On the walk towards Lilith’s manor, I had to take 7 breaks to keel over and spew out more blood than I think is in my body, Lilith kept using healing spells on me which only helped a little.

  “Has it gotten any better? At all?”

  “I feel like I could...” I fall onto the stone path again, “die at any moment, really.”

  “You're being dramatic.” Lilith picks me up by the arm, my pounding headache intensifies, everything feels indescribably dizzy, nothing I look at is comprehensive, this is probably what a stroke feels like.

  Lilith drags me onto the grass, it’s taking so long to reach any sort of crutch where I can relax, “hey, hey.” she flicks my face, “you are alive, and I'd rather you feel the pain of all 8 billion people on the planet if it means I get out of this alive with you.”

  Figures, it was stupid to think she actually cared about me.

  “Why'd you have me name you?” I push her harshly away so I can walk by myself.

  “So people would stop disrespecting me with my other title, the other one you gave me.” She speaks in a cold tone.

  Right because I made her be called ‘the one who taught a human magic.’

  Yet again on the path I feel my body heating up and vomit coming out, I don't even stop walking this time, I just look to the side and let it happen. I wipe my mouth once it's done and follow her.

  "Why even teach me magic in the first place?” I spit to remove some of the coppery taste from my mouth.

  “Why do anything? Because it was fun.”

  We reach the manor eventually, she brings me around back into a huge flat grassy area, fit with mowed grass and bushes giving privacy from the forest.

  The original Null catches up, bringing 10 of her clones, “I have brought them master Lilith.”

  Lilith claps her hands, “okay, whoever kills Fay here gets their original bodies and mind back.”

  She steps away leaving me as an obvious target, what is the goal here? This isn't how to train, this is how you kill someone.

  The clones begin to step forward, they seem to be coordinating as a unit rather than going in for a berserker's attack, any strategy in this situation is overkill.

  I reach into my pocket, there are no spells, there's nothing here to protect myself. As the first clone slowly makes its way to arm's length, I reach out with my ring hand and try to activate a spell, any spell.

  My hand gets as close as it can towards the collar of the clone's black dress before I feel a crack on the back of my head, something like a stick had hit my nape, I fall onto the ground almost instantly.

  I'm hit by a barrage of kicks and sticks. Usually when you are being beaten to death you at least hear the person hitting you grunting and making noises, there were none, just the sounds of my body being turned into a pulp with the backing track of non personal violence.

  I reach towards one of their feet and someone stomps on it, I twist my hand and grab their ankle.

  I lose consciousness for a second and let go, I need to figure out how to use this ring or I will genuinely die. Or maybe I should just give up and let Lilith save me, she can't have me die right? Maybe I should just give up, maybe I should just...

  I feel a stomp on the side of my body directly on my kidney, I try to roll so my back is facing the ground, one of my shoulders had dislocated itself from the pressure of someones foot while I flipped myself around.

  I see 10 people just constantly kicking and hitting me above me, there are so many openings if I had paper spells. I reach for one of their hands, touching the skin between their gloves and sleeve.

  I just focus on the words, the two words, morva eris.

  She drops to the ground like a ragdoll, acting as a sort of shield, a black liquid spews from her eyes and mouth, I did not intend to activate whatever spell that is.

  One of the clones tries to drag the body off me but the liquid sharpens and shoots directly into their temple, they fall over flat quietly, the grass beside me becoming a darker shade, 8 left.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  I pull the body up with my remaining arm, the liquid coming from her eyes had stopped but it feels like i can move it like how you move stuff with a magnet. It shoots from the puddle on my chest into 3 legs of the clones, the 2 clones affected topple over and knock over 2 more.

  I use my legs to push myself backwards but one of the clone's heels stomps directly on my neck, suffocating me, I try to reach for her leg, but my arm gets taken and pulled like they want to rip it off.

  My wrist strains as i grab their hand while they are pulling mine with both arms, i try to activate whatever spell i used before, instantly she lets go spewing black liquid over the girl stomping on my neck, she falls over screaming in pain. My neck gets released.

  How many are left? 3 dead, 3 hurt, 4 clones are keeping their distance.

  I try to speak so I can call a draw, but my throat is severely hurt, I can't even pull air into my lungs without opening my jaw fully.

