by Matthew Peed
We turned around and started heading back to the edge of the floor when a constellation in the sky above us flashed. Objects of all kinds landed in front of various people in the group, including things that would fetch a high price in the market or that many of us could actually use right away. I reached down and picked up a pair of gloves that landed in front of me. I could tell right away that they increased my mana circulation.
“What are these for?” I asked, looking around the group.
“I’m not sure . . . maybe a reward for getting this far into the dungeon?” Louella said, picking up a pair of boots.
“Ezal? What’d you come here for?” I asked when I saw her standing next to Louella.
“Huh? I came here to find you two . . . which I did . . .” Ezal said, confusion written on her face.
“Let’s . . . let’s leave the dungeon for now. We can figure out what happened later,” I said as a terrible pain hit my stomach and more echoing pain rushed throughout the rest of my body. Had we encountered some type of poison trap?
“Where’s my father?!” a large man shouted suddenly from the back. I realized there were almost fifty people with us.
“Sir, it’s only us here,” Ezal said to the man in a calming voice.
“Don’t lie to me! Where’s the rest of my party?! Who are you?! Why did I get something from the dungeon for no reason?!” the man demanded, getting angrier by the second.
“We were . . .” I started to say before a splitting pain flashed through my head. I took a deep breath, then continued, “Something has obviously happened. I fear the worse for the parties missing members, but traps that alter memory are known to exist. Maybe we triggered some kind of challenge and we are the victors?” I explained to the man.
Vern had been going full tilt, teaching me everything she knew about dungeons now that we officially worshipped a dungeon god. She’d pounded hundreds of types of traps known to exist into my head. Memory traps were big issue in a few dungeons to the south.
“NO!” the man shouted in denial. He looked around wildly, everyone backing away in case he did something rash. He locked onto something, then took off at a full sprint. I saw the sword hilt, but I couldn’t react in time to do anything. Louella managed to strike him with a bolt of lightning, but the man was fueled by his rage and didn’t go down.
He grabbed the hilt and twisted it. It was ironic that it turned out to be a correct key. Likely all the groups only needed one more key each, and given our long time together, it counted us all as one group. Columns of light surrounded everyone present in the group and started to pulsate. There was a surge of mana, then a flash, and darkness overtook me.
~~~
I awoke later after who knows how long. I looked around but didn’t see anyone else. There was what looked like a flat white city around me. The rest of the group was nowhere to be seen. From what I could tell, I was the only one there. I stood up and started walking toward the largest building I could see.
It was . . . odd, to say the least, walking through this town. There were no markings that drew my eye, but I couldn’t stop trying to find any detail in the washed-out city. It was perfectly quiet, but there was some type of hum or throb that I could feel. It was just eerie beyond measure.
“What lies in store for me?” I said out loud to myself.
“Isn’t that the question we should ask ourselves every day?” a voice said from behind me.
I spun around, bracing myself for whatever it could be. I nearly fell over when I saw myself standing in front of me. Only she wasn’t me; there seemed to be a colorlessness to her. That said, I could still feel a large amount of mana in her.
“Who are you?!” I demanded hastily.
She smirked, then said, “Why . . . I’m our god’s better version of you.” She performed a sweeping bow, much like an actor at a theater would.
“You lie! Lord Regan would never replace me,” I shouted back.
“How can you be sure? You did just fall into his trap sooo easily,” the other me said as she moved over to a white box and leaned against it.
The image of a disappointed Lord Regan flashed through my head, but I quickly shook it away. I knew he was much more than that and wouldn’t judge a person by their mistakes. “You can’t fool me. You are some type of test,” I accused, pointing at her.
“A test of what?” the other me asked as if it were ridiculous. “A test of your faith? A test of your devotion? Maybe a test of your wits?”
“Stop mocking me. This could all be in my head just like the feast,” I said, then channeled mana like I had earlier to resist the mental sway of the feast.
The other me smirked, then pointed her finger at me. Before I could react, a beam of mana shot from one of the devices that appeared floating around her back and into view. I barely managed to drop to the ground before the beam sliced into a building behind me. With a boom, the building started to collapse in on itself, the support from half its walls gone. I could clearly feel the heat from the beam.
“Such a powerful weapon and you use it like a bow,” the other me said with a shake of her head. The device floated down to her arm, where it latched on like a gauntlet. The beam extended from the end, only this time it stopped after about two meters. It then took the shape of a wicked blade. It brought the weapons Regan’s forces used to mind. I already knew how powerful it was, so it could most likely cut through armor like butter.
“A battle, then?” I asked sarcastically.
“I don’t know. Sure,” the other me said vaguely. “So violent . . . did our mother raise you this way?” she asked, as if worried about me.
“MY mother! Not yours!” I shouted. I channeled mana, then threw a fireball at her, trying to get a gauge of her.
She flicked her finger, and a jut of rock shot from the ground, causing the fireball to explode plenty of distance short before got near her. “Now, now. No need for such a temper. You’re a princess, aren’t you?” the other me said with a chuckle.
