John explained what they were up to, throwing in a few details as to why. By the end of the story, the adventurers didn't look too pleased.

Then again, they didn't look exactly displeased, either.

"You're… you're not joking, are you?" Gale said quietly once John was finished with his tale.

"No."

"...fine," he said, pushing his glasses further up his nose. "I'm in."

"I'm- wha? Hey, what do you mean?"

"I mean I'm coming to help you, idiot," Gale muttered. "Don't make me say it twice."

John's eyes widened. Gale was in? He looked around to make sure he wasn't dreaming, but no, everything seemed normal. Prota had moved to a booth and was tinkering with something in her system, but otherwise, everything remained the same.

Gale was in. The most logical, calculative person in the group. And he'd just agreed to do something batshit insane of his own volition. What in the world was going on?

"Look at this guy, trying to act all nonchalant," Hestia grinned.

"Shut- shut up!" Gale exclaimed.

"What he's not saying is that the Wyntons have been… mm, well, let's just say they haven't been real great for the town. We haven't been affected, but a lot of the lower ranks are suffering a bit."

John frowned. "What? What's going on?"

"Well, ever since you left, a lot of quests started going up. Specifically, a lot regarding you." Gale sighed. "You did something stupid, didn't you?"

"No, I didn't," John said with a frown. "I…"

Yes, he'd pissed off the noble, but people like the Wyntons weren't supposed to do much because of it. If he'd disappeared, nothing of consequence should have happened. His thought process was further reinforced by the theory that this wasn't meant to be part of the [Story]. Such an intricate [Setting] shouldn't have been present.

John's frown deepened. "Keep going."

Grey spoke up this time with a sigh, "Well, you know how it is. Some younger, newer mercenaries saw the request. You were listed as a bartender. It shouldn't be a hard job, right? Some idiots thought they could make a quick buck and brought in fakes. Or, at least, that's how the rumours went. Nobody knows, because everybody involved always disappeared.

John locked in on that.

They disappeared.

"What about the fakes?" he said, his tone cautious.

"No one knows," Grey shrugged. "Like I said, rumours. But rumours spread, you know. Bad news for adventurers. A town where people can just go missing like that is never good."

Gale nodded. "Technically, this town is under the jurisdiction of the royal family, but the Wyntons are the operating authorities. The law is effectively under their command. As a result… it's a little hard to go against them. While they can dodge some consequences, they can't dodge all of them. You know what I mean?"

John grimaced. "Yeah, I get what you're saying. Bad for the economy, huh…"

Gale nodded. "You get it. And, you know, as A-rank adventurers, it's not good to see the new generation fall behind. So we've got our own personal beef with that guy."

"And that's enough to break through the dumbfuck stupidity that's killing off his entire family?" John said, eyes wide.

Gale grimaced. "Well… maybe not that far. But we'll help you break in at the very least. And if it comes to it… we'll just say it was a request from the Mercenary's Guild."

John hesitated. "Guys, I wouldn't… I'm not asking you to do this. You're-"

He was about to say "ordinary people," but what did that constitute? He didn't even know if they played a role in the [Story]. There was no guarantee as to whether they lived or died. Was this a risk he was willing to take?

"Quarta, don't be a dumbass," Hestia growled. "The point is, we're coming along whether you invite us or not."

She stormed out the door, Gale and Gorm following her. Grey stuck around a little longer.

"Hey. John," he said quietly.

He didn't quite seem nervous. He was too professional for that. But he did seem far less confident than he usually did.

"Grey?" John said, a little confused. "What's up?"

"I… I have something I need to tell you."

Something clicked. Right, Grey was part of the reason all of this had happened. John had almost forgotten about this, mainly because he'd already killed Grey once and no longer cared for revenge. Still, the fact that he'd been a traitor remained.

The fact that his actions were no longer of consequence also remained.

"Grey," John sighed. "Don't worry about it."

Prota looked over from her bar, confused. John looked away. Right, she didn't know about this. It was probably better that she didn't find out. It wasn't like it was something that could harm her, but such things weren't topics she needed to worry about.

