The Path of Ascension

PoA: Minkalla Chronicles Floor 6

Minkalla Chronicles Floor 6

Eraxs ran.

He ran for his life.

Draxs, Craxs, Braxs, and Araxs were all already dead, and he didnt want to end up like them.

Folded Reflections was a floor of mystery, and in Minkalla, mystery translated into danger.

Anyone who had ever gotten the floor could appear as a reflection. That was a well-known fact, and was taken as just another one of the many dangers that Minkalla possessed. And normally, that was fine. Over the many, many cycles the floor had appeared in, trillions of people had entered its depths. And most of those people were, by definition, average.

But there were always the exceptions.

The Hastors, Duke Waters, Unyielding Anvils, Eclavorn and Gideons, and Ateleos of the realm.

Dangerous people that no one had a chance of beating.

The odds of them being chosen by Minkalla to operate in the floor were just as high as anyone else's which meant one in trillions and the odds of running into the particular reflection was even lower.

But they had run into just such a person.

At first, it seemed like the man in plain armor was a simple Tier 12 delver, like anyone else wielding a longsword.

It had started as a standard fight, with Draxs and Braxs going forward to entangle him in a melee while Craxs and Araxs shot spells and arrows at him to whittle him down.

For the first few moments, things seemed to be going well, but then, the reflection exploded with power and strength.

Draxs chest had been caved in with a single punch, and Braxs had his shield shattered as the reflections blade descended with the weight of a mountain.

Seeing his brothers fall, Eraxs had immediately cast [Area Heal], trying to keep them alive as Craxs cast his [Bolt] at the reflection's head.

That spell had killed Tier 14 bosses, but the reflection simply poured more power into their armor, turning it more ornate, and it blocked the spell even as he raised his hand to send a flurry of [Fireball]s at Craxs.

Even as Craxs dodged the spells flying at him, Braxs tried to tackle the man to the ground, but it was like he hit an invisible wall as he was unable to get in contact with the reflection.

Araxs took that chance to shoot a metal mana arrow at the reflection, but it was blocked by a [Bulwark].

Draxs, who had managed to partially heal, had gotten to his feet and drove his short sword at the reflection's face, but its gauntlets started to glow with a black light, and everything was pulled towards the reflections armored hand, where the enchanted blade was caught by the spell armor encased hand.

Araxs made some space and unleashed his [Charged Shot] to destroy the [Bulwark], but instead of shattering the spell, it simply cracked the mana construct, and before their very eyes, it started to repair itself.

But that cost mana, and that meant they could wear him down. They just needed to survive until then.

Eraxs cast a buffing spell on Draxs and Braxs as they swung their blades both high and low at the reflection, intending to attack two places at the same time so he couldn't reinforce both strike points. Araxs even had an enhanced arrow arcing over the [Bulwark] to land on the reflections head. From the flank, Craxs cast [Mana Spear].

Four perfectly timed attacks.

A combo that nothing should have been able to survive.

Except, the reflection created ornate patches where each attack would land, dropping its other spells, but blocking each attack perfectly.

Then, its retaliation started.

Eraxs, who thought the earlier flurry of [Fireball]s was impressive, had a rude awakening as the reflection summoned a copy of its sword and lashed out with [Mana Slash] half a dozen times, cutting Draxs into pieces.

Braxs tried to retreat, but the suction power appeared once more and pulled him directly into the reflection's hand. Eraxs brother lasted three seconds in the reflection's grasp before he fell to the ground, a burnt husk of a corpse.

Craxs went down next as a circle of talismans appeared and launched an oversized bolt of lightning at their mage.

At first, it looked like Craxs had dodged, but the attack curved mid-air and landed anyway.

Eraxs and Araxs ran in different directions, but through his spiritual perception, he was forced to watch as his brother was chased down and cut into pieces in mere seconds.

Eraxs continued to run, cursing their luck. They had been careful. They had done everything right. It wasnt fair.

As he was contemplating how he would tell his parents how his brothers died, he saw the reflection raise a single finger and point at him with his spiritual perception.

He was ready for any number of spells, but he wasnt ready for a beam spell that instantly punched through his chest, seeming to ignore his armor.

As he tried to regrow his destroyed heart, Eraxs had to watch the reflection close the distance and then loom over him.

