I started walking towards Kian’s SUV twenty or so metres up the road. Seeing my sprightly young face, the slightly plump cheeks, the shaved head put a real spring in my step. I know I’d barely survived and my friends were dead, but I was not. And that meant I could bring them back. I knew I could.

  You see, I prided myself on certain things in life. Certain gifts that I had. And one of those was spotting things that others mostly didn’t. I know it sounds egotistical. Arrogant. But I wasn’t one for false modesty. If you’re good at something, embrace it. Just don’t be an arse about it. And what I was good at was reading between the lines.

  The Pantheon probably thought I wouldn’t understand, or they weren’t bothered that they were discussing it in front of me. I was insignificant to them. Or maybe they wanted me to know as a Divine artifact holder. Who knows? But I bet they didn’t think they’d given me as much information to work with as they did. At the time, I hadn’t known it but it was coming to me as I approached the car.

  They’d stopped USPSM from providing assistance to me or information to anyone on how to use the artifact. And they wiped Kaelyn’s memories related to mana-stones. They said whoever holds it needs to learn by themselves how to use it, and that was the interesting part.

  They had no problem with giving the information on how to acquire it and how to activate it. But I already knew that. The fact they wiped Kaelyn’s memories and didn’t want to provide information on the mana-stones gave me the feeling that I had been using the stone wrong. Or that there was much more to it than just the reset ability.

  Added to which, I saw how Kaelyn and Melkarieth had done things earlier. The teleportation. The use of the knife without touching it. Melkarieth not taking damage. How he had redirected bullets at the ones who had shot at him. And then there was the way the Pantheon was able to change their size.

  Did they want me to understand there was much more to the stone than how I had been using it? Were they testing me? Or did they really not care if I knew, as they expected me to fail anyway? Whatever their reasoning might have been, I needed to figure out what I was missing.

  My stuff was still on the bonnet of Kian’s car. I checked the phone – 10:13 pm – before throwing it to the floor and stomping on it. I picked it up again and tossed it away. Maybe it was the phone that led the police here. Maybe not. I didn’t want to risk it. We weren’t out of the woods yet. I lit a cigarette before shoving the packet into my pocket. The revolver, I put in my hoodie pocket but as I looked around the place, with all the dead bodies, the mangled metal, the shattered glass, I saw possibilities. Amongst all that carnage were the guns. So many guns. I had a plan for what to do next.

  Several metres away, in the middle of the road was Kaelyn’s body. The Pantheon wiping her memories is what let me know I could bring her back. It’s the only thing that made sense. They knew they would be restoring me, and they wanted to make sure they removed any advantages over the USP that I might’ve had. Well, other than the Divine stone. It made me wonder why they didn’t remove the information I already had. The information Kaelyn and USPSM had shared with me earlier. Again, maybe they didn’t know or didn’t care. Who knew how the minds of gods worked?

  I walked past Kaelyn, heading to the other side of the road where I’d seen Carmen and the others hauled off towards. I mulled over the last bit of information I was able to understand. I’d been restored. With ten universal years. Seventy earth years. Was that how much of my life was remaining and that’s what they had restored? But more to the point. They were able to restore me. That thick, slimy ooze that I had felt being pushed through my body gave me life. It begged the question. How?

  I found Carmen and the other two in a heap. Charlotte was at the right of the three, arms still secured behind her back. Her head was on the floor, her blonde hair splayed across a pool of blood. Kian was next to her, head resting against the side of her thigh and next to him was Carmen. She’d fallen the other way to the other two, her legs beneath her, her torso bent over at the waist, head hanging down. I could see the bullet holes that riddled the car they had tried to take cover behind. Maybe it would have worked with normal gunfire. It didn’t work with Pantheon gunfire.

  It was the third time I’d had to see Carmen dead. The third time I’d had to see her beautiful face marred with blood, her hazelnut eyes closed. It was the first time I’d had to witness Kian and Charlotte‘s deaths. How many more times would I have to see this scene? How many times could I continue to? How many times could I afford to?

  Then there were the dead officers. The two that had dragged my friends over lay on the floor next to them, eyes open, questioning what had just happened. Another fifty or so were strewn around the place, trapped between cars where they had tried to run for cover, or propped up behind cars thinking they had found it. They hadn’t. I wondered if I could bring them all back. There was a part of me that felt like I should try to. A part of me that felt that it was my responsibility.

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

  Then there was the sensible me. I’d almost killed myself and my friends, thinking I couldn’t die. Thinking there were no limits to what I could do. Well, I’d been given a rude awakening. I’d got lucky. I’d been given a gift – a second chance. I wasn’t about to waste it. In any case, I doubted I had much time. Surely, more police would be on their way at any moment.

  Right now, I needed to save my friends. I wasn’t responsible for everyone else. Until I had a greater understanding of my powers, I was sticking to what I knew. And I knew that I definitely had six resets, and I knew from my earlier resets that I could reset at least four people, including me. Adding Kaelyn was one more already. I wasn’t prepared to test the limits further. Not yet. Not until I knew more.

