Troy opened his eyes to find himself in a familiar darkness. Looking down he saw he was back in his original body. In fact… Troy’s mind felt completely clear as if he was freed from his previous role as Rusty’s Boyfriend.
Looking around, Troy began to walk around as he felt back to his normal self. Just like he was before. Before everything that had occurred with the damned Book of Beast. With his head clear, Troy could only grimace at the recollection of what he had done with Rusty.
“Man… I should’ve known better than to trust Dustin.” Troy thought as he finally found who he was he looking for.
Saphrina stood in the darkness, looked at Troy with contempt as he approached her.
“H-h-hey, Saphira.” He stuttered awkwardly.
“From what I can assume… you’ve made quite a mess in the first day you’ve had the Book of Beast.” She says annoyed.
“Oh! Yeah…” Troy let out an awkward chuckle as he turned his head in embarrassment. “You could say I made QUITE a mess of things.”
“I was hoping you would have been more responsible than that,” Saphrina states disappointed. “Nevertheless, I still seek your help.”
“About that… I’m not sure how helpful I’ll be back in the real world. See I kinda… changed things around and I highly doubt my new self will be eager to help.” Troy explained.
“He’d probably be more focused on getting as much dick as possible.” Troy thought as he felt himself shudder at the thought.
Saphrina sighed. “I wasn’t expecting to give you this information so quickly but seeing as I have no choice I’ll tell you a secret about the Seven Ancient Tomes.”
Troy ears perk up at what she just said.
“All books come with a Fail-Safe feature in the event of a necessary reversion.” Saphrina began to explain. “This feature allows one to return everything back to its original state before the book was used.”
“Woah! This sounds super helpful!” Troy said. “How do I use this feature?”
“One must use the book as if normal before stating “Revert and the name of their tome”, afterwards, everything will immediately return to it’s original state.”
“So all I have to do is say Revert Book of Beast and everything will be back to normal?” Troy asked a bit skeptical. He was surprised the answer was something so simple and that he hadn’t attempted it himself beforehand.
“Yes. But be mindful of two things. One: Stating the phrase will only reverse the effects up to that point. Assuming you mess up with the book again afterwards, you will have to state the phrase each time you want to return everything to normal.”
Troy nodded his head. Sounded easy enough. But he didn’t like how Saphrina had already assumed he was going to mess up again.
“And Two: Uttering this phrase uses your entire energy. You will immediately become unconscious after saying it as you begin to recuperate.”
“Wait so does it kill me?” Troy asked worried. Now he wasn’t sure if he was so willing to use it.
“No. But it will leave you in a vulnerable state for a few hours as you slowly recover your energy.” She reassured him.
“What’s the big deal? I’ll just say it and be back to normal,” Troy cockily stated.
“Uh… of course… along with everything else.” He added.
“Normally there would be no problem but I appeared in your dream to actually warn you that a book user is closely approaching your location.”
“Wait! Book user? I thought you said only one person stole the books.” Troy asked confused.
“Including you and the thief, it appears four of the books have been found and are currently being used. I predict the new users have already been informed of the other existing books and the untold power they gain when collecting all seven.”
“This is definitely starting to sound like the plot of an anime.” Troy thought as he heard Saphrina ramble.
“But… how did they find me?” Troy questioned her.
“All book users are immune to the powers of the other books. The Good News is that they can’t use their powers on you and that you can easily spot any changes made by their powers.” She explained. “The Bad News is the same can be said for any other book user.”
Troy slapped the side of his head. “Shit! I think I might have made a bit of a scene with all my reality shifting.”
“I most definitely agree.” She said, slightly amused. “Hopefully the approaching user will leave you alone if you give up your book. Although this means that you will have to stay as your new self. However, I can’t guarantee your safety, as the book users don’t appear to be so kind. I predict many will simply just use violence and murder to obtain a new book.”
“So… what do I do?”
“You must make the choice to either use the Fail-Safe feature or prepare yourself for the approaching book user. Upon waking you will only have a few minutes of clarity as your original self before succumbing to your new identity.” She tells him.
“Crap… I don’t know what to choose.” Troy said as he pondered over the difficult decision. He really wasn’t sure which one he should pick.
“You seem to be waking so you must quickly make your decision. Know that if you ever need me, you can find me in your dreams. Likewise, I will always seek you in your dreams when I have important news or information to share.”
Troy wasn’t able to get another word out as he suddenly awoke.