"Whoah…"

Kit watched with amazement in her eyes as Prota formed her ice flower. There was no chanting, no incantation, just the flow of mana gathering in one spot to form a perfectly clear flower of ice.

Unfortunately, the flower shattered as her concentration was interrupted by a message in her system.

[Creation: Lv. 1 has been reactivated! Your understanding of magic improves.]

[Magic: Lv. 2!]

[Soul Copy: Lv 2!]

"That's incredible," Kit whispered. "I mean, it's not very powerful, but the visualization… her mind has to be so clear to achieve purity like that."

"So it has nothing to do with her skill level with magic?"

Kit turned to John. "No, not really. See, magic is simply reshaping the world in your image. Mortals tend to limit what they believe to be possible, but technically, anything is possible. That's why chants exist: they help users visualize what they want done." She tapped her head. "So, based on that, what would limit someone's magic?"

"The mana limits the spells, and the spells… oh, I see," John said.

He understood where this was going.

Kit nodded slowly, a flaming rose taking shape in her hand. She'd just described how hard it was to do such a thing, and yet she was casually, almost thoughtlessly, doing it for no reason in particular. Well, it was pretty, if nothing else.

"Correct. Fate here has a ridiculous amount of mana for someone his age." Kit stuck her nose up as this fact was because of her. "It's a shame. He has the potential to have an ocean of mana, but he's stuck at a lake's worth. And even with that lake's worth, he's only using a bucket's worth at a time…"

"I can't handle that much mana, I told you!" Fate yelled as Kit knuckled his head. "Stop! Stop!"

"Haha… Regardless, yes, while the power of a spell is dictated by how much mana you put into it, the quality of a spell is dictated by how clear your mind is. And, of course, the complexity relies on how much you can comprehend."

John looked at Prota, whose eyes were still closed.

"So her mind is-"

"Yes, very clear. Well, maybe it isn't. But if it is clouded, then there's something that lets her push through the fog. There's a lighthouse in the mist, so to speak."

John nodded. He had an inkling as to what exactly that was.

"That… huh."

"But how about you?" Kit growled, poking him in the stomach. "You don't do anything! You just sit and watch! Don't you feel bad about making your sister do all the training?"

"I'm not a mage! I don't even have a core!" John protested.

"I can teach you hand to hand combat! I'm not just a caster, you little punk! Make yourself useful!"

"Yeah, and I'm telling you, I don't care!"

Prota tapped John's back, forcing him to pause his rant and turn around.

"Hm? What's up?"

"...?"

"Oh, this? This bit- fox wants me to train."

"Hey, I can hear you, you know!" Kit yelled.

"John… train?" Prota's head tilted to the side.

The words "John" and any semblance of work didn't belong in the same sentence.

"Yeah, she wants to teach me how to fight."

"Because you're deadweight! You want to be Fate's companion, but you can't even do anything!" Kit exclaimed.

In her defence, it was a fair point. To any outsider, it would look like he was just tagging along for the ride without making himself useful in any way.

"What's gonna happen if we ever encounter an enemy we can't protect you from? Huh? What then?" Kit continued.

"You care?" John said, genuinely surprised.

"Obviously!"

John was taken aback by that one. He wasn't all that close to these two yet, so it was surprising that Kit was so ready to admit that she cared whether he lived or died. Well, it made sense, if he thought about it. He himself didn't care if anyone lived or died, and as a result, he didn't expect anybody to do the same for him.

But there were kind people out there. People who cared.

John sighed. "Fine, how about this? Let's make a deal. I have to go through some kind of challenge to prove I can take care of myself. If I pass, you stop bothering me. If I fail, you leave me alone. Got it?"

"Come on. Don't you feel bad for your sister, who's suffering to get stronger?"

"She wants it. I don't," John shrugged. "Pretty simple."

"You're a special kind of shameless, aren't you?"

All John could do was shrug again. "I don't need to get stronger, do you understand? I'm an informant, not a combatant. No matter what I do, without a core, I can't be strong, right?"

