. "You are one sick, lazy fuck."


    Toby cocked his head to the side. "The ¡®sick¡¯ part I was expecting from people like you, but where''d the ¡®lazy¡¯ come from?"


    Max sighed and willed himself to rise higher. The mana that surrounded him eagerly complied with his request. Still conscious of the video cameras surrounding them whirring through the air, some of which were no doubt broadcasting live, Max said, "Because you were S-ranked before you even joined the Trifecta Guild and became dual Path. The only people that usually end up getting tainted by demonic energy, at least in leadership positions like you, are either weak-willed idiots, which I don''t think you are, or lazy, power-hungry fucks who aren''t willing to put the work into it to get stronger. But of course, regular people corrupted by demonic energies can be people who are pushed or forced into it, like most of your guild members seem to be."


    Power roiled in Max¡¯s body, throbbing through his veins. One on hand, he¡¯d been hoping to avoid a direct confrontation like this, at least for a while, but he had contingency plans in place.


    Max was getting a better understanding of the situation. He glanced around the area, and now he could see all the remaining Victory guild members.  Quite a few of them looked like they were still muddled from the effects of the teleport. Max felt bad for them.  They''d effectively been mind-raped, forced into servitude to demonic powers. He was willing to bet if anyone checked the Victory guild log history, they¡¯d find a higher rate of mortality on missions every time the guild got new members. Not everyone who had demonic energy forced on them could live, and he was sure that some had resisted.


    He sadly shook his head.


    Toby chuckled.  ¡°Yes, I introduced the guild to opportunity. Am I supposed to feel guilty?  I wouldn¡¯t have felt bad about it, even before monsters attacked.  The world has always been an unfair place.  It¡¯s just more obvious now.  And I¡¯ve chosen the winning team.  It¡¯s that simple.  As for why all the buildings are sand now, you¡¯ll find out soon.¡±


    Max didn¡¯t look, but he sensed Lavinia give acknowledgment down below that she had met up with Lance and delivered Matt''s request. She sent spirits to some others in the teleported area, too. Things were about to get very spicy indeed.


    It was a rookie mistake to let enemies monologue and get their act together.  Even if one isn¡¯t completely ready, it¡¯s still better to hit the enemies before they¡¯re ready.


    Suddenly, about two dozen Victory guild Challengers below blew up in spectacular  showers of gore.  Lavinia¡¯s spirits had scurried around the battlefield in their smallest spider forms, almost invisible atop the sand, and they¡¯d all positioned themselves under Victory guild members who were still not up yet.


    At the same time, Lance stopped hiding and suppressing his energy, leaping into fray with his powerful sword, targeting standing Victory guild members.  The other Patriot guild members were slower, but then they joined their guild leader.


    Max accelerated rapidly at Toby.  With hundreds of years of practice, he directed his energy in a cone behind him, achieving impressive velocity in less than a second.  Toby was not caught entirely by surprise, he was an S-rank after all, but Max dodged the cloud of sharp, stone spikes the man sent, and chopped down just as Toby began covering himself in some sort of sand armor.


    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    He was impressed by how fast the armor came into full effect.  Toby was completely protected before Max¡¯s strike landed.


    However, Blackmist Incident was barely slowed down by the armor, the blade empowered by Max¡¯s great power and fine control.  Max could understand how a warrior like Toby Lynch could be an S-rank warrior on this world, but the man trusted his armor too much.  He had no excuse for the oversight either, after learning Western Wind Style.


    As the two pieces of Toby Lynch fell down to the battlefield below, Max covered in gore, he glanced up at Sam Lynch.  The man was looking down at him, his eyes wide, in complete shock.  The little scorpion tattoo by his eye looked comical, stretched out with the man¡¯s eyes open that far.  The glasses he was wearing now looked about ready to fall off his nose..


    ¡°What?¡± asked Max.  ¡°Was I supposed to wait for you bastards to finish doing whatever you were doing?  Fuck that.¡±  Max raised a hand, sending projectiles of blood screaming out, courtesy of Bracelet of Bloody Arrows.  At the same time, he slashed with his sword, sending a wave of mana-formed destructive force at the man.


    Sam spun, dropping to avoid the attacks, moving closer to the ground, and several Patriot guild members unleashed magical attacks at him. Waves of sand erupted upwards, artfully blocking the magic and projectiles.  Then the wave of sand turned into giant hands, crushing two of the Patriot Guild members like bugs.  The third, a lithe woman, barely escaped by the skin of her teeth.


    Max threw a handful of exploding beads at Sam Lynch, but all the attacks were blocked by a wing of sand the man had created from the sand-impregnated dust in the air.  Sam snarled, and his aura of power grew stronger, letting his sand wall drop after blocking the explosions.  His eyes were wild, and Max wasn¡¯t sure whether the man was more upset that he¡¯d killed his brother or upset his plans.


    When Sam sent a flying, freaky hand of sand at Max, he rose higher into the sky to dodge the sneaky grab. Then he delivered a mana slash, destroying the construct.


    From his new vantage point in the sky, Max saw an approaching dust cloud with large shapes moving within. He understood the warning that Dalkiko had given him better now.  There was an army of something large coming, thundering across the flat ground.


    With a snort, Max turned his attention back to his enemy.  Sam was busy doing his best to kill Lance with grasping hands made of sand, but Lance was able to hold his own with his sword.  However, all the other Patriot guild members throwing attacks at the floating Sam Lynch might not have even bothered; every single projectile was blocked by walls or wings of of sand.


    Now it was truly obvious why all the buildings had been turned to sand. Both Lynch brothers had been sand-based Challengers of some kind.


    Instead of directly joining the fray again, Max decided to get some intel.  As an experiment, he used Dalico''s technique to throw a bead at incredible speed just to the side of Sam Lynch. The attack would not hit the man, just barely miss.  When the disgraced Guildmaster''s sand constructs didn''t react, Max threw another bead at Sam¡¯s torse.  This time, the sand blocked it, even without Sam looking.


    Now Max understood that some aspects of Sam''s power were automatic or worked on their own.


    He could also deduce that all the sand and debris on the ground were for Sam to create constructs while Toby would have protected him. The mystery of why all the surrounding buildings had disintegrated into fine sand had likely been solved, as was the reason for it: for the Lynch Brothers to kill any enemies, and possibly even to protect themselves from their own allies.


    The monsters were still coming.


    Max flared his power, running his mana through his body in a circular pattern, supercharging his physical and defensive abilities. Then, he shot directly at the slowly retreating Sam Lynch.  As he did, Sam immediately abandoned his fight with Lance, rising and meeting Max head on.


    They sped toward each other, out of the range of most fighters on the ground.  When Max was close enough, he expertly dodged four flying hands, and delivered two heavy ectoplasm webs courtesy of Anansi and Lavinia.


    The webs had the intended effect, binding some of the Sand and merely slowing down the other man¡¯s automated defenses.  It likely wouldn¡¯t be enough for another Challenger to capitalize on, but Max was not normal.  The new change in the sand, its added awkwardness barely allowed Max to slip to the side and deliver a powerful chop with his sword.


    Sam yelled in surprise at Max¡¯s speed.  He desperately raised his arm, and some of the surrounding sand flowed onto it, creating an armor of sorts¨Csimilar to what Toby had done. However, it wasn''t nearly enough to stop Blackmist Incident, swung by a four star Blade Sorcerer.


    Max''s strike continued through the makeshift armor on Sam''s arm and chopped deep into the man''s side. Sam screamed, falling back.  He sent a retaliatory hand of sand at Max, but he was done playing.  With his free hand, he gave the construct an empowered punch, reducing it to another cloud of dust.


    Then, with that same hand, Max threw an exploding bead that blew up on Sam, detonating with enough force to shove the man backward through the air. Other than the push, it didn''t do much damage to the wounded man, certainly not enough to seriously wound him.  But with the quick push, now Sam was further away from his own floating sand wing and arms.


    Max darted forward, using his mana like an explosion of force behind him.  Then with one last juke to avoid a slashing wing, he slammed his sword through the disgraced guild leader¡¯s chest.


    Sam''s surprise was almost comical. He gasped, "How? What?"


    Max twisted his sword.  "I''m sorry, buddy. You were never in my weight class to begin with after I achieved a four star mana body.


    I probably should have killed you quicker, and I¡¯m not really happy that any Patriot guild members died, but I still think drawing you out was necessary to wake up the world. But yeah, I can see the surprise in your eyes, and the truth is, I didn''t need to concoct this entire situation to kill you and your brother.¡±


    Max looked at his stricken enemy in midair and continued, ¡°But I have to give you props for this teleportation trap. I really wasn''t expecting that."


    Before Sam could gasp anything else, Max shoved an exploding bead directly into the man''s mouth, kicked him in the face, knocking him away, and he detonated the bead remotely with a thought. Already stricken, mortally wounded, and near unconscious, Sam''s jaw blew off as he plummeted to the ground.


    Max was impressed by the man''s resilience. Although an S-rank Challenger on Earth was weak by his standards, Sam legitimately was much stronger than most other adventurers on the planet. If he had to guess, Max would assume that Sam had been eating sand in order to incorporate it into his own body, which was likely how he was flying as well. But, mortally wounded or not, Max wasn''t willing to take a chance at a powerful enemy like this stabbing him in the back.


    Left for dead was not the same thing as dead.  So, even as Sam fell, Max delivered one more powerful Mana Slash with his sword.  The wave of destructive magic arced through the air like a deadly glowing frisbee before cutting Sam in half.


    A rain of blood blew out in a semi circle fan of gore.


    As the two body parts that used to be Sam Lynch hit the ground below, similar to what had happened with Toby, Max surveyed the area, verifying that no Victory Guild members were still alive. The scene was grim, but everything looked to be in control for the moment.


    Then he became aware of people staring at him.


    Absolute silence rang as the Challengers, reporters, police officers and other emergency responders stood mostly in shock, awe, and maybe a little bit of fear. Lance was one of the notable exceptions with a shit-eating grin.


    Max broke the silence himself, using mana to increase the volume of his voice. "Everyone, look alive if you want to survive.  We''re behind enemy lines, and there is an army of monsters coming. Most of you are not fast enough to run away, but it¡¯s not hopeless, so everyone needs to stay and fight.


    ¡°All non-combatants, get behind the Challengers. Lance Fraser, you are in charge of the defense. Reporters, try to stay alive.  Probably not much of a consolation, but you are about to be in a great position to be at ground zero for a wild story.  Just know us adventures are going to do our damnedest to make sure that you stay alive.  But make sure you follow instructions from this point forward.¡± He paused. ¡°Does everyone get it?¡±


    Only Lance dared speak, shouting up at Max, ¡°What about the cops?  They are armed.¡±


    ¡°Have them stay with the reporters and be the absolute last line of defense."


    Lance nodded. "And where are you going?" he yelled.


    Max rose higher in the air.  With a magically-empowered voice he said, "I''m going to go meet the enemy monsters. I¡¯ll soften them up as much as I can, but my job will be to kill their leader.  You can feel from here that it''s not something you guys can handle. But as soon as I''m done, I''ll come back."


    Then, doing exactly as he said he would, Max began flying directly at the approaching monster horde. He was unsurprised and a little amused by the fact that several video drones from the reporters followed him to catch the action.


    It seemed he would still have an audience.

 Book 3, ch 33

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    Max sped ahead, and within moments, he was over the approaching horde of monsters. Atop the dust cloud, he was able to get his first good look at them, and his heart sank when he saw that they were the notorious gray apes monsters.


    There were just too many of them to deal with at once, at least quickly. Max knew that if he didn''t deal with the leader controlling them, more monsters could be called in, and all the humans caught behind enemy lines would be like victims in a meat grinder.


    Max wasted no time throwing handfuls of explosive beads down into the charging ranks of monsters below. None of them could really retaliate. Although the grey apes were basically eight-foot-tall gorillas with glowing red eyes, none of them could jump high enough to reach Max. So they didn''t even try. Instead, all of them ran faster directly at the circled humans in the distance. Max redoubled his efforts, sending a handful of explosive beads down below, using Dalikos¡¯ ability to snap his arm forward and deliver precision death in the form of beads through great ape foreheads. But it wasn''t enough. Max''s efforts managed to thin about half of the horde until he ran out of beads.


    Then he darted down into the midst of the charging creatures, flying, delivering mana slashes with his sword. One of the apes almost got a hold of him, and Max used Black Mist Incident to great effect, chopping the monster''s arm off at the elbow and expertly bisecting the creature with his sword.


    But he had no backup and limited beads. Using up all of his beads would not be wise.  Using his mana wave ability from the air wasn''t very efficient. He could kill one, maybe two apes at most with that, and it took up a great amount of his energy. Reluctantly, Max decided that he couldn''t do any more to stem the tide, at least not without jeopardizing his ability to fulfill his role considering the big picture. With a curse, Max dodged one more grasping set of hands before cleaving one of the ape''s skulls and taking off into the air.


    His entire body was covered in dust, blood, and worse at this point. The wind from flying quickly dried all the viscera.


    He could very clearly feel a large energy signature from the direction where the grey apes had come from.  It was very obviously the boss monster controlling them.


    The fact that the boss monster wasn¡¯t hiding its presence was interesting.  Max wasn''t sure if the creature just wasn''t expecting anybody to come, or if it was just that confident in its own strength.


    Luckily, the boss wasn''t very much farther away, and as Max got closer, he saw that it was a truly massive simian monster like the grey apes but white and about twice the size. He recognized it. The media was calling it White Ape King.


    The monster was not only tall, but muscular too, massive in almost every dimension.  Cold, blue eyes, full of malevolent intelligence regarded Max with curiosity.  The creature looked like a gorilla on steroids and a mouth full of sharp teeth, but its fur had white-blue crystals in it, and there was a shimmering aura of cold around the monster, like a combination of destructive aura and armor combined.  The Ape King¡¯s nails were more like claws, long and thing, no doubt extremely dangerous.  But the boss moster¡¯s magic and overall physique were probably what made it most dangerous.


    Max''s great experience let him tell just by how the thing was sitting on the rooftop of a gas station that it could move incredibly quickly. He slowed to a stop in mid-air to examine the Ape King, and it lifted its pink nose to stare calmly at Max.


    "The formation triggered. But you aren''t one of the humans I was going to meet," it said in a disturbing baritone voice. ¡°You are not an ally.¡±


    "That''s right, I''m not," said Max. "Zed''s dead, baby."


    The boss monster gave him an even look with no recognition, and Max said, "Not much of a film buff, huh?"


    "You speak nonsense," said the monster. "But I do not care. My children have died, many by your hand, but you may find my guards more of a challenge."  The Ape King smiled.


    As Max watched, several hidden grey apes materialized from their hiding places. He counted four of them, and unlike the stampede that had been heading towards his friends, these ones carried weapons. Two had great clubs, and two had spears. All four monsters were larger than their brethren.  Elites, maybe.


    "You dare challenge me?" said the boss monster. "I will not even lift a finger, and still repay you tenfold."


    "Yeah, good luck with that," said Max. ¡°So cliche.¡±


    When the Ape King began to speak again, likely expecting to monologue to a captive audience, Max darted forward towards one of the guards. His passing slash cleaved through the creature''s head and dropped it like a sack of potatoes. The boss monster, the White Ape King, looked on with stunned shock as Max moved to the next creature. This one was a little bit quicker on the uptake and tried dodging to one side, but Max delivered a mana slash with his sword, sending the monster reeling back with a stream of pain, one of its arms severed, and a deep, mortal wound through its chest.


    Suddenly, he had to dodge to the side as he sensed magic gathering from behind. His evasive maneuver was just in time, and even then, only because he borrowed some power from Slick. The ice spike that the Ape King had just thrown at him blurred through the air until it disappeared in the distance. Max gathered his mana and flew down near the wall of the gas station where the great ape couldn''t see.


    He dropped down to pick up a stone, but then sprang backward as hard as he could, letting Slick''s power carry him along the ground, right before the Ape King''s hand slammed through the rooftop like it was made of tissue paper, almost pulping Max.


    At the same time, one of the two remaining grey ape guards almost skewered him with the spear. But Max noticed the movement at the last moment and, using a combination of aerial acrobatics and a half-circle parry, he managed to slip the attack, move close, and plant his sword through the monster''s chest. With his other hand, Max delivered a couple of rapid, powerful punches to the creature''s temple before putting his feet on the elite grey ape''s chest and springing off with great bounding leaps.


    He moved to dodge, but then suddenly stopped as a giant, magic icicle projectile zipped through the space he was about to be. The evasive maneuver left him directly in the path of the last ape guard, who was raising its giant club, about to turn Max into tomato paste. ¡°Shit,¡± he hissed.


    Max delivered a mana wave attack, but this ape was fast and managed to block the energy with its blue club. The wave cut deeply into the weapon and left a smoking imprint, but didn''t do anything more than that. However, it had forced the creature to block.  Max delivered another wave that the creature blocked, but threw two beads behind it, both of which passed by the blocking club. Both impacted the creature''s face and throat.


    It reeled back, hands going to its ruined face, as Max came down like the hammer of God, cleaving through the monster''s shoulder. He dropped to the ground just in time before another deadly icicle attack zipped through the body of the dead guard and almost took Max in the chest.


    Then he was madly retreating as the White Ape King smashed down on the ground, creating a huge spreading ring of icy destruction.  Max tried to gain altitude, but abandoned that idea when he had to dodge a shotgun spread of supersonic ice and debris that the Ape King had slung with long, whippy arms.


    He dropped low, behind a shattered restaurant building, then quickly moved behind another building, giving himself a respite.


    The Ape King didn¡¯t cooperate with his plan to rest and have time to think, though.


    Max tensed as the area became covered with a thick, freezing fog. He manifested a pale energy shield on his left wrist, courtesy of Blackmist Incident, and stared into the surrounding vapor, looking for any sign of movement. However, part of his current stance was theatrics.  He was also seeing with more than just his eyes, so he was able to dodge directly forward just as the Ape King came down from directly above. Max used a combination of his mana abilities, Daliko¡¯s armor, and Slick''s ability to reduce friction, all allowing him to spring forward so fast he was almost like a flicker.


    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Then he tapped into Anansi¡¯s power, creating a lifelike decoy behind him, one that appeared just like Max, desperately looking around, expression fierce.


    Still invisible, the Ape King descended through the mist, sending it roiling outwards like a wave in the ocean. However, one of Saliron''s spirits, embedded in the Great Ape''s bones, allowed Max to know exactly where the creature was at all times. As a result, he knew that the creature had not been fooled by the decoy, and was able to dodge again when the monster came in from the side. This time, Max threw a hand out, delivering a sticky, web-like, ectoplasmic net to the Beast King''s arm, allowing Max to see some of it. A mana slash at the monster  was blocked with both its arms, rendering the attack useless. Max wound up and delivered another mana slash, and the Ape King flickered back into the visible spectrum of light after blocking it. The huge monster chuckled, rumbling, "You should know by now that will not work on me."


    "That''s true," Max said. He delivered another mana wave at the monster, full of destructive potential, and added, "You have to move your energy around to your arms for it, though." The Ape King cocked its head quizzically before flailing back, screaming.


    Two of Lavinia''s spirits, shrunk down to little spiders, each carrying some of Max''s very last explosive beads, had managed to climb onto the creature¡¯s legs back at the gas station while Max had been fighting the guards.  Then they¡¯d struggled through the Ape King¡¯s cold aura, and eventually positioned themselves on the creature¡¯s face.  And just now, they¡¯d detonated at the corner of both of the Beast King''s eyes.


    When Max delivered another mana slash, the boss monster snarled, one eye open, still managing to block the attack.  Unfortunately, only one eye had been damaged. That was enough, though. Max darted forward, and suddenly the hunter became the hunted.


    As the Ape King thundered in defiance and tried escaping through the fog, Max chased through like a bloodhound. Saliron¡¯s spirit on the creature¡¯s bones made it easy to pursue.  However, he was almost too eager and nearly got himself.  The Ape King luckily didn¡¯t seem to know exactly where Max was through the fog, but still had good senses. With a whip-crack of its arm, the huge monster threw heavy detritus through the fog.


    Max took the blow on the armor, and the force of even the edge of the cloud was significant.  One of the high velocity, concrete chunks that hit Max was the size of a cinder block.


    If the full cloud of projectiles had hit Max head-on, it might have meant his death, or done enough damage to eventually win the fight for the Ape King. But  because he only got partially hit, he was able to survive without losing too much combat effectiveness¡­or his life. It was still enough to rattle every bone in his body, even with all of the fortifications and extra strength that he had.


    Max was slammed to the ground, his face bloody and spitting bloody phlegm.  Without his powerful mana body, the impacts would have pulped his guts and broken his bones.  He rolled to the side just in time to avoid another giant thrown handful of broken buildings that skipped and whined, ricocheting off the parking lot he was fighting on. From that, he was able to deduce the angle it was coming from and realized that the Ape King must be tracking bones. That fact was verified when Max delivered a mana wave at the monster, slightly concerned that he had used up more energy than he intended. He sped forward, taking a chance, and erupted out of the fog right in the Beast King''s face as the creature was about to rear back and throw another handful of gravel, rebar, and broken concrete.


    He snarled, darting forward again in the fog, but the Ape King suddenly came back directly for him, perhaps wanting to check if the thrown attack had connected.


    Max was almost as surprised as the monster when they suddenly met in the fog, but recovered first, delivering a savage kick to the thing''s face and almost receiving another handful of stone and concrete for his troubles. However, missing an eye was really messing with the creature, and the throw went wild.


    Finally close enough to go for a kill, Max added mana to his arm, strengthening it and risking the freezing, biting hold of the Ape King''s fur in order to grab the thing''s arm. Then, while chuckling evilly in Max¡¯s mind, Saliron went to work. The dark spirit gleefully began destroying the Ape King''s arm bones.


    Nearby fog trembled as the monster screamed, trying to move back, but Max simply held on and flew forward, not allowing the creature to shake him.


    The Ape King bellowed, its single eye narrowing, and its other hand came up, pointing at Max.  With a curse, Max barely managed to spin himself, rotating under the arm to avoid a lethal ice projectile spell. Then the creature began shaking its arm like crazy, trying to dislodge him, but Max held on and kicked the boss monster with supernatural force in the stomach, then circled around again, maintaining contact to kick the Ape King¡¯s face, all while avoiding being grabbed by the creature¡¯s other massive hand.


    All of Max¡¯s distractions worked, and the monster forgot about the real danger.  Max enlarged his sword, Blacksmith Incident again, and planted the blade into the monster''s side. He ripped the weapon free before slashing, delivering an attack with decades of experience and skill, cutting off the boss monster¡¯s arm that Saliron had not ravaged yet.  The creature''s arm hit the ground like it weighed as much as a car, and its supernaturally strong muscles writhed under the skin of the severed limb.


    Surrounding fog trembled again as the Ape King screamed, apparently losing its mind, and savagely attacked Max with its remaining, wounded arm. At the same time, the fog almost immediately dispersed, the creature¡¯s wrath and lack of focus dispelling it.


    His enemy losing control was exactly what Max had been waiting for. With the creature missing an arm and not thinking clearly, he was able to flip in midair and chop overhead directly into the Beast King¡¯s skull.  His sword erupted out the other side, taking blood, fluids, and pieces of bone with it.


    Max spun, delivering another savage, precise cut through the Beast King''s spine. Then, he chose a bead meant to be used as a bullet, cocked his arm back, and used Daliko¡¯s ability, throwing the projectile with the speed of a 45 caliber bullet through where he thought the boss monter¡¯s heart would be.  The Beast King fell.


    Almost immediately, as soon as the monster died, Max could sense a change in the air. It made him wrinkle his nose, touching on a memory he couldn¡¯t quite place.  He would have liked to stay and figure out where it was coming from or what it was, but instead, he knew that he was still needed where he''d come from.


    The clock was ticking.


    He sped back the way he¡¯d come from, turning on velocity until he reached the battle between the monsters and the Patriot Guild. Max slammed into the rear rank of monsters like a meteor, immediately killing two of them. From there, the next few minutes were flashes of complete chaos, carnage, and bloodshed. When it was all done, Max stood on top of a pile of gray ape bodies, his bloody sword in hand, and his force shield flickering on his left wrist.  He dismissed it.


    Amidst the groans and crying of the wounded survivors, Lance painfully limped over to him and said, "Everything here is dead. What now, boss?"


    Max raised his voice, addressing all of the humans present. "Everybody, let''s get the hell out of here! I see two people completely down, and one''s dead for sure. Take their bodies. Rotate them between all of you. Now.  We¡¯re not out of this yet." He nodded at Lance, expecting the other man to know what to do, which Lance did.


    In only a couple of minutes, the surviving humans were a group of controlled chaos moving back to the relative safety of human-controlled territory.  The half-hour walk with the civilians felt like one of the longest treks of Max''s life, but thankfully the group came within sight of the human line just as there was another cloud behind them, likely another small army of angry, searching monsters.


    "Everybody hurry up," Max yelled.  Surprised human Challengers came running out from the human emplacements to help.  Thankfully, they were seasoned enough not to ask questions, at least not after running a scan on them and verifying they were, in fact, human.


    In only minutes, all of the survivors were past the defensive lines, on the other side of the concrete walls and big guns before any other monsters showed up. More grey apes.  As soon as the creatures appeared, powerful mana guns that humanity used for border defense came online, instantly destroying three monsters. The rest of the creatures almost immediately retreated, fading away, and Max figured it must have been either a recon group or some sort of scout team.


    Now safe behind human lines, Max leaned against the wall, taking a break. When he opened his eyes, there was a semi-circle group around him, mostly reporters, all of them with a glint in their eyes that made him a little uncomfortable.  He¡¯d seen that look before, and he knew that it came with expectations, pressures, and a whole host of new problems.


    That was when he noticed the hovering cameras again and realized that his fight with the White Ape King had been captured, maybe even broadcast live.


    He¡¯d only meant to take down the Victory guild in front of the reporters.  This was unexpected.  What had been a careful publicity plan, similar to when he¡¯d originally formed the Trifecta Guild years ago on earth, had gone FUBAR.  He honestly had no idea at this point exactly how public opinion was going to shake out.


    Max looked glumly at the two bodies on the ground¨Cthe second downed Challenger, a Patriot Guild member, had died on the way back.Two dead.


    It was better than he¡¯d feared, but still, two more dead fighters meant more grieving people, more mourning family members, two fewer humans, and two less Challengers to fight the monsters.


    When a reporter was brave enough to finally step forward and try asking questions, Max waved her away.  ¡°Just give me a minute, please.¡± He stared at the bodies and rubbed some of the blood off of his face from where it¡¯d dried at the corner of his mouth.


    ¡°Shit.¡±

 Book 3, ch 34

    Max sat in the living area of his training warehouse, skimming articles on his laptop. Many of them were similar:


    "Is Max Cunningham the strongest adventurer in the world?"


    "Summoners, confirmed strongest class!?"


    ¡°Who is Max Cunningham?¡±


    "Battle lines in America with invaders advance for the first time in years!"


    ¡°Human battle lines in America move forward!¡±


    ¡°America finally being reclaimed!?¡±


    "White Ape King power vacuum among monsters¡ªwill there be a replacement?"


    On social media, there were countless clips from Max''s fight with the Ape King, some even edited, set to music or turned into memes. The videos felt strange to Max when he watched them because it was almost like he was viewing somebody else, not himself.


    The time that Max had come closest to being deleted, while battling the Ape King, was the most¡­strange for him.  In the actual battle, during the time depicted in the videos, Max had been fighting for his life, full of adrenaline, so he''d mostly shaken his close calls off after acknowledging that he could have just died.


    But in the video, he watched himself thrown around like a ragdoll.  The handfuls of rubble the Ape King had flung and delivered a glancing blow with, very obviously almost did him in.  In the videos, he looked like a fly that had just caught the edge of a baseball, slammed into the ground, sending rocks, bits of sticks, and clods of dirt flying from the impact.  He¡¯d left a Max-width skid across the ground of the small field of sparse grass that he landed in.


    He just couldn¡¯t stop watching the memes that people made of his close call with death. Some were very creative, and still made him chuckle, even as he watched himself nearly die over and over and again.


    Max was shaking his head, watching another video of his brush with death that someone had added the song "Wipeout" to, with a loop of Max getting crushed into the ground over and over again, when the doorbell buzzed. A moment later, Lavinia whispered in his ear, "Max, it''s the two that you were expecting."


    "Got it," he said and stood. Then he moved through his training warehouse and opened the door to see who had come calling.


    He blinked as he took in the appearance of a ridiculous, comically disguised Lance and a much less ridiculously disguised Chad. Chad was just wearing sweats and a hoodie, the hood pulled up.  Lance on the other hand was wearing name brand clothing and gigantic sunglasses, like an actor in an airport.


    "You look goofy as hell, Lance.¡± He sighed.


    ¡°Whatever.  I gotta dodge the media attention.  It¡¯s even worse now that you¡¯ve done your thing. You know, the kind of stuff you always do.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, yeah.  Whatever. Come on in.¡±  Max turned and began heading back to the mini apartment area.


    Behind him, Chad took three steps into the warehouse before asking, "What the hell did you do to this place?" His voice sounded a bit strained.


    Max looked around at all the divots in the concrete, holes in the wall that he''d patched up mostly with spray foam, and the mess of training equipment all over the place. He shrugged and said, "It''s a training space. I train. Without it, I''d probably be dead right now, or the Victory Guild would still be mind-raping people and turning them into demonic energy psychos." Chad didn''t respond, just continued to look around with a stricken expression.


    Lance chuckled, "This is where you were training, Max? Isn''t this small and kind of¡­quaint?"


    Max rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes, you''re rich, we get it, Lance. If you want to do something useful, then send me some money for a better training area or pull some strings and get me one."


    Instead of reacting the way Max had expected him to, Lance just nodded and said, "Alright. I''m on it."


    After leading the two men into his de facto living area, Max quietly made them both a cup of coffee with his instant coffee maker and then sat at the table. "All right, I agreed to this meeting," he said. "Now, what did you two want to talk about?"


    Lance and Chad gave each other a look before Lance said, "Max, I know that you don''t really want to be famous, or at least you don''t want to deal with what might come with it, but we really need you to go out and give some press conferences and maybe do a parade or something. If I can suck it up, so can you."


    Max grunted. "Yeah, but you like the attention.¡±


    ¡°Even if you¡¯re neutral, you don¡¯t exactly hate it either, Max.¡± Lance gave him a level look.


    ¡°Yes, but I''m not actually running away from the limelight," he said, "or at least not for the reasons that others might think. You both know why I have been trying to keep a low profile, but you do even better, Lance."


    The other summoner nodded seriously. "Yes, I know. And I even agree with you that spreading your face and voice everywhere all over this world is probably not the greatest way to avoid instigating the powers that be in the Quartet system. But Max, if I use a variation of arguments that you''ve used yourself before, what is the point of avoiding Adjudicators if our world gets overrun with monsters? I am not sure if you realize just how desperate the situation is. When you killed the White Ape King, it was a huge win.  It¡¯s just what North America needed after the Victory guild got taken down, too.  Without the win, that would have been¡­awful for morale.  However, thankfully now, people are actually excited for the first time in years.


    ¡°I mean, we''ve almost taken back two states now. It''s a big deal.¡± Lance paused. ¡°The only reason we even had our front line when you came back to Earth is because we strategically gave up so much land to buy ourselves time to build our defenses. Otherwise, we would have been steamrolled, and there''d be no more humans left on this continent."


    Max nodded slowly. "I''ve read the histories and the reports, I know." He sighed. "I can''t really argue with your logic, Lance, but I don''t think I''m wrong, either. It just feels like it''s too early. I''m too weak."


    Lance chuckled. "If you''re weak, what are the rest of us?¡±


    ¡°Really fucking weak," said Max evenly. Lance frowned, stricken, but Max ignored him. He tapped a finger on the table, thinking. "I''ve also been thinking about all the letters that I''ve gotten from the various guilds and governments asking me to help with some of their boss monsters. I''m considering doing some of that, helping out. I think it would probably be a good idea to pick the ones that I can maybe, hopefully kill quickly, using my time wisely to do the most amount of good in the least amount of time possible. But I really can''t spend too much time fighting on the front lines with everybody else because it will slow down how fast I can grow in power. I understand that not many people even know this, much less understand it, but I know that both of you do.  So you also understand my need for secrecy.  Eventually, the Adjudicators will likely come calling."


    Chad put his head in his hands. "Do you know what a mindfuck it is? Being one of the only people in the world to know that Earth is going to eventually be in the sights of some evil galactic organization?"


    Max shook his head and said, "We don''t know that the whole organization is bad, just that certain people in it are. But at least now that I''m a four-star mana body, I feel like I''ve got the power to start actually experimenting with and learning more about the daggers that I took from Adjudicator Swan. I also might have some more time now to look for other spirits."


    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    Lance muttered, "Listen to this guy talking about picking up spirits like a dog picks up fleas. He talks about it like it¡¯s easy!"


    Suddenly, looking like a giant spider with the head of a man, about the size of a guinea pig, Anansi manifested on the table for everybody to see. "Easy? You mean finding new spirits? It really doesn¡¯t have to be super difficult, you know.  You just need to know where to look, man-named-Lance,¡± drawled the divine remnant.


    Both of Max''s guests stayed stock still for a half-second before Chad screamed, falling back in his chair and pinwheeling his arms. At the same time, Lance stood quickly and then slowly backed away from the table, his eyes wide, tilting his head like he was listening to something or somebody speak to him.  His spirits, no doubt.


    "What the hell are you doing, Anansi!?" demanded Max. "You are supposed to be a secret, aren''t you?"


    The dead spider god shrugged, which was a very strange-looking thing to witness a spider do. "They might all be dead soon anyway, right? And these two already know some of your secrets. So why should I be hiding out in the background like some sort of sexy ninja? I want to come into the light, baby. I want to sing songs. I want to tell jokes. I want to be¡ª"


    "Shut up, Anansi," said Max. "Don''t ever do this again, please."


    Anansi muttered sullenly under his breath before sitting on his haunches and smiling, seemingly changing his entire demeanor. "But I''m out right now! That means I can stay out, right?  Easier to ask forgiveness than permission, and everything. Cliche cliche cliche.¡±


    Max sighed and ran his hands through his hair. "I guess you can stay out for a minute, but please let Lance''s spirits know that everything''s okay. He looks like he''s getting yelled at by about a thousand different directions right now."


    Anansi turned his head in amusement and said, "Hey, little spirits, quiet down, or I''m going to eat you."


    Max had thought that he was imagining a soft sound before, almost like white noise, but when it immediately stopped, he realized that he''d been catching the very, very fringe edges of whatever Lance''s spirits had been saying to him. Eyes wide, Lance returned to the table. Chad came back slower, a look of utter revulsion on his face. "I hate spiders, man," he grumbled.


    "Hey, don''t be racist, human!" demanded Anansi, dramatically putting one spider leg over his heart. "How would you like it if I took on that same attitude against all you goofy, mortal animals? Look at you, acting like you''re all special walking around on two legs. If spiders were as big as you were, this whole world would be covered in webs!"


    "That''s exactly the problem," said Chad quietly. He was looking a little green around the gills.


    Max frowned.  "Enough! Everybody focus, please. Anansi, if you''re going to be out, then you need to keep your comments constructive. Otherwise, I''m going to make you go back."


    "Fine, fine, fine.  Look, this is me, not rocking the boat. Not a boat-rocker.  Nope, not me, no siree."


    Suddenly, in the back of Max''s mind, he heard Siliron say, If that one can come out, then why can''t I?


    Mentally, Max responded, Because Anansi is only extremely frightening to most humans. You are terrifying. And you know that. Do you want more validation, Saliron? Or are you done?


    The dark spirit spent several seconds, filling Max¡¯s mind with a deep, disturbing laugh. But if I come out, I can get a better view of their bones.


    Don''t be creepy, Saliron, responded Max. "Actually, never mind, you''re always creepy, just don''t come out.


    So be it, Contractor, responded Saliron. I will ignore your provocations, as I admit, I am still very pleased with you for introducing me to the bones of that monster recently. The Ape.


    Oh, that''s right, you said you might learn something about the monster from your¡­digestion. Do you have anything for me yet? To one side, Chad gave him a concerned look as Max continued sitting quietly, having a mental conversation.  But Lance, most of his attention on Anansi, softly shook his head at the other man.


    No, unfortunately not, Contractor," said Saliron.  But soon, perhaps. As I continued to lick and nibble and caress the memory of the bones.


    Please don''t give me the details, but thank you.


    Max turned to his human guests and said out loud, ¡°Chad, I need you to help me find the best, quickest missions that I can take on to kill some more boss monsters in America. I''m willing to go to other countries too, but only if we get some sort of good rewards out of it. I''m all for humanity and all of that, but we have our own problems, and I will be risking my life after all."


    "Got it," said Chad. "So you''re using this to help build the Trifecta Guild back up again?"


    "Exactly," said Max. "Most of the reports I''m seeing in the media are focused on me as an individual. I want more people and the general public consciousness to tie me together with the Trifecta Guild, just like they all do with Lance and the Patriot Guild."


    "That''s smart," said Lance.


    "Cool. So what about the other matter, Lance? Are your people at the Patriot Guild ready?" asked Max.


    "I think so. I mean, they''ll never actually say they''re truly ready, but ever since you showed up before, they''ve been working all-nighters almost every day. They''re very excited."


    "All right," said Max. He tapped a finger on the table again and looked at the calendar where he had it hung up on the wall. "How about four days from now? I''ll teleport to the Patriot Guild. You can be there too. And then I will try to summon our friends that we knew in the Quartet."


    ¡°Good, so that¡¯s settled now,¡± Lance said and suddenly stood. "That''s really all I had to talk about, and I''d love to stay and chat, but I have a lot of things to do."


    Chad nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll head out too.¡±


    Surprised, Max asked, "You came in person all the way here, spending tons of money on the teleporter, just to have this short conversation with me?"


    ¡°Yes. ¡° Lance nodded seriously. "Because when we''re in here with all the protections in here, in this training building, and all our spirits keeping watch, nobody can eavesdrop on us. Most other ways of communication are not one hundred percent secure. I mean, for all I know, this one isn''t, either, but it''s about the most secure we''re going to get."


    "Point taken," said Max. "Good thinking. Let''s make a note to not talk about any of these sensitive subjects anymore unless we''re in a warded facility that one of us owns and we have at least you or me present, Lance." All three men nodded, and then Chad and Lance stood from the table.


    "What are you going to do after we leave?" asked Chad.


    "I¡¯ll do what I do every night, Pinky.  Try to take over the world," said Max in a completely deadpan tone of voice. Then he amended, "Actually, I¡¯ll try to actually train and try to develop my mana body, but you know, the first thing sounded a lot funnier and cooler."


    ¡°I thought it was funny,¡± said Anansi.  ¡°But I¡¯m just a handsome spider man that everyone is trying hard not to look at right now. It¡¯s unfair!  If I wore red and blue tights, like that other, less popular, dumber spider man, maybe I¡¯d get some respect around here!¡±


    Chad and Lance ignored Anansi, glanced at Max, then shared a look. Lance sighed. "Max, the whole world domination thing is a lot less funny when it¡¯s possible.  Like, I don''t know. You''ve already increased in power so much that if you do hit a five-star mana body, then you probably could take over the world. In fact, if you hit that level of power, please promise me you''ll do some PR first so the world won''t decide that you''re a greater threat than the monsters."


    "They wouldn''t think that, right?  Like, they really be that dumb, would they?" asked Max.  Then, remembering the news cycle prior to the monsters coming to Earth, he answered his own question. "Okay, yes, they would be that stupid. All right, point taken. Again."


    Chad nodded, his expression sincere. "You should also think about coming by the guild headquarters more often." He hesitated and then slowly said, "You really need to go see your family too, man. Do you know that your mother has been doing interviews about you?"


    Max winced and groaned. "Yes, and they''re not very flattering either because she''s mad at me.  She¡¯s been bringing pictures on talk shows of when I was a little kid and telling embarrassing stories."


    Lance winced.  "Yeah. Honestly, man. She has a reason to be angry. Go see your family."


    ¡°It''s not that I don''t want to see them, it''s just like, how do I explain everything?" Max hung his head as his voice trailed off.  ¡°I don¡¯t want to overwhelm them, either.¡±


    ¡°Too late for that, Max. By now, like the rest of the world, there¡¯s no way they haven¡¯t seen videos of you being slammed around like a ping pong ball by a boss monsters.¡±


    Max winced again.  "I don''t even know what to say to them, though, about simple stuff, much less about¡­serious things.¡±


    "Family is always like that, Max.¡±  Chad grinned and said, ¡°Not only that, it¡¯s not like her fears are irrational.  Like Lance said, she has probably seen you fighting a giant, monkey monster, and is terrified that you are going to die fighting.  And meanwhile, you haven¡¯t visited her since going to the Quartet.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve watched her interviews,¡± accused Max with a frown.


    ¡°Yup!¡±  Chat looked entirely unapologetic.  ¡°Anyway, sorry, but this is not a problem you can cut with a sword or beat up. Be brave, buddy." He patted Max on the shoulder.  ¡°Good luck!¡±


    As Max''s two friends left, he muttered, "Everybody''s a fucking comedian these days."


    Ha ha ha!, Saliron suddenly said in his mind, his mental ¡°voice¡± deadpan.  Contractor, I thought it was fairly humorous.  But we can all be better served collecting bones.  Jokes are nothing compared to bones.


    Max groaned.

 Book 3, ch 35

    Max''s steps felt heavy and reluctant as he got out of the rental car. He looked back at the thing, shaking his head in irritation.  Even after the end of the world, rental car companies still functioned, and still worked almost exactly the same way.  Now Max was rich, but he was still driving an old, economy car; it¡¯s what he¡¯d been able to get.


    Ironically, the supply and demand stayed the same for rental car companies.  Even though millions of people had lost their vehicles, or couldn¡¯t drive them anymore for various reasons¨Clike being crushed by monsters¨Cthe concentration of survivors in human-controlled land was enough that fewer people needed cars anymore.  Public transit was safe, enforced by low level Challengers helping the police.


    Max still hadn¡¯t been back long enough.  To him, it still felt like a strange, strange world.  He had to take the changes as they were instead of watching them happen gradually.


    And it sort of made sense that the country, and the world, all functioned like civilization in the midst of a war now, because that¡¯s exactly what was happening.


    With heavy thoughts, he moved up the walkway to a new apartment, a simple set of living quarters made by magic in what used to be a park. Many buildings like this had been constructed all over the human-occupied United States to help those whose apartments or homes were destroyed during monster attacks.


    Luckily, nothing had happened to her, and Max was already aware of this for a long time, but this was the first time he''d be visiting his mother in person. He had to admit privately that he hadn''t been emailing her back often enough either.


    Of course, since she''d been doing interviews and such, he was a little irritated with her. Their meeting had the potential to be terse, and he was not looking forward to it. But at the same time, he was also looking forward to the reunion because he hadn''t seen his mother in a long time. That thought made him feel somewhat guilty¡­more guilty. The amount of time his mother had gone without seeing him was far longer, that he hadn¡¯t seen her, and most of the time Max had known both of them was alive.


    Max had seen some of his mother¡¯s interviews. Over the years, there were times that his mother hadn''t heard from him in a long time and had dark thoughts, dark thoughts indeed.


    At the moment, he was wearing a disguise of sorts. He had on jeans, a bright, garish, button up Dragon Ball Z shirt and Crocs. He was also wearing a wide straw hat just like Luffy. He looked ridiculous, like a caricature of an otaku, and sure enough, most people either ignored him or looked at him, grinned, and then looked away. Not many people actually paid attention to what his face looked like when his clothing was so showy.


    He followed the directions he¡¯d gotten for his mother¡¯s place, and eventually ended up outside number 613, his mother''s door. She should be home¡ªhe¡¯d emailed her earlier that day and told her that he was coming over. As he knocked, part of him was excited to see her, but another part was hoping she was out so that he could put off this reunion.


    Max would rather fight a monster than deal with a situation and relationship this complicated.


    The door opened with a creak, and just like that, Max was face to face with his mother again. He''d already seen some of her interviews, so he knew that she looked older now, but seeing the new lines on her face in person made him feel suddenly, uncharacteristically emotional. The marks of her emotional and personal battles of the last few years were plain to see on her face. It was also evidenced by the fact that they both just stood there for a few seconds looking at each other before she waved a hand, sighed, and said, "Well, bucko, come in then, I guess. You''re so famous right now, you can''t be loitering outside the door of some random old lady."


    Max sighed and moved into his mom''s apartment. He closed the door behind him without being asked.


    "It''s not much," she said. "I''ve lost almost everything, but there are a lot of people who are even worse off, so I guess I shouldn''t complain." She vaguely waved at the couch and sat in a recliner. Max sat as well, and the moment his butt touched the fabric, his mom was up again, bustling to the kitchen, muttering about getting coffee or a soda or something. Max rolled his eyes and stayed still. She might be older, but his mom was still his mom, and this was something that had driven him crazy about her his entire life. He knew there was nothing he could do other than just wait for her to come back with some sort of drink for him and for her, then hope that she didn''t decide that they needed something else after that.  Like a storm, his mother''s annoying, random, semi-hospitable chaos was something that he had to just endure.


    Luckily, after putting down a coffee and a can of soda for both of them, she settled into her recliner again and looked expectantly at him like she had been waiting for him to speak all along. Max cleared his throat and said, "You look good, Mom."


    "Well, that''s a lie, Maxie," she said and laughed. "But thank you for saying it, I guess."


    Max grimaced a bit and nodded. He said, "Well, I suppose I should just talk about the elephant in the room right off the bat. I''ve already emailed you this, but I''m really sorry that I went so long without talking to you. I did whenever I thought about it. And, to be fair, I have had a lot going on."


    "Yeah, yeah, saving the world and all that." Geraldine Cunningham took a sip of her coffee and made a face. "This is terrible," she said.  She made a face at the coffee like it had intentionally tried to disrespect her.  The mug read, ¡°Sorry, no Hablo Fucktardo.¡± It was not his mother¡¯s sense of humor, and he knew she probably hated it. The absurdity almost made Max laugh, but he barely kept his face straight.


    Geraldine said, "You know, after you vanished, I got into cold presses.¡±  She spent a few minutes detailing the exact way that cold press coffee is made.  She even talked about the beans.  Max was used to these tangents, and he just listened quietly while he drank his soda. Eventually, she paused, then said, ¡°Gosh that was some delicious coffee, but when I lost everything, I lost the press." A brief shadow of grief crossed her face before she took another sip of the coffee, and Max sighed.


    "I''m really sorry, Mom, but like I''ve told you in emails before, if you want me to buy you a house or¡­really much of anything else, it''s not a problem. You don''t need to stay here.  You don¡¯t have to drink using mugs you don¡¯t like.  I know you probably hate like half the shit in this place."


    ¡°Language, Maxie!¡±  Then Geraldine made a face and shook her head. "No, no, all my friends and most of my family are living just like this. I don''t want to impose on my very important son and live large while everyone else is suffering."


    Max''s temper flared a bit, and he said, "Well, if you didn''t need more money, then why have you been doing interviews showing everybody my baby pictures?"


    The question hit Max''s mom like a blow, and she rocked back before looking up at him with a mixture of defiance, guilt, and sadness. "Well, money has been tight," she admitted, "but also, I didn''t know if I was ever going to see you again. And after all those videos came out of you fighting that big thing," her voice broke a bit. "After I saw those videos of you, I started wondering if one email every week or two was just all I was going to see of you again.¡±


    Even as her eyes teared up, her lips firmed in defiance, frustration, and pain.  She continued, ¡°And I decided, you know what? I have a very important, very famous son now. Maybe I can tell the world about him the way I would tell my friends if half of them weren''t dead now. And so that''s what I did. And maybe part of me thought that if I was talking about you, it would mean finally seeing you again. And you know what? If that''s the case, well, I guess I gotta give that part of myself a hug because she was right because here you are."


    A flash of intense, almost crushing guilt ran through Max, and he, this time, was the one to sit back like he''d been slapped. Silence reigned for a few moments while Max tried to decide how to respond. All he eventually could do was just apologize and try to explain. "I''m really sorry, Mom. I know I should have told you what was going on when I could. Going to the Quartet, well, I couldn''t do anything about it. And everybody else''s mom was in the same boat as you. I know you know that. And I know you know that there were limited things I could do when I came back to Earth the first time. That was very strange, and as far as I know, I''m the only person that''s ever done that. I had to be careful at the time because I wasn''t sure if I could get in trouble for it. And some of the people in the Quartet are very scary people, Mom."


    She nodded numbly. "Yes, but now you''ve been back for a while."


    Max grimaced and said, "Not for all that long. And it''s not like I was playing video games. I was working so that I could, like you said sarcastically before, save the world. But I''m sorry, Mom. I truly am. And if I could go back in time, I would free up time to come see you in person like this. I''m not saying that I''m in the right. But at the same time, it''s not like I was going on a dating show or something instead of seeing my mother. I was paying with blood, sweat, and tears so that I can be who I am today and save people¡­and stay alive myself."


    "That''s good that you can save people, Maxie," Geraldine said, "but what about me? What about you? Why can''t you let everybody else fight the big fights? Why can''t they do it? You''re so young. Or at least you were. I don''t even know how old you are now! You might have lived years of your life now without me seeing you, just like I have. Maybe longer."


    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    Max nodded slowly and wasn''t sure if the truth was going to make her feel better or not. He told her, "Mom, I actually left the Quartet early. I was there for less than a year."


    "Well, why did you do that!?" Geraldine almost yelled, her eyes wild. "Wouldn''t you get stronger if you stayed there longer? Did you get killed in a dungeon or something? Isn''t that how it works?"


    Max shook his head. "No, Mom." And once again, he decided to be honest with her. "Some people¡­conspiracy type people from other worlds tried to kill me, tried to kill me for real. I defended myself and got out. I don''t really want to tell you this stuff, Mom. I know you can''t really understand. Like, you won''t even tell a server if there''s a hair in your food. But Mom, my life is different now and¡­brutal sometimes. And I just don''t know how much I can discuss with you that you can handle. Or should handle.  I never wanted you to be in this situation.  But on top of that, now that you''re doing all these talk shows and things like that, I''m not even sure what I should tell you now. Like, are you going to go and tell people everything I''ve just told you?"


    Geraldine looked down at her hands, visibly hurt. "Is that what you think of me now, Maxie?"


    Max frowned and said, "I don''t know, Mom. You are showing naked pictures of me asleep in my oatmeal on morning news shows while ladies with five pounds of makeup on their faces laugh at me. I mean, I don''t care too much because, at the end of the day, it''s not my image that people value me for, and I''m not an actor. People only care about me because I kill things well. But it''s kind of distracting when your friends are telling you that your mom might show your blurred-out penis on television again in childhood photos from when you were six."


    Geraldine nodded slowly. "I guess I maybe deserve that. You know your brother and sister basically said the same thing? That''s one of the reasons they wouldn''t participate. I actually invited them. They said no."


    Max nodded slowly. "I still need to visit them too."


    "Yes, yes, you do, Maxie," said Geraldine. "But they''re your siblings, I get it, it''s not the same. In fact, your sister in particular is extremely proud of you. But they''re not your mother. They don''t lie awake at night wondering if you''re fighting some nasty monster that''s going to bite the back of your neck. Like I''ve seen news reports about people suffering and these guild people and the adventurers getting hit through walls and poisoned and..." Her voice trailed off, and she was obviously near tears.


    He ignored the fact that she hadn¡¯t mentioned his dad, but that was a sore spot and a can of worms he was not going to open. It¡¯s why he also hadn¡¯t said he still needed to visit his father, too.


    Max got up, walked over, and gave her a very big hug. "Look, Mom, I can''t promise that I''ll always be safe because I''m not going to make a promise I can''t keep. But I will tell you point-blank, and please don''t repeat this, that yes, I am the strongest Challenger in the world right now. The only reason Lance is as strong as he is is because of me. I taught him how to fight in the Quartet. He''s my friend. In fact, if you need money or anything, I will get it out of him because Lord knows he has enough of it. He probably wastes more money than most houses cost on one piece of his dumbass clothes. But you know what? He has saved his country multiple times, so if anyone deserves to be rich, it''s someone like him.  Millions of people owe their lives to him.  I¡¯m probably the only person in the world that gets irritated about his diamond studded sunglasses or whatever."


    Geraldine wiped her eyes and gently pushed Max away. "Yes, I know that he¡¯s important.  I know that you are, too. And I''ve had that talk with myself too. A lot of people might get their houses back or even be saved because of the things you''ve done. I get it, Max, I''m not stupid. I may not be smart, but I''m not stupid. And I know that what you''re doing is important. It''s just..hard.  Especially when I see videos of my son getting the tar beat out of him by some King Kong thing."


    "I know, Mom. I''m sorry." There really wasn''t anything else for Max to say. So, he didn''t say anything for a while. And the two of them sat in silence while Geraldine got herself back together. Finally, she said, "So what have you been up to?"


    Max opened his mouth to speak, and before he could answer, she added, "And do you have a girlfriend? Are you going to get married? Have you thought about giving me any grandkids?"


    Max groaned and felt his heart drop with old frustrations and irritations, but he also felt somewhat lighter. If his mom was willing to ask about grandbabies, then maybe she was feeling a little bit better now. He said, "I dated a girl in the Quartet, but it didn''t work out. There are some other girls out there, but I think the one that I probably should be focused on isn''t on our world right now."


    "What!?"


    Max clarified, "She was from the Quartet, from another world."


    Geraldine shook her head. "Well, then you should forget about her then, right? If you know someone in the Quartet and then you go to different worlds, you''ll never see each other again, right? Even I know that.  Well, I actually know a lot.  Do you know that there are specials about the Quartet on TV all the time?  There are Youtube channels now that only talk about the Quartets."


    Max hesitated before saying, "So what you said about never being able to see someone from another world again¡­  Um, not necessarily. Theoretically."


    Geraldine looked at Max in surprise and confusion. "You told other people about this, right? Like, please tell me you told other people about this."


    "Well, Lance and a few people in the Patriot Guild know."


    Max''s mom shook her head. "Is this my life now? I just need to get used to my son talking about famous, powerful people casually like this?" Then she looked Max in the eye and in a very serious tone of voice asked, "Did you just tell me some sort of national secret?"


    "Sort of," Max admitted. "If you talk about this on talk shows, though, it''s not just gonna be me who''s angry at you. It''ll be Lance, too."


    "Oh, and the bullying begins," Geraldine said dramatically. She took a sip of her coffee and made a face of disgust before spitting it back into the mug. "Not in the mood for that crappy coffee.¡±  She paused and stuck her lower lip out.  ¡°It''s not enough for my son to ask me to not go on talk shows. Now he''s going to blackmail me by getting his rich and powerful and famous friends angry at me, huh?"


    "Basically, yes," said Max, his face blank.


    "Why are you so mean to your mother, Max?" Geraldine sighed. She took another sip of coffee before spitting it out again.


    ¡°I¡¯m not being mean.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not telling me anything.¡±


    ¡°I told you a national secret.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not telling me anything I want to know!¡±


    Max sighed and asked, "So you want to know what I''ve been up to? Are you sure?"


    His mom shrugged and said, "I think so. Don''t you basically just play Power Rangers?"


    Max tapped the table, wondering what to say or even how to make his mother understand how dangerous and dark his universe could be. Finally, he said, "Mom, that fight that you saw on TV, the one where I was fighting the Beast King, for me, that wasn''t even the worst. I mean, yes, it was a fight to the death, but I had several of those, and I had much closer calls."


    Geraldine shook her head. "I don''t believe it. That was terrible. That was the worst thing I''ve ever seen. I can''t even imagine you going through things worse than that all the time."


    In exasperation,  Max said, "That''s exactly why I don''t want to talk to you about it, Mom! I''m worried about you. You''re probably already having nightmares about what you saw on TV! If I tell you other things that I''ve been through, you''re going to worry even more, and it''s not even going to help me. In fact, knowing that you''re stressed out and worried about me and not sleeping well is going to make me feel worse and may distract me so bad I am distracted.  Being distracted could be life threatening in my life now."


    Geraldine shook her head and said, "It''s hard to accept, Maxie."


    Suddenly, Max heard a small voice in his ear as Lavinia asked, "Max, do I have permission to reveal myself to your mother?"


    Out loud, Max said, "Lavinia, it''s not like you need to ask me permission, but I suppose I appreciate the gesture. Sure, go ahead, but give me a second." To his mother, he said, "Mom, one of my spirits, my friend, is going to manifest. I guess she wants to talk to you."


    Geraldine''s mouth opened and closed a few times like a fish before suddenly Lavinia was standing in the room with them. She looked the same as she always did, for the most part, except now that she''d been on Earth, her appearance kept morphing into some sort of hybrid of a Quartet student and e-girl. At the moment, she was wearing about ten bracelets on each arm, a t-shirt with Trogdor on it, and thigh-high Invader Zim socks. Max thought she looked utterly ridiculous, but like most of Lavinia''s outfits, he''d been holding his tongue if he didn¡¯t like them.  He suspected she already knew and thought it was hilarious.


    Lavinia waved at Geraldine and said, "Hello, Max''s mom. My name is Lavinia. I was Max''s first contracted spirit in the Quartet. And when I was alive, I was a Summoner in the Quartet. I died before I could go back to my family, and my soul stayed locked in the quartet. I would still be there if not for Max. But I can honestly say that I have been with Max for most of his journey now as a Challenger¡­as a Summoner," she clarified. "And I can tell you with full honesty that Max is telling the truth, and you probably don''t want to know everything about what he''s been up to or the challenges he''s faced. He has spirits right now, inside of him, that if they were to manifest, you would probably never get to sleep again."


    She suddenly glanced to the side and muttered, "Don''t even speak, Saliron. I''m serious. You outrank me, but Anansi likes me more." Then she turned back to Geraldine and smiled like her side conversation never happened. "I''m telling the truth. Anyway, I just wanted to introduce myself and tell you that Max is working hard."


    Lavinia smiled brightly.  Max¡¯s mom slowly said, ¡°You¡¯re a spirit?  But you never got to see your mother again before you died?¡± Tears welled up in her eyes.


    ¡°It¡¯s okay, I¡¯ve had a lot of time to think about it, and¨C¡± Lavinia''s voice suddenly broke, and she looked down at the ground. "Mrs. Geraldine, I''m not telling you how to feel, but please cut him, cut Max some slack."


    Max''s mom moved her shoulders back and looked at Lavina in the eyes, her stance and expression remarkably calm for speaking to a manifested spirit for the first time. "You''re so precious and sad, aren''t you?" she said, tears still swimming in her eyes. "How long were you alone for, dear?"


    "Centuries," said Lavinia sadly.


    Slowly, Max''s mom nodded and said, "Okay, I''ll accept that I am probably best off not knowing everything because just looking at this young lady, who I realize is also way older than me, is making my heart ache in a way that I didn''t even know it could."


    Max sofly asked, "Lavinia, can you go back in my soul now?" She nodded and disappeared like she¡¯d never been there, some residual ectoplasmic smoke dissipating, completely gone two seconds later.


    Nobody spoke for a minute or two.


    "Okay then," said Max. "Are we okay now, Mom?"


    Geraldine looked down at her hands for a moment before glancing up. "I don''t know, but I think we can be."


    "What do I need to do?"


    "I''ve lost my car, and delivery sucks now. Can you take me to McDonald''s?"


    Max grinned. "I can definitely take you to McDonald''s, Mom. Let''s go."

 Book 3, ch 36

    Max could feel the weight of magic and expectations on his shoulders.  This was it, a big moment.  Something he could have never even thought about attempting before reaching a four star mana body.


    "Big day, huh, fellow Max?  Big day!" Max the researcher looked the same as every other time Max had seen him.  The tall thin man still wore a ponytail wearing a lab coat with mystic embroidery.


    ¡°Leave Handsome Max alone, Dork Max.¡±  Rissa was fiddling with some controls on what had been a  computer at some point.  Now the console was grafted to some sort of horrific amalgamation of bones and flesh.  The heavy set, purple-haired woman absently pushed a bone into place in the nightmarish biotech contraption.


    ¡°Hey, I resemble that comment!¡± Researcher-Max grinned and winked Max.


    To one side of the research room, in the corner, Lance was talking to the researchers Matt and Yukari.  The tall, fair man standing next to the shorter Japanese woman in a white witch hat were a striking combination.


    Max glanced around, impressed by the work the Patriot Guild researchers had done. The large laboratory still looked somewhat similar to its appearance from his first visit, but now there was also a nightmare of blood, magic, and bone in the room. The only other people present were Max, Lance, and the four Patriot Guild scientists, each regarding the bone gate in the center of the room with varying degrees of uncertainty and excitement.


    Magical, biomech, and mundane machines made a hum around the large workspace. Others gurgled.


    Lance was currently talking to Yukari and Matt.  Nobody was talking to Max anymore, so he returned to studying the bone gate. It was huge, at least twelve feet tall, and Max knew for a fact that at least one of the bones had belonged to the Ape King in the past. From what Max understood, the foundation of the bone gate had been created with farm animal bones, and the periphery was made with the bones of predatory animals, but the archway itself, with arms radiating in the four cardinal directions, had all belonged to monsters.


    Up until this point, Max had been supplying the Patriot Guild scientists with all the knowledge, everything he knew about teleportation and gates.  He¡¯d included all of his observations in the Quartet and the workers'' quarters. On top of that, Max had worked with Saliron to determine how it might be possible to call his friends, summon them from other worlds. Lavinia had helped, too.


    On paper, it shouldn''t be possible, but there was a very simple loophole involved; actually two things. First, Max had given his friends a way for bones to attune themselves to their aura, so that he could search for that specific, unique resonance in the universe. The second was that Saliron, at his core, and quite disturbingly, regarded all the bones he ever spotted or witnessed as his. His property.  If he couldn''t have them now, he assumed he''d get them one day. One of the most bizarre things about this was that, from a certain perspective, the dark spirit''s logic might be sound. So, Saliron using a gate similar to, but not quite the same as, the gate that Max could use to pull items out of his dimensional storage, had the potential to reach into a universe of ¡°storage¡± and pull out ¡°bones¡± that Saliron considered his ¡°property.¡± The fact that the bones in question were still surrounded by living tissue didn''t seem to faze Saliron much.  All of this meant that theoretically, the magic should work.


    Max began to pace around the room as Lance continued speaking to the scientists. Finally, he walked over and said, "Max, you good?¡±


    ¡°Yes.  Are we about ready to do this? My spirit is about chomping at the bit, or bones, I guess I should say, and I''m a bit nervous. This is going to use up as much power as I can possibly generate at this point. I¡¯m storing it up like a capacitor¡­like a camera flash.  It wouldn''t even be possible if I wasn''t using my spirits."


    "I know, Max. I know," said Lance. "We, me and the scientists, were just going over SOPs."


    Max frowned. "How can you possibly have standard operating procedures for something you''ve never done before?"


    Lance looked embarrassed. "Uh, I hadn''t thought of it that way before."


    One of the scientists, Yukari, moved closer and said, "We were basically going over contingency plans with the guild leader. He''d brought up some good points that we haven''t considered yet. But, to be fair, we do have automated defenses in all four corners of the room, and an entire squad of battle mages on standby in case anything comes through that we¨Cand by we, I mean you¨Cdid not call."


    Max nodded. "Alright, so then what is there left to talk about?"


    Lance, with a serious expression, said, "Well, there''s also potentially nuclear, biological, and chemical threats. If you try calling one of our friends and what comes through is some sort of giant radioactive slime, I''m not sure that the mages on hand are going to be enough or at least the right kind of tool to deal with that. So I''ve been brainstorming with the scientists, deciding what other crazy possibilities there might be and coming up with a game plan on what to do if it happens. Since it''s not super likely, I''m not going to have people on standby, but having a plan in place will save us a lot of time and potentially a lot of lives."


    Max nodded, impressed. At times like this, he was reminded that Lance was a guild leader for one of the most powerful guilds in the world.  "Alright, I''ll leave you to it then."


    "No, no, that won''t be necessary. We were just wrapping up." Then the man swished his cape¡ªhe was wearing an honest-to-God cape today¡ªand moved over to an observation point, the scientists following him. All the scientists had their own special tablets that were synced to the electronic security systems and also to communication nodes with the teams outside. Max didn''t understand all of it and didn''t really care, but apparently, the technology had multiple redundancies in it now.  Some of it was tech that hadn''t been possible before all the Challengers had started coming back to Earth. Apparently, there were a few Paths of people that specialized in tech, which was one reason¨Con the verge of extinction¨Chumanity had been going through effectively a technological renaissance over the last few years.


    Only a few minutes later, Max found himself standing in the middle of the room, facing the gate, his stance square. Internally, he asked, Are you ready, Saliron?


    The bizarre spirit chuckled in Max¡¯s mind, then his low, ominous voice rumbled, I am always ready for a boning.


    That''s not the right word, replied Max.


    I''m aware. That''s why I said it. Your consternation brings me joy¡­sometimes. Perhaps all the time.  Did you know the animal called a walrus has bones in their penises?  Fascinating.  So scandalous.


    Max sighed and wished for the days when Saliron was merely disturbing and creepy, back before he decided that he wanted to try being funny too. Perhaps others would find the spirit''s antics amusing, but Max did not, which he suspected was part of the reason Saliron kept doing it. He mentally addressed all of his spirits, I''m about ready to get this thing started. That means I¡¯m going ot use the Mana Vault, too.  I''m going to be handling a lot of juice, the most mana that I''ve actually handled in this life.


    Anansi''s voice came through the bond. I''ve got you, boss. If anything gets too hairy¡ª


    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    At the same time, to his vision alone, a little spirit appeared and bowed to him, letting him know that her power, her suppression field that he constantly had around his body should also help him control and maintain mana. She didn¡¯t have to speak for him to get the message. Max smiled and nodded back in genuine appreciation. Thank you, Trill. The little spirit bowed one more time and disappeared back into Max''s soul space.


    Wait, why aren¡¯t you thanking me? demanded Anansi. I¡¯m a divine remnant. What do I gotta do to get some respect around here!?


    Max ignored the spider god. He knew from experience now that Anansi loved attention and feeding him any, just made him crave more.


    He sighed.  At this point, there wasn''t anything left to do but try summoning his friends.


    Now he had to choose who to try summoning first. After some thought, Max decided to try bringing Gantry Pliss to Earth.


    He didn''t flare his mana at max power all right away. From experience, he knew he could coax a little bit more out if he took it slow, and that''s exactly what he did. Taking his time, Max flexed his mana, running it through his mana channels. When he was at about half capacity, he used every tool at his disposal to supercharge his abilities. Now that he was a four-star mana body in a rich mana environment like Earth, with a mana pill, a mana vault, and every trick he knew, he was able to get up close to six stars of power. The power was almost more than his supernaturally strong body could handle.  He shook like a bicycle doing sixty down a hill.  This level of power wouldn''t last very long, and he''d have a hard time controlling it, but it was amazing that he could actually achieve it now.


    The entire room seemed to waver like it was going through a heat wave as Max unleashed his mana. The scientists, at least some of them, were having a hard time staying upright without nervously stepping back, even though Lance was covering for them with his own power. Then, Max reached out to the bone gate in a way that Saliron whispered in his ear.


    He made contact, syncing his mana with the gate. Then Max gave Saliron partial control of his mana as it ran through the complicated gateways of bone, constructed like mystic logic system, like a 3d magic circle. Being connected like this, he could feel the dark spirit manipulate the mana as it touched the gate in a way that Max couldn''t recognize and wouldn''t have been able to explain with a gun to his head. It was like Saliron was playing the bone gate like an instrument at the same time as caressing it and taking little bites of its essence. It was one of the strangest supernatural experiences Max thought he had witnessed in his life, but he was also starting to have a hard time keeping track.


    The space between the gates suddenly, instantly turned opaque. Instead of being able to see through it to the other side of the lab, now it was pitch black, darker than the darkest night. Saliron whispered in Max¡¯s head, "Reach out to one of your favorite, pet collections of bones and try drawing them through now."


    With an effort of will and a grimace, feeling almost like trying to turn an ocean liner¡¯s rudder with no power steering, Max began imagining the connection and specific resonance that he had with Gantry Pliss. After wearing a bone necklace in the quartet, Gantry had impried the necklace with the aura of his soul, transferring it to Max¡¯s mystic memory, perfectly preserved.


    He reached through the gate, feeling like he was fumbling around in a dark room for a pair of shoes on the floor¡­ but the room was the size of a stadium.  It was agonizingly slow, but finally, Max began feeling a vibration, a similar resonance. He reached out to grab it, but when he did, suddenly his soul and his senses went cold. The feeling was awful, like being stabbed in the face with a million needles, and Max recoiled, yelling. But as he did, the attachment he¡¯d placed on the aura he¡¯d located came with him, jerking back.


    Out of the gate came a solid wave of dark malevolent energy and a few rocks that bounced off the floor of the lab. The energy hit Max like a freight train, and immediately a shield generated by multiple spirits manifested around him. Max''s mana was already at its absolute limit at this point, which offered some protection, but his spirits probably saved his life in that moment. On top of his head, Anansi held his spider legs wide, casting a literal web of power around him.


    The connection with the resonance Max had found was served, and the ominous, harmful energy was instantly cut off.


    Fore a few seconds, he just stood there, happy to still be alive.  Max had weathered the storm, but it gave him chills to know that he''d come so close to his end yet again, only a short time after fighting the Ape King.


    However, he didn¡¯t stay still too long.  Overcome by curiosity and foreboding, he walked forward to see what had come through. When he got closer, with a sinking feeling, he realized that what had come through were not rocks, but pieces of bone.


    Saliron, said Max quietly, mentally. Does this mean what I think it means?


    It does, Contractor, said Saliron. The situation would seem to be an outcome that was not as you¡¯d hoped. I regret your disappointment.


    Max nodded, knowing that was about the most sympathy he was ever going to get from the dark spirit, actually appreciating it greatly because of that.  He turned to Lance then flatly informed his friend, "Gantry Bliss is dead."


    Lance merely nodded, his face impassive. Max was sure that Lance was sad, but he also understood why his friend seemed to be handling it so well.  No only was Lace a true warrior now, but for him, it had been years since he''d seen anybody in the Quartet. Not only that, Max''s group of trainees in the Quartet had become Lance''s friends, but they''d still never been super, super close. Max suspected that Lance¡¯s obvious sadness now was as much about the fact that now, the Earth would have one less powerful protector.


    Max needed a few minutes to shake his own grief off, to get his head back in the game. So he did some light exercises and stretches.  Moving his body helped while he waited for his mystical power to settle and his body to stop feeling like he''d just been thrown under the ice of a winter pond. The scientists looked on with concern but otherwise did not get involved, which Max appreciated. Finally, he felt like he was ready again and called out, "I''m giving it another shot." Lance and all the scientists let him know that they were ready.


    Then Max repeated what he''d just done before. Part of him was terrified, scared that the same thing would happen again. And although he couldn''t deny to himself that this person he was calling this time was probably the most important to him, he steeled himself.  With the voice and the help of Saliron, and the freaky bone gate, Max reached through the universe, through time and space, found Momo''s resonance, and pulled.


    This time it felt different than before. On top of that, Momo''s resonance, or her¡­soul song¡­maybe, actually fought against him for a while before suddenly, immediately, helping him, pulling towards him.  Despite the sudden fight and the stress, he breached easier. Max assumed that she hadn''t realized what was happening at first and fought back, which is exactly what he would have done. He was glad that she was helping him now because he wasn''t sure he would have had the strength to pull her in against her will.


    Suddenly, the bone gate flickered, and just like that, Momo stumbled out before the black expanse between the bones vanished as well.


    Momo looked much as Max remembered her, but with a few changes.  She was still pale, with red eyes, elf-like ears, a heart shaped face, attractive features, and sharp little fangs.  But now, she was wearing battered armor, and her eyes practically glowed with restrained, hair-trigger violence.


    She looked around, confused and wearing a couple of other emotions that Max couldn''t immediately place. Momo didn''t look much older than before, if at all.  However, even in the second that Max actually got to study her before she began running at him, he could see the scars that the last few years had left on her soul. Then, suddenly, Momo threw herself at him. Max reflexively caught her around the shoulders and the waist as she clung to him and buried her face in his shoulder..


    "I was beginning to lose hope," she murmured. "Don''t ever go away again."


    Max wasn''t sure how to react at first, and the situation wasn''t helped when one of the scientists, Max, whooped and said, "You go, other Max!"


    Rissa murmured, "Shut up, didn''t you see those videos of what he did to the Ape King?"


    Max tuned them out, pulling away from Momo to look into her red eyes and said, "Hello, you."


    "Hello, you," she said back, and she smiled. There was real pain under the expression and melancholy, but in real time, as Max watched, joy grew on her face, similar to the way a sunrise lights up the sky.


    "You were just in time," she said softly. "Maybe not as down to the wire as you described ¡®movies¡¯ back in the Quartet, but my world was about to end in a few more months. In another year, I might be the last of my kind."


    Max blinked, not sure how to respond to that. "I''m sorry," he said. And as he did, he let his tone convey that he remembered what a complicated relationship Momo had with her race. Somewhat contrary to his expectations, a look of brief but total heartbreak crossed her face like a cloud.


    "So am I," she said.

 Book 3, ch 37

    "Are you sure that Gantry is dead?" asked Momo.


    Max glumly nodded. "I''m pretty darn sure."


    Momo held a mug of cocoa, one hand fiddling with the bottom of it.  "That¡¯s¡­really surprising. Of all of us, I thought that he and you would be the most likely to survive."


    Max didn''t know what to say. In fact, his heart felt like a bowling ball in his chest. It was obvious that Momo was melancholy, but for her, it had been years since she¡¯d seen Gantry.  For Max, it hadn''t even been two months. Thankfully, his spirits were being silent and giving him privacy, or at least the illusion of it, the same as Lance currently was, leaving him alone with Momo.


    After first fetching some drinks, now Max and Momo had a conference room to themselves to catch up. So far, after the first burst of emotion at their reunion, it had been a slow-going sort of thing. A large part of it, Max could sense, was that Momo had been through so much, and she seemed to constantly be wondering what to actually tell him and what not to. Finally, after a little bit more small talk, she just blurted, "My world is almost dead. If I stayed there another two months or so, I would probably not be here to talk to you."


    "You mentioned some of that before. What happened?" asked Max.


    Momo smiled without humor and took a sip of her cocoa. "What it really kind of comes down to is bad leadership, rigid thinking, and the very nature of my world, Oas Panchia."


    "What do you mean?"


    "Well," she said and paused, seeming to search for the words for a few moments.  "I told you before that my people, the Neusapiens, are an underground race, right? Or at least for the most part, forced into it.  Anyway, because of that, we had good places within Oas Panchia to choke the monsters off, to create defensive emplacements. The problem is that the monsters could concentrate all of their efforts on those areas too, putting constant pressure on us.  Everything was going okay, despite our relatively low populations, because we only really had to defend a few key areas.  But then there was a monster leader that figured out how to burrow through rock. After that, it was all kind of downhill."


    "So they attacked your flanks, huh?" Max asked.


    She nodded. "The front line ended up not being the front line anymore. We were being attacked at the rear, invaded. But we couldn''t give up the front line either because that was where the bulk of the enemy forces still were. We only ended up staying alive as long as we did because of me and Challengers like me who are stronger than average and could act as a quick reaction force."


    Max examined her with his manasenses and was proud to see that she was at least an A-rate adventurer by Earth standards, merely by the strength of her mana swordsman power. She might even be a low S-tier. But when he activated his third eye to look at her and saw the sheer number of spirits that she was bonded with now, he was doubly impressed. What''s more, being a four-star mana body now, Max''s third eye was stronger¨Cit actually showed him more information.


    As he looked at Momo, witnessing the unfiltered truth, seeing all the spirits entwining her essence, he felt strange that it didn¡¯t feel strange.  Just a few months ago, Max was pretty sure the experience would have unsettled him. However, after bonding with Saliron and Anansi, his spirit had gotten tougher.


    With his strengthened third eye, Max could actually identify what some of Momo''s spirits could do. He realized, with surprise, that she had one relatively high-level spirit that let her short-range teleport through shadow.  She had a spirit that would let her multiply any projectile she threw, creating illusions that hit with physical force. Yet another increased the piercing power of her projectiles. It didn''t take a genius to understand that Momo had found a number of spirits to help synergize with her throwing knives. Max could see that even after these years, she still wore the weapons that he¡¯d bought for her in the Quartet. In fact, as she spoke, she touched them from time to time in what seemed like some form of comfort.


    "What about the mismanagement?" asked Max.


    Momo scoffed. "Our generals were used to fighting other Neusapiens. Against the monsters, their tactics were terrible. And on top of that, they refused to change or change their thinking. They absolutely refused to admit that the tactics they''d learned over their entire lives, which were very effective against others of our race, were all but useless against monsters the size of a house. The pride, all of it, killed¡­so many of my people.¡±


    Max nodded. "There has been a little bit of that on Earth too, but not that bad, at least not in North America. Even though the United States, my country, has lost a lot of land, far more than most other countries actually, the U.S. still had a very large military and had been able to get their act together by the skin of their teeth.  But I still want to hear your story.¡±


    She nodded.  "Alright. Anyway, for about a year that I was back, I was too junior to directly challenge the stupid decisions we were being given, and by the time I was both powerful enough and people would listen to me, it was already too late. And what¡¯s worse, by that time, after protecting my people, fighting with them, working with other Challengers, I¡¯d buried a lot of my resentment. It¡­it hurt, badly, to see my entire world ground down to the bone."


    Max was quiet for a while, digesting what Momo had just told him. Even though it fell far short of what he felt like he ought to be doing or saying, he said, "I''m so sorry, Momo."


    She nodded, but then looked up, her eyes bright despite the unshed tears in them. "But you called me," she said, stating a fact.  ¡°Pulled me to you.¡±


    "That''s right," said Max.


    Momo gave a shuddering breath. "I guess it worked out for the best because if you called me right away, I think I might have had regrets. Even though I didn''t like my world or many of my people before, like I said, I started feeling patriotic and more¡­more angry as I witnessed innocents fall. But finally, eventually, I just had to face the truth that there wasn''t anything I could do by myself, and the idiots running my world had already driven it into the ground."


    "So what''s going to happen to your people now?" asked Max, and winced as he spoke, knowing it probably wasn''t the most sensitive question to ask in the moment.


    But Momo didn¡¯t flinch.  "I maybe one of the the last of my kind.  In fact, I probably will be, soon.  So I suppose I need to find a male to mate with that I can have children with. As we know from the Quartet and most interspecies relationships that actually produce children, the child is either a mule or the same species as the mother. I suppose I just need to hope for the latter.  If not, I guess the Neusapian species have ended our run."


    Stolen novel; please report.


    There wasn''t much Max could say to that other than what he knew she wanted to hear from him, and he wasn''t ready to give that yet. It was more than obvious, even understandable, given her interest in him before, and after crossing who knew how many light-years of time and space to be here from a dying world. But then again, the fact that her world had been dying for the last few months, and Momo had been in such a dark space, also made it a good idea to wait, even if Max thought it was a good match.  And he was still not sure.


    He could sense that if he got involved with Momo, there would be no slow dating to something serious.  Momo was not human, and she could be intense.


    "What about you?" asked Momo. "How has your life been on this, on your world?"


    Then for the next hour, Max filled Momo in on everything he''d been doing since he got back to Earth, closing out the flood of information by pulling out his phone and showing Momo a video of himself fighting the Ape King. By the end, her eyes were wide.


    She chuckled.  ¡°You really never change.  "It hasn''t been much time for you, but you''ve sure been busy, huh?"


    Max nodded. "I definitely have, been busy that is."


    "So what''s the plan now?"


    He frowned, his eyes distant, and said, "Now that I have a little bit of a break, I want to learn about all the knives that I got from Adjudicator Swan. Anansi can probably tell me about a lot of them."


    "Anansi is your divine remnant, right?" said Momo, the words unfamiliar to her, halting.


    "That''s right. And you have no idea how badly he wants to come out and scare you."


    "Scare me?" Momo made a face. "Didn''t you say he looks like a spider? I¡¯m not scared of spiders, especially after fighting monsters in a dying world. How would he scare me?"


    Max groaned. "I¡¯ve been telling him to calm down and stay in my soul.  But now he¡¯s asking me, no, demanding that I ask you this: Are you giving permission for Anansi to come out?¡±  Max paused. ¡°You have no idea how much he''s yelling in my head right now that he wants to. I really suggestion you just ignore him."


    Momo''s expression was confused, but she nodded. ¡°I¡¯ve never seen a divine remnant, never even knew that they existed.  If he wants to come out and my opinion matters, then the answer is yes. That¡¯s fine.¡±


    "Fine, just remember later that I tried to prevent this."


    Then, instantly, Anansi manifested on the table. Instead of his normal size, his spider body was larger, huge, and his human-shaped head was the same size as a human''s. A strange sense of discordance and jarring power filled the room, too. The appearance was disturbing, horrific. On top of that, the remnant''s aura suddenly burst out, stronger than Anansi had ever flexed it before.


    Max was completely unaffected, shielded by his own power, by other strong spirits and by Trill. On top of that, he was contracted with Anansi to begin with.


    Momo did not fare so well.  Despite her own powerful spirits, Momo had limited protections, and she bolted back from the table, screaming. In a split second, she was throwing her knives, making them split in midair. The weapons howled as they slashed across the space between her and the table, passing directly the spider god¡¯s remnant.


    Max could feel that it wasn''t only Momo who had been startled or frightened. All around the area, in that section of the Patriot Guild building, powers were flaring as the nearby Challengers embraced their abilities, no doubt startled or even afraid of an attack.  Max groaned, "Anansi, why are you being such a showoff asshole?"


    Anansi turned his head one hundred eighty degrees back to look at Max and grinned. "You only get one chance to make a first impression, right?" He turned back to Momo. "Hello, pretty female, are you going to be my contractor''s mate?"


    Momo looked like she was already getting herself black under control.  And even in the midst of coming down from her immediate fight response to terror, Momo still managed a small smile. "His mate? Hoping so," she said. "And, if I''m being honest, I think it''s only a matter of time."


    Anansi laughed, his guffaws so loud they rattled the door. "I like this one, Maxie," he said. "She''s got spirit."


    Max growled, "Don''t call me that. Only my mom calls me that."


    "No, your mom and I call you that now.  Maxie."


    Suddenly, Lavinia manifested visually to one side and said, "Anansi, you¡¯re being a dick right now, and you know it!"


    "Oh my," said the spider god remnant, his voice dangerous. "Are we such good friends now that you can address me like that?"


    Lavinia was not cowed in the slightest, and very levelly she responded, "Yes, that''s correct. We are friends now, and I''m telling you that you''re being a dick."


    Anansi moved one of his freakishly huge spider legs to his spider chest in mock hurt and said, "Oh my, you wound me, Lavinia!" Then his eyebrows raised a few times, and he crowed, "What are you wearing this time, my dear? Didn''t you know that the emo phase is dead?"


    "Nothing''s dead as long as the music is alive," Lavinia said reflexively. She put her hand onto her band t-shirt, cut raggedly, high enough to show her belly button, above a poofy skirt, her pantyhose slashed, her sneakers brightly colored.


    Anansi laughed again. "You look like My Chemical Romance threw up. And then you decided to wear it."


    Max groaned as yet another spirit manifested in the corner, this one tall, dark, and utterly disturbing. Then Saliron¡¯s awful, ancient voice rang out, booming loud,  audible to everyone.  "Great One, I must protest. In my opinion, the emo phase in this world¡¯s history was not so bad. I  greatly prefer what the humans call ¡®Metal¡¯, but I can still hear the symphony and beauty of breaking bones in what is called ¡®emo music.¡¯"


    ¡°How the hell does he hear breaking bones in that!?¡± Max whispered to himself.


    "Don''t defend me, Saliron," said Lavinia levelly. "You''re not helping."


    "How is it not helping to explain that a style of music in our Contractor¡¯s world is more beautiful because it can reminds one of breaking bones?"


    As Max listened to the bickering, as usual, he wondered if Saliron was actually as socially unaware as he pretended to be, or if everything he did was an elaborate troll. Max still wasn¡¯t even close to sure either way.  He turned his head as he heard a scraping sound, and saw Momo backed up against the door.


    "Max, could you please dismiss your spirits?¡±  Her voice was strained.  ¡°Mine are about to flee."


    Even as she spoke, suddenly, Slick manifested on the table beneath Anansi''s feet and began doing cartwheels. The happy little spirit waved to Lavinia, before waving harder to Momo, then doing a little dance, obviously trying to impress her.


    "Slick can stay," Momo amended.  ¡°It would be great if you could maybe¡­settle the others down, though, Max.  Please?¡±


    "This is unfair!" said Anansi, his voice coming out with what the dead spider god likely thought was great indignation.


    "Yep, it is," said Max. "Sure.  Now get back in my soul.  You knew exactly what you were doing."


    "Fine," said Anansi. But then he turned to Saliron and declared, "Emo music sucks!"


    Saliron chuckled, sounding even more than usual like a growl. "And what music do you prefer, Spider God? What has captured your interest on this world?"


    "Gangster rap," replied Anansi without hesitation.


    "That''s it," muttered Max.  He flexed his will, sucking all the spirits back into his soul space. Before Anansi completely vanished, he managed to give a salute and yell, "Tupac will never die! Bone Thugs-n-Harmony! Representing the¨C" And then finally, just like that, the room was empty of manifested spirits again.


    Momo peeled herself off the door and looked at the wall where her throwing knives had impacted like high-caliber bullets. "I guess I should apologize to Lance later, huh?"


    Max shook his head. "I don''t think so. Lance is more scared of my spirits than your spirits are, I think. And he¡¯s rich.  The wall will be fine." He leaned back in his chair and sighed. "Anyway, to finish out our conversation from earlier, my plan is to find out what all my different color knives do, and then I''m going to take on some requests to kill some boss monsters around the planet, but especially in North America to start with.."


    ¡°Oh, that makes sense.¡±  Suddenly, looking uncharacteristically shy, Momo asked, "Can I come with you?"


    Max gave her an incredulous look. "If you''re willing to, of course you can."


    She smiled at him, and in the back of Max''s head, he heard Lavinia humming in approval.

 Book 3, ch 38

    Max was really beginning to think of his training warehouse as his home.  The smells, the silence, the utilitarian space, it all suited him.  He especially liked how he could so easily transition from research to training.


    In his living area, he checked his messages on his laptop. The admins that Chad and Lance had assigned to him were both doing their jobs, going through all the potential boss monsters he could target to maximize his time.


    But at the moment, he felt he needed to solve an important mystery first.  He snorted.  It wasn¡¯t actually a mystery, just knowledge he hadn¡¯t made time for yet.


    He walked out to the middle of the concrete training area.  Then Max placed all five daggers, ral¡¯tek,  he had taken from Adjudicator Swan''s body on the ground in a row. He stood and observed them for a while, slightly shaking his head. Even now, as a four-star mana body blade sorcerer, he couldn''t truly understand what they were or how powerful they might be, at least not by looking at them.. The only sensation he felt while looking at them was a low-level feeling of unease.


    Opening his third eye to look at them was out of the question. He¡¯d learned that lesson the hard way and would never forget.


    Max pulled a folding chair from the corner of the warehouse and set it down in front of the five ral¡¯tek. Finally, he said out loud, "Anansi, I know you''re probably watching this. I would appreciate it if you could manifest physically for me so we can have a proper conversation about these¡­things."


    Almost immediately, the divine remnant appeared to one side. This time, Anansi¡¯s spider body was about the size of a small dog, and his expression on his human-ish face was mildly amused, his eyes sparkling as he smirked at Max. Then, before speaking, Anansi slowly rose into the air. At first, Max thought he was floating, but then he saw the almost invisible series of spider threads leading from the divine remnant''s spirit up to the ceiling.


    "About time.¡±


    Max frowned at the showmanship and asked, "Can you not actually hover? Or rather, why do you need physical threads in order to float?"


    Anansi shook his head. "No, I have mass right now. See?" He hopped onto Max''s leg, and immediately, in addition to an absolute piercing cold sensation, Max could feel weight. It wasn''t as much as Anansi would weigh in his current form if he were truly physical, but it wasn''t insignificant either.


    "Just like Lavinia or her subordinate spirits, when I manifest physically, I have to use ectoplasm for it. Lavinia and I both use very, very small amounts to manifest compared to her spirits, but it''s still not enough to allow for floating up through the air willy-nilly."


    "But what about going through walls? Can you still do that when you''re physically manifested?"


    "Sort of," said Anansi. "Not all spirits can, it sort of depends. Of course, I can because I am powerful and awesome. But if I do, I¡¯d leave my ectoplasm on one side of the wall and form it anew on the other side. This is one of the many reasons¨Ceven past wasting energy¨Cthat most spirits don''t like to form physical, ectoplasm bodies unless we have to. Even though the ectoplasm doesn''t hang around long in the physical world, it still allows those in-the-know to track us or notice our presence. If someone is skilled or sensitive enough, they can figure out things about us based on the ectoplasm we generate, too.  It¡¯s like a spirit¡¯s fingerprint."


    Max nodded slowly. "Okay, I got it. Thank you for the explanation. Now I could use another one; explanation, that is. What the hell are these things?" He pointed at the daggers on the ground.


    Anansi chuckled and said, "I was seriously beginning to wonder when you were going to ask me about the ral¡¯tek. It''s been a while."


    "Yeah, well, I had a lot of things on my mind," Max scratched the back of his head. "I''ve also been training and fighting monsters and summoning friends. You know how it is."


    The divine remnant rolled his eyes.  "Very cool, Max. So funny. Very droll," said Anansi, acting scandalized.


    "I can do sarcasm too," said Max. He lifted an eyebrow. "Are you surprised?"


    "No," said the dead spider god. "Even a dog can pretend to do things humans do, but they won¡¯t really understand it.  So¡­the fact you tried? No, that is not impressive. I''m only amazed by how poorly you do it. Please don''t try again. Leave it to the masters." Anansi rubbed his pedipalps together, which was an extremely strange-looking thing to see, since his fangs were on the front of his spider body¡­despite the lack of a head. It was something Max hadn''t really noticed before. It was something he could have probably gone the rest of his life without studying.


