Ugly
Darkness.
Just as Seven expected, he was back in that void again. Liquid beneath his feet and liquid above his head, like standing in an ocean within an ocean buried within the cocoon made of glass.
Still.
None of that mattered as unlike before which he had time to ponder, he had none this time.
'Sword.'
He thought, and a sword appeared in his grasp.
Clang!
He raised it immediately, barely blocking the fang of his doppelganger— used-to-be or former doppelganger (no longer looked like his mirrored self)— trying to bite him.
Instead.
Its face twitched at odd intervals like a glitched hologram, with eyes flickering red and mouth too wide that was filled with far too many teeth and fangs like someone tried to merge a wolf's snarl with a human grin.
Specifically, it looked more like the aberrant and not him.
|| Protagonist System Activated ||
A red system interface appeared before his eyes.
|| Anomaly Quest (Last Chance): Death is NOT the End ||
|| Preparation: — ||
|| Objective: Defeat the Other YOU ||
|| Reward: ??? ||
|| Failure: Character Erasure ||
"...Fudge."
He was not bothered by the anomaly quest he had failed back then reappearing, but by the preparation that was blank and left him with no hint on how long it should take.
'...Host assimilation.'
He thought.
After all, the system displayed 'assimilate host' when translating the gibberish words of the doppelganger back then.
Also, if he dies here, then it was obvious that his doppelganger would take control of the body once it revives.
It was also the case for the rewards being questioned. But in all honesty, the system was not being cryptic. It simply did not know either as the one who would reward him was none other than himself.
"𓂀 ✶⟊☍ ⟡⸸⚚⧫⫷Ϟ"
The creature snarled something incomprehensible.
Step.
His body moved without thinking by taking a step back with shallow breaths as pressure dropped all around him.
|| If I kill you… ||
The system popped up again.
Again.
And again.
|| If I kill you… ||
|| If I kill you… ||
|| If I— ||
Just like before, again and again, the messages flashed in front of him, overlapping, glitching, and echoing inside his skull.
"⟊⚝⛧⟁𐰴✶⚚⩔⸸"
|| You are the anomaly. ||
"⫷ ✶⟊ ⸸𓂀 ⚚☍ ⟡⧫ ⫷Ϟ⧙"
|| I am Seven Hart ||
His left eye glowed faintly as pain began to pound in his temple.
"Urghk-kh…"
Ignoring the pain on his glowing left eye, he stared back into that glitching doppelganger's eyes, narrowed his grip on his sword's hilt, and smirked despite the pain.
"Then kill me, fudger."
As if the doppelganger realized the mockery, it tilted its head not just slightly, but all the way to its feet as if the neck extended.
And so…
Dash!
…it blurred out of sight.
There was no shape or clear silhouette for Seven to track, but only the whisper of movement slicing through the void too fast.
Chrksskk—!
He barely stepped back in time as something unseen passed inches from his face. He had a hard time to keep up, given that his glowing left eye was the only thing allowing him to see anything at all in the pitch-dark sea that surrounded him.
The doppelganger left eye no longer glowed like before.
It felt as if he was fighting a shadow in a place made of shadows.
Except that this one snarled, slashed, and struck like a rabid animal grinning wide with soundless and fast movements that was exactly like the aberrant.
Ssshhkk—!
'Neck.'
In the vision, he saw his left eye falling— more like his head, falling. Thus he pivoted his heels and swung his sword above to parry, but his blade met nothing.
Ssshhkk—!
Another breeze brushed his side and this time it grazed as a sharp sting traced across his ribs. It was shallow enough not to drop him, but deep enough to draw blood.
'Heart…?'
He grunted, twisted his hips, and planted his feet as he brought the blade up just in time to intercept the strike.
Clang!
The sword jarred in his grip as the doppelganger vanished the moment the sword met claws.
It came back.
Clang!
From the left, he deflected it.
Then again but faster.
Clang!
From above, he barely managed to angle the blade.
Cla— Clang!
From below this time, a slash aimed to carve up through his ribs… he blocked it. But the weight behind the blow sent a shiver through his knees.
Each strike came at a different rhythm but had a pattern: if the recent attack was slow, then the next is guaranteed to be sharp and fast.
He could only follow the momentum, bracing himself for the next blow that always came from somewhere new.
'It's… playing with me…'
Just like the aberrant, the doppelganger was toying with him using its ridiculous speed as if it was telling him 'no matter what you do, you cannot catch me' folly.
After all.
Even with his passive one second foresight, he could not see the trajectories clearly. The void was thick and distorted and the future here was no longer stable.
It split, flickered, and tried to show him a thousand possible attacks from a thousand angles at once because of the doppelganger's speed.
