"Wake up, idiot!" John yelled, sparks flaring as his weapon once again clashed with Destiny's. "Seriously, can you not hear me?"

The boy's face was as dull as Prota's was. With half-closed eyes and an unchanging expression, one might've assumed the two were siblings. In fact, with Destiny's silver hair, in this instance, he bore a closer resemblance to Prota than John did.

John shook his head. His thoughts were getting off track. This was an issue. If this were the old him, he would've just killed Destiny. With the main threat out of the way, he could easily find the fog machine and [Reset].

But this wasn't the old him. Besides, [Resets] weren't available anymore, meaning he had to fight while keeping Destiny's health in mind. Not only that, at the moment, Destiny didn't seem to be holding back. Of course, he was far weaker than he usually was, given that his technique and movements were sloppy, but he still had his mana. The hero's core made him a formidable opponent, technique or not.

"Piss off, you freak!" John grunted, looking around.

There was nothing he could use. Should he just take something out of his pocket dimension? He wasn't sure what he was and wasn't allowed to use it at the moment, but there was probably something more useful than his bat, right?

The fog swirled around their feet as they danced around the stage, sparks continuing to fly out as they performed an act for nobody but themselves. Well, there might be a few cultists watching, but John doubted they were sitting in their seats.

"Fuck," he muttered.

Should he pop a pill? He'd rather not, everything considered. He'd just used one yesterday, and he'd never meant to rely on it. If anything, it was supposed to be a bypass for Scholaris, a way of masking his usage of [Infinity]. Yes, it worked in synergy with [Infinity], but he wasn't fond of getting a boost at the cost of Zero.

"You care, do you?" Zero snickered in his head.

This caused John to nearly get hit. In rage, he swung blindly, almost knocking the blade out of Destiny's hands. He didn't notice, though.

"Shut the fuck up, will you?!" he cursed. "You nearly got me killed!"

"I would've let you [Reset] once, just because it was funny," Zero said, laughing wildly.

John just rolled his eyes. "Oh, yeah, because you have the ability to do that."

"I have the ability to make the suggestion, and I think the [Author] would've taken it."

"Piss off," John muttered.

