Chapter 68: Check

  John looked back at the chessboard. No matter how sick he was of chess analogies, he had to admit that they were useful. Just because something was useful didn’t mean he had to like it. It was cool the first time. Not anymore.

  Well, everything in moderation.

  The situation was pretty grim. He was in check. He only had a few moves he could play, and each didn’t help. Not really. No matter what he did, there would be checkmate in about three to five moves. Optimizing didn’t result in escape. It resulted in a loss. A delayed loss, perhaps, but a loss nonetheless.

  Checkmate.

  Wasn’t that the position he was in right now? Check. How convenient. Doctor had everything in the palm of his hand. John, bound and secure. Albert, fighting an isolated battle against Breaker, whose [Character] clearly existed to stop Albert from joining the fray. Fate and Prota had no idea that a traitor was with them, as well as Danjo, who was unaware that he himself was the traitor. Olivia, who was likely… no, better not to think about that. In the end, if she was a sacrificial piece, he could do nothing about it.

  Really. What was he meant to do?

  “Hey,” John said quietly. Doctor wasn’t in the room. “Are you sure you can’t do anything?”

  “The collar actively drains my mana,” Olivia whispered back. It seemed that she’d run out of energy trying to struggle with her restraints. “I’m using what little I can hold for healing. It’s keeping my body stronger than it seems.”

  “I could break your collar if you got me out of this.”

  “And then what? We run? Back into that man?” Olivia hissed.

  She seemed like a kind girl. It was just that this kind of situation would bring out the worst in anyone. Well, anyone normal, and John definitely didn’t meet that definition. Regardless, it seemed she’d respond kindly unless Doctor was involved in the conversation, which was most of the time.

  “I’m sorry, but even if you get out, what can you do? I’ve tried to fight him. I can’t win. He’s too strong. And, no offence, but you don’t have any mana. What gives you a better chance?”

  “Yeah, fair enough,” John muttered.

  What was he going to do?

  He looked at the chessboard again. He was starting to doubt his odds at winning.

  He’d been so confident about Fate defeating Doctor, but now, he was starting to harbour doubts. [Reader] may he be, he was still human in the end. Still a [Character]. And that small amount of [Deus Ex Machina] energy Doctor had made him nervous. He had no idea what kinds of consequences his powers could have on predetermined scenarios.

  If Fate lost, what then? John didn’t know. Wouldn’t they all just die? There were no moves he could make. There was nothing he held control over. All he could do was sit and hope that someone else would win, that someone else would do the work for him, and while he was all for that, he wasn’t entirely confident that it would work out for him.

  He could [Reset]. That thought lingered in the back of his mind, but… no. He didn’t want to [Reset]. He wanted to win. Wanted to kill Doctor, prove that he was just an idiot who didn’t know his place. He wanted to put this egotistical idiot down like an animal without dying once, merely as a matter of pride.

  But still. There was nothing he could do but let the game play out. He cursed. Where had all his confidence gone? His bravado? He’d said that he was confident in how this story would play out, but now that he thought about it, maybe the [Author] wasn’t as brainless as he’d originally thought.

  So what if… what if he really was in check?

