jdhmnovel Chapter 233: Irrelevant
Chapter 233: Irrelevant
“Ay, little girl. Look, I’ll be direct.”Prota grabbed her staff, ready for Leon to make a single move. This man was strong. Even Frozen Bullets didn’t do much damage to him, and that was one of her best spells to penetrate defences. Of course, she had access to other means of attack, but that didn’t change the fact that this individual was a fortress of a man.
Additionally, he’d taken her attacks head on. If he took her seriously, there was a good chance he’d just dodge her attacks instead.
“I wanted to play around. But the higher ups said that wouldn’t do,” Leon sighed. “So, while I hate for this to happen, I’m gonna have to take you seriously.”
Of course.
Prota’s first strategy had been to use a Frozen Palace in order to negate Leon’s flames. However, the problem was his companion, Betty. From what she remembered, that woman was exceptionally skilled with ice magic, to the point where she’d managed to send a Blossom back to Prota. To be fair, that was a relatively weak spell now, but still, it was a fascinating feat.
If Prota had to explain it, it was likely that Betty had simply coated the Blossom with her own ice and controlled it in such a way that it moved back toward Prota. It was a hypothesis that might need to be tested, because if Betty could simply control ice, that was a much greater problem.
“Here I go!”
Leon charged forward, and Prota’s eyes shot open in surprise. He was fast. Way too fast. She didn’t remember him being this fast.
Then, almost too late, she reacted to the volley of spells Betty had sent her way. Instead of simple icicles or arrows, though, they looked like little caltrops. Prota barely had time to analyze them before they exploded. Had it not been for the cloak’s capability to defend against minor projectiles, it would’ve been a semi-dangerous attack.
“Tch. Artifacts,” Betty grunted. “Fine. Have it your way.”
Her mouth began to move as she chanted quietly, but Prota didn’t have time to interrupt the spell casting. Leon was already up and charging. She remembered this attack. He coated himself with flames, running around like a train, threatening to demolish anything in his way.
This time, though, her reactions were fast enough that she could dodge without speeding up her perception.
Ideally, she could just use the same spells she’d used in her last fight against these two. Plasma Disk against Betty, and Absolute Zero against Leon. With her current level of skill, it wouldn’t be hard.
The problem was that casting Absolute Zero took too long. Even with her skill level, the time it took to literally freeze a set space was longer than it took for Leon to move out of it. The Plasma Disk, too, took some time to accumulate so much heat.
In a battle like this, a fraction of a second wasn’t a lot, but it sure did make a difference.
If she could use her domains, though, that would be a separate issue entirely. Within those, the two spells she needed to use could be cast instantly. However, the trade for such a spell would be that one of the opponents would also be able to cast spells nearly instantly, and she wasn’t sure if she could deal with the aftermath.
In short, she could see the path to victory.
It was simply that the path involved taking a gamble.
Normally, she would’ve gladly accepted it. By hanging around John, who normally took far riskier gambles, such a mindset was bound to develop.
However, at the moment, she wasn’t trying to simply win.
Defeating these opponents wasn’t “victory” to her at the moment.
“Don’t get distracted, now!” Leon yelled.
Prota’s eyes flashed as she threw a gust of wind at her feet, kicking up snow and blinding her opponents for just a moment. She’d gotten too caught up in her thoughts, and the two were launching a simultaneous attack.
Four ice barriers rose up to block Betty’s spells. Ice drills was what they looked like. There was a grinding sound as they collided with her defenses, spinning until they dropped the floor. Prota shuddered. A dangerous spell indeed.
Then, she summoned another barrier below her feet as she jumped up, just in time. Leon’s body emitted a massive explosion, nearly cracking the wall. Thankfully, it held intact, and simply served to boost Prota upward.
“Rain of Arrows.”
Dozens of Fire and Ice Arrows fell beside Prota as she plummeted back toward the ground, covering the battlefield. She managed to catch a glimpse of Leon’s grin and Betty’s disgusted expression as she hit the ground, immediately sprinting, weaving back and forth between her own attacks.
