There was a low rumbling noise as the group struggled to roll the stones aside. John noticed for the first time that Fate’s fox was still around his shoulder but ignored it. It was likely something important, but why question it right now? He would probably find out eventually.

“Do you have any idea of what’s down there?” John whispered.

“No,” Fate said, shaking his head. His voice was grim.

The party wasn’t in the best state for finishing the dungeon. They’d ploughed through hordes of beasts, Fate having done most of the work for the group. John had, for the most part, done next to nothing, much to Fate’s annoyance, but the group had to grant him the fact that he was pretty heavily injured. Prota had avoided taking any severe hits but was physically and mentally drained from having used so much mana. Danjo, too, was pretty beaten up, although he seemed to have the spunk still to keep going.

Everyone was aware of all this, so that’s why they were all surprised when John spoke up.

“Alright, then. Let’s go in now.”

“What? Now?!” Fate exclaimed. “I mean, I’m down, but… don’t you think we should rest first?”

The group had grown close throughout the dungeon. Surviving through life and death scenarios did that to people. However, that didn’t mean they were about to dive into a clearly stupid situation just because one of them suggested it.

“No, we should go in now,” John said.

“Yeah? What makes you say that?” Danjo challenged, but Fate remained silent.

He was thinking. Everything John had done so far seemed to be ridiculous, and yet whenever Fate talked to him, he felt as if he was looking at a puppet master, pulling the strings behind the scenes… someone who was aware of everything going on, someone who knew exactly what to do next…

He didn’t know why, but if John was saying to go in now, it was probably a good idea. If John were being reckless, he would have charged in alone. There was a reason he wanted them all to go in.

“Prota?” John said, seeing Fate’s hesitation. Prota didn’t really want to go in, but she was used to pushing discomfort away and nodded. Just like how she’d numbed her emotions, she could numb her body, too.

“Fine. Let’s go in,” Fate said.

The rocks had been pushed apart just a bit, enough for the group to go in single file but small enough that it would be unlikely that any beasts would come through to them. They crept through the crack, which lead into a giant cavern.

“Whoah…” Danjo couldn’t help but sigh in wonder as he saw the sheer size of the place. Resting in the wall on the other side was a bright blue crystal, so clean and pure it couldn’t have been a normal ore.

“The mana crystal,” Fate whispered.

“Where’s the mana beast?” John whispered back. His eyes were flicking back and forth in the darkness, unusually alert, which put Fate on edge. If John was being cautious, that meant there was a serious chance of them dying.

“I don’t know,” Fate said.

They slowly spread out, not daring to make a light for fear of waking whatever was supposed to be guarding the prize they were after. Unfortunately for Fate, he found out what the guardian was the hard way.

“What the-” he started as he noticed the ground shifting underneath him. Dust billowed as a giant crystal crab rose up from its slumber, Fate falling off its arm as it rose to full height. It made no noise, but that didn’t make it any less dangerous. It stomped, and crystals shot out of the ground, shooting toward the group.

“Split up and dodge!” John yelled, immediately running off to the side. He doubted even his rocket launcher would really do anything here.

The group scattered, Prota catching up to John, Fate and Danjo running in opposite directions. Fate immediately changed course and attacked the crab, firing a massive fireball, but when the smoke cleared, it didn’t seem even mildly hurt. It roared and picked up a boulder, launching it at Fate, who dodged just in time.

“What the-” Fate said anxiously. He’d put a lot of effort into that fireball. Was the thing immune to magic?

“Haah!” Danjo grunted, running up and swinging his hammer down, making a minor crack in the crab’s outer shell. “Whoah!”

He was thrown back into a wall. His armour seemed to cushion his fall, but he still seemed to be hurt.

“Hmm,” John mused, rubbing his chin. “What a convenient opponent. Almost as if the two main characters are supposed to learn something new here.”

“John!” Fate exclaimed. “Are you going to help?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah,” John nodded, pulling out his rocket launcher and fired off a missile. As expected, it did no damage, but at least Fate couldn’t say he wasn’t helping.

Fate clenched his fists. He considered pulling his sword out again, but wasn’t he training magic…? Magic… this thing was resistant to magic. Did that mean he had to find another way…?

“A protagonist power up,” John muttered to himself. “A surge of emotion, an intellectual revelation, a near death experience… what’s going to cause it this time?”

He suddenly caught his thoughts. Why was he so focused on getting these people strong? Wouldn’t his goal be accomplished just as easily if he did everything himself?

