Chapter 28: Blessings of Creation

Time had slowed down to the point where it felt as if it had stopped. Prota had gone through this once before. Back when she’d pulled Zero out of John. The scene somehow felt familiar. She looked back, seeing John (?) chasing after her. This was a moment of opportunity. She needed to escape. She tried to get to her feet, only to find that she couldn’t move either. What was going on? What was the identity of the voice that was talking to her?

“Weak? Strong? Bullshit. You’re just a coward. Protect others? If that’s what you want, that’s what you want. But that’s not all, is it? You’re afraid.”

Prota closed her eyes. What?

“You’re afraid John’s going to abandon you. You’re afraid that if you can’t protect him, he’s going to toss you aside, right? That you’re going to be left alone. All. Over. Again.”

“Stop!”

“If you’re scared, then do something about it! What are you afraid of, making a mistake?? Everyone does that, idiot! What are you gonna do about it?”

“I- I can’t! He’s too strong!”

“Too strong? What did you want to be?”

“S… strong…”

“Then what are you gonna do? Did you want a chance to prove yourself? Go fight.”

Fight? Who? John? She couldn’t win against John, could she? He was too strong for her to win, so-

I need you to protect me, ok?

Oh. That was right. Yes, the whole protection bit was somewhat of a facade. But in a way, it was also necessary. John was strong, but he had his drawbacks. He wasn’t one to say things just to make someone feel better. If he wanted her to protect him, then he truly wanted that. He’d said he was weak numerous times, and maybe Prota was beginning to realize that was true.

And besides, hadn’t she decided? That the one she’d protect John from was himself. So to get back and fulfill her task of protecting her brother…

She had to beat the one in front of her.

“That’s more like it. I was getting tired of saving your sorry ass.”

“You… cast the spells?”

“Well, yeah? Who else? Do you see anyone else around here helping you?”

“Where are you?”

“...can’t answer that right now.”

Somehow, Prota was reminded of Zero.

“Well, I’ll give you a little help. Once. Just once, I’ll help you cast a spell you can’t cast yet. Good luck~”

Time resumed, and the dust from the fireball settled down.

“You- you little shit!” John roared.

Prota gasped and scrambled as another bullet was fired. She quickly raised her hands and fired a few icicles, but they kept missing. Dust stirred up in a cloud as the two danced around each other, each firing off their respective attacks, both missing constantly.

However, while the fake John seemed to have an infinite amount of bullets, Prota was running out of mana. She’d forgotten since it’d been a while, but she couldn’t absorb mana from the air. She had to take it from her opponents. Her staff was too far for her to access since it’d been knocked away at the start of the fight, so she had to end this now. If only she could just land one good attack-

…missing attacks? Why was she missing attacks? She’d practiced accuracy. She’d practiced hitting moving targets. So why was she missing? She looked at John as she formed another fireball and then realized her hands were shaking. Shaking? Why?

She looked at John again. Could she attack him?

Images flashed through her head, those of John lying in a wasted field, holding her hand. She couldn’t watch that again. Not again-

“That’s not the real John; that’s just a copy of John made of mana. And if it’s made of mana, then what’s your specialty, idiot?”

The voice again. Prota didn’t know who it was, but it’d helped her up to this point. She had to trust it. She hadn’t tried to absorb mana since John wasn’t supposed to have any, but at this point, anything was worth trying. Taking a gamble, Prota closed her eyes and focused. Her vision went black, but she could see a singular figure in front of her. Unlike every other time she’d felt for mana, there was no core.

Just an entire body seemingly made of mana. If that was the case, then maybe, as long as she didn’t look at him…

With a cry, Prota closed her eyes, threw her tendrils out and prayed. She waited nervously for the sound of a gunshot to ring out, but nothing happened.

Slowly opening her eyes, she saw the fake John staggering as if someone had just dealt a heavy blow to its stomach. A second later, a jolt of energy surged through Prota as if she’d just received an electric shock. Mana poured out of her body like a fountain, her eyes and hair glowing like lightning.

