It couldn’t be true. It just couldn’t.

Claire was the strongest person I had ever met. She was kind, she looked out for others, she helped me with no thought to her own gains.

How could she be gone?

No… I heard her voice. There must be something we can do!

Before I could mention it to the others, a low sigh came from the far end of the alley. Ray looked up at us through his damaged mask. He grinned at me, insanely happy despite the loss he had just taken.

“How unfortunate. I may have lost… but so did you.”

“What do you-” My yell was interrupted as blue light shot out from my chest. The damaged area of my armour leaked blue steam as I dropped to the floor. Ray laughed once more as his head dropped down.

"Screw that!"

I picked up my staff and sprinted towards the fallen man. The others watched in shock as I smashed my staff down on his head again and again. He tried to move on the first hit, but the next robbed him of the last dregs of life. I didn't want to stop there, but the fire in my chest burst out as I raised my staff for yet another strike.

“What did he do?” John pulled me back and pushed his hands against the injured area. The blue light singed his hands, so he pulled them back a moment later. It was as though a fire had been lit against my chest, but there was nothing I could do about it. My staff tumbled from my grip as the final ebbs of strength faded away.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t a single thing they could do. Ray had planted this final gift before Bryan had knocked him back. Even though my blows had ended him, his attack followed through regardless. I tried to cast my abilities, but even that small mercy was declined. My vision faded as the pain overtook me.

Damn it… I can’t end like this… Not now!

All sense of self faded away. My mind and soul floated above the scene, which had frozen below me. Susan had dropped to the alley to join the others as they struggled to hold back the blue energy. From my new position, I could see the overall flow of battle. The cult and bandit forces had been pushed back by the collective efforts of the guards and the guild members.

At least some of them are safe.

**Error: You have died. Error: Storage path blocked. New route chosen.**

The scene before me wavered back and forth. The whole town, and those within it, were rapidly distorted and blurred together. A moment later, the whole thing flickered off as though someone had just pressed the off switch. A pale blue light filled my view, which remained no matter how many times I blinked.

What the hell is going on? Is this the afterlife or something?

**Load failed. External interference registered. Error-**

The words were interrupted as a heavy force smashed into my mind. My vision blanked out for several seconds. As it slowly returned, the place I had been transferred to came into view.

I had been sent back to the selection room again.

“Well, that was slower than expected.”

“Why did you bring me back here?” I turned around to face the person. It was the man who had pulled me away from my friends.

The one who I now knew was a god.

“Seriously, you talk like that to the person who saved your life-”

“Shut up.” I muttered under my breath. The ragged man paused mid-sentence as his nostrils flared.

“What did you say?” His tone was still calm, but now there was a slight edge to it.

“Shut up! Because of you, she died. If you hadn’t sent me there, she’d be fine.”

“Wait, who died? What happened?” The man caught my wrist. Before I could pull away, he grabbed my head in his hand. This time was gentler than the first, but my anger was more intense than it had been before if anything.

“Get off!” I yelled as I pushed him away. He didn’t fight as he released me and took a few steps back. While his mouth was hidden, his eyes clearly showed regret as he stared at me.

“I never thought they would make a move against you so openly. It seems like my gamble failed. I’m sorry.”

“You think you can just say ‘sorry’ and it’ll all be OK.” I walked up and poked at his chest. It didn’t matter who or what he was to me anymore. “You did this! Tell me why. Now!”

“There are more players in this game that you could fathom. You’re but a discarded piece that I placed back on the board.” The old man combed his hand through his beard. “I did my best to give you the drive and the goal. The fact he made a move against you-”

“Who made a move against me?” I interrupted him once more. The reason for the situation wasn’t important, all that I cared about was the perpetrator.

That person would be my new target.

“The true God, Bael. He was sealed away in the past, but his fingers reach out from beyond the grave.” The old man pulled a chair out from under the table and passed it to me. I ignored his offer, so he shrugged and took a seat in front of me. “He’s the one behind the little ‘training camp’ you were destined for. Your friends are pieces for him to use and dispose of as he sees fit.”

“What does he want with them?”

“It’s easier if I show you.” The old man sighed and reach out. After a moment of hesitation. I grabbed his wrist. Even though my hand clenched with all my strength, he ignored it as the air blurred around us.

A new scene came into view over time. We floated far above the ground, or what should have been the ground. The entire area was charred to a crisp. A mountain range in the distance had been decimated, as though they had been melted by a cosmic blowtorch. Several chasms dotted the land beneath us which would have been classified as canyons should anyone exist to name them as such.

“What happened?” I asked as I looked out across the devastation. The old man turned to me, his eyes cold as he responded.

“This is the same world you left. In fact, it’s the same country.” He waved his free arm to encompass the area we could see. “This is the result of Bael’s resurrection. This is what the world will look like if we fail to stop him. What I just showed you… is the best case scenario should he rise again.”