  John looked at the chessboard again. Maybe the connections between the board and life weren’t as far apart as he’d hoped.

  ~~~

  “Is this it?”

  Prota stared at the door in front of them. It looked like an ordinary wooden door, planted in the dirt. There were no locks. No guards. It was just an ordinary door.

  “This has to be a trap. There’s no way they’d let us in like this.”

  Fate clenched his sword, unsure of what to do.

  “Dammit. If only John were here… Prota, you don’t, you know, have the same kind of power as John, right?”

  Prota shook her head. If only. Well, did she? Think. She had to think. This was a story, right? Then what would happen in a story?

  She didn’t know.

  But she had a feeling that it was a trap. There was no logical reason for this line of thought, but whenever they were in a situation like this, John would often be prepared for something. She couldn’t quite think like him, but she could guess what he would do, and that would have to be enough.

  “Trap,” Prota said quietly.

  She wasn’t sure what the trap was, but it was definitely a trap.

  “You think it’s a trap?”

  Prota nodded.

  “What kind?”

  Prota shrugged.

  “Damn.”

  “M- maybe we should try a different path. Something… safer, right?” Danjo offered.

  “I didn’t see any other paths on the way here.”

  “Well… maybe we turn back? Albert’s gone, and we don’t know what’s next…”

  Fate turned to Danjo. “Do you want to go back?”

  Danjo looked down as he trembled. He did. He wanted to go back. But he couldn’t.

  “...no. Let’s go in.”

  Fate nodded. If they knew that a trap was waiting for them, they could prepare accordingly. Just because it was a trap didn’t mean it would work. There were only so many things people could do to them. A horde of monsters or men could be waiting behind that door, ready to jump them. Deadly traps might be sprung.

  There were many possibilities, but they all essentially amounted to the same thing.

  “Be alert,” Fate whispered. “Let’s go.”

  Everyone nodded, crouching down behind Fate.

  “Prota. Can you check if there’s anyone there?”

  Prota closed her eyes briefly, then shook her head, and Fate nodded. He pushed the door lightly, opening it just enough to peek through. He couldn’t see anything yelling “trap.” He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, trying to calm his beating heart.

  “Kit. Do we go through with this?”

  “It’s up to you. I’ll be here for you. But just keep in mind that I’ll only actually do something if you’re going to die. Otherwise, it’s up to you.”

  Fate opened his eyes and turned back.

  “Ready?”

  The other two nodded in unison. This was it.

  “Let’s go.”

  He burst through the door, Prota and Danjo following close behind. They found themselves in a corridor similar to the one in the other lab, except this one was much more well-lit and clean.

  “...which way?” Danjo whispered.

  Fate scanned the halls. There was nowhere to hide. If someone came down this way, they’d have to take the fight.

  “Prota. Feel anything?”

  Prota closed her eyes and focused. She could vaguely feel some souls down to the right, but given where they were, that could mean anything. They weren’t moving, making it hard to determine whether or not they were souls in orbs, or souls in people. However, they didn’t have anything else to go on. They couldn’t stay still forever.

  Prota pointed to the right, and Fate nodded.

  “Let’s move.”

  They made their way quietly down the hall, keeping a vigilant eye out for any threats. Slowly, the hallway expanded into a full-on facility, and Prota began to feel the souls much clearer. They still weren’t moving, but they were individual souls that were decently spaced apart, so they were likely people and not orbs.

  “People,” Prota whispered. “There.”

  Fate closed his eyes.

  “We go in. We need at least one, got it?”

  “W- wait, hold on. What are we doing?”

  Prota was already holding her staff, but Danjo apparently didn’t understand what was going on.

  “We go in. We leave one alive. And then we find out where they’re keeping John. Then we find Doctor, and we kill him.”

  Fate’s voice was unusually tense, so much so that it was getting through the voice distortion of his mask.

  “Like we said. This all ends here.”

  ~~~

  The walls were shaking as mace met axe. Each blow parried sounded like a cannon being fired. The clashing of metal rang throughout the room as Albert and Breaker went at it again and again. Sweat poured down their faces, but neither were letting up.

  “It’s good to see that you haven’t lost it!” Breaker yelled. “I thought you would’ve gone soft sitting behind that desk of yours!”

  “I would never stop training,” Albert grunted as he threw an axe forward. “That would defeat everything I’ve worked for.”

  “Ha! I suppose they didn’t call you the Blood Berserker for nothing!”

  Albert shuddered. “Please don’t call me that again. I dropped that name years ago.”

  Breaker sidestepped the attack, but Albert was already moving, dashing faster than the axe, catching it midair for yet another throw.

  “That’s not gonna work!” Breaker yelled but flinched as Albert leapt forward, ignoring his midair axe and bringing his other axe up in an overhead swing. Breaker just barely brought his mace up in time to block the blow, sparks flying everywhere.

  “Where!? Where did we go wrong, Breaker!?”

