John looked back at the chessboard. No matter how sick he was of chess analogies, he had to admit that they were useful. They were even more useful if they weren’t being used as wise and deep speeches. Everything in moderation.
The situation was pretty grim. He was in check. He only had a few moves he could play, and each didn’t help. Not really. No matter what he did, there would be checkmate in about three to five moves. Optimizing didn’t result in escape. It resulted in a loss. A delayed loss, perhaps, but loss nonetheless.
Checkmate.
Wasn’t that the position he was in right now? Check. How convenient. Doctor had everything in the palm of his hand. John, bound and secure. Albert, fighting an isolated battle against Breaker, whose [Character] was clearly existed to hold Albert from joining the fray. Fate and Prota, who had no idea that a traitor was with them, as well as Danjo, who was unaware that he himself was the traitor. Olivia, who was likely… no, better not to think about that. In the end, if she was a sacrificial piece, he could do nothing about it.
Really. What was he meant to do?
“Hey,” John said quietly. Doctor wasn’t in the room. “Are you sure you can’t do anything?”
“The collar actively drains my mana,” Olivia whispered back. It seemed that she’d run out of energy trying to struggle with her restraints. “I’m using what little I can hold for healing. It’s keeping my body stronger than it seems.”
“I could break your collar if you got me out of this.”
“And then what? We run? Back into that man?” Olivia hissed.
Now that she was acquainted with John, she was rather kind for the most part, but whenever Doctor was brought up, she’d get incredibly upset.
“I’m sorry, but even if you get out, what can you do? I’ve tried to fight him. I can’t win. He’s too strong. And, no offense, but you don’t have any mana. What gives you a better chance?”
“Yeah, I get it,” John muttered.
What was he going to do?
He looked at the chessboard again. Was he really going to win?
He’d been so confidant about Fate defeating Doctor, but it was possible that wouldn’t happen. After all, Doctor held a small amount of [Deus Ex Machina] energy. It wasn’t enough, but the fact that it was present made John worry. With his energy involved, anything could happen.
So if Fate lost, what then? John didn’t know. Wouldn’t they all just die? There were no moves he could make. There was nothing he held control over. All he could do was sit and hope that someone else would win, that someone else would do the work for him, and while he was all for that, he wasn’t entirely confidant that it would work out for him.
He could [Reset]. That thought lingered int he back of his mind, but… no. He didn’t want to [Reset]. He wanted to win. Wanted to kill Doctor, prove that he was just an idiot who didn’t know his place. He wanted to put this egotistical idiot down like an animal without dying once, merely as a matter of pride.
But still. There was nothing he could do but let the game play out. He cursed. Where had all his confidence gone? His bravado? He’d said that he was confident in how this story would play out, but now that he thought about it, maybe the [Author] wasn’t as brainless as he’d originally thought.
So what if… what if he really was in check?
John looked at the chessboard again. Maybe the connections between the board and life weren’t as far apart as he’d hoped.
~~~
“Is this it?”
Prota stared at the door in front of them. It looked like an ordinary wooden door, planted in the dirt. There were no locks. No guards. It was just an ordinary door.
“This has to be a trap. There’s no way they’d let us in like this.”
Fate clenched his sword, unsure of what to do.
“Dammit. If only John were here… Prota, you don’t happen to share the same intuition as John, do you?”
Prota shook her head. If only. Well, did she? Think. She had to think. This was a story, right? Then an obvious door with no guards in sight…
“Trap,” Prota said quietly. She wasn’t sure what the trap was, but it was definitely a trap.
“You think it’s a trap?”
Prota nodded.
“What kind?”
Prota shrugged.
“Damn.”
“M- maybe we should try a different path. Something… safer, right?” Danjo offered.
“I didn’t see any other paths on the way here.”
“Well… maybe we turn back? Albert’s gone, and we don’t know what’s next…”
Fate turned to Danjo. “Do you want to go back?”
Danjo looked down as he shook. He did. He wanted to go back. But he couldn’t.
“...no. Let’s go in.”
Fate nodded. If they knew that a trap was waiting for them, they could prepare accordingly. Just because it was a trap didn’t mean that it was going to work. There were only so many things people could do to them. A horde of monsters or men could be waiting behind that door, ready to jump them. Deadly traps might be sprung.
There were many possibilities, but they all essentially amounted to the same thing.
“Be alert,” Fate whispered. “Let’s go.”
