Several hours later, Carmen and I were in our dorm room. It wasn’t too bad actually – not too unlike a hotel room. There was a three-quarter bed – about six inches smaller than a double – against the wall, with a bare desk and a bedside table on one side, and a wardrobe on the other. Opposite the bed was a closet room and the wet room with a toilet. A small hallway led to the front door, outside which, two marines had been stationed.

  All of us had been fed lunch earlier. Basmati rice and chicken curry in the mess hall, under the watchful gaze of the armed marines watching us. There were a bunch of marines and sailors sat around the other tables, all casting furtive glances in our direction as we ate.

  Then we’d been led to our dorm rooms. Kian had been reunited with his family, Charlotte and her parents with her brother. They were probably spending the time together right now, though I didn’t know if they were each sharing rooms with their respective families. Kaelyn was the only one on her own. I hoped she was okay. She was none too pleased about the knife not being returned to her.

  Lying behind me on the bed, Carmen was in a baggy t-shirt that stretched to the middle of her thighs, an apple in one hand, a Royal Marines fitness training manual in the other. She’d showered earlier, as had I, and then we let time pass by. Not in the way couples might do when they had a room to themselves. Who knew how thin the walls were, and frankly – neither of us was in the mood.

  We didn’t have any screens to use either – we’d found out that the System was using our satellites to beam images of the battle from across the world. It did say it would be screened, though I did wonder what kind of technology there was on these other worlds and how they would be watching it. For Earth though, anything using those satellites was out of commission. Phones, internet, TV. We were relying on our backup tech from the twentieth century, but across the world, communications were limited to the government and military. Good luck to everyone else trying to get hold of their loved ones.

  Instead, Carmen and I spoke a bit. Nothing serious – a memory of a good time here, having a laugh at each other’s expense there. We strictly stayed away from speaking about the bad times. Maybe that was the best way forwards together. Let the past be the past. The only serious discussion we had was making some plans as to what to do if the outcome of the conversation with the Fleet Commander wasn’t in our favour.

  Which is why I was sat at the foot of the bed, staring at the [Gravity Circle] and the [Frost Circle] I had placed on the floor in front of me. At their two metre radii, a quarter of the circles cut through the bed on either side of me, Carmen’s feet inside the [Gravity Circle], though the ten second effect would have worn off long ago.

  With so much time on our hands and being able to be relatively safe for the first time in thirty-six hours, I figured the best thing to do was to try and understand the power at my fingertips. The Divine Artifact was the key here. Iriana had said so. I believed it. I could become the most powerful person on the planet.

  Given the rest of the Divine Artifact holders were members of the Pantheon, I supposed I could rise to be one of the most powerful in the universe in time. Not that I was thinking that far ahead, nor did I want to be in such a position. Power came with its own difficulties. But I did need to become powerful enough to defeat the other Champions. To ensure Earth was the sovereign planet, not the vassal.

  I concentrated on the two circles, trying to see if I could glean any information that would help me work my time threads better. I mean – fundamentally, the circles were magic, right? What else could they be? Somehow, the System was allowing everyone – well, I suspected everyone – access to mana threads, but not in a way we could control. It was like a PC. Most people would just go to the shops and buy one, but there were those few who enjoyed getting the individual components to build one. I was one of those. And that’s what I figured the abilities and enhancements were. System-packaged mana threads, ready-to-use.

  Yet, I couldn’t see anything other than the thin circles and their colour. They literally were just thin circles with a colourful glow – the gravity one was a light grey or perhaps silver, the frost spell was a light shade of green, like the water off a tropical island. But it made me consider the anchor points I made when tagging objects to reverse their time. I looked at the bare light-brown wooden panels between my circles. Up until now I’d been tagging moving objects but maybe the anchor points didn’t need moving objects? How else could these circles exist?

  I looked at Carmen over my shoulder. Maybe if I understood how the anchor points were applied, I could understand how to place them. Carmen took a bite from the apple and without looking up from her book, she said, “What’s up?”

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “Can I borrow you for an experiment?”

  She looked at me over the rim of the book. I gave her an innocent doe-eyed look. She returned it with an exasperated one. “What is it?”

  See, told you the doe-eyed look didn’t work for men.

  “I’m going to tag you, then I need you to just walk over to the table and stay there ‘til I say so.”

  With a sigh, she took another bite of the apple, crunching it really loudly as she put the book down. “Say when, master.”

  “Oh, shut it,” I barked back, twisting to face her, sitting with a bent leg on the bed. She giggled, with a mischievous glint in her hazelnut eyes and those beautiful dimples curving through her cheeks.

