The hero couldn't detect anything strange. Neither could the two Mystics. Yet, despite this, they didn't dare to question Prota's words. It wasn't because they trusted her. Of course, they did trust her, but that wasn't the reason they accepted her words as truth.

The matter was, logic had to be thrown out the window when dealing with John. It wasn't a matter of him outdoing one's expectations or performing feats unbefitting of a child. Such feats were reserved for the [Protagonist]. No, it was merely that something like "logic" couldn't be applied to someone who operated on a different level of thinking in the first place. If he didn't produce results, they would've all assumed he was an incompetent psycho.

But he did produce results, incredible ones at that, and so they had no choice but to acknowledge him.

And if anyone was going to understand how he managed to pull through, it was going to be Prota. It was almost poetic. The brother was impossible to understand, and the sister was impossible to interpret. Both were oddballs in their own way, and yet somehow, they understood each other far better than anybody else.

"All right, Prota," Destiny said with a grimace. "If it's her, can you track her down?"

She shook her head. In the first place, she'd identified the issue by analyzing John's [Deus Ex Machina] energy. She only knew Sofya was the culprit based on that. She also had mixed feelings. Was it really her mentor? The one who'd been teaching her these past two years? The one who'd nurtured her, taught her how to wield her ability to the best she could, taught her how to take her abilities to the max.

Did she really want to fight this person?

Then she thought about John. She couldn't risk another Doctor situation. If this was a misunderstanding, they'd work things out. Right, that was possible. And, after all, hadn't John told her there would be no more sad endings?

She could do this.

Now that she'd resolved that dilemma, she was still left with the issue of figuring out how to explain what she knew. How was she supposed to answer this question?

"Nn…"

"It's ok. Take your time," Destiny said, misinterpreting her hesitation. "It's better to get it right than it is to rush and get it wrong."

The Mystics muttered their agreement. Prota took a deep breath. Panic wasn't going to get her anywhere. She closed her eyes, reaching out. In the air was traces of John's energy, but if she searched harder, she could sense something else. The mana felt… empty. Yet, at the same time, it was moving, shifting, not unlike water magic, yet not unlike earth magic as well.

She'd felt this once.

"Spatial magic," she muttered. "Can't tell where."

"If it's spatial magic, she would definitely be capable of something like that," Leora nodded. "It wouldn't be difficult to take others with her, too."

"We never considered it. Teleportation… of course," Lupin muttered. "Only someone of her level could manage such a thing, and we never expected an enemy to be so capable."

Prota didn't care about any of that. She just wanted to know what to do about this.

"Leora, can you…?" Lupin said quietly.

"It'll take me some time. We need to make sure nobody enters this office."

