As Luke opened the door, he found the silhouette of a man forming before his eyes, he assumed that it must be Gladius, but the black robes that adorned the man, made him realize that that was not necessarily the case.
A sword swung in an arc as it threatened to end Luke's life, but with his quick thinking Luke was able to catch the blade with one of his knives, he turned the knife in a way that made the sword glide through with it's own momentum, and it was soon touching the ground, Luke had evaded the attack. Once the sword had missed him, the enemy was left open without any way to guard Luke's attacks, therefore the flurry of slashes Luke had unleashed had indeed hit, and the enemy had been incapacitated, falling to the floor.
"STOP RIGHT THERE!"
A voice called out from the darkness, adjusting his eyes to it, Luke was able to see another robed man holding Gladius as a knife was extended in front of his neck. Gladius was being held hostage.
"You have the artifact right? If you don't want anything to happen to him, you better hand it over."
Gladius interjected before we could respond,"DON'T LISTEN TO HIM! Giving him the artifact will spell the end for all of us."
Luke stood there, trying to find a way to break the impasse, the enemy was too far to be able to do anything to him before he could react.
As the robed man looked on, he saw Luke handing the boy something, perhaps the artifact. The boy then walked up to him and as the man stretched out his arm to receive the artifact, the boy threw it into the air, the man inadvertently shifted his gaze up, with his hand still outstretched, the boy took that opportunity to plant one of Luke's knives into the man's outstretched hand. As the man realized what had happened, the pain started to hit, but before he could let out a scream, two more knives tore through the air, one capturing the locket that had been thrown up and pinning it to the wall, and another aimed straight at the man's temples. In an attempt to protect himself, the man pulled the mayor in between them but almost as if the knife had realized that, it changed it's course in an instant, passing them by, then turned around in an arc behind the man and impaled the same spot the madman from before had been impaled at.
The mayor was released of the man's hold as the man dropped to the floor.
"Unfortunately for you, that knife remembers the place it had impaled before."
The boy fell on his knees, his hands shaking, it was obvious that he had never hurt someone before, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
Gladius breathed a sigh of relief, and raised a question as he looked at the knife impaling the back of the man's head, "How did you do that?"
Luke shrugged, "Let's just say that I am good at handling knives."
Gladius gave a light laugh at those words, "Still, to think you would really be able to find him and even the artifact at that."
Luke bent down and patted the boy's back as he answered, "Yeah, I would also like to know what all of that was."
"I'll tell you everything, but right now, I think we should start by fixing things first, some of them are still on the upper floors, searching for the artifact."
Gladius pulled the knife and took the locket that had been hanging from the knife's blade, he then closed his eyes as he wished for something. His face twisted in bewilderment as he opened them again, "What? It's not working, this is not the artifact, it's a replica of it!"
"What do you mean? We definitely killed the man who had the artifact, we're sure we got it from him!"
The boy looked up meekly, "I had a feeling, when I tried to wish for the robed man to be incapacitated, it had not worked."
"Damn it! We have been had!"
Luke walked to the door, "If I'm not wrong, this door can take us to other realities if we wish for it, right?"
Gladius nodded, "That's not all of it, but yes you are correct."
Luke opened the door, running the image of that reality through his mind, but on the other side was a very small room and an empty pedestal at it's center, "What is this room?"
"That's the actual room that is present behind the door, it housed the artifact, it can only be accessed if either the door's powers are lifted, or the reality you wish to go to does not exist."
"What!? Does that mean I am not doing it correctly?"
"There is not really any wrong way of doing it, all you need to do is think of the reality, or an object or person present in that reality, and wish to be there."
"That makes no sense..."
The boy walked up to the door, "Let me try it."
He closed and opened it only to be greeted by the same room.
Gladius shook his head as he gazed at the scene, "The situation seems to be much more dire than I had imagined earlier. If what you two are saying is correct, then that reality was probably erased from existence."
Luke shot back, "H-How is that possible?"
"Two artifacts are enough to erase a reality. Whoever did this, is carrying two with them."
"But we're pretty sure we killed the perpetrator and took the artifact from him. Does that mean there's more of them and they somehow swapped the artifact with a false one before we could take it?"
Footsteps resounded through the stairwell, and they were caught off guard.
