The room fell silent. As they'd hoped, John's awakening had solved the issue.

Despite their success, not a sound of celebration was made. Everyone was too preoccupied with the sheer pain written all over John's face. He sat back down, slumping over and closing his eyes.

"I dealt with the stuff for you," he muttered. "You guys can take care of the rest."

[Determination] had been activated, quite strongly in fact, but that didn't matter when John had no will to fight in the first place. He closed his eyes, trying to get over what had just happened to him.

Unlike Prota, he wasn't disoriented by the sudden switch in worlds. [Resets] had gotten him used to that already. He could live for years before dying to something stupid, then ultimately [Reset] ten years in the past. It was strange the first few times.

After a while, though, time stopped having meaning for him.

Besides, he'd already gotten rid of most of the memories he'd made in that illusory world. Having an ability that let him turn his memories into books was pretty useful. However, he couldn't bring himself to get rid of that last memory. This was the second time he'd said goodbye. The second time he'd left that world behind.

Was it worth it?

He didn't have time to sulk anymore. He could hear sounds of yelling, but they were muted. What was going on? He blinked his eyes open, looking up, but then froze upon seeing the sight that greeted his eyes.

Sofya was glowing, her body glowing far brighter than before. It was reminiscent of when John used [Infinity] at a high enough degree; the dragon looked like she was made of pure energy.

"John!" Destiny yelled. "What's going on now?"

"Rebound again, probably," John muttered, getting to his feet. "Although I don't know what's going to happen this time. Just get ready."

Everyone clenched their teeth, waiting for the next attack to come. The first attack had placed them in an illusion so captivating that even the Mystics had trouble getting out. They needed to ready their minds for something even greater.

The glow intensified. The room was washed in a crimson red light.

"Everyone!" Destiny yelled, his sword glowing like never before. "Ready-"

The attack that came was not a mental one.

It was physical in nature.

Everyone was thrown back, smashing into the stone walls behind them. John was immediately knocked unconscious, and Prota had trouble staying awake as well. The Mystics were fine, obviously, and Destiny had managed to react in time.

"Destiny!" Lupin yelled as he got back to his feet. "Protect the students!"

"But-"

"You are strong, but you are no match for a dragon! The aura surrounding them is gone! Get them to safety, now!"

Destiny looked around. The wind was whirling, magic being thrown out haphazardly in all directions. Leora was doing her best to block, but it seemed the might of the dragon was something the phoenix couldn't keep up with.

"Now!" Lupin yelled.

Squeezing his eyes shut, Destiny ran to the students, picking them up one by one. He could only carry two at a time, but he managed to throw them into the cell room where John was originally being held. There was no other room in this strange place. No door to an exit, no hole in the ceiling. Having teleported here, they didn't know of a physical way to leave.

All they could do was pray that they defeated their opponent in time.

Destiny ran back out to see Prota nurturing John back to health. However, the boy still seemed to be in a slump.

"John, I don't know what-" Destiny started, but was immediately cut off.

"Don't bother."

Destiny flinched as John snapped. His voice was so hollow. Just what kind of desire did John have?

"I'm not fighting. This one's on you guys."

"John-"

"No."

Destiny gritted his teeth. "Fine. You better not stay like this, you understand?"

He ran off, pouring all his mana into his legs. It wasn't just standard mana reinforcement, though. He could feel the energy seeping through his skin, his muscles, his bones, reinforcing each and every part in his body.

With a cry, he leapt forward, slashing at Sofya, but it did nothing. The attack simply went through her body, as if the dragon were truly made of pure energy.

"What the-" Destiny gasped, blinking a bead of sweat out of his eyes.

When his vision had recovered, a fireball was nearly in his face. The heat singed his hair, even through his mana reinforcement. Fear welled in the hero's heart. Taking this would mean death. But what could he do? He couldn't dodge, couldn't move.

"Destiny!"

Lupin slammed into him, pushing him out of the way in time. However, this meant the wolf Mystic took the attack instead. His body flew through the air like a rag doll, slamming into the wall, but this time, he didn't get back up.

"He'll be fine!" Leora yelled, still trying her best to block the attacks. "You need to do something! I can't keep this up forever!"

Destiny stared at his sword, trembling. Do something? What the hell was he supposed to do? How could he cut an opponent who couldn't be hit? All he could do—

Wait. God Slaying Sword. He could cut through anything. He'd been training for this. This wasn't the Demon King, but this was a threat he needed to take care of. There was no time to think, no time to plan.

He just had to do it.

Closing his eyes, he took in a deep breath. The origin of his power was rooted in his memories from Earth. The ability to cleave through anything, even the gods. The God Slaying Sword wasn't a single weapon; it was the designation for the man who could cut down anything in his way.

All Destiny needed was the resolve to do so.

