jdhmnovel Chapter 250: Choices
Chapter 250: Choices
In a blink, Prota found herself in the middle of nowhere. Everything was pitch black. All she could see were John, beside her, and Celeste before her. She tried to take a breath of air, only to find there was nothing.“Space.”
She flinched as she heard John’s voice in her head.
“There’s no air up here. Well, I don’t even know if this is up. I think we were teleported, maybe so we don’t destroy the world in the process of our fight. Well, I don’t think that’s going to matter, anyway.”
Somehow, Prota instinctively understood what was going on. Likely the result of Anta being merged with her.
There would be no ground to move off of. No terrain to consider. She could move her body telepathically, much like flying, but that would take some getting used to.
And she’d have to get used to it fast.
“Dodge!”
Immediately, a massive wave of energy appeared to split space in two, blinding Prota with its light. She’d only moved out of the way because she’d been warned, but instinct told her that had she not evaded the attack, she’d already be dead.
“You’re going to have to adapt quickly,” John gasped, teleporting next to her. “This isn’t a fight we can take lightly.”
“But… everything is moving so slowly,” Prota pointed out.
She was right. Aside from John’s teleportation, she had the ability to think and move at a relatively normal speed. The attack wasn’t exactly slow, but it wasn’t any faster than what she was used to.
“Is that how it looks to you?” John laughed. “Rule number one of fighting at this level: perspective matters. Right now, we’re travelling only slightly under the speed of light. But because we’re processing things at the same level, it looks like we’re moving slowly. Here, check this out.”
He grabbed Prota, teleporting out of the way of yet another attack, all while opening a portal, allowing a gun to fall into his hands.
“You remember this, right?”
Prota nodded.
“Alright. I’m gonna shoot it.”
John squeezed the trigger.
And nothing happened.
“Oh, right. The explosion won’t even go off… well, I’ll leave that there,” John shrugged. “I’m not gonna show an example right now. It isn’t exactly the time to be teaching a lesson.
Like that, he vanished again, reappearing in front of Celeste, his sword clashing with her arm.
“Alright!” he yelled. “Let’s fucking do it!”
His other arm came swinging around, six flashes of light bursting out of the barrel as six bullets were fired. In an instant, Celeste created a cosmic barrier, and the bullets immediately dissolved into nothing.
“You are not the only one who has standard abilities,” she said. “Did you forget that I am a goddess?”
“Do you know what infinity is? I don’t think you do,” John shrugged.
And then he sped up.
It seemed impossible, but he got even faster, even in this already fast paced environment. Celeste’s head began to twist left and right, over and over, trying to keep up, but she couldn’t. Somehow, her body wasn’t taking many wounds, but on occasion, Prota would see the flash of a blade, a beam of energy, the imprint of a fist.
And with every blow, the universe itself vanished.
With a single punch, a group of stars would blink out of existence. A beam of energy would cut through the black void of space, and another group of stars would vanish.
Diaboli had teleported them away to save her planet, but in the end, it didn’t matter.
The very universe was merely collateral.
But John could bring it back. All he had to do was [Reset]. Prota could worry about it after this was done.
The only thing she could do was focus even harder.
All of her mana. All of her energy, her infinite reserves, dedicated into simply trying to see what John was doing.
And then time slowed down even further.
Suddenly, Celeste wasn’t moving at all, and she could see John dancing around, laughing, delivering blow after blow.
“This! This is [Infinity]!” John exclaimed, clenching his fist. “You wanted to fight me? You’re a fucking idiot! I am the ultimate [Character]! You challenged the embodiment of bad writing, you dumbass!”
Prota suddenly remembered what John’s core was.
She was the embodiment of selfishness. Of gluttony. She took everything and made it hers.
But John had been the embodiment of freedom. Like a child, creating a superhero in their mind, capable of doing anything and defeating anyone.
[Infinity] wasn’t an ability or a multiplier.
It was a limiter.
A limiter on a being that had once been a [Writer].
A being that existed outside the bounds of this world.
