The three were speechless, completely unaware of what was happening. Finally, Mike regained the use of speech:
"How-"
"How come I'm perfectly fine again when you just cut off my head? I guess that's what you want to ask" Shinki cut him off. "It's very simple, if I was able to resurrect, it's thanks to my unique Traveler trait, it's pretty obvious"
"Your unique trait?" Mike asked, a little lost.
Shinki looked at him in dismay and sighed, like a teacher asked by a student what 1+1 was.
"It's true, I forgot that you came from the Primary World, it's normal that you don't know since you and your peers have no limitations to use Imagination" Shinki said. "Unfortunately, Travelers are not so lucky: other than creating ordinary things, Travelers can only fully utilize Imagination thanks to this unique trait, which depends on the Traveler's personality"
"I see…"
Mike seemed to have more or less understood the concept and Sora already knew it but, seeing that Clarc was struggling to follow, Shinki still took the trouble to elaborate:
"For example, for this fairy that Master Noir told me about, Lum, she likes to use her wings to fly freely in the sky, so she uses Imagination better in this area. This destroyer, Inferno, him... well, he wants to destroy stories, so obviously he will use Imagination better when it comes to destroying something.
And for Sora, he wanted both to fix his relationship with his father, so Clarc, and to hurt him for revenge, so something that can fix and damage things, that's why he mainly uses screw. It's that simple"
"So, what is your unique trait?" Mike asked. "He must be incredible to be able to allow you to be resurrected like that"
"Haha, no need to try flattery, I'll tell you anyway, it makes it more interesting" Shinki said. "Mysingle trait, it is the refusal to lose against "important people". Based on this, I have developed three main capabilities"
"Which ones?" Mike asked, sensing something was wrong.
Even if it fit Shinki's character, he found it strange that the latter revealed his secrets to them so easily.
"Well first of all, I can teleport anything and anyone stationary anywhere, even outside of the story. That way, if I face anyone who isn't from the Prime World or a Traveler, if I manage to immobilize them with my telekinesis, I can just send them out of the story and presto, gone, one less problem"
"It's horrible!" Mike blurted.
"Its main use is still to save time when moving or to facilitate escape. Is it really worse than decapitating someone?" Shinki said ironically.
Mike fell silent again, a guilty look appearing despite himself on his face.
"Just kidding, it's the game that wants it after all, hehe. Anyway, my second ability is to be able to prevent a person from using Imagination, with the counterpart of not being able to use it either, it's quite useful one on one with Travelers, since most of them don't don't really have any useful abilities likemy telekinesis, outside of the Imagination. Of course, this doesn't work against excessively powerful entities like Master Noir"
Mike understood better why he found himself unable to treat Clarc before the end of "right or wrong".
"And the last? I suppose this is the one that allowed you to be resurrected?"
"You're half right, Mike. It's not really the ability to resurrect, but rather to ensure that I never died. Think of it as the power to undo the consequences of any event that would or could lead to a negative effect on me" Shinki explained. "It's a bit like a sort of save point if you prefer"
"So ultimately, you developed three abilities, respectively to defeat characters, defeat Imagination users, and prevent yourself from being defeated, right?" Mike asked.
"That's it" Shinki replied. "But still, none of these abilities developed with the Imagination can match my own talent"
"Telekinesis?" Mike asked.
"No" Shinki refuted.
Suddenly, Clarc showed a stunned expression.
"Wits" the king finished as Clarc fell to the ground.
Blood was leaking from the latter's leg, and Mike saw that it had been pierced by the dagger he himself had deflected earlier. Shinki took the opportunity to immobilize Clarc with his telekinesis.
"Hehe, as simple as expected" Shinki said.
"What... what-" Mike started.
"What happened? Are you really asking me what happened? You disappoint me Mike, I thought you would at least know the principle of a backstabbing attack"
"Cheater!" Sora shouted. "You couldn't beat Dad, so you attacked him from behind! You're just a dirty cheater. You said you would tell us your unique trait to make the game more interesting but in reality, you just wanted to distract us to attack Dad!"
He had already completely stopped talking to Shinki, and Shinki didn't mind.
"A cheater?" Shinki pretended to be surprised. "But no, anyway, who said that backstabbing was cheating? It's just dishonest, hehe"
"It's not really your style to use dishonest means to win, usually" Mike said while thinking of a solution to get out of this predicament.
"My style? Heh… because you really think you know anything about me?" Shinki asked.
He couldn't contain himself any longer, and burst out into a mad laugh that echoed throughout the castle:
"Hahahahaha, HAHAHAHAHA! Ahlala, sorry, I know it's wrong to make fun, but... did you really believe that until today, I had already been honest with you?" Shinki asked.
Then he slapped his hand on his forehead, pretending to feel sorry for Mike's stupidity:
"Ahlala, you're going to make me feel guilty by being so naive, Mike. Let me explain: when bringing you here, Master Noir gave me clear instructions: first, you had to have good living conditions. Then, I shouldn't try to hurt you directly. Finally, I couldn't force you to play a game that you didn't choose. Of course, there is also the fact that according to Him, you inevitably end up winning in the game three days ago"
"What is your point?" Mike urged.