  “Where did you go wrong, Albert?” Breaker sneered. “Those people killed Elena. They killed me, and you serve them still?”

  “How can we determine the fate of many on our own?” Albert yelled. “How can we, as people, determine whether others live or die? Who gave us that right?”

  “Strength, Albert! The right of strength! And despite that, we worked for them. We saved them. And yet they couldn’t save us!”

  Albert threw his remaining axe and dashed to the one already on the ground, making a play to try to recover both. Unfortunately, Breaker knew what he was getting at. The two had worked together far too long for such a trick to work. He caught Albert’s axe midair and charged.

  “And despite their sin, you chose to save them anyway. Elfin understood, Albert! He knew! If our strength won’t be respected, then we’ll show them! We’ll force them to respect it!”

  Albert grunted as he blocked blow after blow.

  “And what about those that did respect us? What about those that have nothing to do with this?”

  “...there’s a lot of people out there, Albert. If a few get caught up in the crossfire, there’s nothing I can do about it.”

  “That’s not true, and you know it!”

  Albert roared and swung his axe over and over in a flurry of attacks, pushing Breaker back. The air was literally heating up, sparks flying everywhere as the scent of iron and sweat filled the air. Cracks formed in the ground as chips of stone flew up, peppering the two as they fought.

  “There’s always something we can do! Just because they won’t save us doesn’t mean that we can’t still save them!”

  “Please. You just want to play the hero. You just want to look good, don’t you? Albert, the legend. Albert, the warrior. You ignore the fact that two of your good friends died to the very people you’re trying to please! Why should we have to save people that don’t even matter to us?”

  With a mighty cry, Breaker swung and smashed the handle of Albert’s axe, shattering the wood into splinters. Albert watched as the metal head flew away, the weapon literally coming apart in his hands as the force of the blow knocked him back.

  “I don’t want to kill you. We lost Elfin. You, Bren… come on. Surely you see my point. What you’re doing is pointless. Stop trying to play the hero.”

  “I never wanted to play hero, Breaker.”

  “...what?”

  “It was for you. It was for Elena. Do you remember? She was a healer. She was kind. She wanted to help. It was who she was. How could you have forgotten that? How could you forget our purpose? We rose up on our own! We made our name through blood, sweat and tears! And we chose what we would use that power for! And in the end, you choose to use it for yourself?”

  Albert got to his feet and delivered a mighty blow to Breaker’s gut, who dropped the axe as he gasped, winded by Albert’s blow. He gagged as he struggled to recover, but in those moments, Albert grabbed his weapon back and stepped back, raising his hands once more.

  “I continued to protect the people because it’s what I thought you two would’ve wanted.”

  He looked up, tears pouring down his cheeks.

  “But apparently, you want nothing but death.”

  “Death is all the people wanted for us,” Breaker growled, brandishing his weapon again.

