The new meeting room was smaller, simpler, and had a heavy, secure-looking door. Lance had led Max here alone, leaving all the others in the original conference room.

  Now Max studied his friend again across the glass table. It looked like Lance had put on a little bit of weight since the last time Max saw him in the Quartet, but not too much. In fact, he’d actually gained muscle, too. However, the toll of his leadership position visibly showed on his face, the same as Chad.

  Lance spoke first, "This room is clean. It's not bugged and I have people I trust who make sure it's secure."

  "Well, that's certainly helpful," said Max.

  "Why didn't you tell me you were coming?" Lance's expression almost looked pained. "I feel like I just about had a heart attack back there."

  "Well," said Max, "Actually I did try to let you know I was coming. It's kind of difficult for a no-name, brand new Challenger–a new Returner, to get a hold of one of the most powerful men in the world. Go figure. Even Chad tried. No dice."

  Lance facepalmed. "Still, from the moment you got here, I should have known. Someone should have told me.”

  “It's not like I was withholding my name, man," said Max. "Your people just didn't give a damn because the Trifecta Guild is on its way down."

  Lance's expression grew openly curious. "What is your relationship with the Trifecta Guild anyway?"

  "Ah, well, I wasn't able to tell you before because it was so beyond the norm," said Max. “The truth is that I actually returned to Earth before going back to the Quartet before."

  "You what?!" Lance yelled. He actually stood up from his seat, palms flat on the desk, an expression of absolute shock on his face. “When!?”

  “During the time I went to that dungeon. The one with giants.”

  “Seriously? Back to Earth!?”

  "Yeah, I was only back for like a couple days, but in that time, I was able to set up the Trifecta Guild, more or less."

  Lance slowly sat down and leaned his head back. "You know, I've actually seen the old news reports from the time period you have to be talking about. And I thought to myself, ‘That looks exactly like Max. And on top of that, he even fights exactly like Max!’ But then I reminded myself there was no way it could be you because you were in the Quartet." He lowered his head and gave Max a piercing stare. "Meanwhile, this motherfucker here had already been back to Earth, just taking joyrides around the galaxy and shit."

  Max shrugged. There wasn't much else he could say, except for the obvious. "I'm sure you can figure out why I had to keep it to myself."

  "Yes, I guess so," Lance sighed. "In fact, I'm also figuring the only reason you're telling me is because of what you did in the Quartet before leaving, and we're all eventually screwed now, right?”

  “Well, not all of us. Me for sure. I don’t think they’d come for you since I just sent you back and I never actually told you any gnarly secrets. The people from the Quartet probably wouldn’t go after our world. Hopefully. But either way, it's good for us to get as powerful as possible. And to also help other people get stronger too. Whether thugs from the Quartet come or not, it’s all moot if the monsters have already killed everyone."

  “From that perspective, wasn’t it selfish to do what we did? Come back to earth early?”

  “I don’t think so. You, with that sword, can help people a lot on Earth. I mean, you’re already where you are now–Guild leader of the Patriot Guild. I read a little bit that you almost held the line yourself a few times in the last two years, stopped monsters from advancing any further in Canada, Washington, and even down in Florida. As for me, if I have the time, I can raise an entire army to fight and take back the world. I have a lot more growing to do, too. Eventually, it might be me holding a line solo somewhere like you have. If we’d stayed in the Quartet normally, who knows if you would have made it back. I doubt I would have.”

  Lance shook his head. "It feels surreal to be talking to you after all this time, especially since I know that it was probably just like yesterday that you sent me back to Earth, right?"

  "Well, it was actually about a week or two ago," said Max. "Not long, though."

  Lance shook his head. "You know, sometimes I used to think about this day. I went back and forth between gratitude to you…and also resentment. Like, I'm sure you can figure out ways that a guy could feel like maybe he got screwed after seeing people who spent years and years in their Quartet, not aging… When that happened, I reminded myself that I made the choice to let you send me back and I do believe it's done a lot of good. I probably got back earlier than I otherwise would have. Now I've been back on earth for a while now. I have this sword, and I was able to basically save my country." He shook his head again.

  "I thought that by the time you got back to Earth, if you got back to Earth, I would be able to impress you by how powerful I've become. I mean, in all this time I've actually doubled the number of spirits I have. But you know what? They're not saying anything right now. They're all absolutely terrified of you and they're hiding in my soul space and they won't even tell me why. What the hell, man!?”

  Lance laughed a bit shrilly and touched his sword. "For some reason, it's reminding me, pretty hardcore, that without you and without this sword, I might not even be B-rank."