    He coughed, and Instead of saying anything about Anansi''s very obvious teasing and provocation, Max said, "Okay, so I know that the black ral¡¯tel will kill somebody in the Quartet for good, and I know that the white one sends a student back to their world. What about the others? Red, blue, and the purple that you came out of?"


    Anansi shook his head and did a strange sideways shuffle with his spider body that was a bit disconcerting. "Your understanding of what the ral¡¯tek can do is inherently flawed. These are not tools merely of the Quartet. They can have different functions sometimes in a Quartet, though. In fact, they may have even more functions I am not even aware of, but in general, outside of the Quartet, the white ral¡¯tek destroys or dismisses summons and temporary states of being. The actual theory and methodology can get fairly complex from an arcane perspective, but the white ral¡¯tek does not just send students back from the Quartet; it would also theoretically disperse my essence if I were physically manifested and I were stabbed with it. And of course, it wouldn''t kill me, but it would make it very difficult for me to manifest again for a while.  The effect would be stronger on weaker spirits.  Also, theoretically, it could also be used to affect me, or another spirit even if we were not manifested, but I''m not entirely sure how that would work in practice.


    "The black ral¡¯tek does not only kill in the Quartet. Theoretically, it can kill anything, anywhere. But the more powerful the being in the real world, the longer the blade would have to stay lodged in the body or be connected somehow to the entity you¡¯ve marked for death. My understanding is that adjudicators outside the Quartet most often use a black ral¡¯tek as a finishing weapon.  Apparently, it works well against creatures that regenerate or can move their soul into different bodies. If you get killed with the black dagger, that''s it. Lights out.  It¡¯ll even work on a lich." Anansi drew one end of his spider limbs across his thick human neck.


    Then he pointed at the blue ral¡¯tek. "The blue one is administrative," he explained. "The way Adjudicator Swan usually used it was to plant it into the ground and create a magical console linking to the General Quartet system or to pull up information."


    Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    "Wait a second," said Max, holding up a hand. "I thought all these things were stabbed into people, or constructs or spirits.  Like, I thought they were all weapons."


    "I never said that," Anansi sounded a bit smug, which was irritating, but Max kept a blank face. "If anything, I would say that the ral¡¯tek are meant to interface with ¡®various entities,¡¯ and from a mystical perspective, each Quartet or world is an entity. Since it''s easy to find the surface of the entity, in this case for your world¨Cthe ground¨Cstabbing the ral¡¯tek into it means that you are interfacing with that entity."


    "So it was like an admin system that Swan called up?" asked Max.


    "That''s probably a good way to put it," said Anansi. "I''m not sure what she did to access it, though, and I was kind of mostly¡­asleep until I met you, so I can''t really give you much information past that."


    Max nodded.  He said, ¡°Understandable.¡±


    Then Anansia moved, stopping above the red dagger.  He pointed.  "The red ral¡¯tek is a little more mysterious to me. I''ve only seen Adjudicator Swan use it one time, and it was to lock down the area so that a Challenger couldn''t teleport away."


    Max blinked at that. "So it''s like a spatial lock or something? How did she use it?"


    "The same way as the blue one," Anansi explained. "She stuck it into the ground, and it created a dome of sorts that spread out before disappearing. I think the effect stayed in place as long as the dagger was planted."


    Max slowly nodded. "Okay, so it''s some sort of suppression tool. And what about the purple one? You should know the most about that, right? Since it''s the one you came out of."


    Anansi laughed. "Yeah, I wish. You ever see your own back?"


    ¡°My back?¡±


    ¡°Yes, you ever look at your own back?¡±


    "I can if I look in a couple mirrors," said Max.


    "Okay, what if there''s no mirror?" Anansi''s voice was grumpy, and he muttered something about his contractor being pedantic.


    Max rolled his eyes. "Okay, I get your point. So while you were in it, so you didn''t really understand it that well. But you must have seen Adjudicator Swan use it before, right?"


    Anansi nodded. "It was actually the adjudicator before the one before Swan who used me. Swan never really needed my ral¡¯tek because of her powers, her Path, I think. But anyway, my dagger, my ral¡¯tek, was used to cut through a barrier before. A very powerful Challenger had enacted an extremely strong barrier, and when the adjudicators came, my ral¡¯tek was shoved into the protection and cut through it like tofu. The ral¡¯tek didn''t destroy the thing, but it did open up a breach, and you can imagine what happened after that."


    "Yeah, dead rebel Challenger, huh?" said Max.


    "Exactly," Anansi grinned. "So, anyway, I think you''re kind of dumb for not asking me about all these things earlier, but on the other hand, I guess I have to admit that knowing about them before this probably wouldn''t have helped you much. And I know you''ve probably asked yourself that question after the giant monkey almost killed you, right?  Like, ¡®If I knew about the weird daggers, would I still have almost gotten flattened by a huge gorilla foot?¡¯"


    Max slowly nodded. "The thought had crossed my mind," he admitted.


    "Yeah, well, don''t sweat it," said Anansi. "It wouldn¡¯t have made a difference.  And I''m really not sure when you''re even going to have a reason to use these things unless you run into more adjudicators, and hopefully that won''t happen for a long time, right?"


    "That is the hope," said Max. He paused before gathering up all of the ral¡¯tek again and putting them into his storage. "Honestly, more than anything, this conversation is just making me feel super weak again."


    "It should," said Anansi, his voice flat. "I''m not one of your little Challenger, Scooby Gang friends on this backwater world. The only reason you are still alive is through sheer happenstance, mad dog tenacity, or winning by the skin of your teeth.  You got very lucky against Adjudicator Swan. Many adjudicators are stronger, or at least at the same level, as the headmasters in the Quartet system. Most of them are stronger. If a few of them came at you at once as you are right now, well, you''re fucked."


    Max grimaced and didn¡¯t directly respond. He was already still training, still working on his five star mana body, but it might take a while for various reasons that had been annoying him.  Instead of thinking more about it, he asked, "How many other colors of ral¡¯tek are there?"


    "I have no idea," admitted Anansi. "But I know what a silver ral¡¯tek does. Swan didn¡¯t carry one, but they were common.¡±


    ¡°Siver?¡±


    ¡°Yes.  The silver ral¡¯tek is used by adjudicators in special roles to send Challengers to a prison system. Just like how you go to the Quartet the first time, and your real body is put in stasis, the silver ral¡¯tek puts the body in stasis and sends the spirit to a penal pocket dimension, like a prison Quartet, and basically strips you of all your gear and a lot of your power too."


    "Oh wow," breathed Max. "So it''s basically the perfect way to arrest somebody before they¡¯re either incarcerated, or the adjudicators torture the fuck out of them or something like that, right?"


    "Probably the latter if we''re being honest about it. If they didn¡¯t need information, or want to punish you further, they¡¯d just kill you.  But I¡¯m sure they¡¯re very good at extracting information. I mean, how do you think they eventually eliminated almost all mention of ancient Summoner abilities in all the Quartets?"


    "Damn. Okay, that makes sense. But if Summoners are so bad and they wanted us neutered so bad, why is there even still a Summoner academy?"


    "Well, I don''t know for sure," said Anansi. "I''m not best friends with whoever is running this shit, Max. We don¡¯t play cards on weekends. But I can guess it''s probably two reasons. One, and this is just a guess, just a theory¡­I don''t think the Quartet system run by Challengers actually has any say or even communication with the messengers that help people find their Path seed.  I don¡¯t think all the adjudicator control freaks can touch or influence the system that allows people to become Challengers in the first place."


    Max nodded slowly. "So if they didn''t have a Summoner academy, they would still end up with Summoner students with nowhere to go, which would make people ask questions, even if they suppressed it, which would be the opposite of what they want, since they don''t want questions, right?"


    "That''s my theory, yes," said Anansi. "The other reason might be because of the spirits themselves. Some spirits can get stronger with time or can cause problems all on their own. Summoners not only have the ability to contract with spirits and effectively make them harmless to others, but they can also directly combat spirits."


    Max raised his eyebrows. "I didn''t know that."


    "Yeah, well, you don¡¯t know a lot of things.  Didn''t you get like the shittiest Summoner education ever? You''re still getting the middle-of-nowhere community college version of Summoning with Lavinia, right? And you haven''t even graduated yet."


    Max made a face. "Anansi, anybody ever tell you you''re an asshole sometimes?"


    The divine remnant grinned. "Anybody ever tell you the same thing, Max?"


    "Shit. Touch¨¦."


    Anansi rose in the air on his almost invisible spectral threads and said, "If either one of us is going to get butt hurt about this back and forth, it should be me. You were just a hero of your world in your past life. I was a god."


    "How powerful of a god were you actually?"


    "Very powerful. Consider this... I''ve been dead a long time, and there are still many, many, many legends of me in many, many worlds. That should tell you something."


    "Maybe it would if I didn''t know you were such a bullshitter," said Max, expression serious.


    "Touch¨¦," Anansi said. The divine remnant lowered himself back down to the ground again and said, "You know, I have to admit, Maxie¡ª"


    "Don''t call me that," said Max.


    "Whatever, Maxie," said Anansi. "Anyway, if I had to be contracted to somebody, I''m glad it was somebody like you."


    Max blinked. "I can''t tell if you''re complimenting me or if this is some sort of really subtle insult."


    Anansi laughed.  "If that''s how you feel, then I suppose I haven''t lost my touch." The divine remnant began to fade away, with only his head, and lastly his mouth remaining remaining visible, floating in the air, like a cartoon of the cheshire cat.


    When he was alone again, Max looked up at the ceiling and sighed. Then out loud, he said, "Why is everybody close to me such a weirdo?"


    He sat still for a moment, thinking about what to do.  Eventually, he decided he didn¡¯t feel like training, and got up, heading for his living area. Then he pulled up the emails on his computer, and sent Momo a text.


    If he didn¡¯t feel like training, he still shouldn¡¯t waste his time.  There were still plenty of boss monsters to kill.

 Book 3, ch 39

    Hey everyone, there are 4 more chapters after this one until the end of this book. Then I''ll be posting the synopsis for the previous book, and starting book 4.


    I''m really sorry for the wait. Honestly, I feel like shit about it. The sun just came out a bit, and it''s like the difference between night and day (no pun intended).


    My goal is to get everything out today, but I might just pass out on my desk. If that happens, the next few chapters will be up tomorrow.


    I''m really sorry again. I hate that this happens every year, and it''s unpredictable.


    This month I was also supposed to post 2 books of Inheritance of the Fallen. That didn''t happen. Sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh


    Trust me, nobody is more annoyed than me, because most of the money I make for the year is in book sales. The fact I let some of you guys down, despite my previous tough talk on the matter, also bothers me.


    Anyway, I''ll stop posting useless stuff now and just paste the chapter so I can start editing the next one...


    But in good news, I''m really happy how the ending turned out. :) It took me three tries.


    -BC


    ------------


    Max stood atop the corpse of a monstrous creature that resembled a giant Komodo dragon. It had a massive scorpion tail and four arms ending in human-looking hands instead of the usual lizard limbs. He looked down at Momo and sighed. "Well, this boss is down. As always, thanks for the assist.¡±


    Momo stood among a pile of dead monsters, all similar, but smaller and weaker creatures as the boss Max had just slain. She saluted with one of her throwing daggers. "All the minions are dead too," she said.


    The two of them were in the middle of a large housing development, where the monster had made its lair. The area was on the border between Canada and the United States.


    Max had been busy so far, killing boss monsters, prioritizing and targeting the least powerful or easiest to kill creatures in North America that would do the most good to kill.  So far, this was number ten. In only a few days, he, Momo, Lance, and members of both the Patriot Guild and the Trifecta Guild had been curb-stomping monsters relentlessly.


    He stretched and remarked, "This one wasn''t even very powerful. Why in the hell did nobody take this one out beforehand?"


    Momo shrugged. "Pretty simple explanation there. This monster was smart enough to keep civilians around, so Challengers couldn''t bomb it from the air. And it was in a really awkward place. I think that this lizard thing had an agreement with the monster we killed yesterday about fifty miles away. Like a truce of some kind."


    "Oh, that''s right," said Max. The briefings were starting to blur together in his mind. It felt like he''d gotten a massive crash course on all the monsters around North America a short while ago, cramming in one night before going out to actually kill the things.


    Luckily, most of the boss monsters were weaker than the Ape King had been, and Max could feel himself growing stronger, too. His abilities were becoming more refined, and he was gaining confidence and experience in using his different talents to synergize with each other. If he had to fight the Ape King all over again, he knew he would do a much better job than before.


    He glanced around, trying to find Lance, and spotted his dusky-skinned friend on top of a distant house, striking a pose for the cameras. Max chuckled and shook his head. He still found the showmanship goofy but understood its importance in this new world.


    While Max didn''t put much importance on image and showmanship, the rest of the world did. Regular people supporting the Challengers was powerful, especially from the perspective of new people becoming Challengers naturally on Earth, learning a skill or talent, and discovering they had the aptitude for it.


    The public loved Lance, and despite all the video and such out now, they still only respected Max.  He didn¡¯t give them the sound bytes or videos they wanted.


    But he didn¡¯t really care about that. Max had a job to do.  He definitely thought about what might happen a year from now, though.


    Eventually, if the monsters were beaten back to just their portals, Earth would have its own decision to make: whether to shut down all the portals completely or farm them like some of the worlds Max had heard about in the Quartet. But if the world shud down all the portals, ended the monster threat for good, humanity would have to decide what to do with itself.  There would be oodles of superpowered soldiers left and nobody to fight.


    But that was a decision for the future for sure. In the present, they all still needed to survive.


    Momo approached Max slowly, surveying the carnage she''d wrought with her throwing knives. One of the distant monsters twitched, and with a flick of her wrist, she sent two of her throwing knives screaming towards the beast, hitting it with enough impact to send it skittering a few feet along the ground, blown into two separate pieces.


    If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    The scene was gnarly, not least of which by how casually she dismembered enemies.


    Max silently whistled. Momo was a very powerful Challenger now, and he felt proud of her. She was close now, and the sweat on her neck actually reminded him of their training time in the Quarted.


    A lot of time had passed for her, and she¡¯d still apparently kept a spark for him.


    On a whim, in the heat of the moment, he suddenly reached out, putting an arm around her narrow waist and pulled her in for a kiss. Her inhuman eyes widened as big as saucers for a split second before they closed, and she melted against him.


    Even as Max kissed her and felt the intensity of her return kiss, he knew he¡¯d just crossed a line. He wouldn''t be able to avoid dealing with Momo''s feelings anymore. And he found himself not really caring. The entire time Max had known Momo, she''d been worthy of respect, and over the last few days, she''d proven that she was one of the only people in the entire world who could keep up with him. To continue ignoring her feelings would not only be foolish, it would be cowardice.


    The cameras overhead, various magical and technological drones, seemed to whir into a frenzy, bumping into each other trying to get the best angles as they recorded Max kissing Momo. He couldn''t turn off the analytical part of his brain as he kissed the pretty Neusapian woman. Max could just guess that somebody somewhere was making a great deal of money from recording what should have been a private moment.


    Ever since Momo had been seen in public, various news sources and independent talking heads had been speculating who and what she was almost non-stop until someone had run an old interview with Lance discussing his Summoner School days.


    At around the same time, a camera had caught audio of Lance calling Momo by name. After that, the public quickly discovered that Momo was one of Max and Lance''s friends from the Summoner Academy. Speculation was currently running rampant about how in the hell she''d come to Earth.


    Max finally broke the kiss, pulled back, and winked at Momo, the gesture obviously being a promise to talk more about everything later. At the moment, he thought it was a good idea to check all the monster bodies first and make sure they were dead.  Some of them, like the one Momo had just killed, needed a little encouragement before shuffling off this mortal coil.


    ¡°Should we split up?¡± asked Momo.


    ¡°Yes.  We can get done faster that way.¡±


    Momo grinned.  ¡°Getting done faster is good.  After all, then we will leave.  And then we will be on a¡­¡± She searched for the term.  ¡°Private jet. Private jets are nice. Maybe¡­things could happen.¡±


    ¡°Maybe¡­things indeed,¡± agreed Max with a grin.  Then they¡¯d both shared a smile and wandered off to check bodies.


    Checking dead bodies wasn¡¯t exactly glamorous, and it wasn¡¯t very pleasant work, but now he had something to look forward to later.  It felt like most of himself was still held back, more from habit than anything. He figured it might take some time to unthaw all the way.  As he pondered this new ground he was metaphorically exploring now, he casually flicked a hand and sent a blade of mana at a monster that was still playing dead, beheading it.


    He rounded a house in the development, moving down one of the streets that he and Momo had just come down a few minutes ago while slaughtering monsters.


    Then, all at once, he felt a premonition and heard Anansi and Lavinia shrieking at the same time in his head. With the experience of a seasoned Blade Sorcerer greater than his years, Max gathered power and defended himself while simultaneously detonating a burst of pure mana in every direction from his body.


    The effort was massively wasteful of his mana resources, but also one of the most effective actions to take while being ambushed.


    At the same time Max acted, Daliko was apparently on top of things too. Ulike max, some of his spirits could see the attack.  Daliko generated an armor plate directly on Max''s body right before he was hit by a burst of powerful crimson magic, stronger than anything he''d experienced so far in this lifetime.


    The blast lifted Max off his feet and threw him through the adjacent house, broken glass and powdered drywall following him in a corona of destruction.


    His inhumanly tough body, protected half-assed as it was, held together through the worst of the concussion and secondary damage from being thrown through a house¡­but only just. In a cloud of dust, everything on his body hurting, Max skidded across the ground and hit a small urban drainage pond with an explosive splash.


    As he lay there stunned under the water, his spirits were already exerting themselves. Lavinia covered his body in armor at the same time as Daliko did the same. A strange bubble of air under a web, no doubt courtesy of Anansi, over his face allowed him to breathe normally.


    Max''s bell was rung, but his warrior instincts kicked in. He erupted from the water with a burst of mana, sending thousands of gallons misting through the air as he rose like a winged specter of hell.


    Another crimson attack lanced towards him, and Max deflected it with a perfectly timed shield of mana, even as he dodges to one side.  The next ball of incendiary, explosive energy struck at him, and using precise aim and control, he flung a mana projectile at it, destroying the enemy spell in midair.


    ¡°He is not going to go down easily,¡± said a voice. ¡°Pity.¡±


    Still somewhat disoriented, Max sprang back, focusing on movement.  Then he saw his attackers and his heart dropped.

 Book 3, ch 40

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    <div>


    Two unfamiliar figures in robes stepped out from behind a house and watched Max from a distance.  He recognized the robes.  These were Quartet people.


    Shit.


    A chill ran down his spine as his instincts screamed that this was a fight he couldn''t win. In fact, if he was assessing these two individuals correctly, they were both as dangerous as he was, if not more so.


    Without hesitation, Max pulled a flare from his belt and ignited it. The green, smoky light rose into the sky. Despite the stress of the situation and the aches in his body from being tossed around like a ragdoll, he breathed a little easier.


    There was no doubt in his mind that the people he faced were adjudicators. Max had anticipated this day for some time and had kept a flare ready since reuniting with his Quartet friends. The agreement they¡¯d made, had promised, was simple: if Max popped the green flare, everyone would run away immediately, no questions asked.


    Hopefully the adjudicators had no quarrel with them as long as they didn¡¯t attack. He had to believe so.


    His friends had returned from the Quartet within the rules of the system, even though Max had sent them back early with a ral¡¯tek.  As such their only crime was being friends with Max. He wasn''t sure if that would be enough to save them if he died, but it was certainly better than the odds of any of them surviving an attack on an adjudicator. Even now, after growing in power, he knew that neither Momo nor Lance had what it took to fight an adjudicator. It wasn''t just about raw power, either; it was about savagery and ruthlessness. Both his friends possessed these traits against monsters, but against people, Max doubted it.


    The standoff continued between Max and the two strangers, one male and one female. The female appeared human, with dyed pink hair¡ªor perhaps it was her natural color; Max couldn''t tell. The male was a gray-green-skinned reptilian humanoid wielding a spear. On some unspoken signal, they both opened and dropped their cloaks, revealing a brace of Ral''tek daggers on their belts.


    Definitely adjudicators. Shit.


    "We''re adjudicators," the woman with pink hair said, unnecessarily.  Then she continued, "And Max Cunningham, you have been very, very bad."


    After a somewhat feeling tickled the back of his neck, Max suddenly turned to the reptilian adjudicator, his eyes wide. The feeling was similar to what he felt when he fought Adjudicator Swan. He blurted, "You''re a Champion!"


    The reptilian adjudicator shrugged. "So what if I am?"


    "Wait. You''re a champion? Since when?" The pink-haired adjudicator turned in surprise.


    The reptilian adjudicator shrugged again. "Since about twenty years ago."


    "Well, damn," said the woman. ¡°Nobody tells me anything.  Even you, it seems.¡±


    The entire time they were talking, Max was quietly preparing for the fight of his life. He deployed spirits within his body, ready to explode outward at a moment''s notice. He also allowed his spirits to strengthen the armor around his body that had been made using a combination of Lavinia''s spirits and Tamiko''s power.


    ¡°Look at all that armor,¡± said the pink haired women.  ¡°Effective looking, too.¡±


    The lizard adjudicator seemed curious in a detached way. "He is awfully powerful," he rumbled. "Fighting will mean that one of us might actually die."


    "Well, we don''t have to fight," said Max. "You guys could just fuck off back to where you came from. Maybe just enjoy the fact you hit me with a ton of power earlier and threw me through a house?"


    As he spoke, he opened his hoodie and swept it back dramatically, revealing his own brace of Ral''tek that he kept on himself. This time, he got a genuine reaction from the adjudicators. Both were obviously shocked.


    "How does he have Ral''tek?" complained the woman.


    "He must have got it from Adjudicator Swan, obviously," the lizard man''s voice was mild, but he seemed to be calculating new odds in his eyes.


    Max didn''t really understand what the response was all about, since he''d been relatively underwhelmed about the Ral''tek after learning about them from Anansi. There were only a few that seemed to have effects that would warrant any sort of respect, especially against a truly motivated Challenger. As he scanned the belts of the two adjudicators facing him, he got a bad feeling as he saw an empty space where daggers were missing.  If their Ral¡¯tek was configured in the same way Swan¡¯s had been, it meant their red Ral''tek daggers were missing, and unfortunately, now he knew what that meant.


    They had likely locked down the area from movement or teleportation abilities working.


    Mas himself didn¡¯t have any teleportation powers, but others in the world did, and he had a feeling that the first thing Lance would do after the green flare, right now, would be to trying to organize a teleporter to grab Max and get him to safety.


    With the red daggers locking down the area, that was no longer going to happen.


    Max drew his sword, Blackmist Incident, and sighed. "Always got to be doing shit the hard way," he muttered.


    The pink haired woman overheard him.  "Not really."  She gestured, and suddenly two huge giants made of scarlet arcane energy manifested to either side of her, crackling with power and potential.


    Each giant was twenty feet tall, misshapen, and had eyes that burned coal-black.  Both of the constructs  were roughly shaped like enormous, humanoid monsters. They were abominations, but didn¡¯t have demonic energy.  Instead, it felt like both giants had been pulled in our reality from a place where these things were common.


    At the same time as the giants appeared, similar colored energy covered the woman¡¯s hands, and she pointed at Max, ready to strike. The two giants spread out to either side as the reptile man gestured, and skeletons began crawling from the ground. All over the housing development, the dead rose again.  There were dozens of them.


    Skeletons and half-corporeal images of death made mounds before pulling themselves from the earth, moving in disturbing, jerky cadences.


    Then the reptile man pointed at a few of the skeletons individually, and when he did, they were surrounded by a cloud of darkness and underwent a transformation, coming back with glowing eye sockets and holding bony staffs.


    "Oh, shit," muttered Max.


    "Indeed. Oh, shit indeed," said the woman. "But the worst thing is, you truly never had a chance to begin with."


    Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    Max frowned. He hadn''t sense any openings or good times or ways to attack at all, but just standing around all day wasn''t a good way to survive much of anything. He decided to try creating his own opening. He sensed that going after the adjudicators directly wasn''t a good idea. He slashed his sword, sending a truly nasty mana energy attack at one of the big scarlet giants, but the construct held out a hand, easily blocking the arc of magical power. Then the glowing giant held out its other hand, the other giant following the gesture, and suddenly, there was a barrage of small scarlet projectiles from the giants, similar to machine guns.


    As the giants delivered dozens, hundreds of lethal little energy orbs, Max took off, jumping up and using his wings to make micro adjustments in the air.  Shield walls of power, created at just the right moment and at the right angle, allowed him to deflect most of the arcane barrage he was under.  The monsters¡¯ attacks and blasts ended up destroying surrounding houses, but not Max. He survived by a hair.


    When he hovered in the air after that first barrage, he watched everything going on around him warily. The fact these two adjudicators were not even taking him very seriously, and just casually creating their own armies was adding insult to injury.


    ¡°Are you sure we can¡¯t just hug this out!?¡± Max knew it was hopeless, but even as he dodged another blistering set of rapid fire energy attacks from the giants, he delivered a slash at the pink-haired woman. A screen of energy manifested between the two giants, blocking it, and Max tsked. He¡¯d expected powerful defenses like that for an adjudicator.  But then suddenly, almost at the last moment, even as the skeletons raised their weapons to deliver green, sickly energy at Max, he felt another glimmer. The feeling was in the back of his neck; it was faint, and given the stress of the situation, he almost ignored it. However, there was no reason that he should be feeling such a thing, either.


    He trusted his gut and his senses.


    Max spun in place, delivering a savage mana-infused, hacking cut behind him with Blackmist Incidence. At the same time, popping out nowhere, a man in black clothing appeared behind him; some sort of powerful assassin or stealth Path, no doubt. Max''s shock was so strong, and his adrenaline so high, he didn¡¯t even question was his senses were telling him.  The man''s hand was outstretched, and to Max''s horror, he saw a...tunnel..burrow through all of his mana and ectoplasmic armor. The disruptions wasn''t an attack, and didn''t do any damage, but at the same time, the man thrust with the blade.


    The man was holding a silver ral¡¯tek.  It was a kind that Max had only ever heard about, never seen in person.


    Max''s cut with Blackmist Incident landed at the same time the Ral''tek did, planted in his chest. Unfortunately, would ambusher had some sort of bracer on his arm that blocked the majority of Max¡¯s attack. As a result, the attacker only lost a hand, not his neck.. Meanwhile, the Ral''tek was buried in Max''s chest.


    He looked down in horror, and part of his mind was equally astonished that he felt no pain. The pink-haired woman said, "It was nice knowing you, Max Cunningham. We didn''t come here to kill you. We came here to send you back for interrogation. Goodbye."


    Max lurched forward, grabbing the clothing of the startled, wounded adjudicator who had stabbed him¡ªanother Champion. The man''s eyes widened in shock and confusion as Max held on. Meanwhile, he felt energy stirring around him with the force of a hurricane.


    "Wait. Why is he not gone yet?" asked the woman. "And why is Hodges just hovering there?"


    Max could feel a few strange sensations at once, energies pulling him in at least three different directions. Two of the ¡°directions¡± felt bad with a capital ¡°B,¡± so instead of entertaining them, he threw his power and his soul into heading for the third option.  The last "direction" did not give of the same sense of doom as the others.  From what he could feel, there was complete darkness, but still not..."bad"...not inevitable death.


    When his spirits felt what he was doing, they added to his effort, and even as he flexed, putting a lifetime of energy  into resisting the other two directions, Max realized what might have happened.


    He couldn¡¯t pull the dagger, the ral¡¯tek from his chest, and with his hand on the handle, his other hand on his attacker, he intuited that his suspicions were probably correct.  Instinct guided him now, including his assumptions.


    He already knew the silver ral''tek was meant to operate similarly to a white one, but in reverse. A white ral''tek sent students in a Quartet back to earth, destroying a spiritually-made body and returning a Challenger''s soul to their physical body. But the silver ral''tek, this one, was meant to make the person''s spirit leave their physical body and go to a prison dimension.


    For interrogation, apparently. Or other bad things.


    But something had gone wrong for the adjudicators.  After all, Max was still in his Quartet body. He wasn''t technically flesh and blood, so¡­the ral¡¯tek''s dagger.exe was malfunctioning.


    Power, several different kinds, swirled around the area in a maelstrom, like Max was a stick jutting up from the water, sticking out of the middle of a rapids.


    Whatever Max was doing with the help of his spirit seemed to work, especially once Anansi threw his weight into it. He moved ¡°away¡± from the two directions that felt like death¡­or worse.  Suddenly, a portal, a gaping black, terrifying thing, opened in the world, bigger than a house. It sucked Max and his would-be ambusher into it, and the last thing he heard before the portal closed was the pink-haired woman screaming, "What is that!? What''s happening!?"


    ***


    There was a transition period after that, a time that Max couldn''t recall afterward and really had no desire to.


    ***


    When genuine, conscious thought came back, he found himself drifting in¡­nothingness. At first, he wondered what happened to the other Champion, the adjudicator who''d attacked him, but then he spotted a cloud of dust and a few ral''tek in the distance, tumbling end over end, heading slowly away from him in the infinite darkness, probably for eternity.


    However, the ral''tek that had sent him here, the silver one, Max had in his hand. He stared at it.


    The sequence of events unraveled in his addled mind.  He¡¯d pulled the dagger out of his body at some point and hadn''t let go.


    ¡°What the fuck is going on?¡± he croaked.  As he spoke, his lungs didn¡¯t fill with air, and the sensation was utterly bizarre.  It was like he was speaking, but not speaking at the same time.


    In his mind, he heard a slow whistle, and then Anansi said, Hey kid, I think the only reason you still exist is because you don''t really exist.


    "Thanks," said Max. "That clears everything up. Perfect."


    You''re welcome. And hey kid, added Anansi. Guess what?


    "Yes?" said Max.


    It''s probably also a good thing you have that Quarted body and don''t need any food or water to survive because I don''t think you''re going anywhere anytime soon.


    "Similar thoughts had occurred to me," said Max sarcastically.


    Anansi chuckled. Look, just making sure, just helping out. But there''s a bright side to every cloud, you know. A silver lining to every story.


    "Okay, what''s the positive side to all of this?" asked Max, his voice flat. "Please educate me on what the silver lining is here, I mean other than the fact I¡¯m not captured¡­or dead yet¡­I think."


    Anansi chuckled. Well, if we''re going to spend a lot of time together and you don''t have anything to do, that means you can listen to me freestyle and give me some constructive feedback!


    Max was silent for a few moments before he asked, "Can somebody please tell me what he''s talking about?"


    Lavinia''s voice was quiet in his mind, worried and annoyed sounding as she said, I think Anansi is telling us he¡¯s intending to try freestyle rapping at us¡­for a long time.


    Voice smug and confident, Anansi delivered, It¡¯s all about the mom¡¯s spaghetti.  I¡¯m ready to go to war, like a whore. Make it heavy. A spider¡¯s got eight legs, but don¡¯t be scared, I¡¯m a trickster, gotta be prepared, dig?  For real for real.  No cap.¡±  The divine remnant fake-coughed in Max¡¯s mind and asked, ¡°What did you think? Was it fire?¡±


    Max was still as the grave for a moment before somehow sucking in nothingness and shouting, "No!!!"

 Book 3, ch 41

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    As Max floated in nothingness, he had a lot of time to reflect on his life, lives, both of them.


    According to Saliron, who had a good sense of these things, time didn¡¯t flow correctly in this place.  It sort of didn¡¯t flow at all, but that couldn''t be entirely true, because Max wasn¡¯t constantly being layered upon himself.  This wasn''t some sort of quantum entanglement dimension...at least he hoped not. At first, he¡¯d had a terrible headache and felt extreme nausea, but it had gone away in what he thought was around two days.


    Wherever he was, flesh and blood living people could not survive here. The spirits were not alive, but neither was Max¡­technically.  If he had been, and was still a flesh and blood being, he would have been destroyed as quickly as the adjudicator who¡¯d ambushed him.


    Now time itself was not a concern. And luckily, he was never too bored.


    Being outside of time would have been an unimaginable experience if not for all the things Max had to ponder and practice. On top of that, with his spirits in his head, he had plenty of people to talk to¡­whether he wanted to or not sometimes.


    Max wasn''t sure how long he''d been drifting in the void, but he was absolutely sure that it would have driven him insane, if not just killed him, if not for some of his natural advantages.


    For one, he didn''t actually need to eat or drink. Having a Quartet body meant that Max could indefinitely sustain himself with nothing. He¡¯d realized pretty quickly that he didn''t even actually need air. It was a little uncomfortable not being able to truly breathe, but he soon got used to it.


    He felt low level hungry and thirsty all the time, but not too unbearable.


    And, of course, the other advantage he had was all his spirits. As best as he could figure it, several years into his drifting, he''d truly heard Saliron¡¯s story about an elephant bone graveyard way too many times.


    "Saliron, nobody cares about the field of elephant bones. Stop telling the story," he said.


    "I have to agree," said Lavinia. "Even though you try putting variations on it, either intentionally or not, it''s really not that interesting of a story in the first place. Saliron, you saw a television show about the elephant bone graveyard, and you''ve made our contractor promise to take you back to Earth so you can see it, if you can help him return or contribute in any way. We¡¯ve covered this at least several hundred times now. Has anything changed?"


    The dark spirit evenly answered, "No, but the bones are calling me, and sometimes we must speak of the bones so the bones know that our thoughts are with them."


    "What the heck does that even mean?" asked Max.


    A text screen from Slick popped up. [I don¡¯t think he knows either] it read.


    Anansi spoke up, saying, "You know, this is why we''ve been drifting so long."


    "Oh really? And why is that?" asked Max for about the ten thousandth time.


    In an annoyed voice, like he''d taken offense all over again, Anansi complained, "It''s because you are all, all of you,  doing everything but trying to find a way out of here. Did I ever give up on living again after being killed?"


    "No, you didn''t," Max sighed.


    Anansi appeared to Max''s vision and kept speaking, going off on a rant. The dead spider god stalked around the empty space like there were platforms to walk on everywhere.


    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    Lavinia suddenly appeared to Max''s vision behind the divine remnant and flapped her thumb and fingers like a puppet hand, matching everything Anansi was saying.  They¡¯d heard his ramblings so many times sat this point, she knew what he was going to say before he said it¨Cthey all did.


    Max became aware that Anansi was about to ask another question.  He really had heard this a lot.


    "And did I give up after I was cut into multiple pieces and put in raggedy-ass knives?"


    "No, you didn''t," said Max.


    Anansi began passionately ranting again about his trials and tribulations. It went on a while, and Max was content to just let the dead god wear himself out a bit.  After all, they had plenty of time.


    Finally, there was a pause and Max could get a word in edgewise.  "Stop complaining, Anansi.  I''m pretty sure that we''ve been over all the possible things we could do in this place, though. I mean, I can definitely work with you all much better now, but that doesn''t exactly help us escape, now does it?"


    "There''s still the ral¡¯tek," said Lavinia.


    Max shook his head. "Those were some of the first things we used, trying to get out of here."


    Lavinia didn¡¯t back down. "Have we truly explored every option? It''s not every day we get priceless artifacts from the Quartet to to learn about, or to destroy and study, or cannibalize."


    "That''s exactly my worry, though," said Max for about the thousandth time. "If I mess around with a ral¡¯tek and break it, I might destroy our only chance of getting back."


    Lavinia said, "And has anything else you''ve tried so far worked?"


    "No."


    ¡°Well, then give it another shot.  What have you got to lose?¡±


    Max grimaced.  He couldn¡¯t deny the logic, especially when the black ral¡¯tek had been looking more and more interesting.  He didn¡¯t mind spending a long time in limbo with his spirits, but not forever.  If he couldn¡¯t get out, then maybe he would have had to consider something more permanent.


    Finally, his breakthrough came about almost by accident.  He was waving around two of the ral¡¯tek in the void, trying to see if he could make something happen by shaking them, when something unexpected happened.


    The two ral''tek hit each other.


    The resulting force blew him away in one direction with great violence, but never actually hurt him.  ¡°What the heck was that!?¡±


    Lavinia was equally as confused and excited


    Eventually he was able to recreate the phenomena, and discovered that he could actually generate effects by hitting two ral¡¯tek together hard enough.


    From here, it took a few months, or maybe a few years, it was hard to tell, as he and Lavina did simple experiments, leading up to bigger experiments.


    Finally, on a very important day, or time, or moment in time, he floated as usual, but was screwing up his resolve to do something drastic.


    Saliron chuckled.  ¡°To think I can see the bones again!¡±


    Lavinia politely said, ¡°Saliron, can you please let us focus. You¡¯re going to ruin our luck.¡±


    ¡°There is no such thing as luck, only bones.¡±


    Max ignored Saliron and said, ¡°You ready, Lavinia?¡±


    ¡°As ready as I¡¯ll ever be.  I mean...this could save us, or could annihilate us.  And¡­it likely wouldn¡¯t work anywhere else in the universe.  So...all we can do is roll the dice.  This might end up sending us to the middle of the void in space somewhere, or even back to earth, or to hell.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a Hail Mary,¡± said Max,


    ¡°Sure, whatever,¡± replied Lavinia.


    ¡°Want to take a little bit before we give it a go?¡± asked Max gently.


    ¡°No.  There isn¡¯t any use in waiting.  We don¡¯t know for sure what will happened, but the longer you take to do this, the less connection any of us will have with the real world, and the less chance we¡¯ll make it back.¡±


    ¡°Alright, you sold me.¡± Max could feel his power uncurl a bit, and without waiting any longer, he hit the red ral¡¯tek against the black ral¡¯rek. Then he put the black one away, and hit the purple one with the red one. Then he put away the red ral-tek and hit the black and purple one together.  Last, he sliced through the air with the purple ral-tek, created a wound on the fabric of the universe.  It was just a big, gaping wound, but Max dove towards it.


    ¡°I hope we aren¡¯t destroyed!¡± shouted Lavinia.


    ¡°Me too!¡± yelled Max.


    Anansi whooped. ¡°This is fun!  It makes you feel alive, even when you¡¯re already dead!¡±


    Then Max and his spirits were sucked through the rip in reality before it closed again, and the void¡¯s silent, eternal peace was restored.

 Book 3, ch 42

    He laid at the ground staring at the sky for a while, just taking it in.  Tears leaked from his eyes.  He¡¯d never seen anything so beautiful.


    Staring at the nothingness of the abyss for so long had left a mark on him.  In fact, it¡¯d left a permanent mark on him¡­in him.  A small part of his mana, separated from the rest, had been taken over by void energy.  Before finally leaving, he¡¯d practiced with it a bit, but not as much as he would have liked.


    But that was something he could test later.  At the moment, he was just enjoying benign a live.


    Sure feels nice to not be atomized or whatever.


    Max looked around his new surroundings and breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, it doesn''t look like we''re in a hell world," he said. All the spirits in his soul mutely acknowledged his words. After all, over the months or years or decades¡ªor however long it was that he''d been trapped in limbo¡ªthe very real possibility of trying to escape and just winding up in a hell world, or maybe even worse, had been bandied about. Although his spirits were not living, there were still places that even spirits did not want to go.


    It didn¡¯t take him long to realize he was not on earth.  Earth didn¡¯t have trees like he was seeing.


    Once he was standing, Max began the painstaking task of properly stretching every single muscle group in his body. In addition to feeling amazing after being stuck for so long floating in nothingness, it also gave him time and clarity to think about his next steps. Of course, he had plenty of ideas, but most of them were dependent upon certain variables. Now that he found himself back in reality, he still had several options to choose from. Ultimately, the goal for all of his ideas now was the same: he needed to get back to Earth, and he needed to do so as quickly as possible.


    Finally, with the stretching done, Max lightly jumped up in the air and flexed his four-star mana body. Then he sent a small arc of power through his fingertips, arcing towards a large tree in the distance. The energy hit and sunk a couple of feet into the trunk, almost bursting out the other side. Not bad.  This small flex of mana shouldn¡¯t be possible until he had a five star mana body, but Max had been practicing and pushing the envelope of what was possible.


    Then Max did the same thing but added void energy to the attack. He was genuinely curious, not sure how any of his abilities would change with the addition.  In the void, he''d only been able to practice against his spirits. He watched curiously as the same size arc of mana¡ªa powerful and effective mana wave attack¡ªsped at the tree. He was expecting it to go in a little bit deeper, maybe even penetrate the tree fully.


    However, he watched in shock and barely got a shield of mana up in time before the trunk exploded. Pieces of wooden shrapnel whizzed past him or were stopped by his shield. The tree ponderously started to tip over, even as another couple of trees behind it were demolished by the attack. "Holy shit," Max muttered as the huge tree he just accidentally cut down fell in the forest, making a racket and causing the ground to tremble like there''d been an earthquake.


    Lavinia appeared visually next to him and said, "I think we can pretty safely conclude now that the void energy has made you a lot stronger."


    Max slowly nodded. "Yes and no," he said.


    "What do you mean? Why no?"


    Max pointed at the tree and said, "For big monsters, or if I''m fighting a war, yes, this would be fantastic. But if it''s one-on-one, and my enemy is close to me, or if I use too weak of an attack,or any other number of possibilities, it might do me in before my opponent.  Like, imagine if I''d been standing right by that tree, for instance."


    Lavinia nodded. "I see what you mean. So like your other powers and abilities, it''s another tool in the toolbox, right?"


    Max nodded. "Yeah, something like that. I mean, I''m not saying it doesn''t make me more powerful. I''m just saying that it''s not going to allow me to steamroll everything either. It¡¯ll be situational"


    "Noted," said Lavinia, and she vanished.


    Max tapped his lip and finally decided that he couldn''t properly decide what to do next until he figured out what sort of world this was. So he rose in the air at treetop level and began moving towards the sun. He didn''t know which way this planet spun or how fast the sun moved, but it seemed like a pretty good way to stay relatively consistent, direction-wise, for a couple hours of flying. Old habits die hard, so he stayed to the treetops, preventing himself from being too juicy of a flying target.


    As he traveled, he suddenly saw a couple of monsters fighting below. Max grinned.  After his time in the void, practically everything he saw was new and wondrous all over again.  He dropped down nearby to watch the two creatures battle. One of them looked like a cross between a bear and a boar. It had a huge furry body, large tusks, and powerful claws on its paws. The other creature was like a cross between a beetle and a cougar, only huge. The two combatants circled each other, neither finding a good advantage.


    Out loud, he said, "The kite-shell primordial puma has really good defenses, and the tusked hexabear has really good offense. They''re a poor match for each other."


    Lavinia appeared again and said, "Tusked hexabear and kite-shell primordial puma. So these things really are what I thought they were, aren''t they?"


    Max nodded. "Yes. There''s no mistaking them. This world must have some similarities with Albion."


    He looked around and pointed at the trees. "Also, I don''t recognize all of these, but that tree, at least, is a pine tree I used to see on Albion all the time. I don''t know the name of it because I never really gave a shit about trees, but I do recognize it. It''s got that weird-shaped pine cone."


    Lavinia slowly said, "That''s true. I think you''re right."


    Around that time, the two fighting monsters suddenly turned and saw Max watching. One snorted and one roared, apparently, discovering a human nearby more offensive than whatever the other had done to provoke the fight.


    Both creatures charged at Max. He calmly joined two fingers together and quickly delivered two waves of energy, similar to the one that he used on the tree earlier.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    Two explosions rocked the forest.


    Not only did both monsters die, but both also violently exploded, the tops of their heads disappearing into mist and bone fragments before the rest of their bodies were reduced to smoking pieces of fur and ropey entrails. Only Max''s defensive mana screen kept him from being absolutely drenched in blood and viscera.


    "Wow," he said. "This void energy is really no joke."


    He stood among the smoky, vaporized blood, just taking in what he¡¯d just wrought. Then he started wondering if he could layer other abilities and techniques on top of this new void energy, at least for a greater effect. The fact he could stack the energies was something he already knew for sure he could do after his many years of experimentation in limbo.


    Max felt almost giddy.  Part of him almost just stopped what he was doing to start researching void energy, but common sense prevailed and he reminded himself that he had more important things to focus on.


    Not for the first time, he felt grateful to have had his spirits with him in limbo, or he might truly have come out insane.


    He took to the sky again, flying, wondering if this was an empty world or a game preserve or something like that.. He hadn''t seen any civilization yet, but what he had seen was beautiful and actually made him a little nostalgic for his days on Albion.


    Finally, after what felt like an hour of flying, he spotted what looked like houses in the distance, all situated in some sort of small town in the middle of a plain. The¡­settlement¡­ wasn''t very large, but it was definitely bigger than what Max considered a village, and after putting mana into his eyeballs to see better, he could spot that the buildings themselves were not crude, thatched affairs like many humans would make in more primitive civilizations. In fact, he didn''t even see stone roofs like he''d been accustomed to back in Albion. Instead, the buildings looked very similar to buildings on Earth, like shingles.


    When the trees thinned out in the forest, he dipped lower, hopefully preventing himself from being spotted. He slowed more, steadily flying towards the village. Then he sent a sub-vocal communication to all his spirits. Everybody be ready, just in case there''s hostilities ahead. The spirits sent him back an acknowledgment, making it clear that they were just as riveted to what was happening as he was.


    As he got closer to the village, his eyebrows climbed into his hairline as two figures flew out towards him. At first, he couldn''t believe his senses, but then finally acknowledged reality. "They''re both Blade Sorcerers," he said quietly.


    Really? asked Lavinia in his mind.


    They have lovely bones, added Saliron unhelpfully. Just like you, Contractor, they have filled their bones to bursting with power.


    "Lovely," said Max.


    As he got closer, he used his mana to ping the other Blaze sorcerers, just like they just had him, and discovered that they were both four-star mana body Blade Sorcerers, technically both at his level. Of course, Max was a multi-Path, two-lifetimes Challenger and the Champion of a goddess. And now he had access to void energy.


    He had another twenty seconds or so before he''d meet the Challengers.  After floating up again, no longer feeling a need to hide his abilities, he had a few moments to kill. Randomly, he pulled up some of his old, garbled information that he''d gotten access to upon being a Challenger that had never made sense. But when he did, he almost fell out of the air in shock.


    What is it? asked Lavinia, concerned.


    "We''ll talk about it later," muttered Max, and he soon found himself hovering in place, regarding two hovering Blade Sorcerers. Max switched to the Quartet language instead of English and said, "Greetings. My name is Max. I''m not from around these parts, and I got turned around. Can you tell me what this place is?"


    The male Blade sorcerer, a thin man with average height and handsome features, shook his head. "I never went to the Quartet," he said, "so I don''t understand you."


    Max nodded before replying, "Oh, okay, well, in that case, I just won''t speak Quartet."


    Lavinia gasped at the same time that Max realized what had just happened. Then he said out loud, "Wait, you speak the language of Albion?"


    The male Blade Sorcerer gave him a strange look before giving the female Blade Sorcerer next to him a glance.  He slowly said, "I certainly hope so."


    The female Blade sorcerer, a tall, dark-haired, dusky-skinned woman with a long sword on her hip, looked at Max like he was cracked in the head. "Did you get hit or something, or maybe run into some magic or a mana storm?"


    Immediately, Max shook his head. Then he asked the question that he was almost not brave enough to put into words, "Could you tell me what the name of this world is?"


    The bearded man looked at him levelly and said, "I don''t know if this is a prank, but I can¡¯t figure out how. I guess I''ll play along. This is Albion."


    Lavinia gasped in his head again, and Max went quiet before slowly sinking to the ground. The two unfamiliar Blade Sorcerers exchanged a glance before they also floated downwards to join him.


    Max found a handy rock and sat on it, putting his head in his hands. Now that he thought about it more clearly, he could understand how opening a rift might have led to a place like this. The area that he came from and Lavinia, both of them have ties to this world.


    "Are you okay?" said the man.


    "I think I will be in a moment," said Max. "I just got kind of turned around. You know, it''s been a hard day."


    The man nodded and said, "I''m sure we''ve all had some of those."


    As Max had his head bowed and the man didn''t think Max would see, he made a pantomime drinking motion to the woman, who nodded. Max almost laughed.  It was probably better for the moment that they thought he was a drunk than a world or dimensional traveler.


    "I''m Lycos," said the man, "and this is Shahira. You look physically like you''re in pretty good shape, but it seems like you might need to take a load off. The town ahead is called Mulgreen. Shahira and I are both from Mulgreen, and we work as guards. There''s an inn and quite a few restaurants. Maybe you should just come and get something to eat."


    Max''s stomach rumbled, and he felt the hunger that only a man who had not eaten for decades, or maybe even centuries, could. He nodded and said, "I would love that, but I need to barter first, or go to a pawn shop. I don''t have any money, but I do happen to have some curiosities from another dimension that somebody might want to buy."


    The two Blade Sorcerer guards shared another look, obviously convinced by this point that Max was crazy, but he was still a four-star Blaze sorcerer, and crazy Blade Sorcerers were definitely something to take seriously. So in a kind tone of voice, the woman said, "How about you come back with us, and we''ll help you with a meal at one of the restaurants? Then maybe you can see some of our other friends too, and tell us your troubles."


    Max knew the real reason these two wanted him to meet their friends was for backup.  That way if he truly went nuts and tried hurting or killing anyone, they''d have enough people on hand to subdue him or put him down without getting hurt themselves. Max didn¡¯t have any reason to refuse, though, and nodded woodenly.


    He took to the air again and followed the two other Blade Sorcerers.


    For another couple of minutes, he followed his new guides to the town, Mulgreen, and as he got closer, he marveled at how different Albion had become over the last few centuries. In some ways, what he was seeing almost looked like modern Earth¡­crossed with the Quartet. The buildings were updated. There was evidence of new technology, but most of it was still magic-tech. Max opened himself to the mana in the world and almost started weeping at how overwhelmed he felt with nostalgia.  It was like¡­ a massive relief for his soul to finally feel the mana of Albion again.


    About twenty minutes later, when he was seated in a restaurant, and after making some more small talk, he finally was able to take his first bite of Albion cuisine again after hundreds of years. He couldn''t stop the tears anymore and silently cried as he ate. Inside his head, Lavinia bawled, and all his other spirits stayed completely silent, giving Max and Lavinia the respect and space that they needed as they processed their powerful, confusing emotions.

 Book 3, ch 43

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    Max didn''t know how long he sat on the bed in the inn, staring into space. At least, that''s probably what it looked like to his spirits. Finally, Lavinia manifested visually next to him and softly asked, "What''s going on, Max?"


    He shook his head and pointed. "I know you and the other spirits can''t see this, but something''s here."


    Lavinia cocked her head quizzically at him. "What are you talking about?"


    Max blew the air out of his cheeks. "Do you remember when I met the Morrigan and became a Champion? I haven''t really been able to use a lot of the benefits from that, so I haven''t called up any of the menus that I got when I became a Champion. Even in the void, I didn¡¯t mess with them after the first few days I was there.  The screens were garbled so there was no point..  However, now I can clearly see one of the screens¡ªactually, an entire system."


    He went back to studying the various screens in the air and slowly shook his head. Max muttered, "Eternal Struggle Reward System. What the hell?"


    Up until now, he¡¯d been studying the screen for a while, getting a feel for how it all worked. There was even a help menu that he used a few times, but he hadn''t really needed it much. At least, he didn''t need it now that he lived on Earth. In some ways, the system reminded him of a gacha video game.


    He¡¯d deep-dive it again later, but the high level fact at the moment seemed to be that it was called the Eternal Struggle Reward System, a type of store and game with prizes for Champions, and that he could get all sorts of things from it.  There were ways to invest more points, called Renown Points, in order to get better rolls, or better prizes, but the results were still randomized, and there was still an element of skill involved, at least from the perspective of which ¡°keywords¡± to use for prizes.


    What kept drawing his attention was the number of Renown Points he had¡ªeleven. He shook his head. Despite being completely new to the system, common sense suggested that this was a lot of renown points for a system where three points seemed to matter a lot for rewards.


    A plan was starting to form in Max''s mind¡ªmaybe not a good plan, but better than he had before. Finally, he said, "Lavinia, during your life on Albion, or before you were born, do you remember any mention of if any of my caches were found, the ones I put together back when I was Chasa de Milo?"


    "Caches?" asked Lavinia, confusion evident in her voice. "I never heard anything about that."


    "That''s exactly what I was hoping you would say," said Max. He abruptly got up and began pacing back and forth across the room. "Okay, so here is the problem. I am in another dimension, or on another world, or in another reality. Back in Albion.


    ¡°I need to find my way back to Earth, and we have no earthly idea, no pun intended, how to do that. Before, I was going to work on my power enough to maybe find a way to bring myself back to earth, and I believe in myself enough that I believed that maybe I could have done it, especially with your help, Lavinia, and especially since I still have all of these ral¡¯tek daggers."


    Max stopped pacing and turned to face Lavinia. "However, it has occurred to me that if I get back to Earth, and let¡¯s say, instead of three adjudicators coming after me next time, suddenly there''s ten or maybe an entire army, me going back right away might not be the best thing in the world. I mean, humanity has a chance against monsters, but I don''t think they have much of a chance against the adjudicators, at least not right now."


    "So?" Lavinia prompted.


    Max began pacing again and said, "So what that means is I can''t go back empty-handed. I need to bring enough firepower with me, whether in people or in artifacts or tools, that I can turn the tide if any more adjudicators come. I need to make my friends more powerful, and that includes some of the other adventurers and Challengers on Earth. I can''t focus just on people I know and like anymore, but that also means that I''m probably going to have to take a more active role in searching for and ferreting out any more problems, like when The Victory Guild had a demonic energy infestation."


    Max abruptly took a seat on the bed. "That means just being stronger than everybody else isn''t going to cut it. I need to be exceedingly stronger, ridiculously stronger, and on top of that, I know what happened to Ancilla. I can''t let that happen to me. And although Ancilla was powerful," his voice trailed off, "I have to believe I can become more powerful. I was Chassa de Milo in my past life. There''s nothing stopping me from reaching that level of power again, and I have other Paths and advantages on top of that.  I wasn¡¯t able to work on my mana body in the void, no mana, duh, but now that I¡¯m in Albion, I should grow in power¡­super fast.  I can achieve greater heights."


    Suddenly, Anansi popped into existence on the bed in his familiar man-spider hybrid shape. "That''s the thinking I want to hear," said Anansi. "You aren¡¯t anywhere close to Ancilla¡¯s level yet, if I''m being honest. But keep in mind, if you become more powerful and restore some of my power, your growth can increase exponentially, too."


    Max gave the divine remnant a skeptical look. "Uh-huh, and you want to be returned to your old form again and come back to life. I''m sure that has nothing to do with your motivational support here, right?"


    "Well, a spider god''s got to have dreams," Anansi conceded.


    Max got up yet again to pace, his energy needing an outlet. "So this is what I''m thinking. I need to get money, which I''m pretty sure I can do pretty easily just by trading some things. For instance, I have lots of stuff from earth in my bone storage that Saliron can help me get into.  I couldn¡¯t use any of that stuff in the Void, because real matter would be destroyed, but now it¡¯s all useful again. Like, in Albion, if I sell a generator and a microwave oven from Earth, that would probably be novel enough to get me enough money to at least live for a while."


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    "Do you have that kind of stuff in your bone storage? I didn''t pay attention to everything you put in there," Lavinia asked.


    Max grinned. "Oh, I have a ton of random bullshit in my storage. Trust me, getting at least enough money to live is not going to be an issue. The problem is going to be raising my power to the point I can not only get back to Earth but also end the monster invasion, or at least get it under control.  What I really need to do is start preparing the Earth for a counterattack or invasion by the adjudicators. I think.  But there''s something even more important than this...at least eventually."


    "What could be more than that?" asked Lavinia.


    Max sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "The reality is that even if we stop or beat back or prevent some sort of invasion by the Quartet or the adjudicators, the Quartet system is massive, and we still don''t even know why it exists! So at some point, if I''m strong enough, and I keep the adjudicators from messing up the Earth, that means I need to find out what the truth is behind all of this and address it at the source."


    "The source, huh?¡± Lavinia paused.  ¡°You''re going to find out,¡± she asked."Don''t you mean we are going to find out?"


    "Of course," said Max, and he rolled his eyes at the ghost girl. "You¡¯re along for the ride.  Do we really need to break down every bit of the equation here and get into semantics when I''m in the middle of my rousing monologue, instead of just curling into a ball on my bed and feeling sorry for myself?"


    "Okay, okay. Point taken," Lavinia said, raising her hands.


    Max looked at his screen again after pulling it up. "Eleven points. Eleven points to use in the Eternal Struggle Reward System. I have no idea what I can get from this, and I plan to experiment a bit, but based on what I am reading into this thing, eleven points could mean up to eleven new powers of some sort. That nuts.  Then again, maybe they could be useless without investing extra points.  For all I know, what I could get with one point could be like, making sparks like a sparkler, or creating farts that don''t stink.  But I have a feeling that putting more points into this thing can result in getting something serious."


    He rubbed his face as he thought.  Then he said, "There''s also my relationship with the Morrigan. I¡¯m her Champion. She may not be in this reality, but I''m sure that back here on Albion, my status still might count for something." He paused and raised a finger. "But like there are other things to consider, too.  I was never able to use this Eternal Struggle Reward System before, but me suddenly seeing it clearly now doesn''t necessarily mean it''s Albion that''s doing this. It could be because I went through the void.


    ¡°Either way, it would probably be smart for me to use up all my Renown Points while I''m in Albion. But if it was Albion itself that allowed me to see this system, then there might be something else here that I can use."


    ¡°Like what?¡± Lavinia looked at him levelly. "I''m still not really hearing much of a plan here. You have a few ideas of how you can get power, some of which you can probably even use immediately. But going back to Earth is not simple. I know because I helped you get there the first time."


    "You''re correct, but also not correct," said Max. "You''re forgetting something."


    "Pray tell, what am I forgetting, oh fearless leader?"


    Max grinned. "The same resonance that I had before with Momo that allowed me to bring her to Earth, theoretically, should allow me to find Earth if I hone in on her now. Her relative situation with me has reversed."


    Lavinia grew very still. "I''ll be damned. You''re right," she said, and then she hesitated before quietly asking, "Do you still feel her resonance?"


    Max nodded. "Sure of it. She''s still alive. It''s one of the first things I did after sitting down in the room here when I had some quiet time."


    "Oh, thank goodness for that.".


    "Agreed," said Max. Then he gave voice to the last thing he considered. "Not only that, now that I''m back in Albion and I''m from this world, I realize that I might have an opportunity on top of another opportunity."


    "What do you mean? You really enjoy being vague at times like this don¡¯t you?"


    "Shut up.  But anyway, I''ve been spending a lot of time reclaiming my Blade Sorcerer power. Things have changed now that I''m back on Albion.  Even though the mana is technically a little bit richer back on Earth, I should be able to reclaim my mana body levels much faster here. This is the mana I used in my first life.  If I¡¯m right about this, and I believe I am, it means I¡¯ll be able to spend less time building my mana body.  And this means I can spend more time focusing on my other powers, which means that I can finally meet more spirits to bond with."


    Lavinia nodded and finished his thought. "And because you''re originally from Albion and you even died in this world, you might have the potential to meet some really incredible or powerful spirits."


    "Exactly," said Max. He grinned.  "So between my caches and the Eternal Struggle Reward System and meeting more spirits and all the other ways that I have to find little incremental increases in power, I have to believe that I can make something happen."


    Lavinia nodded and crossed her arms. "These caches you keep talking about, how many did you have, and what exactly are they?"


    "Well," Max explained, "back when I was Chassa de Milo, I was the richest man in the world. I mean, I was the most powerful man, so it wasn''t exactly difficult to be. People would sometimes just pretty much throw money at me."


    "Must be nice," muttered Lavinia. ¡°Are you just going to brag about how wealthy you were all day?¡±


    "I guess ''eat the rich'' never really took hold on Albion, even during your lifetime, huh?" Max chuckled.


    "Nope, because here the rich can destroy buildings with a punch."


    "Good point. Anyway, I was a little paranoid, which I know is very ironic because I wasn''t looking for the dagger right behind my back, from my so-called friends.  When I was Chasa de Milo, I always thought that I was in danger from governments, not the people closest to me. The irony has not eluded me here.  Anyway, this all led me to have¡­plans in case something happened. And one of those backup plans was my caches. In three places around the world, I stashed a great deal of wealth, weapons, armor, and also just random bullshit that I never got around to properly learning about or identifying. I sort of used each cache as a dumping ground for stuff I didn¡¯t want to deal with, but I also put a lot of legitimate good stuff in each.  So at the very least, if I find one of my caches, I will again be filthy rich on Albion."


    "Must be nice," Lavinia repeated, her face sour.


    Max shrugged. "Haters gonna hate."


    "Okay," Lavinia said.  Then she paused, and Max could feel all his other spirits listening in to the conversation too. "What''s our next step?" she asked.


    Max grew quiet and didn''t answer right away. Finally, he said, "You have no way to recognize this, Lavinia, but the place that we came back to on Albion is actually the exact same spot that I died in my first life. And now that I''m here, I can''t deny the need I have to visit my old home, if it still stands, and see the grave of my wife and child, from back when I was Chasa de Milo. But more importantly, there is a cache near that area too, or at least there should be."


    ¡°There is one there?  Seriously?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Max paused, and then, partially for dramatic effect and partially because he really did feel multiple ways about it, he said, "The goal is to return back to Earth and kick some ass. But right now, before anything else, I think I need to finally go home."


    End of book 3.

 Book 2, ch 54

    The exhibition matches weren''t actually scheduled until the next evening, but Max did not plan on resting until then. If he still had a mortal body, he would have had to, but as a three-star mana body Blade Sorcerer, there was no reason not to train any moment he had the opportunity. He started his day the way he always did: meditation and working out. But today, he focused less on the physical and wanted to spend more time with his spirits.


    For several hours out in the woods, he went through drills with all of his spirits. Active use of Trill''s power was extremely interesting. Unfortunately, Max was still nervous about using it too often.  Some uses would break his concealment and he didn''t want to reveal to anything or anyone watching that he had assimilated Remnant spirits. Not being able to use Trill''s full abilities in the match was definitely going to be a handicap. On the other hand, the notion of [disruption], granted by Dura,  was extremely useful, although mentally taxing to use. It turned out disruption had a wide variety of applications.  As a concept, or modifier for his abilities, it extremely flexible.


    For instance, Max found that he could supercharge his strikes using the power of disruption¨Cprobably the most simple application of the concept. Almost by accident, one way he found to use the power of disruption was with his shield. He''d been practicing with the magic shield that his new sword Blackmist Incident could conjure, and he found that if he inserted a bit more mana into the construct itself and then also layered some element of disruption on it, it would actively mitigate the kinetic energy or mystical power of whatever was striking the shield''s face.


    This made his shield orders of magnitude more effective.


    He was actually glad nobody had been there watching while he discovered this application of his new power. At the time, he''d been hitting his own shield, bashing his sword against it, and blocking it over and over again, trying to get a good idea of the shield''s limits and capabilities. As he experimented with various energies in both the sword and the shield, realizing that the power of disruption could be used defensively had been amazing. He''d been so surprised he''d fallen on his butt in the forest.


    ***


    Finally, Max received a summons to attend his exhibition match.  The message that he received from Mong Hao Han''s assistant instructed him to go somewhere different, a location in the Summoner academy grounds; not the building in the central area that he''d been told before was the competition arena. Max shrugged and didn''t think much of it. As long as he was still in the Summoner Academy, he was relatively safe and didn''t really worry about schemes by Regal or anybody in the other Path academies of the Quartet.


    When he reached the meeting point, though, he was surprised to see several other Summoner students, including all of his friends who had won participation slots in the end-of-year competition. Momo spotted him the same time he noticed the group, and she walked to his side. Reflexively, Max used a bit of Trill''s power to cover both of them for privacy as she whispered, "I thought you were going to your challenge matches by yourself."


    "So did I," said Max.


    Gantry caught his attention and raised an eyebrow. Max shrugged back. A moment later, though, the headmaster rounded a bend and walked into view, followed by three other professors, including Grave Call, Professor Happy¨Cwho Max had not seen in some time, and one of his least favorite people in the Quartet, Professor Dalton.


    Max nodded respectfully to Grave Call, the least he was required to do to maintain protocol. Professor Dalton, the Dean of Discipline and Extracurricular Student affairs noticed and scowled at him. Max gave her a sweet smile back.


    He reflected on how deeply his perspective had changed.


    Everything in the Summoner Academy looked different to him now. As a three-star mana body, three Path Challenger, Max was all too aware of his current limitations, but also fairly confident that none of the professors, except maybe Grave Call, would be able to give him a serious fight now. That was only for the Summoner academy, though.  The other Path academies, he wasn''t so sure.


    "We''re not going to the usual location in the central area," said the headmaster without preamble.


    Eolus shot up a hand to ask a question, but the headmaster ignored it.  He said, "We are leaving right now. Let''s go, we''re already running a bit late." And with that, he started down the road to the gate out of the Summoner Academy. Some in the group looked confused. Max was at first, but then realized that for better or worse, the headmasters were bringing the current end of year competition fighters to this exhibition match. Max decided that it could be a blessing or a curse.


    His fight was going to have an audience.


    ***


    Max was interested to see that the building they were heading to was the same one he¡¯d gone to after his duel with Territ Mond. This was where he¡¯d made his first deal with the headmasters.  However, this time, Mong Hao Han ushered the group through a different door. Momo whispered, "This is not where we had our matches. We were in the Summoner academy area."


    Gantry added. "This is where they have the full Quartet competition at the end of the year."


    Max slowly nodded. Now the venue made sense to him, even if it might not for the rest of the Summoner academy students.


    Mong Hao led them down a long, downward-sloping hallway. At the end, he opened a door and ushered them into a huge chamber. Max raised his eyebrows when he saw the ring in the center of the enormous floor. There was an identical ring above it on the ceiling. Now that Max knew a bit more about magic circles and such, he could recognize pieces of some of the incredibly precise spellwork that had gone into each ring.


    At each corner of the room, there was a symbol representing one of the four Path schools of the Quartet. Mong Hao Han led the Summoner group to their corner just as the Replicator academy group appeared. The Elemental Shifter group and the Mystic Spear people were already settled in their respective corners. It seemed that all four schools had arrived with the same size groups: the headmaster, three professors, and a total of eight students. Max was the only irregularity, and there were definitely eyes on him as the summoner group approached their corner.


    Each corner had seating for many more people than the different schools had actually brought. Around the room, there were orbs near the ceiling that Max assumed were recording devices of some kind. After all, when the official Quartet competition took place, others could watch; Quartet students in addition to the Quartet-born.


    Once his group was settled in the corner, all four headmasters walked forward to a small podium and interacted with it. Soon after, there was a flash in the middle of the room, in the center of the large ring, and a new person was standing before them all. She was lean with short spiky hair and wore a formal robe, similar to the headmasters'', but a bit less ornate and with a large insignia on her chest that Max had never seen before. On one side of her belt was a wide, fairly bulky leather pouch. No, that¡¯s a sheath, he thought.  It was covered by a flap, so Max could not see the weapons it held, but based on its size, he assumed it was for holding large throwing knives similar to the ones Momo carried now. On the woman''s other side were a few small pouches like the ones the headmasters usually wore.


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    Before Max could see her face, she removed her cowl, revealing a prominent scar down one cheek. The moment she appeared, Max felt a strange sense of danger from her that he didn''t understand. It was unlike anything else he''d ever experienced in his life. And he noticed that she immediately swept her gaze across the room, as if assessing a potential threat. He readied himself, but before he could do anything to embarrass himself, Ming Hao Han announced, "Thank you for joining us, Adjudicator."


    At that moment, Territ Mond stepped forward. "We ask for an adjudicator to preside over this exhibition match. Circumstances that are not necessary to describe right now require secrecy to be enforced. You are here not only to act as a judge but also to help us ensure that word of this match does not spread."


    She''s an adjudicator, huh? thought Max. He''d heard of them before. They were like managers over the different Quartets, except each was part of their own team as well. He didn''t know how to read the insignia on the adjudicator''s robe, but he assumed that she wasn''t the highest on the totem pole, or she would not have come here herself. In fact, he assumed that she was fairly low in seniority, but that didn''t mean that she was weak. Everything Max had read about the Quartet system stated that adjudicators should be respected and cooperated with at all times. He doubted that many regular students in the Quartet system even saw an adjudicator in person before they went back to their world.


    The adjudicator turned, sweeping everyone with her eyes, ending up staring at Max again.  Now he had a pretty good idea of why. After all, this entire exhibition match was being held because of him.


    When she spoke, she had a surprisingly musical voice, considering her appearance.  "Let me introduce myself. I am Adjudicator Ni Na Long Swan. You may call me Adjudicator Swan, which is how I am generally addressed. Before we begin, I need everybody to carefully read the screen they are about to be shown. To help you understand what you are going to see, the screen will tell you that in order to proceed or participate in any fashion in the upcoming end-of-year competition, you must agree not to talk about this exhibition or spread information about it with anybody who is not currently in this room. This means taking every reasonable precaution to prevent others from learning of it. If you do not agree, you will need to leave right now, and you will no longer have a place in the competition. If you agree, the system will enforce this contract by immediately causing you pain or even killing you if you violate it."


    Suddenly a screen popped up in front of Max, full of what he assumed was the Quartet version of legalese. He still read the entire thing, unlike some others he noticed just hit the accept button immediately.  But sure enough, the system contract more or less mirrored everything that Swan had said. Max clicked his acceptance on his screen and looked up to see the last few others in the room doing so at about the same time.


    Adjudicator Swan continued, "The reason we are gathered here today is an irregular request from the four headmasters of this quartet. Will Max Cunningham please raise their hand?"


    Max did as she''d instructed, and suddenly every pair of eyes in the room was on him.


    "How does the tested wish to proceed?" said the adjudicator.


    Max glanced over at Mon Hao Han, who shrugged and gave Max a look of resignation. He still didn''t like what Max wanted to do, and also didn''t like that the other headmasters were not opposing Max''s idea. It was obvious that at least two of them, perhaps all three other than Mong Hao wanted Max to fail this test.  But none of them knew that he had achieved a three-star mana body. Most of them probably wouldn¡¯t know what that would mean if Max told them. They knew that he was advancing in power rapidly, but likely figured they had a firm idea of where he was at, power-wise.


    If he¡¯d still relegated himself to the junior division, which was all he needed to do, he figured he had zero chance of failing.


    But he knew himself.  He wanted to rub the headmasters faces in their lack of true support.  There was always the possibility that they¡¯d try to wear him down with fight after fight, or some other unfair test, and he didn''t want to risk the chance of being strategically exhausted.  But most importantly, he didn''t want to have to redo this little circus at the end of the year before he was required to fight in the actual competition.


    Max stepped forward, and in a voice that carried all the way across the room, he announced, "Since we are here for me to be tested, I suggest that we save time. Originally, I was meant to only prove myself against the Junior Division Challengers. I understand that I still must satisfy that requirement. However, I would also like to suggest that should I win a match against them, that I also fight the most powerful senior Challenger.


    Swan frowned. "How do we determine the most powerful senior Challenger?  What exactly do you propose?¡±


    "I suggest that the four headmasters confer and find candidates they agree on, I will respect their decision."  Max smiled.


    There was confused mumbling around the room from the students, while all the professors kept poker faces, staring at Max. The only two exceptions were a Replicator professor who couldn''t help but let a pleased expression show through as her eyes tilted upwards, and headmaster Bojana. Max vowed to keep an eye on her the entire time, now that he knew a bit more about this quartet''s sordid cast.


    The four headmasters moved to the center of the ring, located over a hundred yards away from everyone else. After some talking, they eventually headed back to their corners. Max knew that Mong Hao Han had already discussed this suggestion with the other headmasters, but even if he hadn''t, Max was sure they''d take this offer. After all, none of them were probably confident that their junior contestants could win against Max, but he was sure they believed he would have a hard time against the senior division fighters.


    When the Summoner headmaster returned, he didn''t glance back at Max but stared unwaveringly forward, maintaining a stoic aura befitting his station. In the center of the room, Adjudicator Swan waited until all the headmasters were back before she announced, "The headmasters have agreed to the tested''s proposal. For the Junior Division, Max Cunningham will be fighting Plemdo from the Elemental Shifter School.  If he wins that match, he will be fighting Lin from the Mystic Spear Path Academy. Max Cunningham, Plemdo, both Challengers, please step forward."


    On the elemental shifter side of the room, a huge man stepped forward and crossed his arms. He seemed to remember where he was at the last second and hurriedly gave Adjudicator Swan a respectful bow. He wasn''t wearing any weapons, just a loose robe. In the Mystic Spear corner, a man stepped forward holding an ornate spear and stiffly bowed to Swan, and then to each corner of the room, except for the Summoner corner. The spearman turned and gazed coolly at Max.


    Max recognized him. He was the student who had killed him and destroyed his body in the Spear Path academy.


    This is going to be fun, Max thought. He raised his hand, and Swan blinked.  "Yes, tested, do you have something to add?" she said.


    "I do," said Max. He grinned at the Mystic Spear Path corner and said, "If the headmasters allow it, in order to make this exhibition more challenging and entertaining, I would like all the Mystic Spear junior challengers to also join my opponent Plemdo in a junior bout."


    The room erupted in noise, despite Swan''s glower, and Mong Hao Han shook his head at Max. Max shrugged. The Summoner headmaster had to realize that if he could win against a senior challenger, much less the best senior challenger, he should have a good chance against five at once on the junior side too. What Max hadn''t told Mong Hao Han was that the moment they walked into this room, he recognized the junior challengers for the Mystic Spear academy were all people who had thrown spears at Max and his friend in the central area.


    As Adjudicator Swan restored order, Max shot the four of them a mocking smile as he instructed Saliron to recall the spirits he''d placed in their bones for marking and tracking. The spirits had done their job.

 Book 2, Chapter 55

    Max thought it was unfortunate that Regal was not among the Mystic Spear Path students he was facing. Behind them, he caught sight of Territ Mond glowering. Max didn¡¯t care. The headmaster was not his friend. Max had no illusions to their relationship. He was being paid to fight for them, in order for the headmasters to receive benefits from Max winning. He was Territ¡¯s mercenary, not his subordinate. And the man was likely either rooting for his downfall or maintaining neutrality. There were obvious politics in play between the headmasters.


    Besides, Max still had a bone to pick with a few Mystic Spear assholes. Ultimately, Regal was responsible, directly or indirectly, for most of what Max had suffered in the Quartet. Maybe one day Max would get to meet him in person to kill him again¨Cor to kill him for good one day. For now, punishing his friends would need to suffice.


    He briefly thought that he might be taking it too far, but then he remembered Lance being tortured just for the sin of being Max¡¯s friend. Nah, fuck these guys, he thought.


    Max glanced around at the surrounding people, particularly the students. The only students who didn''t look confused were his personal friends, who knew in general what this was about. The rest had absolutely no idea. Based on their expressions, it seemed the majority of them currently believed that Max was about to get torn apart. Most had gasped earlier when they¡¯d heard his name, but apparently his notoriety was one thing. One first year facing five junior division fighters at once was another.


    In the ring, the most confused person by far was Plemdo. The big man kept glancing between Max and the four Mystic Spear students who would be fighting as his allies. They stood apart from him, though.


    Max turned his attention to the Mystic Spear students. Three were male. Two were human. One non-human was leonin and shaggy¨Cthe other had scales and claws. As Max and his opponents sized each other up, Adjudicator Swan moved to the edge of the ring and began walking in a circle around it. She explained, "This match has no rules. A win is decided by an opponent committing suicide or being killed. Deathless forfeits are not allowed. This match is an exhibition match, so the rules are flexible and have been modified for participant numbers. Max on one side. On the other side, Troy, Goodlight, Vray, Ho-Leon, and Plemdo. Fighters, Challengers, are you ready?"


    Suddenly, a window popped up in Max''s vision, similar to the ones that would appear during a duel. The window read,


    You are about to have an exhibition match. Are you ready to begin?


    There was both an accept and a decline button. Max waited until it looked like the rest of the challengers had hit accept. He suspected that he was the only one who had never seen one of these types of matches before.


    "I have a question," said Max, raising his hand.


    "Yes?" Administrator Swan''s eyes narrowed as she called out, "I recognize the Tested. Ask your question."


    Max said, "Does the match start as soon as everybody hits accept?"


    "That is correct," said Swan.


    "Okay, good to know," said Max. He wondered if he could energize his body before the match itself started but decided not to try. He''d noticed that there was a shortage of information being supplied and wondered if this was some sort of sneaky way to disqualify him from the fight before it even started. Another thing he''d noticed was that none of the Mystic Spear students had even leveled their spears at him yet. So, following what his opponents were doing and staying in a neutral stance, Max pushed ¡°accept.¡± But the moment he did, and he saw a new screen that flashed:


    Competition Start


    Max immediately moved. Now he had the advantage because even if the difference was only a split second, he knew exactly when the match had started. His opponents would have been smarter if one of them had held off on pushing accept until they were sure that Max had.


    Then again, there were five of them. They might think the fight was as good as over already.


    Even as he moved forward, Max signaled for Lavinia to generate his ectoplasmic armor. He also drew his sword, the blade growing until it was full-sized, not the miniature knife-sized weapon he usually wore on his hip. At the same time, he shoved mana into his muscles, exciting the mana in his body so that it moved at an exponentially higher rate through his veins. His rush became something more. Max shot forward like a rocket, the air literally buzzing around him.


    The ring was large, over one hundred meters wide and one hundred meters tall. How such a thing could fit in a building in the central area, Max wasn''t sure. Probably temporal magic of some kind. The boundaries of the ring had solidified after the match started. He had no doubt that those outside could still see in clearly, but to Max now, the edges of the ring were a smooth, light gray material.


    Plemdo had begun doing something with his ability. His hand turned to fire, and he was in mid-swing. Max was so fast, Plemdo didn''t even get a chance to react before his body was cleaved in two. The strike had begun at the shoulder near the neck and ended at the hip. Max flashed past through a layer of lowered friction courtesy of Slick. He came to a stop facing the four Mystic Spear men who all stood gaping at him.


    "So let me introduce myself," said Max. "I''m Max Cunningham, and I know that you cowardly little bitches threw spears at me and my friends a while back. I also know that in the Mystic Spear academy, surrender is not an option. I believe that includes suicide within the system. So I just want you to know, there may be four of you, but I''m not locked in here with you¡ªyou''re locked in here with me. Punks." He spit on the floor and smiled, then began closing in on his prey.


    At first, it was like his unexpected behavior had cast a spell on the four. He walked slowly but steadily towards them and was halfway there before one finally reacted. Thats too bad, Max thought. Maybe if they¡¯d let him walk right up to them and start hacking, some of the audience would think he had mind control spirits or something.


    At the same time that one of the human Mystic Spearmen moved, Max finished closing in. With a thought, he shrank his sword to dagger-size. Then he was among them.


    The four junior Mystic Sphere Path students, some of the best in the entire Quartet for their respective years, were hopelessly outclassed. Despite all of them trying to attack him at once, none of them worked as a team. It was relatively easy for Max to dance among them using nothing but his strengthened forearm armor to block or parry blows. His miniaturized sword flashed out several times, finding flesh each time. He had the ability to end the fight pretty much any time he wanted. But instead, every calculated strike he made was a superficial wound in unfortunate places for his enemies: on the wrist, the arm, a hip, or even the back of the leg. He danced, he floated among them, and as he did so, he taunted them the entire time.


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    "Didn''t you know that you were signing your death sentence? You are also just bad. Cowardly and pathetic. Attacking a group of students that you outnumbered, that you believed were weaker than you? And you didn¡¯t even wound any of them? Wow. The next time you take bribes or try to kiss the ass of some worthless, pompous, self-important liar, you should consider the consequences. And if you''re confused about what the consequences are, well, you''re living them right now."


    Max gave the most deranged laugh he could muster. In the back of his mind, Saliron complimented, That was quite lovely. Perhaps you have truly become enlightened and will surrender me their bones after you''re done with them! Max ignored his spirit. This was all a show, after all. What he wanted was for nobody in the Quartet to be willing to work with people like Regal or those like him.


    The human man was the most skilled. His strikes were sharp and explosive enough that Max could actually feel his killing intent as he parried. Despite his ferocity, his eyes stayed flat and focused.


    Max had half-expected Regal¡¯s brother, Valiant, to be present, to be one of those he challenged. Now he knew why he wasn¡¯t here. These fighters all had to be better than he was. ¡°It¡¯s too bad that snake Valiant isn¡¯t here,¡± said Max. ¡°I knew Regal wouldn¡¯t be here, it¡¯s obvious that he is too weak. But Valiant acted like he was hot shit. But if he was, I¡¯d be cutting him to pieces instead. Pity.¡±


    The human man repositioned and unleashed a deadly attack. Suddenly, instead of one spear point heading for Max''s center of mass, there were three. Max just snorted. He ducked under the strike, parrying it upwards with his armor, and then didn''t even bother to cut his enemy. Instead, his armored fist came crashing down on the other man''s nose. The spearman flew backward with a spray of blood trailing from his face.


    "That gives me an idea," said Max out loud. He turned to the other three. The human woman was scared, but the furry man was beyond that, showing signs on his face that he''d rather be anywhere else.


    "You see," said Max, slowly keeping his distance and circling the three who were on their feet. He kept a wary eye on the human man as he got back to his feet with a bloody face. Max hadn''t exactly held back on that blow, but he hadn''t been gentle either. It would have killed an average person back on Earth before everything had changed. The man definitely looked worse for the wear, but he could also probably still fight. But Max intended to change that very soon.


    "All of you get to thank Prince Regal and Prince Valiant for what''s about to happen next. Valiant is a cowardly fuck who helped his psychotic, narcissistic brother Regal try to get revenge on me in multiple sneaky, unethical, and quite frankly, bitch-ass ways. It¡¯s too bad Valiant nor Regal are here, but I guess they aren¡¯t good enough. However, I know you are friends with them. Maybe some of you might have even been present behind the restaurant.¡± Out the corner of his eye, he saw the human man react. Bingo. ¡°I''m going to do to you all what was done to my friend and me. I hope you enjoy it."


    And with that, Max sprang at the lion man. His enemy cried out and tried to impale Max with an interesting skill that created an afterimage of spears while hiding the real one. With Max''s experience, he could very clearly tell which strike was the real one. It was practically the easiest thing in the world to bob around the strike and take off the man''s left leg in one clean cut.


    Max sensed a strike coming from behind and sprang up in the air, swiftly parrying downwards as he turned. The response perfectly caught the spear that had been aimed for his back, leaving him a great opportunity to counterattack once he landed. A second later, and the female fighter was screaming on the ground, holding the stump of her leg as it pumped blood.


    It''s too bad I have nothing to cauterize these wounds with, thought Max. Oh well, Quartet bodies are tough.


    The lizard man threw his spear. The missile had a surprising amount of speed and force to it, and Max quickly realized that the man had thrown the weapon at his feet, not at his body. That could only mean one thing. Instead of lingering, Max sprang to one side, quick enough to avoid even the edges of a resulting explosion. Then, before the man could complete some sort of summoning or rematerialization of the spear into his hand, Max flashed forward and Blackmist Incident took his leg too.


    The dangerous human man engaged again. This Mystic Spearman, who would have been far beyond Max''s ability to face what felt like a lifetime ago, seemed painfully slow to Max. It was barely an effort to slap the man''s powerful strike to the side, hit him in the face with the pommel of his sword, and then bring the blade down, cleanly cutting his leg off at the knee. The man didn''t scream as he fell. In fact, he somehow recovered from his botched attack and managed a wild stab at Max''s head, the tip glittering green.


    Max had no idea what that color signified, but he could guess that it wouldn''t be good if it connected. He kicked the bottom of the spear shaft, sending the strike directly into the air. The moment it was fully extended, a beam of green light shot towards the ceiling of the grey dome. Max''s sword flicked out viper-quick, taking both of the man¡¯s hands. With this injury, the man screamed and tried holding his new stumps to his chest. Max flowed to one side, easily dodging a spray of blood from a wildly flailing arm, not batting an eye about it.


    When all was done, all four of his opponents from the Mystic Spear Academy were either gritting their teeth and hissing or screaming on the ground. Max figured they would bleed out given enough time, or they would commit suicide through the system. Either way, he didn''t care. The strongest fighter, the human man, bared bloody teeth at Max as he approached.


    ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡±


    ¡°...Vray. I would not usually give my name to a nothing, but I have the advantage of your name already.¡±


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s rich. Pretending to be honorable, and also pretending to still be in control of this situation.¡± He laughed. ¡°I suppose it shouldn¡¯t surprise me that Regal and Valiant¡¯s friends are delusional and awful to the core.¡±


    ¡°You get lucky once, and suddenly you become so arrogant. I gave you the respect of a warrior and you spit on it. You should know your place.¡±


    Max conversationally said, "Would you like me to show you what I remember of what you and your friends did to me in that alleyway?"


    "Fuck off, trash," said Vray. "Have your fun, do what you will, but know this: you will suffer forever. Valiant¡¯s family will¡ª"


    Max got tired of hearing the man¡¯s mouth, so he casually knelt down and rabbit-punched him in the jaw full strength, shattering the bone. Vray''s jaw was hanging by a thread, his tongue rolling out without any support. Strangely, he actually recognized the man in that moment. He¡¯d been one who¡¯d been stabbing Lance.


    Well deserved.


    Then Max began to methodically stab holes into Vray''s extremities. Apparently, the pain and humiliation that Vray was feeling, knowing that he was currently a spectacle in front of the best and brightest of all four academies in the Quartet, was too much. The dishonor of choosing suicide was better than what Max was putting him through. He devolved into motes of light.


    Max turned with a grin towards the other Mystic Spear students, all of whom were still alive. But the moment he met their eyes, they all too turned into motes of light. Suddenly, the lighting in the room changed, and the grey dome vanished. Max held his dripping sword loosely, looking back at the students who were staring at him in stunned silence. A few seconds later, there was a flash to one side of the unoccupied room as all the Mystic Spear students were reborn in the basic clothing of the Quartet. Plemdo was already standing nearby, also staring at Max with wild, hooded eyes.


    Outside where the dome had been, Adjudicator Swan cleared her throat and announced, "The first exhibition has ended. Max Cunningham, winner." A moment later, a screen popped up in Max¡¯s vision displaying the result as well.


    After turning, Max gave his defeated opponents a bow and then clapped for himself. It didn''t seem that anybody else was amused; nobody moved, and the room was still silent.

 Book 2, Chapter 56

    The quiet around the large room persisted until Adjudicator Swan spoke again. "Max Cunningham, do you require a break or any time to rest or repair equipment before your next match?"


    "No, I''m ready now," he replied.


    "So be it. We will prepare for the senior division match. Lim Jezzen, please enter the ring."


    Max watched as Lim left the Mystic Spear group corner. His eyes narrowed as the other man hopped into the air, clearing most of the distance in a single bound. Max was still confident that he could win, but he was aware that this was no ordinary opponent. It was one thing to be confident, quite another to be overconfident. The memory of his entire body being disintegrated by a single strike from this man replayed through his head. They regarded each other over the distance of the ring, both of them standing just inside the line of the boundary where the dome would be.


    "When you are ready to begin, please indicate so," said Swan.


    Just like last time, a window popped up in Max''s vision. It asked if he was ready for his duel. He pushed, ¡°Yes,¡± and the fight was officially on. The grey dome went up again, creating a sort of illusion that Max and Lim were the last two people left in the world, and now they had to kill each other.


    This time, Max, sword in hand, stayed wary and didn''t rush. Instead, he began circling to the right, staying near the boundary. With a thought, he instructed his sword to generate a cool blue magic shield in his offhand. The shield was similar to a buckler but larger.


    Max watched Lim with curiosity, unsure what the other man would do. He felt he had a pretty good idea of how Mystic Spear warriors fought now, but knew he could still be surprised. He could remember Lim destroying his entire body in the Mystic Spear Academy before, but didn¡¯t know what technique that had been. This man was dangerous and probably had plenty of tricks.


    He continued to cautiously watch Lim, wondering what the other man was going to do when suddenly Lim reared back and threw his spear. Unlike when Territ Mond had thrown his spear, which had traveled like a cannon shot, Lim''s spear drifted high in a graceful arc before coming down and splitting into three spears. Then the three split into nine. All the spears split again and again, until the entire sky seemed dark with copies upon copies of spears.


    Max manifested Blackmist Incident¡¯s shield on his free arm, but realized it wasn''t going to be enough, especially since each spear seemed to truly be a copy of the original, carrying some sort of mystic, destructive ability channeled into it. Meeting the attack head on would not be wise. Max jumped straight up until he reached the ceiling of the grey dome. Without time for hesitation, he kicked off the grey shell surrounding the battlefield, sailing as close to the top of the dome as he could, barely clearing all the spears. Then with a thought, his armor transformed into the glider form that he had used before to great effect.


    He was tempted to throw beads at his opponent but resisted the urge. Max was confident that he could win this fight without revealing his third Path or the presence of the remnants spirits he bonded with. But he was also left without Trill''s full set of abilities and synergies, since she was constantly shielding Max from prying eyes. This fight was definitely shaping up to be difficult.


    Lim glowered at Max. The original spear he''d thrown returned to his hand. It seemed to function differently than Momo¡¯s throwing knives, but the result was the same; Lim could throw his spear and retrieve it almost instantly. However, Max noticed that the original thrown spear had hit the ground before Lim retrieved it. When Lim didn''t throw another salvo at Max, it suggested that the attack had the limitation of a time requirement or Lim being without a weapon until the throw landed. This suggested at least one disadvantage, which was good. The hail of thrown spears earlier had been one of the most terrifying attacks that Max had seen since his death on Albion.


    Before he completely closed with the waiting Lim, Max terminated the hang glider form of Lavinia¡¯s spirits and returned them to armor around his body. He planned to touch down a decent distance away; close enough to close, but far enough to react to any more strange attacks¡­hopefully.


    Max stayed wary, ready for anything¨Cwhen Lim suddenly shoved his spear straight down at the ground and the tip exploded from the area that Max was about to land, he was able to react in time. He quickly turned his arm armor into large sails and scooped the air as Slick reduced his friction with the air in front of him. As a result, he shot forward about ten feet right before landing, easily clearing the point of Lim''s spear.