  “Then death is all that awaits us, old friend.”

  ~~~

  “Go!”

  The party burst into the room, weapons brandished. Prota immediately tossed in a Blossom of Ice, turning the air bitingly cold as the petals shattered everywhere.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “What the- intruders! Sound the alarm!”

  “That’s not gonna happen.”

  Fate leapt forward and decapitated the head of one, then chanted a quick spell to pierce the stomach of another with ice. Prota took care of the third and fourth with a pillar of flame, her eyes cold as the men vanished into smoke.

  The whole thing went down in about a minute. The opponents’ movements had been severely slowed by the initial Blossom of Ice, and the following attacks had been so swift and deadly that there was really no time to react.

  “You,” Fate said, grabbing the collar of the one pierced by his icicle. “Where are they?”

  “Wh- what are you talking about?” the man gasped. Blood was trickling out of his mouth.

  “The prisoner! Where is he?”

  “I- I won’t talk!” the man gasped, blood spurting out from his wound as he struggled.

  Fate was about to punch him, but stopped as he felt Prota’s hand near his shoulder. It was cold. Way too cold for a human hand. He looked back to see frost misting off of her.

  “...Prota?”

  She shook her head.

  “You… fine. I’ll trust you on this one.”

  Fate stepped back, letting Prota step forward.

  “You? You’re just a tiny kid,” the man scoffed. “What’re you gonna-”

  He gasped as he felt the mana drain from his body. The girl’s eyes lit up. Did the two have some kind of correlation? Had she taken his- no, no, that wasn’t possible. Yet, her emotionless face conveyed nothing. He couldn’t tell what she was feeling.

  Was it anger? Apathy? Sadness? A sadistic kind of joy?

  “Where is he?” she said in a voice so soft the man barely heard her.

  She laid his hands above his stomach, freezing the wound so he wouldn’t bleed out.

  “I won’t-”

  Prota put her hands above the man’s legs, and the limbs started to freeze. She normally would’ve been rather timid about all this, but the idea of John being so close to her was more than enough to cause her to lose her mind. She wasn’t thinking of anything else.

  “Where?”

  “I’m no rat! I won’t say-”

  Prota raised her staff and brought it down violently, smashing the man’s feet. The open wounds were immediately castrated with flame. The man yelled in pain, but Prota wasn’t concerned about that.

  “Where?”

  “I- I ain’t saying nothing-”

  Prota brought her staff down again, shattering a leg this time. Fate was covering Danjo’s eyes and ears, but even he was a little disturbed. Her face. It was still blank. Still passive. It was like the face of someone watching paint dry. But she wasn’t watching paint dry. She was quite literally shattering a man to pieces.

  “Where?”

  Prota was simply repeating the same question over and over. There were no threats. No demands. She didn’t change her tone of voice or her facial expression. The intent was clear. She’d keep at it until he spilled an answer she wanted.

  It was far more terrifying than any kind of rage.

  “Where?”

  The man’s mind was close to breaking. His legs were gone, and tears were streaming down his face.

  “Do- down the hall to the left. You can’t miss it. It’s- it’s a room for the boss-”

  The man never finished his sentence. A singular icicle went through his throat, and he died, making a sick gurgling sound as he slowly drowned in his own blood. Prota didn’t even give him a second look, though. She just stood up and left the room, Fate and Danjo trailing closely behind.

  “...Prota? Don’t do that again,” Fate said quietly as they went down the hall.

  ~~~

  Albert and Breaker were at the end of their ropes. They barely had the energy to keep going. They’d been fighting for over an hour straight. Their mana, their stamina, it was all depleted. The fight was almost over, though. One was on his knees, and the other had his weapon at the other’s neck.

  “Breaker.”

  Albert looked down at his old friend.

  “What is it you really want?”

  Breaker laughed. “Still the goody two shoes till the end, huh?”

  “Since when was I ever a goody two shoes?!”

  “You’re kind, Albert. You act rough around the edges, but you can’t help it.”

  Breaker lowered his head.

  “Finish it.”

  “...”

  “You said this would end in death, didn’t you? Finish it!”

  Albert’s hand didn’t move.

  “Come on, dammit! Finish! It!”

  “...what do you want, Breaker?”

  “...”

  Albert kept his axe at Breaker’s neck, but despite his fatigue, it didn’t even leave a single scratch. The hand remained steady.

  “You know what I wanted. I killed a bunch of people. I worked with a despicable man. Is there anything more that needs to be said?”

  “Breaker…”

  “Don’t make this a soppy ending, Albert! Just end it like a man!”

  Albert let his axe drop.

  “...I can’t.”

  “What? Why?”

  “I made a promise, Breaker. To Elena. That I’d make sure you were alright, even if she died.”

  “She… what?”

  “Back, long before the incident. She made me promise that I wouldn’t let you go. She said you were too stupid to go off on your own.”

  Breaker scoffed. “She chose you?”

  “I don’t know why she chose me. I’m not the guy to choose. But still, I promised something, and I failed. So tell me. What is it you wanted? What could you have wanted so badly that you made me break my promise? Why? Tell me, Breaker!”