"Prota," he called out. "Go out. I'll meet you in a bit."

Prota nodded, hopping off her seat and pushing the door open, where everybody else's voices leaked through. The door closed shut, and the voices were muted once more.

"You… you knew?" Grey said.

"Yeah," John said awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. "I mean… well, yeah. There's not much else to say."

Grey just looked away.

"Kill me," he said quietly.

"What- what?" John frowned. "What the fuck are you talking about?"

"I almost got you guys killed, Quarta," Grey said. "I thought I was doing the right thing. But I wasn't. Prota isn't a demon. She's your sister. I made a mistake, and that mistake is worth a lot more than my life."

John burst out laughing at that. Grey flinched, stunned by John's reaction.

"Don't worry," John said as he calmed down. "I already got my revenge. Don't worry about it."

"Already got your- what?" Grey frowned.

"I already got my revenge," John repeated, getting ready to head out the door.

He was amused as he saw Grey's reaction. Well, that made sense. He couldn't explain that he'd already killed the man in another life. Perhaps that was for the best. Both of them had made mistakes.

Both of them had, in a way, atoned for their sins. And in John's eyes, the score had already been settled.

"Don't think about it too much." John flashed Grey a smile. "We've been even for a while now."

~~~

"Sir. They're on their way."

Emotor smiled, sitting back on his throne. The manor was prepared. Dozens of knights and casters, ready to fight, and a few extra warriors on top of that. There was no way two children could break through all of this.

"Good," Emotor nodded. "Let them come."

"Apparently, there are a few others with them," the messenger said.

This man wasn't one of the usual servants. He wore a robe with a hood that shadowed his face, rendering his identity unidentifiable.

"It matters not. Do you think there is anything to be worried about?" Emotor frowned.

In the depths of his cloak, the man grinned.

"Of course not. Have you forgotten who is on our side?"

~~~

When the group arrived at the Wynton manor, the sky was dark and gloomy.

"Looks like rain," Gale said quietly.

"Rain, my ass," John muttered. "The [Author] thought this would fit thematically."

"What was that?" Gorm frowned.

"Nothing, nothing."

Prota looked up at John nervously. She hadn't heard everything, but she had caught wind of the word [Author], and that was never a good sign. At best, it meant nothing at all.

"Don't worry about it," John muttered, putting his hand on her head. "Just something about the weather. Don't know what's gonna happen inside, though."

The gates slowly creaked open as if to welcome the party in. Everybody was tense as they drew their weapons. There was no point in hiding intent; they were here to fight. Sure, they could perhaps sneak in and dodge a few guards, but if John's intent was to end this feud once and for all, then they might as well go out from the start.

The only member who wasn't nervous at all was John.

"[Author's] a cornball, huh," he muttered, tossing his cloak to the ground.

He pushed the rifle stock to his shoulder and turned the safety off. The gun began to glow faintly as [Infinity] was imbued into the weapon.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Alright." He took aim, watching the front doors of the manor. "Come on."

Six knights burst out, charging forward. All at once, combat broke out.

There was one knight for each member of their group. The four adventurers handled it fine.

Hestia's fire magic was as impressive as ever, but the knights weren't weak, either. Still, the fire mage was not to be underestimated. The knight she was facing swung his weapon, but she simply caught the blade with her hands, heating it red hot. At this point, it was soft enough to bend, and she rendered the weapon useless in a swift motion.

Gale had taken a different approach, relying on his swordsmanship rather than magic. While he, too, had a blade infused with aura, his sword arts were far superior to those of the knight. Both were well-trained, but only one used his skill in life-or-death situations. The other merely trained all day long.

Grey was the quickest to dispatch his enemy. He vanished, then reappeared with his knife already in the enemy's neck. There was no struggle. Just death.

Gorm was also quite impressive. Despite his old age, he easily stood his ground, swinging a massive hammer about him. Rocks coated his skin, forming an armour that blocked even the knight's sword blows. The hammer wasn't very accurate, but that didn't matter. The dwarf just needed one hit, and one eventually landed. There was a sickening crack as the knight was sent flying, hitting the ground with a thud.

