Dimensions Collide: Destiny Bond

With one thing and another, a month flew by as if it were nothing. Prota spent all of her time inside the training room, stopping only to eat, drink and sleep. Not once had she stepped outside the house to go outside.

It wasn’t without reward, though. She’d been learning at an incredible rate.

The first week had passed with no complications. Jinae had found, through the appraisal orb, that Prota had no affinity for any element, which could also be interpreted as having an affinity for every element. While this was rare, it wasn’t impossible, so they’d left it at that and carried on.

During that time, Prota had learned how to make a small fireball and a small icicle using fire and ice magic, the two elements she seemed to find the easiest to deal with. Jinae had found her fondness for those two elements strange, given her lack of affinity, but they had no way of understanding it.

It’d been a week later that the mystery had unravelled itself.

Prota had been quietly working on her magic, which was still incredibly small, and her eyes were closed in an attempt to concentrate. Jinae slammed the door open, startling Prota to the point where she’d unconsciously activated her ability. She was still a little twitchy from being kidnapped. Tendrils shot out of her core, reaching towards Jinae, and while Prota hurriedly pulled them back, the damage had been done. The fireball flared up with the sudden increase in mana, glowing dangerously bright.

“What the-” Jinae gasped, quickly summoning a wave of water to put the fire out. The torrent drenched Prota, who sat trembling.

“You… did you just use Soul Siphon?”

~~~

After a bit of persuasion, Jinae managed to pry out Prota’s true ability: Soul Siphon. The ability John had understood through trial and error was an ability that was apparently known to others.

“That’s… that was an experimental ability that the demon worshippers were toying with,” Jinae said, shaking her head. “How did you… no, that’s not something I need to know. Prota, why didn’t you tell me this earlier? This is incredible!”

Prota was confused. Why didn’t Jinae question it? She’d been expecting something different. Everyone who found out about her ability always recoiled in shock, disgust, anger, fear… well, not John, but John was different in a lot of ways. But here was Jinae, seemingly pleased at this new discovery. The clash of how Prota had expected Jinae to feel with how Jinae actually felt was…

Well, alien.

“This makes things so much easier,” Jinae sighed. “I was a bit worried about your progress since you weren’t taking much ambient mana in. But this explains everything! You don’t take mana from your surroundings.”

Jinae looked at Prota with shining eyes.

“Prota. You take mana from the living beings around you.”

From that point on, training changed completely.

First, Prota explained everything John had told her about her ability. From her past to John unlocking her ability to her learning how to control it, she explained it all. She left out the part about Zero, but otherwise, nothing was left out. It was strange that Jinae didn’t try to pry into any of the holes that inevitably came out; after all, Prota wasn’t a great liar, but she listened to the story without any issues.

“Hm… so you can control the flow, you can do that… hm…” she rubbed her chin, deep in thought. “Well, that shouldn’t matter too much. For now, let’s just get you started with the basics. I don’t know too much about the ability since there’s very little information on it, but… we’ll do what we can.”

She went out of the room, returning with several vials of blue liquid in hand.

“These are mana potions,” Jinae explained. “They help recover mana.”

Prota looked at them wonderingly. They looked incredibly refreshing. The way they sloshed around, their soft blue hue…

“They taste awful.”

Prota felt a shiver run down her spine. She no longer found them interesting.

“That’s ok, because I’m used to it. Go ahead. Absorb my mana.”

A lively grin spread on Jinae’s face. She seemed to grow younger as she looked forwards to what would come next.

“I’ll turn you into a world class mage.”

~~~

Jinae’s face was grim as she held up the wanted poster. There was no face on it, but it asked for anyone to report a small girl with white hair to the royal guards as soon as possible, with a ten gold tip just for giving a valid report. Prota had yet to leave the training room, but the fact that they were this desperate to find her meant trouble.

“You’re wanted.” Jinae hadn’t wanted to deliver the news, but Prota needed to know. It was more dangerous not to let her know.

Contrary to what Jinae had expected, Prota remained completely calm. It wasn’t just her face that remained neutral. She didn’t display any signs of shock or fear at all.

