27 Second chance II

"Hullo!" Tim called cheerfully as Noah's body slammed into the iron cage, rattling his throbbing brain in his skull and sending spikes of agony coursing through him. "I see your clothes survived the trip this time."

If only you knew.

Noah grunted in agreement, unable to muster the energy to give a better response. He gave Tim a weak smile, just to make sure the man wasn't too offended by his sudden lack of interest in communication, then stepped onto the lift.

His head thumped its anger at his death the entire way back to his room, intensifying with every loud noise or bright light. By the time he finally stumbled into the room, it felt like he'd had a migraine for at least a month.

Cursing under his breath, Noah stumbled into his bed and buried his head under his pillow, muting the faint chirps of the birds and distant conversation from below his window. He screwed his eyes shut and focused on the rhythm of his heartbeat, using it like a lifeline to try and pull himself out of the pain.

It didn't work too well, but he couldn't think of anything better to do. Noah remained there for several hours until the pain finally started to abate and he was able to take grasp of his facilities once again.

Noah slipped out of bed and took a detour to his bathroom to splash cold water on his face. He ran his hands through his hair and sighed, leaning on the sink and resting his head against the mirror.

"Idiot. You let yourself get too cocky." He pressed his lips together and pushed back. There was no point promising himself that he'd avoid it in the future. It had been a painful reminder, but his advantage had been hammered back into his head.

The monsters were deadly, but he had infinite chances to fight them. Nobody else did, which might have been why the students didn't realize how simple it was to defeat the Slashers. If that went for everything…

A tiny grin tugged at Noah's lips, but it wasn't quite enough to pull him out of his annoyance. He shook his head and closed his eyes, reaching into his mind to check on the progress of his Runes.

They greeted him like an old friend, the seven glimmering patterns blinking to life in the darkness around him. Pressure from the Sunder Rune above Noah bore down on him, but he pointedly avoided looking up at it.

There was just too much to deal with, and he didn't dare fiddle with the massive Rune any further until he at least had a rudimentary grasp of his normal ones. Noah's eyes caught on the edge of the darkness in his mental space.

Bright patches of white void were appearing as a small section dark energy crumbled away. Noah approached it with a nervous frown, watching as a tiny fragment of black vanished into the white nothingness.

It wasn't in the same spot that the previous damage had been in, but it was close. For that matter, a portion of the previous damage had healed over again, but it still hadn't completely patched over.

"So that's it. I take some form of soul or mental damage whenever I die," Noah realized. "Not permanent, from the looks of things."

He let out a sigh of relief.

"Thank god. There's a limit. That means it's not completely out of my control. Anything with no real limit is just limited by something you don't understand, and the price for this one doesn't seem too bad. Still… I want to know why I come back to life, and why it's at the gourd. Did that demon curse me? Did it also have a gourd that it just carried around? Damn. Too many questions."

Noah watched the tiny pieces of white void, but they weren't getting any larger. He was fairly certain that they were what was causing his headache as well. The fragmentation of his mind or soul – whichever he was currently in – couldn't have been painless.

Judging from the rate of healing on the previous damage, Noah was fairly certain that it took a few days to patch up a single death. As long as he kept himself from kicking the bucket more than that, he was pretty sure everything would be fine. It couldn't have been healthy to die more than once every few days anyway.

Noah returned to the center of his mindspace and approached the Vibration Rune. It let out a gentle hum as he approached. The Rune was brighter than it had been before, and Noah could feel the energy within it.

There was more without a doubt, though he still couldn't tell exactly how much. Noah's other Runes had all gained some energy as well, the full Wind Runes notwithstanding. He smiled in satisfaction.

Making progress felt good. Much better than the godawful rat race of being a teacher on Earth.

A faint pang of longing echoed through Noah's chest. He didn't miss the administration or the awful pay in the slightest, but his students had been one of the few memories that had actually kept him company during his long wait in the line.

He was sure they'd probably all forgotten him and were long dead by now, but that didn't change things in the slightest. Noah's hands clenched. It didn't matter whether he was on Earth or whatever planet this was.

Any students of his were going to have the best shot at life that they could.

Noah opened his eyes to the bathroom and turned away from the sink, heading back to the main room. He needed to –

A Slasher's ugly face peered at him from just beyond the window. Noah launched himself to the side and summoned a blade of wind to his hands, rearing back to throw it –

There was nothing in the window. Noah's heart bucked in his chest, beating violently as he stood still for several seconds. He slowly approached the window, the blade of wind still readied above his palm. There was nothing.

Noah let out a slow breath and tried to calm his racing nerves. He let several minutes pass and slowed his breathing, focusing on releasing the tension in his body.

I'm fighting too much if I'm starting to see things. Who would have thought that the human mind isn't exactly psychologically prepared for constant fighting and dying.

Noah remained there for a few more minutes before he was confident that he had complete control over himself again. There wasn't anything he could think of to do about the vision, so he turned his attention to more productive tasks. Noah sat down at his desk and pulled his grimoire out and set it down in front of him.

A thought struck Noah. He blinked, then started to smile.