The silvery staircase coiled up the wall, and after climbing it for a few seconds, the group reached the third floor.
The third floor, much like the rest, was pretty much empty, except at the end of the room, opposite to the staircase, was an arched door. Other than that, there were only light-emitting orbs that floated near the ceiling.
The arched, two-sided, door was different from the rest of the room as, firstly, it was made of a different material compared to the inside of the tower. The inside was pretty much made of iron that had a shiny gray tone. Instead, the door more resembled the outside of the tower and was made of a conglomerate of black stone-like material. But more than all that, it had a hole at the very center.
The emptiness of this floor wasn't even that surprising anymore, they only wondered why. What was even the purpose of this tower? It wasn't useless as energy was clearly coursing through the veins of its body, and it wasn't abandoned as the "Space Invaders" had clearly stated that someone had been playing just before they arrived.
This only led them to be even more curious about what lay ahead, but they weren't as careless as before. The second floor had made use of pressure plates, and this caught them off guard. Luckily, nothing went wrong that time, but what if this open floor had them too? And what if something went wrong? Obviously, they couldn't afford to tread lightly.
They even tested the floor out to see if there were pressure plates using their soul juice. They would make a thin string, probably only a few hairs thick, and run it across the floor. If the pressure plate were slightly elevated, with their concentration, they would feel the sudden increase. And if the pressure plate were slightly depressed, the same would apply, they would feel it.
The entire group, save for the two toads, summoned long strings of their soul juice and scanned the entire floor.
They found nothing.
Now, it wasn't that their method didn't work, it was perfectly valid, it just wouldn't because there weren't any plates. Trust me, okay, I would never betray your trust like that.
Their trust on the other hand…
Well, anyways, seeing it was all clear, they sighed in relief before stepping forward.
But, and of course this was going to happen, as soon as they officially took a few steps into the third floor, something changed.
The light orbs floating near the ceiling suddenly focused onto the group. Before, they were just spreading the light everywhere to light the room, but now they were spotlights; all eyes were on them.
Stranger yet, the smooth floor abruptly lit up as black runes appeared, inscribed into it. These runes were actually light sensitive, so when their bodies blocked the light from completely reaching the runes after walking into the room, they activated the trap that was hidden. An odorless and colorless gas.
The group were incredibly shocked; who would have thought that the tower would have switched one trap for another. By focusing on finding one trap, it turned their attention away from the other. But, it wasn't as if they had too much experience with this kind of stuff, so I'll let it slide this time.
Shocked as they were, they reacted fairly quickly and tried to retreat, but how could they let them slide so easily? I won't.
Just as they were about to reach the staircase, which the whole retreat would have taken a second at most, without warning, they stopped moving as the entire room turned black.
All around them was like a void; they were unable to see anything except themselves and their teammates by virtue of the spotlights.
Then, almost like smoke, they disappeared from each other one by one. This made them feel incredibly uncomfortable.
Every single one of them were separated from the rest, but I'm not talking about physically. Physically, they were the same, standing next to each other on the third floor. Mentally, however, is what I'm referring to and this was thanks to the hidden trap that contained and released the illusion-inducing gas—the product of a specific spiritual herb.
…
With no one around him in this black space, Ran seemed to immediately deflate. His overall confidence had taken a huge dive, and even his appearance seemed to shift to a slightly less dashing version of himself.
But now, with some more experience in being in illusions, thanks to Elana the enchantress, Ran didn't completely lose himself.
He took a deep breath and looked around, but found nothing. He was slightly slouched and he felt heavier overall. A toll seemed to take hold on him, and while it was small now, it would grow as time passed by.
But with nothing to do, and nothing to fight, he could only cross his legs and breathe deeply and slowly to continue calming himself. He ran his fingers through his long, luscious hair, and soon enough, he closed his eyes.
Soothing himself seemed to work as time continued ticking within the illusion and he didn't go crazy. But, as time came and went, a light feeling appeared on his shoulders.
Every minute that passed would make the feeling heavier and heavier, until it spread itself unevenly on his shoulders; at first, first there wasn't much to be said, but it soon turned… pleasant.
"Yeah… yeah just like that. A little more to the left… ooh. Yep, that's the spot."
Ran felt like he was in the middle of a hot spring, and servicemen were massaging his shoulders with their skilled hands.
Wait… massage?
Rans eyelids jolted open and his expression quickly became terrified as he realized the massaging wasn't a figment of his imagination.
He directly rolled from his cross-legged position before turning around to face the potential enemy.
Yet, when he turned back and his gaze fell upon the person, he realized something.
Ran was looking at himself. A literal doppelganger. More than that, the copy was looking at Ran with quite a creepy smile. Ran himself would rarely make that kind of smile. It would usually only appear when he was fattening up—I mean feeding Fluffy.
"Uh… hi?" Ran spoke cautiously, not to mention he was creeped out at looking at a person who looked exactly like him, so it came out a little crooked.
