Three figures made their way through the woods. One was small and scurried around like a spider. Another was fat and hulking, shaking the ground with each step. The last was tall and lean, moving like a piece of paper blowing through the wind.
The small one was Four. The fat one was Six. The thin one was Thirteen.
Four had been told to go to the village while Six and Thirteen had been told to find three men running through the woods heading toward the location of the dungeon, but as Doctor had said, Thirteen was unreliable.
So when Four split off from the group, Thirteen did something unpredictable and followed Four instead of Six.
~~~
Bren was in Albert’s office, sorting through his paperwork. No one knew this, but he was responsible for most of the management that went on at the guild. Albert just wasn’t suited for the job, but his appearance and power made him a good figurehead, and he was a natural leader, so that made him the boss.
Unfortunately, being boss also meant dealing with paperwork, and Albert just didn’t have the skills for that.
Bren sighed as he cleaned up the papers around the room, stacking them and filling them away. Once he was done, he picked up the picture frame Albert had put down and looked at it. He’d been much younger in that photo. He remembered the day it’d been taken. It was before he’d settled down. Back when he’d been a simple assassin rather than the stiff man in the black suit, as everyone at the guild knew him. He put the picture back down and straightened his tie out.
Breaker and Elise. Where had things gone wrong? They shouldn’t have died that day.
“Sir! Sir!”
A man burst into the room, panting. “Two unidentified creatures have been reported moving towards the village at rapid speeds!”
“Mana beasts?”
“No one knows what they are. Completely different than anything we’ve ever seen.”
“Send out an emergency shelter alert. Get the townspeople to go to the church or to hide themselves away. Ring the bells. Now.”
His voice never raised above a conversational level, but the urgency was present nonetheless. The man saluted and sprinted out, leaving Bren alone. He cursed as he unsheathed his knives, checking the sharpness of the blades. This situation wasn’t a coincidence. It couldn't be. Not with Albert leaving not more than a few hours ago.
This was a planned attack.
That meant that there was still a spy. Someone was still reporting information. But who? No one had known that they were going to the dungeon, save for Albert, Danjo, Fate and the girl.
Could the girl have… no, they’d kept an eye on her. She hadn’t left her room all week.
Then how?
“Where are they?” Bren said quietly.
“Just north. Approaching the gates.”
“Take me there.”
He melted into the shadows as the man ran out of the room, sending off messengers. Two unidentified creatures. He’d been there when Fate had given his report.
If these things were chimeras… they were in for a bad time.
~~~
“They’re coming for you. Are you nervous?”
“Have you considered the following?”
“If you’re going tell me to kill myself, I might do something unpleasant. You wouldn’t want that, would you?”
John was sitting in his cell, having been reduced to a meat doll after Breaker had had his way with him. Since healing wasn’t really anyone’s strong suit, John had been left in that state ever since he’d received his “discipline”. Doctor had come in many times to do several tests, but each time, John responded the same way, so no real progress had been made. All they knew was that John’s mental state was still exactly the same. Their torture wasn’t working. And Doctor was getting a little annoyed.
At some point during their conversations, John had adapted to telling Doctor to off himself at least once. There was no point to it, but it made John feel a little better, so he kept doing it anyway. It seemed, however, that he had no other insults left in him, so Doctor was getting quite tired of it.
“Do you not care for them? They’re your comrades.”
John shrugged. “They’re gonna win. Why do I need to care?”
“You’re so confident. I can’t wait for you to watch them die.”
John chuckled. “Die? Them? There’s no way. That’s what every third rate villain says before they get booty blasted off the face of the planet.”
John wasn’t even bothering to hide it anymore. Doctor was getting on his nerves too much. He was so close to just saying everything he knew. Why did it matter if Doctor knew what he knew? What was Doctor going to do with that information? Nothing. Besides, there was always the option of [Reset]. Doctor’s ego was just getting to be too much for him.
“I am the main character of this world. Don’t you forget it, fool.”
Doctor turned and walked away from John’s cage.
“He does have some [Deus Ex Machina] energy, John,” Zero reminded him as their captor left. “Don’t you wanna do something about it?”
“Yeah? And? I couldn’t care less at this point,” John groaned. “Just get me outta here.”
“You could get yourself out of here.”
“Not motivated enough.”
“In the literal sense?”
“What do you think?”
The two sat there in silence, waiting for whatever would come next.
~~~
The town was silent. Everyone had evacuated in one way or another. The church was willing to shelter people, but they wouldn’t send any paladins. This wasn’t an issue related to demons or devils, so they could only protect those in need. A small group of brave adventurers had gathered to help Bren. Seeing the guild master’s right hand man gave everyone a bit of hope, but there were also whispers of where the guild master himself was.
“Everyone, be careful! Don’t do anything stupid. If you need to run, run,” Bren said. Those were his only orders.
