Chapter 74: No Escape
Tiring. That was the only word John could use to describe the scenario they were in.
Dozens of [Resets] later, and they were no closer to victory than they’d been before. It was looking impossible. It wasn’t that they couldn’t defeat Doctor; John had proved that this was possible from the very beginning.
No, the issue was finding a way to get everyone out alive.
“Prota. Come on. She was supposed to die. Put it this way. If we weren’t here, she would be gone, and maybe Danjo, too. I don’t think we can save her,” John pleaded. “Can we at least be satisfied with this?”
Prota would simply refuse. John would sigh, [Reset], and they’d try again. At this point, they’d learned Doctor’s attack patterns. They’d learned how to block, how to dodge, how to fight, and should it come to it, even Prota would give Doctor a run for his money. They’d proven it could be done. They’d occasionally fight Doctor, just for fun. With [Resets], winning the fight was never the issue. It was winning the war.
As of right now, the war was looking pretty unwinnable.
It wasn’t as if they were forced to save Olivia. John could easily go on without her. He was, ultimately, doing Prota a favour. After all, it wasn’t her ability that let them go back in time. There were options that would force them to move forward. But for some reason, he didn’t use any of them. Maybe it was stubbornness, maybe it was pride, but something made him decide that a “perfect” run involved saving Olivia, too.
“What kind of [Story] do you want? This world. This [Story].”
He couldn’t shake Zero’s words. Interestingly enough, the more he died for this girl he barely knew, the more curious he became. No longer was he adamantly against saving the elf. His complaints to Prota were nothing more than whiny tantrums at this point, and he never fully meant what he was saying.
There was something he had to know.
Was it possible? To save someone who was meant to die? To go against the stereotypes of a [Story], to deny a form of trauma-induced character development, to make a “happily ever all” ending? He didn’t know. But there was a small part of him that hoped, that wanted to find out. If he could save someone whose fate was to traumatize someone else, then… maybe he, too, could escape such a fate.
“You’re a [Writer], aren’t you?”
He knew what Zero was getting at. It was a cheesy line.
Write your own ending.
It was, at one point, a very dramatic and epic line, but with overuse, it slowly became a cliche that John could no longer find meaning in. Stories that used the term “write your own ending” were simply using it as some kind of means to overcome adversity. If someone were to be told that line, it simply meant that their fate was to win. They weren’t defying anything. They were simply following the [Plot].
But what about John?
“John,” Prota said quietly, shaking him. He wouldn’t get up, though.
He didn’t know how many [Resets] it’d been. Prota, too, was starting to get tired. They’d occasionally take a break and go all out. She would sometimes run in and get herself killed, and other times, John would pull out whatever gun seemed entertaining to use and fire it, knowing that it wouldn’t do anything anyway.
At this point, they might not even be able to win anymore. John hadn’t tried it in a while, but [Determination] wasn’t active, and without it, [Infinity] wouldn’t work. He didn’t have the emotions needed for it. What if he couldn’t build the feelings needed? What if they were stuck?
“John.”
John shook his head. He wanted to lie down and sleep, even though he wasn’t tired. How? Was there a way to save Olivia? Hell, was there a way to save all of them? John didn’t want to get up, but Prota was starting to insist that he did, so with a sigh, he sat up and reached for the [Reset] button.
“...fine.”
~~~
John watched as the door was bashed down, Prota, Fate, and Danjo spilling in after it.
Danjo stepped forward. “O-Olivia? Is that you-”
Fate put his arm out. “You two. Remember. This isn’t the time to act irrationally.”
That anger burned in his eyes. John still wasn’t sure why Fate was so upset. At this point in time, he shouldn’t yet know who Doctor is. And he had yet to hear anything about history between Fate and whatever this organization was. There was consistently something about Celeste, probably a [Female Lead] or a love interest, but wasn’t Fate young? Was she someone important to him? A sister, maybe?
No matter how many times John heard the conversation, he never got anything more out of it, and he’d given up trying to figure it out. He’d hear it directly from Fate once they were out of this mess.
“You! You’re the one known as Doctor, right? You’ve done way too much. It’s time to pay for your sins. There’s no one else here. Give it up.”
John snuck a glance at Prota, who was mouthing the words subconsciously. She’d managed to memorize every bit of dialogue. He could’ve done the same, but that was simply too much effort on his part. Besides, he still needed a plan.
