Chapter 21:

                 22 Days After Spring’s Beginning

                        281 Days After The Ra’tok Attack Amia Village

                                  Ex.840k Soul Space

                                        Kalleo, Va’ura Hive

                                            Rua Desert, Rhia Territory

I look at my copy, my muscles tensing and my fists clenching, trying to find comfort in a weapon that is not there.

My copy holds up his right arm, the bandages there an exact representation of mine. He makes a fist, the bandages uncoiling and shifting. “Strange. Your Bond has been tampered with. The Demonic Astral is dormant, though it has deeply rooted itself inside you.” He stops, closing his eyes.

Where is Vengeance?

I look around in a vain hope of seeing him here. Nothing, it is just me and my doppelganger.

My copy opens his eyes again, “I see. Clever. Even when I am suppressing him, he still holds sway over his prisoner’s powers. I can receive, yet not transmit.”

What is he talking about? Maybe Vengeance?

“What?” I say, taking a step backwards.

My copy ignores the question, a floating screen appears before him, a red light blinking on it. “With his creation suppressing Sol, I cannot alert the Administrators to this. As per protocol 303, I am to terminate Ex.840k. Subject Ex.840k has been tampered with, unauthorized Astral of the Demonic Variant has been planted inside his Bond. I, 303, am recording this log for when I execute Ex.840k and regain transmitting rights, that is will be sent to the Administrators. 303 now carrying out execution.” He waves his hand through the screen, making it vanish.

303 looks me in the eyes, his smile broadening.

I crouch down, planting my feet and flex my muscles, preparing for a fight that I sense coming. I don’t think I can beat him, he’s too confident. There’s something going on, and I don’t understand it.

I ask, “What are you? Who are the “Administrators”?”

303 mirrors my stance, looking like a near reflection of me, only the vicious smile twisting his face. “As per protocol, the automated system has copied your memories and body, rebuilt it as me. I know everything about you, I know how you ran when your village was attacked, running like a coward. I know how you were so weak that you couldn’t even save one girl. I know how you watched as Vicar killed himself and the Chimera Controller, barely even trying to save him. I know how you let your parents die, how they abandoned you when you were mutilated. I am you.”

I feel as if i have been slapped. Dark emotions that I had been suppressing since that day my channels were shattered, stirred. I had been feeding everything into a dark pit in the back of my mind, wanting to forget it. A few words escape through my lips, without my own thinking, “No… they saved me. Saved Amia.”

“No, they abandoned you as soon as they saw your channels. They did die to protect Amia, yes, but you saw their eyes. They didn’t want to be near you, they didn’t want you to be their son.”

My mother’s face flashes in my mind. I can’t remember her eyes… were-were they filled with worry, or was it disgust?

I shake my head, and can sense a strange tingling at the base of my skull. There’s a new connection.

I quickly trace it, running imaginary fingers over the string, and following it to 303. I can feel emotions of doubt, fear and sadness flowing through it.

I abruptly slash through it with my will, cutting the connection on pure reflex. He was manipulating me.

But I was too late, that seed had dragged out from the recesses of my mind something that I had been denying for a long time.

Glaring at my copy, I growl, “Stop that.”

303 chuckles, “I had hoped I could have made it easy. Breaking one’s mind makes the termination process far… quicker.”

I glance around, trying to focus on making a door out of here. Wanting to leave.

Nothing happens, the Origin and it’s runes flying overhead.

303 clicks his tongue, “No, no, no. I can’t have you run away. If you just accept that I am going to kill you, and hold still, I can make it as painless as possible.”

I’m trapped.

I resist the urge to take a step back, pushing katra into my right arm and bringing the wrappings to life. They uncoil, waving in the air much like 303’s. “Why do want to kill me? I haven’t done anything wrong.”

303s grin stretches, nearly spreading from one side of his copied face to the other. “You are right, you haven’t done anything wrong, yet. But you have been implanted with Demonic Astral, and are a danger to the experiment, a unknown variable that could completely destroy it. You must be eliminated before that happens.”

He holds out his hand, the bandages settling. The silver scripting along the bandages glowing white. From the black bandages bubbles up a white substance, quickly encasing his entire forearm and hand. More surfaces, coming from his pores and pushing through the fabric of his clothes, solidifying.

In seconds his entire form is encased in bone armor, the gauntlets with clawed fingers. It is a sleek, not very bulky armor, his stomach covered in panels connected by flexible, tendon like bone, keeping everything together.