He was paralyzed on the ground as its foot went up.

Eraxs cursed their luck. How could they have been so unlucky and stumbled upon a monster like this?

The foot came down.

And Eraxs died.

***

Three more men died by William's hand, and the day was just getting started.

It was taking some creative spell work to fend off both the monsters and the copies of the enemy delvers, but he didnt get to where he was today by being a slouch in a fight. On top of the normal difficulty of the sixth floor, William was additionally attempting to rapidly become proficient as an air mage, rather than relying on his more familiar earth magic.

Hed had some courses, naturally, and he was a deft hand with manipulating the air manually, but that was a far cry from relying on the more specialized skills in real combat.

Courtly Warfare had been less than an ideal floor four, but hed made out with a fabulous reward, even if it had cost him an arm and both legs to get it.

Almost literally.

The Generals scythe was a Chosen class weapon if hed ever seen one, and it had been a hard but ultimately clear decision to sell everything he could in order to claim it. On top of its ability to radically improve the potency of air and decay magic, drain mana from fallen foes for his own use, and having its own imbued skills, the floor reward had granted the scythe the ability to sap the mana from nearby spells to fuel his own.

Thus, while he was a relatively novice air mage, at least by his own standards, Minkalla was providing him an excellent degree of practice by throwing so many bodies at him.

Better yet, his streak of good luck had continued unabated.

Under typical circumstances, shifting around the skills in his spirit would have taken months of work to incorporate air skills, but the reward for Taxing Skills had allowed him a much easier transition while in Minkalla itself. While many would consider it a substandard floor at this depth, William knew he could capitalize on its effects well enough to keep up with the frontrunners, despite his rapid shift in fighting style. Not to mention how it would allow for a substantially easier final fight at the end of Folded Reflections.

He spun his scythe while utilizing its installed [Area Dispel AI14-EM] to dissipate the slurry of ice that was being slung at him, with the skill protecting him from harm as he hammered at his opponents with blasts of hardened air. The bursts of Genesis Energy and mana in his core told him that he had passed the tipping point, and this fight was all but over. A single delver copy and the remaining members of the bone pangolins were all that were left of this ruin before he could move on to the boss.

As he collected the skills and other valuables dropped by the fallen enemies, he considered his scythe for what felt like the hundredth time since he bought it.

Its form factor was ridiculous. And not in a good way.

It wasnt even a proper war scythe, it was a farming tool that happened to have the most potent magic he had ever felt stuffed into it.

The fact that the General had used it as a melee weapon showed the potency of his strength and magic more than how well a farming implement could be used in a true fight. At least, there was no compelling reason for him to use its blade as anything more than ornamentation. With a bit of luck, the final floor would be All Paupers, and he could utilize it to morph the items shape into something more palatable.

Twenty minutes and seven valuable skills later, he walked out of the ruin into the adjacent one, where one of his biggest regrets was sitting there waiting for him.

Quill.

William had completely fumbled his interaction with Quill on the fourth floor, and lost out on the opportunity to form a connection with one of the rising stars of the Empire. Instead, he had largely spent his time getting in the good graces of Dexter and Tiffany. The latter had gone and died, wasting all the time he had spent cultivating her favor, and Dexter was essentially out of the running for getting deep in Minkalla due to the delay caused by his extensive injuries.

Then, Quill had shut himself in his house for the remainder of the floor, cutting off any chance for William to try for a business relationship. Number one reason why people shouldn't use a second layer of false identities. How could people butter them up if no one knew who they were?

Though, the revelation that Silver was Quill should have been obvious; that was hindsight speaking.

He had tried to talk with Queen, but she was less than conversational.

The reflection of Quill rushed towards him, and William lashed out with boon-sharpened blades of air. Quill had the footwork and speed of a fighter, he had to give him that, but William had little reason to hold back on mana for this fight, and there was no dodging every blade. Two cut deeply into the mans armor, and where William had thought that might end the fight, as it had so many others, Quill seemed surprised that his armor hadnt been breached at all.

Apparently deciding to reconsider fighting in melee, the battle soon transitioned into trading spells at a rapid pace. William was sure to lock down space with his Concept, to prevent any talisman use, but that apparently didnt hinder Quill from throwing out powerful spells as fast as William could counter them.