  I went to get Carmen first, but before I reached her, I could hear the sound of footsteps coming towards me from my right. When I looked up, it looked like three men, wearing clothes not too different from mine – hoodies and bottoms – though they wore their bottoms halfway down their arses, and had their right hands stuffed down the front. I shuffled back a bit towards the two dead officers, and got closer to their assault rifles.

  The three men slowed as they came towards me. The one at the front called out. “You’re the dude everyone’s looking for? River, was it?”

  “Who’s asking?”

  “You’ve been causing some chaos today,” the lead one said as they inched closer. Had they seen what had happened? The dead bodies to the side didn’t seem to faze them one bit.

  “I’d stay back, if I were you,” I warned them. It worked. They hesitated.

  “We’re just kids. We just want the reward.”

  “There’s no reward now. The Universal Survival Protocol has been initiated. Come back later.” I’d be long gone by then.

  The blue screen flashed up.

  [Universal Survival Protocol Universal Quest]

  [JOIN THE PANTHEON!]

  | Whoever holds the Divine artifact – The Heart of Tiananmut, the Paradox – and reaches Mythic Tier will be invited to a series of challenges to join the esteemed ranks of the Pantheon. This quest is available to all participants of all worlds of The Universal Survival Protocol. |

  | If you are not in possession of the Divine artifact, in order to remove it from its current holder, you must remove the head. This can be done either by a clean decapitation, or if you can kill the current holder, there is a five second time limit within which the head must be removed. Once the head is removed, to activate the artifact to bind to your person, you must give the gem a drop of your blood |

  | This is a perpetual quest, meaning that should you be successful in claiming the Divine artifact for yourself, all participants will be updated with the your details, and you will become the target |

  | For the Divine artifact holder. |

  | Prove that you are worthy to hold it. |

  The blue screen disappeared and I looked at the three in front of me. They all whipped out machetes. I guess it was better than the alternative, given where their hands were. I mean, I’d seen it all today, so a trio of flashers would’ve been par for the course. The misfortune for these three was that I had seen it all today. I’d already faced a machete, guns and gods, and I’d died and come back more times than I cared to count. I calmly put my hand in my hoodie pocket, pulled out the revolver. It should still have the four bullets, and failing that, there was the assault rifle at my feet.

  I pointed it at the three of them. They did look young. Not kids. But not that much older. I’d give them a chance, but I would do what I had to do.

  “I beg you,” I said. “Please walk away. You don’t want to do this. It’s not worth losing your life over.”

  “Bet that don’t even have any bullets,” the lead one said with a bit of bravado, but the other two didn’t seem so sure. I shot the gun in the air. It did indeed have bullets. Out in the park, there were groups of people stirring. Were they going home? Were they coming for me? The three in front of me weren’t so sure of themselves, but I didn’t have the time. Let’s face it. I already knew trillions had died, and that was just in the battle of Kaelyn’s world and the others involved. How long would these kids survive with what was coming? I might be doing them a favour.

  “I’m gonna give you five seconds to turn around and run the other way. If you’re still here…well, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  “Five…” One of them at the back had half a brain, and turned. “Four…” The other two hesitated. “Three…” The one who had run had become a faint figure in the far distance. With that kind of speed, he should have given track running a go. “Two.” I didn’t need to get to one. Those two were just as fast and had joined their friend in no time. I breathed a sigh of relief. I would do what I had to. But I was glad I didn’t have to.

  I put the revolver back in my pocket and got back to what I had come to do before being interrupted, grabbing Carmen under her arms and dragging her towards Kaelyn. “System.”

  [“Hello, thief.”]

  “What the fuck was that? The USP hasn’t started yet.” I gently lay Carmen next to Kaelyn, and headed back for the other two.

  [“It’s a universal quest.”]

  I grabbed Kian the same way I had Carmen and pulled him towards her.

  [“It’s active at all times, whether the participants or worlds are involved in an active battle or not.”]

  I placed Kian next to Carmen and went back for Charlotte. “And it just happened to be at that moment? It couldn’t have waited?”

  [“Things get done when they get done. Besides, do you think they would have left you alone?”]

  I got Charlotte into position next to Kian. I looked around. I was far enough away from the other bodies. There were a couple of cars within the four or five metre range of the reset that I had guesstimated, but not much I could do about those. But it did give me an idea. No need to guesstimate. Quickly I ran around some of the officers and grabbed anything small from them – handguns, cuffs, radios. I placed them at roughly one metre intervals from where I stood – eight items in both directions – before I returned and stood over my dead friends.

  “They might’ve.”

  [“They wouldn’t have, but they were just a taste of what is to come for you.”]

  I put the revolver to my head.

  [“You’re not just the most wanted man on Earth. You’ve just become the most wanted man in the universe.”]

  I pulled the trigger.