A drop of sweat rolled down John's cheek as he felt Prota's eyes bore through him.

Kit brushed up against John, holding onto his arm seductively. "Please?"

"No."

"Hmph," the fox pouted. "That usually works on men. What, did you take some kind of vow of celibacy?"

John snorted, closing his eyes. "You haven't even heard my conditions."

"Fine. Let's hear them."

John looked Kit dead in the eyes.

"The Cave of Trials. That's the challenge I was talking about. That's fair, right?"

Kit paused, a look of concern washing over her face.

"Hey. You… you do realize you can die in there, right? This isn't something where you can-"

John just shrugged. "I'll be fine. If I die in there, it just means I wasn't strong enough anyway, right? Now, do we have a deal, or no?"

Kit hesitated, then looked at Fate.

"I mean, if he thinks he can do it, then why're we stopping him? The cave doesn't give trials you can't pass, right?" the boy said quietly.

"You're not worried about him?" the Mystic said, surprised.

"I trust him."

Fate's gold eyes met with John's, and some kind of agreement was reached.

"Alright, then!" John exclaimed. "Looks like it's set. Tomorrow?"

Kit nodded. "I'd say I'd love to see your expression once you fail, but-"

"Hey, trust me. I won't die."

Kit had no idea how true that statement was.

~~~

Prota tugged on John's arm as he was getting ready to go to sleep.

"Why was John so confident?" she asked, cocking her head to the side.

"Um… well, why wouldn't I be?"

"The cave was hard," Prota muttered.

She felt a little dejected. Sure, she hadn't known it was a trial, but still, she felt like she'd struggled. For John to feel so confident… was she a coward?

"Why?" John frowned. "What did you face in there?"

Prota hesitated for a little.

"You."

John's eyes went up as he pointed to himself.

"Me?"

"Mm."

"I… hm. I don't know if that should be a compliment or an insult. Did you kill me?"

Prota nodded hesitantly.

"Hm. Good job," John nodded.

His tone almost gave the impression of sarcasm, but he was being genuine. Expressing praise wasn't his strong suit. That didn't matter to Prota, though, who was beginning to tell the difference between insult and compliment from someone like John. That didn't mean she wasn't confused, though

She did good by killing John? She shook her head. She didn't get it, but if he said she did good, then she probably really did do well.

"Look, the cave's gonna be easy, alright?" John continued. "It's based on mana and stuff, right? I don't have mana. So theoretically, there's nothing the mana can react to. I won't have a trail to go through, and then it all works out. Easy."

Prota took back whatever thoughts about bravery she'd initially had. John was just confident because he was cheating his way out of this situation.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"John's a scammer," she said, pointing at him.

"What? No, I'm-"

She continued to stare at him until he felt a little uncomfortable.

"Well, ok, yes, but it was the only way to get her off my back! I don't need training," John grumbled. "Seriously, what is there for me to do?"

He sighed as he flopped onto his bed,

"Come on, let's go to sleep. We'll just deal with it tomorrow."

~~~

"Back here again, huh?" Fate said casually as the four once again met in the cave.

This trip, though, had been approved and had gone through all the proper procedures.

"Kit says good luck. She sounds kinda reluctant, though."

John shrugged. "Well, she's gonna lose the bet, not me. I'd be reluctant if I was her, too."

He stepped through with a wave, a bored look on his face.

"See you on the other side."

As soon as he was through, he was greeted with the same empty cave Prota had seen. He looked around for a bit, then dropped to the ground and pulled his hood over his eyes. The lighting wasn't too bright or anything, but he'd sleep better with his eyes covered.

"You're sleeping?" Zero scolded, appearing since nobody was here to see him.

"What? Nothing's happening. I might as well get some rest."

"Yeah? What if something happens?"

"Then I [Reset]," John shrugged. "Like I said, if this place is really just a large concentration of mana, then maybe nothing will happen. Now piss off."

Zero just sighed. "John, you might wanna get up."

John sat up grumpily. "What is i-"

A figure was emerging from the darkness. John squinted. Who was this?