Gladius pointed to the door, "Quick, think of the artifact the me from that reality was carrying, the perpetrators must still be carrying that one with them."
Luke ran the image of the locket through his mind as he opened the door and they were again blinded by that all too familiar light. They rushed in, closing the door behind them and that same cityscape stood before them.
As everyone released their tension, the boy raised a question, "Will they not be able to get to us in the same way?"
Gladius answered through his gasps, "They do not know how the door works, besides people that are not able to act for themselves are unable to get anywhere meaningful using the door, those buffoons are part of a cult called the Pinx, their blind faith makes them incapable of using the door. Even earlier, before you two came through the door, they were trying to get me to open it."
Everything in this reality matched theirs except for the base of the town hall, which was now on the same level as the rest of the buildings, the circular stairs that surrounded it were gone, and it's height was much shorter now.
Luke and the boy had a quizzical expression on their face, but before they could voice their bewilderment, Gladius glossed over it and raised a question of his own, "Can you two explain to me what the perpetrator looked like?"
Luke was a little frustrated at him cutting them off but answered him nevertheless, "He was red haired and adorned in the same robes as the terrorists from before."
Gladius pondered for a while, "That does not make much sense, why would the Pinx be searching for the artifact if they already had it in their possession?"
"Is it not possible that they did not know that one of them had found the artifact?"
"I'm not so sure, that seems like quite the stretch. Why would the person that found the artifact not inform his companions then? It hardly makes any sense."
They could barely think of anything by comparing answers, the sun had grown impatient from the pointless back and forth and was about to set.
Gladius broke the deadlock in their conversation by bringing up a suggestion, "I think we should check with the me from this reality then we might be able to get a better picture of the situation."
Luke nodded, "Indeed, the mayor from this reality might know something, especially since there seems to be a second artifact here."
They went inside the town hall, a few workers inside greeted Gladius. Luke and the boy were allowed to go up to the mayor's office since he was with them.
After reaching the office, Gladius knocked on the door, awaiting a response. But a response never came, he knocked a few more times, the door was closed from the inside, someone was definitely in there, were they deliberately ignoring the knocks, Gladius pulled out one of his keys and used it to open the door.
As the door clicked and was pushed open, the mayor from this reality came into view, or more specifically, the person that was the mayor. He lay face first on his office desk, with blood pooling around him.
When they rushed in, they instantly realized that he had been killed, the door and the windows were locked from the inside, this could have been called a perfect locked room murder case if the artifact had not existed.
Gladius was silent as he stared at what was his own dead body, it must have been a hard experience for him. Luke couldn't help but sympathize with him, "This is horrible…"
As he looked at the scene, he noticed a locket to the side of the dead Gladius, "Hey, it's the artifact!"
Gladius spread his palm open in front of Luke, who obediently picked it up and handed it to him, then he started to examine the locket, "This one is not from this reality."
Luke was surprised at that assertion, "How are you so sure?"
"If it really was from this reality then the enemy would have no use in leaving it here, besides…"
Gladius closed his eyes, "Wishing for the artifact's origin, tells me it is from a separate reality from this one or our one. Which means…"
The boy completed the sentence, "That this was a decoy, meant to throw us off."
Gladius nodded, "It's the locket that Luke had imagined when he opened the door earlier."
Luke clenched his teeth, "They escaped us again… Wait, if the red haired man had companions, he must have been revived by them, we can reach him if we just wish to go the reality he is in."
Gladius snapped his fingers, "That's right, that's a good idea, then let's quickly descend."
"But can't we just use the artifact to switch realities?"
"The enemy was in possession of it, they would easily be able to tell if we used it to travel to a different reality. We have to use the door."
When they reached the base of the building, they noticed the winding stairway they had used previously to get to the reality switching door, confused Luke asked, "When I looked from the outside, this town hall did not seem to have any floors below it, then how does it have stairs that go deeper?"
Gladius replied, peering into the darkness below, "You must be saying that since you were in our reality. Truth is, the lower floors of the town hall from our reality had actually been underground previously, due to some circumstances I had to overwrite the building in our reality to make it seem like it was actually that long. I also overwrote people's memories of it, so everyone who was there believed it was always like that."
The boy interjected, "That explains why the portal was connected to a door which was so high up from the base."
