We elongated Soul Eater toward Ryder’s eye. It was worth a shot, given how close to his face he was holding it. But Ryder moved faster, tossing the spear aside as soon as it shifted its shape. We then teleported Soul Eater back to us instead of teleporting ourselves to it. There was no need to go on the offensive just yet.
“Like we practiced?” Devi murmured to us. “Hit and run, until his healing runs out.”
We nodded, but our minds were on something else. Healing abilities were exceedingly rare among Players and as far as Regenerate went, Ryder seemed to have won the lottery. It was a top-tier Ability; fast and powerful healing for all kinds of physical injuries. Exactly what we needed. We adjusted our weight, conscious about our mechanical leg. Without taking our eyes off Ryder, we activated our collar and switched to our Abilities panel. We still had an Ability choice remaining, and a list to choose from. The last entry was what interested us.
> Seize
> Take another Player’s Ability by saying its name out loud. Number of seizable Abilities increases by level. Casting cost of seized Abilities decreases by level.
Was it a trick? A trap? It seemed too good to be true. Ryder shouted the names of his Abilities like an idiot. Were we actually meant to take Regenerate from him? Would it be able to regrow our leg? The technology behind prosthetics was impressive, but not perfect. We also hated how much our mechanical leg was dependent on other people’s mana to operate. A real flesh and bone leg would have been more stable and trustworthy, while also being better for quick maneuvering.
Seize was a tempting power. Even if it couldn’t regrow our leg, it was by no means useless. We would be able to borrow Abilities from our allies, making us vastly more versatile. So what were the downsides then? Our pride and integrity, mostly. Bit by bit we were drawn into the Inspectors’ game no matter how much we claimed that we wanted no part of it. This face-off with Ryder was their thing too, we reminded ourselves. We were already doing what they wanted.
“Too scared to move?” Ryder asked, cracking his neck. “Youuu should be!”
A pawn. He was just a pawn. A stepping stone thrown in our way.
“Devi, don’t kill him immediately,” we said. “We want to try something while he is alive.”
Then we took the bait and chose Seize as our Ability.
> Seize, level 1
> Description: Take another Player’s Ability by saying its name out loud. Number of seizable Abilities increases by level. Casting cost of seized Abilities decreases by level.
> Cost: Speak the Ability’s name in any language.
> Seized Abilities: 0/1
On the other end of the street Ryder rasped out a laugh, amused by the notion of trying to keep him alive.
“Youuu think you can kill us?” he asked. “We are—”
“Regenerate,” we said.
> Ability seized: Regenerate
A quick mental nudge revealed the details of the stolen Ability too.
> Regenerate, level 7
> Description: Rapidly heal any physical harm that befell on you. Number of charges increases by level.
> Cost: 1 charge
> Cooldown: Restore all charges at night, when the Moon is the highest up on the sky.
> Number of charges: 6/7
A wild howl made us look up from the screen.
“You stole it!” Ryder shouted, swiping his own notification aside. “Youuu! You cheat again! Raging spirit!”
Glowing veins bulged under Ryder’s skin, and this time we noticed a subtle change around his weapon too; blood seeped out of the sharp ends of his claws and dripped to the ground in heavy droplets. The black metal of Soul Seeker expanded higher up on Ryder’s arm, over his shoulders, thickening around his chest—and kept going.
Impossible. We watched with growing alarm as the thin obsidian layer spread further and further along Ryder’s body, too fast for us to do anything about it from afar. Devi pointed a finger and shot a Recursive Ray at Ryder’s head, but Soul Seeker’s material sprung up and covered his face right away, blocking the attack. A helmet formed around Ryder’s head, sleek and plain and completely sealed except for a thin line for him to look out of. Soul Seeker raced over Ryder’s legs at the same time, covering him down to his toes.
Impossible. Our limit with Soul Eater was about the size of a spear, or perhaps a bit larger now that we killed all those Players who invaded the Dungeon. Covering just our arms would have already been difficult for us. The entire body? Out of question. Aside from the sheer amount of people we would have needed to kill with Soul Eater to achieve that, shaping the material around our body would have required intense mental effort. Even the smallest movement would require Ryder to reshape the metal around him, all at once. There was no way he could effectively fight like that. He now had an impenetrable suit of armor, but he would be standing still like a statue.