  "I don't know about that," said Max. "If you have twice the number of spirits now, you might be crafty with how you use them, too."

  "Oh, come on," said Lance. "We both know that I've never been super talented at fighting. It’s true I've gotten a lot better at it over the last few years since, you know, circumstances. But this sword," he shook his head. "There are less than five people on this entire planet who know how powerful this sword is, and two of them are guild members that I have absolute trust in. They help me constantly shield it from anybody noticing or discovering what it actually is. If the world knew about this sword, even though the Patriot Guild is one of the largest and strongest guilds in the world, and even though monsters are all over the place…People would come for us. It would be war. I would bet everything that I have that I’d get attacks and assassins regularly for this damn thing. But you know what? Without it, I wouldn't even have a country anymore."

  Lance smiled, but there was no humor in it. "This is kind of my life now, Max. I never knew how heavy and crushing this kind of responsibility could be. You know, after I first got back to Canada, the whole country hadn't been taken over yet. I was lucky–I didn't come back, Return, deep in monster territory. But back then, it was still just one gut punch after another.

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  “My girlfriend was dead. My daughter, nobody knew where she was. And I've been paying private investigators and divination Challengers for the last two years to try to find out. I have no closure. I don’t know what happened to my baby girl! Even with all the money and magic I have, I don’t have any…no closure! And now, yeah, I'm probably one of the most powerful men in my country. Maybe, actually, probably the most powerful man in my country. I am one of the richest men on the planet. I could get almost any woman I want and you know what? I have no motivation. I just keep thinking of my daughter. I keep thinking of my girlfriend, protecting her till the last, like I heard she did. It eats at me. I feel so fucking guilty for dating in the Quartet now. And I just don't have any more tears left to cry. But what's worse, I don't have any free time either. So even if I wanted to spend time drinking or with women or whatever, I just don't have the time. It's not even me being selfless because if I don't save everybody else, I'm fucked too."

  Lance rolled his eyes at himself, got up from the little table, and went to a sideboard to pour himself a shot of whiskey. He returned to his seat and threw the drink back.

  "I'm so glad you're back, man. And it's not just because I'm seeing a friend. And it's not just because I probably owe you. No, actually no ‘probably’ about it. I definitely owe you more than anyone else in this entire life. Do you know the main reason I'm so happy to see you back?"

  "No," said Max quietly.

  Lance played with the shot glass on the table, rolling it around gently. Finally, he said, "You are the guy who walked into the Quartet with your unshakable attitude and your snappy comebacks. And when anybody tried to push you into a corner, you just slammed your big magical dick on the table and murdered the fuck out of anybody who crossed you. I still don't think you understand what kind of mythical status you were building in the Quartet. In fact, even to the end, the way you left and the amount of rumors there would probably be about it, it boggles the mind. If the Summoner Academy still exists in a couple hundred years, they'll be talking about you until the end of days."

  "Not necessarily," said Max. He sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. "There were a lot of things I was keeping to myself before because certain knowledge is dangerous. But now that you might be on somebody's hit list too, I'm not sure how much I should hide from you anymore. I guess I'll leave it up to you."

  Lance blinked. "Wait a minute. You're asking me whether I want you to tell me something I don't know right now… and I don't even know how dangerous it would be to know."

  "That's right," said Max. "I actually have a few things like that."

  "Oh, hell," sighed Lance. He ran his fingers through his hair and laughed. "Is one of those things why all my spirits are scared shitless right now?"

  "Well, that's one of them," said Max.

  "Okay, I want to know, but not right now. Too much right now. Maybe you can tell me later if we survive a few months. For the moment, I need to run this giant ass pain in the ass guild. I need to make sure that the rest of my country doesn't get destroyed, and also watch the United States so we don’t get flanked. Also, why the hell is Alaska part of the US? That makes no sense, and now I need to watch it, too. Even the monsters don’t really seem to want it, but it’s not like there are many Alaskans to defend it.

  “Oh, and I need to lead my own people in other countries, teleporting there sometimes so the world doesn't get destroyed because, again, if the entire world falls, Canada's gonna fall too. And now that I've seen you again, I've been reminded that I've been slacking on my training. Because based on my spirit's reaction right now, I think that I might have possibly even underestimated how strong you were before. And by my estimations, you were already S-rank when we left the Quartet."

  "Something like that," Max admitted. "But, I need to get stronger too. Like, fast."

  "Why ? Don't get me wrong, I believe you will get stronger regardless, but you’re already strong. You are already going to be a major player in how we end up winning the world back, but it sounds like you want to get stronger by like, tomorrow."

