The speed of the bullet was too great for Dallion to react. The bullet pierced the neck of one instance before he could do a thing. Dallion felt the pain of the projectile as it punctured his flesh. It was merely a spheric projectile half an inch in size, made entirely of sky iron, but somehow the pain it caused was significant.

Dallion saw a red rectangle appear indicating a terminal wound, before it vanished along with the instance. Moments later, all other instances vanished as well, leaving only one reality.

What was that? Gleam recoiled in terror. Fighting something stronger was something that a shardfly did by nature. However, there was no way it had seen anything resembling Earth technology. The ability to fire projectiles was unlike anything in the realm. Awakened powers and magic had the potential to be more devastating, but they were something people were used to. Guns were like fireworks, but deadly.

A faint click told Dallion that the gun had been reloaded. From the glimpse of it, he was able to make out that it was a revolver or some sort and made entirely of sky iron. The small size and thin shape made him wonder where it kept its bullets, but then re remembered that in the awakened world, it didn’t have to; here items were just concepts, and as long as the echo knew the principles by which an item was made, it could have an endless supply of bullets, just as dartbows had endless bolts.

Dallion burst in instances again. The moment he did, a second shot echoed, taking out another instance. That was close. If Dallion had taken only a moment longer, the instance could have been him. However, that didn’t make the situation any better. It was difficult fighting the Star’s echo even before she had a firearm.

Lux, move me away! he ordered. Gleam, protect me from the roaches.

Fear lit up in the shardfly’s body, spreading like growing roots.

I’ll make sure nothing hits you. Don’t worry.

That was the only advantage he had—so far, the reloading time was slow enough so he could combat split right before it happened. Even so, he had to increase the distance. The swarm of wooden quills was preventing Goth from effectively splitting, but if she ever managed to, there would be a whole lot more bullets flying in his direction.

More roaches emerged from the pit below. Dozens of them were making attempts to attack Dallion, though they were easily dispatched by Gleam. Dallion could see the familiar pulsing with rage to the tip of her wings. Being so overwhelmingly pushed back by the Star’s echo had made her take out all her anger on anything in the vicinity. However, the creatures didn’t only serve as a means of attack; they also allowed Goth to move about.

Gleam, move back! Dallion said as he did a line attack.

Hundreds of critters were instantly destroyed, yet Goth managed easily to leap off onto one high enough so as not to be affected. All the time, dozens of wooden quills attempted to hit her, faring no better than the bladeroaches.

Another shot echoed, the projectile piercing through the armadil shield as if it were paper. Naturally, Dallion selected another instance of him to become reality, but that proved without a doubt that there was no protection against Goth’s weapon.

Think! Dallion told himself. Slowing down time to a freeze.

There had to be something he could do. True, this wasn’t an awakening trial, so a solution wasn’t guaranteed, but something deep inside told him that there was a way for him to win.

Thanks to the girl’s weapon, both of them had effectively transformed into echoes. The first one to successfully deal damage to the other was going to be the one to win this. If the winner was Dallion, the echo would disappear and the invasion would come to an end. If not—he’d be thrown back into the real world with all of his awakened abilities sealed. If Dallion had observed such a battle from the sidelines, he’d have said “never bring a knife to a gunfight.” At the moment, he was the one with the knife and no way to find a gun. Or maybe that wasn’t exactly true?

Dallion closed his eyes for a moment, trying to visualize his thoughts. He had no idea how to construct a firearm, but knew the basic principle of how it worked. Anywhere else, that wouldn’t amount to much, but he wasn’t anywhere else. He was in an awakened realm and here there were several skills that could help him get on an equal footing, or at least something close to it.

Writing skills went into overdrive as Dallion’s mind composed everything that would be necessary to create a blueprint. Markers appeared in the air, forming his creation, aided by forging and music skills.

BLUEPRINT CREATOR

(+2 Mind)

Creating blueprints is always a major step forward… as long as you don’t lose yourself in theoretical constructions at the expense of creating them in practice.

Got you! Dallion opened his eyes.

Time returned to normal as he split into a dozen instances. This time, each of them also summoned several ingots of sky silver ore.

Hundreds of markers surrounded them, illustrating lines that had to be cut and sections that needed to be bent. There was a time when such a feat would have been impossible to achieve. Now, though Dallion could do it on the battlefield—he had no choice.

Nox, Onda, I’ll need your help on this, he summoned his Nox knife and triangular hammer.

Good thing you invested in mind, dear boy, Nil said, his smile echoing through the words.

The mind trait not only allowed him to create such a large number of reality instances, but also made it possible for him to perform four completely different activities at the same time. While keeping an eye on everything around him, Dallion kept reading from the dryad scroll tucked in the straps of his buckler and also formed an ingot of metal in the air. Despite his forging skills making it as elastic as plasticine, he still had to constantly summon and unsummon his tools, since he only had two hands to hold three items. At some point, he was definitely going to try and get another familiar that could fly.