Hence, he had no choice but to pick one and hope.
Chrsskk—!
The doppelganger dashed again.
Seven spun in place, ducked the incoming swipe, and retaliated with a sideways slash meant to cover space rather than hit a single spot.
Clang!
The blade scraped something and a flicker of static sparked. And even though the contact was brief, it was no doubt to be the doppelganger.
Thus.
Swoosh!!
He chased it.
He swung the sword again in a wide and clean manner as trying to follow that brief recoil, but the doppelganger was gone, or above, or behind him again.
He could not tell.
Every second his glowing eye tried to see further, the void seemed to change the shape of the future, making it twist, diverge, and blur.
Hff…
He grit his teeth.
Step.
He took a step sideways, just as the vision warned, shifting his weight to dodge the slash that should have cut through his ribs.
But.
Before he could even breathe in relief, a cold hand burst from the dark and slammed into his chest and dug in deep until he felt the unmistakable tug of something being torn from him.
Thump!
His heart.
The doppelganger had already vanished back into the shadows again, faster than his nerves could catch, and faster than even his foresight could track.
Step.
He staggered backward and felt his balance tip, but he tried his best not to fall.
Instead, he looked down slowly at the center of his chest where something warm leaked out in slow trails, and the place where his heartbeat should have, once again, echoed.
Yet there was only a hollow hole.
A gaping void.
Jagged and uneven.
But he did not scream, cry out, or even grit his teeth to ground himself.
He just lowered his shoulders and exhaled through parted lips, not from pain, but something closer to tired indifference like someone who had seen it before and…
Haah…
…lifted one shaky hand, placed it over the hole, and tilted his head like he was critiquing something.
"It's ugly."
He was not referring to the wound itself, but the way his heart was carved.
'Sister did it cleaner.'
Slowly, he closed his eyes.
'Back then… it didn't even hurt.'
He thought it plainly as he remembered how Eden pierced his heart and not even letting the air between beats ripple more than necessary.
Now, with his eyes shut and breath held steady, he allowed himself to sink deeper into the artifact's vision where every sense sharpened, every sound felt louder, and every image clearer as if by closing his eyes, the world itself slowed down to whisper its secrets.
And in that vision, he saw the twisted grin of the doppelganger with jagged fangs, trying to devour the heart it took that rippled and glitched like corrupted code and malware.
Hff…
He breathed out slowly through his nose, keeping the rhythm of his breathing, feeling his pulse slow as his hand gripped the hilt of his saber tighter and tighter before he slid his left foot gently behind him as he dropped his center of gravity into a low stance.
Swoosh!
He slashed.
But only in the vision; or at least what the artifact foresight told him to and a possibility.
Thus.
He opened his eyes.
His left eye once again glowed a golden color as he positioned himself into the stance presented in the vision. Step by step, he followed it.
But he did not strike yet.
He waited, waited… and waited for the golden light to reflect the doppelganger's grin along with his hair that began to lift themselves gently.
The cocoon of water around him became bright with golden light, every ripple on the surface sparkling like starlight, until the glow nearly swallowed the entire space yet the doppelganger was still not in sight.
"Where the fudge is—"
Snap.
A single finger snapped and the sound echoed through the void that interrupted him mid-sentence, and the golden cocoon shattered around him with a wave of pressure from that snap sent the wind exploding outward.
Even the glow of his left eye was extinguished and the darkness returned.
The shallow water also returned.
Step.
"Alright, alright…"
A voice said, followed by soft, calm, patient, and confident footsteps that echoed across the still surface.
"...You're dumber than I was, but not bad. You pass."
Step.
Another step echoed.
A shape approached, barely visible through the darkness, until Seven reacted on instinct and vanished, reappearing in a single flash-step technique that the vision displayed in both against the aberrant and the doppelganger.
But.
The silhouette did not dodge.
He did not even flinch.
Instead, as the blade came rushing at him, the man reached out with two fingers and pinched the sword mid-strike. It crumbled like sand, falling apart in his grip, dissolving into strands of shadow and fading into the water.
Then, without hesitation, the man reached out and grabbed Seven by the collar before he pulled him forward until their foreheads nearly touched.
"I said you pass, fudger."
Right after he said those words, a pair of colossal eyes opened above and engulfed the void with golden light.
"...?"
Seven blinked when he saw the man's appearance.
Blackish-brown hair.
Ashen blue eyes.
The man looked exactly like him, but with longer hair, messy clothes, and decades older than him.
"Who…"
He blinked as the glow in his left eye faded.
For a long moment, he did nothing but stared at the man before him and asked.
"...Who the fudge are you?"