Everyone watched tensely as the sounds of skittering got closer and closer. It was a terrible sound, like hundreds of insects climbing through your ears. The soft tics kept growing and growing, causing a few of the adventurers present to involuntarily shudder in disgust. Suddenly, the sounds stopped.
“What the-”
Out of nowhere, Thirteen appeared as if it’d somehow bent the rules of reality and moved from the second dimension to the third. It used a paper thin arm to slice the head off an adventurer, then folded onto itself and vanished once again.
“What the-”
Bren unsheathed his knives, crouching low to analyze the situation, but the damage had been done. The adventurers had been thrown into a panic. Suddenly, a stream of acid shot out in the form of a rope, grabbing onto another adventurer.
“H- help me! Someone!”
The rope retracted to the source, which was being hidden by a wall. Skittering sounds followed, the man yelling even louder, and then there was silence. The man’s body fell back into the open, the head bitten off.
“Run!” Bren yelled. “Survive!”
He dipped into the shadows and moved to the building the adventurer had been killed behind. He couldn’t do much about the thin one, but perhaps he could deal with this once.
There was a lot of yelling, but it was helping him. As the adventurers ran around, he was able to jump from shadow to shadow, making his way unseen. When he finally reached his location, he froze. He was lucky he wasn’t visible.
It was a humanoid being, seemingly female in appearance, but instead of arms, it had eight spider like appendages. The legs were like those of a wolf, and it had eight eyes and fangs dripping with blood. Bren surpressed the urge to throw up.
Slipping behind the monster, he quickly appeared and unsheathed both knives, intending to plunge them into the creature’s neck, but its appendages stopped him. The creature’s head slowly turned around, ignoring the physics of a human body as it rotated 180 degrees to face him, cracking and popping sounds piercing the air as it did so.
“Rule number one. Don’t stand still when facing an assassin.”
Bren flicked his finger, chanting a quick spell before a dozen shadow spikes rose from the ground, impaling the monster. It screeched as it shot up, but no blood poured out of it.
Bren grunted as he held his knives out, watching the monster. Now wasn’t the time to hold back. Chanting another spell, he forced a shadow to shoot out of the ground, stretching towards the chimera, merging itself with its shadows. He slipped into it and rode it up, then landed in the shadow of the chimera.
“You can’t survive this!” he yelled, his arm coming out of the chimera’s body and plunging a knife into the creature’s back. It screeched once again, its appendages flailing around as it tried to get rid of its opponent, but Bren was safely hidden in the shadows.
Like Fate had informed him, the creature wasn’t very bright.
Bren jumped back out of the shadows, falling to the ground. He had just enough time to see half a dozen dead adventurers on the ground, their bodies sliced to bits.
“Shit,” he cursed. This one chimera was hard enough as it was.
How could he deal with two? All the B rank and above adventures were out on missions right now. A lot of them had left due to the appearance of Draco Wynton. A bunch of C rank adventurers couldn’t-
Wait a minute. The girl.
“Hey! You!” Bren yelled, making his way over to the initial messenger that had brought him here.
“Bren! Sir! You can deal with this, right?”
“No time for that. Listen to me now. There is a girl in this inn, she’s staying in this room. Do you understand? I need you to go there immediately and tell her to come here.”
“But-”
“Just do it. I will not tolerate any more”
The pressure coming from Bren’s aura was too much. The messenger didn’t question Bren’s words twice and wrote down the info, then dashed off, leaving Bren to fend for himself once again. Unfortunately, the chimeras were attracted by the running messenger, who’d gotten a little distracted with what was going on behind him.
“No!” he yelled, chanting a spell as he teleported through the shadows, appearing in front of the messenger just before the thin chimera appeared. Bren almost fully blocked an attack.
Almost.
A deep cut was drawn in his right arm, bleeding profusely.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
“Sir-”
“Just go!”
The man scurried off, leaving Bren to face the chimeras on his own.
~~~
Fate’s group had no way of knowing what was going on at the village. They assumed that they were the only ones in danger. This was probably for the better. They didn’t need more on their plate, and it wasn’t like they could do anything for the village now anyway.
“You boys good?”
“Y-yes.”
“Yes sir.”
“Good. Drink some water, ready up, and we’ll head in-”
They stopped as the ground began to rumble.
“What is that?” Danjo said in a quiet voice.
Albert and Fate scanned the area, but they couldn’t see anything. One thing was for sure, though. The vibrations were getting stronger. The sound was getting louder.
“Danjo, get to cover.”
“I can-”
“Not this time,” Fate whispered. “Not when we don’t know what we’re going up against.”
Danjo complied and hid himself away. On Fate’s orders, Kit jumped off and scurried toward Danjo to keep him safe, leaving only Albert to stand alongside Fate.