  Breaker’s head was lowered, but a drop of water fell to the ground, splashing the dirt.

  “Don’t give me mercy, Albert. Don’t end it like this.”

  “Breaker. What did you want?”

  Breaker got up with a roar, his hand extended toward Albert’s throat, but the attack was easily sidestepped.

  “Don’t pity me! I told you already! I did what I did. I’ll stick to my principles till the end. I made my choice, I stuck with it, and I lost. You’re the stronger one here! End it!”

  “I’ll end it the way I want to, dammit!” Albert roared. “Even in our party, you never did listen! Shut up for a second and hear me out! You weren’t like this! Breaker, you might’ve been an idiot, but you were a reliable idiot. Elena would’ve never fallen in love with you if you were this kind of man!”

  “Men change! Get over it!”

  With a cry, Albert hit Breaker with the shaft of his axe, knocking him down.

  “You also used to help people! Elena is dead, but you can carry on her memory! Are you going to stain what’s left of her?”

  “Have you considered that I might’ve never been the man you thought I was? Maybe it was all an act! Some people don’t deserve second chances, Albert! Some people need to be killed!”

  “Yeah? Some people make their own chances, Breaker! So make a second chance! Don’t make me a liar again!”

  Breaker grit his teeth, clenching his fists. Albert shook his head and sighed.

  “Get over here.”

  He pulled Breaker towards him roughly and reached into the man’s breast pocket. Inside was a crumpled piece of paper.

  “I knew it. You stupid bastard.”

  “What the-”

  “You always kept it here. I had a feeling. You don’t want to die here. Not like this.”

  Breaker stared up into Albert’s eyes angrily, but he couldn’t hold that anger. Eventually, he dropped his head.

  “You’re the same stubborn fool,” Breaker said, leaning back.

  “Then you’re agreeing with me?”

  “Not really. But I can’t kill myself. You have my weapon. And you won’t kill me. So what can I do?”

  Albert sat down with a grunt and looked at Breaker.

  “...I want to get to my team.”

  “Well, you can’t, can you?”

  “You’re a devil of an opponent, you bastard.”

  “If you weren’t just as terrible, you’d be dead.”

  Albert shook his head and pulled out a cigar, extending it toward Breaker.

  “You still smoke those?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I quit a while ago.”

  Albert shrugged and picked up Breaker’s mace and clashed it against his axe, making sparks. His cigar lit, he shoved it in his mouth and sucked.

  “...hand me one.”

  Albert chuckled and lit another, tossing it over.

  “So what now?”

  “Now, we talk.”

  “...you can’t convince me, Albert. I’m a bad guy now. I’m one of the bad guys we’d fight against. Just because you didn’t kill me doesn’t change that.”

  “Bad guy? Who defines that? You’re strong, Breaker. You said it yourself. The strong make the rules. You’re strong. Make the rules.”

  Breaker shook his head.

  “Actually, you’re talking as if we’re all getting out alive.”

  “...what?”

  “That man, Doctor. He’s different.”

  “What do you mean?” Albert frowned. “Breaker. What does that mean?”

  “He’s stronger than me. Even in my prime, he’d still outclass me.”

  “...that’s a bold claim.”

  “He doesn’t use mana, Albert. He’s like… some kind of god. I don’t know who you have going in to fight him, but even if you were there, it’s a lost cause.”

  Breaker leaned back and sucked on the cigar.

  “Hah. I believe in those kids.”

  Breaker laughed pitifully. “I don’t. I guess this smoke isn’t gonna be as bad for me as I thought.”

  The two sat in silence, unsure of what to say. The mood had changed so suddenly.

  “We were just fighting a few minutes ago. Crazy how things change, ain’t it?”

  “That’s life. Neither of us have any juice left, right?”

  “I couldn’t fight you to save my life.”

  “Same here.”

  Breaker spat on the ground and put his cigar back in his mouth.

  “I hope, for your sake, that those kids win.”

  “They remind me of us. Back in the day. There’s two of them, they’re real stubborn.”

  “What, like we were?”

