LionHeart watched the boy train for a little while longer, going through a simplified version of the strenuous katas he worked on daily. He guessed this was all to give the clone time to keep up with him.

  The longer they danced across the backyard, the more elaborate the clone grew, gaining features with each fluid kata it was forced to endure. The man tilted his head at the scene trying to understand what was going on.

  ‘Is he training his double?’ the man tried to understand what was happening. Come to think of it, none of them knew how the Copy Viper created his clones. All they knew was that the clones had a tendency to return to him in the form of black formless goop.

  A few minutes later, the boy stopped moving and stared at the white clone of himself. He ground his teeth in thought as he stared at the uncanny copy of himself.

  By now, it was so close to a copy of him that it might have been his twin, bearing almost every fine detail except for the colours that made him look human. The clone remained white from top to bottom.

  LionHeart descended the steps and approached the boy as he worked on the copy. Alaric, sensing LionHeart’s approach, regarded him for a bit and said, “Good evening, Leon.”

  “Good evening, Alistair,” LionHeart responded, “What are you doing?”

  “I… took the power Darth’s Guardian had but I can’t seem to figure out how it worked. He was able to clone himself but it seems a lot harder than he made it look. Did he add Illusion Magic to his clones or was there some other trick to this?” Alaric responded.

  “Darth had time to practice and perfect that power. He was a master of copying his target’s likeness and appearance. Stories of him were the kind that could give a novice nightmares,” LionHeart replied with a slight shudder.

  Knowing now that the Copy Viper was dead, those stories could stay stories… At least that’s what everyone wished. Alas, the Continent of Valeria was filled with nightmares of all shapes and sizes. Getting rid of the Copy Viper was like throwing a handful of sand back into the ocean leaving behind the whole beach.

  Sighing, LionHeart approached the boy, “Can I try something?”

  Alaric regarded him with a quizzical look before stepping back from the clone, “Go ahead.”

  LionHeart, or rather Leon, stepped forward and regarded the clone before him. By now, the clone was capable of breathing and the white pupils darted left and right as though observing him, “Do you share senses with him?”

  “Hmm. Not necessarily,” the boy groaned, “It’s weird. It’s like I could gain a sense for each part of the body I get close to perfection. But there is more to a body than what we see.

  There is much I don’t know. Not to mention the fact that everything I’ve managed to recreate is more a part of my subconscious mind than my conscious mind. When I perform an action, I unconsciously use a body part that I’m familiar with… and that sense of familiarity helps me mould that part of the clone’s body… but even that’s not enough.”

  “Well, you’ve been able to recreate your body using Thomper’s ability. How does it feel when you do that?” LionHeart tried.

  Alaric’s mind popped.

  ‘What if I combined the two abilities?’ he thought to himself, ‘Wait, no… That doesn’t make any sense… Argh, I’m close to something here.’

  The boy started pacing. When he used Thomper’s ability to reform his body, the magic of that ability took most of the recreation upon itself.

  Alaric was no physician. He knew nothing of human anatomy. He did, however, have some insight from the process during which he felt his very vessels, cells, blood and…

  “You think too much, Alaric,” a voice cut through the air, stopping the boy’s thoughts in half. LionHeart stumbled back in shock, staring at the clone before him.

  The clone smirked, its eyes holding more intelligence than it had just a few moments ago, “Oh, I didn’t mean to scare you, LionHeart. We love you way too much.”

  “That’s… good to…” the man snapped back to the real Alaric, “Wha-What’s happening here? Are you doing this?”

  “No… My best guess is that thinking about that process gave me enough knowledge to ‘subconsciously’ finish making my clone,” Alaric responded.

  “That’s right,” the clone replied, “And unless you personally take control of my actions, I’m free to do what I want. Handy power, don’t you think?”

  “That’s if I knew whether I could trust you,” Alaric sighed, “This is too weird. I can hardly feel your consciousness.”

  “That’s because you built me entirely from your subconsciousness. Check this out,” saying this, the clone picked up Alaric’s training sword and pulled back for a full-force slash aimed at LionHeart’s neck.