    But the moment he landed, the other man thrust his spear into the ground again, this time at an angle. Max barely managed to lift one armored shin in time to deflect the spear to one side, pushing his body away from the impact. The impromptu wings he''d created returned to his forearms, and Max narrowed his eyes. He pumped his muscles full of mana and shot forward.


    This would definitely have to be a close-quarters fight. Lim had too many long-range options, and Max had none unless he wanted to give away the full extent of his abilities in this battle.


    A spear suddenly shot out of the ground directly in front of Max at an angle for his stomach, but he was able to easily pivot to one side, doing a complete spin in the air before coming back down and gracefully resuming his run. Now that he knew what to look for, Lim''s stabbing the ground was a tell that he was about to deliver a ground-based attack. When the man suddenly jabbed his spear to one side, Max intuited what that would mean before the weapon suddenly appeared out of thin air directly in front of his face. He managed to slide under the attack relatively easily, using Slick''s power again, and hopped up to deliver a savage strike at his opponent.


    Lim dodged the attack and immediately responded with a glowing spear thrust that Max recognized, the attack that killed him before in the Mystic Spear Path Academy. Max remembered the explosive nature of the attack. With Slick''s help, skated to one side over the ground, protecting one side of his body as best he could with Blackmist Incident¡¯s shield before Lim¡¯s spear tip detonated in a cone of mystic destruction. Max was in an awkward angle to bring his sword to bear, so as he flashed past, he kicked Lim with all the strength he could muster.


    There was a satisfying crunch as something broke.


    New inertia from his attack almost made him fall, but Max turned the tumble into a flip back to his feet at the same time that Lim recovered.


    The two of them stared at each other, neither showing much expression. This was a truly dangerous opponent. Lim eyes were vacant as he focused on everything and nothing, the same as Max. Then the two of them sprang towards each other.


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    Suddenly, Max was in an incredibly intense, high-speed series of parries and strikes as he stamped back and forth with his enemy. The rapid blows left zero margin for error. Lim¡¯s spear was incredibly agile and always seemed to be aimed for his vitals. But Max never stayed still. And despite his opponent''s surprising physicality, Max had more skill and experience.


    Despite being a three star mana body, Max was shocked. The moment he''d first clashed properly with Lim like this, he''d realized that the other man was significantly physically stronger than him. Max could adapt.


    Still, the fact that Lim could actually outperform him physically was worthy of respect, especially for someone who had presumably been studying his Path for less than seven years. Max felt grudging respect for his opponent. As somebody who''d once been called a genius among geniuses, Max wasn''t sure that he had reached this level of power within the same timeframe during his first life.


    The fight turned into an increasing test of speed and skill, with both Max and Lim barely turning aside strikes that were as savage as they were precise. Lim darted back and forth, showing great footwork as he tried to keep Max in the ideal range to blow into pieces with his charged spear attack. Max didn¡¯t let him, instead electing for close quarters clashes that resulted in flashing blades and gravity-defying leaps to avoid strikes.


    Whenever their weapons collided, the air vibrated.


    At some point, Max realized that he was actually having fun. He hadn''t expected this fight to be quite so difficult, even without using his full power. If he needed to, he planned on pulling out all the stops. The fact this thought even ran through his mind was exciting. He still didn¡¯t think he¡¯d need to, but if so, he was going to have to work a lot harder to earn his victory.


    Gales of razor-sharp power buffeted his body, but his armor protected him, and his three-star mana body resisted damage. When he did get small cuts, they healed very quickly, practically before they had a chance to bleed more than a drop. On top of that, Max''s mana-bathed body didn''t tire in the slightest. Lim was performing solidly too, but Max could still remember life-and-death fights on Albion where the deciding factor between who won and who died was noticing the smallest of changes.


    He stayed vigilant and calm.


    As Max continued to bat aside deadly blows and flip his sword in complicated, dazzling strikes, he realized that if he was only a three star mana body Blade Sorcerer, he would probably not be able to win this fight. For the first time since Max had come to the Quartet, he got to truly feel how much of a force multiplier his different Paths were. The fight with Territ Mond had utilized all three of his Paths, but Territ had been too far from his current power level. He¡¯d needed to fight a true peer.


    Lim was undoubtedly a genius. What''s more, Max didn''t feel any personal enmity from him or against him. Even though the man had been the one to kill him in the Spear Academy, it didn''t feel like any of his lethal attacks aimed at Max were personal; he''d likely just done what he felt he needed to do, and Max respected that as well.


    Fighting a truly skilled opponent who was worthy of respect¨Cone could not ask for more.


    The two combatants flashed around the ring, and Max felt glad that he''d chosen Blackmist Incident. The added buckler on his other hand had proven invaluable multiple times now. Lin''s ability to stab the ground and try hitting Max from one of his blind spots was proving extremely tricky and had almost gotten him twice now. Both times the buckler had saved the day. Max was tempted to infuse it with the idea of disruption courtesy of Dura, but he restrained himself. He had no doubt that word of this match would get out to his future competitors, regardless of whether Adjudicator Swan had made everyone swear to secrecy or not. There were always ways.


    Max bounded straight up in the air, avoiding a particularly nasty explosive thrust from Lin. As the other man glanced up to track him, Max threw his buckler down with all his strength. The conjured shield wouldn''t last long in the material world without Max¡¯s physical contact, but it wouldn''t need to. With a wet thud, it hit Lin directly in the face, breaking his nose and cutting him above one eyebrow. Lin was too skilled to let that break his concentration, and he sprang backward with his spear held in front of him in a guard. But Max took advantage of the change in the man''s rhythm to dart to one side, then come slashing in with a truly merciless, mana-charged attack. Lin barely managed to block the blow with his spear, but the energy of it still knocked him backward.


    Then, Lin used a technique that Max hadn''t seen yet, perhaps out of desperation. If Max had never seen the move before, it might have caught him unawares, but it was one of the techniques that Tarrit Mond had used before to great effect.


    Lin seemed to vanish, leaving nothing but an afterimage. Max couldn''t see the man, so he didn''t try. Instead, he crouched and pivoted, blocking with his sword behind him and his buckler before him. He got lucky, and Lin''s wide swing rebounded off Max''s sword. He turned, swinging his freshly conjured buckler and hit Lin in the elbow. Bones shattered. Even though Max hadn¡¯t directly used Saliron¡¯s power yet, the dark spirit giggled and whispered with excitement from the exchange.


    Before the other man could recover, Max snapped his shield arm out and willed his ectoplasmic armor into a whip that extended from his fists. Centrifugal force helped a line wrap around Lin''s raised arm before Max yerked his enemy back. His sword glittered in a tight semicircle slash.


    A heartbeat later, Max was past his opponent with one of Lin''s arms hanging from his conjured whip. Lin had his spear in his good hand, but the man seemed to know the loss of his arm was the beginning of the end. Max discarded the arm to one side, never taking his eyes off of Lim. He stayed wary. Their next few lightning-quick exchanges slowed by a hair each time, until Max was able to get inside the other man''s guard and hack almost all the way through one knee.


    He had no desire to treat Lin as anything less than an honored opponent. After all, when the man had killed Max before, he''d had good reason to do so and had ended it quickly. Max''s blade flipped out, taking Lin''s head. And just like that, the match was over.


    As Max stood panting lightly, he thought about how far he''d come since he''d first stepped foot in the Quartet. Before when had hadn¡¯t even been a single-star mana body, he probably would not have even been able to follow Lin''s movements. Even as a two-star mana body, he would have been hopelessly outclassed. It was only as a three-star mana body that he had the speed, strength, endurance, and toughness to handle a fight like this, much less win, without taking any serious wounds himself.


    The dome around the ring disappeared.


    There were no celebrations around the entire room. Most of the expressions Max could see were of disbelief or astonishment, except for a smug expression on Mong Hao¡¯s face. The headmaster nodded at him.


    After a flash of light, Lin reappeared on the resurrection platform with a complicated expression on his face. He held out a hand and his spear zipped across the space from the arena, smacking into his palm. Administrator Swan witnessed this before slowly turning to announce Max¡¯s win with a stunned expression. It seemed to be a cue that broke the spell over the onlookers.


    There was zero fanfare.


    With surprising speed. all four groups that had entered the underground training area began to leave. Mong Hao Han gestured Max over to their group, and Max complied, hurrying over and wondering if he was expected to walk all the way back to the dorms with messed-up, blood-covered clothing.


    It turned out he didn¡¯t. Professor Grave Call gave him a pristine white over robe to put over his soiled clothing. Dressed in this way, in silence, Max marched back to the Summoner academy with his group. Once they were in the Academy proper, past the road, the headmaster nodded at Max. "Good job, Max Cunningham, you have done our academy proud. Everyone, dismissed."


    All at once, Max was suddenly bone tired. He hadn¡¯t had a life or death fight quite like he¡¯d just experienced in a long time. His friends seemed to sense his fatigue and left him alone. They had to have a million questions, so he appreciated their restraint.


    Some of the other Summoner students in the group tried to talk to Max, but he left without engaging with any of them.


    On his way back to his dorm, Max reminded himself not to be arrogant, but it did feel good to know that if he had fought Lim with his full strength, the other man would not have stood a chance.

 Book 2, Chapter 57

    Max was roused from his slumber by Lavinia saying his name over and over again.


    ¡°Max. Max. MAX!¡±


    ¡°Thought you weren¡¯t coming in here when I sleep,¡± he mumbled.


    ¡°Normally, no. But someone is knocking at your door.¡±


    ¡°Time?¡± Max said as he looked at his tablet. It was two in the morning. ¡°Who in the hell would bother me now?¡± He yawned, still tired from his fights.


    Max began getting out of bed, but he wasn''t in a particularly huge hurry. He checked the messages on his tablet and saw that some of his friends had met up the previous evening. Most of them had gone to bed early, the same as Max. Due to the sensitive nature of the exhibition match, nobody who had attended was answering questions from friends who didn''t. That was going to be a can of worms later, figuring out how to deal with a secret like that. Ultimately, there was probably no solution other than to tell those who weren''t there that they couldn''t talk about what had happened. Max sincerely hoped it didn''t cause any schisms in the relationships within his small, tight-knit friend group.


    As he got up and began getting dressed, he also realized that since he was going to be taking one of the senior division Summoner slots for the end of year competition. There might be social fallout from that later too. Lovely, he thought, what a great way to wake up.


    "Lavinia," he said out loud, "could you check to see who it is at the door?"


    "Of course," she said.


    Moments later, she came back, her voice tight. "It''s Adjudicator Swan and Professor Munka."


    "What!?" He got dressed faster.


    Lavinia continued waiting from her respectful position outside the door. Of course, as a spirit, she could easily move through the door or spy on Max if she wanted to, but Max was sure she wasn''t, and her relative position was just for Max''s sake.


    Through the door of his room, Lavinia said, "It looked like Adjudicator Swan was trying to do something to your door directly, but a golem got in her way. It''s actually a different golem that''s knocking on the door in her stead. They aren¡¯t letting her get close anymore."


    "Oh, hell," said Max. "Why is it always something?"


    On his tablet, there were several other notices and private messages that he hadn''t even had a chance to get to. But based on the deference that the headmasters had shown Adjudicator Swan, he felt like keeping her waiting too long would not be a good idea.


    Luckily, it didn''t take him long to throw on clothes, shoes, and make sure he had his weapon belt on. All of his many bracelets and anklets that he wore practically never came off anymore, so he hadn''t had to even remember to put those on.


    Max approached the door and opened it while schooling his expression. He didn''t truly respect any of the people involved with running the Quartet at this point. However, he felt like there were still things he could get from the Quartet system, and more importantly, he intended to be fighting in Quartet competitions in the future. After all, without doing so, he figured finding a Path book would be much more difficult. His deal with the Goddess Morrigan hadn¡¯t been too bad so far, but he would prefer to be a free man again one day.


    Outside of his door, there were a total of three golems now. Adjudicator Swan stood with her arms crossed, wearing the same formal robe that she''d had on the last time Max had seen her. Professor Munka looked as tired and frazzled as Max felt. The sorceress definitely hadn''t taken the time to put herself together.


    "Yes?" asked Max.


    "Max Cunningham," said Swan, speaking his name like a question.


    "Yes, that''s me," said Max. "You saw me less than a day ago, Adjudicator, so I believe you know what I look like." Max carefully dialed his tone and words to be just short of disrespectful.


    The Adjudicator narrowed her eyes. "I have come for something urgent, and I am doing you a favor, but it doesn''t matter to me one way or the other. So if you would prefer an Adjudicator of the Quartet system does not personally help you, then I can easily leave. That would be a pity, since I have taken the time to come here at an odd hour of the night, and even woken up Professor Munka to help."


    Max blinked. "You''re helping me?"


    "Indeed." Swan gave Max a half-bow. "Allow me to introduce myself to you again. I am Adjudicator Swan. Until the end of the selection process, my position comes with a great deal of responsibility, and sometimes I don''t get much sleep, like now." She smiled thinly. "If you are ready to step out, could you please come with me, Max?"


    "Where are we going?" he asked, but he left his dorm and shut the door.


    "There''s no time to explain," said Swan. "Professor Munka, could you please create a portal to the location we discussed before?"


    "Yes, Adjudicator," said Professor Munka.


    Underneath her fatigue and professional tone, Max definitely caught an edge of irritation from Munka. So he was not the only one, it seemed, that was a bit frustrated and possibly confused about what was going on. However, since Max had met the Headmasters in the woods before, and he''d just had his exhibition match, he had a few suspicions about what this could be. Having another meeting at this point would sort of make sense. He wished that he''d taken a little bit more time to make himself look presentable, but there was no point in worrying about it now.


    Professor Munka made a portal. Swan gestured for Max to go through first, and he did. On the other side, Swan followed him and began fiddling with her clothing as they waited for Munka to come through last. Max briefly glanced around, noticing that the portal had opened up in the Summon forest, almost near the edge of the entire quartet.


    Munka stepped through her own portal and it winked out. The woods grew darker once the magic dissipated. Adjudicator Swan said, ¡°Pay attention. Our guests will be approaching from that direction.¡± She pointed. Both Max and Professor Munka glanced curiously in the indicated direction.


    Suddenly, Max got a flash of intuitive warning at the same time as Lavinia mentally pinged him, panicked. A wet sound to one side dragged his vision over and his eyes widened in shock.


    Professor Munka¡¯s throat had been cut.


    In Swan''s hand, she held a black blade, a dagger that Max recognized, or at least he recognized its type. Apparently, Professor Munka did too, because the surprise that was already in her eyes as she held her ruined throat turned to absolute terror. A strange mist outlined her body and it was obvious to Max that she could not move a muscle. As she was helpless, Adjudicator Swan slow walked forward, then used the black dagger again, stabbing it into the professor¡¯s heart. Only then did the mist disappear and Munka fell to the ground.


    Max couldn''t move either. The same mist was covering his body. In the back of his mind, Lavinia screamed in warning, but it was too late. A wave of loathing ran through Max as he realized how thoroughly he had let his guard down. Especially after everything he''d been through in the last year, there was no excuse for this, and he had to put a fresh wave of hatred for himself to the side. Beating himself up in this situation was not going to help him save himself.


    At the same time, he realized with shock that an action was open to him, an ability he probably should have used the day before. He opened his third eye and properly examined Swan. The information he saw made his blood run cold. It read:


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    Ni Na Long Swan


    Quartet Adjudicator, rank 3


    Aura Sorcery Path.


    Champion of Demeter.


    She''s a freaking champion, thought Max. He remembered the weird feeling he¡¯d had when he¡¯d first seen her. Now he knew what that likely meant.


    He cut off his third eye and desperately tried to move his body, but nothing was working. Swan tapped the blade of the bloody dagger on her other palm. Now that the leather case on her side was open, Max could see the handles of several other daggers as well, even some colors he hadn''t seen before in his visions.


    "This is going to be quite difficult to deal with, you know," said Swan, conversationally.


    Max tried to respond, but his mouth wouldn''t open. He could feel that the mist around him was slowing down and interfering with his mana. He tried a simple effort of will to create wind by pushing out his mana, trying to push his mana, to blow away some of the mist, but nothing happened. On top of that, his connection with his spirits felt different, fuzzy. They were still there, they knew what was going on too. All of them were asking questions, including Slim, using text boxes, but Max couldn''t respond, not even mentally, and he could clearly feel what had happened. His connections with his spirits had been broken, or at least temporarily damaged. As a result, none of them had any power.


    Max couldn''t do anything but glare at Swan. She noticed his fierce expression and smiled in return. "Oh, don''t worry, I''ll be fine. I will admit that this is going to bring some heat down on me. After all, an absolutely extraordinary student like yourself would be a prime candidate to be taken to the Tower. And I''m sure the powers that be here will complain once you are dead. But, you have already shown that you are not shy about killing others in the Quartet. Yes? I can merely say that I took you out here to interview you, and poor Professor Munka was your first victim. Then what could I do but fight for my life?


    ¡°In the end, I wrested back the transfer tool that you stole from me and ended your life just like you killed poor Professor Munka. And, since we were portaled to an area that I scouted out before and already seeded with my aura, there will not be any spirits around to witness this, except of course your own. Your spirits will be missing, though. There will be no way for your professors to find them, much less bond with them, much less get any kind of coherent story from them." She grinned. "Oh, and just in case you feel like you can do something right now," she pointed at a thin layer of mist that seemed to cover her own body. "I have been doing this for a while. I may not be the strongest Challenger or Champion in this universe or any other, but I''m good at planning, I''m good at taking risks when I need to, and more importantly, I''m good at using the power that I have."


    She smiled broadly and took a step towards him. Her hand on the black dagger tightened. "Goodbye, Max. Again, it''s a pity, but this isn''t personal, and by killing another challenger, I''ll be rewarded. Since you are somehow a champion yourself, I shouldn''t have to explain this to you."


    As she drew her arm back to strike, Max''s life flashed before his eyes¡ªtwo lifetimes¡ªand he was struck by how similar in some ways this situation was to how he died as Chasa de Milo. But even though he''d been much stronger in his first life, he had more varied options now. He wasn''t sure if any one idea he''d come up with would free himself, so he did several things at once.


    Trill''s power was the only one of his spirits¡¯ powers that constantly active. The concealment barrier, the bubble that she could generate, was just under his skin''s surface for Max. So although the mana-inhibiting aura around Max played havoc with everything else, Trill''s barrier had been unaffected. It was not part of his body, was not outside his body, and the power to maintain it had already been used. It didn''t need to draw on any more power.


    Max could also utilize the ideas that he''d received from the Remnant spirits. From Tom, he''d gotten a faster, sharper mind, perfect clarity, and better memory, all of which he was using at the moment, making his thoughts race, finding optimal solutions to every problem he could imagine in the space of a fraction of a second.


    He applied Dura''s concept of disruption to Trill''s barrier, then expanded it. He also detached several explosive beads that dropped. The blast from each bead hit Max at almost the same time. If he hadn''t been a three-star mana body, that might have taken him out of the fight. As it was, it just threw him to side and hurt like hell, but he began regenerating immediately. Granted the healing, it was slow, but he would be able to fight.


    His efforts allowed him access to some of his mana. He dumped mana into his leg muscles, helping him absorb the shock of being blasted away, and to keep his balance. His mana body fluctuated wildly, affected negatively by Adjudicator Swan¡¯s power. Using his mana was like walking a tightrope while running. But Max was extremely experienced with mana management. Instead of burning himself out, he navigated the danger and came out the other side, strengthened and focused.


    Swan screamed. The explosions hurled her backwards, and Max was gladdened to see that she was missing at least part of one bicep, and half her hair had been burned away. One eye was closed, too. She wasn''t on the ground long, though. A new, red aura flared and she floated up. Now there were more auras gathering around her. Another shade of red appeared.


    Max figured that as both a Champion and an Adjudicator, she was no slouch. She had caught him unaware and had been toying with him before out of arrogance. It would be a rookie move right now for Max to fight defensively. Nobody was going to save him. Swan needed to die¨Cfast. After all, not only was she likely much more powerful than Max, but she also had an incomparably superior social standing in the Quartet.


    Braving the rapids of his stabilizing mana body yet again, Max pumped power into Trill''s bubble, extending it a bit further, just past where Swan was standing. It didn''t affect her growing auras much, but they did flicker, which was something. At the same time, Max threw a handful of beads at Swan that included explosive beads, freezing beads, and shock beads. Elemental beads had opened up for him after reaching his three-star mana body. He didn''t have as many of them as his explosive beads, but they could be used in a more versatile manner.


    This was not a well thought out, strategic attack. He was just throwing a whole bunch of beads and hoping for the best. Luckily, the extra work he¡¯d put into his mana body helped him settle the power raging through his body a bit, which was good because without some sort of reprieve, he was probably going to destroy himself with the next thing he did.


    Max pulled mana from his mana vault, supercharging his body and empowering Blackmist Incident until his sword hummed.


    Power shone from his blade as Max sprang forward. With a sneer on her face, visible through the smoke of Max''s bead atack, Swan directed clouds of aura at Max. When he ran through them, it felt like he was hit by a train over and over again. But his mana body held. Each time an aura struck him, he lost a bit of his power, but he''d been so saturated with energy that by the time he reached the astonished Swan, fear in her eyes, he still had plenty to spare.


    His sword flashed down savagely, cutting off Swan''s arm at the elbow. Then, he reversed his swing, coming back to hit her in the ribs with the pommel of his sword. He put all of his strength and body weight into the strike. Multiple things broke, and the would-be killer flew to the side, rolling in the undergrowth, blood spraying from her mouth.


    Max had lived too long and too dangerous a life to stop there. He bent down, picked up the black dagger that was still held in Swan''s clenched hand, and ran at where the woman lay in the undergrowth before slamming the dagger home into her chest. The strike was true; it found her heart, and her one open eye almost immediately glazed over in death. The various auras surrounding Max winked out as quickly as they¡¯d appeared.


    Once all of the alien magic was gone, Max sat down heavily on the forest floor in the darkness.


    This was probably the closest he''d come to death since he''d been reborn, and all because he let his guard down. He shook his head at that thought. It pained him to admit it, but perhaps having his guard down and seeming like such easy bait had actually saved his life. If instead of holding him helpless to stab him, Swan had attacked with everything she had, he probably wouldn''t have been able to turn the situation around.


    He noticed that Professor Munka''s body hadn''t begun disappearing yet. She was dead for good, just like Max had seen in the vision. So was Swan. But the system didn''t seem to know how to deal with it right away. Finally, a screen popped up in his vision.


    Congratulations! You have triumphed over a would-be murderer. Mana units awarded. Error. Title awarded. Error. Notifications sent to quartet officials blocked, unsent, error.


    Max quirked his lips tiredly as he dismissed the windows. It seemed that Swan had been very thorough in her preparations to kill him. She''d acted quickly, and Max figured that this was the fastest that she''d been able to come retrieve him after making sure she''d given herself an alibi and blocked any potential witnesses, even doing something to block the system itself. As an adjudicator, she probably had some sort of moderator privileges that she''d abused.


    Suddenly, another window popped up.


    Eternal struggle reward system. You have...


    The rest of the text was garbled. A new window from the quartet system popped up that just read:


    Error.


    Max closed out the unfamiliar window that he assumed was from the alien champion system, courtesy of the Morrigan.


    "Damn it, damn it, damn it," he whispered. He let his head roll back and rest against a tree. There were two dead women on the ground nearby, and Max was not naive enough to think that he could just tell everybody what had happened and come away from this situation unscathed. It was time to enact his contingency plan¨Ca daring one at that.


    But for now, he wanted¨Cno¡ªhe needed to rest for a few seconds.

 Book 2, Chapter 58

    All of Max''s spirits were arrayed in a semicircle around him. They were not physically manifesting, but Max could feel their presence all the same. He said, "Everyone, I''ve told you before that we may have to leave the Quartet one day in a hurry. My escape plans... Well, the time has come. We''re starting an escape plan right now."


    "Which one?" asked Lavinia, her voice unexpectedly devoid of emotion.


    Max hesitated and said, "Number three."


    She didn¡¯t say anything in response immediately. A couple seconds passed before she yelled, "You can''t possibly be serious. We''re not ready. It''s all untested!"


    "Yes, but you agreed with me that it should work now.¡±


    "I thought it would work before I died, too! I was wrong back then! I can be wrong again!"


    "Yeah, well," Max shrugged, "I believe in you, and I believe in me, and I''m willing to risk it because these are worth it." He pointed at the line of daggers on the ground that he''d secured from the sheath on Adjudicator Swan¡¯s body. There was a white dagger, a black dagger, a purple dagger, a blue dagger, and a red one. He hadn''t seen all these colors even in the visions. He was curious about them, but now was not the time to be examining magical artifacts.


    "Are you sure you won''t change your mind?" asked Lavinia.


    "Not at all," said Max. "This is what we''re doing."


    Her voice was small as she asked, "What if you die?"


    Max grinned and directed the expression at all of his spirits. "If I die, then hopefully I''ll end up coming back like you did, and we will all be able to spend a lot more time together."


    Saliron cackled. "Contractor, if you can become as a spirit, I can truly teach you the joy of playing with bones."


    "Of course, Saliron," said Max. "I was expecting you to say something like that."


    "I am glad that I met your expectations, Contractor. Anything for the bones," Saliron chuckled again.


    Speaking of bones¡­ Max reached into his pocket for one bone bead and then threw it at his feet. He used a small burst of power from the mana vault and help from Saliron. That one bead turned into a portal to his storage area in seconds. Then, Max began throwing everything he could find on the two corpses that might be useful into the portal, except for the white dagger. Max concealed it in his clothing. The red-headed professor hadn''t had much on her except for a money pouch and a journal. Everything went into the storage portal. Then Max deactivated it.


    The next thing he did was send an emergency message to all of his friends in the Quartet, telling them to meet him at the rendezvous point different from their normal training area. Max didn''t think that anyone was going to find out about Adjudicator Swan being killed within the next hour, but there was no harm in being careful.


    It was ironic that her own meddling was actually benefiting Max now that she was dead.


    He said, "Lavinia, can you send this message out from my tablet every minute or two? I set it up so you just need to push a button on my wrist. The vibrations on everybody else''s wrist should make sure they get the message. I know it''s a weird time, but..."


    "I''ve got it, Max. You can focus on what you need to."


    "Okay, good," said Max. He filled his muscles with mana and ran all the way to the rendezvous area where he would hopefully be seeing his comrades soon. Sure enough, he began getting messages back from his friends as they woke up and began coming. He''d never done anything like this before, and some of his friends had been present at the exhibition match.


    The first to arrive was the white-haired Gantry. He saw Max in the darkness as he ran in and began to say something but must have noticed the expression on Max''s face. Instead of talking, he quietly stood nearby, getting his breathing back under control as he scanned their surroundings.


    In his messages, Max had been very sparse on details. He just told everyone that they needed to gather at the rendezvous place immediately and that it was a matter of life and death. The next to arrive was Benjamin G. Northstrider. The big man nodded to Max in the darkness and went to stand by Gantry Pliss.


    Even though Max''s students were not very advanced mana swordsmen, the power accumulated in their bodies was enough to find their way in the darkness well enough not to trip over everything. One by one, Max''s students trickled in.


    When Momo arrived, she darted into the area and drew her weapons, taking a position behind a tree. The fierce woman scanned their surroundings, and Benjamin whispered, "What''s got you so worked up, Momo?"


    "Don¡¯t know what is going on. Max is covered in blood," she murmured. All the other students that had gathered turned in surprise at Max. He''d been hiding evidence of his fight with Adjudicator Swan.


    Max winced. "That was from a while ago, but we''re pressed for time. I think we''re okay for now, but I need to start this soon." Everybody slowly nodded.


    He waited another five minutes for everybody to gather. Eolas ran in at the last possible moment, huffing and out of breath. He explained, "Almost forgot my weapon, had to go back." Max rolled his eyes.


    For a person who could be so focused when he wanted to be, Eolas had a surprisingly klutzy side to him. Max was glad to see that all of his other students had their weapons on them. Of course, they probably didn''t have anywhere to leave them since they lived in the normal dorms and had to take everything they owned with them everywhere they went. But as far as he knew, everyone he gifted a weapon to had used the mana units Max gave them to imprint it on their souls. That meant after they left the Quartet, their weapon would appear next to them regardless of what world they went to. Another advantage of the imprinting was, if someone stole an imprinted weapon and never got the soul anchor rewritten, it would still appear next to the rightful owner after they were back on their own world.


    "Okay, listen up," said Max. "There are some things I''m going to tell you, but there are some things I still can''t tell most of you. The highlights of how everything just got messed up is that Adjudicator Swan and Professor Munka... neither of them is going to come back. They''re both fully dead."


    There were gasps all around. But Gantry asked, "How do you know that?"


    "I just know," said Max. He shook his head. "This is one of the things I can''t tell you guys yet. I''m sorry. But trust me, I''m not withholding information to be mysterious. It''s to protect you. And that kind of leads into this next part. I am planning to leave the Quartet tonight. My route is going to be a little bit more dangerous, but I now have the knowledge and the means to send any of you back to your world immediately if you would like me to. And I am going to be honest, I don''t know what''s going to happen here in the Quartet in the next few days, hell, maybe even the next few months.


    ¡°Maybe just being my friend probably means that you''ll be in danger, too. I promise you, I swear on my world that I didn''t do anything wrong. There are things going on in the entire Quartet system that I cannot tell you. I fear that if any of you stay in the Quartet, you will become targets, and I don''t want that on my conscience. However, I know that this is your life, your choice, and your responsibility to your world. If you want to stay here, that is fine. But if you would like me to send you back to your world now, tonight, you need to make a decision."


    "Is there anything more that you can tell us?" asked Eolas. "Anything at all? Come on, Max, you''re not giving us much to work with here."


    Max shook his head. "I thought about it before you all got here, and I truly don''t think it would be a good idea to fill you in on everything. If you would like me to try finding you again after I''m back on my own world and reunite with you, to bring you to me, I will attempt to do so."


    In the darkness, Max noticed a few of his students glance at each other. Nobody said anything. Max got up and began walking back to the academy. He said, "In one half hour, if you want to leave the Quartet, come to my dorm. I believe all of you know where it is. After an hour is up, maybe less, this window will close.¡±


    ¡°So that¡¯s it?¡± asked Tessa Alvarez.


    ¡°That¡¯s it. I''m sorry for the short notice and I''m sorry for the short time to decide, but I am truly in danger right now, real danger, not even the kind¡ª Actually, no, I am not going to elaborate on that. Please do not message me on our tablets ever again after this. Actually, maybe if it¡¯s truly an emergency." He smiled without humor. "That''s it, everyone. Go make your decisions."


    Benjamin raised a hand and hissed, "Only a half-hour? Even if I run full speed back to the academy, change, and get to your dorm, I won¡¯t have much time to spare."


    "Yeah, well, better hurry," said Max. Several of his students looked at each other, looked at Max, and then began jogging back to the academy. Max walked at a brisk but reasonable pace and gave Momo, Gantry, and Lance a tight smile. The three of them ran with him all the way straight back to his dorm.


    ***


    "Okay, everyone, wait out here while I prepare some things," Max went into his dark room in his dorm and shut the door behind him.


    This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    He heard Gantry whisper to Lance, "Did you always know that Max''s dorm was like this?"


    "Yup," said Lance. "Why do you think I came over here all the time? I mean, Momo was obvious because she wants into Max''s pants. But yeah, I came over here to hang."


    "...Wanted in his pants?" Gantry asked. Then he chuckled. Momo sniffed, obviously conveying that she was above their banter. The joking seemed to break some of the tension that Max''s friends were under, and all three of them began softly laughing before focusing again.


    In the dark room, he took a piece of bone out of his pocket, quickly making a storage gate. Then he threw everything in his room that he''d accumulated into the portal. After this, after he dealt with his friends, he planned to stow all of his clothing and most of the furniture from his dorm. Since his storage area was large enough, he planned to steal everything that wasn''t nailed down. Finally, he closed the magical structure again. He tucked the white dagger that he¡¯d taken off Adjudicator Swan¡¯s corpse into the back of his belt.


    Max went to the door and opened it. In all his two lives, Max had never experienced murdering one of his friends. This was going to be a first. Unfortunately, he couldn''t even tell them what he was going to do because it would take time and possibly even cause time-wasting problems.


    He had to move fast. Eventually, someone was going to figure out Adjudicator Swan''s was dead. Max had zero illusions that once that information came out, he would be a prisoner. Although he was likely the strongest student in this quartet now, he had zero confidence in his ability to fight an army of professors, including the four headmasters. There as also the possibility of a squad of other adjudicators showing up¡­or worse.


    And even if he won, then what? There''s always a bigger fish. No, he needed to escape, and he wanted to help his friends who were willing to take the plunge as well. In the back of his mind, he accepted that he might be screwing them over. Perhaps when everything shook out, none of them would be in any trouble or be persecuted at all. But he somehow doubted that.


    What was hardest about what he planned to do was that he''d need to start with Momo. Otherwise, the moment she entered the room, she''d smell the fresh blood and understand. He also didn¡¯t want any of them to be scared. They trusted him. He felt like a bastard, but he could use that to make it easier for them. Max went to the door. He asked them all to remove their tablets. He¡¯d put them into his storage soon. Then he called Momo in.


    "What do I do?" she asked. "How does this work?"


    "Just trust me," said Max. "It''s surprisingly simple, just not a whole lot of fun."


    "Will it hurt?"


    "Yes, probably. I won''t lie to you, but at least I''m pretty sure I know what I''m doing, so it won''t be too bad."


    "Okay, I trust you," she said.


    Max¡¯s heart lurched. He felt a pang of guilt before ruthlessly suppressing it. Then he led her over to one corner of the room. He instructed, "Face the corner. Fold your arms in front of your chest, close your eyes, and relax. I need to form the circle behind you."


    "Okay," she replied. As she folded her arms, she said, "Don''t forget your promise. One way or another, find me. I want to go to your world."


    "I won''t forget," Max said. "I promise."


    He drew the white dagger from behind his belt, and his arm flashed forward horizontally, planting the blade all the way through Momo''s skull. A pale light began to glow the moment the blade entered, and it grew brighter as Momo died. Seconds later, there was a muted flash, and Momo¡¯s body was gone. Max almost dropped the dagger. He stared at the area where Momo had just been standing and reached up with one hand to wipe away the dampness in his eyes. Other than a small misting of blood on his hand and arm, and a bit on the wall, there was no evidence she¡¯d even just been standing there.


    "Well, this isn''t fun," he muttered.


    Part of him wanted to wonder if he was doing the right thing again. Another part of him wanted to dwell on his uncertainty in any proof that the white dagger did what he believed it did. He ignored the voices. If he was wrong, his friends might resurrect in a week, or maybe they''d find themselves waking up in an unfamiliar Quartet.


    As long as he was not killing them for good or sending them to the ¡°Tower,¡± it was not the end of the line. If he was right about all of this, he might be saving them a lot of pain and suffering¡ªsuffering that he would have caused. And besides, at least one of his friends had wanted this all along.


    Max went to the door and called in Lance.


    Two more times he stabbed the dagger through one of his friends¡¯ heads, a feat that was easy for him as a three star mana body Blade Sorcerer. Each time he did it, he focused, making sure that it was a clean hit, that nothing was amiss. After the last of them, Gantry, had disappeared, Max tossed a bone on the floor, making the portal to his storage again. He tossed the white dagger inside.


    Max wished that he didn''t feel so terrible and wasn''t hating himself so much right now. But he was also glad that he¡¯d followed through. Ironically, if he couldn''t kill some of his best friends without feeling conflicted about it, he wasn''t sure if he could have lived with himself anymore.


    None of his other friends had shown up. He wasn¡¯t sure how to feel about that.


    Max got up. He didn''t realize that he''d taken a seat in the middle of the floor. He went to the door and then robotically began gathering up everything in his dorm that was worth putting into his storage. As he did, a screen popped up in his vision. It read,


    Slick: I''m sorry, but I think you did the right thing.


    A moment later, Lavinia''s voice whispered in his ear, "I''m so sorry, Max. Do you want to talk?"


    "No," he muttered. "Too much to do. Maybe if everything works out, maybe later. But not right now."


    "I understand," she said.


    Max felt a mental pat from Trill and sent the little spirit back a wave of gratitude. As he was gathering up the sheets and bedding in his room to take back to the portal, in the back of his mind, Saliron said, I don''t understand the problem. You even let them keep their bones.


    ***


    Max felt more naked than he had in a long time as he low-crawled through the bush outside the secret entrance to Lavinia''s laboratory. He had stowed all of his weapons, put almost everything in storage. The only thing he was currently armed with was a pencil in his pocket and his dubious wits.


    He made it to the secret doorway, closed it, moved down the hallway to Lavinia''s old laboratory, and then shut that door behind him too. Lavinia appeared to his standard sight with her hands on her hips, in a long frilly skirt and a "Born to be Wild" t-shirt. The former summoner said, "I can''t believe you are actually going through with this."


    "What else am I supposed to do?" Max asked. "I could try falling on the white dagger, but I don''t know if it''d work. And even if it did, I''d be leaving it behind. I''m not willing to do that. The only way that I can get out of here and keep everything that I just literally killed for is to use your machine to return to my world."


    "That worked out so great for me," said Lavinia. ¡°Remember?¡±


    "You weren''t really trying to return," said Max. "You were trying to fight the flow of the Quartet, of the universe directly. We''ve already talked about this before."


    "We''ve never tested it though," said Lavinia.


    "That''s because we couldn''t, Lavinia. You know that. It''s not like we have some handy students that we can throw in this thing and risk their lives. No, it''s got to be my life that I''m risking. But we''ve worked on this thing for months."


    "Weeks," corrected Lavinia.


    "Weeks. But you''ve had hundreds of years to study it. And I had a new perspective. I believe in this machine. I believe in you."


    "Yes, well, I believed in myself too. And I wound up wandering around feeling sorry for myself for a few centuries."


    Max laughed at her tone. "Well, I did think about that and you know what? If we''re wrong, maybe I''ll turn into something like you and then we can haunt each other."


    Lavinia stopped her pacing and gave him an arched look. "Are you serious about that?"


    "Of course I am," said Max.


    "You would still spend time with me even if we weren''t contracted anymore?"


    "Of course," Max reassured her. "Like I told you, we''re friends. Friends for life. Forever."


    Lavinia smiled radiantly at him and looked at her feet. Max added, "Besides, if my situation is exactly like yours, you''ll still be contacted to me just like your spirits are. So, I guess I''d be a high level spirit."


    Her head shot up. "I hadn''t even considered that.¡± A number of emotions splashed across her face. ¡°Would that even be possible?"


    "I have no idea," said Max, "and I''d rather not die to find out. Or at least not permanently. But I think I''m going to have to die just like my friends just did, at least temporarily, in order to make this thing work."


    "Okay." She quietly said, ¡°I¡¯m scared.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m scared too. But the only sure way to never grow and to never survive tight scrapes is to be too afraid to act.¡±


    Suddenly, Max''s tablet started chiming with rapid fire notification sounds. He raised his eyebrows and stared at the thing. "I guess they found out," he said. "I can''t believe I forgot to get rid of this thing.¡± He drew out a piece of bone from his pocket and created a storage gate again.


    "You should probably stop doing that so often," said Lavinia. "Don''t you have to use a little bit of mana from your mana gate every time you do it?"


    "Yes," said Max, "but that''s only a problem here. If I somehow get back to Earth, all I have to do is take that thing out for like an hour and it''ll be charged for a year."


    "Good point," she said.


    Max got a pensive expression before going back and forth about sending one last text to Amy before leaving. He ultimately decided not to. Whatever closure it might offer wouldn¡¯t be worth the danger it might put her in. Then he threw his tablet in its bracelet form into the doorway of his storage space. After that he cancelled the ability, making the portal collapse. Now he truly had no tools or weapons on him.


    "It''s too bad that none of your other friends came to your dorm," said Lavinia.


    Max shook his head. "No, they made their choice. My conscience is clear either way. Now I just need to hope that everything works out for them."


    He thought about Iolas''s quick wit, Benjamin''s huge frame, and Tessa''s confident smile. "Hell, maybe they''ll end up winning the Junior Quartet competition or something. Sucks that I can''t be there." Max went to one table and fiddled with a box.


    "What are you doing?" asked Lavinia. "I never did ask what you were messing with over there before."


    "Time work," grunted Max. He opened a small pocket in the contraption that he''d been working on off and on for several weeks. "It''s been done for a while now. I just didn''t know how much boom to put in it."


    "Boom?"


    "Yeah, boom." Max showed her the fifty explosive beads squirreled away inside the device. "Once I hit this button, five minutes later, all these beads are going to go boom. Once I leave this room, one way or another, nobody else will be able to use any of this stuff that we''ve worked on."


    Lavinia stared at him. "Max, I will admit, sometimes I forget that you used to be Chasa de Milo. However, at times like this, I''m reminded all over again."


    "What''s that supposed to mean?" asked Max.


    "If you ever read an Albion history book, at least from my era, you would understand."


    "Don''t know what the hell that''s supposed to mean," Max grumbled. He checked his explosive device one more time, and then hit the button. "Okay, this is it," he said.


    Then he mounted the stairs to the platform in the middle of the room and sat in the cold metal chair surrounded by magical scripts and glyphs. He closed the restraints over his feet and legs, closed one over his arm and wrists, and Lavinia''s spirits helped him close the last over his other arm and wrist. Then he said, "All spirits, all aboard, or else I have no idea what''s going to happen to you."


    A moment later, he ensured that all of his spirits were safely tucked away inside his soul. Then he said a silent prayer to Lady Luck and, after a moment of hesitation, shrugged and said, "Fuck it." Then he sent a quick prayer to the goddess Morrigan.


    "Goodbye, Quartet," he said out loud. "I wish I could say it was all fun."


    Max yelled, "Adios!" He used his mana to activate the machine around him. Brilliant purple lights sprang up, running through all the glyphs and magical text around the machine until it reached the chair itself. Suddenly, it felt like Max was being stretched in every direction at once and compressed about a thousand times per second. The sensation didn''t last long before he knew no more.


    In the room, Max vanished off of the chair. Four minutes later, the explosives he''d rigged up detonated, taking out the room and doing extensive damage to the floor of the building above. If not for the heavy protection magic on the structure, it likely would have smashed through the floor and done a great deal of damage to the building.


    The biomechanical generator on one wall was not so much as scratched.

 Book 2, Chapter 59

    Max woke up in an alley, behind a dumpster. He was lying down in something smelly. He got to his feet and peeled off his soiled clothing. Then he reached into his pocket on the ground to grab the handful of bone beads he¡¯d had in there. Max threw one of the bones on the ground that he''d retrieved, opening up his storage gate. Then he withdrew one of his plain outfits, got dressed, and also removed his sword and belt. His handful of bone storage-opening beads went into his pocket again, and he put his bracelets full of beads back on his wrists and ankles. Once he was properly armed again, Max closed the gate.


    In the back of his mind, he wondered what was wrong. Something in the back of his mind was nagging at him that something was off.


    ¡°Um, Max, the machine didn¡¯t work,¡± said Lavinia. Her voice was a whisper in his ear.


    "What? Um, the machine didn''t work. What do you mean it didn''t work?" Max''s head still felt fuzzy. He rubbed his temple and looked around him. Unless he was wrong, he was definitely back on Earth. At least it sure smelled like Earth.


    Lavinia''s voice had a strange quality to it as she said, "Max, I need you to find a place to sit down and clear your head, okay?" Max thought that the spirit was overreacting, but he shrugged and found a nearby set of stairs to sit on. He put his chin in his hands and thought about everything he''d just been through. He was pretty sure that he''d just died again, but at least he was corporeal now. He hadn''t turned into a spirit, and he was pretty sure he was back on Earth. That meant that the machine and his gamble had worked out.


    Finally, what Lavinia had been trying to tell him hit him like a ton of bricks. Max turned to look down the alley at where he''d appeared. His dirty, bloody clothing was still on the ground, clothing that he''d been wearing in the Quartet. "No fucking way," said Max. "No fucking way," he repeated. He absently got up and ambled over the pile of soiled clothing, aiming an empty palm down at it.


    A few moments later the pile caught fire with a few pages of newspaper it was resting on.


    "Yes," said Lavinia. "I believe you have somehow permanently come back to your original world in your Quartet body."


    "No fucking way," Max whispered. His original plan had been to find some bones somewhere to make new beads to access his storage. In his confusion, he¡¯d reached into his pocket without thinking.


    A moment later, a screen popped up in his vision.


    Warning: anomalous existence detected. Warning: existence outside the system detected. Temporary spirit student body found on Seedworld. Possible solutions: searching.


    That window closed by itself, then another window popped up.


    Equilibrium and balance functions prioritized. Possible solution found. Original organic body... destroyed. Equilibrium re-established.


    Then that window closed.


    Finally, a third window popped up.


    Congratulations on returning to your world. Although your existence is irregular, the system has been able to successfully correct for it. Good luck in defending and saving your world. And thank you for using the Quartet training system.


    If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    Then that window winked out by itself.


    Max stared at the space the window had just been in and slowly shook his head. "What the fuck?" He sat on the steps again for a few more minutes until he got a strange feeling. The sensation he first felt when he opened the gateway was building in the back of his mind. He frowned, took a piece of bone out of his pocket, and threw it on the ground, opening up the gateway again. Then he began removing things until the weird vibration in his skull stopped.


    He had almost all of the colored daggers on the ground in front of him that he''d taken from Adjudicator Swan''s corpse. Now he could feel something from one of the daggers. It drew his attention.


    When his hand closed over the purple dagger, he heard a voice in his mind. [Are you going to help me out of here or just stare at me?]


    "Fuck!" yelled Max. He dropped the dagger onto the concrete. A rustling caught his attention, and he turned his head to see a newspaper being dragged over to him by one of Lavinia''s spirits. His eyes were drawn to the date. Somewhat numbly, he said, "Not as bad as I thought it could be." Then he threw the newspaper aside and stared at the purple dagger a bit longer.


    Finally, equal parts horrified and curious, Max bent down to pick the dagger up again. [Please don''t throw me again], said the dagger. The voice in Max''s head was cultured and dry. Now that he was spending more time focusing on where the voice was coming from and felt a little bit less confused about the situation in general, there were qualities about it that he was familiar with. He frowned.


    "Wait, are you a remnant spirit?" asked Max.


    [Close, but not exactly. I have been trapped in here for a very, very long time though. If you let me out, I promise that I will form a contract with you, no strings attached, just to get out of here. And also, because I saw the whole thing. You killed an adjudicator. That means you are my type of person!]


    "If you''re not a remnant spirit, but you feel like a remnant, and you''re talking about forming a contract with me, what the hell are you?" asked Max.


    [Oh, that''s right, they tried to expunge that information from the universe, at least about Summoners.] The voice unnecessarily cleared its throat. [I am a divine remnant. It''s somewhat embarrassing to say, but yes, I used to be a god, and yes, what is left of me has been trapped in this dagger, powering it for thousands of years. Now are you going to break this thing, get me out, and let me help you set fire to the universe? Or should I just go back to sleep?]


    Max''s jaw dropped. "What in the fuck?" He blinked rapidly and out loud to the dagger said, "Before anything, I need to get some food first. Can we pick this back up after that?"


    [Sure thing, buddy. It''s not like I''m going anywhere. But after what you''ve done, they''re going to come after you eventually, so you better think fast.]


    "This is just great," Max muttered. He got up slowly and ambled out of the alleyway, thinking about his friends and the Trifecta Guild. But food came first. And although there were a lot of things he currently didn''t understand¨Calthough he instinctively believed the divine spirit in the dagger about future struggles¨Che couldn''t help but enjoy the thick mana of Earth roiling around him, almost like an ocean of power.


    He grinned in spite of himself as he hobbled down the street, his muscles warming up again. If he could find his friends and find a safe place to train for a while with this amount of mana in the atmosphere, he was going to be a whole new man in a very short amount of time. And after that, if anybody came after him with ill intentions, well, that would be their problem.


    ***


    Back where Max had come from, the newspaper he was looking at flipped over in the breeze. One of the article headlines read:


    ¡°Future Uncertain for Disgraced Trifecta Guild¡±


    Lavinia read the title. It was lucky that she¡¯d been able to pass down a general command of the English language to her spirits that she¡¯d received from Max¡¯s memories. She addressed her spirit. Thank you for telling me.


    No problem, boss!


    Lavinia quietly sighed. Then the former Summoner hurried back to Max. She was going to tell him what she¡¯d just seen, eventually, but now was not the time.


    It could wait until after he ate.


    -End of book 2, Past Life Hero

 New Story on RR set in the PLH universe

    Maybe this could help tide some of your over until I maybe post chapter of PLH 3.


    Yes, I know that''s a tease, but I''m sorry, I can''t give you anything more definite right now.


    Anyyyyyway... I''m not trolling, I promise.


    So today I just launched Reincarnator Raised By Dragons. As I just said, this story is set in the same larger universe as


    Apocalypse Cultivation


    Sponsored Apocalypse


    Past Life Hero


    and


    Reincarnator Raised by Dragons


    I''ve been kind of playing around with calling the full group of books the Besieged Worlds Universe. What do you think? Is it catchy? Cringe? Already done?


    Anyhoo, if you''d give it a shot, I''d appreciate it. The way RR discoverability works is similar to Amazon. If more people read or check out a story when it''s first out, it''ll get more traction on the site. Basically, success if rewarded with success.


    Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    This new story is very different from anything else I''ve ever done, and as I mention in my foreward, I was inspired by Frieren. I am really thinking about coining a subgenre called "Exploration Fantasy." I think it fits the new vibe well.


    So, yeah. I think most other relevant things about the new story can be explained in the blurb and foreword, so I''ll just thank you here for checking it out.


    If you read the chapters I have up right now on Reincarnator, I''d appreciate a good review if you like what''s up so far (because review # and rating help, too).


    And now that I have all the youtuber-type stuff out of the way...just thank you for being here. Writing and reading are my passions. It fills me with pride and humility to even be here in the first place.


    BC


    (the link to the new story is below)

 Quick FYI about the story going forward and Book 3

    Hey everyone! I''ve pretty much made up my mind now that I will be posting book 3 of Past Life Hero on RR after I stub book one. I have about 50% of the chapters for book 3 up on Patreon right now.


    I almost went the other way (not posting book 3 on RR, ever) when I grew annoyed that someone (who liked the story) gave me a bad review on this story because I wasn''t releasing the next book fast enough. For free. Seriously.


    When it happened, I eventually reminded myself that one or two complete idiots do not represent thousands of people. It''s also partly my own issues being triggered. RR used to be a much more...wild place. It''s actually pretty chill these days, but when I get hit with some online crazy or entitlement (this was the latter), it can be a bit triggering and bring back that feeling of drama.


    Drama-free is good! It''s why I wasn''t on RR for years after leaving. lol. Coming back has been a ton of fun overall, not least in part because Kana and the rest of the RR staff have made this place much less toxic for authors to exist in.


    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Anyway...yeah. I''m not sure when the first book will be published, but whenever it is, that''s when I''ll start releasing chapters on here. There will be a release announcement too, so if you are subbed (and if you a reading this, you probably are), you''ll know.


    One last thing:


    Reincarnator Raised by Dragons is doing well. It''s on Rising Stars right now, but the site is super, super competitive!


    This story is set in the same universe as Past Life Hero. It''s a little bit more chill, a little more focused on adventure and exploration than intrigue and fighting against the system, but I think there should still be a lot of Venn overlap in readership.


    If you''re interested in checking out that story, the link will be in the author note below.


    :)


    -BC

 Stubbing today. Book 1 going live on Amazon tomorrow!

    Hi everyone!


    I''m about to start stubbing this story.


    Thank you, all of your for your support until now!


    I''m sorry I haven''t posted any more chapters.  I was planning on it this month, but I got sick after Dragoncon, and then...the weather came.


    Over the last week or so, multiple US states have been in a state of disaster.  I''m in one of them.  I have not had power or water for days.


    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    I''m writing this right now using my phone as a hot spot and after charging my laptop on my generator.


    Yay!  Without current tech, I''d be 100% screwed!


    ...but I still haven''t managed to get much work done this month.  Sorry about that.


    Anyway, I will put away the tiny violin and just tell you straight that new chapters will be up soon, the first book will be live on Amazon tomorrow, and I will drop another post tomorrow with a link.


    Till then...


    -BC

 Past Life Hero is live on Amazon

    Hey all!  The first book of this series is live!  If you can support me by picking it up or even just reviewing it if you liked it, it would be a huge help.


    Either way, thanks for being here.  This has been a super fun adventure so far.


    I''m kind of hoping that this series explodes so I can focus on it for an entire year or two.  Wouldn''t that be cool?


    -BC


    PS - the audio book is live, too


    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    PPS - I didn''t meet the minimum chapter length here, so I''m going to give everyone an update on my life situation right now.


    Businesses around where I live are starting to get power again, so I''m drinking a McDonalds coffee while I write this.  The first couple days, my wife and I had to make coffee with a camp stove, which is fine, but takes forever.


    Every time I''ve ever cooked with fire, it has reminded me that most of our ancestors probably smelled terrible most of the time.  lol


    Okay, that''s probably enough words.  I''m hitting the button again.

 Stubbing and adding chapters tonight.

    Book 2 comes out on Amazon in hours.


    So that means I need to stub book 2 here on RR, and put chapters up for book 3 (I said I would!)  ;)


    See?  Naysayers?  Told ya!


    Anyway, it''s going to be a decent chunk of chapters when I put them all up at once.  Book 3 is almost done on Patreon, and I''ll be starting book 4 later this month.


    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    -BC


    PS  - If you support me on Amazon, bless you.  And for Delvers LLC fans, this series is doing well enough, I might finally be able to finish Delvers LLC this year.

 Book 2 recap

    After having returned temporarily to Earth after spending time in a mysterious Quartet school that exists in another dimension, Max is reunited with his friend Blake.  It hasn¡¯t been very long since the Earth was attacked by monsters, but society is already in a shambles.  He travels with Blake and a band of motley fighters that hunt monsters and try to save others in trouble.  At an apartment complex, Max wipes out a group of Gssrell Kobolds.


    With the kobolds dead, located with the use of Max¡¯s spirits, he travels to where Blake has been staying¨Cthe dojo that Max used to teach at.  There, he is reunited with his students¨Cthose he was teaching martial arts on Earth before the world changed.


    Because of what he taught them, all of his students have exhibited supernatural powers.


    Max quickly decides that since he only has a short amount of time to stay on Earth before returning to the Quartet, he needs to help his friends and give himself a foundation to return to after he eventually comes back to Earth for good.  He accomplishes this by forming a guild, ¡°Trifecta.¡±  With the help of his friends, he attacks and clears a dungeon portal.  Before doing so, he¡¯d invited reporters there to see the entire thing go down.


    Loot from the dungeon helps to outfit his new guild.


    Once he returns to his point of origin, the dungeon he¡¯d been trapped in from the Quartet, he continues wiping out the monsters inside.  He acquires a powerful new spirit, Saliron, an entity obsessed with bones. Max finishes clearing the dungeon.


    The rewards were presented to him and he had to choose three.  He chose:


    Bracelet of Bloody Arrows


    Flask of Unending Water


    Weight Reduction Adventurer Pack, Mk 4


    Back in the Quartet, he is not ambushed by a group of students like he¡¯d expected, but instead is attacked by a single man.  The man is overwhelmingly powerful and defeats Max, but is shocked by Max¡¯s skill and power.  Max¡¯s opponent is revealed to be Territ Mond, the Headmaster of the Mystic Spear Path Academy.


    Mong Hao Han, the Headmaster of the Summoner academy is also present.  The two headmasters recognize Max as a three Path Challenger.


    They had already uncovered the plot to kill Max, and had shown up in case he could survive the dungeon.  After coming back alive, their interest in him is very high.  The two of them cut a deal with Max.  Due to inter-Quartet politics, they desperately need a talented fighter for their own Quartet to compete against other Quartets at the end of the year.


    Max is bribed with two vouchers for gear, as well as mana stones to participate and to do well in the Quartet competition.  The large number of mana stones gave him plenty of buffer for his constantly-dwilindly supply, all of which he needs to improve his mana body.


    He demands to execute the worker who had sent him to his presumed death.  The two headmasters reluctantly agree.


    At first his spirit Lavinia is concerned that the deal he made with the headmasters might have impacted their Summoner contract, but Max explains that by winning the Quartet competition, it will force other Paths to see Summoners as serious competitors.  It could also help him get closer to solving some of the mysteries of the Quartet.


    Taking classes again is necessary, but Max doesn¡¯t have to take as many anymore.  He shows up to group combat class and spars with the top of the class.  His capabilities had improved so much during his time in the dungeon, none of the junior students are anywhere close to his equal anymore.


    He continued to teach his martial arts class, helping his students grow stronger with the use of Western Wind Style.  Some of the students had formed contracts with new spirits, becoming more powerful.  Max begins planning to find new weapons for his students to use.


    Lavinia and Max continue working together to streamline and improve on her magical research she¡¯d begun while she¡¯d been alive.  They make great strides.  Saliron helps Max store items inside a pocket dimension made with the help of a bone doorway.


    Max begins deepening his friendship with Momo, who he verifies is interested in him romantically.  He learns more about her own doomed world.


    Communication with the sponsoring Headmasters is mostly done through letters.  This slows down the back-and-forth.


    Lavinia alerts Max one night that Wiley, the traitor who led Max and Lance to being assaulted in an alley by Mystic Spear Path students in an alley, was trying to escape through the woods to another academy.  Max finds him, punishes him harshly, tauts Prince Regal who is on the other side of a barrier, and returns to the academy.  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    He plans an outing to the central area for a shopping trip.


    In order to appear more casual, he goes to the central area on a double date.  Max, Momo, Lance, and his new girlfriend Belle head out to shop and try new food.  However, Max¡¯s main goal is to collect equipment and weapons for himself and friends.


    The group meets Amy, Max¡¯s shopkeeper friend.  She acts strangely.  Max makes a note of this.


    On the way back to the Summoner Academy, the group is attacked by Mystic Spear students.  Guard golems that had been following Max intervene, protecting the group.  Nobody is harmed, and in frustration, Max watches the attacking students run away.  With the help of Saliron, he tags them with some of Saliron¡¯s spirits so he will recognize them later despite their face coverings.


    Back at the Summoner Academy, he gifts his students who were lacking decent weapons with new ones.  Lance receives the most powerful and expensive weapon that had been sold in the central area,  the Shadow Sun Rising, sword of the Battleborne.  Max also gives him enough mana units to tie the weapon to his soul, ensuring that Lance can take it with him to earth. Max asks his friend to begin training in martial arts during Max¡¯s classes he holds in the forest.


    He also takes inventory of his purchases, which includes a new sword for himself, the Blackmist Inciden of Actus, and a pill furnace.  With the help of the pill furnace, he further improves the efficiency of refining his mana body using  mana stones, and also uses the tiny bit of excess to make mana pills for himself and his friends.  This allows his friends to start slowly saturating their own bodies with mana as well, despite the lack of ambient mana in their Quartet.


    Max is prompted to meet with all the headmasters of his quartet in the middle of the night.  This is in response to his request that Territ Mond and Mong Hao Han get the other headmasters on board with their cabal.


    In the forest, Max meets all four headmasters, including Winno Smith of the Replicator Academy, and Bojana Gala Tassy A¡¯Mind of the Elemental Shifter Academy.  Bojana is the most antagonistic, and requires that Max proves his credentials at the mid-year Quartet competition before she is fully committed to the cabal, backing Max for the big competition at the end of the year.


    Max requires the headmasters to pay him more mana stones, using the situation to increase his stipend.  They reluctantly concede to his demands and he ultimately agrees to the deal.


    While he is still digesting this new reality of being secretly sponsored by the Quartet¡¯s headmasters, all for hidden reasons of their own, he is approached by Lavinia about something important.  She explains remnant spirits to him, and tells him that one of her friends, a remnant spirit, wants to meet Max.


    Remnant spirits are unique existences that have been mostly removed from the Quartet, and any mention of them has been scoured from all the records.  Max meets Tom, a remnant spirit who forms a contract with Max.  The process destroys Tom, and Lavinia mourns.


    Due to the contract with Tom, Max gets a stronger soul, mind, and spirit.  He also experiences dreams that are Tom¡¯s memories.  In his dreams, he learns of Ancilla, also known as Scorn the Ruiner, a legendary, extremely powerful Summoner who was at odds with the Quartet system, and whose existence is nowhere to be found in any of the Quartet records.  From one of the visions, Max recognizes a much younger version of Bojana Gala Tassy A¡¯Mind, the headmaster of the Elemental Shifter academy.  Tom shares with Max that there is another secret he wants to tell, but can¡¯t¨Call he can say is it is another thing the Quarter system is intentionally hiding.


    Amy openly shows interest in Max.  He meets up with her to learn more about the workers of the central area.  However, the meeting goes so well, he begins a romantic relationship with her.


    Max begins to learn about the competition at the end of the semester that he must participate in to maintain his sponsorship.  He also continues to work with Lavinia on understanding and perfecting her old research from when she was alive.  She shows him her old lab, a hidden location that is still functional to this day.


    Momo has a conversation with Max about what she wants after the Quartet training.  She requests that he find a way to bring her to his world.  Max develops necklaces to give to his friends¨Ccreated to help him analyze and memorize the unique characteristics of their souls.  This is done in case he can locate and summon them later.


    He takes the initiative to develop disaster and contingency plans with his martial arts students.  The information about Ancilla¡¯s existence and how he¡¯d been killed helped open Max¡¯s eyes to even more hidden dangers of the Quartet.


    Amy discovers that Max is planning to participate in the end of year competition for the Quartet.  She is greatly disturbed by this, since the competition coincides with many students leaving the Quartet.  The two of them end their relationship.


    After a great amount of effort, Max finally achieves a three star mana body.


    He is approached by a new remnant spirit, Dura, in the form of a wolf.  Dura has another spirit with him, a friend.   Max forms a contract with the remnant spirit, Dura.  This grants Max the concept of ¡°disruption.¡±  The spirit Trill that Max also contracts with is specialized in hiding.  She can create a bubble that dulls the sense of anyone looking inside.  Her other power is to block the sight of other spirits.


    After this, Max has contracts with:


    Lavinia


    Slick


    Saliron


    Trill


    And two remnants:


    Tom


    Dura


    During the mid-year competition, his friends did very well.  Then it was Max¡¯s turn to prove himself.  He wins handily, also calling out and defeating a number of Mystic Spear students that he recognizes as people who attacked him and his friends in the central area before.


    His last opponent is Lim Jezzen, the talented Mystic Spear student who blasted his body apart some time ago when Max was terrorizing the Mystic Spear campus.


    During the exhibition, Adjudicator Ni Na Long Swan presides over the matches.  Later that night, after Max had won, she shows up at his room with Professor Munka.  She bids Max to follow them through a portal that Munka creates.


    On the other side of the portal, Swan murders Munka and attacks Max.  He barely succeeds in killing her.  She was a champion of Demeter, a Champion of a god just like Max.  The power of Trill¡¯s barrier and Dura¡¯s concept of disruption had allowed him to break free of Swan¡¯s control and move.


    Swan had had a white dagger, a black dagger, a purple dagger, a blue dagger, and a red dagger.  Max recognized two of the dagger colors from his visions of Ancilla.


    Max gathers his friends and tells them all that something terrible has happened and he needs to leave.  He invites them to also leave the Quartet.  Only Momo, Lance, and Gantry take him up on his offer.  He kills their current body with the white dagger he looted from Adjudicator Swan to eject them from the Quartet.


    To allow himself to escape, Max takes a risk.  He uses Lavinia¡¯s chair that killed her and turned her into a spirit hundreds of years ago to instead transfer himself to Earth.  The gamble is a partial success.  He finds himself back on Earth, permanently in his Quartet body.


    He gets the current date from a newspaper on the ground.


    The purple dagger he¡¯d taken from Swan talks to him, claiming it houses the remnant spirit of a god, a ¡°divine remnant.¡± He leaves the alley he¡¯d appeared in to get food.


    After he¡¯s gone from the alley, Lavinia looks at the newspaper again that Max got the date from.  The headline on the other side reads, ¡°Future Uncertain for Disgraced Trifecta Guild.¡±

 Book 3, ch 1

    Max walked into the first restaurant he had been able to find, and his mouth salivated at the delicious smells assaulting his senses. He read the menu; it wasn''t a type of food he was super familiar with. In fact, he had never had it before and had only heard about it in a movie. But at the moment, he was so hungry he could eat anything.


    However, after walking to the counter in a daze, he realized there was a very serious problem. Since he had come to Earth in all of the same equipment that he had had on in the quartet and had not switched out to his old body, he had no earth money on him. The realization made him stop moving and just stand still, staring at the sign with pictures of delicious sandwiches and plates with chicken and rice.


    The man behind the counter seemed a little too old and too well-dressed to be working at a register, but Max shook his head and realized judging was dumb, especially in a newly changed Earth. The man eyed Max up and down.


    "Excuse me, sir," he said in an accent. "Are you homeless?"


    "No, I don''t think so," said Max. He was amused that to people on Earth, his Quartet clothing was so strange he looked homeless.  Then he smirked and shook his head. "Actually, you know what? I''m not really sure. I just got back to Earth."


    The man behind the counter stared in surprise. "You¡¯re a returner?" He looked Max up and down again. "I''ve never seen a returner that looks like you, though."


    After thinking quickly, Max said, "Well, you asked if I was homeless, and I was homeless before I went.."


    "Oh, that makes sense," said the man. Then he chuckled and nodded. "So you were at a quartet?"


    "That''s right," said Max. "I graduated." He lied.


    "Really?" said the man, but then his expression grew shrewd. "Not that I want to doubt you, but can you prove it? That you are back from a Quartet?"


    Max thought for a moment and realized with a sinking feeling that most of his abilities didn''t really have any flashy ways to show off, at least not the way Max used them. They were highly suited to killing, not for demonstrations. At least this man didn¡¯t know that most returners had a tablet, which Max would never wear again now that he was back on Earth.  Finally, he just shrugged and thought, "Slick, can you come out, please?"


    The little spirit responded with an excited affirmative, and as Max held his hand up flat at chest height, suddenly Slick was standing there, looking at the man behind the counter. Since Slick had manifested to the senses of everybody in the vicinity, the stranger was able to see the spirit nonchalantly standing on Max''s hand. The man¡¯s eyes looked like they were going to bug out of his head.


    "Is that a monster?" he stammered.


    "No, it''s a spirit," said Max. Then, with a suggestion and a nudge to Slick, the spirit vanished.


    Then he silently asked Lavinia to have her spirits manifest as an ectoplasmic golem, and it did exactly what Max had suggested before vanishing. Now the man truly looked like he had about hit his limit.


    "Apologies for doubting you. I just wanted to make sure," he said.


    "Don''t worry about it," said Max. He waved his hand dismissively. "I''ve had a very long day."


    The man peered deeply into Max¡¯s tired eyes.   "It seems like you have. Well, I was going to ask if you would maybe consider doing a promo for my store. Times are hard, you know, with everything, and I''ve somehow hung on to the place even though almost all my employees have left. I just have one cook left."


    "So you''re the owner?" said Max.


    "Yes. I''ve had this place for eight years now, ever since getting my green card in America."This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    "Well, congratulations," said Max.


    The man chuckled. "Thank you for saying that, but like I said, times are hard, and a lot of people have moved away, going to the larger cities. There aren''t as many people left anymore either."


    Max nodded. Although he didn''t have any first-hand experience of the man''s words, he could definitely imagine how such a thing would be the case.


    "I''m Alfonso," said the man.


    "Max." The two shook hands over the counter, and Max pretended not to notice when the man stealthily got a pump of hand sanitizer to clean his hands before touching anything again.


    "Tell you what," said Alfonso. "If you give me a little bit of promotion, anything at all, I''ll give you a free meal today."


    Max chuckled. "How will you know whether I do it or not?"


    "Honor system," said Alfonso.


    Max smiled easily.  ¡°Alright. "Absolutely, I''ll make sure to repay your kindness."


    "Okay, what would you like?"


    "Whatever you suggest. I''m so hungry I could eat anything right now."


    Alfonso chuckled. "I will have the cook make you  two of our house specials?"


    "You''re an angel," said Max.


    Without further discussion, Alfonso set out a white styrofoam cup, and dutifully, Max moved to the drink machines. He poured himself a large cup of sweet tea and sipped with a blissful expression on his face. The food in the Quartet hadn''t been bad, but there was nothing quite like American sweet tea. Granted, not every state did it justice, and not even every restaurant did it justice, but this was a good batch.


    He ambled over to one of the booths and sat down, then quietly drummed his fingertips against the table, lost in thought. It was a pain in the ass that he hadn''t come back to his original body, the one with a smartphone in his pocket. From what he understood, everything he had been holding that day was now completely lost for all time. He had resources currently with him but no way to access them until making another bone gate with Celerian''s help. That was definitely going to have to wait until after he ate.


    Eventually, Alfonso approached him with two plates. Even though Max had been in the store for a while now, he was still the only customer. Alfonso set the plates down, and Max almost drooled on himself.


    "This here is our chicken shawarma, and on the other plate, we have our beef sandwich. And since you said you''re hungry, I also added some veggies and rice on that plate too."


    "Thank you so much," said Max, feeling touched. It felt like there hadn''t been very many people in the Quartet who were truly kind, and Max was actively avoiding thinking about how he might have screwed them over with his actions and disappearance. It was nice to be back on Earth and encountering genuine decency in the first person he met.


    "Indeed," Alfonso chuckled. "As a returner with real power, I''m sure you''re going to be worth many times more than what I will ever be very soon. But you know what? It''s you and your people that are going to help us actually keep living on this planet instead of going extinct. So if a little bit of beef and chicken is going to help fight? Well, here it is."


    Then Alfonso smiled awkwardly, seeming to feel he had said too much or maybe not said enough, and he walked back to man the counter again.


    Max tucked into his food like a dying wolf. He barely inhaled as he sucked the delicious sustenance into his mouth. After the first plate was done, he burped and looked up, finally satiated enough to be more curious about what shawarma actually was.


    There were several wheels of meat behind the counter that all had heat lamps or some sort of heat on them, looking like they were cooking as they turned. He was confused because it looked like the meat was turning almost like a rotisserie chicken or something, but it wasn''t a carcass; it was a cheese wheel made of meat. He decided that despite his confusion over what shawarma actually was or how it was made, he didn''t care. From this point on, he was a true believer in shawarma. There would be no shawarma offered that he would turn down.


    Then he began eating the sandwich. By the time he was done, he patted his belly and felt many times better than he had before. Unfortunately, now that the immediate concern of fuel was out of the way, he started to worry about his friends. There were definitely different time dilations for every world and every dimension. Maybe. He had a sense of urgency about summoning his friends that had wanted to be summoned, if he even could. At the moment, he believed he could do it, but there were still a few pieces of the puzzle that he was missing.


    "Speaking of puzzles," he muttered.


    Taking advantage of the fact nobody else was in the store, he wandered up to the counter again and began pumping the good-natured Alfonso for information. What he found out did not make him happy. In fact, it was so grim, at times he had to clench his teeth and put effort into relaxing so Alfonso couldn''t see the effect the information was having on him. Luckily, either Max was a good actor or Alfonso wasn''t paying attention because the man didn''t seem fazed.


    It was a long conversation, and Max noticed, with a bit of sadness, that no other customers had come in during the entire time he had been in the restaurant. It made him feel awkward, but he reminded himself that there were probably many Alfonzos in the world who had an even worse situation. This part of town looked like it hadn''t actually suffered much destruction or seen much violence while Max had been gone. On top of that, although the store was slowly financially sinking, at least Alfonso had the place and obviously had food to eat. Max doubted everybody else in the world had it quite so good, especially after Alfonso had explained the overall situation.


    He filled up his cup with iced tea again and excused himself, leaving the restaurant. The moment he was back outside, Max felt an incredible wave of weariness wash over him. He probably could have cycled his mana or used a mental technique to fight through it, but he really didn''t want to. After the kind of day he just had, and after hearing about the state of the world from Alfonso, he just really wanted nothing else other than to sleep at this point. Maybe when he woke up, he''d have a better idea of what to do, or everything he learned wouldn''t be so dismaying.


    The Trifecta guild is almost in ruins, he thought, and shook his head sadly. "Jackals and thieves are truly in every world."


    He sighed and decided that was something he could deal with tomorrow. In fact, because of how monster incursions, portals, and the like worked, he would have to travel to a different city tomorrow just to find his friends. He didn''t have any money and highly doubted that sweet-talking somebody at the front desk of a hotel would work unless the hotel was completely bombed out or something, but he really didn''t want to be hit with more grim realities after newly returning to his world.


    For the first time in his life on Earth, Max found himself a quiet alley that was under an overhang, relatively clean and dry, and just curled up to go to sleep. He barely remembered to politely ask his spirits to watch over him while he was sleeping before he went out. The last thing he heard was Lavinia''s voice audibly say, "Don''t worry about it, Max. I''m sure everything will work out."


    He mumbled, "I sure as hell hope so." Then he was out.

 Book 3, ch 2

    Max was woken up by something tugging on his foot. His eyes flew open, and at the same time, he heard an urgent "Max" in his ear from Lavinia. His hand went to his sword, only to remember it wasn¡¯t there.  He grimaced and wondered why in the hell he hadn''t worn any weapons. Wearing one probably wouldn¡¯t have been a social gaff in this new world.   After all, it had been almost five years since the Earth had been attacked by monsters. He was sure that some of the challengers on the planet had to carry weapons on them.


    After jumping up, blood pumping, no attack came.  He was still fuzzy-headed, though.  With a simple effort of will, he sent a surge of mana through his body, instantly clearing his head and dissipating the fog in his mind. That''s when he realized that what had woken him up was when a running person, maybe a homeless person, had bumping into him while running past.  The man was all the way at the end of the alley now and turning a corner, not looking back.


    ¡°I saw that man running and wasn¡¯t sure what was happening.  I was ready to intervene with my spirits but it wasn¡¯t necessary.¡±


    A moment later, Max heard a crash and sounds of violence from a couple of streets over.  If he had to make a bet, he''d bet that the man had been running from whatever was making all the noise.


    ¡°What''s going on over there, Lavinia?" he asked.


    "One moment," she replied. About half a minute later, Lavinia said, "A portal has manifested.  It looks like monsters are coming out of it to establish a beachhead.  It must be new but they¡¯ve already done a lot of damage."


    "Got it," said Max. He mentally imagined the streets between him and where the sound was coming from.  ¡°Damn.¡±  While not perfectly in the way, Alfonso''s restaurant was nearby. Any man who makes good food and is willing to spot a stranger didn''t deserve to have his business destroyed by monsters.


    He took a few quick steps, and Lavinia asked, "Are you getting involved?"


    "Sure am," said Max.


    The ghost girl paused before she briefly appeared visually, nodded, and said, "Got it."


    "What kind of monsters are we working with?"


    "Golems."


    "Oh, shit. I hate golems," Max paused and frowned. "On that note, maybe I shouldn''t just run out there without taking a second to get my sword.  Beads might do the trick, but destroying more shit than the monsters wouldn¡¯t be a good look.¡±


    He reached into his pocket and withdrew a bone bead. "Are you ready, Saliron?" he asked. The spirit mentally pinged his readiness, but Max got the impression that Saliron was completely focused on the bone bead, barely paying attention to Max''s words at all.


    A few moments later, he''d opened the portal to his storage space and withdrawn Blackmist Incident. He put the miniaturized sword on his hip, closed the portal, and strode forward. When he exited the alley, he saw another handful of people running by, panicked, escaping the sounds of violence. Max turned in the direction they''d come from, rounded one more corner, and found himself in the middle of a small war zone.


    Each golem stood nine feet tall, and although they didn''t move very quickly, they were monstrously powerful. Max saw one casually pick up a car and shove it into the front of a building. The flickering portal was further down the street, and it looked like not many golems had left so far. He wondered what the odds were of a portal popping up right near where he had returned to Earth and decided that was something he could think about later. He didn''t have the time right now.


    Max sprinted forward directly at the nearest golem. It didn''t become aware of his presence until he was almost on top of it. Golems were tough, but now Max was a three-star mana body Blade Sorcerer. On top of that, it felt absolutely wonderful to be back in a world as full of mana as the Earth was now. It felt like every breath he took, he was breathing in oceans of mana. Blade Sorcerers didn''t exactly channel mana from the atmosphere like some other Paths did, but it definitely didn''t hurt to have mana around.


    And it also helped that Max was intimately familiar with how to deal with golems.


    The low level golem, a big clay construct, took a swing at him.  In a flash, Max decided how to deal with the situation and decided to stretch his muscles a bit.  Max dropped to one knee, engaging a Slick slide beneath the huge arm. He spun on the other side, used his mana senses to pinpoint where the golem''s core was, and then, in one smooth motion, drew Blackmist Incident, enlarged the blade, and cleaved into the golem.  The blow cleanly shattered the core. Then he kicked forward off of the construct''s back, turning his forward motion into a front handspring that transitioned into a sprint at the next golem.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    When he reached his second enemy, the fight went almost like the first.  The second golem¡¯s core was shattered at the same time as he heard the first golem¡¯s body falling to pieces to the asphalt behind him.


    And this time, Max decided to use the fight as a way to test some of his new abilities. The third golem would be his test subject.  Max let the monster lumber towards him.  The golem was painfully slow to his eyes, and he had to remind himself it was moving as fast as most adult humans could run.


    He channeled mana into Black Mist Incident, but also, with an effort of will as he gritted his teeth, he manifested a bit of the concept of disruption, courtesy of Dura. Black sparks trailed from Black Mist Incident as it arced forward in a collision course with the golem''s descending arm. When the weapon made contact, it didn''t cut; instead, the golem''s arm was blown off in a spray of clay and sand. Max blinked in surprise; his strike hadn''t even been that powerful. The mechanics of his slash had been awkward, too.  He''d been ducking just in case the strike had been ineffective.


    Max spun and took a swing at the golem''s leg next. The power of disruption was still manifested, so his strike almost removed the trunk-like limb.


    Now Max was seriously impressed.


    The golem legless staggered and began to fall over.  The power of disruption had almost slipped from Max¡¯s grasp anyway, so he let it go.  Then, concentrating on his blade for maximum cutting power, he located the golem''s core¨Cin its hip this time¨Cand destroyed it in one smooth, precise strike. This golem froze and began to fall apart like the first two.


    Max darted forward and destroyed the last two golems on the street the same way he had the three before. The portal was about thirty yards ahead of him. It was reasonable to expect that with a portal popping up in the middle of a small city like this, authorities or other Challengers would have been called. Max was tempted to jump in the portal, but he restrained himself. None of his friends on Earth knew that he was back yet.


    If he hadn''t heard about the problems the Trifecta Guild was having, he wouldn''t feel a need to be cautious. However, it could be that an element of surprise would be powerful depending on how future situations shook out. He was fairly certain that he would be able to solo whatever dungeon these third-rate golems had come out of.  Doing so would definitely get a lot of attention, though.


    He tsked and went to each golem body, collecting the crystals that had dropped from their shattered cores. As he waited to verify that no more golems would come out of the portal, he pocketed all of the loot. Then, sure enough, about ten minutes later, a group of people sped to the scene in a couple of blacked-out, expensive-looking SUVs. When they got out, Max counted seven of them. They glanced at the pile of sandy debris, all that was left of the golems, and stared at Max. He stared right back.


    "Did you do this?" one of them asked, a middle-aged woman.


    "Sure did. It¡¯s been a while,¡± Max replied.  He gave the destroyed surroundings a significant look.  ¡°Nice of you guys to finally show up.¡±


    All of the new group scowled, and Max took the opportunity to examine them. At first, he thought that none of them matched, uniform-wise, but when he looked more closely, they all had on some similar colored equipment that united them as a team.


    "Who are you?" demanded the middle-aged woman.


    "My name''s Max," he said. "I just returned to Earth from the Quartet hours ago. What about you all?"


    "Oh, he''s a new Returner," said one of the men in the group, a tall, thin guy with spiky hair. Some of the others nodded at that, and much of the hostility they''d been radiating evaporated.  "We are with the Dark Lancer''s Guild. We got the call that there was a portal break here, and we came as quick as we could.


    ¡°Took a while,¡± grumbled Max.


    ¡°Yeah, whatever,¡± shot back the middle aged woman.  ¡°This was faster than police used to be a few years ago before monsters came.  Also, this area is portal-prone, so it''s mostly uninhabited now. The majority of people who still live here are hardliners, stubborn people that won''t give up their businesses or their homes. Also, it''s not a real nice way to say it, but there are other places that are much higher priority for us to get to. Places with more people and importance.  Challengers who are responding to portal breaks in this area are just slower to get here sometimes."


    "Oh," said Max. He turned to look behind him at the portal. "So are you guys going to deal with this thing now?"


    "Right now?  Hell no," said another one of the men, a middle-aged guy with dark skin. He shook his head. "It''s way too dangerous to just jump into an unknown portal. No, the way these things usually work is we secure the area, have a specialized team come in to evaluate the portal beyond, and then based on what they say, the our guild leaders or the National Guild Suppression Agency will decide what sort of group will take it.  Either way, the rights might be handed out after a bid."


    Max blinked, trying to make sense of everything he''d just heard. Very slowly, he said, "If I''m understanding this correctly, you''re telling me that dealing with dungeons has basically become corporate."


    Another one of the Dark Lancers, a young woman with sandy hair, made an awkward face. "I guess that''s kind of true," she agreed.


    Max frowned. "I see. Well, I don''t think there''s anything more for me to do here then. Unless somebody''s going to try to take away the stuff I got from killing these golems."


    "After the rubble, I thought it was clay men.  They were golems?" said the middle-aged woman in surprise.


    Max nodded and folded his arms. He noted where they were looking as they examined him.  He got the impression none of them recognized the miniaturized Black Mist Incident on his waist as a serious weapon.


    "Well, if you could deal with golems by yourself, it''s probably even more important that you go to an office for the National Portal Suppression Agency and get your Challenger identification," she suggested.


    Max had no idea what any of that meant, but he could decipher some of it through context, so he merely nodded. "Alright, thanks for the knowledge," he said. "Sorry if I messed up any of the SOP with how these things are dealt with now. But I saw a bunch of scared people running away from monsters and figured that, you know, I should kill the monsters. Not wait on paperwork first."


    A few of the Dark Lancers frowned at Max''s words and tone, but the middle-aged woman merely nodded. "I can imagine how some of this would look after you just got back. But trust me, it''s what''s working for right now. With what you just picked up, if you go directly to one of the branch offices for the Agency, or even any guilds, you should be able to exchange it for money. I''m sorry that you had to deal with this kind of stuff right after getting back from the Quartet, but trust me, this area is not what the entire world looks like right now." She gave him a half-hearted smile. "We already told you that we''re the Dark Lancers. I''m the leader of this group. My name''s Nancy Smith. If you see me around, say hi."


    "Alright. Thanks," said Max. Then he turned and walked away, rounding a corner until he found the shawarma restaurant. The restaurant had an apartment upstairs and he was hoping for someone to be inside.  He knocked on the window, and sure enough, Alfonso was there. The man was wearing his pajamas, looking absolutely terrified. He opened the door for Max and whispered, "I saw some of it. You dealt with the monsters. You are not weak at all!"


    "Thanks for the vote of confidence," said Max. "I''m kind of done with sleeping in alleys. Do you mind if I crash on the floor?"


    "Absolutely, go ahead!" said Alfonso. He shook Max''s hand. "I''m so glad that I gave you food. By the time those other Challengers had gotten here, my restaurant might have been destroyed. Thank you!"


    "Anytime," said Max. "But if you really want to thank me, in the morning before I leave, let me have a little bit more shawarma."

 Book 3, ch 3

    When he woke up in the morning, Max did his best to clean himself in the bathroom of the restaurant. There was no way he could intrude further or ask for a shower.  As it turns out, a shower was offered, but Max turned it down.  He bid goodbye at the door to a somewhat emotional Alfonso. Then outside in the daylight, the first thing he noticed was the caution tape and the off-limits area around the distant portal. The people guarding it looked like security or police officers. He didn''t peg them as Challengers like himself.


    So that''s what mundane security does in a magical world with monsters, he thought. Then he walked in the opposite direction for a while, just getting the lay of the land.


    It turned out that the Dark Lancers had not lied to him. Most of the area looked abandoned. Since nobody was using the buildings anyway, and Max needed some privacy to think, he helped himself to an abandoned apartment above a boutique store. He easily unlocked the door with the help of Lavinia¡¯s spirits and scoped the place out before taking a seat on the dusty couch. If he found any other people in what otherwise looked like an empty apartment, he was going to apologize and leave. After all, it''s not like there weren''t others to take.


    "Okay, everyone, we need to have a talk," he said. Then, visually, all of his spirits manifested: Lavinia, Saliron, Slick, and Shrill. Slick and Shrill stood together on the coffee table in front of him. Saliron lurked in the corner at the rear of the room, and Lavinia paced for a few seconds before sitting on the coffee table opposite Max.


    "Okay, gang, here''s what''s on my mind," he said. "You all heard when the weird dagger talked to me yesterday. I haven''t tried to talk to it again since, but if it was telling the truth, then the implications are pretty amazing, disturbing, and mind-blowing.


    ¡°Divine remnants.  Did any of you know about this?¡±  None of his spirits spoke so he continued.  ¡°The fact remnants exist was definitely expunged from all the Summoner Academy records, much less remnants of gods. But speaking of daggers, I also need to find out what all the daggers that I am in possession of now actually do. My understanding is that the white one sends a person from the Quartet back to their planet.


    "However, all of this is based on second-hand information and assumptions. The fact is, I don''t really know one hundred percent for sure if the white daggers do what I believe they do. It''s possible that after I killed Gantry, Lance, and Momo back in the Quartet, they just died there and eventually respawned the same way I had before. So, pretty high on my priority list is verifying that the white dagger did what I thought it did."


    "How are you going to do that?" asked Lavinia.  Slick also stood and made a questioning arm motion..


    "Simple," said Max. "Lance is from Earth, too, so if the white dagger worked on him and if I didn''t get here before him, he should be on Earth right now."


    "That''s a lot of ''ifs'' and ''shoulds''," said Lavinia. She paused to consider, "But it''s true, and that would answer your question."


    Max nodded. "Yeah, not only that, even though I don''t know the rules of when people get back to their worlds, and even though there supposedly aren''t any rules, I have a feeling that Lance got here before me."


    "Why?" asked Lavinia.


    "Because he''s so much weaker than me. According to everything I read in the library back in the Quartet, it''s much more common for weaker Summoners to appear back on their worlds before the more powerful Summoners. I''m here almost five years after the initial attack. I bet it would have been longer if I had achieved a more advanced mana body."


    "But you don''t know that," said Lavinia.


    "That''s true," conceded Max. "I don''t know that for sure. All I can do is guess. But since I need information, I''m going to approach all this by guessing and then either verifying or disproving my assumptions."


    "Very wise, Contractor," said Saliron from the corner.  Then there was a snap as one of the bones that Max had placed on the floor in a plastic bag before calling out his spirts was shattered.


    "I''m glad he''s feeling better now," said Lavinia conversationally.


    This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    Max whipped his head up to regard the impassive, dark specter in the corner.  "He was feeling bad? He didn''t say anything to me."


    "Oh, he hasn¡¯t said much about it," said Lavinia, "but he''s been skulking ever since your fight with the golems.¡±


    ¡°Why?!¡±


    Probably because there were no bones to break, and his powers ended up kind of useless in that fight."


    "My powers are never useless," denied Salirin. "I empower and strengthen the contractor''s bones."


    Max was tempted to play peacekeeper and tell the spirit that he was right, that Max was always thankful for the dark spirit''s help, but he decided not to. Now that he''d been living with all of his spirits in his head for a while, he knew that this was not the correct course of action to take with Saliron. Instead, he said, "I am sure that the next enemy will have many bones for you to break and devour."


    "Oh yes, such sweet words," drawled Salirin. "I will look forward to it."


    Lavinia rolled her eyes and asked, "So what about the National Portal Suppression Agency, or whatever it was called?"


    "I think that was the name, yes" said Max. He drummed his fingers on one knee and slowly said, "Going to get tested at the Agency, getting my credentials as a Challenger might be able to solve two birds with one stone. At least, I can think of two problems it may solve.  However, we''re back on Earth now, not in the Quartet. And a three-star mana body isn''t bad, but I''ll be a lot more comfortable dealing with anything that comes my way if I''m at least a four-star mana body. Now that I''m back on Earth and surrounded by this much mana, it should go a lot faster."


    "So are you going to delay going to the Agency?" asked Lavinia.


    "I''m still not sure yet," admitted Max. "Part of it kind of depends on whether I can get stronger or get any loot from closing portals on my own. According to Alfonso and the newspaper I read this morning, in North America, Canada is basically a no man''s land. So maybe if I ever need to kill a bunch of monsters, I can head north. It¡¯s just an idea right now."


    Lavinia nodded at that. "It sounds like there are a few areas on your world that have been heavily settled by monsters and effectively became their territory."


    "That''s what it sounds like," agreed Max. "If the Trifecta Guild were strong and I could just head there and see Chad, all these decisions would be a lot easier, but I don''t know what the hell is going on right now.  I need information more than anything. But I think I also need more power, and I really don''t need anybody''s help to get it now that we''re back on Earth."


    "You need money," pointed out Lavinia. Trill and Slick both nodded emphatically at that.


    Max gave little Trill a strange look. Just like Slick, she didn''t talk much, and he was starting to suspect that she was an odd one too. When he first met Lavinia, he never would have thought that she would end up being his least eccentric spirit.


    ¡°There¡¯s also the issue of summoning Gantry and Momo,¡± said Max.  ¡°If they got to their world earlier than I got here, who knows how long it¡¯s been?  So I need to first figure out if they¡¯re even back from the Quartet, then figure out how to get them here.  I don¡¯t even have a complete plan yet, but I suspect it will take a hell of a lot of power.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s putting it mildly,¡± said Lavinia.