Everyone nodded, crouching down behind Fate.
“Prota. Can you check if there’s anyone there?”
Prota closed her eyes for a moment, then shook her head, and Fate nodded. He pushed the door lightly, opening it just enough to peek through. He couldn’t see any obvious traps. He closed his eyes and felt inward. He was as ready as he’d ever be.
“Kit. Do we go through with this?”
“It’s up to you. I’ll be here for you.”
Fate opened his eyes and turned back.
“Ready?”
He burst through the door, Prota and Danjo following close behind. They found themselves in a corridor similar to the one in the other lab, except this one was much more well lit and clean.
“...which way?” Danjo whispered.
Fate scanned the halls. There was nowhere to hide. If someone came down this way, they’d have to take the fight.
“Prota. Feel anything?”
Prota closed her eyes and focused. She could vaguely feel some souls down to the right, but given where they were, that could mean anything. They weren’t really moving, making it hard to determine whether or not they were souls in orbs, or souls in people. However, they didn’t have anything else to go on. They couldn’t stay still forever.
Prota pointed to the right, and Fate nodded.
“Let’s move.”
They made their way quietly down the hall, keeping a vigilant eye out for any threats. Slowly, the hallway expanded into a full on facility, and Prota was beginning to feel the souls much clearer. They still weren’t moving, but they were individual souls that were decently spaced apart, so they were likely people and not orbs.
“People,” Prota whispered. “There.”
Fate closed his eyes.
“We go in. We need at least one, got it?”
“W- wait, hold on. What are we doing?”
Prota was already holding her staff, but Danjo apparently didn’t understand what was going on.
“We go in. We leave one alive. And then we find out where they’re keeping John. Then we find Doctor, and we kill him.”
Fate’s voice was unusually tense, so much so that it was getting through the voice distortion of his mask.
“Like we said. This all ends here.”
~~~
The walls were shaking as mace met axe. Each blow parried sounded like a cannon being fired. The clashing of metal rang throughout the room as Albert and Breaker went at it again and again. Sweat poured down their faces, but neither were letting up.
“It’s good to see that you haven’t lost it!” Breaker yelled. “I thought you would’ve gone soft sitting behind that desk of yours!”
“I would never stop training,” Albert grunted as he threw an axe forward.
“Ha! I suppose they didn’t call you the Blood Berserker for nothing!”
Albert shuddered. “Please don’t call me that again. I dropped that name years ago.”
Breaker sidestepped the attack, but Albert was already moving, dashing faster than the axe, catching it midair for yet another throw.
“That’s not gonna work!” Breaker yelled, but flinched as Albert leapt forward, ignoring his midair axe and bringing his other axe up in an overhead swing. Breaker just barely brought his mace up in time to block the blow, sparks flying everywhere.
“Where!? Where did we go wrong, Breaker!?”
“Where did you go wrong, Albert?” Breaker sneered. “Those people killed Elena. They killed me, and you serve them still?”
“How can we determine the fate of many on our own?” Albert yelled. “How can we, as people, determine whether others live or die? Who gave us that right?”
“Strength, Albert! The right of strength! And despite that, we worked for them. We saved them. And yet they couldn’t save us!”
Albert threw his remaining axe and dashed to the one already on the ground, making a play to try to recover both. Unfortunately, Breaker knew what he was getting at. The two had worked together far too long for such a trick to work. He caught Albert’s axe midair and charged.
“And despite their sin, you chose to save them anyway. Elfin understood, Albert! He knew! If our strength won’t be respected, then we’ll show them! We’ll force them to respect it!”
Albert grunted as he blocked blow after blow.
“And what about those that did respect us? What about those that have nothing to do with this?”
“...there’s a lot of people out there, Albert. If a few get caught up in the crossfire, there’s nothing I can do about it.”
“That’s not true, and you know it!”
Albert roared and swung his axe over and over in a flurry of attacks, pushing Breaker back. The air was literally heating up, sparks flying everywhere as the scent of iron and sweat filled the air. Cracks formed in the ground as chips of stone flew up, peppering the two as they fought.
“There’s always something we can do! Just because they won’t save us doesn’t mean that we can’t still save them!”
“Please. You just want to play the hero. You just want to look good, don’t you? Albert, the legend. Albert, the warrior. You ignore the fact that two of your good friends died to the very people you’re trying to please!”