Unconsciously, Prota clenched her fists, hope rising in her heart.
This was a John free of responsibility. Of worry. The smile on his face was wide, the joy in his eyes unbound. He was fighting for himself.
Prota had shown him that he was free. Free of responsibility, free of the weight on his shoulders. This world wasn’t his. He might care for it. He might care for the people within it.
But it was not his responsibility to keep them alive.
And so he could fight. Fight for himself, fight for what he believed in, and not because he was scared. He wasn’t running away from the issue anymore.
He was charging right into it.
“I’m a [Character], you piece of shit,” John grinned, his fists blurring as he began pummeling the goddess’s face into mush. “But the difference between you and me is that you’re only a [Character]. I’m more. I’m so much more. You thought you could get one up on me? Think again, chucklenuts!”
As she watched, Prota was beginning to understand the nature of his powers.
Imagination.
The world’s mana was almost like training grounds for what Prota was truly capable of. Mana moved to reshape reality, but as she watched, she realized that John was defining reality on the spot. [Infinity] had always been a power that defied logic and reality, but just now did Prota realize that this was the nature of the ability.
A power that stemmed from an energy known as [Deus Ex Machina]. A power that stemmed from the literal power of imagination.
What she was capable of was up to her.
John still wasn’t going all out. Not because he didn’t want to, but because going all out wasn’t a thing. There wasn’t a limit to what he was capable of doing.
In a sense, the purest essence of a [Character].
A [Character] was whatever an [Author] needed them to be.
In return, John was simply whatever he wanted to be.
It was why he changed age. It was why he was always “John” wherever he went. The reason he always talked about writing his own destiny, the reason he always spoke about the [Author] as another person instead of with reverence, it was all because he wanted to be [John].
And she could see it.
How he was moving, how he was fighting. It didn’t look like he was fighting the way he usually did. His eyes weren’t flicking back and forth, analyzing every bit of the battlefield, preparing to move at a moment’s notice.
It was almost like he was simply moving in the way he thought he should move.
Explaining it was difficult. But when Prota saw how his energy was moving, it wasn’t controlled. It was more like it was controlling him. As if John simply wanted something to happen, and his body would move as a result.
Of course, that was how everybody moved. That was how the mind worked. But it was more like he wished for a series of actions to happen, and existence itself moved to make it so.
For a brief moment, he caught her staring, and he winked.
And then he began to use magic.
Of course, it wasn’t used with mana. But at this point, Prota could understand the similarities between mana and [Energy].
She watched as a simple fireball formed in his hands. There was no air to let it burn, no form of heat to ignite it, and yet it was present anyway. Slowly, it flew forward, and then exploded with the force of a supernova as it made contact with Celeste.
It hadn’t held that much energy to begin with.
The concept of the fireball had simply changed from a fireball to a supernova.
What had changed was simply John’s perception of it.
Next, an icicle formed in his hands. Once again, it was just an icicle.
And then it made contact with the goddess, and an entire moon fell onto her.
Once again, there was no change in energy, no change in the force of the attack.
It was simply the perception that an icicle was a moon. And in an instant, it was so.
He was trying to teach her.
He hadn’t taught her before.
But he was teaching her now.
She didn’t know if that meant he was going to pass his legacy onto her, or if he was just doing it because he felt like it, but if he was going to teach, then she would gladly sit and learn.
In life, she’d picked up a lot of lessons from John.
How to use her powers.
How to read. How to count.
How to fight.
How to die.
How to live.
And now, he was teaching her how to change the world.
But then Celeste began to move as well. Suddenly, she could keep up. No matter how much John sped up, the goddess was keeping up as well.
And the fight was even once more.
But John was a brilliant fighter. Perhaps he wasn’t the prettiest to watch, but he was good at what he did. And suddenly, Prota felt her vision switch. Not to lights and sounds, but to concepts.
And suddenly, she felt small.
The fight wasn’t a matter of technique anymore. The amount of power they were using was too much for that. No, it was purely about what each party chose to do next.
Celeste [Attacked]. Prota saw as John considered his options.