    Max thoughtfully tapped his fingertips on one arm as he pondered his next move. Then he said, "I think that I''m going to head towards the big city, the one Trifecta is actually based out of, but I''m going to take my time heading there. Maybe if I work hard, I can hit a four-star mana body before arriving.  Then I think that while I''m there, I will take the test with the Agency and get officially recognized as a Returner and a Challenger.  But before that, I definitely do need to talk to somebody who can answer my questions, so I probably need to find another Challenger. Regular people won''t know all the ins and outs of the stuff Challengers need to know, I suspect.


    ¡°I need to find and visit my family, too.  Maybe I should try calling them today, especially my mom.¡±  Max made a face. "I also need to spend more time working with my abilities."


    "What do you mean?" asked Lavinia.


    "Well, using the power of disruption with a Blade Sorcerer attack earlier was both powerful but also unfocused. I am sure that I''m not using it to its utmost potential, but I also need to figure out how I can pair that concept with all of your powers. After all, it was borrowing Trill''s power that allowed me to kill Adjudicator Swan."


    Trill had been seated again, and the little spirit stood and took a bow to an imaginary audience. Max smiled in spite of himself.


    "What are you going to do for money?" asked Lavinia.


    "That''s a good question," said Max, "but I don''t even know what kind of money anybody''s using right now. Maybe still dollars?  At the end of the day, I am superhuman, so if I can set my morals aside for a little bit, it shouldn''t be too difficult to get at least a few hundred bucks. But, I also suspect that, like every other market hat has ever existed in the world, there is probably an unofficial way to sell them if there¡¯s enough demand in the official channels."


    "You mean like a black market?" asked Lavinia.


    "Something like that," said Max, "but it probably doesn''t even need to be that cloak-and-dagger. I mean, think about it, if there''s a group of Challengers that goes into a portal and closes it, if they could buy monster parts for half the going rate from somebody else on their way to the Agency, they''d be able to make quite a bit of profit with no extra risk. I don''t care how long it''s been since the first portal attacks, and I don''t care what kind of technology humanity has right now, I would bet everything I own that there''s no way for the Agency or the guilds to truly know for a fact what happens inside the portals."


    Lavinia nodded slowly. "I suppose that''s true. But you haven¡¯t answered the question.  What are you going to do now?"


    "First, I think I need to secure some transportation.¡±


    ¡°Didn''t Alfonso say that a whole bunch of cars have been scrapped or scavenged to make war machines or other alien tech?"


    Max nodded. "Yeah, but I bet bicycles are still around and still work."


    "Bicycles?" asked Lavinia in disbelief. "Can''t you just run that fast?"


    "Faster," said Max. "But I don''t feel like it. And not only that, if my goal is to stay under the radar until I meet up with my friends again.  Running around in a flashy way everywhere is probably not a good way to do it."


    "Oh yeah, right."


    "So the first thing I''m going to do," said Max, "is get a bicycle and then find somewhere or someone who can fill in the gaps about the world and what the hell is going on." He stood up. "All right, everybody. Back in the soul."


    All of his spirits disappeared from his eyesight, and he felt a fullness that he otherwise couldn''t explain in words. He talked a big game to Lavinia and the rest of his spirits, but he knew that the reality was, in order to get another Challenger to help him that was actually accurate and trustworthy, if he remained an unknown, it might cost a little bit of money. Maybe more than he could generate just selling a few golem parts.   And that meant he was going to keep his eyes out for a way to make some money as one of his higher priorities as well.

 Past Life Hero 2 is live on Amazon!

    As you can see, the book is live.


    Here is the blurb:


    Reclaiming some Blade Sorcerer power from his past life, and also training in a new style of magic, bonding with and utilizing spirits, has led to some very interesting synergies. He¡¯d even managed to make some unlikely friends.


    This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    However, overshadowing everything is the very real fact that while students in the Quartet train, their home worlds suffer. This includes Max. Earth is still in danger, still desperately needing its Challengers to return.


    Unfortunately, the more Max has learned about the Quartet system, the more rot he has discovered. And certain individuals in his Quartet already scheme against him.


    But Max is playing a different game than everyone else. He will also learn a few very dangerous secrets. Also, an unprecedented opportunity to return to Earth for a quick visit may yield some interesting opportunities as well.


    But with new opportunities comes new dangers, new enemies. Maintaining his freedom while following the rules will become even more difficult, and the Quartet is still the best place for Max to continue growing in power.


    ¡­Right?

 Book 3, ch 4

    Finding a bicycle turned out to be easy enough. Max went to an apartment complex and scoped out some of the abandoned rooms.  His reasoning was that after the area had been abandoned, any bikes left outside were probably already taken or needed work to get working again.


    He wasn''t expecting to find what he was looking for so quickly but likely got lucky due to focusing his search on first-floor apartments. The apartment complex he was at, Shady Oaks Community Lane, was relatively close to a college, which had also raised the possibility of finding a bicycle inside one of the units.


    The bike he found was actually a pretty good one.  After all this time, the tires weren''t ready to  go anymore, but luckily none of the rubber treads had rotted.


    Judging from the state of the apartment itself and especially the inside of the units, it looked like these buildings had been empty for around three years, best max could judge. It was long enough for a lot of stuff to age out of usefulness, but not everything.  He¡¯d gone through a decent number of units before finding the bike and poked around.


    He¡¯d looked for anything he wanted to take and found a few handy things.  It looked like most of the units had been opened and ransacked over the years, but not all of them. And based on what he could observe, it looked like most of the looters had only been looking for valuables or maybe food. Probably also weapons.  A surprising number of useful items had been left behind, like lighters, pots and pans, even camping goods. It made Max feel like he was treading a moral gray area by effectively stealing the stuff he had gathered, but after a few years of abandonment, and with this area basically being off-limits to most people anymore, he figured it was fair game.


    Either way, he still opened a portal using a bead and threw in several armfuls of stuff.  After finding the bike, it was a good point to leave, too.  There was a limit to the kinds of things he could probably find in an abandoned apartment near a university.  It was why he¡¯d taken his time to search, and why he never asked Lavinia¡¯s spirits to search for him.


    Walking among the ghosts of other people¡¯s abandoned lives had almost helped affirmed Max¡¯s humanity, at least in some strange way.


    It didn''t take him long to switch out the inner tubes of the tires with spare tubes he found stored next to where the bicycle had been hung against the wall. There was a little hand pump to inflate the tires that he put to good use and then threw in the backpack that he found in another unit.  It sat on top of the golem parts he¡¯d moved into it.


    Once his new bike was fixed, Max took one last look around before setting off on the first leg of his journey to reunite with his friends. On the way out of what had been his home city, he rode back through the area near where Alfonso''s restaurant was located. Now that he had a better understanding of the situation, Max truly felt bad for the man and he also understood why Alfonso was staying.


    Seeing it all in the fading daylight, Max noticed several buildings, including Alfonso''s, that had solar panels rigged up in a smaller grid for people who had stayed behind. For somebody like Alfonso, living in a restaurant with large freezers, it actually made sense to stay in the condemned area of the city.  As long as he didn''t get killed or his restaurant wasn''t destroyed, he¡¯d be able to live just by sourcing food.  After all, Max highly doubted anybody who was still staying in this city was paying property taxes or rent anymore. This was all basically a squatter area now.


    Maybe Alfonso actually did a decent amount of business for being in an abandoned city.  It was an interesting thing to think about.


    Max still planned to make good on his promise to Alfonso to promote his restaurant. He briefly wondered about shawarma again and keenly felt the absence of a smartphone. He still had not quite gotten used to not being able to look up any random knowledge he felt like. "Okay, added to the high priority list, get a new phone," he muttered to himself.


    At one point, Max rode his bike by the dojo he¡¯d fought a challenge match in before meeting Ethan and Chad.  There were no cars on the street.  The windows of the businesses had been broken out, whether by monsters or looters, he wasn¡¯t sure.


    Riding through the empty city was depressing. So depressing, in fact, that he almost didn''t return to his old apartment. His plan was to at least retrieve his guitar and maybe a few other items of sentimental value once he got there¡­if they were still there. However, when he arrived, he found that half the building had been burned down, including his old unit. There was no way to know when the destruction had occurred, or even whether it had been ransacked or looted before then. Zero effort had been made to restore the area, so it must have happened either right before or after the area had begun being evacuated.


    "Damn," he muttered.


    Lavinia softly said, "I''m sorry, Max."


    That''s right, he thought to himself. Lavinia has my memory, so she knows the significance of this building. Out loud, he said, "Thanks," and then began biking his way out of the city again, on a mission to find someone who could give him a crash course on the current state of the world.


    Expert or not, it was going to be a lot easier to look for a specific kind of person outside of a ghost town like this one.


    Max was about to take his bike onto the on-ramp towards a highway when he heard some commotion in the distance. Curious, he turned and headed towards the sounds that had gotten his attention. Even from this far away, it sounded like violence. Max rode down the side street past abandoned office buildings and textile companies until he passed a warehouse building on his left and saw what was happening. Four cars were parked in the parking lot haphazardly, two of them still with their engines running. And near one of the loading docks, seven men were beating another man as two  others held onto a smaller young man who was crying out in anger, frustration, and fear.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    "Stop! You''re going to kill him! Fuck!  You fuckers already killed Antonio!"


    Max glanced over and, sure enough, there was a man lying in a pool of blood.  At this point he was pretty sure it was a body.  The man wasn¡¯t moving and the damage looked severe.


    He did another quick count to verify his numbers.  That two men were holding the smaller guy who was yelling.  Seven were taking turns chuckling and beating a man curled into a fetal position on the ground.  Now Max could spot another man behind them all, holding a pistol nonchalantly in his hand as he smoked.


    ¡°Stop!¡± Screamed the restrained man.  Tears of frustration ran down his cheeks.  ¡°Just let us go.  I won¡¯t say shit.¡±


    ¡°What a crying bitch,¡± said one of the attackers.  He spit on the man who was getting kicked by one of his surrounding friends.  ¡°His friend¡¯s getting killed and he just keeps running his mouth like a pussy.¡±


    ¡°Don''t worry," chuckled one of the men holding the restrained man. "You''ll get your turn after him, puta.":


    Max was almost within speeding distance of one of the cars before any of them noticed he was there.


    The man with the gun turned and exclaimed, "Whoa, what the fuck?  Who is this?" His gun came up, and he fixed Max with a steely gaze.


    This guy''s definitely pulled the trigger before, Max thought to himself. He stopped his bike, held his hands up, and got off his bike with a clatter. By now, all of the attackers had turned to stare at Max with open-mouthed astonishment.


    "Who the fuck is this guy?" said one of them.


    "Is he trying to stop us?  Who does this asshole think he is? I didn''t know there were still Boy Scouts around here," said one, and a few of them laughed.  The relatively undamaged victim didn''t say anything. He seemed to be warning Max away with his eyes. But at the same time, perhaps hoping for help.


    Max was living his second life and was not nearly naive enough to immediately assume that the guys getting a beatdown were saints.  It was even possible they deserved what they were getting.  For all he knew, they were drug-dealing child killers. It could be that everybody involved in this scene was equally awful. However, he knew what he was witnessing probably wasn''t right.  Even though everyone involved looked similar and around the same age, there were a whole host of reasons he suspected that the larger group was probably harder, less moral.  Some of it was just his gut.


    He was aware of his own hypocrisy.  After all, he was willing to kill somebody in an extremely one-sided duel, or kill many in war.  Even if he were to fight a group like this one, even by himself, the large power differential suggested that he was the same as this attacking group¨Cat least in some way.  But the warrior in Max, the honorable part of him, couldn''t help but feel revulsion when he saw a group beating or attacking an otherwise helpless person.  He doubted they¡¯d been given any kind of choice, or received any warning at all.


    "You guys are really tough," he drawled. "Let me guess, you all have been looking for these three guys. Some of you were patrolling or riding around and saw them, stopped them with a gun, called all your buddies in, and started having a good ol'' human pi?ata brotherhood bonding time, huh?"


    "Yo, was he watching?" one of the men started to say, but another elbowed him in the ribs.


    "Shut up, motherfucker, let George handle it."


    The man with the gun, presumably Geroge, relaxed his posture and indolently propped an elbow on top of the car¡¯s mirror.  "I don''t know who you are, man, but you seem to have gone to the wrong place at the wrong time. School must have been out at Good Boy Ranch or something." Most of attacking men laughed, and their mirth was punctuated by an agonizing groan from the moving man on the ground. The other man in the pool of blood still hadn''t twitched.


    Max paused for a moment and gave all of the people involved a closer look. Now he could see that the three victims definitely had rougher and cheaper clothing than the men who were attacking them. He saw plenty of jewelry on George the car guy too. It didn''t take a genius to assume that this was some sort of criminal thing and that if Max hadn''t come along, all three of the victims would have likely been beaten to death and maybe not even found for weeks.


    Maybe monsters would spawn, eat the bodies, and they¡¯d never be found.


    Max sucked in air through his teeth, reminding himself that everybody involved might be a piece of shit, and none of this concerned him. However, if there was one thing he had learned in centuries of living, it was that people just surviving on the fringes of society often knew a surprising amount about the world around them. They did not have the luxury of ignoring what was going on or being ignorant of current events.


    Since he was here already, maybe he could cross out one of the items on his to-do list.


    "Hey guys," he pointed at the small man who was being restrained and only had a bloody nose so far. "How about I take that guy off your hands, ask him some questions for a while, and I''ll even give him back to you if you give me a good reason for why he should be beaten to death. But I''m kind of in a hurry, and I need to go find some of my friends.  It¡¯s going to be a bit of a trip.  You guys look busy, and you also don''t look like you''d be really keen on just having a chat, so I¡¯ll just leave you to do your thing instead of having a chat with any of you.  Just that instead.  How¡¯s that sound?"


    Absolute silence reigned in the parking lot other than the scrape of clothes against asphalt and the low moans of the man who had been in mid-beating when Max had shown up. One of the men, a guy in a flannel, blinked and said, ¡°Is he seriously crazy?  Did he escape from a hospital?¡±


    George narrowed his eyes and began raising his weapon again.  Max held up and empy palm and said, "Look, I¡¯m going to level with you.  I know the most efficient thing would be for me to let you guys do something real stupid and then rip you all apart in self-defense. But I really don''t want to get blood on my clothes.  They¡¯re nothing special and I just looted them from an apartment, but believe it or not, they¡¯re not too bad.  Also, I''m really not here to play the hero right now or try to trick you. To be blunt, I''ve just got way more important shit to do.  So let¡¯s just make a deal, yeah?"


    He held up a finger as he thought of something. "Actually, I just realized I¡¯m sorta making a lot of assumptions here.  Let me confirm something.  Hey, dude who''s being held, the guy they haven''t killed yet, did you guys do anything to deserve this?"


    "Hell no," the man yelled. He jerked his head at one of the the attackers.  "That asshole''s ex-girlfriend started dating my friend, and they killed him for it! And they probably killed my other friend, and they''re going to do me next!"


    With a sudden snarl of pure hatred, he glared again at one of the men who''d been hitting his friend, one with a green bandana. "It wasn¡¯t our fault Homeboy here has a small dick and likes to hit women because he''s such a pussy and can''t get any respect with dudes.  Can¡¯t fucking fight without all his piece of shit friends helping him, either.  Real brave piece of shit."


    A predictable hail of punches landed on the man who''d just spoken.


    "Whoa, whoa, whoa," Max yelled. "Everybody needs to stop."


    However, the man in the green bandana who was yelling and punching didn''t stop, and now the man with the gun had his weapon fully trained on Max again.


    "You know what, buddy?" he asked. "I think we might just have to teach a fourth bitch who can¡¯t keep his mouth shut a lesson today."


    Max rolled his eyes. "Like I was saying, I''m not trying to live any cliches here. So your name is George, right?  I''m going to tell you very bluntly that I''m a Returner, and I can absolutely rip you a new asshole whenever I feel like it. None of you guys can do shit to me. I''m going to say one more time¨Cvery clearly¨Cthat I want that guy that is currently getting hit to answer my questions. And if you don''t call your boy off of him on the count of three, I''m going to kill him, and then I''m going to kill all of you. Because I know you¡¯ll attack me after killing him, and I also know that once violence starts, leaving any of you alive would just probably cause more problems in the future."


    The men who were not actively hitting their prisoner either looked absolutely dumbfounded, even more so than before.  Only one or two had the beginnings of a fear shadow. However, George, the leader with the pistol¨CMax noted it was a Glock¨Cgave Max a critical once-over.  He looked at Max¡¯s shabby clothing, his dusty sneakers that he''d also liberated from one of the apartments he''d raided, and the age-stained backpack he was wearing. His gaze finally settled on the bicycle that Max had been riding.


    "A Returner?  Yeah, sure you are. You just stay right there until we kill you. Unless you want me to shoot you first."


    "Is that your final answer?" Max said.


    "Yeah," the man smirked and spat. "I think it is."


    "All right," Max shrugged and then said, "Lavinia, armor please."

 Book 3, ch 5

    Almost instantly, ectoplasmic armor formed on Max, covering him from head to waist on the front of his body. Full coverage. Even though he was pretty sure his body was now pistol-bulletproof, even at a close range like this, taking any chances before he could attain a four star mana body would just be silly.


    As George, the leader, blinked in surprise and began shooting, Max flashed forward. He had been telling the truth about wanting to keep blood off his clothes. So instead of using Blackmist Incident, or punching, or actually ripping George apart, he merely grabbed George''s wrist in one steel-crushing grip, put his other hand against the man''s chest, walked him forward a few steps, and pushed him with all his strength through the car behind him.  The push launched the gang leader right through the window, his head slamming against the frame.  The trajectory made his head hit several solid parts of the car and his body actually snapped on of the seat back before it crashed through a second window.  The broken glass did some damage, but most of it was blunt force trauma.


    It turned out a human body speeding through a car at the speed of a past pitch baseball wasn¡¯t good for the person doing the  traveling.


    Max had managed to hang on to the Glock, which he dropped on the ground for now.  Then he surged forward, using all his inhuman speed to target the man who had been beating the standing victim.


    Similar to what he''d done with George, he spun the attacker and shoved him towards the loading dock of the nearby building. There was a sick crunch as the man''s head rebounded off a concrete corner near a loading gate.


    Max barely avoided getting hit by blood splatter.  He frowned in irritation.


    At this point, some of the other men rushed Max, even a couple of them opening up knives in their hands. Three ran away. Max wasn''t particularly worried about any of it. He directed Saliron to attach spirits to the bones of the three fleeing men, and then he very easily protected himself from the clumsy attacks of the five gang members trying to punch or stab him.


    "He''s got a fucking shield, man!" one of them yelled, fear underlying his voice.  He started running in the opposite direction as the first three. Saliron tagged him with a spirit too.


    Max conversationally said, "I don''t really enjoy this sort of thing. It feels a bit like seal clubbing. But if I have to kill you all anyway, I might as well get something out of it.  Training time, I guess." Then he slapped one of the men''s legs while instructing Saliron to use his bone-breaking power. Every inch of the man''s femur suddenly shattered, and he fell to the ground with a scream. Max moved on, destroying another attacker¡¯s leg bone before breaking one of his arms, jerking the knife out of his hand, and throwing it into another man¡¯s chest about ten feet away.


    Whether he was going to run away like the first four, now nobody would ever know.


    He he darted in, hammering aside a punch from the last attacker with his forearm so hard that he broke it without even using Saliron''s power. With an open palm, he slapped the man''s chest and tried calling on the power of disruption. This was a new attempt at using the mysterious power of disruption.


    What he had been attempting to do was rip the man''s insides apart, but his effort was a failure. Instead, he succeeded at stopping the man''s heart. The would-be murderer dropped like a stone.


    "Well, that''s interesting," Max sad. The remaining two men, both incapacitated on the ground, just screamed.


    Max idly plucked an explosive bead off his bracelet, judged the distance to the solo running man¨Cabout seventy yards¨Cand threw it at the man''s feet. There was a sudden concussion and a mist of blood¨Cit looked like the man had stepped on a landmine in the middle of the parking lot. He collapsed to the ground without even screaming. Max wasn''t sure if he was truly dead or just in shock. So he threw another bead to savage the runaway¡¯s upper body for good measure.


    The two men on the ground were screaming even louder now, staring at Max with wild, fear-stricken eyes. One of them held a knife, pointed at Max as if it were a magical talisman that would keep him away. Max turned to look at the only one the three of this group¡¯s victims that could still talk, where he was plastered against the wall, staring in wide-eyed horror.


    "Hey, small guy," said Max. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m talking to you."


    "Uh, yeah?¡± He swallowed.


    ¡°What''s your name?"


    "It''s Dan."


    "Okay, Danny. Here''s the deal. I need to go chase down three of them. Honestly, what those three did was probably the most rational thing to do, so it''s a shame that I need to go kill maybe the three smartest guys in this group of idiots.


    ¡°What to do about these two, though?¡±  He gestured at the two screaming men with shattered legs.  ¡°See, I still don''t want to get blood on my clothes, and I kind of don''t want to blow these guys up and waste my ammunition. Actually, they probably would have tried using it by now, but they don''t have guns, do they?"


    Dan shook his head. "No, they took them all off and left them in their cars when they started hitting us. Didn''t want any of us to get lucky and grab one."


    Max lifted his eyebrows. "Wow, that was a surprisingly smart thing for a group like this, huh?   Well, if you want, you can get one of those guns and kill these guys.¡±  Max noticed he¡¯d already killed the man in the green bandana who¡¯d been hitting Dan.  ¡°Or I suppose you could hop in one of the cars and just drive over them.¡±  He had a sudden thought.  ¡°Actually, I take that back."


    If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Max looked at the man appraisingly. "Dan, I really do just want to ask you some questions, but I just realized you might do something stupid like try to run away. Because of that¨C¡±  His voice trailed off, and he pointed at the man. "I''ve just tagged you. There''s no way you can get it off. I will be able to find you and track you down to the ends of the earth. So you stay right there. You can kill these guys if you want. And definitely do so if they start pulling themselves towards the car. Actually, goddammit. If you let them get to the guns, they might kill you instead."


    He walked over to the Glock that had dropped on the ground in his struggle with George and picked it up. Then, from about fifteen yards away, he shot both screaming men twice, center mass. They stopped screaming. He approached the first of the undamaged cars and laid a hand on the hood. He was about to channel the power of disruption into the engine before realizing that if he did, he might be screwing himself over too. Riding the bicycle was fine, but driving would be a lot better, at least in the short term. These cars might be stolen, so he didn''t want to stay in one for very long, though.


    "Okay, Dan," he said, "I want you to listen to me very carefully." The bloody, battered man nodded his head. "Do not get in one of these cars and drive away. In fact, if you stay and make my life easier so I don''t have to track you down, I will even give you some money later today or tomorrow."


    "How much?" said Dan. And Max was quietly impressed by the sheer balls, or maybe just desperation.


    "Enough to set you up for at least a few months," said Max. He pointed at the backpack over his shoulder. "I got some stuff to sell to a Challenger, or adventuring guild."


    Dan¡¯s expression changed as he must have remembered that Max had just proved he was a Challenger, and then must have come to the conclusion that what Max was saying was very reasonably true.


    "All right," he said. "But can I call an ambulance for my friends?"


    "Yeah, of course. These assholes hitting you probably already fucked up your phones, so use a phone from one of the guys I just killed¡ªsorry if it''s a little bloody. Anyway, I gotta go track these runners down.  But first¡­"


    Max grimly walked to the man on the ground who hadn''t moved and gently but firmly put his fingers to his carotid artery, managing to do so without getting blood on his hand. He shook his head as he stood. "I''m pretty sure your friend is dead," he said.


    Dan responded, "I already knew that."


    "Sorry," said Max. ¡°I¡¯ll be right back.¡±  Then he turned and began walking away.


    Lavinia whispered, "Shouldn''t you have confirmed that before you started killing a bunch of vanilla humans?"


    "No," said Max quietly, "and I''m not sorry about that either. They stated their intentions to kill me pretty clearly. And even if they didn''t kill the guy who was down, he wouldn''t have been much longer for this world. You''ve got to remember where I come from, Lavinia. And I know that you were born on Albion, but still lived in a different time. And you never actually graduated from the Summoner Academy. I''m actually kind of glad about that. I don''t know if you ever killed anybody in the academy, but that was more like a game, there. Death wasn''t permanent there. And it might sound edgy or cringy for me to say this, but I''m glad you never had to get used stuff like this, like me." Lavinia didn''t respond and lapsed into silence.


    Then Max began running. He didn''t even need to run at full speed to catch each one of the three men before they¡¯d even made it back to the main road. He didn''t know what Dan and his friends had been doing so deep in an industrial complex, but he figured it had something to do with theft, and they hadn''t wanted to be seen. Their enemies hadn''t wanted to be seen either when they were beating them for whatever their perceived transgressions were.


    Once Max was done killing all of the remaining gang members, he returned to Dan. The man hadn''t moved from his place against the wall. Max unceremoniously picked up the Glock from where he had dropped it on the ground again and threw it in the back seat of the car¡ªone that was idling and wasn''t currently decorated with George''s blood and brains. He made sure it was unlocked and said, "Get in." Dan obeyed with jerky, stilted movements.


    Max looked at the man beside him.  "There''s not much else you can do for your friends at this point.  I take it you already called the authorities?"


    "Yeah.  But because of where we are, it might take a while for them to get here."


    "Well, did you call and tell them that ten people just got killed?"


    "Well, no. I said there had been a fight and my friends were down and needed medical help."


    Max rolled his eyes. "What''s the name of this area?" Dan told him, and then, after Max held out a hand, he gave him the acquired phone that he used. Max almost told Dan to get another phone for him, but he decided he could wait until he could properly buy one for himself.


    Then he unlocked the screen and rolled his eyes. "Dude didn''t have any kind of lock, and I bet his text messages are just all sorts of colorful evidence. Whatever." He called 911, and as soon as the operator answered, Max said, "Look, a whole bunch of people are dead, and if you fuckers don''t get out here, their bodies are going to start stinking. On top of that, there are some people down that could probably have their lives saved if you all would get off your asses and get out here slower than a terminal cancer patient on a unicycle. So go ahead, put this at the top of your queue because I know you can probably do that, or tell your officers to step on it. Oh yeah, and we''re located at¡ª" Max rattled off the information that Dan had just told him. When the operator on the other end tried to calmly and professionally keep him on the line, Max just said, "Hurry the fuck up, the bodies are getting cold," and then he hung up. He handed the phone to Dan.  "That''s how you do it. Now if they''re late, it''s not on us.  They¡¯re too fucked up for us to help with basic first aid, too."


    That¡¯s cold, said Lavinia in his head.


    I know.


    He eyed the bicycle before sighing in regret. Max had briefly thought about trying to bring it with them, but there was nowhere to actually put it  since it couldn''t fit in the car or the trunk. The bike had served him well. ¡°All that wasted effort to pump up the tires," he muttered, and then he drove.  It didn¡¯t take him long to get on the freeway. It was starting to get dark.


    "Where are we going?" said Dan.


    "Next city over, I guess," said Max. "That one''s not quarantined or off-limits, right?"


    "No," said Dan. He fidgeted. "I haven''t been there in a long time, though."


    "That''s fine. Like I said, we''re going to have a chat, and I''m going to help you out. And then, if you''re smart, you''re going to stay out of whatever bullshit just got one of your friends killed, one of them probably almost killed, and you almost killed, too. Because I believe you that the one dead asshole was using the excuse of the woman to kill you, but if it wasn''t them punching your ticket, it would have been something else."


    The two of them didn''t speak anymore as Max continued driving. He figured it wasn''t the greatest time to be interrogating the guy after seeing his friend beaten to death. And despite his harsh words, Max did feel some sympathy. After all, in his first life, his existence had been far more pitiful than Dan''s. But he didn''t want to show any kindness at all.  Someone like Dan was not likely to react to sympathy with any appreciation.


    Not only that, In this sort of situation, Max needed answers, not friendship. He hadn''t been bluffing about the tracking, either. He had already gotten back the spirits that Saliron put on the gang members, but there was one attached to Dan''s bones. So he''d be able to find him anytime, anywhere.


    It was night by the time Max got into the next city. He ditched the car, threw a couple of guns in his backpack, and tried handing one to Dan before the smaller man shook his head and held his palms outwards in the universal gesture of no.


    "All right, suit yourself," said Max. "I know it''s dark, but I think we still have about an hour until a lot of places close. I''m really sorry about everything that happened to you today, but now you need to work with me so that I can get some money so we can both get a hotel room."


    "Hotel room?" asked Dan.


    "Yes. You''re working. I told you I''d help you, and that''s true. But you''re working for me as a consultant for at least the next couple of days. And if you think about it, it''s probably good for your health if you do. Because the guys I killed might have friends that come after you. And if I''m around, they can''t do shit."


    Dan slowly nodded as a light of hope returned to his eyes. And not for the first time in his life, Max wondered if he was actually a good guy or just a bad guy with some decent goals.  In what had also become a habit after raising this subject with himself, he decided that if the end results were the same, and the overall outcome was good, it didn¡¯t matter.


    People who made history, people that others called ¡°heroes¡± were often pragmatic enough to get the job done and cut out the unnecessary parts.  They were remembered for the outcomes of their lives, their great deeds.  Meanwhile, the types who prioritized feelings or righteous ideals over unfortunate reality usually wound up dead.  People with good intentions and an unwillingness to get their hands dirty more often let the truly evil motherfuckers win.


    Dead people couldn¡¯t save anyone.  Giving bad people grace or the benefit of the doubt was like arming them with more information before having another chance to stab you in the back.


    Max¡¯s mood fell as he remembered how he¡¯d been betrayed and murdered in his first life.  Sometimes it was hard to tell who the bad people were, at least when they were close to you.  He reaffirmed his vow to pay better attention in this life to the people around him, not just to protect himself,but to better recognize those who were deserving of his loyalty.

 Book 3, ch 6

    Dan led Max downtown.  Max wished for about the hundredth time for a smart phone.  He¡¯d gotten used to the convenience of Earth technology.  He also knew he had to call his mom.  However, she¡¯d waited a few years, she could wait another day or two.


    He looked around at the part of the city they were at, a place that would have been fairly run down even before the world had changed.  Now it looked¡­worse.  "So, what are we looking for?"


    Dan replied, "Specifically, we''re looking for a pawn shop that''s really shitty-looking but also has some muscle standing around. It should have security systems better than what you might expect at a rundown pawn shop. Or, I don''t know, I''ll know it when I see it."


    Max nodded, and the two of them walked in silence for a while until Dan pointed at a pawn shop next to a strip club across the street. "I think that one will work.¡±.


    "All right, let''s check it out." The two of them crossed the street and approached the pawn shop. Max noticed a beefy guy standing in the shop, just loitering, and also sensed the energy of someone else who was hidden. They weren''t strong enough for him to worry about, and they weren''t doing anything antagonistic or violent, so he ignored it.


    Inside the shop, it was truly a dive. He had seen a few security cameras outside.  The level and cost of the security definitely didn''t match what it was supposedly actually selling¨Cmostly just old rusted tools and some ancient-looking cordless tool batteries. The woman at the counter was not smiling or making much of any expression.  She had a half-eaten bowl of macaroni in front of her.


    "Hi," said Max. He sidled up closer to the counter and quietly said, "I have something special to sell. Something that you can only get in dungeons or from monsters."


    The woman''s expression didn''t change, and she just looked him up and down. "Prove it," she spat.


    Max took a small piece of magic-infused rock from his backpack and set it on the counter. The woman became very still for a while before she slowly nodded. "You are lucky today.¡±


    "How so?" .


    "Well, I''m not always in the market for merchandise like this. There has to be a demand for it. I need to have the money to pay for it, and it needs to be at a time and place where my ''spidey senses'' aren''t tingling about narcs or cops or worse¡­Agency employees. Guild, too."


    "Oh really?" said Max. "And what makes you think that I''m not a guild or Agency employee?"


    She laughed. "It''s super obvious to people that deal with guildies and the fringes of society. Trust me, I know.  Besides, you look like shit.  There¡¯s no way an Agency employee would come in here looking like that.  Even the undercover types have polished shoes."


    Max eyeballed the two men loitering around the store.  Another had appeared. He watched their body language carefully. Neither seemed to be spoiling for a fight or ready to attack, so he relaxed minutely.


    "So let me level with you," he said. "I am a newly returned Challenger. A Returner, I guess.  I happened to kill some monsters on the way here, and I''m trying to get some cash so I can start my life. You might be wondering why I''m telling you this, since I''m basically letting you know I don''t know anything right now, including what the stuff on the counter is orth." He pointed a finger at Dan. "And you might be wondering who he is too. No need to wonder.  Instead, I will give you a very simple reason why I just told you my life story."


    He noticed the woman''s eyes narrowing slightly as she focused on what he was saying, and Max continued, "You don''t know what power level I am. I just got back, and on top of that, I suspect that the way people categorize monsters, the golems I killed for these rocks were not low-ranking. So I''m going to leave it up to you to decide how much money you can make off of this without me later realize that I got mega-screwed."


    "What happens if you decide you got screwed?"


    He smiled without humor. "Well, I know where this building is.  But if you help me, hell, I might even have a warm place in my heart for this pawn shop for the rest of my life.  In fact, I might even return to do a lot more business." He left it at that.


    The woman narrowed her eyes at him further.  The creases and her expression didnt do anything for her looks, but even upon this first meeting, Max knew she wouldn¡¯t care at all.  After a few more moments of silently thinking, she quoted him a figure that sounded right¨Cabout twice what an average mortgage would be. To one side, Dan gave an almost imperceptible nod.


    "Sounds good," said Max. "I''ll take it."Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    "Good.  It was a slow day until you came in," said the woman. "This was a good deal, and I''m glad you stopped by, but I don''t hope you take offense when I say that I also hope I never see you again."


    "Why is that?" asked Max, genuinely curious.


    "There''s something about you that makes me nervous as hell."


    The men around the store, the barely disguised muscle, perked up at her words. Max ran a gaze over all of them.  They went back to pretending to inspect the barely functional cordless drill batteries.


    Max didn''t say anything further. He pocketed the money that the woman put on the counter without counting it and left the store with Dan in tow.


    ***


    About a half mile from the pawn shop, Max was getting closer to a hotel in the distance, the one he¡¯d chosen to stay at for the night.  He pulled the money out of his pocket and examined it under a street light.  "So this is the new currency, huh?"


    "Yep, that''s it," said Dan.


    Max thought the new dollar bills looked like fake money used in a game¨Cfunny money.  Dan had given him a heads up about the new money before going to the pawn shop. Now, each bill had fine amounts of gold interwoven into the fibers, making each one valuable on its own and much harder to fake. Production of this replacement currency, similar with variations for every country around the world, had been sped up through the help of Challengers that had powers that enhanced production. They were even able to convert old dollars into this new currency, given enough gold to implant it with.


    While Max had talked to Dan about the subject, he''d learned that in the first year, after the initial monster attacks, and when the world was struggling to get back on its feet, the United States had issued a recall for physical dollars. Trading the old dollars in at government centers  hadn''t resulted in much of the new currency, also called dollars, but people had gotten some cash in return.


    People had still gone in droves to trade their money in, not least of which because some banks had just imploded with all the loss of life, and the old currency had ceased being relevant almost immediately.


    The first few months had been rough.  Money hadn¡¯t had any value at all¨Cjust food, weapons, and other items needed for survival.


    Max regarded the strangely heavy paper bills and frowned. "There''s other currency than this though, right?" he asked.


    "What do you mean?"


    He pointed at the small collection of bills in his hand.  "This is definitely enough for me to do what I need to do tonight, but if we''re talking about buying artifacts, or buildings, or things that actually cost a ton of money, how do people handle that?"


    "Oh, now I know what you mean. Banks are affiliated with most of the large Challenger guilds.¡±


    ¡°And that''s not a conflict of interest?"


    "Well, some might think it is, and plenty of people have been petitioning for more power to be given to more banks to open that aren¡¯t directly connected to Challengers, but the truth is, I think the world is still figuring out how in the hell to function."


    "I can imagine," said Max, "like police, right?"


    "Yes, like police," said Dan. "The average cop with a gun can only stop maybe half of the Challengers that are back, and some of the most powerful would require an entire army to take down. So when people have that kind of power, how do you make them follow the law?"


    "I''m guessing you don''t," said Max.


    Dan laughed nervously. "People talk about how it''s a good thing that the most powerful Challengers can make the most money money and have the best lives by not murdering everybody around them¡­otherwise we''d be in real trouble. Like¡­we thought the monsters were bad.  Imagine if one of the strongest Challengers just went just and took out a city."


    "I''m sure other Challengers wouldn¡¯t just sit around and watch it happen.  I¡¯m guessing that¡¯s what happens with all the crime that Challengers do.  Maybe others are told about it from the cops.¡±


    Dan gave him a searching look. "That¡¯s true, but did you really not know any of this stuff before you killed, you know, everybody in the parking lot?"


    ¡°Not really, but I could intuit most of it. Not only that, I was legitimately being threatened so I¡¯m pretty confident about the fact I acted in self defense.¡±


    "Well, like I said, you were right.  If somebody acts up, like really bad, Challengers team up to take them down. But they''re busy enough and all in cahoots with each other, so somebody has to do something really bad; otherwise, the main thing stopping them from being assholes, at least publicly, are all of the business deals they''ll lose."


    "Business deals?" Max facepalmed. "Please don''t tell me that a bunch of Challengers are influencers now."


    "You guessed it, man! Challengers are the new celebrities. Some of the old school celebrities have been marrying, or at least dating some of the powerful Challengers around the world. People joke on the internet that fame used tobe highest at movie stats, but the new elvels are like, Challenger, movie star, rock star, and then everybody else. Maybe politicians are last?


    ¡°Politicians still have power?" Max asked.


    "Yeah, at least some do. It kind of depends on the country. But some Challengers are still patriotic and signed contracts with their country to officially work for them, usually for a while."


    Max was impressed but slightly suspicious too. He''d deliberately chosen somebody who would likely be able to tell him about the lay of the land, but he was becoming surprised by how much Dan actually knew.


    "How do you know all this stuff?"


    "Didn''t I tell you? Challengers are influencers now. You can''t get on the internet without seeing Challengers everywhere, and some of them love to talk about themselves."


    "Great," sighed Max.  He was about to walk in the front door of the lobby to the chain hotel he''d selected. "I''m about to get us both a room. I''ll comp you a meal for the night too. If you run away, you don''t get your money. And if you run away and try to find somebody to find me, I will find you."


    Dan held his hands up in surrender. "I get it. I get it. You''re very scary. I saw it, remember? I''m going to hit the bathroom. I''ll go to the room you get. But don''t blame me if I get shit-faced tonight after I just watched two of my friends probably die."


    His veneer of being calm and in control cracked for a second, and Max saw the grief underneath. "Do whatever you gotta do, man," he said.


    As Dan walked off to the clearly labeled restroom on one side of the reception area, Max attempted to pay for two rooms with cash. Since the hotel was a chain, apparently they still demanded ID before renting a room out.


    "Shit," he cursed under his breath. Not having an ID was seriously becoming a pain in the ass. He moved ¡°getting a new ID¡± to the top of his to-do list. Eventually, he''d have to get another driver''s license, too, since his was probably space dust somewhere in the universe by now. Getting a Challenger card would probably be the quickest way to solve most of his immediate identity problems. He wished he didn''t have to wait an entire night before going to do so.


    When Dan came out of the bathroom, they had an awkward exchange where Dan had to use his ID in order to get the rooms for the both of them. Luckily, that man had one of his own, even after everything he¡¯d been through.


    Upstairs, on the floor with their rooms, Dan disappeared behind his door and didn''t come back out at any point to eat, at least not that Max knew of.


    For himself, he didn''t need to sleep much. So with Lavinia invisibly looking over his shoulder, Max went to the complimentary office area of the hotel and did his best to look everything up on the internet that he could think of, everything that was important, before heading to bed after midnight.


    Before he went to sleep, he sat on his bed and said out loud, "I can''t believe what that bastard Lance did."


    He was frowning, but a smile kept trying to tug on one side of his lips.


    "He certainly is a character," Lavinia agreed out loud.  ¡°At least now you know he already made it back to Earth.¡±


    Max snorted, laid down, and was immediately asleep.

 Book 3, ch 7

    When he woke up, it took him a moment to remember where he was. The problem was solved after he ran mana through his body, instantly waking him up again. Even so, he stayed in bed for a few minutes, just staring at the ceiling, mentally parsing everything he''d been through in a relatively short amount of time.


    Even though he''d stayed busy when he''d been in the Quartet, there had been a sort of¡­stability. More importantly, he''d had a decent home base of sorts. It was strange for him to think of his dorm like that now, but it really had been a nice place to call his own, even though he''d been there for less than a year. It hadn¡¯t been real, though.  The entire experience was transitional by design¨Che just ended up leaving quicker than most.  And it hadn¡¯t exactly been peaceful, either.  He¡¯d definitely made quite a few enemies as well.


    Some were sure to come for him on earth, given enough time.  He knew there was very little chance they¡¯d just leave him be.


    Without quite understanding where exactly he was going with his thoughts or feelings and not finding any real closure, he got up to get ready for the day.


    The night before, he had bought himself a little travel pouch of toiletries, and he put them to good use again before stowing it in his backpack. He thought it was funny that his backpack now was like the kind of bag a homeless person would keep all their worldly possessions in. Then he actually laughed out loud when he realized he really was a homeless person, and the backpack really did have all of his worldly possessions in it.


    Well, minus his dimensional storage.


    He briefly thought about putting the backpack and its contents in his bone gate but decided against it. It was helpful to have certain things easily available. And he didn''t want to reveal to the world that he had anything like the storage, yet. There were all sorts of people that would be interested in that. Maybe after he deemed he was strong enough, he''d stop caring. But until other Challengers could still be dangerous to him, including in great numbers, overplaying his hand would be dumb.


    The memories of Ancilla he¡¯d relived in dreams were still vivid.


    He left his hotel and walked to the door of the room that Dan was staying in. On his second knock, the man opened the door, obviously ready to go.


    "How far away is the testing facility?" Max asked.


    "Probably about an hour''s walk.  Good thing we''re up early ¡®cause I wanna  get paid.¡± He gave Max a nervous smile.  "Nothing personal, you know. I just, it hasn''t been a good couple of days for me."


    "Well, that''s probably putting it mildly," said Max.


    "Yeah.¡±  The word carried volumes.


    The two of them set off, leaving the hotel behind before most businesses were even open. Nobody paid either of them any mind at first as they walked through the city. This area was drastically different from the abandoned, condemned city that Max had been biking around the day before. His current surroundings didn''t have exactly the same energy that he remembered from before the monsters attacking, but he''d changed as well.


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    In some ways he¡¯d regressed a bit to who he¡¯d been as Chasa de Milo, but he¡¯d also grown in some ways.  He definitely felt wiser now.


    When he''d first set out for the day, he had assumed that he and Dan would be all but invisible to other people. But as they walked and he witnessed a few people cross to the other side of the road to avoid passing them on the sidewalk, he grinned ruefully to himself. The strangers likely thought he looked dangerous or stinky, he didn''t know which.  Either way, he vowed to get a wardrobe change as soon as he could. Nobody was going to take him seriously wearing the clothing he currently had on, at least unless he was famous, and he wasn''t ready for that yet.


    Max was a realist. He understood that if he was going to be a high-profile member of the guild he started, much less the guild leader, or if he was able to right any wrongs that had caused the Trifecta Guild to fall where it was today, his actions were going to make waves. He accepted this.  But the only thing worse than being famous was being poor and famous.


    Before making any moves, he needed money


    When he saw the Agency building, Max realized that it used to be a convention center. Now, there were obvious signs everywhere for its new purpose. The parking lot outside had quite a few cars, even at this early hour, and Max hoped that there wouldn''t be too long of a wait for anything he needed to do.


    As he walked in the front of the building with Dan, they definitely received a few looks for their shabby clothing, but nothing past a pointed look. Max wondered about the kind of clientele or visitors the place would get, for people that looked like him and Dan to not elicit more than a  curious glance from security.


    Security itself seemed pretty tight. There were a number of people in suits and formal clothing walking around with an earpiece. None of them seemed to be carrying guns, concealed or otherwise. It was easy to logically conclude that all of them were Challengers. A few in particular gave Max the feeling that they would be tough customers¨Che could sense it. How in the world the Agency was able to employ so many Challengers as guards, Max had no idea, but he wanted to find out later. Even minor curiosities like this could sometimes turn up very interesting information, especially while walking into a situation blind like he was now.


    The last hour had provided some fruitful question and answer sessions with Dan, but it was still good that the two were probably about to part ways.  There was a limit to how much more information Max thought he''d probably get from the other man.


    In the the front of the building through the entryway, there was an office of sorts labeled


    ¡°Information.¡±  There were also other nearby signs with information and directions written in block letters.  Other signs hung at regular intervals with large, easy-to-understand arrows pointing in different directions.  It looks similar to the directions and arrows found at any public airport, but scaled smaller.


    Max walked up to the help counter, and a man with a name tag that said ¡°Lewis¡± gave him a pleasant, professional, empty smile. "How can I help you today, sir?"


    "I would like to sell some monster parts. Can I do that here?"  Max reached inside and retrieved one of the pieces of ore that he''d gotten after killing the golems.


    Lewis smiled again and pointed to a clipboard to one side. "You sure can. All you need to do is fill out the information and give me your Challenger ID card for my records."


    "I don''t have a Challenger ID card yet."


    "You don''t?" The man raised his eyebrows. "But you¡¯ve killed monsters?  Are you by chance a Returner?"


    "That''s right," said Max.


    "Oh, well, if that''s the case, then you need to get assessed and receive an identification card. Do you know where to go to do that?"


    Max nodded and pointed behind him. "I saw the signs. So you guys won''t let anybody sell monster stuff unless we have an identification card, huh?"


    "I''m afraid not.  There are plenty of reasons for that, as you can probably guess. One of the biggest is it prevents theft of monster parts since, although they are not technically controlled, having records of when and when they are sold provides information for any detectives looking into stolen property."


    "I understand," said Max. He nodded and left.


    Dan was leaning against the back wall by one of the trash cans. As Max approached, he said, "I heard. I guess I have a little bit longer of a wait, huh?"


    "That''s right," Max nodded. "If you run away now, I''m not going to chase you.  Just being honest. But yeah, if you want to get paid, hang around."


    "Got it," the man sighed.  He turned to head for one of the benches where a few other people were sitting, probably waiting on someone themselves.


    Max tapped him on the shoulder and handed him some money. "It''s going to be a while, so why don''t you go get some food or whatever? I mean, a deal''s a deal, but I feel bad if you''re out here waiting, and this way I can take the time I need without feeling guilty about it."


    Dan nodded mutely, took the money, and headed for one of the gift shops. Max watched him go, wondering if he was doing the right thing by helping.  He eventually shrugged before following the signs to the testing location.

 Book 3, ch 8

    The portion of the large building where testing was done was on the opposite side from where Max initially entered.  Along the way, there were informational posters and plaques, so Max was able to learn that retesting to raise one''s rank was done at a different location. That''s good to know, he thought. He wasn''t really in a huge hurry to be ranked higher, but it probably would help to have a higher rank in the future to be taken seriously.


    Max was quietly impressed by the Agency¡¯s layout and effort to make their processes easy to understand.  He was sure the last few years, especially the first, had been a trial to rebuild the world.  It was a bit surprising to him that other than abandoned cities and such, some areas like this almost felt like pre-monsters Earth.


    The informational materials on the walls helped him organize his thoughts as he walked.


    He was still going back and forth on how much of his power he wanted to reveal and how high of a Challenger rank he actually needed for the moment. Luckily, before he reached the actual testing location, he reminded himself that this was Earth, not the Quartet. Nobody here really knew anything about him. In fact, if anyone knew anything from the Quartet, other than a Summoner, all they¡¯d know was that he was student in the Summoner Academy.


    It was confirmed now that Lance was back on Earth, but there were very few Summoners, and only a tiny handful from Earth in the first place. Maybe only Max and Lance.  Now that Max was thinking about it, he''d never put much effort into finding out whether there were other people from Earth at the Academy. Oops, he thought. But still, only the instructors and maybe some of his friends had actually known that he was also a Blade Sorcerer.


    He was fairly sure he didn''t want to reveal in his test that he was a three-Path Challenger. That information was eventually going to come out one way or another, since Max strongly suspected that representatives of the Quartet system were going to be tracking him down sooner or later. In any kind of serious fight against serious enemies, he''d have to use every tool at his disposal. This meant that revealing everything to the world was a matter of ¡°when,¡± not ¡°if,¡± but for the moment, it made sense to keep some of it secret.


    Max reasoned he¡¯d probably have to reveal that he was a Summoner because that was the Quartet school he''d been in, and he didn''t know if the Agency could verify that or not. Let''s just assume they can, he mused. If they could, that meant he could also declare that he was either a Bead Sorcerer or a Blade Sorcerer as well.


    Being recognized as dual-Path meant less hiding, more options, and a higher rank.


    He was definitely a much stronger Blade Sorcerer than a Bead Sorcerer. That might be a good reason not to let everyone know that he was as skilled of a close-quarters combatant. In fact, the way nobody he''d met so far had recognized the little knife on his hip as being a full-sized sword in another form was swaying his decision on this. It would be good to have the best trump card he could.  If he was going to declare his skills to the world, making them think that he was less powerful was probably the way to go.


    Not only that, he could still use his physicality from having a three star mana body, use martial arts, and claim that his physical enhancements were from spirits.


    The signs read he was almost to the testing site.


    Okay, I think that¡¯s the play.  I will just tell them I am a Summoner and a Bead Sorcerer.  He briefly second-guessed himself, wondering if he shouldn¡¯t even declare himself a two-path Challenger, but decided to go through with it.  He wasn''t too shabby as a Summoner, but he hadn''t collected enough spirits to truly be a well-rounded Challenger with only that Path yet. Not least of which because he''d only spent half a year in the Quartet, and everything he''d done so far was to bolster his Blade Sorcerer abilities.


    If he limited himself to only using Summoner abilities, his ruse would probably be found out too quickly.


    He''d made up his mind. Whether it was the best decisions, he decided it didn''t matter past this point. He''d settled on a direction and now he was going to take it. This was how he''d been in two lifetimes now¨Cbeing decisive was one of his strengths he didn''t want to break.


    The beginning of the Path validation and testing point ended up looking somewhat like the DMV.


    Overhead lights were neon and soulless.  The entire area just had that strange, overwhelming feeling of bureaucracy mixed with the waiting area of a doctor''s office. There were service windows against the far wall and distant chairs facing the area, but luckily there weren''t very many people waiting to be processed.


    There was a help desk to one side of the service area.


    Against one of the side walls was a sign that read, "All Returners, please take a ticket and wait your turn." A sign on the opposite wall read, "All natural or spontaneous Challengers, please take a ticket here and wait your turn." Max felt like that was pretty self-explanatory. Rather than walking up to the help desk, he took a ticket from the Returner side and sat down. The digital display on the wall read that there was one other person ahead of him.


    Luckily, Max didn''t have to sit very long before his number was called. He noticed that another man''s number was called at the same time, and the two of them were ushered through doors into a more sterile, or at least more durable-looking area. The busy-looking woman who''d called him disappeared through a side door, and a man in some sort of uniform that Max hadn''t seen before appeared before them. He was middle-aged with a hooked nose, wings of gray in the hair above his ears, and his stern expression also betrayed a twinkle in his eyes. He seemed like somebody who really enjoyed what he did for work.


    "Welcome!  My name is Ashaj.  Here at the National Guild Suppression Agency, we know you¡¯re busy, and wasting time is the last thing we want to do.  Before you ask, yes, we are all aware that the National Guild Suppression Agency was named poorly and sounds like we¡¯re suppressing the guilds instead, but it was translated from another language in to English and I don¡¯t have any control over that.¡±  He smiled.  ¡°Since you¡¯re here to get a Challenger ID card, the first thing we will need to do is verify you are actually Challengers."


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    The other Returner man next to Max began to speak, but the uniformed man, Ashaj, smiled and cut him off. "I bet you''re wondering how we can tell if you¡¯re a Challenger. The easiest way is just to have you give a demonstration of your power. We know that not everyone can easily give a demonstration in an environment like this, but so far we''ve figured out ways to accommodate almost everybody¡­even those that have suggestion powers! It''s still better to verify everybody that everyone is what they say they are first instead of wasting time and money testing people who are just here for fun, or out of delusion."


    Max nodded at the explanation. It made sense to him.


    "If you two will follow me, please." Max and the other Challenger to be tested, a tan-skinned man who looked about thirty years old, went to another room. There were rooms with thick walls at the other end, both of which were about twenty meters by twenty meters. They almost looked like pressure chambers.Each enclosed room had what looked like extremely thick glass portholes¨Cprobably bulletproof, too.  A casual glance at the ceiling of each chamber showed multiple diagnostic instruments.


    "If you both could take one room each, and while inside, turn to face me so the cameras can do their thing.  After that, please state your name and what school you attended in your respective Quartet."


    The instruction was simple and aligned with what Max was expecting, so he complied, moving into his own chamber. Then he turned and introduced himself, "Max Cunningham, Summoner Academy."


    He braced himself to hear chuckling or maybe a snide remark from the man in the next chamber, but none came. Instead, he actually sounded sullen when he said, "Amun Patel. Blue Wizardry."


    Blue Wizardry? thought Max. He had never heard of that before.


    Ashaj said, "Your responses have been recorded. From this point on, sound will be cut off to anywhere outside of your own respective room." True to what the man had said, the speakers that were allowing Max to hear outside of his chamber stopped working. But then a new voice came through the speaker, a woman''s voice.


    "Hello, Max. We''re going to go over a few questions with you after you demonstrate your abilities. Do you need any props or any extra devices to show what you can do? We can use dummies, or objects or, as the director explained, we can even bring in animals or other people if it''s necessary. For instance, you are a Summoner, and we are aware that some summoners use their spirits to confuse or frighten enemies. If you need an opponent that won''t be harmed or terrified, we can actually invite another Challenger to face you."


    "That won''t be necessary," said Max. "This is just to prove that I actually have power before you waste more time on me, right?"


    The woman laughed through the speaker. "That''s basically correct.¡±


    ¡°Okay, fine. I''m also assuming that you''d prefer some physical proof that you can validate instead of something else that might be considered an illusion."


    "Well, illusions are fine, actually," said the woman, "but in your case, since you are a Summoner, it would probably be better if you can demonstrate something that an illusionist would not be able to do.  If you have more than one spirit, that should be possible, right?"


    "It¡¯s possible, but you really wouldn''t somebody prefer to be an illusionist than a Summoner?" He remembered how he''d expected people to react negatively when he admitted his path. But contrary to his expectations, the woman''s voice came through speaking faster and with a bit of emotion.


    "Are you kidding? Summoners? The Summoner Path? Like Lance Fraser? There are people all over the world who wish they could awaken as a Summoner!"


    Oh, that''s right. I forgot about Lance, Max thought. He quirked a wry smile as he thought about all the reports he''d read and even the interview he''d watched with Lance. The world didn''t know that most of Lance''s observable power was because of the sword that he''d taken back from the Quartet with him, the Shadow Sun Rising.  He''d also lied and claimed that he had graduated from the Summoner academy. Normally, at first when returners came back to Earth from the Quartet, whether they''d graduated or not had been a big deal. But over time, people had stopped caring, not least of which because all of the challengers that failed out returned in the first year. Lance had returned in the second year.


    Being sent back early by Max had an effect on when he appeared on earth, or maybe his sword had something to do with it.  Max could only speculate.


    "Okay," Max said out loud, "I just need a rock, a stick, a ball, or anything physical that you''d like me to manipulate since I figure you''d prefer I don''t use my own backpack."


    "That''s correct," said the woman. A few seconds later, a small door near the floor opened, and a basketball rolled out. The door closed behind it. Max mentally asked Lavinia to form some of her spirits into their strange, gangly transportation forms. A second later, there was a bipedal construct made of ectoplasm carrying the ball around the small room.


    "Is that enough?" he asked.


    "Yes, that''s enough," said the woman. The ectoplasmic figure dropped the ball and disappeared. Then the woman began asking Max a series of questions, like his birthplace, his age, and other basic biography questions. He answered them all until she said, "If you could put your driver''s license on the floor near the door where the ball had come out, we would appreciate it."


    Max frowned. "Why am I still in this room instead of just filling out a form? And also, I don''t have a license."


    There was a few seconds of silence before the woman''s voice came back on the intercom. "We prefer to have Challengers stay in the safe room after demonstrating their abilities in the real world because sometimes effects can linger, like with poison or conjurations. We actually have a fan silently scrubbing the room and disinfecting everything in it as well. It''s not invasive, but in order to make the process comfortable for everybody involved, it takes some time. As for the second part, it''s highly unfortunate you don''t have your license. It''s not unheard of, but tying your credentials to your driver''s license is part of how this process works."


    Max cocked an eyebrow. "Well, I still remember my license number, and I was a resident of this state. Can''t you guys look it up and just do whatever it is you do on the back end?"


    "If you can remember the license number, that would actually speed things up quite a bit, yes." Max rattled off his license number and then waited a couple of minutes in silence.


    The woman''s voice came back on the intercom and said, "It looks like we have everything we need from you now. Thank you. The license number definitely helped. Before we¡ª"


    Max cut her off and said, "Should I tell you now if I''m a dual Path Challenger?"


    "Oh! You have two paths? Yes, we definitely would like to know that!"


    Max wasn''t sure how the process worked, but he could imagine that this small demonstration of his power wouldn''t be enough of a demonstration for any kind of ranking.  If he had to actually fight or show any of his abilities later, he already planned to use two Paths. It would probably be better to just tell them now.


    "What''s your second Path?" said the woman.


    "I''m a Bead Sorcerer."


    "Bead sorcerer," she said slowly. "That''s actually a new one. Hold on, I need to enter this into the system." There were another few moments of silence before she came back and said, "Would you mind providing an explanation of what bead sorcerers can do?"


    "I''d prefer not," said Max.


    "Come again?" she asked.


    Max responded, "I prefer not to. I don''t want to share the particulars of my Path."


    "All right," said the woman slowly. "Do you need anything special to demonstrate your Bead Sorcerer abilities?"


    "No," said Max. "This room is a bit small for explosions. So, I''m going to just make a smoke cloud. That should be different enough from anything I can do with spirits to prove it.  And can you turn up the fan after I demonstrate this so the room won''t stay smoky for too long?"


    "Absolutely.  You can start whenever you¡¯re ready."


    Max removed one smoke bomb bead from his wrist and tossed it to the other side of the room. With the mental command he gave, the bead billowed out into huge, thick, white peals of smoke. Almost immediately, a fan above him whirred fast enough for him to actually hear it, and the smoke rapidly was sucked out of the room. It still took some time, though, because the bead had been quite potent.


    After the smoke was all gone, the woman''s voice came over the speaker and said, "Thank you for the demonstrations. I have noted that you do not consent to give us a more information on Bead Sorcerer abilities or powers. If you exit the door that will open after I finish speaking, you will join your fellow testees and proceed to the second stage of the process."


    "Alright, thanks," said Max. Sure enough, a door popped open behind him that had been seamless in the wall before this. He exited, and to one side, Amun, the man in the chamber next to him, was leaving at exactly the same time. He nodded his head at Max, much more friendly than before he knew that Max was a Summoner.


    "That took a bit of time," he said. "I was actually waiting on you.¡±


    ¡°They wanted both of us to leave at the same time, huh?"


    "Yes.  They usually have groups all do this at once for efficiency and also because part of the testing is for teamwork."


    Max¡¯s eyes widened in surprise. He realized that he hadn''t spent much time the night before looking up much about this test. That was kind of dumb,  he thought.  Now he could recognize how tired he¡¯d been, and how much time he¡¯d spent trying to look up his old friends and the Trifecta guild.


    Oh well.  Not knowing will make this test more interesting.

 Book 3, ch 9

    ¡°Your practical test will be very simple," a smartly dressed man explained. There were several other Agency employees standing around, and Max caught glimpses of still others that were in the distance or standing in corners, likely guards.


    No matter how good the guards were, he couldn''t imagine that they truly believed they could protect the other Agency employees completely, though.  In reality, an organization like the Agency probably just has to trust in the sanity, better natures, or just greed of the Challengers who came to do business with them. Besides, it did stand to reason that even the most evil or psychotic individuals who came to get a Challenger ID card would avoid issues out of self interest.


    Max glanced around at the other four testing participants.  They were all giving the Agency representative their complete, undivided attention. He smirked. It seemed like he was the only one who was salty and cynical enough to be thinking about Agency security in the middle of their testing explanations.


    The man kept droning on and Max tuned him out again. He''d already gotten the most important information¨Call of the testees were eventually going to step inside some golden circles inlaid into the concrete ahead of them. Once that happened, they would all fight in what was basically an arcane virtual space. It was actually an arcane illusion, but the result would be the same.


    Now the Agency manager was coming back to the actual point, so Max started listening again.


    "Once you are inside the testing area, the place that we call ''The Wall,'' you will all be fighting together at first. The first half of your assessment is a group-based challenge. There will be waves of enemies¨Call different kinds of monsters¨Cand you must protect the wall and your comrades. If you kill any of the other testing candidates, you will immediately be disqualified.


    ¡°There are different criteria for how you will be scored during the trial, so don''t worry if your powers lend more to healing or support. Just try to find opportunities to use them and show off what you can do. For instance, if your power is to heal, but somehow nobody actually gets hurt during the trial for you to heal, as long as we know what your power set is, the circumstances will be taken into consideration."


    One of testees, a blonde women raised her hand and then said, "That''s easy for you to say, but we didn''t get to show much of what we can do when we proved we¡¯re Challengers a few minutes ago.  If we can''t display what we can do, how can you accurately make an assessment?"


    She ended her question by crossing her arms across her chest, and Max noticed another of the testees nodding too¡ªa black man wearing bright clothing.


    "You would have a point, except..." The Agency man looked like he was hesitating but then continued, "The Wall will unfold in such a way that, regardless of what group challenges it, you will be pressured. To that end, there is no time limit. The first phase is over once the techs running the tests believe we''ve gotten good results."


    This time Max raised his hand. With a nod, the man gave him permission to speak.


    He said, ¡°I take that to mean that killing our fellow testees disqualifies us, but dying doesn''t, am I right?''"


    "Correct," said the man with a nod. "Since your trial will be virtual, it''s a bit similar to your experience in the Quartet, except that you won''t have to wait any sort of time to come back to life. Instead, if you die during the first half of the testing process, you will immediately find yourself starting the second, which I will explain shortly"


    Max nodded in understanding. The other applicants were a bit slower to catch up, but eventually, the blonde woman who asked the question about healing firmed her lips and showed signs of steely resolve.  She must have just figured out that the testers were basically saying that there was very little, if not zero, chance that the testees would have an easy time.  The woman might look like a college student in her early 20¡¯s, but she was presumably a Quartet graduate.  She had to be at least a few years older than she looked and had endured unknown trials before coming back to to Earth.


    The Agency man continued explaining, "The first part of your test, like I said, is a group exercise where monsters will run at the wall you are guarding, and your job is to stay alive and keep them from going over the wall. The second test will be individual in nature.  You will be back on a wall, but it will be your own individual wall.  Then instead of large waves of monsters, there will be monsters tailored to test you, and each mini wave will get progressively more difficult to beat. If you can last until the end of that event, you will get full marks for it. The individual monster waves may also start at a more difficult level after observing your group trial, so as not to turn it into a trial of endurance. We want to see your potential, not necessarily your staying power."


    Max raised his hand again. "Yes?" asked the smartly-dressed Agency man.


    "If there''s an end, then does that mean that there is an upper limit of how high anybody can achieve on this test?"


    Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    "That is correct¡­but it is largely irrelevant.  We cannot initially promote anyone over a specific rank, and the end of the test definitely would be far above it.  After all, most Challengers getting a Challenger card are Returners who are just back to Earth. Combat abilities are only one small part of being a professional Challenger now on our planet. There''s also business acumen, guild contacts, and actually working together as a team in a portal... The highest rank that we can give when somebody gets their first Challenger card is C rank."


    Max nodded more slowly this time.


    There were a few more questions from the other testees, and the Agency rep talked a bit more, maybe even putting in a little bit of effort to settle some nerves that any of the Challengers might have, but Max had tuned it all out again. He was silently giving himself a go, no-go list on his powers; that way, he wouldn''t need to think about what he should or shouldn¡¯t do while he was fighting.


    All of his Blade Sorcerer powers were a no-go, but he still had plenty of strength and could fight with his fists and hands, too. Using his fulls strength wasn¡¯t in the cards, but that still left him quite superhuman.  More importantly, he had his spirits and his beads. Now that he knew that this was an illusion-based challenge, and it sounded like everybody started the test with whatever they had on them, he was thankful for all the beads that he''d stowed on his wrists and ankles.


    Finally, the Agency rep confirmed Max¡¯s assumption, saying "For this test, you may bring any equipment into the illusion world that you''d like. You have to be wearing it at the time you step in the circle. Does anybody need for one of their friends or family to bring them any gear?"


    Everybody shook their head except for the first man Max had seen standing in the testing area, waiting to step into a circle. He was tall with red hair, and after a few moments, another man¡ªthis one dark-haired and burly, not a testee¡ªapproached him with a box. Inside the box was an impressive-looking longsword. After that, the red haired man nodded and said, "I''m ready."


    All the applicants stepped forward, including Max, until he had both feet inside of his circle. After that, blue sparks erupted from the gold band embedded in the concrete, and with seemingly no transition, Max immediately found himself standing atop a high stone wall in the middle of a valley. The valley wasn''t very wide, with extremely steep cliffs on both sides. The four other participants were arrayed around him on the wall, which was about twenty meters high and maybe fifteen feet wide. There was plenty of room to maneuver on top. Max could feel vibrations in his feet as if something was running towards them in the distance.


    "I think they''re coming from that direction," said the blonde woman, pointing directly ahead of them.


    "Yeah, no shit," said the red haired man.


    Amun Patel, with a tone of disapproval said, "Let''s focus on the task at hand, yeah?"


    "I agree," chimed in Max.


    The red-haired man frowned but didn''t respond. Instead, his fingers started pulsing in rhythm on his sword as all five of them peered forward into the valley, staring at the bend where it disappeared around a distant cliff. They didn''t have to wait too much longer until they saw their enemy, the first wave.


    The blonde woman hissed, and Max understood why.


    "Vermin," said the black man.


    "Looks like rodents of unusual size," Max agreed.


    This time the blonde woman glanced at him and gave a nervous laugh. "I never thought I''d hear ''Princess Bride'' quotes in the middle of my Challenger ID test."


    Max shrugged and lifted a single eyebrow at her.  "Perhaps next time you might consider the possibility that you will be testing with another Challenger and irrefutable culture."


    The woman laughed again and even Amun chuckled. The black man on the end of their line ignored him, and so did the red-haired guy.


    Max focused.  He ran through his available powers one more time and silently questioned his spirits if they were ready too. Every one of them gave him a subvocal acknowledgment; some of them seemed a bit more excited than others. Curiously, in addition to Saliron, Slick seemed the most eager to actually fight. Trill and Lavinia felt more resolute, resigned.


    With a thought, Max asked Lavinia to activate her spirits.


    Immediately, ectoplasmic armor covered his body. Then, using the same combination of Slick¡¯s and Lavinia''s power that he had in the Fawn caves, Max leapt as high as he could into the air, this time over twice what he was capable of before achieving a three-star mana body.  Lavinia''s spirits immediately morphed into a large glowing wing on his back, allowing Max to glide forward. A few of the other testing participants yelled, but Max ignored them. The highest rank he could achieve was C, but he''d be damned if he got anything lower. On top of that, it would be easier to showcase his abilities if he fought alone.


    It probably wasn¡¯t the best teamwork, but if none of his teammates were ever in any danger, that was a kind of teamwork, right?


    When he was over the first wave of furry monsters, he began dropping beads. These explosive beads were much more powerful than he''d been able to manage before. Part of the enhanced effect was because he just had more power available now, and he was actually supercharging each bead a bit before dropping them, injecting just a bit more mana into each one. It was easy to do because their function lattice and triggering mechanisms were already in place.


    Max also had a better understanding in general of Bead Sorcery too. He wasn''t 100% sure how that affected his beads, but he could definitely feel that it did.


    Giant rodents below detonated in violent, bloody geysers of innards and broken bones. Inside Max''s head, Saliron was taking it all in with laser-like focus. He wasn''t making any noise in the physical world or in Max''s mind, but his entire aura was similar to a dog at a table staring at scraps.


    Max managed to wipe out almost the entire wave of rodent monsters from the air with beads before he was forced to touch down on the ground. As soon as he did, the ectoplasmic wing immediately flowed over his body, returning into armor. Max sprinted forward and punted one of the remaining rat-things, a monstrous creature the size of a mastiff dog, in the side. It was a move like he was trying to kick a giant football. Bones snapped, and the huge rodent was launched into the air, twisting into a slow circle with rivulets of blood being thrown out by centrifugal force.


    Another rodent jumped at Max from behind.  He spun, avoiding the spikes jutting out of the thing¡¯s body to deftly deliver a savage hook to the side of the monster''s temple. Its skull caved in, and this time, Saliron got to flex his power too. Max had already told the dark spirit to run wild while Max was fighting this first wave, to do everything and anything he wanted to do to the enemy. So as Max''s fist crushed the monster''s skull, the rest of its skull and even the top half of its spine disintegrated. The creature collapsed in a rolling, boneless heap.


    The last remaining rodent lunged at Max directly in front of him. But even without his sword, Max was a three-star mana body. He delivered a downward slap to the top of the thing¡¯s snout and a powerful palm strike to its shoulder, diverting the creature''s force. Both blows carried remnants of Saliron¡¯s power, so more bones crumpled and flaked, cutting the monster up from the inside. It rolled into a pitiful, shrieking, screaming ball. And Max didn''t bother to end it. This was all an illusion anyway.  If he left the crying rat in the field, maybe it would slow down the next group of monsters.


    Max surveyed the battlefield before running back to the wall and easily hopping up to the top using a combination of his natural strength and Slick¡¯s power. The other four challengers were staring at him.


    "Are you going to do that every time?" asked Amun.


    "I¡¯m not sure," Max replied honestly.


    "One of you is lively!  So be it," said the red-haired man. He smiled, and the expression wasn''t particularly friendly, but it was genuine. "This test is a bit more interesting now. I can''t say I''m bothered by it."

 Book 3, ch 10

    The group portion of the test proceeded smoothly. After the third wave, Max stayed on the wall with everybody else and didn''t showboat anymore. During the second wave, when he actually saw his teammates'' powers and abilities, he realized that his first action had probably been largely unnecessary.


    During the lull after the third wave, Max quietly asked Amun, "So what rank are you shooting for?" With a fixed three-minute break between waves, by Max''s calculations, everybody still had a minute and a half left before the monsters even began coming.


    "What?"


    Max repeated, "When you get done with all this testing, what rank are you hoping to get? Like adventurer rank for your ID card? Challenger rank?"


    "Oh!" The Blue Wizardry Challenger thought about it for a couple of seconds before hesitantly saying, "I''m hoping for D-rank. One of my friends got D, but he''s a little bit stronger than I am, so I''m not sure. I know for sure I won''t get an F though.¡±


    Max almost asked if there was an E-rank, but quickly remembered himself. He had looked up the ranks the night before, so he was aware that on Earth there was actually an E-rank. He reminded him that F rank was the lowest of the low and meant that somebody was only a step or two away from being kicked out of participating in Challenger activities altogether. It could also be used as a disciplinary action. Getting kicked out of the system would be bad.  For a Challenger not to be in the system anymore, even if they continued to hunt monsters, it would cost them a great deal of money, something Max was all too intimately aware of after his earlier trip to the pawn shop.


    Max nodded and said, "I think you''ll get it."


    "Really? Thanks. Hey, what do you think you''re going to get?"


    "Oh, I don''t know," said Max. "I''d be happy with just an E."


    The man laughed. "To be honest, I was kind of just being polite. I think it''s pretty obvious that you''re going to get a C."


    Max made a noncommittal noise and then stared into the distance again. The other man joined him soon afterward, and only seconds later a noise sounded that signaled the start of the next wave. Max wasn''t sure how many waves there were going to be, but now he definitely confirmed that it wasn''t necessary for him to go all out, even without using any of his powers as a Blade Sorcerer.


    The next wave ended up being some sort of man-sized flying monster, something shaggy with big teeth and veiny wings. Making a show of throwing one of his explosive beads, Max intentionally missed the monster some distance away before hamming up being irritated and throwing another bead that solidly hit one. After that, he didn''t throw any more and contented himself with watching over the other four Challengers as they used a myriad of abilities to bring down the flying monsters or kill them outright in the air.


    Max ended up killing one more monster that lost a wing and still mindlessly ran forward, even climbing their wall. A solid, straight-legged kick¨Cheel first¨Cto the thing''s face, knocked it back over the wall, and when it hit the ground, it lay still.


    The blond woman healed a few wounds as did the black man, but they could hold their own with offensive abilities as well.


    As he stopped paying as much attention to what was going on around him, Max thought about the rankings on Earth. He''d assumed that a C would be pretty strong. After all, an A rank was only two ranks higher, and A rank challengers were known to be quite strong indeed. Each rank on earth was almost exponentially fewer than the rank lower by the power of three. But there hadn''t been anything like a rank system in his Quartet, and he assumed that it had been the same in the other Quartets as well. That meant that the ranking system on earth was unique to earth.  This also meant the power curve would be much lower than he¡¯s assumed.


    With this thought in mind, after the new wave was over, he casually asked Amun, "Hey, you know you heard that I''m a Summoner.  I know that Lance Fraser is a summoner too. He¡¯s something else, huh?¡±  In his mind, Lavinia snorted.


    Amun nodded seriously.  ¡°To be honest, I¡¯d even wished that I was a Summoner after I got back to Earth.  It''s amazing watching any clips of him fighting. The way his spirits help him become such an overwhelming swordsman, it¡¯s...inspirational. "


    Max made a face, trying not to laugh, but the man misunderstood.


    "Hey, it''s okay, man, no need to be embarrassed. I know you''re strong and all, and I know that you probably look up to Lance. I can''t even imagine how powerful and popular he was in your Quartet!  But don''t compare yourself to him right away. There''s still time to learn and grow, you know?" The man nodded slowly like he was taking his own words under consideration, and Max put his top teeth on his bottom lip, keeping his face otherwise blank.  But in his head, both Saliron and Lavinia laughed. Even Slick sent a mental text message to Max, a simple "LMFAO."


    Max carefully nodded and said, "Yeah, I knew of him in the Quartet but I haven¡¯t seen him in a while.  It''s been a while since I''ve read about Lance. I can''t believe I forgot this, but could you tell me what rank he is right now?"


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    "You mean in the unofficial rankings, right? He''s been S-ranked for a long time now. But I don''t think he''s in the unofficial rankings quite yet. In the unofficial ranks it''s mostly Chinese, Japanese, and Russians right now. There are a few Americans and some others, but no Canadians like Lance yet. Everybody thinks he''s probably going to break in this year, though.  Then he¡¯ll be the only ranked Canadian!"


    "Excellent," said Max, trying to keep his tone light. "It''ll be nice to have more top-tier Challengers in North America."


    The man beamed until the sound for the next wave came. This wave¡¯s monsters were a couple of dozen spiky rhinoceros-things that could spit fire. Most of them were dead before they even reached the wall, mostly courtesy of the red haired man with the longsword.


    Max had plenty of time to think. If Amun believed that Max was at at least a C level of power, that meant the Agency reps might think so too. Max didn''t mind even being rated as an A-rank, but actually getting it on his card was impossible.  And he needed not to garner too much attention too fast, at least not right now. He decided that every two or three waves, he would do something a little bit creative or powerful, but otherwise ride out this group portion of the test, just taking the opportunity to show good teamwork and protecting his comrades.


    Two waves later, he stopped keeping count of the waves and just followed his teammates for cues on how to act. He very carefully made himself look just a bit less tired than they were towards the end, but privately he was amazed that all of his fellow earthlings seemed so weak.


    ***


    The individual portion turned out to be just as straightforward as the group test. The Agency representative had not lied. What was strange, however, was the lack of transition again. One moment, Max was standing on the wall with four others, including the redhead guy who kept getting more and more aggressive and destructive. The next, he found himself standing by himself on a far narrower wall and valley. Other than the size, it looked identical to the group testing area. Max didn''t need an explanation for what had happened, which was good because he didn''t receive one.


    Soon enough, a single monster came running around the bend in the distance, moving fairly quickly. It was some sort of feline creature with thick armor on its elbows and back, almost like a tortoise shell.


    This one looks delicious, said Saliron in his head, for a non-humanoid, that is. And for an illusion.  But like a daydream, an illusion of beautiful bones can still be pleasant.  Max decided not to ignore Saliron¡¯s prompting, and he hopped down to the ground again, just like he''d done for the first round of the group phase. Then he ran forward, directly at the monster.


    The truth was, he was physically capable of more than he''d shown. In order to tone it down now but still go some distance, he decided to showcase strength instead of speed. Upon closing with the monster, when it clawed at his face, he pummeled the top of its arm, making it narrowly miss the strike. And then, as the monster cat''s fangs closed in, Max grabbed the scruff of its neck, or at least tried to. There were armor plates in the way.  He improvised and got a good grip on one end of the armor plate before flinging the monster away. The creature probably weighed about three hundred pounds, but Max''s toss sent it sailing at least ten feet.


    Then he jogged forward, and before the creature had completely reoriented after springing to its feet, he decked it in the face. The blow wasn''t elegant and wasn''t meant to be. He was trying to connect with more force than was necessary, and he also let Saliron run wild with the strike.


    The results were predictable. With a screech, the monster dropped but began clawing around in the air wildly, trying to get lucky and snag Max, even though it didn''t have eyes or a face anymore. Max just walked around to the rear of the thing and punched it in the back, letting Saliron do what Saliron liked to do again. The monster''s back snapped, and it stopped moving. It was already bleeding out of the face, so Max gave it one last kick, as much for showmanship as any sort of mercy, and then headed back to the wall.


    A light flashed over the landscape, signifying that the wave was done before he was back. Okay, good, it''s dead, he thought to himself. Then he got back on top of the wall and readied himself for the next wave, which ended up being five smaller, insectoid monsters that had a gleam of venom on their claws.


    This time, Max dealt with them using only explosive beads. Since he had already used explosive beads, he wanted to only use them if possible.  He was trying not to disclose the other weapons he could employ using Bead Sorcery. His poison gas beads, for instance, could be a real pain for someone who was not expecting them in the future, and Max didn¡¯t know how secret these tests were.  If at all.


    The third wave was a single monster, and it looked stronger than the first one.  Instead of a feline, this one was ursine.


    Max got down to close with the enemy again, and Celerian''s power made short work of its bones before Max crushed its skull with a powerful elbow strike. He returned to his wall, and when the next wave came, it was ten large rat creatures similar to the first wave of monsters he''d experienced with the group. This individual portion of the test seemed to follow a pattern: he was going to get increasingly stronger waves of a single monster followed by a group of monsters in alternating order, either until they killed him or the test was over.


    He¡¯d seen the other four testees fight during his group test. Based on that, he decided that he''d aim to do about as well as he could imagine the red-haired man and Amun doing together if this were a duo event. That would be a good stopping point.


    It was several waves later when he felt like he''d reached that limit. During a group attack by large stony monsters, Max deliberately chose one of his weakest explosive beads to throw among them. Predictably, it had very little effect other than making them angry. Then Max jumped down and ran forward to fight them with his fists.


    The reality was that Saliron¡¯s power would have made short work of these creatures, like it had all the others. But Max instructed the dark spirit not to join in, and instead, he began a losing battle. He hit the monsters hard enough to break some of the rock on their backs but started to acquire wounds in return as well. It was the first time during the entire trial that he''d taken any injuries. Max paced himself, allowing the monsters to inflict realistic wounds until he slowed down further, taking even larger wounds, and then eventually fell.


    It didn¡¯t take long for the creatures to maul him to death as he stopped resisting.


    He saw a sudden flash.


    Just like moving from the group test to the individual test, there was no feeling of transition, and Max was instantly standing in his own body inside the magic circle again. He realized he had made a mistake when he looked around and noticed that he was the only testee left in the circles, and the others looked like they had been sitting down against the wall for some time.


    He stepped out of the circle. At the same time, several Agency employees rushed over to him. One of them, an overenthusiastic man Max hadn¡¯t seen before, shook his hand and said, "A pleasure to watch your test, sir. Your name''s Max, right? It was a pleasure to watch."


    From his new vantage point, Max could spot video screens in an alcove that he hadn''t been able to see before. All of the screens were currently showing a paused third-person view of Max''s body getting torn apart by the monsters. "Uh, thanks," said Max. "So what rank am I going to get?"


    Another Agency employee, a young woman, smiled brightly and said, "We''ve already sent the command to the printers for you to have a C-Rank ID to start with. Nobody even had to confer about it. I think we can pretty unanimously say you likely even deserve to be B-rank." She smiled again, and the other agency people looked just as happy.


    Based on Max''s understanding of the Challenger ranks on Earth, it didn''t make sense for the Agency employees to be making this big of a fuss for him being a potential B-rank unless he was missing something. If I were going to stay completely low profile, I think I messed up, he mentally sent to Lavinia.


    Her response was a drawl, Maybe.  But how about getting some information before jumping to conclusions before you jump to even more conclusions.  That was your original plan, after all.


    Point taken.

 Book 3, ch 11

    Max examined his new Challenger ID card and his new driver¡¯s license.  Both had the picture the Agency had taken about fifteen minutes ago.


    ¡°Are you sure you won¡¯t consider it?¡± asked Joseph Grint, the last Agency manager to take a stab at recruiting him.


    ¡°No thanks.  I have some things to do.¡±


    ¡°Well, alright.¡±  The older, mustachioed man bowed his head, defeated.  ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll see the flyers in the main waiting area if you haven¡¯t already, but there is a guild recruiting event hosted here in four more days.¡±


    Max was shocked¨Che hadn¡¯t seen any such thing¨Cbut he kept it off of his face.  ¡°Thank you.¡±


    The other man just nodded and walked away without looking back.  Max took the obvious dismissal in stride and left the individual waiting room where he¡¯d been enduring scouting attempts for the last half hour.


    The Agency must be hurting for Challengers, said Lavinia in his mind.


    Max responded, Well, even without much to compare to I could tell they had shitty contracts.  Not only do they pay like shit, it sounds like if you work for the Agency, you don¡¯t actually raid portals or kill monsters very often.  It¡¯s mostly security or law enforcement.  The only people taking their offer must be cowards.


    Maybe.  Lavinia¡¯s reply was neutral.


    There was a long, obvious hallway back to the main waiting area.  Max walked slowly, mentally organizing everything he¡¯d learned.


    The most surprising fact¨Cat first¨Chad been why most Challengers tested lower than their potential while getting a Challenger ID.  If Max had spent more time thinking about it, he liked to  believe he would have figured it out himself.


    But deep down, honestly compelled him to admit he might not have.  That was the root of why he¡¯d been so confused at first.


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    Most Challengers in the Quartets avoided danger¨Cthey didn¡¯t court it like Max.  The average Returner from the Quartets, even if they graduated, only went to a Quartet dungeon a few times, max.  And most of them went with a large group for safety.


    So the average Returner had years to build their power in the Quartet, but had very little actual experience fighting or using their abilities.  As a result, many Returners, maybe most, grew in ability over the first year or two they were back to Earth.


    Max was shaking his head when he got to the waiting area. He walked across the large room and sure enough, there were flyers and pamphlets for the upcoming Challenger guild fair.  Sure enough, it was scheduled four days from now.  He was only mildly curious about it until he read the names of the participating guilds and saw, ¡°Trifecta.¡±


    His eyebrows practically climbed into his hairline.  Now this, he decided, is interesting.


    Then he started reading the signs around him, looking for directions to the monster parts processing area of the Agency.  It was not really surprising that all the turn ins happened in an annex building.


    Max hurried out the door.  He had some golem parts to sell.  Now that he had his Challenger ID card, doing so wouldn¡¯t be a problem anymore.


    ***


    Max found Dan right where the man had been waiting.  He hadn¡¯t moved. When he saw Max approaching, he got a complicated expression that seemed equal parts greed, worry, sadness, and excitement.


    It was kind of funny to Max that the wiley fence he¡¯d dealt with the day before at the pawn shop had really rode the line of taking advantage and actually screwing him.  He¡¯d gotten roughly two average mortgage payments for the core he¡¯d sold at the pawn shop.  From the Agency, he¡¯d gotten about 50% more.


    Now that he¡¯d sold the last three cores that he¡¯d recovered, he had a decent amount of money.


    Without dragging out the moment, he gave Dan a bag full of money, worth about what two cores had brought in.  It was close to half of what a new car cost before the monsters attacked Earth.  Max had no idea what things were worth anymore, though.


    Dan looked inside as a big, goofy smile bloomed on his face.  When he glanced up, his eyes were still haunted, betraying an aura of grief and trauma from what had happened to him.  But now there was a glint of optimism.  ¡°Thank you,¡± he said.


    ¡°Just fulfilling my end of the bargain.¡±  Max shrugged.  ¡°Anyway, good job answering my questions.¡±


    Dan nodded jerkily and turned before walking away.  Max didn¡¯t know where he was going, but hoped for his sake he¡¯d stay out of trouble.  Next time, he probably wouldn¡¯t have anyone to save him.


    Once his temporary helper was gone, Max left the building with one of the guild faire flyers.  He found a nearby restaurant to relax in and mull over his next steps.  Going to the faire was probably not a bad idea, so he decided to hang around town and do exactly that.  This gave him a couple days to work with.


    In that time he hoped to build his mana body a bit more¨Csomething he hadn¡¯t had much time to do since he¡¯d been back to earth.  He also needed to get a phone.


    But most importantly, he needed some privacy and quiet to have a serious chat with his talking dagger.  He definitely hadn¡¯t forgotten about it, not least of which because it¡¯d continued pulsing within his dimensional storage space.


    After he ate, Max went directly to the nearest wireless store he could find.  Having a phone again was going to feel nice.

 Book 3, ch 12

    Max felt like a kid on Christmas. He had returned to his hotel room after eating lunch and already started playing with his new smartphone. Despite the world still being under attack by monsters and some countries no longer existing, cell phone technology had still progressed quite a bit. Now Max could reap those benefits.


    Of course, he had paid for the jump with lost time.


    Most Returners spent quite a bit more time in the Quartet than the time that they missed on earth before coming back.  For most, it was two or three times as much. In Max''s case, it was the exact opposite by an extreme amount. He hadn''t even spent a year in the Quartet, but several years had passed on Earth since the first monster attack.


    Once he was back in his room, and now that he had a smartphone with appropriate apps to maintain privacy, he began doing the internet searches that he hadn''t had time for, or hadn¡¯t wanted to do on a hotel computer.


    Most of the general news he saw was more of the same, but he was able to learn more specific information, especially about Challengers in general. It turned out he had been right about most Challengers effectively being above the law¡­to a point.  He¡¯d also been right about inevitable friction between Challengers and regular people. The friction helped explain why some Challengers took it upon themselves to pursue vigilante justice against other Challengers. After all, plenty of people, despite any new power, still had a strong moral code, and still others found it extremely important how the public viewed them and Challengers as a whole¨Cwhether for personal or professional reasons.


    Some of the biggest new celebrities among Returners were those who had engaged the most in retribution against Challenger criminals.  A few of them became internet streaming, super-powered bounty hunters.


    Max drank a soda while he spent time researching events over the last few years, time he was gone from Earth.  It was all interesting, but eventually, he couldn''t put off his filial obligations any longer. The truth was, he was a bit scared too. If his parents had died while he was away, he knew he wouldn''t realistically be able to avoid feelings of guilt, no matter how illogical they were. But luckily, when he checked his email for the first time since he''d been back on Earth, he saw email after email from his mother over the years, sometimes more than one a month. The last time she had emailed him had been a week ago. Max grinned and responded. A mischievous streak almost led him to send his mother a joke email about how he was dead or caught in limbo or something, but better sense prevailed. He just sent her a simple message that he was back on Earth and asking her to keep his return secret for the time being.  Max also explained he had a new phone and asked for her number.


    Less than half an hour later, he got a return email without any words, just a phone number. Max''s heart stuttered a bit as he dialed the number on his new phone.


    ***


    Max made a horrified face and blinked in shock as he slowly lowered his phone. He had just ended, no, endured, an hour-long call with his mother.  The happiness he would have felt while talking to her again after so long had been torched in the face of a series of rapid-fire questions between otherwise terse and emotion-laden back and forth.  What was meant to be a conversation had been more of a confrontation.


    But thank God he hadn¡¯t fumbled that email.


    There were several things Max had done in his life, or not done, when viewed in hindsight, he had emphatically thanked himself for not being stupid or doing something for some short-term amusement he would have regretted. This was definitely one of those times. If he had been dumb enough to send a joke email to his mom, the conversation he just had with her would undoubtedly have been even more uncomfortable.


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    It had been uncomfortable enough already.


    He shook his head and realized how foolish his expectations had been.  After all, he had just been pondering phone technology an hour ago, about how the years had marched by on Earth. To Max, not that much time had actually passed.  But for his mother, years had passed, years where she hardly heard from him at all, years where she feared he might not ever come back.  And the years had not been kind to his family.


    It turned out his sister had another child right before his brother-in-law was killed in an accident, and Max''s brother had awakened as a new Challenger but was still wrestling with whether he should actually work as one. Of course, Max''s mother was entirely against it but feared that Max''s brother was going to join a guild despite her wishes. The raw emotion from the guilt she felt, knowing that if he fought monsters, part of his decision would be to help her and the rest of the family, had come through loud and clear on the line. Max felt the distinct feeling that at least part of his mother resented him now, and part of her hated herself for that. It was a complicated situation.


    Max had already felt like he was under the gun to solve some of the problems on Earth because, in the grand scheme of things, his most important, highest priority goal was to get stronger. If he didn''t, when the Quartet adjudicators or whoever else came for him eventually¨C and he had no illusions that they would¨C would kill him. What''s worse, if they still used the same scorched earth tactics as they had back in Ancilla''s day, there was a high possibility that they might just destroy this planet as well.


