CH805

“Alright, we can’t put this off any longer,” Vasta told them. “Let’s finish this.”

They had a single floor left, one final challenge to face until they were done and free to leave, all that was left was to overcome whatever it might be and with time in the fourth floor ticking down, Thera picked them all up and carried them between the platforms down below, passing through one of the doorways to find out what remained.

With the setup feeling familiar. All of them were lined up, side by side as they went through, each of them trapped within an individual barrier at the edge of a towering ring, the new area falling away to nothingness past it.

Kind of set up like that one section of the earth tower, huh? He thought as he examined it and everything else it contained. In the floor he and the others had been forced to battle golems in the past, they’d been released one by one into an arena to fight and with no obvious timer around, Ben was expecting to get pretty much the same, with that serving as excellent news as far as he was concerned.

His hand stretching out to touch the barrier in front of him, he knew he’d be able to break it with ease. Same as he’d done in the past and same as he’d done for the third floor of their current tower, with him only holding off in the slim chance he was wrong. No need to start breaking the trial without fully understanding it first, even if one other thing was left clear.

I’m either first or last then.

The way they were lined up, the order looked like it was going to either be himself, Jake, Amy, Thera, and Vasta, or the opposite of that if they really were going to be forced to handle the final challenge in a series of one-on-one fights, with the only way to know being for it to start.

“Psst, hey Ben,” Jake whispered beside him, seeing things in the same light. “Think this is going to be like the earth tower again?”

“Probably.”

“Think you’ll be able to get yourself out of here again?”

“Absolutely.”

“Then what do you say you just break us all out when the first one starts so we can bulldoze the competition?”

“If it’s what we’re thinking then that’s the plan, don’t worry.”

“I’d prefer you didn’t,” Vasta chimed in from the other side. “At least as long as it doesn’t look like someone’s going to die. The goal may be to claim the rewards but that doesn’t mean any here should neglect to challenge themselves. Gods know, there’s going to be enough to struggle through soon enough, take the practice while you can.”

He watched Jake slump at his teacher's words while Ben just shrugged. From the looks of it, Amy and Thera felt the same as the older mage so if they wanted to try things honestly first he wouldn’t get in the way unless it was urgent. It would hopefully be good for his own training too so with his goal of getting stronger, he’d only step in if it looked like he really needed to.

Guess I’ll just have to be prepared then.

With the answer to their order seeming decided. Only a second later, Vasta’s barrier collapsed, letting the mage out to walk to the near-center of the stage where a patch of ground began to glow.

“Stand here I take it?” She muttered, stepping within and bringing forth her opponent as a perfect replica of the world's non-affinitied mage took the other end of the stage.

Oh, so we’re doing copies then. Neat.

Maybe it should have felt more surprising but he’d dealt with similar enough events before and despite the risks had enjoyed them both times. Perhaps communicating with a hallucination brought forth by the dark tower shouldn’t have really counted but it had been fun to bounce a couple ideas off of the other at the time and when it came to proper copies, the one he’d found in the trial of Anailia had left an undeniable mark on him.

Completing that section of the goddess’s trial had gained him both levels and a skill at the time, with his connect and focus raising as well as the acquisition of complex mind, the union of the last two and plenty of other options being what had grown towards his current mental structure. He’d been able to cooperate and reaped a boon as a result, even if chances seemed slim it would happen again.

After all, those levels may have come as a natural result of doing the trial but getting complex mind came from being connected with something I merged with. Plus, we were able to peacefully communicate, doesn’t seem like we have the same options right now.

Vasta’s copy was already springing to move, the fact that a fight was unavoidable made obvious, even as a different idea scratched at the back of his thoughts. Who was to say he couldn’t claim similar rewards for himself just because whatever copy of himself he was going to have to face was going to be adversarial?

It was an idea he let himself explore in the back of his mind as he watched the fight begin, with Vasta’s copy wasting no time. Before the mage could fully process what she was seeing it was already attacking, mana surrounding the original and about to crush down, only being stopped by a quick barrier just barely blocking it.

Not enough to stop the copy though, the other Vasta rushed forward in an instant, propelling herself with her mana and placing her hand on that protective shield, breaking it down as two things happened.

The first was the copy’s other hand crystallized a spike to drive forward, and the second was that while Vasta was busy reacting to that, more appeared at her back.

A sneak attack designed to pull her target’s attention away from the true danger, the mage’s years of experience shone through, both propelling herself to the side while forcing the duplicate forward, throwing it off its balance and making it cancel its attack, even if her evasion wasn’t flawless. 

