The chainling snarled. Not a single emotion was visible in it, yet Dallion knew it had nothing but hatred towards him and everything else in the world. Its only purpose was to destroy everything in sight… except its creator.

Fear crept in Dallion’s mind. He looked at the dagger in his hand. Was this all he needed to create a monster of his own? As one of his exes would say, it was fifty-fifty. Either it would work out or it wouldn’t. Yet Dallion was most afraid of the things that would happen if it did work out. He could well win the challenge, but would the chainling he created remain stuck in his awakening realm forever?

“Time’s up,” Kraisten said.

On the instant, the massive chainling leapt forward. It was nowhere as fast as Kierra and Aspian had been, but it didn’t have to.

Dallion’s echo also sprang into action, playing a melody of weight in the hopes it would affect the approaching monster. Dallion’s own hesitation quickly vanished as he joined in.

Nox, can you do something against that? Dallion thought.

The uncertain meow told him not to count on it. Still, there had to be a way. Dallion remembered how both his familiars had their powers boosted during his fight against the Star. If he could achieve the same here, he had a chance.

Dallion let go of his dagger and summoned the harpsisword. Despite his hope, it wasn’t glowing.

Lux, cover the harpsisword, Dallion ordered. Nox, deal with my grandpa.

If he was going to fight fire with fire, it was going to be on his own terms. A layer of blue flame enveloped the harpsisword. Against a normal enemy, such a weapon was highly inefficient. Against a chainling, though, Dallion had a feeling it would be devastating.

“You really are reckless,” Dallion’s echo said. “Then again, so am I. I’ll be backup, you see what you can do with that thing.”

It was time for some splitting. Dallion concentrated. In his mind, four more instances of him formed, all charging at the chaining. One tried to jump and take the creature head on, while the rest ventured to attack it from the side. Tendrils emerged from the chainling. All instances managed to block them with their armadil shield. The one who had attacked head on was quickly wrapped in them and engulfed in darkness.

Not that one, Dallion thought as he switched to one of the versions of himself to the side. A dull pain emerged in the back of his head. That was one of the main problems in splitting—it was as strenuous as music had been, even if it took longer to happen.

Stepping to the side, Dallion sliced off several of the tendrils. The sword went through them like a hot knife through butter causing the chainling to growl in pain. So far the theory that healing was bad for chainlings held true. All that Dallion had to do now was…

MINOR WOUND

Your health has been decreased by 5%

What the heck?!

Not only that, but the music from his echo had also stopped. A quick glance revealed why—the echo was no more. Instead, there was a dagger on the ground, which promptly disappeared as Dallion was looking at it.

“Kierra,” he grumbled. She had proven to be quite annoying, more so than Aspion. It was interesting to note that she also had a preference for ranged attacks, very much like Gloria. The difference was that she used daggers.

Concentrating, Dallion tried to create another echo in his mind, but the spark wasn’t there. Before he could put more effort in it, the chainling’s paw came his way. The armadil shield extended to offer optimal protection, but this time, the moment the black claws touched it, they spread their blackness all over it.

“Lux, cover the shield!” Dallion shouted, but it was too late.

Half consumed by darkness, the shield unstrapped from his arm falling to the ground. For a moment Dallion thought he heard a faint “Sorry” whispered in the air, before his shield turned into a puddle of black goo that then trickled onto the chainling.

“Good attempt,” Dallion’s grandfather said. “Futile, but good. Despite everything you think you know you cannot imagine the destructive power of a battle trained chainling.” As he spoke metal segments covered the black form, encasing it in a suit of armadil armor. “Chainlings can do more than attack, they can adapt the world around them to suit their needs. Everything one throws at them becomes part of them.”

“Not everything!” Dallion shouted back as he split again. “The Dame managed to kill one.”

Tendrils shot through three of his instances, while the last one managed to slice them off before that. Dallion chose that instance.

“The Dame had magic,” Kraisten said with a frown. “You don’t. This is your last chance. I really want you to pass this trial, but you cannot unless you make a chainling of your own. And since you’re out of echoes, I’ll make things easy for you.”

On cue, Kierra jumped off the arch and started making her way slowly towards Dallion.

“Use your dagger on Kierra,” Dallion’s grandfather said. “You’ve seen her skills. Just imagine how powerful she’ll be when she changes into something like that.”

“This is just part of the trial!” Dallion felt disgusted by the offer.

Sacrificing an echo was bad enough, but sacrificing a living person… that was worthy of having limitations placed on one’s awakened powers. Was that what had happened? Had his grandfather transformed someone else into a chainling to gain victory? Dallion definitely had considered the thought, otherwise it wouldn’t be present in this trial. But just as much as he feared it might be true, he also refused to believe it.

Think, Dallion, think! He told himself.

