Part Ten – Doppelganger

After going through the door, I found a staircase that seemed to lead outside. The pale light coming through was just as pink as ever. This is it, one final fight.

Cresting the steps, I came to a round stone arena with a low stone wall. The only other thing on the rooftop was a mirror directly across from the steps. A very suspicious mirror that was in no way going to do something bad.

“Oh, don’t tell me the boss is coming out of the mirror, that’s such a stupid cliché.”

“Oh don’t worry, I wouldn’t do something that lame.”

Waa! A chill went down my spine as I heard the voice. Turning around, I came face-to-face with the speaker, and a very familiar face grinned back at me.

“I know what you’re thinking right now, after all I’m you.”

The thing across from me, looked just like me. The only difference was that he had completely different equipment. He didn’t have any armor, just regular cloths like the kind I would normally wear. The only thing he carried was a set of twin swords, one black and the other white.

Nightmare Doppelganger

Rank: C

Description: Dungeon Boss of the Nightmare Labyrinth. A mutant Doppelganger that posses greater intelligence and ego. Assumes part of the personality of the challenger. Can assume the identity of those it kills.

“So, whatcha thinking.”

“That this is extremely surreal.” Incredibly surreal. I was standing in front of a monster that looked like me.

“I suppose it would. I can see how this would unnerve most people.”

“If you know that, then can you jump off the roof please.”

“Commit suicide, huh. That’s a pretty messed up thing to say.”

“Considering we have to try and kill each other, it makes perfect sense to me.”

“True, true. But the same could be said for you. Why do I have to die?”

This conversation was going nowhere. I was speaking with a duplicate of myself.

Sighing, I drew my sword and a paralytic knife.

“Oh, we’re starting are we? If you want to keep talking, I’m all for it.”

“Shut it, asshole" I snarled. “There’s no escape for either of us if we don’t fight.”

“Oof, right to the point huh. Yes, you’re exactly correct. As you’ve no doubt already seen, I’m a Doppelganger. A rather unique type to be precise: if I don’t kill you, I can’t become real."

“What the hell does that mean?”

“It means, dumbass, that if I kill you, I become you"

After saying his spiel, he drew the longswords and adopted a battle stance.

Shit! This place is completely messed up! I have to kill myself to escape? No, this is all the bad parts of me. The snark, the attitude, probably even my rage, but if that’s true I can use it against him.

The two of us squared off. It was do or die, a final showdown with both our lives on the line.

He started us off by charging straight at me, bringing one sword upward while stabbing with the other. I sidestepped the stab and parried the slash, then used the momentum to pivot and throw a kick. He blocked it with his arm, then jumped back, before quickly closing the distance. Bringing both swords down in an x-shape, he forced me to use mine to block, depriving me of a chance to attack.

He’s trying to lead the fight. If he’s always on the offensive, then eventually I’ll fall behind. I can’t let him lead me too much.

The second his attack let up, I pushed him backwards and threw my knife, using it as cover to get closer and draw my acidic axe. He dodged the knife and thrust his left-handed sword towards me. I blocked with the axe, then slashed at his head with my sword, which he parried.

Like this, we exchanged two dozen or so blows while locked in a stalemate. As we pulled apart, he looked at me and continued our earlier conversation as if nothing happened.

“Isn’t this great, the two of us fighting each other. One-on-one, no one to interfere nothing to distract us from the fight.”

“You’re awfully cheery. I’d think you’ll be less enthusiastic about this, seeing as you’re supposed to be based on me.”

“Well, it’s only parts that are you. At my core I’m still a monster, and my instinct tells me to kill you.”

“Hmph, so you’re a crappy imitation as well, huh." At that, the doppelganger scowled at me, then rushed forward once more.

Heh, he’s just as impatient as I would be, which means this should work.

As he approached, I used Skanda, which I had been saving for this moment. Then in the slowed down world, I threw the axe and lunged forward. As he blocked the axe with the right blade, I thrust my sword towards his throat, but of course he saw through that and moved to parry with the left. But that wasn’t my real goal, as I had merely fainted and shifted the blade for his right hand.

*Clang*

He… he blocked it!? He still blocked it, even with Skanda? This is exactly what I was worried about!

“You didn’t think that would end it, did you?” God, that cocky grin just pissed me off.

Our blades joined again, countless strikes being exchanged. I was at an innate disadvantage, as I only had one sword. Using my other weapons helped, but I needed to even the playing field. I knew of a trick to disarm someone, but I’d never actually tried to use it. I slide the blade of my sword down his, locking it against the hilt, then attempted to pull it from his hand.

