Hey, Dal! a cheerful voice greeted Dallion as he entered Eury’s workshop.

Unfortunately, the voice didn’t belong to the gorgon, but to her workshop.

How was the walk? Bought any interesting materials?

Dallion sighed internally. He knew from experience that there wouldn’t be any chance of peace and quiet. Most of the other guardians in the workshop knew not to make too much noise, but the workbench never seemed to get the hint.

Nothing interesting, he replied. Has Eury been back?

Nope, the workbench said.

So much for that notion. The discussion with the overseer had to be pretty important. Putting the food he got from Aspan on a shelf, Dallion considered his options. Given what was expected from him, it was practically a must for him to pass his next gate before setting out, as well as finish the construction of his next gear. The latter was moving slowly since despite his improvement in forging, sky silver was quite finicky in real life.

Hesitant? Nil asked.

No, Dallion lied. The notion that Jiroh might leave the world forever still hadn’t fully sunk in, but it was starting to. Let’s just get on with it.

PERSONAL AWAKENING

Once the awakening room appeared around him, Dallion didn’t waste any time returning to the challenge he had previously failed. Since this time, he didn’t impose any handicap on himself, defeating the eel was elementary. The tactic he had learned when fighting Eury gave him such a massive advantage that Dallion felt bad for the trial echo. The creature’s health was considerable, but even so, it took less than a minute for him to win. If anything, choosing which stat to increase proved a greater challenge. With mind being so far ahead, it was clear that wasn't an area which he'd advance in in the near future, and while it was tempting to keep advancing his empathy stat, that wasn’t something terribly useful in the wilderness, at least for the moment. After considerable hesitation, Dallion finally increased his body to twenty-one. Body strength was starting to become a must.

Splendidly done, dear boy, Nil said. Only goes to show what you’re capable of when you stop pulling yourself back. Keep it up and you’ll be there in no time.

The praise was meant as encouragement, but in the back of Dallion’s mind, a voice whispered that he should go on. While it wasn’t generally recommended, this wouldn’t be the first time he tried to do two level ups in a go. Besides, this had turned out so easy that he hadn’t even broken a sweat.

The more he thought about it, the more Dallion was convinced that was the right thing to do. He had food, and enough time to rest afterwards, so the way he saw it there could be no downside.

“You’re right,” Dallion said. “I’m capable...” Without further explanation, he went back into the corridor and straight to the new door that had appeared on the wall. Before Nil could even say anything, Dallion opened it and stepped inside.

You’re in the halls of destiny.

Defeat your hidden fears and shape your future.

Err, I’m not sure that’s the best decision, Nil said, even if he were too late to change anything. Remember what happened last time?

“That was different.” Dallion walked down the corridor. “I acted out of desperation back then. Now I just want to push myself a bit more.”

Isn’t that an act of disceptation in itself? You just faced a problem you cannot resolve and hope that by leveling will get your mind onto other things. I can tell you from experience that never works.

“I guess I’ll just have to find out on my own.”

The further Dallion went, the more cracks became visible on the walls. If past trials were any indication, he was no doubt going to face a crackling again, or possibly a cutling. The stone walls, brightly lit by light crystals, continued to get more and more scarred, until the arch or an opening emerged further again.

Better get ready, Dallion told his minions, then hastened his pace. The moment he stepped through the archway, a large battlefield emerged. However, this wasn’t like the ones he had experienced before. This one was completely deserted, as if the battles had taken place centuries ago. There were no corpses, there weren’t even skeletons. Columns and foundations of long destroyed buildings filled the field as far as the eye could see, as if Dallion was in an abandoned medieval construction lot.

Constantly splitting as he walked, Dallion had instances of him look in every direction. It wasn’t long before he spotted his enemy: an echo of himself, seated on the top of a broken column, not too far away.

“Long time no see,” the echo said with a smile. He was wearing Dallion’s wilderness outfit, complete with armor and weapons.

“I had a feeling it might be you.” Dallion approached. “I see you got the new gear?”

“This?” The echo looked at the whip blade in its sheath. “It’s just for decoration. You, on the other hand, have done quite well for yourself. Three familiars, two indestructible weapons…” he nodded as he spoke. “You’ve even managed to level up some of your familiars a few times. Given what they are, that’s more difficult than you thought.”

“Am I seriously giving compliments to myself?” Dallion would have found it amusing if this were anything but a trial. Here, he had to see all the comments as warnings. Most likely, the echo was going to use familiars when fighting him.

“Always so serious. Well, I guess I’ll leave you to your trial,” the echo said, then leapt off to the next column a short distance away.

“Seriously?” Dallion grumbled. “I have to chase you to start?”

“Me?” the echo asked, surprised. “I’m not your opponent. I’m only here to observe.”

Using his music skill, Dallion could tell that the echo wasn’t lying.

“If not you, then who?” he asked.

“I thought you’d have noticed by now.”

