James rubbed the sore spot on his face right where a fist had come into contact with it, the purple bruise right under his eye swelling as he touched it.
The bump was given to him by the girl who was currently sitting across from him, a rather lovely gift she gave to James in thanks for a snide comment he made after she suggested they 'get to know each other'.
How was he supposed to know she actually meant talking and not the other thing?
In any case, James was now in a rather uncomfortable situation, forced to get to know the girl who he saved and vice-versa over a delicious (not) meal in the infirmary's cafeteria.
His gaze flickering between the disgusting slop in front of him and the girl sitting across from him, James decided that breaking the ice with her would be the lesser of two evils.
"Okay, panda girl. How do you wanna do this?"
The girl pouted before pointing her thumb at her chest, puffing it up proudly. "I have a name you know. Thena."
"Thena... interesting name." James stuck out his hand, wincing as the sudden movement sent jolts of pain up his arm. "The name's James Damascus. And might I say, it is an absolute displeasure to make your acquaintance."
James flashed her a toothy grin to which Thena just rolled her eyes at, accepting his hand and shaking it all the same.
They then spent the better part of the next half hour just talking and getting along (not), James doing his best to avoid eating his gruel, a daunting task made harder by the head chef that stared daggers at him every second his mouth wasn't chewing.
It was honestly pretty mindless conversation that James would forget in one or two lives, at least until Thena brought up something that had been nagging James for quite some time now.
"Why hasn't the Magus Brigade arrived yet?"
James glanced around at the benches and tables around him, all packed to the brim with injured people from all walks of life. Or rather all walks of life that were unfortunate enough to be trampled on by a rampaging lizard.
Usually, the unfortunate fellows would be forced to endure even more pain in the form of a severe questioning and interrogation by the Magus Brigade, something James had quite a lot of experience in. Not that that was something he was particularly proud of.
While it was a relief that he wouldn't have to put up with the never-ending flood of questions the officers would throw at him, their absence was much more concerning to him.
"I don't know, but I do know I'll beat their ass if it turns out they were on some vacation retreat at the beach," James said in feigned annoyance.
That fake indignation quickly turned into a real one as Thena burst into giggles at his remark.
"Puh-lease, as if you could beat a member of the Magus Brigade." Thena waggled her eyebrows at him in unrestrained mirth, her icy eyes twinkling as she snickered at the thought of such a thing.
James just crossed his arms and gave her a dirty look, deciding it wasn't wise to tell her how he had single-handedly dispatched a whole platoon of officers a dozen or so lives back.
The one major problem with having to live different lives over and over again was that James lost bragging rights over all the amazing feats and accomplishments he had ever accomplished. He couldn't even tell it as a cool story to anyone, because in his present world, his past lives don't exist.
A conversation he had with Sera popped into his mind, a quick warning she had given him before he was thrust into his infinite curse of resurgence.
"There can only ever be two of you at a time. My powers can't handle any more than that, and neither can your soul. If not for your... unique constitution, you wouldn't even be able to split your being into two parts."
It was a rather simple concept really. One that he only fully understood once he reached his second life.
There could only ever be two of him existing in this world at the same time. During his second life, he was able to interact with his first life and communicate well with it. A rather easy task seeing as how he was pretty much just talking to himself.
However, accidents happen, and he ended up accidentally killing his first life in a much different way from how it had originally passed away. Let's just say that he was no longer fond of horses and hooves from that day onwards.
An interesting event happened instantaneously after that though.
If James was to describe it, it was like the world had collapsed around him and folded in on itself until it was just a tiny dot practically invisible to the naked eye. And then in the span of a few seconds, it expanded once more, bringing with it a surge of new information that seeped its way into his mind and added to his memories.
Even though he hadn't technically experienced it himself, he knew that the new and re-expanded world was different... altered. His first life no longer existed, and his memories now held new portions where he met up with a girl his age, his third life.
And that was basically how James' curse worked. Every time his previous life died, his current life would experience the change in the world, and new memories would be implanted within the current life.
It was disconcerting, to say the least. Like being tossed into a lake full of piranhas after you just got used to floating in a bathtub.
But James was flexible, and he eventually managed to get used to it.
Realizing he had spaced out, James shrugged off the thoughts of the past and focused on the present, as dismal as that present may be.