Why was he looking after these people?

You care for them, don’t you? a little voice in his head whispered to him.

Kill them now, then, another voice countered. Since they don’t matter, right?

Two opposing sides, fighting for him to choose one side or the other.

“Fuck off,” John frowned and shook his head. He was trying to get something done here, so there would be no deviations to the plan. There was no point in creating extra work for himself. He’d sit back and do nothing. He’d push the problem back since he didn’t need to deal with it, and he could keep pushing it back until he needed to deal with it…

[What are you going to do then?]

“Fuck off,” John muttered again.

“John! A little help?” Fate yelled. He really seemed to be struggling. He’d even pulled his sword out, something John hadn’t really seen coming, but in hindsight, it made sense. Fate likely had no reason to hide his power at this point. If he had his sword out, he was desperate.

“Why don’t you use your full power?” John called back.

Fate remained quiet while dodging attacks. He seemed hesitant to respond.

“Could it be… you can’t use your full power?”

Danjo was yelling something while the crab continued to demolish the cave, but for that moment, nothing mattered but the two boys staring at each other. John’s singular line had seemed to stop time for just the two of them.

“...tch,” John sighed, looking away. Suddenly, time seemed to resume, and Fate snapped out of his trance.

“Prota,” John said quietly. Prota barely caught his words. “You know I can’t die, right?”

Her eyes went wide at what he was implying, but she nodded.

“Good. For now…”

He tapped the side of his head, grunted, then stood up.

“You don’t need to protect me.”

His spirit wavered a bit as he saw her lips tremble as if she was about to cry, but he had to follow through.

“Power: x10”

“Hey! You stupid crab! Over here!” John yelled, waving his hands. The crab spun around, its massive legs skittering all over the cavern floor. Danjo was thrown off the creature’s back and landed on the ground with a grunt.

“Yeah, that’s right! I… uh…” John’s voice trailed off as he failed to come up with an insult. “I… Fuck you!”

The crab probably didn’t understand a word John said, but it had found a target, and it would go after it.

“Yeah, come over here!” John yelled, running away as fast as he could.

“John, what are you doing?” Fate yelled, unleashing another blast of magic that once again did nothing.

“I’m distracting it, idiot!” John yelled.

“How about your injury?”

“I’m fine! It doesn’t hurt!”

Prota’s eyes went wide as she remembered when John had tapped his head. Had he somehow numbed the pain…?

[Prota its John]

Her hands shook as she pulled up the message.

[Look i powered up a little bit that’s going to reduce the pain for just a bit but that’s not important right now]

She looked over at him, but he was too busy sending messages to notice.

[I need to get close to dying its the only way to get Fate to use his full power so i’m gonna need you to go help Danjo ok?]

She saw John wave his hands as if to close a window. He wouldn’t be looking at his messages anymore. Why did he have to be so reckless? How was she supposed to protect him if…

No. He gave her a job to do. He knew what he was doing, and so she should do her part. Running over to Danjo, she stood, ready to protect him from whatever was to come.

She didn’t have to be a protector just for John.

“Fuck!” John gasped as he narrowly dodged another leg. It would have been much easier if he’d just power up, but that wasn’t the point. Even if he himself couldn’t fight for some reason, Prota probably should have been able to absorb the mana of the crab and use it herself. John planned on getting her to do that at some point anyways. No, the point wasn’t to win as fast as possible.

The point was for John to get as close to death as possible.

He had a theory that Fate had something of a hero complex. A lot of protagonists did. And since John was relatively close to Fate, something that always forced power out was the need to save others. In short, a strong burst of emotions. If he could reach the brink of death, he was betting something would awaken within Fate.

The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. It just didn’t add up. For someone with an SSS tier mana core, for someone who had the blessing of the goddess, for someone who was the protagonist of the story, he seemed to be holding back way too much. He wasn't sure where Fate was in terms of plot, but for someone who had so much potential, he didn’t seem nearly as powerful as John expected him to be.

“Guh-!” John gasped, barely jumping out of the way. “A little help?”

“Help yourself!” Fate growled.

As John had predicted, Fate did have something of a hero complex. Seeing John in distress was really making him panic. Thousands of ideas were running through his mind, none of which were really working. Magic, swordsmanship… nothing. Fate’s physical strength was good but nothing to brag about, meaning it would be useless to punch the thing. He considered a sword dance, but that took too long to set up…

“What do I do?!” Fate growled in frustration, gripping his sword harder.