They were busy defending. She wouldn’t get another opportunity for something like this.
“Anta,” she said quietly.
“Huh?”
“Merge.”
“Wait, hold on, the plan-”
“Anta. Can’t keep hiding. We want to beat John.”
“Right, but-”
“If we need to beat John… Hikari should be easy. Too much hiding. Hiding is what John did. I am John’s protector. The protector should be stronger than the one being protected.”
“Prota, just because-”
“No. No more hiding. Anta. We met John. He’s there. He’s… he’s alive. Tired of hiding. Tired of planning. That’s what John does.”
The dust settled, and the opponents were back on their feet. If she couldn’t convince Anta here, then she’d have to go back to gambling.
In a sense, this in itself was gambling, so perhaps her goal hadn’t been achieved.
But “victory” was up to her.
“I’m not John.”
“Hmph. Took you long enough to figure that one out.”
A new sense of strength welled up inside Prota as Anta took over the body. There was no point in merging perfectly just yet. That sense of synergy had been used against Leora, but that was simply to showcase a perfect set of skills. At the moment, Prota only needed a fighter.
Someone who could stall while she prepared her spells.
Immediately, both girls used Soul Steal on their opponents. It’d been a while since they’d done so, but now that they weren’t exactly hiding their skills, there was no reason not to do so. Of course, the opponents resisted, but it wasn’t enough.
Prota’s mind was stronger.
“Leon!” Betty yelled. “Something’s wrong! End it now!”
“Tch… got it!”
The usual playfulness Leon held was nowhere to be found.
That was fine.
The air shimmered as Prota summoned a sword and shield of pure ice. In the same manner that Frozen Bullet was created, it was packed with layers and layers of mana, ensuring stability.
“Great,” Anta grinned. “It’s good to have a weapon.”
She lunged forward, her blade clashing with Leon’s fist, creating a massive shockwave that cleared the ground of snow. Immediately, she flipped around, using the shield to block the volley of attacks Betty had sent. At the same time, Prota had already prepared three Frozen Bullets, sending them all flying at Betty. She managed to avoid a fatal hit, but they still struck her arm, boring three giant holes, rendering the limb useless.
“Betty!” Leon roared, his partner shrieking in pain. “You’ll pay for-”
“Pay for what?”
Anta had already leapt up, sword raised high in the sunlight. It came down hard, threatening to cleave Leon’s neck. Still, he managed to raise his hand, blocking most of the attack. However, the edge cut through most of the flesh, leaving the appendage hanging off its wrist.
“You-”
A moment of distraction. Prota summoned a Plasma Disk, the spell spinning straight toward Betty.
As a traditional Caster, she didn’t have the means to dodge.
“Betty!”
It was too late. Anta grinned as Prota summoned a Frozen Palace, the sunlight reflecting and bouncing off the clear ice. Leon squinted, raising his good hand to try and cover his eyes.
“You- what are you?” Leon said, all playfulness and anger gone.
What was left was simply awe.
“Why does that matter to you?” Anta snorted. “Maybe if you get a third chance, we’ll let you win out of pity.”
As soon as Anta finished speaking, Absolute Zero froze Leon’s body solid. With a single swing, the sword broke the corpse to pieces, leaving nothing behind.
This tale has been pilfered from NovelFire. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“...Lupin. I presume there’s a reason you were watching in person, and not back on the island?”
The wolf Mystic stepped out from behind a wall, sheathing his sword.
“I thought you might need assistance. Leora said you were strong. I did not expect it to be to this extent.”
“...thanks,” Anta said slowly. “Shouldn’t you be helping, you know. Destiny?”
“That boy? He is doing fine. I did see he was fighting a rather interesting enemy, but it seems he has solved the problem on his own.”
Anta raised her eyes in surprise. Well, Destiny had met up with the group in the last life, so it made sense that, with his heightened abilities in God Slaying Sword, he’d likely been able to deal with whatever problem had come his way.
