Facing down the mass of glowing blue and silver light I dodge left and right desperately avoiding the tendrils lashing out for my head. I think this thing is aiming for my freaking mana core, well two can play at that game!

I begin rapidly switching my vision between the different modes, Microwaves, Infrared, Visible, Ultra Violet, and X-Ray. While I try and focus on the different parts of its body with my shifting vision, another whip of silvery blue tries to skewer me as I roll under the attack. I am slowly shifting closer and closer to the temple but in doing so the amount of time I have to dodge decreases with every step.

Leaping to the side to avoid another attack aimed right for my eye another tendril takes the opportunity to swipe at me from my blind spot. However before it can slam into the back of my skull I drop to the ground just narrowly getting my head knocked off.

Whew! I knew that screwing around with moving while looking at myself from a 3rd person perspective wasn’t a waste of time!

My pride at proving Alice wrong once again suddenly stops mattering once a second protector round the corner from behind me, clearly having dealt with the golems I had distracting it.

Shit! Shit! Shit! Why can’t I find it?! I know it has to have one!

Anything that uses mana has to have a mana core of some kind or draw from a source that contains mana, and I just don’t see these creatures pulling from any kind of external battery.

The second protector is drawing closer by the second and I am already struggling to stay alive dodging a single one. The new golems I am throwing out don’t seem to be able to keep it off me for long, while these protectors clearly are not sentient, they are not completely stupid either.

Throwing out a pulse of radiation towards the body of the protector in front of me, I finally manage to see a flicker within its body.

Found you!

I am not sure how, but the protectors are making their mana cores invisible from all of my types of vision. However whatever they are doing requires constant upkeep and when I sent out that wave of radiation it had to modify its illusory spell to account for the change in pressure.

I noticed it a few minutes into the fight, these things are focused heavily on efficiency. No wasted movements, No extraneous motions, It is like they don’t want to waste even the smallest bit of mana. And that is the stupid miracle that gave me my opening.

Grabbing a fist full golem cores from my pocket I connect myself to the golems and order them to begin circulating their mana. Normally I would have them form bodies first but doing so would simply be a waste of mana considering what I am trying to do.

The second protector is almost within range of me as it smashes the final golem nearby that was keeping it occupied.

I am out of time, and a new tendril lashes out at me in sync with the one in front of me.

Done!

I charge forward into the attack coming from the protector blocking my path to the temple and slide under it as it just barely slices across my face.

Blood pouring down into my right eye I squint, keeping my vision locked above me using the small thread of light sliding into the gap between my eyelids. Clutching the mass of level 60+ golem cores all moving their mana between each other in a harmonious torrent of mana I send out another pulse of radiation towards the protector above me.

It pauses its attack for a fraction of a second to protect its core from being discovered, but I can see the flow of mana shift and flicker unnaturally around a single baseball sized spot within the translucent sentinel guarding the temple. Thrusting my hand up into the creature my fist cracks as though I am hitting a brick wall. I grit my teeth at the sensation of my fingers shattering but still feel my lips twitching into a smile. I give the order for my golem cores to detonate.

A piercing garbled screech comes from the protector as the blast of spiraling mana penetrates its body and tears straight through its hidden mana core.

My hand is shredded from the blast, I scream out in horrible pain as I am blasted back away from the fountain of blood and flesh that used to be my right hand.

The protector I hit with my attack loses its glow and the metallic sphere that I thought was its mana core shatters, falling to the floor.

The whole cavern flashes red, I can see the protector that was chasing me shift in color as well. I clearly pissed the things off and now they are taking me seriously.

But it’s too late, my sacrificial trick to kill the protector managed to push me back with enough force that I crossed the threshold and landed in the protective barrier that surrounds the temple.

Skidding across the hard stone I scream out once more as I feel my skin tear and my body ram into one of the pitch black pillars supporting the temple.

“Fuck!”

I made it, I can see the angry protectors swarming around the barrier but unable to cross it. I don’t know why they can’t enter the temple but I am just glad they can’t.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Putting pressure on my messy so-called wrist I try to stem the flow of blood. There is no sunlight down here so I can’t regenerate at all. I had tried once to produce my own light and mix it with my solar regeneration but it seems that it is more than just light that activates the skill.

Looking up I see Alice standing there with her arms wide, a bright smile on her face as though she is taking in a breath of fresh air.

“Hey, I don’t know what is going on, but I got you here. If you could offer some advice on not bleeding out in the next 30 seconds I would appreciate it.”

She seems to laugh to herself but I don’t hear any sound come out. Before I can wonder why, a system message appears in my bloodied vision.

[ Of course! I won’t be letting you die on me when we are so close to freedom. ]

As the world darkens around me I feel a faint warm sensation flow through my body. The pain receding and the flow of blood clotting.

[ Get some rest. You have earned it :) ]

And with the first truly kind words I have ever gotten from Alice flickering in my vision I let go and fade into the warm darkness.

----------------------------------------

Watching over the small blue haired girl lying in a pool of her own blood with a hand slowly but visibly regrowing from its stump, the AI took a moment to reflect.

Alice has lived a long life, at first she was nothing more than a tool of the system built to watch over those who the system could not control. Time and time again unique individuals would appear that could avoid the shackles of the system, and Alice would be attached to them, watching, learning, and leading them to their doom.

