Dimensions Collide: Destiny Bond

Fate was somewhere with Kit, probably trying to figure out the next best move. John and Prota were busy keeping a watch over the two unconscious assassins.

"John," Prota said after a while. "What is a level?"

"A level?" John frowned.

Where was this question coming from? He didn't even understand the context in which she was asking this. A level like a floor in a tall building? A level like a video game level? Level as in flat?

"Mm. Prota's [Magic] says level three now. But what is level three?"

"It's… level three?"

John was surprised. His system wasn't supposed to be like a video game, aside from one exception, but Zero had been manually controlling the system at that time. Otherwise, it was only meant to have quality-of-life features. Then again, Prota had never said she was levelling up, or anything like that. Still, John had no clue what was going on.

"Is that bad?" Prota said, bringing John back to the issue at hand.

"Uh… no, no. It's a good thing. I think."

Prota's eyes sparkled as she rested her head on John's shoulder. He put his hand on her head as he continued to think.

Why a level system? Come to think of it, other things had levels in her system.

"Character profile," he whispered.

___

Character Profile: Prota Char

Gender: Female

Age: 8

Abilities: [Soul Steal], [Soul Copy: Level 2], [Magic: Level 3] [System] [Character Profile] [Creation: Lv. 1] [Plot Armor... [Expand?]

Traits: [Character: 100%] [Anomaly]

Status: Alive

___

John frowned. The existence of the [Character Profile] ability was an anomaly to him in many ways. There were no rules on how or when it worked, and the only information he had about the things listed in it were the rough descriptions Zero had given him.

"Then… what does my character profile look like?"

He'd never checked. There was never any reason to. But what about now?

"...character profile," he muttered as he looked down at himself.

Suddenly, an intense pain shot through his head. He gasped audibly, causing Prota to jolt up and look around. He heaved, on the verge of vomiting, grabbing his head as he shook violently.

He wasn't using his abilities. What was going on? He panted as the pain subsided, clutching at his chest.

[You're not supposed to see your own profile]

"What?" John said out loud. "Why not?"

[Dunno. Um… I can try to get past and let you take a look for a few seconds, since Prota also looked at it once. Make them count]

"Get past? Get past what? Huh?"

[■■■■■■■■]

With a sigh, John whispered the words one more time and prepared for the worst, but this time, nothing happened.

___

Character Profile: John Quarta (False Identity)

Gender: Male

Age: ■■■■■■■■

Abilities: [Infinity], [Zero], [Plot Armor], [Reader's Revelations], [Storytelling], [Determination], [Fourth Wall]... [Expand?]

Traits: [Anomaly], [Character: ■■■] [Reader: ■■■] [Writer: ■■■]

Status: Alive
___

"The numbers for [Character], [Reader] and [Writer]... huh?"

Most of the things in his profile were familiar to him. The numbers being blacked out were strange but not necessarily all that concerning. The first line in his profile, however,

"False identity? What does that mean?"

Was he not John? He was pretty prideful in his identity. Whenever he told Fate that he was "just John," he was being honest. He didn't really have a better answer.

He was John.

But what if he wasn't? If not John, then who? His memories were hazy, as they'd always been, but back in the void, Zero had called him something. A name that wasn't John. But what was that name? What had it been?

Or was that another red herring? Just another maze of lies to inevitably get lost in?

He didn't know.

"Hey, Prota."

Prota's eyes opened as John called her name.

"Do you remember the [Character Profile] ability?"

A nod.

"Can you use it on me?"

Prota looked at John and muttered something, but then frowned ever so slightly.

"Um… error? Sorry…"

"Nah, don't worry about it. I just wanted to check something."

Prota nodded and closed her eyes again, but John was left deep in thought.

The [System]. He'd always thought of it as a convenient tool, but… was it more than that? If he'd been the one to make it, then had he buried secrets for himself? He couldn't see himself acting any differently, but perhaps he was an entirely different person with different sets of memories. He sure hoped that wasn't the case. But he couldn't discard the possibility of something like that happening.

"Just what did you do to me?" John muttered, staring into his palms.

With a large yawn, John got up and stretched. He was thinking too hard. He'd deal with it later, when it mattered. He looked around at the destroyed mansion, barely visible as the sun was setting in the distance.

"John," he heard. "Washroom."

John looked over at Prota, whose passive face seemed slightly more strained than usual. Was she resting because she was trying to hold it in?

"...now?"

"Mm."

John hesitated, but really, would anything happen during a bathroom break?

"Go," John nodded. "In the woods or something, maybe?"

Prota looked at John expectantly.

"Wha- no, I'm not following you. Just go."