In a matter of minutes, four knights had been laid flat on the ground. Unfortunately, things weren't going too well for Prota and John.

Prota had initially struggled. This knight was at least of the Expert level, maybe even approaching the Master level. She couldn't tell. What she did know was that none of her simple spells were working. Her Blossom had little effect as well. The Frozen Flame wasn't too bad, but since the freezing effect didn't take place, the explosion that followed had little effect as well.

She was surviving, though. Prota had yet to neglect the teachings John had given her. While they weren't nearly as practiced as her magic, she didn't forget what she'd learned over the course of dozens of deaths.

Eventually, she realized she had no choice. She hated to use something like this against the first enemy she was facing, but she slowed down time and prepared a Frozen Bullet.

And it missed.

Her eyes widened in surprise. It'd missed? The knight had somehow dodged her spell. This had never happened before. Sure, she'd hit non-vital areas, but never had someone dodged such a spell. She focused, trying to draw mana, but the man's mental fortitude was too strong. She could only siphon a little mana from his core, and he had no elements to copy.

Great.

The man would kill her in one hit, and he outclassed her in speed. She wasn't sure why he hadn't used this speed to kill her already, but that wasn't an issue. If it was something she could dodge, she'd probably react to it, and if she couldn't dodge it, then there was nothing she could do about it.

She had to figure out how to deal with this enemy.

Her mind flashed through her arsenal of spells. Fire-based attacks wouldn't work here. They were too slow. She had a feeling that a smokescreen wouldn't work, either. Freezing the ground… no, this man was definitely trained for something like that.

But she could freeze something else.

Absolute Zero.

She'd never tried pulling something like this off before. She'd have to fire off two large spells simultaneously. The training she'd done with Sofya had made it possible, but she had no way of knowing if she could do it in battle.

But she had to try.

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes. Her nervous system began firing off on all pistons, and her eyes snapped open.

Concentrate.

The mana flowed from her core through her veins, not a single drop wasted, moving out to surround the knight. Surprisingly, he began moving. Moving? In this slowed-down world? No wonder he'd dodged her bullet.

It didn't matter.

The ice mana froze around and inside the knight, slowing his movements back down. His mana reinforcement was too strong for it to kill him, but with his muscles frozen, he'd be much slower.

Prota's mind was on the verge of snapping, but she had to pull through. Tears began to form in her eyes, ever so slowly, as she formed the Frozen Bullet.

It was all or nothing. She wouldn't have the stamina for something like this again.

Time rushed back to normal.

"What th-"

The knight gasped, but his muscles were too frozen for him to do anything. The spell pierced through his aura and put a hole through his head, killing him instantly.

With a little struggle, Prota had done it. All that was left was John.

Unfortunately, it looked like there was no way out for him. Even with the mana pill and [Infinity], it wasn't enough. He could survive, yes. He could react, yet. But nothing he had held the power to pierce through the knight's defence.

The application of [Infinity] to his guns made them shoot a little faster, but it wasn't even a twofold increase in power. In the end, all of his weapons, save for his sword, proved useless, and the sword only helped him survive.

Shit. This wasn't good. For now, it looked like he'd survive, but soon—

"Quarta," Grey said, appearing with a knife in the knight's neck.

The enemy fell over. An instant kill. John nodded in approval. Grey wasn't the best fighter, but he was a damn good assassin. It didn't matter what the method was, as long as the target ended up dead.

"How are you struggling this much?"

"Something happened," John gasped, a bead of sweat dripping down his face. "My fault. I'm a little weaker than I was before."

"No shit," Grey said quietly. "Are you sure you're up for this?"

"Can't back out now."

"You're right."

It'd been a mere five minutes since they'd started, and the environment had already settled into one of professionalism. It was much like the cultist subjugation, albeit a bit more friendly. They weren't here to joke around, though.

They were here to do a job.

"Door's open," Hestia said, her usual grin nowhere to be found. "Shall we head inside?"