Destiny grimaced, looking at his allies. They went out and stood guard, giving the phoenix time to prepare her spell.

~~~

"Do I understand…" Sofya's smile slowly faded. "Why?"

"Ok, scratch that. What do you think that power does?" John said carefully.

"I… The power's ability revolves around desire, does it not? I was under the impression it was an otherworldly ability that revolves around concepts rather than material."

"Revolves around- shit."

John cursed under his breath. Was this going to be a theme? Doctor had gained the ability of "control," the ability to maintain control over whatever situation he was in. If Sofya was saying her ability was to fulfill desire…

"Hold on. What gave you that idea?"

"I… I do not know."

"Then why did you tell me it's based on desire?"

Suddenly, Sofya was in the position of student and John was in the position of mentor. This wasn't good. If Sofya had yet to use her powers, then another villain was coming. Probably. Actually, John didn't have a large enough sample size to understand how these people wielding [Deus Ex Machina] worked.

Was she even a villain?

"A gut feeling," Sofya explained. "When I acquired this, I… I felt I could accomplish what I wanted. The very concept of wanting something felt like it was under my control. I'm afraid I cannot give you an answer better than that."

John cursed again. What was going on? What did the [Author] have planned here?

"Listen to me. That power isn't what you think it is. It's-"

Before he could go on any further, the door crashed open.

"Sofya Ohrein! Surrender now!" Leora yelled, brandishing a spell.

Destiny, Prota and Lupin spilled in, all prepared to attack. John noticed that Prota seemed a little hesitant, but otherwise, they were all ready to fight as soon as Sofya pulled one suspicious move.

John would've been glad in any other circumstance. Apparently, Prota had managed to sift through his terrible notes and come to the conclusion that Sofya was the culprit. He wasn't sure how they'd found this place, but that didn't matter. They'd come to his rescue.

The issue was that he'd been on the verge of discovering something incredibly important. But now, he got the feeling he wasn't going to be doing that any time soon.

"How- what?" Sofya exclaimed, jumping up. "How did you find this place?"

"We traced your teleportation magic. You didn't think anybody would find you, did you?" Destiny said, brandishing his sword. "What did you do with those kids?"

"They're alive! I just- I just needed a little more time, I-"

"Not one move."

Everyone was at a standstill. Prota was still looking at John nervously, and he gave her a little nod. She seemed to calm down at that. Good. Right now, he needed to diffuse the situation.

"Guys," he said carefully.

Everyone turned to him.

"Hold on. This might just be a big misunderstanding. Let's just talk for a moment, ok?"

There was no response for a while, but eventually, Destiny nodded. Lupin and Leora looked at each other, then nodded as well.

"Great. Ok, first things first, can someone get me out of this cage?"

Without a moment's hesitation, Sofya flicked her wrist, and the cage door swung open. John stepped out, moving to stand between the opposing parties. He rolled up his pants and raised his hands.

"Look. No injuries on me, ok? She's been treating me well."

"...thank you," the dragon said quietly.

"How do we know you haven't been told to do this?" Lupin said cautiously. "You could be under the effects of Draconic Speech."

"I'm not affected by Draconic Speech."

The Mystics stared at John.

"...he's not affected by Draconic Speech," Destiny sighed.

Prota nodded, rendering the two Mystics speechless.

"Now that this is cleared up, let's just get it out, ok? Sofya, what do you need these kids for?"

"...I needed to test my ability," Sofya said slowly. "The ability to materialize desires. I was able to reach into their psyche and pull it out, and they were fine."

"Right, because you want to revive your daughter, right?" John said.

Sofya flinched.

"How did you-"

"It doesn't matter how I figured it out! If you have to know, it was just incredibly obvious! But right now, that's not the fucking point. The point is that we clear things up, so answer the goddamn question."

Sofya hesitated for a moment, speechless, but she quickly gathered herself back together.

"Indeed."

"That's impossible!" Leora exclaimed. "There is no magic that-"

"Who said this was about magic?" John said, cutting her off.

The room went silent.

"Look, she might succeed. If she's been doing tests to keep everything safe, then maybe… maybe we let her go through with this."

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"John, are you sure?" Destiny exclaimed. "I know you're confident, but-"

"I'm sure. I've been talking to her for the duration of my kidnapping, and I can't say I feel anything wrong."

That was a bold lie, and Prota seemed to know it. Still, she didn't say anything, probably because she trusted him. He hoped he'd continue to do that, because he didn't actually know how safe this was.

"We let her give it a try. Ok? If it works out, she gets her daughter back, we all tell her to never do this again, and we all go home happy. If something goes wrong, great, we have two Mystics and a her- a talented set of students," John said. "Is that all right with everyone?"

Everyone reluctantly nodded. They all seemed to trust John. Well, it was natural. They'd been in an incredibly tense situation, and John had easily broken it up and calmed everyone down, then suggested a solution that benefited everybody.

"Thank you," Sofya said under her breath as she passed John. "Truly."