Ryder vanished.
“Randel!” Devi shouted, spinning around.
It caught us off-guard that Ryder hadn’t said anything. Part of us wanted to duck and roll, part of us wanted to raise our weapon and parry. Unable to decide, we did neither of those and something slammed onto us from behind. Although our armor protected us, our Boots of Stability couldn’t withstand the impact and we were sent tumbling to the ground.
We whipped our spear around as we fell. The looming dark shape behind us ignored our strike in favor of landing a kick on our head. We took it. Our armor’s dark aura flared in front of us and negated the impact; compared to the crossbow shots we had taken earlier, this was nothing. Our spear hit Ryder’s armored side at the same time, which amounted equally to nothing. We teleported to Soul Eater to get to our feet in an instant, then brushed past Ryder’s claws to get behind him. A black arm grew out of the small of his back, trying to grab us, and we skipped backward to avoid it.
Ryder followed us. He actually ran after us. His movements weren’t particularly fast, but those hadn’t been all that impressive even before his transformation. Of course, he had been pretending back then. He had wanted us to beat him so that he could trigger his Domain and prevent us from escaping. The way he chased us wasn’t particularly fast … but considering that he was enclosed in Soul Seeker, his speed was incredible. The characteristic orange lines spread over his armor every time he reshaped the material, which happened just about constantly.
We evaded rather than blocked his attacks. Ryder was bigger and physically stronger than us, and the Raging Spirit that he had activated perhaps further powered his strikes. Each swipe of his claws sent droplets of blood flying around, but the dark aura of our armor prevented them from landing on us. Better create some space. We activated our armor’s power and teleported back to where we had been five seconds ago.
Ryder kept going for a swing or two, his momentum carrying him. Devi used this opportunity to fire a charged-up Recursive Ray that she had bounced between three of her clones. Ryder took the hit, shielding his face from the ray of light, and Devi used this opportunity to get closer and stab Ryder in his chest. Her energy blade sprung forward in a fencer’s thrust and she landed a solid hit on the orange gemstone that powered Soul Seeker.
Ryder didn’t even flinch. One of his hands transformed into a sword and swung at Devi. Although she moved out of its reach in time, droplets of blood landed on her cheek as the blade passed by. We moved in with our spear, intercepting Ryder’s claw and blocking his attack. Devi used this opportunity to swing at Ryder’s head, overcharging her energy blade to make it longer. The energy blade didn’t so much as nick the black material. No surprise there. We had already known that Silverfang wasn’t able to cut Soul Eater.
Ryder slapped our spear away and swung at Devi once more. She dodged the blow—then instead of retreating, she attacked again. Her blade bounced off Ryder’s chest and we barely managed to fend off Ryder’s riposte. More drops of blood landed on her skin, and she attacked again, her face furious.
“Retreat!” we said, but she wasn’t listening. She struck again and again, no matter how futile it was, and we struggled to protect her. She put less and less effort into defending herself, yelling defiantly. Ryder growled back in a way that sounded almost appreciative. He disregarded us completely in favor of Devi.
We turned our spear sideways and tossed it at him, trying to wrap it around his body like a rope. It didn’t work, but we needed only a moment of distraction. We swapped places with one of Devi’s clones and triggered one of the two Marks on Devi to swap places with her. We were done in less than a second. Soul Eater stuck to Ryder’s arm like glue and Ryder was struggling to get it off him. If only we could wrap it around his head—but no, if this continued, his weapon would be the one enveloping ours.
We risked a glance at Devi, hoping that she would snap out of whatever was affecting her—but she didn’t. She slashed one of her clones angrily apart, then locked her eyes on Ryder and charged.
“Stop it,” we snarled, intercepting her. “Devi, you can’t—”
Ryder slammed into our back, Soul Eater still attached to his hand, and we were flung off our feet once more. Before we landed we activated our armor’s teleportation, which put us on Ryder’s other side. He attacked us with our misshapen weapon intertwined with the armor on his arm. We teleported Soul Eater’s twisted shape into our hand and blocked his blow. We retreated. Devi reached Ryder and she began to stab at his back uselessly. Ryder ignored her in favor of attacking us, forcing us to block one more time, rattling our bones, making our hands ache from the impact.