    But now he¡¯d moved, ¡°get rich,¡± much higher on his list.  He needed to help his family ASAP.


    The eventual arrival of outside, murderous forces was still the biggest problem and always would be, though.  Max went back and forth, wondering if he should inform the world about it, but there were two problems with that. First of all, nobody was going to listen to him right now as a low-level Challenger who didn''t even officially have a guild. In order for more people to take him seriously, he would need to have a certain amount of fame. Unfortunately, with fame came danger, and it might also actually hasten the appearance of his enemies. But even if he had the credibility, all the Challengers were already trying to get stronger, faster, to the best of their abilities. Telling everyone they needed to get stronger might not have much of an effect.


    The other option he had, to take immediate steps to fortify the Earth, would mean taking responsibility to teach a massive number of people Albion Western Wind style.  But that wouldn''t help either. Every warrior had inherent talent for different paths, and the Mana Swordsman Path had several walls that practitioners had to overcome. To repel invaders or overzealous bureaucrats, the Earth needed quality, not just quantity.


    Max knew he wasn''t strong enough yet. He was desperately hoping that the Earth''s S-Rank Challengers were stronger than he was envisioning right now, but he had a bad feeling about it. With that in mind, he settled himself on the floor and began breathing easily, but concisely as he started working on his mana body. The experience of handling mana was like night and day compared to the Quartet.


    In the Quartet, he¡¯d felt like a man catching a single drop of water on his tongue from a ceiling every few minutes to try slaking his thirst. But now on Earth, it was like he was floating in a pool of the clearest, cleanest water imaginable. Even though he was constantly thirsty, the sheer volume of easily available, drinkable water meant there was never any discomfort in the process.


    Max stayed absolutely still, just manipulating mana like this for hours until he finally broke out of his trance and stood up. This had been his first chance since his reincarnation to actually try building his mana body again in a mana-rich environment. He had experimented a little bit the first time he had come back to Earth, but he had been on such a time crunch back then that the idea of spending a few hours just sitting on the floor working on his mana body was laughable.


    "This is fantastic," he muttered out loud. At this rate, if he could get a few really good, long sessions in, he could actually even imagine himself ascending to a four-star mana body in a week or two. It was far faster than he had hoped for, and the realization helped offset some of the queasy stomach he had gotten from talking to his mom.


    One of the biggest sticking points with her, and one of the biggest reasons she¡¯d stayed angry at him, was his insistence that she not tell any other family members that he had returned. Of course, the reason he asked was for their protection. If Max started making waves, the less his family knew about him, the better. It was only going to be a few weeks until he either fixed some of the problems he had to address on Earth or died trying. Of course, it was that latter part that his mother intuited and was the most angry about.


    With frustrated steps, Max made his way to his hotel room¡¯s bathroom and splashed water on his face, practically and ceremonially cleaning himself to stop worrying about things outside of his control. There was already plenty of stuff he had control over to worry about.  And with that thought, he prepared to open the Bone Gate in his room and finally have a discussion with his strange talking dagger.

 Book 3, ch 13

    [I was beginning to wonder if you were going to talk to me again.]  The dagger¡¯s mental ¡°voice¡± sounded a little frustrated.  [There were plenty of opportunities to chat with me and it¡¯s not every day a divine remnant is willing to form a contract.]


    ¡°Sorry about that,¡± said Max without any real sincerity.  ¡°So you were able to watch me from inside the gate?¡±


    [Of course.  For me, it wasn¡¯t very difficult.]


    Max frowned and steepled his fingers before resting his chin on his hands.  His cheap hotel chair squeaked as he leaned forward to stare at the dagger where it was lying on the bed.  ¡°Have you always been this chatty with everyone?  Like Adjudicator Swan too?  Or am I just lucky.¡±


    [Part of it is luck, but a lot of it is that you¡¯re a Summoner.]


    And suddenly, with that one bit of information, a number of mysteries were solved and matters from the Quartet that never made sense, did.  ¡°Do all the¡­teleport daggers have remnant spirits like you?¡±


    [I can tell you¡¯ve already figured some of this out.  It¡¯s one reason why I¡¯m willing to work with you in the first place.  The will to resist the greatest powers, the means to strike back, and a mind to ask questions are all rare, even more rare to all exist in on person.  The answer to your question is yes and no.  The real name for the ¡°transportation daggers¡± is  ¡°transfer athames,¡± or ¡°ral¡¯tek.¡±  How they¡¯re actually made will be over your head, but a good summary would be that gods were killed a long, long time ago, cut into little pieces, and the pieces were used to power the ral¡¯tek.  I can still remember all of it.  It¡¯s not exactly the kind of thing I¡¯d want to fixate on while making love or eating ice cream.  And no, not all of my parts can talk¨CI am dead after all!  In fact, being dead, I usually don¡¯t talk at all.  Funny, that.  But sometimes circumstance can wake a bit of me up, like¡­ shocking a severed hand with electricity to make it move.]


    ¡°That works in real life?  The electricity thing?¡±


    [I don¡¯t know.  I saw it on the TV last night while you were asleep in the hotel room.  It might be fun to try, though.  Oh, that was ballsy by the way, playing movies while you¡¯re helpless.  Won¡¯t the TV being on make it harder to hear an attack?]


    ¡°No, I have spirits that keep watch for me that never sleep.  And after being back to Earth, the sound of traffic makes it hard to sleep now.  I learned the TV-being-on trick a long time ago when I was a kid¡­ But we are getting off topic.  So if a part of you in one of these¡­ral¡¯tek¡­wakes up, you can talk from the dagger that¡­your part is in?¡±


    [Not necessarily, and I know you¡¯ve already figured this out, or at least suspect the truth.  Yes, Max, Summoners are the only Path that can easily or naturally communicate with divine remnants.  And yes, it is one of the reasons why your Path has been suppressed.]


    That did confirm what Max had suspected.  ¡°You¡¯re using my name so casually, but you haven¡¯t even told me yours.¡±


    [Ah.  That¡¯s true.  It is past time that I introduce myself.  I have been known as Anansi.  Now I am sure you are suitably shocked and humbled.  Please hold the applause.  However, I do take tips.  Sexual favors to show appreciation are either accepted or rejected on a case-by-case basis.  I¡¯ll just tell you that it is not an option for you right now, though.  You won¡¯t get far with me if you go that direction.  I¡¯m open to a contract but I am not interested in your rock hard man-abs.  Sorry.]


    ¡°Anansi?  Aren¡¯t you a spider or something?¡±  Max barely remembered a special he¡¯d seen on TV about African gods.


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    [That¡¯s so dismissive.  ¡°A spider?¡±  Rude.  Shallow.  But yes, I am¡­among other things.  Whatever I feel like.]


    ¡°Like a spider man?¡±


    [I am the original spider man.  And I look quite dapper in that form, if I might say so myself.]


    ¡°You just did.¡±


    [I suppose I did.  Anyway, that is who I am.]  The remnant sniffed.


    Max frowned.  Why am I always meeting weirdos?  Out loud he said, ¡°So I guess I will ask the obvious questions now.  I apologize if these are rude but I don¡¯t know any other way to ask without wasting too much time.¡±


    [Go ahead. I appreciate the attempt at proper decorum, but it¡¯s probably too late now.  You¡¯ve been too casual and I have admitted that you have very impressive abs.]


    ¡°Uh, alright.  What do I get out of a contract with you, and what will you get out of it?  Why won¡¯t you fade away like a normal divine spirit?


    [What you get out of it will vary on a number of things. Some of it will be your compatibility with my domain or areas of authority.  It will also depend on your talent.  But one advantage of my divine nature means you will not have to be taught or really practice any of my abilities you manifest¨Cother than just how to use them or when.  Especially since you are a Summoner, you already have experience utilizing the power of another, channeling it.  Also, new abilities through our bond can manifest the longer we work together.]


    ¡°What are your areas of authority? I know a little about you, but not much.¡±


    [Ahem, it is perhaps a bit undignified to call myself such, but I have been known as a ¡°trickster god.¡±  Of course, you already know that I have an affinity with spiders. Shapeshifting is a specialty of mine, as well as a fairly unique form of magic that I am quite proud of.  Escaping is something I have a knack for.  Webs, webbing, well, you get the idea.]


    ¡°I think I do.  So what do you get from this, though?  Remnants pass things on and feel they¡¯re ready to leave this existence.  For them, it¡¯s like¡­an inheritance.  But that doesn¡¯t sound like your situation at all.¡±


    [That¡¯s true.  I very much want to be alive again. By contracting with you, I will ensure I won¡¯t lose consciousness again.  It means I will be stuck with this ¡°part¡± of me being the only piece that can be conscious while I¡¯m contracted, but it can¡¯t be helped now since I am so limited.  The tradeoff is worth it, though.  The longer I am awake, the more time and effort I can put into rebuilding myself using this portion of myself as a seed.]


    That all answered his questions and even sounded plausible.  Max had never questioned the explanations any spirits had given him before, and he wondered if Anansi being a trickster god was making him judge the situation unfairly.


    ¡°If I have a contract with you, can I form a contract with another divine remnant?  What about regular spirits, too?  Will it affect that?¡±


    [So many questions!  Ha!  I approve!  You should always go into every deal knowing as much as possible!  But you¡¯re concerned about other possibilities with divine remnants!?  Like we are just lying around on the street!?  Hilarious!  You didn¡¯t even know divine remnants existed until I spoke to you.  However, to answer your question, no you are not limited to only one divine remnant contract as long as the divine remnants agree to coexist in the very limited real estate of your mortal soul.  Of course, having a divine remnant contract will make you a target for the Quartet administration too, but you already are.]


    ¡°Yes.  That true.  It¡¯s only a matter of time until they track me down.¡±


    [Even so, I don¡¯t risk anything by working with you.  Either I can put my pieces back together again after forming a contract with you, or they stuff this piece of me back into the ral¡¯tek.  It¡¯s not like my situation can become worse.  As for you, the more power you get, the better.


    On that note, our relationship won¡¯t affect your ability to contract with other spirits.  However, I am a bit picky. I would like for you to only contract with spirit I think are worthy if you are my contractor.]


    ¡°Really?  I have a spirit now, a Warlord-level spirit who doesn¡¯t want me to contract with spirits lower level than he is.  Are you going to be like that too?  Then I¡¯ll never get another contract¡±


    [That is not what I meant.  In fact, if you were my contractor, I would speak to this spirit of yours and perhaps help you find a compromise.  For a Summoner to be limited to only contracts with Warlord or higher spirits can be a disadvantage.]


    Max sat back to think about what Anansi had said.  Suddenly, something occurred to him.  Why haven¡¯t my spirits been talking to me this entire time?  He mentally called out to his spirit, Are you all there?


    He got pings back from his spirits, but none of them spoke at first.  Finally, Saliron spoke in his mind, saying, The dead god let us know he would prefer a private interview without us interjecting unless we felt he was lying. I would rather talk about bones anyway.


    We are being respectful, said Lavinia.  This is the first time I have actually heard a divine spirit speak.  I am¡­awed.


    Oh, replied Max.  He rubbed his nose as he thought, and finally said, ¡°Alright, I think I will accept a contract with you.¡±


    [What a life I¡¯ve led.  Now I am asking Summoners to form a contract with me and almost being rejected.  Ha!  Still, I am glad that we can work together.  It will be a mutually beneficial relationship.  I accept, too.]


    Suddenly, a window popped up in Max¡¯s vision.  It was pretty simple as contract windows went.


    Do you want to form a contract with Anansi, a divine remnant?


    *Note: The contract style is ¡°default¡±


    Max chose ¡°yes.¡±


    Then Anansi said, [I chose yes as well.  Now our contract is complete, and¨C]  His voice trailed off.  [Hey wait a second, you never said you were already a Champion! Ridiculous. Part of your conversation with the Adjudicator was censored, but I thought it was Quartet-business. The system still messes with me after all this time! I cannot believe this!]


    The divine remnant''s words devolved into passionate and inventive cursing.

 Book 3, ch 14

    Max walked down a series of alleys, trying to find some private space. Even though the city was almost as populated as it had been before the monsters attacked years ago, the current population was only because people had moved together for security.  Big cities more or less retained their size, but a lot of people had moved out of the suburbs.


    The commercial areas in this city were more sparsely populated than before, too. Humanity had adapted to the constant monster threat, and one way they had done so was by avoiding working alone at night or in small groups in isolated buildings. After all, the more people around and the more eyes there were keeping watch for anything strange, the higher the chance that a new portal would be spotted before anybody could get hurt.


    After Max had gotten his Challenger ID card, he''d actually pondered whether he should go back to his hometown and try some more of Alfonso''s shwarma. After all, to earn some quick money, it was likely that he could happen upon a monster or two there in a relatively short amount of time. If monsters came out of a portal right away, they usually didn''t move far from it, since part of their job was to protect the beachhead, so to speak.


    But Max had decided not to risk traveling. The Challenger Fair was his highest priority in the next few days.  Alfonso''s food was good, but there were certain things he could only do in a populated city, like getting a new cell phone. However, if he were sleeping at Alfonso''s place right now, it¡¯s true that his current situation would be far less annoying.


    Finding some privacy in an abandoned city would be easy.


    It took him over half an hour to find a truly secluded alley where he felt he wouldn''t be interrupted or seen. "Okay, this is it," he said out loud. Suddenly, a big brown spider with startlingly large eyes, blurred up from his hip onto his shoulder. Even after seeing this form of Anansi several times, it still startled Max. The manifested divine remnant said, "I thought you weren''t afraid of spiders."


    "I''m not, but you don''t exactly look like a regular spider, and I would probably be startled or at least notice if anything scuttled up my body onto my shoulder like that."


    "Do you have to use the word ''scuttle''?" said Anansi. "You know that''s kind of an offensive word."


    "Only if you''re a spider," said Max.


    "Exactly," Anansi huffed. "I swear, you say you want a working relationship, but then you keep using nasty language like that."


    Max rolled his eyes. "Uh-huh. Who are you supposed to be now, Annie Wilkes?  And am I just supposed to forget that you didn''t tell me you were planning to make me your challenger by default after forming a contract with me?"


    Anansi grumbled, "Yes, well, it would have benefited you."


    "Maybe, but that would be for me to decide. You didn¡¯t fully explain what  ¡®standard,¡¯ contract was.  And not only that, in my actual Champion contract, I got gifts and other things in return for becoming a contractor.  You didn¡¯t give me anything for that even though you were intending it to happen."


    "You wound me," said Anansi. "Is it so hard to believe that I had your best interests at heart and I fully planned to give you remuneration?"


    "Yes," said Max flatly. "We''re partners now, but I am under no illusions that we are friends after I just met you."


    "I suppose that''s fair. In fact, I''ll tell you what, as a token of good faith, let me tell you what I''ve been doing over the last hour since you started trying to find a quiet, dark place to spend time in."


    "Do you have to put it that way?"


    "Yes, it''s the most apt description. Anyway, Saliron, would you be a dear and come out?"


    A moment later, dark, oily smoke rose from the ground, eventually forming the tall, gaunt figure that Celeron most often manifested as.


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    "I am here.¡±


    ¡°Would you please tell Max what you decided after our conversation?" The divine remnant asked sweetly.


    Saliron¡¯s floating form turned minutely to address Max. The powerful spirit did not sound happy.  "I have spoken at length to the spider god. He has convinced me, barely, that by adjusting my original limitations on you and how you acquire new spirits, I would likely benefit in the long run.  The logic he suggested is that the more things you kill, the more bones I can touch and nibble on. Is this true?"


    Max gave himself a couple of seconds to really think through his answer, and then seriously responded, "I suppose that''s true, yes."


    "I believe the same," said Saliron. "It does not fill me with joy to modify an existing contract, but I must admit there is logic in it. Doing or saying things that keep me from meeting more delightful bones is not logical; therefore, I would like to formally amend our original contract. Instead of a blanket requirement of rank, instead, any new spirit you form a contract with must first have my approval¨C"


    "And me," added Anansi.


    "Yes, and the spider god," Saliron drawled.


    Anansi didn¡¯t try to hide his goating tone.  "You see, after we formed our contract, and I was able to read your memories, I brought up to dear little Saliron that he has already made an exception for Trill. Since he already set the precedent that exceptions were possible, it didn''t make any sense not to amend the contract to reflect this."


    "Thank you, Saliron," said Max. "I promise you that I will deliver more bones in the near future and as long as I live."


    "Of course, I would expect nothing less. However, do not wait too long. The bones call me.  It has been a while since I''ve had a good lick and tickle." With that, the large, imposing spirit vanished.


    "I do appreciate it, Saliron.  Max turned from where Saliron had manifested and looked directly down at the bizarre spider sitting on his shoulder. At least now he didn''t have a human face. The first time Anansi had manifested physically like this, Max had firmly rejected the look and told him to modify it.


    "Actually," said Max, "my spirits are usually incorporeal. Why is it that ever since we formed our contract, you''ve maintained a physical form like this?"


    "Having a physical form gives me more weight in the world when I don''t have other power to give me that weight on its own," Anansi replied. "The ability to create this form and hold on to it is why it was beneficial for me to form a contract with you in the first place."


    Max lifted an eyebrow.  "Yeah, and the fact that you would have auto-included me as a Champion.  Then if I did anything big and flashy, it would have automatically given you more power or influence.  I know how this stuff works."


    "Yes, well," the spider god coughed, "how about we let bygones be bygones, and in exchange, I will help you more efficiently learn what you can do with my power now?"


    "How can you do that?" asked Max. He knew his tone was suspicious, but he didn''t particularly care. So far, Anansi had been living up to his reputation as a trickster god.


    "Well, how about this? Just begin practicing how you normally fight for a while, and I will watch and simultaneously feel what you are doing through your eyes and your body, then give you nudges to let you know where you might be able to improve."


    Max thought about Anansi''s proposal before shrugging. Then, without warning, he fell into mock combat, fighting imaginary opponents using all of his abilities at low power and low speed. He even tossed a few special beads that had no effect other than to return immediately after hitting the ground. He¡¯d devised this method, which he called dummy beads, to practice working them into his regular combat flow for practice. As he spun and kicked, threw beads and instructed his spirits, he began to feel something other than words, more like a pressure in the back of his mind.


    Lightning flashed in his mind.  It suddenly occurred to him that he could use Lavinia''s power a bit differently now. Taking hold of an ectoplasmic rope, he flipped it above him to the alley wall. When it hit the wall, it stuck fast. Max pulled hard, rocketing himself up into the air. He manifested some ectoplasm on his hand and slapped it against the wall while he was at the peak of his jump. Then he easily clung to the wall that way.


    Okay, so I can make ectoplasm sticky now, he thought. Then he easily fell back to the ground in the alley before concentrating on more ectoplasm in his hand. Then, linking with Lavinia, and imbuing his own power into the ectoplasm, Max threw it at the wall in front of him. The ball immediately sprang open into a large, beautiful spiderweb shape that smacked into the wall and stayed there with strong, sticky power.


    "Okay," said Max, a bit of enthusiasm. He continued to practice using his abilities and discovered several other ways he could use Anansi''s power.  Similar to how he used his Mana Vault, he could surge his mana body, but instead of more power, it gave him more¡­depth.  The added mana didn¡¯t affect his physical abilities but let him draw on more power for his other abilities.


    Lavinia¡¯s spirits, after turning into ectoplasm, could be grown and divided¡­as long as they took the shape of spiders.  It was like the spirit only had to create the ectoplasm and the rest was handled through Anansi¡¯s power and influence.  Max wasn¡¯t sure exactly how this could help him yet, but he was able to greatly increase the sheer volume of ghostly matter that Lavian¡¯s spirits could produce as well as the number of individual manifestations.


    He could also summon illusionary spiders, about a dozen of them, and up to the size of a cat.  ¡°Weird,¡± he said.  In both lives, he¡¯d never been able to create illusions and he¡¯d hated when others tried to trick him.  He was sure there were plenty of ways to use it, but he¡¯d need to think about it, move his mind in a different direction.


    Finally, Max came to a stop, minimized [Black Mist Incident] before putting the sword away, and leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, lost in thought. Anansi ran up from his leg¨Cfrom wherever he went when he was out of the way. Max suspected that the divine remnant actually lived in the small shadows his clothing made.


    [That''s not bad for your first time, Max. Can I call you Max?] the spider queried.


    "You''re a god; call me anything you want."


    [What about ¡°shithead¡± or ¡°motherfucker?¡±  What about ¡°diseased sheep vagina?¡±]


    "I would prefer ''Max.''"


    [That wasn''t bad for your first time, Max. In fact, I''m feeling a bit more optimistic about this whole thing now. I''d already known that you were a three-path Challenger before.  Three-path Challengers are rare enough.  But now that you have also formed a contract with me, I think you''re one of the only four-path Challengers to ever exist in the universe."


    Max didn''t say anything for a few seconds until the divine remnant''s words finally registered. "Wait, a what? Four-path?"


    "Yes. Now that you''ve used my power, I believe the system should register at any moment now."


    Sure enough, a window popped up in Max¡¯s vision.  His eyes widened as he read, [Direct Conduit Cleric Path].  "What in the hell!?"

 Book 3, ch 15

    On the way to the convention center with the Challenger career fair, Max pulled up the notification window he¡¯d gotten about his new Path.


    [Direct Conduit Cleric Path]


    You not only merely channel divine energy, a divine entity lives in you or with you.  There is no delay, no necessary permission to use your sponsor¡¯s divine power.


    Max shook his head.  His world view had changed.  Abruptly.  He¡¯d thought a three-Path Challenger was the most that was possible, that he was already as big a freak of nature as possible.  He was wrong.


    Of course, the reason he was now a four-Path challenger was less about himself and more because Anansi was using him as an incubator, or halfway-house.  It was more based on circumstances than any skill or talent that Max had.


    He shook his head.


    Now he had even more abilities to play with and somehow tie together.  He desperately needed serious training time.  The Quartet hadn¡¯t exactly been fun, but at least he¡¯d had time to train his body, mana, and mind.


    He slowed as he got closer to his destination.  The convention center was a circus.


    Streams of people walked down both sides of the road.  The surrounding parking lots were full, and still, streams of cars crawled down the street bumper to bumper. At first, Max was highly confused. Even though the Challenger job fair only happened once or twice a year in this city, he still wouldn''t have predicted that the venue would be so packed.


    Hey, Lavinia, he said mentally.


    It turned out she seemed to be thinking the same thing he was. There are a lot more people here than we expected, huh?


    For sure. Do you think that you and your spirits can figure out why?


    Maybe. Probably. It¡¯ll take my concentration but we''ll just go eavesdrop on some conversations for a few minutes. With that, her presence in his mind vanished.


    In order to not be too passive and let his spirits do all the information gathering, Max walked up to a group of people nearby¡ªa middle-aged couple and two kids. The man was fussing at one of the kids while Max wondered up.  He was saying, ¡°It''s the Champion job fair. Of course, it''s packed.  The man scoffed.


    Then the woman gave her son his full attention and said, "Why didn''t you tell us that..."


    Looks like a family argument.  Max turned and kept walking.


    Luckily, he found a stranger who looked a bit more likely to answer some questions as he got closer to the convention building. A young man, or maybe a teen boy, dressed in bright colors was looking at something on his phone while walking slowly..


    "Excuse me," Max said.


    "Oh hey, what''s up?" The young man had red hair and friendly eyes.


    "I was just wondering why this venue is so crowded. I know that it''s the Champion job fair, but I thought it would be kind of a low-key thing, you know?"


    The man¡¯s eyes lit up in sudden delight.  "Are you a Champion?"


    "Yes, I am," said Max.


    "Oh, cool! Well, I guess you might not know about all this if you''re a Returner, right?"


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    "Yeah, I didn''t get back very long ago."


    "Oh, that''s super rad." He extended his hand. "Name''s Andy. It''s awesome to meet a returner in person."


    "Uh, Max."


    They shook hands, and then Andy said, "Well, it''s kind of simple when you think about the fact that Champions are basically the world''s greatest entertainment now, or at least the world''s biggest celebrities. Not all Champions have streams or do promotions or sponsorships, but a lot do. So for a lot of people, this place is like a fan convention. On top of that, it''s sort of open to the public."


    "What do you mean by ''sort of''?" asked Max.


    "All the Challengers get name tags inside the buildings, like lanyards, and one of the the biggest rooms in the building are converted to sort of like the recruitment tables. A lot of people like to watch. And over the past three years, since so many people come, now the other ballrooms have people selling merch and things like that. Dealer rooms.  So the people owning the venue, I guess, make more money from it."


    Max was shocked. "So the recruiting event really is basically a full-blown convention?"


    "Basically," said Andy. "And it''s just really cool to see all the Challengers, you know? Not only that, Challengers are superhumans, like super heroes, and there will be a lot of them here, even from the guilds.  That means for today, here, nobody really has to worry about monsters or security stuff. A bunch of Challengers are bulletproof. Can you imagine some dumbass pulling a knife or something?" He laughed. "What''s your rank, Max?"


    Max scratched the back of his head, suddenly feeling a little awkward.  He said, "I just tested a few days ago, and they gave me C-Rank."


    Andy''s eyes lit up even more than before. "C-Rank, right out of the Agency facility? Oh wow, you must be a real up-and-comerQ"


    At that moment, Max recognized that there was definitely a new culture on the planet built around Challenger fascination. He had a feeling that if he didn''t get away now, Andy was going to stick to him like glue.


    "Thanks for all the answers," Max said. Then he turned and lept away farther and faster than any normal person could before speed walking away. A handful of people saw, but like in most crowds, people in general could be very oblivious when they were trying to get somewhere. Those who had seen him didn''t get a chance to catch up or even point him out because he was already lost in the crowd.


    A minute later, Lavinia showed up in his head again. I left one of my spirits with you, so I¡¯m caught up already.  It sounds like you already got a pretty good idea of why this place has so many people. But what you might not know is that these sorts of job fairs are kind of like dick-measuring contests for the different challenger guilds too.


    "What do you mean?"


    Well, historically, some have given press conferences during job fairs like this, or publicly talked shit or even issued challenges to each other. Apparently, a lot of the big guilds do their business at functions like this too.


    How many of these freaking things are there in a year? Max asked.


    Not super sure, but apparently kind of like the convention circuit back when you were on Earth, just a few more of them. Like each general area of the United States has one or two a year.


    Max slowly nodded. Okay, well, thanks for finding these answers. I guess we''re about to find out first hand what this is all about then.


    Once he got in the building, Max joined a very short line that was clearly labeled ''Challengers Only''. As soon as he stepped into the line, it felt like all the people around him turned to stare at his retreating back in curiosity.


    Once Max made it to the front, reaching a desk, a bored-looking woman, who was wearing scrubs for some reason, held out a hand and said, "Let me see your agency ID, please."


    Max handed it over, and she scrutinized it carefully¨Cher eyes glowed for a second. Then she handed it back as she chewed gum and gave Max a lanyard. Next, she gave him a sticker that she pulled from a sheet.


    "Go ahead and put this on your lanyard,darling," she said.


    Max read it. It had his name and his rank. ¡°Where did you get this information?¡±


    ¡°The local Agency office gave us a list of new Returners since we figure most of them will come here.¡±


    "Isn''t this a violation of privacy?" he asked. Nobody had told him that they were going to print his name off or that he would be wearing his real name and rank like this.


    The woman shrugged. "If you don''t like it, just don''t put your sticker on the badge. Just keep it in your pocket in case security or staff wants to see it."


    Max almost asked why he would need to do that when he already had his agency ID, but he sucked up his irritation, nodded, and left the line.


    In the interior of the building, after walking down a hallway and following signs, he found himself in a large open room that had been converted to a convention floor of sorts. But instead of rows of tables down the middle like he expected, like the dealer room would likely look like down the hall, there were fewer tables situated in clumps, mostly in the corners, but also in a few places against the wall.


    Just like outside the building, there were two different lines; a large line and a much smaller line that said, ¡°Challengers here!¡±


    The moment he walked in with his badge showing, a man in a suit approached. As the brightly-badged man got closer, Max glanced around, verifying that the people in the other line were the general public, all of whom had paid at the door.  Basically just looky-loos.


    However, the well-dressed people with a ¡°staff¡± badges seemed to be welcoming the actual Challengers like Max.


    The staff member nodded in greeting when he was close enough to speak.  "Hello, Challenger. Have you been to a Challenger job fair before?"


    "No," said Max.


    "Well, I think you''re going to enjoy it. As you can see, there are tables all around the room where all the different guilds that wanted to attend are represented. As you can imagine, they would all like new Challengers to visit them. So in order to incentivize that, every time you visit a table and show the name tag that you got before entering, they will write your name on a list, give you a monetary gift, and enter your name into a raffle for a powerful piece of armor or a weapon."


    "They¡¯ll pay me?  How much?"


    "It varies per table. And, for the larger guilds, it also can vary per rank. For instance, a D rank Challenger might get a gift that is enough for a nice meal, but a B or an A rank might get enough for a car.  Circumstances can affect the gift, too."


    "Interesting," said Max. "But the raffle is the same for everybody, right?"


    "That''s correct."


    He glanced around the room again and thought that the system was pretty ingenious. "That''s okay, I mainly came here to see the booth or table for a specific guild though."


    "Which one?" asked the man.


    "Trifecta."


    The man in the suit carefully schooled his expression. "May I ask why?"


    "No, not really. They''re my own reasons."


    "Ah, I understand. Well, if you''re looking for Trifecta, they''re in the back corner," he said.


    Max nodded, turned, and began walking deeper into the room. The man in the suit briefly watched him leave before turning and finding another new challenger to give his spiel.

 Book 3, ch 16

    The room was full, but not as bad as it could have been.


    Now that Max was actually in the job fair, situated, and could relax a bit, he took the opportunity to examine the people around him¨Cboth the Challengers and the regular people who had come to watch. He thought it was interesting how the non-Challengers respectfully kept their distance for the most part, unless they got an opportunity to ask for a picture or an autograph. It was very different from how Max remembered people acting around celebrities before he had gone to the Quartet.


    He had a few theories as to why this change had occurred.


    Another interesting observation was how most of the regular people who were attending and who didn''t already have a purse or satchel carried backpacks. Meanwhile, the Challengers, for the most part, did not carry a backpack and wore a weapon. Max thought that the difference between the people he was seeing became more obvious the more he watched.


    He made his way slowly around the edges of the room, checking out the booths. His first inclination had been to head straight for the Trifecta Guild booth at the far side of the room and ignore the others. However, he decided not to because that would probably be more likely to stand out, and there was no reason to say no to free money.


    Free money was good.


    Max methodically worked his way around the room, greeting the person behind the counter at every booth, and accepting an envelope full of cash in return for hearing their pitch about their guild. All of them were eager to chat after finding out he was C-ranked.  He was able to learn quite a bit just by doing this and was glad he had made the decision to visit the different guilds.


    As a result, by the time he finally made his way around the room and had spoken to most of the other guild representatives, he knew that some of the amenities the guilds were offering were all-expenses-paid health care, room and board, and a decent weapon as a signing bonus.


    Although Max didn''t know what rates were competitive or exactly what was industry-standard, it seemed like almost anybody who was at his rank or higher had the potential to become rich.


    As he¡¯d moved around the room, the guild representatives asked if he was a brand new Returner. He hadn''t lied about it, or the fact he had been back on earth for less than a month.  Now he was aware of the fact that several people were staring at him from across the room. He had no doubt that a few of the guild representatives were going to make him a more aggressive offer soon. That would be troublesome and would probably make his presence more notable.


    Max could feel pressure between his shoulder blades.  The time he had to mess around was running out.


    When he finally made his way to the Trifecta table, there were actually one or two more guilds that he didn''t get a chance to visit. Oh well, he thought, no need to push this any further.


    The young man behind the Trifecta Guild table, in front of a banner that read, ¡°Trifecta Guild, Join Today!¡± was a stranger. When Max walked up, the man looked up with mild startlement. Max could understand why. During the entire time he was visiting the other tables, not a single person had gone to the Trifecta Guild table.


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    "Uh, hello, Challenger," said the man. "My name is Timothy Charles. May I ask your name?"


    "It''s Max."


    Without being asked to, he handed over his challenger ID card. Obvious surprise crossed Timothy''s face before he met Max¡¯s eyes again.


    "This says you''re a C-Rank," he said.


    Max thought it was quite unnecessary to say so since it was very obviously written on the card.  "That''s right.¡±


    "Well then, um, what would you like to know about Trifecta?"


    What the hell? thought Max. He had listened to almost two dozen guild pitches by now, and this was by far the worst.


    "Do I get any money for talking to you?" he asked.


    "Uh, yes, here you go." Timothy handed Max an envelope and wrote his name on a lined piece of paper. Curious, Max opened the envelope and looked at the money inside.


    Wow, he thought. What he could see in the envelope was less than a fourth as much money compared to the otherwise lowest de facto bribe he had gotten from any of the other tables.


    When Timothy was done writing Max''s name down, he much more smoothly transitioned into a pitch for the guild.  He began listing signing bonuses and otherwise trying to make the Trifecta Guild sound like a good choice. He failed miserably. Max didn''t know exactly how good of a deal he had been offered by the other guilds, but everything Timothy was pitching paled in comparison.


    Now I know why nobody else is coming over here, Max thought. Even for the little bit of money they got for coming to the table, they probably didn''t want to even talk to the Trifecta Guild.


    A handful of regular people had approached the Trifecta table, but only to take pictures in front of it.  None had seemed too interested past that.


    Once Timothy was done explaining what a new recruit could generally expect for signing with the Trifecta Guild, he passed over a pamphlet about the guild.  Then, obviously expecting Max to walk away, said, "Thank you for visiting with us. Please keep us in mind."


    Max smirked. The expression came from a place of irritation more than amusement, though.


    What in the hell happened to this guild I started? His original plan had been to sign up for the guild, get some money, and then head to wherever it was headquartered before making contact with some of his old friends. But now that he saw how far Trifecta had fallen, he thought that he might fast-track his original plan a little bit.  His decision was made as much out of impatience as recognition of an opportunity.


    "Timothy, here''s the deal. I''m actually interested in the Trifecta Guild, and I''m willing to sign an NDA or whatever it is I need in order to speak with somebody who can make me a rookie deal.  In person."


    Timothy blinked in surprise and said, "Well, I am the recruiter here. I can definitely make you a rookie deal."


    Max shook his head. "No offense, but nobody else is really coming over here to your talbe, and I''m a C-Rank. It''s possible that the Trifecta Guild won''t make me a better deal than what you just described, but I have a feeling they will, especially since I tested at least at a B-rank level for my challenger ID test. I''ve only been back on Earth for a few days, less than a month."


    Now he truly had Timothy''s undivided attention. Glancing left and right and lowering his voice, the young Trifecta Guild member whispered, "Did you participate in any Quartet competitions?"


    Now it was Max''s turn to be surprised. But when he thought about it, Quartet competition participation would definitely be a shorthand for more powerful challengers during their time in the quartet. And the vast majority of Returners would have been participants instead.


    Whispering back, Max replied, "Yes."


    Timothy somehow looked more shocked than he already had before. His voice was strangled as he asked, "Why are you interested in Trifecta then?"


    Now Max''s expression turned cold. "That''s my business. Now, are you going to provide me with transportation to your guild headquarters so I can talk to somebody higher up the food chain, or not?"


    "Hold on, let me make a phone call," Timothy said. Then, almost running, he left the table and disappeared through a door.


    Max didn''t have to wait long. Timothy was back in about a minute, his expression a combination of excitement and trepidation.


    "I just got word back. Challenger Max, you have been officially invited to visit the Trifecta Guild. If you hang around here, I''ll make sure you get a room in my hotel, and we''ll leave first thing in the morning."


    "Sounds good," said Max.  He exchanged numbers with Timothy, and the other man told him to watch for texts. Timothy was already booking Max a room in his hotel.  ¡°I¡¯m going to get some food and come back,¡± said Max.  Sound good?¡±


    ¡°Definitely.  Good to go.¡±


    Max walked away, leaving Timothy typing out an email on his phone.


    As he left the convention center to look for some food, he wondered if any of his old students had heard his name when Timothy called. Was Max going to be visiting the Trifecta Guild as a promising, currently C-Rank challenger, maybe new blood for a dying guild? Would he be greeted by his friends? The harried Timothy didn''t seem to act differently after he had made his phone call, so it was unlikely he''d spoken to anyone knew Max personally.


    He figured he would find out for sure the next day.

 Book 3, ch 17

    "So, speaking of the guild, what''s the difference between all the stuff that has been in the news versus reality?" asked Max. Next to him, Timothy pursed his lips in thought. Allowing the man time to think, Max looked out the window at the passing countryside. They were driving across state lines to Las Vegas. After the previous night and over about an hour of driving now, Max had gotten to know Timothy a lot better than he would have suspected.


    The man wasn¡¯t stupid, it¡¯d just been a long time since anyone of any real talent had been interested in Trifecta.  Now he¡¯d adjusted to Max being interested in his guild.


    When they''d met last night for dinner, Timothy had been like a different man¡ªmuch more assertive. It turned out Timothy was a C-rank as well, but as an earlier Returner, he had been back on Earth for about three years now.


    Timothy was a Zeni Parasite Path Summoner, which was new to Max. He had the ability to bond with a worm-like parasite that would normally kill a person, but in his unique body, the parasite became a symbiote that  slowly made him superhuman. It seemed that the Zeni Parasite Path Challengers, in addition to learning to fight with their superpowers, also had to deepen their bond with their parasite.


    All of it sounded extremely strange to Max, completely alien from any other Paths he''d ever known of.  This Path hadn¡¯t been in any of the books in his Quartet.


    Timothy had said the reason his rank was C even after all this time, and even after ranking up, from E, where he¡¯d¡¯ originally been placed, was because he just didn''t have the raw power that many other Paths did. He was stronger and faster than a normal human, but that was about it when it came to his offensive abilities. However, what he prided himself on was durability. Timothy had told Max over drinks the night before, very confidently, that he could take a beating with the best of them.


    Max couldn¡¯t sense that he¡¯d learned Western Wind Style, a fact he made note of.


    The rest of Timothy¡¯s history was fairly interesting, too.  He''d also been in business school when he''d gone to the Quartet, so after joining the Trifecta Guild over two years ago, he had easily fit into the part of the guild that focused on office work and public relations.


    As Max waited for Timothy to formulate a response to his earlier question, he mused aloud, "At least we''re going fast. I don''t think I''ve ever driven this fast on the highway before, at least not for this long."


    Timothy grinned and added a little bit more speed to the car. They were consistently traveling over one hundred miles an hour on the highway. There weren''t as many cars on the road as Max remembered before his time in the Quartet, and it seemed like slow traffic kept to the right side of the road without exception.


    "These days," Timothy said, "being a Challenger is sort of like being a cop¡­on steroids. Even though this is a rental car, I put a magnet on the back to note the Trifecta Guild. The guild''s fallen, but it''s still one of the larger guilds in North America."


    "So you can speed if you''re in a guild?" asked Max. "Actually, does everybody else still have a speed limit?"


    Timothy nodded seriously. "Yes, there''s still a speed limit on the roads, but Challenger guild members get a pass.¡±


    ¡°Why?  I mean besides the fact most cops can¡¯t even arrest most Challengers if they don¡¯t want to go.¡±


    ¡°Good point, but it¡¯s because unless we''re flying or maybe even running there ourselves, sometimes we take cars to portals or to go somewhere to fight monsters. We use our own vehicles to get to emergencies pretty often.  Unless the police want to do our job for us, they need to get out of the way when we''re driving."


    Max nodded sagely at that. "So, anyway, Vegas is really the place to be now, huh?"


    "Sort of," said Timothy. "Some cities are abandoned now. Some cities have more people. The guilds across America have unofficially chosen a few cities to gather in, among other things, for how central they are to get to other places in the country. Challengers need to get to monster subjugations or portals. But another reason is that  not many Challengers in the world have teleportation powers. And wherever those people live, the major guilds will often move closer to be near the teleporter."


    "Really?"


    "Yes, especially for conferences and things like that. Traveling by plane, even fast planes, can take an entire day, just for travel. A teleporter, depending on what type they are, can make a meeting across the world, in person, can be like any other meeting. But of course, that sort of service can''t even be bought with money; it''s usually a courtesy for something major. The Trifecta Guild never had a teleporter, but the Scorpion Guild is based out of Vegas. The Scorpion Guild had a teleporter.  Now quite a few guilds on the west of the United States are also located in Vegas.¡±


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    ¡°So it¡¯s for the teleporter and central location?¡±


    ¡°Yes, but not only that, flat open areas are harder for monsters to hide in. So over the last few years, guilds and people who can afford to tend to move or live in flat, empty areas. Mountains and dense forests are some of the most dangerous places in the world."


    Max thought about that for a few seconds. "So does that mean that there are guilds located in Utah and Texas too?"


    "Utah, yes. Texas, there isn''t a large concentration of guilds in any area like there is in Vegas. But there are a lot of smaller groups and smaller guilds in Texas."


    "I think I got it," said Max.


    The two of them lapsed into a comfortable silence for a while as Max patiently waited for Timothy to answer his question about the Trifecta guild¡¯s current problems. Over the last few days, Max had taken the opportunity to look up news stories about the Trifecta Guild, but he wanted to hear what Timothy would say about it. Finally, the man said, "As you probably have read, about Trifecta¨C¡±  He trailed off and started again.  About two years ago, two of the highest-ranked members of the guild left. And when they left, they took a lot of other members with them. Those two were Toby and Sam Lynch. Both S-ranked challengers. Ever since then, the guild just hasn''t been the same."


    Max nodded slowly. He knew there was more to it than that. The Lynch brothers had also reportedly stolen from the Trifecta Guild, and some of the Trifecta leadership, including Chad, had tried to sue them using official channels, but nothing had come from it. Max waited patiently until Timothy said, "I''m sure you''ve seen the news stories about bad blood too. That''s actually true. And it doesn''t help that the Lynch Brothers'' new guild, Victory, is in Vegas as well."


    Max nodded thoughtfully at this. He knew that Victory Guild belonged to the Lynch brothers and had even seen one of their reps at the challenger job fair, but he didn''t know that they''d established their guild headquarters in the same city as the Trifecta Guild.


    "Okay, so how does that differ from what really happened?" asked Max.


    Timothy didn''t say anything for a minute, and then he finally broke the silence again, speaking slowly and thoughtfully. "In order to answer that question, I need to ask you one first. Why are you really trying to negotiate to join Trifecta? Nobody with your credentials has for a long time. At first, I thought it was just because you believed you''d get a better deal with a guild that''s on a decline like Trifecta is. And maybe that''s true. I don''t know. But over the last day of talking to you, I haven''t gotten the impression that you''re really a money-motivated person. And then you''re asking these questions about what happened to Trifecta from my perspective. And I gotta be honest, I''m a little suspicious now."


    "Suspicious? How?" asked Max.


    "Well, reporting on guild dirty laundry is a good career for some reporters, and getting inside information is worth money too. But you are a C-rank challenger, same as me. And unlike me plateauing at C, you''re probably going to be B very soon. Shoot, maybe even A. So I doubt money is really that much of a concern for you, even if that''s what drove you. I just don''t understand, Max. I don''t understand what you''re doing, or why I''m taking you to the Trifecta Guild."


    "It''s really simple," said Max.


    "It is?"


    "Yes, I just want to join the Trifecta Guild."


    Timothy briefly took his eyes from the road to look incredulously at Max before he turned back and chuckled. "It''s just that simple, huh?"


    "Yes, it''s just that simple.¡¯


    ¡°Well, I''m not even going to pretend anymore to understand, but to answer your question, what those bastard Lynch brothers did almost destroyed the guild, and the guild leadership has been hanging on with their fingernails. Now, somehow, the Trifecta Guild still exists. I and many others are optimistic that we can eventually bounce back. But the last two years have been rough, very rough."


    "I understand," said Max. He lapsed into silence again and looked out the window at the passing scenery that flashed by at around one hundred and twenty miles an hour, now. Even though most challengers had superhuman abilities and tough bodies, he doubted that many would survive a crash at this speed. It was a strange thing to think about. But as he watched Timothy flash past the other cars like they were practically standing still, it drove home that the Challengers were a special class of people in this new world.


    It hadn''t even been a decade since the monsters attacked, so people were still adjusting to what that actually meant. He frowned, ignoring the distractions with a bit of willpower and thought about what Timothy had said.


    Max still hadn''t seen any specifics about what exactly the Lynch brothers did when they left the Trifecta Guild, but he had a feeling that when he got the full story from his friends, he wasn''t going to like it.


    Timothy drove the two of them straight to Vegas with only a couple of stops along the way for a rest break and to eat. Finally, after driving down most of the Vegas strip, they pulled into the parking lot of a large building that looked like it used to be some sort of hotel.


    "This is Trifecta?" asked Max.


    "Yep. We were originally in a different building before, but after everything that happened two years ago, we had to move."


    "Is this cheaper?" asked Max.


    "Exactly," Timothy parked the rental car and said, "Let''s go ahead and check in at the front counter before we get you a room. Everybody in Trifecta has their own room in the guild in case we have to pull all-nighters or it''s more convenient to stay there. We have guards at all times. And a vault too, in case you want to leave any weapons here."


    "Got it," said Max.


    As they walked across the parking lot, a group of people left the front doors at the same time and walked out. Some of them were wearing expensive suits, and others had on the anachronistic armor or otherworldly gear that Max was getting used to seeing challengers wear on Earth. Suddenly, Max recognized one of the people in the group. He immediately smiled in excitement, waved a hand, and shouted, "Chad!"


    Everybody in the group ahead stopped and looked at him incredulously.  To his side, Timothy hissed and tried elbowing Max in the arm to get his attention. Max ignored him.


    "Chad!" he yelled again.


    One of the members of the group of seven, a young man in battle armor, frowned and took a step as if he was going to move himself in front of Chad. However, Chad, with shock written all over his face, grabbed the man''s shoulder and prevented him from walking out any further.


    "Max, is that you?" In that moment, Max verified that none of his friends knew that he was back on Earth yet. Whoever had told Timothy to take him to guild headquarters must have just been another PR person or a manager. Chad really hadn¡¯t known that  Max was back,  there was no way he could act this well.


    Max gave his best shit-eating grin and folded his arms. "Happy to see me? Well, whether you are or not, wanna go somewhere we can talk?"

 Book 3, ch 18

    Max pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration, his eyes closed. He thought about what he had just heard over the last half hour while quietly listening to Chad. Of course, that had been after a short car ride from the parking lot they¡¯d met in, to this much larger, nicer building.


    Finally, Max opened his eyes again but didn''t focus on his friend. Instead, he let his gaze wander while he continued thinking, organizing his thoughts, all while seated in an overstuffed leather recliner.


    Several other expensive recliners were arrayed in the magnificent room, all around a huge table.  An unlit fireplace clad in marble graced one wall, while the opposite wall boasted a full bar, large enough for one or two people to work behind. A total of eight recliners were currently placed the room, but Max could tell there was space to easily handle twice this number.  The room was about the size of a hotel lobby. Signs of wealth were everywhere.


    Getting here had been interesting.  Chad had almost seemed to be in a panic.


    After they¡¯d first met, with a thunderous expression, he¡¯d grabbed Max by the arm and practically dragged him to a car.  He¡¯d put a finger over his lips with pleading in his eyes while nobody was watching, and Max had kept his silence throughout the entire car ride.  He¡¯d also played along once the car stopped when Chad hurried him up to this floor, along with his confused security detail and the people who had been accompanying him before. However, past a certain point, all of his entourage had stopped, except for the security detail. Now, the two of them were seated across from each other at the table in what had to be a high level meeting room, and Max was feeling a little sick to his stomach. Everything he''d assumed had happened within Trifecta had been either slightly off the mark, or the reality was worse.


    He directly studied Chad, and his big friend''s heart looked like it was breaking within his eyes. Max had learned a number of things in a very short amount of time, and one of them was how much this guild meant to most of his friends, especially to Chad. Within the Trifecta Guild, all of his students were called the Originators, and the Originators were part of a slightly larger group called the Inner Circle.


    Max very deliberately laid his hands on his lap before he decided not to spend so much energy appearing calm.  Instead, he rested his elbows on the table in front of him and steepled his fingers.


    ¡°Chad," he said evenly.


    "Yes?"  The last few years had not been good for the man.  Although he had the body of an olympic athlete, deep lines crossed his face.


    "I am going to repeat back what I understand this situation to be, and I want you to tell me whether I have everything right or not."


    Chad nodded once. "Got it."


    Max sighed. "So, what you told me that would be public information, or public misinformation, matches up with everything I read online. This official story is that Trifecta used to be one of the most powerful American guilds. It has fallen on hard times, but it is mostly dying now.  This is largely true, but is not the full story.


    ¡°Trifecta was truly one of the most powerful guilds about two years ago.  And one of the reasons for that is because Trifecta is one of the only guilds in the world that has ever been able to consistently confer a new Path for a high percentage of Challengers. Challengers who could learn and utilize Western Wind style had a solid chance of developing a new Path. And this fact was not exactly common knowledge, but a lot of Challengers were still able to figure it out when some of the other members developed abilities similar to the Originators. Everyone who has ever learned Western Wind Style at this guild has signed binding contracts to ensure loyalty and secrecy.  If they betrayed us, or if they left us within twenty years, they agreed to forfeit their lives.  Am I right so far?"


    "Yes," said Chad.


    "Okay. Everything was good at first.  But then, as the guild grew more powerful, and more powerful Returners began coming back to Earth, Trifecta started actively recruiting some of the more powerful Challengers in the world. Because," Max paused, "none of the Originators have ever actually made it to S rank."


    "That''s right," said Chad softly.


    "All A rank or lower!? What the fuck have you all been doing all this time?" almost slipped out of Max''s mouth. He held his tongue, though. Verbally attacking his friend was not going to make the situation better. Not everyone had what it took to even make A rank, lease of all S-rank.  Not only that, he had to be honest with himself that the only reason most of his friends had become Challengers in the first place, much less gotten as strong as they were now, was because he''d started them on their Path so early.


    They¡¯d been passively absorbing mana all this time.


    All they¡¯d really gained from Max was basic Western Wind style. On Albion, there were several levels of Western Wind Style.  At its basic level, it was a martial art that was passed down to guards and trusted vassals of Max''s old family. There was a limit of how far a warrior could take basic Western Wind Style by itself unless they were extremely talented or they were instructed further by someone like Max. And Max hadn''t been there.


    A slow, poisonous feeling of guilt began making its way up from his stomach, but he battered it down with logic as cold as deep space. There was nothing he could have done about the situation. And that, more than anything, was probably what was pissing him off most.


    Max breathed deeply and said, "The Guild recruited a few powerful Challengers, and the ones that were able to learn Western Wind Style and pick up a new Path signed contracts and stayed long term. But after more than a year, they realized there was a limit to how far the Path could take them, and rumors got around, so it became harder to entice top talent. But on top of that, after more time passed, there were other people in the world who offered to teach methods to help someone find another Path."


    Chad interrupted for the first time. "Yeah, but they were all mostly bullshit. Even the ones that work are super rare, and some of them even hurt people who tried."


    Max shook his head.  "I don''t need to go over the minutiae. I''m just trying to understand the overall situation."


    "Got it."


    "Okay, so Trifecta was the most consistent way, the most sure way for a challenger to pick up another Path. What''s more, it''s one of the only paths that anybody is claiming they can teach in the world with any degree of success that confers physical abilities in a passive way. And it also synergizes with other Paths that use mana."


    "Correct," said Chad.


    Max continued. "So, to make a long story short, the rest of the world currently doesn''t widely know that the remaining Trifecta leadership is not S-Rank.  And if everybody knew, the guild¡¯s reputation would immediately completely fall the rest of the way.  And all of the most powerful members of the guild already left to follow these two asshole brothers, Toby and Sam Lynch, who planned this whole coup. And on top of that, the handful of powerful guild members who were outside of the Originators, in the Inner Circle that was left, were threatened or pressured by these asshole brothers to take an indefinite break from adventuring. This was all planned so the Trifecta guild would be so weak that we, and by we I mean you all, could not tell the world what was really going on even as Sam and Toby¡¯s new guild basically extorted Trifecta and stole resources.  They have been draining this guild dry after taking advantage, all while also eating up the remaining contracts that you have been holding onto by not telling the world the full truth."


    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    "That''s about the gist of it, yes," said Chad. His face was ashen.


    "Oh, but there''s more," Max''s voice dripped with venom, but it was not directed at Chad. "All of these assholes that left the guild and are currently attacking it made oaths and signed contracts like the ones I recommended before I left Earth. So not only did they break their oaths by leaving the guild, they also broke their oaths no to betray it, and even worse, by training their new guild members, at least some of them, in the Western Wind style. Is that correct?"


    Chad looked up now with worry and something else in his eyes, something haunted. "That''s basically correct, too," he admitted.


    "And lastly," said Max, irritation at the entire situation making him tap a finger on the table, "the situation is so bad right now that there are actually spies in the guild which we are currently hoping have not seen me or realized who I really am since my last name is not exactly uncommon. And on top of that, you don''t think I should make contact with the rest of the Originators, because they might absolutely lose their shit and do something stupid to let our enemies know I¡¯m back, or get upset with me when I don''t immediately set everything right. Is that correct?"


    "Yes."


    "Okay, Chad. I''m going to believe everything you told me. I''m going to just roll with it without questioning because you''ve been here and I haven''t. Not only that, I just don¡¯t have time to dick around doing due diligence if even half of this stuff is correct.  It is extremely irritating that I just got here and I can''t say hello to my other friends, but I understand that all of you have been through a lot. And after reviewing the videos I¡¯ve seen of S-Rank challengers in this world, it would be stupid for me to fight them right now, at least right away.¡± Max believed that he could probably take any one of them one-on-one, but only if he used all of his abilities. And conveniently fighting his enemies one-on-one was a pretty silly thing to gamble his life on.


    Chad coughed and said, "Actually, it''s been slow because we''ve had to use slow and discrete channels, but we''ve been doing our best to sue Toby and Sam."


    Max glared.  His voice was savage as he demanded, "Sue!? The goddamn world is being attacked by monsters. Cops can''t do shit anymore. The average cop couldn''t arrest a D-rank challenger, much less keep them incarcerated, much less S-ranks, and that''s if they didn''t have any friends!"


    "Well, I''ve reached out to some vigilantes too," said Chad. He looked like he was about to cry as he admitted all of the dirt from the last few years. "I even met with some privately to see if they would kill the brothers at least.¡±


    ¡°So assassins?¡±


    ¡°Some of the vigilantes will do that sort of thing if you can convince them the Challenger you want dead is bad. Anyway, none would take the job. They wouldn''t tell me all the reasons why, but it was probably a combination of the fact that my enemies are too powerful, and also that from an outsider''s perspective, all they''d done was violate a work contract. After all, there are some Challengers in this world who are mass murdering people or keeping armies of slaves, or other sick stuff. Things that are obviously evil, things that if vigilantes stop, they get much better press coverage and rewards.  After all, they need to make a living too."  He grinned sardonically.


    Max gave him a flat look. "Well, that just means we, and by we I mean me, need to kill these motherfuckers."


    "But wouldn''t that be murder?" said Chad hesitantly.


    "Maybe," said Max, "but you literally just told me that you looked into assassinating these pieces of shit. How is that any different? If somebody else''s hand is doing it, it doesn''t mean you are clean."


    "What about the law? Or PR?"


    "Fuck the law," said Max. "Some things the law still has sway over, but when it comes to whether we teach Western Wind style and people signing contracts dedicating their life to it, that''s another matter entirely. This is the world at stake.  It¡¯s bigger than what some person in a suit decides how the rest of the world should act.


    ¡°As for PR and the rest, I''ll take care of that. Even though I''ve been gone for a long time, I''m sure that some people still remember that first broadcast for our guild. I''m hoping not too many people remember because otherwise somebody might have recognized me in the lobby."


    Max suddenly paused and looked around the office. "This place is pretty nice. Why is it when I first met you, you were outside a place that was at least several levels lower?"


    "Isn''t that obvious?" asked Chad. "We''re almost out of money, Max. In fact, we''re up to our eyeballs in debt. If we don''t keep paying the Sam and Toby hush money, they''ll go public with all of our secrets, but we''re also getting fewer and fewer contracts because we can''t take the jobs that actually require a large enough, powerful enough force. If you hadn''t shown up now, we probably would have been moving out of this building and heading to the one you saw me at within two months. We¡¯ve been preparing.  Had to hold on.  After all, I couldn''t let the guild die because we knew that you were coming back eventually¨Cor at least we wanted to believe it.  But there was no way that in a year''s time we would still own this building."


    Max grew quiet for a while as the threads of guilt moved up from his stomach again. This time, instead of batting them down, he transformed them into icy rage. "Well, lucky for all of us, I have a plan," said Max.


    "A plan?" asked Chad.


    "Yes. What about the portals. I¡¯ve heard that the guilds around here are here because of teleporters.¡±


    Chad¡¯s eyes fell. ¡°Movement abilities cost too much or require favors.  Or prestige.  We don¡¯t have enough money or clout anymore.¡±


    ¡°Then do you have a jet?"


    ¡°A jet?¡±


    ¡°Yes. A private jet.  An airplane.¡±


    "I used to. We had to sell it. But I can get a charter."


    "Do that. We''re going to Canada."


    "Canada? ¡°Why Canada? And do you mean right now?"


    "As soon as possible," said Max. "Within the hour, if possible.  I''m going to go see an old friend who owes me a lot more than you could even imagine."


    Chad looked at him in confusion, and Max facepalmed. "Look, Chad, I don''t want to yell at you. I know you''ve been through a lot, but time is ticking. There are other things going on in the world that you don''t know about right now. So I need you to execute on this. Fast.  Again, I know you''re tired. I know you''re stressed. But I can promise you that if things work out anywhere near how I think they will, everything will be okay soon. But you''re going to need to trust me on this¨Con everything."


    "So we''re visiting another guild?" asked Chad.


    "That''s right. Actually, quick question: if you were to make any sweeping changes to the guild, money-wise or structure-wwise, would you need your brother or anybody else to also sign off on it?"


    Chad shook his head. "No. A few years back, the Originators all voted to just give me executive power so they wouldn''t have to keep bothering with it. I honestly think it''s one of the only reasons some of them are still hanging in there after everything that''s happened. They don''t need to constantly be dealing with the day-to-day. Otherwise they¡¯d be too depressed."


    Max got up from his chair, walked around the table, and put his hand on Chad''s back. "I''m really glad you hung in here all this time, buddy," he said. "Thank you for maintaining the guild.  Now it''s my turn to fix everything. But to do that, I don''t have the contacts or the necessary type of power right now, so I''m going to need you to get out of that comfortable recliner and move your ass."


    Chad suddenly sprang out of his chair. He glared at Max, but there was also a bit of relief and hope in his eyes now. Different expressions crossed his face all within the span of a second, but eventually, he stood straight and with some fire in his voice said, "I''m on it. We''ll have a plane within an hour."


    "Good," said Max. "Come get me or send one of your people here when we''re ready."


    With that, he leaned back in his recliner, looked at the ceiling, and started thinking about everything he still had on his plate. It was frustrating as hell that he still needed to figure out how he was going to get Momo to Earth when he kept getting interrupted by everything else after coming back.

 Book 3, ch 19

    Max sat on a private airplane that Chad had rented. The two of them were almost to Vancouver. Throughout the flight, Chad had been working furiously, using his laptop and speaking softly into his Bluetooth earbud. While Chad did what was necessary for a last-minute meeting in Canada, Max read years of news stories online, filling in his knowledge gaps. Now that he knew what really happened in the Trifecta Guild, it was easier to parse the truth behind other public stories about other guilds as well. He decided that the state of the US, and the rest of the world, was not looking good.


    Even in the fact of looming global annihilation, people were still being greedy and shortsights.


    In fact, when he''d first gotten back to Earth, he''d felt skeptical about the Agency because the idea of some government entity running anything involving Challengers seemed weird to him. During his life on Earth, most world governments weren''t exactly the most efficiently-run organizations, and the world had been half destroyed already.


    But humanity was still hanging on, still maintaining the front lines against the monsters.  And it seemed like the entire world had the individual Agencies of every country to thank for helping with coordination and organization.


    That got Max doing more research on the Agency itself.


    It was strange, but he still couldn''t find out exactly who had started the National Guild Suppression Agency, or who had proposed or solidified how each country¡¯s Agency actually worked. Max had put some real effort into it until he also realized that he couldn''t be the first person to have looked into this. After a quick search on the subject, he found thread after thread on the internet by other people who were intrigued by the mystery of how the Agency was built out of practically nowhere.  It seemed like most people in the world eventually just gave up on the mystery, deciding that every country''s Agency was doing a good job and without them, everybody would be worse off.


    The general consensus was also that whoever had actually started the agency, or whoever was behind it, was a hero for discovering more of how the universe worked.


    But Max knew a little more than the average bear about how the universe actually worked.  Now he was suspicious whether the agency had even actually been a human invention. It was a terrible feeling, and he hoped he was wrong, but after everything he''d been through, suspecting a conspiracy at a galaxy, or universal, or maybe even cross-dimensional scale, was actually becoming his go-to.


    The plane was currently flying relatively close to the west coast of the United States. Something else that Max had been studying was how much of the world had been overtaken by monsters. At this point, it was quite a bit.  The line representing the front line of the war in the US went from just inside Montana, curving inward, to the Carolinas.


    Most of Canada was gone, only the westernmost part of Canada, barely connecting the US to Alaska, was still under human control. Most of Alaska was gone too. The only reason the sliver of Alaska remained was that it was being used as a staging area for other countries, and the combined might helped humanity keep that tenuous strip of land.


    One of the many problems that humanity faced with the monster invasion was how many of them were completely comfortable in environments that were absolutely inhospitable to humans. Whole areas of the planet were much more likely to be owned by monsters now. Deserts and the north and south poles, all extreme environments.  The seas and oceans were all infested now. Even in what would otherwise be considered human territory, lakes and rivers were considered some of the most dangerous areas that anyone could frequent.


    Fishing was no longer a relaxing past time anymore.  Alligators were the least dangerous thing populating the waters in Florida.


    People knew a lot more about how portals can work now. If a portal was not shut in time, it would disgorge monsters, but the number was usually finite. This was the most common type of portal that still spawned on the planet. They could appear in human-controlled areas, but not as often. And most of them near cities were usually addressed and conquered right away. But the portals that opened on the other side of the country, for instance, like in New York, had nobody to challenge them. This meant that it was inevitable for the portal to break and monsters to spill out. Portal bread were basically how all the invading monsters were getting reinforcements.


    The only reason humanity hadn''t been wiped out was because of human weapons effective on some monsters, Challengers, Returners, and the fact that most different types of monsters didn''t work together well, if at all. In fact, sometimes monsters fought. So it was actually more accurate to say that about half of the United States right now had been taken over and carved up by about six individual different monster nations. What was fascinating about this was that each monster nation still sometimes got portals in their territory for other, enemy monsters.  But monsters couldn''t actually enter a portal. As a result, the monsters holding land had to allocate some of their forces to surround portal breaks in their own territory to kill their enemies.


    From a certain point of view, the entire world right now was humanity versus about one hundred different unified groups of monsters, some of whom were more intelligent than others. It was grim.


    Perhaps equally grim was how when Returners from monster-controlled areas came back to hearth, they often found themselves in enemy territory, and had to seek out survivors. The way humanity had dealt with this over the last several years was to send extremely dangerous flights into enemy airspace to drop leaflets and packages containing information about the state of the world, as well as directions on where to go.


    Max could only imagine what it would be like to come back to his hometown in the middle of monster territory and find out that he had to cross the entire country before finding other people again. A semi-abandoned city in human territory, like he¡¯d returned to, would be far different from one under monster control.  It wasn''t a surprise that many Returners had died, but fortunately, a surprising number had made the trip.


    Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    Regular people had died in droves within the first few months after the monster attacks, but after that, humanity somewhat got its act together and began a mass exodus of people. If it weren''t for all the various Challengers on the planet now, many more people probably would have died from mundane causes, if not monster attacks. Food and water would be incredibly scarce after losing half the country and not having regular shipping. On top of that, the only types of airplanes that dared cross monster-infested territory were those that flew high enough to be out of reach of most flying monsters.


    "What a mess," Max grunted.


    At some point, Chad had ambled over. "It really is," the big man said with a sigh. He sat back in his seat, letting his muscles go limp like a boneless rag doll. "I don''t know what you have up your sleeve or why we''re doing this, but I''m going to trust you."


    "You''ve already said that."


    "That''s true, but I needed to say it again for my own sanity. Anyway, you will have your meeting very quickly after we touch down in Vancouver."


    "Who did you talk to?¡±.


    "A handler," Chad grimaced. "I didn''t get a chance to deliver your message at all, so I don''t know what we''re walking into."


    "Oh well, doesn''t matter," said Max. "How much longer do we have until we touch down?"


    "About half an hour."


    "All right. I was thinking about taking a nap¨C¡± Suddenly Max''s attention was jerked to one side as if his eyeballs had turned to steel and the most powerful magnet in the world was on the other side of the plane''s passenger area. He didn''t have to be told what this was. Now he could actually feel all of his spirits half-manifested behind him¨Cwhat he was feeling had caught all of their attention as well.


    ¡°This has not happened in a long time," he muttered, his words trailing off.


    Lavinia''s voice whispered in his ear, "Not since you met me. Strong resonance."


    Max absently nodded, and he was eternally thankful that showing uncommonly good sense, Anansi had kept quiet the entire time Max had been dealing with Chad, and the divine remnant was still staying silent. This moment, especially now that Max was a stronger and more sophisticated Summoner, he could feel how special this situation truly was.


    Just like with Lavinia, he was experiencing a spontaneous meeting with a spirit due to shared attributes, goals, personality, or some other similarities strong enough to interact with each other naturally.


    On the other side of the plane, standing on one of the seats was a softly glowing, translucent praying mantis.  It was beautiful, its colors pinks, greens, and whites, all slightly washed out by its translucency. Max did a quick rundown of all of his spirits, making sure they were present and paying attention.  They all were.


    They all understood the importance of this moment.  Since Lavinia, his first contract ever, this was the first spirit that he truly met naturally like this, without any outside influences, or violence, or deals, or magic circles, or tests or a remnant dragging them along, or other extenuating circumstances.


    Quietly, Max said, "Chad, I need you to trust me and do me a favor."


    "What?"


    "I need you to leave the cabin."


    "And go where? Outside?  I can''t go up to the pilot''s compartment, either."


    Max spared his friend one quick glance to demonstrate through his expression how serious he was. He did feel a little bit sorry for him that he was a guild master and kept getting jerked around like this in one day. Now poor Chad was getting kicked out of the cabin of the plane he¡¯d rented.  But Max didn''t want this opportunity to go to waste. In his heart, he somehow could tell that the spirit he could see right now was shy and wouldn''t like an audience.


    "Okay, fine," Chad grumbled.  "I¡¯m sensing that this is magic or Challenger stuff.  Fine.  If you need me, I will be in the restroom for twenty minutes. But that''s as long as I''ll lock myself in there."


    "That should be good," said Max. ¡°Thank you.¡±  He nodded in appreciation. Chad muttered to himself the entire way to the back of the plane before locking himself in the lavatory.


    After that, Max''s full attention was on the spirit that had manifested by itself in the cabin.  The mantis cocked its head at him.  "Hello," he said softly. "My name is Max Cunningham. It''s a pleasure to meet you."


    The spirit twisted its head to the other side, but Max couldn''t hear anything. Suddenly he saw a chat window from Slick.


    [Good thing I''ve been saving my power, boss, because I can translate.]


    "You can? That¡¯s great, Slick! Can anybody else communicate with this spirit?" he asked out loud. All of his other spirits indicated that no, they could not. Even Saliron, the dark, bone-obsessed entity, was quietly watching as well. He seemed to be as fascinated by this moment as Max and the rest of his spirits.


    This really doesn''t happen very often, said Lavinia mentally.  Her mental tone was full of wonder.  It¡¯s fortunate that Slick can translate so you can communicate better.


    Suddenly, a voice Max hadn''t wanted to hear echoed through the cabin. Anansi wasn''t speaking as loud as he could, but his voice still carried as he said, "I really hate praying mantises. Don''t you think you could maybe tell her to go away and just wait for the next spirit to come along? I mean, this wouldn''t meeting might not even be possible if I hadn''t already talked to Siliron about lowering his standards a bit, at least officially, for any new stray spirits you pick up."


    Just as suddenly, Siliron''s voice came out of nowhere, as chill and dark as it always was. "Dead God, I will not disrespect you, but I will not cower either, at least not when it comes to bones. This unknown spirit has bones on the outside, and they are beautiful and exotic. I find it pleasing to behold."


    "They''re not bones, it¡¯s an exoskeleton," said Anansi.


    The whole time his spirit and remnant were bickering, Max was observing the praying mantis spirit cock her head yet again in confusion and slowly start edging towards the wall of the plane. He didn''t know how he could tell what the spirit was feeling, but he did. He growled out, "If you two don''t shut the fuck up right now, we''re going to have problems."


    "That wasn''t very polite," complained Anansi. But he stopped speaking.


    Saliron just grunted, his voice carrying through the air like oil spreading across rusted steel. "I would normally not tolerate disrespect like this, but I suppose these are rare circumstances. However, you owe me bones of placation before night falls, Contractor."


    "Saliron, you are ridiculous.  ¡®Respect?¡¯ You tried to kill me the first time we met, but whatever, you''ve got a deal," said Max. Then he drew in a shaky breath, stood up from his seat, and crouched down to eye level with the distant praying mantis spirit.


    "Let''s try this again, shall we?" He said. "My name is Max. I''m a summoner. I actually met one other spirit this way before. Her name is Lavinia." He gestured to one side and said, "Lavinia, can you show yourself?"


    The spirit manifested next to him, translucent but still sharp, very similar to the mantis. She smiled and gave a little wave. "I was his first spirit. And if I''m not mistaken, you and I are the same rank too." Lavinia turned slightly to Max and said, "She could tell that I was here before. Spirits can sense one another. But now that we''ve both manifested, maybe I can try teaching her how to speak, even while Slick continues to translate for you."


    Max locked eyes with the new spirit. "Would that be acceptable?" He asked.


    [Yes].


    Slick''s communication window hung in the air.


    Then Max said, "Before we start talking any further, may I ask your name?"


    There was a pause before another one of Slick''s windows popped into existence again.


    [I am called Daliko.]

 Book 3, ch 20

    Max could barely believe his eyes as he stared out the window of the private plane before landing. Chad seemed to understand what was on his mind even though Max hadn''t said anything. The former jiu-jitsu instructor-turned-adventuring-guild-leader sighed and leaned his head back.


    "Yes, the compound is massive," he answered the unasked question.


    "It really is like a small city, isn''t it?" said Max.


    "Yes," Chad nodded. "I''m not going to sit here and pretend that Trifecta was the biggest guild in the world, but I''m also not going to pretend that it was small or unimportant before. That said, the Patriot Guild is another animal entirely. It''s the largest guild in Canada and one of the three largest guilds both North and South America. It''s absolutely huge. Which is super interesting considering that Canada lost most of its land mass."


    "Aren''t most Canadians just packed into that small area on the west now?" said Max.


    "That''s right," Chad nodded as he tried to look through the porthole over Max. But Max ignored the other man''s efforts and continued studying the view below. After all, his friend had had the last few years to watch all of this be built. Meanwhile, it was all new to Max.


    Vancouver spread out in the distance, but nearby was the Patriot Guild compound, which really did almost look like its own city, complete with a few skyscrapers. The level of wealth was mind-boggling to Max, even when he considered how much easier construction was now that the world had magic.


    Refugees weren¡¯t living in tents pretty much anywhere in the world.


    Displaced people had been given new homes that were only one step down from a real house. Challengers that had elemental magics like earth and stone had been utilized to quickly and efficiently raise living spaces. Some of the pre-portals construction crews also utilized weaker or less specialized mages to help build faster using a hybrid of magical and traditional processes.


    One example would be a concrete crew that poured a concrete slab and then the attached mage could dry the concrete almost instantly. This ability meant that construction teams could not only get work done quicker, but they could also use new, faster construction techniques. The crews could create very weak forms for structures that they would cover the inside of with concrete, and then the attached mage could harden that concrete and build it up in layers.  Then after the exterior was done, the crew could fill up the concrete form to create the structure and include the interior rebar.  The attached mage could even ensure a strong bond between the concrete of the form and the interior.  Magic made it all possible.


    Running electricity was easy, now.  Stone mages could be given a wire that they simply inserted into the concrete like the wall was temporarily made of standing water. They bent the laws of physics.  Some stone mages or earth mages were so powerful that they could create a skyscraper in less than a week while working together.  The massive guilds like the Patriot guilds kept a small, standing army of stone mages.  They could erect a forward base to operate out of in an hour or less.  It boggled the mind.


    Max tapped a finger on his armrest while he thought about the state of the world.  He looked forward to finally getting some more down time so he could finally just¡­digest everything he¡¯d learned.  He also needed some time to get to know his new spirit Daliko better, too.  She said in a few more days, she should be able to speak directly to him.


    He kept thinking about her request, the promise he needed to fulfill for their contract, relayed by Slick.


    [Kill enough monsters. Help save this world.]


    It was simple, but profound.


    A lot had already happened today.  Max knew there was a lot more to come.


    Eventually, the plane got clearance to land, and he was unsurprised that the airfield they were using was connected to the massive guild and was not actually in Vancouver. After the plane touched down, Max and Chad disembarked and Max got his first-hand view of all of the brand new construction around him. Other people on the planet were used to seeing this sort of thing and had likely been around while it was being built. But to Max, suddenly being thrust in the middle of it, there were subtle things about the architecture surrounding him that he found different, even slightly alien.


    In fact, he realized with a start that some of the concrete reminded him of stone buildings he''d seen in the Quartet. Once he made that observation, the link was obvious. He''d never seen so many curved walls in a concrete building before. But if somebody was erecting stone walls with their magic and didn''t need to use clunky forms, just about anything was possible.


    After Max and Chad left the tarmac for the welcome area of the private airport, a man in a suit with a very business-like haircut and round glasses approached. Before he spoke, Max noticed that the man had little gold trombones on his red tie.  He also had a music note pin.


    "Hello, Guildmaster Chad Monroe of Trifecta, I presume?" he asked.  He held out a hand.


    Chad shook and responded, "That''s me."


    Then the man in the suit dropped his hand and didn''t even bother to acknowledge Max¡¯s presence.  He said, "My name is Ian Hambly. I will be your guide here in the Patriot Guild."


    Wow, he''s not even pretending to be polite, is he? thought Max. He knew why, of course.  The Patriot Guild likely thought that Chad was here to either borrow money or beg for a favor. Either way, it probably wasn''t exactly a social call.


    And how important could someone traveling with a disgraced, A-rank Champion, guild leader be?


    Max¡¯s spirits didn¡¯t have his level of chill.  He could hear Lavina softly growling in his ear, and Saliron send him a subvocal message, offering to break all the bones in the man¡¯s body.


    Settle down, everyone, Max thought to his spirits.  He had to admit it felt good, though, knowing they were irritated on his behalf.


    "This way please," said Ian. And dutifully, Max and Chad followed the man to an elevator where he pushed a button and then punched in a code before they all headed up.


    Max was trying to play it cool, but the reality was he was trying to rein in his irritation as well.  He had to admit he didn¡¯t warrant special treatment in this situation¨Cafter all, nobody here knew who he was or why he was here. But he didn''t think that anybody should be treated rudely in a professional setting unless they¡¯d earned it.  Instead of taking it personally that he wasn''t being regarded as anything more than Chad''s secretary or something, he was irked by the very simple fact that Ian was being an asshole.


    He checked his internal barometer of the situation to make sure he wasn''t accidentally getting full of himself or taking himself too seriously and decided that he wasn''t. After all, if he was working in Ian''s position, he would generally treat everybody with respect unless they were proven to be a bad actor.


    Even when Max had been working at the cell phone store before heading to the Quartet, he''d always had excellent customer service, even when dealing with old people who couldn''t hear very well and didn''t understand technology at all but pretended they did. They were some of the most challenging customers, but he always managed to keep his cool.


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    Ian was likely the type of person without much real power, but by being associated with a big build like Patriot, people treated him with far more deference than they usually would and he¡¯d let it go to his head.  Idiot, thought Max.


    Eventually, they all boarded a tram. This a tram.  In a guild.  It was the kind of transportation a huge airport would have.  As Ian''s back was turned, Max stared at Chad and silently mouthed, "Are you fucking kidding me right now?" The other man just shrugged helplessly.  Max saw building after building, platform after platform flash by as the tram zipped through the compound.


    He could feel his understanding about the state of the world and assumptions about other guilds getting a bit of a reorganization. Even as it happened, he felt foolish that it was necessary. He had already known that in this sort of situation, with the world being under attack, governments of countries would have very limited power anymore. After all, if cops couldn''t stop most Challengers, any military probably wouldn''t fare much better. And any country going to war with their own Challengers would be killing themselves because then they''d be helpless against monsters.


    In fact, that was one reason why North Korea had fallen so quickly, actually in the first year after the initial monster attack.


    For the Patriot Guild to be this large, this established, and have this much real estate, even with mages doing most of the building, meant it had an absolutely astronomical level of wealth and influence. Pre-portals world billionaires probably had nothing on this guild now. And it was a safe bet that the Canadian government did what the Patriot Guild told it to do, not the other way around.


    Finally, the tram stopped and Ian led them out into a waiting room. He said, "Thank you for following me here. Please be patient. The guild leader is a very busy man. But, he said that he would meet you today at some point when he has time. I will come by to check on you periodically, depending on how long it takes, in order to see if you need anything. Thank you." The man didn''t even wait for a response before he turned and left the room.


    "Real friendly guy, huh?" said Max.


    "Yeah," Chad rubbed his nose between his eyes. "I can''t say I''m surprised though. The general public might not know everything that''s going on, but guilds talk. And let''s just say that I used to be invited to a lot of parties and I''m not anymore."


    "I see," said Max. He carefully looked around the room, trying to decide whether it was bugged. It wasn''t really possible to tell. So instead, he mentally called out to Lavinia.


    Hey, do you remember seeing things about wiretaps or bugs or electronic bugs in my memories?


    A couple seconds later, the ghost girl''s voice came back and she said, Yes, are you gonna ask me if I can find any?


    That''s right.


    Okay, I''ll give it a shot, Lavinia responded.


    Max leaned back in his chair, not even a nice or comfy one. He decided that for all its wealth and style, the Patriot Guild was not as classy or friendly as the Trifecta Guild. Of course, he was aware that he hadn''t seen the entire old building of the Trifecta Guild and that his pride might be misplaced, but he decided he was going to take the wins that he could for the moment.


    A few minutes later, Lavinia mentally said, I can''t find anything, and I just had my spirits look everywhere, even inside everything they possibly could.


    Okay, thank you, said Max. Then he turned to Chad, who had raided the little mini fridge to one side and was sipping a bottle of store brand water. "I don''t think the room is bugged," he said, "but I''m still going to act like it is."


    Chad coughed and almost spit out the water that he''d been swallowing. "Is it okay to just say that out loud?" he asked.


    "Of course it is. It''s not like they treated us really nicely to begin with and we''re not here for the reason they think we are, so who cares? I mean I''m not going to talk about secrets now or anything sensitive but..." His voice trailed off and he shrugged.


    Chad laughed nervously and didn''t respond. He just sipped his water and watched the door. About an hour later, Max was starting to feel irritated again, which he knew was probably a little petulant. All the leadership of this guild probably were very busy. After all, they were effectively running the adventurers and the military and perhaps even the government of Canada.


    With the exception of a few very precious on the planet, all Max was right now was a new C-rank Returner. A talented rookie, but that was all. Come to think about it, Patriot guild probably has looked me up by now, he thought. But the more he thought about it, the less he was sure.  This group seemed to care so little about Chad that it was very possible that nobody in the entire guild was even remotely curious about who he brought with him. Maybe they thought that Max was his lawyer or something.


    It was possible.  If so, the guild was being far too arrogant and needed to work on their security in his opinion.


    Right when Max was about to get up and look outside the room, Ian entered again. The man kept his professional and obviously disinterested attitude as he said, "Thank you for waiting so patiently. Hopefully it won''t be much longer. I see that you''ve already found the refreshments on the table over there. In case you haven''t seen it yet, the restroom is behind the door to your left."


    Chad  thanked him. Ian couldn''t see it, but Max noticed the shadow of a grimace on his friend''s face. It irritated him. "Hey Ian, your name is Ian, right?"


    The man turned and raised his eyebrows at Max. "That is correct."


    "How much longer do you think it''s going to take?"


    "I''m sorry, sir, but I''m not in a position to tell you that. And I figured that you would rather I tell you the truth than just say something comforting."


    Max wasn''t sure how to respond to that. He was half tempted to pick a fight with this guy or threaten to blow up the room if somebody with some authority didn''t see them soon. But after running all of the possible outcomes of such things in his mind, he decided that as irritating as this was, waiting patiently was his best course of action. While Ian was subtly getting under his skin, the man hadn¡¯t actually done or said anything over-the-top offensive, just dismissive.  So instead of responding, Max just nodded stiffly and sat back down again with his arms crossed.


    Ian wasted no time leaving again.  He spun so fast Max was half surprised his musical tie didn¡¯t fall out, and he was gone.


    During the time he continued to wait, Max was extremely glad that he''d taken the time to buy a phone a few days ago. Otherwise he would have been stuck staring at the wall or borrowing Chad¡¯s phone.


    He used his time wisely, reading news articles, and otherwise getting caught up on world events that had happened over  the last several years. He also learned that there were several monsters that were more well-known than others and had their own little kingdoms carved out.  They were called the Monster Kings.  For the moment, humanity considered all but untouchable.


    Finally, Max glanced up when he heard a larger group of people than normal walking down the hallway. There were muted voices too. He elbowed Chad in the side and said, "Look alive." His friend had been half dozing off, but to his credit, he woke up immediately and didn''t appear at all like he had been about to drool on himself three seconds earlier.


    He is an A-rank adventurer, after all, thought Max.


    The door to their room opened and Ian walked in. He had a strange expression on his face, like his normal poker face with a hint of smugness that he''d almost completely suppressed, but not all the way. It was so faint that Max wasn''t even sure if it was really there or he was imagining it. Then another two people entered, a man and a woman, who were both wearing business attire and carried briefcases. Max could immediately tell that they were lawyers. They just gave off that lawyering vibe. On top of that, he figured most other people in this compound, at least in this area where high-level negotiations took place, would likely be either lawyers or Challengers. And the two probably-lawyers just didn''t have the look of warriors about them.


    Finally, three other people entered the room and Max understood why it was this room was as bit as it was.  This wasn''t just a waiting room, it was an audience room as well.


    The last three people consisted of two men and one woman. The woman was Asian, tall, and wore armor even in the building. She had what looked like a segmented whip wrapped around her waist. Before Portal Day on Earth, the attire probably would have looked goofy, or maybe even would be mistaken for cosplay.  But now, she looked deadly serious.  And as a seasoned warrior, Max could tell at a glance that she was not weak, not weak at all.


    The first man was smaller than she was, but exuded a very toned, trained body. His outfit looked a little bit less Quartet-like than the woman''s, but it still wasn''t exactly business casual. He wore dark clothing and soft boots with a cowled tunic. A couple of daggers rode in sheaths at his waist. The entire rogue aesthetic was only ruined by a little name tag on his chest that read, "Hi, my name is William."


    But the last man through the door got most of Max''s attention. He was busy talking to one of the lawyers as they entered and didn''t immediately look up.


    Max noticed that Chad had stiffened. It made sense. After all, Chad was only an A-rank adventurer and although still a guild leader, was the guild leader of a dying guild that was on its last legs. He¡¯d never even been to a Quartet.  Meanwhile, they were facing one of the most powerful men in the world.


    That power presented itself in how he was dressed. The dusky skinned man wore an expensive outfit, something like a male pop singer might have worn before Portal Day. His clothing was extremely high quality and seemed to fit him perfectly. It was also definitely not armor or obviously enchanted in any way. The only way to tell he was a Challenger by how he dressed was a thick leather sword belt, holding a large, magnificent sword, one that was very familiar to Max.


    The man¡¯s expression didn''t change as he glanced at Chad, but when his eyes slid over and he saw Max, his body stiffened.  Some of the blood ran out of his face. Most of the other people in the room were too slow to notice, but the Asian woman must have realized something was wrong. Her hand went to her whip, quick as a snake, and she glanced around the room trying to understand what was happening.


    That''s when Max said, "Hey Lance, it''s been a while." His friend''s mouth worked, but no words came out. He kept staring like he couldn''t believe what he was seeing. Max grinned. "If you¡¯re not too busy, I''d like to have a chat. Can we go somewhere private?"

 Book 3, ch 21

    The new meeting room was smaller, simpler, and had a heavy, secure-looking door.  Lance had led Max here alone, leaving all the others in the original conference room.


    Now Max studied his friend again across the glass table. It looked like Lance had put on a little bit of weight since the last time Max saw him in the Quartet, but not too much. In fact, he¡¯d actually gained muscle, too. However, the toll of his leadership position visibly showed on his face, the same as Chad.


    Lance spoke first, "This room is clean. It''s not bugged and I have people I trust who make sure it''s secure."


    "Well, that''s certainly helpful," said Max.


    "Why didn''t you tell me you were coming?"  Lance''s expression almost looked pained. "I feel like I just about had a heart attack back there."


    "Well," said Max, "Actually I did try to let you know I was coming. It''s kind of difficult for a no-name, brand new Challenger¨Ca new Returner, to get a hold of one of the most powerful men in the world. Go figure.  Even Chad tried.  No dice."


    Lance facepalmed. "Still, from the moment you got here, I should have known.  Someone should have told me.¡±


    ¡°It''s not like I was withholding my name, man," said Max. "Your people just didn''t give a damn because the Trifecta Guild is on its way down."


    Lance''s expression grew openly curious. "What is your relationship with the Trifecta Guild anyway?"


    "Ah, well, I wasn''t able to tell you before because it was so beyond the norm," said Max. ¡°The truth is that I actually returned to Earth before going back to the Quartet before."


    "You what?!" Lance yelled. He actually stood up from his seat, palms flat on the desk, an expression of absolute shock on his face.  ¡°When!?¡±


    ¡°During the time I went to that dungeon.  The one with giants.¡±


    ¡°Seriously?  Back to Earth!?¡±


    "Yeah, I was only back for like a couple days, but in that time, I was able to set up the Trifecta Guild, more or less."


    Lance slowly sat down and leaned his head back. "You know, I''ve actually seen the old news reports from the time period you have to be talking about. And I thought to myself, ¡®That looks exactly like Max. And on top of that, he even fights exactly like Max!¡¯ But then I reminded myself there was no way it could be you because you were in the Quartet." He lowered his head and gave Max a piercing stare. "Meanwhile, this motherfucker here had already been back to Earth, just taking joyrides around the galaxy and shit."


    Max shrugged. There wasn''t much else he could say, except for the obvious. "I''m sure you can figure out why I had to keep it to myself."


    "Yes, I guess so," Lance sighed. "In fact, I''m also figuring the only reason you''re telling me is because of what you did in the Quartet before leaving, and we''re all eventually screwed now, right?¡±


    ¡°Well, not all of us. Me for sure.  I don¡¯t think they¡¯d come for you since I just sent you back and I never actually told you any gnarly secrets.  The people from the Quartet probably wouldn¡¯t go after our world.  Hopefully.  But either way, it''s good for us to get as powerful as possible. And to also help other people get stronger too.  Whether thugs from the Quartet come or not, it¡¯s all moot if the monsters have already killed everyone."


    ¡°From that perspective, wasn¡¯t it selfish to do what we did?  Come back to earth early?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think so.  You, with that sword, can help people a lot on Earth.  I mean, you¡¯re already where you are now¨CGuild leader of the Patriot Guild.  I read a little bit that you almost held the line yourself a few times in the last two years, stopped monsters from advancing any further in Canada, Washington, and even down in Florida.  As for me, if I have the time, I can raise an entire army to fight and take back the world.  I have a lot more growing to do, too.  Eventually, it might be me holding a line solo somewhere like you have.  If we¡¯d stayed in the Quartet normally, who knows if you would have made it back.  I doubt I would have.¡±


    Lance shook his head. "It feels surreal to be talking to you after all this time, especially since I know that it was probably just like yesterday that you sent me back to Earth, right?"


    "Well, it was actually about a week or two ago," said Max. "Not long, though."


    Lance shook his head. "You know, sometimes I used to think about this day. I went back and forth between gratitude to you¡­and also resentment. Like, I''m sure you can figure out ways that a guy could feel like maybe he got screwed after seeing people who spent years and years in their Quartet, not aging¡­ When that happened, I reminded myself that I made the choice to let you send me back and I do believe it''s done a lot of good. I probably got back earlier than I otherwise would have.  Now I''ve been back on earth for a while now. I have this sword, and I was able to basically save my country." He shook his head again.


    "I thought that by the time you got back to Earth, if you got back to Earth, I would be able to impress you by how powerful I''ve become. I mean, in all this time I''ve actually doubled the number of spirits I have.  But you know what? They''re not saying anything right now. They''re all absolutely terrified of you and they''re hiding in my soul space and they won''t even tell me why.  What the hell, man!?¡±


    Lance laughed a bit shrilly and touched his sword. "For some reason, it''s reminding me, pretty hardcore, that without you and without this sword, I might not even be B-rank."


    "I don''t know about that," said Max. "If you have twice the number of spirits now, you might be crafty with how you use them, too."


    "Oh, come on," said Lance. "We both know that I''ve never been super talented at fighting. It¡¯s true I''ve gotten a lot better at it over the last few years since, you know, circumstances. But this sword," he shook his head. "There are less than five people on this entire planet who know how powerful this sword is, and two of them are guild members that I have absolute trust in.  They help me constantly shield it from anybody noticing or discovering what it actually is. If the world knew about this sword, even though the Patriot Guild is one of the largest and strongest guilds in the world, and even though monsters are all over the place¡­People would come for us.  It would be war.  I would bet everything that I have that I¡¯d get attacks and assassins regularly for this damn thing. But you know what? Without it, I wouldn''t even have a country anymore."


