“Is everyone ready?”

Two hours. That was how long they’d allowed themselves to rest, plan, and prepare. Now that they were here, there was an odd feeling of nervousness in the air. Albert was the only one who looked calm. He was dusting his pants as he stood up, putting his axes on his back. Fate forced himself to swallow as he cleaned and sheathed his blade, staring into the darkness.

“Looks like we won’t be putting it off any longer.”

They stared at a small crack at the bottom of a large cliff. No one would’ve normally investigated it, but that was it. The dungeon entrance. There was nothing special about it. It was just a crack in the wall.

But to Fate and Albert, it was the end of a long journey. To Danjo, it was the end of a torturous experience. For something that had been worked on for almost a year, it was almost too simple. There were no guards. It didn’t look like there were any traps. Just a small crack in the face of the cliff.

“Ready?”

They went in one by one, squeezing through. The entrance seemed to close in, making it harder and harder to progress, especially for Albert, who was almost stuck.

“Clear!” Fate yelled as he fell into a wide open cave. Albert stumbled through with a heavy sigh, followed by Danjo, who had been mostly unaffected.

The area was unlit. Fate summoned a fireball for light, scanning the ground, but there were no signs of activity or movement. The dirt was undisturbed, and there were no signs of footprints or life. It seemed completely untouched by any kind of life.

“...are we sure this is the right place?”

“Bren said he saw them go in and out of here. That was over a week ago, though.”

“Why would they stop their activity for a week?”

Fate frowned. This was suspicious. Mana beasts typically didn’t come near the surface since the mana from the dungeon was weaker there, but if this was truly a hidden base, then there would surely be at least some kind of movement, right?

“Could they have an alternate entrance or exit?” Fate said in a low voice.

“It’s possible. We didn’t want to tip them off, so we thought that moving in as soon as possible would be the best idea. There was no time to check for anything else.”

“We? Hold on, why didn’t we just contact someone else about this?” Why wasn’t anyone else involved? Where was the church? The royal army?

“Someone else? Boy, it’s just me and Bren. There is nobody else.”

“What? Why not?”

Albert turned and smirked. “Do you think they’d do anything? Trust me, kid. Politicians don’t do anything that doesn’t benefit them. Do you think some slave camp would bother them? It wouldn’t. Even the church of Celestia, pure as they are, wouldn’t move without proper proof.”

“But the souls-”

“Can you show them anything worth squat? A soul? Photographic evidence?”

Fate hung his head.

“Trust me. There’s no one that’s going to dive into this the way we are.”

“The Elven family-”

“Is too far away,” Albert said. “I’d contact them, but will they get back in time?”

Fate was slowly accepting the situation.