What could he do? What was there to do?
[Infinity]. For some reason, it was the only ability that worked on Doctor. He hadn’t been able to experiment, though, because he’d long since failed to activate [Determination].
“...can’t I still use it, though?”
Somehow, it only occurred to him then. Even without [Determination], [Infinity] was still an ability he could use. It wasn’t on a scale that could handle anyone other than Danjo, but… why did that matter? It was something he had yet to try, for some reason, even with the dozens of deaths he’d experienced.
His eye lit up as he undid his binds. He hadn’t been tied up with anything other than regular rope, poorly tied at that, so at a ten times multiplier, something like that was easy to take care of. He would’ve been able to escape in any other situation, only, his body was still exhausted and beaten from the previous days of torture. [Infinity] easily overcame all of that.
“You… I see you’re still the same,” Fate said. He seemed to be oblivious to everything but Doctor. “You’re still doing the same things. Doing the same sick experiments. You’re not human. You’re a monster.”
Neither Fate nor Doctor had noticed John.
“I’ll kill you. I’ll tear you to pieces, here and now.”
Fate unsheathed his sword and let out a cry, but he was too late. John grabbed Doctor by the neck and slammed him into the ground, cracking the tiles underneath.
“What the-”
Fate stared at John, who’d managed to suppress Doctor. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough.
“You dare?!” Doctor roared, his tendrils lashing out.
A few immediately pierced John’s stomach, blood and guts spilling out as he was lifted into the air.
“Dammit!” John cursed with a dying gasp.
He pulled his pistol out and aimed, getting a shot off before his vision went black.
~~~
“Fuck!” John cursed, sitting up.
He looked at Prota, eyes dancing wildly. There was so much unexpected life in them that Prota involuntarily flinched. He was so excited that he hadn’t even bothered to ask how she’d died.
“Why? Why did that work? His ability. [Control]. He should’ve caught me. He should be in control of the situation. So why…”
John frowned.
“Control. What is he in control of? The world? Mana? Then… is he in control of something that isn’t part of the world?”
John thought furiously. Something felt familiar about the situation. Somewhere, sometime, he’d been in a scenario where his unique energy had taken priority over the rules of the world. But where? What? And did it apply here?
“That cave,” John muttered. “That cave, it’s formed from mana, but [Deus Ex Machina] energy overtook it. It prioritized it. My energy. It reacts to this world and overwrites it. [Overwrite]. No, I’m not using that ability right now. Then what? What?”
John was pulling at his hair, furiously thinking. He was so close. So, so close. This was the missing piece to the puzzle he didn’t know he was solving, but now that he had it, the picture made so much more sense. But now that he had a better idea of what he was supposed to be looking for, he could solve the puzzle. He just needed the last few steps.
Aside from Diaboli, he’d had never fought someone with [Deus Ex Machina] energy using [Deus Ex Machina] energy. Well, not in this world, at least, and that situation didn’t count.
Here was different, though. His energy rivalled Doctor’s, potentially even overpowering it. What was the outcome then? What difference did that make? Yes, Doctor’s ability was illogical. But he was just as nonsensical as the enemy was. They were both cheating at a game where neither of them knew the rules.
But John knew this. Doctor didn’t.
“Ha… haha… no, I don’t need to understand it. I can just use it. But I do. No, if I don’t understand it, then I can’t-”
His mumblings stopped as he felt Prota put her hand on his.
“John.”
He froze. Prota was looking deep into his eyes.
“Just… try again. We have time.”
Right. Right, he was acting as if he couldn’t just try it out. He could just experiment. Trial and error. That was what [Resets] were for, right? After all, it wasn’t as if [Resets] were going anywhere. Doctor didn’t have anything to inhibit this ability. Again and again, they could experiment and test until they got the answer they needed.
“Try… again. I- Yeah, yeah. Right. That’s right.” John nodded, taking a deep breath.
He closed his eyes and reached for the [Reset] button one more time.
~~~
“This ends here!” Fate roared, blinded with rage, as he held his blade with two hands.
The next strike ripped through the walls, tearing the room to shreds, yet Doctor remained unharmed.
“Ah, you’re still the same as always, Sixteen. Blind. Ambitious. Yet utterly stupid, still playing the role of the pawn in a larger game of chess.”