    Lance smiled, but there was no humor in it. "This is kind of my life now, Max. I never knew how heavy and crushing this kind of responsibility could be. You know, after I first got back to Canada, the whole country hadn''t been taken over yet. I was lucky¨CI didn''t come back, Return, deep in monster territory. But back then, it was still just one gut punch after another.


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    ¡°My girlfriend was dead. My daughter, nobody knew where she was.  And I''ve been paying private investigators and divination Challengers for the last two years to try to find out. I have no closure. I don¡¯t know what happened to my baby girl!  Even with all the money and magic I have, I don¡¯t have any¡­no closure!  And now, yeah, I''m probably one of the most powerful men in my country. Maybe, actually, probably the most powerful man in my country. I am one of the richest men on the planet. I could get almost any woman I want and you know what? I have no motivation. I just keep thinking of my daughter. I keep thinking of my girlfriend, protecting her till the last, like I heard she did. It eats at me.  I feel so fucking guilty for dating in the Quartet now.  And I just don''t have any more tears left to cry. But what''s worse, I don''t have any free time either. So even if I wanted to spend time drinking or with women or whatever, I just don''t have the time. It''s not even me being selfless because if I don''t save everybody else, I''m fucked too."


    Lance rolled his eyes at himself, got up from the little table, and went to a sideboard to pour himself a shot of whiskey. He returned to his seat and threw the drink back.


    "I''m so glad you''re back, man. And it''s not just because I''m seeing a friend. And it''s not just because I probably owe you. No, actually no ¡®probably¡¯ about it.  I definitely owe you more than anyone else in this entire life. Do you know the main reason I''m so happy to see you back?"


    "No," said Max quietly.


    Lance played with the shot glass on the table, rolling it around gently. Finally, he said, "You are the guy who walked into the Quartet with your unshakable attitude and your snappy comebacks. And when anybody tried to push you into a corner, you just slammed your big magical dick on the table and murdered the fuck out of anybody who crossed you. I still don''t think you understand what kind of mythical status you were building in the Quartet. In fact, even to the end, the way you left and the amount of rumors there would probably be about it, it boggles the mind. If the Summoner Academy still exists in a couple hundred years, they''ll be talking about you until the end of days."


    "Not necessarily," said Max. He sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. "There were a lot of things I was keeping to myself before because certain knowledge is dangerous. But now that you might be on somebody''s hit list too, I''m not sure how much I should hide from you anymore. I guess I''ll leave it up to you."


    Lance blinked. "Wait a minute. You''re asking me whether I want you to tell me something I don''t know right now¡­ and I don''t even know how dangerous it would be to know."


    "That''s right," said Max. "I actually have a few things like that."


    "Oh, hell," sighed Lance. He ran his fingers through his hair and laughed. "Is one of those things why all my spirits are scared shitless right now?"


    "Well, that''s one of them," said Max.


    "Okay, I want to know, but not right now. Too much right now. Maybe you can tell me later if we survive a few months. For the moment, I need to run this giant ass pain in the ass guild. I need to make sure that the rest of my country doesn''t get destroyed, and also watch the United States so we don¡¯t get flanked.  Also, why the hell is Alaska part of the US?  That makes no sense, and now I need to watch it, too.  Even the monsters don¡¯t really seem to want it, but it¡¯s not like there are many Alaskans to defend it.


    ¡°Oh, and I need to lead my own people in other countries, teleporting there sometimes so the world doesn''t get destroyed because, again, if the entire world falls, Canada''s gonna fall too. And now that I''ve seen you again, I''ve been reminded that I''ve been slacking on my training. Because based on my spirit''s reaction right now, I think that I might have possibly even underestimated how strong you were before. And by my estimations, you were already S-rank when we left the Quartet."


    "Something like that," Max admitted. "But, I need to get stronger too. Like, fast."


    "Why ? Don''t get me wrong, I believe you will get stronger regardless, but you¡¯re already strong.  You are already going to be a major player in how we end up winning the world back, but it sounds like you want to get stronger by like, tomorrow."


    "Well, maybe not that early," said Max, "mainly because I can''t swing it that fast. But I think that my next order of business after meeting with you is going to be heading back to Vegas to destroy a guild.¡±


    ¡°A powerful one?"


    "Yes," said Max, his tone serious.


    Lance laughed and even slapped his thigh. "Man, it''s been a few years, so I forgot what it was like to be friends with you.¡±


    ¡°What''s that supposed to mean?¡±


    ¡°You''re the miracle man so you wouldn''t understand. All I can say is one of the first things you learn¨Canybody who is your friend¨Cis they need to never compare themselves to you or it¡¯s bad for their self-esteem. Some of use used to have almost like a support group back in the Quartet.  We¡¯d drink liquor and tell each other it¡¯s okay we aren¡¯t like Max."


    Max didn''t know how to respond to that so he changed the subject. "I don''t know how much time you have, but you seemed busy before. So I''ll get to the most important thing I need to talk to you about today."


    "All right, shoot," said Lance.


    "Okay, I need you to do me a favor. Actually, a few favors. First, I want you to start supporting the Trifecta Guild. You can make it public or not, I don''t care, but don''t let them fall.¡±


    ¡°Financial or other support?¡±


    ¡°Both, said Max. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it won¡¯t be an endless money pit, the guild will end up doing better in the near future. You have my word on that.¡±


    He lifted an eyebrow and Lance slowly nodded.  Max continued, ¡°Second, it took entirely too long to fly here today. With you being you and your guild being your guild, I want you to put me in touch with teleporters or the people that handle the teleporters. Full rights, whatever permissions it is you''ve got. Third, I want you to personally sponsor me. Money, influence when I need it, the works.  Eventually, it¡¯ll be up to you how public you want to make that, but keep it on the downlow for right now.  And that ties in to the last favor.  I need you to keep who I am secret or at least not announce it to the world yet. Some of the people that you employ are probably going to figure it out, especially since you''ve already been looking for me. But there''s a big difference between a handful of Patriot Guild people knowing versus you having a press conference."


    Lance was quiet for a few seconds, just looking down at his hands. "That sounds a lot more like orders than favors," he said.


    Max shrugged one shoulder. "I''m thinking of them as favors. Of course, you''d be kind of a piece of shit not to do what I¡¯ve asked after everything I''ve done for you." He smiled to show that he was not completely serious. But he knew Lance well enough to know the man would acknowledge the truth.


    "No need to be a hard ass," said Lance. "I was going to do it anyway. It''s just weird to be the leader of the Patriot Guild, constantly having people kiss your ass, but then your friend comes back and it reminds you that you''re just a dude with a really powerful sword." He laughed at himself and ran a hand down his face. "Honestly, Max, seriously¡­I don''t know if you can understand this, but it feels so good to have you back. I''m not putting myself down. I''ve done a lot of things in this position that I didn''t think I''d ever be able to do and I''ve actually accomplished some things I''m really proud of. So it''s not like I want to be a little puppy and follow you around and force you to make all the hard decisions. I understand what a burden that is. But at the same time, God, it''s good to have someone around again that I can trust and who I can lean on.  It usually just feels like everyone is leaning on me.¡±


    Now it was Max''s turn to be embarrassed. He rubbed his hair and said, "Well, you know, I''ll do what I can. Actually, speaking of  friends, I forgot another favor. I still need to figure out how to get Momo¨C¡±


    Lance cut him off. "I''ve already been working on that. Actually, I don''t exactly know how your powers work or what powers you have to begin with, but I have a few Patriot Guild members who have all sorts of weird Paths and knowledge. So, whenever you get the chance to talk to them, I''ve had them preparing for almost a year to work with you on getting our friends to Earth."


    Max''s eyes widened in surprise and appreciation. "Wow, Lance, you really have been busy. You''re kind of the MVP of the day, damn."


    "Go ahead, compliment me more," said Lance. He held up one hand as if waving to a crowd.  His other hand waved his fingers in the air in a ''come on'' gesture.


    "Don''t push it buddy," said Max. "I could still drop kick you through the wall and show everybody who taught you how to fight in the first place."


    "Yeah, yeah. ¡®There''s always a bigger fish,¡¯" said Lance. He scratched his cheek and got a distant expression. "Actually, now I feel even dumber for not believing myself that it was you in that old portal-closing video before and also not recognizing the connection to the Trifecta Guild. I mean, the Trifect Guild¨Csome of them actually fight really similar to how I do, don''t they?"


    "Well, duh," said Max. "I taught all of you guys after all."


    "Damn," said Lance. He shook his head and put his head in his hand and closed his eyes. "I missed so much.  But I guess it just shows what someone can miss when they¡¯re trying to keep the entire world from burning."

 Book 3, ch 22

    Chad walked rigidly next to Max through the heart of the Patriot Guild. Max''s conversation with Lance had taken an extra thirty minutes, where they caught up with each other as quickly as possible. They did their best to reconnect, given the time constraints. After all, Lance really was a very busy man.


    After their conversation, they¡¯d returned to the original meeting room. The same people were still there, including Chad. If the mood in the room was any indicator of how things had been since Lance left, it had been tense the entire time.  The room had been plunged into an even more awkward vibe once Max and Lance came back.


    Not long after that, Lance had issued some orders and sent Max and Chad off to the Patriot Guild teleportation room so they wouldn''t have to fly all the way back to Vegas.


    One of the lawyers was leading them¨Cthe male lawyer, and two Patriot Guild guards were following from a respectful distance. Judging by the guards'' auras, both were S-ranked Challengers. Chad was impressed. An honor guard with this much power was an extreme sign of respect from Lance and was probably meant to prevent any incidents until they were back in Vegas.


    Chad muttered, "Did you tell Lance to fire that guy, Ian?"


    Max shook his head. "Nope, I had nothing to do with that. I think that happened for the exact reason that Lance said once he came back."


    All of the various managers in the Patriot Guild, whenever they were escorting anyone to a meeting, were supposed to do a background check on every individual in the group. "Remember what he said?  Nobody looked into my background or even really really asked for my name. And it would have been easy to do so. That''s why Lance fired that guy. It wasn''t for his attitude, it''s because he wasn''t doing his job. Ironically enough, if he had done his job, he might have figured out who I was and also realized that I was the guy Lance had been looking for for so long.  Then maybe he wouldn¡¯t have been so dismissive."


    Chad shook his head. "Wild, man. Absolutely wild. I mean, I knew you have things I don¡¯t know about going on, and I knew you were in the Summoner Quartet. I knew Lance was a Summoner and I''d even seen interviews where he talked about some of his friends in the Summoner academy. He talked about how he hoped one in particular would come back to earth, someone he owed a lot to. But I just never put them all together. Too much was going on, I guess."


    Max nodded in understanding. "Lance said something similar, actually," he said. "I mean, this guild makes our guild look tiny,  but you guys are both guild leaders, and you''ve probably been busy as hell for quite a while."


    "That''s actually pretty nice of you to say," said Chad. He looked around furtively and said, "Some of the other stuff I''m sure you have to tell me still has to wait, right?"


    "That''s right," said Max. "Let''s just get back to Vegas first."


    They traveled in silence for another fifteen minutes, taking another short tram ride until they were in a portion of the Patriot Guild that was truly built like a fortress and had security practically everywhere. Now Max had a greater appreciation for why Lance had sent one of his personal lawyers and an honor guard with them.


    Eventually, after passing through several more layers of security, they wound up in a large room that would have looked sort of like a gymnasium if not for the fact it was round. In the very center of the room rose a crystal spike. A woman wearing professional makeup and business casual clothing stood to one side. The effect of how she was dressed was only ruined by the mystic looking staff she carried.


    Max noticed that the crystal ball on the end of the staff seemed to be made of the same material as the spike in the middle of the room. As he got closer, he noted that the woman had dark skin and seemed to be about thirty years old. Her eyes were hooded, like she was viewing the world past a wall. But Max could tell that before Portal Day, before she''d gone to the quartet, she must have had a different attitude.  Even though her face was set in a frown now, she still had old laugh lines at the corner of her eyes.


    The lawyer who¡¯d been leading Max and Chad sped up his walking pace to the world-weary woman to whisper something in her ear.


    She nodded, and then the lawyer approached Max. "This is where I leave you," he said. "I have been instructed by the guild leader to inform everyone that from now on, you will be treated as one of the guild executives within the Patriot Guild. That''s the highest level in the guild under the guild leader."


    "Cool," said Max.


    The lawyer''s eyebrow twitched when Max didn''t even pretend to care about the honor that he was being bestowed. Truthfully, all he really cared about right now was travel and finances, and both had already been secured. People bowing and scraping and kissing his ass weren¡¯t things he valued in the slightest. He was under no illusions that any real respect would need to be earned.  The lawyer stiffly nodded and Max still didn''t know the man''s name. Lance had said it in passing before, but Max had never formally been introduced and right now he didn''t care that much to begin with. He had other things on his mind.


    "Please approach the crystal," said the woman.


    "I take it you''re the teleporter?" asked Max.  ¡°It¡¯s kind of an obvious question, but it seems polite to ask.¡±


    "I do have a teleportation Path, that is correct. Now please approach the crystal. I will be sending you to Las Vegas once I get the clear signal."


    "Got it," said Max. Organized teleportation hadn¡¯t existed on Albion.  "This signal, is this so we don''t get teleported there and end up being merged with a cow or something?"


    The woman''s stony visage temporarily cracked as she gave him a quick, surprised smile. "Something like that," she said.


    Max and Chad didn''t have to wait very long, only about a minute, until the woman said, "You''re ready to depart¡±


    ¡°Oh, if I see you again, what is your name?¡±


    ¡°Justine.¡±


    ¡°Cool.  My name is Max. This is Chad. He''s the guild leader for the Trifecta guild, which has been getting some bad press, but we are on the up and up now."


    "Oh," said Justine, she blinked. "That''s good, I guess. Well, I hope to see you again then."


    "Likewise," said Max. He casually saluted with a couple fingers.  A second later, light pulsed from the crystal in the center of the room.  Energy washed through his body and he instinctively understood that he could fight it if he wanted to.  Knowing what it was, he didn¡¯t prevent it from pulling him away.  A second later, without even any sense of movement or discomfort, he found himself in a different room.


    This teleportation chamber was a little bit smaller than the one in the Patriot Guild and had more decorations. However, the crystal in the center of the room looked very similar and there was another woman standing with a crystal top staff. However, unlike the professional look that Justin had, this woman looked like she was about to go to the club. Her clothing was pricey and high quality, but it also didn''t cover much. When she bowed, Quartet-style, it did things to her appearance that Max would have noticed more if he¡¯d been as young as he looked¡­or maybe if he''d been less preoccupied.


    However, he''d lived long enough now that something as simple and crude as physical beauty didn''t have the same effect on him anymore. Not only that, this was a woman with real power, a teleporter, one of the most sought-after Paths in the world.


    Max has been giving himself a crash course on Paths since he was back in the Quartet.  For any Challenger to find themselves on any teleportation Path meant that they had to be extremely intelligent. So an extremely intelligent person with serious power and influence, wearing seductive clothing¡­  Max sensed that this was not a woman to be trifled with.  He suspected that her appearance was a calculated ploy to make people around her act dumber than they otherwise might.


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    Of course, he could be reading into it and she just liked this style. It was entirely possible the last few days might have led him to start seeing politics where politics might not even exist.


    He needed to get the hell out of this place.


    After the woman stood from her bow, she said, "My name is Tina." Her brown eyes sparkled at Max and she grinned.


    I didn¡¯t imagine it.  This one is definitely dangerous, thought Max. Now he could see it in her eyes¨Cthe recognition that he viewed her as a formidable person, not just some pretty girl in a cute outfit. She was very obviously amused. When her gaze flicked over a bit, Max glanced at Chad and mentally face-palmed.


    His friend wasn''t staring, but he might as well have been with as many looks as he was trying to steal. Max wondered how Chad could still be so simple after working as a guild leader in this new world for as long as he had.


    He answered his own question a second later when he remembered that Chad was a family man.  He was married and his wife had still been alive back when Max first visited Earth. Chances were she was still around. And Chad had likely never been to a party or a club in his life.  Max suddenly got the feeling that living in Vegas had been an adjustment for his friend.


    "Thank you for the teleport," said Max, "or I guess I should thank you for sending the all-clear so that Justine could teleport us. I¡¯m pretty sure the paperwork is already done and everything has been paid for.  Anyway, we''ve got to go." Then he turned and headed for the doors.


    "Aren''t you going to introduce yourself?" called the woman. Her tone was playful, her amusement obvious.


    "I will when I come back," said Max. He waved a hand behind his back in goodbye, went through the double doors, and then walked past the many lines of security like he didn''t even register their existence. Chad tried to emulate the nonchalance and did okay, but still turned his head in surprise when they walked past a couple of S-rank Challengers sitting across a table from one another and playing cards. Their auras were so strong and they were putting so little effort into hiding it that it was very obvious they were very powerful guards.


    Once Max and Chad left the last layer of the impressive security outside of the bunker-like teleportation room, they found themselves at the rear of a casino. At this point, Chad led the way, proving that he had been through the teleporter before. Max wasn''t particularly surprised. Part of the reason the big adventurer guilds were in Las Vegas in the first place was so proximity to the teleporters.


    As Max put his body on autopilot, just following his friend as Chad secured them a ride back to the Trifecta Guild, Max thought about some of the new things he''d learned. Foremost on his mind was the fact that all of the adventurers in the world, all of the registered Challengers anyway, were expected to fight on the front lines if they were called upon to do so. Some Challengers already worked as full-time soldiers, and although they were not treated the same as the regular army, had still adopted more of a military lifestyle as they fought the monster invasion full time.


    The adventuring guilds were the world''s answer to portals.  They were called upon to kill monsters behind friendly lines, and the reinforce the front lines when necessary. They were also at the forefront of portal R&D, efforts to find or forge better weapons and armor to outfit humanity. Even after years of portal diving, Challengers were still bringing back new magical tech or components that could be used to create new weapons and gadgets.


    Max was deep in thought so it didn''t seem long before he could see the large, main building of Trifecta Guild with Chad. He started paying attention to what was going on around him as soon as they got out of the rental car. They weren¡¯t at the guild building yet.  Max held his tongue as Chad confidently led him through alleyways, winding up at the back of the Trifecta Guild near some loading docks.


    His friend was more on the ball than Max was, helping keep their presence less obvious.


    At the back of the building, Chad took them up a service elevator and then down the hall to a main elevator that led to the top floor where they''d been before. Not long after that, Max found himself sitting in one of the oversized recliners again across the meeting table from Chad.


    "This has been a long day," he said.


    "Tell me about it," Chad sighed.  "Hold on.  One second, I''m going to order us some food."


    "Sounds good," Max leaned back in his chair. "I¡¯ve got to admit that I''m glad we didn''t have to fly back. Otherwise we''d probably be eating terrible airline food right about now."


    Chad laughed and punched something into his laptop before closing it. Then he said, "This is a secure room. Until my secretary brings us the food, you have the floor."


    "Okay," said Max. "Here''s the deal. We haven¡¯t really talked much about this, I don''t need money from you because Lance is going to pay me. I don''t know how much he''s going to give me, but I''m assuming it''s going to be substantial because he¡¯s rich as hell and if he cheaps out on me, it''d be ridiculous after everything I''ve done for him."


    "What is your history with Lance?" asked Chad.


    "Not important right now.¡±


    ¡°Fair enough.  That was kind of a dick move to hint at it then shut me down, though.¡±


    ¡°I know.¡±  Max grinned.  ¡°Anyway, the Patriot Guild is going to fund and support the Trifecta Guild. I''m going to tell Lance to look into all your debts and maybe even pay them all off depending on how much it is. I don''t know how much money he has, but we¡¯ll see.  However, just the fact that the Patriot Guild is going to be working with our guild, even if it''s not made public, is probably going to help matters a lot."


    "Yes, yes it is," said Chad. He pulled a pad of paper and a pen from somewhere and started making notes. "I need to come up with a plausible reason for why all this happened to tell everyone as long as you''re staying incognito."


    "Good idea," said Max. "That''s another point, actually. I don''t know how long it''s going to take, but I need everyone to leave me alone for a while while I''m in training. It shouldn''t take me too long now that I''m back on Earth, but I have a lot of work to do until I go find those brothers."


    "You were really serious about that, weren''t you?" asked Chad.


    "Serious as a heart attack, yes.  There''s more at play here than just the fact they stole the Western Wind style or screwed over the guild. I looked into some of the information you sent me, the contracts they signed, and some of the magically binding ones too. The fact that they haven''t suffered from breaking those is¡­very worrying to me."


    "Why is that?" asked Chad.


    "In your reports, it states nobody knows how they were able to break those contracts, but they obviously have.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s aggravating, but I just figured that they found someone with the right Path to help with that.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, no.  Probably not," said Max. "It''s just a hunch right now, so I don''t want to say it''s a fact. But it''s a possibility that the brothers are working with some real evil bastards."


    "What do you mean?"


    "It''s very simple," said Max. "The types of contracts you used, through two or three different Paths, are binding.  They cannot be broken without severe consequences, with very few exceptions. And the exceptions that would allow people to break them, most people would not use because it would be worse than keeping the contract. Far worse. If, and it¡¯s a big if, these bastards used that method, it would be because this world is new to magic and nobody knows what it means¨Cthey wouldn¡¯t think they¡¯d be caught."


    Chad''s eyes widened. "So they''re working with¡­like, magic criminals or something?"


    "Worse," said Max. "Some Paths out there are not for good people or even sane people. Some Paths are for people, or create people, that want to watch the world burn. And their motivation is often to light the world on fire so their masters would be more comfortable."


    "Oh," said Chad. His eyes widened further. "Oh.¡± He looked at Max in horror. ¡°Over the last year, some strange things have been happening on the front lines, like people winding up dead with no monster attacks. Things like that. Some people have been suspecting for a while that some Challengers might be enemies of humanity, but other than a few actual crazies, or criminals that have been killed or arrested, most Challengers have been fighting the monsters. After all, even the worst type of challenger out there wouldn''t have a world to play with anymore if the world ceased to exist."


    Max just nodded. Chad said, "It looks like you don''t think that the weird things on the front line were coincidence huh?"


    "Probably not," said Max.


    "Great," Chad looked up at the ceiling and his shoulders slumped. "It''s like you came back and solved all my biggest problems but now I have new problems that are bigger and probably harder to solve."


    "Sorry man, that''s what I''m good at."


    "That''s not all you''re good at," said Chad. "You''re also good at breaking shit, which is why I don''t think it''s utterly insane you''re going to challenge the entire Victory Guild."


    "I didn''t say I''m going to challenge the entire guild. I''m just going to kill the people that need to be killed."


    "Geeze.  I''m not going to even pretend to understand what that means."


    Max laughed and then briefly told Chad what he needed for training. Not long after that, the food came and the two of them ate, spending time together as old martial arts friends instead of a guild leader and a Returner.


    Once Max was full, he bid his friend goodbye and used a key card that Chad had given him to leave the building the same way he''d come in. Once outside, he checked his account balance on his phone and grinned. Lance had sent him more than enough money. If Max was a regular person, he could easily retire right now. Instead, unfortunately, he had a feeling he was going to end up burning through this money as fast as he had in the Quartet, just for different reasons.


    Max took his newfound wealth and got himself a room at a cheap hotel. If Chad pulled through for him, hopefully the next day he''d be able to start training.

 Book 3, ch 23

    The way Blackmist Incident collapsed to be so small was turning into a real advantage, past just convenience.  Now that he was back on earth, Max easily passed for a regular person.  Some Challengers couldn¡¯t do that anymore.


    He¡¯d been listening to morning talk radio and had learned that Challengers weren¡¯t always welcome everywhere, or by all people.  Especially people who had run afoul of bad Challengers, even the fact that Challengers were the reason humans hadn¡¯t already lost the war with the monsters wasn¡¯t enough for everyone to be a fan.


    The fact that there were actual gangs of Challengers, actual professional criminals blew his mind.  He couldn¡¯t believe that the more powerful Challengers could tolerate it.


    Maybe they¡¯re just too busy, he thought.


    Max got out of his rental car and looked at the directions on his phone again. ¡°This is it,¡± he mumbled.


    The warehouse location he was staring at definitely fit the description he''d been given. But either he got the wrong place or this was truly a case of brilliant urban camouflage.


    Max had been told via email from Chad that this satellite location belonging to the Trifecta Guild, a private gym, looked a little run down. Even with the warning he still hadn''t been prepared for the reality, which was that the warehouse looked like it hadn''t been occupied in over ten years.  Other abandoned-looking buildings and shady areas were nearby, places that normal people probably wouldn''t want to go during the day, much less at night.


    He shrugged and walked up to a small door on a corner of the warehouse. Now that he was closer to the door, he became more certain that this was actually the place. Instead of some standard industrial door, he could tell at a glance that despite the shoddy paint job, this door was several times more solid than any normal warehouse door. Max had no doubt it was bulletproof. He keyed in the code that he''d been given earlier that morning and tried the doorknob. Sure enough, the door swung open soundlessly. The fact it opened outwards was a nice touch.


    Doors that opened outwards were harder to break down.


    Once he was inside the building, small lights around the inside of the floor automatically came on, providing enough illumination that a regular person would be able to find their way around. He found the controls for the lights and fans overhead and after flicking on the huge warehouse''s full illumination, he just paused a moment to take it all in.


    Chad had told him that this place was built around three years ago.There were also several other locations like it that belonged to the Trifecta Guild. Apparently, all of the bigger guilds in the country¨Cand likely in the world¨Chad satellite training locations like this one for secrecy and to spread out their members. The goals were for convenience and paranoia. After all, if other guilds knew that any guild''s members at any time could be scattered all around the world, they would be less likely to ever launch any kind of attack at a guild''s main office. Granted, such a thing had never happened before, but after being involved in the war for Earth, all of the Challengers¡¯ mindsets had gradually changed to one of veterans.


    So far, large Challenger guilds had not truly ever gone to war with each other in any kind of serious way, but it was inevitable that it would happen one day. After all, people were people.


    It was a big building.  The actual ceiling of the warehouse was over twenty feet up. Max glanced around, examining the place more before walking further in.  The warehouse''s walls had been fully armored up to about ten feet tall. That by itself probably had cost a pretty penny. Max assumed that at one point the warehouse had garage doors or some larger opening to get the thick, heavy steel inside. Now it looked like there was more than a quarter inch of steel surrounding the entire building, higher than an average adult could reach. On top of that, the steel had been firmly secured to the floor, slightly in front of the walls. Behind it and around the entire gym, a generous amount of spray foam had been applied directly to the walls.


    When Max had walked in, he noted that the original warehouse walls already had some sort of insulation. So, all of this other foam and armor was on top of what had already been there.


    The building probably wasn''t completely soundproof, but it was likely the closest thing to it. Even the door that Max had entered through had a generous helping of foam on most of the inside. Some had been shaved away so that it could still open, but that was it. The ceiling had a decent amount of foam too, but not as much as the walls.


    In one corner of the warehouse, there was a curved steel wall that rose even higher than the steel armor around the circumference of the wall. There were sandbags stacked up over ten feet on the inside of it.


    On the opposite corner of the warehouse was exercise equipment, both machines and free weights.


    Near where Max was standing, he could see a strange, egg-shaped piece of equipment that he recognized as a deprivation chamber.  There were also several other areas clearly set aside for meditation.


    The corner opposite from where Max was standing was the office, or living space, and likely the showers.  The were was  limit to how much Max could see from where he was standing, but it looked like a combination of an indoor tiny home and spa.


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    On top of the living space and bathrooms was an area rigged up with machines and gizmos to help magic users focus and train. There was even a dedicated meditation area, a raised platform with a descending dome that could help the person inside by mimicking sensory deprivation.


    One wall of the warehouse was full of practice weapons. Another wall was full of practice firearms. And the wall closest to the shower and rest facilities had a handful of real steel weapons.


    Max was extremely impressed. The layout reminded him a little bit of the martial arts school that he¡¯d won money at with sparring before going to the Quartet.  The memory came unbidden and flashed past, like quicksilver.  Even though it hadn¡¯t been that long for him, it still felt like all of those events had happened ages ago.


    He hadn¡¯t liked the people he¡¯d dealt with back then, but their gym and dojo had been fantastic.  If those guys had had an unlimited budget and also made a living by killing monsters, he suspected that this warehouse would be something they would cook up too.


    Max walked into the rest area and set his backpack on a counter before moving to the center of the training area. He''d already come dressed in athletic clothing, so he didn''t need to change.


    He did some stretching just to get a feeling for the place before moving over to the meditation area.


    It wasn¡¯t the first time he¡¯d spent working on his mana body since he¡¯d been back to earth, but it was the first time since he¡¯d been back that he could really focus on it properly


    Now was the appropriate moment to really assess where he was at, how long it would take to achieve the next level.   It was the first time he truly decided to find the answer to this question. After about a solid half hour of meditation, in addition to swallowing one of his mana pills and still using the same ultra-efficient mana processing procedures that he had in the cortex, he found the answer. It was both exciting and frustrating.


    The answer was exciting because, with at least four hours a day working on his mana body, he should be able to reach a four star mana body in less than two weeks. All the memories of how hard he¡¯d struggled in the quartet came rushing back, and the feeling was bittersweet. It was wonderful to be in a mana-rich world again, but he definitely wished that he''d been able to even achieve a one-star mana body before originally going to the Quartet. What''s done is done, he thought


    Max stood and didn¡¯t even bother checking the time.  He still had a few things to do over the next week, but his primary focus until making his move on the Victory guild was growing his own strength.


    He slowly went through the entire practice center, checking out every single one of the training weapons on the walls. By the time he was finished, he was deeply impressed. Whoever had put this place together had not spared any expenses. For more popular types of weapons, like various styles of swords, there were multiple training options available, everything from foam, to various plastics, to unsharpened steel, and even heavy, weighted training weapons meant for strength training.


    Max moved to the center of the floor and closed his eyes, extending his senses around himself. He had saved the best for last, at least for the day, to have a discussion with his new spirit, Daliko.  As soon as he reached out to her, his eyebrows climbed as he immediately got a response.


    Sure enough, she''d spoken the truth and Slick no longer needed to translate for her. However, the way she communicated wasn''t in words like Saliron and Lavinia. Instead, it was like a wind through his mind, one tinged with the thrill of the hunt, a patience for what was necessary, and a cold, but honorable ruthlessness.


    Max just knew what she was trying to say. As a result, when he asked her what she could do to help him fight, her answer was more concise than he was initially accustomed to after getting a new spirit.


    Everything that Daliko had just shown him was more clear than his other spirits communicating what they could do in the past, but similar in not being complete.  He had a feeling that he would be able to discover new uses of her powers as they got to know each other, and possibly other ways to synergize with his other spirits'' powers. Luckily, Daliko¡¯s powers, at least some of them, were immediately obvious how they would benefit the way he currently fought.


    Based on what Daliko had just shared with him, there were two main ways that she could theoretically increase his fighting power. The first, when he first learned about it, had seemed disappointing. After all, he couldn''t really use the ability with weapons.


    It was time to experiment.


    Max assumed an empty-handed fighting stance and began a simple but powerful kata. His blocks and strikes flowed quickly, speeding up without channeling any mana. He could achieve much greater strength and speed than his current exercise with an expenditure of mana but it wouldn''t be nearly as sustainable. Max figured this was a good baseline to judge the next step of his experiment against.


    Then, from a neutral fighting stance, Max delivered a vertical chop at an imaginary opponent¡¯s clavicle.   Daliko helped with it. As his arm was already accelerating, it suddenly felt like it was getting jerked out of the socket. He felt like his hand was just under the threshold of creating a sonic boom. After the chop was delivered, Max flipped, his entire body following his arm, and he hit the ground in a thunderous roll. If he hadn''t fallen to the ground, he felt like his arm might be ripped out of his socket. "Wow," he said out loud.


    Mentally, Daliko apologized to him, explaining that her abilities were very hard on the body, which is one of the reasons why she hadn''t had any contractors in the entire time she''d been a spirit. There was no way to tell how long she¡¯d drifted, though.  She explained that because of Max''s mana body and how naturally strong and tough he was now, she had hoped that he would be able to use the full power of her assistance.


    So far, the experience hadn''t been too helpful or felt good, Max could admit that, but he wasn''t quite ready to give up on it.


    As best he could tell, Daliko, similar to Lavinia, had a number of spirits she led, except instead of being specialized to create ectoplasm and physical matter, they could create¡­forces and vectors. This meant they could individually move much faster than Lavinia''s spirits when manifesting physically, at least over short distances. That''s how Max''s arm had moved so quickly. A number of Daliko¡¯s spirits had pushed his arm.  The upper end of the explosive movement hadn''t been under his control, which was part of why it¡¯d threatened to hurt him.


    Max tapped his lips, looking around the warehouse until his eyes landed on the shooting targets against one wall and he got a sudden burst of inspiration. Then, slowly taking off one of his bracelets full of beads, he had a quick but intense conversation with Daliko. At first, she didn''t understand the new experiment he wanted to try.


    Eventually, she got the idea, though.  She wasn¡¯t totally on board yet, but was willing to try.  Max grinned. "Okay, here goes nothing," he said.

 Book 3, ch 24

    Max held one bead between his fingers, an inert bead that he hadn''t enchanted yet. He narrowed his eyes at the target, triggered Daliko¡¯s ¡°grasping limbs¡± ability, and his hand shot forward. He managed to release the bead, but it didn''t come anywhere close to hitting the target. Instead, it zipped into the floor so fast that it penetrated the rubber mats and then disintegrated against the concrete underneath.


    "Oops," said Max.


    He decided the experiment had been a success, but had some caveats.


    It definitely gave him an advantage over his normal throwing.  Max was strong and fast, but winding up for a throw telegraphed his intentions too much and there was still a limit to how fast he could throw using his previous abilities. After all, as a fighter, over two lifetimes now, Max had focused more on footwork, movement, and swinging his sword appropriately. Throwing things he could manage, but he definitely wouldn''t consider himself an expert.


    Daliko¡¯s help allowed him to throw a bead almost as fast as a pistol shot. It would probably take some time and effort to get to where he could hit anything, but he could definitely see the obvious advantage now. With this ability, if he held beads in one hand or plucked them off of his wrists, he would be able to throw them out almost as fast as if he were shooting from a gun. At least after some practice. It was an exciting new development. If he mastered throwing his beads, he might even be able to use Daliko¡¯s power on other parts of his body, like his legs for kicking.


    For the time being, this gym would be great to work on his mana body and train in other ways, but maybe it wasn¡¯t the best place to throw beads in, at least until he got it dialed in.  Once he could reliably hit the target range portion of the training area, he could use this space for bead-throwing practice, too.


    Luckily, the second ability Daliko had informed him about was much more complex and probably had the highest utility.


    ¡°Daliko, armor please," he said.


    Suddenly, his body was cloaked with a shimmering force field that quickly hardened and darkened. On his back, a cape extended. With a thought, the cape melded into the armor on Max''s back, strengthening it as it was absorbed. With another thought, the cap extended and transformed into a total of four wings, two larger up top, two smaller below, similar to an insect.


    Next to the glinting wings on his left side, Lavinia appeared to his normal sight. She was examining his new armor just as closely as Max was. "How strong is it?" she asked.


    Max poked himself in the chest rather quickly and willed the armor to stop it. He raised his eyebrows. "I think it''s actually stronger than the armor I get from your spirits.  It¡¯s at least on par."


    To her credit, Lavinia didn''t seem offended at all, only curious. She said, "What are you thinking right now?"


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    Max grinned. "What I''m thinking is, without needing to use your spirits for armor, I have a lot more utility now without sacrificing defense. Or, maybe I can even have you form your spirits into extra material for Daliko¡¯s wings to stay in the air longer. Actually, maybe you could even add your ectoplasm armor panels on top of or below Daliko¡¯s armor for more protection."


    Next to Lavinia on the floor, Daliko to Max¡¯s normal vision as well. She cocked her mantis head to one side and asked if her abilities could truly be combined with Lavinia¡¯s.


    "Only one way to find out," said Max. Then he winked. "Lavinia, armor." Almost immediately, the familiar glowing ectoplasmic armor started to form on his body. Interestingly enough, it did actually lay on top of Daliko¡¯s armor, adding another layer of protection.


    Fascinated by this, Max dismissed both sets of armor, then called for Lavinia to supply armor first. Then, once his body was armored with the ectoplasm plates, he asked for Daliko¡¯s armor.  This time, the mantis spirit¡¯s armor laid on top of Lavinia''s armor. Max wasn''t entirely sure what this meant or how it could be used yet, but he filed it away for future consideration.


    What was currently running through his mind was the fact that when he attained a four-star mana body, his body would undergo yet another qualitative change, making him much stronger and more difficult to damage. But on top of that, he also just got this new armor upgrade. Granted, if he was using Lavinia''s spirits in any kind of support capacity, he wouldn''t be able to double up his armor. But if he needed to, he could make himself extremely tanky now.


    He was absolutely thrilled by this new development.


    Max''s fighting style had always focused more on maximizing his speed and talent for evasion¨Cto not get hit. However, between his overlapping sets of armor and the excellent shield that he could manifest using Blackmist Incident, he decided that exploring some new ways to fight might be appropriate too. "This is exciting," he said out loud.


    Anansi''s voice suddenly rang out through the gym.  The divine remnant¡¯s tone was lazy as he said, "If you say so, Maxy.  It would look better if you got more legs.  However. I do admit that your new look is still much more dashing than your old one."


    Max ignored Anansi and instead continued with his experiments. He willed Lavinia''s armor to disappear off of his body. As soon as it did, Daliko¡¯s armor filled the gaps and laid down flat against his body like it would if he originally called for her to armor him first.


    Then, willing his desire to Lavinia, he cast a hand out and manifested a spiderweb of ectoplasm the way he had before while practicing. However, after that, he tried the same thing while snapping his arm forward using the help of Daliko¡¯s spirits.  The ectoplasm spider web slammed into one of the weapon racks, hitting it so hard it bounce off the wall and scattered its contents all over the floor.


    Max winced, but still crowed, ¡°It works!¡±


    Even while wearing armor, he could use Daliko¡¯s other ability.  After a quick conversation with very few words, he learned why.  It turned out that since his body was covered with her spirits already, they could still assist a quick violent movement in their armor form.


    He tried throwing another web of ectoplasm at the target range.  The projectile went the wrong way, opening as it sped across the entire warehouse until it impacted one of the heavy steel walls with a dull thud that sounded like dropping a car from thirty feet up onto a skating rink floor.


    "I think you need to improve your aim," said Anansi dryly.


    Max frowned.  "I think you''re probably right."

 Book 3, ch 25

    As Max headed out for the day, he paid more attention than he ever thought he would in Vegas, studying the buildings. He noticed that several of the big casinos and other businesses were under new management; the names had changed and, in some cases, even the decorations and color schemes were different. The Vegas strip would still be brightly lit though.


    Of course, being that the world was different now, there were other changes as well. In addition to police, Max saw a few people wearing either military gear or conspicuous-looking Challenger armor as they patrolled the area. When Max felt their auras, he shook his head. Although his control wasn''t dialed in fine enough to truly determine what local rank they were yet, he got the feeling that none of them were above a C-rank.


    However, Las Vegas now was just as busy as it had been prior to monsters attacking. In fact, if anything, it was more crowded now. At first, Max found the crowding strange, considering that so many people around the world had already died. But then when he realized that the survivors had all moved into basically half of the United States, the Vegas Strip being busy was far less surprising.


    Not only that, this area had a high concentration of American Challenger guilds.


    He was somewhat surprised that the patrols were relatively low-ranked. After all, if a high-ranking Challenger were to go berserk, it would likely be the responsibility of whoever''s business that person destroyed to fix it. Max remembered all the security around the teleportation room he''d come through before, which was actually his destination now. But after thinking about it more, he realized he would bet money that every rich business on the strip would have their own Challengers working as security, maybe even their own private bodyguards for management, too.


    Max shook his head, wondering if any of the Challengers employed in the civilian sectors would go to the front lines of the war, even if they were ordered to. The same rules, the same concept he''d thought of before, that the law now was more of a suggestion than a rule, might also apply to Challengers who were asked or ordered to fight for humanity.


    He believed it would require a decent level of delusion, cowardice, or stupidity to actively avoid helping prevent destruction and save the world. But Max was old. He''d seen a lot. And there was no level of stupidity that would really surprise him too much, especially people who were being showered with riches and indulging in hedonism.


    The taxi pulled up  to the curb and Max got out.  He took a deep breath and settled his shoulders. He felt a little irritated and there were no targets to vent his frustration on other than at himself.


    His day had started fairly early, then after some light training, he¡¯d tried walking to the casino with the teleport.  However, he¡¯d underestimated how long the walk would take, and he hadn¡¯t wanted to flaunt his abilities, so he¡¯d had to find a taxi.  The total trip had ended up taking much more time than he thought it would, and now he regretted not just getting a taxi in the first place.


    Taking a rental would have been a pain in the ass a different way.  Max absolutely hated looking for parking spots.


    His destination, the casino, was called "Den of Heroes". He had no idea what it might have been called before the world changed, but he definitely knew that it had been renamed.


    Once through the double doors, he was shadowed by a security team and not long after that, they were replaced by a Challenger security team duo that were both at least B rank. Max was impressed by the speed that whoever was running this show had just reacted to him randomly showing up.


    Nobody stopped him as he walked towards the teleporter. A few people looked up or squinted their eyes as they studied him, but nobody actually said anything or challenged his right to be there.


    A new set of high powered guards were stationed outside the teleport room where he remembered the other pair had been.  They narrowed their eyes, glanced down at their phones before studying him again, and otherwise didn¡¯t move.  Max suspected that Lance had put him on some sort of VIP list.  There was no other explanation for the fact he hadn¡¯t even been asked any questions.


    Finally, he reached the actual teleportation room and this time a different woman than he''d met before was standing there, seemingly waiting on him. She was an older Hispanic woman, and she smiled easily at Max. "Traveling, I presume?" she asked. "Unless you''ve come to stare at these less than interesting walls with me."


    Max laughed politely and said, "I''d like to go to the Patriot Guild, please."


    Suddenly, a middle aged woman wearing a pantsuit with her hair up in a tight bun rushed into the room from outside. She held a clipboard in one hand and a pen in the other. As she moved past without even looking at him, Max saw that some sort of contraption held a large phone to the clipboard. Presumably, she was using her phone as a tablet or touchpad. The business casual-dressed newcomer whispered something to the woman who was manning the teleporting room and then she left as quickly as she''d come.


    The teleporter watched the clipboard woman leave, then gave Max an amused look. "Aren''t you at all curious as to why we were able to just walk in here?"


    Max shook his head. "I figure it has something to do with my permission level via the Patriot Guild. I mean, I''m sure they''re paying for this too. But I also figured that in addition to the obvious security between here and the front of the casino, there are others that I can''t see,  including some sort of recon or sensing Paths. After all, we all know there is probably shape changers out there, so just a visual or maybe even fingerprints might not be enough to know someone is who you think they are. But it''s really hard for people to change their auras."


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    The teleporter''s eyebrow shot up as she heard Max''s explanation. "Wow. Haven''t you just been back on Earth a short time?"


    He gave her a look. "I didn''t know that my personal history was common knowledge now."


    "Oh, it''s not," she said, and shook her head. "Part of my job is just to know all the VIPs on site. As a new one, you were pretty easy to remember some details for. Not least of which, because there are so few Returners anymore. Most Returners now have a higher possibility of being special or more powerful in some way. Well, most are probably still average, but you just never know if one is going to be a new guild leader or something. So those of us that have figured out this pattern also pay extra attention to new Returners on the VIP list."


    "Oh."


    She smacked her head.  ¡°That''s right.  Here, this is my card."


    Max accepted a fancy business card from the teleporter and it was his turn to show surprise.


    Jessica Fane


    Teleporter, Deno of Heroes Casino


    Private Commission Accepted.


    "You have a side business?" He asked. "How is that even possible when you''re a teleporter, Path and probably under constant security?"


    "Look at the location on the back," she said, "bottom left of the card." Max nodded slowly. In addition to her phone and email contact information, the only physical address or location on the card¨Ceither side¨Cwas the Den of Heroes. "I live in this casino," she said conversationally.


    "So your guild gets a cut even if I use you for a private teleportation?" Asked Max.


    "That''s about right. Part of it is because you are correct that I need constant guarding. Well, I don''t think I do, but a lot of other people do. And they''re smarter than me, and I''m not stupid enough to ignore them."


    Max chuckled. "That''s a good way to explain it. I''ll have to remember that one. But why would I approach you during off hours for a teleport instead of just coming here?"


    "Actually, three reasons. One, it''s cheaper. Two, you can reach me almost any time. And three, I''m not limited to only teleporting you to another official teleportation location."


    Max blinked at that. "Isn''t it dangerous to send somebody somewhere that you haven''t verified is empty?"


    "It depends on the location and the individual.¡±  She shrugged. ¡°I can usually get a good feel of what is at my destination. On top of that, if I¡¯m sending to an unknown location, I usually teleport people about ten feet in the air, outside. That way even if I somehow got it wrong, there would be some some wiggle room."


    Max slowly nodded. "Do all teleporters run the risk of teleporting somebody into solid matter?"


    "No. Really high class teleporters or powerful mages that can also teleport don''t have that problem, but they''re also strong enough that they wouldn''t be working full time in a teleportation room like this."


    "Fair enough. So since you can see ahead to where you¡¯re ¡®sending,¡¯ does that mean you don¡¯t need to communicate with the location I''m going?"


    She winked. "Nah, I still do. Part of it is SOP and part of it is, like I said, just another way to make sure accidents won''t happen. Where are you going again  You already said so, right?"


    "Yes. Patriot Guild," said Max.


    "I¡¯m just kidding.  The truth is I had a feeling you''d say that earlier, so before you got here I actually got the all-clear already."


    Max grinned. "You know what? So far you''re my favorite teleporter, and that''s saying something because since I''ve been back on Earth, every teleporter I''ve met has made a good, solid impression." He suddenly frowned. "Actually, I''m not sure if I can say that about the first person I met here when I came through a few days ago. I mean, she left an impression, but..."


    "I think I know who you''re talking about," said Jessica, amusement in her voice. "Believe it or not, I actually heard about you first from her. It seems you left an impression on her, too."


    "Oh, goody," said Max, his voice dripping with sarcasm. The teleporter laughed again and a second later Max found himself in the familiar teleportation room within the Patriot Guild. This time, the Patriot Guild teleporter was a short, almost painfully pale young man, wearing glasses. He nodded at Max and his expression wasn''t unfriendly but somehow Max knew that this teleporter wasn''t exactly the chatty type. He waved at the man, who just gave him a nod, and then Max left the teleportation chamber.


    None of the Patriot Guild guards stopped him, but by the time he reached the hallway, a young woman with dark hair and purple makeup came running up, moving at an easy, loping superhuman speed that would have pegged her for a Challenger even if Max hadn''t been able to feel the small bit of power rolling off of her. He judged that she was probably a D-rank.


    "Max Cunningham," she panted.


    "That''s me," he said.


    "I''m Sarah Ross. I''m going to be your guide and liaison today while you''re here in the Patriot Guild."


    "Oh really?" said Max. He began walking towards a large picture window on the other side of the hallway. He was suddenly anxious and didn''t want to stay still, but knew he couldn''t take off down either side of the hallway yet because he didn''t know where he was going. After a moment of thought, pondering how much he could justify revealing during his trip, he asked, "What kind of clearance or permissions has Lance, I mean the Guild Leader, given me?"


    ¡°The very highest.  Just after him.¡± She smiled helpfully.


    "Okay, good," said Max. "There''s two places I want to go. First, Lance mentioned something about a teleportation or transference team who has been studying the magic, or theory of moving people around. I want to have a chat there.  Then I want to see if you have a range, like a gun range with pretty substantial coverage.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°I need it to be safe for me to try using an ability that is similar to a gunshot, but then I can''t quite control yet.  Like, generation direction, maybe, but no promises, sorta thing."


    "Ah, okay, teleportation theory and target practice," she said. "Sounds like a cool day. You want to get going now, or would you like to get a snack and a water first?"


    If Max only had his experiences on earth to draw from, the question might have thrown him or made him feel awkward. Instead, he felt old habits from his days as Chasa de Milo creep up.  He nodded in a businesslike manner. "No snacks for now," he said. "Business first. Let''s go to the teleportation place."


    "All right, sounds good. Follow me." Sarah began walking briskly down the hallway to the left and Max was glad that this time he had a liaison who seemed competent. In fact, Sarah was so good at her job Max genuinely couldn''t tell if she was always this bubbly or if it was just an act while she performed her role.

 Book 3, ch 26

    Max was starting to get used to the trolly rides through Lance¡¯s massive guild.


    The area of the Patriot Guild where Max was led had far tighter security than any active teleportation room he¡¯d seen. In fact, in addition to the standard Challenger-oriented security that he''d also seen outside all of the teleportation areas he''d seen, this part of the Patriot Guild also had plenty of electronic and technological security as well.


    Some of it was obvious, and some of it was probably well hidden.  But just by what he could see, there were lasers, automatic guns, cameras, and thick steel doors. The walls even had little holes that Max assumed were a way to gas the hallway. He refrained from asking any questions along the way, and his guide, Amy, didn''t volunteer any answers¨Calthough from time to time she glanced back in amusement, looking for some sort of response from Max. When there wasn''t any, it didn''t seem to bother her either.


    Finally, the last thick steel door opened, and Max walked through a wood hallway with a beautifully carved oak doorway at the end. Although the door would look like regular wood to normal eyes, Max could sense the mana in it. However, he could also tell that this doorway was not designed to keep people out, it was meant to keep energies in.


    Past the wooden doorway, he got his first look at his destination and his eyebrows rose. The room was larger than his training warehouse back in Vegas. Additionally, half of the room looked gothic, like a giant rendition of some fanciful Frankenstein laboratory. The other half of the room was so high tech and cutting edge that Max doubted most of the tech had existed on Earth even a few years ago.  He didn¡¯t have a name for some of the devices he could see.


    "Oh, our visitor is here," a voice came from Max''s right. He glanced over and in the antique-looking area of the room, a tall thin man with a ponytail wearing a lab coat that had mystic embroidery, walked over briskly to shake Max''s hand. "Hi, my name is Max," he said.  He had an accent that Max couldn¡¯t quite place.


    "My name is Max, too.¡±


    ¡°So I''ve heard! I suppose good things come in twos, huh?" The affable man grinned at Max and acted like he was elbowing him in the ribs without making any contact.


    Max wasn''t sure exactly how to respond and was still thinking about it when a heavy-set woman with purple hair walked up. She said, "Hi. My name is Rissa. You might be wondering how Max knew you were a Max, but we were briefed on you before you came. A long time ago, in fact.  The guild''s Jefe knew we¡¯d need it so we got a dossier on you.  Then we were just told you Returned."


    ¡°Uh, cool.¡±  Max noticed that the woman was wearing a lab coat similar to researcher-Max''s. It was also inscribed with runic and mystic sigils.


    Taking a quick chance based on a gut feeling, Max activated his third eye to look at the woman for half a second before turning it off. In that brief moment, he saw a number of destructive and otherwise bizarre energies woven in the wall behind her. There were plenty of magic systems embedded in the lab coat as well.


    Now that he¡¯d Seen it, he understood that every piece of clothing and equipment that the researchers wore was enchanted in some way, mostly for protection. However, during the brief moment he held his third eye open, he also caught glimpses of darker, more disturbing things deeper in the laboratory. Max was glad he¡¯d already shut his third eye¨Che didn''t need to spend much more time looking at that sort of thing. In fact, he was glad that he''d adopted an almost camera flash methodology to using his third eye, if he used it anymore.


    The lesson he¡¯d learned, back when he¡¯d Seen the Morrigan, had stuck.


    In fact, sometimes he forgot he had the ability now.  After getting psychically wounded, he¡¯d used it less, and on top of that, he hadn''t been a Summoner all that long to begin with. Max had long accepted the fact that he would probably always be a Blade Sorcerer first and use his other powers as a way to support that Path, rather than vice versa.


    His head snapped around as a third researcher walked up from behind a rack of plants on the technology side of the room. The man smiled warmly at Max and said, "Hi, I''m Matt. Nice to meet you." Then, clearly feeling awkward, he stalked forward the last couple strides to quickly and shakily pump Max''s hand before stepping back. Like researcher-Max, this man was tall and thin, but where researcher-Max was dark and had a bit of a scruff, this man had fair hair and was cleanly shaven.


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    A new woman approached from the far side of the room. Like the others, she had on a mystically embroidered lab coat, but she also wore what looked like a white, witch''s hat. She bowed and clicked a button on a device that she was wearing on her lapel before she started speaking Japanese. An energy built in  the air, and through his supernatural senses, Max could almost see, or even feel a few lights.  It felt like they were hovering around the woman in the witch hat, and  reflexively, feeling no danger, he reached out and mentally plucked them. As soon as he did, everything the woman was saying was very clear to him, although he could still hear her speaking Japanese.


    "Hello, Max-san.  My name is Fujiisawa Yukari. Like the others, I am one of the researchers here in the Patriot Guild Applied Science Department. I am actually tasked with working as the manager of this group, so it is very convenient that we developed these devices early on," she said and tapped her lapel gadget. "It only works for other Challengers though. And... They''re very expensive to produce."


    Max frowned, and in Quartet, he said, "Why don''t you just speak Quartet if you don''t have a common language with someone else on Earth?"


    The four people in lab coats exchanged glances, and it was researcher-Max who answered. "Unfortunately, not all Returners actually truly keep the Quartet language. And most who return don''t have perfect command of it. Nobody knows why most people can almost always use it to speak simply or give commands in Quartet, but for what we do here in the lab it¡¯s not deep enough.  We really need to communicate precisely. In fact, we have had to actually invent probably a thousand words in the last three years!"


    Rissa laughed. "Ain''t that the truth," she said.


    Max thought about what he¡¯d just heard.  He said,  "So it''s nice to meet all of you, of course, and I''m glad that you''re going to help me with my people-summoning problem. I don''t think it always takes a genius to recognize one, but I¡¯m glad I have a team of geniuses to help me." He let his voice trail off, and the four researchers chuckled politely.


    Matt said, "It would probably be good for my ego to accept that compliment, but along with your dossier from the guild leader, we were also told in no uncertain terms that you are a very powerful Challenger, too¨Cat least on par with the guild leader. Maybe even stronger."


    ¡°That last bit was our extrapolation,¡± said Rissa.


    Researcher-Max cracked a grin. "The memo also said to keep any theories we formed about you or your relative power to the guild leader absolutely secret. Part of me thinks it was to help you and with this project¡¯s secrecy, the other cynical part of me thinks that the longer the rest of the world believes that the guild leader is one of the strongest Challengers in the world, the better off the Patriot Guild will be."


    "You''re not supposed to say that part out loud!" said Rissa.


    Max grinned. He had a feeling that he was going to like these four researchers. He said, "Lance told me that you all have been working on teleportation, like, summoning people, for a while now.¡±


    ¡°Correct.  That project was started to assist you,¡± said Matt.


    ¡°Well, now that I''m here, what do you need me to do?"


    Fujisawa was the researcher who answered. She said, "We have actually built a detailed observation pod, and we have something very simple to ask you to do."


    Risa nodded. "One thing that''s holding us back is that we need a really good read on your energies or at least the ones at play for how you might be summoning people from another planet."


    Max nodded calmly. He still wasn''t sure exactly how much Lance had told these people but he figured that now was probably not the best time to hold too many secrets back. He replied, "Yes, I still have a pretty good snapshot of their individual souls, or energies, too."


    All the researchers nodded. Fujisawa said, "We interviewed the guild leader at length about all of his interactions with you over the last few years we''ve been employed. During that time we learned about the beads that you asked your friends to wear and we surmised what that had to have been for."


    Max made a face, showing that he was impressed. "So what else do you know about me?"


    "Well," said Rissa, "we know that you can use some sort of subspace as well and that this might be in some way linked to whatever abilities it is you might be able to use to move people here from another planet."


    Max thought about it a moment before slowly nodding and saying, "I guess that''s fair to say."


    "Okay, good," said Rissa. She grinned at him with glittering eyes. "Then I just need you to step into a box over there in my area of the lab and open this subspace gate of yours so I can watch."


    "Really? That''s it?"


    "That''s it," she said with a nod.


    The other researchers were looking strangely excited and nervous as Rissa she spoke though. "Is there some part of this you''re not telling me that I''m not going to like?" he asked..


    Matt slowly raised a hand and coughed. "The guild leader might have mentioned that you have a few interesting spirits and that if they manifest it may be a," he paused again, "an experience. We are led to believe that one of your most¡­intense spirits might be part of your subspace ability."


    Suddenly, cutting through the room like an ice-cold blade through pig flesh, Saliron¡¯s voice drolled, "I do believe they''re talking about me, contractor." The dark spirit wasn¡¯¡¯t speaking loudly, but his voice echoed off the walls, like he was death-made flesh, gracing them within a vast underground cavern.


    All of the researchers froze, stiff as a board, and Matt''s knees grew weak for a moment. He caught himself.


    "Oh my," said Rissa. Her eyes held more fear now, but still sparkled.  "That''s probably the one we heard about."

 Book 3, ch 27

    Mana swirled in the air in a vortex, so thick that if anyone were watching, they would have seen sparks in the air, visible to the naked eye.  Earth had an absolutely astonishing amount of mana now.  It took all of Max¡¯s control to move it quickly, though.  It was like trying to move an oar through honey.  The density of the mana made it thick, but his control was so precise, it was still able to easily manipulate it--it just took time.


    Max could feel that he was getting close to a breakthrough. He was excited but now, for the first time in this life, he also dreaded it a little bit.  A breakthrough into a four-star mana body would be much different than the first three levels.


    After he achieved a four-star mana body, his power was going to surpass anything he¡¯d actually seen yet among other Challengers from Earth. Maybe there was a Challenger out there with a powerful Path who had achieved that kind of ability, but Max definitely hadn''t met them yet. In fact, the only place he''d seen Challengers with the kind of power he was about to have had been in the memories of Ancilla. He also had a feeling that if he hadn''t caught Adjudicator Swan off guard, she might have been a match too.


    As usual, as Max worked on his mana body, he let his mind work as well, taking the time to organize his thoughts and think about things he needed to¨Ceven things he''d been putting off. Since it had been over two weeks now that he''d first begun working on his mana body again seriously, he felt guilty for leaving earth, for going to the Quartet.


    Leaving his family behind had been a choice.  He still rationally believed it was the best choice at the time.  But no matter how angry he got at himself for feeling a little guilty, he just couldn''t shake the feeling. A lot of it probably stemmed from not letting his family or friends know that he''d been back for a while.


    This was definitely not something that would have concerned him when he was Chasa de Milo, but he¡¯d changed.  Now he kept asking himself what his real priorities were and why.  He second guessed himself, at least in the darkness of his own mind.


    Of course, anytime he was ready to beat himself up over that, all he needed to do was think about the sword of Damocles hanging over his head in the form of Quartet adjudicators and enforcers.


    He actually welcomed this kind of insecurity in his mind.  It let him know it was there so he could savagely smash it down with logic and reality.  However, not all of his negative emotions could be dispelled this way.


    The more real, visceral reason to feel guilty was not about his relationships, but instead about his very existence on earth.  In the quiet of his mind, part of Max wondered if he even had the right to stay on the planet. After all, if he was here, then people from the Quartet would come. He felt very strongly that this was an inevitability. The only reason he hadn''t put much effort yet into trying to find a way off-world was because of two reasons.


    First of all, if he were going to leave, he needed to make some changes first so that he could fulfill his obligations or otherwise live without guilt. That largely meant giving his friends and family a better chance of survival. The best way to do that was to strengthen the Trifecta Guild, take out some enemies, leave behind teachings about the Western Wind Style,  and help out at the battlefront.


    The second reason there was no use in spending any time on the subject was because it was already being worked on.  The Patriot Guild already had their science team led by Fujisawa Yukari.  Max assumed that much of their research would also be relevant to leaving the planet, not just calling someone to it.


    He didn¡¯t like it, but if everything fell apart, he had other options, too.  Ultimately, he was pretty sure he already had the means to leave Earth in the form of the strange daggers that he''d taken off of Adjudicator Swan.


    Max had let many opportunities pass to ask Anansi what all of the daggers were and what they did. He knew that avoiding the subject was irrational, but he felt like it was such a heavy burden and such a large topic that he didn''t want to deal with it until the Trifecta Guild''s issues were taken care of.


    And of course, even though Max was about to be at least one of the most powerful Challengers on Earth, he was not arrogant enough to assume that the upcoming conflict would be easy. Whether he ended up fighting with words or weapons, it was patently obvious that the Lynch brothers¨Cwho had betrayed the Trifecta Guild¨Cwere not going to go down easily.


    Whenever Max took breaks from training, whether working on his mana body or practicing with all of his new weapons and skills, he continued to watch the news and get caught up on recent history. It was giving him a very good idea of what kind of people he was dealing with.


    Unfortunately, there were other things he was putting off too, like teaching his old students. Some of why he was waiting was for the same reason he was delaying other things; he was really hoping that after taking care of the Trifecta Guild''s issues, he would be able to summon Momo and Gantry to Earth. Then he could teach everyone together. Or maybe he could just have Gantry or Momo teach his students on Earth since they were more advanced now.


    Either way, at least he had been giving mana pills to the original Trifecta Guild members. None of them had had a breakthrough yet, but it was helping them absorb mana from the atmosphere faster.


    Suddenly, a rumble echoed through Max''s body. He could feel that the threshold for mana condensation and suppression had almost been reached. A four-star mana body was truly when Max believed that a Blade Sorcerer became a Blade Sorcerer. His opinion wasn''t exactly rare on the subject, either, or at least it hadn''t been when he was alive. On Albion, a Four-Star Blade Sorcerer had been considered a true battlefield asset. Anyone higher than four-star would be famous in the world, and armies would calculate their odds of winning wars or battles based on how many four-star Blade Sorcerers they had.


    Max reached into himself and carefully began observing the accumulated mana in his brain and a few of his other internal organs.  He needed to prepare to remove the accumulated mana from some of his organs and push all of that mana into the rest of his body, further compressing it.


    This was an extremely difficult process, and the first time he''d ever done this in his first life, he''d almost died. However, having been through it once before made the process a bit less difficult. Now he knew first-hand what to expect. He could predict the pains that would actually hurt his soul as well as his body.


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    The secret to the evolution to 4-stars was removing all the mana from the most important systems, compressing it as far as he could, and then channeling the accumulated pressure directly back into all the organs that he cleared of mana before. This would begin a chain reaction that would start as equal parts pleasure and pain, but eventually just pain.  Terrible, terrible, soul-fraying pain.


    Becoming a four-star mana body is really what took Blade Sorcerers to the next level. During the transformation, mana would rework their entire body, and afterward, they would be a better, faster, stronger, tougher version of themselves. But more importantly, their command of mana would speed up exponentially. Additionally, they would be able to project mana outside of their own body far easier. Of course, mana projection used up a lot of power, and Max didn''t plan on throwing blades of mana around or conjuring shields if he could help it since he had other options.


    At least not until he had a five star mana body.


    Suddenly, the time was right. Slowly, carefully, meticulously, almost cell by cell, Max began removing the mana from his brain. Starting with the brain was risky.  In fact, this was quite possibly the most dangerous method to become a four-star mana body blade sorcerer, but he''d also achieved it before.  Doing so had helped him achieve the heights he had.


    Most Blade Sorcerers on Albion who reached a four-star mana body began with the lungs or the heart, since whatever organ the blade sorcerer began with would get the largest increase in power and functionality if they lived through the process. But long ago, in his first life, Max had realized that the most important weapon any warrior had was their mind.


    The work he was doing inside his body was tedious and nerve-wracking, but he didn¡¯t lose his focus.  After he finally purged the mana from his brain, which on a magical level almost felt like pulling Velcro apart cell by cell, Max controlled the mana , pushed it into the rest of his mana body in one go.  He kept pushing until it assimilated. The pressure inside him grew.


    Now the amount of mana in his heart, lungs, spleen, liver, and stomach all increased. He¡¯d already felt full of mana, now he felt like he could overload.  The feeling was going to get worse as he continued working towards the transformation.  In fact, this was one reason why some Blade Sorcerers died while attempting a breakthrough to a four-star mana body. The process meant every organ that the Blade Sorcerer cleared would make the next organ harder to deal with. On top of that, max started with his brain.  That meant he¡¯d actually weakened his brain, making it easier to pass out and also lowering his thinking and computation speed.


    Max gritted his teeth and got to work again. Part of his willpower was devoted to ignoring the passage of time.  He didn''t know how long it took, and at some point, he thought he might have died. The pain was excruciating. But with single-minded, stubborn focus, Max kept working on it until, finally, he purged the last organ, his stomach. Then, while the mana in his body was so compressed he felt like a nuclear, mana-charged bomb, the moment seemed to stretch.


    He wasn''t out of the woods yet.


    The only good thing about this process was that he didn''t need to be conscious for the duration once the transformation started.  If it knocked him out, he wouldn¡¯t die and his transformation would continue.  However, if he did lose consciousness, the mana fluctuations would probably destroy the entire block around his Trifecta workout warehouse.


    That would be bad.


    As he sat on the floor, poised to unleash his mana, he let the moment linger.  He was about to step into another world. After this, Max would not be able to justify being a passive observer when terrible things were happening around him. A four-star mana body would give him the power, theoretically at least, to have a fighting chance against almost anyone in the universe. Against exceptionally powerful Challengers, those odds still wouldn¡¯t be great, but at least they wouldn¡¯t be zero, though.


    From this point forward, skill would become far more important than raw power.


    Clenching his teeth, eyes glowing, Max thought, Oh well, not like I can stop at this point anyway.  He released the mana.


    Flashing light coursed down his entire body. He gritted his teeth so hard that his molars exploded but were reformed again as his body was reshaped by mana. Not only did the mana break his bones as it rebuilt him, but Max accidentally damaged himself, too. The pain was too great. He couldn''t stay still. The occasional flop of his body while he was under so much torment and receiving so much new power, was enough for him to accidentally flip his arm into the concrete. But compound fractures almost instantly moved bones around and reknit.  Healing was just another pain among millions that ran through his body like a herd of furious, sun-sized bison, exploding in nuclear fire.


    Max didn''t remember the process hurting so badly in his first life.  But maybe it was because the purity of his mana was higher this time. Throughout the course of his tireless effort in restoring his mana body, Max had realized that his past experience helped him pack in more power and smooth it out better than in his first life. Not only that, he''d been shocked to discover that all the work he''d done in the Quartet, a place devoid of mana, and the way he¡¯d scrounged mana together to pull into his body, resulted in some of the purest mana he''d ever seen in his life.


    All of this meant he had an absurdly strong foundation.


    He kept focusing on this fact as he gritted his teeth and his body broke and repaired itself over and over again. His clothes tore, and blood literally spurted out of his skin like a leak in the seam of a damaged boat.


    The torture felt like it lasted forever.


    One reason Max didn''t keep track of the time in any way, shape, or form was because that would have led to madness. And if not madness, it definitely would have led to mana deviance where his mana body would be abnormal or crippled.


    I need to hold on.  Don¡¯t want to lose this gym.  He was pretty sure nobody else was around the area, but he couldn¡¯t be sure of it.  Now he suddenly regretted not asking Lavina to send her spirits out and scout it out.  That had been an oversight.  But even if nobody else was around, he didn¡¯t want to blow the area up. Murdering someone during a breakthrough was completely unacceptable, though.


    He prevented himself from continuing to shatter his own teeth by holding his mouth open slightly and using isometrics, tensing his jaw.  Blood ran down his cheeks from his eyes.


    Somehow, Max made it through the entire process without ever losing consciousness. When it was done, he slowly opened his eyes, sighed, spit, and beheld the absolute travesty around him.


    He was surrounded by bodily fluids, including vomit, and even little pieces of his skin on the ground. In his first life, the sight had made his gorge rise. Mixed in with all the disgusting stuff that had spewed from his broken body was also the last of the impurities that he¡¯d had as a mortal. Calling a Blade Sorcerer an immortal after they were four-star or higher was an affection since they weren''t truly immortal, but it was still a more accurate description than considering them completely human anymore.


    Max shakily stood and glanced around himself again. All of his spirits were completely silent, all in shock at what they''d just witnessed. He sensed that Lavinia in particular, being from Albion, felt like she was having an almost religious experience. Max ignored her and tried to decide if he should clean up the gym before taking a shower.


    "Screw it," he said out loud, and he trudged over to the living quarters area. He was going to shower, come back clean, and shower again, and then maybe shower again after that. Max was tired, beat up, and still sore, but he knew intellectually that most of that was in his head right now. Physically, this was the most powerful he had ever been in this life, and he almost couldn''t believe that he¡¯d made it this far.  After all, he could still vividly remember sitting at a table in his apartment, staring at student loan debts and wondering what the hell he was going to do about bills.


    "I wish it didn''t hurt so much, though," he muttered to himself. When he finally stepped under the water of the shower, it felt like bliss.

 Book 3, ch 28

    Several days after Max''s breakthrough, he found himself back at the Trifecta guild. This time, instead of going up the back way like he had before, he decided to enter through the lobby. It still wasn¡¯t exactly the most prudent thing to do, but with his plans for the day, prudent wasn¡¯t really on the menu.


    Might as well kick everything off by starting bold and just roll with it.


    Blackmist Incident as minimized on his waist, but a casual observer could still tell that he was a Challenger. He wore a backpack, but not a normal backpack today.  This time, he was wearing the Weight Reduction Adventurer Pack, MK 4.  He¡¯d found a function to ¡°deflate¡± it, and it was lying comfortably flat against his back.


    He had on some basic armor, more for the look than functionality. Additionally, he carried a dagger against his lower back, and  Bracelets of Bloody Arrows, an artifact from the dungeon in the Quartet just like his backpack.


    Now that he was a four-star mana body, he had spent time reacquainting himself with his four-star Blade Sorcerer power and perfecting his weapons. He had also made a decent number of new beads for himself using his greater mana limit and efficiency.


    As the guards approached, Max held up his Challenger ID.  One of the guards looked at a tablet and raised his eyebrows upon seeing Max''s permissions in the Trifecta Guild. The guard''s mouth moved as if he was about to say something, but Max quietly said, "Don''t say a thing. Keep your mouth shut for one day about this." The guard''s mouth closed with a click, and the other guard wisely chose not to say anything, either.


    Walking through the lobby to the elevators, Max glanced around but didn''t recognize anyone. The handful of people he saw were either low-level Trifecta Guild adventurers or support staff. He could identify the latter from the complete lack of any kind of supernatural threat he felt. Of course, he wasn''t going to completely rely on his abilities to detect danger, and kept his guard up throughout the building.


    Right before he got on the elevator, he actually spotted someone he knew. Blake looked older now, maybe even a little tired.  Max¡¯s friend had a scar on his face now, too.  He was wearing armor, and had a big sword on his back.


    Blake did a double take, and a number of emotions flickered across his face, but the elevator doors closed before he could call out Max''s name.


    Well, I guess it''s going to get out one way or another now, Max thought to himself. Good thing I''m not hiding anymore."


    He felt like a dick for not talking to Blake, but he didn¡¯t have time now.  In his experience, if the day might end with bloodshed, it was better not to let anything shake his resolve on the way.


    Max made it up to the level of Chad''s office and knocked on the door.


    ¡°Come in,¡± said Chad.


    The moment Max walked in, Chad nodded and moved to the side door leading to a private meeting room.  This was a familiar ritual for Max now.  The only thing different than before was how now the Trifecta guild leader was wearing athletic gear instead of formal clothes.


    Once they were in the meeting room, Chad plunked down a laptop on the table, sat, and steepled his fingers. "So, you''re really going to do this today, huh?"


    "Sure am."


    "Okay, so be it."


    Max sat and tapped the table with his index finger in thought. "Did you do everything I asked?"


    "That''s right."


    "Then why did you ask me if I was really going through with it?"


    Chad snorted. "Because I''d rather risk pissing some people off and ruining my own reputation than watching you possibly die."


    Max smiled, but it was more of a grimace. "I really don''t think you have to worry about that."


    "So sure.." muttered Chad under his breath. Then he tsked and started reading items from his laptop. "I''ve alerted the press. They should be there soon. Law enforcement has been alerted as well. You should have police, fire department, and even paramedics on site. Patriot Guild is on the move.  They will not be interfering, but they will join the cops to make sure that nobody comes in to interrupt.  And they will make sure the cops don¡¯t do anything stupid, either.


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    ¡°I have the email you sent me, and I''ll forward it to your mom as soon as everything kicks off.  I messaged the American military command with the message you wanted me to pass on. I also did the handful of other things you asked, including wiring some money to your family."


    "Good," said Max. "And thank you. Oh, I''m pretty sure Blake saw me downstairs, so I''m not going back down the way I came up.  I ignored him once, I¡¯m not going to do it again.  Gotta avoid it."


    "Why did you come here in the first place?" asked Chad. "Couldn''t you have just called me?"


    Max gave him a grimace smile again and said, "It is true that I might not walk away from this.  Granted, I don¡¯t think it¡¯s likely, but you just never know.  So if it all goes south, I wanted to talk in person.  Otherwise I thought you would feel even more guilty about it."


    "Well, yeah, among other things." Chad shut his laptop and grunted. Then he closed the door to the meeting room, revealing that he had a full set of gear stashed away in the corner, previously hidden by the door. He began putting on his armor while still talking to Max. "Also, are you sure about putting the message out to the guild?"


    "Yes," said Max. "They should know.  But same as the police, they shouldn¡¯t be joining in.  The easiest way to make sure that happens is to give them a heads up and tell them to stay the hell out of it."


    "Yeah, I know," said Chad.


    ¡°So you got the press keyed up, too?¡±


    "Yes.  We also got those extra Senders and Recon Paths from the Patriot Guild, and they''ll be joining our folks as soon as I send the message out.  They¡¯re traveling with the enforcers."


    "Good," said Max with a satisfied nod. That particular order had been for Chad to ensure that recordings¡ªboth mundane via drones and supernatural using sensory Gifts through reconnaissance specialized Challengers¡ªwould capture what happened and send it to the rest of the world.  Chad was helping Max do the same thing as years ago on earth¨Ctelling the media there was about to be a show.


    Once Chad was dressed and armed, he picked up his last few pieces of gear, all defensive in nature. After all, even though he wasn''t going to be doing any fighting himself, it was prudent to prepare for some stray or intentional shots.


    "So I can finally tell my brother what is going on now, right?¡±


    ¡°Of course.  The entire guild is going to know soon, too.¡±


    ¡°And are you sure you don''t want me to alert the Agency?" asked Chad.


    "I''m sure.¡±  Max had decided not to get in bed with the Agency until he knew more about it.  He stood and asked, ¡°Are you ready?"


    "Yeah, I guess. I can''t believe we''re doing this."


    "Oh, wait! You forgot something," said Max.


    "What?"


    "A hard copy of those contracts that you had people sign to learn Western Wind Style and the sworn statements by the Challengers that handled the metaphysical side of that."


    "Oh yeah." Chad went to the wall, to a safe. He opened it, reached in, grabbed an envelope, and closed the safe again. Max got a bit of a glimpse inside and also felt some interesting energies from inside but chose not to ask any questions. Instead, he merely nodded his head and accepted the envelope before tucking it into his clothing somewhere safe.


    "Okay, and you have all the mana pills stowed away too?"


    "Yes," said Chad. "And that crappy martial arts manual you gave me, drawn on notebook paper. That thing seriously sucks, okay? So you can''t die."


    Max grinned and patted his friend on the shoulder. "Don''t worry about it.  Seriously.  I¡¯ll be fine.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve been spending the last few days basically preparing for if you die.  Alone.  And I couldn¡¯t even talk to anyone about it.¡±


    ¡°Need to be strong to be the guild leader!  But seriously, it would be irresponsible of me not to take precautions just in case the worst happens.  Careful. Believe it or not, that''s always been my personality."


    "I guess I can see that.  Sorta.  Nah.  I think you¡¯re full of shit," said Chad. He made a face. "I hope you''re ready for the fallout though. Your friends and family. If you do survive this, it''s going to be rough.  They¡¯re going to be pissed.  I would be."


    Max quietly admitted, I know. Believe me, I know. In fact, there''s plenty of other things I''d like to do before this, and plenty of other things I would have liked to do before doing any of this. But if I don''t take the steps to make the world a better place and our species ends up getting wiped out, everything else is meaningless. So certain things take priority."


    "I think I understand," said Chad. He held out his hand, and Max shook it. "From this point on, I''ll stick to the script. I''m going to head there right now. Are you sure you''re not coming with me?"


    "No, I''m fine," said Max. He moved to Chad''s windows and fiddled with the only one that opened from the inside. It was barely enough to squeeze through, but Max did, most of his body hanging outside, before he said, "I''ll be on a building nearby and come down once you get there. Take a couple of bodyguards, minimum, please.  Once you¡¯re there you can also send the message out of the guild.  I¡¯d prefer they watch what goes down on TV instead of in person.  I''ll see you there."


    Then Max jumped out the window before sending silent commands to Lavinia and Daliko. Almost immediately, his body was covered in alien-looking armor with four long wings that allowed him to effortlessly glide away, losing almost no altitude in the process. Behind him, he heard Chad mutter, "I can''t believe this is happening," before Max was too far away to catch his friend saying anything else.


    The power inside of him seethed, begging to be used.


    He¡¯d put up a confident front in front of Chad, but the reality was he was bracing himself for a hell of a fight.  If everyone was lucky, the day would end by talking it out, but Max has a bad feeling it wouldn¡¯t be that simple.


    The Lynch brothers really shouldn¡¯t have been able to break their contracts, the magical versions.  There were several ways they might have done so, and none of them were really good.


    He would prefer not to fight, but if he had to, he was going to see this thing through.

 Book 3, ch 29

    Max watched from a rooftop, waiting for the moment to act. The building below, which used to be a hotel, was now occupied by the Victory Guild.


    One interesting thing about the post-apocalypse world was that lots of buildings that had previously been hotels had been converted into apartments or even guild buildings like this one.  Fewer people traveled, and there were fewer people anymore at all.  Hotels had largely stopped being relevant in the new world for several reasons.  In fact, now that mages could manufacture housing quickly and easily, the highest demand for places like this one was its location.


    Max studied the Victory Guild headquarters.  There were hints that it had been a hotel in the past, but now the entire building was branded for its new purpose. Max thought the effect was like something out of a superhero cartoon.


    He was currently standing on top of an office building that was still being used as such. Max suspected that different companies were using the place now than before he went to the Quartet, but maybe not. A surprising number of large businesses had survived the collapse. Some of them had proven to be as tenacious as cockroaches.


    Max saw the Trifecta Guild member and others arriving below. They trickled in slowly at first, then so quickly it looked like people going to an event.  In no time flat, there was a line of police and members of the Patriot Guild mulling around, getting ready to form a line. Max had instructed them not to actually create a barrier until he made his appearance. By this point, if anybody inside the Victory Guild was paying attention, they had to know that something was going to happen.


    After Max gave one more glance below, making sure that all the necessary players were present, he paused for a couple more minutes. Sure enough, in that brief time frame, several small, buzzing constructs and tech-based drones joined him.


    The number of the reporters below were steadily increasing.


    Max grinned, the expression savage.  Chad had definitely done his job well. As soon as everything kicked off, there would be wide media coverage.  Quite a few people that Max had been keeping in the dark were going to find out that he was back on Earth. Some of them probably weren''t going to be happy with him. With that cheery thought, he stepped off the roof and summoned ectoplasmic wings to glide down to the street below.


    Challengers flying wasn''t exactly forbidden everywhere, but it was definitely frowned upon for safety reasons, with emergencies being an exception. But enough challengers could fly that it wasn''t shocking.  It still drew attention, though. A number of people pointed upwards, and a decent number of eyes were on Max before he even landed in front of the Victory Guild.


    Standing out in front of the guild were three big men wearing suits. They were obviously working as some sort of security, and Max could feel that they had decent power. He suspected that they were somewhere around a B-Rank adventurers. One of them, a guy with a fair complexion and cauliflower ears, said, "Nice wings.  If you don''t have business with the Victory Guild, move along."


    If the three men were nervous about the massive crowd ringing the building, they were hiding it well.


    People behind Max in the crowd tried to get a good view of what was happening. The reporters had been clued in ahead of time, so even more cameras and magical recording devices appeared. The police officers, supported by Patriot Guild members, quickly and professionally created a barrier around the building. Onlookers, including members of the Trifecta Guild, goggled as they tried to make sense of what was happening.


    Suddenly, Chad shouted, "Justice for the Trifecta Guild!" His face looked like he had just sucked on a lemon, and Max knew that his friend was incredibly embarrassed to be making a scene like this, especially in a way where he could be potentially seen as weak.


    But the shouting really helped set the stage.


    With a flourish, Max removed the documents that he''d brought, holding them aloft, and shouted,  "My name is Max Cunningham. I created the Trifecta Guild! Chad, over there, has been serving as the guild leader while I was gone and doing an admirable job. I do not plan to replace him. However, I am here to address some disturbing events, and oath-breaking.¡±  Max turned to the three guards and shouted, ¡°I demand to speak to the guild leaders of the Victory Guild to settle this matter in a way that I find satisfactory!"


    He''d put mana into his lungs and throat, so his voice echoed like a bullhorn. The milling crowd behind him had become silent, and phones made clicking noises as people took pictures with their cameras.  Even those who hadn''t gotten a heads-up for what was about to take place could tell that something big was going down. In the midst of the silence, somewhere behind him, he could hear Blake call out, "Max? Max, is that really you!?"


    Max didn¡¯t turn.  He tuned out Blake as well as anybody else who might call out to get his attention. His heart was pounding, less in fear than excitement. He knew that if things went badly from this point on, he might die. But this was something he had to do, and even though putting everything on the line could be terrifying, it was exhilarating sometimes as well.


    The three hired thugs in front of the building goggled at Max. He knew that they were not prepared for this. More than likely, they''d been sent out to make sure that nobody entered the building without permission and also to communicate what was going on to those inside. Theyd probably just suspected that the reporters were going to try for some sort of aggressive line of questioning.


    Using his enhanced voice again, Max held up the documents and said, "A significant number of Victory Guild members, including the current guild leaders, came from my Trifecta Guild. What''s more, they have stolen the techniques I developed! I have the right¨Cmorally, magically, and legally, to demand justice for the betrayal that has occurred!" Max held the documents up for everybody to see. Pulling out an extra copy that he had rolled up, he threw it to the nearest group of reporters, using a bit of mana to prevent it from flapping around or being damaged on the way.


    If anybody present had been a Blade Sorcerer from Albion, that casual display of mana control would have been terrifying. Inside Max''s soul space, Lavinia shook as she witnessed what Max had just done. However, nobody else present understood what he¡¯d just demonstrated. The reporters caught the documents and then began pouring over them like hungry hyenas, using their cameras and other recording devices to get quick scans of every page of the contract.


    Max raised his voice again. "I demand to speak to the Lynch Brothers right now. If I am rebuffed or denied, I will take it as a declaration of war by the Victory Guild!"


    Like startled rabbits, the crowd stared at Max. There was another deep silence from the watching crowd. As far as Max knew, this was the first time they''d heard anybody announce a potential, out-in-the-open war between guilds. Plenty of headlines over the years had used the word ¡°war,¡± but nobody in leadership positions of any guild had actually publicly announced anything like it for obvious reasons.


    Max knew that dozens, if not hundreds, of people behind him were probably furiously trying to fact-check who he was and whether he really was the creator of the Trifecta Guild. But a handful of people who were a bit more clever or maybe a bit smarter just glanced at the group of Trifecta Guild members led by Chad. The Trifect guild leader, clad in armor and prepared for battle, merely gave one single nod. For those paying attention, that was enough.


    The thugs at the door were not stupid and not easily cowed. Two of them glared at Max, still blocking his access, while the third whispered something into a lapel mic. While they were doing so, Max kept his momentum, shouting, "I demand justice for the Trifecta Guild! How dare these Challengers promise loyalty in exchange for my techniques, for a new Path, and then leave to create their own guild!? I have been wronged, and so has my guild. I demand an explanation. And more, I demand remuneration. Our Trifecta guild demands justice!"


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    The thug who had been whispering into his mic stopped his conversation, cleared his throat, and using an ability similar to Max''s to project his voice.  ¡°One moment, please, sir," said the goon. "Someone is coming to speak to you." He paused and then added, "One of the guild leaders."


    Max nodded. The goon continued, "Max Cunningham, the guild leader is asking for some identification before he gets here."


    Max held up his Challenger ID card, knowing that with all the technology and Challengers present, there were probably plenty of people who could clearly read it. He said, "My name is Max Cunningham, rank C challenger. I am the founder of the Trifecta Guild. This is reflected not only in the registration papers of the Trifecta Guild but also in historical documents in the form of television news stories during the early days of the outbreak. The Trifecta Guild''s first portal attack was documented by news crews before we were even officially a recognized guild. As the founding member and the originator of the techniques that imparted a second Path to personnel who left the Guild with Toby and Sam Lynch, it is my right to demand answers and satisfaction."


    The murmuring in the crowd outside grew louder. A handful of people from the Trifecta Guild who recognized Max were trying to push through the line of police officers and Patriot Guild members to get closer. They called his name, but Max continued to ignore them. Amongst the others who were murmuring or even just speaking out loud, he could already predict what some of them were probably saying. The fact that he was only a C-Rank was no doubt being discussed.


    Max wasn¡¯t worried about any of the reporters losing interest because of his revealed rank.


    Some of the reporters who had shown up said they would start recording live immediately. Max had no idea what kind of audience this altercation had now, but he knew that before everything was over, it was going to grow.


    Are you ready, Anansi? Max thought-projected.


    I''m ready, boss.


    Good.


    A few minutes later, Max''s acute hearing picked up approaching footsteps inside the building. The entire time he''d been standing out front, Lavinia had been quietly updating him with the number of Victory members inside. The speed at which they''d been building defensive emplacements within had slowed after Max announced his rank, but none of the alerted Guild members had left.


    It probably wasn''t every day that an unknown Challenger started shouting and making public accusations on the front steps of a powerful guild, after all.


    Finally, the doors opened, and two more people stepped out. One was a man with a floating television screen behind him. He wore formal, but comfortable-looking clothing. The other was a woman in a suit whose eyes glittered as she said, "Max Cunningham, I presume? My name is Elena Smith. I am one of the Victory Guild attorneys. This is Joss Henderson. He is one of our audio-visual Challengers."


    The man inclined his head, and the TV that was floating behind him moved around so that Max and all the people watching from the street could see it. Max could feel the energies of Western Wind Style on Joss, the TV guy.


    Max projected, Anansi, I need to know about that guy.


    The Divine Spirit''s mental voice came back immediately. He''s been compromised, boss.  This place is infected for sure.


    Shit, thought Max. This whole altercation could have gone down several different ways. In fact, he''d been hoping to reabsorb the Victory Guild members who''d learned Western Wind Style back into the Trifecta guild. However, Anansi had just verified Max''s worst hunch.


    Demonic energy, huh? asked Max.


    Yup.


    Shit, he repeated.


    Suddenly, the TV screen flickered to life, and a man''s face came into high-definition existence. He said, "Hello everyone, I''m Sam Lynch."


    Max narrowed his eyes as he got his first look at one of the two brothers who''d fractured his guild. Sam Lynch was of ambiguous ethnicity. He was bald with a beard and had a small tattoo at the corner of his eye that looked like a scorpion. His forehead had a number of deep lines, and Max couldn''t quite put his finger on how old he was. The man could be thirty or fifty.


    With a patronizing voice, Sam said, "Max. Can I call you Max? Normally, I wouldn''t take the time to meet with some random C-rank person who shows up on my steps demanding to talk. Not only am I a busy man, but there''s also my safety to worry about."


    "Safety? Aren''t you an S-rank Challenger?" interrupted Max. "What are you worried about?"


    There were more murmurs in the crowd behind him.  Sam Lunch forced a smile. "Perhaps. However, I don''t believe you''ve fought on the front line yet, but maybe after you do, you might understand. There are dangers in this world far more challenging than anything we might have seen in the Quartet."


    Nice, thought Max. Good, subtle threat there. This guy is good. I¡¯m kind of impressed.


    Lavinia didn''t agree, though. She mentally said, I hate this guy already. Everything he''s doing right now is calculated to be as disrespectful as possible, isn''t it?


    Pretty much.  If he didn''t reply to any of my accusations or show up at all, it would be a bigger news story, so this whole thing is just damage control."


    I thought so, sent Lavinia. Anyway, I don''t see any more defenders arriving. I haven''t seen or heard of any new people moving into the lobby in front of you. There''s about ten right now, though.


    Got it. Thank you.


    Sam continued, "I''m sure it must be very confusing and frustrating to come back to Earth and find out that the guild you started is falling on hard times.  But although the world is in danger, we still have law.  We still have emails.  None of this was necessary."


    Suddenly, the woman who had come out, the lawyer, Elena, cocked her head and said, "Excuse me, sir, can I ask Max a question?"


    "Of course, go ahead, Elena. We are totally transparent here. That''s why we''re having this meeting in front of all these good people."


    The lawyer fixed Max with a sharp eye and asked, "If you just returned from the Quartet, how is it possible that you started the Trifecta Guild after everyone had already been transported to the Quartet? Wouldn¡¯t you have been in the Quartet at that time?  You only just returned to Earth a short time ago, right?"


    Sam Lunch¡¯s expression changed. He obviously believed that Elena had just caught Max in a lie. "That is a good question, Elena.  Max, care to explain to all these people how all that happened?"


    Max nodded and slightly turned to address everybody. He said, "It''s actually pretty simple. I just came back to Earth for a few days before I went back to the Quartet."


    "Oh, I see," said Sam, nodding indulgently. Then he narrowed his eyes.  "What?"


    "You heard me," said Max. "I took a brief trip back from the Quartet, met up with my friends, killed some monsters, taught my friends some things, and then I went back to the Quartet."