They stepped out into the main room where the students remained sleeping. Upon further inspection, they really were alive and fine. Prota confirmed there was nothing wrong with their souls, relieving Destiny immensely, and the process began.

Sofya closed her eyes and focused. Both John and Prota could sense the faint [Deus Ex Machina] energy permeating the room. Everything seemed to be going well. There was no sign of progress, but there was also no sign of failure, and that was all that mattered.

John slowly let out a sigh of relief. Maybe this would all end normally, and none of this was actually part of the [Plot]. It was something they could just brush over before moving to the next part of the [Story]. Maybe this whole Scholaris thing was one big time skip after all.

"Thank goodness," Destiny sighed. "It's all-"

"Shut up!" John hissed, covering the hero's mouth, but it was too late.

Prota cried out as the shed began to glow. Red light began to surround her body, and she could feel her strength leaving her.

"Sofya!" John yelled. "Stop! Stop!"

Thankfully, the dragon immediately halted the process, and the light surrounding Prota disappeared. John's mind was racing. What had happened? What was going on?

Suddenly, a sinking feeling filled his heart.

"Sofya," he said hesitantly. "When did you receive… the energy?"

The Mystics and Destiny looked at each other, confused, but John didn't care whether they understood or not.

"About three years ago," Sofya frowned. "Perhaps… slightly before you cane here. Why?"

"Slightly before-"

John eyes went wide. Keywords began to flash through his mind. Before they'd entered. [Deus Ex Machina] energy. [Soul Steal]. [Anomaly].

Diaboli.

"She's mine."

John had almost forgotten, but the Demon King had tried to take two things from him the first time they'd fought. One was his memories. The other, however…

Was Prota.

There were only two beings in this world who could give [Deus Ex Machina] energy. One was John, and he hadn't done it.

The other was Diaboli.

This had to be some sort of scheme of hers. But what? Think. He had to think. He ignored the worried looks he was getting from everybody, muttering like a madman.

"Diaboli… D.E.M…. memories…"

One word clicked it all together.

"Daughter."

John's eyes shot open again, but this time, it was in fear.

"Oh. Oh, fuck."

He looked at his sister, who stared back with trembling eyes. Nausea washed over John as he realized the scheme Diaboli had set up. She wasn't allowed to fight or interact with him or Prota until he [Reset].

But what if it wasn't Prota anymore? What if it were someone else? Technically, she would no longer violate the rules of the agreement and would be allowed to take Prota with no complications. Diaboli couldn't hurt John, but the agreement went both ways.

John couldn't hurt Diaboli.

"I told you not to worry. As to your second question… your sister resembles my daughter in a few ways."

Prota didn't just look like Sofya's daughter. Prota was her daughter. Or, maybe not exactly, but… something with the [Deus Ex Machina] energy had made it so Prota had been chosen as the target of Sofya's daughter's revival.

But how to explain this?

"Sofya," he gasped. "To revive your daughter… the energy is using Prota as a medium. It's going to revive your daughter in Prota's body."

There was a collective sharp inhale from everybody present.

"You-" Destiny started, but John put his hand out, shaking his head.

"She didn't know."

"That- that is correct," the dragon said, clearly shaken. "I thought-"

"John?" Prota said quietly, grabbing onto his scarf. "I'm… I'm her daughter?"

"I don't know," John said, shaking his head.

Too many implications were being realized. Too many theories could be crafted. What did it mean? What did any of this mean? Was it simply the fact that Prota looked like her daughter and could use Soul Steal?

Or was it more than that?

"Is there any way to… do what I wanted to do?" Sofya said, breaking the silence.

"I don't know. I don't think so," John said, starting to calm down.

That was right. She wasn't malicious in intent. If she just backed off, what did it matter that she had a little bit of [Deus Ex Machina] energy? John could just ask Zero how to extract it, and everyone could go home happy.

That was what he was hoping, but that was wishful thinking, and John knew it.

"Very well," Sofya sighed. She seemed more than discontent, but she wasn't ready to sacrifice the life of a child just to revive her own. "I will back off. I apologize for all the-"

Suddenly, her body became enveloped in red light, encasing her and turning her silver hair a dark crimson red. Light poured out from her eyes as she roared, shaking the very room they were in.

"What's going on?" Destiny yelled as everyone prepared for combat.

"I don't know!" John yelled back.

"It was rebound," Zero said in his mind. "You cancelled the usage of the energy. There's consequences for that."

"What? Since when?!"

"Since… since forever? You've never cancelled your powers. She had the intent of recovering her child, and the conceptual energy exerted had nowhere to go. With nowhere to go… it reconverged back on her."

Destiny shook John, whose eyes had glazed over. "Hey! Snap out of it! What are you doing?!"

That got John back to attention. "The energy rebounded! Get ready to fight!"

The cave stopped shaking, but a fully glowing Sofya was now hovering high up in the air, staring down at them.

"I just… wanted my daughter back…"

Her voice was like an echo, tripling in volume and effect, like her vocal chords were a hollow cave.

"I… just wanted…"

A red tear dripped down her cheek. Before anyone could react, it split into five parts and went straight for the entire party, striking them in the head.

"Prota!" John yelled, and then the world went dark.

