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Vincent opened his eyes, gasping for air. Something was poking him in the ribs. And in the head.

"Stop! Stop!" a voice yelled in broken Czech.

"He tried to kill you!" a person dressed in blue yelled. A policeman generously hitting Vincent's back and head with his baton.

"It was the Heimlich maneuver. He saved my life. Look, there's the food I choked on!"

A finger approached the pavement a few centimeters before Vincent's eyes, pointing at a piece of chewed banana, old enough to grow mold. Maybe from afar, it looked different because the policeman relented and left, not before screaming at the people gathered: "Move on!"

Centimeters? I'm thinking in centimeters again?

Ludwing squatted near Vincent, helping him sit on the buttocks, then raise. Escorted by the king, who wrapped his left arm around his shoulders, Vincent managed to crawl to a bench, throwing himself on it. Everything ached.

Please, Lord, tell me I didn't hallucinate the last weeks because of a hit on my head! Vincent prayed. Surrounding him was his Prague. He was in Hradcany Square. Everything was sweet to his eyes and ears: the light of the hot sun, the voices, the smell of burnt gasoline… cars… that was proof he was back home… if he wasn't hallucinating and had always been there.

Vincent stared at Ludwing. The man looked older now, his long hair white… the clothes looked the same, but dirtied by blood. "You look a hundred years old," he said.

"I'll take it as a compliment. I'm three hundred and fifty-nine."

"So it was not a hallucination?"

"Our duel? Of course not!" Ludwing puffed. "I think it's time to go… It was nice to meet you… No hard feelings, right?"

As the older man sketched a move to go away, Vincent thrust his hand and grabbed him by the arm, obliging Ludwing to sit on the bench. "You're not going anywhere!"

Iron Grip activated.

What the fuck? Does my magic still work?

"Please don't kill me," Ludwing begged. "He made me do it! I was possessed."

"Is your magic still working?" Vincent asked, postponing further hostile actions. He had exhausted most of his energy anyway.

"No," Ludwing sighed. "We're on your world, right?"

"I… think so…" Vincent looked around again.

"All Summoned come from unawakened worlds. They level faster and are more powerful because their bodies and the System compensate for the years spent in—"

"Shut up! My head hurts…" Vincent growled, closing her eyes for a second. The second turned into minutes as he woke up suddenly, startled by his own snoring. The sun had moved on, and the bench was now in the shadow. Surprisingly, Ludwing had stayed. He was feeding pigeons with crumbs from a sandwich.

"What's the deal with you?" Vincent asked. "One moment, you try to kill me; the next moment, you're nice?"

"I told you, it was not me... It was him… The Raven."

"The Raven made you kidnap Irene?"

"Oh… that…" Ludwing bit his lips. "No, that was me."

"I'll kill you," Vincent promised, but putting his words into action was a bridge too far. He felt too weak.

"Let me explain… I took her prisoner to ransom her against my heirlooms. Then the Raven arrived and entered my body—"

"They can do that? I mean, the Archetypes?"

"I don’t know… But I felt he liked to ride bodies… He remembered."

"He remembered what?"

"Being a real person. They all were at some point."

Vincent made a superhuman effort to turn his aching body toward the king. "The Archetypes were real living beings?"

"They were the first Summoned. Some lived in the Realm until old age, and others left, but it is said the strongest ascended and became part of the System…" A shadow passed over the king's face. "He entered my mind without any warning… It’s part of the deal of being our patron, but he never did it before… It felt like I was drugged… drunk… You surely don’t think I would have behaved so ungentlemanly without being mind-controlled, do you?”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“You’re all but a gentleman, you weird freak! Let’s assume for a second I’d believe you. Why would he do all that?”

“I read his thoughts; he was obsessed with turning Summoned into thralls, possessing them in turns, and staying in the real world permanently… He had the idea with the blood transfer…"

Vincent sighed. He still didn’t trust Ludwing and was sure the man presented his actions in a much better light than reality, but it made sense. Arcane Intuition told him Ludwing was speaking the truth… or that he believed what he said. Then was the display of kindness. The king could have let Vincent get beaten and arrested… "OK, fine. As a reward for saving my butt from being kicked, as soon as I feel better, I'll kill you painlessly. You're still an asshole."

"Like you can stop me from leaving," Ludwing shrugged, preparing to run for it.

"Sit. Down!" Vincent hissed. "It was a joke. I don't need to kill you; I'll let old age do the job… you'll croak out every second now."

"That was a pun?" Ludwing said combatively.

"Yeah… caw caw."

"You want a piece of me, you little punk?" Lundwing yelled, trying to take a boxing stance. "Ouch…." he complained the next second, collapsing on the bench and massaging his back.