Almost as he said it, Dallion did in fact notice—he noticed that despite asking his familiars to get ready, they weren’t. His weapons and items were still on him, but there was no trace of the familiars themselves. Lux hadn’t appeared nor had he given Dallion wings. As for the other two, they had been uncharacteristically quiet since he’d entered the battlefield.

Cracks rose up from the bottom of the column, quickly moving upwards. Dallion was barely able to leap back, when the stone remnant collapsed, crumbling to bits. The silhouette of a creature became visible behind. As the dust settled, Dallion saw what he had feared.

“Nox…” he whispered.

“Yep,” Dallion’s echo said a safe distance away. “Little Nox. Of course, he’s not so little anymore. And just for the sake of fairness, I’ll let you in on a little secret: this is what your crackling might look when he reaches level twenty.”

That was no secret, it was another attempt to put Dallion at a disadvantage. He had sensed the note of surrender that the echo had weaved into his words ever since it had started speaking. All this was made to frighten and intimidate. Seeing the crackling fully grown definitely had that effect.

This wasn’t the first time Dallion had seen a grown puma crackling, of course. The pack he had faced before finding Nox had been just that. However, this creature was different. Lean, athletic and large as a horse, he looked at Dallion with understanding, yet determination. It was almost as if he were saying “sorry, nothing personal.”

“So, this is what you’ll become when you level up?” Dallion asked.

The crackling tossed its tail about. Dallion was just about to continue the conversation when the crackling combat split into four instances.

COMBAT INITIATED

He can split? Dallion asked as he reacted on instinct, splitting into a dozen of instances that dispersed in all directions. Several of those instances were quickly cut to shreds by Nox’s. Having a puma with claws that could crack through inches of any material was quite scary. All this time Dallion had the good fortune of having Nox on his side. Now, he was fighting against the crackling.

Quickly, Dallion summoned his dartbow and fired two bolts at the large body of the puma, once all instances had faded away. The attack was easily evaded, though that gave Dallion enough time to resort to his next strategy: if he could make use of his splitting-familiar combo, he was going to go back to true and tested methods.

“Harp, Vihrogon, are you still with me?” he asked, summoning the harpsisword and amadil shield.

Did you have any doubts? Judging by the shield’s voice, Dallion could almost be certain that he was smiling in fashion, a grownup reserved for little kids when they were making their first steps.

“Harp?”

The strings of the haprsisword vibrated to confirm.

It had been a while since Dallion had fought like this, often resorting to his newer weapons and items. Having the old set felt good and quite reassuring. And that was not all; thinking out of the box, he had already thought of a new crazy combo to try out. There remain serious doubts whether it would work, but given the rules of the realm, it was worth being brave enough to have a go at it.

Taking a deep breath, Dallion focused on the crackling, then played a chord. Establishing a music link with the creature wasn’t easy—a large part of Nox was void, while the flickers of emotions within moved about too fast for the link to gain gold. That was an interesting effect, Dallion didn’t know cracklings had… or maybe it was just Nox? Still, as long as there was a target, there were options. Splitting into eighteen instances, Dallion targeted various points on the puma’s body. One of them made contact, hitting Nox’s determination. The moment that happened, Dallion played another chord, only this one was imbued with a bit of extra energy.

Spark! Dallion thought.

While energy ran along the thread of music like electricity, striking the crackling.

CRITICAL WOUND!

Dealt Damage is increased by 200%

The crackling turned into a puff of smoke from which a dozen cublings leaped out. Like any crackling, Nox had the ability to break into a swarm. Twelve cublings meant that he had the strength of a level twelve crackling.

“Shield!” Dallion shouted as he split into instances, leaping back.

The armadil shield extended, covering almost his entire left side. Keeping up the momentum, Dallion played another set of chords, trying to connect with one of the many crackling cubs. Most of the attempts were unsuccessful and, in the case of the few that were, Nox merged with another cub of himself, breaking the music link.

“You’ve become sneaky,” Dallion said, as he changed tactics, performing a horizontal arc slash with the harpsisword.

The attack was successful, poofing away two more Noxs into smoke. The rest, however, quickly merged in one and clawed at Dallion. The shield managed to block the blow, but the claws pierced through in part, causing a spider web of cracks to form on its surface.

Everywhere you go, you manage to get me shredded, Vihrogon said. I should be fine for several more strokes, but don’t take too long.

Splitting into eight instances, Dallion twisted around and slashed at Nox again. Before the haprsisword could reach the crackling, a layer of blue flames appeared around the creature, pulling it briskly out of reach.

“Lux?” Dallion leaped back.

This was a surprising and very unwelcome turn of events. It was difficult enough to face one of his familiars, but two at the same time…

Suddenly Dallion froze. The logical question popped up in his mind. If there already were two, who was to say he wasn’t facing three?

“Gleam?” Dallion asked, concentrating on his sight as he looked around. “Are you here as well?”

“You’re not hopeless on your own after all,” the shardfly’s voice echoes, as if coming from several places at once. As much as Dallion tried, it was impossible to determine where she was hiding. ”You managed to win in our last fight, but it’ll be a bit tougher now. At my current level, I can create more than illusions of light.”