He grabbed Fate’s wrist as Fate swung, throwing him into the wall, shattering what tiles Fate hadn’t already destroyed. There was a crack as one of Fate’s ribs was broken, and he yelled out in pain.
“It seems a lesson is in order.”
He walked toward Fate, pulling out a scalpel. It wasn’t anything strange or violent. It was just an ordinary scalpel, the same as any other scalpel. Now was the perfect time. John didn’t have [Infinity] activated. He walked up to Doctor silently, knife in hand. The objective wasn’t to kill. It was to experiment.
However, before he could get close, a tendril shot out and grabbed him, lifting him effortlessly into the air.
“You. How did you escape?” Doctor frowned, turning his head. “No matter. I am in control here. You cannot pull such foolish tricks.”
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[Reset]
“You.” Doctor slowly turned to Prota. “I have yet to get to you. Honestly, after seeing Sixteen, I forgot. You’re what I need the most.”
Prota saw the look in the man’s eyes and shuddered. His gaze shook her to her core, no matter how often she experienced it. Despite her fear, she forced herself to focus on Doctor as John snuck up behind, [Infinity] activated.
“Wh- you,” Doctor growled, catching John right before he raised his knife. “How did you-”
[Reset]
Without turning his head, Doctor blocked Fate’s blade with a tendril.
“You need to learn how to stay down. Bad children don’t act unless spoken to.”
Another tendril came out of Doctor’s coat and flung Fate away, blood splattering as Fate fell once more.
Suddenly, the sound of chains clanking interrupted everyone as Danjo fiddled with Olivia’s binds. They’d fallen to the ground after coming undone, but neither Danjo nor Olivia had expected the sound to be so loud.
“Danjo, run!” Olivia yelled as her collar came off. “I’ll-”
“You. Code five.”
John ripped himself out of his binds, launching himself toward Doctor. There was no element of surprise. Doctor saw it all. With a look of confusion, he caught John and slammed him into the floor, cracks ringing out throughout the room as multiple bones snapped.
“What were you trying? No, how did you escape…? No matter.”
[Reset]
[Reset]
[Reset]
[Reset]
[Reset]
~~~
“Hey, Zero. How many times have I [Reset]?”
John’s soul popped out, checking something on a piece of paper.
“Um… five hundred sixty two so far. This is attempt five hundred sixty three, once you press the button.”
“Six hundred [Resets]...” John muttered. “Is there a way?”
“Good question,” Zero shrugged. “You know I can’t answer that.”
“Yeah, thanks a lot.”
“Why blame me?”
“I don’t need to hear your voice right now. Can you leave before I go crazy?”
“You’re the one who called me- never mind.”
For whatever reason, Zero stopped himself. Maybe he felt pity, or maybe he understood John’s fragile state of mind because he disappeared without another word.
“Prota,” John said quietly. “Let’s give up.”
“Give… up?”
John fell back and spread his arms wide. His bravado from before was nowhere to be found, but that was to be expected of someone who’d died over half a thousand times.
“Maybe we can’t win. Sometimes… we take losses. It’s not worth it. I’m… I’m tired, Prota. Do we have to save them? What difference does it make if they live or die? Why do you want to save them so much, anyway?”
“I can’t lose.”
John laughed bitterly as he remembered the words he’d uttered so long ago.
“Yeah. I’m an idiot.”
That was right. Ultimately, wasn’t he someone destined to lose people? This was a [Story]. And, as much as he didn’t want to admit it, it wasn’t as awful as he made it out to be. He’d definitely read better, no doubt, but he’d also read worse. And if it wasn’t absolute garbage, then losing a few people here and there made sense.
Why try so hard? The others didn’t matter to him. The others…
“I can’t lose.”
John let out another laugh. He wanted to give up. But those words haunted him every time he tried to make his choice. It was almost as if he himself were preventing him from throwing in the towerl.
Maybe the others weren’t what mattered here. He didn’t know what he was going to do, but he’d been through more than this. Give up now? What was the point? Six hundred [Resets]? That was nothing. Why was he so tired? He’d been through this before. No, he’d been through far worse. Where was his grit?
His [Determination]?
“Come on, Prota,” he muttered, sitting up. If he couldn’t convince himself to give up, maybe someone else could. “You still want to save them?”
