"Sir. They've defeated it."

Doctor's hunched over form straightened up as he heard his right-hand man come in. The room was surprisingly clean and well-lit. In fact, it was almost a replica of an operating room from a hospital.

An Earth hospital.

"As expected," Doctor sighed. "That one was just the third, after all. Our toys have improved in quality since then."

Breaker coughed into his fist awkwardly. "We're running out of materials, sir."

"That's fine. We've almost accomplished our goal, haven't we?"

"If that man gets involved-"

Doctor waved Breaker off. "Your old comrade? He's injured. He cannot fight. You told me so yourself."

"Regardless, he is a formidable opponent," Breaker growled. "He is not to be underestimated."

"Do you think I'd lose, Breaker?"

"I understand. Then, I shall take my leave."

Breaker bowed and left the room, leaving Doctor alone at the table. In a few minutes, he straightened up again, tossing a scalpel to the side. Walking over to the sink to wash his hands, he snapped his fingers once. From the shadows came two men, one skinny and one short, both wearing greasy smirks on their faces.

"What's up, boss?" said the skinny one.

"Birdie. It's your turn."

"You mean I finally get to make some dolls?"

"If that's what you want, then yes. You know I don't care what you do with the insects."

"Any of them… small?" Birdie said hopefully.

"Some of them are."

Birdie licked his lips. "Then I'll do this one for free."

The man looked as disgusting as his words, but Doctor didn't react in the slightest. He couldn't have cared less about these two. They just did their jobs well. Whatever aftermath followed was none of his business. Why should he care if a few more test subjects disappeared?

"You do all of them for free. You know what happens if you don't, right?"

Birdie just sighed, rolling his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Just give me the details, and Mise and I will take care of it."

Doctor nodded. "Then, this is what they look like…"

~~~

John would've been surprised to find out that there'd been no further complications after he'd passed out. In no time at all, a team of ten mages, Albert, Bren and Elfin came down to help escort the prisoners out. John was thrown onto a cart, and everything went smoothly.

The prisoners were taken to the church of Celeste, where the priests gave adequate care. John would've normally thrown a fit about this. He had his suspicions about churches, and not just because of what'd happened with Prota. Religion in fantasy settings typically never ended well.

Thus, he would've been surprised to find out this church was the safest place the prisoners could've gone.

The church wasn't something just anyone could join. Only those selected by Celeste herself could be a part of the Holy Order. Only the pure could enter. They had no political factions, no ties, and no obligations. They were under no ties to any government or any higher power. Even kings could not order them around. Corruption was weeded out immediately. They had no reason to take bribes or run underhanded deals, and the rare dissident was always expelled immediately.

Still, even with this explanation, Prota wasn't all that comfortable around them, given their past interactions. They'd only been doing their jobs, as John would say, but feelings weren't so easily erased. She quickly left and followed the two men who took John to a hospital.

"You're his sister, right?" the doctor said, checking his notes.

Prota nodded.

"I'm gonna need you to answer some questions, ok?"

Prota froze up. She didn't want to. She didn't feel comfortable with—

Fate said as he burst into the room, saving the day. "I'll answer for her. Sorry, she's a little shy."

"Who're you?" the doctor frowned.

"His… friend," he answered hesitantly. "I was with him in the dungeon when he fell unconscious."

"Can you validate-"

Fate pulled out his adventurer's card and a letter from Albert. Inside were notes instructing the doctor to leave John alone for a day.

"...I see," the doctor muttered as he read the note. "In that case, I will leave the patient to rest. You do understand, though, that if my patient isn't awake within… say, twenty-four hours from now, I will take action."

Fate nodded. "Of course. Thank you."

The doctor got up and left the room, leaving Fate, Prota and Kit behind.

"Thank you," Prota muttered.

Her hands were still shaking, but the tension was easing its way out of her body. It was strange. Ever since John had fallen unconscious, she was relapsing into the way she'd felt during her time on the streets. She felt the need to curl up and hide away, to remain unseen and let a shell surround her, cutting her off from the world.

She hadn't realized it, but… did she rely on him that much?

"Hey. He's gonna be alright," Fate said quietly. "He said he'd wake up, right?"

Prota nodded.

"Has he ever lied about something like that?"

Prota shook her head.

"Then it'll be fine. I've got to go do some work myself. There's so much to figure out…"

Still muttering to himself, Fate left the room, leaving Prota to watch over John. Earlier, the doctors had removed his bloody clothing and replaced it with hospital clothes, but somehow, he was now back in his red t-shirt and black sweats. His hoodie and scarf were hanging on a chair, too, even though Prota hadn't seen anyone bring them in.

She stared at John's sleeping face.

"Wake up…"

With nothing to do, she rested her head on John's chest and fell asleep.

~~~

"You want to join me?" Fate said, surprised.

