When the monstrous, black feline creature dashed to Alan’s position with opened fangs, Amelia’s summon tackled it and bit its neck. After throwing swipes, the doppelganger released a black dense mist from its maw, which the original countered with a fire breath.

Did that thing try to eat me?

From the burning house, a pillar of fire rose to the sky, making Alan cover his gaze. He glanced at the Fire Amelia a few feet away, who had her eyes locked on the monsters.

That must be some kind of magic clone, while the real Amelia is giving everything she has against a second opponent. He gritted his teeth. And you had the time to send me some help? You worry so much about me.

He looked back at Ashley, who had swapped her bow for a knife. With quick calculated movements, she stabbed the enemy in the stomach, chest, and neck, but Serenity’s body reformed like made of black sand.

“Alan Warden,” Serenity called from afar, ignoring Ashley’s physical attacks. “You may think you have gotten information out of me, but it also applies the other way around.” Serenity giggled, strolling towards him, as Ashley tried to hold her by the neck in vain. “Now I have corroborated what you know. That makes my job easier.”

Think, Alan, think! She and whoever Administrator is behind this, gain nothing from killing me in a world of immortals… Her objective is to kidnap me so they can guarantee my silence and prevent my interference.

He glanced at Ashley, who had stopped her attacks, and was instead glancing at the beast doppelganger in silence. Both creatures had crashed against a house, from which a User ran away.

Something worse than what happened to me in the Shooting Stars headquarters awaits me...

He looked down, where a pitch-black shadow slowly crawled towards him.

She tried to sink me with that thing before, and the fake cat tried to swallow me, so this black mass must be her ‘method of transportation’. With that in mind, I won’t let her get me that easily.

“Anastasia,” he called.

“Yes, Master.”

“Distract Serenity.”

“Understood.”

With that said, Anastasia dashed and bashed Serenity with her shield, getting the same results as Ashley.

While Alan ran towards Amelia’s clone, he locked eyes with Serenity who only smirked at him. Why is she not retaliating as before?

“Amelia II!” he called.

Although the clone was made of fire, Amelia’s features were clearly distinguishable. She was floating, and her hair made of flames hovered behind the back of her neck.

“Alan Warden,” she greeted in a monotone voice. “You have cute eyes.”

“You can talk, neat! And… Um, thanks for the compliment…” I don’t think the real Amelia would ever say something like that. He cleared his throat. “Where is--?” a sound interrupted him. Something had crashed against the neighbor’s house in the distance.

Was that the enemy or Amelia? Crap, I don’t think I could survive something like that!

“Alan,” Ashley rushed to his side and pointed towards the enemy. “I have figured out how her magic works. Although I can not touch her, Amelia’s giant tiger is hurting its counterpart. Do you remember those spikes she threw at us? They must be made of the same substance as that monster. That means she can only attack at once.”

“Or there is a limit on how much ‘shadow’ she can use, and the doppelganger is currently using it all,” he whispered while processing the information. “What can you do, Amelia II?”

“My priority is to protect you, Alan Warden. To accomplish it, I have access to 50% of my Master’s mana pool and every single magic spell she knows. I had already used 10% and my Auto Combat configuration is set to Reactive.”

Alan opened his mouth, and a piercing sound made him flinch. He glanced at the monsters and observed that the shadow one had sprouted spikes from all over its body. Although Amelia’s Summon was getting impaled, it released an incandescent breath of fire to break free.

“You’re controlling the Summon, right?” Alan asked.

“Yes.”

“Can you set it to auto and change its parameters to fully aggressive?”

“Request Accepted.”

The fire tiger roared and its body glowed, melting everything in a 150 feet radius.

“What is it doing?!”

“He’s self-destructing, and the heat will gradually expand to an approximate 300 feet radius. You can not stay here.”

“Anastasia! Get the hell out of there!” Alan called through Party Chat and the NPC quickly turned around, but Serenity caught her ankle with a shadow tentacle sprouting from the ground.

“Do not fear death, sister, for we are immortal after all,” Serenity said, giggling.

Dammit!

“Amelia II, do you know any buff?”

“Request Accepted… Fire...”

“Wait! For all of us, Anastasia, Ashley and me!”

“Changing spells... Major Fire Charm, Rally & Destroy.”

Alan felt it immediately, like liquid fire running through his veins.

** Thanks to your ally’s Charm, your Vitality has increased by 4 ranks! From Bronze C to Silver D! **

What?! That’s crazy! As expected from a Max Leveler!

“Come on, Ashley!” Alan cried, as his newfound strength let him run as if his body weighed nothing. “You too, Anastasia. Use your buff and break free! Destroy the ground if necessary!”

“Understood.”

As Alan ran, he felt a quake.

I wonder how much strength she gained. Without opening his Menu Window, he gave a voice command. “Quick Minion Stats.”