I felt a surge of mana from her, then a shock wave of some kind threw me back into the wall of one of the white buildings with enough force that cracks formed where I impacted. My enchanted armor managed to negate most of the shock, but it still hurt like hell.
“Is that the best you got?” I taunted, spitting out some blood.
“Stubborn as well . . . A princess must be able to compromise.” The other me shook her head and started walking toward me, slow but deliberate. “Maybe it would have been better if I’d taken your place, after all.”
I looked at the mana sword on her arm, then back to my own device. If she could do it, so could I. I pulled myself out of the wall, then turned away from her and ran to gain some time. As I fled, I concentrated on the device floating next to my head. There must be some command that triggered it, I knew. I thought of the most obvious ones first: “sword,” “weapon,” “attack.” But the only one that did anything was “attack,” which made it start to charge its mana. I was missing something.
Next, I tried to send it to my hand. The device moved to float next to it, but that was it. I grabbed it manually, but still nothing happened to change the damn thing.
“Come on,” the other me called from behind me. “If you take too long, I might get bored.”
“Go take a nap or something!” I shouted back.
“No. I was just created. It would be such a waste to sleep,” the other me retorted.
I clicked my tongue as I tried to get the stupid thing to work. I just didn’t understand what I was missing. I had tried “hand” and “weapon” but nothing . . .
As soon as I thought of those together, the device flowed to my hand like the other me’s did to her arm. I grinned, feeling accomplished.
“Ha! Anything you can do, I can do as well!” I said as I slid to a stop and turned around.
“Oh, you managed it! Congratulations!” the other me said, clapping her hands condescendingly.
“Fuck off,” I growled, then charged
her.
The distance quickly closed between us. When she was right in front of me, I swung the energy blade in a rather inelegant fashion, but aimed for her throat. She met my blade with her own, the energy crackling from the collision. I pulled the blade back and tried again.
She met me blow for blow, neither managing to get through the other’s defense. While she made it look like she wasn’t struggling, I knew otherwise. Mainly because I knew I was struggling to parry all her strikes. She was obviously my copy, so she had the same level of skill as I did.
After a solid two minutes of exchanging strikes, we jumped back, breathing heavily. It felt like I was looking in a mirror, which only made it even more uncanny. I tried to think of a way to get through the situation, but anything I could do, we’d learned she most likely could do as well.
The other me rolled her head on her neck. “That was a good exercise, but it’s time to up the game.”
“Oh? I felt like you were having just as much trouble as I was,” I remarked with a smirk.
“I have my reasons,” she said, shaking her head.
Suddenly, the other device that was floating next to her began to change. I braced myself in case she used two sword beams, but I quickly found out that she was doing something different. The device flowed like water toward her back, becoming thin strips. I wondered what the hell she was doing until two wings took shape on her back.
A field of mana formed over the wing lattice. She flapped her newly formed wings, then with a gust of wind, took to the air. I grimaced and looked around, trying to find cover. The best choice I had was an alleyway that looked too narrow for her to be able to maneuver in. I tensed, then shot toward the alley with a burst of speed.
Not a moment later, a fireball landed squarely where I’d been standing. I looked over my shoulder to a meter-deep crater blown into the white material that made up the road. The fireball had been hot enough to melt the dull white stone to a slag. I threw myself forward into a roll and barely dodges several shards of ice that sank into the ground behind me. I managed to anticipate the attack, whether through instinct or because I knew she would react at least partially like myself.
“Time for some cat and mouse?” the other me called from the air.
I wanted to kick her right in the stomach. “Sounds good. You be the mouse, I’ll be the cat,” I yelled back, leaning against the wall to catch my breath.
“Sorry, survival of the fittest, my copy,” she replied with a snicker.
I felt some droplets of water on my face before a deluge of water rushed from the roofs of the buildings around me. I slammed my fist on the wall behind me to create a hole, then reformed it once I was through. I needed to even the battlefield. That meant getting into the air as well.
I concentrated on the second device to try to work through it again. The building started to shake as the other me began to use terra magic to try to collapse it. I quickly split my focus to reinforce the building while working on the device.
Chapter 26
Louella
I felt like shit as I looked around the white city I’d found myself in. The dull faded color made me feel as if I were in a dream. Helios was floating around me, but I hadn’t seen any of the others. This could be a trap, I thought, and I wanted to be as protected as possible. Though, taking into account what had happened, my guess was it was most likely the boss room.
I considered calling Regan on my bracelet but felt that would have been a coward’s move. The others weren’t able to leave without completing the challenge, so I needed to tough it out with them. Besides, if Regan had designed this boss to be completed alone, then I should be able to do it.
This place was eerily quiet, though I could vaguely hear rumbling way in the distance. It could be the boss or the others. The only way to find out was to investigate. It was coming from all around me, so I just picked a direction.
“Not going to call for help?” I heard from behind me.
I spun around, lightning arcing from my staff as I angled Helios toward the source. “Who’s there?!” I yelled when I didn’t see anyone.
