Chapter 75: The Fall of a Frozen World(10)

The first floor was pitch dark, with no light, which meant that without his lantern, he would have probably died a long time ago. His top priority was to keep it safe, as it was the only thing that kept him alive.

But it was weird, as there was nothing on this floor, but there had to be a trial on this floor. Its existence wouldn’t make sense if it didn’t. So where could it be?

It was also difficult to determine, as the trials did not seem to correspond to who the masters of the zones were. After all, The Ace only had him fighting some monsters, so it could be the same thing here. It was just hiding somewhere, ready to jump him.

He stopped in his tracks, closing his eyes and listening.

He listened closely, every movement he would notice. Just that he wasn’t hearing anything. That was until he finally heard some footsteps. His swords fell down from his marks, right into the grasp of his hand, turning to face the one had had decided to approach him.

…But he lowered his guard as he looked at who it was.

He blinked twice, confused by the situation. It was himself, just that he was like a shadow, not like a human. His eyes glanced at his hand, where he was wielding a sword just like his. From how his hair flowed to the sparkle in his eyes. Everything had everything. Just that they were all black, they even glowed black.

Aether clenched his blade, watching as, not even a little later, it did the same thing. He raised his blade, watching as it did the same thing. It was mimicking everything he did. But if he had to fight it to get up to the second floor, he somehow had to find a way to see his own flaws. It seemed to move only when he did, so he should just focus on finding a way to kill it. The fact that it was slower than his helped, but he didn’t think it was enough. At least he was safe…

Aether turned away in the darkness, walking through, trying to find anything helpful. The clone, or whatever it was, followed closely from behind him, not moving a muscle independently.

It was annoying, but he really had to find a way to fight himself and win. How was that even possible, even with being slightly in the future? How can you beat someone who thinks exactly like you? Someone who knows what you are going to do, and those are the same.

Thought it was better that it only did something whenever, and it wasn’t wandering all alone.

…

“Wait…”

Aether’s skin paled slightly as he turned around in a hurry, deflecting an attack that would have definitely killed him. But the impact had staggered him, catching him off balance and defenseless.

His clone, or whatever it was, saw this, quickly rushing to stab him.

Aether panicked, knowing that if that blade event touched him, he was dead. And if the pure force of the pierce didn’t, he would die due to the poison. He had to find a way to avoid it, block it.

He had to do something, god damn it!

His muscles tensed, even hearing some breaking. But his body knew that this was the only way to keep itself alive, so it didn’t mind destroying something to keep itself alive. With his foot giving him some stability, he forced his arm to go against the recoil and to slam down with the edge right into the blade of his clone.

In the end, he was able to redirect it, but in the process, from the rebound, he had broken his arm that held his sword… but interestingly, it seemed as if it had done the same. But he didn’t trust him anymore. He was foolish, very foolish. Not only had it shown that it had a mind of its own when it walked while he was listening for someone.

But it was a clone of himself, of course, he would try something like this, why didn’t he think of it? So he wasn’t going to blindly trust him. Aether watched as his other self regained himself. It also seemed quite annoyed, maybe because he had seen through his disguise, and that he knew his hand was fine.

He gripped his blade with the other hand, rushing to him yet again. Which made Aether wonder, what was with this world, and blindly thrusting. But he wasn’t complaining; it gave him time to think.

…

And he got an idea.

He mimicked his own movements, that way he could deflect it one last time, before running away, and summoning something that he thought he would never use like this,

A mask appeared in his hand, one he was very used to seeing. He raised it to his face, as he ran, and looked as the Codex began talking.

[Identities]:

1-Elpis Thusia

2- ——

3- ——

He quickly chose, this time seeing how his body changed, before turning back at his clone, which had completely stopped, as it had short-circuited. Did it not recognize it? Then it was amazing.

But this joy of his didn’t last long, as it reused Elpis’s appearance, making him quickly take his mask off, knowing he could never have won if he had done it in his body. He would have also felt awkward and guilty wearing it.

But changing between forms did gain him some time, for it to reglect on the person it saw. But it wasn’t going to be useful if his units couldn’t even get to her. So what was he supposed to do?

“What if…”

He changed his appearance back to Elpis, waiting for it to copy it, and then turned back. But before it had the time to do so again, he stuck his blade into his chest. Watching as it tried to mimic a human scream. To try and seem like they were human, even if they were, and will never be.

This clone could never be him, as it didn’t know what he knew; it was nothing but his shadow. Who only knew the gist of things, not in any detail. He was the brain, not the body, so it could copy it all his day; it could never capture the whole intelligence of an actual human brain.

He drew his sword out of his chest, watching as black blood poured out. Which was the first time he had made someone bleed with the blade? The Ace wasn’t someone who would bleed easily, so it was understandable that they weren’t able to do so.

But, he had to say, it was exciting to see. To see the blood spilled by someone who had tried to manipulate him, to play and ridicule him like the Sun had done. But sadly for him, the battle wasn’t done, as it did one last attack, choking him.

Aether tried to get out of his grasp, but he didn’t want to stop. He even felt losing consciousness, and he was all alone with this monster.

But there was one thing that it had forgotten, it was a mimic of something it wanted to be. If there was someone who had expected this to happen, it would be him.

Aether had tied some hair to his neck so that, even if slightly, his hands stood slightly in front of his actual neck.

So while soon he probably won’t, he was still wide awake.

He let his chains enter his marks, knowing the blade was too big in this position, challenging himself to a fist fight, which he gladly accepted. But even with a broken arm, he was confident to win, after all, having Praise helping you was hard not to be exceptional.

Praise had already started to work on his arm, and it already felt better.

His shadow slowly made its way to him, slowly, knowing well that if he made a wrong move, he would lose the fight. Its guard was solid, really solid, which made him scared to play fair. But he wouldn’t have either way.

As the shadow tried to attack, he summoned the blade from his mark and stabbed it right into its neck. Blood gushed out from his neck, mouth, nose, and ears.

But at least…

[You have killed a reader beast, Mimic]

He had done it; he had found a flaw in his shadow fighting and exploited it. It made him think how many there were in reality.

After the shadow was killed, the light turned on, revealing a pair of stairs standing in front of him. Normally, he would have challenged it; it was a dumb idea, some of the muscles in his leg were torn, and his arm was broken.

If he continued, he was insane. And he wouldn’t have normally done it; he would have stayed home. But his wounds had already been mostly healed by the Praise.

So he was going to challenge the second not long after they had cleared the first.

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