“It seems, however, that you’ve made a choice.”
“...me?” Anta frowned.
“Yes. Your actions. Your fight. You seem more decisive, somehow.”
“Don’t worry about me,” Anta sighed, waving him away. “If you’re going to help anyone, help Destiny.”
“I have been,” Lupin said with a small smile. “Did he not tell you?”
“What? No.”
“Hm. Well, I did tell him to keep it a secret.”
“Ugh. Seriously, you Mystics…”
“I’ve heard that you’re planning on dealing with a large threat. I was a little doubtful of your abilities in the past, but seeing them in person is more than enough to gain my trust. Should you require my assistance, or Leora’s please do not hesitate to include us in your plans. If we truly helped you in another life, then we shall assist you in this one as well.”
“...thanks, old man.”
“I find Prota is far more respectful than you,” Lupin said, ready to leave. “But… perhaps you have also earned the right to speak bluntly as well.”
Anta sighed as Lupin left, lying down in the snow. She and Prota had used up a lot of mana and stamina in this fight, but it’d been worth it.
With this power, those two cultists had been insignificant. Not even a threat to consider.
“Anta,” Prota said quietly. “The casino…”
“Yeah. I think we know how we’re going to solve it now.”
~~~
“Zero.”
John had, surprisingly, stayed in the dwarf city. Both Prota and Anta had underestimated his interest. To be honest, it was entirely their fault.
This was someone who was bored. Incredibly bored. Bored to the point that he’d been willing to take in a child and raise her just because of her name and almost nothing else, despite not caring for [Characters] in the first place.
Now that he had a lead, there was no way he was going to let go of it.
“Why are you bringing this up now?”
“What? The [Deus Ex Machina] thing?”
“Yeah,” John muttered, chewing on a piece of jerky. “What’s the point?”
“Because you asked?” Zero frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“...no, but you brought it up first-”
“No, I didn’t.”
“...you know what? Just explain.”
“Right,” Zero said with a mischievous grin. “Look. [Deus Ex Machina] is a power that exists outside of [Resets]. Think of it like two timelines: the story timeline, and the [Story] timeline. The first is what the [Characters] experience, but the second is what you and the [Author] experience. If you were able to [Reset] a world, you wouldn’t lose all the [Deus Ex Machina] you collected. That would be stupid.”
“I see,” John muttered. “That… surprisingly makes sense.”
“Right. And, a word of advice.”
“...you’re not usually this helpful.”
“If you were to remove your own memories, that’s still [Deus Ex Machina].”
“Wh- wait, what?” John exclaimed. “Then can’t I just constantly remove my memories, store them, and-”
“Nuh uh. Not how it works. See, it costs something to remove your memories and store them somewhere safe. Typically, the cost of removing and storing is the same amount of energy as you would’ve gotten.”
“..there’s a reason you’re emphasizing the storing part.”
“Correct! If you sacrifice the whole storing thing… it costs you little to nothing to restore it. Of course, there’s almost no point in ever doing this, since you’d just have to go on yet another adventure to recover your memories.”
“Unless I need the energy.”
“You’d need the energy anyway. This isn’t a solution to anything.”
“That’s stupid,” John grumbled.
Still, he didn’t seem too upset.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Zero sighed. “Don’t overthink it. You think this is a hint or something. It isn’t. You just had a question, and it was one I was able to answer.”
“You’re right. Dammit,” John cursed. “If it was something important, you would’ve been censored… well, whatever. When is that kid gonna show up again?”
“Maybe she won’t,” Zero offered. “I wouldn’t return to a town where some weirdo approached me and called me a hero out of nowhere.”
“She’s definitely suspicious!” John growled. “Characters that are special have different coloured hair, and only characters that are extra special change hair colour!”
“What if this story is, you know, one of those stories where there’s lots of cool side characters?”
“As if,” John snorted. “What would a side character that important be doing without the protagonist?”
“...why are you so hooked on that idea?” Zero said quietly. “Wouldn’t it be better to investigate rumours of strange powers or unexplained mysteries?”