“...let’s keep going.”

~~~

“They’re in,” Breaker said as he entered the room. “They defeated all our chimeras. The one in the village, too.”

“Oh, good!” Doctor exclaimed, clapping his hands together.

He walked to the center of the room as a sort of stone cylinder rose from the ground. There was a whirring sound, followed by a clunk, and then the room went dark as a three dimensional map of the dungeon appeared.

There were three blips near the top. John squinted and did his best to look at the map.

“...what the hell did you do?”

The path Fate’s party was on had only one path.

A completely separate dungeon path had been carved out. It didn’t interact with the main dungeon at all. John could see the twisting and splitting tunnels of the actual dungeon. It led to an entrance right next to the one Fate’s party had entered through.

“They must be suspicious by now,” Breaker warned. “In some way or another. Surely they are not so dense as to believe everything is normal.”

“It doesn’t matter. Breaker. We’re not in a war with them. We’re toying with them. We could’ve put an end to their silly investigation a long time ago, but that would’ve been boring, no?”

“I thought you needed more materials.”

Doctor waved Breaker away. “That’s not important anymore. Everything is prepared. I’ve done enough experiments to be confident in my ability to extract and utilize souls. We are not fighting them, Breaker. We are using them. There are at least two high quality souls in that group of three, and I plan on obtaining them.”

Breaker turned away. “You remember what I want, right?”

“Yes, yes. I’ll isolate the hulking idiot. You can battle him to your heart’s content.”

“That’s all I need.”

Breaker started to turn away, but stopped as the silence was broken by John’s groan. It wasn’t a sound of pain or despair, but rather one of annoyance and discontent. Something about it pissed Breaker off.

“No, no, no way. Please. Please, no. This is being brought up now? What, you have history with the old man? Don’t tell me you were lovers or something.”

Breaker’s fists clenched.

“Wait, really? I was joking. Seriously?”

“No. I’d recommend that you stop talking.”

“Ok, not lovers. A certain group of people are gonna be upset about that one. What, then? Were you old friends? Rivals, maybe?”

“Shut up.”

“...so I’m right?”

Breaker whirled around and smashed his fist into the wall right next to John’s head. John would've been headless if the attack had been just an inch to the left.

“Shut up! You don’t even know-”

“Yeah, no shit I don’t know! Let’s stop brooding about your past relationships right in front of me. It pisses me off, ok?”

Breaker raised a fist, and John could see the killing intent in his eyes. He’d told Prota not to kill herself, but… well, yes, he’d acted without thinking, but what was life without a little gambling? If he died, he’d wait for her. He didn’t mind.

“Of course,” John grumbled, opening his eyes. A tendril was holding Breaker’s shaking arm back, preventing John from a sweet release.

“You can’t do that, I’m afraid,” Doctor sighed. “I’d like to kill him too, but I’ll be doing worse things than that to him in a bit, so unfortunately, we need him alive.”

Breaker lowered his arm and stomped off.

“I am curious, though,” Doctor said. “I’ve heard that you’re quite good at guessing, but to see that ability in action is rather interesting.”

“Please. It’s not that hard to guess.”

“It takes a special kind of skill to pick up on those hints. Some people can tell the future with the things you call hints.”

John snorted. “But you still won’t believe me when I say you’ll lose.”

“Of course not.”

“Idiot.”

Doctor stood up and stared at John as if examining a peculiar specimen.

“What gives you such confidence? What makes you speak with such sass, even though you yourself have admitted that you are in the pits of despair? I’m curious, oh yes, I am.”

“Confident? Yeah, I guess I am.”

“But you have no despair. Despite your situation, you refuse to give up.”

“...I guess.” John shrugged as best he could. “Would you be surprised if I told you that I was, as you put it, despairing?”

John stared into Doctor’s insane eyes.

“You wanna know? It’s the very thing that rails me in the ass that somehow keeps me going. It’s ironic. I dunno, maybe it’s buttfucking me so hard that it’s powering me up like a piston. Back and forth, back and forth.”

“You-” Doctor stared in utter awe. Had he succeeded in driving John truly insane? It was unfortunate that Doctor didn’t realize this was just what John was like. “What in the world are you talking about? You cannot give up and keep going. That is impossible. Impossible!”

“Yeah? So if I told you that your entire life was orchestrated by a single person, that every action and situation was written by the hands of some dumbass without a brain, you’d be happy? You would keep going? There’s a puppet master up there, pulling the strings, except the strings are being pulled to my victory. That’s all there is. I just know that I’ll win. I don’t like it, but there it is. Do you get it?”

“The only master you have here is me,” Doctor said, his voice losing some of its silkiness.

“We have the exact same puppet master. You’re just living in denial. Doctor, right? You like being in control, don’t you? You’re not entirely in control of everything, despite your deepest wishes. For starters, my sister. You didn’t expect her to have what you wanted, right?”

“A minor inconvenience. Just a light twitch. I have your so called protagonist in the palm of my hand. I can eliminate them whenever I please. Why wouldn’t I be completely in control?”

John shrugged. “That just sounds like a large amount of cope to me.”

Doctor froze.

“You’re not in control, are you? You want to be. But you know you’ll never have control over everything. You wanted to know what gives me such confidence? It’s the knowledge that I’m not in control.”

John leaned his head forward as much as he could, beckoning Doctor to come closer.

“Oi, laughing boy. Wanna hear something interesting? Just because I’m not in control doesn’t mean I don’t know the outcome. I’m not the [Author]. So what? At the very least, I’m a [Reader]. And not being able to change how this ends doesn’t mean I don’t know how it ends. And it ends with you losing. You suck. Deal with it. You literally cannot win.”

Doctor's face twisted into an indescribable rage as he shrieked, lashing out with all his tendrils. John knew what was coming, but he didn’t care.

A genuine smirk appeared on his lips out of satisfaction. It wasn’t often that his knowledge of reality gave him joy. He often wished he were wrong. However, this time, just this once, it was worth it to know that he was right.

