The heat burned him over and over again, but he simply reversed his death each time, knowing full well that Mike and Sora didn't have that option.
"Okay" Shinki said. "I think this time it's done… Oh come on!"
Indeed, Mike had Inmagined a movement to redirect the heat around him so as to create a safe zone, just big enough for him and Sora.
"Mr. Mike, you can even imagine temperature movements now?" Sora asked with an admiring look.
"Um… it seems so" Mike replied, surprised too.
He had just tried the experiment because he had no other idea for survival, and was therefore pleasantly surprised to see that he could Imagine the movement of almost anything.
Suddenly, based on this discovery, an improbable idea came to his mind, which could allow him to prevent Shinki from undoing his injuries and deaths. But in order to try, he first had to succeed in hitting Shinki with an attack, something impossible while he was trapped here with Sora.
On his side, Shinki had already teleported a good distance from the sun, watching the scene attentively:
"Hmmm, I'm curious to see what else they'll come up with to escape" he wondered aloud.
Suddenly, a line of light pierced the sun and, further in the Narrative Layer, Mike and Sora reappeared, alongside Clarc and Lum.
"Dad, Madam Fairy, you have come back!" Sora exclaimed happily.
"Have you recovered?" Mike asked.
"More or less" Clarc replied. "I'm about halfway recovered, but my armor and sword are in pieces, and I still have no idea how to use Imagination"
"And I regained just enough energy to bring us back here and save you. I can only use Imagination for basic things" Lum said.
"It's better than nothing" Mike said. "Besides, Clarc, since we're talking about weapons…"
He tried to imagine black iron armor and a sword for Clarc, but failed.
"Ah, sorry, I think I'm starting to run out of energy too" Mike apologized. "My armor is too small, but I can at least give you this"
He gave his sword to Clarc.
"Thank you" the latter thanked.
"No problem" Mike replied. "Anyway, back to the important thing: Sora and Clarc, I know you're not at your best, but we're going to have to count on you to kill Shinki one last time. I have a plan to stop Shinki from undoing his death again, but I'm going to need help gathering the energy needed, you'll help me with that, Lum. Do you all agree with this plan?"
The other three all nodded without hesitation:
"No problem, Mr. Mike" Sora replied.
"I must say you really have the aura of the leader now, Mike" Lum complimented him.
"Yes, I'm proud to have a friend like you" Clarc added.
"And I'm just as proud to have an enemy like him: it will add credit to my victory"
The one who said these words was Shinki, who had teleported in front of them without warning, using his telekinesis to snatch the black iron sword from Clarc's hands.
"One less threat" he said before dodging a nail that could have gone through his head.
At the same time, Lum flew a good distance away with Mike while Clarc and Sora took up a guard position.
"Ah, I will never understand the Platonic Sea" Shinki, in perfect condition again, sighed. "On one side you can swim there, on the other you can walk there, it's incomprehensible, don't you think?"
"How do you still have enough energy to freely use Imagination after all that?" Lum wondered.
According to her knowledge, only humans from the Prime World with a high degree of Imagination mastery could use Imagination unlimitedly. For Travelers, even with perfect mastery, they eventually became exhausted.
"Oh, I'm just using my unique trait ability to cancel out my energy losses" Shinki replied, deflecting one of Sora's nails.
"So, you use Imagination to recover the energy you lose by using it!?" Mike wondered.
"Yes, that's the advantage of having practiced for more than just three years" the destroyer replied, teleporting a mountain above Sora and Clarc to crush them.
"Even without any basis in Imagination, I know it doesn't make any sense" Clarc said, pulverizing the mountain.
"A bit like someone damaging universes and fracturing mountains with their fists" Shinki replied.
The latter teleported away from Clarc and Sora to appear near Lum and Mike:
"I have the distinct impression that you are planning something dirty, would you mind if I cut your existence short first?" he asked.
He didn't take the time to wait for a response and teleported a mountain above them, which was destroyed at the last moment by nails appearing out of nowhere:
"I've got you covered, Mr. Mike and Mrs. Fairy!" Sora shouted.