"Yes! I have to save my sister!"

Fate looked at Danjo with concerned eyes. The boy was still thin and malnourished, probably traumatized, too, and yet here he was, asking Fate to let him go back into danger.

"It's too-" Fate started, but he stopped speaking midway.

How could he tell this boy that it was too dangerous?

Danjo knew it was dangerous. He knew the risks of going back into the dungeons, hopefully. Despite all that, did he still want to go with them?

"What can you do?" Fate said, trying to find an excuse to dissuade the boy.

Realistically speaking, there wasn't much Danjo could do to help. It didn't look like he'd be able to fight, and a boy this young probably wasn't a high-level mage or some kind of mighty warrior. People like he and Prota were exceptions rather than the rule, after all.

Fate sighed and looked at Danjo, trying to figure the dwarf out.

"Hold on. First. How old are you?"

"...I'm eleven."

Fate was surprised. The boy was the same age as he was. Really?

"Um… I was told I look young for my age, but that's apparently normal for dwarves…"

The boy seemed to stutter a lot, his eyes darting back and forth. He had a quiet and weak voice, but it was different from Prota. He seemed more shy and unsure of himself rather than distrustful of others.

Fate hesitated.

"Danjo. Do you understand what it means to come with us?"

"Yes."

"You could get captured again."

Danjo trembled at that. His eyes glazed over as his body began to naturally react to the experiences he'd been through, but he clenched his fists and powered through. He gave Fate a resolute nod.

"I can't… can't leave my sister there. I have to help her…"

"Help your sister?" Fate said.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

"I'm an orphan," Danjo explained. "My sister, Olivia, she found me on the streets. She… she didn't have parents either, but she took me in anyway. She always encouraged me to do what I wanted to do. Even though we didn't have a lot, she did the best she could…"

"What did she do? As an occupation, I mean."

"She was an adventurer. It was a few months ago. She went out to help two adventurers who got lost, but she never came back… they were F-rank, but apparently they were around the old mansion. Some ancient B-rank quest or something."

Fate stopped listening.

Everything else naturally fell into place. The dungeon they'd found, the souls, the monsters, everything, they were all connected. To be honest, despite John's reputation of being correct, it was hard to believe that his theories were accurate this time. It was just that far of a stretch to trust it entirely.

Well it didn't seem like a stretch anymore.

"Anyways, I went looking for her. I wanted the guild to do something, but I didn't have any money, and they told me that she knew the risks…" Danjo said, his voice trailing off.

"And you got captured?"

"Yes. I found my sister there. She was… all thin. Normally, she's very cheerful and kind, but she was like a husk," Danjo explained, shivering as he remembered. "I have to get her out."

Despite everything, Fate couldn't help but feel touched. This boy was likely still recovering, still trying to return to an ordinary life, but his first thought was to help his sister.

How could he say no?

"Fate," Kit warned. "Focus. There's more information to be gained."

His mentor's words shook him back to his senses. Right, emotions shouldn't get in the way of rationality right now.

"Wait," Fate said after thinking for a moment. "Why wasn't your sister with you when we found you?"

"I was moved. There's more than one lab," Danjo explained.

More than one lab. It made sense. That was why there hadn't been a plethora of enemies.

This wasn't their main base.

"Do you know where your sister was?"

"No. That man… the one they call Doctor…" Danjo shivered at the mere thought of him. "They turned the lights on in the cells. Something happened, and then I was knocked out, and then I woke up in another place."

Fate nodded slowly. This was new information. Doctor. It was a name. It was infinitely more than they had before.

"Danjo," he said slowly. "I'm gonna ask you one more time. Do you understand what it means to come with us?"

Danjo nodded. "I- I'm okay with getting captured again. I just- I just want to save my sister."

"What can you do?"

"I- I do a little magic engineering. It's not super impressive or anything, but I…"

Danjo rambled on, but that wasn't the important part. Danjo had made a master key out of the dumps of that dungeon. What else did he have in store?