As they descended the steps of the winding staircase, Gladius once again closed his eyes for a while and after opening them, "Alright, we should be able to cross the steps easily now."
Luke sighed as he stared into the darkness, "Really? The last time I had tried to descend these steps, they had felt endless."
"Because they actually had been endless."
"Huh?"
"The stairs are meant to be infinite to ensure that no one ever reaches the artifact or the door, there is a way to overcome the stairs, I had implemented it in case I was ever trapped there myself, but since you're standing here, you already seem to know of it."
"Well it was more of a guess, your words just came back to me so I tried them on the stairs and it worked…"
The boy, who had been left out of the conversation looked at them quizzically, "The hell are you two talking about?"
They reached the door with the boy still confused about the situation.
Luke stepped to the door, "Alright, I hope this gets us to our destination."
As he flung the door open, the light that should have invaded their eyes from the other side did not appear, it was probably since the sun had already set, they thought. However the scenery that unfolded itself before their eyes as the door was opened, had them wishing that the light had been there as a buffer to prepare them for this reality.
The town had been turned to rubble, there was not a single living person in sight, except for one, but that person was supposed to have been dead. The man stood on a protruding boulder as he showered the already destroyed town with even more boulders. Luke instinctively pulled out his knives, but Gladius put his hand in front of him, "He is too powerful to defeat right now, we only have one artifact, he will easily overpower us."
"A wise decision indeed."
Those words had not come from the three of them, yet they had rung out in their ears as if the speaker stood next to them. Looking around, they were unable to find the source, the voice then rang out once more as if in acknowledgement of their efforts, "Up here."
Looking up, they saw a man standing on the town hall's offshoot, the town hall was the only building that had survived the destruction that the madman had caused.
The darkness of the night made it hard to make out what the man looked like, "You all must be tired, both in spirit and in body, why don't you come to the office, we could talk about all sorts of things."
They were understandably wary, this was an invitation from a suspicious person, there was a high chance that he was in cahoots with the perpetrator.
As if he had understood their concerns, "Well, your caution is warranted, but fear not, for I will not do anything of the sort you people expect. That's right I should just do this…"
He snapped his fingers and in an instant they were inside the mayor's office, standing in front of the mayor's desk, while the man sat there and tilted his head at them, "Nice to make your acquaintance, my name is Elenchos. Let's talk things out, shall we?"
Luke had an exasperated expression on his face, "Not this again."
Those words perfectly summed up the feelings of the three after witnessing the man's appearance, for he was also a clone, specifically a clone of the madman wrecking havoc outside, however his hair was in much better shape and he was adorned in a white suit and pants, unlike the madman.
Elenchos spoke in a very calm and collected manner, "That annoyance is not without warrant, I understand that, you've had to meet doppelgangers the whole day after all."
Gladius frowned as his eyebrows shook, "So it was you after all…"
"Indeed, but before I start explaining everything, I must thank you two for killing that buffoon that's rampaging outside, it was regrettable that I had to revive him, I still have use for him unfortunately."
The boy snapped at those words, "Meaning you were also behind all of this!?"
"Well, you could say I was indirectly involved. All I did was position the dominoes in a specific fashion, however they fell and toppled each other of their own accord."
"What happened to the reality the man outside had attacked?", Luke clenched his fists, anxious about what answer he was going to get.
"Your mayor has already informed you of that if I'm not wrong?"
"Wha-"
Elenchos knew everything, if he had an artifact this powerful, it would make sense that he knew their every move. Which would mean that he had planned for everything to go this way.
Luke gulped, as a drop of sweat trickled down his forehead, "Then you knew that we were going to come?"
"I didn't know that, I had tried to get as much of the situation under control as I could, I had also considered keeping that idiot dead, so you could not use him to get here, but alas his uses outweighed the threat of you all barging into this reality."
Gladius turned to Luke as he interjected, "After I had gained access to the artifact, I had disabled any flow of information out of that reality, he might have more of the artifacts, but they are only effective in making decisions in the reality they reside in, or the conglomerate as a whole. They are not able to affect other individual realities in which they are not present. Only the artifacts that are present there can change them."
Elenchos faced Luke, "Then back to the question you had. I was far better at controlling the artifact than the mayor from that reality could ever hope to be, so I was able to overpower him easily, that's all there is to it."