Before I could ask any further questions, the land disappeared and was replaced once more by the dull room. The old man released my hand and plopped down in the chair before he stared up at me. It was clear he had no intention to speak further until I said something more.

“What is that world? How did you even send me there?”

“It’s… difficult to explain.” The god rubbed his forehead as he contemplated his next words. “There are many worlds like that one. They don’t exist, not in the way you would imagine. Thousands of years ago, they were created to save the remnants of a dying species.”

“Created? You're saying someone made entire worlds?” I leant against the wall and folded my arms. “If they could do that, why not just fix the worlds that existed already?”

“They aren’t physical worlds as you would imagine. People were transformed into constructs of themselves and sent to a virtual version of their world. They live, they love, they have children… and they perish.” He combed his fingers through his beard. “When the day comes the danger has passed, those on the repository worlds will be moved back into reality. Until that time, they will remain where they are.”

So… they don’t really exist? What the hell…

It was difficult to grasp the full extent of his words. Entire worlds had been pulled out of reality, virtualised and stuffed into storage to escape obliteration. How had my world escaped from such a wide-scale disaster?

“Wait, if the world is destroyed… haven’t we already lost?”

“Technically, yes. But also, no.” The god tutted as he stared at me. “You’re my last gambit, so I gave up a lot. I barely managed to rebuild my arm, you know.”

He held up his arm to show me. The one he had lost when he punched me had returned, though when he moved it around it blurred slightly in the air. His loss didn’t matter to me as I walked back and forth across the room.

“Are you saying that’s why you sent me back a thousand years? What was the point of that?”

“It was my hope that you could help the saints. They joined with us in the fight but, due to their lack of coordination and trust, they didn’t help much.”

“So you wanted me to help these people, who I’ve never met, to trust one another?” It was difficult to not sneer at his suggestion. “That seems a bit too optimistic for you.”

“True, but I didn’t have any other choice. I could only save one person, and that turned out to be you.” He shrugged his shoulders once more. “Well, think yourself lucky. You’ll get one more shot at it soon.”

“What do you mean, ‘one more shot’? Are you sending me back again?” I grabbed his shoulders and pulled him to face me. “Will I be able to save them this time?”

My elation was destroyed as he shook his head. He reached out and patted my shoulder gently.

“You will go back, but it will take about a year for your body to reform. It is quite taxing on your soul to do this, so if we try it again you will probably collapse.” He stared into my eyes. “I’m sorry, Rook. You’ll be sent back to a year after your first visit. The past can only be changed once.”

His words confirmed my worst fears. Claire had sacrificed herself to save me, but it didn’t matter. If she had let me go, she would have lived. If Ray had taken me out earlier, she would have lived. even if the slime queen had devoured me, she would have lived.

If he saved me, why not her.

I slapped myself in the face and pulled myself together. The old god looked down at me, his eyes narrow as he watched the odd play. Now wasn’t the time to mope.

“If you saved me, could you save her?”

“I’m sorry.” The old man shook his head as he stood up and laid his hand on my shoulder. “It’s not possible to bring back someone who-”

“What do you mean, ‘not possible’!?” I knocked his hand aside. “You helped me, why not her?”

“There are reasons I could pull a trick with you. Your friend is missing all of the required parameters for it to work.” He dropped back into his chair. “I imprinted you before your first death, your body had only recently been created, you had been through the transfer procedure within the last month. And that’s if you ignore the fact I used a thousand years of my energy to pull your soul back together.”

“My soul?”

“Yes, though there is something peculiar to you.” The god stared at my face, as though he could see through my skull and into my brain. “You’ve got some other fragments mixed up in your soul. I didn’t touch them because they seemed harmless, but I’ll have someone keep an eye on it.”

“Why did you save me if it took so much effort? Was it because you knew Ray would come after me before long?” His lack of care in my situation did annoy me, but it wasn’t anything new.

At least that’s likely the worst of it, right?

The man turned away from me. If I didn’t know better, it would have been easy to think he looked… awkward.

“Not exactly, no.” He turned back to me as a red tinge rose up on his cheeks. “I aimed your transfer quite well. How was I to know you would be lucky enough to survive such a fall, nevermind defeat a slime queen?”

It was impossible to find an accurate response to his revelation. This old man had not only pulled me out of the group, he had dumped me high into the sky above a horrendous monster… in the hope I would come back to him in a speedy fashion?

“You.. You..” My hands clenched repeatedly as my brain rolled over. How would you have responded if someone plainly said they had tried to kill you?

“I’m sorry, but we didn’t have time before.” He seemed to have recovered for his embarrassment as he glanced up at me. “It was for the best-”

He stopped mid-sentence as my fist slammed into his face.