[Defend]. [Dodge]. [Counterattack].
And then suddenly, those options branched out.
For every time John [Defended], he was pushed back, and the option to [Attack] was removed. Each time he [Dodged], he was occasionally given a window to [Counterattack]. If he failed, he would be heavily punished, but if he was successful, it was now his “turn.”
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Ultimately, while this was a battle of high speed and power, it was simply a set of options.
One party attacked. They did their best to continue the attack. If the other party failed to properly defend, they were punished by being forced to defend until the attacker made a mistake.
And once a mistake was made, it was now the other party’s turn.
It was so simple.
Of course, it took a near infinite amount of power to reach this state. A state where both sides could perfectly rely on their reflexes and absolute power.
But even something as chaotic as a fight between gods could be reduced to concepts.
Mere words.
For a moment, Prota suddenly couldn’t bear it. She was just words on a page as well. A concept. A figment of imagination.
Was this how John thought?
She had to snap out of it, forcing herself out of her conceptual vision. The time it took for her to do that was too long.
John’s eyes went wide as he was grabbed by the neck. Prota had missed something. She didn’t know what, but suddenly, John was out of options.
Despite all of his attacks, not a single one had done damage. Not a single one had properly affected Diaboli. And he could barely react as her hand shot out, grabbing his throat.
“You,” she hissed, “have done enough. Playtime is over.”
John gagged, but the light in his eyes still hadn’t faded.
“How… what did you do?” he managed to choke out.
“It’s simple. You are not the [Protagonist],” Celeste explained. “I merely reinforced the [Antagonist] attribute that resides within me. After all, I was meant to play the role of the Demon King. Had it come to it, I would have allowed Destiny to cut me down.”
“So… you aren’t just all talk,” John gasped. “Cool. But also. Fuck you.”
He reached into his head violently, jamming his fist inside. Then, in one final outburst, he pulled everything he had left out of his mind.
His memories.
His powers.
All compiled into one little book.
“Prota!”
With the last vestige of his strength, he threw it. Spiraling through the air, it fell into Prota’s hands, where she held it, trembling.
“Sorry. I’ll let you handle things this time.”
And in that instant, he vanished. No death. No slow fade. His body just disappeared, as if he’d never existed to begin with.
And then there were two.
There was no more light, now. Every single star that had once been in the cold void of space was gone. The only source of illumination was the glowing of the two beings floating in complete nothingness.
“Come on, now,” Celeste said, her tone like that of a disapproving parent. “Hand it over.”
“...no.”
“I am your creator! I am trying to save your world! Do you not understand? You have friends! You have loved ones! Are you going to just let them die?”
Prota clenched the book defiantly.
It was true. She did have people she cared about.
But she didn’t want to hear it from this goddess. It was her fault Prota had suffered the way she did. It was her fault Prota had gone into a second life, forced to journey all over again. It was her fault they’d lost [Resets], it was her fault John had died.
So she didn’t care if she died. If the one in charge of the world was responsible for the world hating her, then there might as well not be a world at all.
And besides.
She still had a promise to keep.
“John’s choice,” she said quietly, lifting the book. “I promised.”
Red light poured out of the pages as she opened it, and in that instant, memories flooded through her mind. Other worlds, other beings, millions of experiences, millions of lives, all in that tiny book.
And a world that was unlike the rest.
A world where John sat at a strange glowing device, his fingers moving on a strange rectangle brick, words on a screen as he pressed buttons.
[Reality].
And suddenly, she was back. Back to the empty void, back to [Fiction].
But strangely, it didn’t bother her.
She’d known this was the case. She’d known her world was the creation of another.
On one hand, it was tragic. She would lose her friends. Lose the companions she’d made along the way.
But on the other hand, without that [Author], she would’ve never met any of them to begin with.
And suddenly, she realized what it was that Zero meant.
It did make sense. It made complete sense.
John wasn’t in as much trouble as either of them had thought.
Ironically, though, it wasn’t John or Zero who had helped her realize what was going on.