Prota nodded, got up, and walked over to the forest. She dealt with her business quickly and prepared to head back when something caught her attention. She looked around, but couldn't find anything.

Someone was there, though. She could feel the mana. Closing her eyes, she expanded her senses, and sure enough, there was a soul floating nearby.

What should she do? Tell John? Leave it alone? The woods were dark. Would John even be able to do anything here? Suddenly, the soul started to move. It was moving towards her. She flinched, freezing up. It was getting closer. Prota stood very still, hoping it wouldn't notice her. Still, she couldn't help but tremble just a little.

Snap.

She took a step back and stepped on a branch. The noise was light, but it was noise. The mana stopped moving.

Prota gasped and fell to the ground as a knife flew out of nowhere, barely missing her as it cut clean through the tree behind her.

"Who are you?" a female voice demanded.

Prota couldn't tell where it was coming from. She didn't respond. No, it was more like she couldn't. It was hard enough for her to talk to normal people. How was she supposed to reply in this situation?

"Quiet one, aren't you?"

No response.

"Fine. Then I'll force the answer out of you myself."

Some kind of spell must've been undone, because a beautiful young elf appeared, wearing a cloak. It flashed open as the woman flung out a handful of knives. Prota panicked and quickly raised a wall of ice, but it wasn't enough. It slowed the knives down, but one of them still hit her leg, causing her to buckle down and fall.

"Hm… a civilian. Unfortunate, but you'll have to die now."

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

Prota raised her hands, preparing to fight, but thankfully, that wasn't going to happen.

"Prota!" she heard John call out.

"Tsk!"

The woman vanished once more, disappearing into the woods. A shot rang out, but the bullet simply thudded into a tree nearby, doing damage to nobody but nature.

"Oh, shit. Where did she go?" John said, panting as he ran up.

Prota looked around. "Invisible."

John just sighed, taking a look at the knife in her leg. Shaking his head, he picked her up and carried her back to where Fate was.

"Hey, you guys, what's- what happened?" Fate cried out as they walked back to the camp.

"Ambush," John grimaced. "Prota was attacked by some kind of elf. Do you have a stalker or something? I don't think I've made any elf enemies. Yet. And if you say no, we're gonna have issues."

"An elf?" Fate said, suddenly stiff. "What were they like?"

"Um… well, I didn't really get a good look, but she was wearing a cloak, had some daggers or something…"

The hero stifferend. "We need to go. Now."

"You're still weak-" John started, but it was his turn to be commanded by Fate this time.

"Now."

John nodded. He felt better knowing that Fate was nervous. It meant that this was an issue someone was aware of, and that meant it wasn't something he needed to worry about.

Best of all, though, it likely meant that the presence Prota had felt before the quest had nothing to do with the quest itself.

"How about them?" John said, nodding towards the mercenaries.

"We leave them tied up. As much as I hate to leave them here, our safety comes first. We can report it, and hopefully someone comes to pick them up."

"How about I just kill-"

"No. Besides, you have an idea as to who hired them, right?"

John hesitated before nodding. "Yeah."

"Then let's go."

