Dimensions Collide: Destiny Bond

“That’s reset… 47? 48? Hey, Zero, were you keeping count?”

“Huh? I thought you were supposed to be keeping count.”

“What are you talking about?”

“When did you tell me to keep count, huh?”

“Uh…”

“It’s 48.”

Prota stared as John and Zero bickered mindlessly in the reset space. It was amusing as always, but she couldn’t pay attention to it at the moment. She couldn’t help but feel disappointed.

Disappointed in herself, that is.

Over the course of 48 resets, she’d accomplished quite a lot. Mana recovery, mana reinforcement, precision over her spells, learning how to read attacks and plan… but none of those even compared to her greatest accomplishment.

She’d managed to use two kinds of magic at once. Something like that was normally something that needed to be learned, and yet here she was, doing something others took months to study and learn. It was, to say in the very least, a huge improvement from when she’d started. However, none of that occurred to her. The only thing she was thinking about was how she’d failed again.

During the first ten deaths, Prota had thought of the quest as practice. It was unreasonable for her to take care of all thirty goblins on her own, so she would keep trying and get stronger.

However, sometime around the fifteenth death, she’d started to feel hopeful. She could kill seven of the goblins on her own, which was incredible for a single person. Around the thirtieth death, she could kill ten. It was then that she’d learned to utilize two kinds of magic at the same time.

However, around the fortieth death, it hit her. Was she incapable of doing it on her own? It felt like she was running into a wall, a sort of limit that she couldn’t overcome on her own. She was reaching the point where she wouldn’t be able to do it on her own, and that scared her. Was she not good enough? What if…

What if she failed? Her brain was feeling fuzzy. Since [Reset] reset the physical world, her body was never tired, but her head was slowing down. Her thoughts weren’t as clear. She could no longer keep a line of thought. She was acting like a zombie, fighting purely on instinct.

“Hey, cheer up,” John said, putting his hand on her head. “You can take out ten on your own. That’s more than enough.”

“But-”

“No buts. Come on, Prota, you don’t have to try this hard.”

Prota’s work ethic baffled John, but that was him now. He remembered it. When he’d first gone through the experience of [Reset]. Dying over and over, failing, hurting, coming back only to fail… but the point of [Reset] had never been to train.

The point was to keep him alive.

[Reset] made it so he couldn’t die. He could reset in the [Reset Room] as long as he wanted, but he would eventually have to come back, and so if he was stuck in a battle he couldn’t win, then he would have to keep fighting until he won. So he understood completely.

[Reset]. It was something that took a heavy toll on the mind. People weren’t made to die and come back to life. Even now, John still felt a faint sense of discomfort. It was so small that he couldn’t notice it, but his body still didn’t appreciate it. But even if he didn’t feel it, he knew. [Reset] wasn’t good for anyone, even him.

If done too many times in a row, it would eventually wear down the mind, eroding it to the point of nothingness. But somehow, Prota was holding up. She was holding out through a task she didn’t even need to achieve. A part of her had to know that she could give up at any moment, but it refused to. Her mental strength was incredibly strong as long as she had something to achieve.

“Come on. Only two more tries.”

It was just a shame that she probably wouldn’t achieve her goal.

John got up from his sitting position and started walking towards the reset button but was stopped by Zero.

“Hey. John. Come over here.”

“Huh? What do you want from me?”

“Just do it, goddammit! I’m trying to help here!”

“...keep going.”