"Where am I going with this? It's simple, I want to come to the fact that at that moment, your presence annoyed me more than anything: me who hates losing, I would be forced to lose against a random guy like you simply because you came from Primary World. I raged and despaired while thinking of a way to win anyway, and I finally figured out the bet scheme"
"So you had planned this from the very beginning?" Mike wondered.
"Yes, but that's not all, based only on an overall idea, the chances of my plan working were still far too low" Shinki said. "So it was from that moment on that I made the decision to personally take care of every single thing that could help me change my predestined defeat into victory"
"Of course, the first step was to pretend to be an honest player who follows the rules every game so that you would let your guard down and fall for it. It was simple: Master Noir had only warned me that I would inevitably lose two days ago, implying that I could easily win until then, so I didn't need to cheat. But that's far from all"
Delighting in the shocked looks of his three ennemies, he continued:
"First, I had to find a reason to force you to accept this game even if you had technically already won, so I suggested that Sora go see you and play with you, which led to you becoming friends. Then one day, I asked one of the servants to discreetly suggest that Clarc go see his son's new friend: I've had two years to get to know you Mike, and even more for Clarc
I knew you two would quickly become friends. Next, I needed a reason to start the death fight between Sora and Clarc, so I intentionally made the relationship between the three of you tense. This had another advantage, since it was because of this that Sora went to convince those two guards from before to try to kill Mike: thanks to this dangerous situation, the relationship between the two of you, Mike and Clarc, is became even better and, from then on, I could be absolutely certain that Mike would not leave and abandon his dear friend"
The three stood still and speechless, unable to accept that Shinki could have planned everything this far.
"Hehe, the best part is that even if it was me who proposed the game, it doesn't violate Master Noir's instructions since, technically, it's just an extension of the "true or false" game. and this time I can attack you directly, Mike, since that's the rule of the game" Shinki laughed. "After all that, I just had to explain to you how I use Imagination so that you are distracted and don't see the knife coming, then explain to you how my plan worked out so that you don't realize that I teleported Clarc, the only one of you who cannot use Imagination, outside of the story"
After all these explanations, the three took almost a second before realizing the meaning of Shinki's last sentence. Mike and Sora only had time to turn their heads towards Clarc to see him disappear.
"Clarc?"
"Dad?"
The two stood there, unable to realize that just like that, Clarc had disappeared.
"What do I hear, Clarc, dad? Sorry to tell you, but that person already doesn't exist anymore" Shinki said. "When Fate arrives and history returns to the beginning, no one will remember that he even existed except us, and therefore apart from me since you are going to end your life today. But that… that's normal"
"How so? Do you mean there is still a chance to save Dad?" Sora asked with hope and naivety.
"Have you started talking to me again? But unfortunately, with you and me, there are already two Travelers coming from this story and there has never been a case where three of us appear in one story. Your father is dead, Sora, forever deleted down to the smallest particle" Shinki said smiling.
Sora fainted from shock and, as Mike caught him to prevent him from falling to the ground, Shinki continued speaking without caring in the least:
"But anyway, where it differs from normal is that Clarc is, or rather was, the main character" Shinki revealed. "Without him, the story can no longer play out and will therefore quickly self-destruct, which you won't be able to see happen because you, a third time, let yourself be distracted by what I was saying"
A rock the size of a house suddenly fell towards Mike at a completely supernatural speed, but unlike the first two times, Mike had kept enough attention to be able to react to the sneak attack, and swung his sword towards the top.
The blow wasn't very strong and didn't even touch the rock, but since it was put with the black iron sword created by Mike, it was enough to cut the rock into thousands of smaller rocks, which fell around Mike and Sora without touching them.
"Is this the sword you imagined? Heh, humans in the Primary World really have too many advantages. Being able to improvise something like that in less than three years of training is really unfair, it feels like a cheat code" Shinki said. "Well, that hasn't stopped you from getting crushed so far, that said"
Mike, finally awakened from his torpor after Clarc had been teleported, wore an expression of absolute rage, which would probably have prevented Lum and Frey from recognizing him if they saw him now.
"Shinki, YOU! How can you do that... you... argh, no matter your canceling power or anything else, I'm going to kill you! And if you come back, I'll do it again, again and again, until you're too fucked up to come back to life!" Mike shouted.
"Yes, maybe you could, because after all, you are the hero and I am just a loser" Shinki conceded with a smile. "And that's precisely why, rather than fighting you, I'm going to use the best method possible: flight. When I was preparing for today, I worked hard to make it impossible to create a passage out of this story without the hero, even using Imagination. You can only teleport directly outside with Imagination, which unfortunately you and Sora are not capable of"
"Shinki… SHINKI!" Mike shouted as he rushed towards his enemy, cutting everything the latter put in his way with his sword.
"Wow, creepy" Shinki said. "Okay, I'll leave you, I don't want to take the risk of dying with you, and I still have to go check if Clarc has really been deleted or if he has, I don't know how, become a Traveler. Also. On this, good luck Mike!"
He disappeared just before Mike could tear him to shreds with his sword. The latter, after he teleported, looked around: some guards were knocked out, some were tied up, and some were simply dead. All over the castle, or at least what remained of it, servants were running in all directions, panicking. Sora was still passed out but that didn't stop him from sobbing, even while unconscious.
Mike then realized that he had lost, that it was all over.
The last thing he heard before the story they were in was destroyed was the beating of wings.