His blade began to glow a pure, golden light. It wasn't the sword aura he'd been training; no, this was a completely unique aura, one he'd used against the crystal crab, Ten and Doctor.

Now, however, it was the strongest it'd ever been.

[God Slaying Sword: 60%]

With a cry, he leapt forward, his sword raised high above his head. In a swift, single motion, he swung down, cleaving Sofya in two. This time, the attack seemed to do something, as her image flickered for just a moment, the spells in the air vanishing, giving Leora time to breathe.

Behind the dragon, the wall split in two, slowly shifting. Dust began to pour down from the ceiling as the room's foundations were shaken ever so slightly, but thankfully, it didn't cave in.

"Good work!" Leora exclaimed, rushing to help Lupin back up. "At this rate, we can-"

Unfortunately, the moment of repose had lasted for just that: a moment. Three blasts came from behind, knocking out both Mystics and Destiny. Prota, who had just recovered herself, cried out upon seeing her allies get taken out.

What was fascinating was that all three were alive. While this was somewhat standard for the Mystics, Destiny should not have survived an attack of a calibre that could harm Mystics. It was almost as if the attack had been reined back in order to keep the boy alive.

Prota looked back to see Sofya flickering. The light that made up her body was fading in and out like a broken lightbulb. The dragon's expression was one of immense struggle and pain.

"Prota…" Sofya gasped, reaching out. "You have to… stop me… I don't want this. I don't want to harm…"

Just like that, she reverted to pure energy. With a shriek that pierced the heavens, the dragon rose in the air, surrounding herself with pure energy.

"John…" Prota muttered, her voice quivering.

The boy sat up a little more, looking up. "That's not a person anymore. Mm… kill it while you can."

It seemed he'd recovered a little. His state of mind wasn't stable, though. He was keeping them alive, not by fighting, but with information.

That was all he was willing to do.

He'd treaded the line between life and death for so long that survival was no longer instinctive for him. He had to put in effort to keep himself alive, and at the moment, that wasn't something he cared to do.

This time, it would be up to Prota to deal with this. Not John.

Prota.

She stepped forward, hands shaking as she stared up at the opponent before her. This wasn't Sofya anymore. Her headmaster. Her professor.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Her teacher.

This was an enemy she had to defeat. She'd resolved herself before coming here. If saving John meant defeating Sofya, then that was what she would do.

So, despite her shaking hand. Despite the fear filling her body.

She would defeat this enemy.

"Prota," Zero said quietly, appearing beside her. "You just need to hold on for a little. After that, I'll tell you what you need to do."

Prota didn't understand. "Huh?"

"Well… John wasn't supposed to be like this," Zero said with a sheepish smile. "Something different was supposed to happen. But I think the [Author] was a little too harsh this time. So this one… will have to be up to you. Just hold out, as long as you can. And something amazing will happen. Got it?"

She nodded. There was now a goal to reach, one that was in sight. Hold out.

She could do that.

There was another shriek as the dragon fired off some magic, but Prota was ready. The goal here wasn't to defeat the enemy, and that meant she didn't need to plan a method of attack.

However, her usual means of survival wouldn't work here. She tried to dodge, but the magic followed her as if it had a mind of its own. It wasn't just tracking her. It was actively predicting her movement, moving in unison to block her attempts at escape and slowly closing in.

"Hit the magic, Prota!" Zero yelled.

Hit the magic? Just in time, she understood what he meant. Instinctively, she fired off two icicles, piercing through the fireballs and extinguishing them.

Unfortunately, the advice had come a little too late. A third fireball, seen but not reacted to, knocked her down.

It didn't knock her unconscious.

She grit her teeth, using her charm to recover. Only two of the gems were still shining. Two more mistakes. That was all she could do.

"She's weak," Zero muttered, floating beside Prota. "But she'll be getting stronger. John didn't kill those weird things; he just got rid of them. However, that doesn't mean he absorbed them. They all went back into Sofya. She's slowly readjusting to their power, but the longer this goes on, the more magic she'll cast."

Prota turned to John's soul, dumbfounded. What? Hadn't he just said that she needed to survive? What the hell was the point in surviving if things were just going to get harder?

"You need to remember, Prota. Hold on. That's all I'm asking of you."

A shiver ran down her spine. She needed to clear her mind, readjust and reset. She could do this.

She was John's "protector," after all.

The next set of attacks came flying at Prota, but she was prepared this time. Firing off another set of icicles interrupted the attacks, giving her room to breathe before the cycle began anew.

She couldn't slip up for even a single moment. Every fibre of her body went into this fight, every muscle, every nerve, the feeling the mana in the air, the feeling the wind on her skin…

Every single bit mattered.

As Zero had said, the attacks were getting increasingly harder to deal with. Her icicles were no longer effective. Her fireballs no longer melted the ice that flew at her. She had to step it up.