It wasn’t that she wasn’t scared. She had simply relapsed back to the state she’d been in during her time on the streets. She hadn’t realized how much she’d relied on John. How much of an emotional pillar he’d been for her. Now that he was gone, she’d been relapsing back to the state she’d been in on the streets; uncaring, closed off to everything, trying to hide and disappear from the world.

She was slowly becoming emotionless again.

“We just have to keep training,” Jinae said, determined. “Train until you can become strong enough to defend yourself.”

Those words were somewhat pointless. Training was all Prota did. Was it even possible for her to do so any more than she was? It didn’t matter. She nodded, her eyes blank. They were similar to John’s, almost scarily so.

“Stronger…” she muttered to herself. That was the whole reason she was here, wasn’t it? To become stronger. So strong that no one would ever defeat her again.

~~~

“Phew… are we even sure this girl exists?”

The twenty members of the special force were tired. They were all trained soldiers, the top of their field, trained in all kinds of combat. A special task force created for the sole purpose of hunting down a “demon,” a terrible creature capable of slaughtering thousands. They were an elite unit capable of killing almost anything.

And they were sitting around doing nothing.

“Nobody’s even seen something remotely close to a small, white haired girl. We’ve gotten zero tips. It’s not like the bounty is small. Ten gold is a lot, you know. Maybe she just doesn’t exist.”

“Then who do you suppose killed the mercenaries? The bartender?” one of the members scoffed. “Or do you propose that it was the bartender who was the demon, and the mercenaries killed him?”

“...fine,” the first soldier grunted, flipping a knife in his hands. “It’s just…”

“I know, we’re sitting around doing nothing. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be prepared.”

Suddenly, the captain burst through the open doors, a pleased look on his face. The men perked up.

News.

“Men. We’ve got a lead.”

“A lead? What kind of lead? Did we find her?”

“Mm… not that good. But we found something even more interesting.” The captain grinned. “One of our men spotted the magic signature of the old leader of the demon worshipper cult.”

“I thought they were wiped out?”

“I guess they weren’t,” the captain said. “And that makes this all the more interesting. See, the reports say that the bartender was part of the demon cultist hunting party. However, it was his report that lead everyone to believe the cult leader died. So given that she’s alive…”

The men all nodded. It was too much to just be a coincidence.

“Pack your bags, men. We’re moving out.”

~~~

“Where is the demon?”

There was a loud crack as the sound of breaking bones echoed in the cold, hard stone room. It was a small cell, really just a stone cube with a single iron door. Inside was the former leader of the demon worshipper cult, Jinae.

“Tell us! We know you’re hiding her!”

“What… demon?” Jinae said through bloodied lips.

The cell was rigged with a special device that prohibited the use of magic, leaving Jinae completely defenceless. While her body was once well trained, it was now aged and weak, and the soldiers were incredibly good at their job. Despite this, Jinae refused to speak. She hadn’t tried to fight back, though. That would’ve revealed that she had something to protect, and she needed them to think that she was only running for her own life.

She wouldn’t be getting out of this. Her organization wasn’t known to the public. It wasn’t even known to the royals. To these men, she was the leader of a cult, nothing more, nothing less. But Prota could escape. She could live.

“Well, it doesn’t matter,” the captain said. “We have a team of men searching your house right now. We’ll find your little demon eventually.”

The interrogation continued, and still, Jinae refused to speak. Through her pain filled mind, she thought about the past month. It was strange. Prota was a girl she didn’t know that well. There was really no reason for Jinae to stay silent. She knew she was going to die, but she would’ve at least been given a painless death. All it would’ve taken was a mere sentence, just a few words to end the pain…

“Heh… Like I’d do that.”

“Go. Avenge us,” Jinae whispered.

“Sir! They found a hidden room!” a man yelled, bursting into the cell. “They’re going in now!”

“Excellent. Keep me updated.”

Jinae’s eyes shot wide open. “No! You can’t-”

“Oh? So there was something there,” the captain said. “That’s too bad. You demon worshippers will never get it, will you? There’s no room for evil in this land. It’s a shame. Had you spoken earlier, we wouldn’t have had to commit such heinous acts. Well, it matters not. This is the end.”

“She’s not- a demon!” Jinae gasped. “She’s-”

“Shut up, witch! You’ve outlived your usefulness.”

