Morgan used Hollow Charge to tear over the ground toward one of the creatures, hoping to put some distance between himself and his friends so that he could use his point-blank burst attacks. As he closed the distance, a red flash of light speared toward him, fired from the stinger-like tail of the abomination. His charge’s secondary effect—protecting him from Energy attacks—came into play, and the red beam dispersed around him, and Morgan felt some of the Energy course into his pathways.

As soon as his charging momentum let up, he swung his sword with a heavy hack and unleashed an Azure Burst. Bloodfang tore through one of the grasping, spearing appendages, and his Azure Burst expanded out in a sizzling ball of blue Energy, throwing the monstrosity back and catching two others in its blast. He moved forward, hacking down on the tumbled creature, shearing through its long, writhing torso, and sending its parts flopping away on the white marble, leaving streaks of black gore in their wake.

Three more of the creatures closed on him as he finished it off, and he fired off his Void Wave. Reality ripped around him, expanding out in a rolling wave of nothing, and the creatures screamed as their component flesh, and parts began to disassemble. Morgan felt and saw their Energy flare, trying to combat his attack and stave off the ravages of his spell. Still, they weren’t up to the challenge, and as the wave passed by and then winked out of existence, all that was left were piles of skinless, shelled, twitching organs and partially destroyed muscles.

Morgan scanned the battlefield and saw Bronwyn moving with a grace he hadn’t witnessed before, her spear blazing with white light as she fended off three of the monsters. Olivia stood, her form encased in stone with chunks of rock circling her like orbiting planets, firing crackling blue plasma over a further trio of the monsters. They screamed and writhed and tried to flee the torrent of superheated, crackling liquid, but they were fully caught in the spray and dead before their brains registered the destruction of their bodies.

He turned back to Bronwyn and, using Void Step, appeared behind one of her assailants and began to hack it apart with his sword forms. With his distraction, Bronwyn finished off another of them, then, splitting its guard, they quickly dispatched the last of the monsters.

“Hey! I learned basic spear mastery,” Bronwyn said. Dense motes of Energy began to gather on the corpses as she spoke and surged into the three of them. Olivia walked over, still decked in stone.

“Very hostile, but not too dangerous, I’d say,” she said, and then with a cloud of dust and a crumbling sound, her stone form fell away, and she stood there, looking like her usual self.

“That damn plasma spell you have really seems to annihilate monsters pretty well,” Morgan said.

“You’re talking about annihilating things? Whatever your ‘void’ Energy is, it sure doesn’t coexist with matter very nicely.”

“Hey, if you two are done comparing notes, there’s a chest in front of the doors now.” Bronwyn started walking forward, and Morgan saw that she was right—a large, pink marble chest had appeared in front of the big closed doors. Bronwyn strode toward it confidently, and Morgan, out of habit from his time with Issa, cast Guard Ally on her.

“Are you going to open it?” Olivia called, standing next to Morgan.

“Um, yes. It’s a reward for the battle, don’t you think?” Bronwyn paused and looked back at the two of them.

“It makes sense,” Morgan said.

“Yes, I got rewarded chests for winning fights in the Proving Grounds,” Olivia added.

“Alright, I’ll open it then,” Bronwyn said, leaning to push at the heavy marble lid. As it slid away from the bottom half of the chest, a bolt of brilliant red lightning blasted out of the marble, illuminating Bronwyn with a terrible glow that seemed to expose her bones. She flinched in surprise, but it was Morgan who flew backward, bouncing and twitching on the marble ground until the arc of red lightning faded away from Bronwyn.

He groaned, his entire body hurting, and weakly flopped onto his back. His clothes were singed and smoking, and he knew his skin was raw, and his insides weren’t in much better shape. He’d grown incredibly resilient over the course of his adventures with his increased vitality and repeated racial evolutions, so he felt good about his chances of recovery. Still, it didn’t change the fact that he was hurting, worse than he could remember in a long while. “Ugh, anyone got a weak healing potion? I just have a couple of really good ones. They’re not worth using for this.”

“I have a potion of renewal,” Olivia said, kneeling beside him.

“Wait!” Bronwyn called, trotting over. “First of all, why’d you get blasted instead of me? Hold on, hold on—you can answer that after you drink this. I killed a bad guy who had a dozen of these things, and he was trying to drink one to heal himself, so I think it will help you.” Bronwyn held out a small glass bottle with a bright orange liquid sloshing within. Morgan took the offered bottle, pulled the cork out with his teeth, and downed it in one gulp.

Heat roared through his body, starting at his stomach and rolling out through to his fingers and toes and the top of his scalp. He sat up, taking a sharp breath, feeling like he’d just been dosed with amphetamines. He stood up and stomped his feet, shaking his hands, trying to express some of the jittery Energy roiling within him. “Damn! That’s some potent shit, Bronwyn!”

“Uh, yeah, worked better than I thought it would,” she said, eyeing him speculatively. “You alright?”

“Yeah,” Morgan glanced around rapidly. He really felt like he was on speed or something. “I gotta burn this off; I feel like I’m dancing in my skin.” They both said something, but it didn’t register, and Morgan started running around the marble square, sprinting from side to side, like he was back in high school basketball practice.

Olivia and Bronwyn watched him with bemused expressions, then Olivia said, “Let’s take a peek in the chest; hopefully, he’ll get whatever it is out of his system.” They walked over to the chest, and Morgan was only dimly aware of it, feeling nothing but the urge to act. They’d been standing around the chest, talking for a few minutes when, panting and sweating, he finally felt like he could stand still long enough to catch his wind.

“Damn! Bronwyn, those potions, they’re more than just healing.”