With a powerful cry, Breaker swung and smashed the handle of Albert’s axe, shattering the wood into splinters. Albert watched as the metal head flew away, the weapon literally coming apart in his hands as he was knocked back by the force of the blow.
“I don’t want to kill you. We lost Elfin. You, Bren… come on. Surely you see my point. What you’re doing is pointless. Stop trying to play the hero.”
“I never wanted to play hero, Breaker.”
“...what?”
“It was for you. It was for Elena. Do you remember? She was a healer. She was kind. She wanted to help. It was who she was. How could you have forgotten that? How did you forget our purpose? We rose up on our own! We made our name through blood, sweat and tears! And we chose what we would use that power for! And in the end, you choose to use it for yourself?”
Albert got to his feet and delivered a mighty blow to Breaker’s gut, who dropped the axe as he gasped, winded by Albert’s blow. He gagged as he struggled to recover, but in those moments, Albert grabbed his weapon back and stepped back, raising his hands once more.
“I continued to protect the people because it’s what I thought you two would’ve wanted.”
He looked up, tears pouring down his cheeks.
“But apparently, you want nothing but death.”
“Death is all the people wanted for us,” Breaker growled, brandishing his weapon again.
“Then death is all that awaits us, old friend.”
~~~
“Go!”
The party burst into the room, weapons brandished. Prota immediately tossed in a Blossom of Ice, turning the air bitingly cold as the petals shattered everywhere.
“What the- intruders! Sound the alarm!”
“That’s not gonna happen.”
Fate leapt forward and decapitated the head of one, then chanted a quick spell to pierce the stomach of another with ice. Prota took care of the third and fourth with a pillar of flame, her eyes cold as the men vanished into smoke.
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
The whole thing went down in about a minute. The opponents’ movements had been severely slowed by the initial Blossom of Ice, and the following attacks had been so swift and deadly that there was really no time to react.
“You,” Fate said, grabbing the collar of the one pierced by his icicle. “Where are they?”
“Wh- what are you talking about?” the man gasped. Blood was trickling out of his mouth.
“The prisoner! The boy! Where is he?”
“I- I won’t talk!” the man gasped, blood spurting out from his wound as he struggled.
Fate was about to punch the man, but he felt Prota’s hand on his shoulder. It was cold. Way too cold for a human hand.
“...Prota?”
Prota shook her head.
“You… fine. I’ll trust you on this one.”
Fate stepped back, letting Prota step forward.
“You? You’re just a tiny kid,” the man scoffed. “What’re you gonna-”
He gasped as he felt the mana drain from his body. The girl’s eyes lit up as he felt it leave him, and she crouched down. Her emotionless face conveyed nothing. He couldn’t tell what she was feeling.
Was it anger? Apathy? Sadness? A sadistic kind of joy?
“Where is he?” she said in a voice so soft the man barely heard her. She laid his hands above his stomach, freezing the wound so he wouldn’t bleed out.
“I won’t-”
Prota put her hands above the man’s legs, and the limbs started to freeze. She normally would’ve been rather timid about all this, but the idea of John being so close to her was more than enough to cause her to lose her mind. She wasn’t thinking of anything else.
“Where?”
“I’m no rat! I won’t say-”
Prota raised her staff and brought it down violently, smashing the man’s feet. The open wounds were immediately castrated with flame. The man yelled in pain, but Prota wasn’t concerned about that.
“Where?”
“I- I ain’t saying nothing-”
Prota brought her staff down again, shattering a leg this time. Fate was covering Danjo’s eyes and ears, but even he was a little disturbed. Her face. It was still blank. Still passive. It was like looking at someone watching paint dry. But she wasn’t watching paint dry. She was quite literally shattering a man to pieces.
“Where?”
Prota was simply repeating the same question over and over. There were no threats. No demands. She didn’t change her tone of voice or her facial expression. The intent was clear. She’d keep at it until he spilled an answer she wanted.
It was far more terrifying than any kind of rage.
“Where?”
The man’s mind was close to breaking. His legs were gone, and tears were streaming down his face.
“Do- down the hall to the left. You can’t miss it. It’s- it’s a room for the boss-”
The man never finished his sentence. His body froze as Prota laid his hand on his head, and she brought her staff down, causing the man’s flesh to shatter into a million pieces. She got up calmly and dusted herself off, then turned to leave.
“...Prota? Don’t do that again,” Fate said quietly as they went down the hall.