"Can you show me?"

~~~

"...and so, that's the thing. Any problems?"

"Yeah. Why do we have to deal with the church?" Birdie complained. "They're annoying."

"Just do it. You have complaints, you take them to Doctor. Understood?"

Birdie just sighed as he played with his knives. "You're telling me some kids killed that crab and that weird mess?"

"What, you think our man is lying?" Breaker said, raising an eye.

"It's just… you sure there wasn't anything else? I don't wanna deal with unforeseen variables."

Breaker nodded. The argument was fair enough. "There shouldn't be anything. You have the reports on them."

The small dwarf, Mise, stood up gruffly.

"Then, to confirm, I will restate the given information. The masked boy, Fate, is a powerful mage and fighter whom we must be wary of. It is suspected that he has a mana bond with a nine-tailed fox. The girl, Prota, is a powerful mage suspected of possessing the "Soul Steal" ability. The boy, John, is a manaless fool who carries a strange weapon and is somewhat competent in hand-to-hand combat."

Breaker nodded, crossing his arms. "That is correct. I assume you have no further questions?"

"What do we do with them?" Birdie grinned.

"Whatever you want. That is up to you. Just make sure they're dead and out of our way, and bring back the bodies when you're done."

He stopped and snapped his fingers, and a small child came walking up with a canister in hand. Her eyes were lifeless, and she walked mechanically as if she were a robot and not a human. Just like the slaves in town. He passed over the canister to Mise, who took it with a confused look on his face.

"What is…"

"Use it," Breaker grunted. "It's soul power. There are ten vials in there. Each of them will let you cast a Last Stand once."

The two men stared.

"Are you asking us to take on an army?"

"It's a failsafe. Don't use it if you don't have to."

Birdie nodded and hopped off the crate he'd been sitting on. He had a strangely sadistic smile on his face.

"Take number ten with you."

The hulking body that'd been on the surgery table emerged from the shadows silently.

"Ugh, fine," Birdie groaned. "Come on, you hulking idiot. Let's go get some new toys."

The odd trio left the room, leaving Breaker alone.

"Those three could take on some of the paladins at the church. Granted, they may be fools, but does Doctor really think some children can stop them?" Breaker muttered. "And if he does, then what in the world are we up against?"

~~~

Fate stared at the workshop in awe.

Danjo had led Fate back to his home. It was small, but it wasn't too bad. However, half the lower floor had been converted into a workshop. Tools and trinkets were everywhere, with grease and oil staining the stone floor.

"Sorry," Danjo apologized. "I would've cleaned up, but…"

The more Fate talked to Danjo, the more he started to understand Danjo's character.

The boy was shy and timid, but the instant he started talking about something he enjoyed, he lit up and became confident. In the first place, he probably wouldn't have opened up to Fate had he not been so desperate, but here, it felt like the true Danjo was shining through.

He wasn't very well informed, but the theories the boy had about artificing were amazing. You wouldn't have been able to tell just by looking at him. He didn't have proper schooling or training, but maybe that was where the boy got his skills from. There was no formal training to bind him to silly rules.

Fate had stumbled into a hidden genius. He just had to coax it out.

"I was playing around with some metals," Danjo muttered as he tinkered. "Specifically, those that interact with electric magic. I found that certain mana crystals that were deemed useless could power certain things, and it…"

Danjo put on two gloves with a bunch of wires sticking out. Fate wasn't sure what they were supposed to do until Danjo pointed them at the wall and pressed a button. A bolt of electricity shot out, temporarily blinding Fate. Unfortunately, the gloves crumbled after a single use.

"Well, that. These aren't practical, though. They end up not working half the time."

"What the hell…"

Danjo wasn't well acquainted with artifacts, apparently. Typically, artifacts were items with rare enchantments, like magic swords or armour with absolute protection against certain kinds of elements. They were items practically made of mana.

Danjo wasn't doing that. What he was doing was science. Something like science from Earth.

Fate continued to be amazed as Danjo explained certain things he wanted to make, like portable stoves that could fold up and easily be carried, or items that could spew out flames light enough to start a fire.

Even Kit had no words as she stared at the various items Danjo had either made or planned out. As a magic geek, something like this was beyond what she had imagined. These were items that could make even the manaless powerful.

"I was interested in making weapons, too," Danjo explained. "But Olivia said I should focus on helping people."

Fate nodded slowly. He was still taking in everything that he was seeing. This boy was an incredible asset. More than that, he was someone Fate wanted to work with. The boy had someone he wanted to save. He was willing to risk his life to save someone else.

Wasn't he like that, too?

"Danjo. I'll have to talk to some people about it, but… yeah. Maybe we can do something."

~~~

"Number ten is being sent out… I need to make another one. That one is a prototype anyway."

Walking over to the cells, Doctor turned left and then walked into a block that was slightly different from the others. It was slightly better kept and smelled less like crap. Children tended to have less favourable survival rates in worse circumstances.

"Which one…" the man muttered, then opened a cell door, waking a child up and instantly causing him to cry.

"Now, now," Doctor said in a failed attempt to soothe the child. "We're going to see your mommy."

The boy didn't even respond. He just looked up, eyes devoid of light.

"That's right," the man said, ending the conversation and roughly dragging the boy to a large metal room with various tools.

"Now, let's see…"

The next hour could only be described as a terrible experience for the boy. The boy had initially struggled, but Doctor pinned him down with force that didn't reflect his physical appearance. After a while, the boy was no longer capable of moving and was forced to give in.

It was the same procedure as the woman from before. Pure torture. Of course, it wasn't just for the sake of torture.

After an hour, Doctor found what he was looking for, a small glowing white orb. He withdrew it and immediately shoved it into a canister. By this time, the boy was clearly dead, although the surgery had been so clean one would've just assumed the boy was sleeping.

"Much better," Doctor sighed.

Wheeling the body into another room, he plugged the body into a large intricate machine, hooked up to an unseen power source. There was a loud whirring as the machine did its work, and when it was done, the boy opened his eyes, lifeless but open.

"Can you hear me?" Doctor said, snapping his fingers.

The boy nodded but did not speak.

"Spin in a circle for me."

The boy did exactly as Doctor commanded.

"Very good. Now… get on all fours and bark like a dog."

The boy did so, completely unembarrassed. It wasn't shamelessness. There was just no emotion behind the boy's eyes. None at all. Like a meat golem that existed only to obey commands.

"Alright. Now, I need another body, an older one…"