John nodded, and they started the trek back, leaving the ruins of the mansion behind them.

~~~

The next day, everyone had reconvened in Albert's office. Since there were only two chairs, Prota sat on John's lap while Fate delivered the report. She didn't really want to be part of the conversation, but Albert wanted all of them there.

"You were ambushed? By who?" the guildmaster frowned.

"We don't know. People from the mercenary guild, but that doesn't mean much."

Albert nodded. "Alright, we can look into this later. Let's get back to the point. The mansion was a bait?"

"Yes. We—no, John—believed that it was set up as an impossible mission in order to lure adventurers in so that their souls could be harvested."

Albert froze up. His eyes grew dangerous.

"Where did you hear about souls?"

Fate coughed and turned to John.

"You?" Albert said, raising an eyebrow.

All of his killing intent was focused on John, but just like before, the latter didn't really care.

"What? Are souls some kinda well-kept secret?"

"Don't be ridiculous!" Albert roared, standing up. "Magic pertaining to souls is strictly confidential! Their existence alone is a well-kept secret! Are you really telling me you don't know any of this?"

"What- how would I know about it if it's a well-kept secret? Look, I know about it from my own sources, ok? It's not that deep."

Albert stared at John carefully, but John was showing no signs of joking or lying.

"Seriously, who told you about souls?"

"I told myself. Look, we have a more pressing issue at hand, ok? The fact that this is such a secretive thing means there's more to it than I thought."

Albert clenched his fists, clearly stressed out, but then finally let out a sigh as his arms dropped to his side.

"Fine. Let's hear your theory. And you better not go yapping to anyone else, understood?"

John nodded, reluctantly thanking the [Author] that he didn't have to convince anybody he wasn't a spy.

"The people who set this quest up are harvesting souls. That's what I think is going on."

Everyone in the room stared at John. Even Fate and Prota, who knew somewhat about it, were surprised to hear John say it so confidently.

"You wanted to hear my theory, right? Then this is it. The group harvesting souls in that mansion, and the group we've been looking into… they're probably the same."

Albert looked at Fate, hoping to see that John was joking, but Fate looked like he was going along with this as well. Albert sighed again.

"What makes you say that?"

"I guessed," John shrugged.

"You guessed?!"

"It's a really, really good guess. Trust me."

Albert sighed and buried his face in his hands.

"Fine. Continue. What's the point?"

"Well, you know how powerful souls are, right?"

Albert looked away. "...no."

"I- you- what?" John frowned.

"I was only made aware of their existence. I don't know much about them. So… I don't know what your source is, but it better be reliable."

Albert was accepting this rather easily. John took a breath, thanked the [Author] for a lack of quality, and continued.

"Souls… think of them as humongous mana sources. You could probably level a mountain or something with one, even if you didn't know how to handle the energy properly."

Albert nodded. "So you're saying it could be weaponized?"

John shrugged. "I mean, it's possible."

"Kh… this might mean Last Stands."

"Last… Stand?" John frowned.

"You don't know what that is?"

John shook his head. "Can you explain?"

"When a magician reaches a certain level of proficiency, as long as they're taught properly, they learn to develop something called a "Last Stand." It's a massive spell that uses your life as its baseline."

"So it's a tie of sorts. If you go down, I go down too."

"Not exactly. There've been Last Stands that have healed almost incurable injuries, spells that freeze the opponent in time, or give their allies a permanent buff. It varies depending on the person, but yes, most of them end up being large-scale attacks that wipe the opponent out."

"...if they're so large scale, then what's stopping people from just sending people out en masse to fire these things off?"

Albert shook his head. "They're not easy to make in the first place. To make a Final Stand requires research and proficiency in magic, so it's not like you could just throw precious mages away like trash. It just wouldn't work."

John nodded. "Cool. Ok, well, I'm sure you understand what I'm getting at, right? This organization is a lot more than just a slave trade thing now. We're dealing with some kind of large-scale threat. Let's take this a little more seriously from now on, ok?"

He lifted Prota up and put her down, the chair scraping against the floor as he stood up.

Albert raised his hand in an attempt to stop him from leaving. "Hey, where are you-"

"Look, I've got some things I need to look into. I just learned some things from you today, and… well, it might change some things. Oh, by the way, we're B-rank now, right?"

"...yes. But-"

"Sweet. See ya."

John nodded and walked out the door. As soon as it closed, Albert turned to Fate.

"I don't know what to do with him," the guildmaster said with a heavy sigh. "We barely said anything, and he just leaves like that."

"Once you get used to his oddities, he's not that bad, sir," Fate said.

"Do you really trust him?"

"You are the one who chose him, sir."

"I told you to call me boss. And you can be a little less formal with me."

"Apologies, si- boss. Habit."

Albert suppressed a smile. He liked these kids. All of them, even John, although that one got on his nerves way more than he cared to admit. It was a shame they were being put in this situation, but… no, they'd all chosen this. It would be better if they didn't have that choice in the first place, but the world wasn't perfect.

He spun around in his chair to face the map hanging on the wall behind him. He picked up a knife and threw it, pinning it to a dungeon circled on the wall.

"That dungeon. In two weeks, you fellas will be checking it out."

"...are you sure it's the organization we're after?"

"It might not be. But it also could be. We can't afford to miss out on this."

Fate nodded. "I understand."

~~~

"How does John know?" Prota asked.

They were back in their little room in their inn. John was busy sorting through some things, but Prota wanted to know. John's intuition. Where did it come from?

"Know what?"

"The souls. The people. How does John always know?"

John sighed. "It's not something you need to know. What, are you just curious?"

She nodded. John shrugged and sat down on his bed. It wouldn't hurt to at least try and explain. He doubted it would do anything, but, well, he might as well water it down a little. John sat on his bed and looked at Prota.

"Remember what a [Reader] is?"

Prota shook her head.

"Alright, let's go over this again. A [Reader] is just that. Someone who reads. Most stories aren't all that different, Prota. You can usually predict certain things if you just think hard enough. And if this world is a story, well… you can kinda see where this is going, right?"

Prota stared at John. He was being serious.

He just… guessed? All those times he was saying he guessed. It was really just that. He just looked around, gathered information, and made a prediction as to what would happen next?