"Didn't come here to kill six knights," John muttered, pulling out his second blade.

He tossed the guns to the side, opting instead to forge his path forward with the unbreakable blades [Infinity] gave him. It seemed he'd be stuck on defence for a while.

As soon as they entered, the doors slammed shut behind them. Candles flicked on, likely through some kind of magic, revealing a large foyer.

"...the noble's got some theatrics, huh?" Grey muttered. "He was expecting us."

"Yeah," John grumbled. "I'm sure he was."

He was starting to think that the point of view wasn't on Destiny after all. He cursed the [Author] under his breath before carrying on.

"There are three paths," Gale said, looking around. "Up the stairs. The right hall. And the left hall. Should we split up?"

John shook his head. "Bad idea. There's no point. You guys are only here to get us to… Emotor, I think his name was."

"Then it would be wise to widen our search, would it not?" Gorm frowned.

"No. Before, I would've said yes, but not anymore. This bitch was expecting us."

John clenched his teeth. What he wasn't saying was that the [Author] was expecting him, too. The [Plot] was shifting. He wasn't sure what the shift was, exactly, but a whole new [Plotline] was being created because of him. What was it Zero had said?

Shoot. He didn't remember. Why didn't he remember?

They made their way into the left hallway. Ornate pictures and expensive-looking items lined the walls, none of which were of any particular interest to John.

"Feels… a little too calm," Gale said quietly.

Suddenly, a magic circle glowed into sight right before a pillar of flame gushed out of it. Everyone leapt back in time, but it was a well-placed, well-hidden trap.

"What the… what kinda noble has this level of security?" Hestia frowned. "In his own house, for crying out loud."

John frowned, looking at the now blackened magic circle. He couldn't read it, but he didn't need to know what kind of trap it was. The fact that these had been prepared could only mean one thing.

"I think they've known we were coming for a while now," he muttered.

He'd been too obvious at Scholaris, asking for the portals to Vulcan. He should've just figured it out on his own. Unless there had been spies watching him in his own home…? No, that was absurd.

It had to have been something from Scholaris. And there was only one party that was currently working against him.

"Shit," he cursed, then burst out laughing.

"Huh? Hey, Quarta! What's so funny?" Gale exclaimed worriedly.

"It's… this is just part two," John said, closing his eyes. "Electric boogaloo part two. Here we go again."

"What are you saying, man?" Grey yelled. "Make sense!"

John's eyes opened again.