He wasn't sure if Zero was just baiting him, but he didn't have the time to be distracted. At this point, all he could do was wait for Prota to shut the machine off. He hoped his message had gone through.

~~~

"Nn…"

Prota sat up slowly, rubbing her head. It didn't hurt, but she did feel some kind of welt on top.

"You're up!" she heard a voice say.

She blinked, trying to get her bearings. She remembered being on the balcony, and then… then, what? She didn't know. This place didn't look familiar. There was just one person nearby, and it wasn't John.

Arthur. That was the boy's name, wasn't it? It was hard to recognize him with his handkerchief covering his mouth, but she'd seen him often enough that he wasn't entirely a stranger.

"Thank god. I was worried the mask didn't work. It's fragile, though, so don't move around with it."

Prota looked down in surprise. She did, in fact, have some kind of mask covering her mouth. Looking around, she saw a sort of fog swirling around her legs. What was going on?

"Now that you're up, we can just wait for John and Destiny, and then-"

John. Where was he? She cut out the rest of the boy's rambling and looked around. Now that she was fully awake, she noticed the men and women wandering around like poorly made golems. She wished John were here to explain what was going on. If she knew, then she could—

Wait. Her system. She could just message him. She opened it up and prepared to send her questions, but then noticed the notification icon. The last time she'd seen this, John had left her a message.

This time was no different.

[Ok, looks like this thing is working.]

This time, he seemed like he was running. His voice was shaky, as if the recording device was moving back and forth.

[Look, I've gotta give a quick rundown. Demon Cultists set up some kind of fog brainwashing device. The fog on the ground, if you've noticed it, is what's causing all that. Hopefully Arthur gave you something you can keep, cause you need to keep it on.]

She glanced back at Arthur, who had stopped talking and was now looking at her expectantly.

[I'm gonna go do what I can, but in the event that I haven't shut down the machine, I need you to do it. The problem is, I don't know where the fog is coming from, and I don't know how to find it. I would've waited for you to wake up otherwise. However, right now, it's best if we split up.]

Prota frowned. A dangerous situation, and John wanted to split up? What was he thinking?

[Now, I get that you're probably a little upset, but this time, you kinda just have to deal with it. Go find the machine. Unless Arthur didn't actually have anything for you. In which case, stick with him, I guess. Better having you stuck in one place than having you get brainwashed again. By the way, if you have the invisibility stuff, use it. It'll help you get around easier. We need to stop the fog, not take useless fights. I'm really sorry about this, but I don't have a good plan right now.]

The recording ended. Prota just closed her eyes and sighed in annoyance. Of course. She had a feeling that John was off doing something stupid already, but a glance at his health bar indicated that he was mostly healthy, which meant that he wasn't in need of assistance at the moment.

She looked at Arthur.

"Switch," she said, sticking her hand out.

"...what?"

Without waiting, Prota took the handkerchief from Arthur and shoved the mask onto his face, then ran off without another word.

"Wh- hey!" Arthur yelled, and she turned back. "Where are you going?"

She pointed to the fog, then out toward the hall.

"What?" the boy frowned.

"Stop it."

"You wanna stop the fog? Do you even know where it's coming from?"

Prota shook her head.

"Then how are you going to stop it?"

She shrugged.

"Wh- then can you just stay with me? Please?"

Prota just shook her head. "Hide."

Arthur frowned, but he didn't argue, probably because he didn't have an argument ready. The girl ran off, leaving him behind. Looking down, she injected some mana into the runes on her gloves. There was a sort of shimmer that flashed around her body, and then she couldn't see her hands anymore.

It seemed the equipment Danjo and the others had made would come in handy after all.

She stopped midstride and looked around. Her body was completely invisible. She could feel the runes drawing mana from her core, but with her staff, it wasn't an issue. It didn't take up any physical or mental energy the way spells did, and if that was the case, she had mana for days.

Continuing her search, she continued to scan the area. There was nothing that really stood out to her, though. Nothing that screamed brainwashing machine or sinister device. Had John been with her, he might've told her to look for any regular fog machine, but unfortunately, she wasn't that grounded.

In her mind, some evil-looking device with red hues and spikes was what she was looking for. The problem was, there weren't many places one could hide a machine like that.

Great.

Suddenly, two figures in hooded cloaks walked by, their faces shadowed. Prota's head snapped toward them. Cultists. They had to be cultists. Their pace was too brisk, and who else wore clothing like that? She followed them, trying to stay low, forgetting that she was invisible.

"It's working. Now that we have the brother, we can blackmail him directly."

"Why didn't we just do this in the first place?"

"It calls too much attention to us. We aren't supposed to make too much noise yet."

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"Too much noise?! One of our branches got wiped out by one guy!"

"It was a team-"

"Bullshit! I talked to one of the survivors, it was almost one guy alone!"

"That was, like, ten years ago."

"Who cares! We haven't found the guy yet!"

Prota's eyes widened. One man alone took out a whole group of cultists? Whoever he was, he must be incredibly strong. Still, she continued to follow silently, making sure she wasn't caught.

Soon, they walked into a room near the stage. Inside was a small black box emitting some kind of gas.

"It was stupidly easy, though. Can't believe we just had to set up a fog machine."

"New hallucinogenic. Works like a charm."

"Why don't we always use this shit?"

"Burns in sunlight. Also gets blown away real easy. Needs to sit still to take full effect. Otherwise, it just makes people a 'lil dizzy. Plus, the ingredients are stupid expensive. Good thing we got that noble backing us."

"Huh."

Prota was hiding behind some boxes, waiting for the men to leave. She could hear the noise of metal clashing against metal. Who was fighting? John?

"Seriously, wake up, shitass!" she heard.

John. He was close. Just who was he fighting? She stood up, just about to yell out his name, but then covered her mouth just in time. That was close. She'd almost forgotten that she was supposed to be hiding. Suddenly, a jolt of fear shot through her. She was in full sight.

But the men weren't looking at her. That was when she remembered that she was invisible. Right, thank goodness. She was just about to duck back down when her arms flickered back into vision.

"Hey! Who's there?!"

The devices had stopped working. Great. Prota took her staff from her back and prepared for battle.

~~~

"Seriously, wake up, shitass!" John yelled, gritting his teeth as he really put some force into his swing.

It didn't matter. Even with a multiplier of a thousand, he still couldn't overpower Destiny. The boy just had too much strength in his mana-infused body. On one hand, this was great. It meant he was growing, and it meant Lupin was probably teaching him well. On the other hand, it wasn't so great because John was going to slip up sooner or later, and when that happened, it would hurt him a lot more than it would hurt Destiny.

"You're a bitch, you know that?"

Just then, he heard an explosion behind him. An explosion? Who was fighting? Had Arthur somehow acquired a weapon? Or—

"Prota!" John yelled, turning around to run.

He wasn't sure if she had found the machine yet, but they'd definitely fight better together than alone. Well, he'd fare better if she were nearby. It wasn't so much a question of synergy as it was a matter of Prota being much stronger than he was.

Where, though? He listened closely, occasionally parrying one of Destiny's blows, but eventually, he traced the noise to a door. Without hesitation, he burst through and found Prota fighting two hooded men.