Luke shot back, "Then how did you switch the artifact we got from him with a replica?"
"The one that idiot had had been a replica from the beginning, he just believed that it was real."
Luke raised an eyebrow, Elenchos continued after noticing Luke's confusion, "Notice how me and him look so similar, that's not because I'm his clone, neither is he mine. We are in reality, two parts of the same person. So I had given him a replica, telling him that it was the real deal, while I held onto the real one. The artifact gives supreme control to whoever is in possession of it. So even though I held it, since he and I are the same person, the artifact had given the same priority to his wishes too."
Luke was not sure what he meant by the two of them being the same person but even more than that, he was taken aback by how well thought out everything that Elenchos did was, he could do nothing but stare in awe as Elenchos explained himself. He was baffled at the roundabout course of action that the mastermind had employed, "If you were powerful enough to defeat the mayor from the beginning then why did you not do so earlier?"
"Because the unknown that was you, had been introduced into the city, no matter how much control I have, I cannot fully control someone I know nothing about, so the plan had shifted to throwing you off my tail, and in the end you had managed to reach me nevertheless. I must say, you are to be feared."
Elenchos had expressed how formidable he believed Luke to be, but from Luke's perspective, Elenchos seemed to be far scarier than any enemy he could imagine.
Elenchos closed his eyes in resignation, "That's still fine though, undesirable outcomes are inevitable, they happen as they please, but putting all of that aside for now…"
After having resolved everyone's concerns, Elenchos turned his face towards Gladius, a little sadistic smile on his face, "Say Mr. Mayor, are you still stuck in that bubble of yours?"
Gladius lost his cool, he was anxious, yet also angry enough to shout, "YOU TRAITOR! You betrayed me! I had believed that you could be trusted, I had believed that we had an understanding relationship!"
"Indeed, you did, and what of it? Did you ever question anything? Did you also believe that you could have it easy and not doubt anyone? Believing whatever you saw before your eyes?"
Gladius flinched at those words and wasn't able to come up with any counter.
Elenchos averted his eyes from Gladius and turned them to the two others present there, "That was rude of me, let me catch you two up with the situation, after that I can continue with your mayor."
Elenchos cleared his throat in an exaggerated fashion before starting, "This mayor of yours is the most cowardly person in the world. He escaped the real world, to be able to live in a place where his beliefs would not be betrayed. However do not think that it was because he was afraid of betrayal, no… the real reason was that he was unable to doubt others, he was afraid to question himself about anything, he was afraid of the complexities of the world and let the world decide what he should do. He was reluctant to exit the sanctuary of self approval he had locked himself in."
Gladius had turned meek and was staring down in shame, Elenchos looked at him with disdain as he continued, "Coward that he is, he was fearful when the Pinx had started to get into the city, knowing that their religious agenda was to get their hands on the artifact. He could not deal with it on his own so he had come to me for a solution, he had let himself be swayed by a strange outsider who had only ever taught him a little bit about how to efficiently use the artifact."
Luke was a little surprised at how the enemy was cornering Gladius, more than that though, he didn't really like the condition that Gladius was being forced into, so he decided to change the topic a little by asking for the specifics, "What solution had you given him then?"
"Ahh, that's simple really, he would entrust the artifact to me, and make the Pinx think that the artifact was housed in the town hall, the staircase around the town hall and the engravings on the town gates were meant to serve that purpose, they would make the Pinx think that the town hall had some special purpose, but as I had predicted they had found it suspicious and believed that it was some sort of trap, which it obviously was, so they had held off their invasion, waiting for the ideal moment, which your mayor, growing impatient, had had to provide them with. With my suggestion, he had publicly announced the location of the artifact, people had gathered in the convenient looking stairs, and one of the Pinx who could erect barriers, had done so, everything had gone just as I had expected. As a result, the people had been held hostage and your mayor had been cornered. Originally, the solution I had given him, was to entrust me with the artifact, then remove the effects of the infinite staircase and the reality shifting door. The Pinx would then be led down there believing the artifact was there and just when they had reached the bottom, the stairs' effects would once again be activated, trapping them underground. However, as you can probably piece together, I had run off to a different reality, rendering this coward unable to do anything. They say that when people are pinned to the wall, they tend to fight back, I wonder if it's true for him though."