This wasn’t working. We weren’t able to restrain Devi and fight Ryder at the same time. We weren’t able to hurt or kill Ryder either. Theoretically, there were ways to turn this around; Ryder had a small gap on his helmet through which we could stab him, and if we could get Soul Eater around him we could bind and perhaps suffocate him. He was aware of these things too, of course. No matter how insane Ryder acted, the shade within him wasn’t a fool; it knew how to fight and it wouldn’t allow us to use these obvious weaknesses. We didn’t have the opportunity to do so anyway. If Ryder turned around and swung at Devi, that was it for her. We weren’t able to save her. We weren’t able to stop Ryder. We were—well, I was thinking rather straightforwardly here, didn’t I?
“Raging spirit,” I said.
> Ability seized: Raging Spirit
> Ability lost: Regenerate
Devi staggered backward, her head jerking aside as if she had been slapped. The blood stopped seeping from Ryder’s weapons and his strikes slowed down as if I had just taken the wind out of his sails. Right. I didn’t need to kill Ryder here. I just had to stay alive. Wait for his Domain to be over and escape. Ryder growled again.
“Behind you!”
We spun around, raising Soul Eater to parry—but there wasn’t anyone behind us. An instant later Ryder slammed into us and the protective aura of our armor flickered dangerously as we were sent flying. Cursing ourselves for our stupidity, we teleported ourselves back to where we had been five seconds ago.
“Behind you,” we said, pointing Soul Eater at Ryder.
> Ability seized: Behind You
> Ability lost: Raging Spirit
Ryder turned to us and transformed both of his hands into long swords. The black suit was covering his face, but it was obvious from his posture that he did not appreciate our tricks. His black blades began to bleed once more.
“Raging spirit,” we said, then right after we added, “behind you.”
> Ability seized: Raging Spirit
> Ability lost: Behind You
> Ability seized: Behind You
> Ability lost: Raging Spirit
Ryder’s blades stopped bleeding immediately; taking Raging Spirit even for a moment seemed to cancel its effect. His frustrated howl let us know that he realized this too.
“I—” Devi spoke behind us, “I don’t understand. What happened?”
“Stay away from him,” we said, keeping our eyes on Ryder. “Distract him. The plan is to stay alive until his Domain runs out.”
No sooner did I finish speaking than Ryder stomped his foot and a surge of dark energy exploded from beneath him. Damnation. We knew three of his Abilities, and we supposed that his fourth Ability was some kind of divination that had helped him find us on multiple occasions already. That left only one more Ability that Players could hold, and Ryder had apparently performed enough Feat-worthy deeds to earn it.
Devi’s hand shot forward to open a portal and shield herself from the blast, but we were caught out in the open. The wave of dark energy hit us head-on and we barely felt a breeze. Our armor’s protections didn’t even activate as the wave of unnatural light passed us by. We blinked behind our sunglasses, trying to see through the strange after-glow that the explosion left behind. The Domain of inverted shadows was tinged with shades of red now. Another rage-inducing spell? No, it wasn’t. Our mind felt clear.
“Prey marked,” a feminine announcer’s voice rang from above. “One target remains. Happy hunting, hunter.”
We could put two and two together after that, looking down to see that our body was enveloped by a soft red glow—like a highlighted enemy in a videogame. We felt a sharp jolt as something struck us from behind and sent us flying into a nearby wall. We teleported to Soul Eater to get back to our feet, gritting our teeth. Ryder’s Behind You was considerably scarier ever since he began to use it without warning us first. Wait—hadn’t we just Seized it from him?
We transformed Soul Eater into a shield as Ryder lept at us, doing our best to deflect his strikes instead of outright blocking them. He had two sword-hands though, and so our armor began to take more and more damage. His swings began to get faster and faster too, likely the result of this hunter Ability that he had activated. We were struggling to keep up even though we were focusing purely on defense. Ridiculous. If Ryder had this kind of power, why hadn’t he used it earlier? He just kept powering up as the fight went on, like—ugh. We didn’t even dare to finish that thought. We would have let out a bitter laugh if we hadn’t been so out of breath.