A gouge tore through her arm, enough of an injury to be a distraction during the fight as blows continued to be exchanged while Ben watched and evaluated.

…This isn’t just a copy. He finally accepted. On a purely technical level, the fake Vasta is better with her magic.

It was subtle but undeniable, with the duplicate’s spells all coming across as just a bit more technically complex and impressive. More imagination with every attack thrown having multiple components to it, something subtler always mixed in to try and catch the original off guard.

So the trial somehow made a better version of Vasta then? How? I can imagine the copy was made by somehow examining her mind and soul to create a replica based on her skills and memories but how would you make the copy improve from there?

A question he continued to fiddle with as the fight went on, with no answer but something else becoming obvious. The trial had left the originals with an advantage as well.

Blow for blow, the true Vasta was being forced to keep up with the other’s attacks but strength-wise, when they clashed it was the real one whose spells were winning out in the end. The duplicate had more skill but the original held superior power.

So that’s the gimmick of this floor, is it? Facing a more skilled version of yourself with the only edge you’ve got being a bit more power? I guess I can see what the aim of the design probably is, giving you the chance to win thanks to being a bit stronger but forcing you to see your potential or something if you work harder and maybe giving you some ideas too. As a challenge designed to help people grow I actually approve for once but wouldn’t you get a similar result by making your copy the stronger one and forcing you to beat it through technique while you fight? Like, I have to assume that would be an easier trial to create than this roundabout way, but… Eh, maybe I’ll discuss trial design with Nare later.

With how things were going though, who the winner was going to be was clear. She had built up some cuts and bruises as the fight went on but the true Vasta was slowly turning the tides, growing to understand how both the fake and herself attacked and landing hits of her own, each of them moving as one with the outcome feeling close until a change. For the first time in the fight, her copy spoke.

“If this is all you’re good for it looks like you’ll lose another student.”

The words were said with casual dismissal but it was enough to put a stutter in the original’s step, perfectly placed to be exploited as some past trauma was unearthed and created room for a new blow to land, far more severe than any other as a volley of pins were created and caste forth before a barrier could be formed, not tearing her apart only by virtue of other spells strengthening her body but both leaving her bleeding and holding enough force to throw her back, leaving her tossed towards the platform’s edge and only being saved from the plummet by a quick manipulation of mana, forcing it to act on herself to hold her in the air as her other followed suit, changing the dynamic of the battle once more as the extra dimension was brought to the fight, dragging it out longer to its conclusion.

As far as psychological blows went, it seemed the copy only held the one to use and while it got a few more good strikes in, it wasn’t long until Vasta had a wire of mana around its neck, constricting it down to nothing to sever the head of the other and leaving it to fade away, finally ending things.

Worn out and bleeding though, the non-affinitied mage hadn’t come away unscathed as she was left panting on the ground as a barrier appeared around her, making her jump at first in wonder of what was coming next until it became clear it was just moving her back to her original spot, back in her cell to try and heal her wounds while Thera’s opened up.

It left his stomach in a knot in worry after seeing how the first one went and with some magic on his fingertips, he was already prepared to break out if she needed it, not that he could be sure it would even do any good. As a rough estimate, he would have put Vasta’s attributes at roughly five percent more than her duplicates, maybe even a bit less. For Thera though, five percent less would still mean hundreds of thousands of points of mana for her replica to wield. Whatever was going to come was going to be violent.

Still, she tried to look confident as she went forth, taking her place at the start and knowing what she did from watching Vasta’s match, didn’t hesitate to attack the second she could, fully prepared for her own duplicate to appear and getting rewarded for it immediately.

He couldn’t be positive but Ben felt that the fraction of a second he saw it, it almost looked resigned as a powerful wave of mana went right at it, shattering the barrier it put up and reduced it to nothing, instantly ending the match.

“...”

More than anything, Thera ended up looking disappointed as the trial forced her back into her confines, not immediately understanding what had happened, even if Ben thought he had an idea of it that brought a small smile to his face.

The trial had to be getting the mana for the attacks from somewhere and while he’d initially been worried about how strong the duplicate would be, it seemed that it hadn’t been designed to account for someone like her. She’d gone all out from the start and been rewarded for it by creating a blow her duplicate hadn’t been made with the power to stop, ending things earlier than they could have hoped or the gods could have expected.

Well, always nice when their show is ruined, now that just means it’s time to see how Amy’s going to do.

Author's note

Y'all ever have one of those days where you've been laying in bed for hours, not falling asleep so you eventually give up and just post your chapter at 4am?

Yeah, me neither