He clenches his fist, looking at the exact copy of my bone armor. “Intriguing. This is a unusual ability. Ah, I see, it was due to the Catalysts used in the Bond’s creation process along with your own influence. A decent base to build more things off of, though you wouldn’t know that.”

“What do you mean a ‘base’?” I ask, trying to stall for time.

He laughs a little, “Even though I know you are stalling, I will humor you. After all, time is moving far faster here than it is in the real world.

You haven’t realized it yet, but you have been the one making all these things in your body, with a little help from the katra. Subconsciously, you wanted a place to escape to, so you created that world around your core. You wanted Steel strength, so you made those crystals to boost your strength. You wanted to be healed, thus you created a low grade healing ability. You remember the chimeras? You created those, from all of you pent up emotions and nightmares.

This armor is rather well built, if I have to say, and it can be improved over time. Your desire for strength has created it, and if given enough time, I think you would be quite a force to be reckoned with. A shame really, because you have to die here,” He rolls his shoulders and neck, grinning madly, “That’s enough talk though, time to die.”

He holds out a clawed hand, spreading his fingers wide. From the cracks in the gauntlet, a gray liquid seeps out. It spirals out of his hand, forming a long pole, then tipping it off with a spear head. It solidifies, becoming a spear.

303 twirls it, testing it out. “I must say, for having rudimentary knowledge of spear and knife work, along with brawling, you have done surprisingly well at surviving.”

This is bad, he has a weapon with reach. I don’t even have my knife and can’t make the bone armor.

I start looking at his stance, trying to find some way past his guard. My best bet is to get in close, where he can’t use the spear.

It takes a second for it to sink in, His stance is exactly like mine. No way past, he probably knows what i’m trying to do right now.

303 chuckles a little, confirming my thoughts. “This place is kind of boring for a fight, don’t you agree? Let’s go somewhere more interesting.”

There is a instant of feeling vertigo, my heart launching itself into my throat and my stomach falling to my feet.

I stumble, barely keeping my balance. Blinking, I look around. Jagged protrusions of rock tower above my head, the earth crunching under foot. A dry wind whispering through my hair and tickling my skin.

I scan the surface of my world, startled by the fact that I am not in my phantom body, but what looks like my real one.

The dark sky is filled with shimmering tears in reality, and I can glance into them and see the Soul Space I was just in. They have gotten bigger.

Before they had been rather small, but now, if I could see them from here, they must have been huge.

303 glances up at the sky, which shines down many colors onto the ground, staining the surface in a rainbow. “Ah, yes. The system is still carrying out it’s integration with your core and body. Soon this place will be melded with the Soul Space, it would have allowed you access to more of your abilities.”

I stare up at the sky, which ripples with the many colored runes, constantly shifting from within those tears. It’s kind of beautiful.

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The ground we stand on is a jagged protrusion from the earth, surrounded on all side by a great cliff that falls into the center of the earth, my core. Motes of light float up from it, strangely twisting and seeming almost alive, they are colored by the light from the tears in the sky.

Trapped. Nowhere to go.

I suppressed the panic welling up into my throat, I was trapped and had nowhere to go. 303 seemed confident in his ability to kill me, having even proven he had control over this place and I did not.

That’s when a thought comes through my mind. If he can do all this, why hasn’t he already snapped his fingers and killed me?

Despite my screaming instincts, I close my eyes and focus. I can feel the strands connecting me to the tree, Vengeance and Hala. Under them, barely even detectable, is another strand. This one is connecting me to the gauntlet. I can feel that it is slowly pulling my soul to it, yet it seemed to be having a hard time doing it. I try to cut the connection, but this time it resists.

Hammering down on it, all my blows of will bounce off it, unable to break it.

I growl, opening my eyes. He was stalling for time, all of that was a distraction so he could attack my soul. That’s probably why he tried to break my mind, so I would lower my defenses.

303 is laughing, wearing my face, yet it is twisted. “You noticed it. No matter, once I disable you here, you will completely vulnerable, and your defenses won’t be able to protect your life any longer.”

There is a underlying tone to his voice. Is that worry?

His cockiness was diminished for sure.

I am not allowed to say anything or think anymore, 303 raises his spear, pointing it’s blade at my heart. Then his legs brace themselves against the ground, the bone plates rippling.