Devi created a steady stream of new clones, each with a single Mark of Replacement running down the street. Ryder no longer cared about her; every fiber of his being was focused on me. The clones got farther and farther as we fought, flooding the streets nearby, hiding behind houses. We swapped places with a clone that we judged to be far enough, letting out a sigh as we put our back against the wall of a house. The red aura enveloped us still, and so we knew for certain that Ryder would find us—but with the clones spread so far out, it didn’t matter. We would just keep swapping places with clones until the Domain ran out.
Without any warning, the wall beside us exploded. Debris struck the protective aura of our armor, making it flicker, while Ryder’s arm shot out of the wall to grab us. We swapped places with a clone two streets away, squinting in the bright shadows of the alley that we found ourselves in. We heard a rustle from above and we looked up just in time to see Ryder jumping down from the roof. We swapped places with another clone, then whirled around to take in our surroundings. The inverse light of the plants made the place look gloomy and dark—which allowed us to spot the glowing orange veins on the black shape that sprung toward us.
“You got to be kidding me,” I said even as we deflected Ryder’s blades. “How—how is it happy hunting if you just teleport after me each time? Where is the fun in that?”
We swapped places with a clone again, and a moment later a window beside us exploded as Ryder burst through, lunging at us. He reshaped his swords into claws in an attempt to grab our shield, and we reshaped Soul Eater into a dagger. He missed his first strike and we evaded the second by teleporting us to our dagger. Ryder swung again, the fingers of his claws fusing into large hammerheads, and we reshaped Soul Eater into a shield to deflect his blows.
Ryder was getting faster and faster still. His black suit glowed with orange lines as he moved without stopping, chasing after us whenever we teleported. Devi was running out of clones. Sure, she could create them indefinitely, but so far they were of barely any use. No matter how far she spread them, Ryder was on me in an eyeblink. He was a relentless predator that didn’t seem to get tired—while slowly and surely, we did.
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The fight had become a battle of endurance, and maintaining focus for such an extended period taxed both our mind and body. We made more and more mistakes. A parry that was just a bit too slow. A heartbeat when we couldn’t unanimously decide our next move. A stumble when our mechanical leg didn’t behave as expected. A slight hesitation before teleporting away. We didn’t understand how Ryder was capable to keep going, how their minds kept focus after being fused for so long. We felt pathetic by comparison. Orange veins raced along our skin, matching Ryder’s suit. Time seemed to blur as our sole purpose became that we remained one step ahead. Just us, Soul Eater, and Ryder’s unending attacks. How long till this Domain ran out? Surely it would be over soon.
The first time his blade tore into us came too suddenly for us to react; the dark aura of our armor gave out with a loud crack, and Ryder sliced through our neck as our Shadeform activated. We became solid again as the blade passed and swapped places with a clone immediately. We looked around the street warily. It was quiet only for a moment before the nearest window exploded as Ryder burst out of it. We wanted to swap with a clone again, but pieces of stone and wooden shutter struck us and triggered our second – and last – Shadeform.
We didn’t waste it this time, sinking into the ground while we were incorporeal and dashing away. This Pocket Dimension seemed to be endless, or at the very least, covering the entire cavern. Domains tended to be centered around their owner, so theoretically it should have been possible to fly outside of its range. We were torn about what to do. What would happen if we went to the edge of this place in our Shadeform? Would we emerge in the Waking World, or would we get stuck? This Domain was created to keep us here, so was it even possible to trick it with our Ability?
We decided not to risk it and stay near Devi instead. Our Mark of Replacement had a limited range and swapping places with her clones was still our best defense right now. We flew up along the walls of a tall building, becoming corporeal on its round rooftop. Far from the streets. Ryder’s Domain had to run out of time soon.
The roof below us collapsed and a hand closed over our prosthetic leg, pulling us down. We swapped with a clone immediately, but the damage was done; our left foot was broken and bent. Scrap metal inside our boot. We heard a faint rustle and ducked under Ryder’s sword-arm, turned Soul Eater into a rapier, and stabbed it at Ryder’s face. His eye slit closed up before our blade could have punched through, and we pushed off with our one leg to avoid his next swing. His black blade grazed our shoulder nevertheless, drawing blood.
