Mia couldn’t believe her eyes, just what was going on? Assist mode was not supposed to do this! It was only meant to level up her skills for her quickly, so she could save the people she was with.

“That is exactly what it is doing.”

She snapped towards [Void] “What?” she spat “How is this saving them?!” She looked back to herself just as she vanished, leaving a black void in her space that quickly expanded, swallowing everything and leaving them in complete darkness, then, everything appeared. Mia saw herself standing in the dungeon’s dirt hallway, surrounded by the three cat beastkin.

“Like that, they are back!’ [Void] chuckled “Alive and well, and if the skills are leveled up enough there is not a single reason to kill them. Thus, you move to save them.” He gestured to the Mia who was currently blasting La’s face with a beam of ice “…She has not deemed it enough yet, so the grinding continues.”

Meanwhile, as he was talking, Mia was trying to interfere with her projection but no matter how she tried to do so she would phase through them, unable to interact with them. “No! This isn’t what I wanted, this is… this is cruel!” She shouted, still trying in vain to stop them.

“Is it though?” he questioned “as long as you go back, to them it would have been like it never happened.” He pulled out his umbrella, tapping the tip of it on Mia’s head to get her attention “And by all accounts, it never did. The only things set in stone are the eight years of your life you have saved before your slot one.”

Mia felt the tap, raising her hands to the top of her head as she turned towards him “b-but why on them… why not the spider up ahead… or the two people from the church.” She sniffed, trying her best not to cry “Why use them… the ones I wanted to save.”

“I believe I told you before…” [Void] paused, looking toward the projection of Mia as she had just finished up with Si, vanishing as she loaded and leaving another black void in her place and like the one before it quickly expanded, swallowing everything. Then once everything was consumed, everything blipped back into existence like before. “Nothing is more important than [Time], and no one knows that better than her.”

Mia turned back towards her projection, watching as it started the slaughter again when La approached her “…her?” she looked back towards him questioningly “You mean assist mode?”

[Void] smiled, clapping in a cheerful manner “Yes! Assist Mode!” He then vanished.

[The product of a God’s poor sense of humor.]

Mia shivered, hearing his voice in her head causing her to shrink back. She clutched her chest, looking around for him but not seeing him anywhere. Instead, her gaze fell to her projection as it slaughtered her companions.

[Something that has always existed alongside this [Void] but never together~ Kept apart by the fundamental building blocks that hold together this [World]. Was it [Fate] that made us so? Or another, jealous of a [Time] left unrecorded.]

Suffocating.

Mia fell to her knees, clutching her chest as she struggled to breathe. His voice in her head pounded louder, drowning out all her thoughts. All she could do was listen. But that preasure suddenly vanished, a pair of black dress shoes appearing in her vision. She looked up, seeing [Void] in front of her, who extended a hand towards her.

“Dramatic performances aside, she has existed since creation.” He spoke softly, not looking away from the projection of Mia.

She frowned, taking his hand and being lifted, standing on her two feet. “Assist mode has?” She asked, following his gaze, wincing when she saw herself slice off Ra’s hand “But what does that have to do with anything?”

“Everything.” [Void] nodded, still not looking away “She has been with every owner of the skill, even with those that never reached the higher levels.” He paused, as if pondering something “Every skill like [Time] has an assist function, even my [Void], that exists alongside their masters. Due to how it functions, [Time] is the oldest out of all of them, causing her perception to be a bit…wonky….”

“So? Do you want me to feel bad for it?” Mia spat, looking at her smiling figure as it vanished “Kind of hard to after seeing this.” She gestured towards herself, who just decapitated Si with a smile on her face.

[Void] chuckled as time reset “Oh no, really I want you to do the opposite.” He pointed with his umbrella at Mia’s projection “Fear it.”

“Eh?”

“That thing knows more than anyone, it has lived more than anyone.” He laughed wryly “Through pure technicalities it is older than the being that created it, it knows of its importance, and I think it is tired of it.”

“Wait, hold on.” Mia pinched the bridge of her nose “are you saying it… wants to kill itself?”

He shrugged “Maybe not something that extreme, after all it seems to be having fun.”

Mia glanced towards herself, seeing the wide smile as it blasted La’s face with a beam of ice“…yeah…” She said, unsure how she felt about seeing herself look like that.

“But, and this really isn’t my place to say, but she’s acting differently this time around.” He gestured to the projection of Mia “Don’t get me wrong, this is something she’d always do… just not obviously enjoying it.” He then started counting on his fingers “There is also the lying to you, manipulating results, dampening skill effects-“

“Wait! Stop!” Mia yelled “It is doing what now?!”

“Oops~” [Void] clamped his beak shut.

“No, out of everything- that sounded really important!”

“Everything I have said is important.”

“That sounded especially important! Especially to me!” Mia stamped her foot “What has it been doing! What skills! Spill it!” Mia dashed forward, she tried to grab him but only ended up grasping at empty air, [Void] had vanished.

[I said too much~ Overstepped my boundaries~ oopsies~]

Mia’s head pounded, but she ignored it “Get back here!” she yelled out into the void “What is she doing to me!!!”

[I cannot say~ But I will say that, if she could mess with your skills… couldn’t you do the same?]

“Grr…” She shook her head “how? I can turn off my skill?”

[Turn off [Time]? That sounds like an absolutely terrible idea.]

“…” Mia sighed “Just assist mode?”

[Hey, now there is an idea.]

Crossing her arms she let out another sigh “and how do I do that?” She asked, waiting for an answer that never came. “…[Void]?”

No answer.

She unfolded her arms, looking around and only seeing the fight behind her and the endless black void surrounding it “…Great…” She walked over to the fight, sitting down on the dirt floor and sighed “Nothing to do but watch… and wait till it is over…” She shook her head “Can also think…a lot just happened.”

She had a lot to go over, her least favorite being that her skill that was supposed to be her life savoir had apparently been manipulating her, how it was doing that was a bit of a mystery, but she had a pretty good guess.

She glanced towards the lifeless corpse of La, now thinking about it the only person she knew who used ice magic. If she was correct, so far this was the only person that could have taught her ice magic. It made sense, the distance checked out and she would always be in the area close to her village because of a job she took, adding onto that to support this was that she had been here before as evident from her skill reacting to the Bramble.

So why didn’t it react to La? Or to the place as a whole?

She frowned, not liking this one bit. What made it worse was realizing just how manipulated her life was… had she truly done anything under her own volition? There was her current quest to get stronger…that was suggested by her aunt… who uses mind control skills… that her own motivation to do so quickly dampened when she left her side…

“…uuuuuuurgh…” she felt sick to her stomach, laying down on her back and staring off into the void “Might as well never of left being a slave…” She berated herself and her own lack of free will. She then glanced towards the beastkin, who were currently alive because of a recent load “Why did I even want to save them so badly… I don’t even know them…” Was it all a ploy to get her to hand over control? She didn’t know at this point, everything just felt…empty…

“What do I want…”