  “Yeah,” Albert grinned. “One’s kinda like me, I guess. I helped train him a little. Other one… kinda like you. Never listens to anyone, still somehow makes it work out.”

  “Yeah? As if. I listened to you guys.”

  “Only to Elena.”

  “Ah, piss off.”

  “See? Come on. Life’s worth living.”

  “For fuck’s sake, Albert, shove a sock in it. I’m just saying. Maybe. Maybe I’ll think about it.”

  Albert grinned and punched Breaker on the shoulder. “See? It’s not so hard to change your mindset.”

  “I never liked working with that freak anyway.”

  “So why did you do it in the first place?”

  “Well…”

  ~~~

  “I’m back! Did you miss me?” Doctor said cheerfully, walking into the room with a cheerful stride.

  “Uh… not really.”

  “Oh, why’s that? It wouldn’t happen to be because you’re losing, would it?”

  John didn’t answer. He just refused to look his aggressor in the eyes, but his silence was more than enough as an answer.

  “No one likes a sore loser, manaless boy!”

  John just shook his head.

  “Hey. If we’re all ending up dead anyways, lemme ask you something.”

  “Hm… but what purpose would that serve me?”

  “Why not? I’m going to die anyway.”

  “But you might get something out of it. Control, remember?”

  John sighed. “I just wanna know who you were before you came here.”

  “Here?”

  “We’re both reincarnators, aren’t we?” John said, indicating to the fluorescent lights above. “Who were you?”

  “...who were you, then?”

  “Mm… I was a shut-in, I think. I liked reading. I don’t really remember much.”

  “An amnesiac?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Haha! Very good, then!”

  Doctor sat down cross-legged. It seemed that he didn’t care about what John said.

  “Back on Earth, there was a special military camp of sorts. It took in refugees, children, whoever. We put them through a grinder of sorts. An incredibly strict training regime. Some died. A lot died, actually. Those who survived were part of an elite team that took on various tasks.”

  “And you were the leader?”

  “No! I was the leader of the medical team!” Doctor grinned.

  John frowned. “You? They let a psychopath like you take care of injuries?”

  “Injuries? You’re mistaken. I improved them, manaless boy. I worked on improving them.”

  John nodded slowly. It lined up. This camp. They didn’t see people as “humans.” The soldiers were “tools.” Doctor wasn’t a Doctor. He was like a mad scientist.

  John suspected that he hadn’t changed much after arriving to this new world.

  “The leader of the camp didn’t know, of course. He was too stupid to understand me. My expertise. But I gave him what he wanted, so he never questioned it.”

  “Is this where your superiority complex comes from?”

  “I am superior. Putting that aside, you don’t understand. How satisfying it was to dig into their skin, to figure out what made them tick, and how to make them tick better… their screams, their pleas, it was all for a better cause!”

  John was disgusted, but that wasn’t important. These people he mentioned, they weren’t real. They didn’t matter. They were [Extras], things without names, conveniently placed “people” to enhance a backstory. He didn’t need any of that right now.

  What he needed right now was information.

  “...then how did you die?”

  “We were bombed. Nothing I could do. I wasn’t a god, then. But then I came to this world. I was given a chance. My intelligence, finally understood! I was given all the information I could ever want! The power to be god. The power to do whatever I wanted!”

  “...yeah. Ok. Sure.”

  “You don’t know a thing about the power I have. It’s not mana. You mana using fools think mana is the building blocks of this world? Wrong! It’s something much, much more. This strange energy… it operates on a higher level. It’s so, so much more. Not that you would ever understand.”

  Doctor stood up. “Well, that’s enough about me. Your little friends will be here in a bit. I look forward to seeing your reaction.”

  Olivia looked at John with pleading eyes, but he just shook his head. There was nothing he could do. He’d made his move. The pieces were being taken out one by one. Everything else was slowly coming together.

  He was cornered. Doctor had indeed played his moves well. Apparently, the thought was visible because Doctor looked at him and smiled.

  “Let’s see how you worm your way out of this one, manaless boy.”