The moment Nox jumped towards the echo, it was already too late. Dallion’s copy knew about the order instants before Dallion gave it, however, what he couldn’t know was where the crackling would attack from. When the claws descended, the only thing the echo could do was try to block with his shield. The shield, being only a copy of Dallion’s, quickly broke, as the claws went on, slicing into the echo’s body.

In the past, that was enough to bring the echo out of existence. This time, though, a sharp pain pierced Dallion’s body, almost making him drop the harpsisword. There was a connection between him and the echo, and it was far stronger than that of any enemy so far.

“Forgot to tell you.” The echo jumped back. Its shield was completely destroyed, but he still had his dartbow. “I’m you as well. Defeating me will also defeat you.”

That was beyond unfair. There was no way Dallion could win this one. At best he could hope for a draw that would consider the section cleared. If that happened, he would lose any additional prize the cube might hold. Maybe there was an alternative?

“An interesting proposal, but I’m not interested in a draw. The draw is continuing the status quo. You’ll remain at your current level, a skill or two might improve, but nothing else. You still won’t be able to pass the selection trial.”

“Then why don’t you tell me what I need to do?” Dallion shouted. He was becoming fed up with all this.

“Tell you? If I did that, there would be no point in the trial. Didn’t the glowing armor guy explain it to you? You’re responsible for your own improvement from here on, and to improve you must be able to break through your limits every time. If you can’t win a battle against yourself, do you think you can win against anyone else? So far the only reason you’ve won was because your enemies were more successful in fighting against themselves than you were.”

The sentence hung in the air, making time almost freeze for Dallion. His music skill showed the doubt that appeared within him. Had all his victories been due to opponents’ mistakes? True, he was the one who had taken advantage of them, but if that was all that he was doing, he would never win against a more capable fighter. That had to be the reason why all the double digits could handle him so easily. They had him outclassed and out-leveled, so much was obvious, but they also didn’t provide him with any opportunities for attack. From here on he was going to have to make them himself.

If that’s the way you want it, Dallion smiled. The doubt within him fizzled away, replaced by enthusiasm. Finally, for the first time since he had arrived in this world, he was going to come up with his own plan of attack. There would be no more copying, no more mimicking, no more following tactics devised centuries ago without thought. Now was the moment to use what he had learned and innovate in his own way.

When I hurt you I hurt myself, Dallion thought. In that case, I’ll just have to disarm you.

Dallion dashed forward. With a twist and a whirl, the harpsisword was sent flying in the echo’s direction. Even at this distance the throw was too inaccurate to cause any damage, but provided enough of a distraction for Dallion to draw his dartbow and aim forward.

Once it evaded the flying weapon, the echo did the same. A standoff occurred—dartbow against dartbow, each aimed at the opponent’s chest. Both pulled the trigger. Bolts dart forward.

Dallion moved his shield in front of his torso, sending the bold bouncing off into the distance. Lacking that piece of gear, the echo swung his harpsisword to deflect the bolt in mid-air.

“Nox!” Dallion ordered, continuing on.

A single moment of hesitation passed through the echo’s brain. In that moment Dallion’s thoughts seemed to fracture in two. In one instance he continued forward, hitting the echo in the face with the shield. In the other, he shot the dartbow. There was no telling which of the attacks he would prefer; at the end of the day the chance was fifty-fifty.

The echo knew that Dallion’s final goal was to use the protective quality of the armadil shield to envelop and trap him. If that was the case, the optimal solution was to leap back out of reach. To his surprise Dallion, extended his right arm forward until his dartbow was no more than three feet from the echo’s, then squeezed the trigger.

From this distance, there was no time for evasion. Dallion’s music skills, combined with his newly-learned forging skills pinpointed a weak spot on the weapon. When the bolt hit it, the weapon shattered into fragments.

“Well done,” the echo whispered, knowing what would follow. “Lucky charge. So lucky…”

As he said that, the dryad shield slammed into his chest, extending and enveloping him in a prison ball. It was a clever tourniquet and one that guaranteed victory without harming the echo too much. The last time Dallion had used this quality of the shield was to protect himself from soul suckers. Now he had found a new use—effectively removing an enemy from the battle without killing him. Just as outside attack couldn’t penetrate inside, nothing could leave the hold of the shield either. And just for good measure, the shield contracted so as to prevent the echo from moving an inch.

“You really pulled it off.” The muffled voice of the echo came from within the shield. “Next time you won’t be able to rely on luck.”

Light streamed through the metal segments, then the echo was no more. Dallion took a few steps forward, slowly bent down and placed his hand on the shield. The object contracted to its usual form.

It wasn’t just luck, Dallion said to himself. For once he had planned this, and it had turned out better than he had hoped. The resulting headache, though, was enough to make him feel as if his head were being torn apart.

You have broken through your barrier.

Your level has increased to 11.

Choose the focus that will serve you best.

The green rectangle kept glowing above Dallion, but he was in no condition to do anything about it. Seconds passed, then minutes. Slowly, the headache loosened its grip. The pain that had kept him immobile on the ground went away, allowing him to push himself off the ground.

The rectangle remained there, waiting for him patiently when he got up. Once again there were five options given, and once again Dallion had to make a choice.