“Regenerate,” we said.
> Ability seized: Regenerate
> Ability lost: Behind You
We didn’t heal ourselves immediately. The strange orange liquid in our veins stopped the bleeding at will, and we swapped places with another clone. We arrived close to Devi; she hadn’t yet been able to send this clone too far.
“Randel?” Devi asked, looking at our broken leg.
“Need to hold on a while longer,” we said, panting. “Domain must be over soon.”
“I feel useless,” Devi said, even as she blurred and split into two. “Is there anything I can—”
We teleported to the other side of Soul Eater, dodging the piece of metal that Ryder had thrown at us. He was standing on a rooftop—until he wasn’t, appearing right behind us. We swapped places with Devi’s newly created clone, spun, and—Ryder stabbed us through our chest. Devi cried out, and instead of creating more clones, she attacked with her energy blade. A mistake. Ryder ignored her blows completely, shaping his eye slit into small holes that her blade couldn’t fit through. He stabbed his other sword-arm into our guts.
The pain almost paralyzed us. We had been expecting it, but this body wasn’t used to it. We whimpered, our minds trying to activate our armor’s teleportation to escape. It didn’t work; our armor was broken. Ryder drew both of his arms back to stab us again, and Devi used that moment to snap a portal into existence right above us, blocking Ryder’s next strike.
Regenerate, we thought. Our body went numb for a moment, our wounds closed up, and our aches vanished along with all the physical exhaustion. We rolled under the portal and pushed off our good leg, avoiding Ryder as he shoved Devi aside to stab us.
Our wounds might have healed, but our mechanical left foot didn’t repair itself. Our original leg didn’t grow back either, and we wondered whether that was because of the prosthetics still in place or because we had lost our leg long ago. We didn’t have time to think it through. We swapped places with a new clone.
Devi got back to creating more clones, but they stood too close to each other. Ryder didn’t even have to use his hunter Ability to keep up with us; he just ran us down each time we swapped places, destroying the clones, chasing us without tiring. A relentless beast. He caught us twice more, forcing us to spend two more charges of Regenerate.
> Regenerate
> Number of charges: 3/7
We hadn’t asked for it, but our collar dutifully notified us about how much trouble we were in. We dodged, parried, balanced on one foot, and teleported while Ryder hounded us. The notification bothered us. Was it taunting us to do something? We just had to stay alive until the Domain ended, then we could swap places with any number of Marked people and get as far from Ryder as we wanted. Just until the Domain ended. It had to end soon … didn’t it?
Ryder’s sword sliced through our right arm, cutting off the hand that held Soul Eater. He thrust his blades at our face next, but we managed to get over the searing pain and dodged the blow. We teleported ourselves to Soul Eater with our remaining hand, shaking our severed hand off the handle.
The Domain wasn’t going to end soon, we realized.
Ryder kept chasing us. We parried his first strike and got impaled by the second. We swapped places with a clone and healed up again. Our hand regrew without any issue.
> Regenerate
> Number of charges: 2/7
Domains tended to wear off after a while, but their duration was arbitrary. Everything about them was arbitrary, working to the whim of the Inspectors. Would they let this Domain end and allow us to escape? Of course not. Why would they, when they made a Quest for the sole reason of forcing us shadebound Players murder each other? Ryder’s Domain would end precisely when they wanted it to end: after either of us killed the other.
> Regenerate
> Number of charges: 1/7
Here we fought like a coward, unable to do anything against Ryder as he whittled us down. Our teleportation Abilities were of no use, not when Ryder had Abilities to keep up with us. He was just better than us in every way. Stronger, faster, with an impenetrable defense and high mobility along with tracking magic. We had underestimated him—or perhaps we had overestimated our strength.
Ryder struck again, slamming us into the stone wall of a house so hard that we felt our ribs crack. We moved our head just in time to hear a sharp pang next to our ear as Ryder’s blade struck the stone beside us. We teleported away but we barely had a moment before Ryder was on top of us again, his claws leaving a gash across our temple. We had to heal again. Our head was important.
> Regenerate
> Number of charges: 0/7
Our head was important. If there was anything that we did better than Ryder, it was thinking. Probably. Considering all the stupid decisions we had made recently, we weren’t too sure about that either.
