Chapter 98 - Dungeon - VI

"CRACKLE!!!!"

The entire dome floor froze in an instant. The feet of every mercury clone locked into ice that erupted violently from Aeloria's palms. The sound of freezing was so intense it made even the air tremble.

Before the clones could react, the ice shattered with a dry snap, followed by a deafening explosion. The frozen surface crumbled into millions of fine particles that hung in the air like silver snow.

The mercury Aelorias paused, watching him with expressions that mixed curiosity and something disturbingly human. For a brief moment, they seemed to hesitate.

Then they advanced.

But they'd barely taken a few steps when metallic blood began gushing from their noses, mouths, eyes, and ears. Their silver skins cracked like porcelain under pressure, micro-fissures spreading rapidly until they became grotesque fractures. Some clones didn't even fall, they simply disintegrated into glowing puddles where they stood.

"One thing I noticed," Aeloria spat, retreating as he raised a new ice shield. "You've got a very clear limit on what you can copy. If you're so damn powerful, then copy this technique, you metal bastards!"

The entire dome's atmosphere turned into a freezing mist. The air we exhaled came out in white vapors, but strangely, the cold didn't affect us.

Meanwhile, Dorian's clones, still locked in fierce combat with him, began showing the same symptoms, cracks, leaks, spasmodic movements.

Dorian seized the momentary chaos to cleave one clone from collarbone to hip. The mercury creature disintegrated with a shrill shriek.

"Finally!" he gasped, rolling away from three others trying to flank him.

The icy mist created a surreal effect. Everything looked shrouded in a shifting silver veil, the outlines of the clones writhing like shadows beneath a frozen lake's surface. The original Aeloria-clones staggered, their bodies visibly cracking, but...

They didn't fall.

They stopped.

And started laughing.

The sound was like grinding glass, high-pitched and dissonant, echoing off the dome walls until it felt like the dungeon itself was laughing at us. Aeloria felt a chill unrelated to the ice, something deeper, more visceral. The pure instinct that something was fundamentally wrong.

The nearest clone raised a hand, observing with scientific interest as the cracks on its arm slowly sealed, the mercury rearranging itself like living tissue.

Then, as if a switch had been flipped, all the clones began to transform.

Their bodies shuddered violently, limbs elongating and shortening in patterns that defied anatomy. Fictitious bones cracked beneath silver skin. Claws retracted, replaced by fingers that were too human.

But the most unsettling part was their faces.

The features that had perfectly mimicked Aeloria began to blend, distort, taking on traces of Dorian, a squarer jaw, narrower eyes. It was like watching a painting melt and reform wrong.

Dorian, who had finally caught his breath after destroying two more clones, froze when he saw his own copies changing.

The original "Dorians" had been faithful, tall, muscular, bald, with that natural warrior's stance. But now...

Their eyes shifted to an icy blue identical to Aeloria's. Strands of dark-blue hair sprouted from their scalps. Layers of crystalline ice grew over their bodies like natural armor.

"What the fuck?!" Dorian roared, instinctively backing away.

"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!"

The catatonic tension shattered as an explosion of light illuminated every inch of the dome. Dozens of lightning bolts crossed the air like electric serpents, vaporizing at least a dozen clones in an instant, both those mid-transformation and fresh ones still emerging from the walls.

Aeloria and Dorian blinked against the brightness, then exchanged equally stunned looks.

"Glenn!" Dorian recognized, a wild grin spreading across his face.

**

I'd stayed put until now for two very specific reasons.

First, because Seraphine was still vulnerable, pale, sweating, but conscious. Dália and I had formed a defensive perimeter around her, keeping the clones at bay while she recovered.

Second...

I'd been studying my own clones.

They were different While the others' copies acted with clear purpose, mine seemed... defective. Some convulsed and collapsed before even leaving the walls. Others attacked each other. A handful didn't even try to mimic me properly they just stood there, eyes blank and white, like broken dolls.

Then Aeloria's words hit me like lightning.

'They have a limit.'

It was so obvious I almost laughed.

The clones could copy skills, maybe even muscle memory... but they couldn't replicate true complexity. Aeloria's ice mist had taken years to refine.

My multiple affinities were an anomaly that defied Atlas's known laws. And I didn't even need to mention what I hadn't shown yet my skills as a warrior, my Warlord traits, my dual cores of prana and mana.