~~~

Prota was recovering. She was slow, taking step after step, but she was getting closer and closer to the dungeon. The location was still clearly outlined in her vision, marked by her system. She didn’t know what was coming next. She didn’t know where Fate and the others were. They might be dead.

But she couldn’t stop moving.

Now that her brain was a bit less foggy, she was casting mana recovery, allowing her body to return to a fresh and recovered state, but she had to be careful. She could only use it so many times before the spell stopped keeping up with the damage she was taking, and the mana in her staff wasn’t unlimited either. If she ran into another scenario where her opponent blocked her ability, she’d have nothing else to rely on.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

She was getting close. Just a few more minutes, and she’d be there.

“Hey! Who’s there?”

A couple of rough looking men were going at something with knives. Upon closer observation, it was some kind of giant, fat man with animal appendages.

A chimera?

“Who are you?”

Prota didn’t answer. She just stared at the three men.

“The boss didn’t say there’d be any others…”

“Just kill her! It’s just a child! You can do whatever you want after!”

That was all Prota needed. She raised a hand and summoned a half dozen icicles, sending the volley flying. There was a cry as one of the bandits was struck, unable to dodge or block in time. The other two brandished their knives and glared at Prota, but she was unfazed.

“What the-” one of them started before leaping back just in time to avoid a pillar of flame. The heat scorched his hairs, but he was uninjured.

The other man threw his knife, but Prota easily sidestepped it. Two balls of blue fire burned into life above her, flying towards the men as if they had minds of their own. They curved on either side of the man, who was now weaponless, stopping him from being able to dodge.

“Do it!” he yelled. A barrier of earth rose up from the ground to block the spell. “Take that, you little-”

Prota flicked her hand upwards as a gust of wind entered the fire, creating a massive explosion that flattened the earth spell, scorching the man inside. It hadn’t harmed him, but that didn’t matter. She dashed forward before her opponent could react, coldly thrusting an icicle forward, piercing the man’s throat and killing him.

The last man flinched as she turned back, then turned around and scrambled to run, but that was a mistake. Distance didn’t matter to a caster. Prota flicked her fingers up as a pillar of flame engulfed the man, his screams sizzling out as nothing but scorched earth and ashes was left.

She was too tired to realize that there’d been barely any delay between her attacks.

She didn’t look back as she left the mess behind, picking up the pace. She was reaching the entrance. She could see it now. Her mind wasn’t working well, although she was slowly becoming less and less fatigued. It was a good thing her body could fight on its own, because she didn’t have a lot of spare energy in her. The marker disappeared as the cliff entered her field of view, the crack in the stone small but visible.