The reflection even forced William to conjure some crystalline barriers when his current air magic wasnt suited for the task.

From the feedback William was getting from the scythe, specifically in its spell draining effect, Quill was burning mana at an utterly unsustainable rate, especially his armor. And yet, he didnt seem to be slowing down, even as his injuries accrued and William became more and more assured of a hard-won victory.

Curious.

How very curious.

***

Long Zhiyuan was killing his way through a ruin when four blips in his spiritual perception appeared nearly on top of him.

He immediately sent all of his collected Genesis Energy into his ring and activated his cloak that would hide him from spiritual perception as he decided to disappear into the forest before attacking. He would reveal himself only if he believed there was a good chance at killing the team.

But counter to his expectations, the other team started to run him down, and he saw why moments later.

It was the team he had fought on the fifth floor.

So he started running for real, instead of just trying to disengage.

A four versus one was never ideal, especially not when one of the members was strong enough to fight him to a standstill.

Activating [Heavenly All Seeing Eye], he picked up where hed left off, gathering all the information he could about the four of them.

Without Minkalla restricting the amount of mana he could use, he was able to gather a lot more information, and immediately changed all of his Talent copies to fighting versions of the four of them.

As spells started flying, he felt things starting to get frantic as the woman seemed to teleport next to him invisibly, and cut off two of his fingers from his left hand.

Getting desperate, he tried to use his Concept to fly away, but it was instantly shattered just as his feet were off the ground, sending him stumbling.

As the second woman got close, her use of blood magic shook his predictions. Hed thought she was a fire mage, but her fighting style was similar enough to that of a water mages he wondered if that was truly her speciality, and the blood was another layer of misdirection. What didnt change was her physical abilities, and with the practice he had from fighting her copy, he wove a claw through her guard and cut through her helmet and mask.

He thought that opened up enough of a gap in their wall, but before he was more than a dozen feet away, he was forced to block the large man's sword as it swept out with a technique empowered blow that he recognized as a crude, barbaric [Grass Sways But Returns To Its Roots].

Despite putting a shield between himself and the blade, Long Zhiyuan felt the blade bite deep into his back.

As a wave of snow froze his leg, Long Zhiyuans instincts, long-honed from many fights within his spirit, told him to move, and he trusted them.

Crushing a Bottled Lightning, he vanished to reappear a dozen feet ahead and started to run.

Still, the team chasing him didnt give up, and as he was forced to dodge a spear, he sent out a [Claw From the Beyond] at the small wolf, but his attack was blocked by a talisman, and he took a shard of ice to the chest in retaliation.

Feeling the ice growing and trying to slow him down, he shattered a gem on his belt, sending a wave of fire washing out and over him.

At the same time, he activated [Flames And Wind Of The Dancing Stars] to enhance his speed a dozen fold, and used his lengthened strides to put more of a distance between himself and his pursuers.

Feeling ten spots in his spiritual perception, Long Zhiyuan raced ahead, wanting to get the two teams entangled, and just as he got himself free, he was forced to use one of the natural treasures he found on someone he killed to block the sword that tried to lop off his head.

The Spine of the Earth was spent to reinforce his arm for a brief moment, instead of permanently strengthening his bones, but it was a small price to pay for his life, even if his arm still broke under the blow.

Shouting in anger, he used the new team's arrival to slip away, and didn't stop running until his mana started to run low.

Once he found a tree with large roots, he absorbed a few mana stones worth of mana with his fast converting stone to cast [One With The Earth] and create a hole under the tree.

There, he started to inspect himself.

His left hand was missing the smallest two fingers, and his glove was nearly ruined. His right arm was broken in four different places, and he had a cut that traveled from his left shoulder down towards his right hip.

After taking stock of his wounds, Long Zhiyuan didnt start healing himself immediately, and instead breathed in and out until his heart was slow and steady.

This wasnt his first time being wounded so badly, but it was one of the worst beatings he had taken. That, he couldn't deny. He had experienced almost dying, but he believed he had grown from the experience.

[Heavenly All Seeing Eye] had seen everything, and his Talent now had much better copies of the four of them.

While he didnt think he would be able to fight some of his peers in a four versus one, he knew that if he had to fight any of them alone, he would have a much better chance at beating them.