Breaking the awkward silence that had occurred when his thoughts drifted off and Thena stopped laughing, James indiscreetly started a new, yet not entirely unrelated, subject as he played around with his spoon. "I think the bigger question here is how a godsdamned igneel somehow managed to find its way right smack into the middle of this city, nesting in the kitchen of a cafe no less."
Thena leaned forward, a serious face replacing her previous amusement as she held her hands up in a 'stop right there!' gesture. "Did you just say that giant lizard came from inside a cafe? I thought it crawled out of the sewers or something."
An amusing image popped into his brain as James imagined the fire-breathing knockoff dragon trying to squeeze itself through a sewer grate.
James just shrugged in response. "Who knows? Maybe it did. All I know is that was where I saw it first."
A brief memory of the suspicious waitress he had encountered before he had rudely been thrown through a wall surfaced in his mind, James choosing to keep that piece of information to himself for the meantime.
Thena tapped her finger against her chin thoughtfully before pointing it at James, "Where is it now though? If that magical bullet you fired off couldn't kill it, and the Magus Brigade isn't around either, I doubt anyone in the city could even hope to get rid of it."
Another question to which James had no definitive answer. It was becoming an increasingly common occurrence that he really wasn't fond of.
"There haven't been any more reports of a giant lizard turning the city into its playground, so I guess it backed off for now."
A brief period of silence passed between the two of them, the only sounds being the monotonous hum of chatter from the other patients eating around them.
"Do you think all of this is connected? The igneel, the Magus Brigade's disappearance, teleportation spells not working..." Thena asked, her eyes dimming as she trailed off, deep in thought.
In any other situation, James would have said yes. But as he stared at the girl sitting across him, resting her hand on her chin as she gazed up at the ceiling, he got the feeling that if he confirmed her theory then she would no doubt poke her nose deeper into the mess in places where it didn't belong.
Despite how much she got on his nerves, James had taken a liking to the quirky girl. Not that he would ever tell her that.
"Probably not," James replied, hoping she wouldn't register the slight hint of hesitation in his voice. "This day is probably just a gigantic once in a blue moon coincidence."
If Thena didn't believe him, she didn't show it, the diamond-eyed girl instead choosing to yawn as she ran her hands through her silky smooth locks.
It annoyed James that she was in way better shape than he currently was, with her only suffering from a couple of nicks and bruises while he was wrapped up from head to toe in gauze and bandages.
His right arm had suffered the most damage, the third-degree burns on his back being a close second. As it turns out, getting your flesh ripped off was still more serious than getting it burned off.
'Most advanced city on the continent and none of the doctors at the infirmary can use advanced healing spells. I ought to sue these damn...'
"Call it a night?"
James glanced out a nearby window, staring at the inky night sky that hosted a field of brilliant glowing stars, not even registering how one star seemed to glow a bit brighter than the others.
"Sure."
Little did he know, his night wasn't ending anytime soon.
-[Unknown Location...]-
The foggy image of a cafeteria slowly fogged over and dissipated, the vision within the crystal ball vanishing without a trace.
Its owner, the man holding it in his grasp, chuckled dryly as he stared at the translucent orb in his palm.
His voice came out in a soft whisper, raspy and ragged like it was his first time talking after years of eating sand every day.
"Everything is going according to plan. Oh, how I pity you, my lord."
The man's eerie cackles resonated around the chamber he resided in, the sound echoing off the stone walls that surrounded him on all sides.
A dark figure stepped out of the corner as if emerging from the shadows, steadily walking towards the man laughing like a drain. As the figure got closer, its features became more prominent, the candles scattered around the giddy seer lighting up its face.
It didn't speak. Didn't move a muscle. But as soon as the man felt its presence, he instantly clammed up and dropped the orb in his hand.
The ball shattered against the rocky ground, crystal shards scattering all over the room before dissolving into a fine mist.
"Forgive me, my l-"
The man never got to finish his sentence, his limbs going limp like a puppet with cut strings. Dark ooze pooling around his lifeless body that slowly corroded everything it touched.
The figure paid no heed to the corpse in front of it, pivoting on its heel as it marched back the way it came.
With a simple snap of its fingers, the candles were snuffed out and the room was thrust into darkness, its lone inhabitant forgotten and buried.