“...I’m coming.”

~~~

“...uh? Where… what am I-” John started as he slowly woke up.

He remembered then. Doctor. The insults.

Why was he awake?

“You’re up sooner than expected. That only took you… a day? You have quite the unexpected resilience for a manaless human.”

John frowned as he heard Doctor’s voice.

“You’re still here?”

“Where else would I be? You sound like you’re disappointed.”

John blinked to clear his vision, and sure enough, everything was the same as it’d been before he’d been knocked out.

“...why am I awake? Fate… the point of view should be on Fate… so why can’t I be asleep? Let me sleep…”

“What are you mumbling about? You really believe your own nonsense?”

John’s head snapped up, startled by Doctor’s words. “What?”

“Your little mental game is over. I will admit, it rattled me a little, but that time is now gone. Surely you don’t think I believe your words? How ridiculous would that be?”

Doctor laughed. “If this were a story, then wouldn’t that mean that my doubt is being written by the one I’m doubting? How would that be possible?”

“You’d be surprised,” John grumbled. “The amount of times I’ve been allowed to curse at that motherfucker is incredible.”

Doctor chuckled and pulled out a chessboard. “Here. While we wait. Please, stop indulging in delusion and try something more intellectual instead.”

John raised an eyebrow, then stared at Doctor with a “really?” kind of look. “I thought you wanted me in despair and everything.”

“We have time to kill until then. Your friends. Your comrades. They’ll all suffer soon enough. Surely you don’t want that, right? But until then, I’d like to have just a bit more fun with you.”

Doctor turned the board toward John.

“You can play white. Come, let’s play.”

John made a big show of looking at his predicament. “Man! I just love being able to play the game. Shucks, it just seems that there’s a minor inconvenience. Damn, guess it’s too bad.”

Doctor sighed. “Surely you know how to play chess? Just tell me your move, and I’ll make it for you.”

John grimaced and stared at the board. He wasn’t exactly the greatest at chess.

“Pawn to E5.”

Doctor nodded and made the move. There were no tricks. No theatrics. He went next, simply mirroring John’s move.

It really was just a game of chess.

“Let me guess. You want to talk about sacrifice and all that shit?”

“Again, I must commend your thinking process,” Doctor smiled as they continued to play. “Those people coming to save you. You could escape. You could live, potentially, by sacrificing them.”

“And how would I do that?”

“You could, for example, negotiate with me. You could trick them.”

“...that sounds really stupid.”

“I’m just suggesting an option. Manaless boy. You seem like the kind of person to work behind the scenes. You seem like the kind of man who likes to be in control.”

John looked at the board with dull eyes. He was really getting sick of these chess analogies. They were nice, but they were cliche and boring. Why was the [Author] continuing to use them? He’d already voiced his complaints.

“Come now,” Doctor said as he took a piece. “You know just as well as I do. In chess, the sacrifice of pieces is necessary to win. It’s impossible to play against someone of equal level and win without losing a single piece. The only way you’d be able to do that is if you played against a complete idiot, and even then, maybe not.”

John did his best to shrug as he traded a knight for a bishop.

“Yeah. So what? Just because I can sacrifice a piece doesn’t mean I have to. And do we have to use this chess analogy?”

“You and I, manaless boy, we are not pieces on the board. We are not the ones that take orders; we are the ones that move others around. We see the bigger picture, even if we’re seeing different pictures. You see them as pieces, do you not?”

Doctor gestured to the hologram of the dungeon. Fate and his party were battling some kind of monster based on their movements. They were moving down, slowly but surely, making good progress, but that progress was ultimately futile.

Doctor was right. Fate was playing straight into his hands. He was ultimately another piece on the chessboard. Perhaps he was a strong piece, but still, in the end, not the one in control.

John looked at the map and thought. He, too, had been treating Fate like a chess piece, hadn’t he? In the end, Fate was useful to him because of his role as the [Protagonist]. John had never considered anything else. All he knew was that Fate would defeat the demon king. Had he ever been concerned for Fate as a friend? Or had it always been out of concern for losing a valuable asset?

Fate was a high value piece, but in the end, in John’s eyes, if Fate died, it wasn’t the end of the world. He still had other cards in his hand, other moves to play. Not once had he been disturbed by the thought of losing Fate.

“I see it. You know it just as well that you’re the one looking at the chessboard, not the one playing on it. Now. It’s your move.”

John hesitated. It didn’t feel right. If Fate was a piece. If they were all pieces. Then why were they coming to save him? He was the one with an abundance of retries. They, who believed this world was a reality, had but one chance. Why? Why would they sacrifice themselves for him?

Was he worth it?

He looked back down at the board. It was mate in three.

Not for him, but for Doctor.

“No point.”

“You’re conceding?”

“You won. It’s mate in three.”

“Hmph. I should've known your intellect couldn’t match mine.”

Doctor left the board on the ground, leaving John to continue to stare at it.

“They’re almost here,” Doctor said, rubbing his chin. “There’s still so many things to do.”