“Any time would be great!” John yelled, a little bit of panic edging into his voice. It was all an act since inside, he was feeling nothing, but it pushed Fate over the edge just a bit more.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” John muttered to himself. “Fine.”

He pretended to trip over a rock, slipping and falling on his face.

“John!” Fate yelled, watching as a giant leg came crashing down on him.

The yell caught Prota’s attention, and her head snapped over just in time to see John’s body about to get crushed. Despite knowing what she knew, instinct kicked in, and her eyes blazed with light.

“No!” she cried out, reaching out as she absorbed the crystal crab’s mana, her body overflowing with energy. Despite her distressed mind, her subconscious had the sense to put what she couldn’t store in her body into her staff.

“Fuck-” John gasped, reaching out, clawing at the ground to pull himself a bit further-

And then the leg came crashing down on him.

“John!” Fate yelled, his entire body shaking as he watched the body disappear under the giant mass. He stood still, his emotions paralyzing him.

He failed to save someone. He’d failed to save someone after everything he’d been through, after all this power he’d been given… what was the point? Why had he made that promise?

You’re holding back, aren’t you?

The words echoed in his head until they became deafeningly loud, bouncing off his skull over and over until they became the only thought in his mind.

“No,” he gasped, shaking. “You’re right. I could’ve done better.”

Power surged from his core into his hands as pure destructive power started emerging from his body. White magic, what John had called pure mana, emerged from his hands in the shape of two orbs.

“I’ll do better. I’m so sorry, John.”

He imbued mana into his legs and shot forward, wind magic propelling him along until he was right in front of the crab. Not bothering to stop, he ran up the thing’s leg and leapt up, landing on its head.

“Aahhhhhhhh!” he yelled, planting his hands on the creature’s head. There was a flash as the pure mana detonated, blasting a giant hole in the armor and revealing the fleshy meat that lay within.

“This is it,” Fate panted, unsheathing his sword and diving in for one last blow.

There was a terrible skittering sound as the creature died, its massive body collapsing to the ground, shaking dust up and obscuring everyone’s vision. When the smokescreen died down, Fate could be seen standing on the crab’s head, hung head low.

“John,” Prota said quietly, running over to the spot she’d last seen him. Danjo just realized what had happened and followed.

Fate noticed what she was doing but couldn’t move. The guilt was like a stone weighing him down. Danjo ultimately came over and helped, and the two of them barely moved the leg out of the way. Inside, John was alive. It was surprising, but he was alive. He’d managed to dig a small hole in the ground just before the leg had fallen, allowing him to survive being crushed.

“Kuh- Jeez,” John sighed, his mouth barely moving as he coughed up blood. “Thanks, Prota.”

Despite being alive, he seemed… disappointed.

“Can you help me out, Prota? I think I have a few broken ribs and organs.”

Prota nodded and then remembered the new mana and magic she’d acquired.

Extending her hands, a sort of coffin formed around John, made of hard crystal. She lifted it out of the ground and let it hover just a few centimetres in the air.

“You’re starting to grow without me,” John smiled. It was just a twitch of the lips, but it was there. “You took that thing’s mana on your own. You need to think for yourself too, you know.”

Prota’s heart shook. He was smiling a real smile, his eyes full of warmth. Despite being on the brink of death, he was pleased with her.

“...” She nodded in return, but John knew what she meant.

She was starting to understand what “protector” really meant. It wasn’t really about John’s body. That could always be restored.

She needed to protect “John,” the person.

Fate, from far away, let out a yell.

“John?!”

“Fate,” John said, but it was too quiet for the other boy to hear. Fate leapt down and ran over.

“You’re alive?!”

“I…” he coughed again. “I dug a hole just before it came crashing down. I didn’t- didn’t exactly make it in time, so it hurts pretty bad…”

“What was the point? Why did you-”

“You’re stronger now, aren’t you?” John chuckled but stopped short as his chest was racked with pain.

“You- how did you-” Fate stammered. “And isn’t that crystal magic?”

Danjo’s eyes widened. “Hey, wait-”

John frowned. “What, is that rare?”

“Rare? Are you kidding me? That’s an elemental beast’s magic! Mages spend their entire lives learning this kind of stuff!” Danjo exclaimed. “Rare?”

“Come on, guys, can we get out of here already?” John groaned. Prota had covered his body with a layer of ice to numb the pain, but several broken bones and bleeding organs weren’t exactly a light injury.

“Right, right,” Fate muttered. “We’re having a talk after, you and I.”