“Discharge, idiot! Discharge! Use the mana somehow! Hit! Him!”

Right, magic.

With a cry, she unleashed a torrent of spells, everything she had in her arsenal. Wind, fire, ice, blasting away constantly. The amount of mana in the mimic was practically endless, so she continued to cycle it through her body. There was so much chaos going on that she couldn’t see the enemy, but that was probably for the better.

The mana circulating was passing in and out so fast that her body didn’t even seem to be the one using the magic. Mana recovery was being cast over and over to the point that she actually felt better than normal despite the amount of magic being used. She wasn’t getting tired. This was winnable-

“That’s… enough!”

With a roar, the mimic dispelled the mana around it. The dust began to settle, but there was an eerily familiar red glow emerging from the cloud.

Prota gulped. [Infinity]. Right, John’s combat skills weren’t the only thing that made him strong.

“Ah. I see. Well, here’s where I step in.”

~~~

“What the hell? It’s a cave.”

“It’s called the Cave of Trials. What did you expect, a mansion?”

There was a guard standing in front of the cave, the one Prota had somehow managed to slip by, but with a bit of persuasion and identity checking, John and Fate were let inside. The two were now sitting in the center of the cave, waiting in front of the glowing portal. Fate’s fox was sitting on his head, licking its paw, but it, too, somehow seemed nervous.

“So, one more time. Explain what this place is?”

“It’s a leyline of sorts,” Fate sighed. “There’s an incredibly strong concentration of mana that’s gathered here, so much so that it warps reality and creates a sort of pocket dimension.”

“And that’s dangerous because…”

Fate sighed, staring at the portal worriedly.

“It’s called the Cave of Trials for a reason. No one knows why, but that portal? Once you step inside, it puts you through a trial that pushes you to your limits. If you make it out, it’s said that you’ll reach a higher level, but at the same time, the kind of work required for such a thing…”

John nodded. “Shit.”

Fate sighed. “Yeah, that about sums it up. I’d love a smoke right now…”

“You smoked?”

“...”

Fate refused to answer that question. He was understandably worried, given that he didn’t know Prota could come back to life, but John was even more worried despite knowing what Fate didn’t. It wasn’t about life or death. It was about wants.

What if Prota didn’t want to pass the trial? What if she didn’t want to come out?

“Please…”

~~~

“How is that beast still standing?!”

Prota was getting worried. If the voice that was helping her was concerned, then what did that say about her? No, more than that, what did that say about the thing in front of her?

“Hey, don’t ask me.”

Prota held her head. Too many things were going on. Why did the voice sound so familiar? Why couldn’t she win? What was going on?

“Your core isn’t big enough for me to cast the spell!”

“Wh- what spell?”

“There’s a spell that you can cast, maybe, but your core doesn’t have enough mana to cast it.”

“Then…”

“Well, it’s not like there’s no solution, but it’s risky. You still wanna try it?”

Prota cried out as she threw herself to the ground, a massive explosion shaking the cave walls.

The “John” she was up against was nowhere near as strong as the one she knew, but that wasn’t to say that it wasn’t strong. It was easily capable of dodging all of her attacks, and each one of its blows was probably more than enough to finish Prota off.

It was a battle of stamina, and for once, it didn’t look like Prota was going to win this one.

What choice did she really have?

“Do it.”

“Well, actually, I can’t do it.”

“...?”

“You’ve just gotta keep absorbing mana. That is, until you feel like you’re about to burst.”

“Wha-”

“And then, either you actually do burst, or you adapt. Pretty cool, right?”

“...”

It sounded scary, but… there wasn’t really any other choice.

With one final cry, Prota threw everything she had at the mimic, then threw out all the tendrils she had available and absorbed all the mana she could. It came rushing in, but she didn’t cast any spells. The mimic staggered as its source of life was being depleted, but Prota knew from experience that she only had a brief moment before it would be attacking again.

Just like before, her hair and eyes began to glow as her core began to overflow with mana, but she didn’t stop.