"John?" she frowned, momentarily turning to face him.

The cultists must've thought that was a window of opportunity, because they rushed in with their swords. Unfortunately for them, John wasn't nearly as distracted as his sister was, and while his bat got knocked out of his hands, he managed to deflect their blows.

"Do something!" he yelled, scrambling to re-arm himself.

That was all she needed. She'd only been fighting for a few minutes, but that was enough to let her know that her opponents were strong.

Thankfully, she'd gotten stronger, too. That meant that it was time to test out one of two new spells she'd learned. Well, technically speaking, this wasn't new, but it was strong enough that it would be more than enough to take them out.

"John," she muttered, gesturing to the enemies. "Line."

"Line them up?" He grinned, flipping the bat in his hands. "Alright, no problem."

Without hesitation, he rushed in. Destiny had lost sight of John, and it seemed the brainwashed hero had no intentions of chasing an opponent down. Good. That meant John could focus all his efforts on the real enemy in front of him.

He wasn't swinging to hurt. No, he was swinging to herd. When fighting, one typically has to take specific positions and stances in order to swing, to block, to parry, so on and so forth. John, on the other hand, had a nifty ability.

The ability to manually change pace mid-fight. His stance was erratic because his fighting style was erratic. For the first time since fighting Haze, he was using this technique again.

"How the hell's he movin' like that?!"

"How the fuck should I know?!"

It was like fighting a glitch in the system or trying to catch a hummingbird with your bare hands. He was just too strange.

Prota, meanwhile, was charging up her attack. She hadn't used her ability to enhance her perception; she needed to save her energy for other situations. However, with John distracting, she had time to set her spell up.

She didn't know it, but she was working to rebuild a spell she didn't remember casting.

She started by forming a Blossom of Ice. This time, however, she didn't fire it off. She focused, concentrating a vortex of wind around the spell, similar to how her Frozen Bullet worked. She wasn't able to compress the Blossom, but the extra speed would surely work toward increasing the damage. Some of the ice might melt in the process, but that was fine.

"John!" she yelled.

He looked over and saw what she'd prepared. His eyes widened, and he leapt out of the way just in time. There was a boom as the Blossom went flying, embedding itself into the first cultist's chest, piercing through his defences and embedding itself in his body.

"You bastard-" the other cultist started, but it was too late.

The petals of ice flew out at incredible speeds, shredding through the man's skin like razor blades. It wasn't enough to kill, but that was fine. Prota used her ability to slow down her perception of time, immediately firing off a Frozen Bullet, piercing through the cultist's head in an instant.

"Holy shit," John gasped, staring at the carnage. "When did you learn how to do that?"

"Stupid."

That was all his sister had to say. He sighed, walking over and patting her on the head.

"You did good. And you found the machine, too. Great."

He gave the thing a hard swing, and it shook a few times before sputtering out. There was a small explosion that made him flinch, but otherwise, it stopped emitting fog and started emitting black smoke instead.

In that instant, ten hooded men rushed into the room, half of them wielding weapons of various kinds.

"Um. Shit," John muttered. "This is a little too many."

Prota nodded, throwing up a wall of ice that would hopefully stop their pursuers for a moment longer.

"Get them!"

They dashed back out to the stage, where Destiny was wobbling on his feet. Prota remembered something the cultists had said.

"Needs to sit still to take full effect. Otherwise, it just makes people a 'lil dizzy."

Right. She summoned a gust of wind, blowing the fog away from the hero, allowing John to rush up to him and grab his shoulders.

"Wake up, dude!" he yelled. "Come on, snap back!"

Suddenly, he felt a gust of cold behind him and moved out of the way just in time for a shot of cold air to blow straight into Destiny's face. His eyes snapped open as he shook his head.

"Whoah," he gasped. "What happened?"

"No time!" John yelled. "Cultists! We gotta fight!"

For some reason, only the stage lights remained on. John wasn't sure why they'd been turned on in the first place, but it was working to his benefit. It was possible that mana reinforcement enhanced the eyesight of mages, but he had no way of seeing in the dark.

"Cultists? What happened?" Destiny frowned. "And why is my sword out?"

"Fine! Everyone was brainwashed! We managed to break the machine and snap you out of it, but the guys who set it up aren't happy! Got it? Now get out there!"

Destiny nodded. That seemed to be enough of an explanation. The sound of crashing ice could be heard, followed by angry yelling. John took one look at the stage and immediately realized something.

"I'm not gonna be any help here," John said, visibly disappointed. "I've got something to deal with. You guys got it?"

Destiny grinned. "Of course. Just who do you think we are?"

"Good luck," John nodded, running off.

He stopped momentarily, bending down to mutter one last message to Prota.