~~~

Prota found that the tunnels were strangely empty. She ran through them, taking short breaks, finding corpses of mana beasts along the way. There were short but precise blade marks, and larger, heavier marks that she couldn’t figure out. They were probably attacks from Albert, based on what Bren had told her..

She couldn’t help but feel something was off as she continued on her way down. There were no twists, no turns. She wasn’t always the best with directions, but here, there was no way she could get lost.

There was only one path down, as if the dungeon were intentionally leading her somewhere. She continued to pass by mana beasts, with signs of battle growing fresher and fresher. The battles appeared to be growing fiercer and fiercer as well.

Finally, she heard voices.

“...need a break.”

“How long have we been here for?”

“A day, about. We only slept once.”

Prota flinched. Had she been walking for a whole day? She hadn’t been paying attention to anything while she’d been walking. Mana recovery had forced her body into a healthy state, and with a dulled feeling of pain, she hadn’t noticed any sort of discomfort in her journey.

“Then we should sleep again! Everyone’s tired.”

Fate’s voice. Then who was the other? Danjo’s voice wasn’t that deep.

“Can we afford to? I’ve got a bad feeling about this dungeon.”

There was a moment of silence. Prota took that opportunity to walk in.

“You too? Then-”

Everyone turned toward Prota as her footsteps rang through the cave. Weapons were drawn, and Fate’s sword almost made its way to Prota’s throat before he stopped himself in time.

“P-Prota? What are you doing here?”

“You- I thought we told you not to come,” Albert said in a low voice. “How did you get here? Our location. How did you find it?”

Prota ignored them and turned to Fate.

“One of you. Spy.”

Fate’s eyes narrowed. “What?”

“The suit man told me. One of you is a spy.”

Fate crouched down. “Hey. Explain a bit more.”

Prota began to tremble, but she couldn’t stop here. Her fear of others wouldn’t hold her back. She didn’t really care whether they understood or not, but she was smart enough to know they wouldn’t let her stay if she didn’t explain.

“Two chimeras, at the village. Same time you left. Not a coincidence. Suit man told me. There’s one more spy.”

She looked at Danjo, then Albert, then back at Fate.

“One of you.”

There was tension in the air. They’d all known it, but they’d put it aside. However, now that Prota was confirming it, they couldn’t deny it any longer.

They had to deal with the mole before it was too late.

“By suit man, you mean Bren, right?”

Prota nodded. Albert sighed. A conflict of emotions ran through him. On one hand, it was relieving to know she’d come in contact with Bren. He was now under the assumption that Bren had been the one to send her. On the other hand, hearing that two chimeras had gone to the village wasn’t good for his blood pressure.

“Dammit… is he alive?”

Prota nodded again. Albert visibly relaxed.

Fate stared at Prota. “Really? Bren told you to tell us that?”

His eyes were glowing. Prota nodded again, and Fate turned away. Apparently, he was satisfied with that.

At this point, everyone apparently had a person in mind.

For Fate, he had no reason to suspect Albert. Prota was telling the truth. So there was only one person left. For Albert, he had no reason to suspect Fate. If a child from the Elven kingdom were affiliated with some random group far away, then the whole country of Devfroth was doomed anyways.

Prota had no one in mind. She didn’t care about any spy, so that left only one person.

Everyone turned to Danjo.

“Wh- what? Why is everyone looking at me?”

Fate’s eyes began to glow.

“Danjo. Tell me honestly. What are you?”