  I hold my hand out to shake their hand, the clone who was stomping on my neck seems to have died from whatever that liquid was, the moment my hand reaches out fully to call a draw, 2 of the clones gets shot by a vague string of the liquid on the body behind me. Their heads get cut into two pieces, the third manages to jump onto the grass in time.

  One of the clones whose legs were taken cleanly off grabs my ankle and lets out a guttural scream, I grab their wrist and do the same spell, trying to end their misery, the liquid comes out of her face and shoots towards the remaining living clones.

  I fall backwards, every part of my body is screaming for help.

  I'm so glad they weren't real people, right? They weren't real? I didn't just kill 10 humans, they were a clone of one of demons, they aren't real, they aren't human.

  “Woah.” Lilith stands above me, I flick my wrist towards her and the fluid hits her in the eye, it bounces off like a laser on a mirror. Useless magic.

  “A for Affort.” She puts a piece of paper on my forehead and heals me. “That was called your innate magic, most of us are born with a variable or combination variable built into our body, apparently humans have the same thing, weird.”

  She pulls me up, fixing up the collar of my shirt, the shirt seems to mend itself from all the damage I took, “you have some non-Newtonian fluid magic, interesting stuff.” She holds her hand to my head, “not burning up, using it must've set your body in the right place, good.”

  She steps back, “for all intents and purposes you are now no different from us, alas you are an incredibly weak version.” She gives a small spin before deciding Null is her new conversation partner.

  “Call the boss, and Fay, go find Jackson or ill lock you up and dissect you to find out why you are different from the others. I give you 2 days; I'm not playing around.”

  I had a week before, is she serious?

  “Servant, go take him to the cabin.” She points at her, Null who just seems to be staring at me with a small bit of terror in her eyes.

  “I go by Null now, please respect that.” She lets out defensively, she walks over to the dead bodies of the clones, their bodies melting from whatever material I created, she touches the cheek of one who was most intact.

  Lilith lets out a groan while holding her hands out, “okay. ‘Null.’ Don't forget what you are, or ill refund you.” Lilith walks to the back door of the manor, leaving us alone.

  “Are... the clones sentient?” I say while on the cusp of another nervous breakdown.

  “I like to think so... especially since I feel sentient...”

  Ill pretend I didn't hear that, I'll just move to the next topic. “I want a favour... is that okay?”

  She lifts herself up, stepping around the corpses, the grass painted black, “not here, cabin.” She takes my hand and walks with me, “you want to kill Master Lilith?” She says in the quietist voice possible.

  “Yes.”

  “I do not... but they do...” we walk through the front path, the sun is setting now, it's been a long day.

  My head feels a lot better than before, my bones no longer ache, everything feels better than usual. In this sudden clarity of painless existence, I can speak my mind clearly, “then you do want to kill her, a version of you at least, if pushed far enough.”

  “Can I tell you a secret? Well, it is only a secret to you, but still a secret?” We step into the forest path.

  “Go ahead.”

  “I am... a clone...”

  I stare at the pin on her dress, “did you swap clothes?”

  “No no no... I come from... the real me, she is a 10th rank... I'm only 4th rank... she produces me to be sold off to buyers, and then I can produce clones that are human to take care of their mansions and... duties.” She twirls her fingers in her dress, “I'm exactly like the clones you killed, but I feel alive, so... sorry.”

  But if it's just versions of her, its fine, its fine, because she is one of them, she is one of the ones who willingly let humans be trapped in blood farms.

  Her hand twists, “is it okay?”

  “What's okay? You being a clone? I don't care. It's fine, I guess.”

  Null gets to the cabin and opens the door for me, “I'm not a bad person.”

  “Sure, the Germans who accepted what the nazis were doing were also good people right? Since it didn't affect them and all.” My sentence has a harsh tinge of sarcasm I hope she picks up on.

  “Nazis? What is that?”

  I stop for a moment, almost everyone knows what nazis are, Lilith definitely does with the amount of times I called her one, “wait how old are you?”

  “I was purchased... 1 year ago... I was made 2 years ago and stored in a dark box...” she turns on the kettle while I sit down on the bed.

  She isn't that much different from me then, not really, except for race and quality of living after she was purchased. “Thats messed up.”

  She nods, “so you wanted a favour?”

  Oh right, “Okay yeah, so, when we find Jackson, I want you to clone him, is that something you can do?”

  She nods, great.