Ryder activated Raging Spirit again. He had been counting the charges of Regenerate we used and knew we were out of healing now. We were getting cornered. Our Domain hadn’t activated yet, but even if it did, it wouldn’t be of much use. Domain: Break the System. Last time it canceled all Player magic around us without affecting Soul Eater. Unless it broke the system differently this time, it wouldn’t stop Ryder in his armor. He could wipe the floor with us even without his Player powers.
We swapped places with a clone and raised Soul Eater, shaped like a sword, to meet Ryder’s hand-swords as he charged at us. We jolted in alarm when we realized that he had four arms this time; beneath each of his real arms, he had grown one more out of Soul Seeker’s material. Another power-up. Fighting with Teva’ryn had somewhat prepared us against multi-armed opponents, but there was no way we would be able to defend ourselves with only one sword and one leg. We threw Soul Eater aside and teleported ourselves to it.
Ryder kept coming. We shaped Soul Eater into a shield, waiting for Devi’s clone to get further away. Ryder struck. The first blow we blocked, barely, and we twisted out of the second sword’s way. The third sword swung low, stabbing the knee of our good leg, and as we jerked in pain Ryder buried the fourth sword into our guts.
We teleported to a clone, shaping Soul Eater into a pole and slamming it to the ground to remain standing. Our weight rested on the ruins of our mechanical leg as the blood flowed freely from the wound in our stomach. We reflexively tried to regenerate—to no avail. Pain fogged our mind and we barely had the mental capacity to stop the bleeding.
Ryder jumped down from a nearby rooftop, landing in front of us. Tall and intimidating. A true fighter. Not even our Domain would have saved us now. We needed a miracle. One miracle. Someone’s miracle. That was a thought, wasn’t it? We weren’t as strong as Ryder—but we didn’t have to be.
No.
We didn’t have to fight fair.
No!
Our Domain wouldn’t work here, and so we needed a Domain that wasn’t ours.
No, no, no!
Ryder loomed over us, raising one of his sword-arms high while we just stood there, looking up at him. Then just as he brought his sword down, we braced ourselves, angled our head, and swapped places—not with a clone, but with Devi.
“No!” I cried out, watching from afar as the end of Ryder’s sword met Devi’s head, the tip of her horn flying off as the blade tore into her face. Devi screamed in pain and surprise, crumpling to the ground, and we fell a heartbeat after her, our injuries too severe to remain upright, but I continued to scream in anger and helpless frustration as I watched Devi’s prone body. We tried to get up but all I could think of was that she was dead, that I sacrificed her for my own gains—no, for our safety—no, I saw Devi’s blood on the ground, and Ryder walked toward us, blood dripping from his sword too. We clutched our head as it throbbed, I betrayed Devi’s trust, we did what was necessary, I really should have known better, we had to get up to face Ryder, but I was better off dead.
“Stop it!” we screamed, but there was no point, I didn’t care, there wasn’t anything I cared about anymore. We screamed as Ryder approached us, and we pushed ourselves up to our elbows, but I slammed my head against the ground, and we slumped back down, eyes watering.
“Stop it,” we groaned this time, but this madness could not be stopped. There was no miracle coming, I killed her, we would die with her. We saw that Ryder stopped beside our head, and he lifted his sword to strike, but I refused to move. He was saying something but we couldn’t hear it, I didn’t want to hear it, I wanted it to be over, and then he brought down his sword and we stopped existing.
Well, at least in the Material World. It took us a moment to realize that our Shadeform activated again. We sank into the ground while our lungs still held a breath, then drifted off toward the nearest building to fly up to its rooftop. We became solid again. Somehow, we had regained a charge of Shadeform. Was it already the middle of the night, when the moon was highest up on the sky? No—we started our fight in the morning. Something else was up. We activated Regenerate. Our wounds closed. We gasped in relief.
Ryder stepped onto the rooftop and stalked toward us. We reached out mentally for the Mark of Replacement on Devi’s remaining clone—and found a multitude of them down below. Ten, twenty, forty—the Marks we sensed multiplied every second. Ryder took advantage of our shock and impaled us through our chest.