Prota nodded. Shit. Wrong person to ask.
“Please. You know what? Why? Tell me why. I- maybe you’ll convince me.”
“I… Fate. Danjo. They are… friends. And Olivia. She is Danjo’s sister. She saved Danjo. Just like John saved Prota.” Prota paused, seeming to consider what to say next. “And… I don’t want to lose John. So Danjo shouldn’t lose Olivia.”
Friends. Was that what they were?
“They don’t matter! They’re not real! Why do we have to save them?”
Did he mean those words? After thinking about it for a little bit… no. He didn’t.
So what if they were fake? They certainly didn’t seem to think that was true. And if John, who was also fake in a sense, had the right to care for someone, would it not be cruel to deny that from someone else?
He didn’t know. He didn’t know anything anymore. Real? Fake? At this point, what did any of that mean? Their will. Their decisions. Was any of that important? Did it matter? If John truly had a will, what if their happiness was purely up to him? What if he was here to play god and decide their fates?
As a [Writer], he probably wouldn’t have cared. After all, well-timed deaths made for a good story. Overdoing it made it stale, but once in a while, tragedy was necessary. But he wasn’t just a [Writer]. He was a [Reader].
A [Character].
“Wanting a happy ending no matter what, wanting to save everyone, to make sure everyone got the ending they wanted. To enforce justice. To make everything right, even while knowing such a thing is impossible. That was you.”
How ridiculous. He should’ve known he was going to save them all along. If he really didn’t care for them, he wouldn’t have done all this for them. He wouldn’t have saved Danjo, he wouldn’t have taken care of Fate, he wouldn’t try to stop Kit from dying, he wouldn’t make sure Olivia was comfortable with her death…
All this time, he’d been getting closer than he’d ever meant to.
He shook his head. If he had the energy to think about all this, he had the energy to think about what was coming next. He slapped his cheeks and got up, extending a hand to Prota.
“You good to keep going, then?”
“Nn.”
“Then let’s go.”
~~~
“No. Your tyranny ends here.”
“Will it?”
“I’ll stop you. I’ll-”
“No, you won’t. I’ll get you. Then I’ll get her. I’ll make her my doll. Your little princess was never yours to begin with.”
“You leave Celestia alone! If you put even a hand on her, I’ll-”
John watched as Olivia fell. Prota had managed to push Danjo out of the way, and he was now long gone, but Olivia’s still-warm body was on the floor, blood pooling beneath it. Her eyes were still open. Staring. Looking, but not seeing.
Right at John.
“...don’t look at me like that,” John muttered. “I warned you.”
“Destiny! Are you going to give up here?!”
John’s head snapped up as Kit once again took on her human form, flames swirling around her.
“Destiny! Get up!” Kit roared. “I’ll hold him off!”
She went to battle, and John just watched with a blank expression. As always, Kit was thrown into a wall. Her abdomen was pierced by a tendril, and red blood spilled out, leaking toward the ground. The same as before. No variation. No change. She’d die in the same position as always.
“You Mystics think you’re gods, but the god here is me. You’re nothing but fools,” Doctor said, slowly walking toward Kit. “I wanted your soul, but you’re too much of a risk to keep alive.”
“What the… how… did you…”
John listened to the words he knew were coming. His mind was starting to wander, coming up with scenarios that weren’t possible. With enough stacks of [Infinity], he could stop time, but that hadn’t and wouldn’t be possible. Oh, well. It would’ve been nice.
He was starting to feel sick again. It wasn’t much of a feeling. It was just annoyance. But he was really, really annoyed. Enough so that he had to take it out somewhere.
[Determination activates!]
“...now?” John frowned.
Really? Off of the minor annoyance he was feeling? And what was the point? Granted, the limit of [Infinity] had only increased by five hundred, but it didn’t matter now. Kit and Danjo were dead. What else was there to do?
John shook his head. It didn’t matter. Thinking, planning, [Resets], he didn’t care. Too much was going on. Too much was being done. He just wanted to let loose.
[Prota. We’re doing one more reset. Take a pill and leave.]
Prota’s eyes went wide as she read the message, but looked at John and nodded. She caught the pill John tossed and quietly left, unnoticed by Doctor.
“That… scared me for a second,” Doctor said, panting. “That hurt. I’m surprised.”