With a whistle of air and a white blur, he flies straight at me.

My mind goes silent, the only thought echoing in it’s depths, dodge.

Katra floods from my core, crashing like waves through my channels, and flooding into my body, empowering it.

My muscles flex with their new found strength and speed.

I bend out of the way of the spear, my body flying to the side of the strike that was aimed at my heart.

Rolling through the dirt, I jump to my feet.

303 digs his feet into the earth, stopping his momentum. He swings his spear around, slashing at my head.

I duck under, feeling a few strands of my hair hair splitting as the sharp blade cuts into them.

Rolling out the right, I attempt to get under 303’s spear, the shifting bandages on my arm shooting out. They wrap themselves around his arm and spear, constricting.

I bowl into his legs, knocking him off balance.

The head, it’s unprotected. Disorientate.

I twist my body, 303 throwing a kick I move to the side of. I hammer a punch right behind his left ear, my knuckles striking bone.

He reels from my punch, a wild fist striking me in the cheek,

I stumble back from him, and he quickly rolls to his feet, bringing the spear up between us. He looks disorientated, his eyes not able to focus on me.

Then he seems to snap back, docking under the fist I had thrown when he was out of it.

I suck in my stomach, twirling around the claws that would have embedded themselves in my stomach.

Throwing another punch at his head, his arm blurs and catches my fist. The sharp claws dig into my flesh, my bones creaking under the pressure he exerts to crushing my hand.

I grit my teeth and yank on his spear, pulling with the bandages. The spear is pulled towards his face, and he glances at it, distracted enough to loosen his grip.

Wrenching my hand from his grasp, I whip my fist around and strike him in the armpit.

He grunts, moving back and deflecting anymore blows I try to throw, putting distance between us.

I press the attack, aware that if I let him get too far away, he won’t make the same mistake again.

He rips the restriction bandages off his arm, bringing his spear up in a blur of speed. The butt of it strikes my temple with a crack.

I stumble back, my vision tilting and blurring.

When I regain my faculties, I find 303 a couple feet away from me.

He’s blocking just about every one of my strikes. He’s fighting exactly like I would, keeping my opponent at bay and aiming for their weak spots, striking to cause pain and disorientation.

Growls, muttering, “Enough of this.”

He throws a punch at the air, aimed at me. For a second, I am confused, then I see the rock at his feet flinging itself at my face.

I duck under the projectile, rolling to my left.

The earth splinters where I was standing, cracking and forming jagged spikes that would have gouged my legs.

He’s controlling the ground now!

I make a mad dash to the left, dodging shots of earth and the rupturing ground. Dust chokes the air, stinging my eyes.

I need to get close again.

Ducking, I roll roll to the left and run backwards into the cloud of dust. I can hear the crunching of earth as 303 loses sight of me and starts attacking the cloud.

A ball of melded together rock sails past my head, punching a whole of air in the dust cloud.

There!

I push Gray katra into my right arm, focusing on the need for the bone gauntlet. I can feel the liquid bone bubbling up from the bandages.

The voice of Taras shouting in my mind that I am an idiot, “Don’t ever jump in combat, you are a floating duck, unable to move out of the way of any attacks!”

I leap from one side of the cloud to the other, punching through the dust and out the other side. I bring my hand up, the white gauntlet forming on my hand and dust trailing on my tail.

303 is looking to the left, throwing boulders of stone into the cloud of dust. He turns to look at me, but not quick enough.

I land on top of him, the clawed gauntlet soldiering the moment before my razor fingers slice into his face.

We both tumble to the ground, and I roll off him, dodging a clawed strike aimed at my eyes.

303 clutches the mask of my face he wears, blood flowing from the four ribbons of cut flesh.

He was able to protect his throat in time

I had been aiming for his neck, hoping to cut it open.

303 twirls his ghostly spear, which trails wispy ribbons of Gray katra. It didn’t do that before.

I squint my eyes as the spear bursts into flame, sparks spitting off it. Oh.

I reflexively step to the right, the flaming spear punching through the air where my head had just been. I throw a jab at his shoulder, and my bone gauntlet crunches against his bony pauldron, a crack resounding through the air.

His shoulder twists and he lets out a cry of pain, swiping the flaming spear at my head.

I duck under the blow, rolling backwards and dodging a spike of earth.

I am forced back by his well placed strikes, barely dodging them, the flame licking my skin.