Soon, she began to use Blossoms of Ice to counter the blue fireballs headed her way. Blue fire was capable of melting the sharp ice that threatened to kill her. Fire arrows pierced through the giant chunks of ice that flew her way, threatening to crush her, and blue ice was capable of neutralizing pillars of fire that would've incinerated her otherwise.

But it wasn't enough. With the addition of more powerful spells came a stronger mental fatigue, and a stronger mental fatigue meant a sloppier fighting style. Additionally, she could feel something sapping at her mana, slowly draining her even when she wasn't casting spells.

"Prota!" Zero yelled. "That's Soul Steal! You have to guard yourself!"

She flinched. Soul Steal. Right. Before she could process the new information, though, a giant chunk of ice slammed into her, crushing her arm and multiple ribs. She didn't hesitate to use yet another healing charm, reducing her fatigue and restoring her body, but this wasn't good.

She could only make one more mistake.

Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath. She didn't know how to counter Soul Steal the way others did. She didn't know how to block mental attacks.

But blocking wasn't the only way to restore her mana.

She reached out with her mind, thrusting her tendrils forward, plunging them straight into Sofya's core. The dragon's mana was as vast as the ocean compared to Prota's little lake of energy, but it didn't matter. She'd pierce through and take it all for herself.

With Sofya having lost her mind, there way no way for the dragon to block Prota's Soul Steal. If Prota couldn't block the attack, she could just take as much mana as she lost.

She didn't need to learn any fancy new techniques. All she needed was the skill that had started all of this.

It was funny to think she'd once cursed this ability. She'd once hated having it, because with it, the world had hated her.

Now, she couldn't imagine life without it.

The fight began once more, the intensity of the magic shaking the walls around the fighters. Prota had to step up her game. Raw mana was blocked with a Frozen Flame. Arrows comprised of dense formations of mana were broken with a Frozen Bullet. Fire spirits were put to rest with Absolute Zero, and ice spirits were similarly reduced to water with Plasma Disk.

Slowly but surely, Prota was working her way through the spells she'd learned. The spells that had accumulated as a result of her growth. A result of her journey.

As she cast each and every one, memories flooded back. Kit, teaching her how to control her mana in the forest. Mise, threatening to kill John. The island with the cultists, attacking them with no way out. That strange man and woman, testing her in that cold, deserted castle.

"Just a little more, Prota!" Zero yelled.

Her heart began to blaze with determination. This was doable. The experiences of her life were culminating here. The lessons she'd learned were now being applied.

The power of experience and friendship hadn't made a difference during her fight against the other Prota.

But they were making a difference now.

So many things were going on. Her mind was subconsciously absorbing mana at a constant rate, enough to replenish the mana that was being drained from her. Her body was dodging the attacks until she could deal with them. She was consciously analyzing the elements being used and casting spells accordingly, neutralizing each threat before they could reach her.

Strangely enough, Sofya wasn't using any spells but fire and ice, spells Prota could easily neutralize. A fire could be extinguished with a cold enough ice, and ice could easily be melted down by the hottest flames. If elements like wind or earth had been used, Prota wasn't sure what she'd do.

Even in a monstrous form, the headmaster was still teaching her things.

Over and over, Prota slowed down her perception of time, making sure her more advanced spells would be prepared in time. Her mind was slowly breaking under the stress of casting so many of these spells at once, but she couldn't waver here.

The strength of the spells increased even more. At this point, Prota couldn't hold back. She began using domains, firing off Frozen Cannons and Dragons of Ice and Fire, occasionally using Hail of Arrows to clear waves of spells she couldn't handle. It didn't feel like she was fighting against just one enemy.

It felt like a wave of demons had appeared.

Still, the memories kept coming. The casino. The fight with that knight in the Wynton household. Sofya's private lessons. Lilith's bright smile as she displayed her family's treasured spell.

Her strength was unique to her. Soul Steal and her talent with mana control were things no other mortal mage could replicate. But at the same time, she wouldn't be where she was without the strength of her experiences. Her failures. She thought back to the Prota from the Town of Beginnings. Back when she'd been so afraid of messing up.

Now, she knew better. Failure was just a stepping stone to a higher level. It didn't matter that she'd never truly won a fight. It didn't matter that she lacked the ability to dominate whatever opponent came her way.

Because, in the end, she'd just rise back up and be the ultimate victor. As long as she could protect her relationship with John, she had won. Even if they walked away from a fight as the losers, as long as the two of them were alive and well…

That was Prota's "victory." That was what winning meant to her.

And that meant that, right now, she absolutely could not lose.

If she fell, she might as well have stayed in that dream-like world she'd left. Now that she thought about it, she couldn't help but feel a twinge of sadness. That village had been so warm. So comfortable. She had friends, family, and a life without problems.

