Isabelle cracked her knuckles and drew her sword. It was time to fight the beastly Minopidusalisk that was charging toward her and John the caterpillar of wisdom.

The Minopidusalisk stopped to stand in front of Isabelle, raising its two talons in the shape of fists. The two combatants stood before each other, ready to fight.

"Well, let's see what we've got here," said Isabelle. She smirked.

"I hope you're ready to die, asshole," said John the caterpillar of wisdom.

"You're talking to the Minopidusalisk, right, John?" asked Isabelle. "Oh, mmm, yes, of course," said John the caterpillar of wisdom.

The Minopidusalisk charged forward, and Isabelle parried the first blow. The creature swung again, and Isabelle blocked the attack. The monster attacked again, but Isabelle managed to deflect the strike. They fought on for several minutes, each of them trying desperately to get the upper hand on their opponent.

[582 damage dealt]

[-15 hp]

[923 damage dealt]

[-18 hp]

[281 damage dealt]

[324 damage dealt]

[938 damage dealt]

Isabelle managed to land more blows than the beast, but it didn't take long for the Minopidusalisk to overwhelm her with sheer strength. With one powerful swing of its fist, the creature sent Isabelle flying through the air and crashed her hard into a tree behind her. Isabelle fell to the ground, dazed.

[-48 hp]

[You've been stunned]

The Minopidusalisk turned its attention back to John the caterpillar of wisdom. It raised its fists in preparation for another round.

"This isn't going well," said John. He transformed into a butterfly and fluttered away.

A second later, he landed on the branch of a nearby tree and looked down at Isabelle. "This isn't going well," he repeated as he got back into position to fight against the Minopidusalisk once again.

The Minopidusalisk charged at John and let out a growl like nothing any human or animal had ever heard before as it raised its fists once again. Its talons glowed red with mana as they prepared to crush John's head like a grape underfoot—or something like that considering John had no head to crush underfoot—and he knew he was about to die a horrible death when a gust of wind rushed past him. A second later, a sword flew through the air and collided with the Minopidusalisk's forehead before embedding itself in its brain. The monster fell to the ground in a heap of gore and oozing innards, and Isabelle rushed towards it. She beat at it with her sword until she realized that it was dead, and then she planted her sword into its twitching body and killed it once and for all with a single stab deep into its back. With that, she stood back up and surveyed her surroundings once more.

[Critical hit]

[69420 damage dealt]

['Minopidusalisk' is dead]

Isabelle smiled and wiped the blood and guts off her body. She shook herself off before sheathing her sword in its scabbard once more and started to walk away from the enormous pile of meat that used to be a Minopidusalisk. Then she stopped dead in her tracks as she saw two men standing next to each other on top of a hill that looked out over an endless forest stretching out into the distance from beneath its blanket of misty clouds. She smiled at them both as she approached them both, but they didn't respond to her greeting as they just stood there gazing out into the distance with sad expressions on their faces.

"Who are these chumps?" Isabelle asked John the butterfly of wisdom as he fluttered up to her. She looked at him with shame. "Also, can I just say, you're a colossal fucking coward, John. You ran like a little bitch."

"No need for you to be so rude," said John as he hung his head in dejection and sadness at his inability to stand up for himself against such a powerful monster like the Minopidusalisk. "I'm just not very confident in my ability to fight." He looked up at Isabelle with teary eyes, as if she could help him somehow make sense of this terrible thing that had befallen him in his life and turn it all around for him by simply saying hello to him like an acquaintance might do when they ran into each other on a strange road in a foreign place where no one else knew them or cared about them at all for that matter.

"Yea, well, grow some fucking balls, then," Isabelle spat. "You're weak, John." She looked at him with contempt and disgust before she turned her attention to her right hand once more and channeled mana into it for several seconds before raising her hand high above her head in the air and letting it fall towards John like an iron curtain about to fall from heaven and smite him with its sheer might and decisiveness until he was reduced to dust. "No more running away from things."

Isabelle screamed as she watched John's body crumple under the impact of her hand coming down on him like a hammer that had been swung by Thor himself. He hit the ground with a mousey squeak and a twitch of his butterfly antenna. His wings were broken, and he coughed the cough of a dying leper.

[Critical hit]

"Isabelle," John the butterfly of wisdom rasped, "Did I ever tell you I had a son?"

"No?" Isabelle frowned in confusion.

"I had a son," he said.

"Back when you were a caterpillar?" Isabelle asked.

"Yes," he said. "Yes, I had a son, and he lived with me inside that castle up on the hill. He was my son from my first wife."

"Was she dead too?" asked Isabelle.

"Yes," said John. "She was also my first wife."

"And neither one of them ever spoke to you again after you gave birth to your son?" asked Isabelle.

