Instinct kicked in as I reinforced my body with mana and braced against the sudden force. The jolt knocked my headphones off and the world came into full audio again.

Cars driving, horns honking, people talking, some screaming. It was nearly sensory overload compared to Iddabus. Coming back to my senses I looked around and down at myself. My hands were small and smooth. No calluses to show the decades of weapons training I did. But the mama channels I had build were intact and still bustling with enough mana to take on the evil god a second time.

My muscles on the other hand didn’t seem to stay. My arms were lanky, well in comparison to what I was before they were, and my whole body was just a little pudgy. I felt heavy, as if someone had turned up the gravity.

A scream pierced my ear. The bus, crap, I quickly ripped the bus door open and climbed in to assess the damage.

“Is everyone alright?” I ask, “bring anyone injured outside and lay them down gently.”

I turn my focus to the driver, he was clearly in the worst condition. Glass had cut up his face and severed his carotid artery. A simple heal spell set him straight as I lifted him up and out of the wrecked vehicle.

As I lay him on the sidewalk I see two other passengers who are wounded. One fell because they decided to move at the wrong time and broke their arm. The other was a poor guy who got a large piece of glass in his eye.

Very quickly I grabbed the broken arm, reset the bone and cast heal. The passenger yelled in pain at the reset but then started to clench and open their fist, marveling at the lack of pain.

The other poor chap I just yanked the glass piece out earning quite a fire shocked gasps and someone tried to hold me back. I simply held my hand over the now empty eye socket and casted heal for the third time and watched as he grew a new eye.

The guy had passed out from shock but I’m sure he would wake up soon. The crowd had fallen silent at what must’ve seemed like a miracle to them. Sirens wailed in the distance signaling that police and ambulance were on their way. Things should be handled by professionals in this world after all.

A middle aged man next to me opened his mouth to say something when a woman’s scream caught my ear again. Did I miss someone on the bus? I turn to where the sound came from to see a woman screaming in pain from having lost a leg to what appeared to be a fantasy style orc.

I cast a low level fire bolt at it hoping to stun it with a quick spell to allow me to cast something stronger, but the spell hit and completely erased the orc from the stomach up.

That orc was, really weak. Like pathetically so. I grabbed the woman’s severed leg, reattached it and cast heal allowing it to be as good as new. The woman sobbed out a nearly incoherent thank you as she clamored up and backed away.

Was she seeing me as a monster too? No, I felt the mana behind me. I turned to see a portal open, the same kind of portal that would sometimes carry high level monsters or demons for the evil god in Iddabus. The only way to close it was to eliminate every enemy inside of it or allow them to leave.

I walked up to it, stuck a hand inside and cast hellfire. It’s a large area of effect spell that allowed me to kill a large number of monsters in a single go. After a few seconds I reinforced my head and neck with mana and stuck it inside the portal to take a peek. A desolate wasteland as far as the eye could see, perfect.

Pulling back out of the portal I took a few steps back and watched as the portal shrunk until it no longer existed. The area around me was quiet save the sirens that had finally arrived from the two police cruisers and the ambulance. The orc’s body stayed on the ground and the police had surrounded me, weapons drawn.

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“Get on the ground!”

“Hands up, put your hands where I can see them!”

“Stop moving!”

They all yelled orders to that extent while pointing their weapons at me. I set up a small area of effect spell around my body that would slow anything that moves through it to a near standstill. This was a spell I learned to more easily hunt rabbits since they moved almost as fast as bullets in Iddabus.

I raised my voice “Put the guns down you fools!” A shot was fired at me and the bullet stopped midair around three feet away from me aimed direct at my chest, “you can’t hurt me, you can’t restrain me, all you can do is listen and ask the civilians for their testimony. I have no problem coming to the station to answer questions but I will not be allowing you to put me in a cell.”

Another shot fired and was stopped just like the first. I reached out and grabbed the bullets out of the air and held them up. “Magic is real, as are monsters as evidenced by the half corpse on the ground there.” I point at the remains of the orc.

One officer lowered their weapon and gave the order to do the same to the others. Most complied but one officer kept their weapon trained on me. Two out of three listened, not bad. The first officer repeated the order and the last cop lowered their weapon begrudgingly.