And in a week, he would know each of their weaknesses and strengths, how to capitalize on any openings and avoid every dangerous attack they could throw at him.

But first, he needed to heal.

After refilling his mana, Long Zhiyuan cast [The Healing Stream Which Washes Wounds Away].

He was no official healer, but for someone who could practice on themselves limitlessly, the spell was better than [Radiant Touch of the Benevolent], or its ranged counterpart, [The Spring Breeze of New Life].

Stitching his skin and muscles on his back together, Long Zhiyuan then straightened his broken arm, one shattered fragment of bone at a time.

It took a while, and when he got to his mangled hand, he was running on fumes.

While he could regrow the digits, he didnt bother, deciding to just grow skin over the stumps and call it a day.

Falling asleep, he changed his clones to start fighting himself.

He knew little of Minkalla, for to know of a test was to lessen its purity, but he had learned much from his time here, and he was capable of seeing the shape of things to come. The end of this floor would be another battle against himself, he was certain, but not the imperfect clones that hed been facing so far. Hed be fighting against himself, and that meant he needed some perfect counter against his own strategy, which was no menial feat to undertake.

After all, he knew himself better than anyone else.

Once he woke up, he reviewed his clones and knew what he had to do.

It wouldnt be an easy fight, but he had a strategy. He would need to absorb a few new techniques, which was less than ideal, as he preferred to create a cohesive fighting style with merged techniques, but he couldn't stall for long.

Going through all of the techniques and spatial items he had gathered so far, he found exactly what he believed would be able to counter himself.

[The Rippling Reflection Beneath the Still Pond] could create a copy of himself, and while it was only made of mana, it could look real and fight for a few brief moments, though it required his utmost concentration to utilize.

With its help, he believed that he had an answer to fighting himself.

His lesser copy would be disposable, and while lacking much in the way of his personal strength, it would serve for a single blow.

He continued to fight himself within his spirit, finding an appropriate plan.

If he cast the technique right as he began his fight, he could then give the technique copy a bomb and wound his reflection with its life.

Hed learned a few things from facing off against the inferior copies Minkalla had sent after him. None of them incorporated any of the new tricks he had learned since entering the floor. They were all static in skill and technique, and he could only hope that the final fight would be the same.

For then, he could utilize his greatest weapon of all.

Preparation and planning.

When he finally crawled out from under the tree's roots, Long Zhiyuan started hunting anyone he saw that he believed he could kill.

What good was a cloak that hid your spiritual presence if you didnt use it?

And he might just get a new item that could help him kill himself.

***

Gabby woke up in an opulent living room, very confused.

Hadnt she just drunk one of the energy drinks? Why would she be back here already?

As the realization dawned on her she instantly started to panic.

Reaching inside her mind, she hurriedly checked where the other lives sat like neat little packages, ready to be opened and inspected at her leisure. But where she remembered four, she found an extra one. When she delved into it, she realized what had happened.

She had failed that life.

Her Flowing Winds Concept was gone.

In a panic, she exited the challenge and then sprinted to the pillar.

Someone had to fix this.

***

Mason saw a lone figure appear in front of him and readied his blade.

Magical armor with a sword.

A blade mage was one of his favorite archetypes to fight.

Using his bloodline, he wrapped the earth around himself and charged with momentum, even if his speed wasnt impressive itself.

Deep Stone Elephants werent known for their sprints, but rather their unstoppable momentum.

The arrogant reflection simply raised its hand as if it wanted to stop him with its puny strength, and seeing that, Mason smiled.

As he raised his fist and cast [Shattering Blow of Atrun], he expected a shield to appear.

And one did.

[Alkuis Stops Their Assault]. He had broken many of them in his days, and one more would be added to his belt today.

And the spell broke, but it wasn't so easy; the shield actually broke most of his momentum.

Raising an earth covered arm, he blocked the first slash of his opponents blade, but staggered back as he felt his earthen armor sundered in two.

If his bones werent harder than normal, he would have lost his arm there.

He began to channel [Hide of the Ancestors] as he activated the secondary bloodline he had absorbed before entering this floor.

As he burned, the bloodline flames washed out from his body like a floodgate being opened up.

Flame Worms weren't a powerful bloodline, but the ability to excrete fire was a useful secondary power.