More.

More.

She had to take everything, absorb all the mana she could. She had to be greedy, even if it cost her life.

“Almost there!”

“You… little…” the mimic groaned but was cut off as a brilliant explosion of light washed over the cave, blinding everyone.

Prota couldn’t see. Her ears were ringing, and her head felt like it was being split in two. Was this it? Did she die? No, the [Reset Room] was black, not white. So then what…

[Mana Core up! C->B]

[This growth has been forced. As soon as combat ends, the core will shrink back to C rank.]

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

“Leave the rest to me.”

[Skill is being forcibly awakened!]

[…yeah, sure. I’ll allow it]

“I’ll… allow it?”

What? It wasn’t a message from John or Zero. What did that mean? It was a message, but… It was as if the system were speaking as a person instead of a system.

[Creation: Lv. 1]

[Your ability to create things has bloomed. Your understanding of creating new things has begun to grow.]

[Since the skill has been forcibly awakened, it will be cancelled after usage. In order to awaken it again, please train harder.]

With her core full of mana, she focused, and frost began to gather. She didn’t know what she was doing. She could only imagine that the voice in her head was doing something. She watched with awe as the frost began to gather. Layer by layer, petals began to grow, slowly transforming nothing into what was beginning to turn into a flower.

“That… I won’t let you!” the mimic roared but staggered again as Prota continued to draw mana from it.

Slowly but surely, as the ground around her turned white with frost, a beautiful flower formed in Prota’s hands. Her vision now fully restored, she could only stare at it with sparkling eyes.

“What are you doing, idiot? That’s a spell! Throw it at him!”

“What… what is it?”

“Ugh… blossom. It’s a blossom of ice.”

Prota closed her eyes and nodded. “Blossom.”

She opened her hands, and the flower flew forward. It was slow, almost calm, and yet unavoidable.

“You need to watch this. If you want to grow stronger, that is. You’ve been afraid, right? Then steel up and watch. You’re not attacking John. I am. So watch him die, or I’m cancelling the spell.”

The voice was right. She’d been afraid. Afraid of losing John, but just as afraid of being discarded. No more. The fire that’d been initially lit in her heart was back. She just needed to be stronger. One, ten, a hundred, a thousand mistakes, it didn’t matter.

She would get back up and try again.

The flower glided for a bit before floating down on the mimic, who tried to shield himself, but it was useless. The flower burst, hundreds of shards of ice flying everywhere, freezing everything it touched. The mimic, now a frozen statue with hundreds of shards of ice sticking out of it, shattered as Prota cast one last fireball.

“There you go. I’m… a little sleepy. I’m glad I got to talk to you again…”

“W-wait! Who are you? Where are you…”

Prota scanned the room one more time to thank the voice that had helped her out so much, but there was nothing there. What was that voice? Why had it helped her? She shook her head. The voice had helped her, and she was sure that it would come again. Something felt

A strange feeling had settled in her heart. Electricity coursed through her body, running from the ends of her fingers to the tips of her toes. A strange sense of determination ran through her, a feeling that she couldn’t lose.

She would stay beside John. She would protect him so that she’d never lose him.

She’d made the mistake of letting go of those close to her three times. No more. She would obtain the strength to save others, no matter the cost. It didn’t matter whether or not he would abandon her.

She would never abandon him. Her own life, her own comfort, those didn’t matter anymore. She was tired of being scared. Of running away. Even if she lost, she was strong. Even if she failed, she just had to get back up again. Even if he left her, she wouldn’t leave him. She’d follow him and protect him, even if he didn’t want her to.

The portal opened up once more, and she stumbled towards it, not forgetting to pick up her staff on the way. As she passed through, she saw one thing before passing out.

