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 stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please 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–although he instinctively believed the divine spirit in the dagger about future struggles–he 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