"Hey. You can't wake me up that nice? Why're you always freezing my ass off?"

Prota just shrugged. John sighed and continued his retreat. Just in time, too, because the enemy burst through the doors, immediately prepared to attack.

~~~

"Wake up!" John yelled, bashing down the door to Ryu's balcony. "Come on! You can do something about this, right?"

"Wh- huh?"

The head of the Yakuza still seemed to be a little dizzy, but the gas was wearing off. John grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him hard.

"We're fighting the cultists right now. They used a brainwashing thing. No time for details. You need to evacuate everyone, now!"

Thankfully, despite his confusion, the leader of the Yakuza managed to retain his skills. He shook his head once and pulled out some kind of device from his suit pocket.

"Thank you, boy. We will have much to discuss after this is all over."

"Yeah, don't say shit like that," John said worriedly. He wasn't looking to have a death flag raised on his head. "Just get everyone out of here!"

Ryu pressed some kind of button, and alarms started wailing. The people in the seats started scrambling for the exits, and John could spot some dwarves in black suits assisting the weak and elderly.

"You, too," John said, preparing to leave. "You should get out of here."

"No," Ryu said, shaking his head. "I will stay and see this through until the end."

"Do you want to save your daughter or not?!" John was getting fed up with this honour bullshit. "I don't care if it's your business or not! Think about the people fighting! If your daughter gets taken in the confusion, then we accomplish nothing, and then we have to start all over again. Get your head out of your ass!"

To John's surprise, Ryu laughed. "Good, good. I see you aren't the fool I thought you might've been. To be honest, I was a little worried about leaving things in the hands of a stranger, but you remind me of myself when I was younger."

"Yeah, yeah, thanks for the compliments, but can you hurry the fuck up?"

"Do not worry. One of my most trusted men has already escorted my daughter from the premises. As soon as everyone has left, we will close the portals, effectively trapping the enemy in this room."

"Trapping? Can't they just get out?"

Ryu shook his head. "Have you ever wondered where this place is?"

"Uh… some building somewhere else?"

"No." Ryu flashed a rare smile. "We are deep underground. Unless they can burrow through solid rock and stone, they are stuck here with us."

"Great. And what exactly are you going to do by sticking around?"

Ryu reached behind his seat and withdrew his sword.

"I may not be the blacksmith my brother is. But I have my own skills. I did not grow this organization through leadership alone. In the beginning, one must solve disruptions on their own."

A cold light shone in his eyes as he stared at his reflection in the blade.

"Come. Let us deal with the enemy together."

~~~

Destiny looked back and saw the commotion in the seats.

"They're getting out. Good. I hope the others have left, too."

The enemy was strong, but they were nowhere near as strong as the cultists they'd encountered during the midterms. These were enemies that were fighting with full force, and both Destiny and Prota could meet that force with equal force. These weren't enemies that would lose because they got cocky or underestimated children.

These were enemies who, despite their best efforts, were having a hard time overpowering the children in front of them.

"John needs to get back," Destiny muttered, parrying yet another attack.

While they weren't losing, they weren't winning, either. Fighting against five times your number is hard, especially when the enemy has power somewhat equal to yours. It was only because of their training and skill that the two children were holding out. Eventually, they'd get tired, slip up, and that would be the end of them.

Thankfully, help had arrived just in time.

"What the-"

A cultist looked down to see a shining blade poking through his chest. His face turned pale, but it didn't matter. The blade turned red with heat and sliced upward, cleaving the head in two. The body fell to the ground with a thump.

Ryu blew on his blade as it cooled down, then withdrew a cloth and wiped the few stains that remained on the metal. Just behind him stood John, bat in one hand, revolver in the other, like some kind of street punk.

"You will mess with my family no longer."

The boss's voice was quiet, but it wasn't like he needed to raise it to command authority. A shiver ran through the spines of each cultist still alive.

"Hey." John flipped the barrel of his revolver out, checking the bullets before flipping it back in. "This all of you?"

"What? Do you think this is the-"

John raised his weapon and fired. The bullet did nothing but leave a bruise on the cultist's forehead, but it was enough to stop him from speaking.

"I asked a question. Is this all of you? Or were there more of you assigned to this little place?"

"Hah. As if we would answer that."

John shrugged. "Damn. I mean, if there were more of you, I guess we could've let you go."

On the other side of the stage, Destiny's sword lit up with flames, and Prota prepared her staff, several spells on the verge of casting. Ryu raised an eye in interest upon seeing the hero, but he didn't say anything. Now was not the time for that.

John closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. Suddenly, they shot back open, the left eye glowing ever so slightly.

"Alright. This is enough that we can kill all of you."

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