The Star’s not from Earth? Dallion thought, as the memory crumbled away.

His surprise was quickly put on hold, as the Star aimed a gunblade at him. Still in a state of readjustment, Dallion was only half there, but half was enough for him to combat split again. Ten instances darted in all directions. One loud bang later and only half of them remained. Despite its appearance, the gunblade spat out projectiles like a shotgun.

The Star’s not from Earth, Dallion repeated as he rolled on the ground, going for the shelter. He’s just taken the body of someone who is!

Huh? Nil sounded confused. What do you mean, dear boy?

I saw a fragment of Arthurows’ memories. He didn’t start out as a Star. He really existed.

Didn’t the Star already tell you that way back?

That much was true. During their first encounter the Star had, in fact, mentioned that he’d taken advantage of Arthurows. However, he hadn’t mentioned anything about Arthurows being from Earth. The boy, or man, had been just like Dallion, arriving in a world he knew nothing about. He’d had the advantage of awakening in Nerosal, although apparently that wasn’t for the better. Curiosity and a desire to progress faster had quickly caught the attention of the countess and the Star, leaving him with only bad options. If Dallion hadn’t appeared in Dherma, there was a chance that he would have gone down the same path. The village chief’s tyranny and the limiting echo, which he had so much despised at the time, had actually prevented such an outcome.

That’s why Aspion was terrified of the cities, Dallion thought. Arthurows was from Earth. That’s why the Star targeted him.

With a yell of pain and rage, Dallion did another spark infused line attack. The threads of destruction flew forward, destroying part of the retro furniture that the Star so much valued. Sadly, it failed to hit its target.

With a precise leap Arthurows, boosted himself off the ground, then used the tips of both gunblades to push himself off the bar counter nearby, safely evading the attack. Both of his weapons were sliced in half as a result, but that was only a temporary setback. No sooner had he landed back on the ground that void matter trickled down his arms, reconstructing the missing bits of the weapons.

Release me, Aether insisted. There’s no point in struggling alone. I’ll give you the means to defeat him. Even better, I’ll defeat him by myself.

It was so tempting to agree. The Star had to be stopped at all costs. If not, the cycle would continue.

If I kill him, will the Star die? Dallion asked.

Err? the aetherbird chirped. When you kill something, it dies. I’m the only exception.

You’re sure?

Of course, I’m sure.

That’s all Dallion needed to know. As long as he kept one instance of himself in reserve, he’d have a way out. Although, there was no telling whether the Star couldn’t force split as well. Arthurows wasn’t able to in the past, and so far the Star didn’t seem to resort to that, but everyone powerful in this world kept their aces hidden.

Splitting into a new set of instances, Dallion did six simultaneous point attacks. Half of them missed. Two of the rest managed to graze the Star’s left leg. One, though, hit him in the left shoulder, evaporating his entire arm.

You can’t keep this up, Harp said.

I’m fine, Dallion replied, choosing the instance in which he’d dealt the most damage.

If you exhaust yourself now, you won’t be able to do anything in the final battle. Don’t lose your focus. Your goal isn’t to defeat him in the real world. You can’t manage that.

Don’t tell me what I can’t do! Dallion shouted mentally, then darted forward.

A few feet away from the Star, he merged a spark attack with a point attack once more. At this distance, there was no way his enemy could evade it. Black mist and ash filled the space as the attack made contact. The strength of the force was so great that it pushed both Dallion and the Star back.

Not waiting for the dust to clear, Dallion switched hands. Doing seven powerful attacks in a row had made his arm slightly numb. Thankfully, it didn’t seem too much for him to handle. If all it took were a few more attacks to finish the Star here and now, he’d gladly give it his all.

“You’ve been practicing,” the Star said.

Without warning, the cloud of dust was torn in two and blasted away, revealing a giant, half crumbled shield of void matter. The shield looked suspiciously like Dallion’s armadil shield when extended.

“That actually stung a bit.” Arthurows continued. His missing arm had now regrown be it made entirely of void matter as well. “You’re trying so hard, but in the end it doesn’t even matter.”

Dallion split into instances again, quickly retreating. This time the tar didn’t counterattack. The shield in front of him crumbled to pieces, evaporating in the air. With the current amount of void matter at his disposal, he could protect himself against anything, including spark attacks.

In his mind, Dallion went through dozens of options. He imagined himself taking all sorts of approaches, but none of them seemed particularly promising. The Star had already shown he could summon all sorts of creatures, create firearms, and shield himself against any attack. Instances could only do so much. If Lux was here, things could have been different.

Dallion rushed to the side, going into a wall run. His harpsisword was still vibrating, he slashed through the air, then thrust it forward as if doing a point attack. Just as he expected, a shield of void matter emerged in front of the Star. Even with everything to his advantage, Arthurows wasn’t the type to take chances. Dallion suspected as much when he’d seen that his missing arm hadn’t regenerated. As the explanation in the memory fragment went: he could use void matter to create and copy everything, but not create anything on his own. If he still were a person Arthurows would have long died. The void matter replaced parts of his body, including vital organs. That meant that, while strong, he was also vulnerable.

