image [https://imgur.com/NtZ4JPB.jpg]

If I had a nickel for every uncle I had right now, I'd have two nickels. Which wasn’t a lot or weird in the slightest for normal people, but last I checked, Uncle didn’t have a clone.

Our particular skirmish paused as the baffling discovery of seeing two of my Uncle’s standing next to each other set in. I appropriately dubbed the one to my right Uncle 1, and the one to my left Uncle 2. It was purely based on which I saw first. Otherwise, I couldn’t tell them apart.

Normally, I distinguished people based on the virtual name tag I could see above their heads, but both Uncle’s had the exact same reading, which was very confusing. Even their vitals were nearly identical. That shouldn't have been possible, but here we were.

“Uh…” I scratched my head. “What’s going on here?”

I turned to Belphegor, expecting him to have been behind this, but he was asleep!

Luckily, it was our turn. So that meant I had the privilege of making a move. But what sort of trickery did I have to fight against here?

*Tick tock* went the chess clock as the puzzling situation developed. I had to make a call, especially since our forces were dwindling all across the board.

“Which one of you is real?” I probed.

“I am,” answered Uncle 2.

“He’s lying,” argued Uncle 1.

I don’t know what stupidity suddenly fried my servos to make me think that was going to lead to a productive answer. To figure out which Uncle was the genuine article, I had to be a little more clever here. What was something only Uncle could do?

“Young Mistress, we don’t have time for this,” Uncle 1 spoke up. “You have it in your sensors to tell which one of us is real. Clearly he’s the fake, so let’s take him on.”

That was an interesting argument, but my sensors really weren’t able to decide who was real. Instead of deciding, I turned to Uncle 2 for his defense.

“Got anything you’d like to say?” I asked.

“Not really,” he flipped up his helmet's visor. “I trust you’ll figure out which one’s real. It might not be obvious, but you’ll get it.”

That sounded like an especially Uncle thing to say. My trust was leaning more toward the second one, but I couldn’t be sure just yet. The fact that a fake was able to infiltrate our group during the push forward past the front lines put me top on edge.

If he was a fake, was it possible that the others were too? All of them looked rather convincing and appropriate for what I expected, at least in this dream world. But if we had one imposter in our midst, I couldn’t shake the suspicion.

A sudden spell of clarity hit me. I wasn’t sure of the capabilities of the imposter, but there was a thing I knew for a fact only Uncle could do.

“Only the real Uncle can show us his true form!” I pointed to both of them with an accusing finger. “Show me what it looks like!”

“Would you like to go first, or should I?” Uncle 2 asked.

“Base form…?” Uncle 1 looked down at himself in confusion. “Isn’t this the base form?”

While Uncle 1 was confused, Uncle 2 winked at me. That was when I knew which one was real.

“Ah!” Uncle 1 snapped his finger, suddenly turning into a honey bee construct. “Well, looks like I flopped that script. Ha ha!”

“What the…?” Indena’s brow raised. “So that one's fake!” She leapt in to give him a fiery punch, but the fake Uncle effortlessly dodged her attack and floated down to the ground.

“He looks like a bee, no? Shouldn’t he be on our side?”

Neither Indena or Marek had seen Uncle’s bee form yet, so I understood the confusion. Uncle’s base form is a bee construct, like the one acting as our second bishop. He transformed into a human form whenever it was advantageous.

“Such a clever young lady, aren’t you?” Imposter Uncle uttered, floating toward me and reversing his transformation back into Uncle’s human form. “But let’s see if you can figure this one out!”

The square he stepped into suddenly spun over and took him under the board. It freaked me out, but an even more shocking moment was when Indena’s tile flipped as well.

“Woah…!” she uttered as she disappeared underneath our playing field.

“Indena!” I scrambled to her square. “Give her back!” I shouted at Belphegor, who’s red eyes peeked open, but quickly shut back tight.

“That acting fool is so aggravating.” Belphegor uttered, telepathically. "Reveal yourself, thespian. I’m growing bored of your charades.”