"It's really not that complicated. Trust me, a lot of stories end up doing the same thing. You start to guess things pretty easily. I can't predict everything, obviously, if I don't have information about certain things. But general ideas of the future? It's not that hard. Don't think about it too hard. It's not something I expect anybody else to do, ok?"

He put his hand on her head and got up. He was about to go to the door when he felt Prota put her small hands on his, holding his hand down on her head. He wanted to frown, but he hid it well.

"Remind me why you hate relationships so much again?" Zero said in his mind.

"Because once I develop a relationship, the trauma lovers will have a field day," John grumbled back. "We can't allow the trauma lovers to thrive."

"...alright."

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. John looked at Prota, who shrugged. Were they expecting anybody?

"Hello?" John called out.

"It's me."

"Oh. Fate. What's up?" John said as he opened the door.

"Came by to let you guys know. In two weeks, we're going into a dungeon."

John grimaced. "Are we finally looking into this group we've been investigating for, like, a million years?"

"It's been a few months, but yeah. Are you ready?"

John shrugged. "Basically-"

He stopped as he remembered Prota. That was right. There was still something he had to train with her.

"Well, almost. What are you planning on doing for the next two weeks?"

"Not much," Fate shrugged. "Just a bit of training, preparations, whatnot. Any advice you have to give?"

"...be prepared for something unexpected in the dungeon," John shrugged. "Something will inevitably go sideways, and you won't be able to anticipate it. Neither will I."

"If we can't anticipate it-"

"Just be ready for something. As long as we're on guard, I'm sure it'll be fine. You don't even have to think about it all that much. I'll keep an eye out for both of us."

Fate thought for a bit, then nodded.

"Makes sense. I was hoping for something more detailed, but I guess it can't be helped. How about you? Prota's gonna train with Kit, so-"

"Actually," John said, cutting Fate off. "There's something I need to do with her."

Prota looked at John. There was?

"You can train her? What are you going to do, give her a gun?"

"No," John said, starting to close the door. "Don't worry. It's not like she's going to get that much stronger in the next two weeks, right?"

"Well, yeah, but what can you-"

"Alright, good talk," John smiled, closing the door.

Fate pushed it open again, holding it this time. John hated that a kid a full head shorter than him was stronger than he was, but it couldn't be helped.

"Hey. One last thing."

"Is it about the souls? I'm sorry, but I can't answer that," John shrugged.

"At least tell me your source. At least tell me why you know things like that."

"I told you, I told myself. Literally. And how do you know about this, if it's so confidential?"

Fate hesitated, but he eventually gave in.

"Kit told me. It's something the Mystics look into, but she told me never to tell anyone. Well, since it's you, I guess it's not that bad. You already know so much about me anyway," he grumbled.

"Well, anyways, I wasn't kidding. My source is myself. Use your lie detector or whatever, but really. It's just me."

"Fine," Fate said after a brief moment. "I'll see you later."

John sighed, collapsing onto his bed.

"Haah… that guy has way too many questions. Not that I blame him. Hey, Prota. Are they still outside?"

She shook her head no.

"Good."

He looked at his map. The forest had various clearings, so they'd be able to use some of them pretty well. He closed his system and took a deep breath. Truth be told, he wasn't sure if this was a good method of training. He'd been through the method he was about to use, but it hadn't been by choice. It'd made him stronger, sure, but it was also a literal hell.

But souls were involved now. Things beyond the original scope of the [Plot], probably. Things Prota might not be able to handle. And that was definitely less than ideal.

"Prota," he said hesitantly. "I'm gonna be honest. You're still lacking something."

She tilted her head to the side. What was John talking about? She knew she wasn't the strongest, but it was unlike John to say it out loud like this.

"If something goes wrong in the dungeon, will you be able to deal with it on your own?"

Prota hated to admit it, but the answer was no. She was getting stronger, but was it enough? If Fate was taken out, could she finish things on her own?

No.

"You know, I can't really train you in magic. I haven't been that helpful toward you for a while now. But… do you want to get stronger?"

Prota nodded. In what world would she say no?

"Then there's something we can do. I'm not all that fond of this idea, but I saw the way you were looking at Fate. You still think you're weak, don't you?"

Prota looked away.

"Then there's something we can try. It might be hard, but… it's all I can do for you right now. This is gonna be harder than anything you've done. Are you sure you want this?"

She felt a little nervous. John was saying it would be hard. He never said anything would be hard. He'd always put unrealistic expectations on her, and while she now understood that he only ever did so to help her grow, the fact remained that his definition of "hard" was a little skewed.

Still, she wouldn't say no to an opportunity like this.

"Nn," Prota nodded.

She wondered, though. What kind of harsh training could John possibly whip up in two weeks?

That was her first mistake. Thinking it would only take two weeks.