Darkness Closing In

As Elmo heard Elin speak loudly, he couldn't help but be startled. Up until that point, they'd been quiet and each had seemed to understand why they should be quiet.

Which was partly why it was so startling to Elmo. However, he also understood that for her to break the silence like that, she had to be trying to get the attention of something. Not that he was eager to learn what that was. He had a few guesses, but none of them were very pleasant.

Elmo didn't have to look at Jonas to know he was startled as well. It was just one of those things that he understood without having to confirm. Especially with how they'd been working together for a while.

Elmo started out barely a moment behind the noise Elin was making, hurrying to find out what the reason for it was. He still had the lamp in his hand, having mostly forgotten about it. He couldn't even remember when he'd picked it up, but he couldn't say that it was bad to have it. Who's to say when it would turn out to be useful?

As he reached the hallway where Elin had gone, he stopped as he saw what looked like two Elins in the dim light. Almost like she'd acquired a double or something. Elmo stared for a minute before remembering about the lamp in his hand. If nothing else, it might help him know who was who in the darkness.

"Brimstone Fire," Elmo said, focusing on the wick of the lamp.

The wick caught flame with the burst of flame from his spell, though aside from the sudden odor of brimstone, the flame quickly died down to just enough to see in the dark hallway.

What came into view was the fact that it was two Elins. Each looked at the other with open hostility. Elmo felt like the one closest to him should be the real Elin, but he really had no idea if his assumption was correct or if he would be helping the wrong one if he himself was wrong.

"She's the doppelganger!" the Elin farther away from him called out.

"She's the doppelganger," the Elin closest to Elmo said a moment before she called out, "Sacred Shot!"

The spell hit the other Elin and she staggered back, but quickly got back to her original position and called out, "Sacred Shot!"

The energy from the other Elin sailed through the air and right into the Elin right by Elmo.

"Go on ahead," that Elin said to Elmo. "I'll handle this doppelganger. Get to Kim quick!"

Elmo nodded, though he suspected that the Elin who told him that was the real one. Yet, he couldn't help but think that the doppelganger would also say the same thing, if only to maintain its disguise.

"We should go," Jonas said from behind Elmo, startling him. "We don't have time to figure out which one is the real Elin, so we have to let them handle it. We can only hope our Elin wins. Unless you can think of how to differentiate them from each other."

Elmo sighed and shook his head. He really had no idea how to figure out which was the doppelganger or not, especially with what little he knew about the doppelgangers. Which meant that he'd have to accede to the request that the Elin that was closest to him made. He didn't like it and doubted that Kim would like it either. However, she could surprise him, he was sure, but since he didn't know which Elin was real, he doubted that he'd be able to really tell if the one that wins wouldn't be the doppelganger at that time either.

However, he didn't have much choice in the matter either. So, he stepped forward, half-expecting to get hit by a spell as he was in between the two ELins.

"Which way is Kim?" Elmo asked as he paused, suddenly realizing that he didn't know where to go from here.

"She's down this hallway," the Elin farthest from him said. "I was about to go down it when this creature attacked me."

Elmo hesitated. Would this really be alright? What if the other Elin was the doppelganger and was trying to get Elmo farther away from Kim?

"Just hurry it up, Elmo," the first Elin snapped. "That's the hallway the doppelgangers were going down. You should catch up with the other one if you hurry."

Elmo sighed. It was one thing when one of the Elins said for which way he should go and another for both to be telling him to go in that same direction. If both told him to go in that direction, then he couldn't argue that it could be a trap or something.

"Get moving," Jonas hissed at Elmo.

Elmo couldn't help but sigh as he started to head towards the hallway, passing by the other Elin. He wished he could have lent a hand in this fight, but he had a feeling that even if he knew specifically which Elin was the real Elin, that she probably wouldn't be happy with him. Mostly because he had a feeling that she wanted to do this on her own. Which he could understand completely.

Not that he liked it any. Especially since the sooner that the Elin doppelganger was dealt with, the sooner they would have only three of them to deal with. Elmo glanced back at Jonas as he heard the fight between the Elins start up again. Which seemed primarily with the spell 'Sacred Shot' being thrown back and forth between the Elins.

"How far does this hallway go?" Elmo asked, wanting to do something to take his mind off of the fight going on behind them.

"Sorry, with that lamp lit up, I can't say what might be up there. It interferes with my Shadow Sight," Jonas answered, making Elmo regret having lit up the lamp.