  Alaric’s heart skipped a beat and he gasped. Tired as he was, he was a tad bit too late to react and tripped, getting to watch the sword coming down on the man’s neck. LionHeart instinctively turned his back, layering his spirit vessel to block the attack—an attack that never landed.

  Silence filled the backyard and a gale of wind followed the clone’s actions. The scene made Alaric stay in awe.

  His clone grunted and gritted his teeth, every muscle in his body frozen in place, unable to move. Through his teeth, he added, “Your subconscious is watching me, so don’t worry about me doing something you don’t want me to.”

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Alaric nodded, “Okay… Does that mean my subconscious is also responsible for getting rid of you?”

  “Pretty much,” the clone replied with a shrug. His muscles relaxed and he pulled the sword away from LionHeart.

  The large man turned with a bewildered expression, “You could have just said so!”

  The clone chuckled, “Where is the fun in that?”

  “You’re nothing like him!” the big man yelled at the clone.

  “Of course not. I’m better,” the clone replied with a white-eyed wink.

  The big man facepalmed, “You’re like a totally different person… or perhaps a single part of Alaric magnified.”

  “Hmm,” I thought you were all brawn and no brain, “…I stand corrected.”

  “That leaves just one problem, though,” Alaric said. Where do I keep you? If my subconscious created you, then I take it you can only be destroyed by it. But I’m not about to start figuring that out.”

  [ He can rest in your shadow ] Alia’s voice reverberated through the air.

  ‘My… shadow?’ Alaric was stunned.

  The clone sighed and walked to the boy’s shadow. The black ground started to fume and bubble as the clone descended into it, “Call on me whenever you feel like it. It also wouldn’t hurt to get me some armour and an Evo sword.”

  With Alaric stunned, filled with more questions than answers, the clone winked just as its head dipped below the billowing shadow.

  Alaric was left staring at his still shadow for a bit before, ‘Wait… My shadow is a gateway to the In-Between.’

  He lifted his head and regarded LionHeart with a small smile, “So… that happened.”

  “I feel like being your bodyguard is going to cause me a lot more headache than any other job the Tower could have given me,” LionHeart rubbed his temples.

  “Giving up already?” the boy smirked.

  “Never. Now come, Alaric. You haven’t eaten anything and I’m tired of worrying,” Lionheart turned away and walked back to the house. Alaric followed the man inside where Sariah had already set the table.

  The woman looked up at the approaching pair, “Does it take that long to call someone for a meal?”

  Alaric ignored their conversation and looked around. Maple and Scarlett were gone which meant the next time he would meet them, they would be gathering to set off for the mission.

  Tonight, Alaric would do well to get some sleep.

  Taking a seat, Alaric sensed a subtle shift in the air. He looked up to see LionHeart standing off at the entrance to the living room, leaning against the wooden pillar, looking away.

  Weren’t the two supposed to be arguing about how long it took LionHeart to convince him to come and eat? Turning to Sariah, Alaric felt his blood go cold as the woman held his gaze, “What you did was reckless?”

  ‘Oh… It’s one of ‘those’ things,’ he mentally confirmed, visibly relaxing.

  “I know,” the boy replied with a confident nod.

  “Then why did you do it? The Matriarch wrote to us. She threatened to have you arrested,” Sariah explained.

  “What?” Alaric’s heart sank, “You’ve got to be kidding me! What does she think happened? Whatever it was she said I did, she was lying. I did nothing I tell you. Noth—why are you smiling?”

  The boy looked between the woman and LionHeart, noticing signs of barely contained mirth, “The both of you… What’s so funny… You haven’t gotten any message from the Matriarch, have you?”

  Sariah burst into laughter at that point, “Of course not. Even she doesn’t have the power to make it here without my permission. You should see the look on your face.”

  Alaric turned a shade of red and sat back in his seat with a long embarrassed sigh. Now he couldn’t look the woman in the eye.

  ‘Rude…’ the boy grumbled.