"Hey, look at that young, nice man, taking his grandpa for a walk," a woman said. There were passersby, but not so many for that day to be on the weekend.

"You won't make it to the night without my help," Vincent said.

"I'll be fine. I have a stash of gold sewed in my jacket," Ludwing said.

"We don't use gold here."

"That nice lady with the food cart didn't object when I bought food from her with a coin."

"Probably because you could have bought her whole business with it… Let me check if I have some notifications… Oh boy!"

Notifications were plenty.

Warning: The following notifications are an estimation created by the information package installed in you (Individual Operating System). They might not reflect reality. Contact with the System is lost.

You have killed the Raven, Archetype of Memory and Corvids. Trapped in a host during combat, The Raven followed you to an inert Mana world and was destroyed in the process.

Your XP has been limited to a safe amount (leveling too fast can cripple your build). You are now level 60. You have 7 free Tokens. You cannot buy magical skills or level up until you return to an Awakened Realm. You can, however, invest in stats.

"The Raven's dead," Vincent said bluntly. "Coming here destroyed him."

"Oh no! Err… I mean, thank goodness! I'm glad I'm free of his influence. He was a total… how do you say… Psycho?"

Look who's talking… Vincent thought, going over to the next text.

You have traveled back to your original world due to an unintended side-effect of an Astral Enchantment engraved on your ring: Negate Lethal Damage, one charge. Because the lethal damage you suffered was channeled by The Raven and consisted of corrupted Mana, the spell consumed 100 Karmic Charges to transport you and your foe into a neutral Mana world.

“Wow… Good job, Bee… I knew it was worth letting you play with my ring…”

“Pardon?” Ludwing asked.

“Just shut up!”

Return unlocked. This Karmic Mythical skill allows you to travel between Realms you have already visited at the cost of 100 Karmic Charges, even to and from Mana-neutral worlds. The cost represents your transport; the expense per person traveling with you remains 1 Karmic Charge.

Magic Recollection. Although magical artifacts transported onto a Mana-neutral world are usually destroyed, your Dark Artifact (Sovereign's Ring of Supremacy) survived because it had to complete its Karmic mission. As such, this artifact gained resistance to inert Mana. It will allow its wearer to perform magic even on unawakened worlds by changing the chirality of a small amount of Mana (1 MP/minute). You can now access your magical abilities even in Mana-neutral worlds as long you wear the ring. Your stats, however, are reduced from a logarithmical to a linear scale. Your levels have been deducted from your pools, and your resources are now Stat x 10.

Current stats: Body 56, Mind 32, Spirit 42.

HPs: 60/560 SPs: 10/560 CPs: 80/320 MPs: 2/420 Karmic Charges: 18

Scrutinizing Ludwing, Vincent realized he now could see the man's real stats. Thirty in Body and Mind and ninety in Spirit. All pools were under twenty percent, but Ludwing's Mana was higher due to his Spirit stat. Declassed was the class. That stuff about running a week non-stop was bullshit, huh? How the mighty have fallen… "Let's make a test. This ring should allow you to do magic… Not so fast!" Vincent snatched his hand from Ludwing's.

"I swear on the System I won't run with it. I swear on the System I renounce any claim to any artifact or heirloom you or your friends stole from me. Please…" Ludwing intertwined his fingers in a praying gesture. "I didn't feel so weak since the last Great Turkish Invasion."

"So there are Turks on the Realm… I didn't see them on the map," Vincent said.

"The Byzantines and Mongols allied to push them back. They have a lot of smaller countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia. Ring, please?" the king forwarded his hand, making puppy eyes, which looked horrible on him. "I swore!" he puckered his lips, making puppy eyes.

"You behave like a five-year-old. I don't need you to swear because that's what will happen: I'll keep my gun pointed at you, and you will touch the ring with one finger. Wrong move, and you're dead. Do you have Healing spells?"

"Yes. They're the most useful spells, together with Dark Vision."

Go figure… "Cast some healing on us."

"I'll cast Accelerate Regen on both of us," Ludwing said, touching the ring with his index. "It's slower but refills you better and for longer… Done…"

A faint sensation of refreshment started to spread in Vincent's body. He realized he had forgotten to pull out his gun, but maybe it was for the better. The policeman from before was walking around the square, frowning at him. He had some local money inside his backpack, which was in the storage ring, and extracted it carefully. Ludwing was looking better already, with patches of gray spreading in his hair.

"Come," Vincent said, pulling Ludwing by the arm. "We need a place to stay… We'll crash at my parents."

"I won't crash anyone's home!" Ludwing protested. "I'm a civilized person."

"No, you’re not. It means we'll sleep there. And tomorrow, we'll start to gather karma."