The words Destiny had told her echoed in her mind.
She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. Even though there was no air, that was fine.
Air simply formed before her mouth and vanished as soon as she was done with it. She had simply needed the mental reset.
But now, she knew what she had to do.
“You fool!” Celeste yelled. “Do you understand what you’ve done?!”
“Nn. You’ll have to kill me.”
Prota’s eyes snapped open, revealing a set of eyes, the purest of blues and the purest of reds, one colour residing in the left, the other residing in the right.
“But you can’t.”
“What? What are you-”
“Because I am stronger.”
She understood John’s power. They were odd. In fact, they were very odd, to the point that she wouldn’t have been able to understand them had she not remembered using them. Or was it John using them? It didn’t matter.
She felt a new energy course through her veins, like pure electricity coursing through her body. The accumulation of two lives built up inside of her.
This ability.
This was the one that suited her best.
“[Storytelling].”
Simply put, it was the ability to tell a story.
Not the ability to make someone remember it. But to a story. In whatever means necessary.
And to Prota, her story was one of living. Of realizing the beauty of life.
Of realizing that there were, in fact, people who cared about her.
And regardless of what those people were, it didn’t matter.
If they were alive, then there were souls who had taken care of her no matter the situation.
And if they were simply extensions of the [Author]...
Then, in a way, the [Author] cared for her, too.
Her story was the accumulation of the [Characters] she’d met along the way.
A fireball appeared in her hand. Magic. Mana. The two were one and the same. That singular fireball turned into a hail of arrows, blazing bright in the void.
“What? What will that do?” Celeste laughed. “That cannot possibly hurt-”
Each one was sent forward at the speed of light, exploding with the force of a dying star. And when the light show faded, Celeste was still standing.
But ever so slightly, she was injured.
“What?! How?!”
“A phoenix told me how to control mana.”
Then, a thin rapier of ice formed in Prota’s hands. Teleporting forward, she thrust the blade right into Celeste’s body, piercing her core. Or, at least, she tried. But while it didn’t manage to pierce, it made a slight nick.
“A wolf taught Destiny how to fight.”
“What are you- no. You can’t be.”
Then, axes the size of bastard blades appeared, wind and shadow appearing to boost their movement despite the lack of any other matter present. Shadows should not have existed, and wind could not be present.
But logic no longer applied.
“Adventurers taught me how to survive.”
“That’s not possible! That ability-”
Once again, the blades barely made an impact, but like before, a single scratch.
It was enough.
“A family taught me how to love.”
In her hands, dozens of daggers formed, each made of incredibly compact earth. They gathered into the shape of a giant hammer. Celeste tried to blast the thing out of existence, but Prota teleported away, swinging with all her might.
The goddess was knocked aside like a rag doll, the hammer breaking upon contact. Instantly, the knives all spun around, their blades targeted at the enemy.
One scratch. Another. Another.
Minor injuries.
But they were building up.
“Friends taught me about the world. About all the ways magic works.”
A giant magic circle formed as a heavy set of armour appeared out of nowhere. Truth be told, Prota didn’t know how to pilot the thing.
But she didn’t need to.
Dozens of missiles flew out, beating the goddess down, explosion after explosion preventing her from even making a single move. Then, the armour itself shot forward, its metallic fists planting themselves into Celeste’s face.
Then, ice and fire began to gather at her side, taking the form of dragons. But these dragons weren’t normal.
No.
They were the size of planets.
“Go. Devour her.”
Ryan and Lilith might have fainted had they seen their spell being used in this manner.
But it was the spell of randoms, of mere [Side Characters], that did the most damage up until now.
“Enough! Stop this at once-”
“A dragon taught me power.”
Energy began to gather before Prota. Not mana. But simply [Energy].
And it began to fold.
One. Ten. A hundred. A thousand, a million, a billion times.
Until it had almost folded itself out of existence.
“Go.”
A thin line was drawn across reality. It almost didn’t exist.
