The Bastion in front of us feels different now, and I only need to activate my eyes for a split second to notice that.

“These assholes,” the Duplicaniel next to me complains.

I agree.

The field around the city has changed and it feels much more threatening. Still, I’ve decided to give them a chance, and, after gesturing to the copy of the handsome young man next to me, we teleport to the gate.

Getting closer, the detection field catches us and sends a signal and a barrier around the city activates. The guards quickly take positions on the walls. So, we stand there for a while, waiting for someone to appear.

The person who finally does is the Butler with his majestic mustache, “I would like to apologize, Mister Gwyn... Gwyns... but you are no longer welcome here,” he says suavely from the wall.

“The reason?” I ask, noticing him looking at my damaged arm.

He also keeps glancing between me and… me. The Butler doesn’t let his surprise show, probably because it would kill him to be so inelegant.

“We have received more information from the Sanctuary and the city nearby. After going through it all, we have decided to restrict your access here. I hope you will understand and behave accordingly.”

That’s when Clonthaniel shoots a mana javelin right towards the Butler. It doesn’t connect as one of the small hexagonal barrier segments activates.

Even then the Butler doesn’t seem bothered, “This time I will let it pass, but I would…”

I shoot a mana javelin, and it activates another segment.

Damn, am I so easily influenced by other people? That surely must be it.

“Butler, as I said before, I have no reason to hurt anyone in the city. There are just some things I need and want to ask about,” I tell him.

“I apologize, the decision is final.” Then, to keep his dignity, he leaves, and three more javelins from Clonthaniel light up the barrier.

“What are you, a child?” I ask him.

He turns his eyes to me and shrugs, “I'm on a time limit here, and that guy isn’t even real, so I'm going into the city. Are you staying behind?” he asks, even though he knows my answer.

Then a ball of mana concentrates above the city, emitting what seems to be a highly concentrated shockwave.

We jump away, and the stones where we stood crumble.

A few quick attacks from the defense of the city follow in quick succession until we both teleport to anchors we left further away.

“Damn, they are not even taking us seriously, using such a weak-ass attack,” Duplicaniel is already forming an orb of black mana over his shoulder, and then he forces it to stretch into the shape of a javelin. “I attack and defend, you get us in.”

“Yes, yes,” I sigh, a hundred simple mana javelins forming behind me, and I use [Infusion] to fill each one of them with thermal energy from the Vortex core.

The duplicate attacks and the both of us watch with curiosity as the black mana javelin sails towards the barrier, with our trait active. It crashes into a segment and immediately devours it, and then a dozen more as they appear one after another.

The black mana devours it all and then stops, hovering over the city. While the guards panic, the automatic defenses activate more segments close by, trying to stop it, yet they feed it even more mana. The flashes of mana are quickly absorbed by the black mana and can be seen even from this distance.

It's amusing to watch.

Then I move a hundred javelins behind me, and each of them bursts into motion in the span of a few seconds. Like tracer ammunition from a minigun.

My attack crashes into the weakened barrier, Each of them hitting the same segment and slowly pushing through. They reach further and further inside the city until one of them passes through the barrier and flies right over the buildings, the last few following.

The anchor on the last shot javelin activates, and I put a hand on my duplicate and both of us appear in the air over the buildings.

Uglier me immediately forms an orb made of black mana and pushes it into the air, where it absorbs a dozen or so attacks targeting our position.

Sending my [Mana Domain] as far ahead as I can, I again put my hand on the duplicate, and we teleport again and then again. After each teleport, we leave a black orb in our wake where it devours any mana based attacks that were directed at us.

Finally appearing in front of the gate leading to the estate where we had dinner with the Housekeeper and the Butler, I touch the door and disrupt the mana within. After we enter, I even close the door behind us and start walking towards the buildings.

“So far, so good,” the duplicate says while both of us use [Regalia] and tank a few more attacks heading our way.

“Did you notice the places where [Perception] can't enter?” I ask.

He nods, “Wanna bet they have another guy down there with boxes full of severed limbs?”

“I'm saying no. They mentioned Gardener before, so maybe they’re all vegans.”

“Oh.. that's true,” the uglier me agrees.

“Mister Gwyn… Gwyns. Was this really necessary?” Asks the Butler as he appears from a rift in the air.

He is still wearing the same fancy clothes, but there are a few brilliant mana stones on his person. One in the middle of his chest, one on his back, another on each of his shoulders, a bit over his knees. My duplicate and I activate our eyes at the same time, examining it all.

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“Some sort of armor and strengthening,” I wonder.

“Quite good mana batteries too, one of them may be upper epic grade,” my duplicate adds.

“See, Butler, that man isn't even taking this seriously,” the Housekeeper states as exits the house. She is wearing a simple pale blue dress still, her black wavy hair falling over her shoulders. The only addition is a thin and deadly-looking blade in her hand.

The metal of that blade is something I recognize very well. Voidsteel, the same metal that makes up the blades of the Veil Guardian.

“Housekeeper, just kill one of them, and we will take one for questioning. The Armourer will deal with those annoying black orbs.” The man then turns to me, “Let's kill this one.”

Wow, that's rude. The more annoying thing is that I can almost see how much fun the duplicate is having.

“They know their stuff,” he teases me. “The useless one will die.” Not saying more, he disappears, teleporting close to the Butler, who disappears with my duplicate following him and dodging the beam-like attacks the Butler sends his way.

That leaves me alone with the Housekeeper, who takes a battle stance, ignoring the clothes she is wearing. There are no tattoos on her skin, no mana radiating from her body, and no armor or equipment other than the rapier in her hand.