~~~

John being unconscious didn't mean much to someone like him. He was floating around in a void with Zero, waiting to wake up once more.

"John. You know something's gonna happen, right?"

"What, because I'm unconscious? Yeah, probably."

John remembered the first time he'd met Zero. It'd been a situation similar to this. It was strange at first, to talk to a clone of himself, but at this point, it was practically second nature.

"They're going to have to deal with it on their own," Zero informed his body.

John didn't even bother to look at his soul. "Yeah."

"You can't interfere this time."

John actively turned away this time. "I know."

"You don't care?"

John stopped floating around and turned to look Zero in the eyes.

"If I can't do anything, what do you want me to do? Cry about it?"

"I thought you liked being in control."

"It's called coping, man. Just leave me alone."

Zero looked at John with such an expression of pity that he couldn't take it anymore. John floated closer, getting nice and personal with himself.

"You know just as well as I do, Zero. Just because I'm self-aware doesn't make me any less of a puppet. It just makes me a self-aware puppet. "Dance, white boy, dance!" That's me."

"You're not white-"

"That's not the point. The point is, I don't get to do jackshit, right? Ultimately, if Prota's destined to die, then am I supposed to do?"

"John," Zero said softly. "That's the point of an [Anomaly]. You can change things."

"What? What bullshit are you spewing now? The [Plot] was determined a long time ago. I can't change things. If the [Author] wants to call down the raw might of the sun and nuke us all, what can I do about it? If the [Story] just ends one day, what am I supposed to do? I can only stroke off so many [Readers] at once, you know that?"

"...what the fuck are you saying?"

"My point is that there's nothing I can do. It is what it is, Zero."

The soul looked at John sadly. "That's not true. Your existence changed the direction of the [Story], John. The [Author] treats you as a special individual. You're an [Anomaly]."

"That makes no sense. I'm still a [Character]. What am I, a self-insert or something? Is this one big fanfiction?"

"■■■■■■■■"

"Fuck you."

Zero shrugged. "What am I supposed to do about it? John. As much as, yes, you are a puppet, you can control your strings. You're going to have to make choices eventually."

John stared at Zero. "Me? You want me to make a decision?"

"Yeah. You'll have to, eventually."

"But it won't be my decision!" John exclaimed, throwing his hands up. "I'll never need to make a choice because in the end, the [Author] will make it for me!"

John sighed and sat down. Zero floated above him.

"But you must admit, you've been acting differently since Prota entered your life. Or am I wrong?"

"...you should learn to shut your mouth."

Zero nodded and simply sat beside his physical copy. John didn't refuse the company. At times, Zero felt like his enemy, but other times… well, Zero was him. It wasn't bad to be alone, in a sense.

Even if your only company was the voices in your head.

~~~

"Hey! Stop! You have to-" a guard started, but was immediately shot down dead, a metal spike piercing his skull.

"Hey!" the other guard yelled, getting ready to fight, but he, too, was also shot down.

Mise lowered his staff as the trio walked out of the dungeon.

"You're in charge of cleaning up the bodies," Birdie complained.

"I killed them," Mise pointed out.

"Yeah, you get to have all the fun. You should clean up."

"I cleaned up last time."

Birdie sighed. "Hey. Do something about this."

The hulking creature picked the bodies up and smashed them together. Flames erupted from his hands and incinerated the dead guards, leaving nothing but ash behind.

"Huh. We have a walking trash disposal unit. How convenient," Birdie grinned.

The group swiftly made their way through the forest. Number ten moved surprisingly quickly despite his massive size, but even more frightening was the silence in which he moved.

"We'll be there in a bit. There were a few things they wanted us to take care of. Namely, disposal of the dungeon."

"I don't want to deal with the crazies," Mise complained.

"We have this guy. Come on, it'll be nothing. We'll get to the village in… oh, ten hours or so. Don't worry about it."

With a nod, the group set out. Ten hours until they reached the village.

John would be back up and running in twelve.

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.