John walked over to Zero, outside of Prota’s hearing range. She could see them talking, but it was impossible to tell what they were saying. However, once they were done, John looked annoyed. It seemed he didn’t like the result of whatever had transpired. She didn’t have much time to think about it, though. The glowing reset button appeared in front of him, and the room was enveloped in a white light.

~~~

“Kh-!” Prota gasped as the tip of a rusty dagger caught her skin, drawing blood. She grabbed her arm and ran, but the goblins followed. She drew a bit of mana from the staff and formed another fireball in her hand.

She had to think. What was her advantage here? She was stronger than each one on their own, that was for sure, but why couldn’t she overpower them? She’d learned that their speed was their greatest advantage. She couldn’t keep up with it. She would waste a few spells on a goblin before hitting it, and it would be impossible to keep that up so many more.

But what? What could she do to stop it?

As she ran, she wracked her brain for an answer, but nothing came. How had John won against all those mercenaries back then? Actually, that didn’t help. Images of John smashing the ground with overwhelming power ran through her head. That didn’t really help here. She thought back to the bandits. No use there, either. She didn’t have his kind of skill. She’d have to reach that level eventually, but that was too far out of reach. His movement weren’t something he could replicate no matter how hard she tried, and she’d spent a few [Resets] trying. So what-

“Gah-!”

John’s cry of pain rang out through the forest as he was pelted by rocks. There was an audible crack as a particularly large rock hit his leg, breaking the bone. He collapsed to the ground, bleeding and semi-conscious.

“J-John?” Prota stammered, losing focus for a bit. This moment allowed a goblin to attack her, but without thinking, she reached out and summoned a pillar of ice, impaling her enemy.

“John!” Prota cried out, running towards him. How had he gotten hurt? Was it carelessness? No, there was no way the goblins should’ve attacked him. He was staying behind so that she could focus on her task. All the goblins were supposed to be focused on her. So how?

How did this happen?

A burning sensation started spreading through her chest. Her breathing started getting faster. In, out, in, out, over and over, running as hard as she could. Reason left her brain. The fact that they could just come back to life was lost to her mind, filled with only one thought.

The desire to protect.

With a burst of magic, the sky was filled with dozens of very small ice crystals, raining down indiscriminately on the goblins. It was the same amount of ice as a few spears, so it used the same amount of mana, but the area of effect was much wider. They tried to dodge, but every time an icicle hit the ground, it would splinter into pieces, making the ground spiky, thus limiting their movement. The speed issue had been resolved without her meaning to solve it.

That bought her just enough time to get to John’s side.

“Kuh- hey, Prota,” he grinned weakly. He wasn’t too injured other than his leg, but it still hurt like hell.

“John…” Prota muttered, looking at his leg.

“Hey, don’t worry about it,” John gasped. “There’s still goblins alive. Are you gonna take care of them or not?”

She took one last look at John before turning to face the goblins. A new fire burned in her eyes.

“There… you go,” John wheezed. He closed his eyes as his lips curved up ever so slightly.

“People thrive under pressure.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Think. Every time a main character gets a power up. What are the circumstances? It’s a training arc, or…”

“A rush of emotion. An irrational boost of power that furthers a character’s growth. But how am I going to…”

“Easy. She wants to protect someone, right? All you have to do is set up the right conditions. You know what happens when a [Character] desperately wants to save someone?”

“...that usually happens during the climax, you know. Nothing’s happening right now.”

“That’s the beauty of it, though. You’re not entirely a [Character]. You can artificially create situations. You can boost her growth.”

“So you’re telling me I should try to get myself killed?”

John didn’t like pain. He wasn’t used to it the way Prota was, and it wasn’t like he was a tough, seasoned warrior. However, the payoff was more than worth a broken leg.

“I’d better reward myself for this one…”

Eventually, Prota’s cries stopped, and John looked up to see only ten goblins left.

“Twenty? All on her own?” John closed his eyes and smiled. “That’s pretty good.”

He closed his eyes and was released from his pain.

~~~

John sat up to see Prota fuming in what he could only assume was a corner. There weren’t any walls, but she sat facing away from him, which reminded him of a child in time out. It was as if she was sitting in a corner. Despite the lack of emotion on her face, he could tell that she was upset.

“Come on, Prota. What do you think you are, some magical superhero that can solve everyone’s problems in the snap of the fingers? That would make you the protagonist. Probably.”

John sat back and sighed. “That’s unrealistic. Plus, it’s really boring. I’m already an issue. The readers aren’t gonna like you if you’re just another overpowered protagonist.”

Prota looked back at John with a slight frown on her face.

“Ah, ignore me. I’ve got a few things on my mind,” John sighed.

Prota turned back, deep in thought. She’d reached a form of enlightenment during her last fight. A singular word had popped into her mind when she’d seen John die; something formed out of panic and necessity.

Energy. Her issue was that she didn’t have enough energy. It wasn’t like she didn’t have enough mana; her staff had a pretty deep reservoir of that, and it was also possible for her to take mana from the goblins as well. Prota thought back to what Jinae had told her a long time ago. Mana was the energy that provided life to the world. Energy. Mana. Something had to connect.

Prota thought of every skill she had. Fire and ice magic, and a bit of wind magic, too, although her proficiency in that wasn’t very good. Mana reinforcement and mana recovery…

Mana recovery.

Mana recovery was a skill that replenished a person’s energy and healed their wounds faster than usual, the downside being that it used up most of the person’s mana. However, unlike spells and mana reinforcement, it didn’t consume set amounts of mana. It just used up all the mana in a person’s body. It was like a one use recovery skill meant for after a fight. Most mages took time to replenish that mana.

Prota didn’t need time to replenish mana.