They couldn't replicate that.

"Dália, stay with Seraphine," I ordered, feeling prana surge into my nexus. "I'm joining the fun."

She understood immediately. Her eyes flashed with recognition she'd also noticed how off my copies were.

"Yes, Young Master! Watch out for the Dália-clones, they seem to have healing abilities."

My gloves crackled with built-up energy. Six spheres of electricity materialized above my head, floating like tiny silver suns.

This was a spell I'd used before, against Thadeus, in my first duel. Back then, I'd focused on quantity over quality. Ten weak, scattered orbs.

Today, there were only six.

But each contained four times the power.

"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!"

The first volley of lightning lanced across the dome like divine spears. Three Aeloria-clones vaporized instantly, leaving only black scorch marks where they'd stood.

The best part? Half the orbs weren't attacking, they recycled the energy from missed bolts into new strikes.

"Almost a sustainable mage," I muttered, unable to suppress a grin.

Aeloria and Dorian capitalized on the chaos.

Dorian focused on blocking the clones' movements, forcing them into firing lines. Aeloria used his residual mist to freeze their legs, creating easy targets.

In under a minute, half the clones were just glowing puddles on the ground.

Then I saw the sickly, opaque green light.

It emanated from the puddles nearest the Dália-clones a diseased glow, utterly unlike the near-divine magic the real Dália wielded. Before I could warn anyone, the puddles began moving, the mercury reforming into humanoid shapes again.

But this time, the clones that emerged were bigger. More defined. Stronger.

"Dammit! Glenn, focus the Dália's!" Dorian bellowed, dodging a strike that would've taken his head off.

Even with the lightning spell demanding extreme focus, I'd trained for this. My entire regimen had been about wielding multiple affinities simultaneously. A spatial rift tore open in front of me.

I stepped through.

I reappeared directly behind two Dálias hiding behind a Dorian-clone. They barely had time to turn before I amplified local gravity fiftyfold.

"CRUNCH."

They were crushed into the ground like bugs under a rock. Before they could reform, a bolt from one of my orbs pierced through, vaporizing them completely.

"Two down!" I shouted, already opening another rift.

The Dorian-clone shielding them spun with supernatural speed, its right arm elongating into a grotesque sword aiming to bisect me.

"Crackle!"

I was already gone.

"BOOOOM!"

"BOOOOM!"

"BOOOOM!"

I became a whirlwind of rifts and lightning, systematically eliminating every Dália-clone I found. Without them, the mercury puddles stopped regenerating.

"We need to get out of this trap now!" Dália suddenly shouted, carrying Seraphine on her back. "This won't end, they'll just keep adapting!"

She sprinted toward the hole in the ceiling we'd fallen through. Dorian and Aeloria immediately covered her retreat.

"Everyone to the hole!" Dorian ordered, delivering a sweeping strike that shoved three clones back.

Aeloria looked exhausted, his icy mist dissipating, his face paper-white. Yet he ran like a demon, freezing the feet of any clone that tried to follow.

I kept covering the group, my bolts vaporizing anything that got too close. The clones now emerging were visibly inferior, deformed, incomplete, like poorly made copies.

Dorian's clones were smaller and weaker. Aeloria's ice magic was far cruder than the originals. The Dália-clones took much longer to reform.

Within seconds, we'd regrouped beneath the hole. Dorian pulled us together with one strong arm.

"GLENN, NOW!"

One last rift opened before me. A step, and I was beside them.

"Hold tight!" I warned, reducing our collective gravity to near zero.

Our group shot upward like feathers in a whirlwind.

Aeloria laughed through gritted teeth, relieved. Dorian clenched his fists, ready to fight even midair. Seraphine, still weak, tried to nod in gratitude.

We were three meters from the hole when I saw it.

From the darkness above, something moved.

First came the eyes, two red points glowing like beacons in the black. Then the mouth...

A colossal jaw unhinged, revealing rows of jagged, dagger-like teeth. Inside, two black holes pulsed like nostrils. And where the tongue should be...

A thick black serpent peered out, its forked tongue tasting the air.

"FUCK!!!!"

Our screams merged as the creature dove toward us, its maw wide enough to swallow us all whole.