“Up here, sweetie,” the voice said. I looked up and saw . . . me floating in the air. I blinked to make sure it wasn’t an illusion, but it really was me.
“What the . . .” I muttered, unsure of what to feel.
“All that power and still walking like a monkey?” the other me snickered.
“I enjoy walking,” I retorted while I looked her over.
With my increased senses, I could see she was using some sort of field generated from spinning a disk-like construct under her feet. I was thankful to Regan for adding books to the library that dealt with the state of matter. It looked like she was freezing the air to stand on. I’d studied mainly electricity when designing Helios, but the states of matter were shown to me quite often as well.
I channeled mana into Helios and quickly rose into the sky. I noticed there were droplet-size icicles floating in the air around her. Where my outfit was blue, hers was orange, and her skin was black with orange hexagrams instead of white lightning tattoos. Other than the color difference, she appeared to be a copy of me.
“Aren’t you going to answer my question?” she asked.
“I would like to stop relying on Regan for everything,” I replied seriously. It seemed like I was always relying on him to solve my problems. I know that some things are just better left to others when the situation suits them better. However, that didn’t mean I couldn’t improve myself. Let’s see how far I can get on my own with this challenge, I decided.
“Then why haven’t you killed that deadbeat of a man you call Father?” the other me asked. She started pacing in the air. The spot her foot “landed” on froze instantly. It wasn’t like regular ice, however, because it didn’t fall. After less than a second, it vanished.
“You being some kind of illusion, you wouldn’t know, but I am extremely busy and don’t have time to cause international issues,” I retorted, turning my nose up to her. I would admit that I wanted to get rid of my father, but not kill him. He’d only caused me problems the last year of my life. Before that, I could remember him actually being loving. Whether it was so he could marry me off without issue, well, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.
“International issues . . . sure, that’s another thing. Why are you still maintaining this façade of a lord when you are allied to two of the strongest forces on the continent?” The other me tilted her head and placed her finger on her chin.
“You would have me start a war with the whole continent?” I asked, surprised. Just because you are allied with powerful people doesn’t mean they’ll fight your war for you.” What was this other me wanting to do?
“War? The Creator could probably roll over them without an issue by himself. Don’t you want to be on the side of the victors?” the other me asked.
I had considered the idea before if I was being honest with myself. Regan was powerful. So powerful, in fact, that I feared him sometimes. The only thing that reassured me was the amount of help he had given me over the months. Izora worshipped him as a god, and while she was younger than me, she was trained to be a queen and knew more about those types of topics. I felt I could trust her judgment.
“You’re a demon. Trying to lure me into ruin!” I accused. That had to be the challenge—to deal with your inner demons. I wouldn’t deny I’d had thoughts similar to these. It just rubbed me the wrong way to hear them voiced aloud.
“Ruin? How so?” the other me asked, confused.
“You want me to use Regan’s power for my own gain. He would abandon me in a heartbeat if I tried to do such a thing,” I enlightened her.
“Fair enough . . . Where does that leave us?” she asked, but it seemed directed more to herself than to me.
“May I go look for my friends if you’re busy?” I mumbled.
“You have to get past me,” the other me said with a shrug.
“Alright, then,” I said.
&nb
sp; I pointed Helios at her and released an arc of lightning. It flashed across the distance in a blink but met some type of barrier a few meters in front of her. The bolt froze in midair, then appeared to struggle against something as it inched forward. I could feel my mana being drained from the increase in trying to push through the barrier. I discontinued the spell and let it fade.
“Well, this could be hard . . .” I said, considering the problem.
“My turn?” the other asked.
Before I could say anything, I felt the energy in the area drop or slow down. I wasn’t quite sure which it was, but it suddenly felt like I was moving through water. A moment later a shard of ice sliced through the air at me. It was completely black and appeared to pull in the light around it. It was more blurred than a distinct image.
Having trouble keeping track of the shard, I had to throw myself to the side to dodge it suddenly. It nicked my barrier, and I felt a massive drain on my mana. I had no idea how to counter this kind of opponent. It appeared that she was the opposite of lightning and absorbed the excited energy that the particles in lightning possessed. And not just lightning but all energy around her.
“That was instructive,” I said, fixing myself midair.
“The Creator probably didn’t consider what would come about when creating this floor months ago. Not only has his power increased but so has yours. I’m only a tiny flame when compared with the power that he possesses, but I command a considerable force of my own,” the other me said. A black swirl formed behind her that sucked in everything energy based around the area.
I flew backward to avoid getting sucked into the event. I was actually getting worried for the other me as more and more energy poured into her. Finally, she stopped, and her eyes radiated an energy that fluctuated between black and dark orange. She pointed at the building next to me, then I felt a fluctuation of the energy in that spot. I could only stand there in horror as a chunk of the building in the shape of a sphere was turned to dust. A stream of multicolored energy rushed back to her, soaking into the swirl behind her.
“What the hell?!” I yelled, not sure what was happening.