John shrugged. “Well, yeah, I guess. But I haven’t heard anything. I tried everything. Blending in. Killing randoms. Doing favours. At this point, it’s just easier to find the [Protagonist] and follow them around. I’m bound to find something interesting there.”
“How are you going to keep up with the [Protagonist]?” Zero snickered. “Look at you. You’re barely hanging on for yourself.”
“Shut the fuck up.”
~~~
Prota walked out of the portal hub a little reluctantly. The place seemed a lot busier now, likely to do with the holidays being around the corner. Again, this was being done earlier than usual, but that was fine.
Like Prota had said, she wasn’t John. Worrying about how the [Story] would change wasn’t for her anymore. It was something she had to keep in mind, yes.
But the idea of choices being drilled into her was finally showing. Perhaps she’d been a little nervous in the past, but not anymore. She’d initially been incredibly nervous, but having steeled herself, her determination was burning brighter than ever.
She never would’ve thought that a simple conversation about chess would have wound up encouraging her to where she was now, but it was something she couldn’t forget.
The definition of victory.
“The casino’s going to resist pretty strongly,” Anta warned. “They might not be the strongest, but there’s going to be a lot of them. And you don’t want to hurt the innocent ones, right?”
“Nn.”
“I still think going about this discreetly is the better play. Seriously, what happens if the cultists just kill the daughter? Did you think about that?”
Prota shook her head. “[Author] won’t let that happen.”
“Oh, come on, you can’t just assume-”
“I can.”
“You can’t just use the [Author] as an excuse when you want and then ignore them when it’s convenient, you know that, right?”
“Why not?”
Anta didn’t have an answer for that one.
“Ok.”
Snow fell gently in the clear blue sky. Grey smoke rose from the forges. Festive light hung from the various stores and homes, dwarves, elves and humans mingling and chatting away.
And at the center of the town was the bright flashing lights of Hackpino casino.
Prota was too young to gamble, even with her forged identification. It listed her as the same age as Destiny, but Destiny wouldn’t be allowed into a casino like this for another six years or so at the very least.
But although she couldn’t gamble on the slot machines, she could gamble on something else.
“Anta,” Prota said quietly. “Remember the conversation?”
“The conver- oh, that one?”
If it were revolving around Prota, then it wasn’t unreasonable to believe that she had some leeway in the way she acted. Ultimately, the [Author] likely still needed her. While they weren’t going to be happy with a frontal assault that involved no planning whatsoever, they would have to accept it.
Besides, Prota was well aware of the potential consequences. But now that she was, it was possible to account and prepare for said consequences.
The most important factor of all, however, was that to Prota, these were now “mere cultists.”
Unimportant.
Enemies who didn’t even have names.
Enemies who, while somewhat clever, had gained their strength through numbers. If they’d really been powerful enough, they wouldn’t have used a mind controlling gas to try and control everyone.
John was powerful.
He hadn’t tried to run. He didn’t try to devise another plan.
Prota had nothing against those kinds of acts, primarily because John himself often used such tactics. Most of their victories had revolved around a good amount of planning, and a bit of [Deus Ex Machina] abuse as well. A good chunk of their battles had ultimately needed them to cheat in order to win.
So she had no problem with such acts.
But ultimately, it also meant that they were, in a sense, weaker.
A plan was meant to be used by someone who could not solve a problem with sheer force.
John, ultimately, had stood his ground and shown just how strong he could be. Not even. He’d been restricted, and had still defeated the party of people who were meant to defeat the Demon King.
If Prota could not defeat irrelevant enemies with nothing but her raw power, then there would be no chance of standing up against John.
She didn’t want to have to fight him.
But she also knew it would be inevitable.
Because this world was just that kind of [Story].
“We’re here.”
Prota stood in front of the massive double doors that served as the entrance to the casino. Again, loud music blared, flashing lights blinded her, and the smell of alcohol and cigarette smoke filled her senses. If she were to enhance her nervous system here, she might die purely from the overdose of everything.