"I'm saying we're just clearing out another hideout of cultists." He gripped his swords a little tighter. "We didn't clear them out the first time around."

~~~

The group continued to head through the manor, but they failed to encounter any more enemies. Instead, however, they ran into a multitude of traps. Grey got teleported away once, although he didn't go anywhere far. He quickly rejoined the group, and they carried on. Another trap opened up a section of the floor, revealing a section of spikes, but such simple tricks would never be enough to take out this group.

The traps were numerous, but their lethality was typically very low. The only person they really posed a threat to was John, but with [Infinity] and the mana pill, he had the ability to avoid them as well.

The number of traps alone was strange, but even stranger was where they were placed. Arrow traps destroyed mirrors and paintings, fire traps scorched the walls and floor, and so on. The traps were lazily placed, and there had been very little intent to hide them.

Almost as if they weren't there to kill.

The other strange thing was that the manor didn't seem to have been redesigned in any way, yet the place was completely empty. They passed through kitchens, offices and training rooms, yet no sign of life was to be found. Aside from the knights that had rushed to meet them at the start, there was nothing.

"I don't like this," Gale said as they took a break. "Where the hell is everyone?"

[Prota]

He watched as Prota looked up, but he didn't react. He just kept looking forward, hoping she'd get the message.

[Do you sense any souls?]

John watched as her eyes widened in surprise. He wasn't quite sure why she wasn't used to checking for things like this, but… well, to be fair, it wasn't often that they encountered situations like this.

She closed her eyes for a moment, then shook her head. Nothing here.

John grimaced. Great.

"Hey, on the bright side, look how strong our little girl's gotten," Hestia grinned as she took a sip of water. "Came a long way from a few years ago, no? What'd you do to her, Quarta?"

"We underestimating Scholaris out here?" John simply replied.

Everyone nodded, but John had been lying. There was no way Scholaris could teach what she'd learned through blood, sweat and tears.

They picked up pace again, nearing the end of the left side of the manor. At the end of the hall was… nothing. The hallway simply ended there, with no doors or anything.

"Shit," John cursed. "All that for… Prota?"

She was tugging on his sleeve.

[Souls]

John's eyes widened. Souls? She was pointing at the ground.

"Quarta?" Hestia called out, already heading back. "What's up?"

"Hold on a minute," he said quietly, pushing away a section of carpet.

Underneath was a trapdoor.

"...this is a trap, you know that, right?" Gale frowned as they all gathered around it.

"Got anything better to do, shitass?" John grumbled, opening the hatch.

There was a set of stairs leading down. The smell of rot and decay wafted out. Everybody flinched, but they were people who were used to this sort of thing.

"...go down?" John offered.

Nobody said anything. He shrugged and started walking.

The place was dark, but Hestia lit it up with her fire as they got deeper. Everybody was tense, ready for a fight, but what they found was something they never would've expected.

Inside were rows of people. Not too many, but at least two dozen men and women were lined up, with a few children much further down. They stood still, their eyes lifeless, but the sound of breathing could be heard in the dead quiet atmosphere.

"John," Gorm whispered. "What… what is this?"

He didn't respond. He was still trying to process what was going on.

What were these? People? Why were they just standing still like this? He grimaced, holding his swords out in front of him. This felt like a trap. These people would all come to life and start mobbing them like zombies.

"Hey! Can you hear me?" Hestia suddenly yelled.

John whirled around. "Hestia, you idio-"

The people came to life, their heads snapping up. The party went on guard immediately. John frowned. Something about this felt familiar. Something about the way these people looked…

"John," Prota whispered. "...slaves."

It snapped. Right, they looked just like the slaves Doctor created. Why? How?

Unless…

Unless they were connected. Someone had to be funding Doctor's antics. That man had [Deus Ex Machina] energy, but it wasn't nearly as powerful as John's was. He didn't have the ability to create an entire lair and laboratory out of thin air. Someone was supplying him with funds and materials.

That much should've been obvious. John just hadn't thought of it.

It made sense, though. The Wynton family having ties to the cultists, or, at the very least, demonic beings, was to be expected. After all, the pill Draco had taken had turned him into a demon.

But if that were the case, then a whole new set of questions arose. If the Wyntons had been funding Doctor, how far back did his influence go? What if Doctor was never meant to exist? Would the Wyntons have been involved? But if the Wyntons were involved because of John, then didn't that mean that this entire plotline had been simmering the entire time he'd been in this world?

The revelation made him nervous. He'd been partially banking on the [Author] not being prepared for him going through such an event. Ultimately, he'd been hoping that the point of view would switch to Destiny, and his adventure here would be summarized by some dialogue in a future chapter.

It seemed that was no longer the case.

"Let's get out of here," John said quietly.

"What? What about all these people?" Hestia frowned. "We can't just-"

"Out."

There was no room for argument. The glare in John's eyes was so murderous that the others didn't bother to question it. They slowly left, one by one, until it was only John remaining.

"What's up with those people?" Gale frowned, looking back into the dark basement. "Um… do you know anything, Prota?"

She shook her head. She wasn't good at lying, but even she didn't want to talk about something like this. Suddenly, everyone heard a series of blasts, the dark basement lighting up in flashes of light. The noise stopped, and then John emerged, closing the hatch behind him.

"Quarta, what was-"

"You don't want to know," he said quietly. "Let's just keep going."

They turned to leave, but it wasn't going to be so easy. Three men in hoods emerged from a room, seemingly startled by the presence of the adventurers.

"What the-" one of the men shouted. "Get them!"

John raised his sword.

"Well, shit."

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