After hearing that 'simple' explanation, Luke and the boy glanced sideways, trying to read Gladius' face, however, he started to voice his feelings himself, "He is right, I've always been a coward…"
He turned his face to Luke as he continued, "I had believed that I could trust everything in this town, I had never had to question myself after using the artifact, and yet after being faced with the possibility that I had been cheated, I had completely closed off my heart, unable to trust anything. I had tried to use the door to reach Elenchos. That door takes a person wherever they wish, and my real wish back then had been to get to a world where there was no one else, I could not trust anyone other than myself anymore. The door kept connecting to a reality where there was only the self. Try as I might, I could not connect it to Elenchos. Out of options, I had tried to challenge the door and face myself, but as you can probably predict, I had failed. When you had tried using the door, I had sent you off to that reality. Unable to trust you with the door, I had decided to trap you in there… I was a coward till the very end…"
Luke frowned at those words, "I don't resent you one bit for that, if you had not been there, I too would have been unable to connect the door to the right reality, after all, I had been overwhelmed by self loathing at the time… you might have trapped me in there, but you had also trusted me enough to say those words to me, they had resonated with me and helped me face my problems. I cannot possibly hate you for any of that. Besides have you not been trusting me all this time too!?"
Gladius was a little surprised by the confidence with which Luke had asserted that, "After you came back, I could not help but admire you, you had followed through with my advice even when I had been unable to do so myself, you no longer let the outside world control you, you had become someone who could make their own decisions."
"And none of that could have been possible, if you had not given me a hand… You are wise enough to change people, you should be proud!"
"That's a flimsy and superficial wisdom that comes with age, I had stopped my aging using the artifact, so I have lived long, that's all… but wisdom counts for nothing if it's not gained through experience."
Luke heaved a sigh, Gladius' self loathing was far too deep-seated to be able to fix it with a few words, "I'll say this much, Elenchos might be right in some of what he says, but that does not mean you do not have the potential to become a better person…"
Luke turned his head to face Elenchos, as he glared at him, "You've been hurling insults at the mayor, but what you have done is also not something worth praising, betraying and controlling people..."
The boy had been boiling with anger for quite a while, the mayor was not the only one who had been harmed by Elenchos, "You… I'll make you regret the things you've done…"
Elenchos was as composed as he had been at the start, "You seem to blame me, but do you not realize that this is just the way of the world, you are controlled by something or someone, no matter what you do. That's the way it has always been."
Elenchos had been completely unfazed by the accusations, there was not a hint of guilt in his words, Luke and the boy realized that this was not the type of person they could reason with.
He turned his head towards Gladius, "Remember Gladius, to believe, one has to question, otherwise it just turns into blind faith."
His words seemed to end with a hint of friendliness, that had showed itself for just a moment.
He then snapped his fingers and a sack that had been filled to the brim with something appeared in his hand, "Here, all the artifacts."
They stood there confused, unable to understand the situation.
"I understand that you would find it hard to believe that I would give you the very thing I had swindled you to get my hands on, however you must understand that I am not like that idiot who only desires for control. Sure he and I might be parts of the same person, but unlike him, I accept that being in control comes with the risk of being controlled in return."
Luke strained his eyes, trying to read Elenchos, "You think we would just believe you after all of this?"
"It is the truth though. It would be too much trouble for me to have people like you be my enemy, especially since you were able to come this far."
They were cautious, his words were hardly enough to convince them.
Elenchos sighed, "I suppose losing credibility is just a part of deceiving. This won't get us anywhere though so let me speed things up a little."
Elenchos snapped his fingers again, and all of a sudden Gladius had accepted the artifacts from him. Their stiffness and anxiety from earlier was gone, they felt easy and dropped their guard. Their trust seemed to have been restored.
As they opened the sack and peered inside, they could see a pile of those reality-altering artifacts, they seemed to draw their gaze to them, pinning their eyes in place.
Luke was the first to break the silence, "The root of it all…"
To Luke who had only seen bad things happen to the town, the artifact was probably something ominous, but the other two were unsure whether they could hate it.
Luke averted his gaze, "Huh… Elenchos is not here."
The other two raised their heads and indeed Elenchos seemed to have disappeared, yet for some reason it seemed to not matter to them.
