"I see you've claimed my treasure," began the other Alex, "I thought it would never find a worthy host, but it seems that I was wrong. Well...at least that's how it appears. You have one final hurdle, and if you can surpass it, the Cradle is all yours! However, if you cannot... well, let's just say you won't have anything to worry about anymore. "
Alex was stunned to see himself standing a few feet away and talking so confidently. "Who are you?" asked Alex, and his doppelganger chuckled.
"Who else could I be? I'm you dumbass! Although, given the nature of my existence, I can see why you'd be confused. Look, don't worry, okay? I am you, but I've got a few extra bits of knowledge that the creator of this place left behind."
Alex was still confused, but he looked down to see the Ark Cradle still resting on his waist, and he looked back up with a determined look. "Alright other me, let's see how powerful I've become!" The real Alex pulled out his own Scal'tar. This one was his true weapon, and the one with the most powerful enchants and protections upon it.
Alex didn't even need to use his mental energy to see that his doppelganger had somehow conjured an identical weapon to his own, so Alex had no reservations about using his main weapon as well. This was obviously a trial by combat, and Alex was eager to flex his skills and show himself just how far he had come since the days spent training with his first master.
“One more quick thing before we start,” the doppelganger said, twirling its Scal’tar confidently. “It wouldn’t really be a fair trial if you didn’t have access to your full power so don’t worry about that Zight drain earlier. Just uh, don’t exceed your maximum output and you should be fine.”
The real Alex nodded and took stock of his reserves. Despite dropping to around 3% only moments ago, he could feel that his Zight was almost at its maximum. It felt different though, more ethereal than it normally did. Of course, given what he could tell about his surroundings that made sense. This whole experience was similar to standing inside his Athenaeum.
With nothing more to say, the two red-haired youths dashed at each other, and the battle began.
Fierce clangs rang out as the two blades of their Scal'tars crashed against one another. Each move was expertly mirrored, and neither could land a single blow upon the other. In only a few instants, more than twenty blows had been exchanged between them.
They jumped back simultaneously and ran for a distance parallel to each other as they kept firm eye contact. The Doppel Alex leapt forward and attacked, but Alex blocked the attack and dropped low to deliver a sweeping kick.
The Doppel jumped over the attack and dropped his blade down towards Alex's head. Alex rolled away and spun his legs to deflect the incoming pommel of the Scal'tar before returning to his feet and backflipping away.
The Doppel ran forward, slashing while Alex was off-balance, but Alex had expected as much. He used his hard-soled boots and his own weapon to deflect the dangerous attacks and returned to his feet, and delivered a strong punch to the gut of the Doppel.
However, his Doppel had done the same, and both fell to their knees, gasping for breath. "You know," began the Doppel, "I know all your moves before you'll make them. After all, they're my attacks too! Don't think I'll go down just because we could die here! I might have only been brought into this world the moment you entered this ruin, but I still know everything you did when you first arrived!"
With that, the Doppel struck again, but Alex leaped backward and swung his Scal'tar out at the neck of his opponent. The Doppel dodged the attack and leaped back as well. Alex raised his hand and gathered what Zight he could into a spell, "Solo, Verse 1, Eddy of flame!"
The Doppel copied his move, and the two streams of fire met in the middle with a ferocious crash. The heat of the flames burned their skin, and the edges of their robes began to smolder. The flames ended, and Alex struggled to think of a way out of this situation.
He dashed to the side and his Doppel moved with him. They exchanged blows once again as they ran, each trying to trip up the other but failing each time as they expertly blocked the incoming attacks. Alex side-flipped over his Doppel and began raining down blows with his fists, his Scal'tar stuck into the ground next to him.
The Doppel blocked with his own weapon, but soon planted it into the ground as well and the two began hand-to-hand combat. Their struggle moved them away from their two weapons and soon they were standing in the open white expanse as they fought.
Alex charged Zight into his arm and launched his fist into the gut of the Doppel, and once more his attack and movements were mirrored and inflicted upon himself as well. The two flew back and landed on the ground several meters away gasping for air.
When they recovered, they each spared a glance at their respective weapons and began running toward them at full speed. They cast fireballs at each other as they ran, and even threw in a few stray bolts of lightning. Alex wasn't quite proficient in its use like Cypher was, but he was still able to grasp the basics of that ability.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
The real Alex was the first to arrive and he grabbed both weapons and pointed them at the Doppel. The Doppel Alex frowned and pulled a lesser weapon from its dimensional pocket. At that Alex and he began to duel once more, however, Alex found that using two Scal'tars was extremely unwieldy.
He cast the duplicate weapon aside and thrust his own forward. It sunk into the shoulder of the Doppel, but his attack was countered and a kick sent him flying back towards the thrown Scal'tar. As Alex flew through the air, he used his Zight to pull his own weapon free from the hand of his copy and sent the Doppels Scal'tar flying toward it blade first.