“Yeah, I figured, after watching what you just went through. Sorry about that! The guy I had to kill was trying to drink one at the last minute. I’m glad I stopped him. Anyway, can you explain why the lightning hurt you instead of me?”

“Yeah,” Morgan shrugged his shoulders sheepishly, “I got in the habit of using my guard ability on Issa while she opened chests. I just sort of did it on reflex when you reached for it.”

“Well, shit. Thank you, Morgan! I feel like an idiot, putting you through that!” Bronwyn reached out earnestly like she wanted to grab hold of him, but she stopped short, maybe unsure of how he’d react, and ended up wringing her hands together in front of her.

“Nah, it’s alright. My ability absorbs half the damage. At least you didn’t get hit with the spell's full force, right?” While he explained the spell, Bronwyn’s face blanched.

“I almost died, didn’t I?”

“Um, maybe?” Morgan shrugged.

“Come and see the chest, Morgan. I think there’s some good stuff,” Olivia called, interrupting Bronwyn’s flustered reply.

“Alright,” Morgan walked toward them, wiping his sweating brow with his sleeve. When he looked into the chest, he saw that there were three items within. The first was a silvery helmet carved like a bird of prey, and Morgan couldn’t see any actual holes for the wearer’s eyes, just the intricately carved screaming raptor. The next item was a crystal orb the size of a softball. Looking at the orb was like looking into the heart of a storm, shifting gray clouds and rippling lightning bolts and all. The final item was a red leather-bound book, large enough to mimic Morgan’s grandma’s dictionary.

“Three of us, three rewards.” Bronwyn shrugged.

“Hold up,” Olivia said, holding out her hands. “If this is a dungeon, which is seeming more likely, we might not be able to take all the items. In the Proving Grounds, sometimes I’d get chests with multiple items, but when I chose one, the others disappeared.”

“Really? I don’t think that ever happened in the Swordmaster’s Citadel,” Morgan said, frowning.

“Well, just in case, let’s pick what item we want the most,” Bronwyn said.

“Right. My vote is the book; we need knowledge more than anything,” Olivia said.

“I think that helmet looks cool, but so does the orb, which might be a way to empower one of us, but I’ve got no good argument against that book. I agree with Olivia,” Morgan said.

“Sure. Fine. Let’s pick the book,” Bronwyn said. She looked at Olivia and gestured to the chest, “Be my guest.”

“Hmm, okay.” Olivia reached forward and gingerly picked up the heavy book. When she lifted it out of the chest’s cavity, the entire chest with its remaining contents disappeared in a cloud of pink mist that dissipated into nothing in the span of a heartbeat.

“Damn!” Morgan exclaimed.

Olivia thumped her book happily and said, “Told you guys!”

“Alright, well, what is it?” Bronwyn asked. Olivia lifted the book and ran a finger over the runes on the outside, a slight frown turning the corners of her mouth downward. Then she opened the book, examined the flyleaf, turned it, and read the first page, her frown deepening.

“It’s not a book we can study; it’s a System book. The person who studies it will gain knowledge of a spell called Mirage Double.”

“All those pages for one spell?” Morgan asked.

“Perhaps the System just wanted to present the spell this way; I don’t know if it really needed all these pages.”

“Sounds like a defensive spell,” Bronwyn said.

“Yeah. Reminds me of someone Issa and I fought; she made copies of herself that attacked me while she tried to kill Issa.”

“Damn,” Bronwyn said, affecting a wince.

“Well, should we draw straws or something?”

“I can Life Drain and have good mobility—one of you should take it,” Morgan said, taking a step back to emphasize his words.

“Well, I have a spell that gives me solar armor, but it’s pretty expensive,” Bronwyn said.

“I can change my form, as you both saw. This would benefit me, though, as that spell is on a long cooldown. Let’s pick a number, and Morgan can arbitrate.”

Morgan thought of a number between one and ten, and his mind settled on six. He said, “Pick a number between one and ten.”

“Seven,” Bronwyn said immediately.

“Three,” Olivia said.

“Alright, it was six. Congrats, Bronwyn.” Olivia, to her credit, smiled and handed the book over to Bronwyn without a fuss.

“Should I read it now?”

“Yeah, might as well. You might need it on the other side of that door,” Morgan replied. Bronwyn nodded, flipped the book open, and started staring at the first page. Nothing happened for a few minutes, but then a breeze seemed to roll out of the book, and the pages started to rustle. Bronwyn’s long hair began to blow away from her face, and a dense stream of glowing runes surged off the pages that were now flapping in the breeze, and they passed into Bronwyn’s eyes with startling urgency.

Bronwyn jerked her head back, but the stream of runes followed her movement. She let go of the book, but it floated in the air, the pages rippling as the runes surged off them. After a dozen heartbeats, the process stopped, and the book faded to a red mist, then was gone. Bronwyn staggered, blinking rapidly, then she smiled. “This spell is pretty awesome,” she said. “You wanna see?”

“Yes!” Olivia said instantly. Bronwyn closed her eyes, concentrating, and suddenly, she had a twin standing next to her.

“Punch me, Olivia!” Bronwyn said.

“Are you sure?” Olivia gave the strange Bronwyn double a skeptical look.

“Trust me!”

“Alright,” Olivia said, stepping forward and snapping out an impressive jab toward Bronwyn’s shoulder. Her double smoothly stepped between them, knocking Olivia’s fist aside.

“It will keep defending me until the Energy wears off or until it's destroyed.”

“Can you make it attack someone?” Morgan asked.

“Not yet. It's only at the basic level, though.”

“Huh, cool.”

“Well, c’mon. Let’s see what’s on the other side of this big door,” Bronwyn said, turning and striding forward, her strange doppelganger on her heels.