Here, there were all sorts of issues. She was constantly attacked by cultists. She was constantly getting into fights. There was a Demon King after her, and there was a sister who needed saving.

Yet, despite all that, this world was real, and that world was fake.

Fake… wasn't that what John always called this world?

Her line of thinking was halted. That flow state she'd been in came to a stop. A shiver ran down her body, as if the absolute cold from her domain had turned on its creator and harmed her.

To John, this world was no more than an illusion. The people in this world were no more real than the villagers Prota had encountered in her dream world. The experiences he had, the relationships he built, they were all…

Fake.

For a moment, she understood the absolutely crushing despair of integrating the truth of this world into her soul. It was a horrifying reality. Everything she saw, smelt, felt, tasted and heard, they were all the fabrications of someone's imagination. It was all made by the mind of an individual.

If she had known her fake village was an illusion, would she have willingly stayed? Would she have felt comfortable knowing none of it was real? That, in the end, unless she died, she'd be ripped from that world into the "real" one. That, in the end, every accomplishment she made in that world would ultimately be meaningless.

A crushing fear ripped through her body, tearing it apart from the inside. Forget going through countless [Resets], this was far worse. Knowing there was no one to love, no one to fight. There was no point in goals, no point in effort.

A cold sweat began to break out over Prota's skin. Her eyes became as soulless as her face.

For a moment, she was just like John.

In an ironic twist, she was saved by a devastating attack that knocked her back, shattering every bone in her body. She winced, the pain making it through her incredible tolerance, but she held on and used her final healing orb. Her mind had been cleared after that attack.

All that depressing stuff didn't matter. This was why John didn't want her to use his line of thought. It was helpful, but it would never be worth the price. And that was good. Prota didn't need to be John. She didn't need that line of thought.

It didn't matter what John said. To her, this world would be "real."

Her resolve firm, she stood, facing Sofya. She could feel mana folding in front of her, stacking and growing.

The Tenth Seda.

Thankfully, it seemed Sofya had only worked up to the seventh step. Prota wasn't sure why the dragon hadn't worked up to the tenth step, but that was fine. The tenth step wasn't something she could block, anyway.

Closing her eyes, she focused. She could see Anta in her mind, two dragons coiling around her body, snaking together until they couldn't be unravelled.

Mana began to gather. The air didn't change, but there was an undeniable shake to it. Ice mana and fire mana began to coexist, filling the area until an unthinkable domain formed:

A domain of fire and ice.

The two elements cancelled each other out, and there was no physical effect. By looking or feeling, you wouldn't have been able to tell that there was a domain active. There was no effect like slowing down the opponent's reaction time or sapping their stamina.

But in this domain, an uncastable spell could now be cast.

"Dragon of fire and ice."

A blast of pure mana shot toward Prota, but she stood her ground. With a shout, she launched the dragons, and the two spells collided midair, pushing against each other in a magnificent display of power. The tension in the air grew. Prota clenched her teeth, doing her best not to be blown back by the sheer aura emanating from this clash of mana.

Suddenly, an explosion ripped most of the room apart, blowing apart any piece of furniture that could be found. The walls cracked and shook, the ceiling raining debris and dust. Soon, this place might fall apart, but nobody had the luxury to pay attention to that.

Prota was exhausted. She wouldn't be able to hold on for much longer. A single spell would take her out.

But that was fine.

"You did a good job, Prota."

Prota turned back, expecting John, but no, he was still slumped on the ground like a ragdoll. A red light shone from his eye, but otherwise, he looked dead. Instead, Zero was floating right behind her, a look of intense concentration on his face.

"That guy is still out of it. But that doesn't mean he's useless. Not yet. His power is still usable."

Prota's eyes widened. John's… power?

"Well, how to put this… ■■■■■■■■- ah. I see. Well, just try it. You can't take all of it. If I had to guess… maybe a hundredth of a percentage? But right now, this guy's sad enough that it won't matter. Go on. Try it."

Prota instinctively understood what Zero was saying. She reached out, trembling, feeling for John's core. There was no mana core, but his entire body seemed to be made up of some kind of strange energy. She siphoned just a bit of it, a bright red light flowing through the tentacles emanating from her core, slowly approaching her body.

"This is your fight to win, Prota," Zero smiled before vanishing.

Suddenly, a violent and strange power filled Prota's heart. She felt like she could do anything. She felt like a god.

All the fear that was once present within her vanished.

[Alert! [Infinity] is available for ten minutes.]

[Maximum power available: 10^96]

A strange sense of elation ran through Prota's veins as she went back to face Sofya. Almost subconsciously, her hand reached up and tapped the side of her head, the same motion she'd seen her brother do back in Vulcan.

The number she'd read wasn't familiar to her. She didn't quite know what that was. But then again, from what she knew, saying the number out loud wasn't needed.

Ever so slightly, her mouth opened.

"Power."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.