“...John?”

~~~

“Wakey wakey,” Doctor called out in a sing song voice.

The door to the cells had been opened again, but this time, he was walking down the corridor, his fingers trailing along the bars. Unlike before, they were dead quiet. Not a single sob or cry for help could be heard. Normally, there would be a cacophony of sound, but all the inmates knew what awaited them if they caught Doctor’s attention.

“You,” Doctor said, stopping at a cage with a young elf woman. “You’ll do for today.”

The doors opened with a rusty creak, the sound of metal rattling echoing down the halls as he undid the chains binding the woman to the wall. Surprisingly, her body was in decent condition, but it wasn’t enough to show any form of resistance as Doctor bound her with magic and carried her out of the cell. The bars slid back with a bang, and he hummed a little tune as he carried her down the hall.

At the end of the hall was a single door. None of the inmates knew what was beyond it, but they all knew it wasn’t anything good. They also knew they wouldn’t be getting any sleep tonight.

Because “it” was about to happen again.

Doctor walked through the door and entered a pitch black room. As soon as the door closed, he snapped his fingers, and the room was filled with modern electrical lighting.

The room was built like a modern surgery room from a hospital on Earth. In the center was a large flat table with restraints for the wrists and ankles, which were promptly used on the woman. Various tools and displays were around the room, and in the corner, a large machine sat with a box of marbles beside it.

“P-please,” the woman begged. “L-let me go. I promise, I promise I’ll never tell anyone, just please, let me go…”

Tears were streaming down her cheeks. She was terrified, so much so that her arms and legs were shaking to the point that the sound of her restraints rattling was beginning to become painful.

None of the inmates knew what happened in this room, but every time someone was taken in, loud and violent screams could be heard. The most ear wrenching, blood curling screams that not even nightmares could replicate would ring out for an hour. Then Doctor would emerge, his lab coat stained with blood, without the person he’d taken in.

The woman was about to find out what happened to them.

“Let you go?” Doctor asked incredulously. “Why would I do that?”

“Please, let me live! I don’t want to die!” the woman yelled, thrashing violently. “I don’t- I don’t want to-”

At this point, she was hyperventilating. Nothing had even happened to her yet. Such was the fear the man known as Doctor induced. One might think that this was truly rock bottom.

But Doctor always found a way to dig deeper.

~~~

“...ey, hey, wake up!”

Prota groaned as she felt herself being shaken back and forth. Her head felt like it was splitting apart. Where was she? Why was she sleeping?

Suddenly, it all came rushing back. The cave. The fight.

Her decision.

“Oh, you’re awake. Holy… that was close.”

Prota opened her eyes to find herself resting on John’s lap. Upon further observation, Fate was there, too.

“What happened in there?” John said as he put his hand over her forehead. Thankfully, it didn’t seem like she had a fever or anything.

Prota didn’t respond. She just reached up and held John’s cheek.

“Hey, I don’t know what’s been going on with you, but you don’t need to push yourself so hard, ok? I’m here. You don’t need to worry about it.”

“...” Prota closed her eyes.

It was more than enough.

“Hey, so, uh… anyway, before we were interrupted, let’s finish our talk. About that last favour.”

“Huh?”

John rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

“Well, I’ve been made aware of the fact that Prota’s been… uh, struggling a little bit.”

“Struggling? John, she just survived the Cave of Trials, and you’re saying she’s struggling?”

Despite the resolution she’d just made to herself, Prota couldn’t help but feel her heart sink.

“For some strange reason, she thinks really lowly of herself,” John explained. “I don’t- well, whatever. The point is, she’s being a little unreasonable with herself.”

“Huh?”

“Well, it may be partially my fault, but…”

John explained how he’d been trying to help Prota grow stronger. The bandits, the goblins, the golem, all of it. Obviously, certain details about resets were left out, but it was there.

“And… yeah. I guess since I stepped in to help a few times, she thinks… she failed or something? I don’t really know, but her mood’s been kinda in the dumps.”

“...you’re kidding, right? Even though she landed a scratch on Mr. Elfin?”

Prota’s eyes shot open. That was her? Not Fate?

“Yeah, right?” John snorted. “Anyways, she has this obsession with getting stronger. And, well, as you can tell, I’m not really fit to be a magic teacher. So… can you do something about that? Maybe?”