This was the classic villain moment, but it also was what Dallion had been doing. In several of his battles he had offered the guardians a chance to surrender. For the most part he had done so out of good intentions, but there also was an element of pride involved—he had seen himself superior to them. His grandfather was doing the same. The offer to create his own chainling was nothing more than a surrender. At this point Dallion had no doubt that it was the wrong approach to have. The solution was to take advantage of the momentary calm and strike the heart of the chainling with his sword. If he used Nox’s ability, he could create an opening in the monster’s armor, then plunge the harpsisword inside. The layer of blue flame was going to protect Harp from harm while it tore up the chainling from the inside. Dallion could see all of this happen in his mind. Likely he was going to suffer a few more attacks from Kierra, but that was going to be easily remedied with Lux’s healing ability. After that it would be all a matter of—

Dallion paused. Only now did he finally realize the actual meaning of this trial. All the leveling up trials in his mind were battles against his own faults and weaknesses. He had to have the skills and strength to go through them, of course, but that wasn’t the main issue—the main issue was him. His opponent wasn’t the chainling, it wasn’t even his grandfather, it was the series of circumstances that threatened to make him into a monster. Defeating that danger couldn’t be achieved by delaying the encounter—which Dallion had been doing since the paradox cube—nor could it be done by throwing gasoline into the fire. The only way to win was to attack the root of the problem and to prove he had the strength to see it through.

“You never offered to sacrifice yourself,” Dallion said. He had still split himself in three instances, in case the chainling decided to attack again.

“As I said, forgers are stronger from the back lines.”

“So, you’re a manager, not a leader?” Dallion referenced the popular meme.

“Does it matter?” Kraisten didn’t blink. Seeds of anger spouted in him all too visible thanks to Dallion’s music skills. “There are no managers or leaders on the battlefield. There are only generals and soldiers. The side with their general still standing at the end is the one that’s victorious.”

“Does that mean that if I defeat you all this will be over?”

A crack formed at the base of the arch, slowly making its way up. There was no doubt in Dallion’s mind what that was.

Perfect timing, as always, Nox, he thought.

“Yes,” Kraisten laughed. “That’s all you should have done from the very beginning. You wasted all that time on trivial matters, instead of going for the heart of the matter. I even joined in the fight to make things easy for you.”

“No, I don’t think you ever made anything easy for me. You acted exactly as I would have—recklessly and cowardly.”

“Are you calling yourself a coward?”

“After all the times I’d relied on others to find solutions for me, I guess the description fits. But no, I’m calling you a coward because you are my fear of what I might become—a bundle of false bravado hiding behind skills and armies.” The sentence sounded way cringier when said out loud than it had in Dallion’s mind, but it had served its purpose. Every sound resonated with weight and slowness. “Well, I have a surprise for you. I’m not playing by those rules.”

Nox, Now! Break the arch! Dallion thought.

A web of cracks emerged beneath Kraisten’s feet, shattering the support he was standing on. Normally it would be an easy matter for someone to jump to one of the remaining stone pillars, but Kraisten weighed three times more in his current state, and similar to Dallion, he didn’t have athletic or acrobatic skills.

Nox, Return! Dallion summoned the Nox dagger in his left hand and leapt towards the chainling. All three instances of him struck a segment of armor, shattering it to pieces. Before the Chainling could react, Dallion then thrust the flaming harpsisword inside and leaped away. Two of his instances managed to get away fast enough without getting captured by the emerging tendrils. One didn’t.

A thundering roar filled the air. The chainling desperately tried to eject the harpsisword from it, but with each attempt, the weapon moved further in.

“Stay out of it,” Dallion told Kierra, as he started his way to the spot his grandfather had hit the ground.

The woman hesitated. Two daggers appeared in her hands. Moments later, two echoes emerged next to Dallion, each with a copy of a harpsisword and armadil shield.

“He says stay out of it,” one of the echoes repeated.

Raging in agony, the chainling slammed the ground, desperately trying to get rid of the source of pain inside it. Whole chunks of the earth he was in contact with transformed into black goo, merging with it, though doing little to address the problem.

Dallion knew that defeating the real deal wouldn’t be nearly as easy, but he felt a certain sense of satisfaction from the result. Hastening his pace, he continued forward. After a short while, he had finally reached his grandfather. The fall had broken the man’s legs, making him unable to move. Even so, Dallion was on his guard. There were quite a few weapons that could deal damage from a distance.

“Using a crackling to attack my support, but not me,” Kraisten said, looking up. “Smart. Not that I expected anything less. I told you you’d need a monster to defeat me, and you proved me wrong.”

“It was impressive.” Dallion smiled. “But I haven’t defeated you.”

“You will now. In this state all it takes is a single strike. Even your cat can finish me off.”

“I’m not here to finish you off.” Dallion shook his head.

“Of course not. You’re here to offer me to surrender so you feel better about yourself.”

“I could have done that, but I know you wouldn’t accept. Would you?”

“No. I don’t think I would.”

“That’s why I came to offer a truce. My fight never was with you, it was with myself. I guess you’re part of me in some way, so…” There was a slight pause. Complicated logic wasn’t Dallion’s strong suit. “What I’m saying is that you don’t need to be gone. You can stay here as an echo to keep me in check if I take things too far.”

“You’d want a false copy of your grandfather to stay in your realm in case you go off the rails? There’s no way that could go wrong, right?”

“It sounded a lot less weird in my head, but yes.” Dallion nodded. “And also no. You’re not a copy of my grandpa, you’re just an echo of myself.”

There was a long moment of silence. In the background the chainling exploded with the strength of a barrel of dynamite, scattering dirt in all directions. Completing its goal, the harpsisword disappeared mid-flight, leaving only a very confused Lux flapping in the air.

“In that case—” Kraisten’s features slowly distorted until there was a perfect copy of Dallion lying on the ground “—I accept.”

You have broken through your barrier

Your level has increased to 14

Choose the focus that will serve you best