"No," said John sadly. "They were both dead before I gave birth to my son."

"That's terrible," Isabelle said. "I'm so sorry."

"Isabelle," John said, "Did I ever tell you I had another wife?"

"No, but I figured," said Isabelle. "Considering you called your first wife your first wife, I mean. Generally, people don't call their first wife their first wife if they've only had one wife."

"Well, my second wife was also my second wife," said John the butterfly of wisdom. "She was also my second wife from my first wife."

"And did you love her too?" asked Isabelle.

"Yes," said John. "I loved her very much."

"Did she love you too?" asked Isabelle. "I mean, she had to have loved you if she was your second wife, right? You can't have two wives and still love them both equally."

"Yes, yes," said John the butterfly of wisdom as he nodded his head in agreement with himself and smiled as if this was all very much to his liking. "She loved me very much too."

"Um, J--"

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"Isabelle," John said, "Did I ever tell you about my third wife?"

"No," said Isabelle. "You had a third wife?"

"Indeed, but let me tell you a story about my son before I die the death of a sullied butterfly," said John the butterfly of wisdom. "You see, my son, my son from my first wife, he always wanted to fly away. Away from the castle, hell, he wanted to fly straight out of the system options gui, if that's even possible. He wanted to fly so bad he made a cocoon and turned into a butterfly and tried to do it with his wings and his will alone. But it wasn't enough for him; he needed something else to help him become airborne. After all, he'd been gorging himself on leaves and discarded fruit, and he was much too heavy."

Isabelle rolled her eyes at this ridiculous story that John was telling her as if it was some sort of epic poem or something, but she didn't interrupt him because if she did she'd feel like a first-class asshole for doing so. Instead, she just waited patiently for the story to come to an end and hoped that it would be something interesting enough that she wouldn't feel like she had done something unforgivable by interrupting him in some way.

John smiled at Isabelle as if he had just realized something extremely profound about himself or the world around him that he had somehow previously overlooked in his life until this very moment when he could no longer deny it any longer to himself or to Isabelle.

"He found a feather," said John the butterfly of wisdom. "He found a feather and used it to make wings for himself."

Isabelle rolled her eyes again as if this was another obvious thing for John to do.

"Of course he already had wings, so it was kind of clunky, having two sets of wings, one made out of whatever the hell butterfly wings are made out of and the other set made out of feathers, and then having to flap his arms around and pretend like it wasn't weird or anything for him to have two sets of wings at once."

Isabelle looked at John with a curious expression on her face as if she wasn't quite sure whether or not he was joking with her or not. John grinned at her as if he knew what she was thinking and decided that he wanted her to know that he was only joking with her, or at least think that she knew that he was only joking with her, and then he began to laugh as if it were actually funny. He laughed as if the entire situation was so cleverly funny that he couldn't help but laugh along with her now that his joke had been successfully delivered.

"Oh no," Isabelle said softly as she shook her head in disbelief at this story that John had just told her which seemed so obviously ridiculous and stupid as soon as it was told that she couldn't help but feel like a first-class asshole for having thought that it had any chance at all of being anything else but ridiculous and stupid and therefore unforgivable in its original form.

"So he said to me, he said to his only papa, his only papa who was at that moment still just a caterpillar of wisdom and not a butterfly of wisdom, he said to me that the time was nigh for him to fly, fly away. And I told him that it would be more than nigh for him to fly not once but twice," said John the butterfly of wisdom as he laughed evenharder now than before. "I told him that it would be more than twice nigh."

John laughed so hard now that his entire body shook violently with every single laugh that escaped his body now, and Isabelle had no choice but to laugh along with him. She laughed until her sides hurt as well as her eyes uncontrollably filled with tears from laughing so hard. Isabelle laughed even harder now than she had before when she heard this ridiculous story about how John the caterpillar of wisdom's son had used a feather and the time was nigh for him to fly two times. In fact, now that Isabelle thought about it, she realized that maybe she'd laugh even harder later on when she remembered this ridiculous story in her life when she actually thought about it later on in life.

John and Isabelle laughed so hard now that they both felt like they were going to fall over on top of each other and die from laughing so hard. And, had Isabelle actually lost control and fell over, she would've surely crushed John. But she didn't, she stayed in control, and for that they were both happy.

"And so he did it," John said. "He hopped out the window and flew away! However, you see, there was a problem."

Isabelle gasped. "A problem?"

"Yes," said John. "You see, Isabelle, he was a butterfly, and his feathery wings were not very aerodynamic. Butterflies were not meant to fly with two sets of wings, Isabelle. Oh, gods no. And so he flew up into the air very quickly like a rocket, but then he began to fall very slowly like a rock. He fell down from the sky like a rock down from the sky."