Unable to avoid her at my normal speed, I teleport just in time to watch her attack pierce through where I stood.

Before she can charge me again, the anchor I left there explodes in golden flames only to be blocked by the purple mana seeping from her skin.

The Housekeeper charges me again, and the moment I teleport, she alters her path to avoid any anchors I’ve left behind.

Curious, I don't bother to dodge her next attack and opt to stack barriers in front of myself instead.

The black-haired woman destroys each of them easily with the weapon in her hand, before swinging it three more times, splitting the three javelins I’ve sent her way.

Observing her nimble movements, I float in the air and start shooting projectile after projectile at her. Mana javelins, orbs, and projectiles infused with thermal or kinetic energy.

Surprisingly, it doesn't seem to bother her at all; the rapier in her hand cuts through most of my attacks, and the moment it does, the attack loses its effect. It’s probably some skill, I mean my attack should deal some damage even after being cut apart.

“I had hoped you would be a bit… more fun to fight. Instead, you just fight like every other boring mage,” she shakes her head. She then proceeds to cut apart a few of the anchors I’ve been stealthily placing, something that surprised me a bit.

Does she think her taunting would work? Make me fight her up close?

I land on the ground.

Well, she is right.

She is an opponent I believe I can deal with, even in her preferred style of combat, and it's always fun to crush people like that.

The Housekeeper charges at me, only to be met with a flamethrower-like stream of golden flames that I’ve infused with [Resonance].

She slices away at them, but the constant flames ignore her weird skill, and she starts dodging, purple mana flickering over her skin to protect her from the heat. As she jumps around in an attempt to rush me, while my flames leave the air shuddering in their wake, melting the sidewalk and burning trees, in the process.

While the woman gets closer and closer, I narrow the flame, condensing it into a laser as thick as my finger by the end. As extraordinarily athletic as she is, she dodges it all and manages to reach me, at which point I strike at her with a burst of kinetic energy.

Purple mana flickers over her skin again, and she pushes through, her muscles contracting under her skin.

Her rapier slashes at my neck, only to be met with a Voidsteel slicer, barely so. I redirect more mana to strengthening my body and fend off her attacks while being pushed back. The armor forms around my body, and I make it grow bigger until it's twice my height.

Attacks slash against transparent limbs made of mana, yet now that it is connected to me and under my domain, it doesn't get affected by her skill, and it's her who starts avoiding me.

For the first time, I also use kinetic energy stored in my Vortex Core to power the movement of the mecha style armor. It speeds up my movements and makes manipulating it easier while lending more force to my attacks.

She does a backflip and before jumping back a few times, she stops, looking up at me surrounded by all my mana.

“Are we going to take things a bit more seriously?” I ask.

The woman in front of me is stronger than she lets on, stronger than the Butler, and the both of us are still holding back somewhat.

“Why not,” she smiles as her eyes become a darker shade of purple.

The Housekeeper charges me, seeming to appear in front of me, her weapon aimed at my chest.

In a split second, my armor shrinks becoming skin-tight, surrounding my body with all that extremely compressed mana.

The rapier stabs at my chest, unable to pierce further. Collecting all the energy of her attack, I barely manage to hold it before quickly releasing it in her direction.

She dodges, but a huge chunk of the area behind her explodes, the kinetic energy tearing the building and the garden apart.

Once again, she attacks, each of her steps cracking the ground under her feet, her black hair flowing behind her.

Two more attacks crash into my armor, and I absorb each one of them, immediately launching the absorbed kinetic energy at her, which she dodges. Then she stabs again, and this time it's different; that weird skill of hers won’t allow me to collect kinetic energy, and instead part of my armor loses its mana, disappearing into particles.

I deflect her next attack with my own blade, to cover the missing section of armor, a clang sounding as two voidsteel blades clash.

I’m observing the entire exchange with my Mana Wavelength eyes, yet I still can’t figure out what her skill is doing. With a sigh, I give up and decide to stop holding back.

Mana and kinetic energy seep into my body, and my speed dramatically increases. The armor around me disappears, and I mirror the woman across from me, stopping my mana from leaking from my body, and face her with only a blade in my hand.

Our slashes tear up the ground and damage the buildings surrounding us. The vibrations resonate through the surroundings as our blades meet, reducing the closest objects to dust. And I keep speeding up.

The Housekeeper starts having a harder and harder time facing me, and I start placing anchors, using the fact that she has no time to destroy them to attack her from behind her back.

My technique is worse. No matter how much I’ve trained on Earth, I can't compare to someone with over 100 years of experience. But what I'm lacking, I make up for in speed, boosted by mana and kinetic energy.

Now that I’ve completed this test as well, I stop and, to her surprise, launch a burst of kinetic energy at her. Though Instead of flying through the wall she perfectly deflects the attack, her purple mana absorbing most of the impact.

That's when my duplicate lands next to me and throws the Butler on the ground. Still alive and breathing, but with a wound on his head.

“Stop playing with your food,” he complains.

“There is a lot to learn; she is really good at strengthening her body, and I like her skills,” I reply.

The Housekeeper fixes her dress, not a scratch on her and she’s seemingly unworried. Then she notices the Butler lying on the ground and, looking at his face, her surprise multiplies.

“You didn't,” she says, almost in shock.

I look where she is looking and notice that the left half of the majestic mustache is missing. Gone, reduced to atoms.

Both of us look at my duplicate, who shrugs his shoulders, “I did not,” he says.

A look of confusion appears on the Housekeeper's face.

“I found him like that,” the duplicate lies shamelessly.