Bullets systemically flew Dallion’s direction. All the attempts to fly away did little to increase the distance between him and the Star’s echo. Under normal circumstances, the firebird’s speed would have been unmatched, but the air was thick with bladeroaches as far as the eye could see. On a few occasions, he would pause his forging to summon a sword and do a line or point attack so as to think about the swarm, but that resulted in only in partial success.

What’s this thing? Onda asked, intrigued by the concept.

Something that shouldn’t exist, Dallion replied.

Sweat covered his face. Even with a mind trait of forty-four, the process was difficult. Already he could feel a headache. The longer he kept at this, the stronger it was going to get.

Elements formed in the air, each unsummoned away back to Dallion’s realm until the moment it was time to assemble them. As the weapon slowly gained form, Dallion couldn’t help but think that it would have been so much better if he could have actual gunpowder, but he was going to have to make do with what he had at hand.

It took eighteen agonizing seconds to have Dallion’s contraption complete. For what had to be done, it felt like hours.

This is wicked! Onda said. Does it do what her’s does?

Not quite, held the weapon tightly. It was the size of a shotgun with an extremely large barrel. The major difference was that instead of shooting slugs, it was going to propel pellets—a concept he hoped that Goth wasn’t aware of. Even with this major advantage, there was one significant issue: he had to get much closer in order to use it.

Lux, when I tell you I want you to get inside this and flameburst.

You’ll fall, the firebird said.

If all goes well, it won’t matter. And if it doesn’t… Dallion thought a moment about it. If it doesn’t, it won’t matter either.

Adrenalin filled Dallion’s veins, as he turned around, doing the thing that was going to put him the most at risk. Hundreds of roaches filled the distance between Dallion and Goth, so much that most of the wood quills were incapable of reaching her.

Taking a deep breath, Dallion directed Lux to fly him straight at the echo. The distance rapidly decreased. Every second Dallion split into three dozen instances, and each second three-quarters of them were shot down by Goth’s own instances. The closer the two got, the more of Dallion’s echoes were shot. Then—when the two were fifty feet apart—Dallion made his move.

Focusing to the extreme, he summoned his harpsisword. In the past few instances, when he had done so, he had followed up with a line attack. This time, though, he turned it around and played a series of chords. For a fraction of a second, all roaches in the air froze still. Instead of playing chords that would weigh them down, Dallion did the opposite, lightening them so they went up like champagne corks.

Goth paused. A grain of hesitation emerged within her. At that precise moment, Dallion summoned his rifle and aimed at her.

Lux! he thought as he split into a dozen instances.

Twelve cones of fire filled the air, propelling pellets in a vast area.

Initially, Dallion thought that less than half of the attempts would have an effect, but to his surprise there wasn’t an instant which missed. One hit was all that was needed, and Goth definitely took more than one, as the roaches in front of her were instantly transformed to smoke.

“Thank you,” Goth’s voice reached Dallion, even if she had already vanished.

STAR CLEANSER

(+1, Awakening +1 Body, +1 Mind, +1 Reaction, +1 Perception, +1 Empathy, +1 ???)

You’ve killed a Star’s echo. Question is, are you ready to do the real thing?

There was nothing that could be said. The slight feeling of sadness Dallion felt upon hearing the echo’s last words, was almost instantly replaced by confusion and euphoria. This whole experience was extraordinary in so many ways. Even the achievement was unlike anything Dallion had seen.

“I didn’t know achievements can increase the awakened level,” Dallion said, as the vast swarm of roaches dissolved into puffs of black smoke.

They don’t, Nil replied. However, it’s not like there are recorded instances of anyone killing an echo of the Star.

“What do you think it means?”

To be honest, I doubt it’s anything good. You broke something the Star made. He’s bound to have some thoughts about it.

INVASION ENDED

You have ended the invasion and broken through your sixtieth barrier.

Your level has increased to 60

Choose the trait that suits you best.

Two levels in one day? Dallion wondered. And that was not to mention all the traits he had increased at the same time. Apparently, invasions provided a serious advantage. No wonder so many preferred to stop their development at level ten. There was more than a bit of incentive for the unscrupulous awakened to take advantage and go for a quick boost early on, not to mention weaken an opponent. It was a good thing that Dallion hadn’t received all those achievements when he’d entered the domain of Dherma’s chief. If he had, there was every chance he would have gone down the path of realm invasion and to a quick sticky end. At the very least, the Moons would likely have punished him on the matter.

Small rectangles appeared, providing a choice for Dallion to increase traits, only this time there was a new addition—a sixth box had emerged. It had no description, just as Empathy didn’t have at the time, and the value of one of twenty.

Dallion’s heart skipped a beat. He knew exactly which trait that was—the only one remaining. As much as it pained him, though, he had no choice but to choose reaction. The final trait was something nice to have in the long run, but for his immediate survival, he had to become as fast as possible.