Isabelle laughed even harder than before at this realization. "He fell down from the sky like a rock down from the sky!"

"Yes," said John the butterfly of wisdom. "He fell down from the sky like a rock down from the sky."

The two laughed together until their sides hurt as well as their eyes uncontrollably filled with tears from laughing so hard. John laughed until his entire body shook violently with every single laugh that escaped his body now, and Isabelle had no choice but to laugh along with him now, even though she thought his story could be improved upon somehow if he were able to think of some way to improve upon it later on in life when he actually thought about it later on in life.

"So what happened next?" Isabelle asked when she finally calmed down again after laughing for so long.

"Well, what happened next," John replied, "is that I began to scream and cry out for him. And, what's more, I started to flap my wings out the window after him!"

"You had wings?" Isabelle frowned. "I thought you were still a caterpillar of wisdom back then!"

"Oh, but I was," said John with a chuckle. "You see, Isabelle, I had no interest in mutating into a butterfly at that time. Why, my first and second wives had just died! That was no time to transform into a butterfly. But my son was so convinced that his feathery wings would work that he made me some, too. They were more like his test wings, honestly, they were a little shittier than his and were also asymmetrical, and hell, I'd just seen him fall from the sky like a rock down from the sky, but I hopped out the window and flapped my fucking fake wings like the gods depended on it. And this fearful moment, as I said, is when I realized that butterflies are not meant to fly with two sets of wings, and caterpillars are not meant to fly at all! I screamed out for him again and again and again as I flapped my fake wings out the window after him."

Isabelle snorted.

"Of course I immediately fell to the ground, but I was much trimmer than my son, as I had not been eating as much as he nor had I been neglecting doing my caterpillar bodyweight exercises, so I just fairly maimed one of my legs when I landed in the maze. And of course that is when In saw the beast."

Isabelle gasped.

"Yes, the Minopidusalisk! It ran up to my son and it licked its horrid lips. And it picked him up and plopped his fat little body into its mouth and crunched on him like he was a bite sized cheese danish, and it crushes my very soul to think of that horrid sight. And then it smiled with his mouth full of delicious meat and said something in its fucking alien language."

Isabelle gasped again. "How awful!"

John nodded sadly. "Yes," he said with another nod. "That is how it was."

Isabelle nodded too.

"And then it left us," said John after a long pause. "And so I never came back to the castle, and instead I devoted all my energies to imprisoning the Minopidusalisk in the maze for all eternity, so that no other caterpillar fathers with multiple dead wives will have to suffer through the death of a stupid, obese son with two sets of wings ever again in the history of the system options gui!"

"How awful!" Isabelle said again while holding her head up high in a moment of seriousness that was immediately interrupted by another laugh of laughter that came out of nowhere and surprised both of them for no particular reason whatsoever.

"Fuck you, Isabelle," said John with a hack. "This is my life you're laughing at."

She giggled.

"Well, thank you for listening to my story. I must admit, it is a bit funny. But it is also my life. And this, Isabelle, this is my death. You've fucking killed me, you cold-hearted bitch."

Isabelle frowned. "I'm not a cold-hearted bitch!" she replied before laughing some more at her own joke which came out as an awkward cough of laughter before she began to sob because she had no idea what else to do in this situation besides laugh or cry until her eyeballs popped out of her face or she burst into flames or something equally as dramatic.

John smiled sadly at her and then coughed wretchedly. "F... f... fuck you, Isabelle."

['John the Butterfly of Wisdom' is dead]

Isabelle watched the butterfly lay limply on the grassy ground. Then, she got curious, and focused on him.

[Looting disabled]

Damn.

Isabelle stood in silence. Then, she noticed the two stoic men she'd started walking towards earlier were looking at her.

"What do you want?!" she spat.

"Well done, Isabelle," said one of the men in a flat tone. "You've managed to re-enable your mana use. You may now exit the system options gui by clapping your red boots together three times and saying 'there's no place like Beaubinte.'"

"Red boots?" asked Isabelle. "But I'm barefoot!" Then she looked down. "Well I'll be damned!" She was wearing shiny, red boots.

"Before you leave," interrupted the other stoic man, "Would you mind taking five seconds to answer a few questions about your experience using the system options gui?"

"What? What the hell do you want from me?!" Isabelle exclaimed. "I'm not answering any fucking questions!" Before they could ask

anything more of her, Isabelle clapped her boots together three times. "There's no place like Beaubinte!"

[Now exiting system options gui]

[...]

[...]

[System options gui exited]

Isabelle's vision changed. She was back in the dark cave surrounded by quartz and her two idiotic party members. And, of course, there was the monstrous shapeshifter looming over them with malice. And then, Isabelle saw it.

[Mana use enabled]

Isabelle smiled. Finally, she was going into a fight with her magic once again.