“How close to this dungeon are we?” Fate muttered.
“Pretty close. This might be a guard or something.”
“Do you know of any mana beasts that make this kinda sound?”
“None that we wouldn’t see immediately.”
The fat chimera burst out, felling multiple trees in its way. The thing was truly massive, an abomination of nature. It had bear like arms and feet, with an overly large torso that had some kind of turtle shell on the back. Its head was similarly covered by some kind of shell. The parts hadn’t been put together cleanly, though. It took another step, and the ground rumbled again.
“What the- what is that thing?!” Albert yelled.
“Chimera, I think! It’s strong! Watch out!”
Fate knew first hand. A chimera was potentially as strong as a baby Mythic. That was around the level of an S class adventurer. No, not even. Maybe even stronger. Back when he’d fought the other chimeras, he’d struggled. A lot of factors had gone into him winning.
But now, Albert was here. Surely they had the advantage.
That was wishful thinking. Fate had no way of knowing the chimera he’d faced before was incomplete.
“Ready?” Albert yelled. “I’ll tank it! Find a way to kill it!”
“Roger that!”
With a roar, the monster came charging at them, the ground shaking with every step.
However, Albert roared just as loudly, charging forward, axes in hand. The two met in the middle, axes clashing against claws. Neither gave any ground, the trees around them shattering at the force of the blow.
“Fate! Now!”
Fate took a deep breath and augmented his feet with wind, leaping upwards. He focused on his blade, pouring his will into it. His goal was to slice. Slice so deep that it would cut the multiple souls inside the monster. With a cry, his blade began to shine as his unique ability activated. The blade came down, shining brightly…
Only for it to bounce off the monster’s shells.
“Kh- that shell’s gotta be harder than mythril!”
“Harder than mythril, huh… then I can smash it, right?”
“Well, yes, but-”
“Then let’s do it!”
Charging forward again, Albert swung his axes in a flurry, matching the chimera blow for blow. Despite his lack of magic, his physical talent and strength were so incredible that he matched the creature in physical prowess.
“Fate! Distract it!”
“On it!”
Chanting quickly, Fate summoned a volley of fireballs, launching them one after another at the chimera. It didn’t do much other than annoy the monster, much like a mosquito might annoy a human, but it was still a distraction.
A single opening was all Albert needed. The chimera was forced to raise a hand to block as an axe flew toward its face, but that was just what Albert was looking for. Without hesitation, he smacked the other limb away, then crouched down and leapt up, shattering the ground as he rapidly approached his destination.
“Fate! Boost me!”
“Go!”
Fate chanted as a gust of wind propelled Albert forward. Albert reoriented himself midair to grab onto the monster’s head, then raised his fist and brought it down. There was a loud crack as the shell was shattered. The monster shook, shaking Albert and the axes off, but they’d done it.
The shell was gone.
“Good. You can slice it now, right?”
“Yeah, it’ll be a piece of cake from-”
Fate stopped as the shell began to grow back.
“I think you should refrain from speaking before it’s over,” Albert said in a low voice as the chimera got back up.
~~~
Prota shot up as the door to her room burst open.
“Are you Prota Char?”
Prota stared at the man with wide eyes, nodding slowly.
“You gotta come with us! The master’s right hand man, Bren. You know him, right? He’s out there! We’re all out there, getting slaughtered! You gotta help us!”
Prota stared at the man. She needed to help them? What was going on?
“I guess you need to orient yourself. We’re at the north gate of the village. Please, get there as quickly as possible!”
Prota watched as the man left in a hurry. Go out? Help? Help what? What was she supposed to do here? She thought about it. She could go out. But then she might also die. Ultimately, there was no point, right? If she went out now, she might be tempted to go to the dungeon. And John had told her to live.
She’d wanted to go for a while now.
“Seriously, I’m risking a lot being here. I’m going to have a lot less energy in the dungeon now. You did get my map, right?”
In the end, Prota chose to stay at home. It was what she believed to be best. She was no longer as depressed, but still, even if she went out, wouldn’t she just be a liability? She wanted to go out, though. She wanted to grab her staff and cloak and leapt into the battle. She could clean up here, then go to the dungeon, and… no.
No more mistakes.
To make sure she wouldn’t be tempted, she got up and grabbed her staff. The urge to leave was strong, but she put it away under her bed, where it would be out of sight. Her cloak was next. She picked it up and shook it, dusting it off, with the intent to put it in the closet.
Something fell out.
It was small. She wouldn’t have noticed it if it hadn’t made a sound when it dropped. She paused, then put her cloak on the ground and searched. It wasn’t easy to find, but after a while, she noticed it. A small pawn, made of the same colour of wood as the floor. Where did she get this from? How long had it-
Oh. That was right. The chess game she’d played against Fate.