He reacted when I hit his shoulder, why?

His earlier bravado speech coming to mind. “I am you.”

My shoulder had healed rather well from that blow the the lizardman had dealt it, but not completely. Some of the muscles were still strained, aching with pain.

I step back from a sweep of 303’s flaming spear at my knees.

Even here, I could feel the muscles in my shoulder hurting ever so slightly. If he is me, then he has my weaknesses.

Ducking under a jab of the spear aimed at my shoulder, I try to strike his shoulder again. But he deflects my blow off his arm, my strike going wild.

He knows everything I know, I have to switch up.

I couldn’t get under his guard, he was protecting all of his vital spots, including his head.

Why’d I have to train so well? I sarcastically think.

I dodge his attacks, which I find I can guess where they are coming from. He is me, and I am him.

I wait for the right moment to strike, dodging his blows.

Not yet…

I twist around the spear, stopping it from hitting my kidney. I can feel the heat of the flames as they lick my cloth clothing, not finding enough time for purchase.

He casts a armored fist at my head, and I twist my neck so that his strike glances off my cheekbone.

Now!

He follows up the strike with a slash, aiming at chest level.

I can hear Taras screaming at me in indignant rage as I shift my momentum forward.

My feet skid the ground, throwing up dust. My momentum carries me under 303’s strike, forcing me into a slide. I can see in slow motion as 303’s eyes widen with surprise.

As I slide by, I stick out my right hand, the clawed fingers scraping against the bone around 303’s ankle as my hand clamps down.

With my momentum, and a empowered jerk, I trip 303.

Having surprised him, he loses his balance and face plants into the ground, a crunch coming from his nose as it connects first with the ground.

I scramble to my feet, planting a knee into the crook of 303’s armored spine with all my body weight. I slam my elbow into the back of his head, at the base of his neck, with all the force I can muster.

WIth my left arm, I grab his arm, wrenching it behind him.

His right arm is scrambling for the spear which he dropped on his fall.

My right arm shoots out, picking up the spear. I can feel the bone charring and the flesh of my had cooking as I grab the shaft of the flaming spear.

To long, remove it.

I whip the spear around, casting it over the edge of the cliff and down towards the center of the planet.

Hah, he even losses his spear like I do.

I wrench his arm harder, digging my knee into the back of his spine, causing as much pain as I can.

303 is coughing now, blood flowing down from his twice broken nose and into his mouth, tears are welling up in his eyes. He’s just as weak as me. No Steel resilience.

I twist his arm, saying over the whipping winds into his ear, “I don’t want to kill you!”

I honestly didn’t, I had already killed one person, and I frankly didn’t want to do it again.

303 spits out blood, crooning, “Weak, so weak.”

He laughs, sputtering blood.

A heat is rising from my stomach, a wetness coming with it.

I look down at my gut, a Gray katra dagger construct having embedded itself into my gut. It finishes solidifying, the stream of katra coming out of 303’s palm ceasing.

He laughs, twisting the blade to inflict even more damage. Then the blade starts wisping, flame bursting to life along its length.

I tumble from his back, looking at the dagger.

My hands shakily clamp around it’s hilt, trying to pull it out.

303, wearing my face, and his nose bleeding profusely, looms over me. His cockney grin twist the mask of my face, his eery Gray glowing eyes looking down at me in mirth and anger.

I let out a scream as the dagger somehow twists itself further in my hands, slowly driving itself deeper into my gut.

303 holds out his hand, a few second pass, then the flaming spear smacks into his palm. He twirls it around so that its point is facing downwards.

“You put up a decent fight,” Then he drives the spear into my heart, twisting it in sync with the dagger.

I look at the dagger which is twisting itself. He’s controlling it.

I can feel the link to the gauntlet now, and it is merrily sucking up my soul, tearing it apart.

A scream of twisted agony claws its way from my throat, the pain in my gut and heart racking my mind like white hot flame.

Death creeps at the edges of my vision, my eyes focusing on 303’s copy of my eyes. His are filled with a twisted pleasure and anger, his evil smile with too much teeth. His white armor is colored by the rents above in the sky, shifting different colors.

I look past his shoulder and at the sky. I can see the rents getting larger, and through them the Origin. It shines in the sky like a star, glowing brightly.

Then the darkness on the edges of my vision are no longer held at bay, and it comes crashing down. Darkness consumes my mind.