"Sorry," Elmo muttered.

"Don't worry about it," Jonas replied. "I'm sure there'll be something we can use the lamp for." Jonas paused for a brief moment. "Uh, I mean other than giving you the light you need to see with. If you didn't have it, you probably would just be fumbling around in the dark, unable to avoid any of the furniture and other décor that you're now able to step around without losing any time."

Elmo didn't say anything. He was sure that Jonas was right, though he really didn't want to acknowledge the minimal amount of furniture along the hallway. Such as tables holding various decorations and an occasional chair. It wasn't much, but it was there. He wanted to put as much focus as he could on figuring out where the doppelgangers were.

He knew the location of one, even if he couldn't tell which was the doppelganger and which was Elin. Two were likely by Kim already, but the other could be just ahead or already facing Kim, potentially making her face an opponent on either side of her.

To Elmo, it almost felt like the darkness that his lamp was keeping at bay was trying to close in on them, trap there where they were and hold them in place while it picked them off. One by one. Until not only would they have failed in the challenge, but they'd also end up dying.

Elmo was determined that he would see his home again. Even if he had to throw away everything he held dear in order to make that happen. Including everything that made him himself.

Maybe he was overthinking things and just making stuff up to boost his morale and determination, but he refused to even consider such thoughts. He always had a hard time telling if his family actually cared about him or if he was just in the way most of the time, but on the chance that they did care about him, he was going to make sure that if something did happen to him, that they wouldn't have to wonder where he was and if he was still alive.

He wasn't just going to be another statistic in a missing persons file for whatever law enforcement agency his disappearance would get reported to. He would be sure to make it so if he did die, that his family would know that that's what happened, rather than having to wonder if he was still out there and could potentially return one day. The thought of that happening turned his stomach more than the thought of expressing his attraction to Jonas did.

Elmo got so wrapped up in his thoughts that he almost didn't notice one of the shadows detach itself from the darkness ahead of him and start approaching him. At first he thought it might be one of Kim's allies that maybe got lost or a servant or guest that had gotten separated from everyone else.

However, when Elmo stopped walking, he saw the shadow stop its approach and then look at him. Elmo was stunned to see himself looking back. It took him a minute to even realize that it was a doppelganger that he was looking at. When the fact finally clicked in his mind, he turned to look for Jonas, but that's when he suddenly realized that Jonas wasn't there anymore.

Sighing, Elmo turned to face the doppelganger. Though he couldn't say what happened to Jonas, he knew it didn't really matter. It would have been nice to have him there to fight with him, but in reality, he suspected that Jonas felt the need to take another route, which Elmo was fine with. He'd at least kept Kim from getting caught between two doppelgangers, so he at least accomplished that.

Now, however, he just had to defeat a doppelganger who probably had the same skills, abilities, and spells as he had himself. He didn't expect it to be easy, but he wasn't going to back down. He felt that this battle could in essence be seen as a way to overcome himself or something.

He recalled this sort of theme before in some books, shows, movies, and games. Where the hero or heroine would have to face themselves in a fight and one they defeated themselves, then they would come to some realization or would have an epiphany of some kind as to what kind of person they were or what they needed to work on to overcome some weakness or other.

Elmo smiled at the thought. He really didn't think this was going to be something like that or something so cheesy. This was going to be a fight to the death, where his only way to have a chance at returning to his home now was to defeat himself to do so.

He couldn't help but consider that in order to do that, he would have to essentially outthink himself. Almost like he was going to play a game of poker, where his opponent knew what cards he had himself, while Elmo could only guess as to what cards they had.

Elmo was sure he was up to the task. Just that he knew it was going to be a lot more taxing than he'd hoped it would be. As he had hoped that it would be two on one, but with Jonas having disappeared, that definitely wasn't going to happen. He was just going to have to figure out a way. Even if he had to throw away all that he valued in order to do so.

"Frozen Missile," the doppelganger cried before Elmo could think of what spell to cast himself.

Elmo threw himself to the ground, as the spear of ice flew over him, trimming a small part of his hair as he fell. It was far too close for his vomfort, but he wasn't going to let that go without a response of some kind.

"Dark Impact!" Elmo cried from the ground.

Then as the dark energy slammed into the doppelganger, Elmo knew that this fight had only just begun. It wouldn't end that quickly. Not when he was determined to survive, whatever the cost.