*Clang….clatter screech*

One of his swords went sliding across the ground.

“Not bad, not bad. Still, if you think just doing that will allow you to win. Well, hehehehe?” I cut off his mockery there. He let me do that!?

We began to exchange blows, our fight building to a fever pitch. By now, we were both covered in cuts, and our blood was staining the ground. I’m starting to get woozy. If this doesn’t end soon, we’ll both die of blood loss. I need to end it.

I’d already used half my bank of Skanda. If I ran out of it, I didn’t know if I’d be able to win. I certainly wouldn’t be able to hold out long enough for the cooldown to end. One chance. If I mess up, I’ll die. So no pressure.

“Heh. You’ve got a nasty look in your eyes. I bet you’re going to do something crazy.” He was right.

“Fuck off. I don’t plan on dying here.” He grinned at me, obviously pleased.

This was it, one final clash. We charged at each other, our blades poised to cut into the other. I used everything I had left, all my remaining stamina and Skanda, to deliver a final blow. As we closed in, I guided my blade to pierce his heart, while his went through my shoulder. Gaaaa!

“Kagh! Uggggh, If you… think clichés… are lame…, why did you… do that?” He was still alive? His tenacity as a monster must make him tougher, but he wouldn’t hang around much longer.

God my shoulder hurts. It’s constantly burning and throbbing. I think it may be broken too.

“Fuck off. I just did what I had to do to win. If it’s cliché, then it is. That just means even with clichés, I’m better than you.”

“Kaghka, ha! Ah man, It’s hilarious that I actually agree with you.”

I pulled myself to my feet, using my sword as cane. I somehow managed to hobble over to him.

“This isn’t the end. Both of us know that. What’s waiting out there, will make this place seem like a paradise. Who knows how many people you’ll lose, what kind of suffering you’ll experience. You’d be better off dying here than going through that.” While he had a point, I certainly wasn’t going to listen to him.

“Pffff, overly dramatic much? If you’re me, then you know what my answer is. It doesn’t matter what I’m up against. I’ll crush everything. Whether it’s you, nations, monsters, people it doesn’t matter. Nothing will get in my way. I’ll survive. I’ll more than survive.”

The doppelganger looked shocked, before grinning and accepting what I’d said. At that moment, the last of his life bled away, and the doppelganger dissolved into light. So I won. I hope I don’t bleed out.

As if in answer to my prayer, I soon heard the System’s voice.

::Death of Dungeon Boss confirmed. Individual has completed C-Rank Trial: Nightmare Labyrinth. Individual has met requirements for Title: Conqueror of Trials. Individual has met requirements for Authority: Insight. Generating rewards……Complete.

Trial Completion Time

MIndscape: 27 Days 12 Hours 36 Minutes

Reality: 9 Days 4 Hours 12 Minutes::

What did it just say? Does that mean this was actually a dream? Explain it in better detail, System!

As I ranted once again, the edges of the world began to blur, fading away. This space was clearly falling apart since I’d cleared it. As the blurring reached where I was, I had only one thought.

I hope I wake up this time.

Epilogue

From a space outside all worlds, an enormous being existed in solitude. This Entity could not be perceived by any other and had only one goal: Monitor the World System.

::Installation of World System into dimension CS1KI6V complete. Number of Individuals connected at start-up: 17,893,438. Estimated casualties after one week: 77.372%. Estimated time until dimensional collapse: 79 Years 8 Months 13 Days. Number of errors during installation: 3. Errors have been rectified. Shutting down processors until World Decay is detected again.::

After once again fulfilling its duty, the entity prepared to return to its slumber. However, one of the errors that had occurred kept coming back to its mind. A human had been accidentally forced into a dungeon as World Decay began. Ordinarily, this wouldn’t have necessitated action, but since the dungeon in question kept challengers from leaving, the system decided to gift an emergency skill to the human.

This was something that had only happened a handful of times throughout the entity’s long years administrating the system. Dungeons were ordinarily created to deal with dimensional bubbles that occurred due to World Decay, and were generated entirely at the system’s will. Thus, it did not know the conditions for most dungeons to appear, as it had been created only to administer the system.

Either way, whatever happened in that world wasn’t the its concern. Even if the human survived the dungeon, it’s home world was doomed. In the eons it had existed, less than a dozen worlds had survived World Decay, out of an uncountable number. The odds of survival were less than 99.999%

With this final thought, the entity allowed its consciousness to sink back into slumber.