But it just barely grazed the goddess’s arm. And in an instant, half her body was annihilated, leaving a gaping hole in her chest, her arm obliterated, wiped out of existence.
“Jinae taught me magic.”
And just like that, a single flame and a single icicle were formed. They flew forward at what seemed to be a pathetic speed.
When they made contact, they didn’t do much. They actually just bounced off, doing no harm at all.
But that was fine.
Because in the beginning, Prota hadn’t been able to do much. And those spells had done more than damage.
“What the- my defenses!” Celeste yelled desperately. “What did you do? Where did it go?”
“Counterspell.”
“There- there was no spell! My durability, you- you counterspelled a concept?!”
Prota didn’t bother to answer.
The efforts of [Side Characters]. [Mentors]. [Companions].
They were important. Their actions mattered. The story would not progress without them.
But in the end, there was only one being who could defeat the [Antagonist].
Quickly, Prota healed herself. It wasn’t necessary, but it fit what she wished to do.
A familiar shield and sword fell into her hands.
There was only one being the world shined its spotlight on. One being the world would turn to when its end was near.
A being the world revolved around.
Quite literally, the center of the world.
“And the hero taught me how to save. Destiny taught me that my friends are always with me. And the choices I make are mine.”
She raised her blade, which began to shine with a golden light.
Perhaps there was no one here to watch her now. There was no one left to hope, no one left to encourage, nothing like that.
“And I learned. I am not a good person. I am not a bad person.”
Her tiny figure was completely swamped by the power she held in her hands. But she didn’t care.
She could feel the hopes and dreams of every single person who’d gotten her to this point.
The role of the hero. The one destined to defeat the [Antagonist].
“I am Prota.”
A [Protagonist].
She brought the blade down.
And the cut slashed through [The Universe].
Without a sound. Without a word. Celeste vanished. Cut in two, her very existence cleaved in half. It wasn’t just an injury.
Every single thing that might have remained had been [Cut].
And in the end, only Prota remained.
There was no light. No noise. Nothing. She couldn’t even hear the sound of her laboured breath, although she could feel the pounding of her heart in her chest.
“...that was something.”
Anta appeared, although Prota couldn’t see her. She couldn’t see anything.
Something felt strangely familiar about this situation.
Ah. It was one of John’s memories. Not one of hers.
“...tired,” Prota said quietly.
“Yeah. We’ll leave the rest to him.”
Where Celeste had been, there was a sheaf of red pages. Prota gathered them, but she didn’t bother to use it for herself.
Instead, she spit out whatever [Deus Ex Machina] she had left, which wasn’t a lot, including the energy that made up her existence. Immediately, her body began to fade away.
And then John appeared before her.
“What the- whoah! That’s a freaky experience, that’s-”
His eyes widened. Somehow, he could see Prota, even in the lack of light.
And he immediately knew what was happening.
“...Prota?”
“I told you. I promised. Your choice.”
“But-”
“John, it’s ok. The world. The other world. If you just ■■■■■■■■”
The [Author].
The [Author] wasn’t letting him figure it out.
For a moment, she panicked. How would John know? What if he didn’t know what to do?
But then she relaxed.
Trust in John.
That was what she’d done the entire journey. One more time.
She just had to trust him.
So.
Even though she couldn’t see, she knew John could.
And if this would be his last memory of her, she’d be sure to make it one he wouldn’t regret.
A single tear fell from her eye, but she couldn’t stop that. Reaching out, she gave the brightest smile she could, reaching out and wrapping her arms around John. Anta appeared, a scarf appearing in her hands as she wrapped it around Zero’s neck.
“Thank you, John.”
“W-wait, hold on, Prota-”
“To me. You were a [Character].”
John hurried and tried to raise his arms, trying to give Prota one last hug, but he was too late.
She vanished, leaving nothing behind. Through teary eyes, John saw his system pop up, giving him one more message.
[All [Deus Ex Machina] has been gathered. It is now possible to leave the [Story].]
And once again.
A figure stood alone in a void.
“Alright, John. Make your choice.”
Nothing but two voices.
Identical to each other.