A window appeared in his field of vision.

* Minion: Anastasia -Blank-

* Level - 25

* Vitality - Bronze A+ → Silver B (Fire Charm Active) 29 minutes 35 seconds remaining.

* Spirit - Bronze B

* Potential - Bronze B

Only her Vitality increased.

“What’s going to happen to Amelia?” he asked the clone following him closely, leaving a trail of fire behind.

“Amelia Laflamme is 400 feet away from the source of heat, and she has the Heat Endurance Passive Skill. The heat will not affect her performance.”

Oh, right.

Even though the group had reunited 500 feet away from the melting Summon, they could still feel its heat.

“Oh, no…” Alan looked back at the result of his decision. Five more houses had collapsed. “Please, tell me that no one was around...”

“Two people died,” Ashley blurted out. “I have a Passive Skill that lets me detect nearby life forms in a 300 feet radius.”

He swallowed hard. “Even if we’re immortal, no one should experience being killed like that,” Alan said, turning to Amelia II. “Is the enemy dead?”

“Flaustos was successful in taking down its shadow copy. But I do not know what happened to the User called Serenity.”

She speaks more like Ashley at the beginning of our adventure than Anastasia.

“Alan Warden!” a festive voice called. A voice that he recognized immediately and made him flinch.

“Oh, for the love of… What are you doing here?!”

He looked at a group of 20 people approaching, led by the black-haired woman who adjusted her glasses. Her gorgeous-looking male NPC followed her closely. “Major Dominguez reporting on duty!”

“What are you…?”

** Bella -Blank- wants to start a Party Chat! **

“I’m so sorry, Master Alan. Master Amelia asked me to warn the Mayor about the danger, but…”

“This woman didn’t listen to you. Don’t worry, it’s not your fault.”

Amelia, I know you’ve become friends with her, but this woman is not reliable at all! Although it was a good idea to begin with.

He opened his Friend List tab.

“What the hell happened here?” Clara Dominguez cried, looking at the leveled, scorched terrain.

“There’s nothing standing,” one of Clara’s followers pointed out, as the rest shared whispers.

“How can we help you, Mayor?” Ashley asked, in an unamused tone of voice.

The woman snickered, pointing at Alan and making an exaggerated pose. “You should rather ask, how can we help you, our dear weakest resident? We heard some bullies were bothering you, but we expected to find broken windows and burned corpses thanks to our local Pyromaniac, but not this.”

“Our enemy is a Max Level User, so this is expected,” Ashley said, making the whole group flinch.

“Why is a Max Leveler here?!” Clara cried, before getting close to Ashley and grabbing her by the shoulder. “Tell me the truth, Ashley, my dear. Is Miss Laflamme still alive?”

Meanwhile, Alan was having a private voice chat.

“Alan Warden, I thought I would never hear your voice again. Especially after you paid off your debt.”

“Glad hearing your voice too, Lady Monique. I hope you’re doing well. Was selling my information to Kathleen Maher fruitful to you?”

“So you knew. Well, yes. The rumors that she pays well were true. I should thank you for that. Come to the Dragon’s Belly later, I’ll treat you to a feast.”

“That would be nice! If that restaurant is even standing by tomorrow!”

Lady Monique paused. I bet she’s asking her trusty bodyguard what I’m talking about.

“Why did you call me, Alan? Does it have something to do with the battle currently transpiring on the outskirts?”

“That’s right. First, be honest with me, ma’am. You’re more Mayor than Clara Dominguez ever was, correct? I’ve been asking around. You’re the owner of most properties here. This town belongs to you.”

“I’m starting to think that you’re going to ask me a favor.”

“Well, you owe me one for destroying my ex-girlfriend’s guild.”

Lady Monique laughed out loud. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but amuse me. What do you need from me?”

“Help me evacuate everyone in town, please… Wait, give me a second...”

“Could you guys shut up!” Alan shouted to the bickering group gathered a few feet from him. “I’m having an important call here!”

“Geez, what a killjoy,” Clara grimaced.

“Fine,” Lady Monique said through the private chat.

“Come again?”

“I said fine. I already told Rissete what to do. Leave the evacuation to us.”

“Thank you so much, Lady Monique!”

“You know, the people of this town lose little by dying here. And yet, you’re trying to protect their small wallets… Good luck.”

An explosion made the ground tremble. Alan looked at the distance, where a dome of fire expanded and created a shock wave that made the majority of the present fall on their backs.

“Amelia!” he called through Party Chat but received no answer. His next option was to check his Friend List tab:

** ‘Amelia Laflamme - Online - Unus Town’. **

As the resulting blinding light elongated their shadows, Serenity crawled out of Anastasia’s.

Alan immediately received a notification.

** Minion’s HP has reached 0. Anastasia -Blank- has fallen. Respawning in: 7 hours and 50 minutes. **