A sword flashed, and Jinae’s head fell to the ground with a thump. The ending was as anticlimactic as that. No struggle. No speech.

Just death.

“We’re all done here. Kill the demon, and then we can be done with this.”

~~~

Prota was oblivious to the events that were going on outside. Jinae had left her earlier in the morning to do some shopping, leaving her alone to train her magic on her own.

By this point, she’d become decently proficient in fire and ice magic, to the point where she could launch some small scale fireballs and icicles, but it was still nothing compared to the fights she’d been a part of. Given the fact that she was only six, it was impressive, but there were no signs of a budding genius or anything like that. The only special thing about her was her Soul Siphon ability.

“Search the room!”

Prota froze stiff as she heard a voice yell from the other side of the door, followed by a large number of footsteps pounding through the room. Who was here? How had they gotten in?

Her body froze with fear.

“Here!” one man yelled, and the door to the training room burst open. Ten men armed with swords, bows and staffs barged in, weapons at the ready. “She’s here! Report this to the captain, now!”

“We finally found you, demon.”

Demon.

Why did that word always come back to haunt her? A demon had killed her parents. A demon had taken her sister. A demon had taken her brother. A demon had taken her life.

So why was she fated to be labelled as one? Was she doomed to be hated by everyone?

Power.

Prota clenched her tiny fists. She had promised herself not to lose anyone again.

She was stronger now.

“Ha!” she yelled, her fireball launching towards the knights. She hadn’t slacked off on physical training either. Although her body was still somewhat frail, her movement was swift and agile, allowing her to use the smoke to her advantage, changing positions so she could fire again.

Icicles were summoned along with the fireballs as she hoped to catch the enemy offguard by using the smoke as a visual barrier. Surely they wouldn’t expect her to use a different kind of magic, right?

This was the only strategy she had. It was rinse and repeat, making sure to draw mana from her staff when she was running low.

She could have drawn mana from the knights, but she didn’t want to use her Soul Siphon ability. She didn’t like it. It reminded her of a soiled past, one that she didn’t want to remember. That didn’t mean the ability was completely useless, though.

She could see the mana cores of the soldiers through the smoke, which probably gave her a mild advantage. She could see them, and they couldn’t see her. She knew from one of her lessons that strong mages were capable of sensing the mana of others, but it wasn’t capable of directly pinpointing the location of an individual the way she could.

Prota grunted as her body slowly tired out. She couldn’t keep this up for long. Firing off one last spell, she stopped, panting for breath. The smoke slowly cleared…

And not a single bit of damage had been dealt.

“Seriously? This is a demon?”

“...do we have the wrong girl?”

“Look, she has white hair. Are there any other white haired girls that we’ve seen in the city?”

“Maybe the noble just wanted us to kill someone…”

“Someone the mercenaries couldn’t deal with?”

The men were talking casually as if there wasn’t a threat. Prota grit her teeth. They were here to kill her, but they weren’t even taking her seriously.

How could she call herself strong like this?

“Hey, girl,” one of the men called out. “Are you the demon we’ve been looking for?”

“...” Prota didn’t answer.

“You’re not helping,” the man sighed. “What are we supposed to do now…?”

“A simple test.”

The captain of the group walked through the door with the other ten men. He threw a bloodied bag at Prota’s feet.

“Demons are creatures of chaos. It might be possible that this one’s just suppressing itself for some reason. Let’s see what happens now.”

Prota was confused. What was that supposed to mean? And what was the bag in front of her? She was getting a bad feeling about this.

“Go on, open the bag. Take a peek.”

Prota hesitated, but seeing that she had no other option, she looked inside the bag…

And found Jinae’s head.

“That’s the leader of your followers, isn’t it? So you know we’re a threat. Pretending is pointless. Why don’t you reveal yourself now?”

Prota froze.

Everyone she knew was dying. This was another person she’d failed to protect. Another person died because of her. Why did the world hate her? What had she done wrong? The thoughts echoed in her head, growing louder and louder to the point that they were deafening. They were overwhelming. She couldn’t block them out.

Stronger. She needed to be strong at all costs.

With a cry, she activated her ability and sucked the soul out of one of the soldiers, immediately transferring it to mana. Her core wasn’t capable of containing that much, so she immediately expelled the mana as pure energy, obliterating two more men.

“She’s doing something! Go, now!”

The soldiers immediately overcame their shock and spread out into a formation, the swordsmen charging in with the bowmen standing at the back, the mages supporting them from safe areas. Prota didn’t notice any of this. She closed her eyes and could feel the cores and souls of the men around her and reached out, a dozen tendrils immediately targeting the cores of the men around her, immediately draining the mana and then the soul of a soldier. The energy was too much for her core to handle, and it was expelled as a beam of pure energy, just like what’d happened with Aiden in the bar. There were still men left. She opened her eyes to see debris and fire everywhere, men yelling, men dying…

She was strong.

Again and again, she was hit, but she just keep pushing through, absorbing and expelling, as naturally as taking in a breath of air. Power. She had power. She would protect everyone. She would-

An arrow pierced her heart, and she fell to the ground, her eyes blank. The room had been reduced to rubble, and out of the twenty one men that had entered the room, only five were left.

“You… did quite the number on us, demon. But this is the end. Your kind will not plague us any longer.”

Prota didn’t even flinch as the sword fell down on her neck, ending her life.

In the end, she hadn’t been strong.

She couldn’t even protect herself.