At the same time, Clarc took one of the screws imagined by Sora and tensed the muscles of his biceps before throwing it at Shinki with all his might. He had thrown it too fast for Shinki to avoid it and too hard for him to miss it.of life with his telekinesis, the destroyer had no choice but to teleport a little further, which gave the four friends time to regroup:
"Okay, actually, it would probably be better if one of you two stayed with us to cover us" Mike said. "No, actually, I just realized something"
"What is it?" Clark asked.
"Now that I'm exhausted, Shinki could have perfectly teleported another sun from the surrounding stories to burn us. Only Clarc could survive this kind of thing, so why didn't he? There must be a limit to the amount of energy he can recover" Mike concluded.
"You're half right, my dear Mike" Shinki intervened. "In principle, I can recover all my energy but in practice I lack the concentration to use it: teleporting an entire sun into the Narrative Layer and ensuring that it does not disappear is really complicated. I don't have the concentration to do it again, unfortunately"
"But if you're explaining all that to us, then you have an even worse trick up your sleeve" Mike guessed. "You're planning an attack that will definitely kill us and you're buying time to finish it! Damn, attack him!"
"Hehe, nice deduction but too bad, I finished while you were talking" Shinki laughed.
A little below them, a narrative began to fracture.
"What is happening!?" the four allies were surprised.
"Oh, you didn't know? Most universes have principles similar to the Prime World" Shinki said. "For example, without the sun, the Earth no longer has light and everyone dies, hehe"
"Everyone dies... that includes the necessary story elements! Do you want to use the destruction of the story to somehow launch your ultimate attack?!"
"You... you had considered that we would survive the star so you had prepared that at the same time!?" exclaimed Mike, stunned.
He had to face the facts, Shinki was undoubtedly the smartest here.
"Haaaan, you make that sound like I'm a video game boss" Shinki complained. "Except here, the one with the save and load option is me, SO HURRY UP AND DIE!"
Shinki enhanced his telekinesis with Imagination, allowing him to gain a grip on the collapsing narrative. He clenched his fist and the story, which basically resembled a large black sphere, compressed with crunching noises until it fit in the palm of his hand and emitted a white light.
"Damn it, he really was hiding a fifth ability of his unique trait!" Mike shouted.
"This is the worst possible situation!" Lum, who understood the gravity of the situation thanks to his new knowledge. "If compressed while unstable, almost any universe in almost any story could create an explosion on the scale of a big bang"
"A big bang? You mean, like the thing that scientists say created the universe?" Mike asked.
"Yes, but this is much more serious!" Lum replied in panic. "We are not talking about a universe that was contained in a story and which became unstable, we are talking about the story itself, which was in the process of collapsing before being compressed! It's like comparing a corrupted file on your computer to the explosion of the computer itself, except that even the corrupted file would have pulverized us!"
"Right, even I don't think I could undo the damage created by this attack, Shinki said. Well, the only problem is that it will probably destroy a few hundred other stories in the process but luckily for me, I DON'T CARE, DIE!"
So, Shinki threw the small sphere enclosed in his hand towards them, which exploded with such violence that almost eight hundred stories were destroyed, and the entire Simple and Narrative Layers were shaken.
"So Mike, what genius idea did you have to get out of it this time?" Shinki asked.
…
Mike didn't answer.
"Miss fairy?"
…
Lum did not answer.
"Former captain of the guard?"
…
Clark did not answer.
"My dear secret friend?"
…
Sora didn't respond.
"Does this mean I have won, dear opponents?"
…
..
.
None of the four responded, having all been annihilated by the explosion.
"I take that as a yes" Shinki concluded.
His face returned to a peaceful smile as he admired the Platonic Sea around him, which was already beginning to "flow" new stories to replace the ones he had destroyed.
"Aaaaaah, it feels good,
win against those of the Primary World even if I am only a Traveler,
take the queen even if I'm just a pawn,
crush winners even if I'm just a loser.
And once again, in a battle lost in advance,
the secondary character triumphs over the main ones!!!"
He closed his eyes, let himself float for a moment in the Platonic Sea, and sighed:
"But I guess it's not just going to end like that, huh?"