Our Shadeform activated again. Incorporeal once more, we fled down to the street where we became solid and got immediately caught up in a tide of Devi’s clones. Each of them had the tip of their left horn cut off, with a nasty cut running from their forehead down to their cheek, their left eye closed beneath all the blood. A tide of confusing emotions washed over us, and for a moment we weren’t able to move. The clones blurred and multiplied, and the sudden surge of bodies pushed us to the ground, tramping us down, triggering our Shadeform.
We floated away, flitting between the clones until we found some empty space and became corporeal. Our minds struggled to keep up. Devi’s Domain. This had to be it. Her Domain was an inverse of ours; while Break the System nullified all magic, this one seemed to remove all the stops. Limitless power. Each of Devi’s clones would have reserved ten percent of her mana, yet there were hundreds of clones around us already, spilling from one street to the other.
Ryder jumped down from a rooftop in front of us, landing on the clones and bursting them apart. He pointed four sword-arms at us in challenge—and every clone around us pointed their hands at him in turn, their faces furious.
“Fight this!” they all shouted in a deafening chorus. Hundreds of Recursive Rays were fired at once—and we couldn’t see much else because our Shadeform activated again. We drifted through the army of clones and exited Shadeform on another rooftop. The building shook beneath us and static noise filled our ears. Every clone was firing their Recursive Rays in Ryder’s direction, regardless of what stood in their way. The clones hit other clones too, but because of how Recursive Ray worked that only served to fuel their next attacks, amplifying each other’s Rays until the transmitted energy swallowed them whole. The Pocket Dimension trembled as hundreds of Rays powered each other, punching through buildings and hitting Ryder in a blindingly bright arcane explosion—
—or so it seemed, until Ryder appeared behind us. He swept his blades through our head and chest, and the building under us chose that moment to collapse. We threw Soul Eater in its dagger-form up in the air, teleported ourselves to it, then flicked it upward and teleported to it again. We then kept teleporting without a pause, grabbing the dagger with our right hand and then with our left, keeping ourselves in the air by constant teleportation. Ryder appeared behind us once more with a futile attempt to stab us. We flickered away and he fell. When Ryder appeared behind us a third time, we paused to speak.
“Behind you. Raging Spirit.”
> Ability seized: Behind You
> Ability seized: Raging Spirit
Left, right, left, right, we teleported to Soul Eater. We watched Ryder as he dropped below, disappearing in the silvery-white clash of Recursive Rays. If he had any last words to say, it got drowned by the overwhelming noise of discharged energy and collapsing buildings. The produced heat threatened to suffocate us, and so we threw Soul Eater higher, away from the epicenter.
Devi didn’t leave it up to chance whether Ryder survived the attack; she kept firing. Perhaps she couldn’t have stopped even if she wanted to, not with all these Rays cascading through her clones. Even if Soul Seeker was able to withstand the force of this arcane explosion, there was no air left to breathe down there. The heat alone was enough to fry Ryder within his armor; it was certainly hot enough to melt the stone, which in turn burst more and more clones apart. The brightness of the Rays lessened gradually, though our ears kept ringing long after the light dwindled.
We threw Soul Eater down to the ground, teleported to it to negate our fall, then shaped it into a staff to help ourselves stand. Our mechanical leg jerked. Twisted, broken, useless. Ripping it off crossed our mind, but first we activated our collar to check our Abilities.
> Seize, level 3
> Description: Take another Player’s Ability by saying its name out loud. Number of seizable Abilities increases by level. Casting cost of seized Abilities decreases by level.
> Cost: Speak the Ability’s name in any language.
> Seized Abilities: 0/1
We stared at the bottom line numbly. Gone. Regenerate was gone. We closed the screen and looked at the body in the distance as it lay in a shallow crater, partly submerged into cooling stone. Gone. We lost the chance to regrow our leg.
> Quest updated: Shades of the Moon
> +1 Feat
I stood there, leaning against Soul Eater, breathing heavily. Physically I didn’t feel bad thanks to Ryder’s healing, but mentally? Mentally was another matter. My head felt like the devastated city of stone around me; it had been heated up to the point where it melted, and now that it began to cool down nothing was the same anymore. I heard footsteps, soft but purposeful. Devi came closer to me, holding a hand against her ruined face. I couldn’t look at her. I wanted to disappear.