Fate was flung against the wall, knocking him unconscious. Now, it was just John.
“Manaless boy- wait a minute. Where did the girl go?”
“Your ability doesn’t work on her, for some reason,” John said, ripping himself out of his binds. His eye was glowing bright. “Sorry about that. She killed herself.”
“You-”
“I’m getting really sick of losing to you. Like, literally starting to feel sick.”
John’s heartbeat started picking up as the hundreds of deaths were piling up in his mind. All that stress. All that frustration. The confusion of not knowing what to do. To save or to abandon? Were these people friends or [Characters]? Both? Neither? His mind couldn’t handle it, and the stress was only adding to his emotion.
It would end eventually. But right now, he had the opportunity to let it all out on the person responsible for all of it.
“This will be my second time killing you. Something like six hundred deaths later, I get to experience it. Well, I suppose this is the [Author’s] gift. I get to fight a little. As a treat.”
John rolled his neck, stiff from being bound to the cross for so long.
“So don’t ruin this for me, ok?”
With that, he leapt forward, nearly knocking Doctor down flat as he came to an abrupt stop right before him. His hand shot out, grabbing the monster’s throat and ripping out a handful of tendrils. With a yell, he pulled harder and grabbed an even larger bundle like a rope. Doctor’s body began to thrash around as John whipped the tendrils up and down, left and right, wrecking the room.
[Infinity] was barely running compared to the first time he’d defeated Doctor. But that didn’t matter. If his theory about [Control] was correct, then any amount of power would do. And John didn’t need overwhelming force to win. Hell, he didn’t even need to win.
He just wanted the feeling of beating the living soul out of someone.
“How! Does! It! Feel!” John yelled, slamming Doctor on the ground one more time before leaping up, just to come crashing down. Black ooze splatted all over the place as Doctor’s tendrils were crushed under John’s feet.
Doctor immediately started coming back together but didn’t have time to regain his senses as John picked him up, sending a mighty uppercut to what he assumed was the stomach. He whipped out a shotgun, pumping shell after shell into Doctor’s mouth, lighting it up as if someone had shoved fireworks into his throat.
“I’m sick of you! I’m sick of trying to save everyone! But I’m going to do it anyway, so let’s just get this over with!” John roared, a sword appearing in his hand, slicing Doctor’s head off.
The sword vanished as John reached for Doctor’s decapitated head, crushing it in his hands, black ooze splattering everywhere. It didn’t move again.
He was dead. Doctor was dead. Come to think of it, this was the first time John had killed Doctor, no? He had never finished the job the first time. How ironic. A weaker version of himself had done the deed. Well, it was good to know. That meant that he didn’t need a ridiculously high multiplier to win. Just a little bit more would do. He was close to figuring it out. He didn’t need to activate his ability too strongly to get out of this mess. It was over. Just a few more tries.
“Haah…” John pulled a bottle of mystery liquid out and took a swig.
He slumped against some debris and closed his eyes. He didn’t want to look at the bodies piled around the room. That would only give him a greater headache than what he was feeling right now. They weren’t dead. Not yet.
“I’m so tired… it’s ok. Phew. [Reset], and go back to the drawing board. That’s all, right?”
Suddenly, the hairs on the back of his neck began to stand up. Something in the air had changed. Something was here. Something strong. His eyes snapped open.
No, no, this wasn’t possible. A new factor? Even his first fight with Doctor hadn’t drawn anything nearby. Was killing Doctor the trigger for something else?
John tried to calm himself down. He could just deal with the second threat. As long as he knew it was coming, he could plan for it.
At least, that’s what he thought. His mind changed when he felt [Deus Ex Machina] energy nearby. No. No, no, this wasn’t happening. This—this wasn’t possible. The worst possible outcome.
John looked up as the ceiling caved in. Purple wings, purple skin, long, silky black hair, twin horns protruding from the forehead, black armour glistening in the moonlight as a seductive figure slowly descended, a sly smile on the newcomer’s face. Beads of sweat began to pour down John’s face as he got up, his heart pounding away.
[Determination activates!]
“Found you.”
I just want to check one more time, when the next arc comes out, would you be interested in a paetron where you can subscribe to read some chapters in advance? I plan to slow down to a release schedule of just twice a week, and you'd be getting about 10 chapters (5 weeks) in advance.
Paetron?