~~~

"...ohn. John. Wake up!"

John sat up, disoriented. Where was he? What had he been doing? Blinking his eyes to clear out his vision, he looked around. He was currently lying on something soft. Grass. Sitting up, he shook his head, a blade of grass falling down around him. Before him was the edge of a cliff, and beyond that, a sparkling blue ocean. Even further was a brilliant sunset, tinting the sky hues of yellow, orange, pink, and purple, until the night took over, painting the sky black.

Despite the beautiful view, his heart felt cold. Why? Why wasn't this display of nature something that enamoured him? He felt as if he understood the concept of satisfaction, but couldn't quite reach it. Why not?

"Wh- wha? Where am I?" he frowned. "What's going on?"

A brown haired girl jumped in front of him with a bright smile. "What're you doing, dummy? Come on! You can't sleep out here all night, you'll catch a cold."

"A-Amber?" John frowned.

That was right. He was on planet Earth. This was his good friend, Amber. He was staying with her as he was currently homeless.

They'd just saved the world. But… how? He couldn't quite remember. He'd been hovering in a void, and Zero had been there. His soul had been about to tell him something important, and then—

"John, come on! Dinner's not gonna stay warm forever!" another voice called out.

"Who-" John started, but he knew the answer to his question already.

Lance. Amber's brother, and his best friend. The one who'd been with him since the start. The one he considered a brother, even though they shared no blood.

"Look, just because we saved the world doesn't mean you gotta start living like a bum, ok?" he grinned, running out. "It's a great view and all, but you gotta eat."

"Y-yeah, sorry," John said with a grin. "My bad. Oh, my deepest apologies, my master-"

Lance slapped him on the head. "Yeah, yeah. Let's just go eat, ok?"

John smiled, warmth filling his heart. Right. He was with his friends. There was nothing to worry about anymore. He didn't have to use [Reset] after [Reset], didn't have to worry about the destruction of the world…

"Hey, are you coming? Or not?" Amber frowned, looking back.

John got up. "Oh. My bad. Sorry, I was a little distracted."

"By what, my charming looks?" Amber teased.

"Your looks? Please, I could never fall in love with a-"

He stopped talking. What was he about to say? He didn't know. With a girl? No, that wasn't what he was about to say. He could fall in love with girls. But what else could he have meant to say? He couldn't fall in love with a saviour of the world? That didn't even make sense.

"Hm? Care to finish that?" Amber said, her expression more than annoyed.

"Ah- never mind!" John exclaimed hurriedly, rushing to get back to their house.

The uneasy feeling in his heart slowly faded away. Everything he'd fought for was safe. Now, it was time to reap the rewards of his hard work and relax with the people he'd built relationships with.