If it weren't for his family's deep pockets, he never would have been able to afford a dozen vials of Flame Worm blood for his delve, but it was moments like these where he was glad to have their wealth at his disposal.

Casting [Horn of Piercing Charges], a combination skill of [The Mystic Dash] and [Aurus Phantom Tusk], Mason rocketed forward and let his glowing horn land on the reflection.

He expected with his flames weakening the armor, his skill would pierce right through it, but the armor held firm, and a suction power from the reflection's hands caused his next punch to go awry.

The punch he took in return rocked him back, and he was pretty sure that even with his armor, one of his teeth was knocked loose after that blow. Mason pulled back to lash out once more with his earthen fist.

His fist met the blade, and while his defenses held, he wasnt ready for the explosion of mana that washed out from the blade, blasting apart most of his earthen armor and extinguishing the flames around them.

Mason was gathering more earth while he was laying on the ground, but it didnt do any good, as the reflection seemed unharmed by the explosion and raced forward with its sword leading the charge.

He tried to raise an earthen barrier in time, but the earth responded sluggishly to his orders as the reflection grabbed large portions of it and commanded it to remain still.

As the blade entered his chest, Mason couldnt believe it.

He had worked so hard.

Practiced all of his skills.

Minkalla was supposed to be his place to shine.

How could he die here?

With one last burst of energy, he tried to pry the blade free, but found it an immovable object that started to glow.

How could it cast another explosion like that?

He hadn't seen it recharge its mana at all.

Blade mages were not supposed to be able to do that.

As the mana detonated, he still wasnt sure where he went wrong.

***

Marvin felt what seemed to be a massive battle raging through a nearby ruin, and seeing its intensity, decided to poke his head inside.

If one side just barely lost, he might be able to makeout with all the spoils.

Better yet, it felt like a water mage fighting, which he had a million counters for.

Instead, he found something out of a bad horror movie.

Blood flowed like rivers as two teams tried to fight against a thirty foot tall, crystalized blood golem.

Quickly retreating, Marvin felt it was better not to get involved.

***

Alexi and her team waited in the safe area of floor five with Bravo team, Charlie team, and Delta team, though the last two had each lost one of their members.

After waiting a full hour beyond the specified time, she shook her head.

Anyone else was dead or entangled with something, and wasnt keeping pace.

Ok, what does everyone have to report? She asked.

Brett spoke up first. We have killed seven Empire teams, five Monster teams, and two Guild teams on the fifth floor.

Charlie and Dixie had similar numbers to report, which is when Alexi started going through the collective information.

That puts us at a good number, but only if Ethan and his crew are still alive and killing. But, I suspect they are preoccupied or dead, and we will proceed assuming the latter. Im giving the order. Take only fights you know you can handle, disengage immediately if things look even or worse. Mother will not be pleased if any more of us fall inside this dump.

They were strong, but this place had taught her that even the runes so cruelly engraved onto their bones werent an all powerful tool. At least, not yet. Minkalla restricted their power just as it did everything else.

Getting nods of approval from the other teams, she turned to the most important factor. What is the status of everyone's runes?

That got her a round of grimaces, and she understood. The third floor and its reset of their power was rough on all of them. When they and the runes were Tier 1, the runes burned so much worse than with their full power pushing back on them, creating a feedback loop of pain.

Damn Empire and their wicked test.

But with that in mind, she needed to check up on everyone and see if their runes were unstable.

Frankly, the instability of the runes was what she believed had delayed or taken out Ethan and his team.

After their brief and a joint check over by the healers among them, each of them gathered and left towards the pillar in the center of the room.

Alexi smiled internally as she saw the way people shied away from them.

Power.

They were afraid of their power, and that made her feel good. Really good.

The first level of Folded Reflections was nothing interesting, with them being able to kill three teams, but they had barely gotten their footing on the second level when they found a team chasing someone.

From the spells they felt, April believed the group was an Empire team that they had put on their internal blacklist for being the ones who had helped win the war on the fourth floor.

Ashton, Arnold, and Aaron closed in with the man suspected to be Quill, even as she split off to attack the woman with the sword, Queen.

Alexi was slightly shocked as her first blow did not instantly blow through the woman's defenses. So far, most of the Empire delvers had been little more than bugs to be stepped on, but she understood that this might very well be the real Queen if she was that strong.