With everything taken care of, they left the town hall and realized that the madman was also no longer there.
The boy spoke up before the others could, "Say, how come you are immortal even though it's not allowed in the town?"
Gladius sighed, "I was able to control the artifact to some degree, so those rules were set up by me to retain some semblance of order in Mauvine, but I was not too good at controlling it, Elenchos somehow had knowledge of such artifacts, and he had helped me control it better, which was why, the better I got at it, the more things I had been able to allow in the town…"
Gladius' expression grew solemn as he talked, "No matter what I do to escape reality, it always finds a way to reject my beliefs. Back when I had received the artifact, in a moment of weakness I had been enticed by the possibility of a simple world, where I did not need to question anything, however now I have come to know that reality is something that cannot be escaped, even if I literally separate myself from it."
Gladius bowed to the boy as an expression of apology,"I'll undo everything, then deactivate this artifact. Unable to face my fears, I had escaped into a world of my own creation, I had pulled everyone else into that world too, I deeply apologize for everything."
The boy scratched his head, "Well, I wouldn't hold it against you. You genuinely tried to protect us from reality, but if it's something that will find it's way into our lives no matter what, then I think facing it is for the best."
Luke nodded, supporting Gladius' decision, "That's the right choice, I think a lot of people would be against this when you announce it to them, but you can always work hard as their mayor and win that trust back. You already have the wisdom, all you need is the courage to implement it."
Gladius raised his head, "I must thank the two of you for everything, also Luke, I would like to entrust you with the artifact once I revert everything to normal. It's too powerful an object to be allowed to stay in the wrong hands. I believe it would be safe with you."
"I am hardly that capable a person, but if that's what you want..."
The day had ended, the full moon shimmering in the night sky signaled the end of their quest.
--- --- ---
The day was up, the sun shone down on Luke as if highlighting him as he left through the front door of the town hall. The boy had been waiting outside for him, and he rushed to Luke once he noticed him coming out, "Luke! How did it go?"
"It was a success, Mauvine is now back to normal, you can finally venture out into the world."
The boy stretched his arms as he breathed a sigh of relief, "That's what I'm talking about!"
"When do you plan to leave?"
"Well, I'll spend the day at home. It would be hard on dad if I just up and left, I'll attend today's address and spend the day lazing about at home. You had been absolutely correct, I only have one home, so I'll value it, I plan on coming back from time to time."
"That's good to hear, however I must also apologize for the things I said back then, I was being a hypocrite. I looked at things only from my point of view."
"Apology accepted!"
Luke gave a wry smile. Since the mayor had revived all the dead people, Luke had not had to inform the boy of his father's death. Everything had been resolved smoothly, so smoothly that it almost made Luke feel uneasy. The strange architecture of the town had returned to normal, people must be really confused right now, Luke thought. The mayor would be holding another address shortly to apologize and explain the situation to the people. They would definitely be mad, but if it's that wizened mayor, he could surely handle it.
The boy broke Luke's silent musings, "You know, you could just stay the day, just as you did last night. I'll convince my father to not charge you."
Luke gave a lonely smile, "It's not about the money… I have stayed too long, besides you should spend the day with your father, he'd be lonely if you spent your last day at home with some dude."
"If that's what you want."
"That's right. It's embarrassing to ask at this point, but I never got to ask you your name."
The boy looked to his side, as if judging how to answer, then with his eyes returning to meet Luke's, "Lily."
"W-what?"
"It's Lily."
"I mean… that's…"
The boy(?) chuckled, "You must have believed that I was a boy right?"
"I mean, you looked like one, so I had assumed as much."
"Try recalling the first time we met each other, had you really thought my features were boyish?"
Indeed as far as he remembered, Luke had found most of their features to be feminine, yet he had still somehow decided that they were a boy.
"That's because I had wished to be perceived as a boy."
Luke had started to doubt whether the town really did align his perception with reality.
Harboring that astonishment and confusion, Luke and Lily had reached the town gate. Lily waved her hand at Luke energetically as he walked out the gate.
Luke left for the destination he had originally planned to go to. On his way, he reminisced on the bonds he had formed at Mauvine. He had helped change the town and the town had changed him in turn.
Luke entered the world, a better man than before.