~~~

“Nh.”

Prota groaned as a searing headache split her head in two. Despite her high tolerance to pain, it seemed that this was strong enough to make her groan. She got up from the ground and looked around.

She appeared to be in a void. It was dark. There was nothing. She couldn’t see anything, although she could see her own hands and feet. Her feet… she wasn’t standing on anything. She hesitantly took a step. There was something solid underneath, but she couldn’t see any kind of ground.

Was this the afterlife? She had always thought she’d see her mother and father one more time, but here, there was nothing. She fell to the ground, tired. She was dead. What was there to do now? Was this truly the afterlife? Just… nothing? She closed her eyes. She thought she was stronger. She thought she’d seen enough, after fighting the demon king, to training with Jinae, to fighting the priests… but what had it all been for?

Nothing. Nothing had happened. She hadn’t learned anything, she hadn’t done anything, and in the end, nothing of value had been accomplished. The past year had been for nothing. It just felt like a filler of sorts, a whole lot of nothing taking up space to feel like something.

“They’re not going to like you. I don’t know if they’ll like Prota, either. Hopefully they will.”

“...who?”

“The [Readers]. You’re not exactly a good character.”

“...isn’t that the [Author]’s fault?”

“No, that’s your fault. Seriously. You can’t take anything seriously? At all? Look at your power. You’re a generic power-scaled character who’s got middle school syndrome. Who wants a [Character] like that?”

“And that’s my fault how?”

Prota’s eyes shot open. A familiar voice. Two people were talking, but they sounded the same. The voices faded away again, but Prota knew.

There were only two people she knew who had that quality.

“I mean, you really are poorly written.”

“Are you going to tell me why? You want me to get on my knees and suck the readers off or something? Why doesn’t the [Author] do that? I’m sure they’d make a living doing that instead of writing these shitty ass stories.”

“You could at least be more interesting than a rock! Come on, it might even make your life easier! Literally no one likes you! I can probably see it now: ‘I dropped this story cause the bartender guy is just a generic Gary Stu who does nothing. 0/10. Would not recommend.’”

“Yeah? Does it look like I give a fuck? Are the readers the ones going through this shithole of a life? Why don’t they try going through what I’m doing? Let’s see if they’re interested in being an interesting character- oh, wait, they can’t. Listen, Zero. I don’t exist to please the [Readers]. The only person I plan on pleasing is me.”

“...but you kind of do exist to please the readers?”

“Fuck them. They can go read, I don’t know, literally anything else. Actually, if the [Author] is so desperate to write a good story, why don’t they just leave me out of it?”

There was an audible sigh. Prota turned to follow the sound, her heart racing.

“Listen, Zero. You wanna know something? People will complain no matter what. It doesn’t matter what I do, people are going to find ways to complain. So I’m just going to do what I want, and if they want to stay and watch, let them! Do they help me? No! So they can go and fuck off, ok?”

The room Prota was in didn’t get any brighter, but it was as if a light was leading her, and soon enough, there was something in the distance.

Two identical figures, one a shadow of the other.