The people he could call friends.

~~~

Prota sat up, disoriented. Her hair was all tangled in front of her, blocking her eyes. She pushed it aside and roughly threw it back, leaving it uncombed and messy.

"Prota!" a voice called out. "Come eat!"

"Breakfast!" a voice called out beside her. "Come on, I'll race you!"

Prota looked to her left to see… herself? Who was this? It didn't take much to realize it wasn't a clone of herself or anything. This girl had black hair and red eyes, with a fierce but joyful expression.

Anta. This was her twin sister. Right, how had she forgotten? This was her family. This was her house. She lived here in this small but peaceful village. Then why had she been so disoriented? She shook her head. She felt as if she'd had a terrible nightmare, but she couldn't quite remember what it was about.

On top of that, there was a sinking feeling in her chest, like there was something she was supposed to remember. Someone precious to her, perhaps? She couldn't tell. No matter how hard she tried, though, she couldn't quite remember what it was.

"Prota! Anta!"

"Coming!" Anta yelled, hopping out of bed.

There was no need to worry about it. Prota almost smiled, but found her mouth wouldn't move. It wasn't stiff or anything. It was almost as if the action was foreign to her. She frowned in confusion, only to realize that this action felt unnatural as well.

She shook her head, and this time, a bright smile formed on her lips. That was strange, but maybe it was just a result of the nightmare she'd had. She ran down, closely following her sister, into the kitchen. The scene was bright and warm. Her parents' smiles were loving, the food on the table was comforting, and the weather outside was delightful.

"Can we go play?" Anta said, grabbing her fork and spoon.

"Once you finish eating," their mother smiled. "We can't have you running around hungry now, can we?"

"Ok! Then I'll just eat fast!" Anta grinned, digging into her porridge.

Prota similarly began to eat, but as she tasted the warm, homemade porridge, a tear dripped down her cheek. Crying? Why was she crying? She reached up in confusion, her vision turning blurry as more tears formed.

"Prota? What's wrong?" her father said worriedly, hurrying over to wipe her tears away. "Did something happen?"

"I… I think I had a bad nightmare," Prota said, sniffling.

"Aw, sweetie. It's ok. What happened?"

"Um… I think you and mommy died in a fire," Prota said, shaking. "And Anta was taken by a demon."

"Mm. That's pretty scary," her father nodded. "But we're here, right? Nothing's going to happen to us, Prota. Don't worry."

She nodded, wiping the last of her tears away. That was right. Nothing bad would happen. After all, how could it?

"All done!" Anta exclaimed, holding up her bowl.

"Very good," their mother smiled. "You can go out now."

"Yay!"

The black haired girl ran out. Prota, seeing this, quickly finished her food and followed suit, running into the village where all the other children were gathered. The adults walking by smiled at their antics as they played around, swinging sticks and climbing trees.

"All right!" one of the boys yelled. "Let's play knights! Who wants to face me?"

"You're on!" Anta grinned, picking up a stick.

The boy faltered. "Um… not you."

"Why not?!"

"You're too good!"

"All right," Anta said, her grin turning a bit more mischievous. "Then you'll face my sister."

Prota's eyes shot up in surprise as she pointed to herself.

"You got it, Prota!" Anta cheered. "Go beat him up!"

She hesitantly picked up a stick, and the crowd cheered. The boy with the other stick grinned, raising it high.

"All right!"

He swung, and Prota panicked, but without even realizing it, her body had moved for her.

"Wh- how'd you dodge that?" the boy frowned. "Well, try to dodge this!"

He swung again, but just like before, Prota's body dodged for her and even swung back, almost hitting the boy in the chest.

"That's my sister!" Anta cheered. "Go get'im!"

The crowd of children began to cheer as Prota dodged attack after attack, fighting like no other child had ever seen before. The boy slowly began to run out of breath, but Prota was doing just fine.

"I- I yield!" the boy gasped. "What is with you sisters?"

"That's my Prota!" Anta exclaimed, wrapping Prota in a tight hug. "See? I knew you could do it! Wow, you got really good at fighting, huh? Where'd you learn that?"

Prota accepted the hug, but for some reason, she felt vaguely uncomfortable with the contact she was making with her sister. Why? She'd been hugged all the time before. Why was she feeling uncomfortable now?

Still, the cheers of her friends quickly drowned out that small, nagging voice, and her heart was filled with warmth instead.

Hopefully, these happy days would never end. And why would they?

Not a single cloud hovered on the horizon.

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