Two of the tiles beside me flipped over, returning my friend back to our upright world, but now we had two of her for the price of one.

“You’ve gotta’ be kidding me…” My aggravation was piquing at this doubling of all my friends. How was I supposed to tell this one apart?

“Oi, the heck are you?” Right hand Indena sassed. “Stop looking like me and kill yourself!”

“You kill yourself!” retorted left hand Indena. “I hated being stuck in that stupid shadow realm because of you, idiot!”

Both were just as crude and sassy as I expected. This one was even worse…

Just when I thought the situation was at its lowest, a stroke of genius struck Marek as he pointed at the two sassy toddlers with gamer tongues.

“Both of you, lift up your hats, please.”

“Eh?” Right Indena glared at him. “What’s up with that?”

“Yeah, shut up, Blue Boy…”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

You’ve got to be kidding me…

Well, I realized what he was getting at, but obviously these two were about as bright as a moist piece of coal. Relying on their intelligence to decipher his order wasn’t going to be enough.

“Indena, lift the stupid hat so we can see what’s under it and prove your innocence.”

“Oh, dang…” Right side Indena lifted up her hat, revealing the little purple cat, Mella, was sitting cutely on her head.

“How do you do, fire mage?” Mella asked the left side Indena and dropped a red potion over the head of the right side one she was sitting on top of.

I was stunned with shock as I watched a red liquid spill all over the right side Indena and cause her to melt into a mushy blob of colour.

Before I flung accusations around, Mella proceeded to leap onto the other Indena’s shoulder, of which she was very unwelcomed.

“Sit on my shoulder again and I’ll eat you, stupid cat witch!”

“Indena would never have let me sit on her head so peacefully,” said Mella. “Even if I made a good argument for it, she’d still have fought me a little bit. I was waiting for the right time to expose the true identity of this fake.”

But wait, if she'd been a fake this whole time, how was the imposter able to impersonate two people at once?

“Do you always go around unmasking the antagonists so early?” That voice sputtering out of the blob on the ground was suspiciously male and recognizable... “Nevertheless, the show must go on!”

The blob on the ground coalesced into the vague shape of a human body. Then colours scattered across its surface like droplets in the rain, racing down a glossy surface, then being absorbed and painting the humanoid blob in dark colours.

In a very showy splatter of hard muck, The Actor exploded out from the melted cocoon and showcased himself. His theater mask never looked so happy.

“Not you again!” I shouted, gripping my spear tightly.

“Yes, it is I! The Actor! Here to dazzle you all with the most amazing performances you’ll ever see!”

“You’re using transformation arts,” Uncle concluded.

“It does take one familiar with the craft to recognize it, wouldn't you say?” he chuckled. “My audience is nothing if not eagle eyed for detail.”

I wasn’t expecting this guy to show up, but it certainly did complicate things. Although, he did say he was working with Belphegor back at the tower, so I shouldn’t have been surprised to see him here as a bishop piece. That didn’t explain how he could suddenly transform into any of us. That wasn’t the power he was using before.

At any rate, he was standing between me and the demon lord. Whatever show he was about to put on, I needed to get backstage and finish this unholy game of chess.

“Ugh…” Indena grumbled. “It really is you.”

“Hmm?” The Actor’s theatrical mask looked confused as he looked down on the little Indena. “Oh my…” he put a hand to his mask's mouth. “Is that you, Indena? I can’t believe it didn’t recognize your role until now.”

The two of them came from the same organization, which was the Family of Sai. So I guess they knew each other.

“What’s all this demon stuff about?” she asked, literally in the dark about what sorts of debauchery lead him to this. “Why are you trying to cover the world in darkness?”

“Oh, silly Indena…” he shook his head. “It is all for the sake of perfecting mankind. A layer of light covers up our imperfections, so doing away with it will reveal our true selves within.”

That was on par with everything we knew about them so far. He and Janus both said things like that, even Indena to some extent mentioned how the Family of Sai was trying to strengthen mankind. But it seemed outlandish that darkness was the way to do that.