While she could control the flow of mana coming in when using [Soul Siphon], it was also possible for her to absorb a large chunk of mana at once. Jinae had taught her that the main benefit of [Soul Siphon] was that she could replenish mana as quickly as needed, while the average mage took time to replenish their mana.

It was like the difference between taking in a deep breath and having oxygen pumped directly into your lungs.

If she could immediately recover her mana…

She could use mana recovery multiple times during a fight.

It wasn’t a cure all; mana recovery took time to fully take effect, so it wasn’t like she could fight as long as there were mana sources nearby, but it would keep her going for longer than usual. Coupled with her pain tolerance, she would likely be able to keep going in any fight for way longer than the average mage.

She couldn’t try it out in the reset space, so she’d have to risk it all on this last try.

One more time.

“John,” Prota called out, not turning around. She was ready. One last time.

“Hey, Zero. Aren’t we rushing things a little?”

“What do you mean?”

“The growth feels… a little fast. I don’t know the form of media this [Story] is being written in, but… doesn’t it feel early for her to be growing so much?”

Zero smiled. “Don’t worry about it.”

John sighed in defeat. “Fine. Don’t complain if things get ridiculous later on, though. I don’t wanna hear any of your whining about the story going to shit cause of me.”

“The only reason this story could go to shit is because of you.”

“Sounds like something a dogshit [Author] would say. Nice try, buddy. I don’t know why you keep defending their poor decisions,” John grimaced, reaching out.

[Reset]

~~~

Prota took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She had to resolve herself before going in. This might fail, but she could afford to fail if it meant growing stronger. She was beginning to understand the point of [Resets].

It wasn’t to throw yourself uselessly until it broke. It was to try different ways to break it until one of them worked.

No wonder John seemed so strong.

The fight started off a bit differently this time. Prota immediately summoned not one, but three fire columns, taking out seven goblins all in one go. The energy required for this forced her to her knees as a wave of fatigue washed over her, but there was a solution for that now. She drew some mana out from her staff and immediately used mana recovery. As soon as she cast the spell, she felt energy return to her. Her legs were still shaking, but she knew how to push through. Slowly but surely, her body was regaining energy. Her mana reserves were depleted, but there was a solution for that too, right?

The goblins, now furious, rushed forwards with their crude weapons, but Prota was ready. A hail of icicles appeared in the air, as many as Prota could summon, and they rained down upon her opponents. Once again, the large spell made her weak, but she quickly pulled mana out of her staff, casting mana recovery again, then replenished her reserves once more.

Here, she received a pleasant surprise.

While the recovery was slightly slower than expected, casting mana recovery twice in such a short period of time had actually stacked the two spells, causing her recovery speed to double. Dodging an attack, she used mana recovery again and found that her stamina was coming back even faster.

No mage ever used mana recovery multiple times in a row. While it was possible by using mana potions, they were expensive. No one would ever use it on something like mana recovery when that was a spell meant to be used out of battle anyway.

But Prota didn’t need mana potions. She just needed a source.

Encouraged, Prota continued this cycle, drawing mana from her staff and casting mana recovery, firing off spells whenever she felt strong enough, and using the rest of her mana for mana reinforcement to get away and stall for time. She was only limited by the mana in her staff, and given how little she was using, it would last for a while.

It was a shame that the goblins had no mana, but should she face against multiple opponents with mana cores… it would turn into a battle of attrition in Prota’s favour.

Unfortunately for Prota, while mana recovery was healing her wounds and recovering her stamina, her body was slowly starting to give out on its own. She didn’t feel the pain, but mana recovery was meant to be used in off time, not during battle, and it could only do so much. She was breaking her body down faster than it could recover.

“Five… five more,” Prota panted, but her eyes were failing her, her vision swimming into unconsciousness.

She felt disappointed, but in reality, she’d just done the job of a team of C rank adventurers. While she probably couldn’t beat a singular C rank adventurer on her own, her technique enabled her to fight large hordes of monsters all on her own. Mana hadn’t been a problem, and now with this technique, neither was stamina.

Well, not entirely. Prota felt herself falling asleep, and there were still five goblins chasing her. She tried to form a fireball, but she could barely summon the mana needed for the spell…

“Hey!” she heard a voice cry out, but it wasn’t John’s. “What the hell are you doing?!”

“Huh? What?” she heard John’s voice respond.

The sound of a sword being unsheathed was heard, and then the cries of the goblins as they died one by one. She stiffened as she felt someone pick her up and struggled to get out, but found that she didn’t have the strength to do it.

She’d failed to kill all the goblins, but she’d also failed to die… so had she succeeded?

“What are you doing? Why are you just watching her fight?”

Prota opened her eyes to see… Fate? What was the mysterious boy doing here?

“Um… that’s a very good question.”

“That’s a child! This quest is meant for a team of C and B rank adventurers, and you’re letting a D rank adventurer attempt it alone? Do you understand what that means? D rank adventurers aren’t even supposed to be going into combat!”

John just looked at Fate with a semi-amused smirk.

Prota heard the unsheathing of a blade, and instinct kicked in, but… she had no strength left. The thought that John was in danger was the last thought in her mind before she fell unconscious.

