"Glad you guys could make it~" Ivan said, glancing up in his lounge chair just enough so that his eyes could be seen from under the sunglasses he wore on his face. Canis just huffed and made her way to the ice gates.
"...As if we have a choice…" She sternly placed the blue orb into the slot on her door, directly adjacent to the orb Ivan and his group had placed half an hour ago.
𝙍𝙐𝙈𝘽𝙇𝙀 𝙍𝙐𝙈𝘽𝙇𝙀
Along with that, the doors opened and revealed once more another teleportation group. It should be mentioned that Tio and Ari had shown up and inserted their orb fifteen minutes after Ivan's group.
Ivan sighed, waving his hand as both the lounge chair and sunglasses disappeared. It was naive of him to think that it would be the end of the labyrinth. Then again, this portal might take them to the ancient magic they were looking for.
"As if…" Locking eyes with his group, he gave one final nod. "We've surpassed tribulation after tribulation, and now we find ourselves in the grasp of new power. Actually— fuck the speech. This trial so far has been one mind fuck after another. The theme of this one is likely to test the mind of individual members to see how affected they are to external manipulation."
Tio nodded, likely having come to the conclusion herself.
"Example being the voices in our head, at first they were just annoying. And then our battles with the golems, the voices just added another degree of trouble by affecting our combat capabilities. For it we needed restraint to rebel against the voices and stop from acting on them. As for the maze… I don't know, it just seemed like random bullshit."
His words only added to the group's exhaustion, here they were thinking he had something important to say. Sure learning the theme was a good thing, it likely meant that they would be separated again. The problem was the abrupt ending to his explanations.
"Testing us individually… um, excuse me… but what does that mean for Felis?" Claire spoke glancing at Felis, who only tilted her head to with a questioning stare.
"Ah, Felis is kind of a special case… along with Canis. Neither of them were affected by the voices. Either it meant that it didn't work on Homunculi, perhaps the dungeon registers them as monsters, or they simply don't have enough negative life experiences that it could use against them."
Both Canis and Felis were created using monster cores and organic materials, being artificially made their conditions were a bit different from Demons, Humans, or Demi-Humans.
And the monsters in the labyrinth didn't seem necessarily affected, which might just be because their intelligence is insufficient.
The dungeon used a challenger's deepest darkest thoughts, since being born Felis and Canis haven't had some tragic injustice done to them. If anything Felis' biggest gripe in the world was not being allowed to have thirds at dinner, as for Canis… it was not being allowed to sleep for as long as she wanted.
Claire nodded, she was a bit envious of their ability to ignore the dungeon's interference but at the same time relieved that she wouldn't need to worry about them going crazy and lashing out.
"Now that we got all the questions out of the way, let us proceed. As stated before there's a chance we'll be separated again once we go through these doors. Be ready for everything!"
"Yes!" Everyone nodded, Felis and Ari being the only ones to give loud verbal affirmations.
So without another second to waste, Ivan took the first step forward.
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It was dark, too dark, at least that would've been the case for people who didn't possess ocular skills that improved their vision in the dark. Thankfully Ivan wasn't such a person
"Huh… we really did get separated~" He rubbed the wall of ice behind him. The ceiling to the tunnel he was in was barely above his height, just tiptoeing would be enough to rub his head on the ceiling. He couldn't even extend his arms to his sides all the way without coming in contact with a wall.
"Couldn't even give me a bigger space huh…" The hallway stretched on seemingly endless. A white light at the end mocking him yet never any closer with each step he took.
Either it was just a ridiculously long hallway or another trial. 'But would walking down a narrow hallway really be considered a trial…' The answer was, of course not.
Suddenly he found himself outside of the tunnel, he looked back only to see the opening he stepped out of disappear. All it took was a blink of an eye, and now he found himself in another arena.
A dome of solid ice enclosed him, reflective surfaces from every angle. Ivan stared at the visages of himself before noticing the dead tree that sat in the middle of the dome.
Though he called it a tree it was entirely made of ice, from the trunk to its branches. He walked up to it warily, one open hand up to his waist in case he were to get attacked suddenly. For a second he considered just blowing the tree up and getting it over with.
"Whoa whoa whoa! Let's calm it down kid~ No need to go all arsonist on me just cause you're feeling a little scared!"
From behind the tree stepped a figure, one strikingly resembling his own. The man had dark black hair and gleaming gold eyes, his attire a white version of Ivan's bleak and dark dragon-like armor. Other than the helmet, the figure matched everything except the different color palette.
As if sensing that point, the figure lifted a hand from behind their back to show the white helmet he had taken off.
"I got it right here. I thought I just might show ya' my face so we can skip the formalities. To sum it up, I am you, just better~"
The man— the exact copy of Ivan, put the helmet on his head before presenting himself with a courteous bow.
"And I'm to assume your job is to kill me huh. Seeing that you know what I know I'm guessing playing you isn't gonna be much of a viable option." Ivan wondered when did it happen, was he scanned and copied at the beginning of the labyrinth, or the moment he was teleported to this trial?
That determined it all, if the one who stood in front of him had the knowledge of the trials that he faced before this moment then things would be more difficult than he anticipated.
"It's the latter, I was 'conceived' the moment you and your friends got separated. Bright of ya for finding out the theme of this dungeon, not that it was difficult to guess in the first place." He lifted his hands and placed the white helmet on his head.
𝘽𝘼𝙉𝙂! 𝘽𝘼𝙉𝙂! 𝘽𝘼𝙉𝙂!
Ivan took advantage of the moment the clone closed his eyes to put on his helmet to assault him with a barrage of explosives.
With the tap of his foot a wall of ice formed from the ground and acted as a shield. "You really think I wouldn't have seen that coming~? Like I said, I'm you, but BETTER!"
The clone shot forward leaving behind a trail of blue yellow lightning, one hand on his wrist as he aimed for Ivan's head. In response Ivan only met the barrage head on, using the cover the exploding missiles made to close the gap.
'Activate: Trigger!' He screamed inwardly, an invisible film spread from within his body spanning over four meters. 'Evolution Magic! Gravity Magic!' What was important was that he hit the copy as hard as he could.
But it was his copy for a reason, either it was reading his mind or was just working off of everything it stole from him to come to the same conclusion.
Whether it be his boundary, his tools, or skills, it had copied everything. Even his line of thinking.
"I still don't necessarily see how it all makes you a better version of me? The dungeon wouldn't just throw another duel at us so go ahead and explain the intent behind this."
This trial might've been the most dangerous he ever faced, and the best thing to do when facing great danger was to get out of it as quickly as possible. The clone wasn't just a clone, it was also an abstract created by the labyrinth to fulfill its goals.
That should be enough to affect it and create a difference between it and the real deal.
"Intent? What other intent is there for a labyrinth other than to beat the arrogance out of overconfident adventurers like you!" The clone played dumb, smiling mischievously through the bottom of the mask.
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My head's splitting now! On the bright side the Nobeta game I've been trying to make a video on for the past two months is now holding a vote on their twitter account to see which skin gets added to the game. The good thing is that skins will be free, the voted one even being a reward to everyone regardless just as a show that they care about what people desire.
But see you guys later, like I mentioned my head's hurting. But I gotta write another one so resting will have to wait until I'm done. Have a great evening and thanks for reading!
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