    Being intentionally vague to imply that he taught Western Wind Style to his friends during this time, he knew that none of the original Trifecta members had ever disclosed how they knew Western Wind Style. All the reporters in the crowd behind him were taking furious notes as Sam scowled and said, "That''s impossible."


    Max smirked. "Supposedly impossible or not, I would bet money that I''ve got more than a dozen truth seekers or Paths that can detect lies focused on me right now. Probably more. I am sure that some of them even use divinations, so whether I believe something is truth or not is irrelevant.  And I can also predict that none of them have found a single lie in my words so far."


    The Victory guild leader stared at him, and before he could say anything more, Max said, "Look, Sam, I don''t like you. I think you''re a piece of shit. You broke the contract that you signed in multiple ways with the Trifecta Guild. You''ve stolen my techniques and profited immensely from it. On top of that, you suppressed the Trifecta Guild in a vindictive and somewhat cowardly way. I demand that you and your equally piece of shit brother disband your guild and that every member of the Victory Guild who is on the Mana Swordsman Path join the American military and help full-time with the front line against the monsters, or... or there will be consequences."


    "What kind of consequences?" asked Sam with amusement in his voice.


    "Whichever kind I decide," said Max. He enunciated clearly, raising the volume of his voice with mana. "If you do not adhere to my demands or return with a compromise that I find acceptable, then we will be at an impasse, and I will have no choice but to declare war on the Victory Guild."


    "Is that so?" said Sam. Then he laughed. He looked beyond Max and said, "For all the people watching today, including people at home, I hope you have seen this and understand that we are dealing with a crazy person. I think I have shown great patience already in dealing with this individual, but I am a busy man, and I don''t have time for any more theatrics."


    Max held up a finger.  "If you leave, I am going to take that as your answer.  That will mean you will accept any and all consequences for your refusal to make this right."


    Sam laughed again. He said, "This has been an interesting break from the monotony of my normal work, Max." He said Max''s name with a mocking tone. "Thank you. However, I truly don''t have time for you today. Please get help. But before you do, get off of my property.¡±  Then he turned slightly, presumably looking at a different camera. ¡°Guards, get this troubled man off of our doorstep.  Chad, I know you¡¯re out there in the crowd.  You need to control your disturbed guild members better."


    Then, the TV screen cut out. Noise erupted from the crowd behind him, and the three thugs began moving towards Max even as the lawyer and the TV guy quickly moved through the double doors back into the lobby, away from what they no doubt assumed would be Max''s beatdown.


    Instead of retreating, Max sent one simple message to all of his spirits: It¡¯s go time.

 Book 3, ch 30

    Several things went through Max''s mind at once. Through multiple lives now, he''d always had the same feeling before fighting seriously. It was an acknowledgment of the fact he was making a decision, committing himself to see something through or die trying.  In this case, the fight was not a duel; it was effectively a war. Over the last few days, he''d given it a great deal of thought and accepted that he would deal with the consequences when the time came. After confirming that there were demonic forces at play, now he had even less hesitation about his intended course of action.


    After all, when Max had been the Hero of Albion, Chasa de Milo, he might not have known about the Quartet system or other greater matters in the universe, but he''d been very familiar with demonic corruption. He doubted many people other people on Earth were¨Cprobably why the Lynch brothers weren¡¯t even trying to hide it. Luckily, he''d already planned ahead for several possibilities, and this was one of them.


    Now he¡¯d just need to survive and win this fight to see any of it through.


    Max drew Blackmist Incident and slashed the guard heading for him while simultaneously charging his sword and his body with mana. At the same time, he manifested Black Mist Incident''s buckler in his other hand even as he triggered Bracelet of Bloody arrows.  Pain bloomed in his forearm as the magic device carved furrows in his flesh, drawing ribbons of blood to orbit his wrist.


    The other two Victory Guild members paused, and were caught off guard as Max triggered a push of raw mana.


    Meanwhile, Max¡¯s sword strike was true.  In fact, the amount of power he''d used was maybe even a little overkill. Blackmist Incident cleaved all the way through the suit-wearing man''s collarbone down to his waist, bisecting the enemy Challenger''s body. As the strike penetrated, magical armor had started to form on the man¡¯s body, but it hadn''t done him much good.


    Even as the first man died, the other two men were blown backward by Max¡¯s mana blast, one careening off the side of the building and the other smashing through the glass into the lobby beyond.


    Blood continued to siphon up into dense little arrows that orbited his wrist.


    Max glanced down at the body of the man he just killed and triggered his third eye briefly, just long enough to verify that lingering demonic energies still permeated the body. "Good enough," he thought. Then, he slashed Black Mist Incident in a horizontal strike, triggering a wave of destructive mana that smashed the remaining glass and demolished the doors at the front of the building.


    The arc of energy, although not sharpened through Max''s will, was still a battering ram of raw power that turned one weak Challenger inside the doors into nothing but bloody spray and chunks of flesh. Max didn¡¯t even get a good look at what the person had looked like before they were misted.  Dozens of people inside were bowled over, some wounded, some not. Gunshots ricocheted wildly off the walls.


    By now, Max was clad in his new armor, courtesy of Daliko.  A few bullets bounced of his armor.  Five arrows made of dense, crystallized blood circled his wrist now.  His body was already regenerating the blood he¡¯d lost to the Bracelet of Bloody Arrows.  Max leveled his hand and snapped off three blood projectiles, and each of them found their target.  One hit a man in the throat.  Another punched through a rifle-wielding woman¡¯s chest.  The last slammed into the center of a man¡¯s face as he braced against the whirlwind of pressure and damage from Max¡¯s mana wave.


    New gashes opened up on Max¡¯s arm and fresh streams of blood began to flow, building replacement projectiles above his wrist.  A burst of fire flashed past Max¡¯s shoulder, but he wasn¡¯t too worried.  He¡¯d caught the Victory guild completely unprepared.  They obviously hadn¡¯t expected anything like this reaction.


    They wouldn¡¯t stay unorganized and shocked forever, though.  A few beads tossed in the corners immediately started fires.  They weren¡¯t huge threats on their own, but they¡¯d probably help buy a little bit of extra time.


    Time for the next phase.  He made one quick look around the large room past the double doors before flying straight up the side of the building.


    Are you sure you want to do this? Lavinia murmured.  I mean, it¡¯s too late to go back now, but I mean, do you want to do it the way you¡¯re planning?


    Yes, thought Max. This isn''t a duel. This is war and extermination.  If I didn¡¯t have you and the other spirits, I might not have a choice, though.  You can identify everyone with demonic energies, right?


    For the sixth time, that''s right, she said. It''s easy for us, easy for a spirit.  The rest of my spirits won¡¯t have a problem, either.  Don¡¯t worry.


    Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    Cool.


    Max turned sideways, flying directly into the building with his shield held in front of him. He crashed through the window.


    What had been a hotel room was now being used as some sort of office space. Two people gaped at him in astonishment: one a middle-aged woman, the other a young man. They might have been surprised, but they were still Challengers.


    Both enemies began to circulate mana through their bodies, powering up and providing defense to themselves as Mana Swordsmen. Max could clearly see the movement of mana and how it was being utilized in familiar ways.  However, both Challengers obviously had another Path as well.  The woman raised her hand and a torrent of fire launched at Max, while at the same time, the man gestured and a filing cabinet flew across the room towards him.


    He could sense that neither one of them was very powerful, so Max just braced himself.  As the flames from the woman splashed harmlessly off his armor and mana barrier, his hands snapped forward twice using a bit of Daliko¡¯s power. Each choppy throw delivered a special bead at bullet speeds that he had created for this exact purpose. The enchanted projectiles were small, but the moment they hit an enemy, they expanded to the size of a golfball and increased in density for a split second. Both changes were temporary and didn¡¯t last long, but existed long enough to open up terrible gaping holes in both enemies'' chests. They collapsed with a look of shock on their faces.


    Max ran forward, kicking the door open to the hallway and tossing several explosive beads down both sides. He ducked back into the room before the explosions actually went off. As the first screams and yells warbled through the building, echoing strangely through the billows of smoke, he threw another handful of beads that detonated into clouds of poisonous vapor.


    Many of the doors and windows throughout the floor had already been destroyed, so the poison spread throughout the building quickly. Max quickly ate a bead that would give him several minutes of immunity to the poison. Then, he sprinted down the hallway to one of the stairwells.  The door had already been blown off its hinges.


    ¡°Lavinia, showtime," he said softly.


    "Got it."


    Then, one at a time, Max dropped explosive beads.  Each was caught before it hit the ground by a sudden manifestation of a spider made of ectoplasm. The spiders, Lavinia¡¯s spirits being shaped by Anansi¡¯s will, were nightmarishly large, twice the size of a dinner plate. They scuttled up the walls and down the stairs with their payload of explosive beads. The spiders were fast, and almost all of Lavinia''s spirits had already either gone up or down the building with their bead cargo before Lavinia whispered, "One of my spirits was just temporarily destroyed."


    "Got it."


    With an effort of will, Max snapped, and each one of his beads being carried by a spider detonated. Not only did the beads blow up through their own power, but each of them had been designed to also use ectoplasm as a catalyst. The stairwells were destroyed in thunderous explosions. Any door to the stairwell that had already been opened, the spiders had scuttled inside, too.  If they''d had time, had placed themselves near groups of Victory guild members or any other targets that looked juicy.


    Immediately after the explosions rocked the building, Max repeated the process, but this time, instead of explosive beads, he dropped poisonous gas beads as well as a smokescreen bead. Then, just like before, Lavinia¡¯s spirits in the shapes of spiders went up and down the walls, acting like wall-crawling smart bombs.


    The destruction and smoke from the previous explosions helped hide them and even served as camouflage since the smoke was very similar in color to the spiders¡¯ ectoplasm.


    Max silently counted to fifteen in his head, only a few seconds after the last of Lavinia''s spirits had left with their payload before he snapped and detonated gas and smoke beads all throughout one side of the building. Smoke and poison billowed up and down the stairwell and open hallways.


    Max tuned out the yelling, screaming, and attempts at order throughout the building.


    Okay, next phase, he thought. Max jumped up to a random floor and threw several more explosive beads down the open hallway. After that, he hit several more floors, both above and below, before returning to one of the floors he''d just attacked.   He ran through the heavy smoke in the open doorway, pounding down the hallway.  There was a body plastered against the wall.  To make sure they were dead, Max skewered the body with Blackmist Incident.


    Then he skidded through a relatively intact doorway into what had been a hotel room in the past.  He was ready for combat, but nobody was inside, and the space itself looked like some sort of mundane break room.


    Perfect, he thought. Then he rolled his way under a table and mentally said, Phase three, now. You ready, Lavinia?


    Yes.


    A moment later, Lavinia and a few of her spirits left the room to take positions around the entire building and on the outside. Max was tense. Slick and his other spirits were standing guard out in the hallway, ready to let him know if any Victory Guild searches were coming. Max knew that the element of surprise would only last another minute or two longer, maximum.  He was trying to accomplish as much as he possibly could in that time frame. Luckily, Lavinia and her spirits were fast.


    Only seconds later, through his link with the former Summoner, he could hear Lavinia''s voice and sense what she was saying through their link as well.


    Outside the building, her voice rang out through the vibration of her spirits¡¯ artificial mouths.


    ¡°This war does not include the Trifecta guild.  It is a war between Max Cunningham, the originator of the Mana Swordsman Path, and the Victory guild who broke their oaths and have acted without honor.


    ¡°However, Max wishes to minimize the loss of life.  Ultimately, his complaint is with the Victory guild leaders.  If you are a member of the Victory guild and value your life, leave the building, lay down your arms, and kneel.


    ¡°Otherwise, you will die.¡±

 Book 3, ch 31

    After Lavinia stopped talking outside, Max almost immediately heard her voice in his ear. "It''s done. Are you ready for the next phase?"


    "Yes," said Max. "For now, prioritize targeting the people that have mana fluctuations somewhat like mine, the mana swordsmen, and the people that are compromised with demonic energy."


    "Got it," Lavinia''s voice was grim.


    A moment later, a bead that Max had placed on the ground in one pile was picked up. He¡¯d developed this particular bead to be an explosive that used a pseudo-mana body as a catalyst. If it were thrown or detonated normally, it would be about the same power as one of his old explosive beads. But if it made contact with someone that had a pseudo-mana body, like, for instance, a person on the Mana Swordsman Path, the explosion would be far more deadly.


    Once the bead was picked up, an ectoplasmic spider solidified around it. Max heard Lavinia''s voice again. "This is the pile that kills people who stole your technique, right?"


    That''s right. Max sent back mentally. The other pile is for the demonic cultivators.


    "Got it."


    A second later, Max saw one of the beads that he''d placed in the second pile lift up, and a spider formed around it too. Quietly, Max said, "Prioritize the demonic-infected people."


    Lavinia gave him a wordless acknowledgment, and for the next thirty seconds or so, spiders made of ectoplasm picked up beads and scuttled out the door. For someone with arachnophobia, it would have been absolutely horrifying.


    Meanwhile, on Max''s shoulder, Anansi had materialized. The spider god remnant didn''t say anything, but on his humanoid face, a smirk had formed that just kept growing deeper. He''s really enjoying this, thought Max.


    Lavinia had left one spirit outside the building to keep watch over what was taking place, and she gave him regular updates. Once all the spiders left with their deadly payloads, Max didn''t have anything to do other than hide. So, over the course of several minutes, that''s exactly what he did. Every few seconds after the first minute, he heard or felt explosions throughout the building and also picked up sounds of grief and fury.


    The Victory Guild was full of Challengers too, after all. So there was crashing throughout the building as Victory Guild members searched for Max or tried destroying the spiders. However, stopping them wasn''t so easy. The diameter of one of Lavinia''s spirit spiders was about the size of a dinner plate, like the spider that had materialized in the hallways earlier. However, they did not have to be that size, and could change to be even as small as a real-life wolf spider. This meant they could travel through vents and under doors. There were very few places in the entire building that Lavinia''s spirits couldn''t reach. On top of that, in their smaller size, they moved slower, but were harder to see.


    For the Victory Guild, trying to find Max had immediately become much more complicated due to the threat of Kamikaze spiders.


    Lavinia''s spirit posted outside reported that nobody had left the building to take advantage of Max''s amnesty. He shook his head sadly. Shame. He didn''t know whether it was because the threat wasn''t effective enough or if everybody in the Victory Guild truly was compromised by demonic energies. It had occurred to him, even before confirming the presence of demonic energy, that one reason the war for Earth was not going well could be because of demonic influence. It made a sort of sense, too. If the regular state of the universe was planets being threatened by monster invasion, then demonic entities, which were sort of like spiritual vultures, would find plenty of opportunity in such situations.


    As yet another one of Lavinia''s spirits manifested in front of him, picking up yet another bead to carry off, Lavinia suddenly whispered urgently in his ear, "Max, something''s happening. Lots of people are starting to come from outside."


    "What do you mean?" he asked.


    "It looks like it''s Victory Guild members. There''s a lot of them. Quite a few are coming from the same direction as the teleporter."


    Max nodded, and his calm state of mind wasn''t shaken. He''d pretty much predicted this. The police outside and the press and the Patriot Guild members had instructions to let any Victory Guild personnel pass. After all, if his prey came to him, it made his hunting easier.


    Lavinia''s spirit continued to pulse out fluctuations that hid Max''s presence.


    After a couple more minutes, as she tracked the newcomers, she asked, "What do you want me to do?¡±


    "Just keep attacking," said Max.


    The ghost girl subvocally sent acknowledgement, and the ectoplasm spiders resumed their deadly activities. Suddenly, Lavinia said, "A lot of the poison smoke and the other smoke is starting to clear up. It looks like there are groups organizing to comb the building now, looking for you. On top of that, fewer of my spirits are actually getting close enough to do any damage with your beads anymore.  The groups that split up in the building have people dedicated to watching for them."


    Max calmly nodded. He had predicted this, too. After all, the Victory Guild may be rotten to the core, but they were still a powerful Challenger guild. He could hear fewer and fewer explosions throughout the building now, almost like listening to the tail end of a batch of popcorn popping.


    Finally, he told Lavinia, "All of your spirits that still have a bead, have them find a good target, blow up, and then just return.  Keep them on standby." He scooped up the beads on the floor. "It''s time to wait now."


    "Got it. Do you want me to start phase D?"


    "Not quite yet," said Max. "But prepare for it."


    "I already am," she whispered. "There''s a corpse staged in the bushes outside where nobody can see. My spirit pushed it out a window a few minutes ago. They were distracted outside at the time and I don¡¯t think anyone saw it fall."


    Perfect, thought Max. If this had been the world before professional monster hunters and worldwide war became a thing, he had no doubt that the reaction for what was taking place right now would be vastly different.  But the fact the world was constantly in danger, or experience erupting violence, plus the fact the Patriot guild was outside, some of whom were no doubt very powerful, and the media was already present, all drastically changed things.


    So far, his best cover to prevent being found by the Victory guild had been causing such a ruckus and then actively attacking.  It was hard for the Victory guild to kick in doors and search for him when they were either dodging explosions or watching others be attacked.  He had no doubt that quite a few of them were trying to save lives or heal their guild members.  It was a mess for sure.  He could hear the continued chaos all throughout the huge, former hotel.


    With all of this going on, there were bodies lying all over the place throughout the building.


    And of course, the poison smoke and initial attack that made it difficult to locate Max, also made it easier for Lavinia to steal a body.


    The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    Lavinia gave him a regular status report. "Max, it looks like there are people teleporting to the roof. Dozens at least."


    That must be more of the Victory the guild members, thought Max. "What''s going on outside?"


    "There are a number of people I don¡¯t know and disaster relief worker civilians who have tried breaking through the circle of people outside, but the multiple barriers you set up are blocking them. Law Enforcement and the Patriot guild are still letting through Victory Guild members though."


    "Perfect," said Max. "Okay, go ahead and start plan D."


    "On it."


    A moment later, Lavina appeared outside the build, manifesting for everyone to see.  Max could hear what she was saying, both faintly outside, and through one of her spirits left near his ear.


    She thundered, ¡°Attention! Some of you might be skeptical about our claims that the Victory Guild is rotten and needs purging! However, let me remind you that the Utah front line, which is the portion that the Victory Guild most often serves at and is sometimes even in charge of, has had little to no improvement and has actually been pushed back! Some of you may point out that this is hardly unique and that plenty of other guilds have had similar lack of success. However, the Victory Guild has been compromised, or at verified traces of demonic energy. For those of you who do not know, any Challenger with supernatural power may be approached by or coerced by those who serve the dark to represent evil or chaotic interests in exchange for riches or power! To prove, many of you might be rightfully skeptical of an unknown spirit making accusations like this. So to prove it, to quell any suspicion you might have, please examine this body."


    Max couldn''t see what was happening, but he knew what the onlookers would currently be witnessing. A few of Lavinia''s slow-moving ectoplasmic golems were carrying the body of one of the dead Victory Guild Challengers that had lingering demonic energy. The golems set the body down near the perimeter around the Victory Guild.  The spot was pre-planned.  It was near a handful of Patriot Guild challengers that could help, but also plenty of other police and fire department representatives.


    Lavinia said, "If our expectations are correct, Victory Guild members will come out immediately to reclaim the body, while you are all shocked, before anyone can inspect it.  They will probably¨C" her words were cut off by a tremendous crash.


    A window on the third floor exploded, and a big man jumped out of the building, rushing to the dead guild member. Without wasting a single motion, he bent down and scooped up the corpse, easily demolishing the burden-carrying forms of Lavinia''s spirits. Then, running back towards the building, he leaped and made it neatly back into the window.


    Max heard the crash and the sound from outside, but Lavinia quietly relayed everything that she was seeing. Even outside the building, she continued, "As you can see, the Victory Guild cannot afford to have anybody examine those types of bodies too closely. Even the most skeptical of you must acknowledge that what we just saw was suspicious, to say the least. Now, I implore all of you¡ª"


    Lavinia''s voice was cut off as a huge shout shattered more of the windows from the upper floors of the building. "Enough!" The voice projected with enough force to set off nearby car alarms.


    "Who is it?" thought Max to Lavinia.


    "I think it''s Toby Lynch."


    Max narrowed his eyes. He was not expecting Toby Lynch or Sam Lynch to actually make an appearance anytime soon. "Well, I guess I should go outside too."


    "What if it''s a trap?" said Lavinia.


    "It''s always a trap," Max responded. "But I wasn''t scared of these guys to begin with, and if one of the leaders is coming out now, it means that we probably don''t have any hope of saving any of the people who might not have been directly involved with them."


    "I don''t think any members of the Victory Guild are not directly involved with them," said Lavinia. "A bunch might have been innocent at first, but now..." She let her words trail off. She knew about demonically influenced fighters as well. It was possible to save them, but only if they wanted to save themselves. Max wasn''t willing to die a second time because of misplaced pity for people he didn''t even know¡ªpeople who might have been doing awful things and, at the very least, had probably been sabotaging the human war effort.


    Max got up and left his hiding place, moving towards the front side of the building. As he did, he heard Toby Lynch speaking in mid-air. The man was obviously using some sort of mana amplification as he shouted, "You know, originally I was going to play all this off as a terrorist attack. And after I killed the little bastard that just blew up half my building, I was going to use it for sympathy to grow the power and influence of my guild. But I guess the gig is up now." He chuckled. "My brother is in there doing what he needs to do. So I''m sorry that he can''t make an appearance. But you will soon discover what he''s up to¡ªwhat my whole guild has been up to for quite some time actually. You see, again, I wasn''t planning on doing this now; it''s quite premature. But sometimes you have to make an omelet when some eggs are already broken."


    After Max found a window that had already been busted out, using a simple application of his four-star mana body, he spread his wings and allowed himself to float upwards from the opening. Down below, he could see that the majority of onlookers were absolutely shocked. All of the reporters, drones, and magical constructs rigged up with cameras zoomed all over the place, all trying to get the best shot or the best angle of what was happening. He was sure that the reporters were already crafting attention-getting headlines in their heads about the incredible story they were witnessing, the footage they were capturing.


    The reporters filming live were whispering into their mics.


    Max knew from his research that nothing quite like this had happened before. He''d also done plenty of research on Toby Lynch and Sam Lynch, which was how he knew the moment he laid eyes on the man that Lavinia had been correct when she named him.


    Toby was pale with blonde hair. He had a big bushy beard and wore thick armor. The man had no weapons in his hands, but his baleful aura was so strong that one of the windows in the building nearby, which had completely shattered from his shout earlier, was trembling in its frame. His raptor gaze locked onto Max the moment he left the building.


    The big man said, "You must be the guy. You know, I sure hate you, a C-rank that comes in and destroys my guild like this. But to be honest, I haven''t wanted to be playing at this hero shit for a while now¡ªthat was all Sam, why we kept this up. So I suppose I should thank you, whatever your name is."


    "It''s Max. You knew my rank, so the idea you forgot my name is obvious bullshit.  And considering I''m the reason you were originally dual-Pathed, you should speak with a bit more respect."


    "Respect is earned, not given." The big blonde man smiled, but his eyes were flat. Intense killing intent rolled off of him in waves.


    Completely nonplussed, Max responded, "I don''t know, I came in here single-handedly and blew up half your stupid building, your dumbass guild built on broken promises and demonic stupidity, and I don''t even know how many people I''ve killed so far. If that''s not worth at least a little bit of respect, well, I hate to be your server. You''re probably one of those assholes that tip like two cents, right?  Find something wrong and have to make a self righteous point about it?"


    Toby blinked at Max a few times before laughing heartily.


    Meanwhile, Max was ready for anything.  He didn''t even have to send a reminder to Lavinia. She''d already consolidated all her spirits. Fighting directly would not be the most efficient use of their power,but the gig was up now. Part of the reason he¡¯d used them as sappers earlier was to try saving as much of the surrounding buildings and city as possible. He had a feeling that if he clashed directly with Toby, Sam, and their entire guild, it was going to cause a lot of collateral damage. But he was a realist.  Max wasn¡¯t delusional enough to think that declaring war on the Victory Guild wouldn¡¯t have some ramifications for himself, Vegas, and probably even the rest of the world. But any guilt he might have felt had disappeared after verifying that the Victory Guild had been infiltrated by demonic energies.


    Max continued to float upwards, and as a result, he got a bird''s eye view of the moment bright red runes flashed all through the city around the Victory Guild headquarters. Continuing to speak conversationally with mana amplifying his voice, Toby said, "We weren''t going to tip off the world that we have this capability now, but oh well. Sam is far more upset about it than I am."


    A second later, rather than a trickle of Victory Guild members teleporting to the top of the roof, returning to help in their guild¡¯s time of need, over one hundred of them appeared at once.  The newcomers appeared about ten feet up all around the converted hotel, most of them issuing a squawk of surprise. A few seconds later, the glowing runes changed.


    Too late, Max realized that the magic circle was far outside the ring of onlookers and law enforcement. They were inside of it.  One of the people below threw the hood of their hoodie back, and Max was shocked to recognize Lance in the crowd. He hadn''t known that his friend had even even coming.


    The runes blazed brighter, and Max shoved fuel into the mana furnace that was his body. The wings he had, courtesy of Daliko, allowed him far better acceleration and control in flight than he''d ever had in his previous life, even at higher levels of power. But before he could reach Toby Lynch, the man began cackled and launched a missile of red energy at Max.


    Max swerved to the side, dodging the attack, but at that very moment, the runes grew even brighter, and the world flared white before disappearing.

 Book 3, ch 32

    The world felt like it turned upside down several times, and Max struggled to get his bearings. When light returned, his senses reignited at the same time as he heard screaming, yelling, and other, different noises that he didn''t immediately recognize. However, his spirits weren¡¯t suffering from the same confusion or vertigo that he was fighting through.


    "Max! Just hover in the air, don''t do anything else," yelped Lavinia. At the same time, he heard a buzz in the back of his head and saw one of Daliko¡¯s text windows pop up. Interestingly enough, the current situation showed that even while Matt''s vision swam, he could still clearly read Daliko¡¯s messages. The part of his brain clinically noting this sort of thing dissolved as he read what she''d actually sent him. It had three words:


    Monsters coming. Lots.


    A few seconds later, Matt''s vision returned, allowing him to see the absolute chaos in his surroundings. It took a while to understand what he was seeing at first. A heavy rain of sand fell from the sky; it was already deep enough that it was burying some of the people who were sprawled out on the ground, most of them nowhere close to regaining their faculties yet. The other people he could see that seemed to have their wits about them as well, ironically, were mostly reporters. They¡¯d been on the outside of the circle around the Victory guild, and seemed to have been spared some of the magical shock.  In fact, the circle of reporters and law enforcement on the ground helped Max understand what had happened.


    Although everything from Vegas, even the asphalt, had been plopped down somewhere else, clues around the area showed they were still on Earth, though. The road sign over the highway was green and in English, offering directions to Salt Lake City. We''re still in America, he thought to himself.


    A moment later, Lavinia screamed a warning, but Max had already felt the danger. He spun in place, twisting his insectile wings and delivering a blast of mana to push himself out of the way,  like a strong gust of wind. A torrent of stone spikes slashed down through the space he''d just been standing in. They were the same color as most of the falling sand. He looked up and saw two men floating in the air above him. One of them hadn''t quite regained all his faculties yet, but the other, Toby Lynch, grinned sardonically.


    "That''s too bad," he said. "I was really hoping that would take you out."


    "Yeah, well, nice shot, asshole," Matt turned to the side and spit. When his spittle landed on one of the recovering Victory Guild members marked with demonic energy, his satisfaction was petty but genuine.


    Some of the reporters on the ground were up now, and more importantly, their cameras were working. Speaking more to the cameras than to the Lynch brothers, Max said, "So I take it you teleported the entire city block or two over here to Utah, where you''re buddy-buddies with the monster king or the monsters who rule this place.  We are all probably too far outside the front line to get any human help. And I''m figuring that this was your escape plan before, but you had to use it too early.¡±  Max grinned.  ¡°Sorry for that.¡±  Max frowned.  ¡°The only thing I don''t understand is all the falling sand. The only thing that makes sense to me is that it is the demolished buildings¡­like all the buildings around us aren¡¯t there anymore, just the rebar and foundations and junk.  But if you prepared this teleportation, why would you destroy your own guild building?"


    Annoyance flickered across Toby face before he laughed and casually said, "You know, I have to hand it to you. I hate your guts, and you''re going to die in a terrible way. In fact, I''m going to do everything I can to make sure that your soul is tortured for the next hundred years, if not forever. But I have to give credit where credit is due. Not only do you have some big brass balls, you have some style.¡± The man ruefully shook his head. ¡°Coming into my guild, killing people with barely any warning. Telling the world my secrets. Having lots of eyewitnesses so there was nothing I could do about it. Oh, I really wanted to make all this go away, but I couldn''t foresee any way that the Victory Guild was going to recover from this, even if we killed you immediately after you tried showing everyone that body.  This teleportation, this offering, is premature. But I have to admit, it''s going to feel good to finally work directly against humanity."


    Matt shook his head. "You are one sick, lazy fuck."


    Toby cocked his head to the side. "The ¡®sick¡¯ part I was expecting from people like you, but where''d the ¡®lazy¡¯ come from?"


    Max sighed and willed himself to rise higher. The mana that surrounded him eagerly complied with his request. Still conscious of the video cameras surrounding them whirring through the air, some of which were no doubt broadcasting live, Max said, "Because you were S-ranked before you even joined the Trifecta Guild and became dual Path. The only people that usually end up getting tainted by demonic energy, at least in leadership positions like you, are either weak-willed idiots, which I don''t think you are, or lazy, power-hungry fucks who aren''t willing to put the work into it to get stronger. But of course, regular people corrupted by demonic energies can be people who are pushed or forced into it, like most of your guild members seem to be."


    Power roiled in Max¡¯s body, throbbing through his veins. One on hand, he¡¯d been hoping to avoid a direct confrontation like this, at least for a while, but he had contingency plans in place.


    Max was getting a better understanding of the situation. He glanced around the area, and now he could see all the remaining Victory guild members.  Quite a few of them looked like they were still muddled from the effects of the teleport. Max felt bad for them.  They''d effectively been mind-raped, forced into servitude to demonic powers. He was willing to bet if anyone checked the Victory guild log history, they¡¯d find a higher rate of mortality on missions every time the guild got new members. Not everyone who had demonic energy forced on them could live, and he was sure that some had resisted.


    He sadly shook his head.


    Toby chuckled.  ¡°Yes, I introduced the guild to opportunity. Am I supposed to feel guilty?  I wouldn¡¯t have felt bad about it, even before monsters attacked.  The world has always been an unfair place.  It¡¯s just more obvious now.  And I¡¯ve chosen the winning team.  It¡¯s that simple.  As for why all the buildings are sand now, you¡¯ll find out soon.¡±


    Max didn¡¯t look, but he sensed Lavinia give acknowledgment down below that she had met up with Lance and delivered Matt''s request. She sent spirits to some others in the teleported area, too. Things were about to get very spicy indeed.


    It was a rookie mistake to let enemies monologue and get their act together.  Even if one isn¡¯t completely ready, it¡¯s still better to hit the enemies before they¡¯re ready.


    Suddenly, about two dozen Victory guild Challengers below blew up in spectacular  showers of gore.  Lavinia¡¯s spirits had scurried around the battlefield in their smallest spider forms, almost invisible atop the sand, and they¡¯d all positioned themselves under Victory guild members who were still not up yet.


    At the same time, Lance stopped hiding and suppressing his energy, leaping into fray with his powerful sword, targeting standing Victory guild members.  The other Patriot guild members were slower, but then they joined their guild leader.


    Max accelerated rapidly at Toby.  With hundreds of years of practice, he directed his energy in a cone behind him, achieving impressive velocity in less than a second.  Toby was not caught entirely by surprise, he was an S-rank after all, but Max dodged the cloud of sharp, stone spikes the man sent, and chopped down just as Toby began covering himself in some sort of sand armor.


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    He was impressed by how fast the armor came into full effect.  Toby was completely protected before Max¡¯s strike landed.


    However, Blackmist Incident was barely slowed down by the armor, the blade empowered by Max¡¯s great power and fine control.  Max could understand how a warrior like Toby Lynch could be an S-rank warrior on this world, but the man trusted his armor too much.  He had no excuse for the oversight either, after learning Western Wind Style.


    As the two pieces of Toby Lynch fell down to the battlefield below, Max covered in gore, he glanced up at Sam Lynch.  The man was looking down at him, his eyes wide, in complete shock.  The little scorpion tattoo by his eye looked comical, stretched out with the man¡¯s eyes open that far.  The glasses he was wearing now looked about ready to fall off his nose..


    ¡°What?¡± asked Max.  ¡°Was I supposed to wait for you bastards to finish doing whatever you were doing?  Fuck that.¡±  Max raised a hand, sending projectiles of blood screaming out, courtesy of Bracelet of Bloody Arrows.  At the same time, he slashed with his sword, sending a wave of mana-formed destructive force at the man.


    Sam spun, dropping to avoid the attacks, moving closer to the ground, and several Patriot guild members unleashed magical attacks at him. Waves of sand erupted upwards, artfully blocking the magic and projectiles.  Then the wave of sand turned into giant hands, crushing two of the Patriot Guild members like bugs.  The third, a lithe woman, barely escaped by the skin of her teeth.


    Max threw a handful of exploding beads at Sam Lynch, but all the attacks were blocked by a wing of sand the man had created from the sand-impregnated dust in the air.  Sam snarled, and his aura of power grew stronger, letting his sand wall drop after blocking the explosions.  His eyes were wild, and Max wasn¡¯t sure whether the man was more upset that he¡¯d killed his brother or upset his plans.


    When Sam sent a flying, freaky hand of sand at Max, he rose higher into the sky to dodge the sneaky grab. Then he delivered a mana slash, destroying the construct.


    From his new vantage point in the sky, Max saw an approaching dust cloud with large shapes moving within. He understood the warning that Dalkiko had given him better now.  There was an army of something large coming, thundering across the flat ground.


    With a snort, Max turned his attention back to his enemy.  Sam was busy doing his best to kill Lance with grasping hands made of sand, but Lance was able to hold his own with his sword.  However, all the other Patriot guild members throwing attacks at the floating Sam Lynch might not have even bothered; every single projectile was blocked by walls or wings of of sand.


    Now it was truly obvious why all the buildings had been turned to sand. Both Lynch brothers had been sand-based Challengers of some kind.


    Instead of directly joining the fray again, Max decided to get some intel.  As an experiment, he used Dalico''s technique to throw a bead at incredible speed just to the side of Sam Lynch. The attack would not hit the man, just barely miss.  When the disgraced Guildmaster''s sand constructs didn''t react, Max threw another bead at Sam¡¯s torse.  This time, the sand blocked it, even without Sam looking.


    Now Max understood that some aspects of Sam''s power were automatic or worked on their own.


    He could also deduce that all the sand and debris on the ground were for Sam to create constructs while Toby would have protected him. The mystery of why all the surrounding buildings had disintegrated into fine sand had likely been solved, as was the reason for it: for the Lynch Brothers to kill any enemies, and possibly even to protect themselves from their own allies.


    The monsters were still coming.


    Max flared his power, running his mana through his body in a circular pattern, supercharging his physical and defensive abilities. Then, he shot directly at the slowly retreating Sam Lynch.  As he did, Sam immediately abandoned his fight with Lance, rising and meeting Max head on.


    They sped toward each other, out of the range of most fighters on the ground.  When Max was close enough, he expertly dodged four flying hands, and delivered two heavy ectoplasm webs courtesy of Anansi and Lavinia.


    The webs had the intended effect, binding some of the Sand and merely slowing down the other man¡¯s automated defenses.  It likely wouldn¡¯t be enough for another Challenger to capitalize on, but Max was not normal.  The new change in the sand, its added awkwardness barely allowed Max to slip to the side and deliver a powerful chop with his sword.


    Sam yelled in surprise at Max¡¯s speed.  He desperately raised his arm, and some of the surrounding sand flowed onto it, creating an armor of sorts¨Csimilar to what Toby had done. However, it wasn''t nearly enough to stop Blackmist Incident, swung by a four star Blade Sorcerer.


    Max''s strike continued through the makeshift armor on Sam''s arm and chopped deep into the man''s side. Sam screamed, falling back.  He sent a retaliatory hand of sand at Max, but he was done playing.  With his free hand, he gave the construct an empowered punch, reducing it to another cloud of dust.


    Then, with that same hand, Max threw an exploding bead that blew up on Sam, detonating with enough force to shove the man backward through the air. Other than the push, it didn''t do much damage to the wounded man, certainly not enough to seriously wound him.  But with the quick push, now Sam was further away from his own floating sand wing and arms.


    Max darted forward, using his mana like an explosion of force behind him.  Then with one last juke to avoid a slashing wing, he slammed his sword through the disgraced guild leader¡¯s chest.


    Sam''s surprise was almost comical. He gasped, "How? What?"


    Max twisted his sword.  "I''m sorry, buddy. You were never in my weight class to begin with after I achieved a four star mana body.


    I probably should have killed you quicker, and I¡¯m not really happy that any Patriot guild members died, but I still think drawing you out was necessary to wake up the world. But yeah, I can see the surprise in your eyes, and the truth is, I didn''t need to concoct this entire situation to kill you and your brother.¡±


    Max looked at his stricken enemy in midair and continued, ¡°But I have to give you props for this teleportation trap. I really wasn''t expecting that."


    Before Sam could gasp anything else, Max shoved an exploding bead directly into the man''s mouth, kicked him in the face, knocking him away, and he detonated the bead remotely with a thought. Already stricken, mortally wounded, and near unconscious, Sam''s jaw blew off as he plummeted to the ground.


    Max was impressed by the man''s resilience. Although an S-rank Challenger on Earth was weak by his standards, Sam legitimately was much stronger than most other adventurers on the planet. If he had to guess, Max would assume that Sam had been eating sand in order to incorporate it into his own body, which was likely how he was flying as well. But, mortally wounded or not, Max wasn''t willing to take a chance at a powerful enemy like this stabbing him in the back.


    Left for dead was not the same thing as dead.  So, even as Sam fell, Max delivered one more powerful Mana Slash with his sword.  The wave of destructive magic arced through the air like a deadly glowing frisbee before cutting Sam in half.


    A rain of blood blew out in a semi circle fan of gore.


    As the two body parts that used to be Sam Lynch hit the ground below, similar to what had happened with Toby, Max surveyed the area, verifying that no Victory Guild members were still alive. The scene was grim, but everything looked to be in control for the moment.


    Then he became aware of people staring at him.


    Absolute silence rang as the Challengers, reporters, police officers and other emergency responders stood mostly in shock, awe, and maybe a little bit of fear. Lance was one of the notable exceptions with a shit-eating grin.


    Max broke the silence himself, using mana to increase the volume of his voice. "Everyone, look alive if you want to survive.  We''re behind enemy lines, and there is an army of monsters coming. Most of you are not fast enough to run away, but it¡¯s not hopeless, so everyone needs to stay and fight.


    ¡°All non-combatants, get behind the Challengers. Lance Fraser, you are in charge of the defense. Reporters, try to stay alive.  Probably not much of a consolation, but you are about to be in a great position to be at ground zero for a wild story.  Just know us adventures are going to do our damnedest to make sure that you stay alive.  But make sure you follow instructions from this point forward.¡± He paused. ¡°Does everyone get it?¡±


    Only Lance dared speak, shouting up at Max, ¡°What about the cops?  They are armed.¡±


    ¡°Have them stay with the reporters and be the absolute last line of defense."


    Lance nodded. "And where are you going?" he yelled.


    Max rose higher in the air.  With a magically-empowered voice he said, "I''m going to go meet the enemy monsters. I¡¯ll soften them up as much as I can, but my job will be to kill their leader.  You can feel from here that it''s not something you guys can handle. But as soon as I''m done, I''ll come back."


    Then, doing exactly as he said he would, Max began flying directly at the approaching monster horde. He was unsurprised and a little amused by the fact that several video drones from the reporters followed him to catch the action.


    It seemed he would still have an audience.

 Book 3, ch 33

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    Max sped ahead, and within moments, he was over the approaching horde of monsters. Atop the dust cloud, he was able to get his first good look at them, and his heart sank when he saw that they were the notorious gray apes monsters.


    There were just too many of them to deal with at once, at least quickly. Max knew that if he didn''t deal with the leader controlling them, more monsters could be called in, and all the humans caught behind enemy lines would be like victims in a meat grinder.


    Max wasted no time throwing handfuls of explosive beads down into the charging ranks of monsters below. None of them could really retaliate. Although the grey apes were basically eight-foot-tall gorillas with glowing red eyes, none of them could jump high enough to reach Max. So they didn''t even try. Instead, all of them ran faster directly at the circled humans in the distance. Max redoubled his efforts, sending a handful of explosive beads down below, using Dalikos¡¯ ability to snap his arm forward and deliver precision death in the form of beads through great ape foreheads. But it wasn''t enough. Max''s efforts managed to thin about half of the horde until he ran out of beads.


    Then he darted down into the midst of the charging creatures, flying, delivering mana slashes with his sword. One of the apes almost got a hold of him, and Max used Black Mist Incident to great effect, chopping the monster''s arm off at the elbow and expertly bisecting the creature with his sword.


    But he had no backup and limited beads. Using up all of his beads would not be wise.  Using his mana wave ability from the air wasn''t very efficient. He could kill one, maybe two apes at most with that, and it took up a great amount of his energy. Reluctantly, Max decided that he couldn''t do any more to stem the tide, at least not without jeopardizing his ability to fulfill his role considering the big picture. With a curse, Max dodged one more grasping set of hands before cleaving one of the ape''s skulls and taking off into the air.


    His entire body was covered in dust, blood, and worse at this point. The wind from flying quickly dried all the viscera.


    He could very clearly feel a large energy signature from the direction where the grey apes had come from.  It was very obviously the boss monster controlling them.


    The fact that the boss monster wasn¡¯t hiding its presence was interesting.  Max wasn''t sure if the creature just wasn''t expecting anybody to come, or if it was just that confident in its own strength.


    Luckily, the boss wasn''t very much farther away, and as Max got closer, he saw that it was a truly massive simian monster like the grey apes but white and about twice the size. He recognized it. The media was calling it White Ape King.


    The monster was not only tall, but muscular too, massive in almost every dimension.  Cold, blue eyes, full of malevolent intelligence regarded Max with curiosity.  The creature looked like a gorilla on steroids and a mouth full of sharp teeth, but its fur had white-blue crystals in it, and there was a shimmering aura of cold around the monster, like a combination of destructive aura and armor combined.  The Ape King¡¯s nails were more like claws, long and thing, no doubt extremely dangerous.  But the boss moster¡¯s magic and overall physique were probably what made it most dangerous.


    Max''s great experience let him tell just by how the thing was sitting on the rooftop of a gas station that it could move incredibly quickly. He slowed to a stop in mid-air to examine the Ape King, and it lifted its pink nose to stare calmly at Max.


    "The formation triggered. But you aren''t one of the humans I was going to meet," it said in a disturbing baritone voice. ¡°You are not an ally.¡±


    "That''s right, I''m not," said Max. "Zed''s dead, baby."


    The boss monster gave him an even look with no recognition, and Max said, "Not much of a film buff, huh?"


    "You speak nonsense," said the monster. "But I do not care. My children have died, many by your hand, but you may find my guards more of a challenge."  The Ape King smiled.


    As Max watched, several hidden grey apes materialized from their hiding places. He counted four of them, and unlike the stampede that had been heading towards his friends, these ones carried weapons. Two had great clubs, and two had spears. All four monsters were larger than their brethren.  Elites, maybe.


    "You dare challenge me?" said the boss monster. "I will not even lift a finger, and still repay you tenfold."


    "Yeah, good luck with that," said Max. ¡°So cliche.¡±


    When the Ape King began to speak again, likely expecting to monologue to a captive audience, Max darted forward towards one of the guards. His passing slash cleaved through the creature''s head and dropped it like a sack of potatoes. The boss monster, the White Ape King, looked on with stunned shock as Max moved to the next creature. This one was a little bit quicker on the uptake and tried dodging to one side, but Max delivered a mana slash with his sword, sending the monster reeling back with a stream of pain, one of its arms severed, and a deep, mortal wound through its chest.


    Suddenly, he had to dodge to the side as he sensed magic gathering from behind. His evasive maneuver was just in time, and even then, only because he borrowed some power from Slick. The ice spike that the Ape King had just thrown at him blurred through the air until it disappeared in the distance. Max gathered his mana and flew down near the wall of the gas station where the great ape couldn''t see.


    He dropped down to pick up a stone, but then sprang backward as hard as he could, letting Slick''s power carry him along the ground, right before the Ape King''s hand slammed through the rooftop like it was made of tissue paper, almost pulping Max.


    At the same time, one of the two remaining grey ape guards almost skewered him with the spear. But Max noticed the movement at the last moment and, using a combination of aerial acrobatics and a half-circle parry, he managed to slip the attack, move close, and plant his sword through the monster''s chest. With his other hand, Max delivered a couple of rapid, powerful punches to the creature''s temple before putting his feet on the elite grey ape''s chest and springing off with great bounding leaps.


    He moved to dodge, but then suddenly stopped as a giant, magic icicle projectile zipped through the space he was about to be. The evasive maneuver left him directly in the path of the last ape guard, who was raising its giant club, about to turn Max into tomato paste. ¡°Shit,¡± he hissed.


    Max delivered a mana wave attack, but this ape was fast and managed to block the energy with its blue club. The wave cut deeply into the weapon and left a smoking imprint, but didn''t do anything more than that. However, it had forced the creature to block.  Max delivered another wave that the creature blocked, but threw two beads behind it, both of which passed by the blocking club. Both impacted the creature''s face and throat.


    It reeled back, hands going to its ruined face, as Max came down like the hammer of God, cleaving through the monster''s shoulder. He dropped to the ground just in time before another deadly icicle attack zipped through the body of the dead guard and almost took Max in the chest.


    Then he was madly retreating as the White Ape King smashed down on the ground, creating a huge spreading ring of icy destruction.  Max tried to gain altitude, but abandoned that idea when he had to dodge a shotgun spread of supersonic ice and debris that the Ape King had slung with long, whippy arms.


    He dropped low, behind a shattered restaurant building, then quickly moved behind another building, giving himself a respite.


    The Ape King didn¡¯t cooperate with his plan to rest and have time to think, though.


    Max tensed as the area became covered with a thick, freezing fog. He manifested a pale energy shield on his left wrist, courtesy of Blackmist Incident, and stared into the surrounding vapor, looking for any sign of movement. However, part of his current stance was theatrics.  He was also seeing with more than just his eyes, so he was able to dodge directly forward just as the Ape King came down from directly above. Max used a combination of his mana abilities, Daliko¡¯s armor, and Slick''s ability to reduce friction, all allowing him to spring forward so fast he was almost like a flicker.


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    Then he tapped into Anansi¡¯s power, creating a lifelike decoy behind him, one that appeared just like Max, desperately looking around, expression fierce.


    Still invisible, the Ape King descended through the mist, sending it roiling outwards like a wave in the ocean. However, one of Saliron''s spirits, embedded in the Great Ape''s bones, allowed Max to know exactly where the creature was at all times. As a result, he knew that the creature had not been fooled by the decoy, and was able to dodge again when the monster came in from the side. This time, Max threw a hand out, delivering a sticky, web-like, ectoplasmic net to the Beast King''s arm, allowing Max to see some of it. A mana slash at the monster  was blocked with both its arms, rendering the attack useless. Max wound up and delivered another mana slash, and the Ape King flickered back into the visible spectrum of light after blocking it. The huge monster chuckled, rumbling, "You should know by now that will not work on me."


    "That''s true," Max said. He delivered another mana wave at the monster, full of destructive potential, and added, "You have to move your energy around to your arms for it, though." The Ape King cocked its head quizzically before flailing back, screaming.


    Two of Lavinia''s spirits, shrunk down to little spiders, each carrying some of Max''s very last explosive beads, had managed to climb onto the creature¡¯s legs back at the gas station while Max had been fighting the guards.  Then they¡¯d struggled through the Ape King¡¯s cold aura, and eventually positioned themselves on the creature¡¯s face.  And just now, they¡¯d detonated at the corner of both of the Beast King''s eyes.


    When Max delivered another mana slash, the boss monster snarled, one eye open, still managing to block the attack.  Unfortunately, only one eye had been damaged. That was enough, though. Max darted forward, and suddenly the hunter became the hunted.


    As the Ape King thundered in defiance and tried escaping through the fog, Max chased through like a bloodhound. Saliron¡¯s spirit on the creature¡¯s bones made it easy to pursue.  However, he was almost too eager and nearly got himself.  The Ape King luckily didn¡¯t seem to know exactly where Max was through the fog, but still had good senses. With a whip-crack of its arm, the huge monster threw heavy detritus through the fog.


    Max took the blow on the armor, and the force of even the edge of the cloud was significant.  One of the high velocity, concrete chunks that hit Max was the size of a cinder block.


    If the full cloud of projectiles had hit Max head-on, it might have meant his death, or done enough damage to eventually win the fight for the Ape King. But  because he only got partially hit, he was able to survive without losing too much combat effectiveness¡­or his life. It was still enough to rattle every bone in his body, even with all of the fortifications and extra strength that he had.


    Max was slammed to the ground, his face bloody and spitting bloody phlegm.  Without his powerful mana body, the impacts would have pulped his guts and broken his bones.  He rolled to the side just in time to avoid another giant thrown handful of broken buildings that skipped and whined, ricocheting off the parking lot he was fighting on. From that, he was able to deduce the angle it was coming from and realized that the Ape King must be tracking bones. That fact was verified when Max delivered a mana wave at the monster, slightly concerned that he had used up more energy than he intended. He sped forward, taking a chance, and erupted out of the fog right in the Beast King''s face as the creature was about to rear back and throw another handful of gravel, rebar, and broken concrete.


    He snarled, darting forward again in the fog, but the Ape King suddenly came back directly for him, perhaps wanting to check if the thrown attack had connected.


    Max was almost as surprised as the monster when they suddenly met in the fog, but recovered first, delivering a savage kick to the thing''s face and almost receiving another handful of stone and concrete for his troubles. However, missing an eye was really messing with the creature, and the throw went wild.


    Finally close enough to go for a kill, Max added mana to his arm, strengthening it and risking the freezing, biting hold of the Ape King''s fur in order to grab the thing''s arm. Then, while chuckling evilly in Max¡¯s mind, Saliron went to work. The dark spirit gleefully began destroying the Ape King''s arm bones.


    Nearby fog trembled as the monster screamed, trying to move back, but Max simply held on and flew forward, not allowing the creature to shake him.


    The Ape King bellowed, its single eye narrowing, and its other hand came up, pointing at Max.  With a curse, Max barely managed to spin himself, rotating under the arm to avoid a lethal ice projectile spell. Then the creature began shaking its arm like crazy, trying to dislodge him, but Max held on and kicked the boss monster with supernatural force in the stomach, then circled around again, maintaining contact to kick the Ape King¡¯s face, all while avoiding being grabbed by the creature¡¯s other massive hand.


    All of Max¡¯s distractions worked, and the monster forgot about the real danger.  Max enlarged his sword, Blacksmith Incident again, and planted the blade into the monster''s side. He ripped the weapon free before slashing, delivering an attack with decades of experience and skill, cutting off the boss monster¡¯s arm that Saliron had not ravaged yet.  The creature''s arm hit the ground like it weighed as much as a car, and its supernaturally strong muscles writhed under the skin of the severed limb.


    Surrounding fog trembled again as the Ape King screamed, apparently losing its mind, and savagely attacked Max with its remaining, wounded arm. At the same time, the fog almost immediately dispersed, the creature¡¯s wrath and lack of focus dispelling it.


    His enemy losing control was exactly what Max had been waiting for. With the creature missing an arm and not thinking clearly, he was able to flip in midair and chop overhead directly into the Beast King¡¯s skull.  His sword erupted out the other side, taking blood, fluids, and pieces of bone with it.


    Max spun, delivering another savage, precise cut through the Beast King''s spine. Then, he chose a bead meant to be used as a bullet, cocked his arm back, and used Daliko¡¯s ability, throwing the projectile with the speed of a 45 caliber bullet through where he thought the boss monter¡¯s heart would be.  The Beast King fell.


    Almost immediately, as soon as the monster died, Max could sense a change in the air. It made him wrinkle his nose, touching on a memory he couldn¡¯t quite place.  He would have liked to stay and figure out where it was coming from or what it was, but instead, he knew that he was still needed where he''d come from.


    The clock was ticking.


    He sped back the way he¡¯d come from, turning on velocity until he reached the battle between the monsters and the Patriot Guild. Max slammed into the rear rank of monsters like a meteor, immediately killing two of them. From there, the next few minutes were flashes of complete chaos, carnage, and bloodshed. When it was all done, Max stood on top of a pile of gray ape bodies, his bloody sword in hand, and his force shield flickering on his left wrist.  He dismissed it.


    Amidst the groans and crying of the wounded survivors, Lance painfully limped over to him and said, "Everything here is dead. What now, boss?"


    Max raised his voice, addressing all of the humans present. "Everybody, let''s get the hell out of here! I see two people completely down, and one''s dead for sure. Take their bodies. Rotate them between all of you. Now.  We¡¯re not out of this yet." He nodded at Lance, expecting the other man to know what to do, which Lance did.


    In only a couple of minutes, the surviving humans were a group of controlled chaos moving back to the relative safety of human-controlled territory.  The half-hour walk with the civilians felt like one of the longest treks of Max''s life, but thankfully the group came within sight of the human line just as there was another cloud behind them, likely another small army of angry, searching monsters.


    "Everybody hurry up," Max yelled.  Surprised human Challengers came running out from the human emplacements to help.  Thankfully, they were seasoned enough not to ask questions, at least not after running a scan on them and verifying they were, in fact, human.


    In only minutes, all of the survivors were past the defensive lines, on the other side of the concrete walls and big guns before any other monsters showed up. More grey apes.  As soon as the creatures appeared, powerful mana guns that humanity used for border defense came online, instantly destroying three monsters. The rest of the creatures almost immediately retreated, fading away, and Max figured it must have been either a recon group or some sort of scout team.


    Now safe behind human lines, Max leaned against the wall, taking a break. When he opened his eyes, there was a semi-circle group around him, mostly reporters, all of them with a glint in their eyes that made him a little uncomfortable.  He¡¯d seen that look before, and he knew that it came with expectations, pressures, and a whole host of new problems.


    That was when he noticed the hovering cameras again and realized that his fight with the White Ape King had been captured, maybe even broadcast live.


    He¡¯d only meant to take down the Victory guild in front of the reporters.  This was unexpected.  What had been a careful publicity plan, similar to when he¡¯d originally formed the Trifecta Guild years ago on earth, had gone FUBAR.  He honestly had no idea at this point exactly how public opinion was going to shake out.


    Max looked glumly at the two bodies on the ground¨Cthe second downed Challenger, a Patriot Guild member, had died on the way back.Two dead.


    It was better than he¡¯d feared, but still, two more dead fighters meant more grieving people, more mourning family members, two fewer humans, and two less Challengers to fight the monsters.


    When a reporter was brave enough to finally step forward and try asking questions, Max waved her away.  ¡°Just give me a minute, please.¡± He stared at the bodies and rubbed some of the blood off of his face from where it¡¯d dried at the corner of his mouth.


    ¡°Shit.¡±

 Book 3, ch 34

    Max sat in the living area of his training warehouse, skimming articles on his laptop. Many of them were similar:


    "Is Max Cunningham the strongest adventurer in the world?"


    "Summoners, confirmed strongest class!?"


    ¡°Who is Max Cunningham?¡±


    "Battle lines in America with invaders advance for the first time in years!"


    ¡°Human battle lines in America move forward!¡±


    ¡°America finally being reclaimed!?¡±


    "White Ape King power vacuum among monsters¡ªwill there be a replacement?"


    On social media, there were countless clips from Max''s fight with the Ape King, some even edited, set to music or turned into memes. The videos felt strange to Max when he watched them because it was almost like he was viewing somebody else, not himself.


    The time that Max had come closest to being deleted, while battling the Ape King, was the most¡­strange for him.  In the actual battle, during the time depicted in the videos, Max had been fighting for his life, full of adrenaline, so he''d mostly shaken his close calls off after acknowledging that he could have just died.


    But in the video, he watched himself thrown around like a ragdoll.  The handfuls of rubble the Ape King had flung and delivered a glancing blow with, very obviously almost did him in.  In the videos, he looked like a fly that had just caught the edge of a baseball, slammed into the ground, sending rocks, bits of sticks, and clods of dirt flying from the impact.  He¡¯d left a Max-width skid across the ground of the small field of sparse grass that he landed in.


    He just couldn¡¯t stop watching the memes that people made of his close call with death. Some were very creative, and still made him chuckle, even as he watched himself nearly die over and over and again.


    Max was shaking his head, watching another video of his brush with death that someone had added the song "Wipeout" to, with a loop of Max getting crushed into the ground over and over again, when the doorbell buzzed. A moment later, Lavinia whispered in his ear, "Max, it''s the two that you were expecting."


    "Got it," he said and stood. Then he moved through his training warehouse and opened the door to see who had come calling.


    He blinked as he took in the appearance of a ridiculous, comically disguised Lance and a much less ridiculously disguised Chad. Chad was just wearing sweats and a hoodie, the hood pulled up.  Lance on the other hand was wearing name brand clothing and gigantic sunglasses, like an actor in an airport.


    "You look goofy as hell, Lance.¡± He sighed.


    ¡°Whatever.  I gotta dodge the media attention.  It¡¯s even worse now that you¡¯ve done your thing. You know, the kind of stuff you always do.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, yeah.  Whatever. Come on in.¡±  Max turned and began heading back to the mini apartment area.


    Behind him, Chad took three steps into the warehouse before asking, "What the hell did you do to this place?" His voice sounded a bit strained.


    Max looked around at all the divots in the concrete, holes in the wall that he''d patched up mostly with spray foam, and the mess of training equipment all over the place. He shrugged and said, "It''s a training space. I train. Without it, I''d probably be dead right now, or the Victory Guild would still be mind-raping people and turning them into demonic energy psychos." Chad didn''t respond, just continued to look around with a stricken expression.


    Lance chuckled, "This is where you were training, Max? Isn''t this small and kind of¡­quaint?"


    Max rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes, you''re rich, we get it, Lance. If you want to do something useful, then send me some money for a better training area or pull some strings and get me one."


    Instead of reacting the way Max had expected him to, Lance just nodded and said, "Alright. I''m on it."


    After leading the two men into his de facto living area, Max quietly made them both a cup of coffee with his instant coffee maker and then sat at the table. "All right, I agreed to this meeting," he said. "Now, what did you two want to talk about?"


    Lance and Chad gave each other a look before Lance said, "Max, I know that you don''t really want to be famous, or at least you don''t want to deal with what might come with it, but we really need you to go out and give some press conferences and maybe do a parade or something. If I can suck it up, so can you."


    Max grunted. "Yeah, but you like the attention.¡±


    ¡°Even if you¡¯re neutral, you don¡¯t exactly hate it either, Max.¡± Lance gave him a level look.


    ¡°Yes, but I''m not actually running away from the limelight," he said, "or at least not for the reasons that others might think. You both know why I have been trying to keep a low profile, but you do even better, Lance."


    The other summoner nodded seriously. "Yes, I know. And I even agree with you that spreading your face and voice everywhere all over this world is probably not the greatest way to avoid instigating the powers that be in the Quartet system. But Max, if I use a variation of arguments that you''ve used yourself before, what is the point of avoiding Adjudicators if our world gets overrun with monsters? I am not sure if you realize just how desperate the situation is. When you killed the White Ape King, it was a huge win.  It¡¯s just what North America needed after the Victory guild got taken down, too.  Without the win, that would have been¡­awful for morale.  However, thankfully now, people are actually excited for the first time in years.


    ¡°I mean, we''ve almost taken back two states now. It''s a big deal.¡± Lance paused. ¡°The only reason we even had our front line when you came back to Earth is because we strategically gave up so much land to buy ourselves time to build our defenses. Otherwise, we would have been steamrolled, and there''d be no more humans left on this continent."


    Max nodded slowly. "I''ve read the histories and the reports, I know." He sighed. "I can''t really argue with your logic, Lance, but I don''t think I''m wrong, either. It just feels like it''s too early. I''m too weak."


    Lance chuckled. "If you''re weak, what are the rest of us?¡±


    ¡°Really fucking weak," said Max evenly. Lance frowned, stricken, but Max ignored him. He tapped a finger on the table, thinking. "I''ve also been thinking about all the letters that I''ve gotten from the various guilds and governments asking me to help with some of their boss monsters. I''m considering doing some of that, helping out. I think it would probably be a good idea to pick the ones that I can maybe, hopefully kill quickly, using my time wisely to do the most amount of good in the least amount of time possible. But I really can''t spend too much time fighting on the front lines with everybody else because it will slow down how fast I can grow in power. I understand that not many people even know this, much less understand it, but I know that both of you do.  So you also understand my need for secrecy.  Eventually, the Adjudicators will likely come calling."


    Chad put his head in his hands. "Do you know what a mindfuck it is? Being one of the only people in the world to know that Earth is going to eventually be in the sights of some evil galactic organization?"


    Max shook his head and said, "We don''t know that the whole organization is bad, just that certain people in it are. But at least now that I''m a four-star mana body, I feel like I''ve got the power to start actually experimenting with and learning more about the daggers that I took from Adjudicator Swan. I also might have some more time now to look for other spirits."


    Stolen novel; please report.


    Lance muttered, "Listen to this guy talking about picking up spirits like a dog picks up fleas. He talks about it like it¡¯s easy!"


    Suddenly, looking like a giant spider with the head of a man, about the size of a guinea pig, Anansi manifested on the table for everybody to see. "Easy? You mean finding new spirits? It really doesn¡¯t have to be super difficult, you know.  You just need to know where to look, man-named-Lance,¡± drawled the divine remnant.


    Both of Max''s guests stayed stock still for a half-second before Chad screamed, falling back in his chair and pinwheeling his arms. At the same time, Lance stood quickly and then slowly backed away from the table, his eyes wide, tilting his head like he was listening to something or somebody speak to him.  His spirits, no doubt.


    "What the hell are you doing, Anansi!?" demanded Max. "You are supposed to be a secret, aren''t you?"


    The dead spider god shrugged, which was a very strange-looking thing to witness a spider do. "They might all be dead soon anyway, right? And these two already know some of your secrets. So why should I be hiding out in the background like some sort of sexy ninja? I want to come into the light, baby. I want to sing songs. I want to tell jokes. I want to be¡ª"


    "Shut up, Anansi," said Max. "Don''t ever do this again, please."


    Anansi muttered sullenly under his breath before sitting on his haunches and smiling, seemingly changing his entire demeanor. "But I''m out right now! That means I can stay out, right?  Easier to ask forgiveness than permission, and everything. Cliche cliche cliche.¡±


    Max sighed and ran his hands through his hair. "I guess you can stay out for a minute, but please let Lance''s spirits know that everything''s okay. He looks like he''s getting yelled at by about a thousand different directions right now."


    Anansi turned his head in amusement and said, "Hey, little spirits, quiet down, or I''m going to eat you."


    Max had thought that he was imagining a soft sound before, almost like white noise, but when it immediately stopped, he realized that he''d been catching the very, very fringe edges of whatever Lance''s spirits had been saying to him. Eyes wide, Lance returned to the table. Chad came back slower, a look of utter revulsion on his face. "I hate spiders, man," he grumbled.


    "Hey, don''t be racist, human!" demanded Anansi, dramatically putting one spider leg over his heart. "How would you like it if I took on that same attitude against all you goofy, mortal animals? Look at you, acting like you''re all special walking around on two legs. If spiders were as big as you were, this whole world would be covered in webs!"


    "That''s exactly the problem," said Chad quietly. He was looking a little green around the gills.


    Max frowned.  "Enough! Everybody focus, please. Anansi, if you''re going to be out, then you need to keep your comments constructive. Otherwise, I''m going to make you go back."


    "Fine, fine, fine.  Look, this is me, not rocking the boat. Not a boat-rocker.  Nope, not me, no siree."


    Suddenly, in the back of Max''s mind, he heard Siliron say, If that one can come out, then why can''t I?


    Mentally, Max responded, Because Anansi is only extremely frightening to most humans. You are terrifying. And you know that. Do you want more validation, Saliron? Or are you done?


    The dark spirit spent several seconds, filling Max¡¯s mind with a deep, disturbing laugh. But if I come out, I can get a better view of their bones.


    Don''t be creepy, Saliron, responded Max. "Actually, never mind, you''re always creepy, just don''t come out.


    So be it, Contractor, responded Saliron. I will ignore your provocations, as I admit, I am still very pleased with you for introducing me to the bones of that monster recently. The Ape.


    Oh, that''s right, you said you might learn something about the monster from your¡­digestion. Do you have anything for me yet? To one side, Chad gave him a concerned look as Max continued sitting quietly, having a mental conversation.  But Lance, most of his attention on Anansi, softly shook his head at the other man.


    No, unfortunately not, Contractor," said Saliron.  But soon, perhaps. As I continued to lick and nibble and caress the memory of the bones.


    Please don''t give me the details, but thank you.


    Max turned to his human guests and said out loud, ¡°Chad, I need you to help me find the best, quickest missions that I can take on to kill some more boss monsters in America. I''m willing to go to other countries too, but only if we get some sort of good rewards out of it. I''m all for humanity and all of that, but we have our own problems, and I will be risking my life after all."


    "Got it," said Chad. "So you''re using this to help build the Trifecta Guild back up again?"


    "Exactly," said Max. "Most of the reports I''m seeing in the media are focused on me as an individual. I want more people and the general public consciousness to tie me together with the Trifecta Guild, just like they all do with Lance and the Patriot Guild."


    "That''s smart," said Lance.


    "Cool. So what about the other matter, Lance? Are your people at the Patriot Guild ready?" asked Max.


    "I think so. I mean, they''ll never actually say they''re truly ready, but ever since you showed up before, they''ve been working all-nighters almost every day. They''re very excited."


    "All right," said Max. He tapped a finger on the table again and looked at the calendar where he had it hung up on the wall. "How about four days from now? I''ll teleport to the Patriot Guild. You can be there too. And then I will try to summon our friends that we knew in the Quartet."


    ¡°Good, so that¡¯s settled now,¡± Lance said and suddenly stood. "That''s really all I had to talk about, and I''d love to stay and chat, but I have a lot of things to do."


    Chad nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll head out too.¡±


    Surprised, Max asked, "You came in person all the way here, spending tons of money on the teleporter, just to have this short conversation with me?"


    ¡°Yes. ¡° Lance nodded seriously. "Because when we''re in here with all the protections in here, in this training building, and all our spirits keeping watch, nobody can eavesdrop on us. Most other ways of communication are not one hundred percent secure. I mean, for all I know, this one isn''t, either, but it''s about the most secure we''re going to get."


    "Point taken," said Max. "Good thinking. Let''s make a note to not talk about any of these sensitive subjects anymore unless we''re in a warded facility that one of us owns and we have at least you or me present, Lance." All three men nodded, and then Chad and Lance stood from the table.


    "What are you going to do after we leave?" asked Chad.


    "I¡¯ll do what I do every night, Pinky.  Try to take over the world," said Max in a completely deadpan tone of voice. Then he amended, "Actually, I¡¯ll try to actually train and try to develop my mana body, but you know, the first thing sounded a lot funnier and cooler."


    ¡°I thought it was funny,¡± said Anansi.  ¡°But I¡¯m just a handsome spider man that everyone is trying hard not to look at right now. It¡¯s unfair!  If I wore red and blue tights, like that other, less popular, dumber spider man, maybe I¡¯d get some respect around here!¡±


    Chad and Lance ignored Anansi, glanced at Max, then shared a look. Lance sighed. "Max, the whole world domination thing is a lot less funny when it¡¯s possible.  Like, I don''t know. You''ve already increased in power so much that if you do hit a five-star mana body, then you probably could take over the world. In fact, if you hit that level of power, please promise me you''ll do some PR first so the world won''t decide that you''re a greater threat than the monsters."


    "They wouldn''t think that, right?  Like, they really be that dumb, would they?" asked Max.  Then, remembering the news cycle prior to the monsters coming to Earth, he answered his own question. "Okay, yes, they would be that stupid. All right, point taken. Again."


    Chad nodded, his expression sincere. "You should also think about coming by the guild headquarters more often." He hesitated and then slowly said, "You really need to go see your family too, man. Do you know that your mother has been doing interviews about you?"


    Max winced and groaned. "Yes, and they''re not very flattering either because she''s mad at me.  She¡¯s been bringing pictures on talk shows of when I was a little kid and telling embarrassing stories."


    Lance winced.  "Yeah. Honestly, man. She has a reason to be angry. Go see your family."


    ¡°It''s not that I don''t want to see them, it''s just like, how do I explain everything?" Max hung his head as his voice trailed off.  ¡°I don¡¯t want to overwhelm them, either.¡±


    ¡°Too late for that, Max. By now, like the rest of the world, there¡¯s no way they haven¡¯t seen videos of you being slammed around like a ping pong ball by a boss monsters.¡±


    Max winced again.  "I don''t even know what to say to them, though, about simple stuff, much less about¡­serious things.¡±


    "Family is always like that, Max.¡±  Chad grinned and said, ¡°Not only that, it¡¯s not like her fears are irrational.  Like Lance said, she has probably seen you fighting a giant, monkey monster, and is terrified that you are going to die fighting.  And meanwhile, you haven¡¯t visited her since going to the Quartet.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve watched her interviews,¡± accused Max with a frown.


    ¡°Yup!¡±  Chat looked entirely unapologetic.  ¡°Anyway, sorry, but this is not a problem you can cut with a sword or beat up. Be brave, buddy." He patted Max on the shoulder.  ¡°Good luck!¡±


    As Max''s two friends left, he muttered, "Everybody''s a fucking comedian these days."


    Ha ha ha!, Saliron suddenly said in his mind, his mental ¡°voice¡± deadpan.  Contractor, I thought it was fairly humorous.  But we can all be better served collecting bones.  Jokes are nothing compared to bones.


    Max groaned.

 Book 3, ch 35

    Max''s steps felt heavy and reluctant as he got out of the rental car. He looked back at the thing, shaking his head in irritation.  Even after the end of the world, rental car companies still functioned, and still worked almost exactly the same way.  Now Max was rich, but he was still driving an old, economy car; it¡¯s what he¡¯d been able to get.


    Ironically, the supply and demand stayed the same for rental car companies.  Even though millions of people had lost their vehicles, or couldn¡¯t drive them anymore for various reasons¨Clike being crushed by monsters¨Cthe concentration of survivors in human-controlled land was enough that fewer people needed cars anymore.  Public transit was safe, enforced by low level Challengers helping the police.


    Max still hadn¡¯t been back long enough.  To him, it still felt like a strange, strange world.  He had to take the changes as they were instead of watching them happen gradually.


    And it sort of made sense that the country, and the world, all functioned like civilization in the midst of a war now, because that¡¯s exactly what was happening.


    With heavy thoughts, he moved up the walkway to a new apartment, a simple set of living quarters made by magic in what used to be a park. Many buildings like this had been constructed all over the human-occupied United States to help those whose apartments or homes were destroyed during monster attacks.


    Luckily, nothing had happened to her, and Max was already aware of this for a long time, but this was the first time he''d be visiting his mother in person. He had to admit privately that he hadn''t been emailing her back often enough either.


    Of course, since she''d been doing interviews and such, he was a little irritated with her. Their meeting had the potential to be terse, and he was not looking forward to it. But at the same time, he was also looking forward to the reunion because he hadn''t seen his mother in a long time. That thought made him feel somewhat guilty¡­more guilty. The amount of time his mother had gone without seeing him was far longer, that he hadn¡¯t seen her, and most of the time Max had known both of them was alive.


    Max had seen some of his mother¡¯s interviews. Over the years, there were times that his mother hadn''t heard from him in a long time and had dark thoughts, dark thoughts indeed.


    At the moment, he was wearing a disguise of sorts. He had on jeans, a bright, garish, button up Dragon Ball Z shirt and Crocs. He was also wearing a wide straw hat just like Luffy. He looked ridiculous, like a caricature of an otaku, and sure enough, most people either ignored him or looked at him, grinned, and then looked away. Not many people actually paid attention to what his face looked like when his clothing was so showy.


    He followed the directions he¡¯d gotten for his mother¡¯s place, and eventually ended up outside number 613, his mother''s door. She should be home¡ªhe¡¯d emailed her earlier that day and told her that he was coming over. As he knocked, part of him was excited to see her, but another part was hoping she was out so that he could put off this reunion.


    Max would rather fight a monster than deal with a situation and relationship this complicated.


    The door opened with a creak, and just like that, Max was face to face with his mother again. He''d already seen some of her interviews, so he knew that she looked older now, but seeing the new lines on her face in person made him feel suddenly, uncharacteristically emotional. The marks of her emotional and personal battles of the last few years were plain to see on her face. It was also evidenced by the fact that they both just stood there for a few seconds looking at each other before she waved a hand, sighed, and said, "Well, bucko, come in then, I guess. You''re so famous right now, you can''t be loitering outside the door of some random old lady."


    Max sighed and moved into his mom''s apartment. He closed the door behind him without being asked.


    "It''s not much," she said. "I''ve lost almost everything, but there are a lot of people who are even worse off, so I guess I shouldn''t complain." She vaguely waved at the couch and sat in a recliner. Max sat as well, and the moment his butt touched the fabric, his mom was up again, bustling to the kitchen, muttering about getting coffee or a soda or something. Max rolled his eyes and stayed still. She might be older, but his mom was still his mom, and this was something that had driven him crazy about her his entire life. He knew there was nothing he could do other than just wait for her to come back with some sort of drink for him and for her, then hope that she didn''t decide that they needed something else after that.  Like a storm, his mother''s annoying, random, semi-hospitable chaos was something that he had to just endure.


    Luckily, after putting down a coffee and a can of soda for both of them, she settled into her recliner again and looked expectantly at him like she had been waiting for him to speak all along. Max cleared his throat and said, "You look good, Mom."


    "Well, that''s a lie, Maxie," she said and laughed. "But thank you for saying it, I guess."


    Max grimaced a bit and nodded. He said, "Well, I suppose I should just talk about the elephant in the room right off the bat. I''ve already emailed you this, but I''m really sorry that I went so long without talking to you. I did whenever I thought about it. And, to be fair, I have had a lot going on."


    "Yeah, yeah, saving the world and all that." Geraldine Cunningham took a sip of her coffee and made a face. "This is terrible," she said.  She made a face at the coffee like it had intentionally tried to disrespect her.  The mug read, ¡°Sorry, no Hablo Fucktardo.¡± It was not his mother¡¯s sense of humor, and he knew she probably hated it. The absurdity almost made Max laugh, but he barely kept his face straight.


    Geraldine said, "You know, after you vanished, I got into cold presses.¡±  She spent a few minutes detailing the exact way that cold press coffee is made.  She even talked about the beans.  Max was used to these tangents, and he just listened quietly while he drank his soda. Eventually, she paused, then said, ¡°Gosh that was some delicious coffee, but when I lost everything, I lost the press." A brief shadow of grief crossed her face before she took another sip of the coffee, and Max sighed.


    "I''m really sorry, Mom, but like I''ve told you in emails before, if you want me to buy you a house or¡­really much of anything else, it''s not a problem. You don''t need to stay here.  You don¡¯t have to drink using mugs you don¡¯t like.  I know you probably hate like half the shit in this place."


    ¡°Language, Maxie!¡±  Then Geraldine made a face and shook her head. "No, no, all my friends and most of my family are living just like this. I don''t want to impose on my very important son and live large while everyone else is suffering."


    Max''s temper flared a bit, and he said, "Well, if you didn''t need more money, then why have you been doing interviews showing everybody my baby pictures?"


    The question hit Max''s mom like a blow, and she rocked back before looking up at him with a mixture of defiance, guilt, and sadness. "Well, money has been tight," she admitted, "but also, I didn''t know if I was ever going to see you again. And after all those videos came out of you fighting that big thing," her voice broke a bit. "After I saw those videos of you, I started wondering if one email every week or two was just all I was going to see of you again.¡±


    Even as her eyes teared up, her lips firmed in defiance, frustration, and pain.  She continued, ¡°And I decided, you know what? I have a very important, very famous son now. Maybe I can tell the world about him the way I would tell my friends if half of them weren''t dead now. And so that''s what I did. And maybe part of me thought that if I was talking about you, it would mean finally seeing you again. And you know what? If that''s the case, well, I guess I gotta give that part of myself a hug because she was right because here you are."


    A flash of intense, almost crushing guilt ran through Max, and he, this time, was the one to sit back like he''d been slapped. Silence reigned for a few moments while Max tried to decide how to respond. All he eventually could do was just apologize and try to explain. "I''m really sorry, Mom. I know I should have told you what was going on when I could. Going to the Quartet, well, I couldn''t do anything about it. And everybody else''s mom was in the same boat as you. I know you know that. And I know you know that there were limited things I could do when I came back to Earth the first time. That was very strange, and as far as I know, I''m the only person that''s ever done that. I had to be careful at the time because I wasn''t sure if I could get in trouble for it. And some of the people in the Quartet are very scary people, Mom."


    She nodded numbly. "Yes, but now you''ve been back for a while."


    Max grimaced and said, "Not for all that long. And it''s not like I was playing video games. I was working so that I could, like you said sarcastically before, save the world. But I''m sorry, Mom. I truly am. And if I could go back in time, I would free up time to come see you in person like this. I''m not saying that I''m in the right. But at the same time, it''s not like I was going on a dating show or something instead of seeing my mother. I was paying with blood, sweat, and tears so that I can be who I am today and save people¡­and stay alive myself."


    "That''s good that you can save people, Maxie," Geraldine said, "but what about me? What about you? Why can''t you let everybody else fight the big fights? Why can''t they do it? You''re so young. Or at least you were. I don''t even know how old you are now! You might have lived years of your life now without me seeing you, just like I have. Maybe longer."


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    Max nodded slowly and wasn''t sure if the truth was going to make her feel better or not. He told her, "Mom, I actually left the Quartet early. I was there for less than a year."


    "Well, why did you do that!?" Geraldine almost yelled, her eyes wild. "Wouldn''t you get stronger if you stayed there longer? Did you get killed in a dungeon or something? Isn''t that how it works?"


    Max shook his head. "No, Mom." And once again, he decided to be honest with her. "Some people¡­conspiracy type people from other worlds tried to kill me, tried to kill me for real. I defended myself and got out. I don''t really want to tell you this stuff, Mom. I know you can''t really understand. Like, you won''t even tell a server if there''s a hair in your food. But Mom, my life is different now and¡­brutal sometimes. And I just don''t know how much I can discuss with you that you can handle. Or should handle.  I never wanted you to be in this situation.  But on top of that, now that you''re doing all these talk shows and things like that, I''m not even sure what I should tell you now. Like, are you going to go and tell people everything I''ve just told you?"


    Geraldine looked down at her hands, visibly hurt. "Is that what you think of me now, Maxie?"


    Max frowned and said, "I don''t know, Mom. You are showing naked pictures of me asleep in my oatmeal on morning news shows while ladies with five pounds of makeup on their faces laugh at me. I mean, I don''t care too much because, at the end of the day, it''s not my image that people value me for, and I''m not an actor. People only care about me because I kill things well. But it''s kind of distracting when your friends are telling you that your mom might show your blurred-out penis on television again in childhood photos from when you were six."


    Geraldine nodded slowly. "I guess I maybe deserve that. You know your brother and sister basically said the same thing? That''s one of the reasons they wouldn''t participate. I actually invited them. They said no."


    Max nodded slowly. "I still need to visit them too."


    "Yes, yes, you do, Maxie," said Geraldine. "But they''re your siblings, I get it, it''s not the same. In fact, your sister in particular is extremely proud of you. But they''re not your mother. They don''t lie awake at night wondering if you''re fighting some nasty monster that''s going to bite the back of your neck. Like I''ve seen news reports about people suffering and these guild people and the adventurers getting hit through walls and poisoned and..." Her voice trailed off, and she was obviously near tears.


    He ignored the fact that she hadn¡¯t mentioned his dad, but that was a sore spot and a can of worms he was not going to open. It¡¯s why he also hadn¡¯t said he still needed to visit his father, too.


    Max got up, walked over, and gave her a very big hug. "Look, Mom, I can''t promise that I''ll always be safe because I''m not going to make a promise I can''t keep. But I will tell you point-blank, and please don''t repeat this, that yes, I am the strongest Challenger in the world right now. The only reason Lance is as strong as he is is because of me. I taught him how to fight in the Quartet. He''s my friend. In fact, if you need money or anything, I will get it out of him because Lord knows he has enough of it. He probably wastes more money than most houses cost on one piece of his dumbass clothes. But you know what? He has saved his country multiple times, so if anyone deserves to be rich, it''s someone like him.  Millions of people owe their lives to him.  I¡¯m probably the only person in the world that gets irritated about his diamond studded sunglasses or whatever."


    Geraldine wiped her eyes and gently pushed Max away. "Yes, I know that he¡¯s important.  I know that you are, too. And I''ve had that talk with myself too. A lot of people might get their houses back or even be saved because of the things you''ve done. I get it, Max, I''m not stupid. I may not be smart, but I''m not stupid. And I know that what you''re doing is important. It''s just..hard.  Especially when I see videos of my son getting the tar beat out of him by some King Kong thing."


    "I know, Mom. I''m sorry." There really wasn''t anything else for Max to say. So, he didn''t say anything for a while. And the two of them sat in silence while Geraldine got herself back together. Finally, she said, "So what have you been up to?"


    Max opened his mouth to speak, and before he could answer, she added, "And do you have a girlfriend? Are you going to get married? Have you thought about giving me any grandkids?"


    Max groaned and felt his heart drop with old frustrations and irritations, but he also felt somewhat lighter. If his mom was willing to ask about grandbabies, then maybe she was feeling a little bit better now. He said, "I dated a girl in the Quartet, but it didn''t work out. There are some other girls out there, but I think the one that I probably should be focused on isn''t on our world right now."


    "What!?"


    Max clarified, "She was from the Quartet, from another world."


    Geraldine shook her head. "Well, then you should forget about her then, right? If you know someone in the Quartet and then you go to different worlds, you''ll never see each other again, right? Even I know that.  Well, I actually know a lot.  Do you know that there are specials about the Quartet on TV all the time?  There are Youtube channels now that only talk about the Quartets."


    Max hesitated before saying, "So what you said about never being able to see someone from another world again¡­  Um, not necessarily. Theoretically."


    Geraldine looked at Max in surprise and confusion. "You told other people about this, right? Like, please tell me you told other people about this."


    "Well, Lance and a few people in the Patriot Guild know."


    Max''s mom shook her head. "Is this my life now? I just need to get used to my son talking about famous, powerful people casually like this?" Then she looked Max in the eye and in a very serious tone of voice asked, "Did you just tell me some sort of national secret?"


    "Sort of," Max admitted. "If you talk about this on talk shows, though, it''s not just gonna be me who''s angry at you. It''ll be Lance, too."


    "Oh, and the bullying begins," Geraldine said dramatically. She took a sip of her coffee and made a face of disgust before spitting it back into the mug. "Not in the mood for that crappy coffee.¡±  She paused and stuck her lower lip out.  ¡°It''s not enough for my son to ask me to not go on talk shows. Now he''s going to blackmail me by getting his rich and powerful and famous friends angry at me, huh?"


    "Basically, yes," said Max, his face blank.


    "Why are you so mean to your mother, Max?" Geraldine sighed. She took another sip of coffee before spitting it out again.


    ¡°I¡¯m not being mean.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not telling me anything.¡±


    ¡°I told you a national secret.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not telling me anything I want to know!¡±


    Max sighed and asked, "So you want to know what I''ve been up to? Are you sure?"


    His mom shrugged and said, "I think so. Don''t you basically just play Power Rangers?"


    Max tapped the table, wondering what to say or even how to make his mother understand how dangerous and dark his universe could be. Finally, he said, "Mom, that fight that you saw on TV, the one where I was fighting the Beast King, for me, that wasn''t even the worst. I mean, yes, it was a fight to the death, but I had several of those, and I had much closer calls."


    Geraldine shook her head. "I don''t believe it. That was terrible. That was the worst thing I''ve ever seen. I can''t even imagine you going through things worse than that all the time."


    In exasperation,  Max said, "That''s exactly why I don''t want to talk to you about it, Mom! I''m worried about you. You''re probably already having nightmares about what you saw on TV! If I tell you other things that I''ve been through, you''re going to worry even more, and it''s not even going to help me. In fact, knowing that you''re stressed out and worried about me and not sleeping well is going to make me feel worse and may distract me so bad I am distracted.  Being distracted could be life threatening in my life now."


    Geraldine shook her head and said, "It''s hard to accept, Maxie."


    Suddenly, Max heard a small voice in his ear as Lavinia asked, "Max, do I have permission to reveal myself to your mother?"


    Out loud, Max said, "Lavinia, it''s not like you need to ask me permission, but I suppose I appreciate the gesture. Sure, go ahead, but give me a second." To his mother, he said, "Mom, one of my spirits, my friend, is going to manifest. I guess she wants to talk to you."


    Geraldine''s mouth opened and closed a few times like a fish before suddenly Lavinia was standing in the room with them. She looked the same as she always did, for the most part, except now that she''d been on Earth, her appearance kept morphing into some sort of hybrid of a Quartet student and e-girl. At the moment, she was wearing about ten bracelets on each arm, a t-shirt with Trogdor on it, and thigh-high Invader Zim socks. Max thought she looked utterly ridiculous, but like most of Lavinia''s outfits, he''d been holding his tongue if he didn¡¯t like them.  He suspected she already knew and thought it was hilarious.


    Lavinia waved at Geraldine and said, "Hello, Max''s mom. My name is Lavinia. I was Max''s first contracted spirit in the Quartet. And when I was alive, I was a Summoner in the Quartet. I died before I could go back to my family, and my soul stayed locked in the quartet. I would still be there if not for Max. But I can honestly say that I have been with Max for most of his journey now as a Challenger¡­as a Summoner," she clarified. "And I can tell you with full honesty that Max is telling the truth, and you probably don''t want to know everything about what he''s been up to or the challenges he''s faced. He has spirits right now, inside of him, that if they were to manifest, you would probably never get to sleep again."


    She suddenly glanced to the side and muttered, "Don''t even speak, Saliron. I''m serious. You outrank me, but Anansi likes me more." Then she turned back to Geraldine and smiled like her side conversation never happened. "I''m telling the truth. Anyway, I just wanted to introduce myself and tell you that Max is working hard."


    Lavinia smiled brightly.  Max¡¯s mom slowly said, ¡°You¡¯re a spirit?  But you never got to see your mother again before you died?¡± Tears welled up in her eyes.


    ¡°It¡¯s okay, I¡¯ve had a lot of time to think about it, and¨C¡± Lavinia''s voice suddenly broke, and she looked down at the ground. "Mrs. Geraldine, I''m not telling you how to feel, but please cut him, cut Max some slack."


    Max''s mom moved her shoulders back and looked at Lavina in the eyes, her stance and expression remarkably calm for speaking to a manifested spirit for the first time. "You''re so precious and sad, aren''t you?" she said, tears still swimming in her eyes. "How long were you alone for, dear?"


    "Centuries," said Lavinia sadly.


    Slowly, Max''s mom nodded and said, "Okay, I''ll accept that I am probably best off not knowing everything because just looking at this young lady, who I realize is also way older than me, is making my heart ache in a way that I didn''t even know it could."


    Max sofly asked, "Lavinia, can you go back in my soul now?" She nodded and disappeared like she¡¯d never been there, some residual ectoplasmic smoke dissipating, completely gone two seconds later.


    Nobody spoke for a minute or two.


    "Okay then," said Max. "Are we okay now, Mom?"


    Geraldine looked down at her hands for a moment before glancing up. "I don''t know, but I think we can be."


    "What do I need to do?"


    "I''ve lost my car, and delivery sucks now. Can you take me to McDonald''s?"


    Max grinned. "I can definitely take you to McDonald''s, Mom. Let''s go."

 Book 3, ch 36

    Max could feel the weight of magic and expectations on his shoulders.  This was it, a big moment.  Something he could have never even thought about attempting before reaching a four star mana body.


    "Big day, huh, fellow Max?  Big day!" Max the researcher looked the same as every other time Max had seen him.  The tall thin man still wore a ponytail wearing a lab coat with mystic embroidery.


    ¡°Leave Handsome Max alone, Dork Max.¡±  Rissa was fiddling with some controls on what had been a  computer at some point.  Now the console was grafted to some sort of horrific amalgamation of bones and flesh.  The heavy set, purple-haired woman absently pushed a bone into place in the nightmarish biotech contraption.


    ¡°Hey, I resemble that comment!¡± Researcher-Max grinned and winked Max.


    To one side of the research room, in the corner, Lance was talking to the researchers Matt and Yukari.  The tall, fair man standing next to the shorter Japanese woman in a white witch hat were a striking combination.


    Max glanced around, impressed by the work the Patriot Guild researchers had done. The large laboratory still looked somewhat similar to its appearance from his first visit, but now there was also a nightmare of blood, magic, and bone in the room. The only other people present were Max, Lance, and the four Patriot Guild scientists, each regarding the bone gate in the center of the room with varying degrees of uncertainty and excitement.


    Magical, biomech, and mundane machines made a hum around the large workspace. Others gurgled.


    Lance was currently talking to Yukari and Matt.  Nobody was talking to Max anymore, so he returned to studying the bone gate. It was huge, at least twelve feet tall, and Max knew for a fact that at least one of the bones had belonged to the Ape King in the past. From what Max understood, the foundation of the bone gate had been created with farm animal bones, and the periphery was made with the bones of predatory animals, but the archway itself, with arms radiating in the four cardinal directions, had all belonged to monsters.


    Up until this point, Max had been supplying the Patriot Guild scientists with all the knowledge, everything he knew about teleportation and gates.  He¡¯d included all of his observations in the Quartet and the workers'' quarters. On top of that, Max had worked with Saliron to determine how it might be possible to call his friends, summon them from other worlds. Lavinia had helped, too.