Splitting into twenty instances, Dallion jumped off the wall, right on time to avoid the scattershot that followed.

The Star had shot through his own shield with both gunblades, obliterating half of Dallion’s instances in the process.

Is the void matter part of the Star? Dallion asked.

That’s a difficult question to—Nil began.

Aether? Dallion cut him short.

Only as long as it’s connected to him, the aetherbird replied. All damage done there can be peeled off before it affects him.

Another series of gunshots followed, blasting five more of Dallion’s instances into oblivion. Not losing any momentum, Dallion split again, heading for the opposite wall. He had one chance at this. If he failed with this attack, there wouldn’t be time for another. It was a high-risk, low-reward scenario that was better than any alternatives.

Why are you being so stubborn? the aetherbird chirped. I could end this at any point. Clearly, you can’t.

I’m not trading one catastrophe for another!

One of Dallion’s instances leaped off the wall, attacking the Star from above with a vertical attack. Another rolled on the ground, aiming to pierce his stomach. As for the third, it continued along the wall to attack from behind. It was at this point that the Star made his move, splitting into three instances as well.

Each of the enemy instances positioned themselves to mean the corresponding threat head on. Gunblades pointing forward, the Star pulled the triggers.

“So predictable,” he laughed as the sound of a double shot filled the air.

The distance was too short for Dallion to evade. That’s why he didn’t. While the cloud of projectiles was still flying, he did a forced splitting. Mental pressure passed through him like a wave. The Star wasn’t willing to let go of his victory that easily. However, there was one thing that he’d forgotten—something that Dallion had recently become aware of. Having the knowledge to do something was all good and well, but unless one actually used it, the skill wasted away. The Star had been keeping his combat splitting abilities secret for so long that they had become rusty. They were adequate when catching someone off guard, but if one was prepared, they could easily use his lack of training to their advantage.

You’re nothing like the dragons, Dallion thought as he pressed on, pushing towards the instance he wanted. The moment felt like minutes, but when it was over, the Star’s pallets flew towards an empty space. Meanwhile, Dallion dropped from above, finishing his vertical strike. The blade, still vibrating, finished his spark attack, flying towards Arthurow’s head. Before it could reach it, two more arms emerged from the Star’s shoulders, each holding another gunblade. With speed greater than Dallion could achieve, then interlocked, forming a letter x.

Give it everything you got! Dallion shouted.

The harpsisword cut sliced the blades of void matter, stopping halfway. There it stopped, stuck in hardened goo.

Nice try, Aether said. Not release me.

However, the Star had noticed which the aetherbird hadn’t. While the attack was over, it had achieved its purpose. Dallion couldn’t win in a direct confrontation, so he was planning for a realm invasion; and while that required contact, anything that was linked to his realm also was considered part of him, including the harpsisword. Now there was one thing left to do.

Letting go of the weapon’s hilt, Dallion reached under his clothes, to where the general’s item was tucked and pressed it.

REALM INVASION

Everything blinked, as if reality was experiencing a hiccup. On the surface, everything was the same: the room, the participants, even the position of the furniture pieces. Yet, this was no longer the real world.

He wasn’t lying, Dallion thought. The temple really is an item.

“Lux!” Dallion shouted.

The firebird emerged instantly, enveloping his body with blue flames.

A sizzling sound was heard as the healing flames evaporated the void matter they were in contact with.

Both Dallion and the Star pulled back. Now that they were on an equal footing, neither was willing to take any chances.

Would you look at that? Nil sounded impressed. How the tables have turned.

In the real world, time was on the Star’s side. However, due to his current and earlier wounds, that was no longer the case. Thanks to Lux, Dallion’s wounds were quickly evaporating, while Arthurows was trying to keep himself together. Control of void matter was an advantage, but having it replace most of the Star’s body was a heavy toll.

“You think you’re so smart?” Arthurows spat the words out. There was no trace of his previous confidence. “It took you and the aetherbird to take me down last time. And even then you failed.”

“Really?” Dallion summoned his armadil shield. He hesitated whether to summon his hammer as well, but decided against it. As good as Onda was in crafting, he wasn’t a fighter. “Who are you so sure I haven’t joined forced with Aether this time as well?”

“Because he’ll kill you. Are you too stupid to understand that? He doesn’t like people from Earth. If you release him, he’ll take me out, then turn on you and trust me. You won’t be able to survive five seconds without me running interference.”

Black scales of armor covered the Star’s body, leaving only the face revealed.

“Why would he attack me?”

“Because only we can defeat him! We’re stronger than you think we are. The only reason we haven’t replaced the Moons is because we devote half of our strength to fight the other half.”

“Is that the line Arthurows got?” Dallion asked.

The Star froze.

“That damned empathy trait!” he hissed. “You saw a memory fragment.”

“Yes.” Dallion rose up in the air. “Time for round two.”