“Hello. Are you lost? Children aren’t allowed in the casino.”
Prota looked up at the receptionist, who was greeting her with a casual smile. She wasn’t a fan of beating up people who hadn’t done anything to her, but in the current situation…
Well, she had someone who had no qualms about something like that, right?
“Sorry about this,” Anta said with a grin.
“Wait, you- what?”
Momentarily stunned by the change in Prota’s appearance, the receptionist froze. Had they not been so confused, they might have reacted in time, but unfortunately, such a thing simply wasn’t reasonable.
There was a loud as Anta’s palm made contact with the receptionist, sending her flying. She crashed into a pillar, dazed.
“What the- intruder!”
From the crowd of guests came a dozen dwarves in black suits, all wielding some kind of weapon.
“All right. It’s been too long since we had a good bit of chaos,” Anta said, rubbing her hands.
She immediately vaulted over the reception table, planting both her feet into a Yakuza member’s face, pushing off and propelling herself into the air. The enemies swarmed under her, preparing to punish her lack of mobility. Without a weapon, Anta was practically a sitting duck.
That is, only without a weapon.
“Prota!”
In her hands, a giant hammer of ice formed, plunging down toward the ground. Anta held on tight, forcing the Yakuza members to disperse. With a massive shockwave, the ground shattered, the ice shattering alone with it.
At this point, the casino was in chaos. Customers were running, trying to push their way out of the first floor, with some other Yakuza trying to streamline the process. That was good. As much as they were trying to create a scene, they weren’t trying to take it too far. Injuring innocent Yakuza members was bad enough as it was.
“Tsk… a girl your size is a Fighter, huh?” one of the dwarves grunted. “Never woulda guessed.”
“Yeah, yeah, keep guessing.”
The shards that had come off the hammer reformed into knives, hovering just around Anta’s hands. She grabbed half a dozen of them, throwing them at her opponents, while the rest flew on their own. There was a shout as most of the enemies managed to deflect the attack, but one of the knives did manage to catch one of the dwarves off guard.
“Get her!”
Anta laughed as she ran over to a poker table, grabbing a handful of chips and pelting them at the enemy. It was really just a minor distraction at best, considering they weren’t being thrown with too much force, but it did successfully piss the enemies off.
“You- take this seriously, you brat!”
“All right.”
The table snapped in two as Anta pushed off, flames coating her hands. Before the dwarf could react, she slammed her fists into his head, knocking him out cold. Another dwarf hastily raised a barrier of earth, but Prota managed to summon two balls of wind as Anta’s hands smashed into the barrier, blowing it up and allowing them to break through.
“What do you want?!” one of the dwarves yelled, starting to panic.
“Me? Why would I want anything?” she laughed. “Come on, bring out more men!”
She dove into the group of enemies once more, once again ploughing through their ranks. Their synergy was far better than before. Now that Prota was comfortable with creating weapons of ice and flame, she could hand deliver the right tool at any point in time. It drained their mana and stamina a little faster, but it also finished the fight far sooner.
The only reason they weren’t fully in sync was due to their difference in mindset.
“...Anta,” Prota thought quietly as she gave Anta another hammer. “Are… are we the villains?”
“Who cares?” Anta laughed. “Come on. Loosen up. Let’s just have some fun.”
Right.
This was a little fun.
“D-damn it! What’s up with this kid?!”
Within a few more minutes, the first floor had been cleared out. All the dwarves that had been summoned to fight Prota were unconscious on the floor, and with relatively minor injuries as well.
She was about to head up to the second floor when the sound of slow applause stopped her.
“Wow. Not a hero, huh? Gotta say, this is some pretty heavy [Protagonist] behaviour, though.”
Anta clenched her teeth. “That guy’s still here?”
She turned around to face John, who looked a little impressed. He was nodding his head slightly as if to approve of the scene before him.
“Hey. If you’re gonna make a mess, would you like some free help?”