As they exchanged blows, it galled her to admit it, but Alexi wasnt Queen's match in a one on one. If Alana wasnt there, she would have been disarmed and killed after the first five blows.

But that was why they were teams of ten.

Backing off slightly, she started charging fire in her left hand, wanting to take out Queen with a surprise spell.

A small wolf jumped up and started defending Queen with bursts of ice and bitter cold wind, but Alexi didnt let that change her idea. Queen and the winter wolf could burn. Burn like everyone in the Empire should.

When Queen went in for a lunge, Alexi let loose her flames and smiled at the result.

Just after she had burned half the woman and wolf's faces off, Alexi was shocked when the man surrounded by Ashton, Arnold, and Aaron had not only broken free, but hurt Ashton and Arnold so badly that Adam was forced to concentrate all of his healing on them.

That set off an internal battle as the other team disengaged and tried to run away.

This other team was probably stronger, one for one, than anyone on her team. That fact ate at her, but she wouldnt lie to herself. Mother demanded better of her.

In truth, they were outnumbered and wounded.

Knowing it was a risky play, she commanded, Forward! Chase down these dogs and kill them if you can!

Except, it was all for naught.

The Empire team reached a snowy ruin, and it would be the height of folly to chase them into it with a winter wolf at their side.

Stop the chase and see to the wounded. Her order was curt as she tried to repress her anger.

They had been so close, but now, they were wounded for nothing.

When they met up with Adam, she asked how Ashton and Arnold were as Ajay, Aurora, and Alana got healing for the wounds they suffered during their chase.

Ashton and Arnold will live, but those attacks pushed them close to their healing limits. With our fights against ourselves coming up, I do not think they can risk another engagement. That armored asshole hurt them pretty badly. If I had not been able to heal them, they might have died there and then. And Aaron is not any better. Our limbs may be harder to cut, but once theyre severed, theyre harder to reattach. I need at least two days to ensure the healing takes.

Alexi heard the anger in his report, and it matched the anger in her heart.

We pull back then. Heal up on the second level and punch towards the third level in one shot. The non-wounded of us will go out and farm Genesis Energy.

With that decided, they moved to lick their wounds.

Unacceptable.

Alexi let the anger wash over her and remembered it.

They were failing Mother's expectations.

The woman who saved them from eternal torment and protected them from the runes on their bones.

They owed her everything, and were failing to pay her back in even the smallest way.

That fact was undeniable, and it tormented her.

One day, she would make the entire Empire feel this level of despair.

***

Chuck stared into the eyes of one of the greatest dangers that had ever stepped foot in Minkalla. A man who had cut through Minkallas denizens like they were wheat to the scythe, who would have legends sung about him for eons to come. A man that struck fear and envy into the hearts of all who saw him, and had carved his way through Sect lowlifes as if they were newborn babes.

Himself.

He had been prepared for this, naturally. There were few problems in this realm that money couldnt solve, and this wasnt one of them. While the poors generally had to make do with finding or utilizing something new in Minkallas depths, leading to horrifically high mortality rates when the first wave of people found Folded Reflections early, Chuck had been given a potion and an unknown skill shard as part of the preparation for his delve.

Once he had entered Folded Reflections, chugging the potion and absorbing the skill had allowed him to settle it into his newly expanded spirit within hours, and from there, he just needed to practice with it well enough to gain some proficiency.

He didnt even know anything about the skill beforehand, except that it would be useful. His father had prepared it for him for the possibility of having to fight himself, so not knowing made it all the better; his clone wouldnt have any possibility of being prepared for it. From his testing against his lesser reflections, it seemed to be highly specialized in letting his glaive pierce lightning based defenses, which would let him break through his own magic and kill his copys version of Richard.

His own lightning tiger stood by his side, ready to get through this floor and reap the reward. Without any real need to slow down and prepare for the final fight of this floor, Chuck could be one of the first people on the final floor, passing all but the absolute fastest people, and he would have nearly free reign to gather the resources that were just waiting for him deeper in. Self Identity would be his ideal choice, but there were very few floors that wouldnt offer something worthwhile. All that was left was to finish off this poor, inferior clone.

Chuck raised his blade and charged.