"Hi? Isn't that too simple a greeting? Come on, this is the first time you're meeting yourself…"
The doppelganger paused for a second before the smile returned to his face as he continued speaking.
"Isn't there something you want to ask me?"
"Ask you?"
Ran was confused. Was this how someone talks to themselves? Moreover, what did he want to ask? Eventually, he came up with a response.
"What… what am I?"
"What are you?"
"Yeah…"
In response, the doppelganger merely shrugged, but his smile only grew more and more.
"Are you sure you want to know?"
"Of course! I mean… yes. The entirety of my life could be summed up with a single question mark."
"The only thing I know is that I'm different from everyone else, especially after comparing everyone else's lives to mine. I don't even know what makes me different in the first place; I only came to know of the effects, but I don't know the cause."
"I don't even know my own name, that much alone should say something about me! Except, it tells me literally nothing; I know nothing."
The more Ran talked, the more agitated he became, and the higher his pitch rose. He rambled on like someone who completely opened a faucet, and by the time he finished, his face was flushed. But the doppelganger continued smiling through all of this.
"And…" the doppelganger urged Ran and he gestured with his hands for him to continue.
"And… I hate myself for it. For all of it."
"Yes," the doppelganger walked closer to Ran as he continued, "you have a deep-seated hatred internalized within you. It carries with it an unbridled rage, but what you feel is merely the surface."
The doppelganger now stood in front of Ran before he leaned in.
The doppelganger grabbed Rans neck, but it wasn't like how you thought. It was a gentle caress, like one might do to relieve stress or nerves, but more intimate. But, instead of making him feel reassured, the base of his neck shot out with a chill that made him break out in a cold sweat.
"You keep internalizing it, but one day, it will break out. It will break out in such a fashion that returning to normalcy, your definition of that anyway, will be impossible. Your life will be irrevocably changed… and it probably won't be for the better."
"You need to find a way to release it now, before it's too late; it only takes one small thing to snap everything to pieces. The final straw, so to speak."
"Do you know what a diamond is?"
"Of course."
"Right. They are one of the hardest materials you can find in the wild. But, do you know what comes as a price for such hardness?"
Ran shook his head no.
"Brittle. They are incredibly brittle because of how hard and unchanging they are. They are even more susceptible to certain forces than others. They can handle compressive force just fine, but do you know what happens if you were to suddenly hit it with something, such as a hammer?"
"It shatters?"
"To dust."
Astonished by this new information, he asked, "then do you know how to get rid of it? Hating myself is exactly the most pleasant feeling."
But the doppelganger merely let out a chuckle as he backed off from Ran.
"If I knew how to get rid of it, or even lessen it, I would've told you already. You have been carrying this your whole life, whether or not you acknowledge it, and it's a sneaky fellow indeed. It'll only come out when you're unable to fight back—remember this."
By this point, the doppelganger had already summoned a chair for himself and was sitting comfortably on it as he spoke to Ran.
"Is that it? You have no other questions? 'Cause I'm kinda on a tight schedule. You see, I was supposed to fight you, even kill you if I had the chance, but we've already spent all this time conversing. Right now, your friends are all fighting to the death within their own minds, yet here you are doing…"
It was really only a few minutes, which was an instant in reality, so it was an exaggeration. But Ran didn't care, rather, he was confused.
"If that's true, then why are you helping me?"
Hearing the question, the doppelganger couldn't help but laugh so hard spit was coming out of his mouth, and he even slapped thigh a couple times.
"Oh man, is that even a question? I'm you, silly! Why would I want to kill myself!?"
His own words made him go into another burst of laughter, and Ran only stood there dumbly. What was there to refute? Literally nothing, everything he said made sense.
Of course there was an underlying meaning, but Ran didn't catch it right away.
"Of course, going back to your main problem, there's only one way to find out everything. You have to go to the source."
"Well yeah, but where is it at?"
"Well, it's you of course! But don't worry, you'll find out what I mean soon enough."
But Ran was pretty unconvinced. He was the source? That was an acceptable answer, but it still told him nothing! What was he supposed to do with that?
"Seriously, you don't have to worry. Make no mistake, you are making progress towards your goal, it's merely more of a timing thing."
Only after knowing that he was doing something right did he finally calm down.
Afterwards, they exchanged another conversation, talking about various things like how cute Fluffy is or how cool Bob is, before the doppelganger finally got up from his chair.
"You know what you have to do now, right?"
"Yes."
"Good. It's all up to you because you can't leave this illusion without beating me first."
The doppelganger looked at Ran seriously for once, but what Ran said next sent him off his rocker.
"Eh… why don't you just kill yourself then? You know, since you want to help me so much."
Seeing how Ran maintained a serious expression, the doppelganger stifled his laughter.
"Was that a joke? Good one; you and I both know I'm not going down without a fight, not to no one."
The response only brought a small smile to Ran's face.
"Wouldn't have it any other way…"
Then they both summoned soul juice replicas of their swords before going at one another.