"...Prota?"

Was his theory wrong? Well, it wasn't an issue. He whipped out his pistol and fired without hesitation. Prota wasn't hard to kill; he'd seen her die tons of times. The body fell to the floor with a soft thump, then faded away into nothing.

"Yeah, yeah. You're not the first mimic I've fought," John grumbled, sitting back down with a sigh.

He'd been forced to kill his companions, his real companions, hundreds of times, so how was a fake companion supposed to be hard to handle? The test should've been harder—

"Kh- Guh!"

John gasped as a wave of nausea washed over his body, His stomach lurched as he covered his mouth, but the bile continued to rise from his stomach, spilling out all over the floor.

[An error has been made. The test will restart.]

John coughed. A message? In front of him? It wasn't his system, so what was this?

"Re- restart? What?"

He could hear Zero yelling but couldn't make out the words. What? What was going on? There was a bright flash of light, and then everything went dark.

~~~

When John sat up again, he was in the same room as before.

"What the… Zero?"

There was no response.

"Hey, Zero, this isn't funny," John called out, but nothing happened.

His voice echoed around the empty cave walls. Somehow, the place felt more menacing. The lights weren't as bright, and something about this place now felt sinister. As if something had been taken from him. It took him a few seconds, but then he realized.

His system was gone.

"...what the hell is going on?"

Something was very wrong. Zero never left him. The system was something implemented in his body as a result of the energy of his memories. It wasn't an ability to be neutralized or cancelled. So how was this possible?

"God fucking dammit," John cursed under his breath.

The room used mana as a resource to recreate a situation that the test taker would have a hard time getting out of. John had no mana, which was why he'd been so confident in getting out alive, but he'd forgotten about something.

It clicked.

[Deus Ex Machina] energy. The error in the system. John cursed to himself. The cave was a literary device, used to push someone past their limits. In his case, it was obvious mana wouldn't be used.

Not when [Deus Ex Machina] energy existed.

"Shit," John cursed. "This isn't good."

Just to test his theory, he tapped the side of his head.

"Power: x100."

Another wave of nausea washed over his body, and his left eye lit up red.

"That still works? Then… what the hell is going on?"

Just then, a figure emerged from the shadows. John immediately on guard, twin blades dropping into his hands, the same ones he'd used to fight the demon king. He peered into the darkness, and as he recognized the figure, his eyes shot wide open in shock.

"H- hey. Zero. If this is a joke, it's not funny. You can stop now," he called out, his voice shaking.

A feminine voice called out in response.

"This isn't Zero."

"What- you're just a [Character], though. You're not supposed to be real. You're not supposed to be- what? Hey, what's- what's going on?"

"John. I'm here. Right in front of you."

The figure smiled gently. Anybody else might've let their guard down, but for John, it was different. Something inside him, something he didn't realize was there, it snapped. Old memories rushed into his head, forcing him to relive a memory he'd only ever remembered as a [Story].

"No… no, no, no, this isn't funny. You shouldn't be here. You're- you're just a test, some kinda fucked up mimic, some sort of clone, but you can't be real. You can't, you can't, you can't, you-"

He grit his teeth as he raised his swords. His heart was pounding away in his chest, his head growing hot as the panic settled in his body, telling him to do something. There was nowhere to run, so the only option was to fight. One hundred. That was the level of [Infinity] he could use before he started to really feel something.

Given the situation, though, it looked like he wouldn't have a choice.

"Amber. No, you're not Amber. Who are you?"

~~~

Prota gasped.

"John," she whispered.

Her system had gone out momentarily, but it was back now. She didn't know what had happened, but John's health bar was missing.

Something was going wrong.

Panic shot through her body like a dose of hot poison. Intuition was screaming at her to move, to do something, but what?

"Huh? Prota? What's up?" Fate said, walking over to her.

"John," she repeated, her whole body shaking. "John."

"Huh? Is something going on?"

Fate looked at the portal. It looked the same as always.