“So you want to show our imperfections to fix them?” Marek questioned.

“Yes, in a way. The first step to fixing a problem is acknowledging it exists.”

In their case, it seemed like the first step was actually causing a bigger problem.

“The ends don’t justify the means,” Uncle argued. “Do you know how many people are suffering right now because of the demons you’ve summoned?”

The Actor’s mask turned sad, and his shoulders slumped. A light sniffle could be heard from behind his mask.

“If only salvation could be attained by all. So many will be unable to overcome their earthly desires and fall prey to them.”

So he wasn’t after trying to save everyone, just a select group with some sort of ability to overcome desires. Which in this case, I had to assume were sinful desires.

“So what happens after you find the people who do beat their sins?” I asked. “You just leave them in darkness forever?”

“Those who overcome this eternal damnation will be like gods, able to shape forward the way into eternity.” He took hold of his cloak and tossed it aside, revealing that he had a corrupted crystal heart at the core of his lightly armoured chest, just like the one I’d seen with Janus. “We will be perfect, no longer bound by sin. The darkness will be under our feet, and we will trample it into dust!”

BAM!

Indena's fist rocketed into The Actors face! He went flying! It was hard enough that his mask fell right off.

“Shut up!” She cracked her sparkling knuckles. “So sick of you monologuing, you cheesy B movie villain.”

He quickly placed the mask back on, but was very disappointed to find that it had been damaged. The bottom corner had been chipped, revealing scarring underneath on his skin.

“That hit wasn’t pretend… You put your all into the performance,” he said.

“I said shut up!” Indena barked. “I’ll beat you up as long as you keep running that mouth of yours. We aren’t out to make a few people like gods, we’re trying to save everyone. So until a better solution comes up, you better stay down.”

He started lightly laughing, tapping the sides of his face until his theater mask was smiling with great satisfaction.

He took on the form of a girl who appeared to be the same age as Indena. She had long brown hair and wore a martial arts gi with a black belt. Something I’d expect Indena was no stranger to wearing as well.

“Hey, Indena,” This girl who the actor took the form of did a bow. “Ready for a rematch? I’ve been dying to show you up since that last tournament.”

“Yuck.” Indena bowed to her. “You went there…you prick.”

“Of course I did. I’m gonna’ kick your butt and take the title of champ for sure this time!”

Indena looked really disgusted, clearly this person wasn’t drumming up very good memories for her.

“Oi, Shrimp, remember when I told you about my friend Sasha?” Indena then gestured to the girl, clearly pointing out that this was indeed her friend. “Makes me sick that this guy is playing her.”

“Did something happen between you two?” I asked.

“Not really. Just upsets me that he looks like her right now. It ain’t right.” She took on a martial arts stance and turned to the fake Sasha. “Listen up, Shrimp, cast Stardust Aura on me. I need to fight at my full strength.”

As much as I wanted another stardust user on the field, this was more about pride than just a fair fight. I did as she requested and her body returned to its normal stature.

“Finally…” She stretched out her arms and legs. “While I’m keeping him busy, you head over to the demon lord, okay? End this nightmare already.”

That was a good plan. The longer I neglected the demon lord, the more of a chance we had of losing altogether.

Mella hopped up next to Indena, flaring out her fangs and nails. Then Marek stepped up with his pistol ready to shoot at a moment’s notice.

“Leave this to me,” Indena assured them. “This is my fight.”

“Put aside your pride,” Mella hissed. “This isn’t even truly your friend. Use our aid as you will.”

“Oui,” Marek nodded.

Indena didn’t like it, but she needed the backup. She could save the real pride for when she actually got a rematch with her friend.

“I’ve got allies too.” The fake Sasha snapped her fingers, and suddenly two very well armoured knights appeared at her side. “Oh, look at that. We got ourselves a pair of crusaders today!”

Where in the world did those crusaders come from? Or, was this the same power he’d used to summon those pirates before… That ‘projections of the past’ thing he had mentioned. It’s amazing that these people he’d brought to life looked and seemed so real.

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