Prota held her breath. John was asking Fate to teach her? No, hold on. Back up a bit. She’d been the one to hit Elfin? Not Fate? And she’d been successful in incredibly hard trials? Something… something didn’t line up. They were saying she was strong. But she wasn’t. She wasn’t strong, not yet.

And yet, she’d managed to beat John. A fake John, dure, with outside help, but she’d done it nonetheless. So… maybe she wasn’t as weak as she’d thought.

“I… well, how about we ask her?”

They both turned to Prota, who’d been watching silently.

“She definitely has the mental resolve. I never explained this, but the Cave of Trials isn’t impossible. It’s designed to be passable through sheer effort. If you have the right mental fortitude, you can push through,” Fate explained.

“Who designed it like that?”

“Dunno,” Fate shrugged. “But that’s not important. Prota. You want to be strong, right?”

Prota nodded.

“Why?”

Prota paused, then quickly glanced at John.

“I can leave.”

He got up and walked away, humming to himself, but his foot was tapping. He was a little annoyed with himself.

“Is it related to him?” Fate said in a soft voice.

“I want… to protect John,” Prota muttered.

She trusted this strange boy known as Fate. He didn’t know it, but he was the third person she’d willingly talked to after meeting John. She couldn’t quite understand it, but there was something that made her want to trust him.

“You want to protect him?

Prota nodded. However, Fate didn’t respond immediately. He just stared at her with his golden eyes.

Fate sighed. “Prota. You care for John, right?”

Another nod.

“Then tell me. That’s not enough of an answer. What is it you really want?”

Prota closed her eyes in frustration. What did Fate want from her? They’d barely interacted in the past, so why was he digging so deep? She hated talking to people. But somehow, with the Cave of Trials, and everything else going on, she was too disoriented to be afraid. All that was left in her mind was Fate’s question. And eventually, she found an answer.

“I want to be with John. I don’t want to be alone anymore.”

“...”

“It’s… it’s my fault,” Prota whispered. “They’re all gone. I can’t lose John. So I have to protect him, so he doesn’t go. I won’t make the mistake again.”

Fate closed his eyes. Had Prota given the wrong answer?

After a while, he stood up. John must’ve noticed that the conversation was over because he turned around and walked back.

“So?”

Prota held her breath.

“Yeah. I’ll teach her.”

John closed his eyes. It was small, but his chest deflated as he let out a sigh of relief.

“What do you want in return?”

“Nothing.”

“...yeah, right.”

Fate shook his head. “I know. We just met, right? You threw a bunch of information at me, you’re really suspicious, and… well, that sums it up.”

John nodded, motioning for Fate to continue.

“It has nothing to do with you, actually. She just reminds me of myself.”

“...I’m not gonna ask.”

“Then don’t. The point is, you’re a lucky guy. Your sister is a good person.”

John’s lips curved up into a small smile. “Thanks.”

However, the deal wasn’t quite done yet. Fate’s fox, which had gone unnoticed for so long, suddenly hopped off his head and trotted towards John.

There was a puff of smoke which caused John to cough and squint, but when it died down, the fox was no longer there. In her place stood a beautiful woman with pink fluffy ears and a pink tail dressed in shrine maiden’s clothes. Simple wooden sandals adorned her feet, red and white robes fluttering around her as she looked around.

Her face was neither old nor young, making her feel ageless. She might’ve been anything from a teen to a middle-aged woman, and there was no real way of knowing. She gave the impression of elegance, but behind her small smile, there was the cunning of a fox.

“Fate. I’ll teach her.”

“Kit, what the hell?” Fate exclaimed. “I thought we-”

“It was to protect my identity, no? So if I want to expose it, then isn’t that up to me?”

“At least let me know before you do something like that!” the boy protested.

Despite the lightheartedness of the conversation, John’s body went stiff.

[Zero.]

He used the chat, not daring to use telepathic communication.

[Yeah. That woman… is the closest thing to “god” that we’ve seen since landing here.]