"I have to… I have to protect him," Prota whispered, slowly getting up.

"Prota! No! You can't go in! That's not going to do anything!" Fate yelled, but she ignored him.

She didn't know how, but she knew something terribly wrong was happening. Something had messed up, and she didn't know what, but if she could stop it, then she would try. Normally, she wouldn't have been able to outrun Fate, but with the element of surprise on her side, she reached the portal just before he did.

"Prota!" Fate yelled, but it was too late.

He could only watch as Prota disappeared through the portal.

~~~

"Kh…"

John wasn't in a good state. He had multiple broken bones, and he was bleeding everywhere. It was a miracle that he hadn't had a limb cut off at this point. How long had he been fighting for? He couldn't see the figure towering over him properly; too much blood was streaming down his face, and his vision was blurred. Could he [Reset] here? Probably not. If he was disconnected from the system…

"Shit. This is how I go out?" he laughed, then choked on a bit of blood. "Through a fucking bet? Really?"

That was what he said, but a small nagging voice in the back of his mind was whispering.

But what about Prota?

What about Prota? He'd had no reservations about killing the Prota in the trial. It was easy to tell himself she was just a fake, but then why was he hesitating so much when it came to the girl in front of him? Wasn't she also a fake? She was far more fake than Prota would ever be, so why didn't he just end things?

Suddenly, a large explosion knocked the figure off its feet, kicking up a large cloud of dust. John coughed a few times, waving away the smoke, squinting to try to get a view on anything at all, but he found that to be impossible. When the dust cleared, someone else dear to him was standing on guard.

"P-Prota?" John frowned. "What are you-"

"John," she said, trembling. "Please."

"I…"

John didn't know what to say.

His vision flickered, and suddenly, his system was back. There was a little comfort in that.

"Zero?"

"John!" Zero yelled. "This cave takes a person's mana signature and formulates a test based on it! You don't have a mana signature, you have [Deus Ex Machina] energy, so it used that instead!"

"Yeah, I kinda figured that out! Then how is everything working now?" John yelled back, then winced as his chest tightened up.

"Well, what changed?"

…Prota?

John looked over at his sister, who was battling fiercely to protect him from the other girl.

"John, you don't have time to be hesitating! Make a decision, now!"

What was different? Why did Amber matter more to him than Prota? He'd never go back to his old world. He'd never see her again. Despite both of them being [Characters], Prota was infinitely more real at the moment than Amber was. As far as he was concerned, Amber didn't even exist.

That was it. Amber was someone he'd met before learning about the [Truth]. Someone he'd bothered to connect with. To him, she was "real." How long had it been since he gave that up? Relationships. He'd sworn it off, and despite telling himself that he cared about Prota, did he really?

She was right in front of him. Could he look her in the eyes and tell her he cared without lying?

"What am I doing?" John said shakily, looking at his trembling hands.

It should've been an easy decision. Prota was real. Well, more real than Amber, who was made out of his memories and nothing more. Kill Amber. Help Prota. That much was obvious. But why was he struggling so much?

"So much for everything being fake, huh?"

John looked up to see Zero with a smirk on his face.

"You can pretend to be emo, you can act all cold, but deep down, there's still a part of you that cares. There's still a part of you that wants to help. So why not give it a chance? Why not let yourself open up for once?"

John felt a heat rising in his chest as he looked at Prota, who was bleeding and panting, but still fighting for his sake.

"You can't lose her anyway. So go for it. Don't you remember what it's like to fight for someone?"

John clenched his teeth. Fight for someone. How long had it been since he'd heard those words? When was the last time he'd fought to defend the weak? The helpless?. He wasn't supposed to suffer for them. They were supposed to die if that meant he could get his shit and get out.

But what about Prota?

"Seriously, this mother fucker is lecturing me in a situation like this," John grumbled.

"If you're complaining, you must be fine. Go get 'em."

[Determination activates! New limit: x10000]

"Power: x5000."