The first officer came up and asked for my name and for an explanation as to what had happened. I was more than willing to oblige, until I felt multiple instances of mana across the city.

“My name is Devonte,” I answered, “and I’m going to have to come to the station later. More of these monsters just appeared across the city. You should get reports on the radio soon. I’ll go to the police station after I’m done cleaning up around here.”

They opened their mouth as if to argue but I cast body enhancement on myself and had already taken off to the nearest mana point I could sense. This time a low level salamander was there. I had managed to arrive before anyone was severely injured, all I could see was minor burns due to being too close to its fire.

A simple windcutter spell was all I needed to take care of the beast. It seemed that this time there were words over top of the portal that had a timer counting down. It had just under a week so I assumed it was safe for now. First things first I needed to take care of any stray monsters that got out before the portals were locked up.

I had sensed around fifty different instances across the city. One down, forty nine to go.

All the following portals were the same with some sort of lock and timers on them ranging from three days at the shortest to one larger portal about fifteen feet wide with a month long timer. The last portal was where things got interesting.

When I got there the beast had already been subdued. It was a small goblin looking creature. A man that looked to be about the same age as me was holding a sword and panting. Green blood spattered across his red shirt and jeans. He looked to me, who had just made a superhero landing from the flight I had over.

Fear and confusion was evident in his eyes, “listen I don’t know what’s going on here man. This goblin just came out of that weird portal thing and suddenly there was a sword in my hand. It came right at me and I just had no choice man. You understand right? Please tell me you know what’s going on here man.”

His confusion and desperation was understandable. While humans on earth were constantly at war, if you weren’t a soldier you would be shaken by taking a life, even if it was a monster. I remember when I first killed a rabbit on Iddabus, I had thrown up. Ah memories.

“Listen,” I held my hands up in a placating manner, “I’m going to the police station right now to explain what happened. You should probably come with. I’ll make sure you keep the sword. It seems to be a part of you now.”

I see a connecting line of mana between his heart and the sword. The man was now radiating mana, but only in the same way the average citizen in Iddabus would.

“Okay man,” he nods his head, “if you say so. “You seem a bit more used to this super hero type stuff than me.” He joked nervously.

“Just a little,” I chuckled, “but don’t get me wrong man, I’m no hero.”

Down at the station the police attempted to confiscate his sword but after a small scuffle and demonstration of force from me they backed off. All except three officers anyway, I just knocked them out. The swordsman and I answered questions to the best of our abilities and were allowed to leave.

Well allowed to leave may be a bit generous. I was getting tired of answering questions so I told them we were leaving. One cop tried to tell us no but the original officer from the bus incident stopped him.

I went back to my crappy apartment and the swordsman said he was going home as well. It took a minute to remember which apartment was mine, it had been what? Sixty years since I had been here? I had to try a few keys to open it up. I had the key to my apartment and two keys for my job, but I managed to

Make it inside and sit on my old couch.

Was I actually back? I went to Iddabus, became a hero, killed a god, lived a long life and was ultimately killed for being too strong. I allowed it because I had lived a long life there and I had too much respect for the princess to just start killing the royal family. Earth on the other hand? I didn’t have those feelings for earth.

If some government or group tries to control me they will regret it. I won’t just be a pawn to be tossed away when I’m not useful anymore. I’m not some plaything for anyone.

My phone went off and interrupted my train of thought. Phones, yeah I remember now. I look at the screen to see the name Brenda, my old girlfriend. I should probably just break up with her so she doesn’t try to drain my bank account more than she already has.

I open the text to see what she had sent me and I started to laugh uncontrollably.

‘Devonte, we need to break up. The world’s gone to shit and there fucking monsters and stuff appearing all over. You just aren’t good enough to protect me. You aren’t strong or rich enough. I found a guy who has enough money to protect me so I’ll be chilling with him. If you weren’t broke we would be cool but I just can’t live that life. Sorry’

Oh the irony! I couldn’t help but laugh. That’s one problem dealt with at least. I laid down and decided to rest. The sun was setting and I was finally home. I could finally rest.