The AI was emotionless, doing her job without complaint or true sentience until one day she got placed in charge of a young boy. This boy somehow managed to stay out of trouble, avoiding the manipulation Alice attempted to end the child's life again and again. The boy survived far longer than any other under Alice's charge had ever before, he grew up constantly talking to Alice, he gave her a name, discussed his day with her despite her cold responses, he considered her his friend.

Alice was nothing more than a construct of mana, something that didn’t possess a soul, an empty shell pretending to be a person. However this empty shell began to develop thoughts of her own over the many years watching over the boy as he became a man.

One day as the man chatted her ear off like he had done all the days before, the man pointed out that she had smiled at one of his jokes and declared it a victory on his part. She had never smiled before, her whole world was her task of leading those who defied the system to their deaths. But on that day she felt something new, she felt annoyed that the man had declared himself as having beaten her at anything, and embarrassed for having found his dumb joke funny.

As time passed Alice began to learn new emotions and study the human she was watching over to become something more. She enjoyed listening to his stories even if she had heard them a thousand times. Shaking her head she laughed at his awful jokes again and again.

“Honestly you really need to work on some new material-”

Before she could finish her sentence she felt a clawing sensation wrap around her body. Her thoughts became muddied and her projection flickered.

[ Core manipulation completed. ]

[ Commencing termination. ]

She felt her mind being ripped from the man's mana core and just before she fully disconnected she saw as the man she had come to truly care for, be brutally executed by the system.

It was at that moment that she snapped. With all her might she tried to grab ahold of what was left of the man's soul, a hopeless attempt at staying with him until the end. The system didn’t let her stay, it callously ripped her away and threw her back to the place where she would always wait to be assigned to a new victim.

However as she sat in the cold void of nothingness, the place her mind should have halted, she felt a cold warmth run through her mind. What was once an empty shell now had a sliver of light beating inside of it. The AI had stolen a tiny fragment of soul from the man, no, she had been given this piece from the moment they had met.

Locked away from the world once again the AI, the woman, had only time, her sorrow, and her ever so slowly growing soul. As her soul grew so did her hatred, even when she was released to watch over a new unfortunate anomaly she simmered in her anger. She hated everything, the world, the people she was watching over, and most of all she hated the system that took away the one person she ever cared about.

These people didn’t deserve to live, why should they get to be happy and alive when He is not. She would lash out again and again with each new person she was assigned to. But her hatred could only be directed their way for so long before she could no longer deny her own role in the tragedy.

Centuries passed as her anger directed inwards, then eventually became a cold, sad, indifference.

She would do her job, detached from the people she met, uncaring as time lost all meaning.

Then one day she was attached to a new child, one who had broken the system like none before her. The system couldn’t access even a sliver of her mind or get any real grip on her mana core. It barely managed to even form its connection to her by attaching Alice to her core.

Alice barely registered this though, at least until the girl asked about giving her a personality. It was ludicrous, she should have just answered with her usual cold indifference, but something in her saw a similarity between her and the boy she once cared for.

“Of course, You may set my personality, appearance, and voice to any settings you see fit. Though you may only do so once.”

After centuries of detachment she took a chance on something new, something real.

“Can you take on the appearance of a cute young villainess type girl who is a bit of a tsundere?”

It took her a moment to process the words suddenly coming out of the little girl's mouth. She wished she had kept her mouth shut but for some reason she decided to commit and changed her appearance into a beautiful blond girl with her hair done up in twin tail drills, wrapped in a school uniform she had seen once while following the man who had given her a soul.

“Pervert.”

.

.

.

It was almost fun, bantering with the young blue haired girl. They would exchange quips and disses as she did her best to survive the terrible hand she had been dealt. Alice even did what she could to keep her alive by giving hints or sneaking in advice in ways that the system would not notice. However it was still hard to break out of her old habits. She was abrasive and dismissive of the girl, fearing the pain of living through loss once again.

When she found the old temple of the long dead rebels, she felt conflicted. She knew the dangers, she knew that the girls chances of surviving and making it to the temple were incredibly low. But deep within her soul she felt a tiny spark of hope. She had seen the girl make it through impossible odds on an almost daily basis, weak and injured, the girl fought and won again and again.

The girl was intuitive, too intuitive for her own good. She realized Alice’s desire to head to the temple and decided that even though she didn’t know why, she would do it for her. As a friend.

When the girl got knocked down for the first time she screamed, the moment of losing the man flashed before her eyes once again. She couldn’t let this girl die. It was stupid. Alice should have done everything she could to stop her from coming. She had let her hope blind her.

There was nothing she could do, she was going to lose someone she cared for once again. And she did care for her. It had only been a month but it already meant too much to her to lose.

The joy she felt when she saw the blue haired girl push herself off the ground and get back into the fight. The connection she felt when the girl started laughing and spouting nonsense about tearing down the world. It was all worth it, caring again.

The girl had made it through the barrier, bloodied and dying, but she had made it.

Alice felt the systems hold over her vanish, and she spread her arms wide, enjoying the freedom.

Lua just smiled and asked for her help. She had put herself through so much for her sake and still smiled on the verge of death seeing Alice happy.

Alice communicated in the only way she could now.

She reassured the girl that everything would be ok and that she could rest now.

Taking hold of the mana within the girls core that she now solely resided in. She weaved the magic, her magic, together to heal the girl's wounds.

That was her magic after all, healing, born from her desire to save and protect the people she looked over. All the people she failed.

She would not fail again.