    On paper, it shouldn''t be possible, but there was a very simple loophole involved; actually two things. First, Max had given his friends a way for bones to attune themselves to their aura, so that he could search for that specific, unique resonance in the universe. The second was that Saliron, at his core, and quite disturbingly, regarded all the bones he ever spotted or witnessed as his. His property.  If he couldn''t have them now, he assumed he''d get them one day. One of the most bizarre things about this was that, from a certain perspective, the dark spirit''s logic might be sound. So, Saliron using a gate similar to, but not quite the same as, the gate that Max could use to pull items out of his dimensional storage, had the potential to reach into a universe of ¡°storage¡± and pull out ¡°bones¡± that Saliron considered his ¡°property.¡± The fact that the bones in question were still surrounded by living tissue didn''t seem to faze Saliron much.  All of this meant that theoretically, the magic should work.


    Max began to pace around the room as Lance continued speaking to the scientists. Finally, he walked over and said, "Max, you good?¡±


    ¡°Yes.  Are we about ready to do this? My spirit is about chomping at the bit, or bones, I guess I should say, and I''m a bit nervous. This is going to use up as much power as I can possibly generate at this point. I¡¯m storing it up like a capacitor¡­like a camera flash.  It wouldn''t even be possible if I wasn''t using my spirits."


    "I know, Max. I know," said Lance. "We, me and the scientists, were just going over SOPs."


    Max frowned. "How can you possibly have standard operating procedures for something you''ve never done before?"


    Lance looked embarrassed. "Uh, I hadn''t thought of it that way before."


    One of the scientists, Yukari, moved closer and said, "We were basically going over contingency plans with the guild leader. He''d brought up some good points that we haven''t considered yet. But, to be fair, we do have automated defenses in all four corners of the room, and an entire squad of battle mages on standby in case anything comes through that we¨Cand by we, I mean you¨Cdid not call."


    Max nodded. "Alright, so then what is there left to talk about?"


    Lance, with a serious expression, said, "Well, there''s also potentially nuclear, biological, and chemical threats. If you try calling one of our friends and what comes through is some sort of giant radioactive slime, I''m not sure that the mages on hand are going to be enough or at least the right kind of tool to deal with that. So I''ve been brainstorming with the scientists, deciding what other crazy possibilities there might be and coming up with a game plan on what to do if it happens. Since it''s not super likely, I''m not going to have people on standby, but having a plan in place will save us a lot of time and potentially a lot of lives."


    Max nodded, impressed. At times like this, he was reminded that Lance was a guild leader for one of the most powerful guilds in the world.  "Alright, I''ll leave you to it then."


    "No, no, that won''t be necessary. We were just wrapping up." Then the man swished his cape¡ªhe was wearing an honest-to-God cape today¡ªand moved over to an observation point, the scientists following him. All the scientists had their own special tablets that were synced to the electronic security systems and also to communication nodes with the teams outside. Max didn''t understand all of it and didn''t really care, but apparently, the technology had multiple redundancies in it now.  Some of it was tech that hadn''t been possible before all the Challengers had started coming back to Earth. Apparently, there were a few Paths of people that specialized in tech, which was one reason¨Con the verge of extinction¨Chumanity had been going through effectively a technological renaissance over the last few years.


    Only a few minutes later, Max found himself standing in the middle of the room, facing the gate, his stance square. Internally, he asked, Are you ready, Saliron?


    The bizarre spirit chuckled in Max¡¯s mind, then his low, ominous voice rumbled, I am always ready for a boning.


    That''s not the right word, replied Max.


    I''m aware. That''s why I said it. Your consternation brings me joy¡­sometimes. Perhaps all the time.  Did you know the animal called a walrus has bones in their penises?  Fascinating.  So scandalous.


    Max sighed and wished for the days when Saliron was merely disturbing and creepy, back before he decided that he wanted to try being funny too. Perhaps others would find the spirit''s antics amusing, but Max did not, which he suspected was part of the reason Saliron kept doing it. He mentally addressed all of his spirits, I''m about ready to get this thing started. That means I¡¯m going ot use the Mana Vault, too.  I''m going to be handling a lot of juice, the most mana that I''ve actually handled in this life.


    Anansi''s voice came through the bond. I''ve got you, boss. If anything gets too hairy¡ª


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    At the same time, to his vision alone, a little spirit appeared and bowed to him, letting him know that her power, her suppression field that he constantly had around his body should also help him control and maintain mana. She didn¡¯t have to speak for him to get the message. Max smiled and nodded back in genuine appreciation. Thank you, Trill. The little spirit bowed one more time and disappeared back into Max''s soul space.


    Wait, why aren¡¯t you thanking me? demanded Anansi. I¡¯m a divine remnant. What do I gotta do to get some respect around here!?


    Max ignored the spider god. He knew from experience now that Anansi loved attention and feeding him any, just made him crave more.


    He sighed.  At this point, there wasn''t anything left to do but try summoning his friends.


    Now he had to choose who to try summoning first. After some thought, Max decided to try bringing Gantry Pliss to Earth.


    He didn''t flare his mana at max power all right away. From experience, he knew he could coax a little bit more out if he took it slow, and that''s exactly what he did. Taking his time, Max flexed his mana, running it through his mana channels. When he was at about half capacity, he used every tool at his disposal to supercharge his abilities. Now that he was a four-star mana body in a rich mana environment like Earth, with a mana pill, a mana vault, and every trick he knew, he was able to get up close to six stars of power. The power was almost more than his supernaturally strong body could handle.  He shook like a bicycle doing sixty down a hill.  This level of power wouldn''t last very long, and he''d have a hard time controlling it, but it was amazing that he could actually achieve it now.


    The entire room seemed to waver like it was going through a heat wave as Max unleashed his mana. The scientists, at least some of them, were having a hard time staying upright without nervously stepping back, even though Lance was covering for them with his own power. Then, Max reached out to the bone gate in a way that Saliron whispered in his ear.


    He made contact, syncing his mana with the gate. Then Max gave Saliron partial control of his mana as it ran through the complicated gateways of bone, constructed like mystic logic system, like a 3d magic circle. Being connected like this, he could feel the dark spirit manipulate the mana as it touched the gate in a way that Max couldn''t recognize and wouldn''t have been able to explain with a gun to his head. It was like Saliron was playing the bone gate like an instrument at the same time as caressing it and taking little bites of its essence. It was one of the strangest supernatural experiences Max thought he had witnessed in his life, but he was also starting to have a hard time keeping track.


    The space between the gates suddenly, instantly turned opaque. Instead of being able to see through it to the other side of the lab, now it was pitch black, darker than the darkest night. Saliron whispered in Max¡¯s head, "Reach out to one of your favorite, pet collections of bones and try drawing them through now."


    With an effort of will and a grimace, feeling almost like trying to turn an ocean liner¡¯s rudder with no power steering, Max began imagining the connection and specific resonance that he had with Gantry Pliss. After wearing a bone necklace in the quartet, Gantry had impried the necklace with the aura of his soul, transferring it to Max¡¯s mystic memory, perfectly preserved.


    He reached through the gate, feeling like he was fumbling around in a dark room for a pair of shoes on the floor¡­ but the room was the size of a stadium.  It was agonizingly slow, but finally, Max began feeling a vibration, a similar resonance. He reached out to grab it, but when he did, suddenly his soul and his senses went cold. The feeling was awful, like being stabbed in the face with a million needles, and Max recoiled, yelling. But as he did, the attachment he¡¯d placed on the aura he¡¯d located came with him, jerking back.


    Out of the gate came a solid wave of dark malevolent energy and a few rocks that bounced off the floor of the lab. The energy hit Max like a freight train, and immediately a shield generated by multiple spirits manifested around him. Max''s mana was already at its absolute limit at this point, which offered some protection, but his spirits probably saved his life in that moment. On top of his head, Anansi held his spider legs wide, casting a literal web of power around him.


    The connection with the resonance Max had found was served, and the ominous, harmful energy was instantly cut off.


    Fore a few seconds, he just stood there, happy to still be alive.  Max had weathered the storm, but it gave him chills to know that he''d come so close to his end yet again, only a short time after fighting the Ape King.


    However, he didn¡¯t stay still too long.  Overcome by curiosity and foreboding, he walked forward to see what had come through. When he got closer, with a sinking feeling, he realized that what had come through were not rocks, but pieces of bone.


    Saliron, said Max quietly, mentally. Does this mean what I think it means?


    It does, Contractor, said Saliron. The situation would seem to be an outcome that was not as you¡¯d hoped. I regret your disappointment.


    Max nodded, knowing that was about the most sympathy he was ever going to get from the dark spirit, actually appreciating it greatly because of that.  He turned to Lance then flatly informed his friend, "Gantry Bliss is dead."


    Lance merely nodded, his face impassive. Max was sure that Lance was sad, but he also understood why his friend seemed to be handling it so well.  No only was Lace a true warrior now, but for him, it had been years since he''d seen anybody in the Quartet. Not only that, Max''s group of trainees in the Quartet had become Lance''s friends, but they''d still never been super, super close. Max suspected that Lance¡¯s obvious sadness now was as much about the fact that now, the Earth would have one less powerful protector.


    Max needed a few minutes to shake his own grief off, to get his head back in the game. So he did some light exercises and stretches.  Moving his body helped while he waited for his mystical power to settle and his body to stop feeling like he''d just been thrown under the ice of a winter pond. The scientists looked on with concern but otherwise did not get involved, which Max appreciated. Finally, he felt like he was ready again and called out, "I''m giving it another shot." Lance and all the scientists let him know that they were ready.


    Then Max repeated what he''d just done before. Part of him was terrified, scared that the same thing would happen again. And although he couldn''t deny to himself that this person he was calling this time was probably the most important to him, he steeled himself.  With the voice and the help of Saliron, and the freaky bone gate, Max reached through the universe, through time and space, found Momo''s resonance, and pulled.


    This time it felt different than before. On top of that, Momo''s resonance, or her¡­soul song¡­maybe, actually fought against him for a while before suddenly, immediately, helping him, pulling towards him.  Despite the sudden fight and the stress, he breached easier. Max assumed that she hadn''t realized what was happening at first and fought back, which is exactly what he would have done. He was glad that she was helping him now because he wasn''t sure he would have had the strength to pull her in against her will.


    Suddenly, the bone gate flickered, and just like that, Momo stumbled out before the black expanse between the bones vanished as well.


    Momo looked much as Max remembered her, but with a few changes.  She was still pale, with red eyes, elf-like ears, a heart shaped face, attractive features, and sharp little fangs.  But now, she was wearing battered armor, and her eyes practically glowed with restrained, hair-trigger violence.


    She looked around, confused and wearing a couple of other emotions that Max couldn''t immediately place. Momo didn''t look much older than before, if at all.  However, even in the second that Max actually got to study her before she began running at him, he could see the scars that the last few years had left on her soul. Then, suddenly, Momo threw herself at him. Max reflexively caught her around the shoulders and the waist as she clung to him and buried her face in his shoulder..


    "I was beginning to lose hope," she murmured. "Don''t ever go away again."


    Max wasn''t sure how to react at first, and the situation wasn''t helped when one of the scientists, Max, whooped and said, "You go, other Max!"


    Rissa murmured, "Shut up, didn''t you see those videos of what he did to the Ape King?"


    Max tuned them out, pulling away from Momo to look into her red eyes and said, "Hello, you."


    "Hello, you," she said back, and she smiled. There was real pain under the expression and melancholy, but in real time, as Max watched, joy grew on her face, similar to the way a sunrise lights up the sky.


    "You were just in time," she said softly. "Maybe not as down to the wire as you described ¡®movies¡¯ back in the Quartet, but my world was about to end in a few more months. In another year, I might be the last of my kind."


    Max blinked, not sure how to respond to that. "I''m sorry," he said. And as he did, he let his tone convey that he remembered what a complicated relationship Momo had with her race. Somewhat contrary to his expectations, a look of brief but total heartbreak crossed her face like a cloud.


    "So am I," she said.

 Book 3, ch 37

    "Are you sure that Gantry is dead?" asked Momo.


    Max glumly nodded. "I''m pretty darn sure."


    Momo held a mug of cocoa, one hand fiddling with the bottom of it.  "That¡¯s¡­really surprising. Of all of us, I thought that he and you would be the most likely to survive."


    Max didn''t know what to say. In fact, his heart felt like a bowling ball in his chest. It was obvious that Momo was melancholy, but for her, it had been years since she¡¯d seen Gantry.  For Max, it hadn''t even been two months. Thankfully, his spirits were being silent and giving him privacy, or at least the illusion of it, the same as Lance currently was, leaving him alone with Momo.


    After first fetching some drinks, now Max and Momo had a conference room to themselves to catch up. So far, after the first burst of emotion at their reunion, it had been a slow-going sort of thing. A large part of it, Max could sense, was that Momo had been through so much, and she seemed to constantly be wondering what to actually tell him and what not to. Finally, after a little bit more small talk, she just blurted, "My world is almost dead. If I stayed there another two months or so, I would probably not be here to talk to you."


    "You mentioned some of that before. What happened?" asked Max.


    Momo smiled without humor and took a sip of her cocoa. "What it really kind of comes down to is bad leadership, rigid thinking, and the very nature of my world, Oas Panchia."


    "What do you mean?"


    "Well," she said and paused, seeming to search for the words for a few moments.  "I told you before that my people, the Neusapiens, are an underground race, right? Or at least for the most part, forced into it.  Anyway, because of that, we had good places within Oas Panchia to choke the monsters off, to create defensive emplacements. The problem is that the monsters could concentrate all of their efforts on those areas too, putting constant pressure on us.  Everything was going okay, despite our relatively low populations, because we only really had to defend a few key areas.  But then there was a monster leader that figured out how to burrow through rock. After that, it was all kind of downhill."


    "So they attacked your flanks, huh?" Max asked.


    She nodded. "The front line ended up not being the front line anymore. We were being attacked at the rear, invaded. But we couldn''t give up the front line either because that was where the bulk of the enemy forces still were. We only ended up staying alive as long as we did because of me and Challengers like me who are stronger than average and could act as a quick reaction force."


    Max examined her with his manasenses and was proud to see that she was at least an A-rate adventurer by Earth standards, merely by the strength of her mana swordsman power. She might even be a low S-tier. But when he activated his third eye to look at her and saw the sheer number of spirits that she was bonded with now, he was doubly impressed. What''s more, being a four-star mana body now, Max''s third eye was stronger¨Cit actually showed him more information.


    As he looked at Momo, witnessing the unfiltered truth, seeing all the spirits entwining her essence, he felt strange that it didn¡¯t feel strange.  Just a few months ago, Max was pretty sure the experience would have unsettled him. However, after bonding with Saliron and Anansi, his spirit had gotten tougher.


    With his strengthened third eye, Max could actually identify what some of Momo''s spirits could do. He realized, with surprise, that she had one relatively high-level spirit that let her short-range teleport through shadow.  She had a spirit that would let her multiply any projectile she threw, creating illusions that hit with physical force. Yet another increased the piercing power of her projectiles. It didn''t take a genius to understand that Momo had found a number of spirits to help synergize with her throwing knives. Max could see that even after these years, she still wore the weapons that he¡¯d bought for her in the Quartet. In fact, as she spoke, she touched them from time to time in what seemed like some form of comfort.


    "What about the mismanagement?" asked Max.


    Momo scoffed. "Our generals were used to fighting other Neusapiens. Against the monsters, their tactics were terrible. And on top of that, they refused to change or change their thinking. They absolutely refused to admit that the tactics they''d learned over their entire lives, which were very effective against others of our race, were all but useless against monsters the size of a house. The pride, all of it, killed¡­so many of my people.¡±


    Max nodded. "There has been a little bit of that on Earth too, but not that bad, at least not in North America. Even though the United States, my country, has lost a lot of land, far more than most other countries actually, the U.S. still had a very large military and had been able to get their act together by the skin of their teeth.  But I still want to hear your story.¡±


    She nodded.  "Alright. Anyway, for about a year that I was back, I was too junior to directly challenge the stupid decisions we were being given, and by the time I was both powerful enough and people would listen to me, it was already too late. And what¡¯s worse, by that time, after protecting my people, fighting with them, working with other Challengers, I¡¯d buried a lot of my resentment. It¡­it hurt, badly, to see my entire world ground down to the bone."


    Max was quiet for a while, digesting what Momo had just told him. Even though it fell far short of what he felt like he ought to be doing or saying, he said, "I''m so sorry, Momo."


    She nodded, but then looked up, her eyes bright despite the unshed tears in them. "But you called me," she said, stating a fact.  ¡°Pulled me to you.¡±


    "That''s right," said Max.


    Momo gave a shuddering breath. "I guess it worked out for the best because if you called me right away, I think I might have had regrets. Even though I didn''t like my world or many of my people before, like I said, I started feeling patriotic and more¡­more angry as I witnessed innocents fall. But finally, eventually, I just had to face the truth that there wasn''t anything I could do by myself, and the idiots running my world had already driven it into the ground."


    "So what''s going to happen to your people now?" asked Max, and winced as he spoke, knowing it probably wasn''t the most sensitive question to ask in the moment.


    But Momo didn¡¯t flinch.  "I maybe one of the the last of my kind.  In fact, I probably will be, soon.  So I suppose I need to find a male to mate with that I can have children with. As we know from the Quartet and most interspecies relationships that actually produce children, the child is either a mule or the same species as the mother. I suppose I just need to hope for the latter.  If not, I guess the Neusapian species have ended our run."


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    There wasn''t much Max could say to that other than what he knew she wanted to hear from him, and he wasn''t ready to give that yet. It was more than obvious, even understandable, given her interest in him before, and after crossing who knew how many light-years of time and space to be here from a dying world. But then again, the fact that her world had been dying for the last few months, and Momo had been in such a dark space, also made it a good idea to wait, even if Max thought it was a good match.  And he was still not sure.


    He could sense that if he got involved with Momo, there would be no slow dating to something serious.  Momo was not human, and she could be intense.


    "What about you?" asked Momo. "How has your life been on this, on your world?"


    Then for the next hour, Max filled Momo in on everything he''d been doing since he got back to Earth, closing out the flood of information by pulling out his phone and showing Momo a video of himself fighting the Ape King. By the end, her eyes were wide.


    She chuckled.  ¡°You really never change.  "It hasn''t been much time for you, but you''ve sure been busy, huh?"


    Max nodded. "I definitely have, been busy that is."


    "So what''s the plan now?"


    He frowned, his eyes distant, and said, "Now that I have a little bit of a break, I want to learn about all the knives that I got from Adjudicator Swan. Anansi can probably tell me about a lot of them."


    "Anansi is your divine remnant, right?" said Momo, the words unfamiliar to her, halting.


    "That''s right. And you have no idea how badly he wants to come out and scare you."


    "Scare me?" Momo made a face. "Didn''t you say he looks like a spider? I¡¯m not scared of spiders, especially after fighting monsters in a dying world. How would he scare me?"


    Max groaned. "I¡¯ve been telling him to calm down and stay in my soul.  But now he¡¯s asking me, no, demanding that I ask you this: Are you giving permission for Anansi to come out?¡±  Max paused. ¡°You have no idea how much he''s yelling in my head right now that he wants to. I really suggestion you just ignore him."


    Momo''s expression was confused, but she nodded. ¡°I¡¯ve never seen a divine remnant, never even knew that they existed.  If he wants to come out and my opinion matters, then the answer is yes. That¡¯s fine.¡±


    "Fine, just remember later that I tried to prevent this."


    Then, instantly, Anansi manifested on the table. Instead of his normal size, his spider body was larger, huge, and his human-shaped head was the same size as a human''s. A strange sense of discordance and jarring power filled the room, too. The appearance was disturbing, horrific. On top of that, the remnant''s aura suddenly burst out, stronger than Anansi had ever flexed it before.


    Max was completely unaffected, shielded by his own power, by other strong spirits and by Trill. On top of that, he was contracted with Anansi to begin with.


    Momo did not fare so well.  Despite her own powerful spirits, Momo had limited protections, and she bolted back from the table, screaming. In a split second, she was throwing her knives, making them split in midair. The weapons howled as they slashed across the space between her and the table, passing directly the spider god¡¯s remnant.


    Max could feel that it wasn''t only Momo who had been startled or frightened. All around the area, in that section of the Patriot Guild building, powers were flaring as the nearby Challengers embraced their abilities, no doubt startled or even afraid of an attack.  Max groaned, "Anansi, why are you being such a showoff asshole?"


    Anansi turned his head one hundred eighty degrees back to look at Max and grinned. "You only get one chance to make a first impression, right?" He turned back to Momo. "Hello, pretty female, are you going to be my contractor''s mate?"


    Momo looked like she was already getting herself black under control.  And even in the midst of coming down from her immediate fight response to terror, Momo still managed a small smile. "His mate? Hoping so," she said. "And, if I''m being honest, I think it''s only a matter of time."


    Anansi laughed, his guffaws so loud they rattled the door. "I like this one, Maxie," he said. "She''s got spirit."


    Max growled, "Don''t call me that. Only my mom calls me that."


    "No, your mom and I call you that now.  Maxie."


    Suddenly, Lavinia manifested visually to one side and said, "Anansi, you¡¯re being a dick right now, and you know it!"


    "Oh my," said the spider god remnant, his voice dangerous. "Are we such good friends now that you can address me like that?"


    Lavinia was not cowed in the slightest, and very levelly she responded, "Yes, that''s correct. We are friends now, and I''m telling you that you''re being a dick."


    Anansi moved one of his freakishly huge spider legs to his spider chest in mock hurt and said, "Oh my, you wound me, Lavinia!" Then his eyebrows raised a few times, and he crowed, "What are you wearing this time, my dear? Didn''t you know that the emo phase is dead?"


    "Nothing''s dead as long as the music is alive," Lavinia said reflexively. She put her hand onto her band t-shirt, cut raggedly, high enough to show her belly button, above a poofy skirt, her pantyhose slashed, her sneakers brightly colored.


    Anansi laughed again. "You look like My Chemical Romance threw up. And then you decided to wear it."


    Max groaned as yet another spirit manifested in the corner, this one tall, dark, and utterly disturbing. Then Saliron¡¯s awful, ancient voice rang out, booming loud,  audible to everyone.  "Great One, I must protest. In my opinion, the emo phase in this world¡¯s history was not so bad. I  greatly prefer what the humans call ¡®Metal¡¯, but I can still hear the symphony and beauty of breaking bones in what is called ¡®emo music.¡¯"


    ¡°How the hell does he hear breaking bones in that!?¡± Max whispered to himself.


    "Don''t defend me, Saliron," said Lavinia levelly. "You''re not helping."


    "How is it not helping to explain that a style of music in our Contractor¡¯s world is more beautiful because it can reminds one of breaking bones?"


    As Max listened to the bickering, as usual, he wondered if Saliron was actually as socially unaware as he pretended to be, or if everything he did was an elaborate troll. Max still wasn¡¯t even close to sure either way.  He turned his head as he heard a scraping sound, and saw Momo backed up against the door.


    "Max, could you please dismiss your spirits?¡±  Her voice was strained.  ¡°Mine are about to flee."


    Even as she spoke, suddenly, Slick manifested on the table beneath Anansi''s feet and began doing cartwheels. The happy little spirit waved to Lavinia, before waving harder to Momo, then doing a little dance, obviously trying to impress her.


    "Slick can stay," Momo amended.  ¡°It would be great if you could maybe¡­settle the others down, though, Max.  Please?¡±


    "This is unfair!" said Anansi, his voice coming out with what the dead spider god likely thought was great indignation.


    "Yep, it is," said Max. "Sure.  Now get back in my soul.  You knew exactly what you were doing."


    "Fine," said Anansi. But then he turned to Saliron and declared, "Emo music sucks!"


    Saliron chuckled, sounding even more than usual like a growl. "And what music do you prefer, Spider God? What has captured your interest on this world?"


    "Gangster rap," replied Anansi without hesitation.


    "That''s it," muttered Max.  He flexed his will, sucking all the spirits back into his soul space. Before Anansi completely vanished, he managed to give a salute and yell, "Tupac will never die! Bone Thugs-n-Harmony! Representing the¨C" And then finally, just like that, the room was empty of manifested spirits again.


    Momo peeled herself off the door and looked at the wall where her throwing knives had impacted like high-caliber bullets. "I guess I should apologize to Lance later, huh?"


    Max shook his head. "I don''t think so. Lance is more scared of my spirits than your spirits are, I think. And he¡¯s rich.  The wall will be fine." He leaned back in his chair and sighed. "Anyway, to finish out our conversation from earlier, my plan is to find out what all my different color knives do, and then I''m going to take on some requests to kill some boss monsters around the planet, but especially in North America to start with.."


    ¡°Oh, that makes sense.¡±  Suddenly, looking uncharacteristically shy, Momo asked, "Can I come with you?"


    Max gave her an incredulous look. "If you''re willing to, of course you can."


    She smiled at him, and in the back of Max''s head, he heard Lavinia humming in approval.

 Book 3, ch 38

    Max was really beginning to think of his training warehouse as his home.  The smells, the silence, the utilitarian space, it all suited him.  He especially liked how he could so easily transition from research to training.


    In his living area, he checked his messages on his laptop. The admins that Chad and Lance had assigned to him were both doing their jobs, going through all the potential boss monsters he could target to maximize his time.


    But at the moment, he felt he needed to solve an important mystery first.  He snorted.  It wasn¡¯t actually a mystery, just knowledge he hadn¡¯t made time for yet.


    He walked out to the middle of the concrete training area.  Then Max placed all five daggers, ral¡¯tek,  he had taken from Adjudicator Swan''s body on the ground in a row. He stood and observed them for a while, slightly shaking his head. Even now, as a four-star mana body blade sorcerer, he couldn''t truly understand what they were or how powerful they might be, at least not by looking at them.. The only sensation he felt while looking at them was a low-level feeling of unease.


    Opening his third eye to look at them was out of the question. He¡¯d learned that lesson the hard way and would never forget.


    Max pulled a folding chair from the corner of the warehouse and set it down in front of the five ral¡¯tek. Finally, he said out loud, "Anansi, I know you''re probably watching this. I would appreciate it if you could manifest physically for me so we can have a proper conversation about these¡­things."


    Almost immediately, the divine remnant appeared to one side. This time, Anansi¡¯s spider body was about the size of a small dog, and his expression on his human-ish face was mildly amused, his eyes sparkling as he smirked at Max. Then, before speaking, Anansi slowly rose into the air. At first, Max thought he was floating, but then he saw the almost invisible series of spider threads leading from the divine remnant''s spirit up to the ceiling.


    "About time.¡±


    Max frowned at the showmanship and asked, "Can you not actually hover? Or rather, why do you need physical threads in order to float?"


    Anansi shook his head. "No, I have mass right now. See?" He hopped onto Max''s leg, and immediately, in addition to an absolute piercing cold sensation, Max could feel weight. It wasn''t as much as Anansi would weigh in his current form if he were truly physical, but it wasn''t insignificant either.


    "Just like Lavinia or her subordinate spirits, when I manifest physically, I have to use ectoplasm for it. Lavinia and I both use very, very small amounts to manifest compared to her spirits, but it''s still not enough to allow for floating up through the air willy-nilly."


    "But what about going through walls? Can you still do that when you''re physically manifested?"


    "Sort of," said Anansi. "Not all spirits can, it sort of depends. Of course, I can because I am powerful and awesome. But if I do, I¡¯d leave my ectoplasm on one side of the wall and form it anew on the other side. This is one of the many reasons¨Ceven past wasting energy¨Cthat most spirits don''t like to form physical, ectoplasm bodies unless we have to. Even though the ectoplasm doesn''t hang around long in the physical world, it still allows those in-the-know to track us or notice our presence. If someone is skilled or sensitive enough, they can figure out things about us based on the ectoplasm we generate, too.  It¡¯s like a spirit¡¯s fingerprint."


    Max nodded slowly. "Okay, I got it. Thank you for the explanation. Now I could use another one; explanation, that is. What the hell are these things?" He pointed at the daggers on the ground.


    Anansi chuckled and said, "I was seriously beginning to wonder when you were going to ask me about the ral¡¯tek. It''s been a while."


    "Yeah, well, I had a lot of things on my mind," Max scratched the back of his head. "I''ve also been training and fighting monsters and summoning friends. You know how it is."


    The divine remnant rolled his eyes.  "Very cool, Max. So funny. Very droll," said Anansi, acting scandalized.


    "I can do sarcasm too," said Max. He lifted an eyebrow. "Are you surprised?"


    "No," said the dead spider god. "Even a dog can pretend to do things humans do, but they won¡¯t really understand it.  So¡­the fact you tried? No, that is not impressive. I''m only amazed by how poorly you do it. Please don''t try again. Leave it to the masters." Anansi rubbed his pedipalps together, which was an extremely strange-looking thing to see, since his fangs were on the front of his spider body¡­despite the lack of a head. It was something Max hadn''t really noticed before. It was something he could have probably gone the rest of his life without studying.


    He coughed, and Instead of saying anything about Anansi''s very obvious teasing and provocation, Max said, "Okay, so I know that the black ral¡¯tel will kill somebody in the Quartet for good, and I know that the white one sends a student back to their world. What about the others? Red, blue, and the purple that you came out of?"


    Anansi shook his head and did a strange sideways shuffle with his spider body that was a bit disconcerting. "Your understanding of what the ral¡¯tek can do is inherently flawed. These are not tools merely of the Quartet. They can have different functions sometimes in a Quartet, though. In fact, they may have even more functions I am not even aware of, but in general, outside of the Quartet, the white ral¡¯tek destroys or dismisses summons and temporary states of being. The actual theory and methodology can get fairly complex from an arcane perspective, but the white ral¡¯tek does not just send students back from the Quartet; it would also theoretically disperse my essence if I were physically manifested and I were stabbed with it. And of course, it wouldn''t kill me, but it would make it very difficult for me to manifest again for a while.  The effect would be stronger on weaker spirits.  Also, theoretically, it could also be used to affect me, or another spirit even if we were not manifested, but I''m not entirely sure how that would work in practice.


    "The black ral¡¯tek does not only kill in the Quartet. Theoretically, it can kill anything, anywhere. But the more powerful the being in the real world, the longer the blade would have to stay lodged in the body or be connected somehow to the entity you¡¯ve marked for death. My understanding is that adjudicators outside the Quartet most often use a black ral¡¯tek as a finishing weapon.  Apparently, it works well against creatures that regenerate or can move their soul into different bodies. If you get killed with the black dagger, that''s it. Lights out.  It¡¯ll even work on a lich." Anansi drew one end of his spider limbs across his thick human neck.


    Then he pointed at the blue ral¡¯tek. "The blue one is administrative," he explained. "The way Adjudicator Swan usually used it was to plant it into the ground and create a magical console linking to the General Quartet system or to pull up information."


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    "Wait a second," said Max, holding up a hand. "I thought all these things were stabbed into people, or constructs or spirits.  Like, I thought they were all weapons."


    "I never said that," Anansi sounded a bit smug, which was irritating, but Max kept a blank face. "If anything, I would say that the ral¡¯tek are meant to interface with ¡®various entities,¡¯ and from a mystical perspective, each Quartet or world is an entity. Since it''s easy to find the surface of the entity, in this case for your world¨Cthe ground¨Cstabbing the ral¡¯tek into it means that you are interfacing with that entity."


    "So it was like an admin system that Swan called up?" asked Max.


    "That''s probably a good way to put it," said Anansi. "I''m not sure what she did to access it, though, and I was kind of mostly¡­asleep until I met you, so I can''t really give you much information past that."


    Max nodded.  He said, ¡°Understandable.¡±


    Then Anansia moved, stopping above the red dagger.  He pointed.  "The red ral¡¯tek is a little more mysterious to me. I''ve only seen Adjudicator Swan use it one time, and it was to lock down the area so that a Challenger couldn''t teleport away."


    Max blinked at that. "So it''s like a spatial lock or something? How did she use it?"


    "The same way as the blue one," Anansi explained. "She stuck it into the ground, and it created a dome of sorts that spread out before disappearing. I think the effect stayed in place as long as the dagger was planted."


    Max slowly nodded. "Okay, so it''s some sort of suppression tool. And what about the purple one? You should know the most about that, right? Since it''s the one you came out of."


    Anansi laughed. "Yeah, I wish. You ever see your own back?"


    ¡°My back?¡±


    ¡°Yes, you ever look at your own back?¡±


    "I can if I look in a couple mirrors," said Max.


    "Okay, what if there''s no mirror?" Anansi''s voice was grumpy, and he muttered something about his contractor being pedantic.


    Max rolled his eyes. "Okay, I get your point. So while you were in it, so you didn''t really understand it that well. But you must have seen Adjudicator Swan use it before, right?"


    Anansi nodded. "It was actually the adjudicator before the one before Swan who used me. Swan never really needed my ral¡¯tek because of her powers, her Path, I think. But anyway, my dagger, my ral¡¯tek, was used to cut through a barrier before. A very powerful Challenger had enacted an extremely strong barrier, and when the adjudicators came, my ral¡¯tek was shoved into the protection and cut through it like tofu. The ral¡¯tek didn''t destroy the thing, but it did open up a breach, and you can imagine what happened after that."


    "Yeah, dead rebel Challenger, huh?" said Max.


    "Exactly," Anansi grinned. "So, anyway, I think you''re kind of dumb for not asking me about all these things earlier, but on the other hand, I guess I have to admit that knowing about them before this probably wouldn''t have helped you much. And I know you''ve probably asked yourself that question after the giant monkey almost killed you, right?  Like, ¡®If I knew about the weird daggers, would I still have almost gotten flattened by a huge gorilla foot?¡¯"


    Max slowly nodded. "The thought had crossed my mind," he admitted.


    "Yeah, well, don''t sweat it," said Anansi. "It wouldn¡¯t have made a difference.  And I''m really not sure when you''re even going to have a reason to use these things unless you run into more adjudicators, and hopefully that won''t happen for a long time, right?"


    "That is the hope," said Max. He paused before gathering up all of the ral¡¯tek again and putting them into his storage. "Honestly, more than anything, this conversation is just making me feel super weak again."


    "It should," said Anansi, his voice flat. "I''m not one of your little Challenger, Scooby Gang friends on this backwater world. The only reason you are still alive is through sheer happenstance, mad dog tenacity, or winning by the skin of your teeth.  You got very lucky against Adjudicator Swan. Many adjudicators are stronger, or at least at the same level, as the headmasters in the Quartet system. Most of them are stronger. If a few of them came at you at once as you are right now, well, you''re fucked."


    Max grimaced and didn¡¯t directly respond. He was already still training, still working on his five star mana body, but it might take a while for various reasons that had been annoying him.  Instead of thinking more about it, he asked, "How many other colors of ral¡¯tek are there?"


    "I have no idea," admitted Anansi. "But I know what a silver ral¡¯tek does. Swan didn¡¯t carry one, but they were common.¡±


    ¡°Siver?¡±


    ¡°Yes.  The silver ral¡¯tek is used by adjudicators in special roles to send Challengers to a prison system. Just like how you go to the Quartet the first time, and your real body is put in stasis, the silver ral¡¯tek puts the body in stasis and sends the spirit to a penal pocket dimension, like a prison Quartet, and basically strips you of all your gear and a lot of your power too."


    "Oh wow," breathed Max. "So it''s basically the perfect way to arrest somebody before they¡¯re either incarcerated, or the adjudicators torture the fuck out of them or something like that, right?"


    "Probably the latter if we''re being honest about it. If they didn¡¯t need information, or want to punish you further, they¡¯d just kill you.  But I¡¯m sure they¡¯re very good at extracting information. I mean, how do you think they eventually eliminated almost all mention of ancient Summoner abilities in all the Quartets?"


    "Damn. Okay, that makes sense. But if Summoners are so bad and they wanted us neutered so bad, why is there even still a Summoner academy?"


    "Well, I don''t know for sure," said Anansi. "I''m not best friends with whoever is running this shit, Max. We don¡¯t play cards on weekends. But I can guess it''s probably two reasons. One, and this is just a guess, just a theory¡­I don''t think the Quartet system run by Challengers actually has any say or even communication with the messengers that help people find their Path seed.  I don¡¯t think all the adjudicator control freaks can touch or influence the system that allows people to become Challengers in the first place."


    Max nodded slowly. "So if they didn''t have a Summoner academy, they would still end up with Summoner students with nowhere to go, which would make people ask questions, even if they suppressed it, which would be the opposite of what they want, since they don''t want questions, right?"


    "That''s my theory, yes," said Anansi. "The other reason might be because of the spirits themselves. Some spirits can get stronger with time or can cause problems all on their own. Summoners not only have the ability to contract with spirits and effectively make them harmless to others, but they can also directly combat spirits."


    Max raised his eyebrows. "I didn''t know that."


    "Yeah, well, you don¡¯t know a lot of things.  Didn''t you get like the shittiest Summoner education ever? You''re still getting the middle-of-nowhere community college version of Summoning with Lavinia, right? And you haven''t even graduated yet."


    Max made a face. "Anansi, anybody ever tell you you''re an asshole sometimes?"


    The divine remnant grinned. "Anybody ever tell you the same thing, Max?"


    "Shit. Touch¨¦."


    Anansi rose in the air on his almost invisible spectral threads and said, "If either one of us is going to get butt hurt about this back and forth, it should be me. You were just a hero of your world in your past life. I was a god."


    "How powerful of a god were you actually?"


    "Very powerful. Consider this... I''ve been dead a long time, and there are still many, many, many legends of me in many, many worlds. That should tell you something."


    "Maybe it would if I didn''t know you were such a bullshitter," said Max, expression serious.


    "Touch¨¦," Anansi said. The divine remnant lowered himself back down to the ground again and said, "You know, I have to admit, Maxie¡ª"


    "Don''t call me that," said Max.


    "Whatever, Maxie," said Anansi. "Anyway, if I had to be contracted to somebody, I''m glad it was somebody like you."


    Max blinked. "I can''t tell if you''re complimenting me or if this is some sort of really subtle insult."


    Anansi laughed.  "If that''s how you feel, then I suppose I haven''t lost my touch." The divine remnant began to fade away, with only his head, and lastly his mouth remaining remaining visible, floating in the air, like a cartoon of the cheshire cat.


    When he was alone again, Max looked up at the ceiling and sighed. Then out loud, he said, "Why is everybody close to me such a weirdo?"


    He sat still for a moment, thinking about what to do.  Eventually, he decided he didn¡¯t feel like training, and got up, heading for his living area. Then he pulled up the emails on his computer, and sent Momo a text.


    If he didn¡¯t feel like training, he still shouldn¡¯t waste his time.  There were still plenty of boss monsters to kill.

 Book 3, ch 39

    Hey everyone, there are 4 more chapters after this one until the end of this book. Then I''ll be posting the synopsis for the previous book, and starting book 4.


    I''m really sorry for the wait. Honestly, I feel like shit about it. The sun just came out a bit, and it''s like the difference between night and day (no pun intended).


    My goal is to get everything out today, but I might just pass out on my desk. If that happens, the next few chapters will be up tomorrow.


    I''m really sorry again. I hate that this happens every year, and it''s unpredictable.


    This month I was also supposed to post 2 books of Inheritance of the Fallen. That didn''t happen. Sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh


    Trust me, nobody is more annoyed than me, because most of the money I make for the year is in book sales. The fact I let some of you guys down, despite my previous tough talk on the matter, also bothers me.


    Anyway, I''ll stop posting useless stuff now and just paste the chapter so I can start editing the next one...


    But in good news, I''m really happy how the ending turned out. :) It took me three tries.


    -BC


    ------------


    Max stood atop the corpse of a monstrous creature that resembled a giant Komodo dragon. It had a massive scorpion tail and four arms ending in human-looking hands instead of the usual lizard limbs. He looked down at Momo and sighed. "Well, this boss is down. As always, thanks for the assist.¡±


    Momo stood among a pile of dead monsters, all similar, but smaller and weaker creatures as the boss Max had just slain. She saluted with one of her throwing daggers. "All the minions are dead too," she said.


    The two of them were in the middle of a large housing development, where the monster had made its lair. The area was on the border between Canada and the United States.


    Max had been busy so far, killing boss monsters, prioritizing and targeting the least powerful or easiest to kill creatures in North America that would do the most good to kill.  So far, this was number ten. In only a few days, he, Momo, Lance, and members of both the Patriot Guild and the Trifecta Guild had been curb-stomping monsters relentlessly.


    He stretched and remarked, "This one wasn''t even very powerful. Why in the hell did nobody take this one out beforehand?"


    Momo shrugged. "Pretty simple explanation there. This monster was smart enough to keep civilians around, so Challengers couldn''t bomb it from the air. And it was in a really awkward place. I think that this lizard thing had an agreement with the monster we killed yesterday about fifty miles away. Like a truce of some kind."


    "Oh, that''s right," said Max. The briefings were starting to blur together in his mind. It felt like he''d gotten a massive crash course on all the monsters around North America a short while ago, cramming in one night before going out to actually kill the things.


    Luckily, most of the boss monsters were weaker than the Ape King had been, and Max could feel himself growing stronger, too. His abilities were becoming more refined, and he was gaining confidence and experience in using his different talents to synergize with each other. If he had to fight the Ape King all over again, he knew he would do a much better job than before.


    He glanced around, trying to find Lance, and spotted his dusky-skinned friend on top of a distant house, striking a pose for the cameras. Max chuckled and shook his head. He still found the showmanship goofy but understood its importance in this new world.


    While Max didn''t put much importance on image and showmanship, the rest of the world did. Regular people supporting the Challengers was powerful, especially from the perspective of new people becoming Challengers naturally on Earth, learning a skill or talent, and discovering they had the aptitude for it.


    The public loved Lance, and despite all the video and such out now, they still only respected Max.  He didn¡¯t give them the sound bytes or videos they wanted.


    But he didn¡¯t really care about that. Max had a job to do.  He definitely thought about what might happen a year from now, though.


    Eventually, if the monsters were beaten back to just their portals, Earth would have its own decision to make: whether to shut down all the portals completely or farm them like some of the worlds Max had heard about in the Quartet. But if the world shud down all the portals, ended the monster threat for good, humanity would have to decide what to do with itself.  There would be oodles of superpowered soldiers left and nobody to fight.


    But that was a decision for the future for sure. In the present, they all still needed to survive.


    Momo approached Max slowly, surveying the carnage she''d wrought with her throwing knives. One of the distant monsters twitched, and with a flick of her wrist, she sent two of her throwing knives screaming towards the beast, hitting it with enough impact to send it skittering a few feet along the ground, blown into two separate pieces.


    Stolen novel; please report.


    The scene was gnarly, not least of which by how casually she dismembered enemies.


    Max silently whistled. Momo was a very powerful Challenger now, and he felt proud of her. She was close now, and the sweat on her neck actually reminded him of their training time in the Quarted.


    A lot of time had passed for her, and she¡¯d still apparently kept a spark for him.


    On a whim, in the heat of the moment, he suddenly reached out, putting an arm around her narrow waist and pulled her in for a kiss. Her inhuman eyes widened as big as saucers for a split second before they closed, and she melted against him.


    Even as Max kissed her and felt the intensity of her return kiss, he knew he¡¯d just crossed a line. He wouldn''t be able to avoid dealing with Momo''s feelings anymore. And he found himself not really caring. The entire time Max had known Momo, she''d been worthy of respect, and over the last few days, she''d proven that she was one of the only people in the entire world who could keep up with him. To continue ignoring her feelings would not only be foolish, it would be cowardice.


    The cameras overhead, various magical and technological drones, seemed to whir into a frenzy, bumping into each other trying to get the best angles as they recorded Max kissing Momo. He couldn''t turn off the analytical part of his brain as he kissed the pretty Neusapian woman. Max could just guess that somebody somewhere was making a great deal of money from recording what should have been a private moment.


    Ever since Momo had been seen in public, various news sources and independent talking heads had been speculating who and what she was almost non-stop until someone had run an old interview with Lance discussing his Summoner School days.


    At around the same time, a camera had caught audio of Lance calling Momo by name. After that, the public quickly discovered that Momo was one of Max and Lance''s friends from the Summoner Academy. Speculation was currently running rampant about how in the hell she''d come to Earth.


    Max finally broke the kiss, pulled back, and winked at Momo, the gesture obviously being a promise to talk more about everything later. At the moment, he thought it was a good idea to check all the monster bodies first and make sure they were dead.  Some of them, like the one Momo had just killed, needed a little encouragement before shuffling off this mortal coil.


    ¡°Should we split up?¡± asked Momo.


    ¡°Yes.  We can get done faster that way.¡±


    Momo grinned.  ¡°Getting done faster is good.  After all, then we will leave.  And then we will be on a¡­¡± She searched for the term.  ¡°Private jet. Private jets are nice. Maybe¡­things could happen.¡±


    ¡°Maybe¡­things indeed,¡± agreed Max with a grin.  Then they¡¯d both shared a smile and wandered off to check bodies.


    Checking dead bodies wasn¡¯t exactly glamorous, and it wasn¡¯t very pleasant work, but now he had something to look forward to later.  It felt like most of himself was still held back, more from habit than anything. He figured it might take some time to unthaw all the way.  As he pondered this new ground he was metaphorically exploring now, he casually flicked a hand and sent a blade of mana at a monster that was still playing dead, beheading it.


    He rounded a house in the development, moving down one of the streets that he and Momo had just come down a few minutes ago while slaughtering monsters.


    Then, all at once, he felt a premonition and heard Anansi and Lavinia shrieking at the same time in his head. With the experience of a seasoned Blade Sorcerer greater than his years, Max gathered power and defended himself while simultaneously detonating a burst of pure mana in every direction from his body.


    The effort was massively wasteful of his mana resources, but also one of the most effective actions to take while being ambushed.


    At the same time Max acted, Daliko was apparently on top of things too. Ulike max, some of his spirits could see the attack.  Daliko generated an armor plate directly on Max''s body right before he was hit by a burst of powerful crimson magic, stronger than anything he''d experienced so far in this lifetime.


    The blast lifted Max off his feet and threw him through the adjacent house, broken glass and powdered drywall following him in a corona of destruction.


    His inhumanly tough body, protected half-assed as it was, held together through the worst of the concussion and secondary damage from being thrown through a house¡­but only just. In a cloud of dust, everything on his body hurting, Max skidded across the ground and hit a small urban drainage pond with an explosive splash.


    As he lay there stunned under the water, his spirits were already exerting themselves. Lavinia covered his body in armor at the same time as Daliko did the same. A strange bubble of air under a web, no doubt courtesy of Anansi, over his face allowed him to breathe normally.


    Max''s bell was rung, but his warrior instincts kicked in. He erupted from the water with a burst of mana, sending thousands of gallons misting through the air as he rose like a winged specter of hell.


    Another crimson attack lanced towards him, and Max deflected it with a perfectly timed shield of mana, even as he dodges to one side.  The next ball of incendiary, explosive energy struck at him, and using precise aim and control, he flung a mana projectile at it, destroying the enemy spell in midair.


    ¡°He is not going to go down easily,¡± said a voice. ¡°Pity.¡±


    Still somewhat disoriented, Max sprang back, focusing on movement.  Then he saw his attackers and his heart dropped.

 Book 3, ch 40

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    Two unfamiliar figures in robes stepped out from behind a house and watched Max from a distance.  He recognized the robes.  These were Quartet people.


    Shit.


    A chill ran down his spine as his instincts screamed that this was a fight he couldn''t win. In fact, if he was assessing these two individuals correctly, they were both as dangerous as he was, if not more so.


    Without hesitation, Max pulled a flare from his belt and ignited it. The green, smoky light rose into the sky. Despite the stress of the situation and the aches in his body from being tossed around like a ragdoll, he breathed a little easier.


    There was no doubt in his mind that the people he faced were adjudicators. Max had anticipated this day for some time and had kept a flare ready since reuniting with his Quartet friends. The agreement they¡¯d made, had promised, was simple: if Max popped the green flare, everyone would run away immediately, no questions asked.


    Hopefully the adjudicators had no quarrel with them as long as they didn¡¯t attack. He had to believe so.


    His friends had returned from the Quartet within the rules of the system, even though Max had sent them back early with a ral¡¯tek.  As such their only crime was being friends with Max. He wasn''t sure if that would be enough to save them if he died, but it was certainly better than the odds of any of them surviving an attack on an adjudicator. Even now, after growing in power, he knew that neither Momo nor Lance had what it took to fight an adjudicator. It wasn''t just about raw power, either; it was about savagery and ruthlessness. Both his friends possessed these traits against monsters, but against people, Max doubted it.


    The standoff continued between Max and the two strangers, one male and one female. The female appeared human, with dyed pink hair¡ªor perhaps it was her natural color; Max couldn''t tell. The male was a gray-green-skinned reptilian humanoid wielding a spear. On some unspoken signal, they both opened and dropped their cloaks, revealing a brace of Ral''tek daggers on their belts.


    Definitely adjudicators. Shit.


    "We''re adjudicators," the woman with pink hair said, unnecessarily.  Then she continued, "And Max Cunningham, you have been very, very bad."


    After a somewhat feeling tickled the back of his neck, Max suddenly turned to the reptilian adjudicator, his eyes wide. The feeling was similar to what he felt when he fought Adjudicator Swan. He blurted, "You''re a Champion!"


    The reptilian adjudicator shrugged. "So what if I am?"


    "Wait. You''re a champion? Since when?" The pink-haired adjudicator turned in surprise.


    The reptilian adjudicator shrugged again. "Since about twenty years ago."


    "Well, damn," said the woman. ¡°Nobody tells me anything.  Even you, it seems.¡±


    The entire time they were talking, Max was quietly preparing for the fight of his life. He deployed spirits within his body, ready to explode outward at a moment''s notice. He also allowed his spirits to strengthen the armor around his body that had been made using a combination of Lavinia''s spirits and Tamiko''s power.


    ¡°Look at all that armor,¡± said the pink haired women.  ¡°Effective looking, too.¡±


    The lizard adjudicator seemed curious in a detached way. "He is awfully powerful," he rumbled. "Fighting will mean that one of us might actually die."


    "Well, we don''t have to fight," said Max. "You guys could just fuck off back to where you came from. Maybe just enjoy the fact you hit me with a ton of power earlier and threw me through a house?"


    As he spoke, he opened his hoodie and swept it back dramatically, revealing his own brace of Ral''tek that he kept on himself. This time, he got a genuine reaction from the adjudicators. Both were obviously shocked.


    "How does he have Ral''tek?" complained the woman.


    "He must have got it from Adjudicator Swan, obviously," the lizard man''s voice was mild, but he seemed to be calculating new odds in his eyes.


    Max didn''t really understand what the response was all about, since he''d been relatively underwhelmed about the Ral''tek after learning about them from Anansi. There were only a few that seemed to have effects that would warrant any sort of respect, especially against a truly motivated Challenger. As he scanned the belts of the two adjudicators facing him, he got a bad feeling as he saw an empty space where daggers were missing.  If their Ral¡¯tek was configured in the same way Swan¡¯s had been, it meant their red Ral''tek daggers were missing, and unfortunately, now he knew what that meant.


    They had likely locked down the area from movement or teleportation abilities working.


    Mas himself didn¡¯t have any teleportation powers, but others in the world did, and he had a feeling that the first thing Lance would do after the green flare, right now, would be to trying to organize a teleporter to grab Max and get him to safety.


    With the red daggers locking down the area, that was no longer going to happen.


    Max drew his sword, Blackmist Incident, and sighed. "Always got to be doing shit the hard way," he muttered.


    The pink haired woman overheard him.  "Not really."  She gestured, and suddenly two huge giants made of scarlet arcane energy manifested to either side of her, crackling with power and potential.


    Each giant was twenty feet tall, misshapen, and had eyes that burned coal-black.  Both of the constructs  were roughly shaped like enormous, humanoid monsters. They were abominations, but didn¡¯t have demonic energy.  Instead, it felt like both giants had been pulled in our reality from a place where these things were common.


    At the same time as the giants appeared, similar colored energy covered the woman¡¯s hands, and she pointed at Max, ready to strike. The two giants spread out to either side as the reptile man gestured, and skeletons began crawling from the ground. All over the housing development, the dead rose again.  There were dozens of them.


    Skeletons and half-corporeal images of death made mounds before pulling themselves from the earth, moving in disturbing, jerky cadences.


    Then the reptile man pointed at a few of the skeletons individually, and when he did, they were surrounded by a cloud of darkness and underwent a transformation, coming back with glowing eye sockets and holding bony staffs.


    "Oh, shit," muttered Max.


    "Indeed. Oh, shit indeed," said the woman. "But the worst thing is, you truly never had a chance to begin with."


    This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.


    Max frowned. He hadn''t sense any openings or good times or ways to attack at all, but just standing around all day wasn''t a good way to survive much of anything. He decided to try creating his own opening. He sensed that going after the adjudicators directly wasn''t a good idea. He slashed his sword, sending a truly nasty mana energy attack at one of the big scarlet giants, but the construct held out a hand, easily blocking the arc of magical power. Then the glowing giant held out its other hand, the other giant following the gesture, and suddenly, there was a barrage of small scarlet projectiles from the giants, similar to machine guns.


    As the giants delivered dozens, hundreds of lethal little energy orbs, Max took off, jumping up and using his wings to make micro adjustments in the air.  Shield walls of power, created at just the right moment and at the right angle, allowed him to deflect most of the arcane barrage he was under.  The monsters¡¯ attacks and blasts ended up destroying surrounding houses, but not Max. He survived by a hair.


    When he hovered in the air after that first barrage, he watched everything going on around him warily. The fact these two adjudicators were not even taking him very seriously, and just casually creating their own armies was adding insult to injury.


    ¡°Are you sure we can¡¯t just hug this out!?¡± Max knew it was hopeless, but even as he dodged another blistering set of rapid fire energy attacks from the giants, he delivered a slash at the pink-haired woman. A screen of energy manifested between the two giants, blocking it, and Max tsked. He¡¯d expected powerful defenses like that for an adjudicator.  But then suddenly, almost at the last moment, even as the skeletons raised their weapons to deliver green, sickly energy at Max, he felt another glimmer. The feeling was in the back of his neck; it was faint, and given the stress of the situation, he almost ignored it. However, there was no reason that he should be feeling such a thing, either.


    He trusted his gut and his senses.


    Max spun in place, delivering a savage mana-infused, hacking cut behind him with Blackmist Incidence. At the same time, popping out nowhere, a man in black clothing appeared behind him; some sort of powerful assassin or stealth Path, no doubt. Max''s shock was so strong, and his adrenaline so high, he didn¡¯t even question was his senses were telling him.  The man''s hand was outstretched, and to Max''s horror, he saw a...tunnel..burrow through all of his mana and ectoplasmic armor. The disruptions wasn''t an attack, and didn''t do any damage, but at the same time, the man thrust with the blade.


    The man was holding a silver ral¡¯tek.  It was a kind that Max had only ever heard about, never seen in person.


    Max''s cut with Blackmist Incident landed at the same time the Ral''tek did, planted in his chest. Unfortunately, would ambusher had some sort of bracer on his arm that blocked the majority of Max¡¯s attack. As a result, the attacker only lost a hand, not his neck.. Meanwhile, the Ral''tek was buried in Max''s chest.


    He looked down in horror, and part of his mind was equally astonished that he felt no pain. The pink-haired woman said, "It was nice knowing you, Max Cunningham. We didn''t come here to kill you. We came here to send you back for interrogation. Goodbye."


    Max lurched forward, grabbing the clothing of the startled, wounded adjudicator who had stabbed him¡ªanother Champion. The man''s eyes widened in shock and confusion as Max held on. Meanwhile, he felt energy stirring around him with the force of a hurricane.


    "Wait. Why is he not gone yet?" asked the woman. "And why is Hodges just hovering there?"


    Max could feel a few strange sensations at once, energies pulling him in at least three different directions. Two of the ¡°directions¡± felt bad with a capital ¡°B,¡± so instead of entertaining them, he threw his power and his soul into heading for the third option.  The last "direction" did not give of the same sense of doom as the others.  From what he could feel, there was complete darkness, but still not..."bad"...not inevitable death.


    When his spirits felt what he was doing, they added to his effort, and even as he flexed, putting a lifetime of energy  into resisting the other two directions, Max realized what might have happened.


    He couldn¡¯t pull the dagger, the ral¡¯tek from his chest, and with his hand on the handle, his other hand on his attacker, he intuited that his suspicions were probably correct.  Instinct guided him now, including his assumptions.


    He already knew the silver ral''tek was meant to operate similarly to a white one, but in reverse. A white ral''tek sent students in a Quartet back to earth, destroying a spiritually-made body and returning a Challenger''s soul to their physical body. But the silver ral''tek, this one, was meant to make the person''s spirit leave their physical body and go to a prison dimension.


    For interrogation, apparently. Or other bad things.


    But something had gone wrong for the adjudicators.  After all, Max was still in his Quartet body. He wasn''t technically flesh and blood, so¡­the ral¡¯tek''s dagger.exe was malfunctioning.


    Power, several different kinds, swirled around the area in a maelstrom, like Max was a stick jutting up from the water, sticking out of the middle of a rapids.


    Whatever Max was doing with the help of his spirit seemed to work, especially once Anansi threw his weight into it. He moved ¡°away¡± from the two directions that felt like death¡­or worse.  Suddenly, a portal, a gaping black, terrifying thing, opened in the world, bigger than a house. It sucked Max and his would-be ambusher into it, and the last thing he heard before the portal closed was the pink-haired woman screaming, "What is that!? What''s happening!?"


    ***


    There was a transition period after that, a time that Max couldn''t recall afterward and really had no desire to.


    ***


    When genuine, conscious thought came back, he found himself drifting in¡­nothingness. At first, he wondered what happened to the other Champion, the adjudicator who''d attacked him, but then he spotted a cloud of dust and a few ral''tek in the distance, tumbling end over end, heading slowly away from him in the infinite darkness, probably for eternity.


    However, the ral''tek that had sent him here, the silver one, Max had in his hand. He stared at it.


    The sequence of events unraveled in his addled mind.  He¡¯d pulled the dagger out of his body at some point and hadn''t let go.


    ¡°What the fuck is going on?¡± he croaked.  As he spoke, his lungs didn¡¯t fill with air, and the sensation was utterly bizarre.  It was like he was speaking, but not speaking at the same time.


    In his mind, he heard a slow whistle, and then Anansi said, Hey kid, I think the only reason you still exist is because you don''t really exist.


    "Thanks," said Max. "That clears everything up. Perfect."


    You''re welcome. And hey kid, added Anansi. Guess what?


    "Yes?" said Max.


    It''s probably also a good thing you have that Quarted body and don''t need any food or water to survive because I don''t think you''re going anywhere anytime soon.


    "Similar thoughts had occurred to me," said Max sarcastically.


    Anansi chuckled. Look, just making sure, just helping out. But there''s a bright side to every cloud, you know. A silver lining to every story.


    "Okay, what''s the positive side to all of this?" asked Max, his voice flat. "Please educate me on what the silver lining is here, I mean other than the fact I¡¯m not captured¡­or dead yet¡­I think."


    Anansi chuckled. Well, if we''re going to spend a lot of time together and you don''t have anything to do, that means you can listen to me freestyle and give me some constructive feedback!


    Max was silent for a few moments before he asked, "Can somebody please tell me what he''s talking about?"


    Lavinia''s voice was quiet in his mind, worried and annoyed sounding as she said, I think Anansi is telling us he¡¯s intending to try freestyle rapping at us¡­for a long time.


    Voice smug and confident, Anansi delivered, It¡¯s all about the mom¡¯s spaghetti.  I¡¯m ready to go to war, like a whore. Make it heavy. A spider¡¯s got eight legs, but don¡¯t be scared, I¡¯m a trickster, gotta be prepared, dig?  For real for real.  No cap.¡±  The divine remnant fake-coughed in Max¡¯s mind and asked, ¡°What did you think? Was it fire?¡±


    Max was still as the grave for a moment before somehow sucking in nothingness and shouting, "No!!!"

 Book 3, ch 41

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    As Max floated in nothingness, he had a lot of time to reflect on his life, lives, both of them.


    According to Saliron, who had a good sense of these things, time didn¡¯t flow correctly in this place.  It sort of didn¡¯t flow at all, but that couldn''t be entirely true, because Max wasn¡¯t constantly being layered upon himself.  This wasn''t some sort of quantum entanglement dimension...at least he hoped not. At first, he¡¯d had a terrible headache and felt extreme nausea, but it had gone away in what he thought was around two days.


    Wherever he was, flesh and blood living people could not survive here. The spirits were not alive, but neither was Max¡­technically.  If he had been, and was still a flesh and blood being, he would have been destroyed as quickly as the adjudicator who¡¯d ambushed him.


    Now time itself was not a concern. And luckily, he was never too bored.


    Being outside of time would have been an unimaginable experience if not for all the things Max had to ponder and practice. On top of that, with his spirits in his head, he had plenty of people to talk to¡­whether he wanted to or not sometimes.


    Max wasn''t sure how long he''d been drifting in the void, but he was absolutely sure that it would have driven him insane, if not just killed him, if not for some of his natural advantages.


    For one, he didn''t actually need to eat or drink. Having a Quartet body meant that Max could indefinitely sustain himself with nothing. He¡¯d realized pretty quickly that he didn''t even actually need air. It was a little uncomfortable not being able to truly breathe, but he soon got used to it.


    He felt low level hungry and thirsty all the time, but not too unbearable.


    And, of course, the other advantage he had was all his spirits. As best as he could figure it, several years into his drifting, he''d truly heard Saliron¡¯s story about an elephant bone graveyard way too many times.


    "Saliron, nobody cares about the field of elephant bones. Stop telling the story," he said.


    "I have to agree," said Lavinia. "Even though you try putting variations on it, either intentionally or not, it''s really not that interesting of a story in the first place. Saliron, you saw a television show about the elephant bone graveyard, and you''ve made our contractor promise to take you back to Earth so you can see it, if you can help him return or contribute in any way. We¡¯ve covered this at least several hundred times now. Has anything changed?"


    The dark spirit evenly answered, "No, but the bones are calling me, and sometimes we must speak of the bones so the bones know that our thoughts are with them."


    "What the heck does that even mean?" asked Max.


    A text screen from Slick popped up. [I don¡¯t think he knows either] it read.


    Anansi spoke up, saying, "You know, this is why we''ve been drifting so long."


    "Oh really? And why is that?" asked Max for about the ten thousandth time.


    In an annoyed voice, like he''d taken offense all over again, Anansi complained, "It''s because you are all, all of you,  doing everything but trying to find a way out of here. Did I ever give up on living again after being killed?"


    "No, you didn''t," Max sighed.


    Anansi appeared to Max''s vision and kept speaking, going off on a rant. The dead spider god stalked around the empty space like there were platforms to walk on everywhere.


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    Lavinia suddenly appeared to Max''s vision behind the divine remnant and flapped her thumb and fingers like a puppet hand, matching everything Anansi was saying.  They¡¯d heard his ramblings so many times sat this point, she knew what he was going to say before he said it¨Cthey all did.


    Max became aware that Anansi was about to ask another question.  He really had heard this a lot.


    "And did I give up after I was cut into multiple pieces and put in raggedy-ass knives?"


    "No, you didn''t," said Max.


    Anansi began passionately ranting again about his trials and tribulations. It went on a while, and Max was content to just let the dead god wear himself out a bit.  After all, they had plenty of time.


    Finally, there was a pause and Max could get a word in edgewise.  "Stop complaining, Anansi.  I''m pretty sure that we''ve been over all the possible things we could do in this place, though. I mean, I can definitely work with you all much better now, but that doesn''t exactly help us escape, now does it?"


    "There''s still the ral¡¯tek," said Lavinia.


    Max shook his head. "Those were some of the first things we used, trying to get out of here."


    Lavinia didn¡¯t back down. "Have we truly explored every option? It''s not every day we get priceless artifacts from the Quartet to to learn about, or to destroy and study, or cannibalize."


    "That''s exactly my worry, though," said Max for about the thousandth time. "If I mess around with a ral¡¯tek and break it, I might destroy our only chance of getting back."


    Lavinia said, "And has anything else you''ve tried so far worked?"


    "No."


    ¡°Well, then give it another shot.  What have you got to lose?¡±


    Max grimaced.  He couldn¡¯t deny the logic, especially when the black ral¡¯tek had been looking more and more interesting.  He didn¡¯t mind spending a long time in limbo with his spirits, but not forever.  If he couldn¡¯t get out, then maybe he would have had to consider something more permanent.


    Finally, his breakthrough came about almost by accident.  He was waving around two of the ral¡¯tek in the void, trying to see if he could make something happen by shaking them, when something unexpected happened.


    The two ral''tek hit each other.


    The resulting force blew him away in one direction with great violence, but never actually hurt him.  ¡°What the heck was that!?¡±


    Lavinia was equally as confused and excited


    Eventually he was able to recreate the phenomena, and discovered that he could actually generate effects by hitting two ral¡¯tek together hard enough.


    From here, it took a few months, or maybe a few years, it was hard to tell, as he and Lavina did simple experiments, leading up to bigger experiments.


    Finally, on a very important day, or time, or moment in time, he floated as usual, but was screwing up his resolve to do something drastic.


    Saliron chuckled.  ¡°To think I can see the bones again!¡±


    Lavinia politely said, ¡°Saliron, can you please let us focus. You¡¯re going to ruin our luck.¡±


    ¡°There is no such thing as luck, only bones.¡±


    Max ignored Saliron and said, ¡°You ready, Lavinia?¡±


    ¡°As ready as I¡¯ll ever be.  I mean...this could save us, or could annihilate us.  And¡­it likely wouldn¡¯t work anywhere else in the universe.  So...all we can do is roll the dice.  This might end up sending us to the middle of the void in space somewhere, or even back to earth, or to hell.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a Hail Mary,¡± said Max,


    ¡°Sure, whatever,¡± replied Lavinia.


    ¡°Want to take a little bit before we give it a go?¡± asked Max gently.


    ¡°No.  There isn¡¯t any use in waiting.  We don¡¯t know for sure what will happened, but the longer you take to do this, the less connection any of us will have with the real world, and the less chance we¡¯ll make it back.¡±


    ¡°Alright, you sold me.¡± Max could feel his power uncurl a bit, and without waiting any longer, he hit the red ral¡¯tek against the black ral¡¯rek. Then he put the black one away, and hit the purple one with the red one. Then he put away the red ral-tek and hit the black and purple one together.  Last, he sliced through the air with the purple ral-tek, created a wound on the fabric of the universe.  It was just a big, gaping wound, but Max dove towards it.


    ¡°I hope we aren¡¯t destroyed!¡± shouted Lavinia.


    ¡°Me too!¡± yelled Max.


    Anansi whooped. ¡°This is fun!  It makes you feel alive, even when you¡¯re already dead!¡±


    Then Max and his spirits were sucked through the rip in reality before it closed again, and the void¡¯s silent, eternal peace was restored.

 Book 3, ch 42

    He laid at the ground staring at the sky for a while, just taking it in.  Tears leaked from his eyes.  He¡¯d never seen anything so beautiful.


    Staring at the nothingness of the abyss for so long had left a mark on him.  In fact, it¡¯d left a permanent mark on him¡­in him.  A small part of his mana, separated from the rest, had been taken over by void energy.  Before finally leaving, he¡¯d practiced with it a bit, but not as much as he would have liked.


    But that was something he could test later.  At the moment, he was just enjoying benign a live.


    Sure feels nice to not be atomized or whatever.


    Max looked around his new surroundings and breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, it doesn''t look like we''re in a hell world," he said. All the spirits in his soul mutely acknowledged his words. After all, over the months or years or decades¡ªor however long it was that he''d been trapped in limbo¡ªthe very real possibility of trying to escape and just winding up in a hell world, or maybe even worse, had been bandied about. Although his spirits were not living, there were still places that even spirits did not want to go.


    It didn¡¯t take him long to realize he was not on earth.  Earth didn¡¯t have trees like he was seeing.


    Once he was standing, Max began the painstaking task of properly stretching every single muscle group in his body. In addition to feeling amazing after being stuck for so long floating in nothingness, it also gave him time and clarity to think about his next steps. Of course, he had plenty of ideas, but most of them were dependent upon certain variables. Now that he found himself back in reality, he still had several options to choose from. Ultimately, the goal for all of his ideas now was the same: he needed to get back to Earth, and he needed to do so as quickly as possible.


    Finally, with the stretching done, Max lightly jumped up in the air and flexed his four-star mana body. Then he sent a small arc of power through his fingertips, arcing towards a large tree in the distance. The energy hit and sunk a couple of feet into the trunk, almost bursting out the other side. Not bad.  This small flex of mana shouldn¡¯t be possible until he had a five star mana body, but Max had been practicing and pushing the envelope of what was possible.


    Then Max did the same thing but added void energy to the attack. He was genuinely curious, not sure how any of his abilities would change with the addition.  In the void, he''d only been able to practice against his spirits. He watched curiously as the same size arc of mana¡ªa powerful and effective mana wave attack¡ªsped at the tree. He was expecting it to go in a little bit deeper, maybe even penetrate the tree fully.


    However, he watched in shock and barely got a shield of mana up in time before the trunk exploded. Pieces of wooden shrapnel whizzed past him or were stopped by his shield. The tree ponderously started to tip over, even as another couple of trees behind it were demolished by the attack. "Holy shit," Max muttered as the huge tree he just accidentally cut down fell in the forest, making a racket and causing the ground to tremble like there''d been an earthquake.


    Lavinia appeared visually next to him and said, "I think we can pretty safely conclude now that the void energy has made you a lot stronger."


    Max slowly nodded. "Yes and no," he said.


    "What do you mean? Why no?"


    Max pointed at the tree and said, "For big monsters, or if I''m fighting a war, yes, this would be fantastic. But if it''s one-on-one, and my enemy is close to me, or if I use too weak of an attack,or any other number of possibilities, it might do me in before my opponent.  Like, imagine if I''d been standing right by that tree, for instance."


    Lavinia nodded. "I see what you mean. So like your other powers and abilities, it''s another tool in the toolbox, right?"


    Max nodded. "Yeah, something like that. I mean, I''m not saying it doesn''t make me more powerful. I''m just saying that it''s not going to allow me to steamroll everything either. It¡¯ll be situational"


    "Noted," said Lavinia, and she vanished.


    Max tapped his lip and finally decided that he couldn''t properly decide what to do next until he figured out what sort of world this was. So he rose in the air at treetop level and began moving towards the sun. He didn''t know which way this planet spun or how fast the sun moved, but it seemed like a pretty good way to stay relatively consistent, direction-wise, for a couple hours of flying. Old habits die hard, so he stayed to the treetops, preventing himself from being too juicy of a flying target.


    As he traveled, he suddenly saw a couple of monsters fighting below. Max grinned.  After his time in the void, practically everything he saw was new and wondrous all over again.  He dropped down nearby to watch the two creatures battle. One of them looked like a cross between a bear and a boar. It had a huge furry body, large tusks, and powerful claws on its paws. The other creature was like a cross between a beetle and a cougar, only huge. The two combatants circled each other, neither finding a good advantage.


    Out loud, he said, "The kite-shell primordial puma has really good defenses, and the tusked hexabear has really good offense. They''re a poor match for each other."


    Lavinia appeared again and said, "Tusked hexabear and kite-shell primordial puma. So these things really are what I thought they were, aren''t they?"


    Max nodded. "Yes. There''s no mistaking them. This world must have some similarities with Albion."


    He looked around and pointed at the trees. "Also, I don''t recognize all of these, but that tree, at least, is a pine tree I used to see on Albion all the time. I don''t know the name of it because I never really gave a shit about trees, but I do recognize it. It''s got that weird-shaped pine cone."


    Lavinia slowly said, "That''s true. I think you''re right."


    Around that time, the two fighting monsters suddenly turned and saw Max watching. One snorted and one roared, apparently, discovering a human nearby more offensive than whatever the other had done to provoke the fight.


    Both creatures charged at Max. He calmly joined two fingers together and quickly delivered two waves of energy, similar to the one that he used on the tree earlier.


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    Two explosions rocked the forest.


    Not only did both monsters die, but both also violently exploded, the tops of their heads disappearing into mist and bone fragments before the rest of their bodies were reduced to smoking pieces of fur and ropey entrails. Only Max''s defensive mana screen kept him from being absolutely drenched in blood and viscera.


    "Wow," he said. "This void energy is really no joke."


    He stood among the smoky, vaporized blood, just taking in what he¡¯d just wrought. Then he started wondering if he could layer other abilities and techniques on top of this new void energy, at least for a greater effect. The fact he could stack the energies was something he already knew for sure he could do after his many years of experimentation in limbo.


    Max felt almost giddy.  Part of him almost just stopped what he was doing to start researching void energy, but common sense prevailed and he reminded himself that he had more important things to focus on.


    Not for the first time, he felt grateful to have had his spirits with him in limbo, or he might truly have come out insane.


    He took to the sky again, flying, wondering if this was an empty world or a game preserve or something like that.. He hadn''t seen any civilization yet, but what he had seen was beautiful and actually made him a little nostalgic for his days on Albion.


    Finally, after what felt like an hour of flying, he spotted what looked like houses in the distance, all situated in some sort of small town in the middle of a plain. The¡­settlement¡­ wasn''t very large, but it was definitely bigger than what Max considered a village, and after putting mana into his eyeballs to see better, he could spot that the buildings themselves were not crude, thatched affairs like many humans would make in more primitive civilizations. In fact, he didn''t even see stone roofs like he''d been accustomed to back in Albion. Instead, the buildings looked very similar to buildings on Earth, like shingles.


    When the trees thinned out in the forest, he dipped lower, hopefully preventing himself from being spotted. He slowed more, steadily flying towards the village. Then he sent a sub-vocal communication to all his spirits. Everybody be ready, just in case there''s hostilities ahead. The spirits sent him back an acknowledgment, making it clear that they were just as riveted to what was happening as he was.


    As he got closer to the village, his eyebrows climbed into his hairline as two figures flew out towards him. At first, he couldn''t believe his senses, but then finally acknowledged reality. "They''re both Blade Sorcerers," he said quietly.


    Really? asked Lavinia in his mind.


    They have lovely bones, added Saliron unhelpfully. Just like you, Contractor, they have filled their bones to bursting with power.


    "Lovely," said Max.


    As he got closer, he used his mana to ping the other Blaze sorcerers, just like they just had him, and discovered that they were both four-star mana body Blade Sorcerers, technically both at his level. Of course, Max was a multi-Path, two-lifetimes Challenger and the Champion of a goddess. And now he had access to void energy.


    He had another twenty seconds or so before he''d meet the Challengers.  After floating up again, no longer feeling a need to hide his abilities, he had a few moments to kill. Randomly, he pulled up some of his old, garbled information that he''d gotten access to upon being a Challenger that had never made sense. But when he did, he almost fell out of the air in shock.


    What is it? asked Lavinia, concerned.


    "We''ll talk about it later," muttered Max, and he soon found himself hovering in place, regarding two hovering Blade Sorcerers. Max switched to the Quartet language instead of English and said, "Greetings. My name is Max. I''m not from around these parts, and I got turned around. Can you tell me what this place is?"


    The male Blade sorcerer, a thin man with average height and handsome features, shook his head. "I never went to the Quartet," he said, "so I don''t understand you."


    Max nodded before replying, "Oh, okay, well, in that case, I just won''t speak Quartet."


    Lavinia gasped at the same time that Max realized what had just happened. Then he said out loud, "Wait, you speak the language of Albion?"


    The male Blade Sorcerer gave him a strange look before giving the female Blade Sorcerer next to him a glance.  He slowly said, "I certainly hope so."


    The female Blade sorcerer, a tall, dark-haired, dusky-skinned woman with a long sword on her hip, looked at Max like he was cracked in the head. "Did you get hit or something, or maybe run into some magic or a mana storm?"


    Immediately, Max shook his head. Then he asked the question that he was almost not brave enough to put into words, "Could you tell me what the name of this world is?"


    The bearded man looked at him levelly and said, "I don''t know if this is a prank, but I can¡¯t figure out how. I guess I''ll play along. This is Albion."


    Lavinia gasped in his head again, and Max went quiet before slowly sinking to the ground. The two unfamiliar Blade Sorcerers exchanged a glance before they also floated downwards to join him.


    Max found a handy rock and sat on it, putting his head in his hands. Now that he thought about it more clearly, he could understand how opening a rift might have led to a place like this. The area that he came from and Lavinia, both of them have ties to this world.


    "Are you okay?" said the man.


    "I think I will be in a moment," said Max. "I just got kind of turned around. You know, it''s been a hard day."


    The man nodded and said, "I''m sure we''ve all had some of those."


    As Max had his head bowed and the man didn''t think Max would see, he made a pantomime drinking motion to the woman, who nodded. Max almost laughed.  It was probably better for the moment that they thought he was a drunk than a world or dimensional traveler.


    "I''m Lycos," said the man, "and this is Shahira. You look physically like you''re in pretty good shape, but it seems like you might need to take a load off. The town ahead is called Mulgreen. Shahira and I are both from Mulgreen, and we work as guards. There''s an inn and quite a few restaurants. Maybe you should just come and get something to eat."


    Max''s stomach rumbled, and he felt the hunger that only a man who had not eaten for decades, or maybe even centuries, could. He nodded and said, "I would love that, but I need to barter first, or go to a pawn shop. I don''t have any money, but I do happen to have some curiosities from another dimension that somebody might want to buy."


    The two Blade Sorcerer guards shared another look, obviously convinced by this point that Max was crazy, but he was still a four-star Blaze sorcerer, and crazy Blade Sorcerers were definitely something to take seriously. So in a kind tone of voice, the woman said, "How about you come back with us, and we''ll help you with a meal at one of the restaurants? Then maybe you can see some of our other friends too, and tell us your troubles."


    Max knew the real reason these two wanted him to meet their friends was for backup.  That way if he truly went nuts and tried hurting or killing anyone, they''d have enough people on hand to subdue him or put him down without getting hurt themselves. Max didn¡¯t have any reason to refuse, though, and nodded woodenly.


    He took to the air again and followed the two other Blade Sorcerers.


    For another couple of minutes, he followed his new guides to the town, Mulgreen, and as he got closer, he marveled at how different Albion had become over the last few centuries. In some ways, what he was seeing almost looked like modern Earth¡­crossed with the Quartet. The buildings were updated. There was evidence of new technology, but most of it was still magic-tech. Max opened himself to the mana in the world and almost started weeping at how overwhelmed he felt with nostalgia.  It was like¡­ a massive relief for his soul to finally feel the mana of Albion again.


    About twenty minutes later, when he was seated in a restaurant, and after making some more small talk, he finally was able to take his first bite of Albion cuisine again after hundreds of years. He couldn''t stop the tears anymore and silently cried as he ate. Inside his head, Lavinia bawled, and all his other spirits stayed completely silent, giving Max and Lavinia the respect and space that they needed as they processed their powerful, confusing emotions.

 Book 3, ch 43

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    Max didn''t know how long he sat on the bed in the inn, staring into space. At least, that''s probably what it looked like to his spirits. Finally, Lavinia manifested visually next to him and softly asked, "What''s going on, Max?"


    He shook his head and pointed. "I know you and the other spirits can''t see this, but something''s here."


    Lavinia cocked her head quizzically at him. "What are you talking about?"


    Max blew the air out of his cheeks. "Do you remember when I met the Morrigan and became a Champion? I haven''t really been able to use a lot of the benefits from that, so I haven''t called up any of the menus that I got when I became a Champion. Even in the void, I didn¡¯t mess with them after the first few days I was there.  The screens were garbled so there was no point..  However, now I can clearly see one of the screens¡ªactually, an entire system."


    He went back to studying the various screens in the air and slowly shook his head. Max muttered, "Eternal Struggle Reward System. What the hell?"


    Up until now, he¡¯d been studying the screen for a while, getting a feel for how it all worked. There was even a help menu that he used a few times, but he hadn''t really needed it much. At least, he didn''t need it now that he lived on Earth. In some ways, the system reminded him of a gacha video game.


    He¡¯d deep-dive it again later, but the high level fact at the moment seemed to be that it was called the Eternal Struggle Reward System, a type of store and game with prizes for Champions, and that he could get all sorts of things from it.  There were ways to invest more points, called Renown Points, in order to get better rolls, or better prizes, but the results were still randomized, and there was still an element of skill involved, at least from the perspective of which ¡°keywords¡± to use for prizes.


    What kept drawing his attention was the number of Renown Points he had¡ªeleven. He shook his head. Despite being completely new to the system, common sense suggested that this was a lot of renown points for a system where three points seemed to matter a lot for rewards.


    A plan was starting to form in Max''s mind¡ªmaybe not a good plan, but better than he had before. Finally, he said, "Lavinia, during your life on Albion, or before you were born, do you remember any mention of if any of my caches were found, the ones I put together back when I was Chasa de Milo?"


    "Caches?" asked Lavinia, confusion evident in her voice. "I never heard anything about that."


    "That''s exactly what I was hoping you would say," said Max. He abruptly got up and began pacing back and forth across the room. "Okay, so here is the problem. I am in another dimension, or on another world, or in another reality. Back in Albion.


    ¡°I need to find my way back to Earth, and we have no earthly idea, no pun intended, how to do that. Before, I was going to work on my power enough to maybe find a way to bring myself back to earth, and I believe in myself enough that I believed that maybe I could have done it, especially with your help, Lavinia, and especially since I still have all of these ral¡¯tek daggers."


    Max stopped pacing and turned to face Lavinia. "However, it has occurred to me that if I get back to Earth, and let¡¯s say, instead of three adjudicators coming after me next time, suddenly there''s ten or maybe an entire army, me going back right away might not be the best thing in the world. I mean, humanity has a chance against monsters, but I don''t think they have much of a chance against the adjudicators, at least not right now."


    "So?" Lavinia prompted.


    Max began pacing again and said, "So what that means is I can''t go back empty-handed. I need to bring enough firepower with me, whether in people or in artifacts or tools, that I can turn the tide if any more adjudicators come. I need to make my friends more powerful, and that includes some of the other adventurers and Challengers on Earth. I can''t focus just on people I know and like anymore, but that also means that I''m probably going to have to take a more active role in searching for and ferreting out any more problems, like when The Victory Guild had a demonic energy infestation."


    Max abruptly took a seat on the bed. "That means just being stronger than everybody else isn''t going to cut it. I need to be exceedingly stronger, ridiculously stronger, and on top of that, I know what happened to Ancilla. I can''t let that happen to me. And although Ancilla was powerful," his voice trailed off, "I have to believe I can become more powerful. I was Chassa de Milo in my past life. There''s nothing stopping me from reaching that level of power again, and I have other Paths and advantages on top of that.  I wasn¡¯t able to work on my mana body in the void, no mana, duh, but now that I¡¯m in Albion, I should grow in power¡­super fast.  I can achieve greater heights."


    Suddenly, Anansi popped into existence on the bed in his familiar man-spider hybrid shape. "That''s the thinking I want to hear," said Anansi. "You aren¡¯t anywhere close to Ancilla¡¯s level yet, if I''m being honest. But keep in mind, if you become more powerful and restore some of my power, your growth can increase exponentially, too."


    Max gave the divine remnant a skeptical look. "Uh-huh, and you want to be returned to your old form again and come back to life. I''m sure that has nothing to do with your motivational support here, right?"


    "Well, a spider god''s got to have dreams," Anansi conceded.


    Max got up yet again to pace, his energy needing an outlet. "So this is what I''m thinking. I need to get money, which I''m pretty sure I can do pretty easily just by trading some things. For instance, I have lots of stuff from earth in my bone storage that Saliron can help me get into.  I couldn¡¯t use any of that stuff in the Void, because real matter would be destroyed, but now it¡¯s all useful again. Like, in Albion, if I sell a generator and a microwave oven from Earth, that would probably be novel enough to get me enough money to at least live for a while."


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    "Do you have that kind of stuff in your bone storage? I didn''t pay attention to everything you put in there," Lavinia asked.


    Max grinned. "Oh, I have a ton of random bullshit in my storage. Trust me, getting at least enough money to live is not going to be an issue. The problem is going to be raising my power to the point I can not only get back to Earth but also end the monster invasion, or at least get it under control.  What I really need to do is start preparing the Earth for a counterattack or invasion by the adjudicators. I think.  But there''s something even more important than this...at least eventually."


    "What could be more than that?" asked Lavinia.


    Max sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "The reality is that even if we stop or beat back or prevent some sort of invasion by the Quartet or the adjudicators, the Quartet system is massive, and we still don''t even know why it exists! So at some point, if I''m strong enough, and I keep the adjudicators from messing up the Earth, that means I need to find out what the truth is behind all of this and address it at the source."


    "The source, huh?¡± Lavinia paused.  ¡°You''re going to find out,¡± she asked."Don''t you mean we are going to find out?"


    "Of course," said Max, and he rolled his eyes at the ghost girl. "You¡¯re along for the ride.  Do we really need to break down every bit of the equation here and get into semantics when I''m in the middle of my rousing monologue, instead of just curling into a ball on my bed and feeling sorry for myself?"


    "Okay, okay. Point taken," Lavinia said, raising her hands.


    Max looked at his screen again after pulling it up. "Eleven points. Eleven points to use in the Eternal Struggle Reward System. I have no idea what I can get from this, and I plan to experiment a bit, but based on what I am reading into this thing, eleven points could mean up to eleven new powers of some sort. That nuts.  Then again, maybe they could be useless without investing extra points.  For all I know, what I could get with one point could be like, making sparks like a sparkler, or creating farts that don''t stink.  But I have a feeling that putting more points into this thing can result in getting something serious."


    He rubbed his face as he thought.  Then he said, "There''s also my relationship with the Morrigan. I¡¯m her Champion. She may not be in this reality, but I''m sure that back here on Albion, my status still might count for something." He paused and raised a finger. "But like there are other things to consider, too.  I was never able to use this Eternal Struggle Reward System before, but me suddenly seeing it clearly now doesn''t necessarily mean it''s Albion that''s doing this. It could be because I went through the void.


    ¡°Either way, it would probably be smart for me to use up all my Renown Points while I''m in Albion. But if it was Albion itself that allowed me to see this system, then there might be something else here that I can use."


    ¡°Like what?¡± Lavinia looked at him levelly. "I''m still not really hearing much of a plan here. You have a few ideas of how you can get power, some of which you can probably even use immediately. But going back to Earth is not simple. I know because I helped you get there the first time."


    "You''re correct, but also not correct," said Max. "You''re forgetting something."


    "Pray tell, what am I forgetting, oh fearless leader?"


    Max grinned. "The same resonance that I had before with Momo that allowed me to bring her to Earth, theoretically, should allow me to find Earth if I hone in on her now. Her relative situation with me has reversed."


    Lavinia grew very still. "I''ll be damned. You''re right," she said, and then she hesitated before quietly asking, "Do you still feel her resonance?"


    Max nodded. "Sure of it. She''s still alive. It''s one of the first things I did after sitting down in the room here when I had some quiet time."


    "Oh, thank goodness for that.".


    "Agreed," said Max. Then he gave voice to the last thing he considered. "Not only that, now that I''m back in Albion and I''m from this world, I realize that I might have an opportunity on top of another opportunity."


    "What do you mean? You really enjoy being vague at times like this don¡¯t you?"


    "Shut up.  But anyway, I''ve been spending a lot of time reclaiming my Blade Sorcerer power. Things have changed now that I''m back on Albion.  Even though the mana is technically a little bit richer back on Earth, I should be able to reclaim my mana body levels much faster here. This is the mana I used in my first life.  If I¡¯m right about this, and I believe I am, it means I¡¯ll be able to spend less time building my mana body.  And this means I can spend more time focusing on my other powers, which means that I can finally meet more spirits to bond with."


    Lavinia nodded and finished his thought. "And because you''re originally from Albion and you even died in this world, you might have the potential to meet some really incredible or powerful spirits."


    "Exactly," said Max. He grinned.  "So between my caches and the Eternal Struggle Reward System and meeting more spirits and all the other ways that I have to find little incremental increases in power, I have to believe that I can make something happen."


    Lavinia nodded and crossed her arms. "These caches you keep talking about, how many did you have, and what exactly are they?"


    "Well," Max explained, "back when I was Chassa de Milo, I was the richest man in the world. I mean, I was the most powerful man, so it wasn''t exactly difficult to be. People would sometimes just pretty much throw money at me."


    "Must be nice," muttered Lavinia. ¡°Are you just going to brag about how wealthy you were all day?¡±


    "I guess ''eat the rich'' never really took hold on Albion, even during your lifetime, huh?" Max chuckled.


    "Nope, because here the rich can destroy buildings with a punch."


    "Good point. Anyway, I was a little paranoid, which I know is very ironic because I wasn''t looking for the dagger right behind my back, from my so-called friends.  When I was Chasa de Milo, I always thought that I was in danger from governments, not the people closest to me. The irony has not eluded me here.  Anyway, this all led me to have¡­plans in case something happened. And one of those backup plans was my caches. In three places around the world, I stashed a great deal of wealth, weapons, armor, and also just random bullshit that I never got around to properly learning about or identifying. I sort of used each cache as a dumping ground for stuff I didn¡¯t want to deal with, but I also put a lot of legitimate good stuff in each.  So at the very least, if I find one of my caches, I will again be filthy rich on Albion."


    "Must be nice," Lavinia repeated, her face sour.


    Max shrugged. "Haters gonna hate."


    "Okay," Lavinia said.  Then she paused, and Max could feel all his other spirits listening in to the conversation too. "What''s our next step?" she asked.


    Max grew quiet and didn''t answer right away. Finally, he said, "You have no way to recognize this, Lavinia, but the place that we came back to on Albion is actually the exact same spot that I died in my first life. And now that I''m here, I can''t deny the need I have to visit my old home, if it still stands, and see the grave of my wife and child, from back when I was Chasa de Milo. But more importantly, there is a cache near that area too, or at least there should be."


    ¡°There is one there?  Seriously?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Max paused, and then, partially for dramatic effect and partially because he really did feel multiple ways about it, he said, "The goal is to return back to Earth and kick some ass. But right now, before anything else, I think I need to finally go home."


    End of book 3.