A quick pain jabbed through his head, but he ignored it as he grabbed his swords again and got up. He bent down, his legs bending like springs as he pushed off, flying toward his opponent. She easily blew him back with a gust of wind, but he flipped back and landed on his feet, panting. Prota stared as a fire was lit in John's eyes, blazing through the darkness.

He just needed one good hit. One clear opportunity. But how? Where would he-

He stopped as the air next to him began to freeze. Prota's spell. Blossom of Ice. If she could just get it off, he'd have his moment. She was struggling, but he didn't have time to think about that at the moment. All that mattered was that she had the spell up and running.

"Prota. On the count of three, throw your spell!"

Prota nodded. This was it.

"One!"

He gripped his sword. Prota's breath was heavy as she channeled all her focus into the spell.

"Two!"

He'd made his decision. This was it.

"Three!"

The flower flew forward, exploding violently. It didn't kill, but the few petals that reached John's opponent were enough. It was a small window of opportunity, and John leapt through. With a single slice, his swords cleaved through the enemy.

Only, they didn't cut anything. They passed through as if the enemy wasn't even there. The girl herself was calm and uninjured, as if the fight hadn't happened at all. She just stood there, a cheerful smile on her face. Her body began to flicker as if it were a hallucination. John stared at it, panting, bloodied and bruised, clenching his swords tightly. His breath was heavy as he gasped, lifting his hand to wipe away the blood trickling into his eyes.

Body tense, he waited for the next attack to come, but nothing happened.

"Good job. You did it."

It was Amber who spoke and broke the silence.

John frowned, gripping his swords even tighter. "What? That's it? Hey, wait a minute, where are you-"

"You know the answer just as well as I do. I'm not real. The purpose of this cave is to push you further. I did that. There was no need to fight any further."

John squeezed his eyes shut.

"What, so that's it? That's how it ends? Just like that. A single attack, a single blow, and I win? No build up? No fight? Nothing?"

"John. You don't need to be stronger. If it comes to it… we both know you can't lose. But that's not what you're really concerned about, is it?"

John's eyes shot open, blazing with rage.

"No! Fuck you! You can't do this to me! After everything I did, after everything I've been through, you can't-"

The girl reached up and caressed John's cheek. He fell back in shock, scrambling back, but she simply knelt down, looking him in the eyes.

"Well. I might not be real. Maybe I'm just part of your imagination. But the Amber you know would be proud of you. And, isn't your imagination reality in the way, my dear [Writer]? So march forward, and take care of those you have around you."

A singular tear fell down John's cheek as the girl faded away, leaving him holding onto nothing.

"...John?" Prota said hesitantly.

She was panting and bleeding, but the pain in John's eyes was so astounding that she forgot all about her fatigue.

"Prota," John said, choking on her name. "Come on. Let's go."

He got up, immediately tripping over his own feet. He fell back down, planting face first into the ground. His sister came over, concerned, but he got up again, a desperate look in his eyes.

"Hey, Prota. Don't leave me, ok? You're my protector, so you can't die. You have to protect me. If you wanna go, that's… well, I can't… just, please. As long as you can, ok?" His voice was cracking as he stumbled over his words.

Prota was shocked. She didn't know what to do. Eventually, her arms slowly came up as she returned the embrace.

She'd been so afraid of losing John, but she'd never considered where John was coming from. This cold, emotionless man, seeing him so broken…

"Look. The way you look right now, it reminds me of- ah, what the hell. All I'm saying is, you remind me of someone who didn't turn out so great. But you're still a kid. You can turn around. You can still grow and live a normal life. But that means you have to recover a little first."

Those words from so long ago. She understood them a bit more. If John hadn't found her, would she be like him? And what about John? What would've happened to him without her?

She didn't want to find out. She'd been so concerned about losing John that she'd never stopped to consider that maybe he was afraid of losing her. He seemed strong. Reliable. But maybe that, too, was just another mask. That didn't matter now, though. All that mattered was that she prevented him from sinking even further down. Her body warmed up as she continued to rest in his embrace. They sat like that, holding each other for a long time.

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