~~~
Albert and Breaker were at the end of their ropes. They barely had the energy to keep going. They’d been fighting for thirty minutes straight. Their mana, their stamina, it was all depleted. The fight was almost over, though. One was on his knees, and the other had his weapon at the other’s neck.
“Breaker.”
Albert looked down at his old friend.
“What is it you really want?”
Breaker laughed. “Still the goody two shoes till the end, huh?”
“Since when was I ever a goody two shoes?!”
“You’re kind, Albert. You act rough around the edges, but you can’t help it.”
Breaker lowered his head.
“Finish it.”
“...”
“You said this would end in death, didn’t you? Finish it!”
Albert’s hand didn’t move.
“Come on, dammit! Finish! It!”
“...what do you want, Breaker?”
“...”
Albert kept his axe at Breaker’s neck, but despite his fatigue, it didn’t even leave a single scratch. The hand remained steady.
“You know what I wanted. I killed a bunch of people. I worked with a despicable man. Is there anything more that needs to be said?”
“Breaker…”
“Don’t make this a soppy ending, Albert! Just end it like a man!”
Albert let his axe drop.
“...I can’t.”
“What? Why?”
“I made a promise, Breaker. To Elena. That I’d make sure you were alright, even if she died.”
“She… what?”
“Back, long before the incident. She made me promise that I wouldn’t let you go! She said you were too stupid to go off on your own.”
Breaker scoffed. “She chose you?”
“I don’t know why she chose me. I’m not the guy to choose. But still, I promised something, and I failed. So tell me. What is it you wanted? What could you have wanted so badly that you made me break my promise? Why? Tell me, Breaker!”
Breaker’s head was lowered, but a drop of water fell to the ground, splashing the dirt.
“Don’t give me mercy, Albert. Don’t end it like this.”
“Breaker. What did you want?”
Breaker got up with a roar, his hand extended toward Albert’s throat, but the attack was easily sidestepped.
“Don’t pity me! I told you already! I did what I did. I’ll stick to my principles till the end. I’m not someone to be saved, Albert! You’re the stronger one here! End it!”
“I’ll end it the way I want to dammit!” Albert roared. “Even in our party, you never did listen! Shut up for a second and hear me out! You weren’t like this! Breaker, you might’ve been an idiot, but you were a reliable idiot. Elena would’ve never fallen in love with you if you were this kind of man!”
“Men change! Get over it!”
With a cry, Albert hit Breaker with the shaft of his axe, knocking him down.
“You also wanted to help people! Elena is dead, but you can carry on her memory! Are you going to stain what’s left of her?”
“Have you considered that I might’ve never been the man you thought I was? Maybe it was all an act! Some people don’t deserve second chances, Albert! Some people need to be killed!”
“Yeah? Some people make their own chances, Breaker! So make a second chance! Don’t make me a liar again!”
Breaker grit his teeth, clenching his fists. Albert shook his head and sighed.
“Get over here.”
He pulled Breaker towards him roughly and reached into the man’s breast pocket. Inside was a crumpled up piece of paper.
“You, too, kept this photo, didn’t you?”
“What the-”
“You always kept it here. I had a feeling. You don’t want to die here. Not like this.”
Breaker stared up into Albert’s eyes angrily, but he couldn’t hold that anger. Eventually, he dropped his head.
“You’re the same stubborn fool,” Breaker said, leaning back.
“Then you’re agreeing with me?”
“Not really. But I can’t kill myself. You have my weapon. And you won’t kill me. So what can I do?”
Albert sat down with a grunt and looked at Breaker.
“...I want to get to my team.”
“Well, you can’t, can you?”
“You’re a devil of an opponent, you bastard.”
“If you weren’t just as terrible, you’d be dead.”
Albert shook his head and pulled out a cigar, extending it toward Breaker.
“You still smoke those?”
“Yeah.”
“I quit a while ago.”
Albert shrugged and picked up Breaker’s mace and clashed it against his axe, making sparks. His cigar lit, he shoved it in his mouth and sucked.
“...hand me one.”
Albert chuckled and lit another, tossing it over.
“So what now?”
“Now, we talk.”
“...you can’t convince me, Albert. I’m a bad guy now. I’m one of the bad guys we’d fight against. Just because you didn’t kill me doesn’t change that.”
“Bad guy? Who defines that? You’re strong, Breaker. You said it yourself. The strong make the rules. You’re strong. Make the rules.”
Breaker shook his head.
