I cast my [Absolute Duo] skill and a copy of me appears.

A second Eryk Solbourne.

Absolute Duo: Rank 17. Make a clone that doesn't go away. Cost: 8000 LP.

Perfection.

“Perfection,” the other Eryk says.

“I want to instruct you with a task,” I say. “But I feel you already know what this task will be.”

He nods at me. “Of course I do. I’m you.”

“And not an emotionally unstable me like the clone I created in Los Angeles?”

“Not at all. Not yet, anyway,” he says. “I’m permanent, which means those issues are definitely, certainly fixed.”

“I’m very confident in that fact, for sure.” I look at him with weary eyes, and immediately he understands what I am about to ask of him.

“You don’t mean...”

“I do,” I say.

“But... You know how I’ll end up.”

“Well... Not NECESSARILY,” I say. “There’s a chance the timeline may diverge in some strange way.” No, there is no chance of that. I’m certain of it.

“Hey, you may be right,” my clone says. “I think I’ll keep on believing exactly that.”

“Great. Then follow this very specific goal that cannot ever be defied: Create the New Slayers. Be the evil that I can no longer abide by. But do so from the shadows. You are my copy, but you are also my herald. You lack my soul, so you will wait for my arrival. My ghost’s arrival. That is what the prophecy says.”

“Prophecy?”

“Yes. The prophecy.”

There is no prophecy. I just made it up. However, my clone is very good at convincing himself of things.

“Yes, of course! The prophecy!”

Through the power of belief and self-deception, this Clone Eryk, permanent and forever, will fulfill everything I need him to do. It will be bad and unsavory things, but I can only hope that he takes solace in knowing that he was/will be a very important point in my personal development as a person.

Considering though that he becomes a zombie-like husk by the time I met/will meet him, [Absolute Duo]’s claims of permanency do not seem as solid as they appear at first use. I wonder if he was/will be the longest-lived clone in the history of Mystix...

This was a shorter task than I imagined, but it now means that the New Slayers are well on their way to dominance, just as the Anti-Mages soon will be once Rare gets ahold of them. As for my side of things... I’ve decided that I should make family more of a priority.