Of course, the Doppel was Alex and it had already seen that move coming. It countered by using its own Zight to stop the incoming weapon. With a confident and smug flourish of the regained weapon, the Doppel grinned at Alex and lowered back into a ready stance.
Alex groaned in annoyance. No matter what he tried, his Doppelganger knew everything he would do before he did it. In his mind, there was nothing he could do to change up the pace of the battle. They were perfectly matched, and neither could get the upper hand. Every move that could be copied was, and even the ones that were different enough that the Doppel couldn't mirror the exact motions resulted in a stalemate all the same.
“Do you really think you’re ready to wield such power? Are you even capable of such a thing?” asked his doppelganger as it pointed to the Ark Cradle around the real Alex’s waist. “Just what do you think you can accomplish? You know, if not for you, Cypher might not have ever even been lured to that warehouse. Inadequate. We’ve always been inadequate. When we lost our mother…”
“Shut up!” roared Alex as he slammed the pommel of his Scal’tar into the floor of the white void.
“Oh did I touch a nerve? I mean, of course, I did. Little Alex is still unable to move past her death. It wasn’t our fault you know. Or perhaps it was. You remember that day just as clearly as I do. What were you even thinking wandering out into the wilderness like that? Then again, we were three. We couldn’t have known the dangers that inhabited this world of ours.”
“I said shut the fuck up! You might have my memories but you don’t know a single thing about me!” Alex gritted his teeth and squeezed the handle of his weapon even harder.
“That’s just it my guy, I do know you. I know everything about you, how could I not? This thick head of ours is chock full of memories and experiences. We’ve still got a lot of shit to work through and the more you deny it the more difficult it’ll be to face it when you finally decide to get around to it,” replied the Doppelganger.
The memories of that day were pushing their way to the surface against his will. Once again the door appeared within his mind, that shiny copper doorknob gleaming in the light.
As if to further his anguish the door began to open. Through the slowly widening crack, Alex could see that familiar rocky valley. He could see the Phoenix pruning its feathers as it rested atop a clutch of eggs. He could feel its anger as it noticed the intruder approaching.
Fire. Fire and anger were all that the young boy could feel as the monster began to fly at him with a speed he couldn’t even react to. Suddenly a woman appeared, her long red hair billowing in the wind, her own oppressive power churning to the surface. She moved in front of the young boy and then…
“NO, I SAID!” the door in his mind slammed shut and Alex closed his eyes shut tightly.
“Still refusing to face the music, are we? Well, I can’t say I blame you. Wouldn’t it have been so much easier to just live a simple life? Surely as a farmer, you wouldn’t have gained the powers of a Conductor, nor would you have gained the ability to remember such events so… vividly,” said the Doppelganger.
“If you had just stayed a normal human we could have buried these memories in our subconscious and never thought about them again. Instead, you decided that this life—” the doppel lifted his Ark by the silvery chain around his neck with a thumb, “— was the right path. I mean, what could have driven you to do something so foolish?”
His Doppelganger was right and there was nothing Alex could say to refute him.
Still, he couldn't back down. There was a time and a place for him to reconcile with those painful memories but it was not here, it was not now. Even if he was fighting his own reflection, even if it attempted to distract him with his past he refused to give up. There had to be a way to win.
The battle continued with neither side able to inflict more than superficial wounds. However, the battle turned for the worse when Alex began to run out of energy. The Doppel was still in his prime, yet Alex was growing tired, and with that fatigue, he made mistakes in his otherwise perfect form.
The Doppel took advantage of that and landed critical blows left and right. Alex was able to return a few of the attacks. He had noticed that he was starting to falter, so he used those moments to deliver counterattacks. Exchanging attacks on his Doppel by taking direct hits was something that Alex had never done before in battle.
His master had trained him to always avoid taking damage at all costs whenever possible. A single wound could determine the outcome of a battle no matter how great or small. In his drills against her, she had beaten that lesson into him and it was something he would never forget. It wasn't something he even could forget, she had broken his bones and torn his muscles and even removed his limbs on occasion.
One could say that her training was cruel even if she healed all his injuries after every session. She never dulled the pain or lightened her blows. When they sparred, she fought as if Alex was a deadly opponent trying to kill her and she showed no mercy.
However, every wound she inflicted carried a lesson. Every movement revealed another aspect to the way of the Scal'tar and Alex had paid full attention to everything she had been willing to teach him. His pain had been immense and even when his wounds had healed completely, some of his bones carried lasting reminders that his master had intentionally left behind.
Those lessons were a part of Alex and he was hard-pressed to shy away from them. However, with no other courses of action, this was his last hope. His new tactic paid off though, and now he was starting to finally leave lasting damage on his opponent.
When all was said and done, both Alex and his Doppel were bleeding heavily, though the real Alex had more serious injuries. His condition was becoming critical and if this kept up, he would die before he was able to put down his doppelganger for good.
Alex could feel that his time was running out, and his mind worked overtime to devise a way to win this harrowing battle.