Quite a few of his attributes had made a jump since the completion of the second trial. The only possible explanation was that the level cap had blocked the effect of some achievements he had earned. At present Dallion’s body was at twelve, his perception was at eleven, and both mind and reaction were at ten. The mysterious stat remained at five of twenty.

What to choose, Dallion wondered. The completionist in him strived to keep everything at parity, not to mention he could use some mind or reaction speed. However, he chose to invest in perception. The sooner he could distinguish between layers of defense markers, the sooner he’d be able to use armor as weapons, as Euryale had shown him

Lifting his hand was painful, making Dallion feel the smashing of the rectangle. Finally, it was done.

I hope it’s not like this every time, Dallion told himself.

“Meow?” the crackling poked him gently with its paw.

“Hey, Nox.” Dallion forced a smile. “I’m fine.” Mostly. “We showed that puff of smoke, didn’t we?”

Back in my time we used to call this a coin flip victory. Nil made his thoughts on the matter known. At least you were successful. I was afraid that it might take you four or five attempts before you broke through.

“It wasn’t luck,” Dallion sighed. “It went exactly the way I planned it.”

That much I can give you. However, it was luck that let him fall for it. During your last attack, what did you do?

Give me a while to get my breath, would you? Dallion grumbled mentally. The headache was bad enough. It didn’t help to have someone blabber in his mind while he was trying to come back to his senses. Defeating the echo was pretty much defeating a reflection of himself—Dallion was able to see how strong he truly was and that only fueled his desire to get stronger. There was one thing that bothered him, though; the echo had been correct that he had wasted a lot of opportunities by not creating an echo, just for practice if for nothing else. The experience he’d gone through back in Dherma village had made him fear the notion to the point that he didn’t want to have anything to do with it.

Dallion petted the crackling, then stood up. Right now, he didn’t have the will or strength to conjure up an echo, but soon he would have to if he didn’t want to be left behind.

Dal? Nil urged.

“I used the shield on him,” Dallion replied. “That’s it.”

Hmm. The answer wasn’t what the old echo was looking for. Even so, there were no further arguments.

“What about now? How do I find the prize?”

Now, you search. The reward is somewhere within the paradox cube.

“So, I must find a hidden chest in all this?” Dallion looked up. Since his defeat, passageways and windows had appeared in the surrounding cube, displaying the sight outside. Everything was lit by the invisible light, causing all shadows to disappear like embers in the rain.

It doesn’t have to be a chest, but yes. You don’t have to find it, but I strongly recommend it. Such opportunities don’t occur every day.

“Yeah, yeah.” Dallion waved his hand as if Nil were there before him. For all intents and purposes, he might well have been. Clearing the section had allowed him to see everything that was within and still he didn’t offer any help. Thankfully, the echo wasn’t the only entity in Dallion’s awakening realm. “Nox.” Dallion turned to the crackling. “Think you can sniff it out?”

The crackling extended its claws. Most likely that meant a yes.

“Go ahead. If you find something, let me know, don’t claw it up, okay?”

With a purr, the creature dashed forward. Meanwhile, Dallion started his way to the outer surface of the cube surrounding him. There no longer were distorted echoes to impede his progress, although that didn’t make his effort any less. Getting anywhere within this cube was a combination of luck and chance. Obvious paths lead nowhere, while dead ends turned quickly became shortcuts, as long as one knew which way the gravity was supposed to be.

Close to half an hour after defeating his guardian echo, Dallion had managed to find his way to the inner surface of the second cube. He also started to feel a sensation that he had forgotten about in quite a while—hunger. The battle, combined with the long amount of true time he had stayed here, made his stomach start to act up. Even the awakened—in fact, especially them—had to eat, and eating was impossible while in this realm.

“Nox!” Dallion shouted, looking into the distance. “Found anything?”

The echo of a hundred meows replied.

Okay, so I can’t rely on that method, Dallion thought. The place was just too big for him to find the crackling. However, that didn’t prevent the creature from finding him.

“Nox, come here!” He sat on the stone floor and waited.

Within a few minutes the crackling appeared, just as he knew it would. Climbing onto his shoulder, Nox meowed loudly, then leapt off and made several steps forward, stopping now and again to look back.

“You actually found something?” Dallion asked, surprised. “Show me.”

The let out an annoyed meow, as if saying “what do you think I’ve been doing so far?” then led forward. The place he went ended up being further than Dallion expected. Twice he had to stop for a moment to get his bearings. Then, they would continue.

The spot the crackling took Dallion was a small stone bridge connecting two of the massive cubes. Dallion had no memory of being there before. Nonetheless he followed his familiar to the center of the bridge.

“Here?” he asked. The place didn’t look special, other than the mark X clawed onto the side of the bridge. This wasn’t something Dallion would use as a hiding place. Then again, he hadn’t designed this illogical maze… or maybe he had? The paradox cube was linked to his awakening realm, making it part of him. “Here goes.”

Dallion drew his harpsisword and shattered the side of the bridge. However, the action was not wasted. A silver glow emerged from the stone. The moment Nox sniffed at it, the glow vanished before Dallion’s eyes.

You have found the hidden reward and shall be rewarded.

Smash the window to see what gift the Seven have granted you.

A gift from the Seven Moons? Dallion wondered. Time to check it out.

Taking a deep breath he hit the blue rectangle with as much might he could muster. The rectangle burst into dust, then reassembled, forming another one.

Paradox Cube Reward

You have increased your ??? stat by 5