A twinge of guilt shot through her nearly closed off heart as she put her cloak away. She couldn’t help but look back and remember her mistakes, even though she’d technically made very few. Laying down on her bed, she continued to hold the pawn, turning it over and over as if it would reveal some kind of secret message.
There was no such thing.
Closing her eyes, she played back the memory of the dungeon they’d been in. The chess game she’d played. Why did she have this pawn? Why had she picked it up?
“Look. Chess isn’t real life. Real battle doesn’t have rules. There’s no king to capture. Real combat is a lot more messy than chess.”
John’s voice. She’d gotten so used to it that she hadn’t noticed how much she missed it.
“In chess, sacrificing pawns is usually just part of the game. Stories will make all sorts of analogies about this. A pawn can become a queen. Pieces need to be sacrificed to win. The threat of a piece can be worse than using the piece itself. All sorts of stupid junk that was deep and wise at one point before it became overused and boring.”
Sacrifice… right. Sacrificing pawns. Then why had she picked it up?
“I don’t give a fuck about any of that. Prota. Victory in chess is defined by capturing the king. However, your version of victory can be whatever you want it to be.”
“If your version of victory means you don’t sacrifice anything, then don’t sacrifice anything. If your victory is the utter defeat of the opponent, no matter what, then sacrifice everything. You need to decide what ‘victory’ is to you.”
Victory. Right. What was victory to her?
You know you want to save him. You can’t make mistakes. What are you waiting here for?
“I’m just going to mess things up.”
“Don’t wanna hear it. Look, I’m no chess grandmaster or anything, but typically, if you’re gonna lose a pawn or a better piece, you usually ditch the pawn. Do you get what I’m saying?”
“The least important pieces can get lost first.”
Prota’s eyes snapped open.
“Prota. Then, for me, you can’t die, ok? No matter what. Unless you know, for sure, that I’m dead, you absolutely cannot die, alright?”
Had he known? What was going to happen? John. Was he the sacrificial pawn?
“...” Prota looked at the pawn in her hands. It wasn’t any different than it’d been before, but somehow, it held a whole new meaning.
Victory. Victory would be decided by her. That was right. She’d been so reliant on [Resets] saving John that she’d forgotten the most useful aspect of a [Reset]. The ability to undo your mistakes.
In a flurry, she grabbed her staff and cloak, then picked up the scrunched up map Kit had given her and scanned it. In an instant, the map in her system showed her where to go. First, the north gate.
Then, the dungeon. She’d take this into her own hands. If she died trying to get to John, then she would die. She would be the sacrificial pawn instead. And if that was a mistake, then all they had to do was try again. It didn’t matter if she was a liability. It didn’t matter if she messed things up.
Right. [Reset] was a curse. It made John think in a certain way.
But in the end, it was also a blessing.
The rest is up to you.
~~~
“What the hell’s shaking up there?” John grumbled.
Doctor was tying him to a cross like object. John had been injected with some sort of healing serum, but it wasn’t like he was perfectly fine. Because of this, Doctor didn’t bother to tie him up too tight. Thankfully, [Determination] had been activated, so it didn’t hurt, but John was annoyed that he wasn’t allowed to use his powers.
“...[Infinity] has been disabled for an unspecified period of time. What kinda bullshit is this?”
“That would be one of my little projects,” Doctor grinned as he continued to tie John up. “I am placing trust in your comrades’ abilities. It wouldn’t do for them to die before they get here.”
“I might just kill myself before you get to doing it first. Please stop talking. What are you going to do next, give me a monologue about your tragic backstory?”
Doctor paused. “Tragic? Far from it. My life is wonderful. I told you, I am a god. Why would my life be terrible? So many things to play with. So many little bugs to crush. Everything I do brings me entertainment. Why would my life be tragic?”
John began to smile. “Ahh. Very good! No more sad villain backstories. I was getting a little tired of those.”
“I’m a god.”
“Yeah, yeah. That’s good to know. I just wanted to make sure that no one would regret killing you. Unless you’d like to kill yourself first. I might regret that a little.”
Doctor’s eyebrows twitched. “No matter. I want you to have front row seats to the demise of your friends. Doesn’t it hurt? Knowing their deaths are on your hands?”
“Not really.”
“...regardless, this will be a show to remember.”
Soon, John’s legs and arms were tied up to the cross in a pseudo crucifixion. Breaker had warned Doctor about John getting his gun back, and so they’d taken extra measures to ensure that he couldn’t use his weapon by wrapping his hands with tape.
It was a pretty good scene. John, bloodied and bruised, tied to a cross, sitting at the end of a large, open room.
“Are you excited for the show?”
“A little.”
“Oh, my good friend, so am I.”
Doctor’s grin grew wide as he sat down, waiting for his guests to come.
“Oh, what fun we shall have!”