  I tagged her. It felt natural now. Like breathing. I just simply wanted it to happen, targeted where, and there it was. A small, clear ball around her midriff. I nodded at her but concentrated on the anchor points. As she got off the bed and walked over to the table, I studied the construction. Small, clear ball hovering above the bed at the point where she had lain, then the thin, clear thread leading to another small, clear ball where I’d placed it on her originally. Or perhaps it had placed itself when I willed it. Perhaps it understood what I was trying to do.

  “Give me a minute,” I said to her as I studied the anchor points and the thread versus the circles. I knew the circles stayed in place until the effect wore off. The mana to do so was coming from somewhere. It had to be. Was mana being continuously channelled? By the System perhaps? That’s how I had kept that wolf from attacking me back on the porch of that house when the USP began. I had continuously channelled mana then, but looking at both circles, I wondered…

  I turned back to Carmen, who had decided to pretend she was a puppet, bringing a small smile to my face. “Almost done.”

  I channelled mana, watching the turquoise thread spread from the Divine Artifact. It was acting like a focus for the mana. At first, I tried to guide the thread towards the anchor point on the bed, but it refused. I was able to get the thread there, but it would not enter the ball, so I guided it to the anchor point on Carmen’s end. I had no problems getting it to enter the small, clear ball there but instead of pushing it through the clear thread to the other end like I had been doing, I just filled the ball with as much mana as I could. Once it seemed like it would burst if I tried to force any more mana in, I cut my channelling. The mana stayed in the ball.

  As I looked at that turquoise ball, I thought back to my studying days. To protons and electrons. Magnets. Electrical loops. Could I apply the same principles here? I glanced over at the gravity circle. It made sense to me. That it was some sort of circuit with a predefined amount of mana and some sort of trigger for the effects. Maybe that degree of mine would come in handy after all.

  I looked at the mana-filled anchor point on Carmen’s body and willed for the anchor points – and the thread that connected them – to be a closed loop and for the mana to travel back and forth between both points. Before my eyes, Carmen moved in reverse, in real-time, back to the bed, but the anchor point near the table stayed where it was this time. Once Carmen reached the anchor on the bed, she moved forwards again back towards the table, stopping at the anchor point, but continuing her movements, standing there at first, then doing the puppet poses, until the point at which I willed the reversal. Once she reached that point, she began to reverse again.

  It continued like that for several minutes, but each time she looped, the mana inside the thread lessened, until the loop eventually stopped with Carmen back near the table. There was still a slight bit of mana inside the anchor point, but it wouldn’t have been enough for a half-loop, let alone a full one. The anchor points and connecting thread didn’t disappear though. I channelled some more mana towards the anchor point to refill it, and it worked. But I didn’t start the loop again, instead willing the anchors and the connection to disappear, which they did.

  Carmen was still making puppet poses, although it looked more like a robot dance, one arm swinging then stopping, before the other arm did the same thing. I smiled at her, all my teeth gleaming and she stopped mid-swing.

  “What? Have you started? Why do you look so happy?” she frowned slightly, then drew her arms in like I was a creep, as she gave me a cheeky smile. It made me laugh out loud.

  “What is it?” she asked, coming closer to me and getting caught in the [Gravity Circle].

  Shit. I forgot to get rid of the circles. I did it immediately but still needed to wait the ten seconds for the effect to wear off, but it just made me laugh more. I was giddy.

  I looked at her beautiful eyes in that beautiful face. “I think I’m learning how to do magic.”

  She cocked her head and smiled. “So, you’re super powerful now?”

  “Well, maybe not super powerful,” I replied, walking over to her and drawing her in for a hug. “But I’m on the way. I feel hopeful. For the first time since this started, I feel like I’m gaining control.”

  Then came a knock at the door that drew our attention. I left Carmen by the table, as I walked over and opened the door.

  There was a towering figure outside, a good several inches taller than me with a body that looked carved from rock, and a head to match. He had black hair in a buzz cut, partially hidden by the green beret on his head that featured a badge that read ‘By Strength and Guile’. He had striking blue eyes and a trimmed beard, dotted with spots of white, and was wearing soldier fatigues.

  “I’m Captain Davies. You have ten minutes, then you need to get out here. These gentlemen will show you where you need to go.”

  Then he started walking away. I quickly walked outside, though the marines stopped me from going further. “Wait. Where are we going?”

  The captain didn’t wait.

  “We’re going hunting.”