Beating himself was the easy part, living six new lives would be the real challenge.

Half an hour of real time later, and after centuries of subjective experience, Chuck was teleported into the safe room and promptly fell on his butt, his wounds reopening and spilling blood onto the floor. He had blown through nearly every healing item he had in the fight against himself and used nearly every talisman, and he had still only barely made it.

As it turned out, he was just as excellent as he thought, which made the final fight a brutal one.

Folded Reflections had given him time to think on his mistake. It was a common one that nearly everyone made when they saw him, and one he had witnessed countless times in the six lives he had conquered.

He had underestimated himself.

A single skill couldnt best him, and no measly trick would put him down. That core competency had been carried over to his final clone, and made it a wildly dangerous opponent. Chuck was just too good at everything, and it had nearly cost him his life when he forgot that.

His wounds made further progress all but impossible, and Wasteland would surely kill him in his current state. Not worth the risk. Sadly, he would have to abandon his Minkalla run here.

The only question remaining in his mind was whether anyone else on the floor would be able to handle the lesser versions of himself that were surely running around right now. He supposed he would never hear about it, since there were unlikely to be any survivors.

Still, he was walking away with a sizable reward from this floor. Most important of all, the Forge had tempered him, brought impurities to the surface, and scoured them away.

He would walk out a new man, with his last imperfections left behind.

***

Percilla panted as she ran.

The reflection behind her was a monster, more so than the monsters she usually dealt with.

Despite showing a cultivation of Tier 12, it was faster than most Tier 13s, and never seemed to run out of mana, which was frankly unfair.

Percilla was no slouch as a solo mage, but she also knew when to pick her fights and when to run away.

Finding a lone wandering reflection, she understood instantly and ran.

That initial decision had saved her life, but it hadnt stopped the reflection from chasing her down.

Reflections were only created when someone neared them, and they would normally be killed like any other monsters, but if the reflection killed the team that spawned it, it would start to wander.

And Percilla knew herself well enough to know she wasnt a match for a reflection that had killed another team.

As a storm of ice fell from the sky, she activated [Close Teleport SP14-TA] to escape from the area, but that didnt stop a flurry of [Ranged Explosion FI8-AL] from chasing her.

Each time she grabbed another mana stone from her pouch and drained it through her Mana Conversion Stone (Type Rapid), she cursed.

She had refilled her mana pool three times, and no one wielding a blade that large in one hand should be able to utilize so many skills, that many times in a row. Minkalla had clearly broken this reflection.

Seeing another team ahead of her, she debated using them to lose the reflection, but decided not to be an asshole when she had a chance to get away.

Changing directions slightly, she used her [Assistive Intelligence], ME26-MI-FLX5, of course, to warn the team in front of her and once more activated [Close Teleport SP14-TA] in quick succession, dodging the earth that tried to swallow her.

To her surprise, the team behind her responded that they knew another nearby team, and would attack from the rear with their help.

Percilla doubted it would work, but agreed to try and lead the reflection around the ruin she was in.

It took three groups and two hours, but eventually, the reflection died under their constant bombardment, dropping a [Ranged Explosion FI8-AL] module as a result, but Percilla didnt feel accomplished by their victory.

Instead, she rethought her life choices.

How were some people that strong?

She had a good sponsor and nearly five hundred years of experience, but she couldnt do a fraction of what that reflection had done.

Even as she defeated her own reflection, she had to wonder at the difference between people.

Who was that man? What was his name?

Had he been the king of his era when he was alive, and ruled over everyone?

If he hadnt died early, she could believe it.

But history was long, and even immortals died, making memory short.

Percilla made sure to write down everything she could about the reflection, and intended to start looking through the history books for such a person.

She was sure their story would be amazing.

***

As George trudged through the snow of the ruin, he looked around and absorbed the traces of the miniature war that seemed to have taken place here. He was cold and alone, but the furthest thing from miserable.

He hadnt come out the gate with a good starting hand, growing up. His parents were poor, and his own Talents were paltry. Perfect memory sounded like a decent ability, until you realized that everyone decent essentially got that anyways, at about Tier 15. Not quite as absolute, but that almost never mattered. His Tier 3 Talent to boost his mind cultivation was just enough to let him scrape over the finish line and get to the Tier 10 Path tournament, but he had fallen off immediately after. Constant delving just wasnt his forte.