“Actually, you’re talking as if we’re all getting out alive.”
“...what?”
“That man, Doctor. He’s different.”
“What do you mean?” Albert frowned. “Breaker. What does that mean?”
“He’s stronger than me. Even in my prime, he’d still outclass me.”
“...that’s a bold claim.”
“He doesn’t use mana, Albert. He’s like… some kind of god. I don’t know who you have going in to fight him, but even if you were there, it’s a lost cause.”
Breaker leaned back and sucked on the cigar.
“Hah. I believe in those kids.”
Breaker laughed pitifully. “I don’t. We might as well enjoy a last cigar together.”
The two sat in silence, unsure of what to say. The mood had changed so suddenly.
“We were just fighting a few minutes ago. Crazy how things change, ain’t it?”
“That’s life. Neither of us have any juice left, right?”
“I couldn’t fight you to save my life.”
“Same here.”
Breaker spat on the ground and put his cigar back in his mouth.
“I hope, for your sake, that those kids win.”
“See? You’ve still got it in you.”
“For fuck’s sake, Albert, shove a sock in it. I’m just saying. Maybe. Maybe I’ll think about it.”
Albert grinned and punched Breaker on the shoulder. “See? It’s not so hard to change your mindset.”
“I never liked working with that freak anyways.”
“So why did you do it in the first place?”
“Well…”
~~~
“I’m back! Did you miss me?” Doctor said cheerfully, walking into the room with a cheerful stride.
“Uh… not really.”
“Oh, why’s that? It wouldn’t happen to be because you’re losing, would it?”
“...”
“No one likes a sore loser, manaless boy!”
John just shook his head.
“Hey. If we’re all ending up dead anyways, lemme ask you something.”
“Hm… but what purpose would that serve me?”
“Why not? I’m going to die anyway.”
“But you might get something out of it. Control, remember?”
John sighed. “I just wanna know who you were before you came here.”
“Here?”
“We’re both reincarnators, aren’t we?” John said, indicating to the fluorescent lights above. “Who were you?”
“...who were you, then?”
“Mm… I was a shut in, I think. I liked reading. I don’t really remember much.”
“An amnesiac?”
“Yeah.”
“Haha! Very good, then!”
Doctor sat down cross-legged in front of John. It seemed that he didn’t really care about what John said.
“Back on Earth, there was a special military camp of sorts. It took in refugees, children, whoever. We put them through a grinder of sorts. An incredibly strict training regime. Some died. A lot died, actually. Those who survived were part of an elite team that took on various tasks.”
“And you were the leader?”
“No! I was the lead of the medical team!” Doctor grinned.
John frowned. “You? They let a psychopath like you take care of injuries?”
“Injuries? You’re mistaken. I improved them, manaless boy. I worked on improving them.”
John nodded slowly. It lined up. This camp. They didn’t see people as “humans.” The soldiers were “tools.” Doctor wasn’t a Doctor. He was like a mad scientist.
…it wasn’t too different from what he did here.
“The leader of the camp didn’t know, of course. He was too stupid to understand me. My expertise. But I gave him what he wanted, so he never questioned it.”
“Is this where your superiority complex comes from?”
“I am superior. Putting that aside, you don’t understand. How satisfying it was to dig into their skin, to figure out what made them tick, and how to make them tick better… their screams, their pleas, it was all for a better cause!”
John was disgusted, but that wasn’t important. Those tortured people would probably never show up anyway.
“...then how did you die?”
“We were bombed. Nothing I could do. I wasn’t a god, then. But then I came to this world. I was given a chance. My intelligence, finally understood! I was given all the information I could ever want! The power to be god. The power to do whatever I wanted!”
“...yeah. Ok. Sure.”
“You don’t know a thing about the power I have. It’s not mana. You mana using fools think mana is the building blocks of this world? Wrong! It’s something much, much more. This strange energy… it operates on a higher level than mana. It’s so, so much more. Not that you would ever understand.”
Doctor stood up. “Well, that’s enough about me. Your little friends will be here in a bit. I look forward to seeing your reaction.”
Olivia looked at John with pleading eyes, but he just shook his head. There was nothing he could do. He’d made his move. The pieces were being taken out one by one. The remaining pieces were all coming together.
He was cornered. Doctor had indeed played his moves well. Apparently, the thought was visible, because Doctor looked at him and smiled.
“Let’s see how you worm your way out of this one, manaless boy.”