She stopped beside me, waiting for me to acknowledge her. I didn’t. I kept my eyes on Ryder’s dead body. Devi extended an arm toward me, holding out her fist.
“Good fight.”
I closed my eyes.
“Is that a joke?”
She had to be joking. A way to cope with her anger, perhaps. She would flip the switch any time now. Good fight? Ridiculous. This didn’t even feel like a fight. This didn’t even feel like victory.
“So,” Devi said in a light tone. She lowered her hand. “Do you know how to get back home?”
Our eyes widened. Inverted shadows, sharp contours everywhere. We had almost forgotten that we were still inside the Pocket Dimension. Ryder was dead—so why was his Domain still active?
“Don’t worry, I’ll send you back soon,” a deep voice spoke behind us. Our body locked up suddenly, and we would have let out a surprised gasp if we were able to. Only our eyes were allowed to move, which was enough to see that the same applied to Devi too. The two of us stood next to each other, helplessly still as a tall figure in a white suit entered the scene. A lean man wearing a featureless mask with three eye-holes. An Inspector.
He walked past us and shook his head disappointedly at the sight of Ryder’s body. He then held out a hand and the black material of Soul Seeker twisted and reformed, tearing itself off the corpse. It turned into a curved dagger, then flew to the Inspector to settle in his palm.
“I’m not sure whether I should congratulate you or not,” the Inspector said. He had a rich, attractive voice that didn’t quite sound natural. “I can appreciate a good twist, but this one was simply … disappointing. A cheap trick in the face of death himself. I found it rather painful to watch.”
He turned around to face us. Glowing veins pulsed beneath our skin as we struggled against the force holding us in place, but we couldn’t overcome it. It was a physical block, not a mental one. Our brain couldn’t transmit signals to our body. Interestingly though, we realized that we were able to change Soul Eater’s shape. We shortened the staff in our hand just a tiny bit, and our frozen body tilted sideways as it leaned into it. The Inspector, oblivious to our struggles, continued his speech.
“Alas, the show must go on. You cheated death, and now you get one more chance to prove yourself. Unfortunately for me, I lost my chosen shadebound Player to supervise. You know what this means, right? I have a spare demon’s fang.”
He held out Soul Seeker, pointing its tip first at us, then at Devi.
“Give it to me,” Devi blurted. “I was the one who killed Ryder. I deserve it!”
We shot her a dismayed look and tried to intervene—but we still couldn’t open our mouth. Only Devi was allowed to speak. Our minds spun in panic; we could not allow her to take Soul Seeker. The collar prevented us from moving, but perhaps if we shapeshifted Soul Eater somehow … into something … if only we could do anything with it!
The Inspector, in the meanwhile, laughed pleasantly at Devi’s words—or perhaps at our feelings.
“Oh my, how eager someone is! Subject Devi’lynn, you were indeed the one who killed Subject Ryder. You bled for it, you suffered for it. If there’s anyone here who deserves to be Ryder’s successor, it is you.”
He chuckled some more before turning to us.
“What do you think, Subject Randel? Should your beloved woman carry Soul Seeker, or do you volunteer to take her place? Would you like to protect her?”
Our anger flared, hot and violent thoughts passing through our minds, and I struggled to hold it all back.
“What do I think, Inspector?” I hissed. “I think that this conversation is pointless. I think that you’re going to bind that thing to me no matter what I say. I think that you wanted to turn me and Devi against each other to make some drama. I think that you’re just a showman.”
The Inspector watched me, completely still, his expression unreadable behind the mask. I wasn’t sure whether it was just my imagination, but all three of his malicious red pupils seemed to narrow in hatred.
“Fine,” he said. “Let’s have it your way. I was going to allow you to ask a question that I would have freely answered, but I’m not in the mood anymore. Here, take it.”
Soul Seeker sprang out his hand and flew into my chest, punching through the damaged armor straight into my heart. I barely had time to realize what was going on before I felt my body burn up from the inside, liquid fire racing along my veins. It hurt and I screamed from the pain, but my scream also carried triumph because I knew that this was victory. As good of a victory as I could ever get. Then the pain became too much and I passed out into blissful oblivion.