His first Talent even caused him some minor issues at the tournament, when Ciceron had said it was a national security risk for him to get a list of the Legacies. The normal methods of ensuring secrecy would be unable to remove the information from his mind, and he had to have a wood magic Legacy chosen for him instead of picking one out himself.

That was centuries ago, and he was a new man now. He had refined himself, shored up his abilities, and eventually managed to gather a party to delve into Minkalla.

This cycle was exactly what he wanted. Normally, a person couldnt remember anything but the bare basics of what they had done in the Genesis Cultivation challenge. With some planning, it was a valuable theme reward, but not anything particularly special in the context of Minkallas wonders.

For him, it was a miracle floor. His memories couldnt be removed, not even by Minkalla. The dreamlike state that prevented insanity had still applied to him, but he could remember all of it. He had spent millennia training with unlimited resources, perfecting his prowess with all his skills, with every variety of weapon he had ever thought to master, and in every field of crafting he had taken an interest in. In most respects, he was now better than a Tier 20 in their chosen field.

His party was gone now, back to safety. He had contracted them to get him through the second floor, and they had even stuck with him through the fourth floor, but now he was alone. He had trudged on deeper, in hopes of exactly where he was now.

His talent wouldnt radically change the reward from Folded Reflections, but what it would do is assure his success in overcoming the lives. Challenges got harder on deeper floors, and Folded Reflections didnt offer partial rewards. Either you overcame all the lives, or you had your Concept replaced, nothing in between. The downside of getting this floor deep was the increased odds of outright failure, which had extinguished many a rising star.

But not for him. It would certainly be novel for a child to have all the memories of an adult man, and it ensured his total success in noticing the wrongness of the lives. Six new Concept abilities, and then he would leave the planet, to a glorious immortality.

The only real challenges remaining were getting to the bottom of the floor, and beating his reflection. Nothing insurmountable, really, not with his crafting expertise.

He smiled under his helmet as the snow continued to blow.

It couldnt stop him.

Nothing could.

***

Charlie looked at Cecil in the safe area with dawning horror that this wasn't a bad joke.

Im just saying that we might not have the entire truth. In every alternative life I had, Virgil also had rune soldiers, even then. And she publicly stated that they were her creation along with Jecker. He has a Talent for lowering the Tier of runes. Thats how they did this to us. Everything about the Empire doing it was a lie.

Charlie swallowed, seeing Cecils manic face. He understood, even if he didnt like it.

Cecil had been corrupted by this planet.

Looking around to the rest of his team, Charlie saw expressions of horror to match his own.

It was not an easy thought, but he knew what he had to do.

Cecil, I think you need to calm down and think about what you are saying. If Mother finds out about this, she will be very disappointed. I even had a false life like that as well, but that is the nature of this place. It tries to confuse you Make you believe what is not real.

Carlos chimed in, Yeah, Cec, why would you believe those lies? Mother is the one who takes care of us. I had a similar life, but I know it for the lies that it is.

As the others chimed in, Charlie saw Cecil growing more and more flustered.

Can you not see? Minkalla was not lying to us, but showing us the truth! How else can you explain all of us having the same thing happen in those lives.

Charlie glanced at Chase and Conan, and they stood up and moved to block Cecil from leaving.

He had gone rogue, and there was only one ending for that.

Cecil tried to run, but they knew him all too well. After all, they lived and trained together for decades. How could they not know every move he would make.

Charlie smiled through bitter tears that threatened to fall. Cecil, I hope we can be brothers in the next life. I wish you had not gone crazy.

And with one quick thrust of his knife, he freed Cecil.

Gather his things and leave the body for Minkalla. Let us remember him as he was before he lost his mind.

They had a moment of silence before walking away so Minkalla could absorb their old friend.

Charlie hated this planet almost as much as he hated the Empire.

But they had a mission to fulfill, and they needed to be strong.

When Alpha and Bravo teams came into the safe room and asked what happened to Cecil, they just said he died to his reflection.

And it was true.

He lost his mind to the planet and became someone other than himself.

No one else needed to know his shame and ramblings after that.

It wasnt the real Cecil, after all.

Their brother had died when he took the challenge.