~~~

John was amused, sure, but the situation was also very annoying. It was impossible for him to explain the existence of [Resets] and the whole training thing, and honestly, dealing with a situation like this was just a pain in the ass in general.

“Hey. Is she your sister? Look, I had it handled. It’s fine, alright? I would’ve handled it.”

“What were you going to do? Die?” Fate’s golden eyes shone fiercely behind his mask. “Last I checked, you weren’t any stronger than her.”

“I mean… yeah,” John said. “I would’ve died, I guess. Look, can you leave or something?”

“What? I’m just doing my job,” Fate said, crossing his arms.

“Your job?”

“The comman- Mr. Alimbert sent me here to make sure you guys didn’t die.”

“Oh, so the old man does care.”

“Were you not concerned about your partner?” Fate burst out, visibly upset.

“Ok, first, she’s my sister. Second, no.”

“She could’ve died!”

“And?”

John said this with a completely straight face, and Fate was starting to understand that he wasn’t dealing with a normal person. He grit his teeth and put his hand on his sword.

“You’re crazy. You’re a psychopath.”

“Thanks.”

“That wasn’t a compliment.”

“I know.”

“Don’t you care about her? What would you have done if she died?”

“But she wouldn’t have?”

“Don’t say that. You never know when someone you love will disappear.”

There was bitterness in that sentence. An emotion a child shouldn’t have.

“Anyways, why’re you here? Just to make sure we don’t get our asses handed to us?”

“Albert wanted to know for himself whether your skills were up to par or not.”

“...shit.”

John was in a sticky situation now. While he had initially wanted Prota to train off of this, he also needed them both to become B rank adventurers. With what Fate had observed, there was no way he was meeting that requirement. He considered a [Reset], but something like that might actually break Prota to a point of no return.

“Fight me,” John said. It was an impulse, but he trusted his instinct.

“What?”

“You said you needed to see if I’m good enough. So fight me. If I do well enough, we both pass your little test, ok?”

“...you’re gonna fight me?” Fate’s voice was full of doubt.

“Is there anyone else around? And besides, it looks like you want to let off a little steam anyways.”

Fate looked at John. His mouth couldn’t be seen, but John saw Fate’s clenched fist.

“Actually, there is.”

Fate’s pink fox slid off his shoulders and jumped to the ground, facing John.

“You want me to fight the fox?”

“What, are you scared?”

“This is animal abuse, by the way. You can’t just go around making animals fight other people. Not in this world, at least. You sure you’re not the crazy one?”

“Animal- what? No!”

“There’s a video game like that…”

“What are you muttering about?” Fate yelled. “Just do it! The fox is my partner!”

John’s eyes lit up. Fate had hesitated when he’d said “video game.” Was it possible to get out of this without fighting-

The fox fired a volley of fireballs at John, leaving him with no time to think. He jumped out of the way, then dashed back in, pulling his gun out of his hoodie.

“Man, I can’t fight without killing. That’s kind of how my weapon works. Can we just-”

He was cut off as he rolled to the side, a column of fire rising from where he’d just been standing. From then on, it was just a blitz of attacks that he had to dodge. Every time he got close to the fox, it would just run away, leaving him frustrated.

“Can I fight something else? I don’t want to shoot-” John tried again, but then had his hair singed as a fireball flew close to his head.

“Fine! Fuck you!” John yelled, taking aim. He fired just over the fox’s head, but the noise from the gun was enough to make everyone stop.

“Do you understand what I’m saying?” John panted. “I can’t fight without killing! What the fuck do you want me to do?”

“You wanted to fight me!” Fate protested although he was staring at John’s revolver keenly.

“Well, yeah! I meant, like, rock paper scissors or something like that!”

Fate shook his head, overwhelmed by the sheer insanity of what he was hearing and seeing. “Rock paper- you know what? It’s fine. You can hold your own; that’s enough. I’ll go tell Albert you guys are good.”

Fate turned around, bending slightly to allow his fox to climb back onto his shoulders. John could guess the reason for his sudden change in attitude. He was fully aware of the effect he had on people, and he relished it.

Unexpectedly, however, it was his turn to be stunned.

“Did that fox… just wink at me?”