6
“According to the information I’ve gathered, the Chosen One fought one of the Elite Four and was close to beating him. However, this new enemy, Faustless of the Wind, used a spell called Random Teleport and took the Chosen One with him. As you might guess from the name, the spell teleports the targets to a random destination.”
Back at our hideout, Alice and I hold an emergency meeting.
“This teleport spell has the ability to transport you pretty much anywhere. The destination remains unknown. Think of our first teleport on to this planet. It could be somewhere in the sky, out at sea, or even the middle of the Darkwood. The probability of survival is close to zero.”
“I’ve never even seen this Chosen One in person, but I feel for him. I could’ve been in his shoes if something fudged my teleportation. Well, in my case, I was probably guaranteed a pretty high success rate, right?”
Sure, it’s not directly related to me, but if I consider that the very same thing could’ve happened to me, I can’t help but feel sympathy for the Chosen One.
“…………Right.”
“Why did it take you so long to agree?”
Okay, so it seems my situation was a lot closer to his than I thought.
“Anyway, isn’t the Chosen One supposed to beat the Demon Lord according to the prophecy or whatever? I’m not really one to believe in something so unscientific, but I’d heard that things were proceeding as expected, more or less. I wonder what happened.”
“Hey, don’t change the subject… But you do have a point. It’s basically unheard of for the Chosen One to just disappear in the middle of the story. The Demon Lord showed up, and the Chosen One was identified by a mark on the hand. Sounds like that shady prophecy’s been right up till now.”
Alice goes quiet and appears to be lost in thought.
“…Hey, Six, you like games and novels where there’s a Chosen One, right? I don’t have any entertainment-related data in my memory, so can you tell me how those sorts of stories usually go? Does the Chosen One appear out of nowhere, display superhuman abilities, and defeat everything in his path?”
“Hmm? Nah, they usually suffer at least one defeat. Something along the lines of losing to a powerful opponent, engaging in self-reflection over their weakness, training to overcome their weakness, and getting their revenge on that opponent. The whole ‘hero’s journey’ thing actually requires a failure here and there. Are you saying this Random Teleport is one of those necessary failures? Like, the Chosen One will undergo intense training wherever he ended up and come back stronger when the kingdom truly needs him?”
I guess that could happen. Maybe he’ll encounter a mysterious old man at his destination and learn a new finishing move.
Ignoring the part about being teleported into the middle of nowhere, losing and getting stronger is a key part of the narrative, no matter the medium.
“…No, probably not. The Chosen One’s already suffered defeat once, remember? He got beaten by those two boss demons at the Tower of Duster. If things had gone according to plan, the Chosen One would’ve trained to beat those two and eventually defeated them and Whatever-His-Name-Is of the Wind with his new ultimate techniques. Thinking back to the tower assault, if we hadn’t gotten involved, I’m not sure the kingdom’s knights would have been able to win. The Chosen One was probably supposed to defeat an enemy that the entire royal army couldn’t, thus inspiring the masses. However…”
“…Wait, are you saying that we screwed up the narrative by clearing the tower ourselves? That makes it sound like it’s my fault. I mean, fate is tougher than that, right? Right?! …Hey, you’re supposed to be a genius, right?! Well, use that big brain of yours and find a way to fix this!”
I’m nearly overwhelmed by the feeling that I may have just caused the mother of all plot derailments. I grab Alice, shaking her by the shoulders in the hopes that a solution might fall out.
“There are multiple potential fixes. How we fix this depends on what methods you’re willing to employ.”
“Let’s hear them.”
Alice raises her index finger.
“You go commit some unspeakable act of evil that earns you an enormous number of Evil Points. In the meantime, I’ll request access to the restricted stock of biological and chemical weapons. We then use your newly acquired points to obtain them.”
……
“Any other ideas?”
Alice’s middle finger extends to join her index finger.
“I attack the Demon Lord’s fortress on my own, then taunt the nearest enemy. They attack me. The ever-so-slightly dangerous reactor core embedded within me goes off. The Demon Lord’s fortress, the Demon Lord himself, and everything within a few miles of it are vaporized.”
“Plan rejected, you dumbass! Is there absolutely no way for us to solve this peacefully?”
I wait for Alice to raise another finger and present option number three, which she doesn’t do.
“Nope. Let’s say through some miracle we stop the invasion currently underway. That doesn’t change the fundamental math. Our ace in the hole, the Chosen One, is gone. Which means even repelling multiple attacks will be futile in the long run. Any resistance we tried to put up would be a drop in the bucket.”
“……Which means our remaining option is……”
Alice and I exchange nods.
““Let’s ditch.””
Time to cut our losses and close the book on this place.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login