  Sariah’s laughter simmered down eventually after which she gestured to his food, “Dig in. You should be hungry. Hurry too… You stink like a boar.”

  Alaric diligently attacked his food and as he did so, Sariah added, “So you were with Lucy.”

  The boy nodded, not wanting to talk with his mouth full.

  “Is there a possibility you lost us a Holy Mage?” she responded.

  Alaric shrugged his shoulders, then worked on swallowing the food in his mouth. It was delicious… but in the presence of this conversation, it was hard to appreciate the food. When he was ready, he spoke, “We found out some things that weren’t meant for us to find… then she flipped to saying I wanted to use her for her magic and that I was like everyone else. I could tell she was mad but I don’t see how dragging me into it made sense.

  I offered to take her back to the Sisters of Fragrance and she refused, so I left. Her power allows her to move around unseen so… she would be fine.”

  “What if she wasn’t fine?”

  “I would have known. I kept an eye on her until she reached the Sisters of Fragrance,” Alaric responded with a sigh, “I asked her to meet us tomorrow morning at the Guild Hall. If she’s late, we leave.”

  Sariah shook her head, “You did well to ensure her safety. But pray she shows up tomorrow morning.”

  “Why?”

  “It’s Maple and Bumi. They aren’t ready to leave on a quest without a Holy Mage on their side. Not after the demon stampede we saw the other day,” the woman explained.

  It made sense… but did that also mean the mission would become a failure if Lucy didn’t come. No, Alaric had never planned to add Bumi and Maple to the team in the first place. Then again, he wasn’t as experienced as Sariah. Perhaps they really did need Bumi and Maple.

  [ It’s not just about losing Bumi and Maple anymore. Losing Lucy would place us under the minimum requirements for the quest. We’d be back where we started. We’re running out of time ]

  “Doesn’t Leon have a license?” Alaric asked Sariah.

  Leon shrugged, “It’s still being processed.”

  [ Crap. ] Alaric’s blood turned cold.

  The rest of the meal went by comfortably, with a few jokes thrown here and there. Given that LionHeart wasn’t a former member of the Hurricane Oaks, he was also getting to know Sariah for the first time.

  The boy could tell what they were trying to do though… and he was grateful. But no matter how much they tried, he couldn’t get this out of his head. Even as he walked to his bed, he pondered how he could make this right.

  There was no guarantee that he could reason with Lucy even if he was given the chance and he had no idea how he was supposed to approach her, to begin with.

  It felt like anything he could say would only work against him at this point. She was hurt and not thinking clearly. The most he could do was hope…

  But that’s just it. Was he really going to stake his entire survival on hope?

  Lying in bed, he tossed and turned, these thoughts haunting him like a neverending nightmare.

  [ sigh ] his guardian’s voice cut through the mess in his head, bringing the boy’s turning body to a complete standstill.

  Alaric’s surroundings changed and his mind was forcibly thrust onto a familiar hill, under the shade of a great tree overlooking a neverending meadow. The boy was on his feet in an instant, looking around for the innocent girl who usually occupied this place, “Alia!”

  “Follow me. I’ll help you just this once,” the guardian responded. Alaric turned to where the voice was coming from and there, instead of witnessing a girl, he saw a knight standing at least five metres above him. She held out her hand, waiting for him to get on.

  Alaric stepped onto the guardian’s palm and steadied himself as she lifted him up and onto her shoulder. Steading himself on her shoulder, he looked around.

  The meadow was not endless… but it was vast. The guardian gave one glance at the black-winged beast that lived inside the meadow, then turned for the edge. There, Alaric noticed a translucent barrier that his eyes were unable to pierce through.

  Anxiety gnawed on him, “Where are we going?”

  “We’re leaving our space in the In-Between and travelling to another. We are going to pay your friend’s guardian a visit,” the guardian spoke.

  “We can do that?”

  “I normally do that myself but I can tell you won’t sleep well unless we go together this time,” the guardian responded, “Besides, I’ve been dying to show you this part of my world for a very long time.”