  "Well, maybe not that early," said Max, "mainly because I can't swing it that fast. But I think that my next order of business after meeting with you is going to be heading back to Vegas to destroy a guild.”

  “A powerful one?"

  "Yes," said Max, his tone serious.

  Lance laughed and even slapped his thigh. "Man, it's been a few years, so I forgot what it was like to be friends with you.”

  “What's that supposed to mean?”

  “You're the miracle man so you wouldn't understand. All I can say is one of the first things you learn–anybody who is your friend–is they need to never compare themselves to you or it’s bad for their self-esteem. Some of use used to have almost like a support group back in the Quartet. We’d drink liquor and tell each other it’s okay we aren’t like Max."

  Max didn't know how to respond to that so he changed the subject. "I don't know how much time you have, but you seemed busy before. So I'll get to the most important thing I need to talk to you about today."

  "All right, shoot," said Lance.

  "Okay, I need you to do me a favor. Actually, a few favors. First, I want you to start supporting the Trifecta Guild. You can make it public or not, I don't care, but don't let them fall.”

  “Financial or other support?”

  “Both, said Max. “Don’t worry, it won’t be an endless money pit, the guild will end up doing better in the near future. You have my word on that.”

  He lifted an eyebrow and Lance slowly nodded. Max continued, “Second, it took entirely too long to fly here today. With you being you and your guild being your guild, I want you to put me in touch with teleporters or the people that handle the teleporters. Full rights, whatever permissions it is you've got. Third, I want you to personally sponsor me. Money, influence when I need it, the works. Eventually, it’ll be up to you how public you want to make that, but keep it on the downlow for right now. And that ties in to the last favor. I need you to keep who I am secret or at least not announce it to the world yet. Some of the people that you employ are probably going to figure it out, especially since you've already been looking for me. But there's a big difference between a handful of Patriot Guild people knowing versus you having a press conference."

  Lance was quiet for a few seconds, just looking down at his hands. "That sounds a lot more like orders than favors," he said.

  Max shrugged one shoulder. "I'm thinking of them as favors. Of course, you'd be kind of a piece of shit not to do what I’ve asked after everything I've done for you." He smiled to show that he was not completely serious. But he knew Lance well enough to know the man would acknowledge the truth.

  "No need to be a hard ass," said Lance. "I was going to do it anyway. It's just weird to be the leader of the Patriot Guild, constantly having people kiss your ass, but then your friend comes back and it reminds you that you're just a dude with a really powerful sword." He laughed at himself and ran a hand down his face. "Honestly, Max, seriously…I don't know if you can understand this, but it feels so good to have you back. I'm not putting myself down. I've done a lot of things in this position that I didn't think I'd ever be able to do and I've actually accomplished some things I'm really proud of. So it's not like I want to be a little puppy and follow you around and force you to make all the hard decisions. I understand what a burden that is. But at the same time, God, it's good to have someone around again that I can trust and who I can lean on. It usually just feels like everyone is leaning on me.”

  Now it was Max's turn to be embarrassed. He rubbed his hair and said, "Well, you know, I'll do what I can. Actually, speaking of friends, I forgot another favor. I still need to figure out how to get Momo–”

  Lance cut him off. "I've already been working on that. Actually, I don't exactly know how your powers work or what powers you have to begin with, but I have a few Patriot Guild members who have all sorts of weird Paths and knowledge. So, whenever you get the chance to talk to them, I've had them preparing for almost a year to work with you on getting our friends to Earth."

  Max's eyes widened in surprise and appreciation. "Wow, Lance, you really have been busy. You're kind of the MVP of the day, damn."

  "Go ahead, compliment me more," said Lance. He held up one hand as if waving to a crowd. His other hand waved his fingers in the air in a 'come on' gesture.

  "Don't push it buddy," said Max. "I could still drop kick you through the wall and show everybody who taught you how to fight in the first place."

  "Yeah, yeah. ‘There's always a bigger fish,’" said Lance. He scratched his cheek and got a distant expression. "Actually, now I feel even dumber for not believing myself that it was you in that old portal-closing video before and also not recognizing the connection to the Trifecta Guild. I mean, the Trifect Guild–some of them actually fight really similar to how I do, don't they?"

  "Well, duh," said Max. "I taught all of you guys after all."

  "Damn," said Lance. He shook his head and put his head in his hand and closed his eyes. "I missed so much. But I guess it just shows what someone can miss when they’re trying to keep the entire world from burning."