“Don’t bother pulling out your shield.” Dyllan’s shadow took a few steps back then sat down on the floor. “For once, I’m not looking for a fight - and you know full well how it will end if you start one.”
“…Okay…” Dyllan slowly pushed himself upright, careful to keep his shield at the ready and his eyes on his shadow as he did so. “You’re being unusually reasonable, what’s going on?”
“Pft. While I’m sure little Ms. Queen-of-the-World gave you the impression that I’m some kind of world class idiot, the truth is, I’m only a little below average. I can put two and two together and guess what would happen if I tore your limbs off.” A wicked grin grew on shadow Dyllan’s face and spread out wider than should be humanly possible. “I’d take your place and become the new ego, tossing both you and me into a world of endless pain and suffering in the process. In other words, I’d get exactly what I want!” He paused. “But as much as the two of us deserve our own personal hell… something about that doesn’t feel right. I can’t just leave all the other assholes in the world un-thrashed, and this… nightwalker version of us, of Dyllan…” He punched the ground as hard as he could, the black ectoplasmic flame that made up his ears and tails flaring up with rage as he did so. “I hate him. I hate him so fucking much. I want him to experience every pain a person can experience, but that would require me letting him have the gift of even existing - which is too damn good for him! In order to finally bring about our destruction, I’d have to give life to something I hate even more! So, I just… I just kinda - GRAGHRFFFFF!” He punched the ground again. “You know?”
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Silence covered the room, cutting a sharp wall between Dyllan and his shadow.
“…of course you don’t. You don’t understand any of my problems, because they were supposed to be your problems!” Shadow Dyllan lunged forward, grabbing his ego by the collar of his shirt and pinning him against the wall. “It’s how you’ve always been, hasn’t it? Finding a convenient ‘bad guy’ and making all your problems their problems, because they ‘deserve it.’ Seems even a dead 6th grader wasn’t enough to teach you your lesson!”
“Come forth, my Loyalty!” Dyllan summoned his Virtue in a shimmering burst of red light, then used it to knock back his shadow. “Shut up! That was your fault, not mine!”
“Pfff-hah!” Shadow Dyllan staggered backwards and toppled over. “We’re both horrible people. At least I’m honest about what I deserve! …but whatever, I’m done. Carry me around like Cedric does, let me out to punch things every now and then, I don’t care. If I’m lucky, maybe spending time with me will convince you to finally do the right thing and hurl the both of us off a building as soon as our body wakes up.”